EverQuest II: Age of Discovery Revealed

We haven’t seen a press release or anything yet, but EQ2Wire brings word from the SOE Fan Faire that a new EverQuest II expansion pack entitled Age of Discovery is in development and will be released sometime this November. What we know so far:

EverQuest II: Age of Discovery, while it will undoubtedly have new content, will be largely a Features expansion. Destiny of Velious content, including overland zones, group dungeons, and raids will continue to be released in content updates in August, November, and well into 2012. This is a new approach to expansions as usually, once a new expansion has been released, previous expansions have rarely gotten new dungeons or content besides quest revamps, etc.

So what can we expect this year? Dave (SmokeJumper) Georgeson, Executive Producer of the EverQuest franchise including EQ, EQ2, and EQNext, revealed several new items.

In lieu of a level cap raise we’ll see another increase in Alternate Advancement points. Indeed, I have heard from several sources that EQ2 will remain a level 90 game for the forseeable future due to mechanics limitations.

We can also expect to see a feature from other games as well as SOE’s own EverQuest Live Mercenaries. Perhaps conceding that lower level content just doesn’t have the appeal to draw groups, Mercenaries are NPCs that will help you if you can’t fill a group.

We’ve also been told to expect a new Tradeskill Apprentice. They use a new crafting workstation, although the exact nature of this class was a bit vague, as we were told they can be ‘˜trained up to make new recipes’. They may be a sort of Tradeskill Mercenary.