Everquest Next

[Nadia]

SOE site
https://www.everquestnext.com/

EQN wiki
http://everquestnext.wikia.com/wiki/EverQuest_Next_Wiki

Overview of game info from SOE Live 2013
http://www.eqnexus.com/forums/threads/e ... #post-5692

discussion at mmorpg.com
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/f ... ssion.html

http://eq2wire.com/2012/10/18/soe-live- ... r-updates/
EverQuest Next

“I have to be honest with you. We have completely blown up the design of EverQuest Next. For the last year and a half we have been working on something we are not ready to show. Why did we blow up the design? The design was evolutionary. It was EverQuest III. It was something that was slightly better that what had come before it. IT was slightly better. What we are building is something that we will be very proud to call EverQuest. It will be the largest sandbox style MMO ever designed. The same exciting content delivered in a new way. Something you’ve never seen before. The MMO world has never seen before. We didn’t want more Kill 10 Rats quests. We didn’t want more of the same. If you look at the MMOs out there, they’r delivering the same content over and over again. So are we. We need to change that. When we released EverQuest, we changed the world. We want to do that again with a different type of game.

What I will commit to is, at the next Fan Faire, not only will you get to see it but you will get to touch it. Most of the EQNext devs are in this room. If you get them drunk enough they might tell you. They’re led by Dave Georgeson. Terry Michaels. Vets from EQ and EQ2. We are remaking Norrath unlike anything you’ve ever seen, but you’ll recognize it. I’m sorry we don’t have anything to show for it, but I wanted to be honest with you and tell you a little bit about it. Keep the faith.”

[Kulaf]

Keep the faith
Stay the course
Trust me
I'll pull out in time
Blah blah blah

When I can see actual game footage I might get excited.

[Nadia]

smed interviews
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10 ... en-future/

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/20 ... es-future/

[Nadia]

ZAM interview
http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=30916

You’ll be able to destroy, massive, massive parts of this world, almost all of it. You can light the forest on fire; we have ambition with this thing. We want it to be something where the world you log into, might not be the world you log into in five days.

What you saw in WoW’s Cataclysm could take place because someone cast a spell that is powerful enough to do something major. We want it to be meaningful. And that’s what we’re building. It’s actually what we’ve built, because we’ve got this now. It just isn’t quite at the level where we’re OK [to reveal it to the public]. We have a story that we want to tell for the announcement of it, we want it that you’re seeing every aspect of the gameplay, we’re one aspect short of that until we’re ready to show, so we’re close now.”

[Nadia]

releasing in 2013?

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1848 ... QGgaPL2_6g

"Players will get their hands on an actual release version of what we're doing late [this] year - and I don't mean a beta," says Smedley.

[Raelesyn]

Not clear on the term "Sandbox" what does that mean? My apologies for such a n00b question...

[Jarochai Alabaster]

Haven't read the articles, so I don't know how it would relate to this or any other MMO, but:

"Sandbox" are typically undirected, unguided free-for-alls (With varying degrees of restriction). Minecraft is a prominent example. In Sandbox games, you're typically given a set of tools with which to work. From there, you create the experience depending on how you play, what tools you use, and what goals you set for yourself. Going back to the Minecraft example, there's this stuff called Redstone Dust. You can set it down on the ground and it produces a wire that you can power with various input devices (Buttons, levers, pressure plates, etc). If the wire is connected to an output device (Doors, pistons, dispensers) it can toggle that device's state between on or off. So there's the tools to build simple circuits, from which people have built complex circuits, from which people have built things like computers and pong emulators.

[Kulaf]

My understanding of a "sandbox mmo" would have to have the following qualities:

1) Open seamless world with no artificial boundries (zones).
2) No hard progression path that must be followed.
3) Little to no restrictions on what you can do with NPC's. (Everquest style, rather than "green" non-attackable NPC's ala WoW, EQ2, etc.)
4) Tools for players to mod/create content. (Neverwinter Nights)

The term has mostly been used only to describe stand alone games like Morrowind/Oblivion. If they can pull it off it might be really cool. But I will still wait for ingame demos before I get excited.

[Nadia]

examples of past sandbox mmos
- Ultima Online
- Star Wars Galaxies preNGE

[Nadia]

details will be revealed at SOE Live in 6 months, early August
http://eq2wire.com/2013/02/06/soe-live- ... hollywood/

[Nadia]

mmorpg.com gave EQNext best of E3 show
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/l ... 501/page/1

we were treated to an early look at what SOE has planned for the game’s unveiling in August and we were quite simply blown away by every little detail we saw.

This is going to sound like a cop-out, but we can't say why we are choosing EQN as our Best of Show because we've been sworn to secrecy until the big debut in August. What we can say is that we saw grand plans for the world's largest sandbox and it was more than enough to stand head and shoulders above any game we saw at E3.

When Sony pulls back the curtain later this summer, you will not be disappointed. EverQuest Next is this year's E3 Best of Show, and in just a couple months you'll all understand why. We promise.

SOE site
https://www.everquestnext.com/

discussion at mmorpg.com
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/f ... ssion.html

[Harlowe]

Well now I'm really intrigued....it won Best of Show at E3, but they can't tell us anything yet!!

[Nadia]

Kerran concept art seen at curse.com
http://www.eqnextfans.com/news/25018-ev ... oncept-art



a pic Smed teased last month
http://eq2wire.com/2013/06/06/smedley-t ... gress-pic/

[Nadia]

tweets from SOE team
http://www.eqnextfans.com/news/24748-tw ... -next-team

[Nadia]

updated today
https://www.everquestnext.com/

[Minute]

When is this coming out?

[Kulaf]

When is this coming out?

That......is the 64k question.

[Nadia]

SOE is doing a full reveal in 3 weeks -- August 2nd

in October 2012, Smed announced that EQN would be playable when it is revealed
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/18 ... uncements/

EverQuest Next has been redone from scratch so that it's not EverQuest III. Smedley promises it's going to be the "world's largest sandbox-style MMO ever made."
It'll be playable at the next Fan Faire.

at E3 2013, the press saw Everquest Next behind closed doors, two game sites called it "best of show"

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/7501/

We saw grand plans for the world's largest sandbox and it was more than enough to stand head and shoulders above any game we saw at E3. When Sony pulls back the curtain later this summer, you will not be disappointed. EverQuest Next is this year's E3 Best of Show, and in just a couple months you'll all understand why. We promise.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/251130/page/8

While we are sworn to secrecy on exactly what we were shown, what we can say is that EverQuest Next was hands-down the best game we had the pleasure of seeing during E3 2013. Franchise fans and MMO gamers across the globe will be able to learn exactly why that’s the case on August 2nd during SOE Live when EQNext is given its grand unveiling.

Trust us when we say that you’ll want to mark that date on your calendar, and be prepared to bask in the warm glow of EverQuest Next in all its glory. In the meantime, kudos to the folks over at SOE for winning our Best of Show award; we’re as excited as you are to witness the impact EverQuest Next is surely going to have on gamers this August!

[Nadia]

full reveal -- screenshots at link

SOE Live 2013: EverQuest Next explained
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/08/02 ... explained/

There are two main aspects of this world that really take things to a new level in gaming, and both involve composition, just in different ways.

First, everything in EverQuest Next is made of voxels -- the ground, the plants, buildings, everything. What's a voxel? Think Minecraft cubes, only you can actually form and shape each bit in a very organic way. Just look at the image embedded in this article -- do they seem blocky to you? Nope.

So why is having a world made of voxels important to you? Because it means everything in the world can be destroyed! If you wanted a way to affect the world, just envision actually blowing up a bridge to keep mobs from getting to you or collapsing a tunnel so no one else can find the cavern and quests underneath. And these changes are permanent. Isn't true permanency in games something many a sandbox fan has just been longing for? Well, this is only the beginning; permanence is a theme throughout the entire game. Of course, just because everything can be destroyed doesn't mean the devs will let you! As Georgeson explained to me, if some areas weren't restricted, Qeynos would become a parking lot in no time thanks to all you pyromaniacs. Keep in mind, though, such restrictions are only on players, not mobs.

EverQuest Next Previews: The Future of the MMORPG Lies in Norrath
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game ... rrath.html

EverQuest Next is Real, and it's Amazing
The next-gen MMORPG offers a destructible world, intelligent monsters, and a whole lot more.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/02/ ... ts-amazing

[Fallakin Kuvari]

It's looking amazing... Can they pull it off?