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SoE had been giving quick tours to Staff Writers at Fan and Game sites all week and I found myself with another writer in pixel form, being whisked around various zones by tour guide Brenlo “Alan” Bixiebopper. With improvements in the graphics engine and a dedication to return the “old-world” feel, we were returned to the “Wow” factor. Without increasing hardware requirements, the development team at EverQuest has managed to create evermore beautiful landscapes and models, with plans to retroactively upgrade old-world zones as time permits.

To keep an old game fresh to an increasingly jaded and aging (in terms of character development) gaming population, this new expansion once again caters to levels 45 and above. The EverQuest team also proves that old dogs can learn new tricks and have been learning the art of listening to their players for the better part of a year. Many models in the previous Omens of War expansion were re-designed to accommodate the request for less “aliens” and more creatures of traditional fantasy. With this expansion, they hope to return to their roots.

In keeping with the Good vs. Evil storyline. The EverQuest team has been running a series of events since the announcement of the expansion, involving Firiona Vie and Lanys T’vyl in the classic struggle between Good and Evil, across all servers. This culminated in the change of a major city on Norrath becoming a city of evil, the city named for the Avatar of the Goddess Tunare, Firiona Vie herself. These events harkens back to the days of regular role-playing events staged by GMs, days that have not been seen since the expansion that introduce the Froglock as a player race, and this one was the biggest and best of the lot.

Back to Dragons of Norrath: We arrived at the Broodlands via GM summon. A zone reminiscent of the Lavastorm Mountains, with deep fissures of rock and glowing lava beneath, and wandering drakes ready to gobble up an unwary traveler. This world is peppered with giant spiders, dragons and drakes in various forms, goblins, basilisks and giants. Each one more detailed and graphically beautiful than the next.

Dragons of Norrath is a brave new attempt to return to the old beloved lore and legend of original Norrath. A response to the cries of fans for “no more aliens!” Many of the new zones, although graphically improved, has the intimate world feel of original Norrathian zones such as Mistmoore and the outdoor zones had a distinct “Kunark” (the first expansion) feel.

There are dragons. And dragons, and dragons, and dragons! Oh my! We were treated to visual delights that made me nostalgic for a good old… Dragon Hunt! The expansion centers around a central area known as The Nest. Players with original maps of Norrath will find that area a little ways south of Halas. Will the Hatchlands also surface with this expansion? Perhaps… perhaps… There are two factions in this new world and players can gain faction with either faction by performing missions for them.

Apart from all these visual goodies, this new expansion introduces a number of functional features that players have long wished for.

The Potion Belt is a two slot interface which allows the placement and again, with hotkeys, the use of consumable items such as potions and mod rods (a mage summoned wand that exchanges health for mana). One nice feature about the potion belt is that it will not have to be reloaded each time an item is consumed, but will automatically re-fill from your inventory.

Bandoliers are a method to quickly switch out weapon and instrument sets without danger of accidentally dropping your items or losing precious battle time. Each set can be hotkeyed and changed on the fly.

Both features negate having to free up main inventory slots for swift use of weapons and potions that are often needed for better game play.

Spells, Skills and Alternate Advancement
There will be new spells and the tradeskill cap is raised from 250 to 300 with this expansion, but no new alternate advancement abilities are planned. Some classes will be getting entirely new lines of spells while others are receiving upgrades to existing lines. New tradeskill recipes can also be expected using drops from new zones, and hints have been dropped of new cultural armor with new slots for augments.

The In-Game Email system was described by Brenlo as a “persistent /tell” and acts and feels just like regular email. It is set up for the eventual sending and receiving of email between any of the SoE games. There are plans to tie it to an outgoing email system, but not incoming as the last thing we want is to receive spam while in game!

New World Map – a new map feature of a full color world map with ability to zoom into each area with a click of the mouse.

Mission System
The mission system is akin to the Lost Dungeons of Norrath (LDoN) expansion, but the developers have had a little more fun in their design. As evidenced by our House of Commons Chat with Travis "Rashere" McGeathy on January the 27th:

Rashere - The mission system uses the task system basics, but is aimed at quests that your whole group does rather than just a single person. The missions take place in instanced versions of the expansion dungeons and run the gamut from sneaking into areas to plant bombs to trying to stop your rival faction from aligning with the denizens from the new areas.

Bombs! We get to plant bombs! We also get to kidnap eggs or are sent to destroy eggs, confuse goblins and any number of other fun missions.

Rashere - The missions are built for groups, but are tuned to take about an hour or so to go through so would be perfect for someone without much time to play.

Rashere - The two different factions each give a different type of currency for completing their missions and, in turn, only accept that currency at their vendors. But, the currency is tradeable.

Like LDoN, missions yield rewards, but these are tangible “shards” which can be traded. These shards are used to purchase items from each faction’s merchants. However, in order to prevent out-right twinking, you have to have the proper faction with these merchants to purchase items.

Guild Hall System
The Guild Hall is a long awaited feature. Players have long requested player housing, better guild management tools and although the guild management tools have been introduced into game, this is the first full fledged personal “housing instance” although it is guild based rather than player based.

The system consists of two zones. The first is the Lobby, which is accessed off the Plane of Knowledge. This zone will be available to all players whether or not they purchase the Dragons of Norrath expansion via free download. The lobby contains several bulletin boards similar to the first simple boards in Qeynos and Freeport where you could leave a message. However, these are to be used for “Seeking for Guild” and “Guilds seeking members.” As planned, the lobby will be an area for social interaction. Also in the lobby are the Corpse summoning altars where players can pay a Priest of Luclin a hefty fee for their corpse to be summoned from anywhere in the world of Norrath.

The barter halls will also be accessed from the lobby. This new barter system allows players to set the type of trades they are seeking.

The second zone is the Guild Hall itself, which will be available only to members of a guild. In it are a guild bank which can hold up to 200 items, a normal bank, a hot tub where you can soak yourself and regenerate mana and health at a rapid rate, all tradeskill implements, and a teleporter which costs hefty fee for the convenience to use. Players are encouraged to use the Guild Hall as a staging area for raids. The removal of reagent costs transferred to the cost of using the convenience teleporter as buff timers are suspended while in the guild hall and there’s that nice hot tub for mana regen.

Reviewer’s Comments
It is hard to write a proper review with just a few days of running around in beta, a Developer’s Chat and a short hour tour being whisked around by a GM, but the feature sheet might make this expansion one that many are looking forward to. Some of the features highly desired by players and asked for at the Guild Summit held at SoE headquarters in May of last year made it into this expansion. The Guild bank is one such, as is the ability to swiftly change weapon sets without fear of accidentally losing anything, a complaint players of Bards have made since EverQuest was launched.

The recent revamp of Lavastorm is a sneak preview of what the new Dragons of Norrath zones will look like, and with all the new functionality being introduced; this is indeed one expansion I am looking forward to.

Carolyn "Sylvene" Koh
February, 2005

About EverQuest:Dragons of Norrath
The new expansion will be downloadable via the EverQuest Station Store for U.S. $29.99 (plus tax where applicable). A special incentive price will be available to consumers who pre-order and digitally download direct from Sony Online Entertainment. Additionally, retailers will be offering a boxed version that will carry a suggested retail price of $29.99, which includes a special in-box item and in-game item. For more information on EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath, please visit: http://www.dragonsofnorrath.com.