I find myself enthused by this week's livestream for Landmark, partly because Omeed Dariani always seems hilariously tipsy and pun-filled while working. Aside from that, the livestream actually walks me through the new enhancements that are on their way to Landmark.
This week's Landmark Live stream introduces an improved templating form and the Gallery function for Landmark. It also discusses updates to the Everquest Worlds app and delves into the incoming Upgrading system that should be available when this column goes live. Lets' talk about all these different additions, shall we?
Templates and the Gallery
If you like simple quality-of-life additions in your games, then the improved template system and Gallery function will likely be a welcome treat.
The template system now lets users take screenshots of the template they're using for organizational purposes. This means you can set yourself right where you want to, define what you want to turn into a template, pull up the template interface using T, then take a screenshot of your chosen viewpoint as a reference point.
Changes to templates also provide the player with additional information and better organization of that information. You can now easily see the primary material used to make the template, the number of voxels taken up the by the template, and the number of props inside your chosen template.
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The Gallery is an addition to the marketplace, which is now called the Showcase. In the Gallery, users can look up other people's claims. Using the claim interface, you can add tags to your claim to make it publicly searchable, as well as a representative screenshot and a description of the claim. Other players can look through the available information, check out the claim, and then upvote claims too.
The other nice thing about the Gallery? It's available on your browser. As they mentioned rather sneakily, you can now fawn over other folks' claims or take inspiration from them while you're at work. Just don't go overboard, I suppose!
An App Called Everquest (Worlds)
If you haven't heard, Sony Online Entertainment actually has an Android and iOS application for the Everquest franchise, called Everquest Worlds. A future update to the app will add a number of Landmark related functions to it, as well as exclusive music from Jeremy Soule particular to the app.
Based on their preview video, Everquest Worlds will eventually get a new questline specific to the Landmark Live video streams, where players who scan a particular symbol during the stream and then manage to complete the questline will win a Lunar Anklet for their character.
Aside from that, the app will also get get a news feed for the various EQ games as well as Landmark, and will also have some mini-games (which are technically games inside the app, which is a game; how meta!) including a EQ-specific word guessing game, and a match-3 style game using the minerals found in Landmark as your base icons.
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Upgrading Cometh!
Upgrading is a very cool addition to the game that will allow players to take items made after the update and upgrade a combination of that item's quality and inherent attributes using upgrade stones and runes. Items after the updates get anywhere from two to five upgrade slots for that purpose.
Players can mine stone, sand, or dirt for artifact drops or process these through the Tradesman Sifter for a shot at rune artifacts. Using an alchemy station, you can then use materials to restore the artifacts, then use a new crafting forge called the Tech Forge to upgrade the item you just made.
Using the Tech Forge interface, users can then drag an item into the upgrade slot to get a host of options where they can then insert upgrade stones or runestones into the item to power it up, then use up some additional materials to complete the upgrade.
The best part is the modularity and flexibility of the system. Upgrades can be done gradually and, in the case of runestones, can be overwritten to confer a different set of bonuses to the same item for the cost of materials needed for an upgrade.
While veteran players may not have to worry about the upgrade system's requirements, new founders may want to hunt around the forums for a place with veterans that permit open use of forging stations to take better advantage of this addition.
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Water is coming
As a way to cap off this week's Landmark column, I thought it best to refer to one update in the works that is said to be slated to arrive before procedurally generated caves in the game: oceans.
According to Technical Director Steve Klug, this will be the first phase of water deployment in the game, where you can harvest the water for use in the game. The water won't be dynamic yet, and you can't technically swim in them or go underwater yet, it does mean that oceanfront properties will look awesome someday.
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That said, I look forward to all the upcoming changes going live, and will wait patiently for aquatic awesomeness to eventually make its way into the game. Cheers!
Victor Barreiro Jr. / Victor Barreiro Jr. maintains the Everquest Next/Landmark column (and formerly the Devil’s Advocate column) for MMORPG.com. He also writes for news website Rappler as a technology reporter. You can find more of his writings on Games and Geekery and on Twitter at @vbarreirojr.
Links to more MMORPG.com coverage:
- Last week’s column: Air, Glass, and Upkeep Sass
- All Access revisions and a Landmark Update
- A Touch of Free-to-Play Hubris
