Read The Fine Print: EverQuest

I guess I should have known. When I posted a Promptapalooza love letter to the room in which I've written every post on this blog since it started, it was inevitable I'd soon find myself moving out. I spent the last couple of weeks returning the first of our two previously unuseable rooms to a state, if not of grace then at least of decorum, whereupon Mrs Bhagpuss surprised me by asking if I'd like to have it as my "study".

I'd been thinking she'd want it to store her ever-growing supply of crafting materials, especially since I already have one large room downstairs filled with my stuff, but apparently she fancies having the room I'm in now for storage, because it's very dry. Well, it is.

Consequently, I spent most of the day moving the contents of one shelving unit from my current lair to my new one and I'm knackered. The sheer amount of stuff that can be crammed into one corner of a small room is unbelievable - almost as unbelievable as some of the things I've apparently thought worth keeping for the last fifteen years.

Anyway, the upshot of all that effort (only about a third done but the hardest) is that I now have neither the time nor the energy to finish the post on Stargirl that I was planning for today. Instead I offer a brief, cautionary tale on chicken counting.

Just a few days ago I was eagerly anticipating my EverQuest magician's imminent arrival at the foothills of EQ's current content. Even before the announcement of Labor Day's double xp extravaganza I was expecting to ding 111 this weekend, at which point I would whisk the mage away to The Overthere to buy her final air pet spell until such time as Daybreak see fit to raise the cap once again.

With the benefit of double xp, which I can confirm does apply to both Overseer quests and unsubscribed accounts, the ding came sooner rather than later. And also later rather than sooner.

This morning, when I accepted the reward that would tip her over the edge, I braced myself for the deafening DING! and... nothing happened. I looked at the xp and laughed. I'd stalled at 99.999% of level 110! What are the chances, eh?

I was so amused I took a screenshot. Then I accepted the reward for the next quest in the absolute certainty it would bring the noise and... nothing. Again! Still holding at 99.999%.

To my credit I did immediately, if belatedly, twig what was going on. Of course, given all the things I've written up 'til now, that's like giving myself credit for noticing the stable door is banging in the wind while the stalls remain notably horse-free, but at least I got there in the end.

As I believe I have mentioned really quite a lot of times, the level cap was raised to 115 with last year's expansion, Torment of Velious. I do not own Torment of Velious. See the problem?

Actually, I do own Torment of Velious. Now I do. As soon as it dawned on me that the reason I wasn't dinging was because I didn't have the expansion I went straight to the Daybreak website and bought it. I did have the very briefest tussle with my sensible side over whether I really needed an expansion almost all of whose content I would almost certainly never get around to using until it was already included among the ones you get for free, but I told my sensible self where to get off. I've been looking forward to getting that pet for weeks!

Luckily for me ToV is on sale right now. Yes, that's because in two or three months this year's expansion will come out and if you buy that you'll get all the previous ones for free, so if I had the patience you might expect of someone my age I could wait until then and get both. Given that I'm planning on re-subbing to World of Warcraft for the pre-Shadowlands patch, the one with the level squish and the removal of the rep requirements to play a Vulpera, this does seem like a particularly inopportune moment to be buying last year's EverQuest expansion.

Well, stuff logic. I wanted it, I got it. And it was on sale so we all know that means I actually saved money! And by the time the next one comes out I'll be playing the EverQuest II one so I wouldn't have time to play the EQ one anyway. And this year's expansion will be full price so if I only want to play last year's and it's on offer...

Anyway, I bought it. And I'm glad I did!

I logged in and out to make sure my account was flagged, then I accepted the reward for one of my two remaining completed Overseer quests and this time I did ding 111. Phew. Now for the pet!

I went into the Guild Hall (very handy for me that I joined that guild that Mrs Bhagpuss was in all those years ago. Now I'm the only one left who plays and I have the Guild Hall all to myself), gave the gnome a few hundred plat for the Miniature Worker Sledgemallet, gave it back to him so he'd switch the portal to The Overthere, zoned, ran over to the vendor and...

Didn't buy my pet spell. Because she wasn't selling it. She wouldn't be, would she? She's the spell vendor from 2017's Ring of Scale expansion. The one that raised the level cap to 110. Why the hell would she be selling Level 111 spells?

 A quick trip to Allakhazam informed me that for Torment of Velious spells I'd need to go to Eastern Wastes (the new version, naturally). And apparently I could get there for free by talking to Belinda in North Ro. At least that would save me giving any more money to that grifting guild Hall gnome.

I cast Throne of Heroes to take me back to the Guild Lobby. There I spoke to the Magus and asked her to teleport me to North Ro. She's been working that route since Lost Dungeons of Norrath back in 2003. Never say there's no use for old content.

Using the Find function on the map (can't remember when that was added but I'm very glad it was) I was with Belinda in no time. She was waiting with a couple of griffins wich, as she explained, she'd only just discovered how to tame and train. There's a surprising amount of lore continuity between EQ and EQII these days.

Belinda cast a spell, worryingly called Barely Tamed Griffon, and off I went. Landing on what looked like the edge of a precipice in Eastern Wastes I quickly located the appropriate vendor, bought all my Level 111 spells and gated. No point hanging around. Not going to be killing anything there.

Back in Plane of Knowledge the mage summoned her new pet. It conned dark blue at 110, one level below her. The old one was 106, because I finally managed to get a focus that works for that level range. I did check whether there was any chance of getting an upgrade that would work on the new pet but not a hope in hell.

Never mind! Her new pet is going to be plenty tough enough at 110 for the places I plan on taking it. The old one was managing pretty well and I don't intend on going anywhere tougher just yet.

I don't know for sure how much better the new one is because I haven't been able to give it a test run.
All of the above I did first thing this morning, before spending the whole day moving stuff from one room to another. Tomorrow I have to visit my mother for her birthday (she's 88, thanks for asking) so I don't suppose I'll get much of a chance to try the pet out then, either.

The strange thing is, having bought the expansion and the pet, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with either of them. Getting 111 and the pet felt more like the end of something than the start. But now I've bought the expansion I feel obligated to carry on for a while just to make the puchase worth it.

On to 115, I guess.

Blood Moon Rising: EverQuest, EverQuest II

Following on from yesterday's interview with Holly Longdale, today we have two Producer's Letters from her, one for each of the EverQuest titles. Both reveal the name of their resepective upcoming expansions, details of the various packages on offer and a few (a very few) details on what to expect.

There's also a tentative beta date for testing the new content. Pre-orders for the EQ expansion open next week on Wednesday 23. There doesn't appear to be a date yet for ordering the EverQuest II version.

As soon as there's an order button to press, I will be buying the basic pre-order package for the EverQuest II expansion, even though I have absolutely no intention of entering the beta to which pre-ordering provides access. My days of testing content I'll be playing live only weeks later lie deep in the past.

This year, in addition to the usual three grades of opt-in - Standard, Collector's and Premium - there's a fourth, "Family and Friends". Both games are getting the new offer, described as "...an experiment based on years of requests from players who like to share their generosity, families, guildmates and others" and about which we are warned "The bundle is set at a high price point".

The main feature of the new deal, which also includes all of the contents of the lesser packs, is a range of tradeable items and services, including mounts, character boosts, character slots and even another copy of the expansion itself.

I get the impression the team are nervous of being called on this one over what will almost certainly be an eye-watering price tag but it's quite true that people are always asking for the option to buy services and items for other players in the EQ games. The claim that this is "by popular demand" is almost certainly based, at least in part, in reality.

Won't stop the very same people who asked for it from complaining bitterly about being gouged and scammed but that's the community in a nutshell. And I would be ecstatic to find myself proved wrong on that...

Norrath has (at least) three moons: Luclin, Drinal and Morrel. There also three other known planets in the Ro system, Anbeal, Cordan and Trorsmang, none of which I had ever heard of until this morning.

The EverQuest expansion, the twenty-fifth, is called "Torment of Velious" so we know where that's going. The contents are as you'd expect:

Torment of Velious brings you a level increase from 110 to 115 with new spells and AAs, gear, and content with 6 new zones, and quests, raids and more.

My days of trying for cap in EverQuest are over, I believe. Expansions play to the established base that lives at end game and I haven't been domiciled there since 2005's Depths of Darkhollow.

My highest EQ character is a Level 93 Magician, who I boosted to 85 with the original Heroic Character freebie and soloed the rest of the way in the following five years. I could carry on doing that and maybe reach the current cap by the time I'm seventy. I think I'll pass.

There is an alternative:

On November 5, in support of EverQuest II’s 15^th anniversary, we are going to be launching a new type of progression server, named Miragul, that will start at the House of Thule expansion that launched in 2010. You start as a Level 85 Heroic Character with live server experience rates, and all the trappings of a server that starts with a level cap of 90 with in-game housing, loads of raids, over 800 AAs, and more.

That is quite tempting. I could start at 85 on a brand new server and level up in the many PUGs that will surely be clogging /lfg for weeks. I'd have the same starting gear as everyone else and House of Thule is about the last expansion of which I have personal experience and a little knowledge.

The thing is, Miragul opens on the same day EQII launches its own new server, Rivervale. This is a regular server with no funny ruleset, Just a straight new start because, as Holly says, "It’s been a LONG time since we’ve added a new one". It's "Membership Required", which I find both interesting and revealing. I think F2P for the EverQuest franchise is all but dead and buried now.

The new server experience is more than enough on its own to draw me in. I will definitely be making some characters there. How long I'll play them for is anyone's guess.I wouldn't expect it to be more than a week or two, but I thought that when the Freeport server started and I ended up playing there almost exclusively for five years.

I think this is Drinal but don't hold me to it.

The forthcoming EQII expansion, due some time in December, will probably put a stop to any futzing about on new servers. Titled "Blood of Luclin" it kicks off the long-awaited return to Norrath's once-shattered, now restored moon. I have always been a big Luclin fan so I'm not about to miss that.

As with the EverQuest expansion, detail is limited so far but it appears to be exactly the "more of the same" most core players want and expect:

This expansion will bring you a level increase from 110 to 120 for adventurers and tradeskillers with new quests for both, signature lines, and more as you explore Luclin.

We’ve got all new solo, heroic, and raid content, including new challenge modes and contested raid fights.

There is one new feature, about which I am less than enthusiastic. Called "Overseer", it's one of those agent mission deals about which I have read plenty and thought the worst. I forget which games have similar systems except that I know World of Warcraft used it in whichever expansion added Garrisons and I think I've seen it but never used it in some F2P titles.

I made a decision when I was about twenty-five years old that one thing I never wanted to do in my work life was manage or supervise other people. I've never regretted that decision. The idea of becoming a virtual supervisor or, in this case, Overseer is about as unattractive a concept as I can imagine.

That said, the EQII team is good at this sort of thing. I really enjoyed the Tradeskill Apprentice system that came with earlier expansions. Maybe it'll be more fun than it sounds.

It's a particularly busy Autumn for EverQuest II because not only do we have the expansion on the way but it's also the fifteenth anniversary. Fifteen isn't the most significant of birthdays but it does end in a five so it deserves some recognition.

This too, probably.

We're getting an event about which we so far know nothing other than its name - Dragons Attack - and the date it begins, November 7. From the little that has been revealed so far ("Join with all Norrathians for Dragons Attack, because you’ll need them to conquer the challenges!") I would guess either a Public Quest (maybe several), a community collect-and-build project, a series of open-world attacks similar to WoW's lead-up to the Legion expansion or all of the above at once.

Whatever, it all sounds like fun. The end of the year looks like Back-To-Norrath-time for me.

Last and very definitely not least, as hinted in Holly's interview it seems we'll be learning some hard facts about the future of both Daybreak Games and the EverQuest Franchise in just a few weeks time:

Keep your ears perked in November for even more news about our teams and our commitment to the franchise.

I'd take that to mean we're going to find out what all those new trademarks are for and maybe even get some indication of whatever new EverQuest game is in development. We may finally have something to bite down on when we chew over the fat.