Everquest Next Unveiled: Will feature voxels, fully destructible world, emergent gameplay

[BloatedGuppy]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/02/first-look-everquest-next/

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/08/02/everquest-next-is-real-and-its-amazing



I was mildly excited about this game when I first heard murmurs it stole the show when sneak previewed to journalists a month or two ago, but I never really expected anything on this level.

Some bits and bobs...

Rather than relying on the functional blocks of Minecraft, Next is capable of breaking environments down at the smallest level, leaving jagged scars in the side of hills and allowing for earthquakes that can splinter entire regions, revealing the ancient things below. Some of those ancient things may wake up and emerge, creating new problems and new opportunities.

When a new entity arrives in the world, whether at the developer?s bidding or due to player interference, its behaviour is driven by a series of objectives, needs and desires. Whether an orc bandit or an enormous demon from the depths, a creature is not the product of a spawn point, mindlessly wandering until the proximity of a hero activates its basic functions. It?s an AI entity that functions as part of a world.

A gang of orcs, for example, won?t simply appear at a specific point in the world, replenishing shortly after they have been eliminated. Instead, when they appear, they react to the changing world. They act as bandits, and their purpose is to steal and murder. Therefore, they?ll lurk near settlements, finding good positions to carry out roadside ambushes as goods and people travel from village to village.

If a group of players start to patrol that road, clashing with the orcs, the parameters change. The AI reinterprets the situation, checking if the threat level is too high and possibly deciding to move on, wandering until it discovers a new suitable location. Or perhaps not. It?s possible that a particular group of players won?t present a strong enough threat, in which case the orcs could become more confident, preparing an assault. Or maybe they have a leader who will call for reinforcements.

There?s a final addition to the game?s structure that ties everything else together. Keeping with the blank slate approach to the genre, which involves jettisoning a great deal of jargon, larger quests aren?t defined as ?raids? or ?instances?. There will, at any one time, be an over-riding, worldwide mission, which SOE describe as a ?Rallying Call?. Every single player is part of a Call, although they are free to ignore its objectives. Each one will last for around three months and they will alter the world in a more directed fashion, creating enormous structural changes or new alliances and enmities.

The example described involved the founding of a city. A location is chosen, true to Everquest lore, and the plans for a new settlement are drawn up. The first players to arrive at the spot can set up camp, a few tents, vulnerable in the wilderness. Because people are idiots, they?ve decided to build in goblin country, so the camp will be in immediate danger. Now, every player knows about the quest, and if the attacks become severe, they will be told that help is needed. Quests come with rewards, so heroes may well converge from every corner of the world to assist in the defence and expansion of the camp, eventually making a village, to which NPCs will move. That village will eventually become a city, permanently established in the world, but before that can happen, the goblins must be driven out of the area for good.

Hunting parties could set out into the woods and wilderness, discovering goblin settlements and destroying them, but the nascent settlement will also require a militia to defend its people. Crafters could work in tandem with the hunters, asking them to bring back resources to aid in the construction of sturdier walls, and while the players react, so does the AI, planning counterattacks and possibly gathering all its forces under one ruler to lay siege.

Thoughts on this? For those who never experienced it, EQ was WoW before WoW was WoW...it was the original king of the genre. In many ways, WoW was a refinement of EQ. It would be very, very interesting and somewhat fitting if it was EQ that finally thundered back onto the scene and gave the genre it's next big revolution.

For those who hate MMOs, would a game like this interest you?

 

[Xisin]

I love that an action taken can potentially have long reaching consequences. And the servers! In a couple years they could all look so vastly different. I'm really excited. I've played all the previous Everquests and I don't foresee myself not buying this.

I am curious about the PVP servers. Everquest 2 PVP was fairly punishing, since you could steal some of an opponents inventory if the player won. I can only imagine that the PVP servers would drive a lot of people to paranoia. If I cross this bridge, will a geomancer take it out, thus herding me into a waiting ambush?

I am wondering about the payment system, has there been anything yet? I'll keep looking...

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I am wondering about the payment system, has there been anything yet? I'll keep looking...

It'll launch as a FTP game with microtransactions. Whether those microtransactions are relatively benign or completely horrifying remains to be seen. Not really familiar with SOE's past track record in this regard. Perhaps some Planetside 2 players could weigh in on that.

edit - oh you changed the first vid :S

I did. I thought it was a little more dynamic. The old EQ player in me geeked out a bit at seeing the Feerott, but most people would just shrug.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Planetside 2 wasn't the most egregious example of abusing microtransaction that I can think of, but locking weapons and equipment behind a paywall really rubs me the wrong way no matter how you cut it. If EQN goes the same route, which I honestly doubt, then I would suggest not bothering.

ETA: Excuse, I probably shouldn't have said "locked" behind a paywall. While it's possible to get them without paying that requires what I would consider to be an unreasonable of amount of time grinding to unlock them without paying. It isn't "de jure" locked behind a paywall but it is "de facto" locked behind a paywall if you're a casual player.

The more "benign" FTP models I've seen so far seem to allow heavy cosmetic purchases, and a lot of tedium bypass, in place of "buying power". Allowing players to buy weapons and armors in a more traditional MMO than Planetside would be a pretty ballsy move, and would immediately result in a cacophony of pay to win accusations. Let's hope they don't go that route.

 

[skywolfblue]

So how long do the destructible environments stay destructed? I would think that there would be memory/CPU limits, after a whole week of people shattering trees and mowing down the whole forest there's probably more broken splinters then any computer can handle, and the same goes for the terrain being made into an un-traversible series of pits and mountains. And of course in addition to that there are the player/gameplay concerns, if the whole forest is destroyed, how are new questers going to pick the 15 bananas they need?

The Rallying Call sounds nice, the whole server working together. But it sounds like they've opted for a Guild Wars 2 style "Furball Fighting" where the fight is a bunch of people zerging a boss down without much forethought for strategy or coordination. I must say that the complexity and strategy involved in WoW raiding was what got me interested in the game to begin with.

Smarter AI would be a welcome change. In fact I'd probably say that one of biggest ways an MMO can improve would be AI.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

So how long do the destructible environments stay destructed? I would think that there would be memory/CPU limits, after a whole week of people shattering trees and mowing down the whole forest there's probably more broken splinters then any computer can handle, and the same goes for the terrain being made into an un-traversible series of pits and mountains. And of course in addition to that there are the player/gameplay concerns, if the whole forest is destroyed, how are new questers going to pick the 15 bananas they need?

It is my understanding that the world "heals itself" back to an original state after X amount of time.

The Rallying Call sounds nice, the whole server working together. But it sounds like they've opted for a Guild Wars 2 style "Furball Fighting" where the fight is a bunch of people zerging a boss down without much forethought for strategy or coordination. I must say that the complexity and strategy involved in WoW raiding was what got me interested in the game to begin with.

I definitely would like to know more about the "meat" of the game. And the intended difficulty. If EQ Next is a gentle, casual experience it will certainly alienate a hard core base of old Everquest fans, who liked the game specifically BECAUSE of its brutal, draconian difficulty.

 

[Ishal]

The Rallying Call sounds nice, the whole server working together. But it sounds like they've opted for a Guild Wars 2 style "Furball Fighting" where the fight is a bunch of people zerging a boss down without much forethought for strategy or coordination. I must say that the complexity and strategy involved in WoW raiding was what got me interested in the game to begin with.

Smarter AI would be a welcome change. In fact I'd probably say that one of biggest ways an MMO can improve would be AI.

I know what you're saying here, but just because there are lots of players zerging a boss does not mean it will always be easy. There are always mechanics in place that can tip the scale and ruin a fight, especially you happen to be in a pug zerg and that is most often the case.

There was one boss in GW2 that's whole purpose was to wipe entire zergs of 20-40 people or more, and if you weren't careful it would happen. The Risen Priest of Balthazar.

OT: I know a lot of the old guard like to talk about the good ol' days and when they do its either Ultima, EQ, or DAoC. It was, and I think still is, trending on twitter, so enough people are interested I guess. Hopefully I'll have a new computer by then and maybe some people to play with. I know very few people who play MMO's so they tend to be a lonely experience.

 

[Ishal]

snip

It seemed... odd. I think that was the intent. No UI or anything detailing how things work. During that lich or necromancer fight underground I couldn't even see what was happening, thats not good. This looks pre-alpha right now so I'll wait to pass any sort of concrete judgement. Much will depend on what you actually do. Making homes and questing sounds fun, and whatever way they can improve servers, lag, and all the other lame stuff associated with MMO's the better.

 

[Remus]

Rather than relying on the functional blocks of Minecraft, Next is capable of breaking environments down at the smallest level, leaving jagged scars in the side of hills and allowing for earthquakes that can splinter entire regions, revealing the ancient things below. Some of those ancient things may wake up and emerge, creating new problems and new opportunities.

So it's gonna be EQ: OOT Rim? I'll be making a gnome engineer. Sounds like a great excuse to cobble together some Jaegers!

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I really like the look and the sound of it.

However, there is still a lot that I don't get. Like the fully destructible environments: let's say that I make a big hole in the ground and then move on. What happens to the hole? Does it stay there, does the ground respawn after a while, something inbetween?

It might be cool in theory for the effects to be lasting, but I think that would turn the entire world into a big empty wasteland within the first month. So I'm not sure how far they're gonna go with that.

 

[WoW Killer]

That's more like it! I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. I particularly liked that movement demonstration; double jumps, leaps, hovers, teleports. If they can make all of that relevant to the combat then this could be really good. Just imagine kiting a mob, but doing so over an uneven surface where you're having to use all these non-trivial methods just to traverse it; make a wrong step and the mobs going to catch up with you. I'm seeing a lot of potential in that sort of thing.

 

[Akytalusia]

hype counteracting information restraint suspected. information provided projects future global destruction within launch week. concluded environmental destruction temporary lest griefers reign. skepticism recommended concerning remaining hype.

 

[Remus]

hype counteracting information restraint suspected. information provided projects future global destruction within launch week. concluded environmental destruction temporary lest griefers reign. skepticism recommended concerning remaining hype.

Such is the standard reaction it seems. More environmental interaction is better IMO. I have fun just knocking down and rolling barrels around in Neverwinter. Give me some object interaction like in the last 2 TES games and I can be easily entertained for months. Include housing, decor, and the threat of your house getting smashed by a roaming cyclops and there's no end to the fun.

 

[Zhukov]

But is it still going to be 99% poorly dressed and poorly animated baffoons covered in ugly glow effects auto-attacking and hotbaring monsters to death?

Because no amount of dynamic objectives or environmental destruction can get me interested in that.

 

[Clura]

But is it still going to be 99% poorly dressed and poorly animated baffoons covered in ugly glow effects auto-attacking and hotbaring monsters to death?

Because no amount of dynamic objectives or environmental destruction can get me interested in that.

Project lead said something along the lines of "We want you to look at the enemies, not the UI, and block when you see an incoming attack." That does not really sound like normal MMO spreadsheet combat but more like Zelda: Ocarina of Time combat... which would be totally awesome.

 

[4RM3D]

So we are finally getting a MMORPG that can kick World of Warcraft of it's throne.

I'll be keeping an eye out for EQ Next and see if they can deliver on what they have promised.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

looks awesome