Introduce EverQuest 2

Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sony Online Entertainment (US/EU/JP), Gamania (CN/TW/KR) (closed), Akella (RU), Square Enix (JP) (previous publisher), UbiSoft (EU)
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	8 November 2004
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	Teen (T)
Media	CD, DVD, Download
System requirements	Minimum requirements OS: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista CPU: 1.5 GHz RAM: 1 GB HDD: 6 GB free space Video: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 128 MB of texture memory Sound: DirectSound compatible audio hardware Recommended requirements OS: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista CPU: 2 GHz dual core or higher RAM: 2 GB HDD: 15 GB free space Video: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 256 MB or more of texture memory Sound: DirectSound compatible audio hardware
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

EverQuest II (EQ2), based upon the popular EverQuest, is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and shipped on 8 November 2004. It features graphics and gameplay vastly updated from its predecessor.

Story
EverQuest II is set on the fictional world of Norrath five hundred years after the The Planes of Power storyline of the original EverQuest game. The gods withdrew from the world in retaliation for mortal incursions into their planes. On Norrath itself, Dark Elves and the Orcs destroyed much of Faydwer; while the Ogres, Goblins, Orcs, and Giants ravaged Antonica. Transport and communication to the moon Luclin were cut off.

The storyline says that 100 years ago, the continent of Antonica was ripped apart into smaller islands, which are now called the Shattered Lands. The oceans became impassible, preventing contact between the continents of Norrath. Fifteen years ago, the moon Luclin exploded and parts of the Shattered moon remain in the sky.

EverQuest II takes place in what is called the Age of Destiny. In this setting, Queen Antonia Bayle of Qeynos is a benevolent sorceress who welcomes all goodly races to her city to help rebuild Norrath. The Overlord of Freeport, Lucan D'Lere, a centuries-old fallen paladin, rules the evil races in his plans of conquest.

Gameplay
Within EverQuest II, each player creates a character to interact in the 3-D fictional world of Norrath. Within the game, the character can adventure (complete quests, explore the world, kill monsters and gain treasures and experience) and socialize with other players. The game also has a 'tradeskill' system that allows players to create items for in-game use.

In the creation of a character, the player may choose the character's race and class. Various classes have specialized abilities that are complementary to their class. (Monks will get mainly melee combat abilities that use their fists or fist weapons, or a Warlock will get mainly spell abilities that do large amounts of spike damage but cost a lot of mana.) EverQuest II enables social interaction with other players through grouping and through the creation of guilds. Like players, guilds can gain experience and levels, partially from players completing special tasks called Heritage quests, but primarily from guild-oriented quests and tasks called "writs," and gaining guild experience by killing epic monsters. Higher guild levels open up special rewards unavailable to non-guilded characters, and cause certain other rewards to cost less. These rewards include housing options, mounts, house items, apparel, and special titles.

Although EverQuest II focuses on player versus environment (PvE), dedicated player versus player (PvP) servers were added in February 2006.
One of the available mounts that can be purchased with status points

The Everquest II feature set has expanded since its release in 2004.


Character development

Everquest II is a class-based MMO. At character creation, players choose one of 19 races and 24 adventure classes. Any race can be any class (with some conditions). Five starting cities are provided, each with its own beginner experience. Hair and facial features are chosen during character creation, but can be changed later by visiting a Barber Shop in the game world.

Each character may advance through 80 levels of experience in his chosen adventure class, and 80 levels in a tradeskill class that is chosen after creation. Characters are customized by earning up to 200 Achievement Points during the course of gameplay, which are used to purchase achievement abilities. Each adventure class has three trees of achievement abilities to invest in.

Each adventure class accumulates more than 20 distinct abilities. A common mechanic is used for physical combat (Combat Arts) and spellcasting (Spells) - all such abilities draw from the character's Power resource, which must be recharged between battles. Most spells and combat arts can be upgraded through eight tiers of improvement, with the lowest tier granted automatically upon gaining each adventure level. Spell upgrades are obtained just like equipment upgrades - as loot, quest rewards, or produced through crafting. An optional system called Heroic Opportunities grants bonus effects when players combine their abilities in specific ways.

Every character can have a Tradeskill Class in addition to their Adventuring Class. The player specializes in one of 9 Tradeskill Classes as his character advances in tradeskill levels. When crafting an item, the player reacts to unanticipated crafting events by using crafting skills, such that the crafting process is superficially similar to combat.

Game content

Everquest II has a heavy focus on quests. More than 6000 quests have been discovered by players as of January 2009.[1] Game rewards are biased toward quests. The Achievement Point system is mainly advanced by completing quests. Much of the game lore is presented through quests, using an interactive dialogue system.

Acquisition of equipment is a major focus of progression. Character inventory consists of 8 armor slots, 8 accessory slots, and 4 weapons-related slots. Most equipment has a minimum adventure level requirement to equip it, and must be permanently attuned to the character before using it. Equipment can be enhanced by applying "augmentations" on a per-item basis.

Equipment and treasure are classified into broad tiers such as "Fabled", "Legendary", and "Treasured". Each quest generally gives an item reward of a tier that reflects its difficulty. Almost all creatures have separate lists of potential loot for each tier, with reduced chances of winning the best (Fabled). Player-crafted items are also divided into tiers, based on the rarity of materials.

Everquest II has no experience loss, corpse runs on death, or lost levels from dying. Upon death, characters respawn with their gear intact at specific revival locations, with a minor experience debt to be repaid. Gear is fully functional until its condition runs out after 10 consecutive deaths, and is repaired to 100% for a fee.

Starting at level 20, players can wear any clothing that's allowed by their class in "appearance slots", overriding the appearance of their functional gear. A Dressing Room feature allows players to see what their character would look like wearing equipment that they do not possess.

Differences from the original
Many gameplay choices were made in order to stop old, sometimes undesirable, tactics that emerged in EQ; a major difference is the concept of "locked encounters". Currently a group or a solo player can set an option to lock encounters. When encounters are locked, only the player or group who becomes linked to that encounter is involved, which stops kill stealing. Other players cannot assist in the encounter unless the player who locked it uses a special "/yell" command for help, after which the encounter rewards neither loot nor experience.

"Trains" (encounters pursuing fleeing players to a zone line, and then attack uninvolved players), a problem in Everquest, are no longer a problem in EQ2. Encounters will not aggro on (attack) uninvolved players until they first return to their original location. Encounters returning to their spawn point are also immune to attack until they return there.

To stop kiting, players in combat lose all their movement speed enhancements except the special "sprint" ability, which costs a considerable amount of power to use, although some classes have speed debuffs that slow the enemy, thus making kiting a viable option. Because certain player classes such as Rangers and Mages have limited effectiveness in close melee range, many of these players have discovered another method of pseudo-kiting by running backwards and firing a missile weapon at the enemy. The enemy lands fewer attacks, but can take significant damage depending on the type of ammunition or missile weapon used, and the skill level of the user.

The penalization of death has been heavily reduced, instead of a corpse run to regain your items and lessen the experience loss, in EQ2 you will only have slight damage on your equipped items which will require mending after 10 deaths, but there are player made items which you can carry with you to mend the items.

Business
SOE is marketing EverQuest II not as a direct sequel, but as a "parallel universe" to the original EverQuest. It is set in an alternate future of the original game's setting, having diverged at the conclusion of the Planes of Power expansion (the lore is explained in an in-game book). This allows both development teams to pursue whatever direction they want to take without impacting the other, and allows players of the original EverQuest to continue receiving updates without forcing players down a specific path. In that sense, they are two completely separate games bound together by name only. Players of the old EQ will find many familiar places and characters, as well as "heritage items" that are similar in name and function to items known from EQ and can be gained via heritage quests.

Like the original and other commercial MMORPGs, EQ2 requires a monthly fee (as of January 2008, US$14.99/month) to play the game. A free play period of 30 days are included with the purchase price of the game. Subscribers can opt to pay an additional monthly fee for extended services, such as an online item database or hosting of guild websites. Players can also download and play the game for free as part of a free trial. Prior free trial programs, known as the Trial of the Isle and Play the Fae, allowed players to experience the beginning steps of the game for free before dedicating themselves to a monthly subscription fee. The current free trial allows players full use of the game environment, but it is limited to 14 days and prevents characters from exceeding level 20.

In Europe, the game is published by KOCH Media.
Advertisement of the Pizza Hut and EverQuest II promotion.

In February 2005, EverQuest II began allowing players to place an order for pizza delivery from within the game, with a simple and easy command typed into the chat bar, "/pizza". This promotion has since ended, but generated significant press for the game.

In June 2005, SOE introduced Station Exchange to EverQuest II. Station Exchange is an official auction system—only on designated servers—allowing real money to be transferred for in-game money, items or characters.

In March 2006, SOE announced that it would end its Chinese/Korean operations for EverQuest II, which were being supported in the region by Gamania. The beta period for the game in China/Korea ended on 29 March, and on 30 March, all Chinese/Korean accounts were moved to the US servers of the game.

In July 2007, SOE introduced magazine EQuinox, which is the official magazine of EverQuest II. The release date of this magazine was 9 August 2007.

In December 2008, SOE introduced Station Cash, a real-money trading (RMT) feature.[citation needed]

in January 2009, SOE together with Valve made Everquest II available on Steam.