E3 2001 Hands-onEverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin
We take off for a moon called Luclin in the forthcoming expansion to EverQuest.
We arrived at the Sony Online Entertainment booth where both a large mural of The Shadows of Luclin and a live Firiona Vie told us that we were about to be transported to another world. Brad McQuaid, Jeff Butler, and Gordon Wrinn of Sony Online were on hand to show the next expansion to EverQuest. The demonstration started with a run through one of Luclin's new outdoor zones where obvious improvements to the EverQuest engine could be seen. New terrain textures give Luclin a much more detailed appearance, and the sky looks significantly better. The planet Norrath could even be seen in the Luclin sky. Verant also showed some of the new higher-polygon character models, such as the gnome, which has been seen in previously released screenshots, and the new Vah Shir race of cat people. The Vah Shir (also known as Kerrans) look like tiger people; the male model we saw was pretty nice, but the armor it was wearing was even more impressive. In the expansion, items such as breastplates will be individual items you can put on and take off instead of the current game's swappable textures. According to producer Jeff Butler, bracers and shoulder items will also be attachable/detachable items.
In addition to the more-detailed outdoor environments, the indoor environments we visited next were very ornate. For example, different textures indicating marble and other organic surfaces could be seen on the floors and walls of the cities, and there will be much more detail and color in certain landmarks like wall bas-reliefs and mosaics. Even small head-shaped sculptures contained particle-based fires, which is definitely a step up from the way fire is represented in the current game. In addition, Butler hinted at new particle animations for spellcasting on Luclin. Tweaks to the EverQuest engine also allow for higher geometry areas indoors.
At the demo, a couple of improvements weren't shown, as they hadn't been implemented yet. We weren't able to see the new facial animations, but Butler said that most of the new models were "done" but still needed textures added and other minor work. New character animations are still being added to the game, so we were able to see only a few. The character models we saw, though, including one very large beetle creature, looked quite good.
Since the expansion is still in development, gameplay additions and changes have not been finalized. When asked about the character advancement options for high-level characters, Butler said that there were many directions the development team could go, such as trading some experience for new abilities or disciplines, or trading experience for more skill increases; however, all the possibilities have not been fully explored at this stage.
There's no doubt that The Shadows of Luclin looks very good at this stage, so the remaining question for all EverQuest fans is whether or not Verant will add enough new gameplay elements to match the engine and character model overhaul.
- Sony Online Entertainment
- Fantasy Online...
- Release: Dec 2, 2001
- ESRB: Teen
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