Brekkee - Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat, tonight our guests are the developers of EverQuest! Tonight's topic is the upcoming expansion: Depths of Darkhollow. Please keep your questions related to this topic.
Brekkee - Please send your questions to [QT]Looker or [QT]Sprite - to do so type /query NICK and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to me or the developers will not make it into the lineup. Full logs of the chat will be up on http://eq.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
Brekkee - We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
Prathun - Good evening, everyone! I'm Prathun, a game designer on EQ Live.
AbsorEQ - Hello, my name is Alan VanCouvering and I'm a game designer.
Maddoc - I'm Jason Mash, an Assistant Lead Designer on the EverQuest Team.
Rashere - Evenin' all. I'm Travis McGeathy, Lead Designer for EQ.
Rytan - Hey Everyone, I'm Ryan Barker better known as Rytan, Assistant Lead Designer.
Kytherea - I'm Christina Delzer, AKA Kytherea, the EQ Community Relations Manager
Zorillius - Greetings everyone, I'm Craig Knapp, the Producer for EverQuest.
Brekkee - *Jetfire* Are the changes for the cleric AA Turn Undead going to be done any time soon?
Rashere - I've got changes to Turn Undead in place for internal testing currently and am expecting them to go out with the expansion patch barring any major problems.
Brekkee - *NinenMT* What are the incentives for people to play as a monster through the Spirit Shroud system, other than to play with lower level friends, and would it be possible to elaborate on one or two of them?
Rytan - In addition to being able to play with lower level friends, you'll be accumulating experience on your main character as well. The experience will seem lower the farther you get from your main's level, as lower level monsters are worth less experience, but you'll still be making progress.
Rytan - The longer you play the spirit shrouds the more of the various shrouds you'll unlock, and some of the later ones will be more powerful then the first set that is available.
Brekkee - *Wolfgard* what type of aa skills will we see in DoD?
Rashere - I'm putting together a good variety of AAs including some that introduce new concepts to EQ. If you're in the beta, you should be able to check them out soon.
Brekkee - *NinenMT* How will the monster missions be integrated into the overall content of Depths of Darkhollow?
AbsorEQ - A large number of the monster missions will be part of the story of Darkhollow. They allow players to experience the history of the place rather than just read about it. But we've also added a few monster missions in the old world that will be a lot of fun to play (yes, you have to own the expansion to play in them).
Brekkee - *seraphita* will the DoD AA's be unique abilities or merely extentions of existing ones?
Rashere - Some of the AAs will introduce unique abilities while others will upgrade or extend the functional of previous ones. There's a good mix of both.
Brekkee - *TrogdorOfXev* Absor, your post from yesterday about A Small Bottle of Soy Sauce is a bit confusing. Did you mean that you have confirmed it's actually bugged or not in the game? Or did you mean that you won't be able to look into it at all (i.e. whether it drops/exists/can be made) until after the expansion is released? Either way, thanks for looking out for the tradeskillers!! We need all the help we can get! =)
AbsorEQ - I didn't mean to be confusing. The answer is: I haven't looked into it at all, but I will shortly after we ship DoD. So I don't know if it's bugged or not, but I'm willing to bet that it is.
Brekkee - *Dexar* The DoN cultural armor is RACE specific, and the type 11 augments for it are DIETY specific. Can we expect to see some type 12 augments in DoD that are CLASS specific (but can be made by all classes)? And will any of them be made with trade skills?
Maddoc - Currently, type 12 augmentations are general purpose augmentations that can be obtained in Omens of War and Dragons of Norrath. There have been some ideas behind creating some more augments of this type for Depths of Darkhollow.
Maddoc - Without going into any specifics, you will certainly see some type 12 augments that are crafted in DoD.
Brekkee - *Ilsi* In the new expansion, will guises be quested? Can they only be used in certain areas?
Rytan - I'm assuming you mean spirit shroud when you say guise, if not this answer won't make much sense. The spirit shrouds are usable in any zone, but can only be accessed through specific NPCs. These NPCs are in various locations around Norrath including the plane of knowledge so that players can access them easily. You'll also have to return to a spiritmaster in order to transform back into your normal character.
Rytan - We haven't ruled out the possability of special quested spirit shrouds, but we don't have any specific plans for them at this time.
Brekkee - *Jetfire* Will there be upgrades to Dire Charm in DoD to charm higher level mobs?
Rashere - I'm not doing any upgrades to dire charm at the moment. It's something I'd like to do in the future, but we want to get a good global solution to the problem inherent to charm in place first.
Brekkee - *Dexar* The new spells for OOW were level 66-69 and in DoN they were 61 & 69. What level range can we expect to see on the new DoD spells?
Rytan - The new spells for DoD will be 65+. The expansion will also have areas where you can obtain the spells originally include with omens of war.
Brekkee - *Wolfgard* Will the boar mounts "clank" and "sqeek" when you ride and will there be gnome service stations all over norrath for oil and maintanance?
Zorillius - Great question! The animations are going to be quite unique and there will be some clanking and squeaking, but unfortunately there won't be any service stations.
Brekkee - *Countm* Will there be an instanced raid zone at the end of this expansion with multiple bosses, similar to Anguish / Tacvi?
Prathun - There will be an instanced raid zone at the end of Darkhollow. It will be similar in form and function to Anguish / Tacvi, and has enough raid content to keep the end-game players busy for quite awhile.
Brekkee - *Ryist_Tholuxe* Well met lord, I would like to know about the monster char's, is it true that we will be able to play as our fav monsters in the zones they inhabit
Rashere - Yes, we have created a large variety of monster missions that will take you back to some of the more famous EQ zones and put you in the shoes of the creatures that inhabit them. You'll be able to play the game from the standpoint of some of your favorite creatures from the past.
Brekkee - *Tettsuro* Will the monster missions all require a group or will some be soloable?
Rashere - Monster missions are an extensive of the mission system and like regular missions, they are built to be played through with a group.
Brekkee - *Tettsuro* Will evolving items be available to players of any level or will they only appear at higher levels, such as 60+?
Prathun - Evolving items will be available at all level ranges covered by the expansion, though the talking intelligent items will be relatively rare.
Brekkee - *Nolrog* With OOW (augments) and DoN (cultural), you set the bar pretty high for tradeskilling. What tradeskill goodies can we look forward to in DoD? Will the DoD tradeskills address any of the current issues, such as the non-wood elf/non-karana worshiper fletching path to 300?
Maddoc - Depths of Darkhollow will continue the trend with the Cultural based armor, allowing players to further customize their set of armor with more type 12 augmentations. We will also be introducing a completely new system for researching spells that I think you guys will enjoy.
Maddoc - Specifically regarding fletching, that's an issue that is something that we will be looking at addressing as a live update, rather than tying it to an expansion, which will likely happen after we launch DoD.
Brekkee - *Magnamar* how will morphing into monsters effect our class we will take on the class of the monster or take on a lower lvl of our own class
Rytan - As far as abilities, stats, and equipment the monster is an entirely separate character that you can control. You can play a variety of classes and creatures regardless of your main character's class.
Rytan - It's important to realize that the "class" descriptions given in for the monsters are approximations to existing classes and they don't necessarily represent the same ability set that the player class has.
Rytan - The monsters generally have a much more limited skill set available to them then a player character would.
Brekkee - *Fanose* Will the upcoming expansion contain content for low-mid end gamers? or only high end content / quests?
Rashere - The expansion areas are geared for players of level 45 and up, but monster missions can be played by anyone from level 1 to level 70. In fact, they can even play together in the exact same mission so its a great way for older players to go play with newer ones.
Brekkee - *Ryist_Tholuxe* is what is happening with the frogloks fortelling of things to come with the new expansion
Prathun - The retake of Grobb event was an independent event, and not directly related to the expansion. Keep an eye out in the future for other live events that will lead directly into the opening of Depths of Darkhollow.
Brekkee - *oomplah* question: will there be mostly time/god/anguish gear required for the majority of the content of this expansion or will "casual" players be able to enjoy most of the content as well?
Rashere - There's a good mix of single group and raid content. Specifically for single groups and more casual players, you can take a single group into any of the zones, the missions, and both the monster mission and spirit shroud content is idea for more casual players.
Brekkee - *Jyve_AB* Will other classes get new illusions for the shroud forms? (new enchanter illusions, new bard/rogue masks (lute of the howler))
Rytan - I don't want to give too much away, but there will at very least be an Illusion: Orc spell available to enchanters.
Brekkee - *Nolrog* Will there be new skill up paths for research added soon, so that people can work their way up to 300? Currently, the effective cap is 227, because that's what the highest recipe trivials at. Will spells from older expansions (specifically PoP) become researchable?
Maddoc - There will be a host of new Research based recipes in Depths of Darkhollow which will allow players to research spells from Planes of Power and a spell or two from other, newer expansions.
Brekkee - *Gryanie* are you going to set the exp for the monster shawl up like you did for AAs so the player can decide how much exp goes where?
Rytan - The progression for spirit shrouds is completely separate from the experience you gain to increase your character's level. So you won't have to allocate any of your normal experience to advance your shrouds. It's completely a bonus on your normal experience.
Brekkee - *Leeroy* WHen using spirit of shroud, do we become stronger the more often we use a specific form ?
Rytan - Each set of shrouds has a specific power level, but the more you play them you'll be able to unlock different monsters that are more powerful then the base ones.
Rytan - So you might start off playing a wolf and then have access to a tiger that would be stronger then the wolf.
Brekkee - *Havenhawk* Question: How much of DoD will be monster missions, and how much will be traditional zones or missions? Numbers or a rough percentage or whatever.
Rashere - About 1/3 of the missions in the expansion are monster missions. They take place in a variety of zones including the expansion areas as well as various old world zones.
Brekkee - *Fanose* Will playing as a monster make you pvp and killable by players and guards? or will the current pvp rules of the server still apply to you even though your a monster?
Rytan - Morphing into a spirit shroud will not change your pvp status. In that regard it will be just like you were your main character.
Brekkee - *Ilsi* Also, I am sure this expansion will be group friendly, but will there be any solo quest content at all?
Rashere - Yes, there are a variety of quests that you can get as a solo player. You'll likely find life easier if you take a group along, but some of them can be done solo as well.
Brekkee - *Magnamar* how do the new smart items work is it based on say killing 100 orcs for upgrade or what type of system will it use
Rashere - Evolving items will gain experience when you are wearing them while killing creatures. They can gain experience off any kill in most cases.
Brekkee - *Nolrog* Will we see any more missions added along the lines of Hates Fury and Unrest. Those were both very well received, and a great incentive to go back to old zones. I'd love to see more, such as HighKeep and Najena to name a few. Are you considering changing back Mistmoore and Splitpaw to the original zones, and adding missions into them, so that everyone would benefit?
Maddoc - There are some missions in the expansion that have you doing exactly that. I've seen a number of them and they are all a blast. I think you guys will like them.
Brekkee - *seraphita* will manaburn be fixed in time for DoD?
Rashere - We've currently working on unravelling the manaburn code. I don't know if it will be done before the expansion, but if not, it should show up soon after.
Brekkee - *Jetfire* Will the gap in recipes for top end fletching for non-Karana/Tunare followers be filled in with new recipes, so we don't have to skill up using GM Tropheys?
Maddoc - As I mentioned before, the fletching issue is something we're aware of and certainly would like to address, though it is something that we'll be doing after the launch of Depths of Darkhollow.
Brekkee - *seraphita* will our current gear/aa's affect our spirit shroud's abilities/statistics/etc.?
Rytan - No, your main character's AAs and statistics will not figure into the power of the spirit shrouds. You will however be given a number of points to spend on monster AAs each time you transform into a monster. You'll also be able to save favorite abilities sets and have it automatically purchase the same AAs as the last time you used the monster.
Brekkee - *slacklikeme-DB-DRo* Will the Monster Missions use the Spirit Shroud Monsters or will some have their own unique Monsters? It was rumored a while back that one of the Monster Monster Missions placed you into Lord Nagafen's sho... er claws as it were.
Rashere - Monster Missions use their own unique creatures for the missions. As I mentioned before, some of them are some of your favorite creatures from the past including the much rumored Lord Nagafen.
Brekkee - *Porthias_FV* Will Spirit Shrouds be drops from MoBs or tradeskilled or how will u come to obtain \them?
Brekkee - [21:51] <Rytan> I can take Porthias
Brekkee - Oops.. well yes.. he can
Brekkee - Forgive my mis-paste
* Prathun teases Brekkee. *
Maddoc - Hehe
Maddoc - I got 5$ on Porthias
Rytan - Spirit shrouds are immediately available to every character as soon as they purchase DoD. You will have to play with the shrouds for a while before you can use some of the more powerful shrouds.
Rytan - hah! I win!
Kytherea - Occassionally we have to let you win Rytan
Brekkee - *Havenhawk* Are there plans for new melee disciplines for the 65+ crowd?
Rytan - Yes there is a new combat ability for each of the melee classes. Additionally, a few of the hybrids are getting new combat abilities with DoD as well.
Brekkee - *Leeroy* Will we be seeing more stories from the Wayfarer brotherhood in DoD ?
AbsorEQ - This expansion doesn't involve the Wayfarers, though there's always the chance that they will again involve themselves in the story of Norrath.
Prathun - The Wayfarer's Brotherhood storyline doesn't intersect with Depths of Darkhollow. So, no.
Brekkee - *Jetfire* Will we be seeing the classic special mobs (Summoned, Undead, Animals) or will those of us with those special abilities be left out?
Rytan - Yes there will be examples of each of the various special NPC types such as summoned, animal, undead, etc.
Brekkee - *Ilsi* Will there be "cute" spirit shrouds as well as "scary" ones?
Rytan - Well I'm not really one to determine what's cute, but there are a few spirit shrouds that aren't your typical menacing monster. The fairy, the sporali, and several animals are available in addition to the more menacing monsters.
Brekkee - That will wrap it up for tonight. I'd like to thank our guests from EverQuest for coming! The log for tonight's chat will be up shortly on http://eq.stratics.com
Brekkee - Thank you all for joining us! You can join #EverQuest to chat more about the game.
Kytherea - Thank you for coming everyone!
Rashere - Thanks for the great questions everyone and have a wonderful evening.
Zorillius - Thanks everyone!
Brekkee - Hold on everyone!
Prathun - Thanks for joining us tonight, everyone!
Brekkee - We have a few beta keys to give away
Brekkee - put on your trivia hats and we will get started with that in just a moment
Brekkee - The trivia will work like this... I will paste a question in the channel. If you know the answer please send me a PM by typing /msg Brekkee your answer here
Brekkee - The first five correct responses will get a cd key for the upcoming expansion
Brekkee - If I say your name as one of the five correct responses please stick around until I message you for information
Brekkee - Here we go!
Brekkee - Question: What is the name of the item that will allow you to shape-shift
Brekkee - into a creature in Depths of Darkhollow?
Brekkee - and we have our five winners!
Brekkee - The correct answer of course was Spirit Shroud.
Brekkee - Redi, Leeroy, Noryn, Tettsuro, and Fanose I will be contacting you shortly. Don't go anywhere and congratulations!
Brekkee - Thank you everyone for joining us tonight!
Prathun - I'll be over in #EverQuest if anyone has any other questions. Thanks again for coming tonight!
