EverQuest Next Q&A Session, Part 2

Here are the answers from part 2 from the Q&A session. Overall, based on what’s been shown and what the answers are, it sounds like EQN is pretty far out yet. But we’re sure to clarify this impression over the next few months as EQNL approaches, one way or the other.

• There will be a balance between twitchy and MMO combat. Georgeson says the game isn;t deisgned rto support one-button macroing, and compares the desired “activity level” to that of EQ2. Butler says you won;t be waiting on cooldowns.
• Animals will have emergent AI like mobs.
• No comment on PvP-specific systems. We do know there will be PvP, but that’s about all. Destructability will be a factor.
• Blowoff answer to the question of whether SOELive 2013 attendees will get some kind of EQNext related bennie.
• No substantive comment on how closely crafting will be related in EQN and EQNL. But robust, central crafting (and implicity harvesting as well) has been repeatedly promised.
• Rallying Calls will need variety, but the team has lots of stuff in mind already. They will also be tricky to manage, but they’re going to rely on the underlying intelligence of the game rather than being strictly scripted. There may be some kind of mechanism for helping out players out who missed a Rallying Call.
• Your actions can make you KoS (kill on sight) to various races/factions/etc. It doesn’t sound like you’ll be KoS to NPCs (as opposed to mobs) at the beginning of play, but that’s not being stated outright.
• It sounds like no final decision has been made on allowing player-contributed (i.e. fanfic) stories through something like Kindle Worlds. Great question, actually, though possibly premature and asked of the wrong people. Georgeson emphasizes, though, that SOE is very serious about letting players help shape the world. So I would be surpirsied if there wasn’t some kind of outlet for this, even if only the one that’s already in EQ2 (player-written books.)
• There will absolutely be group content, despite players’ ability to collect many classes. There will be interdependence between characters even if the holy trinity roles are loosened.
• If players push to hard against the orcs (to use the running example) the orcs might well be pushed back to some pocket. But the orcs might push back, too… and I suspect this is the kind of thing there might be metrics collected on, and potentially Rallying Calls shaped around. There will be mechanisms to prevent player housing/building clutter.
• Classes should have signature cool abilities like in EQ. Example given is the Wizard’s teleport.
• There will be no Alternate Advancement per se. Horizontal progression is in part intended to compensate to help you customize your character, although again I get that there will be a significant vertical component of progression as well.
• No comment of crafting, specifically on whether Tradeskillers will be able to multiclass in some similar way to the adventuring classes. One reason they’re not talking about crafting in detail yet is that there’s simply no room to explore it in the depth it deserves in the time frame of this event. I take that as a partial evasion, although again SJ says we’ll like crafting when it’s revealed.
• Gamepad support is secondary to building a PC game with PC controls. After stuff is settled the team will look at other platforms and control schemes. It would be uncontroversial for me to say I expect there to be a PS4 version.
• OJn whether you’ll be able to attach businesses like tavers and shops to your housing: “that’s be really cool, wouldn’t it?” with a smirk. I’ll take that as a tacit acknowledgement that the devs want this is game.
• Emergent AI might cut you off from content; your decisions and play will have consequences. Again, though, there will be a balance to be struck. I get some back-and-forth between the devs on this.
• There will be maps in game, probably a map system developed in the context of EQNL and then migrated to EQN. The stated goal is that the team doesn’;t want players to have to ALT+TAB out for info.
• Social media tools, recording facility, etc will be built in. EQ2 ans PS have lots of this already; EQN will have more.
• Offline gameplay sounds like there isn’t a lot of support for it, outside of stuff we’d expect like marketplaces. SJ says they want people actively participating in the game.