Trying not to be THAT GUY, BUT....
There's nothing exciting about anything released here. The mount keyring is... ok, meh, whatever. It's cool, I've lived without it for all this time, it's cool if it's there...I guess. Not a feature that has me running out and buying this xpac for 20 accounts the first chance I can like in previous xpacs.
Looting: I was thinking the rumour that mass looting option was going to be true. What they instead gave us...again, not headline worthy. The biggest pain and biggest amount of time sink about looting is trying to right click on that corpse that just will not give up its booty. Mass looting would have solved it, adaptive looting does not.
The zones at first look cool, but when I think about how they look like other zones in the game... and how I LOATHE going to those zones to get the quest items I need and hurry up and get out, I can't help but think this will be more of the same. Admittedly, "Even the lizardmen here who built this Temple to Cazic Thule have forgotten who their god is" is cool. But... meh. Cazic Thule and Lanys have been beaten and flogged at this point.
"The Buried Sea" was a dumb name. They should have put that on the shelf labeled "Fails, do not get inspiration from anything placed herein." Instead, we get today the original name of "The Darkened Sea". Fortunately, this doesn't have much impact on the game, save for the above paragraph about zones. Not looking forward to swimming in the same way I don't look forward to go to Siren's Grotto from Cobalt Scar.
Robes: This is what everyone is really excited about. Players Studio Robes. The highlight of the expansion is robe ornaments being sold in the marketplace. First, let me say ornaments are cool and are always welcome even if they look terrible like the dark elf crap did *ducks to avoid incoming barrage of pitchforks and flaming arrows*. (Yeah, I know, I'm the only one in the universe who doesn't like the look of them~). EQ Dev team has kind of created this monster now where new ornaments will be expected with the release an expansion. Say what you will about CotF, bixie and dark & fire elf ornaments are cool. Cool...but not a reason to buy the expansion. CERTAINLY a nice boost, a good way to +1 the expansion, but can't itself be the reason for generating the most buzz. I don't know for certain that the robes are being sold in marketplace, but being players studio, I would imagine so. If that's the case, that's not even an expac feature, unless they expect me to pay twice for the ability to wear it. (Once for the Hero's Forge feature, Twice for having to own the xpac to use it.)
I hope what they've announced so far are the footnotes of the expansion and they're saving the really cool stuff to announce right before pre-sale to generate lots of spontaneous excitement. There's nothing here to justify paying $40 for this expansion except for my loyalty to EverQuest. That's not enough anymore. SOE reps have stated that expansions are their main source of revenue for EverQuest and that's why they removed the ability to pay for the xpacs with station cash. They're hurting themselves with this price point, though. CotF is not an xpac worth $40. Indeed, I didn't buy it until it went on sale on Steam recently at $30 a shot, still thinking I was overpaying (my previous time with the xpac come on the Test server.) All indications so far seem to point that The Darkened Sea is also not worth paying a full $40. I hope I'm wrong and this is one of the best xpacs to be released in recent years, but that seems a far stretch.
A Look at EverQuest: The Darkened Sea & Beyond
We take a look at EQ's upcoming 21st expansion and future updates.
This past year has been exciting for EverQuest! We've seen the addition of Heroic characters, new race/class combinations (Froglok Monks and Wood Elf Beastlords), player designed missions, and new zones such as the Plane of War, Tower of Rot and Argin Hiz. To top it all off, players celebrated EQ's 15th anniversary this past March with additional in-game festivities. EQ is expanding their player studio categories to include robes, and according to Senior Producer Thom Terrazas, players will be able to customize robe templates and he predicts that guilds will love being able to display their own designs. Check out a short video showcasing the robes after the jump.
Later this year, players have even more to look forward to in the game's 21st expansion, The Darkened Sea. The expansion will pay tribute to a previous expansion pack, The Buried Sea, revisits some storylines, as well as the characters Firiona Vie and Lanys T’Vyl. In a classic story of good vs evil, Firiona will try to help the emperor as Lanys creates havoc and destruction.
The Darkened Sea increases the level cap from 100 to 105 and will also include new tradeskills, items, spells and AAs. Players can expect to see the introduction of a spell focus AA for casters and the option to auto-grant AA from the House of Thule expansion on. The Hero’s Forge armor system will also feature a new Tribal and Combine set. The expansion will include new quests, missions and raids for a variety of content, as well as a new feature, a mount keyring. The mount keyring will actually be a new tab on the inventory window that gives players an area to collect their mounts in one spot and save bag space. Key to this feature will be the ability to use a mount for stats, but have the option to use another mount for appearance.
The Darkened Sea expansion will also introduce eight new zones available right at launch. These zones include: Tempest Temple, Caverns of Endless Song, Degmar - The Lost Castle, Thuliasaur Island, Combine Dredge, Arx Mentis, Brother Island and Katta Castrum: Waters Rising. Taking a closer look at some of these zones, we can see that this is something to really be excited about!
Tempest Temple
Here, a group of Karana worshiping inhabitants have lifted the coral forest from the sea and shattered the dormant volcano in the middle of the zone in an effort to impress their god by creating the perfect storm.
Caverns of Endless Song
This zone is series of submarined caverns located underneath the coral forest adjacent to Tempest Temple and home to a "jilted and jealous" siren. According to Creative Director Akil "Lyndro" Hooper, there will be “Some swimming back and forth between passages, but a lot of the fighting you’ll be doing in open air.”
Degmar, The Lost Castle
This zone consists of a castle on the bottom of the ocean that was translocated by the Combine in an effort to preserve the Dwarves who inhabit the castle. Unfortunately, the Dwarves have been driven to insanity due to the isolation. According to Akil, "The castle at the bottom of sea has a magical barrier around it that keeps the pressure of the sea waters and all the sea life at bay. The dome really protects it so you’re still going to see all of the intricate stonework and beautiful designs and all of the areas around the castle."
Thuliasaur Island
EQ Designer Jonathan Caraker has stated that Thuliasaur Island is "out in the ocean, near the Buried Sea. [It is] a lost, isolated, tropical jungle full of prehistoric creatures: giants, dinosaurs, a lost tribe of lizardmen. This was the original home of the Drogmar. So, aside from the occasional pirate ship that comes by to pick up Drogmars and sell them in Gunthak as mounts, they don’t have much contact with the outside world. Even the lizardmen here who built this Temple to Cazic Thule have forgotten who their god is."
Combine Dredge
This zone is a series of magical mining platforms connected by mana conduits that the Combine built. Its purpose was to harvest resources from the bottom of the ocean for the Combine; Lanys has shown up here with her forces and has a much more nefarious purpose.
Arx Mentis
This is a floating fortress filled with Combine, their creatures and their cohorts. The fortress represents the pinnacle of Combine technology and magic. Even here, Lanys has joined forces with a splintered group of the Combine and is working to thwart the goals of Firiona Vie.
Later this year, players can also look forward to an Advanced Looting Feature hybrid system that is sort of a combination of random rolling and master looter. Terrazas described it as an adaptive system that you will be able to teach and set loot preferences. For each item, players can tell the system to remember whether or not they always want an item, don’t want an item now, or never want an item. From that point on, rolls can be processed efficiently and loot is automatically placed in the winner’s bags.
Beta testing for The Darkened Sea is predicted to begin September 1, 2014, so keep an eye out for registration soon! The launch date for All Access members is October 28, 2014 and for Free to Play members on November 11, 2014. Remember to check out the highlights from the Dev Q&A session as well!
Racheal "Afista" McKenny, Contributing Writer
