EverQuest II Preview by Lord Kropotkin – Article

DING! Telegram for Kropotkin! – On 11 September whilst sorting through the filter spam mail that my ISP so kindly sets aside I spotted an email from Sony Station. The subject of this email focused my attention for it said ‘EverQuest II Beta Invitation’. I couldn’t believe it! I’d actually managed to get onto the EQII beta!

I quickly logged on to the EQ beta site and tried to register my key only to find it didn’t work. ‘Oh no!’, I thought, ‘Was the email a cruel hoax?’ I rushed to the EQII open forums and saw that I wasn’t the only person having problems. It turns out that although invitations were sent out to people in Europe the keys were not active. We had to wait for the folks at SOE to wake up on the west coast of US and activate them.

Once they became active the mad rush of thousands of European beta testers trying to download 3.2 Gb of data began. Some were lucky and managed to get the whole client in 10 hours, others, like me had to wait considerably longer!

How to create a village idiot
Once it did arrive I set about creating a character. As a seasoned EQ1 (as the original game is known to EQ2 players) player I had already decided to recreate my old paladin character (Keldarsin) into EQ2. However seeing as the version of EQ2 I was playing was only a beta I thought it best to actually create a character I had no intention of keeping as he would be deleted at the end of the beta.

Seeing as a two of my Call of Duty clan members had also managed to get onto the beta and they had both settled in Freeport, the ‘evil’ city of EQ2 I decided to create an Iksar Priest. Iksar are essentially lizard-men creatures that are of evil alignment. Character creation focuses on the outer features of the character. With body shape, face and hairstyle or indeed fin-style as I found with my Iksar character. Once again with the knowledge that this character was doomed to oblivion at the end of the beta I made him look the most ridiculous creature imaginable. This proved to be quite easy with my only rival being my friend Croberts who created this bizarre looking troll! Interestingly there were no stats to be set which is the tradition for MMO’s. This was but a hint at what was to come with regard to character development in EQ2. I named this character Kropotkin.

I think I’m getting seasick
Once the character has been created the game begins with the option of the player going through the tutorial or going straight to the ‘Island of Refuge’, more about which later.

Being a brand new player I went for the tutorial. This takes place on a ship that you are a passenger on acting as a refugee. I say refugee as the world of EQ2 is set 500 years after the world of EQ1 and things haven’t gone too well. The gods have fallen silent and the wizard and druid spires have stopped working. Not only that but climate change has caused many seas to become impassable and a war has broken out on the continent of Antonica whilst other lands such as Kunark and Velious have vanished. To top it all the moon of Luclin has exploded leaving a broken ball floating in the sky where so many people once lived.

Oh no, tell me I don’t have to kill a rat!!! PLEASE NOT THAT!
My time on the ship consisted of me getting used to the interface. It’s done in a similar fashion to Halo of all games with characters asking you to do some things such as move, look around and such to ensure you understand how to interact with the games interface.

Once I was finally asked to kill something it turned out to be the rats that had infested the ship. I could not help but chuckle at this as this is also the first thing you attack on the original EQ1 and even until you reach level 70 you still find yourself attacking rats although these happen to be super-rats by the time you reach those levels.

Anyway, back on the ship and I eventually kill the rats. Once I had done this I was given the task of finding a hat for a dwarf. This had me looking around the ship for a casket that contained the hat. This was an attempt at explaining how players can forage for items in the game.

Finally I was given the task of killing a goblin that had escaped from its cage soon after an attack on the ship from a flying beast. After chasing the little blighter around the deck I cornered him and took him down much to my delight.

Branching conversations you say? Speech bubbles you say? Where have I seen that before??? – Soon after this little bit of excitement I chatted to the captain. One of the things that has been spoken of a great deal about EQ2 is the voice dialogue in the game. It has been said that all of the Non-player-characters (NPC’s) all speak to the player with voice samples rather than text. This is true to a degree although the beta program has only been slowly introducing this. It’s a nice addition and certainly engages the player more than reading reams of text.

The way in which players interact with NPC’s is also somewhat familiar to Star Wars Galaxies with a series of choices appearing before the player when the ‘hail’ the character. The NPC also utters their speech in large bubbles, again like SWG. All of this confirmed my preconceptions that EQ2 appears to be a hybrid between EQ1 and SWG. My only problem with this is that it may jar EQ1 players a bit as they are used to the ‘keyword’ form of conversation with NPC’s eg:

NPC: Greetings adventurer! Could you aid me in fighting some [orcs] near my farm?

Player: orcs

NPC: There are many of them! I shall pay you a [reward] if you vanquish them though!

Player: reward

NPC: The reward will be 200 platinum pieces. Do you [accept] this challenge?

Player: accept

Hardly intuitive really so I found the EQ2 system a God send!

Quit looking at me!
Another thing that struck me as I stumbled about on the ship was how other characters looked at me by glancing my way and tilting their heads to look at other things of interest. This is a change from the original game with characters staring into the distance. Again this is another feature of the game that draws the player further into the world. It’s most notable when shorter characters are looking at other much taller players. They tilt their heads up to meet their faces. It’s a nice touch.

Island of Refuge, here I come!
With the tutorial seemingly over I got off of the ship and ‘zoned’ into the Island of Refuge. Like the original game, EQ2 is made up of a series of zones. These zones are loaded up as the player enters them. Monsters cannot enter neighboring zones which can result in the ‘RUN TO THE ZONE!’ call emanating from players in a group when things start to go wrong. A familiar tactic to old EQ1 players that may however disorientate other players as the concept of zones can make for a disjointed gameplay experience. Especially to SWG players which has no real definitive ‘zones’ as such.

Anyway, as I entered the island I’m accosted by a guard who asks me what profession I am. I’m given the choice of five base classes. These were fighter, priest, scout, mage and artisan. From these the character grows into more advanced classes as they progress. Seeing as Kropotkin was going to be a cleric I chose priest. I was then dispatched to meet with the local priestess on the island to help her out with some goblin trouble.

Priest LFG!!! PST!…Oh come on! Someone needs a healer surely!
By the time I reached the island I thought the tutorial was over. I was soon to be proved wrong. The island serves as a ramping up exercise for players who are about to enter a very hostile world. Quests are handed out to players via NPC’s on the island which increase in difficulty eventually forcing the player to get into a group to complete the quests. These quests normally require the player to kill and collect items from creatures. dotted about the island. Rewards of completing these quests vary from money through to new weapons and armour.

I actually found the island to be a very well thought out training camp for new players as it introduces them to group player dynamics and the concept of ‘aggroing’. This is where creatures will attack you on sight. The way in which EQ2 indicates that this is a risk is by highlighting the creatures name with a red outline. Creatures names are also in colored text which are coded depending on how much of a threat they are to the player. This is the same system that has been with EQ1 since day one and will be familiar to many when they encounter it. One interesting addition to this system is the ‘solo/group’ classification. When a player clicks on a mob the word ‘Solo’ or ‘Group’ appears under their name. This indicates whether or not the monster can be killed with no assistance from others i.e. solo or requires a group of 3-4 people. Ignoring this can result in the player buy the proverbial farm which leads me on to the consequences of dying…

Wot no bind?
In the early part of the players time on the island levelling comes very fast. Within 30 minutes of being on the island most players reach level 4 or 5. The experience garnered from the quests is generally disproportionate to the level of experience earned. This is typical for most MMO’s and EQ2 is no different. However things rapidly slow down when you reach level 8.

Experience is also the major currency people focus on for it is the key way in which progress is measured in a game that has no end! This currency is also deducted when you die or if anyone in your group dies. This is known as ‘Experience Debt’ and can only be recovered by either returning to your point of death and recovering your soul or reclaiming experience by gaining more of it. It must be noted that any debt must be paid back before level progression can recommence.

The one major difference I found between this death system and the original game is that it is far less deliberating. In EQ1 death is a largely catastrophic event. All of the players possessions are left on their corpse and they lose a large proportion of their experience which can result in a drop in level if they have only just attained their new level. Players also had to be bound in cities to control where they appear upon their death. in EQ2 there are a series of bound points in a zone a player is in negating the ‘corpse rescue’ trek so loathed and dreaded by EQ1 players.

Freeport bound
Eventually my character began to outgrow the quests on the island. The most difficult is involves the killing of an orc pirate which takes place in a closed off dungeon/zone in a similar fashion to Lost Dungeons of Norrath in EQ1 and the Corvette mission in SWG. This means that the only people in the zone are the players in the group negating the risk of other players ‘training’ creatures onto unsuspecting groups.

Once I reached level 6 and had managed to acquire enough money, armour and weaponry and then went to the harbour and booked passage to the city of Freeport. This is the home city of my paladin character on EQ1 so I was hoping to find it somewhat familiar. How wrong I was!

Upon arrival I was offered a room in a local inn. Costing 5 silver pieces a week to maintain I was offered a mirror a chandelier and a table to furnish it with. This was only done once I completed some minor quests which required me to seek out certain parts of the outer town suburb of Freeport I found myself in for I was not in Freeport at all as I had not yet achieved citizenship.

Citizenship guarantees a raise in level cap!
Citizenship must be earned in Freeport. To earn it the player must collect 5 token that are dropped by creatures in zones that neighbour the slum district the player finds themselves in. Once these tokens are collected they are taken to the guard that stands near the city gates. He then send you to a closed zone, on your own, where you must kill four characters of increasing difficulty. Once they are killed, which is no mean feat, you gain citizenship! not only that but the level cap of 8 is lifted up to the maximum of 50 and you can finally say you have arrived on EQ2.

Quest after quest after quest
EverQuest 2 certainly lives up to its name. Almost ever NPC you talk to has some kind of quest to perform upon completion will result in experience and cash rewards. This gives a focus to the player and they are all detailed in a journal within the game.

Quests also form a key part of the leveling of players. Once my character reached level 9 I was told to seek out a priest in central Freeport. When I located him he told me that I needed to carry out a series of tasks, on my own, so that I could progress in my chosen profession. These tasks varied from finding a poisonous plant one of the city vendors were selling through to being flogged to prove my devotion to the cause of healing! Once I had completed this quest I was offered the role of cleric which I accepted and that is how Kropotkin now stands as I type this preview.

Modem friendly gameplay
Just like every other MMO EQ2 is narrowband friendly, even in this broadband age we are in many still use 56 kbps modems to access the Internet. This is best demonstrated by the combat system. Again very similar to the original game it requires the player to initiate combat and then cast spells or carry out special moves during the combat. This is the symptom of turn based combat unlike first person shooters like Call of Duty or Planetside which require the tracking of bullets to as they fly towards their intended target. This reduces the amount of data that needs to be flung about and thus making it modem friendly.

Auto assist can only be a good thing
An interesting gameplay feature found in EQ2 is the ‘auto assist’ function. This allows players to target the main melee combat member of the group and then initiate attacks upon the mob that they are attacking. This is a a real boon for spell casters such as clerics and mages as it negates the risk casting a heal on a mob or attacking the wrong creature that is not the focus of the groups attention.

Summary
I have spoken about a great deal here but I’ve only scratched the surface of the game. I haven’t really touched upon how crafting works in the game as I have not delved into that side of things myself. I do know that more powerful spells can be made by other players which appears to be the generator of most peoples income.

With regards to money I found myself trying to get by with a few dozen silver pieces which is quite a shock of a multi-million platinum EQ1 player. What is important to note is that there are NPC merchants that will by items from players. This is different to SWG which is entirely player dependent and very similar to EQ1 which is not! That is not to say there is no player run economy it’s just not so important as it is in SWG.

So far I’m having fun in EQ2 and the improvements the developers have made are many fold over the past few weeks. Some people have asked me: ‘Is the game in a releasable state?’. I’d say right now, no. There are still significant bugs in the code that can cause entire zones to crash but the number of these show-stoppers are dwindling and I’d give it another 4-6 weeks before it is ready to be unleashed onto the unsuspecting gaming public.

If you really want to get this game then I recommend pre-ordering it as you get a character creation tool and the right to claim a set of journeyman boots that allow the player to run faster. This is a good thing! Especially on the plains of Commandlands. This lions can run real fast…

Article by Chris aka Lord Kropotkin
Published mid 2004

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