|Fan Faire Report von IGN.com
Veröffentlicht von: gracjanski am 07. 2004 um 12:08 Uhr
Die ersten Übersetzungen bzw. Zusammenfassungen der Berichte aus der Fan Faire truddeln nun auch bei uns ein. Den Anfang machte Gamespy.com, nun kommt ein Bericht von Mark "Deathstryker" Norris, welches auf IGN.com veröffentlich wurde. Die super Zusammenfassung kommt von Wizz, bei dem wir uns herzlich bedanken :-). Hier der Bericht:
Mark gibt an, noch nie so ein freundliches und offenes Developer-Team wie das von EQ2 auf der Fan Faire getroffen zu haben. Steve Danuser, (Moorgard, Community Relations Manager) und John Blakely, (Big Dog, Senior Producer) haben ihm jede Frage beantwortet, die er über EQ2 hatte.
Auf die Frage, ob das Dev-Team stolz auf sich sein kann, würde er mit einem lauten 'HELL, YEAH!' antworten. Das Spiel wird einer Achterbahnfahrt ähneln, von Augenblick des einloggens bis zu dem des Ausloggens. Wie die Devs und Producer immer wieder betonen, es ist nicht, das EQ 'eures Daddys', und in der Tat ist es nicht EQ, hat aber das gleiche epische Feeling, das EQ in die MMORPG-Welt brachte. Mark denkt auch, daß es die Art wie MMORPGs gespielt werden, revolutionieren wird.
Nach ein paar Gesprächen über die Wichtigkeit des Community-Buildings ging es auch schon zur Sache: Die Demo begann am zweiten Tag um 11 Uhr, gespielt wurde auf Pentium 4 3.0 GHz mit Nvidia FX 5950 Grafikkarten und 1 GB an RAM. Der Login-Screen sieht dem vom gegenwärtigen EQ / SWG nicht unähnlich. 13 von den 16 Rassen waren verfügbar (Eruditen und Frogloks sind im Spiel, aber da man einem Magazin Exklusiv-Bilder versprochen hatte, wurden sie blockiert) und das Erstellen und Anpassen der Chars begann:
1. Augen:
Augen - Schieberegler für die PositionAugenbrauen - Schieberegler für die PositionAugenfarbe - eine Farbpalette
2. Kopf:
Ohren: Schieberegler für die Grösse und für die PositionWangen: Schieberegler für die dick/dünn und für die HöheKinn: Schieberegler für die schmal/breit, kurz/lang und dick/dünnLippen: Schieberegler für die rauf/runter, voll/dünn und eng/weitNase: Schieberegler für die Winkel, schlank/breit und kurz/langHautfarbe - wieder eine FarbpaletteAlter - ähnlich der Option ins SWG, die sehr grossen Einfluß auf das Aussehen hat.
3. Haare
Accessories - meist Stil oder rassenspezifische Verschönerungen
Die Einstellungen für Haare ist der coolste Teil der Anpassung. Die Elfen haben unglaubliche Stile, die Trolle haben Optionen, mit denen sie Nägel im Gesicht stecken haben (absolut grotesk), und die meisten Rassen können eine Glatze haben.
4. Körper
Hemd - ändert die FarbeHose - ändert die FarbeGrösse - Schieberegler für die Größe des Chars
5. Rassenspezifische Änderungen
Barbar: Woad- die blauen Tatoos der Barbaren, BartZwerg: Stratum- ähnliche Farbmuster wie die Woad, BartGnom: Gnome können sich Linsen (Brillen) aussuchenIksar: Iksar haben einen Flossenkamm auf ihren Kopf, mit dem sie reptilienhafter aussehen.Kerra: Pelzmuster (ungefähr 20 Stück) und Pelzfarben
Und das ist nicht einmal eine komplette Liste der Optionen, sondern nur ein kleiner Auszug.
Nach dem Erstellen gings ins Tutorial, welches, wie bereits bekannt auf dem Schiff zur Insel der Flüchtlinge stattfindet. Man startet in Third Person Mode, kann mit dem Mausrad aber schnell in First Person Mode wechseln. Nach dem Tutorial wird man auf der Insel abgesetzt, wo man seine erste Klassenwahl trifft. Jede Klasse hat eigene Quests auf der Insel, die man alleine erledigen kann, aber zum Schluß sollte man eine Gruppe haben, um den kleinen Boss der Insel zu besiegen.
Der Kampf ist in EQ2 radikal anders als in EQLive. Als erstes ist es viel schneller, zweitens sind viele Mobs sozial und helfen zusammen, außerdem sieht man, welche aggro (rot) sind und welche nicht (weiß). Eine coole Neuerung ist das 'Combat Wheel'. Dieses Rad erscheint, wenn ein Mob von einem Char oder der Gruppe angegriffen wird. Auf dem Rad sind zufällige Icons die die Spezialattacken des Chars repräsentieren. Wenn die Attacken von der Person oder Gruppe in genau der Reihenfolge ausgeführt werden, die das Rad zeigt, wird eine besondere Spezialattacke ausgelöst, die alles bisher dagwesene übertrifft. Nach dem Kampf dauert es etwa 60 Sekunden bis man von praktisch Nichts auf Voll geheilt ist, dadurch gibt es fast keine Downtimes.
Loot gibt es in zwei Arten. Wie bisher Kleinigkeiten auf dem Mob und dann noch Schatzkisten, die neben dem toten Mob erscheinen und 'no drop' und/oder 'no trade' Items enthalten, die allerdings erst bei der ersten Verwendung an den Char angepaßt werden. Verwendet man ein solches Item nicht, kann man damit handeln.
Nach der Insel begab sich Mark nach Queynos, und das erste, was ihm auffiel, war, wie riesig und voller Leben die Städte sind. Nach der Stadt sah er sich einige Zonen an, darunter waren 'Down Below', 'Baubleshire', 'Black Burrow', 'Commonlands' und 'Nektulos'. Es ist zwar nicht bekannt, wie viele Zonen EQ2 zur Release haben wird, aber bereits jetzt hat es ähnlich viel Content wie EQLive zu seiner Release. Als besondere Herausforderung wird es in einigen Dungeons Rätsel geben, und Quests, die nicht einfach 'Bringe das zu dem NPC' oder 'Töte x Mobs' sind.
Im 'Peat Bog' formte Marks Gruppe zum ersten Mal einen Raid mit einer anderen Gruppe, und die Devs brachten sie zu einem Raid-Dungeon namens 'Down Below'. Niemand überlebte, überall Seelen-Scherben... Trotzdem war es ein Riesenspaß, und sie blieben einige Zeit dort, bis die Devs sie nach 'Black Burrow' brachten. In Black Burrow erging es ihnen nicht anders, obwohl die Scouts sich unsichtbar machten, wurden sie von den Mobs gesehen und gekillt, außerdem gab es Spinnen, die den halben Screen füllten... Einer der häßlichsten Mobs, die Mark je gesehen hatte - eine coole Spinne. Bis jetzt war keine Wiederholung der Mob-Modelle festzustellen, und gegenwärtig gibt es ca. über 100 einzigartige Mob-Modelle in EQ2.
Black Burrow war der Abschluß der öffentlichen 5-Stunden Vorführung auf der Fan Faire, und Leute, mit denen Mark gesprochen hatte, die vor der Vorführung nicht an EQ2 interessiert waren, waren es jetzt.
Moorgard hat Mark dann noch eine weitere Stunde im Presseraum etwas von EQ2 gezeigt, z.b. das Housing. Er erstellte ein paar Gegenstände, mit denen man das Haus austatten kann.
Mark schließ damit, daß MMORPGS immer eine Menge Hype produzieren, aber im Fall von EQ2 der Hype anhand dessen, was er gesehen hat gerechtfertigt ist.
Kommentare
Original
Veröffentlicht von: gracjanski am 07. 2004 - 19:52 Uhr
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| Before I begin, I want to thank several members of the SOE team who ensured that I had an absolutely wonderful time. The people include Mr. Blakely, Mr. Kramer, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Danuser, Mr. Kauppinen, Mr. Cao, and the other members of the IGN media team, Tal Blevins, Steve Butts, and Richard Aihoshi. All of you went out of your way to make sure I received either an absolute wealth of information or made sure I had everything I needed.
The first thing I want to talk about isn’t game specific like you might expect (be assured, I’ll get to that) but rather the disposition of the developer team for SOE. I’ve been running Vault sites for a little while now, and never has a developer team been as open and honest with me regarding their game as the EQ2 team was at FanFaire. Perhaps even more telling is the fact that Steve Danuser, (Moorgard, Community Relations Manager) and John Blakely, (Big Dog, Senior Producer) went out of their way on a number of occasions to answer any and every question I had about EQ2. Their commitment to the game was evident on Saturday as they gazed on astonished journalists that played the game for five hours, and were peppered with questions from die hard EQ Live players who now plan to move to EverQuest II. This commitment to the game extended into the wee hours of Saturday night / Sunday morning as Steve and John spent greater than 3 hours allowing me to take screenshots and showing the game to other press members in the SOE / VIP suite. Steve, John, thanks a million.
So the question you are probably asking yourself at this point is, “does the EQ2 team have reason to be proud?” The answer is a resounding and emphatic…HELL YEAH! Disregard all your preconceptions about EverQuest II now, because from the time you login until the time you logout, this game will take you on a wild ride! Also, for those of you expecting EQ Live with peerless graphics, I’d like to quote EQ2 Producer Bruce Ferguson, “this ain’t your daddy’s EQ”. Indeed, it is not EQ, but it retains that epic feel that EQ brought to MMO gaming. This game is incredible, and could very well redefine the way MMOs are played. Below you will find a technical write-up starting with my arrival to the hotel Friday and concluding with Steve Danuser voluntarily missing the huge EQ Live bash in order to help me navigate through EQ2.
First things first…I arrived at the hotel Friday around 5pm Las Vegas time, and upon checking in, I was given a message to meet with the PR folks in the PR room. I quickly threw my bags in my room, and took the elevator down to the PR room. There I was greeted by Chris Kramer, the lead PR representative for SOE. He introduced me to Sean Kauppinen, and we went over my schedule for the upcoming 48 hours. I stayed in the PR room to watch the demo of the new EQ Live graphics engine (all I can say about that is…damn it looked good…and when I say good, I mean GOOD) and the question and answer session that followed. After that I was talking to Richard Aihoshi (Jonric, RPG / Action Vault Manager) about EQ2 when a guy I had yet to meet started answering questions I had. When I say answering questions, I mean in detail to the point that the PR team was like….woah! He introduced himself as John Blakely, and I quickly found out he was basically the guy in charge of the project. I figure this guy is just being nice, and must think I work for GamePro or something, (why the hell would the Big Dog wanna talk to lil ole me anyway?) but I was genuinely surprised that he knew exactly who I was, and thanked me for the awesome job EQ2 Vault does with their editorials. After answering quite a few technical questions, he walked with me down to the dinner SOE had planned for us (it was in Quark’s Lounge, and the steak was awesome). It was here I met two goofballs by the names of Blackguard and Onyxraven, and strangely enough, they didn’t try to beat me to pieces. I actually like the guys, strangely enough! Anyway, at dinner I sat with Blackguard, Onyxraven, Blakely, Ferguson, and some oddball named Brenlo (again, another great guy). All through dinner Blakely and Brenlo talked about the importance of community building, what issues we saw from the message boards that were most important to the EQ2 community, and what ideas we had for improving community relations. The fact that the Senior Producer was that interested in the community speaks volumes for the importance SOE places in the players. After dinner there was a huge party at “The Beach” nightclub which was about two blocks from the hotel. I went and stayed for about an hour, but I was beat and left pretty early into the event to get some sleep for the big EQ2 play day to come Saturday morning.
After a huge breakfast that SOE again provided, I took some film of the FanFaire area (I’ll have the film up sometime this week) and got settled in to play EQ2! The demo began at 11am, and the demo machines were Pentium 4 3.0`s with Nvidia FX 5950 video cards and 1 gigabyte of RAM. The game begins with a login screen that is similar in style to the current EQ Live / SWG login screen. After logging in, the create new player screen appears. We had 13 of the 16 races available to us, (the Erudites and Frogloks are complete and in game, however due to exclusive screenshots being given to a major magazine, the EQ2 team blocked us from being able to play them) and the customization options available for each race is where I’ll begin this report in earnest.
There are 4 main areas of customization for all races and some races have additional customization options. These areas are broken up in the following manner:
Eyes
Eyes - slider bar for eye location on head
Eye Brow - slider bar for eyebrow tilt and location
Eye Color - palette style color options
Head
Ears
Size slider bar
Location slider bar
Cheeks
Full/Thin slider bar
High/Low slider bar
Chin
Narrow/Wide slider bar
Short/Long slider bar
Thick/Thin slider bar
Lips
Down/Up slider bar
Full/Thin slider bar
Narrow/Wide slider bar
Nose
Nose Tilt slider bar
Skinny/Wide slider bar
Short/Long slider bar
Skin Color - again, a color palette is provided for each race
Age - this is an option similar to SWG where the age slider makes a huge difference in appearance
Hair
Accessories - this basically means hair style/racial specials
The hair part is the coolest part of customization. The elves have some absolutely incredible styles, the trolls have options where they can have nails jutting through their face (it is absolutely grotesque, but quite awesome), and most races also have a bald option. I can`t remember the exact number of hair options, but most races had over 15.
Body
Shirt - changes the color of your starting shirt
Pants - changes the color of your starting pants
Size - slider that adjusts your player`s size
Racial Specific Customizations
Barbarian
Woad- the woad is the colored tattoos that Barbarians can elect to have
Beard
Dwarf
Stratum- colors much like the woad on the Barbians
Beard
Gnome - gnomes have the choice to have lenses. These lenses are awesome, and there were at least 10 types available (with more to come)
Iksar - Iksar can have an awesome frill looking thing on top of their head, makes them look really reptile
Kerra
Fur Pattern - about 20 different patterns were available
Fur Color - a huge range of colors, including white
This isn`t a comprehensive list of the customization options, but it covers quite a bit. I cannot remember the exactly how many hairstyles, fur patterns, beards, etc. were available. I can say that every option either had a slider associated with it, a huge color palette, or a huge list of options. I was told that the list isn`t complete, and that as the artists/designers think up more, they add them in. Now that character customization is done, I`ll move into the tutorial.
The tutorial, as previously mentioned, is onboard a ship that is bound for the Isle of Refuge. I am not going to detail what you do on the ship, as I believe you`ll find it extremely enjoyable when you play it yourself. What I do want to comment on is that you start in third person mode, but with a simple roll of the mouse wheel can change yourself into first person mode. The tutorial goes over darn near all of the basics that you`ll need to perform in game and it assures that new players will be very familiar with the controls from the moment they begin the game.
After completion of the tutorial you are dropped off at the Isle of Refuge, and this is where you make your first class choice. Before making the class choice you are simply a commoner, but after reaching the Isle you can choose between the 4 adventure archetypes. Each archetype has different quests on the Isle of Refuge, and there is a point at which a group is required to take on the small boss that the Isle holds. I went through the quests easily enough until the boss quest. It was there that the developer that was playing (Lead Designer Chris Cao), Blackguard, Onyxraven, and myself got absolutely waxed by the boss mob. It was awesome! This is a good time to bring up combat and loot.
Combat in EQ2 is radically different from combat in EQLive. First off, the pace is much faster. Secondly, many of the mobs are "linked," meaning if you attack one, their buddies also come over and hammer on you. You also know which mobs are "aggro" to you, and which aren`t based on the color of their name when you click them. Red named mobs are aggro to you, white named mobs are not. The coolest thing about EQ2 combat is the "combat wheel”. The combat wheel comes up when you attack a mob either solo or in a group. On the wheel are random icons that are associated with characters` special attacks. If the attacks are executed by the person or party in the order the wheel shows (and in the time allotted by the wheel) a special attack is unleashed on the mob(s). The special wheel attacks are awesome to behold, and it requires a group working together and paying attention in order to complete the wheel and have the attack executed. After combat is over it takes approximately 60 seconds to regenerate your health from nearly nothing to full. Downtime is basically non-existent in this manner, and I applaud the developer team for this change. The way it was explained to me is that the downtime doesn`t change whether you are level 1 or level 50.
Loot is dropped in two different ways. There is the normal corpse loot that includes trinkets to sale, quest items, crafting items, lesser weapons and armor, etc., but there is also a special loot drop that happens on occasions. You`ll know this special drop when you see it because a chest will appear next to the corpse of the mob. The chest holds a powerful weapon, piece of armor, clothing, etc. The power of the weapon is of course zone and mob dependent. One of the really cool things about loot drops is that certain weapons will be "attunable". What that basically means is that if an awesome weapon drops that you can`t use, you are able to trade it freely. After it is traded, the person who has it (and is able to equip it) can "attune" it to themself, making it no-drop. This allows for the trade of no-drop items that are found by classes that can`t use them. It really adds to the in-game economy, and is a great idea.
Back to the adventure! After getting beat down by the Isle of Refuge boss, I wanted to head to the main area of the game. Although I was an Ogre, I was shuttled to Qeynos to begin. The reason this happened is because a few of the Freeport zones were being adjusted (Moorgard did take me to Freeport later on that night, and I took some pictures of my Ogre there). Remember how the cities were said to be about 18 zones? Well they aren`t kidding. The city was absolutely huge, and bustling with life. NPCs shouted quests, traders clamored for you to purchase their wares, and the game is just so "alive". I`ve seen people on the boards want to know if there were maps in game. There are maps. The Isle of Refuge had a map, and the city zones will have maps as well. The actual combat zones may have maps, but they will not be near as detailed as the city maps. The developers do not want adventurers to have to easy a time, and I agree wholly with this decision. I ran around the city for a while taking film, and finally decided to head out to the zone next to Qeynos called the "Peat Bog".
I am going to again pop out of the main adventure here and mention some of the zones that I either saw or played in. These included "The Down Below", "Baubleshire", "Blackburrow", "Commonlands", and "Nektulos". I do not know how many zones they will have at release, but it is safe to say that the amount of content that will be in game at release will be equitable to the amount EQ Live had at release. I know how important having a large amount of content is, as well as the quality of the content. I spent some time with Moorgard in a dungeon that had a number of riddles that needed to be solved in order to continue the path to the dungeon`s boss. The fact that the quests and dungeons aren`t simply "Fed-Ex" or "Kill X Mobs" type quests excited me greatly (not that there aren`t some of those quests available, because there are) and it really impressed on me the idea that the EQ2 team is putting serious thought into content design, even at this pre-beta stage.
Back to the game! While in the Peat Bog, my small group joined up with some of the other groups, and quite unexpectedly we formed the first "raid" group in the history of EQ2! Because this happened, the developers decided to take us to a raid type dungeon called "The Down Below". Let me say this…you better prepared for raid dungeons. We went in there and got waxed. Seriously…no one survived, it was freaking ugly. Spirit shards were everywhere. Spirit shards aren’t "shards" by the way, but rather a ghostly outline of your corpse. They look awesome (I have a screenshot of one of my Ogre, and I`ll be publishing those shots Wednesday). After we tried to get through the dungeon a few times, we finally decided getting waxed was kinda fun, and the developers agreed to show off an even stronger zone called "Blackburrow".
First off, Blackburrow is freaking awesome. Second off, Blackburrow will kill you… quickly. A few group members were Scouts, so they were able to go invisible (going invisible is one of the cooler features in the game, you see an outline of yourself, but the rest of your character is completely able to be seen through) and went ahead of us to look for mobs. Well, the mobs (which were ugly ratonga looking things) saw right through them, and killed them…quickly. I was like, "well, I wanna see what is underneath that waterfall" and ran through the carnage and jumped off the cliff. To my surprise there was a cavern underneath the waterfall. Strangely enough, I got one hit by something when I landed. I was like, "WTF?" and rotated my camera. There shambling away was a spider that filled up half the screen. It was one of the ugliest mobs I had ever seen… which is really cool for a spider.
At this point I hadn`t seen any repetition of mobs models anywhere. There wasn`t a level 1 grub, and later on a level 20 grub for example. There are currently over 100 unique mobs models in EQ2, which adds to the level of realism that the developers are trying to produce. I also wanted to point out that at one point in Blackburrow there were 20 characters, at least 15 mobs, and some incredible ambiance, and the PC I was playing on didn`t lag once. The pirated video`s that are out there show some lag, but I have to assume it was due to some kind of power issue or network lag (as the servers we were playing the game on were remote) because I never lagged once nor did I ever crash. More than anything else, I was impressed with this, after having played the last few buggy/crashy/laggy betas.
Blackburrow basically was the end of the 5-hour viewing that the public saw of EQ2 at FanFaire. I spoke with a number of the onlookers (which numbered somewhere around 2000) and asked if they had been interested in EQ2 before they saw the gameplay, and if they weren`t then, were they now. At least 70% of them were blow away. They hadn`t been following the development of EQ2 at all, and were stunned by what they saw on screen. I had my own personal cheering section of 20 people standing behind that couldn`t get enough of watching me play. The majority of them are now inclined to purchase the game.
About 10pm Moorgard was kind enough to show me some more of EQ2 up in the pressroom. I think when we sat down, he only intended to show me an hour or so, and then go join the rest of SOE in gambling or partying. But as we got to talking and he got to explaining things about EQ2, the time just wore on, and before we knew it, it was 12:30. Let me stop here and explain that Moorgard is an incredibly nice person. The guy was visibly exhausted, yet he was committed to ensuring that I was happy with the screenshots I was getting, and that I was given every opportunity to ask questions of him. He went above and beyond the call of duty, and for that I owe him special thanks. About 2am the last thing Moorgard showed me was instanced housing. The instanced housing is extremely well done. He spawned in some items that could be placed in the house, and showed how to rotate and place them. He also used a developer command to kill his boss, which was explaining the same thing to me on the computer adjacent to Moorgard and I. Blakely responded by using his super secret /kick command, which booted Moorgard all the way back to the desktop. I mention this because it seems the developers have a high level of respect for each other, no matter what their position is on the team. Not only do they respect one another, but they also appreciate one another and have a lot of fun working together. In fact, that was a common theme that ran from developer to developer. They all said this project was one of the most fun they had ever worked on.
Well, that basically wraps up my report. It isn`t all-inclusive, as I can`t remember everything I did or saw, but it extensive to the point that every note I jotted down about my FanFaire experience has been expanded upon, and reprinted here for your benefit. I hope you find Part 3 of Deathstryker Speaks to be insightful, informative, and most of all I hope you had a good time reading it, because I had a damn good time providing it to you. If I had one sentence to wrap up what I thought about EverQuest 2, it would be, "MMORPGs often generate tremendous amounts of hype, and often fall far short of delivering on that hype…for EQ2, the hype we have seen thus far doesn`t even do it justice…time to bring up the hype level to another notch, because this game is that damned good".
Mark "Deathstryker" Norris |
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Innovation
