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Fight

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Quarken has a great Instagram page, where he posts a series a screenshots and tells where he was at in his EQ journey at the time. He is telling the story of his first EQ character in sequential order. Big doses of nostalgia.

 
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Rajaah

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New EQ expansion today!

I've revved up a new crew with SK, Brd, Sha and 3x mages ( Tuco's Setup (Critique Welcome!) Mk. II ). They cut their teeth on ToL like Broly on Vampa and are going to murder every sparkly owlbear in Night of Shadows.



I'm not that familiar with Mages or how their skills work on Live, but from your setup it looks like you need to have a high uptime of having swarm pets up in order to trigger the Mage DPS boosts (synergy?)

There's a 1H proc aug that procs a single swarm pet, fires often, and isn't lore. I put two of these on my Bard when I was 3-boxing on Live, just for the fun of it, and he was proccing lots and lots of little skeletons to attack. That might be a big help with your 3x Mages?
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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I'm not that familiar with Mages or how their skills work on Live, but from your setup it looks like you need to have a high uptime of having swarm pets up in order to trigger the Mage DPS boosts (synergy?)

There's a 1H proc aug that procs a single swarm pet, fires often, and isn't lore. I put two of these on my Bard when I was 3-boxing on Live, just for the fun of it, and he was proccing lots and lots of little skeletons to attack. That might be a big help with your 3x Mages?
I'm guessing you're talking about Shard of Eternal Pain but getting a ton of swarm pets to maximize the of many hits (14+) has been easy enough I haven't bothered getting them. They also changed of many in the last patch to require fewer swarm pets to cap it (along with a huge nerf in damage) so it'll be even easier now.
 
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meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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So any sign of a modern game using the EQ IP on the horizon, MMO or otherwise? Or they just cranking out expansions and keeping the lights on for EQ1 and 2 indefinitely at this point?
 
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Rajaah

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I still wish EQ2 didn't exist and they combined all those resources to just focus on one game. With a bit of an engine overhaul EQ1 could be thriving much more than it is if the resources were pooled. Expansions could be 10 zones instead of 5, etc.

Very few people play EQ2 compared to EQ1 and it was just a drain for about 15 years now.
 

Tuco

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[IMG]


The tempo quickens as the sweet melody of a Song floats by on a breeze.



As the warm days of summer loosen their grip and give way to the cool breeze of fall, it begs a reminiscing of how far we have come this year. There was already so much accomplished by the time the July Producer’s Letter came out that to think there has been more is downright dizzying. Night of Shadows is still available at 25% off, but only until Oct. 9, 2023, at 11:59 PM PDT. This discount applies to all editions (Standard, Collector's, Premium, and Family & Friends).



Fundraising is underway for Extra Life, and we are over halfway to our goal as of the writing of this letter, I have no doubt we will smash our goal and set next year’s bar higher still. We have some fantastic group, individual, and fundraiser incentives. Be sure to check out the Extra Life Guide for how to join Team Darkpaw if you have not done so yet.



With that being said, let's look at what has happened since the last Producer's Letter shall we?



Completed

July

August



September



Now for the part you've been waiting for...information on EverQuest's 30th expansion: Laurion's Song!



[IMG]




A door appears, and the heroes of Norrath walk through to find a warm and cozy-looking building. Light from the windows illuminates a clearing in a forest. Music and voices, as well as the tantalizing smell of cooking meat and mead, drift in the air. The inn’s presence invites adventurers to rest and revel after exhausting and dangerous exploits.



Welcome to the Realm of Heroes, the place where the greatest heroes go when their adventures are over. Nobody remembers the last time anyone entered or left this place. Can you discover what the mystery is that lies under the façade of comfort and revelry?



Laurion's Song features a level cap increase to 125, new zones to explore, new raids, quests, and missions, and much more. Also new for this year, take advantage of Alternate Personas where you can swap between different classes quicker while retaining your current inventory, crafting skills, and flags.



Beta and pre-orders for Laurion's Song starts on October 10, 2023. It's going to be your first chance to get a sneak peek, help us test, and earn yourself a sweet beta reward.



That's not all that's coming soon. The DirectX 11 API port, which has been on the Test server since mid-September, is on track to make its way to live servers this month. Next month is the Extra Life Game Day, as well as the Extra Life server bonuses! The Feast of Giving and Raid, Raid, Raid will return next month, so prepare yourself for fun in November! December will see our annual Frostfell and New Year’s events, as well as this year's expansion launch.



Upcoming

October

  • 2023's Expansion Beta + Pre-order
  • DirectX 11 API port goes live
November



  • Extra Life Game Day - Help us raise funds for the Children's Miracle Network.
  • New Content for Feast of Giving
December



  • 2023's Expansion Launch - EverQuest's 30th Expansion!
As the sounds of 2023 begin to slowly fade into the background over the next few months, I'll begin work on the public 2024 Roadmap. EverQuest has a big year coming up and I cannot wait to share what we have in store for everyone. So, with that, this producer’s letter has come to its end.





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Until next time, sit back, relax, have a drink, and listen to the song of the trees,



Jenn Chan

Head of Studio
 

Tuco

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The persona feature

"Also new for this year, take advantage of Alternate Personas where you can swap between different classes quicker while retaining your current inventory, crafting skills, and flags."

Is the biggest announced change.

Someone did some hackery to peek at it:

Patching Beta(Beta Server itself is not up yet, at least for me) gives you NEW UI files for LS including a Personas Tab in the inventory.

Copying the files over to LIVE the Inventory window would not load at all.

However, if you copy the files to TEST the Inventory window opens and the Personas tab loads(None of the buttons work).



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Looks like it might be actual Classes.

Unique Gear sets, UI layouts, Skills, AA, Face, Dye, and Achievement Buttons per class?

Can even seemingly Apply Heroic character boosts.

If it's an easy way to class change, that's pretty wild. I just main changed from warrior to shadowknight and will probably go back to my warrior if the system works well.
 

Flobee

Vyemm Raider
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If it's an easy way to class change, that's pretty wild. I just main changed from warrior to shadowknight and will probably go back to my warrior if the system works well.
So is this like a ff14 thing where one character can be multiple/all classes? Strange direction to take at this point if so
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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So is this like a ff14 thing where one character can be multiple/all classes? Strange direction to take at this point if so
That's the theory, yeah. Alternatively if it's a shroud 2.0 thing where I can make my warrior a "shadowknight" with like, 10 spells but unique gear I can upgrade, that'd be a total waste of time probably.
 
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Animosity

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Lineage 2 had a cool system sorta similar. Once you hit max level on a character you did a quest that would allow you to change to any other class and start leveling again. You changed between classes through an NPC in town. Made it so you didnt need a ton of alts and can just play one character.
 

GuardianX

Perpetually Pessimistic
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The persona feature

"Also new for this year, take advantage of Alternate Personas where you can swap between different classes quicker while retaining your current inventory, crafting skills, and flags."

Is the biggest announced change.

Someone did some hackery to peek at it:



If it's an easy way to class change, that's pretty wild. I just main changed from warrior to shadowknight and will probably go back to my warrior if the system works well.

That seems very similar to the "Classless" system that Secrets did. Similarish to the "Chainbreaker" server they have going.


 
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Rajaah

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If this is really a thing that lets you have multiple classes on the same character, that might actually get me back playing live. My zerker on Phinny would be way better off as an SK but I wasn't gonna do a main change.

Wondering how equipment is gonna be handled though. If everything you have is for your class, and you switch classes, in theory you can't use any of your equipment.

Well, I'm sure this'll be something significantly less cool than what I have in mind.
 

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
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Looking at the screenshot they dug up from the beta server update, it looks to me like it could actually be a FFIV system being implemented in to EQ.

The wording in the producer's letter makes you think that you are using the same gear between the different classes, but that screenshot makes me think that what she actually meant was that when you change to one of your other personas, you will be using the equipment slotted for that persona. The implication of not changing gear between personas actually meaning "when you switch personas, you don't have to swap all of your gear out because there are separate inventory slots per persona."

In that screenshot, you see a full inventory display, achievement button, and the personal list has two columns titled Class and Level. That makes me think that each personal (aka class) you buy for that character has it's own inventory, AAs, and levels.

If I'm correct, they're essentially just linking multiple characters to a single character but with shared bag and bank slots. In other words, FFXIV.

If they do it, I'm in. This is what EQ has needed for a very long time in my opinion.

The only downside is that I now only play on the Mischief server, and if this is tied to this new expansion, it's going to be a VERY long time until Mischief gets there.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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If this is really a thing that lets you have multiple classes on the same character, that might actually get me back playing live. My zerker on Phinny would be way better off as an SK but I wasn't gonna do a main change.

Wondering how equipment is gonna be handled though. If everything you have is for your class, and you switch classes, in theory you can't use any of your equipment.

Well, I'm sure this'll be something significantly less cool than what I have in mind.
If they make it such that any non-class specific gear is retained, that'd be great. My 8 visible and class-specific gear slots + weapon can be replaced more easily than all 22 or whatever gear slots.

Will be funny to effectively have multiple box groups with the same chars. This is what I've done in the past, just with entirely different characters.

Shadowknight
Bard
Shaman
Mage
Mage
Mage

Paladin
Enchanter
Druid
Wizard
Wizard
Wizard

Warrior
Bard
Shaman
Beastlord
Berserker
Rogue