Omens of War Preview Tour
Dialogue, 2004-09-09

Last night I had the opportunity to get a tour of the new Everquest expansion Omens of War with two kind SOE staffers, Alan "Brenlo" Crosby and Tamara Sanderson. Between jokes about coffee, godhood, and the dangers of working with a game you play, they took me through three of the new OoW zones and laid out a good bit of detail on what this expansion will mean within the larger context of the game. This, the first expansion since EQ's 5th Anniversary, really embodies where Sony Online seems to be taking their venerable game. Elements you see in this expansion are going to be watchwords going forward with Everquest. I really want to thank Tamara and Alan for taking time out to let me wander around, taking pictures of and...sigh...getting killed by elements of the new expansion. Stupid summoned pets.

So, what do I have for you today? First I have a point-by-point breakdown of some of the things I learned talking to the fine SOE folks last night. After that I have a few paragraphs about my sense of the new zones, and impressions on them. Finally, I have a bevy of new screenshots to show you (which I've spilled virtual blood to obtain). They're extremely impressive, so I've broken most of them out into their own article. Feel free to follow along as you go! The new expansion is coming out early next week, and I'm definitely looking forward to it!

• The tasks system is one of the elements of the game that has me most excited. Tasks will be 30 - 60 minute adventures that can be handled solo or in a small group. They're obtainable whenever and non-linear. IE, you can pick one up and work on it until your raid team is ready, then get back to it after your adventure is done. Tasks will combine several elements to maximize their variation and prospective interest. A typical task might see you exploring an area, killing several creatures, obtaining some resources, and then taking them to an NPC in a specific town. They've already got something like 3500 tasks in the system now, and plan to add to that as they go. Tasks are available starting at level 3, meaning that (assuming you use the tutorial) they're essentially always available. Right now they don't tie directly into the ongoing storyline, but it's something they're looking into.
• The EQ Guild Summit, which I've mentioned once or twice before, has had an enormous impact on the Omens of War Expansion. The feedback given by those who attended the summit was very much heard. One of the overarching impressions that the developers received from comments was that the "alien" approach taken in past expansions was not where players want to go. Several parts of the Omens of War design were taken back to the drawing board to revert the new zones, monsters, and theme to a more fantasy feel. The oft-mentioned chimera and the NPC race, the Dragorn, were direct results of this redesign process. They've even included a monster that bears a passing resemblance to the Dungeons and Dragons classic, the Displacer Beast.
• Lost Dungeons Adventures are not yet going to be scaled up to equal the challenge of a level 70 player. 70th level players can of course still do 65th level adventures, and on hard difficulty they'll still give you a run for your money. The developers want a chance to look at level progression between 65 and 70 before they make that change.
• Folks who are playing right now will probably have already notice the crispness of the new titles, but I haven't had a chance to get in since that was added. NPC and PC titles are now very clean with a pleasing array of colors. Titles, as they apply to Omens of War, are going to be very exciting. Very similar to the AA titles in the game now, players will have a multitude of individual titles to choose from. You'll be able to construct effectively your own specific title through the use of tasks, AA, and a handy interface.
• While we talked about the game, much of the focus of the tour was on the new graphics and technology. The screenshots of the game within the new zones do not do the game justice. Seeing the new art combined with the extremely smooth step-by-step animations makes the new NPCs come to vivid life. The folks at SOE relayed to me that the artists and developers are coming up with new ways to use the technology on a regular basis, and it really showed during my time in the game. One of the somewhat subtle things that they pointed out was the sound usage. The chimera, with it's three heads, presented a challenge when they first implemented it. With the old technology they would have had to choose one sound in order to use during it's attack routine. Instead, they can vary the sound used depending on which aspect of the creature (goat, lion, or snake) is attacking. They can also combine the sounds when the creature uses it's roar animation, and it sounds as powerful as you would imagine. While I didn't get a chance to hear any of the new music, they said that the new expansion is definatley going to be a reason to play EQ with the sound up again.
• For the moment, these advances are restricted to the new zones added with Omens of War. However, they were adamant that they will be applying these changes to every single zone in the game over time. This will, obviously, take some time. During the process of overhauling the graphics for zone and NPC art, they also mentioned that they would likely be adding in more of the instancing technology as well. Someday even old haunts like Blackburrow will be as shiny as the new zones and may lead to instanced adventure zones. New player models will also be in the offing. NPCs in the new zones sport handsome clothes and cloaks with intriguing behaviors...but whether that will ever trickle down to player models is still up in the air.
• All players, regardless of their purchase of Omens of War, will have something to look forward to soon. All zones will feature dynamic shadows and a brand new water texture. The shadows are very realistic and change depending on the lighting conditions, weather, etc. in the zone you are in. They add real depth to the experience (as can be seen in the screens below), even in old zones like Nektulos. Mr. Crosby was especially happy with how Qeynos looked with the new water textures in place, saying that it almost looked like a completely new city. The water will be correctly reflective, and will even reflect player characters and NPCs as the approach and retreat from the water. They're also adding little touches to the old world. He took us to Halas, where we got to watch our breath rise in a steamy fog from our mouths above water, and below a stream of bubbles trickled to the surface.

Omens of War will be a big technical leap forward for Everquest. Beyond that, it's going to add a lot of flavour to the game as well. My tour last night started in a zone called Dranik's Scar. The scar is an outdoor zone, with a war-torn haze that I would come to recognize as a theme to Omens of War zones. It has several small caves dotting it's hills, which are inhabited by bats, rats, and creepy fleshy floating things that look kind of like jellyfish gone evil. In the center of the area was an enormous dilapidated castle. Inside the castle were several members of the Dragorn race. The Dragorn are in a constant state of war at the moment. The Priests of Discord, those PvP enabling gents who we've seen for so long actually have some teeth to them. They're the ones, actually, who will teleport you to the new areas in Omens of War. The Wayfarer's brotherhood at this point is just trying to keep things steady. That's where you come in, after all. The castle was a great place for the SOE folks to show off the new art. Multiple levels were apparent on the surface of the castle, with moss overgrowing the crumbling castle walls. While they haven't yet been able to apply that technology to NPC or PC models, buildings are going to have an extra level of depth to them going forward.

Out of the sun, and into the caverns of a sublime subterranean zone known as the Riftseekers Sanctum. The dominant theme of this zone was the trippy crystal patterns, repeating outward in blues and reds. Slithering and clomping through this zone was a menagerie of creatures both large and small. The Gelidran Icedaggers left a particular impression on me. Large demon-men, the cold-beasts froze the air as they breathed, and the ground beneath them as they walked. The particle effects they exuded were most impressive, and showed off a bit of what we can expect from Omens raidable creatures. He left an impression on my corpse as well when Brenlo attacked one. The AoE the creature used aggroed my pet, and I was soon swarmed by a trio of angry Icedaggers. A quick rez later I was back from Nektulos forest with a sheepish grin on my face.

The last new zone we were to encounter was a dusty ruin. The Wall of Slaughter, as the Zone as called, was a stark place. It was a wonderful opportunity to show off some of the new fantasy creatures that SOE designed into the expansion based on Guild event feedback. The Chimera was the most obvious example, but nearly everything I saw was an interesting twist on a fantasy staple. More Dragorn abounded, as well as some examples of the Discordling. The Discordling was without a doubt my favorite creature on the whole tour. Whip-thin and spiny, it gave off a sense of menace just sitting there. It's animations and sounds left no doubt that it would be a terror to face in combat. Speaking of terror, the wall of Slaughter was the home to the Cipheron as well, a gnarled Cave Troll-like beast that I could easily picture tossing an adventurer or two down it's gullet at the start of a fight.

Though they kept me occupied for almost an hour, time flew bye as we explored the new content. When we were done, I went back through my screenshot folder with an open jaw, amazed that I'd actually seen what I'd seen. The game just doesn't look like Everquest. In some ways, I even prefer the gritty texture of the new Everquest engine to the slick polished shots I've seen of EQ2. I was very heartened by what I saw on my tour. Nearly everything I saw had been touched in one way or another by the feedback at the Guild summit. The new Graphics engine and new Technology are making the game look better and (more importantly) play better than they've ever been able to offer. That better play is summed up in the task system: Quick, soloable missions. Almost the antithesis of what you'd normally associate with EQ. Sony has definitely learned a thing or two in the last few years, and Omens of War is looking like it will provide a launching point for a long legacy of Everquest Anniversaries to come.