Podcast 49 is now live. With heaping helping of Grimwell!

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Little Sisters.

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This podcast we are minus Val and plus a Grim, we discuss the appearance tab, offhand proc'ing, how patches are applied, Unrest's new persistent group settings, the elimination of dual wield, Legends of Norrath, Spyte's History of EQ2 Part 2, bioshock, holes-in-the-wall, recording podcasts on gokarts and more.

Show Links:
GU #38 Notes
The Party Pig
Good Freakanomics Study on Vodka

Song Cap: None this Week

Intro Part of Song: Culver City Dub Collective : Eloise (Baghdad Remix) - From Their Kick Ass New Album “Dos”

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Everquest 2, GU 38, Legends of Norrath, SOE, Procing, Grimwell

Technorati Tags: Everquest 2, GU 38, Legends of Norrath, SOE, Procing, Grimwell

I have gotten in a pretty good debate with Maxxius (who makes some decent points) over on FOH’s boards about how I believe the MMO market is cyclical and he doesn’t. Go check out the thread with a post by Cuppy in the thread which started the debate, for the background , but here is my prediction in summary, would love to hear other opinions also on it:

I predict this:

In sometime in the next 5-10 years, someone will create a generic fantasy MMO with up to date graphics (playing the WOW safe card by not being too overdone), UI, the whole shebang, BUT it will use (with a few small exceptions) the same level grind cookie cutter game mechanics that eq, eq2, wow and other games do today. It is just that in 10 years that WON’T be the norm. That game will be successful. Very successful because people will feel the nostalgia and are sick of the current niche norm. Then other companies will look at that and see there is money to be made and start create a clone (clone of a clone at this point) and they will ride that out for a few years, till the consumer market wants something different. How about niche MMOs? (like pony world, or whatever) then suddenly that will be where the money is and focus will be drawn back to that. It will continue to do this.

Much like every 10 years or so we see a hugely successful boyband, then for 10 years we don’t, then guess what?

The above is in relation to game play. Profit vs play will be the same way. Everyone will migrate over the next few years (maybe by a push from the industry?) to microtranc and “slight of hand” RMT, then by 2013 some company is gonna market a game as “Why pay small tranactions, when we are just happy with a monthly fee all you can eat?” and everyone will feel it is revolutionary and utilize it for awhile, until another game comes along with an even “better” microtransaction deal. The two cycles (profit / game style) may not be on the same troughs and crests, but that doesn’t matter, they will still be cyclical in their path.

How long have you played MMOs? One of the first MMOs around the time M59 came out was called Shadow of Yseribus on the Sierra Network. I can’t imagine how much money I spent playing Yseribus. You pay’d by the hour to level your character (there may have been some big flat fee per month but I don’t remember and it would have been exuberant). In essence you paid money in small increments to have the ability to have a more powerful character than other players. Then suddenly UO/EQ came out where as you could have an all you can eat buffet (barring you have a net conx) for a flat fee. Suddenly here we are 10 years later, and people are introducing microtranactional games where although you are not playing per hour you ARE paying a small fee incrementally for the ability to have a more powerful character than other payers. It isn’t under the guise of and hourly rate, but that is essence of it. This will probably be in fashion for the next 5 or 8 years or so and then some will come up with the innovative Ayn Randian’ “if everyone is special no one is” solution that the playing field needs to be leveled, because the majority of people will never attain the status of people willing to spend money, so they will create a revolutionary solution of “everyone pay the same fee” and the better players (who in this case just have more time) will have the more powerful characters/ships/robots/ninjas whatever. This industry will always be the have vs have nots, just the haves will bounce back between ‘those that have money’ and ‘those that have time’. Once the major populous gets sick of fighting those that have time, new games will come out that revert back to the other set of halves those that have money. They will continue to bounce back and forth (hence the cyclical). The winning companies will be those on the precip that end up being the catalyst for the change.

The latest “meme” going around is the “Dashboard View” so I here is my batcave.

The last 2 are pics raised my geekness quota by atleast 2 points.

Command and Control

Evergrowing Library

1/3rd of the SW Lego Collection

Another 1/3rd of the SW Lego Collection

Other desks in the Mem:

Cuppy : http://www.cuppycake.org/?p=110
Brent: http://virginworlds.com/pg.php?n=7196
Ogre: http://ogrebear.com/?p=77
Dardore: http://texasrugby.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/my-gaming-setup/
Damiano: http://damianov.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/145/

Podcast 43 is now live!
Listen Here via the Net

To Download the Show Directly, Right Click and Save As :
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This Podcast is dedicated to :

The brain that decided to add lasers to dinosaurs Please! Please! Please! Please! Consider making a donation to the Eq2-Daily.com EQ2 podcast. We have a decent amount of expenses that we pay for out of pocket. If you listen to the show we like to ask that you donate a buck (Yes just $1 - thats 10 dimes for all you dimers out there) per show that you listen to us, so that we can try to keep this thing rolling along. Just click on the ‘Make a donation’ button below to send us whatever you feel like. (except flaming bags of dog poo)..

This podcast we discuss Rise of Kunark Spells, Fabled EOF Armor Drops, an interview with the SUWT crew, Diet Coke with Vitamins.

Show Links:

SUWT Podcast

WarCry Uncovers Possible Rise of Kunark Abilities

Olivia Newton John Filmography (Ignore Grease)

EOF Fabled Loot Drop Table

Song Cap: None this Week

Intro Part of Song: Fountains of Wayne : Strapped For Cash of their new CD Traffic and Weather (THE Best Pop CD in awhile. Period.)
Please Note : The Podcast uses explicit language and discusses
alcohol. If either of these two things offend you, don’t listen to it. Because
we love both explicit language and alcohol. No, I’m serious. We really love
alcohol…. Like, we would marry it if possible.
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Everquest 2, Kunark, Rise of Kunark Spells, SUWT Interview, Read.Listen.Watch.Play, Fabled EOF Armor

Technorati Tags: Everquest 2, Kunark, Rise of Kunark Spells, SUWT Interview, Read.Listen.Watch.Play, Fabled EOF Armor

I usually don’t publish non EQ2 specific posts on this blog, but I thought this might be the best place to discuss this topic. I do have another outlet for writing which is my personal blog, but I rarely blog about MMO’s there and I felt like this was the best place to post this “not completely EQ2 topic”.

So I was listening to Virginworlds ep #49 this last week and Brent brought up the idea of classifying MMO’s within generations. While my first thought was “Oh lord this is a comment train wreck waiting to happen” the segment ended up coming off fairly well, and although I don’t agree with all of what Brent said I do agree with some of it. Do yourself a favor and be sure to listen to this episode (if not all of them) and see his thoughts on it. He has also posted further on it, which I will link to in a moment after I post a link to the Ancient Gaming Noob’s latest post on the matter. As I have continued to read a couple of different posts on it, I have continued to critique in my mind what I would define a “generation” to be and which games I would put in certain generations. I have found myself moving father away from the word generation and moved more into a “timespan of design’ instead. Please remember that although I am a coder, I do not work on games nor game design, so this is coming from an outside looking in perspective on the game industry and mainly as one who has been playing graphical MMO’s for almost 15 years.

15 years?!? I am sure that is what the first thought is to anyone that has gotten this far in the post. Yes, 15 years. I will be honest that number surprised the shit out of me too when I just realized it. So I am sure to the people that have been around since the general definition of “1st Generation MMO” are probably thinking, Meridian 59 hit in 1995/1996, when did Cyan build a flux capacitor to gain these extra 4 years? Well I think that most people look at Meridian 59 as the starting point for MMOs, but I don’t believe it is.

Back in 1992 in my early teen years, I was a young dork whose greatest Xmas wish was for a 14.4baud modem that could marshal 1.2 meg files of stuff over ZModem Protocal (thats up and down at the same time you young whippersnappers) [Ok I Just realized I called people whippersnappers and I am only 28, I will refrain from that from here on out] I also connected to tons of BBSs on a nightly basis (and for future trivia, my handle was ‘Cyanbane’ even back then, Weiss and Hickman are rockstars). For those who were not around in the pre-internet days, BBS were basically computers who had multiple phone lines attached to them that would accept communications with other computer users and form a “party-lineish” server with a type of menu system for one or multiple people. Basically there were the ones ran with 1 or 2 lines attached to them and others (who were the file/shareware/3.14rat hubs) could connect up to 12 or 24 lines. Most people who were “online” gamers back then are probably reading this and groaning to themselves saying “please don’t bring up doorgames” well I am, but that is not what I am brining up in regard to graphical MMOs. I do not consider those graphical MMO’s (now mater how many cool ANSI art groups you belonged to). Yeah some had some nifty ACiD ASCII screens but those are not graphical MMO’s in my mind. The reason I am describing these large scale BBS is because at about this time 1991 the world really started to pick up on a couple of nationwide BBSs. Namely Prodigy, Compuserve, and a slowly growing AOL. Prodigy launched in Atlanta in 1988 (regionally) and I was lucky enough to have parents that enjoyed my interest in computers so they picked up a membership on it pretty quick. Soon in late 1991/early 1992 Prodigy went nationwide and it, along with these other large scale BBS (and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince) exploded and larger companies were taking note and developing their own “online” services. Along with Prodigy, multiple Warez/Porn/Anarchy BBSs, Doorgame BBSs (L.O.R.D. ftw) I also connected to a dial in service called Sierra Online.

In 1991 this was a pretty revolutionary service. I had X amount of hours to login and play Red Baron (multiplayer Flight sim) per month and they charged up the ass when I went over. It was here that I learned of a game that would change forever the way I view online games; ‘Shadow Of Yserbius‘. I did not play many muds/moos and all that good stuff, but I did mess with door games on a lot of BBSs. Here was a fantasy multiplayer game where people could interact with each other at the same time! Multiple people! And Holy shit, it has graphics!

I would argue with anyone to this day that Shadow of Yserbius WAS the first graphical MMO that was available to a wider audience than just the guys learning Fortran at large universities. It was the first online game that garnered a following and a player base (although if that playerbase went over 25 or so hours a month, they would lose their savings account paying for the extra hours).

That was the beginning of the 1st generation of MMOs. Meridian 59 soon followed (and I threw my self into that game also, lost for hours). Both of these games were the first generation. Then for me, came Everquest. I thought, whoever these 989 cats are, they got this thing right. I can play over a modem at a decent speed, the game looks sweet. This is heaven. And although I would say that of course EQ 1s time is not by any means waining (look at expansion pack #13 details) it did catch the eye of other people willing to invest money within about 2 to 3 years.

Here is where it gets fuzzy, and I have decided that I am going to mark Everquest 1 as the end of the “timespan of design/generation 1″. I say this because I think that the success of Everquest 1 is what spawned the push for other games that were soon to follow; Asheron’s Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, etc. I would not call these games second generation, because i think that they were built after the success of EQ1, and used some of its ideas in their design, although they did have better graphics and a few new systems, I would call them generation 1.5 (yeah, I get to make a half).

World of Warcraft I think should be included on Gen 1.5 just because I honestly feel it was built in the eye of EQ1, with a large budget and Blizzard took the time to modify a franchise it owned into the likeness of an soe/eq1 killer. WC1 hit in 1995, WC2 hit in 96/97 both game were great but I think that Blizzard wanted to move its franchise into an mmo maybe around 2001 or 2002 when they first started designing out the game. I am guessing at the previous dates, just because I honesty don’t know when they started, I figure it was probably a 2 to 3 year development effort and if it came out in 2004 probably right at that time. To be fair not a whole lot changed with WoW in regards to EQ1, even on the graphics level. That was the key to Wow’s success was that it didn’t take 2 Crays to run it (see early EQ2).

I also would probably put EQ2 and Vanguard both in generation/timespan of design 1.5 also. Both games have better graphic engines and the game play is similar to the basic MMO set up, but I think that both of these games much like Wow was also spawned from the success of EQ1.

So where is Generation 2? Well I don’t think we have seen it in full bloom just yet. I think we are starting to see it. One game that comes to my mind for generation 2 already on the market would be Test Drive Unlimited. This is a massive online games in a fairly persistent world but not of the classic MMORPG genre. They are other types of games (aside from RPGs) taking the massive mutiplayer level to a new population of game players (I might also be tempted to add City of Heroes/Villains into the Gen 2 classification also). These are games that were designed in a different genre that now involve massive persistent worlds. Brent (Virginworlds mentioned earlier) also spoke of Saga on his latest podcast which is a massive multiplayer persistent Real Time Strategy game. I think that with the advent of console overarching networks (xbox live, ps3 network, etc) we will start to see “Gen2″’s games like this come about a lot more on PC and Consoles. I just don’t think we are there yet.

Kindergarden-level-mathematical readers will probably comment on this post saying “why didn’t you just call your generation 1.5 games ‘gen 2′ and the new console mmos games of the future you describe ‘gen3′? Well I didn’t for a reason. I don’t think that the movement from eq1 to wow or eq2 constitutes a generation. There really wasn’t much that changed besides some sub systems and the graphics to these games. I don’t think they constitute a “generational” title.

So thats my 2c on the “generation” (you sick of the quotes yet?) taxonomy of MMOs. From a player who has been playing for ~15 years.

-Cyan

Other Reads on the Subject:

Virginworld’s Podcast #49 (What started it all)

Ancient Gaming Noob - Third Generation? There was a Second?

Ancient Gaming Noob - MMO Generation Divisions

Virginworld’s Blog - They are all 1st Generation MMOs!

World IV - MMO Geneaology

Sierra Kilo - MMORPG Genes

I know a lot have been really itching for more info about EoF for the past couple of weeks so I thought I would travel around a lot of the zones and put up some more screenshots for all to enjoy after our press tour a few weeks ago. . Before you start clicking on links and thinking you are getting away with something, yes I did get permission from SOE to post all of these pictures before the NDA is lifted. So you can rest assured that you are not breaking any rules by viewing them. Also know that not all of the screenshots that I sent to SOE were approved, nor have I been to every new zone, so this doesn’t represent everything out there by any means. Also I have very little very high level content because those areas are typically quite hard to get to by yourself.

My first order of business was to explore some of the zones we weren’t taken to on our tour. Lesser Fay was my first stop. Where in EQ1 Lesser Fay was more of a forest zone, in Everquest2 it has been transformed into a kind of mystical wonderland, full of giant mushrooms and plenty of strange and wonderful creatures. The zone is quite dangerous, and will be appropriate for levels 55-65. Most of the western half of the zone is inhabited by fae drakes, most of which are heroic, so bring a group to this area. There are also plenty of large wisps and minotaurs in the zone, as well as a really cool area in the middle of the zone that is kind of a glade for unicorns. In the southern part of the zone I discovered a kind of dead area that seems to have been infected by a foreign presence. All of the mushrooms had withered, and there were some high level shadowed men and nightbloods about. I eventually discovered what appeared to be the source of this “infection,” a large glowing spire sticking out of the ground. When I clicked on the portal in the middle I was taken to what seemed to be a high level dungeon, but I couldn’t get far in there as the mobs were 65^^^ and could see invisibility.

The next zone I went to was the other overland zone we didn’t get to see on the tour, the Loping Plains. This is another higher level zone, you probably want to be lvl 60 or higher to venture far in here. The zone is pretty much all undead, and you will find at least 3 dungeon areas here as well, including the famed Castle Mistmoore which we went inside on our press tour. A large graveyard dominates the middle of the zone, then there are a couple of dungeon areas to the west and Castle Mistmoore is to the south. I didn’t get to take a ton of pics in this zone as most of the mobs could see-invis so I was pretty busy running for my life a lot. I did get to see some cool ghostly skeletons though. What I did want to get were some pics of the approach to Castle Mistmoore, so I risked life and limb for you all to bring you these shots. Mistmoore seems to be designed to be one of the highest level zones in the game, so just getting there will be tough. The path leading up there is dominated by huge gargoyles, which are all lvl 71^^^. After you follow a long winding staircase to the top of the mountain, you are greeting with a very ominous sight, the front of Castle Mistmoore. I loved the artwork of the castle, very nice. If you don’t remember from my previous write-up, pretty much every mob in Mistmoore is over level 70, so the high level characters will certainly have a good challenge for them there.

Both of these overland zones were great. I especially liked Lesser Fay, though they did a good job with the undead theme of Loping Plains. As is par for the course with all of EoF zones I have seen so far, the zones are beautifully designed, and the music totally rocks. The first thing you do when you install this expansion should be to turn your music volume all the way up – I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

My next jaunt on my little self-guided tour was to go back to New Tunaria, or Felwithe for you old timers. It turned out that what we had seen on our press tour was just the tip of the iceberg. This zone completely blew me away. I cannot express to you all how cool this zone is. The architecture (more architecture) , the scenery, the awesome water effects, the music, everything about this zone rocks. I think it’s my new favorite zone in the game. I admit I am biased in some ways as Felwithe was my starting city for multiple toons in EQ1, so I spent a lot of time there. Even though New Tunaria is really nothing like the Felwithe of old, there were still small things that brought back good memories for me. This zone is outdoors but really more of a outdoor dungeon. All mobs are aggro and this zone will provide plenty of challenges for players from level 50 even all the way up to 65 or beyond. The zone has a central area when you enter, then branches off into two larger areas towards the back of the zone. The best part for me was approaching Castle Thex. I always thought the castle in the middle of Qeynos was cool, Castle Thex totally puts it to shame. At the time I was there there seemed to be no way to get into the castle, I hope someday we all can see inside.

A couple of other things I wanted to share with you. I did get to explore Crushbone a lot more in detail. There wasn’t a whole lot to take additional pictures of beyond what I took in the press tour, but Val and I did make it through the whole dungeon. Deep in the upstairs level is a separate zone, a little bit higher level than Crushbone itself (mid 30’s). It was here after a lot of killing and looting that we found the throne room and D’vinn, who challenged us to a series of battles which ended up with us fighting with a new much more colorful version of Crush. It will be a fun time for groups in their lower 30’s.

I also explored Butcherblock a great deal but wasn’t allowed to show you much of it, except for a few new mobs (another here) I found within and a watery druid ring. Nice zone overall.

I also ventured all throughout Kaladim but all I can show you from it is this giant beer keg and this cool looking guy I found within. This was one zone that didn’t really live up to my expectations honestly. But it will be a fun dungeon for those in their high 50’s and 60’s.

Also a lot of people have been asking how you will get to Faydwer. I can confirm it is by boat, which stops at the Thundering Steppes and Nek Forest docks. This is another thing I was disappointed by, the boat only comes every 10 mins or so currently (subject to change) but there is no actual zone or anything you ride through, the boat is simply a vessel for allowing you to zone between the continents. Plus they didn’t even do a new model for the boat, I think it’s the same one as on the starting island.

Overall, I am still even more impressed than ever with this expansion. As I said above the graphics are just awesome in nearly every zone, and after playing around more with a fae character, everyone is going to want one they are so much fun. I’ll try to get everyone more info as it becomes available.

Wow. This is the first word that comes to mind after our tour of the new EQ2 expansion, Echoes of Faydwer. As there are many other write-ups out there about this tour, I’ll keep this fairly brief but post a lot of good screen-caps for you all to enjoy. Click the clickable words throughout to see what I saw.

First, an explanation for those of you that might be new to the Everquest world: this expansion is a re-imagining of much of the old world from EQ1, or EQLive as it is also known. This also happens to be the part of the world that I started my first character in EQ1 and here I spent the majority of my time for the 4-5 years I spent in pre-shattering Norrath. So this expansion is very dear to my heart, as I know it is to many other old-school players, and if this expansion did not live up to my very high expectations I would be very angry to say the least. Luckily, this was not the case and what we saw of the expansion looks to live up to (and possibly exceed) the already high standards SOE has set for Everquest2 and the two expansions that have been released thus far. The scenery is beautiful, the new playable class race and city rock, and there is a ton of content.

Now to get into the meat of things. The tour started in Greater Faydark, which is an amazing zone. I had a chance to fool around in this zone ahead of our tour and it has everything you could hope for: giant trees, giant flowers, a bunch of orcs and wisps, a
freakin giant city smack in the middle of it, and the general sense of magical wonder you would expect from the land of the elves. Not to mention the music in the zone is so awesome – I can’t wait to hear more. As we met for our tour Raijinn Thunderguard was our tour guide and showed off one of the new armor models we can expect to see in EoF, as well as some of the highly anticipated cloaks (more here and here) that players are going to be able to wear. A comment here about the fae, which is the new playable race coming out with EoF. I was worried that the Fae would be a little too “fairy-like” for my tastes, but it turns out they are pretty dang cool. My absolute favorite thing and the thing that may get me to roll a new fae character is their ability to float while falling, therefore basically they have unlimited safe-fall as a class race ability. It rocks to jump off the high platforms of Kelethin and float
down to the forest floor gently as if carried by a breeze. As we proceeded on with our tour we got to run around the new starting city of Kelethin. For you EQ1 fans the city definitely does not disappoint – it’s awesome, plain and simple. For those of you not familiar with Kelethin it is a city in the trees which was built by the wood-elves. My favorite thing about it was not having to zone to get into the city, you just hop a ride on the elevator; oh and the houses that are shaped like acorns – very cute devs.

As the tour continued on we got to see a couple of other familiar landmarks in Greater Faydark, first off was the wizard spires. They looked pretty much the same as I remembered but much taller. What was most interesting about them was not their appearance but the fact that Raijinn told us that they may become functional for wizards and druids to use again in the future – this was the first I’d heard of player teleportation returning to Norrath.

The next stop was Crushbone, which is a dungeon for players around lvl 20-25. It was a pretty cool dungeon overall, I took some pics of the entry hall and the torture chamber. Also within we saw the new orc model, which looked great, and I found a kobold down in the dungeon, looking quite fierce.

Now it would appear that most of the other cities that existed in Faydwer before the shattering have now been taken over by hostiles and are now essentially dungeon zones. The
first one we visited was Felwithe, now known as New Tunaria, which is a zone for players around lvl 50-55. This zone had some of the best architecture
we saw on the tour, and some great water features. There was even a massive oak in the middle of a courtyard that you could go inside. I also noticed another new mob model here, I don’t even know what to call it but it looked neat. More on the other cities turned dungeon below.

Next on the tour was the outdoor zone Steamfont mountains. This is historically the land of the gnomes, containing the gnome city of Ak’Anon and lots of crazy gnome contraptions. The zone is still full of crazy contraptions, but Ak’Anon has been overtaken and is now the city of machines (insert random Terminator or Matrix cliché here)As for Steamfont it’s another great looking outdoor zone, the gnomes have a little safe haven town here where we saw battle bots and happened to see the new horse model standing around. We were told here that the guild cap is being raised to 60 so this might be one of the new higher lvl guild mounts, there was another mount mentioned that will be non-horse or carpet, they are keeping it a secret for now though. I also happened to see another new monster model running around, a mean looking minotaur. After walking around the outdoor zone we went into modern day Ak’Anon, now known as Klak’Anon, again this is the city of machines. Our faithful tour guide told us that they tried to keep this zone’s layout similar to the original, so it feels somewhat familiar. There are lots of robots flying around with scary death gazes, so needless to say it’s a cool zone – surprisingly lag free with all of that animation. Also here is where we witnessed our first raid mob,a giant mechanical thing, and I’m going off memory here but I believe he was lvl 55 x4.

Next we took a quick hop across the new lands to visit the Butcherblock mountains. We didn’t get to see much of this zone but we did get to visit the fabled Chessboard for a quick look and then we went to the entrance to Kaladim. We didn’t get to see inside Kaladim but we were told it’s another dungeon zone, I believe it was reported to be lvls 65-70.

Our next 2 stops featured some of the high level content available in the new expansion. The first stop was The Emerald Hills, which is an awesome looking zone, and we were told is an instanced raid zone 65-70. Interesting to note here the zone seemed empty until we ventured in, then we were attacked by some invisible mobs. Not sure if this will be the case at launch but it was a bit different than normal. We also witnessed the dragon Wuoshi lurking about, he also was happy to kill most of us with an aoe really quickly (we were buffed to lvl 70 but without armor). Some of you might remember Wuoshi from Eq1 and Velious, apparently he has now sought out warmer climates but he’s now angry towards all player races. Wuoshi is in the Emerald Hills guarding the Bloom of Growth, a really cool shiny flower that apparently is the source of everything being enormous proportions in the Emerald Hills. The last stop on our tour was everyone’s favorite, Castle Mistmoore. This was a very high level zone, with most mobs being over level 70, so it will take some serious players to do much exploring within. The zone looked great, it really felt like a castle inside with everything being large and beautiful stained glass everywhere. We weren’t able to explore much of the zone but we did get to see the entry hall and then got treated to a glimpse of Mayong Mistmoore himself. Mayong was rarely seen in EQ1 but he did make the occasional appearance. Here apparently he will be a little more visible, though at a level 75 x4 raid mob he will prove to be one of the most difficult mobs in the game. Unfortunately he was most happy to smite anyone who came near him, so this was the closest pic I could get of him.

That was it for our tour, and although we got to see a lot of content there is so much that we didn’t see. It was commented at the end that although we didn’t get to see it, the Estate of Unrest will appear in this expansion, and it will also be for higher level characters, probably 65-70. At 40 zones this will be a huge expansion, with content for all levels 1-70. A lot of the stuff we saw was higher level just because that is the nature of the beast and what most people want to see, but there is plenty of mid-level content as well. At first glimpse I think EoF will live up to it’s hype, and not only continue on a great tradition that has been set for years by the respective Everquest teams but also vault EQ2 into a new realm and a truly huge world.

Podcast 24 is now live.

Listen Here via the Net

        

This Podcast is dedicated to :

The people that are stupid enough to buy a furry creature from this old dude with inverted eyelids, and then… not follow his rules.

Please Consider making a donation to the Eq2-Daily.com EQ2 podcast. We have a decent amount of expenses that we pay for out of pocket. If you listen to the show we like to ask that you donate a buck (Yes just $1 - thats 10 dimes for all you dimers out there) per show that you listen to us, so that we can try to keep this thing rolling along. Just click on the ‘Make a donation’ button below to send us whatever you feel like. (except flaming bags of dog poo).

This show we break down the new expansion (Echoes of Faydwer) and the new Adventure Pack (The Fallen Dynasty) and also discuss LU #23, the Station All Access Price Increase, Vaddir has a new Crafting Segment, and requests for 'You might be a <insert class name here> if…" jokes.

Show Links:

Original Article that started the flood of info


Official Press Release That Followed


Official Fallen Dynasty Site


Fallen Dynasty Screens So Far


Echoes of Faydwer Screens So Far


Station All Access Price Increase


Fizpez’s ‘You Might be a Templar If…’ thread on official forums.. [Funny Stuff]

Please Note: The Podcast uses explicit language and discusses
alcohol. If either of these two things offend you, don’t listen to it. Because
we love both explicit language and alcohol. No, I’m serious. We really love
alcohol…. Like, we would marry it if possible.

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Everquest 2, Echoes of Faydwer, The Fallen Dynasty, E3, EQ2-Daily, Podcast

Technorati Tags: Everquest 2, Echoes of Faydwer, The Fallen Dynasty, E3, EQ2-Daily, Podcast

We were taken on a nice tour of KoS by Blackguard the other day, and since it will be a couple of more days before we can get a podcast out on the subject but the NDA has been lifted, I thought I would give you a taste of what we saw, nay beheld, in the new and pretty darn amazing Kingdom of Sky.

KoS is made up of three main large zones, with the assorted dungeon zones scattered about. Some of the best graphics I have seen thus far in Everquest 2 can be found here, and tons of new and exciting creatures to meet. I’ll link a few pics within for you too see.

The first we saw was Tenebrous Tangle, which is a zone intended for lvl 56-62 characters. This zone is comprised of 5-6 very large floating islands, each of which have a jungle flavor but many have different creatures on each. You travel between the islands using clouds that you can stand on, similar to the carpets of DoF. On one of the islands you get to base jump off the top of a waterfall, which of course totally rocks. You can see some creatures you may have seen before, such as bixies, and some new ones like the Droag’s, which are like half man, half dragon breeds, and Vultak’s – which are like vulture men.

We entered the Sanctum of the Scaleborn from Tenebrous Tangle, a great looking dungeon that contained a pretty nasty dragon. This dragon is strategically located on a high platform and has a very powerful knockback ability so defeating him will be no small chore.

The next zone we traveled through was another large outdoor zone, the Barren Sky. This zone was another with many large islands scattered throughout the sky but these islands have more of a desert feel, reminiscent of the Pillars of Flame, if you have been there. There are two competing Avian factions you can see in this zone, as well as many other unfriendly things. The Barren Sky is intended for players lvl 62-68, and also contains the Palace of the Awakened, a higher lvl dungeon intended for players lvl 66-70. The palace was beautiful, and reminded me of the Shimmering Citadel somewhat.

The last large outdoor zone that we saw was the Bonemire, intended also for lvl 66-70 creatures. Here you can see a new race called the Ravesects, which are half man, half insect creatures. The zone also contains some great looking water features, but this is not water in the traditional sense, rather a very alien looking purple goo. The whole zone is a desolate place, but with a lot of interesting things to see (and kill). Within this zone is the Halls of Fate, another large dungeon zone where new dragon races are created. Very nice graphical touches are found within, including circling drakes around the ceiling.

The last zone we went to was another dungeon off of the Bonemire, which contains one of the most powerful dragons in the game, Tarinax the Destroyer. This is a full dungeon though, where you can find amazing dragon themed statues and formations, and quite a few visible & invisible nasty mobs. Finally we made it too Tarinax, and he did not disappoint – extremely large and mean undead looking Tarinax will certainly pose a challenge for even the best of guilds. He was so big that he could smite me with his big toe! But the treasure trove that he guards will be something all adventurers will want to get their hands on.

Overall the Kingdom of Sky looks like a great expansion. Zones are huge and there is plenty to explore everywhere. The zones all performed well with minimal lag, despite the utter vastness of it all. We got too see a few new class digs, and some new weapons. Anyone over 50 should definitely pick this up, even though zones are intended for 55+ a full group of 50’s could take most of the first mobs you encounter. Blackguard also reported to us than in addition to the adventure lvl increasing to 70, crafters will now be able to make lvl 61-70 recipes, and there will be things to make for every class (yes even rares).

Kingdom of Sky, Everquest 2, Everquest 2 Expansion, Eq2 Podcast, EQ2-Daily.com, Rotacidare

Technorati Tags: Kingdom of Sky, Everquest 2, Everquest 2 Expansion, Eq2 Podcast, EQ2-Daily.com, Rotacidare

Podcast 15 is now live.

        

This Podcast Was Made Possible by the following people who donated to the podcast:

Spyte (Splitpaw Server)
Malicnite
NintendoPimp

Thank you guys for your donations.

In this podcast we discuss:

Kingdom of Sky Announcement
Kingdom of Sky Site
Kingdom of Sky Beta Signups
Music Box Info
Xalmat of EQ2 Summoners Tower

Give us a call guys! Please! We are Lonely. 678-999-2624

EQ2-Daily.com Daily Discussions
EQ2-Daily.com Wiki

Rot’s Interviews

Official Forums: Conjurer Interview for EQ2 Podcast
Official Forums: NecromancerInterview for EQ2 Podcast

EQ2-Daily Post on Conjurer/Necro

This Podcast is dedicated to:

All those who hope the Kingdom of Sky doesn’t have a Moose out front that says it is closed.

Music Cap-
Jay Clifford Live at the Eddie’s Attic in Decatur Ga. 6.6.2003 - You can grab the whole show here.

Check out Jump’s music on Amazon:
Between The Dim and The Dark
Vertigo

Please Note: The Podcast uses explicit language and discusses alcohol. If either of these two things offend you, don’t listen to it. Because we love both explicit language and alcohol. No, I’m serious. We really love alcohol…. Like, we would marry it if possible.

Download The Show Here    Subscribe to this Podcast.    Subscribe
via Itunes.