Everquest II Q and A

By now, you've hopefully at least heard of the original EverQuest. The colorful 3D online role-playing game launched in 1999 and earned critical acclaim and thousands of loyal players around the world. These players have assumed the roles of elves and dwarves and wizards and knights and spent countless hours online completing quests, doing battle with powerful fantasy monsters, and searching for ancient treasure troves.
But Sony Online Entertainment is hard at work on the sequel, EverQuest II, a game that will, if nothing else, be powered by a very impressive graphics engine and will take place several centuries after the events in the original EverQuest. We caught up with Bill Trost, the lead game designer on the project, at a recent press event and got an update on this very promising sequel.

GameSpot: Thanks for taking the time to update us on EverQuest II, Bill. In our last interview, we asked about the prospects of keeping the original EverQuest around after launching the sequel. Now that some time has passed, and now that several competing next-generation games are coming out soon, do you think that the original EverQuest will still be something you'll want to continue supporting, or do you see most players migrating to EverQuest II?

Bill Trost: We are more convinced than ever that EverQuest is going to be a thriving and expanding game long after the release of EverQuest II. For as long as people want to play it, we plan on expanding and supporting it.

GS: We know that EverQuest II will take place in the land of Norrath, but centuries after the first EverQuest. What kind of familiar features, places, monsters, and characters can returning EverQuest players look forward to in EverQuest II?


EverQuest II sports an entirely new look.

BT: There will be a lot of stuff that is familiar to EverQuest players. Freeport, Qeynos, Befallen, Bixies, and so on. Our EverQuest II artists and designers have taken some real liberties on their interpretation of these things, though, so that even while some of the content will certainly have some nostalgic value to EverQuest players, it will all be new, surprising, and different.

GS: We discussed this briefly in our previous interview, but what sorts of measures are you taking to make sure new players can begin playing the game easily, without becoming confused or lost? Do you plan to implement any specific features to help players who have made bad decisions with their characters early on in their adventuring careers (like specializing in a skill they ultimately don't want or need)?

BT: We are definitely focusing on making EverQuest II an accessible game with a gradual learning curve relative to most computer RPGs. We plan on having a comprehensive help system within the game. We also have an entirely new quest system and plan on implementing quests that actually seek out the player rather than the other way around. The goal of our character creation and progression system is to always present the player with relevant options after they understand the long-term implications of those choices and have had the chance to try them out and see them in action.

GS: Are there any plans to enhance or modify EverQuest's skill system? How much of the high-level character specialization skills that we saw in Shadows of Luclin and Planes of Power can we expect to see in EverQuest II?

BT: The skill system in EverQuest II is entirely new. There will be some skills that have similar functions to those found in EverQuest, but the implementation and in most cases the actual use of those skills is different.

thanks to gamespot.com for the info

I see I've jumpstarted your fingers

Yes, thank you for that. You have remotivated me and reminded me of my job here at zelaron.

Just to note that this reallly doesn't tell anyone shit

Have you read it?

One page in PCGamer about EQII.. about four months ago had 10x more info than that

Whatever you say sir!

yeah