When EverQuest Next Landmark launches later this year, Sony Online Entertainment intends for it to function as both a precursor to EverQuest Next and viable MMO experience in its own right. With its strong sandbox overtones, Landmark’s purpose is to introduce players to the EverQuest Next experience while encouraging them to play an active part in shaping its future.
“MMOs have basically been the same for the past 15 years,” states EverQuest Next senior producer Terry Michaels. “They've been polished and improved on some things but really the core game hasn't changed much, so we wanted to create something new.”
Michaels goes on to explain that Landmark’s origins are found in the building blocks (or “Voxels”) of EverQuest Next and the tools used to sculpt its worlds. Having established that the process of terrain deformation is a fun one, the development team set about creating an entire experience around it and so EverQuest Next Landmark was born.
Players begin their experience on one of several continents whose key identifier will, aptly enough, be a landmark on the scale of the Great Pyramids or the Colossus of Rhodes. Playing as an adventurer, the primary goal and game play mechanics involve venturing out into the world to stake a claim on a plot of land, which increases in size as players gain experience. Then, by granting specific permissions to others, players can work together to transform a dusty outcrop into an impressive edifice using the variable sized Voxel brush and smoothing tool.
Players work together to terraform the land.
With a fully alterable landscape, this live editing process will be restricted only by the player’s creativity and the tools and materials they have at their disposal, which increase in scope and complexity over time. However, as should be expected with any experience that grants freedom to create mighty effigies, there will be moderators on hand to prevent the erection of hundreds of phallic-shaped towers.
To demonstrate the power of the creation process, Michaels shows two time-lapse videos that depict the efforts of two players over a 30 and 45 minute period. The results of what they’re able to achieve in a short space of time is impressive and dramatic, with one pair opting to terra-form the land in order to alter its basic geography while the other builds upon it to create a ruined temple of sorts. In a neat touch, such videos of your creation efforts can be uploaded to share online.
The necessity of collecting building materials to feed these projects pushes players out into the world to explore. Here, there’ll encounter other player-created environments that they can roam around but not edit, unless give express permission by the plot owner. Players will also be able to locate rare resources that can be used to add a unique feature or flourish to their creations, which can also be packaged up to be exchanged or sold via SOE’s Player Studio marketplace.
EverQuest Next Landmark is a giant sandbox, but it has strong ties to EverQuest Next.
EverQuest Next Landmark is a giant sandbox then, but it also has strong ties to EverQuest Next. One continent on every world of Landmark will be themed to represent an environment of Next. Michaels hopes that by encouraging competition between budding architects in these themed areas, Sony Online will be able to incentivise players to create content that’s of a high enough calibre to feature in its fully-fledged MMO, EverQuest Next.
“[EverQuest Next] will be the first game ever to launch with user generated content and market share,” says Michaels. “Of course, we're not counting on our players to help is make the game, we have a dedicated team that will make a MMO, but if we can engage our players in the way what we can create will be much greater than what we can create on our own.”
It won’t just be player creations that can make the jump from Landmark to Next, though. In a bid to progress the MMO experience SOE is aiming to mix up the way classes are perceived in EverQuest Next. In essence, this involves the player picking one of eight character classes at the beginning of the game and then collecting attributes from other classes as they venture through the world.
Players who have invested time in Landmark will be able to carry across the Adventurer class so that they can start this hybridisation process right off the bat. In addition, there’s the chance to carry over a certain amount of the resources and items from Landmark to give you a boost in Next.
EverQuest Next Landmark launches later this year and will continue to run after Next launches. Michaels is confident that with one focusing on creation and player expression through cooperative sculpting of the environment and the other providing a more player-orientated dynamic quest experience, both free-to-play titles will be sustainable for many years to come.
Source : ign[dot]com
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