Game Update 46 Preview: Distant Storms and Runnyeye Revamped!

I attended a press tour on EQII’s Test Server on Thursday. It was designed to give an introduction to EverQuest II’s upcoming Game Update 46, and focused on the live event, and the release of a revamped Runnyeye.

Craig “Grimwell” Dalrymple, Senior Community Relations Manager, organized the event, and that’s when things started to go wrong. There is a little known bit of lore in Norrath, known as the “CURSE OF GRIMWELL”… and it manifested itself, repeatedly. Instead of a press corps, we soon had a little trail of press corpses. Dang, that is just tooooo much fun to watch.

After our ill-fated tour, Grimwell went off to cry in a corner, and we were joined in the Community Lounge by two of the designers working on the EQII team, Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall, and Kyle “Kander” Vallee. A lot of the early work on the new Runnyeye was done by Steve “Saavedra” Kramer; with his departure to work on the new SOE title “The Agency”, Kander stepped in to finish the task over the last several weeks.

I kept waiting for beer to be served, but as there was none forthcoming, I actually had to talk to the devs. The following is a summary of what we learned. I was distracted by the little song and dance in the corner of the Community Room, so if I get everything wrong here, I’ll just… blame Grimwell.


A corner of the new “Community Room”, where press gathered before and after the tour. It is a great idea for any MMOG, and I hope others are watching!


RUMBLINGS OF THE VOID

Unusual, highly localized apparitions have started to manifest on the Test Server, tied to “the void”, a central feature in EverQuest II’s upcoming expansion, “The Shadow Odyssey.” The void storms will begin to appear in several zones across Norrath; on Test Server, I saw them in Enchanted Lands, Antonica and Greater Faydark.


If you get too close, the storm will lash out with a bolt of lightning – not enough to kill any but the very youngest adventurer, but enough to leave a smokin’ scorch mark on your rear.

There are quests to investigate the storms; these are all soloable, and will result in attractive appearance slot armor rewards, as modeled here by Kaitheel, as well as some useful weapons and items, according to Kander. The weapon rewards will vary based on the character’s level when they do the quest.


Kaitheel shows off the special appearance slot armor, obtainable through the live event quests; I decided to model the back of the cloak in the inset – but could not capture a screenshot of the random electrical effects that appear across the surface of the animated texture. Believe me, the real thing is very cool looking.

Grimwell demonstrated how, when one has the quest to cleanse the void storms, a “tempest touched” creature will appear; the hapless victim of the storm’s effect, and always a natural denizen of the zone it appears in (such that in Faydark, a Crushbone Orc appears, while in Antonica, it is a Scarecrow)… but it draws back along with it a void beast, a nasty creature that arrives appropriate to your level. Be prepared, for it will attack! Once it is defeated, the victimized creature will convert to a “cleansed” version.


A cleansed Crushbone Orc is revealed, while the group is suddenly faced with an irate voidbeast. Its bite is definitely worse than its bark.

The live events will only persist for a limited time, of course, so watch for the announcements! There will be a few more event cycles to pave the way in story-arc for The Shadow Odyssey, according to Kaitheel, who is busily working on them in between other projects.

"The lore it connects to is the Temple of Sol Ro," said Kaitheel, mysteriously, "and mentions a name that players have often been curious about, as he appears on the Obelisk of Blight NPC name list."

Someone go look that up for me, as it sounds way too complicated for a somewhat tipsy and overworked Dwarf... thanks!

Clearly there are many mysteries to be solved here, and a lot of fun to be had in doing so.



RUNNYEYE REVISTED

It looks familiar, but the moment you come up nose to nose with your first Runnyeye The Gathering mob, you realize your mistake in rushing in… as you lie flat on the floor, waiting to revive. This is a good moment to reflect happily on the fact that the old Runnyeye still exists as well, a well-loved and fun zone for levels 30-40 players – the devs are not taking that away!


Come on in, the water’s fine! Make sure your group is ready to rock, because this zone starts with level 80 heroics… and gets more better, fast!

“Runnyeye – The Gathering” is a new instance of our old favorite in the EQII dungeon arsenal. This beefed up version is suited to a single group of high level players. Although there is no special key required for entry, the minimum level to get in is 71. That’s for the more suicidal types, as the mobs themselves start at level 80 heroic… at the zone line. You know they are just going to get bigger, meaner, and tougher. The dungeon map itself remains the same, so at least navigation will not be a problem for those used to the place.


An odd little halfling near the entrance mentions a number of companions, now in other lands, who may be involved in the tale. I plan to track these guys down. Where there are Halflings, there is PIE.

The new version of the zone is instanced, and can persist for up to three days (72 hours), with a minimum reset timer of 18 hours. However, Kander felt that a well honed group of level 80s could manage it in a couple of hours, depending on how many of the bosses they choose to take on.

I am sure an average group, like the one I run with, will take a bit longer. Ok, a lot longer. "The bosses range from 81 to 85, " Kander said. He chuckled that thus far, on Test Server, the attempts to get past one of them have been unsuccessful.


The goblins and evil eyes seem to have a bit of a war going…

There are plenty of new POIs in The Gathering, for anyone who still needs to reach that elusive max of 140 AA points. The location shown above is "The Bog Tower Battle".

For addicts of shinies, glowies, sparklies… whatever you want to call them, Kander has good news, "There are 5 regular quests and I made 4 collection quests and a tome quest for the zone last week. The collections are done differently though than in the past."

How so, I asked, knowing that Wren the collection addict would smack me much harder than a level 85 boss mob if I failed to inquire...

"I made 4 collections,” he explained, “Two are common. They have no rares. Then there is a chance to get a rare separate collection from those nodes. The rare separate collection will give you the ability to see the bonus set. None of the sets have rare pieces though, like in the past"


Although you’ll meet Xorxx the Enraged beholder in the opening area when he rushes you, he is 'only' 80^^^, the first big named is Snot Eyegouger, Eye Poking Champion. I get the feeling ANY eye will do. Beholders, yours…

Of course, everyone wants to know about loot. Is there new loot in Runnyeye? "Yup, about 60 new items we made," said Kander, later adding, “Well the loot was made with keeping the raid loot in mind. It gets progressively harder in there and the loot gets progressively better. There are fabled drops. Pretty rare though and only off the last 3 bosses.”

"We tried to make the loot match the contest so the easy bosses have ok loot, and one really good drop and then it goes up from there."

"And some random FUN stuff too," Kaitheel emphasized, "Goblins are not known for their seriousness."

"Runneye is just for fun!” agreed Kander, “There is a lot of humor I stuck in there. You'll see hopefully."


Just after you get past Snot Eyegouger (assuming that you do get past him), you’ll find a Gigglegibber Merchant with some really odd wares on offer. He also repairs armor but I’m not entirely sure if I trust a Gigglegibber with my chainmail underwear…

I hope to develop a reasonable guide to Runnyeye The Gathering, to appear in the upcoming Beckett MOG magazine, along with an updated map of the zone with key mob locations. If I survive…

~ For more information on all things EQII, be sure to visit http://www.everquest2.com
~ Niami Denmother has put together her usual AWESOME preview for the crafting side of things, on EQ2Traders, including a tantalizing look at the new ‘red glowies’ coming with Game Update 46. She makes me look like such a slacker.