Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

EverQuest Next: EQN Revealed, World Building "Landmark" Released This Winter

BillMurphyBillMurphy Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565

Today in Las Vegas during the annual SOE Live convention, Sony Online Entertainment revealed not only the much-anticipated EverQuest Next, but also that EverQuest Next: Landmark will be releasing this winter. A world building F2P game along the lines of Minecraft but set in Norrath will tie players to developers as they craft EverQuest Next as a team.




Landmark Tech Demo from SOE Live


 

Read our exclusive and very lengthy preview of both EverQuest Next and Landmark HEREFor just the details from the press release, see below.

“With EverQuest Next, we’re going back to our roots – a space we defined with the EverQuest legacy – and ushering in a new era of MMOs: The Emergent Era,” said John Smedley, President, Sony Online Entertainment. “Today, many MMOs fail because players consume content faster than developers can create it. With EverQuest Next, we’re creating a living world that players are part of and empowering them to produce new content alongside the development team. What does the future hold for EverQuest Next and Sony Online Entertainment? It’s in the players’ hands, and we like it that way.”

“EverQuest Next is not the continuation of a familiar story. It represents the fundamental reimagining of the characters, lore and environments of the EverQuest universe,” said Dave Georgeson, Director of Development for the EverQuest Franchise, Sony Online Entertainment. “Make no mistake; while great care has been taken to respect the extraordinary influence that EverQuest has had in this industry and with our player community over the years, this is a boldly different game unlike anything that has come before.”

EverQuest Next has been in development since 2009. Nearly two years ago, SOE made the decision to rethink core creative and technical aspects of the design and start from the ground up to build a new kind of game. As a result, EQN is different from all of the MMOs that have been made before in very important ways, including:    

Multi-Classing – EQN will offer players the ability to explore and interact with the world according to their individual style of play. There are no levels in EQN, but there will be more than 40 distinct classes (or professions) at launch, with multi-tiered abilities and specialized weapon skills to collect and master. Players will even mix and match abilities from each class, creating truly custom characters that feel distinct and powerful.

Destructible Environments – No modern MMO has successfully implemented destructible environments that stretch across an entire seamless game world – this changes forever with EQN. Every piece of the world is fully destructible and players will have the ability to manipulate almost all of it. They will interact with and explore the world in amazing ways; venturing down into the deep bedrock beneath the surface and using powerful combat abilities to blow gaping holes into the ground. The EQN world will extend far into the heavens and deep into the procedurally-generated earth through 10,000 years of known lore and history.   

Permanent Change – Players will also have the ability to cause the world to change around them, permanently, in dramatic ways. Through the concerted effort of the world’s inhabitants, including players, creatures, and non-player characters (NPCs), city walls will be built and destroyed, large-scale wars will be fought and won, and epic stories will unfold over months and years.

Emergent AI – In EQN, NPCs will have specific motivations and preferences that direct behavior in nuanced and unpredictable ways. Players will find themselves in a world where NPC decisions are based on core values, not dictated by static spawn points. For example, Orcs may attack opportunistically because they want an adventurer’s gold, not simply because a careless hero wanders into an attack radius. 

A Life of Consequence – Finally, each character in EQN will have a unique story; they will not follow a predetermined path. Instead, they will seek out adventure, fame and fortune in a constantly changing sandbox world. The game will remember every choice and action that players make and will organically deliver increasing opportunities to do more of the things players like to do … from crafting armor and exploring the wilderness to purging goblins from the forests.    

“We believe that the bold choices the team is making with EQN will result in a product that provides players with an absolutely new kind of game experience,” said Laura Naviaux, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “However, there is something even more important to us. As an organization, we are dedicated to partnering with our community to give them a voice in the games we create. With EQN, we are taking this idea even further and offering our players to the opportunity to actively build EQN with us.”

INTRODUCING EVERQUEST NEXT LANDMARK

This winter, SOE will introduce EverQuest Next LandmarkÔ (Landmark). Essentially, Landmark will combine the powerful and intuitive building tools SOE is using to create the fully destructible world of EQN with all of the social functionality expected from a modern MMO.

The game will feature huge persistent worlds that each support thousands of other players and varied terrain inspired by the environments of EQN. Most importantly, Landmark will provide anyone who wants to participate with the opportunity to actually build structures, and eventually create other types of content, to be considered for inclusion in EQN. Landmark will enable players to: 

Create Amazing Things  


  • Build highly detailed structures with powerful and intuitive tools.

  • Quickly design complex projects or collaborate with friends to undertake massive shared builds.

  • Lay claim to and control specific areas of huge persistent worlds.

Share your Imagination with Friends


  • Landmark’s persistent servers will enable players to interact with and experience the collective imagination of thousands of players in a unique shared world.

  • Players will have compelling reasons to explore and interact with others. They will congregate at crafting hubs, build design templates to share and trade, and journey across the world to collect the resources required to build and craft.

Build EQN with SOE -- Using the Same Tools


  • Landmark players will gain increasing access to many of the same tools that SOE is using to construct the game world of EQN.

  • Not only will Landmark give players access to these world building tools, SOE will provide specific guidance on what we want help building.  

  • Through this collaborative approach, EQN may eventually represent the largest overall collaborative development effort in the history of online games. For anyone who has ever thought about becoming a game developer, here is your chance. Together we will build extraordinary things!  

Stay tuned to MMORPG.com for tons of videos, interviews, and exclusive content.

Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.

My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.

«13

Comments

  • LordSneergLordSneerg Member Posts: 119
    Ladies and gentlemen. ... now we have a game
  • apocolusterapocoluster Member UncommonPosts: 1,326
    Woah

    No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin

  • NeanderthalNeanderthal Member RarePosts: 1,861

    This is the first thing I've read about EQ next since the reveal started today.

    I have to admit I'm not painfully disappointed as I expected to be.  I'm so severely jaded that I can't help having that "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling but...ok....maybe I'll allow myself to have just the faintest tingling of excitement.  At least until I find out how they plan to screw it all up.

     

    Edit:  Geez, I misunderstood.  I thought this was going to be a fully integrated part of the game but after reading some more I see that it's a separate thing SOE is using to try to get people to do their work for them.  Ok, so my tingling of excitement has now faded to a just barely optimistic feeling.  That didn't take long.

  • Laughing-manLaughing-man Member RarePosts: 3,654

    So you can minecraft EQ before you play EQ.

    I dunno, I've played a lot of player made content over the years, player made things are typically horrible.

    I like Minecraft, I like Cubeworld, I think this is a bad idea.

    Did they not have enough developers to finish making their own world and had to rely on players to finish or something?

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910

    I wasn't really all that excited about EQN, but EQ:L sounds really cool. Especially if it's as much a game as it is a sandbox building thing.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • MumboJumboMumboJumbo Member UncommonPosts: 3,219
    Very (very) cool, but I don't see the price tag for the sandbox builder? How are they pricing this?
  • nuttobnuttob Member Posts: 291
    I will cautiously say YYYEEESSSS!!!!!!
  • museandalimuseandali Member UncommonPosts: 67

    Multiclassing, take some skills to another class:  FFXIV Does this

    Half of your skills are tied to the weapons you're using: GW2 does this

    Build your own world:  Minecraft lets you do this

     

    Ladies and Gentlemen, nothing new to see here.

  • vmopedvmoped Member Posts: 1,708
    Originally posted by museandali

    Multiclassing, take some skills to another class:  FFXIV Does this

    Half of your skills are tied to the weapons you're using: GW2 does this

    Build your own world:  Minecraft lets you do this

     

    Ladies and Gentlemen, nothing new to see here.

    Except the combination of the three in one product.

    Cheers!

    MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S

  • FusionFusion Member UncommonPosts: 1,398

    "The biggest sandbox ever"...

    I didn't see any sand.... and no, a separate building-tool from the actual game is not it.

    http://neocron-game.com/ - now totally F2P no cash-shops or micro transactions at all.
  • phildo-au-jusphildo-au-jus Member Posts: 3

    This is horrible. This isn't Everquest. This is just some unholy mutation between Free Realms, Minecraft, and DCUO that they slapped the name 'Everquest' on to drum up interest and press.

     

    The spirit of the original Everquest only lives on in Vanguard, and that is the only game that will ever come close to emulating Everquest. No one will ever do it, ever again. Those days are gone. I'm going to stick to VG, EQ1, and EQ2. I hope they keep the servers running.

    image
  • kishekishe Member UncommonPosts: 2,012
    So they found sourcecode for pre-ncu swg and since they lost licence to star wars they desided to mod it in to everquest.
  • PlumpPlump Member Posts: 10
    This Minecrafrtnext is very disappointing to me personally. Why couldn't they grant players with some type of recognition, titles, ingame aesthetic or vanity items for building the world. WHY MUST REAL $$ BECOME INVOLVED. Mixing pleasure with income potential is a disaster for gaming, generally speaking imo. I must wait and see more details on the topic--but my first opinion is to LEAVE OUT real world $$ making potential. Am I alone in this?
  • corpusccorpusc Member UncommonPosts: 1,341
    Originally posted by Laughing-man

    Did they not have enough developers to finish making their own world and had to rely on players to finish or something?

     

    does *ANY* MMO team (even Blizzard) have enough developers to pump out content fast enough for the locusts?

     

    ok then

    ---------------------------

    Corpus Callosum    

    ---------------------------


  • corpusccorpusc Member UncommonPosts: 1,341
    Originally posted by vmoped
    Originally posted by museandali

    Multiclassing, take some skills to another class:  FFXIV Does this

    Half of your skills are tied to the weapons you're using: GW2 does this

    Build your own world:  Minecraft lets you do this

     

    Ladies and Gentlemen, nothing new to see here.

    Except the combination of the three in one product.

    Cheers!

     

    ^

     

    i can't believe how many people act like just cuz an ingredient existed before that no new recipes can be made with it.

     

    "oh, that dish has TOMATOES! in it!    pffftttt!  tomatoes have existed for forever!"

    ---------------------------

    Corpus Callosum    

    ---------------------------


  • DrakenZADrakenZA Member UncommonPosts: 7
    Free
  • ArskaaaArskaaa Member RarePosts: 1,265
    now we got REAL mmorpg.
  • wizardszwizardsz Member Posts: 13

    ...read first?...some people.

  • madmikethegmmadmikethegm Member UncommonPosts: 43

    "Destructible Environments" - people I know who are into griefing are already salivating over this.

    They are already planning zergs across the landscape burning and destroying everything in their path "just for the lolz" of it.

    I'll withhold further judgement until more details about the game are released, but it's definitely on my watch list.

     

  • DrakephireDrakephire Member UncommonPosts: 451

    Certainly intrigued. I have to be cautious though, as SOE has screwed me over in the past. But I'm willing to give them another shot with this announcement.

     

     

  • NovusodNovusod Member UncommonPosts: 912

    Yes, Yes, YES! Looks like they finally hit one out of the park with this one.

     

    It is like Minecraft meets Pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies. I can't believe I am saying this but this has the potential to be the best MMO ever made.

    40 classes + multiclassing that is just unreal. There has not been that much freedom in character creation since pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons days. Lets hope this game supports 100 man raids.

  • jadan2000jadan2000 Member UncommonPosts: 508
    ok.... my eyes are open now!

    image

  • Crusix221Crusix221 Member UncommonPosts: 100
    Can anyone explain to me how this works. Are you making live content that goes with the game seemlessly or is this all seperate from the live servers?
  • SilacoidSilacoid Member UncommonPosts: 237

    Now now children.  If you don't want to create content with the Landmark tool, you don't have to.  Before bashing it, you should check out some of the better made Neverwinter player-made missions which can be incredibly deep and well thought out.

    Sounds like a game-changer to me, not sure what the haters are complaining about.

  • jdnycjdnyc Member UncommonPosts: 1,643
    Originally posted by Silacoid

    Now now children.  If you don't want to create content with the Landmark tool, you don't have to.  Before bashing it, you should check out some of the better made Neverwinter player-made missions which can be incredibly deep and well thought out.

    Sounds like a game-changer to me, not sure what the haters are complaining about.

    This^^^

    This was not what I expected, but it definitely is something to look more into for sure.

Sign In or Register to comment.