EverQuest II Roadmap 2023

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Accendo, Jan 10, 2023.

  1. Accendo Guest

    [IMG]Yeah, that’s right. It’s back! We'd be crazy not to do this.

    Last year's "experiment" was so well received we're bringing it back! Before we list what you can look forward to this year, let's highlight the things we accomplished in 2022.

    This past year saw new TLP server unlocks, improvements to the Test Server, the successful launch of Kael Drakkel (the Lore and Legend server), updates and new content added to numerous in-game events, two huge game updates that included new Overseer, raid, and dungeon content, the successful launch of Varsoon, 64-bit upgrades to servers and clients, the amazing and humbling response to our Extra Life efforts, and last but certainly not least, the incredible launch of Renewal of Ro. Worth noting here is the missing Swag Store we hoped to launch back in September. That hasn’t happened yet, but we are still working to finish it, and we appreciate your patience.

    2022 Roadmap Update:
    We are once again very excited to share our plans for 2023 with you. Remember, these are high-level goals we hope to complete this year but each one may be subject to change and/or delay. Let's dive in!

    [IMG]

    2023 Roadmap:
    • January:
      • Renewal of Ro Raid Zones Unlock
        • Raj'Dur Plateaus: The Hunt
        • Sandstone Delta: The Standing Storm
    • February:
      • Varsoon unlocks Fallen Dynasty - Explore the Island of Mara and its environs.
      • New updates to Erollisi Day
      • Renewal of Ro Raid Unlock
        • Takish Badlands: The Boundless Gulf
    • March:
      • New updates to Chronoportal Phenomenon
      • New updates to Brewday Festival
      • Renewal of Ro Raid Unlock
        • Buried Takish'Hiz: Emergence from Stone [Updated 3/1/2023] This zone will be available with the Game Update in April, 2023.
      • New updates to Bristlebane Day
      • Game Update 122 Beta Opens
      • Server Merge: Tarinax to Antonia Bayle
      • Server Merge: Kaladim to Antonia Bayle
    • April:
      • New updates to Beast'r Eggstravaganza
      • Game Update 122 Launch - New raids, contested dungeon, quests, tradeskill content, collections, Overseer Season 05 and more content for all playstyles.
      • Varsoon unlocks Echoes of Faydwer - Explore the continent of Faydwer, "borrow" the dwarven brewing kegs in Kaladim and unlock class Alternate Advancement trees along the way. Try not to fall off of Kelethin.
      • New PvP TLE server
    • May:
      • Mercenary AI Update - Mercenaries will more reliably heal and resurrect their companions, and generally react faster, with higher tier mercenaries gaining increased reaction time over their common brethren.
    • June:
      • New Live Event Equipment Slot - A new slot for equipment obtained exclusively through live event content.
      • New large updates to Summer Jubilee's Tinkerfest
      • New updates to Patches of Pride
      • New large updates to Summer Jubilee's Scorched Sky
      • Varsoon unlocks The Estate of Unrest, Shard of Fear, and three contested Avatars
    • July:
      • Game Update 123 Beta Opens
    • August:
      • Game Update 123 Launch
      • New large updates to Summer Jubilee's Oceansfull Festival
      • Varsoon unlocks Rise of Kunark - Pillage the ancient lands of Kunark from atop a mighty leaping steed with the power of a level 80 adventurer or tradeskiller, wielding 140 Alternate Advancement points to lay waste to your foes.
    • September:
      • Expansion Prelude
      • New updates and a small revamp to Panda, Panda, Panda! - Those fluffy rapscallions will no longer require you to complete all their previous adventures to embark on their latest escapade.
    • October:
      • 2023's expansion Beta + Pre-order
      • New updates to Nights of the Dead
      • Varsoon unlocks Runnyeye: The Gathering, Veksar: The Invasion, and Shard of Hate
    • November:
      • Extra Life Game Day
      • New updates to Heroes' Festival - Celebrate our 19th Anniversary!
    • End of November:
      • 2023's Expansion Launch - EverQuest II's 20th Expansion!
    • December:
      • New updates to Frostfell
      • Varsoon unlocks The Shadow Odyssey - Slog through the goop in Innothule Swamp to meet the Froglok menace of Guk. Vacation in the pleasant Sauna of Najena, or drink a fine vintage of red wine with toothful friends in the crypts of Mistmoore. Boldly trek with 200 Alternate Advancement points and the Shadows AA tree to assist your travel planning.
    • Release Date TBD in 2023:
      • Swag Store
    • Beyond 2023:
      • DirectX 11 API Port
    That about wraps it up for most of what you can expect this year. Lots of exciting things are coming up so here's hoping you're ready!


    Prepare to see if it's leafier on the buried side,

    Jenn Chan
    Head of Studio


    Join us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.
    Khaticia, Cassta, Juraiya and 14 others like this.
  2. Bramdar Active Member

    Thank you for continuing this in 2023! It's always good to have an idea of what you're planning, and when.

    I know plans are always subject to change with a roadmap and you can't go into detail on everything, but could you explain the difference between "updates" and "large updates" to the events? Is the intent to focus on level 120-125 content for the summer events, and the remaining events are mostly adding new cosmetics and house items, like we saw last year? Or will we be seeing smaller content updates for the other events as well?
  3. Jaxyn Member

    Great visual format for the Roadmap. I've been really happy with the way things have been going, so thanks for your hard work. Beautiful graphics and all sorts of cool stuff. In fact, beautiful stuff all over and cool fights.

    Hey, for the 20th anniversary, could we maybe have a return of Dragon Attack! ?? That was FUN. AND I could get status tack for my 125 TS but non-125 ADV chars (the Dragonscale, Dragonsoul, etc). The Dragon Attack! fights were fun, too!

    I like the ability to research for recipes, but not so much the CHARGED recipes; the items are great, too. Perhaps you could reconsider the idea of having them charged, as you did with the Vampiric and Wispy Vampiric Mirrors?

    I am having some trouble getting Overseer agents with actual traits for my lower level chars (and for those that have few as it is), but that's just the RNG deities :)
  4. Elden Ring New Member

    • Beyond 2023:
      • DirectX 11 API Port ???
    sooo does this mean the game is finally going to multicore for the cpu performance?
    or is that just being too hopeful
  5. Kaitheel Developer


    Good question! An updated event is the addition of new rewards, recipes, and items, etc. I, for one, am very proud of how EQ2 has been able to provide such support to each of the holiday events, year after year, refreshing them and making them bigger, expanding the available holiday items, often in response to player requests.

    Certainly, a way to make an event even bigger and more impactful is to add more content, and that is the nod with "large updates". That just means that new content for that event is in the plan. In the past new content has meant new collections, achievements, tradeskills, etc. What is added all depends on what kind of content that event already has, how long the event lasts, how long it's been since new content of that type was added - those kinds of details. That way, over the years, as an event grows, hopefully you'll find an event has something for everyone, not necessarily that everything is for everyone.

    That being said, this year's plan for the Summer Jubilee content (Tinkerfest, Scorched Sky, and Oceansfull) has not been completely ironed out, but we want it to include versions of last year's dungeons for all levels below 120, in addition to having new and exciting items worth a level 120 player's attention and effort.

    As we get closer to each event, we welcome everyone to drop in on the Test server and catch each one as they roll out, prior to the live start date, to check out the details and to give feedback, per event.

    I hope this helps shed some more light on the plan for '23 events!

    ~ Kaitheel
    Feara, Hartay, Cassta and 10 others like this.
  6. Aenvar Member

    Very interested in the much needed AI update for mercenaries. Also curious about what next expansion's theme will be. Thank you for another year of support to this great game.
    Feara, Cassta, Juraiya and 3 others like this.
  7. Sturmlocke Linux enthusiast playing EQ2 via Proton.

    [IMG]
    https://www.youtube . com/watch?v=OhFD6CU70EU


    Hail and well met,

    now this is a pleasant surprise for sure! I appreciate the openness, keep it coming! Interesting roadmap, especially this part:

    It's funny bc we were literally talking and jking about this the other day, and here comes the announcement :D Good, nay, excellent! Now, seeing how the API upgrade is most likely not only going to vastly improve overall fps performance, as seen by the likes of DXVK on Linux + EQ2, I do have a few questions on my mind:

    • Does that mean the water and shadow issues bug-fix will be addressed with the upcoming API change, or is that still in the works for this year? See here for more info
    • Could this also mean that missing AA features will make a comeback by then or is this something that is still on the radar for 2023? See here for more info
    • Considering the roadmap for 2022, and after all the talk about a visual overhaul / upgrade for certain aspects of the game world and its chars, could this be the moment where you guys take the opportunity to show us just how much power the Everquest franchise still holds? See here and here for more info. Btw, the most liked Youtube comment on the official RoR trailer is about a visual upgrade as well and it has now passed the 40 likes mark, making it the most popular / liked comment so far
    • Is there ANY type of info that you can share with us in this regard, without actually comitting to anything. I'd love to hear your thoughts, even if it's without any type or form of guaranteed exchange between us mere mortals and the powers that be. Love this type of stuff tbh

    And ofc the Swag store -> I'm really looking forward to this one, especially if that means that retail collectors boxes are going to make a comeback one day. Overall I'm really pleased by the info at hand. Jenn promised us more technical upgrades in the future, and it seems that is precisely what is in the works for 2023 and beyond. Guild Wars 2 has recently made the decision to migrate from DX9 to DX11 as well and it's nice to see EQ2 heading in the same direction. That said, after following this topic (API etc.) for some time now, pretty sure that a switch like this won't take 1 or 2 years to accomplish, so somewhere deep in my mind I hope that this will go hand in hand with other graphical improvements, as mentioned above. Is my "gut feeling" right on this one or am I imagining things? :D

    Cheers

    Seeing how good EQ1 and especially 2 has been performing on Linux with DXVK alias Vulkan, more often than not doubling overall performance on many systems, I'm confident we'll be seeing something very similar to this with the upcoming DX11 upgrade for sure *thumbsup* Great news indeed! Intel recently abandoned vanilla DirectX9 support altogether from their official ARC gpu drivers, opting for DXVK and other DirectX9 translations layers instead, which have greatly improved performance by up to 200% in many games. A few Youtubers have been covering this change lately and were able to confirm the info below:


    So overall a wise move, if you ask me. The time to finally ditch and replace DX9 has come!

    Btw, I just read the roadmap for EQ1: https://www.everquest.com/news/eq-2023-roadmap
    • April:New UI Engine Initial Launch - Full engine launch with some of the windows ported to the new engine.
    • October: 2023's Expansion Beta + Pre-order and DirectX 11 API port
    Wooooot. EQ1 is getting a new UI engine + DirectX11 upgrade THIS year? Awesome news! Holy crap, lol. Hope to see Nathan Napalm cover this news during his stream tonight, well worth mentioning as it shows that Daybreak is in fact listening and reacting to our feedback. Lots of us in the EQ1 and 2 community have been asking for API, UI and engine upgrades for some time now, and it seems the stone for both games is rolling now. Niahahahahah! Excellent.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Aenvar like this.
  8. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Thank you Kaitheel. That will be hugely appreciated by all the players that did not just get a large content update a month ago. :)
    Cassta and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  9. TheImmortalCrow New Member

    As part of the Mercenary revamp/improvements... PLEASE make them keep pace with you. Nothing is more frustrating than running around, killing mobs, only to hit a group encounter and your merc is so far away it may as well be in a different zone :)
    Feara, Cassta, Juraiya and 5 others like this.
  10. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    With teh mercs, I like the changes coming up, I would also like the ability to buy upgrades for my merc to raise it from Legendary to Fabled to Celestial, kinda like spell upgrades.. make it so it cost quite a bit to burn through some excess plat but not over the limits you put on the broker to keep it fair.

    I dont know how others feel, but I have a couple of treasured mercs that I wouldn't mind upgrading as I like the appearance but the stats on them leave a lot to be desired
  11. Thand Well-Known Member

    When you update to Diredct x 11 will you add in game options for Antsitropic filtering and Anti Aliasing? Most modern card driver only allow that to be set at the Driver level for Direct x9cd and below. i run Antistropic x16 for Eq and it makes the game look so much better
  12. girney Active Member

    will there be gear chests on the currency merchant like we had in vov?
  13. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Before we get much closer to this date it would be nice to know what's going to happen to housing when the servers merge.

    Kaladim has housing in the re-opened villages which many of us are using. Since the villages have still not been re-opened as promised on the live servers AB does not. Some of us also have a house in the inn room that the village houses were moved into when the villages were removed. What's the plan to deal with this?

    Do we end up with 2 houses merged into one? (Potential nasty impact on placements and item counts)
    Do we just lose the house in the village with all its contents?
    Do we end up owning 2 different rooms in the same section of the inn in the main city?
  14. Goldheart Member

    • May:
      • Mercenary AI Update - Mercenaries will more reliably heal and resurrect their companions, and generally react faster, with higher tier mercenaries gaining increased reaction time over their common brethren

    Any chance the older (and very expensive) Ultra-Rare Rogue's Gallery mercs can also be re-scaled to compare with the currently available Fabled crop? It would be nice if Calyptor Atha had enough HP to survive 2 hits from a ruddy cactus.
  15. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Yes, amen! I have a handful (or less; must check the Spreadsheets of the Horde again) of level 120s, no 125s, and I would dearly love to be remembered in my 119 and below state. :)

    Uwk
    who can't be and isn't the only one there...but is a wee bit dismayed that The August Holiday may not ever be Tinkerfest again; ah well, guess the metal heated up too much under an August sun? :-/
    Cassta likes this.
  16. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    It's almost as bad as Leaper mount use not "pocketing" any combat pet sidekicks the way Flyer mount use does. X-P

    Neverwinter Nights had a system where you could specify the distance your hireling kept from/with you, but failing that, I think any time you have an Air Speed mount, the minute you're in the air, it should be that your combat pet "pockets" rather than has to hoof it to catch up to wherever you land. I don't know if Recall Pet helps with Mercs at all or not, and it's a useful thing, but I have yet to get it to a reflex action. And I think NWN's system here would help immensely with insisting that a Merc keep at least within 10' away from you or so, or whatever distance would work for the player.

    Having a minimum distance kept from you (for example, a 10' distance, period, like a 10' leash/pole) might also help those embarrassing moments when the big centaur mercs get a wee bit too friendly/protective ("Chiron, I'm glad you were here when I needed you. Now, please get your hooves off my neck.")... ;->

    Uwk
    Cassta, Aenvar and Pixistik like this.
  17. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Did they change the level cap for RoR (I don't have it yet)? If not, they might not? :-/

    Uwk
    Cassta likes this.
  18. Shunio Member

    It would be nice if it were in German too, they would only have to activate the overlay program against it
  19. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Please do not give them ideas. If I end up with a toon that has 500-600 items in her overflow she'll never get logged in again!

    And back when Kaladim's features were announced we were told that adding the villages back to the live servers would follow at a later date. And that was the last we heard of it.
  20. Tkia Well-Known Member

    I'd kill for this or for pathing to at least keep them behind you. I am so very tired of coming up to an NPC/node/target and just as I click on it one or more of the merc/pet/familiar decides to step right in front me and gets clicked on instead. Then you have to do some ridiculous dance to get them to move so you can click your original target. Or suddenly getting blinded because one of them decides to srand on top of you and all you can see is the inside of their graphic.
    Cassta, Juraiya, Zylara and 3 others like this.