Dev Chat - DoN

[kthxbye]

Session Start: Thu Jan 27 20:28:27 2005
Session Ident: #StraticsHoC
[20:28] * Logging #StraticsHoC to 'logs\Stratics\#StraticsHoC Dev Chat Log.20050127.log'

[20:54] * Brekkee changes topic to 'Welcome to the EverQuest House of Commons. Tonight’s topic is the expansion and recent

updates. Please send your questions related to [QT]Ishu or [QT]Calelena'

[21:06] Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the

developers of EverQuest! Tonight’s topic is the DoN expansion and recent updates, so please limit your questions to those

topics.
[21:06] Please send your questions to [QT]Ishu or [QT]Calelena - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window

that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup, so don't bother. Full logs of the

chat will be up on http://eq.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
[21:06] We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those

questions.
[21:06] Good evening all. I'm Travis McGeathy, better known as Rashere.
[21:06] * Tannis|{Working} has joined #straticshoc
[21:07] Hi, I'm Ryan Barker also known as Rytan, designer for EverQuest

[21:07] *Croix_FV* Question: What will the approximate size of this expansion be? Like OoW and 8ish zones plus instances, or more like PoP with 20+?
[21:08] Dragons of Norrath is similar to Omens for zone count although some of the zones are quite spacious.

[21:09] *litlebear* With the upcoming guild halls, will there be any room for expansion, as in purchasable Merchant NPCs, and maybe a guild arena?
[21:09] We've built the guildhall in such a way that we'll be able to expand the functionalities provided inside in the future. We've got a solid list of fun features for DoN, but we'll be looking to add others as time goes on.

[21:10] *Croix_FV* Question: Will more details be released to the content of DoN soon? I.e. More spells? AA's? Levels?
[21:11] I’m glad you asked. We’re not doing AAs or levels with DoN, but you can expect more spells. In addition, we’re introducing a new mission system to the game that will allow challenge you to take your groups into the DoN content to further the cause of one of the factions behind the story.

[21:12] *sildonte* What will be the level range that DoN is targeted for as far as new fighting zones?
[21:13] The level range for DoN starts at level 45 and goes on up through 70 at a variety of difficulties. There's a pretty sizable difference between player powers with AAs and equipment, and we've added content that should cover all of that range.

[21:13] Remember to get your questions in to [QT]Ishu or [QT]Calelena , questions will be answered in the order they are received, so send them in now!

[21:14] *Rikayn* We haven't seen anything much about the mission system. Can you elaborate? Will they be like tasks or?
[21:14] The mission system uses the task system basics, but is aimed at quests that your whole group does rather than just a single person. The missions take place in instanced versions of the expansion dungeons and run the gamut from sneaking into areas to plant bombs to trying to stop your rival faction from aligning with the denizens from the new areas.

[21:15] *Mediik* How are guilds going to be able to purchase these features?
[21:17] The guild features are immediately available upon the launch of the expansion and only the corpse summoning and guild portal will require platinum to use.

[21:18] *Geez* what level are these new zones aimed for?
[21:18] The zones begin at around level 45 and work their way up from there.

[21:19] *Bl-Pak* Question: What is the main new idea that you are trying to introduce in DoN?
[21:19] * Rytan has quit IRC (Ping timeout)
[21:19] We're expanding on a lot of ideas with DoN including the guild features and the mission system. In addition, we're reconnecting the ongoing storyline back to the original lore.

[21:20] Rytan should be right back

[21:21] *Guest109847019371* Are there any plans for adding to the current Tradeskills?
[21:21] I'm gonna channel Absor here: There are plenty of new tradeskill recipes being introduced. In addition, we're completely revamping the cultural armor.

[21:21] * Rytan has joined #straticsHoC
[21:22] * Brekkee sets mode: +o Rytan

[21:22] *VarganMarrblade* Will the guildhalls be placed in existing zones, or will there be new "build zones" created for them to go up in, like with DAoC and AO? Or will be using a system closer to the housing in EQ2?
[21:23] The guildhall consists of two parts, the guild lobby and the guild hall itself. The guild lobby is a zone off of Plane of Knowledge and is a normal zone that anyone can enter. From there you can zone into your guild hall which takes you to a zone that is only available to members of your guild.

[21:23] *window* with the mission system will there be purchaseable rewards, like LDoN?
[21:24] Yes the mission system makes use of a system much like LDoN where completion of missions rewards a type of corrency. This currency can be spent at special merchants for items, spells, etc.

[21:25] *Rikayn* You say "rival faction" Does this mean guild wars or other forms of PvP?
[21:26] The rival factions actually refer to two NPC factions that players can choose to align themselves with. It doesn't indicate any kind of PvP specifically. There will be times where you'll be running missions on both sides of the fence though.
[21:27] for example, one mission might have you protecting some dragon eggs, while another has you destroying them. There won't be any actual PvP with other players though, it's strictly a lore concept.

[21:27] *nordwulf* Will DoN feature some solo playable missions or tasks for those that do not have to much time to play?
[21:29] The missions are built for groups, but are tuned to take about an hour or so to go through so would be perfect for someone without much time to play.

[21:29] *Morncask-DRo* What will happen to guildies corpses that don't have the expansion when using the corpse altar?
[21:30] There's a bit of confusion on how the altar works. The corpse summoning altar actually is in the guild lobby, not the guild hall. Each player will have to summone their own corpses, but it will summon all of their corpses through out the world.

[21:30] *VarganMarrblade* Does the cultural armor revamp mean that the Guktan Forge will finally have a use?
[21:31] Absor says smash...er...yes.

[21:31] *Rikayn* What rewards can be expected from Missions? Boss mob type loot? Gold and xp? Faction? All of the above?
[21:32] The mission system uses a reward system that is similar to how LDoN worked. As you complete mission, you will earn shards that you can use to purchase equipment from vendors.
[21:33] The two different factions give different types of rewards.

[21:33] *Rikayn* So tell us more about the two rival factions in DoN. Are they like the 3 factions in Velious?
[21:34] There's 2 main factions in DoN. There have been many clues that have gone out over the last few weeks, I wouldn't want to spoil the story by saying too much. >

[21:34] *Elphabas_FV* With the purchases on the missions be isolated to the zone of origin like LDoN or will one mission let you have currence to spend on any equipment in the mission system?
[21:35] The two different factions each give a different type of currency for completing their missions and, in turn, only accept that currency at their vendors. But, the currency is tradeable.

[21:36] *Elphabas_FV* Sounds like the altar is a major nerf to Necros and SK's. How do you see one of their primary roles after such an adjustment?
[21:37] The corpse summoning costs significantly more then having a necro or shadow knight summon your corpse. So they still have an edge in that department. We thought it was important to allow an easier method of getting your corpse back for the overall health of the game.

[21:38] *Gluestick* Will missions be geared more towards higher levels (60+) or will they be useful at level 45?
[21:39] The missions start at around level 55 and similar to LDoN, they scale based on the level of your group.

[21:39] *Croix_FV* Part of the idea is to "Advance the story" within the player community. However, will these mean that certain things will be one time only, such as the recent ToFS quest, and thus cater to established/powerful guilds? Or will the quests be universal enough to give everyone a shot?
[21:40] You're referring to the storyline playing out in-game right now. In this case, it is literally events that are occuring in the world and once they are done, they don't occur again. The missions and quests within the expansion are more traditional and can largely be repeated however much you desire.

[21:41] *Rikayn* Will the guild hall also have separate private apartments?
[21:41] No, there aren't any private apartments with the guildhall. Just the main hall that your whole guild shares.

[21:42] *Gluestick* You mentioned new spells in DoN, would these be improvements to our current spells or will you be introducing any new spell lines to certain classes?
[21:43] It's a mix of both. Some classes are getting entirely new lines of spells, while others are getting upgrades to existing lines.

[21:44] *Rick* What do you mean by returning to the original lore storyline? Can you tell us more?
[21:44] By this I mean that the expansion is revisiting old Norrath and some of the factions that featured heavily into the original game. The expansion areas, in fact, can be located on the original map that came with the EverQuest box. Of course, the events that have occured since then have taken their toll.

[21:45] *Rikayn* Since missions are like quests... can they be done over days or are they more like LDoN 2 hour chunks of time?
[21:45] Each individual mission is contained into two hour cunks, but there are mission sequences that functio much like quests that you can work up through over a period of several days.
[21:46] Think of missions as potentially segments of a larger quest.

[21:46] *Rick* Will we find out what happens with Lanys or is this the Dragon's story? Nagafen and Vox?
[21:46] Lanys has been gathering the armies of Overthere. To find out what happens, I recommend you keep an eye on Dreadlands over the next week or so.

[21:47] *Beerwen* Will the new "Guild Bank" all storing of multiples of a lore item?
[21:47] The guildbank is only able to hold a single lore item at a time. This of course doesn't count any items that might be on individual guild members.

[21:48] *Elphabas_FV* How will the guild bank work? Number of slots etcetera?
[21:49] The guildbank holds a total of 200 items which can be flagged by the guild banker in a variety of ways to allow certain guild members to use them.
[21:49] For example, one of the flags allows anyone who can actually use the item themselves to take it out of the bank.
[21:49] You can also flag an item for a specific person.

[21:50] *Croix_FV* Since Overlord Mata Muram was on his last legs, last I heard, is there raid content in this expansion to satisfy this style of play? If so, how is it balanced against group content?
[21:51] One word...Dragons. There is a large amount of content, including the mission system, that is focused on single groups. The dragons, though, are a force to be reckoned with.

[21:51] * Rytan has quit IRC (Read error: Connection reset by peer)

[21:52] *Gluestick* Can we expect any new suprises in DoN, such as "Attuneable" items that were introduced in OoW?
[21:53] * Rytan has joined #straticsHoC
[21:53] There are a number of surprises waiting for players in Dragons of Norrath...but they wouldn't be surprises if I told you about them here.

[21:54] *Croix_FV* Will instancing and instanced zones factor heavily into this expansion, or will it be mostly standard zones?
[21:54] * Brekkee sets mode: +o Rytan
[21:54] The mission system makes heavy use of instanced zones to provide structured quests that take place in the expansion zones.

[21:56] *Gluestick* Can we expect a heavy amount of raid encounters to be implemented into DoN?
[21:56] There are several raid encounters available in DoN, but it would be inacurate to say that there's a heavy emphasis on it.
[21:56] The balance is much like Omens of War in that respect.

[21:57] *Croix_FV* Given the recent zone revamps to zones that are underused, does SOE plan to make this a common practice? If so, will there be graphical redesigns such as lavastorm?
[21:58] Yes, we definitely want to go back and use the new graphic engine to recreate the old areas of EQ. And who knows, there might be some interesting events that go along with those revamps. >

[21:59] That will wrap it up for tonight. I’d like to thank the devs for coming! The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://eq.stratics.com
[21:59] Thank you all for joining us! You can join #EverQuest to chat more about the game.

[21:59] Thank you all for your time and the great questions.
[21:59] Thanks for coming everyone, we hope you enjoy playing DoN!