Everquest II

eq2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Shadow_Odyssey

5th expansion for Everquest 2, and is scheduled to be released on Nov 18 2008.

The Shadow Odyssey Feature Set:

• New Zones: Journey through more than 20 new zones, including the new overland zone, Innothule Swamp.
• Dungeon Adventures: Experience nostalgic EverQuest dungeon themes, such as Najena, Mistmoore and The Sebilisian Empire, and adventure through more than 18 goal-based dungeons, such as Ruins of Guk and Befallen.
• Achievement Point: An achievement level cap increase to 200 that offers new achievements for class-specific lines.
• Dungeon Delving: A new mission system for players to replay content with new and different experiences.
• Heritage Quests: Five new quests with unique rewards being added.
• Shard Reward System: A new, mysterious group of erudites with powerful new armor and equipment will barter for void shards earned during players' encounters
• Epic Tales: Stories told through battles with dozens of new creatures and hundreds of new quests.
• New Deities: Rodcet Nife and Anashti Sul are introduced into Norrath.
• Access to All Previous Content: Includes all previous expansion packs and adventure packs.

www.massively.com/2008/08/15/exploring-the-shadow-odyssey-with-eqii-senior-producer-bruce-fer/

The first thing that comes to mind when hearing about these dungeons is the Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion from the original EverQuest. For fans of that expansion, will they be seeing similarities here?

Bruce: There was some discussion about that but we didn't really feel like we were doing a copy of the Lost Dungeons of Norrath. There are some aspects that are similar, but it feels very different in the newer game than it did in EverQuest. There are lots of dungeons in it, but the experience is very different.

There is no increase in the level cap with the new expansion: are these new dungeons aimed primarily at end-game players, or is there a mix for players of all levels?

Bruce: The dungeons are primarily for characters level 70 and above. There will be some content that will be a little lower; it will scale appropriately. Most of it is aimed at the end-level players, though. It's not all aimed that direction, but a large portion is. One of the things we're trying to do is take into account a lot of the feedback we've gotten from players. A lot of people are interested in a mix between solo and raid content. With this expansion we tried to do an even balance between solo, small group, and large group/raiding content. We're really trying to aim the content at where the majority of our players are – towards the end of the game.

another interview at Curse

www.curse.com/articles/details/12807/

Curse: Will there be any new spells and abilities introduced in The Shadow Odyssey?

BF: Only through the achievements, but not specifically spells, no.

info from fanfaire

fanfaire08.feldoncentral.com/

Lvl 50, 60, or 70 groups going into the new scaleable dungeons will get scaled down loot. All loot designed for 80. All the new dungeons (20) are in the old/familiar places one would expect.

6 man Group Missions — do a dungeon at the request of an NPC
1 per day, 1 per dungeon
Reward is tokens which can be spent on legendary and low fabled items.

I havent been able to find this information anywhere yet, but was wondering if anyone knew what level this expansion caters to? It sounds like it is going to be pretty high level - can someone elaborate?

Thanks in advance

from what  I've read,

the expansion seems to be primarily group based content for levels 50-80

expansion video teaser

www.youtube.com/watch

Tradeskill Raids

eq2dev.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/fan-faire-and-the-shadow-odyssey/

Not so much into the Adventuring side, but fascinated by Tradeskilling? We’re going to be introducing several new Tradeskill dungeons, and provide a raid like experience for you, where you’ll group together to complete a goal of crafting in order to earn faction and purchase recipes.

more info was posted at the fanfaire blog -- well worth going to this link

fanfaire08.feldoncentral.com/

Tradeskill Missions — 3 at launch. no combat.

If this expansion is going to be primarily high level then i think SOE have shot themselves in the foot.  They should have done another all levels expansion aka EoF.

Originally posted by Flem

If this expansion is going to be primarily high level then i think SOE have shot themselves in the foot.  They should have done another all levels expansion aka EoF.

I agree EOF is my favorite expansion

regarding the new expansion, it does sound like there will be solo content too

from the massively interview linked earlier

These dungeons definitely seem to be the 'thing to do' in this expansion. What systems are in place to ensure players can get the most out of them, replay them and have a good time?

Bruce: A lot of the content is scaled, there are lots of parts of the dungeons that are set up for different kinds of encounters – either solo or small group, and raids as well. We want to give a wide variety of experiences to people so that there are a lot of different things for them to enjoy.

Sigh... my relationship with EQ2 is one of love-hate. On the one hand as a games from day one with breaks (some larger) I always returned because of the complex and diverse gameplay.

However, I realized, when somehow over time I lost the big community network in the game I used to have - for many reasons - the result is that most of the content I can never see. At this moment most player only group with those they know, and I found myself being litterlly logged in for HOURS seeking a group for any of my chars in vain for weeks. Its aiways the same, I log in, seek a group, set myself to LFG, ask in channels - hours pass with waiting and reading a book, and I log off without a group. Now you might say join a big guild, but thats out of the question, since I am in my small guild of close friends, but those are too few, and so I am back where I was.

EQ2 has always only been for those with a big ingame network and a HIGH amount of monthly scheduling to coordinate the vearious quests. These days of spontaneous gaming this kind of "professional" gaming reminds me too much of work. I want to log in and have fun right away, and you can FORGET that in EQ2. Not to mention that a vast number of quests is almost not to be solved without looking for a guide in the internet, like "find an efreet in Lavastorm to talk to". Yeah. Thats precise... Sure, you can look at Allakhazham or ask, but it kinda takes the immersity out for me. EQ2 is a good game, but the subscriber numbers always show the fundamental flaw, that most casual gamers will not see 80% of all those shiny new areas anyways. A pity.

if the EQ2 expansion has something like the LDON Wayfarer camps

- it will help  players teamup with others for these new dungeons, if they are hanging around the npc camp

details are still unknown, but more info should be forthcoming

Yet another EQ2 expansion clone. No matter what they do they can't seem to get out of this raid progression idea. Also the leaked armor screens showing the same old armor models being used once again is getting to the point that this team has some seriously flawed art backgrounds. They could learn a thing or two from the Korean SOE dev. team that did work for them on some of the content right after EOF, like on the NPC armors and looks. For example see these armors the Asians come up with here on NPC's.

Great model work and armor, why couldn't they put in decent armor to the PC crowd. Anyway I think I am still glad I quit this game after 2yrs played. EQ was special to me as a role player in the day and a raider, item progression because you went after new looking armors that only a raider could get. EQ2 it seems everyone can get the same old armor models and variations of colors. The gameplay was good but they failed with raiding and itemization.