Offical Release.

SAN DIEGO, CA – January 3, 2006 – Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, today announced EverQuest® Prophecy of Ro™, a new expansion for the incredibly popular PC Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), EverQuest®. EverQuest Prophecy of Ro is scheduled to be available at retail and for digital download from Sony Online Entertainment in February for the suggested price of U.S. $29.99.
“EverQuest Prophecy of Ro will give players the opportunity to interact with and transform the online world of Norrath like never before,” said Chris Sturr, Sr. Brand Manager, Sony Online Entertainment. “In addition to a variety of new features, EverQuest Prophecy of Ro continues the fascinating storyline as new and old players alike explore, battle and adventure through EverQuest on more than 30 new missions encountering new creatures and environments throughout the journey.”
Players will be able to interact with the world thanks to three new features. The first, spheres of influence, can be used to thwart your enemies or aid allies. The second feature is a trap system that will let players deceive opponents with player-set traps. And for the first time in EverQuest, players will be able to destroy objects in the world; doors can be bashed in, walls can be toppled and towers can be destroyed, leading to a new level of interactivity within the game and opening up a new realm of design.
About EverQuest Prophecy of Ro
The gods have returned and the mortal realm shifts with their influence. But a new presence walks among the gods, a malevolent force released into godhood by the follies of mortals. Unbound by the laws of the pantheon, it leaves corruption in its wake and threatens to bring the entire pantheon crumbling down. The only hope for Norrath hangs on the very mortals who have unleashed this upheaval. EverQuest Prophecy of Ro includes the following features:

Player-set Traps: Control your battles before they even begin by deceiving your opponents with a new arsenal of player-set traps!
Spheres of Influence: Transform the world of Norrath by creating magical spheres of influence to thwart your enemies or aid your allies. These artifacts will create a localized area where the rules of the game can change.
Destructible Objects: Interact with and destroy pieces of the game world leading to a new level of interactivity within the game. Chop down doors, tumble walls, and destroy encampments!
Buff Filters: Decide which buffs you would rather auto-decline with the new buff filtering system!
8 New Bank Spaces
New Missions: Battle your way through over 30 new missions.
New Creatures, New Environments and New Encounters: More than 25 unique creatures, 7 Zones, and 6 Small Instances.
New Spells, Tasks, Disciplines and Trade skills The new expansion will be downloadable via the EverQuest Station Store for U.S. $29.99 (plus tax where applicable). Retailers will be offering a boxed version that will carry a suggested retail price of $29.99, as well as a special in-game item, a Warhorse mount, for players to enjoy. Additionally, a reduced price of $26.99 will be available to consumers who pre-order and purchase the digital download version direct from Sony Online Entertainment. For more information on EverQuest: Prophecy of Ro, please visit: http://everquest.station.sony.com/por/ (http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/expansions/prophecyofro/).

It would thus seem, that the spells of:

Living Vine, Moonshadow and Barkspur will be added with the new expansion.

Given the features they claim, they will probly, imo, be the result of spell progressive tasks or quested in the similar feature as DoD.

-Fenier

Buff Filters: Decide which buffs you would rather auto-decline with the new buff filtering system!

Crap!
No more stealth hitting my SK partner with Seasons or my pally buddy with Steeloak?
*sigh*
:shuffle:

I'm moving this thread over to the Expansions forum.

Interestingly enough, it says nothing about AA's.

I don't think any winter release has had any new AA's since Gates, but I could be wrong.

A player has set up a site specifically to track PoR info. Check it out: http://dev.porinfo.com/news.php

There is a nice speculation post there about some of the new features: http://dev.porinfo.com/forum_viewtopic.php?8.10

Mobhunter posted a writeup on the new expansion announcement along with 9 pictures: http://mobhunter.com/001454.html

A few of the pictures show Freeport is getting a graphical makeover.

.

Sony will do an expansion every 6 months. They are right on schedule. And some of the stuff in this looks cool.

And 8 new bank slots should hold all those quest/key parts I've had forever.

So we're paying 30 bucks for 8 new bank slots and 3 spells? Oh, and I guess the ability to set up traps and break down doors. Something about this expansion just kind of says useless.

So we're paying 30 bucks for 8 new bank slots and 3 spells? Oh, and I guess the ability to set up traps and break down doors. Something about this expansion just kind of says useless.

Actually, it seems to be about the same size as Depths of Darkhollow in terms of content zone wise.

Liekwise, it adds, looking from lucy, 2 spells, and a trap like feature.

There were just over 30 missions from DoD, with both a easy and hard version for each in most cases.

Some of the addtional features also look cool, and far more usefull then talking items which where introduced in DoD.

Looks interesting.

-Fenier

SoE needs to, in priority order: 1) finish shaman WHATEVER! 2) GIVE DRUIDS OUR STANCES! 3) Nerf necros to hell and back 4) Drag the druid hating executive from SoE out back and shoot them dead.

Now, dear fellow druids....feel free to shoot down my post, as usual. WHY folks are so complacent as to let SoE walk all over us is beyond my understanding...

Sony releases a new expansion about every 6 months. The Dev team, from my understanding of how dev's said they have worked - is the design team and the people that adjust code is not always the same task force. This allows them to repair existing content and develop new things at the same time.

Considering I would venture it takes 3-4 months to design an expansion, they've already been working on this since just after the release of Darkhollow, and to be totally honest, I do not see your complaints adjusting that time table.

I really don't think there is some secret order to making Druids suffer. If you really think there is, more power to you, but it wouldn't be a good business move on Sony's part. Soo I can pretty much say killing some more Exec isn't going to help our standing.

I fully think they will add the healing fixes for Shaman and Druids both when they are ready - reguardless of when a expansion is coming out. Infact, we may be more apt to see adjustment during a release becuase if they have to bring the servers down for any given reason, they can also address release issues.

Finally, as someone who consisantly complains about druids being nerfed over and over - why would you want to do that to another class? If you really think we're that bad off, why tell the devs to make other people as misrable as you appear?

Bring on the new expansion =D

-Fenier

I just have four words.

"I told you so"

HEEee, i couldnt resist.

Nerf necros to hell and back 4) Drag the druid hating executive from SoE out back and shoot them dead.

Druid hating executive? What is wrong with you. I'm not shooting down your post because I'm complacent. I am happy. That is different.

Why all the necro h8? =p

necro dps is a lil overpowered, that is just fact


this expansion so far looks like a box of poopie so far
instead of releasing an expansion every six months they should release 1 a year that is bug free and actually has a fair amount of content including normal xp zones

actually has a fair amount of content including normal xp zones

Omens of War:

Dranik's Scar
Nobles' Causeway
Wall of Slaughter
MPG
RS
The Bloodfields
Ruined City of Dranik

Total: 7 Statics

Dragons of Norrath:

Lavastorm Revamp
The Broodlands
Lavaspiner's Lair
Stillmoon Temple
The Ascent
Tirranum's Delve
The Nest

Total: 7

Depths of Darkhollow:

Crothus Creep
The Undershore
Stoneroot Falls
The Hive
Dreadspire Keep
Ruins of Illisian
Revamped Nek Forest

Total: 7


New Expansion:

Seven.


Nope, no consisantcy there!

-Fenier

As far as AA are concerned, by the way they have explained it I expect something like DoN AA, leadership AA style this expansion, or something like the evolving items. They realize by now they are working themselves into a corner with AA, the more you add the more hoplessly behind any new player in EQ will be. Starting EQ now is a daunting task considering you need 70 levels and roughly speaking 700ish AA to get all the useful ones.

this expansion so far looks like a box of poopie so far
instead of releasing an expansion every six months they should release 1 a year that is bug free and actually has a fair amount of content including normal xp zones

LOY was a box of #$^%. Pureblood and 8 bank slots. But thats just my opinion I'm sure someone loves the expansion.

As far as expansion releases per year, as posted above they do about 7 zones per expansion now. With kunark, velious, luclin it was somewhere around 20-30 zones but really half of those zones were just trash filler zones that no one used. Now they give you roughly 14 "useful" zones per year they just break it up for several reasons:

Not listed in order of importance to Sony:

1) To keep the high end people entertained (ie. they only have to wait 3 months for something new after they beat the last expansion instead of 6)
2) Instead of billing you 1 time for ~$40, they hit you twice now for ~$35.
3) Smaller expansions = less problems most likely.
4) many other good buisness practice reasons.

To be fair..

LoY Added Frogloks, 8 bank Slots, an a fairly large number of useful spells to mid level players. If you where near the top of the level cap at the time, you probly did not gain alot from it, but every priest class got 2 usefull spells from it.

-Fenier

I see Enchanters use Scryer's Trespass all the time.

I hate new expansions. As far as progression, I'm in GoD. Finally made it to Qvic. I'm thankfull for that though. Never even thought I'd make it to Time let alone beyond. Have 2 pieces for the CBQ quest, Lodestar and Earring part. Won't ever finish b/c no one can kill CBQ let alone me win the drop.

OoW, only have 1 signet and have NEVER been invited to any MPG trials.

DoN: completed Tier 3 and stuck with no hope for the raids in Tier 4.

DoDh: NO spell arcs completed, NO DS access, NO evolving items.

New expansions are my bane. I would really like to catch up but my real life won't afford me to join any guild that raids every day. I still have fun, but all the mission failures lately have been getting me down.

From EQ Live Forums

It made the most sense to group revamped zones together so you're travelling from one to another instead of just seeing them scattered willy-nilly.

To answer a few more questions:

It's a brand new horse.

We're not increasing the level cap this expansion.

There won't be a whole new host of AAs this time. We try to space out AAs a bit and just did a large batch with DoD. The vast majority of people aren't anywhere near maxed and that ever-moving top end gets really intimidating. Doing it ever other expansion lets people catch up a bit and keeps that gap from growing too wide. You may see a few new AAs to support and expand on the new features, though.

The zone count in the press release doesn't include the revamped Freeport and Ro zones. Those aren't part of the expansion and will be available to everyone.

...and as Nodyin said, the new Ro looks fantastic. You'll see shots of it soon, I'm sure. Best part about it, in my opinion, is that it's instantly recognizeable as Ro.

Rashere

I keep hearing variations on "LoY was a bad expansion." I disagree wholeheartedly. In almost all the six years I've played this game I've been in a small, family non-raiding guild. At the time LoY came out, it was perfect for our 1 group needs. We lived there for at least a year and did a great deal of leveling, exploring, and triggered events, all the while getting equipment upgrades.

IMHO, LoY was an excellent expansion and provided a great deal of content and enjoyment for my druid and my guild.

To keep this thread on track, more dev comments:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captain_Oderry wrote:
Are all the Freeport zones consolidated into one zone now?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No. Where there used to be 3 city zones with sewers in each there is now a seperate sewer zone and an East Freeport and West Freeport, both of which are very large. The city is very true to the original but with updated and polished graphics. I'm told we'll have a teaser before and after video on the eqplayers site in the next day or so.

- Nodyin

I a very glad that there will be at least some AA's...however, DoD wasn't necessarily what I would call a big batch of aa's. At least not compared to PoP and OoW.

LoY was a decent expansion, though i think they called it a extension at the time :)

People have to remeber that LoY was designed as mid-level content not hight lvl content and it was great for the levels it was for.

a new horse


we getting more new mounts?

The store release will have a special now Warhorse accord to the statement.

Are we getting a War Pony for us Haffers?

I thought Halflers rode Gerbils.....

We can only hope that the warhorse (or war gerbil for the halflers) is only half as fast as that mighty mechanical boar!!

On a serious note I am looking forward to the new expansion. Mostly the interaction with the world in a more in depth manner.

And with the revamp of FP... I hope they make Sir Lucan a little more challenging for us Pallies who like to go play with him every once in a while.

More dev comments on the expansion:

...beyond the "newness" of the zone is the large amount of content being added for players of all levels in Freeport. The missions and tasks in those zones should add life to the city well beyond the "new" factor. Remember Freeport is not only being upgraded graphically but with new content as well.

- Nodyin

[The new Freeport screenshots] are in-game shots and as for their graphical intensity, they're on-par with other zones done since the engine revamp pre-Omens. If you can run Dragons or Darkhollow zones, you should be fine with these as well.

Rashere

There's new content in the zones that can be used to put yourself into the good graces of some of the various Freeport factions if you want to follow that path.

Rashere

The existing factions are still there and your standing with them remains the same. We're just adding in new ways to get in good with the Freeport factions with the expansion.

- Nodyin

10th spell gem? ... managing spell loads is reaching the hard to do level :)

If Barkspur goes live, ummm, gonna be a toughee - premma memming Skin of the Reptile and Barkspur will be interesting. Adding nice short duration spells that require repeated castings is cutting into my ability to keep CC spells and Damage/Debuff spells and a heal spell all mem'd (esp since the 9th spell gem can be renamed the Oaken Guard gem - lol).

Fun stuff - but really a challenge!

And with the revamp of FP... I hope they make Sir Lucan a little more challenging for us Pallies who like to go play with him every once in a while.


I pwn'd sir lucan at least 20 times with my 65 ranger. <3 the good ol' days. (Or the REAL good ol days when we brought out 2 or 3 groups for him lol.

I pwn'd sir lucan at least 20 times with my 65 ranger. <3 the good ol' days. (Or the REAL good ol days when we brought out 2 or 3 groups for him lol.

When I got my epic we had a raid of more than 4 groups... I believe we ended up with a 6th group but I don't remember exactly..

But you are correct - those were the days.

First mob I killed with my 1.5 - Sir Lucan.... just because =)

EQVault has posted a dev interview about the Expansion. They talk about new Planes that are going to be introduced as well as North Ro, South Ro and Oasis possibly becoming one zone. Check it out here: http://eqvault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=14136

Actually looking forward for our snare traps .. i think lotsa new solo/group tactics could come up from that. Main reason i buy the expansion BTW .. hope not to have nasty surprises.

Actually looking forward for our snare traps .. i think lotsa new solo/group tactics could come up from that. Main reason i buy the expansion BTW .. hope not to have nasty surprises.

Ruh roh. Living Vine is being changed it looks. The current/former implementation of it was basically useless. I don't think we can talk about specifics here without NDA issues, but if anyone has beta access you should log in EQLive forums and go to beta section to see the talk about this spell. I'd like to see what others think of the ideas on Living Vine changes.

Kaidman is right; please don't discuss any specifics here, until the NDA is lifted.

hmm.... anyone think we will get a 10th spell gem soon?
/crosses fingers