Allods Online

By Linda "Brasse" Carlson
Photo by Valerie Thuillier

Echoes of Faydwer, the latest EQII expansion, launched some time ago, to very positive reviews from a normally grumpy and hard-to-please player base. EverQuest II is a successful game in an increasingly competitive market, one that seems to spawn a new MMO every six months or so. The challenge is not only to produce a good product, but to retain subscribers in the face of shiny new worlds appearing over the horizon.

I had the opportunity to speak with Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer for EQII, at CES this year. Scott is one of those people who is so infused with belief in and enthusiasm for his game that he never seems tired. I have seen him looking as fresh at 8am as at 2am the next morning. While I secretly suspect he has a clone running about, we'll go with the story that he just has a lot of energy.

I asked Scott about how the EQII team was tackling the task of staying fresh and exciting to the players. Scott said that this was one of the goals of the EoF expansion; they adopted a new art style, forgoing the earlier hyper-realism of EQII and going with a more stylized fantasy setting.

The team held a lot of discussions on how best to introduce Faydwer, a continent that was brand new to many players, and well-remembered by others from the original EverQuest. They wanted to ensure that it was reminiscent and felt somewhat familiar to the old school players, while not duplicating what went before. After all, 500 years have passed since the exodus from the continent, along with several cataclysmic events and rise of new powers. Nostalgic adventurers can still find a great many of their favorite old haunts, but these may be greatly changed.

The newbie experience was further refined in the Kelethin nursery and made into a storyline with an organic, logical progression from the goblin menace in the early levels to the more serious Orc threat once the players were gently directed towards Greater Faydark. New players would find themselves better equipped and less frustrated by the end of the experience.

Scott was particularly proud of the achievement of making the city Kelethin an integrated part of Greater Faydark instead of a separate zone. This was made possible via improvements to the game engine that they have just begun to explore.

The Fae were certainly well liked as an added playable race, but I wanted to know if the team had considered any other races for the honor… Scott said there certainly were many lively discussions, with races such as Kobold and Minotaur on the table as well. In the end, they felt that the Fae could inhabit the central, main city of Kelethin as a natural progression of the lore, instead of having to invent a brand new city zone for other races. The Fae tied in well to the backstory of the continent and helped explain why, under Tunare's beneficent and lingering influence, all of Faydwer had not been overrun by darker forces. Kelethin remained a bastion of light and hope. Besides… Fae are so pretty… and can fly!

Kobolds and Minotaurs would historically be viewed as evil races, which reminded me… whatever happened to the rumors of the evil Fae, the Arsai? Scott said that some prototyping had been done with evil Fae, but that it was decided that Fae being solely a good race fit the current storyline better. I wondered if there would be an evolution in the story that allowed the reintroduction of dark-hearted Fae…. "Maybe" came the reply. I don't think these guys ever rule anything out.

Fae flight alone posed many problems in terms of balance and game mechanics. During the EoF beta period, a number of different approaches were tried… Scot explained the philosophy as "poke it and see what happens." Free flight was not possible because of the severe impact the ability would have on gameplay and balance; the team played with adjusting the glide distance vs height vs movement speed. A timer for the "glide" ability was tried at one point, but it felt very restrictive and unnatural, so it was dispensed with to allow more enjoyable play and experimentation by the players. Community input and involvement by the beta testers helped a great deal during the play-testing of the racial abilities.

The introduction of religion was a huge step along the emerging storyline of the new Norrath. The return of some of the gods after hundreds of years allowed for some new innovations in gameplay and lore progression. Allowing players leeway in choosing a god to serve (with 3 evil, 3 good and 2 neutral options) further underlined the team's wish to allow for more customization and choice in direction. Serving a god opens up a sort of personal economy to the player, wherein significant powers may be earned, and where the currency is not coin, but favor with the diety you serve. Favor may be earned via questing as well as sacrificing valuable items on the altars you are granted.

Crafting was given some added interest with the introduction of Tinkering and Transmuting. The latter is a very interesting tradeskill; due to its high cost to practice, it is one perhaps best done by players who are supported by a cooperative guild. The products made by Transmuters are subsequently used to make "adornments", special augmentations that permanently add stats or abilities to weapons, jewelry and armor. Allowing all crafting professions to participate by giving each different adornment lines to create was, in my opinion, a stroke of genius.

Scott noted that the player community was extremely important to the game, and their input is always welcome. Common sense rules in the forums help keep things on the level, and Community Manangers and staff assist the Dev Team by collecting nad submitting "hot issues" for consideration. All bugs and feedback are submitted to a searchable database and they are read by real human beings, who then collate and collect relevant issues to forward… and this material becomes mandatory reading for the Devs.

All in all, Scott was not in the least worried about other MMOGs coming on the market. He felt the EQII team was on the right track with innovation and development, noting the proof in the fact that every single day finds new players coming to the game. His quiet confidence spoke volumes for the future of the franchise.

Part of the reason for the success of EQII is that all of the Dev Team actually plays the game. They know how changes affect classes, guilds, playstyles… because they are in the thick of it, playing characters they worked up from scratch, under "real-world" conditions. They bring this knowledge and love of the game to every meeting.

For the future, there is an evolution taking place in both the development philosophy (allowing more freedom to players to determine direction) and in the production schedule itself… Scott noted that in the beginning, the plan was to release an expansion with a few adventure packs in between. The Echoes of Faydwer expansion gave the team a full three and a half months longer than the previous expansions, and Scott felt that this really made a difference in the depth and breadth of the product. Without the additional time, elaborate zones such as Felwithe would not have been possible.

The team found that adventure packs do not have the same appeal, because they are not as fully developed. The plan now is to move away from adventure packs, develop more extensive expansions, and in between (where the adventure packs used to be), continue to flesh out and develop existing storylines with the addition of new, free zones that augment the existing lands, such as the upcoming Estate of Unrest. There are so many tales half told in the game that need to be explored, he noted. Several people are working on adding yet more quests to various EoF zones at this time.

Of course, the next expansion is already in the works, hidden deep in the shadows… Scott would only say that the forces of good and evil would be kept in balance over the course of the expansions. Then he smiled. He can see it already, I bet.

Ah, and then we ran out of time. I had so many more questions - next time, Mr. Hartsman…. Next time!

I look forward to watching EverQuest II grow and change with the unfolding of its storylines. Everyone has their favorite tales… of particular interest to me is the mysterious relationship between Princess Thex of Felwithe and the powerful Mayong Mistmoore. I sense an epic storyline full of deep lore and uncertain outcome… I'd like to be there when it is fully revealed.