Prophecy of RO: Q&A #1

We kick off a new bi-weekly interview series today!

Every other Wednesday, starting today, we will feature a Q&A with a member of the EverQuest: Prophecy of RO development team. This will continue until the product's launch. We are also carrying weekly screenshots from the expansion. You can view the first set along with this article. Our first Q&A is with Travis McGeathy, Lead Designer of this expansion.

The expansion zones start at around level 50 and work their way up from there. With the revamp of Freeport and the Desert of Ro, we've also added additional expansion-only missions that take place within those zones that cater to lower level players. In addition, we've created more than a dozen new monster missions that are available to players of all levels including, for the first time, a monster mission raid.

The expansion is broken down into four main areas, the Plane of Magic, the Plane of Conflict, Takish Hiz, and the Theater of Blood. Access to each of these comes from different areas within Freeport and the Desert of Ro. The exception is Theater of Blood. Gaining access to that zone is a secret that players will have to uncover on their own.

The overarching story behind the expansion builds directly from the story we began with Depths of Darkhollow. Mayong Mistmoore has become a god, but that was just one step towards his true goal. He now threatens to bring the entire pantheon crumbling down and enslave all of Norrath in the process.

Players will be traveling to a variety of different lands in their attempt to thwart his plans. They will find themselves trekking across islands floating within the Plane of Magic, engaging in a never-ending war that wracks the Plane of Conflict, traveling back through time to the final days of the Elddar Forest, and eventually making their way to the Theater of Blood, Mayong Mistmoore's new plane.

On their journey, players will encounter a wide variety of creatures including failed experiments at creating life by the goddess of magic, giants from the days before the curse struck them down, and a new breed of vampire created to serve and worship Mayong.

There are several different progression paths within this expansion. Each zone has its own story that players progress through, there's an overarching progression aimed at single groups where players learn what is happening with Mayong and try to gain access to his plane, and there's a raid-level progression where players will attempt to thwart Mayong's plans.

We haven't settled on the final mechanism yet, but we expect to use something similar to how they were given out with Depths of Darkhollow, rewards for completing quests and missions.

The missions within Prophecy of Ro take a more traditional approach to rewards, dropping items within the zone for players to loot.

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