EverQuest Producer's Letter April 2022

Now with more "bit" goodness and TLPs!

It's been 23 years since this grand journey called EverQuest was launched, and I'd like to take a moment to pause and reflect on all the things we've accomplished together. We've defeated powerful foes and we've brought balance; we've traversed, explored, and collected experiences during 28 expansions in which we traveled to the moon, assaulted the gods across their planes, met with beings of alternate realities, and defended against the chaos of Discord. We've also had our fair share of tribulations through the friends we've lost and the heartache we've borne. Through it all, you showed up and met the call. Ultimately, and possibly most importantly, we've found family. So, thank you for being an integral part of us and a part of Clan Darkpaw.

Earlier this year, we experimentally released the 2022 roadmap. Thank you for your warm reception to the idea and for your thoughtful comments. If you missed that, the original article is at EQ Roadmap 2022. Since then, we've delivered on it plus a plethora of smaller fixes and improvements. You can read more about each one in the links below.

2022 Roadmap Update:

• Completed:
  • January:
    • Community Resource Council Application Relaunch - We re-launched and no we haven't forgotten about it. We're still in the vetting process due to the overwhelming interest in the program.
    • Monthly Game Update Notes
  • February:
    • Erollisi Day
    • 64-Bit Servers and Clients Release to Live Servers
    • Monthly Game Update Notes
  • March:
    • 23rd Anniversary
    • Brew Day
    • Stomples Day
    • Bristlebane Day
    • Monthly Game Update Notes
• Coming up soon:
  • April:
    • Anniversary Part 2 - Two new missions on April 20, 2022 and a return of the 5th to 13th-anniversary events from April 12, 2022 through the end of the anniversary events May 10, 2022, at 11:00 p.m. PDT.
    • New Classic Achievements - Adding achievements for many original quests in EverQuest's starting cities.
  • May:
    • Mercenary Rank Simplification - Simplify mercenaries down to the two ranks primarily in use and remove the quest line requirements for obtaining them.
    • New Tempest Festival Event
    • New Progression Servers
  • June
    • Server Merge - Merging the Phinigel and Miragul servers to Vox.

You might be wondering what the rulesets for the new Time-Locked Progression Servers will be. Well, wait no further. We're proud to announce that the new names and rulesets will be: Vaniki, a Level Locked Progression server, and Yelinak, a more traditional progression server similar to the rules for Mangler. We're planning on unlocking those servers on May 25, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. PDT.*

Vaniki will open with Gates of Discord available and a level cap of 40. Then, over time, we will unlock new level caps along with the new expansions. In general, expansions will open when the level cap is 10 levels below the original level cap of the expansions. In many cases, this will cause multiple expansions to unlock on the same day. Once level 60 is reached, the next level change is eight weeks later if more than one expansion opens, and four weeks if only one expansion opens.

The currently planned (subject to change) unlock schedule for Vaniki is:

• Open at level 40 with expansions up to Gates of Discord unlocked
• Four weeks later: level 50 unlocks
• Two weeks later: level 55 unlocks
• Four weeks later: level 60 unlocks along with expansions up to Prophecy of Ro
• Eight weeks later: level 65 unlocks along with expansions up to The Buried Sea
• Eight weeks later: level 70 unlocks along with Secrets of Faydwer
• Four weeks later: level 75 unlocks along with expansions up to Underfoot
• Eight weeks later: level 80 unlocks along with House of Thule
• Four weeks later: level 85 unlocks along with Veil of Alaris
• Four weeks later: level 90 unlocks along with expansions up to Call of the Forsaken
• Eight weeks later: level 95 unlocks along with expansions up to Empires of Kunark
• Eight weeks later: level 100 unlocks along with expansions up to The Burning Lands
• Eight weeks later: level 105 unlocks along with expansions up to Claws of Veeshan
• Eight weeks later: level 110 unlocks along with Terror of Luclin
• Eight weeks later: level 115 unlocks
• Eight weeks later: level 120 unlocks

Note: When expansions unlock on the same day, the first unlocks at approximately 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time, and each additional expansion approximately one hour after the previous. Future expansions will unlock as appropriate to the schedule above.

Challenge achievements will also be available. If you participate in a chosen event and defeat it when you are at a certain level, you will gain a reward that you can use on any character on the same account. For example, defeat Cazic Thule at level 40, Meldrath at level 70, or Griklor at level 105.
To make these goals more attainable, many level restrictions will be relaxed on this server, allowing players to use items they normally could not and land spells on NPCs far above your level. Zone level restrictions will also be relaxed, but not removed.

Yelinak is a traditional progression server using the new unlock schedule generally requested by progression server players. Yelinak opens at the original EverQuest then unlocks with the following schedule:

• Four weeks later: Ruins of Kunark
• Eight weeks later: Scars of Velious
• Eight weeks later: Shadows of Luclin
• Eight weeks later: Planes for Power and Legacy of Ykesha
• Twelve weeks later: Lost Dungeons of Norrath
• Four weeks later: Gates of Discord
• At this point the schedule becomes consistent. Enjoy expansions for twelve weeks when a new level cap is unlocked, and eight weeks in expansions where the level cap stays the same.

In case you missed it, we are seeking new talent and need your help to continue delivering and strengthening our paths to the future. If you have ever wanted to be a part of creating the EQ experiences you love, check out the list of positions that we're hiring for at Darkpaw on this page. We love having applicants who love our game!



Keep your whiskers out for disturbances in the spirit world, and don't let the rat race get to you,

Jenn Chan
Head of Studio

*Convert to your local time.

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I really like what the Team did with Achievements tied into the Level-Locking Concept & beating events while under-levelled, Kudos on that.

People have constantly asked for "more Difficult" this actually might provide some real difficulty for those who want it.

Will the new TLP servers be truebox?

Jenn's picture says: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far" (Teddy Roosevelt).

Will the servers unlock in advance to create chars so the servers don't get bogged down with char creation on the day?

I know this was done years ago just for char creation.

Since the Level locked server Vaniki is moving pretty quick, I really think that Yelinak should be slowed back down to "pre mischief" cadence of unlocks - 12 weeks each til ldon, 4 weeks there, then the 8/12 from there.

I enjoy the idea of the challenge server.
Along those lines. If you were to ever consider adding in different difficulty modes to all servers, such as normal, hard, expert (etc) To raids and even standard zones, while incorporating small achievements and rewards I think that would add some variety that players may enjoy. Essentially choosing the difficulty of the zone you want to be in upon zoning in.

The idea of a copy paste of mangler though seems a bit mundane. In my opinion it could really use something to give it some flavor.

Lastly, I would really like for at least one of them to not be truebox and another free trade ruleset would be fantastic and add to enjoyability. My two cents feedback.

Thanks for the announcement.

Big nope for me. But for all y'all that find either of the new server rules sets compelling, I wish you nothing but easy kills and tons of loot.

Vaniki is at least a somewhat novel idea for a tlp, not 100% sold on it tbh tho, but do we really need another standard TLP starting at Classic *again*? I guess you got to have something that encourages people to buy Krono *shrug*.

Any updates on the Ogre Heritage Crate?

Here's an important question. What will be the bag situation going forward? Are going to be stuck in the usual "once per account" bundle? Or will you guys remove the LORE tag, and put the previous years' bags on the website for purchase as many times as we can afford?

Lame......

where is the OOW locked server?

Standing in the Queue just behind the Casual Slow Unlock TLP & just ahead of the PvP TLP

I'm liking Vaniki a lot! Please no truebox! Or atleast a non truebox version

Uhh Jchan, we spoke about this...

The level locking is actually so bad. Killed off what could've been a fun server.

And yes, another *yawn* great slow classic start for the "casual" crowd that keeps barking for it yet never stick around.

How are autogrants planned to work on Vaniki? With level 60 unlocking PoR AA autogrants will be ahead of the cap. So, example, 65 unlocks with TBS. AA Autogrants for PoP unlocked with the 60 cap. Do these autogrants stay in??

Just wow... trying to drive people to play tlp. Ill pass thanks

This is going to be better than selo's for people who want to see all the content in a timely manner (Year and a half or so?)

Going to be miserable if its truebox though

See all the content? Unless I'm mistaking the unlock schedule it looks like they are going to be dropping multiple expansion unlocks at a time -- which means guilds will skip a majority of the "lower" content because why waste time farming it?

If anything, if your guild is pretty casual you're going to still be waiting around on levels/AAs/gear to clear the "most current raid".

I guess I'm just confused why they are level locking this.