EverQuest II
EverQuest II , the sequel to EverQuest , is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and shipped on November 8 , 2004 . It features graphics and gameplay vastly updated from its predecessor as well as NPCs that use audio for speech.
While the gameplay continues to focus greatly on killing creatures for experience points and loot, there have been several significant changes from the original EverQuest . One of the greatest efforts has gone into developing trade skills into a much more complex and viable character archetype.
Many gameplay choices were made in order to stop old, sometimes undesirable, tactics that emerged in EQ. The most bold addition is the concept of "locked encounters". When a player (or group) attacks a creature, the encounter becomes locked to that player. To stop kill stealing and powerleveling , other players cannot assist in the encounter unless the player who locked it uses a special "/yell" command for help, after which the encounter will reward neither loot nor experience. To stop "kiting", players lose all their movement speed enhancements except the special "sprint" ability, which costs considerable amounts of power to use. (Kiting was a tactic used in EQ that allowed players with speed enhancing spells to outrun opponents while safely attacking from a distance.)EverQuest II , like the original EQ, will have guilds . Each guild exists only on its own server.
Like the original EQ, EverQuest II focuses on PvE (player versus environment) encounters. At release no player versus player combat will be included — there are however some currently closed Arenas for consensual PvP.
EverQuest II is set in Norrath like the original, but 500 years later in the "Age of Destiny". The game world has been drastically affected by several cataclysms since the original EQ. The planes have closed, the gods have gone, and the moon Luclin has been pulverized (and partially rained onto the face of Norrath). Remnants of the familiar vistas from EQ's Norrath can be found in the "Shattered Lands".
Players begin in a tutorial area called the "Island of Refuge" and then move to either of the towns, Qeynos (the good town) or Freeport (the evil town). All the other towns in the world were destroyed in the cataclysms. Qeynos and Freeport are much larger than they were in the original EQ and it is promised that they will play an important role in the player's experience regardless of what level they are. The playable races each have their own special section of the towns. Once a player chooses their town, they will not be welcome in the other unless they choose to betray their home town.
The game world is as varied as the original, featuring wide geographical and ecological variety. In EQ2, players can ride trained griffins on predetermined routes over the Shattered Lands, or acquire a horse or flying carpet so that they can travel more swiftly throughout much of the game world. When the gods left the world, the druid rings and wizard spires ceased functioning and thus there are no teleportation spells (with the exception of the ability to return to one's hometown).
EverQuest II also includes instanced zones — copies of some zones are spawned in order to better handle player crowding. Instanced zones were introduced to EverQuest in the 2003 expansion Lost Dungeons of Norrath .
All of the familiar races from EQ are playable except the cat-like Vah Shir (their home, Luclin, was destroyed), but SOE added the Kerra as a replacement. The new race is the Ratonga, a rat-like people of mysterious origin. Additionally, the Froglok race will be locked until a special server-wide quest is completed to make them playable. Some races are initially restricted to either Qeynos or Freeport, based on their alignment.
EQ2 uses a more sophisticated hierarchical class-based system. Players start at level 1 as a commoner. At level 3, they choose one of the four archetypes: fighter, mage, priest, or scout. Players can also advance their character in the artisan archetype in addition to their 'adventurer' archetype. At level 10, players choose from one of the three classes available to their archetype (for example, a priest could become either a cleric, a druid or a shaman). Finally, at level 20, they get to choose between the two sub-classes of their class (a crusader could become either a paladin, or a shadowknight). Not all of these sub-class choices are available in both cities — some, such as the shadowknight are only for citizens of the evil city Freeport, while others, such as ranger are only available in Qeynos.
Players will be able to customize the look of their character's face. The original EverQuest was often criticized for its "cookie-cutter characters" since there was a relatively small selection of looks available to each race.
SOE is marketing EverQuest II as a "parallel universe", presumably suggesting to current EverQuest players that the original will not be cancelled on release and to others that this is a new game. Players of the old EQ will find many familiar places and characters, as well as "heritage items" that are similar in name and function to items known from EQ and can be gained via heritage quests.