The Glade 4.0

On a more serious note, though, I really hope that religion plays a role in class availability and faction as strongly as it did in the original. I really liked the pantheon of Norrath, and always wanted to see it explored more meaningfully. I'd love it if EQ Next offered me the opportunity to finally enact Wylias' mid-life conversion to Karana.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

You take that back you son of a... No Wood Elves means no Kelethin means no theme music to the greatest [tree] city ever built in Norrath.

Plus, High Elves can't forage.

Here's a link with a bunch of screen caps from the talk, including art for elves, etc.

http://imgur.com/a/f9Tf0

Seems to be stuck in a loop for me. When I try to sign up, it asks me to log in, even though I already have, then when I do log in, it just takes me to a "Central Authentication Service" page with no further links or forms. Anyone else having that issue?

Ooh, neat.

Still...if they've gotten rid of Erudites, I'm going to be very pissed. Seriously, just...WTF. Oh, but we have to make room so that you can be a goddamn Kobold! Woooooooo. Gag. At least the human females are mostly dressed.

What if you can make a black human and the character creation lets you make him a conehead? Just play a Wizard and THERE YOU GO



Armor is completely customizable. Smed said if you want a chainmail bikini, you can do it. If you want full plate, go for it.

I was mostly joking about High vs. Wood and Erudite vs. Human. Mostly. I harbor no ill will to either woodies or eggheads, and have no dog in the fight. However, since from a design perspective, those two distinctions really originated to create specialist class divisions rather than being inherent fantasy tropes, they might disappear when the motivating design situation disappears with a nearly classless system.

Now, if Erudin and Kelethin themselves got the axe (note: I'm not referring to launching with Antonica and featuring the other continents as expansion content, with assurances that their presence is out there to be done in the future via out of game statements and/or visiting denizens and whatnot in-game; I'd be fine with all that), I'd be just as pissed. I'm not personally married to the rapid sub-racial drift that Erudites, in particular, imply. From a lore perspective, I love that Erud went off and founded an enlightened colony of scholars and whatnot. I don't need them to have developed funny-shaped heads in the span of five hundred years and consist of the only black people on the planet.


Actually, armor customizeability is one of the 4 polls already up on the Round Table. Though, I'm with 'Skeee. Having at least some sensible clothing and armor in the concepts is a positive thing in a video game. Particularly in an MMO, which is one of the genres more likely to be a gateway for female gamers.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Oh. Another article. Or two!

Rock, Paper, Shotgun on EQ Next
Rock, Paper, Shotgun on EQ Next Landmark

Heh. I love RPS. "This isn’t a reinvention of the wheel, it’s the unveiling of a hovercar."

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

One more hope of mine: some love and effort put into a good first person gaming experience. EQ1 being designed for the first person view is one thing that still sets it apart from other MMO's today.

This is very true. I'm guessing this might be a let-down, though, looking at the action-combat they've got going.

I saw something interesting that helped to crystallize the expression of my doubts about their multiclassing system:

If it helps to make me more unique, that's kind of great. If it just helps *everybody* be the same, it's not great at all. I like being similar to some other people, but very different from everyone else.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well my understanding is that you get 4 ability slots that you choose yourself, and you can fill them with any ability from any class you currently have unlocked. The other 4 abilities are based on your weapon choice.

With 40 different classes, that should give you a ton of options to fill those 4 slots with. No word on how many unique skills per class there are.

Either way, it's much better than EQ1: "You're a Ranger? Cool, snare **** and melee."

But.. I liked having that identity where people could know something about what to expect from me (and vice versa). I liked having an identity based around a limited selection of roles I could fill. That changes completely if I have a nearly UNlimited selection of roles I can fill. If you get my drift.

Maybe that will be mitigated some by some degree of "skilling up" abilities/classes.. but I'm not sure how that works on some types of ability, so it's hard to say whether I should be worried or not.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

There's still a lot we don't know. Hopefully they'll hash all of that out in a fulfilling way. I'm sure they don't want to homogenize everyone, class differences were part of what made EQ so great.

Yes, that's the core of what I was getting at.

Perhaps several of the classes will be heavily faction-influenced, and thus feature lots of essentially mutually exclusive opportunities. Good luck getting Paladin training from any of the Temples of Paladin-ny gods when you're already in deep with the Necromancer's guild...

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I can't remember the exact wording but there was some hint that you might only be able to unlock some classes after doing things like helping out orcs sack a village. Sounds promising. I'm hoping that unlocking each class is a long drawn out quest. I want to be in year 3 of my playing and still not have all of the classes unlocked, or perhaps find out that I have permanently blocked myself from a few classes.

I'm also hoping that some of those 40 classes are actually just more specialized versions of our base classes. Maybe some of that class differentiation will come into play when I'm 5 classes deep into the Ranger tree. Maybe Pathfinder, Warden, Forest Stalker, etc. will all be individual classes now instead of just titles.

Yes.

The worst case scenario is definitely something where the community essentially expects you to spend the first 3 weeks of playtime checking each class off a list with the help of a spoiler guide.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

See my edit/addition... I really hope that's the case, actually.

• Dig large circle trench
• Pull mobs
• Double jump into middle platform, mobs fall in trench
• Fill trench with hellfire

Gentlemen, I give you the upgraded form of quad kiting*

*hopefully

• Die to jumping mobs.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

From one of the panels, "20,000 years of history control the placement of POI's in the procedural content. Digging in the Karanas is different from digging in N. Qeynos"

Jump on to center platform, create ice wall to block mobs following you and funnel them into tunnel. Profit!

Ooh, nice. Where are you getting panel info?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Another forum's member in attendance and live updating

So yeah, looks like it won't just be a "spend 3 weeks, gain 40 classes" thing.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.