Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Questions by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
Answers by Evan Lorentz, Game Designer at SOE-Denver

The lore of the EverQuest series has been a source of entertainment for a vast number of players throughout the years. From the shining sword of Mithaniel Marr to the horrible deeds of Cazic Thule, the history of Norrath is rife with faithful friends and fiendish foes.When SOE Denver’s Legends of Norrath online trading card game was originally released, it was apparent that the developers had really taken their time to explore the lore of this epic series. Cards like “Fippy Darkpaw” and “Nagafen” resonated with longtime EQ lovers. With their fifth expansion – dubbed “Ethernauts” – the LoN developers have delved even deeper into that rich lore to produce their cards. Recently, Ten Ton Hammer had the opportunity to sit down with Evan Lorentz and discuss this upcoming expansion. We hope you enjoy the interview and the two exclusive cards that we’ve included!

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Are you afraid of spiders? The character in "Phobia" certainly is.

Ten Ton Hammer: You just recently announced the fifth set for Legends of Norrath, which you’ve titled Ethernauts. What can players expect from this latest 280 card set? Where did you focus the most attention?

Evan Lorentz: The number one focus was on injecting greater strategic variety into the game. The last few expansions we’ve released have tipped the scales to a point where many serious tournament players tended toward similar decks. They would load a deck with inexpensive units, plan on never completing any quests, and “rush” the opponent for a quick kill. We wanted to slow down the pace of the game and rebalance things so that other strategies – especially avatar-vs.-avatar combat – could have a fighting chance. More variety is more fun, and better for players.

Ethernauts also has a new focus in terms of story. Every year, we intend to tell a new story in the world of Norrath, and so we’re leaving behind the Oathbound characters, the Tribunal, and those story elements that have been there from day one. In the next few sets, we’ll be delving several hundred years into the past, to the Ethernauts and their adventures. We wanted the gameplay to shift as well, opening up a style of play not available before. That led to a subset of cards that actually “reset” a player’s faction after he’s already turned light or shadow. Now you can build a deck where you don’t just think about going light or shadow once, you can do it multiple times and gain strong, cool benefits each time.

Ten Ton Hammer: In every previous set, you’ve focused on a particular class and developed some cards for that specialty. What classes were given card treatments in the Ethernauts? Will my necromancer have something to look forward to?

Lorentz: We’ve actually decided to shake up that approach for this set. I think we’ve been able to do a lot of fun things with our “class focus” in previous sets, but I also think it has sometimes had a down side too. For example, in our last set, Oathbreaker, I really loved what we did for our warder cards. They had a flavor that was really different from the pets we’d done for Mages, and really defined what being a Beastlord meant in Legends of Norrath. But we had to use so many cards to set up that flavor that I think if you were a Scout fan looking for a little help for your existing decks, you were a bit disappointed by the cards in Oathbreaker.

This time around, we focused less on classes as they appear in EQ and EQII and more on the archetypes as they appear in LoN. You will still see cards in the set that represent the skills of necromancers, druids, shadowknights, and so forth – and we made every effort to be true to the flavor of those classes where they do appear. But at the same time, we did not ask, for example, “what are we doing for paladins this set?” Instead, we asked “what are we doing for light Fighters this set?” Sometimes, that meant giving them a paladin-themed card, but other times it meant a warrior or guardian card.

Ten Ton Hammer: On the promotional site for the latest set, it mentions two new raids coming into the game. Are we going to see anything that players are really going to be excited about? Perhaps an old throwback to the EQ days?

Lorentz: We are actually releasing the two raids separately. The first of them will appear shortly after the release of the set, and it deals with the Protector’s Realm, a raid that many EQ2 players will already be familiar with.

One of the cooler aspects of the raid involves power generation. Because of the quests in this raid, players will have much more power than they usually do, which will re-define what they decide to use in their decks. Also, the raid has a number of very strong units that the players will have to defeat in order to win. These units have attributes and text that have never been seen before, and will be a major challenge to overcome.

Iron Will will definitely give some power to card heavy decks.

Ten Ton Hammer: It’s been almost a year since the original release of Legends of Norrath. What has the development team learned in that time? How have your goals changed? Where do you see the game going in the future?

Lorentz: Every new set teaches us a lot. One of the most valuable things we’ve learned over the first year is how players value certain kinds of gameplay. For example, I think it’s pretty clear when you look at the costs of early Mage Cold cards that we thought exerting an opponent’s card was better than it actually is. And on the other end of the spectrum, we’ve seen how moving an opponent’s unit from one quest to another is far more useful than it costs. These kinds of specific lessons always inform future sets.

On a more general level, I think our goal is the same: make the game fun and interesting. We need to shake things up if they get stagnant, add new facets and depth to existing strategies, and develop new ideas that can take the game in different directions. I have ideas for things I’d like to see in future sets, but there has to be room for the gameplay to respond to the players, and grow in natural ways.

Ten Ton Hammer: What kind of Shadow Odyssey content will be included in the Ethernauts expansion? Will EQ2 players really get a thrill out of seeing this new content before it goes live in the game?

Lorentz: The EQII team really helped us do some special things with this set, giving us all kinds of information about Shadow Odyssey and the Ethernauts. Four of the major characters – Bayle, Asharae, Kaltuk, and Illisia – are the avatars for the four decks in the Legendary Starter Pack. More cards in our set feature them and their adventures in the art and lore.

We also have a special Cloudskipper starter deck where your avatar is actually the Ethernauts’ ship itself, and the quests depict the story of its construction. The Cloudskipper starter, by the way, is a special free product for registered LoN players.

Ten Ton Hammer: It seems like the lore of EverQuest was really drawn on in this particular set. How did the original EverQuest story influence this particular set of cards? What kind of “original EverQuest” cards are in the expansion?

Lorentz: The most exciting original EQ concept we have for players is the second raid we are releasing. While we can’t talk too much about it yet, it deals with the new expansion set and the forces of discord interrupting a major EQ story event. You will have to protect some major EQ characters from being destroyed and make sure they carry out their historic acts without being interfered with. It’s the first time we’ve created a large raid where you actually have to protect units on the board and we’re really excited about seeing how players deal with the challenge.

Ten Ton Hammer: You’re adjusting the starter packs in this particular set to include the option to create all four archetypes with one pack. Why did you decide to make this change? What sort of advantage will this give players?

Lorentz: I think this is going to make the game a lot more approachable. There were 16 different starter decks out there already, four for each set we’ve released, and if you’re a new player looking to try out Legends of Norrath, it’s hard to know where in all that you should start. Now this one product will give you a taste of all the archetypes, rather than just a sample of one-quarter of the game. This will be the place to get started for the next several sets, for as long as we’re telling the Ethernauts’ story – there isn’t going to be another starter product for our next couple sets. Want to join Legends of Norrath? The Legendary Starter Pack is all you need to jump right in.

Ten Ton Hammer: Personally, I’m a huge fan of the history and background of EverQuest. Will we ever see a set of cards devoted to the original game, with a variety of cards that older EQ players will really appreciate?  Or will it always be a combo?

Lorentz: I expect it will continue to be a combination of both. It’s possible we might decide to try something a little different somewhere down the road. But still, we offer loot cards for both EQ and EQII in each new expansion, and it seems to me like the LoN cards themselves should do the same. The first four sets seemed to focus a little more on EQ than EQII, and I think you’ll see that balance ebb and flow all the time in Legends of Norrath.

Ten Ton Hammer: If you could change one thing about the Legends of Norrath card game, what would it be? Why would you make this adjustment? Is there anything that just works perfectly?

Lorentz: The neat thing about a trading card game is that the changes you wish you could make, you often really can make. It’s usually just a matter of how the cards of a given expansion are written.

For example, going into Ethernauts, the designers were a little disappointed in the way so many players had settled on leaving the game at “3 power per turn,” never finishing even one quest. We felt it gave too much strength to cheap cards, kept more expensive cards from competing, and made games play too quickly. The level 2 quests in Ethernauts are aimed at changing all that. Many of them represent major roadblocks that can hurt various “no questing” strategies. This should encourage players to stock the tools to complete at least one quest before proceeding with “business as usual.”

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there anything else you’d like to tell the Ten Ton Hammer readers and LoN fans?

Lorentz: Thanks for playing the game! And to the players who are active on the forums, please know that the designers do read what you’re saying, even if we rarely respond. We appreciate the thoughtful feedback players give on each expansion, and we do take it into account when we plan for the future.