The eighth Everquest II expansion, Destiny of Velious, is scheduled to be released in late February. The new expansion will bring a lot of interesting new features and content to EQII. MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller caught up with Producer Dave Georgeson and Game Designer Carlos Mora to talk about Destiny of Velious. We've got terrific information and exclusive screens so be sure to check it out!

Testing is currently going on with Destiny of Velious, how have things been going?

Extremely well. The team has been constantly fielding issue reports from QA as well as playtesting each others’ content and providing iterative feedback. It’s exactly how games are supposed to be made and we’re pleased with the progress so far.

Read more of Garrett Fuller's Everquest II: Destiny of Velious Interview.

Great Divide was my favorite Velious zone. I wonder if it will be there. 

You can be sure it is =)

put a fork in eq2 its done...save time and money on eq next..or what ever they want to call it..they should be focused on their new and upcomeing titles cuz eq2 is a ghost town

One day I might actually play EQ2. I dunno why I havent. The trials I have done were very enjoyable. 

Originally posted by odinsrath

put a fork in eq2 its done...save time and money on eq next..or what ever they want to call it..they should be focused on their new and upcomeing titles cuz eq2 is a ghost town

 

What server and level range? Anything below T9 you have to expect to not be jam-packed with players in a 6+ year old game. Find the right guild and server.

Some of the ugliest character models in gaming, hands down!

From what I have heard and read if you don't have some good crit-mit and DPS. Velious will be a quick death for you. In EQ1 Velious started at I think LvL 35 and was'nt easy. SOE has a way of working down the road and totally forgetting the road that's already there.  Same as EQ1 they tend to forget what made EQ2 great could care less about the people who start the game fresh with the only thing they care for is making new toons max LvL at insanely quick times. Velious as much as I loved EQ1 Velious I'm afraid will not be enough to make me come back..especially when I already know it will be the same ol <kill mob> get better equipment> kill mob again..kill same mobs again..and again..and again...and again. # get the idee # ?

Originally posted by itpaladin

Originally posted by odinsrath

put a fork in eq2 its done...save time and money on eq next..or what ever they want to call it..they should be focused on their new and upcomeing titles cuz eq2 is a ghost town

 

What server and level range? Anything below T9 you have to expect to not be jam-packed with players in a 6+ year old game. Find the right guild and server.

The Eq2X server is the oposite. The low level zones are packed while T9 is the ghost town. Eq2X is Free 2 play up to level 80 so anyone level 80+ represents paying players.

Originally posted by odinsrath

put a fork in eq2 its done...save time and money on eq next..or what ever they want to call it..they should be focused on their new and upcomeing titles cuz eq2 is a ghost town

I can't really agree with that. Sure EQ2 do had better times than now, I remember when EoF came out, as I see it the peak of the game. But it still have many faithful players on servers like Antonia Bayle.

Of course I do have to mention how stupid it was to merge Lucan Dlere with a non RPG server.... Shame on you Smed (always his fault).

I did move almost 4 months ago back to GW after years in EQ2, and I have to agree that I was shocked that GW seems to have more players than ever now, many zones there are more crowded now than just after the launch of Nightfall and GW:EN.

I wish EQ2 could do something to get a similar renaissance, the idea of giving out bonuses from the old game into the next could work for EQ2 as well, even if EQ next doesn't have the same hype GW2 have.

EQ2 is still a good game but at least for me the content have been less fun the last few expansions. Maybe DoV might turn that, but I have my doubts. I think flying mounts is a horrible addition to a game with so many small zones as EQ2.

Low pop at low levels is a sign of a game that doesn't attract new players or entice existing players to roll alts.  EQ2 has low level problems, mentoring helps, but others like WoW, CoX don't.  Given the pain that is grinding AA and gear there's just too many road blocks to wanting to reroll for "fun".

Me, I'm going to wait and see on Velious.  Details is real slim with even this interview being near pure fluff piece.  Just too much out or coming out soon to poke my head into EQ2 on a stealth expansion.

Originally posted by Solude

Low pop at low levels is a sign of a game that doesn't attract new players or entice existing players to roll alts.  EQ2 has low level problems, mentoring helps, but others like WoW, CoX don't.  Given the pain that is grinding AA and gear there's just too many road blocks to wanting to reroll for "fun".

Me, I'm going to wait and see on Velious.  Details is real slim with even this interview being near pure fluff piece.  Just too much out or coming out soon to poke my head into EQ2 on a stealth expansion.

It is more a sign that leveling past low levels is so fast now that you spend a day or 2 in them. EQ2 have done like Wow and really speeded up leveling.

I guess it doewsn't attracts as many players as some other games but on the other hand is EQ2s players generally rather faithful and stay for long.

I loved eq2 at launch, last time I tried it however it seemed to be insanely easymoded and I leveled up to 40 in two nights without really trying to.   I understand why they made it easier and faster but hard to enjoy the content at that speed.   Also the core gameplay mechanics are pretty simple  with 10 melee buttons that all do similar things you end up watching cooldowns more than your screen. 

That being said the dungeons and atmosphere in EQ2 have always been SO GOOD,  long dungeon runs that have multiple levels runing deep into the darkness of the unknown.   The stories if you bother to read some of the questlines are also fantastic, a game that can spark my imagination.      

Originally posted by dippitydodah

I loved eq2 at launch, last time I tried it however it seemed to be insanely easymoded and I leveled up to 40 in two nights without really trying to.   I understand why they made it easier and faster but hard to enjoy the content at that speed.   Also the core gameplay mechanics are pretty simple  with 10 melee buttons that all do similar things you end up watching cooldowns more than your screen. 

 

That being said the dungeons and atmosphere in EQ2 have always been SO GOOD,  long dungeon runs that have multiple levels runing deep into the darkness of the unknown.   The stories if you bother to read some of the questlines are also fantastic, a game that can spark my imagination.      

This used to be a very deep, intrical game.  But like everything else, they made it 2 days to reach max level and dumbed it down too much for my tastes.  It's unfortunate too because I really like this game.  Even the PVP server, or did.

The emptiness isn't that bad once you reach the point everyone is forced into the same zones for a given level range. It is part of the reason branching/converging leveling areas have disappeared and everything is completely linear in modern games.

Originally posted by Kerafyrm
This game has some of the worst character models I have ever seen. It put me off playing in 2004 and it puts me off now, I just don't understand why they can't remodel them. The vampires in the first adventure pack looked nice and So do lots of mobs, why can't the player models look good too? Even the Asian ones are horrible and they turn them on by default as if they're something to be proud of.

You must be playing Eq2 on a tin toaster if you think the player models are bad. You still need a pretty high end system to run Eq2 on high settings despite the game being over 6 years old. I think the Asian models look amazingly sharp on a high end system.

I will never forget having a few problems in eq and the GM basicly told me " to bad so you lost all you high end gear".  I knew that type of customer service was going to doom the game. Years later Sony is having a hard time getting people to play thier games. EQ was the 800 lb monkey in the mmorpg world. Now they are just a monkey dancing around trying to get people back. What is funny was I told that GM, ok you keep my gear, I'll keep my money. Who got the last laugh.....?

Anyone know if they're increasing the level cap?

I think were still under nda,  otherwise i would talk about some of the changes with the new xpac and how it dirrectly is opposite of some of the replies to the questions that were answered.