Everquest Next

Developer: Sony Online Entertainment LLC

Platform: Windows

OVERVIEW

EverQuest Next (EQN) is a free-to-play, next-generation sandbox MMORPG and a complete re-imagining of the EverQuest Franchise. Players will discover a parallel version of the world of Norrath that will be in a permanent change based on their decisions while intense battles will leave their mark on the destructible environment.

MAIN FEATURES

- Full Destructibility

Everything in EverQuest Next can be destroyed. Players are able to crush the ground beneath an enemy's feet or bury him under an avalanche they created. The world is their weapon.

- Permanent Change

Based on the actions of all players, the land of Norrath changes every day. Cities rise and fall, kings live and die, even the gods may change.

- Class Revolution

Character classes are streamlined and designed to be mixed. Players can be a teleporting rogue or a backstabbing barbarian and much more if they want. Multi-classing gives them full choice of how to play.

- Life of Consequence

The player’s choices will determine their destiny. They will make their own story and shape the world for those who follow them.

RACES

EverQuest Next will feature five playable races: Kerran, Human, Elf, Dark Elf, Dwarf, and Ogre. Some others, such as Kobold, Iksar, Orc or Gnome, also occur in the lore but won’t be among those players will be able to choose from when creating their character.

CLASSES

The game will offer more than 40 playable classes. In the beginning, players will be able to choose between eight starting classes. However, rather than selecting one class and sticking with it, players will be allowed to multi-class indefinitely, meaning they can mix and match skills from different ones to create a build that suits them.

The player’s class is determined by the character’s amour type and weapon sets, a static set of four class-based weapon-specific abilities, and four core character class abilities (movement, offensive, defensive, and utility). Each class is advanced individually once obtained, but experience earned using one class can be spent towards levelling up others.

Characters can switch to any base class they have unlocked while outside of combat, which will affect the four general character abilities only. The character can’t change its armour type, weapon sets or the four class weapon abilities, but can have character abilities from any other classes.

EMERGENT AI

In EQN, NPCs will have specific motivations and preferences that direct their behaviour in nuanced and unpredictable ways. Their decisions will be based on core values, not dictated by static spawn points. This means, Orcs may attack opportunistically because they want an adventurer’s gold, not simply because a careless hero wanders into an attack radius.

Additionally, mobs will have AI preferences, and the world is constantly being polled and tagged for the type of environment, number of players, and number of "friendly/unfriendly" NPCs in an area. Using this data, the game intelligently moves spawn camps to different areas based on the mob type's preferences. Players can permanently change this by either interacting with "unfriendly" NPCs, resulting in a change in data, travelling to a spot more or less often, or by fighting the mobs off, causing them to move.

LANDMARK

EverQuest Next Landmark is an independent online sandbox game that allows players to create and build anything they can imagine, its statethe-art tools offering them unprecedented control over their creations. The best creations have a chance to become part of Norrath, the EverQuest Next world.

But Landmark is not only about building, players may also explore massive worlds, claim territory, collect resources, objects, gear, character customisations and secrets as they discover procedurally-generated adventures that will never be the same twice.

Landmark will moreover incorporate the Player Studio, SOE’s marketplace for player-created goods which enables players to design, create and sell items to earn real world cash.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

unspecified