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

EverQuest II is approaching its five year anniversary this November and having produced a mind boggling fifty(!) game updates, it’s amazing to see so much effort still being exerted by the development team. Recently we got to see a preview of Game Update #51, which featured the revamp of an old world zone called Lavastorm. Originally one of the two end game zones at launch, it was an unforgiving, volcanic death-trap filled with goblins, fire lizards, and giant globs of lava. Like a theater screening of a romantic drama, the docks near the entrance were filled with masses of sobbing men who were desperately looking for a way out. Trails of burned limbs lead adventurers into the mountain where many never returned (until they wanted their corpses) and many veteran players still harbor some bitter memories to this day. Recognizing the opportunity to make some adjustments and revitalize an area frequently bypassed for Echoes of Faydwer content, SOE has retooled the entire zone.

Ten Ton Hammer had the opportunity to see these changes first hand on the test server by taking a tour lead by the EverQuest 2 community manager and participating in a quick Q&A with two developers heavily involved in the work. I fortunately had taken a few minutes to poke around the zone earlier and was able to observe a few more details the second time through. The zone remains, for the most part, unchanged in the type of content you see, although a new area has been added for end game players to enjoy.

If you played near launch, you know my exaggerations in the first paragraph were mild and this zone was truly rough around the edges. As it exists on the test server, there is now a quest hub near the entrance of Lavastorm, a dungeon on the far side of the zone, and hundreds of angry creatures, choke points, and death in-between. Aggressiveness of the creatures, especially near the entrance, has been toned back considerably, allowing players (especially solo) a little more breathing space than they previously enjoyed. The tunnel with the goblin patrol, which so many of us infamously ran through, no longer exists, meaning you can now simply walk into Lavastorm proper.

The entrance isn’t the only place that has been toned down. If you walk into any of the goblin areas, there is a considerably lower chance of being snacked on. Wandering creatures I observed were pacified, which reduced the pressures of tip-toeing around everything like players did in the past. This means players now only need to avoid the dangerous groups of goblins digging in rocks piles at static points in the zone. It’s still possible to run into them, but once you note their positions, bypassing is a simple matter. In fact, I found it quite easy to navigate a decent portion of the zone using a level 18 character, which would have barely made it off the dock a month ago.

The threat level of the inhabitants isn’t the only change, however, because even with more tolerant creatures, the zone is still large and time consuming to navigate. Many of us remember making the suicide run from the entrance to the teleporter next to the Solusek dungeon on the other side. Much like the Greater and Lesser Faydark zones, there are now a series of horse masters to transport you, so your friends won’t complain about having to wait any longer. Of course SOE could not explain how you were supposed to ride a horse made of fire and lava, but we’ll just claim “magic” and move right along.

One of the great advances we’ve seen in MMO games over the last few years is the usage of progressive quest hubs. You complete a series of quests in one area, which send you to another more difficult area, and so on pushing you into increasingly harder content. This zones’ content was sparse and difficulty was frequently judged on geographic location. I asked Brett Scheinert if we could expect more progressive quest hubs in this zone revamp. He was quick to reassure me, "The zone has a lot more progression and a couple quest hubs that help to guide you through it." It sounded like the traditional A to B was now going to have a few more stops in between.

There were plenty of things to see during my tour, but let's get down to the meat of the update: the content. In the past this was mostly a group zone, although a revamp at one point went through and demoted everything to solo targets. What was most interesting about what they've done with Lavastorm is in addition to revamping the experience for level 45-55 players, have added an entire new area full of level 80's which includes a series of quests to complete.