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EverQuest Receives 21st Expansion Pack

By - Source: Sony | B 17 comments
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Remember EverQuest? It's one of the very first MMORPGs that has yet to kick the bucket. The game originally launched in 1999, and now it's celebrating its 15-year anniversary with the launch of its 21st expansion pack, The Darkened Sea. This expansion takes place in the Buried Sea, which was introduced in the 13th expansion pack released in February 2007.

The announcement of The Darkened Sea was made at the SOE Live 2014 event in Las Vegas last week. According to senior producer Thom Terrazas, the new expansion will provide eight tiered zones at launch, including Tempest Temple, Cavern of Endless Song, Degmar the Lost Castle, Thuliasaur Island, Combine Dredge, Arx Mentis, and more. The expansion will also raise the level cap to 105.

According to Terrazas, the new expansion pack will provide new quests, new mission raids, new spells, AAs, items, trade skills, cultural armor and more. Also introduced will be a mount keyring so that the inventory isn't crammed full of mounts, allowing players to store up to 128 mounts in a single "keyring" container. The video below also talks about a new loot system, which will "learn" the player's preference so that undesired loot never appears on the loot screen.

Creative director Akil Hooper and lead designer Jonathan Caraker also provided some details as seen in the video below. The main plot will see Tunare at the Buried Sea trying to heal the Emperor of Katta Castrum, but somehow the Emperor was kidnapped by a splinter cell of the Combine Empire. Naturally, it's up to the player to save the Emperor.

The Darkened Sea follows Call of the Forsaken, which was released in October 2013. Before that was Rain of Fear (2012), Veil of Alaris (2011), House of Thule (2010), Underfoot (2009) and Seeds of Destruction (2008). Before that, SOE was releasing two expansion packs per year after the release of The Planes of Power in 2002.

The expansion will be made available this October 28 for All-Access customers, and then on November 11 for the free-to-play crowd, giving the premium members a head start on the expansion. The video below also provides a Q&A session with the EverQuest team that covers some of the expansion's details and changes to EverQuest in general.

So what were you playing 15 years ago?

EverQuest SOE Live 2014 The Darkened Sea Expansion Key Note [OFFICIAL]

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  • 1 Hide
    lelutinbanni , August 18, 2014 7:14 AM
    God, save them.....please
  • -1 Hide
    clonazepam , August 18, 2014 7:15 AM
    A lot of us are tired of Firiona Vie and Lanys.... but it is what it is. SOE's banked on Firiona Vie as their mascot, so we're stuck with her. This year's FV was pretty hot. She was the EQ Next/Landmark version and so she was upgraded for the 21st century. She's stronger, better armored, and hiding that cleavage!
  • 3 Hide
    clonazepam , August 18, 2014 7:18 AM
    Quote:
    God, save them.....please


    It might be time better spent saving the WoW people, since there's millions of those. :p 
  • Display all 17 comments.
  • 1 Hide
    ChiefScooter , August 18, 2014 10:38 AM
    "So what were you playing 15 years ago?"

    I think I was playing Ultima Online.
  • 2 Hide
    skit75 , August 18, 2014 2:00 PM
    "So what were you playing 15 years ago?"

    I was playing Worms Armageddon. Pro-roper matches had me buying a new keyboard every month.
  • 2 Hide
    EthanG , August 18, 2014 5:02 PM
    "So what were you playing 15 years ago?"

    Rainbow Six baby!
  • 2 Hide
    fkr , August 18, 2014 5:12 PM
    Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

    nuf said
  • 1 Hide
    Aragorn , August 18, 2014 8:50 PM
    star craft
  • 0 Hide
    boytitan2 , August 19, 2014 12:54 AM
    Fooling around in ut single player. Bought one of the most awesome games by chance. Reason I am a P.C./console gamer. Got into multiplayer for it a little late by then 2004 was out and I got that late also lol.
  • 1 Hide
    alz_solstice , August 19, 2014 12:57 AM
    "So what were you playing 15 years ago?"

    Half-Life 1
  • 0 Hide
    beetlejuicegr , August 19, 2014 4:10 AM
    15 years ago? Unreal Tournament 1999 all the way, in multiplayer @ clanbase with my clan HEF !
  • 0 Hide
    alidan , August 19, 2014 6:34 AM
    "So what were you playing 15 years ago?"

    Everquest... game lost me several times, when i was 12, the game was unforgiving if you grouped with random people and not being able to make friends online... saw me burn out hard for several years... i came back a week before darkhollow came out and stayed for a while.

    had another stint during secrets of faydwer... but my irl friend had a kid and that killed the group... best server wide dps character and i was lfg for 6 hours... that was the death of the game for me right there.

    than seeds came out but i came back early underfoot... yea, played there for a while, than took up a new class and leveled solo from 1-90 during house of thule... and quit right after argath came out because my god did i despise being the person carrying a group on my own... i want to contribute but not be the only reason the group exists.

    than come reign of fear and my friend came back in and we have been going strong ever sense and end gamed on our server group wise... planning to switch servers and do it again.
  • 0 Hide
    Chris Droste , August 19, 2014 9:59 AM
    circa 1999... I was playing counter-strike... 0.6? and Starsiege TRIBES!
  • 1 Hide
    bender3000 , August 19, 2014 11:35 AM
    No other MMO has captured my attention before or since EQ1.
  • 0 Hide
    childofthekorn , August 20, 2014 12:41 PM
    And here I was playing Asheron's call DT. 4 years I played that game, never had a similar experience since, even with all the new tech and features.
  • 0 Hide
    ralanahm , August 30, 2014 9:57 AM
    I played this for 2 years it was great. I wonder how my maxed out level 65 back then could he still kill for EXP or would greeny kick his ass...
  • 0 Hide
    alidan , August 30, 2014 6:43 PM
    Quote:
    I played this for 2 years it was great. I wonder how my maxed out level 65 back then could he still kill for EXP or would greeny kick his ass...


    if i remember right, most classes have some soloing ability in every expansion minous underfoot. once seeds of destruction came out and bumped the level up to 85, they introduced missionaries, basically a healer/tank/dps that you can call out at any time for plat to help. basically every class can do something with a merc out, some are able to molo (solo with merc) better gear, some aren't so lucky.