The Glade 4.0

Races and factions – like EQ1 there will be race/class restrictions. Barbarians for example can be the usual classes (Warrior, Bezerkers (or whatever they call the melee DPS class, Shaman). Different starting stats per race and racial abilities (no clue if the racials are meaningful). If that Barbarian chooses and wants to become an Enchanter, he can go raise his faction with a race that has that class. It won’t be an easy ordeal and will take effort. At the time of my info, factions could be individually raised. So a high elf could raise their faction and eventually be accepted by the dark elves but at the cost of their own city/race faction.
The classes I’ve had confirmed are Warrior, Cleric, Shaman, Wizard, Enchanter, Ranger, Druid, Rogue. There are more, but that was all I know of at this moment.

The playable races I had confirmed are Human, High Elf, Dark Elf, Kerran, Kobold, Ogre, Troll. Again there are more than those playable those are just what I know is playable. I tried to get Ratonga and Iksar confirmation but don’t have that yet.

Norrath – the world is gigantic. No zones. The world is seamless. There will be instances in respect to some raids and dungeons but a lot of open dungeons a la EQ1. The extent to which we can damage the environment is still unknown. That’s under wraps pretty tight so I’d imagine its damageable to a good extent.

Spells – no more spell trainers. Abilities are granted passively and the big ones have quests and trials attached to them. Enchanters will have to seek out people around the world to learn and study with. Wizards will have to find various tomes to study to learn to weave the strongest spells. Not sure on the spell weaving mechanic but they seemed to indicate the ability to create and discover new spells. So not every wizards spell book will be the same.

Combat – there will be hotbars. It will NOT be like EQ2s combat abortion. That’s about all I know on that. I’ve pressed for details but that info is locked down tight. Tad could well be right here I concede but if I had to guess, it’ll be action based combat with a limited skill set load out.

Crafting – it is in the game, it is interdependent and its supposedly more meaning than they’ve ever made it. Players will be able to make useful and sought after gear and stuff at all levels. Raid/Dungeon crafting drops confirmed but no mechanics specifics.

Misc – this game will be FTP. It will have a cash shop. SOE will make the world, dungeons, raids as usual. Their version of emergent gameplay is us creating content via their dungeon maker/player studio. Player made PVP battlegrounds. This player created content is all instanced not part of the persistent world. So is housing. Guild housing will be in from the get go as well.

Beta – it’s already in friends and family alpha/beta. After SOE live, beta will begin early Aug/late Sept. they are trying to launch Nov/Dec. the latest this game will launch is Feb/March time frame. They are much farther along then they let on and that’s part of their surprise.