EverQuest II Interview

Ten Ton Hammer had the chance to chat with EverQuest II lead content designer Noel Walling and lead mechanics designer Jennifer Gerull about their plans to implement a research system for players to enhance combat abilities and spells.

As of now, the best ability enhancements are only available through extremely rare drops that are usually sold for small fortunes to those wealthy enough to buy them. However, the EQ2 team proposes to change all this in a future Game Update by granting players a way to receive any level enhancement they wish if enough time is invested. Ten Ton Hammer wanted to learn more about this intriguing proposal so we talked with Lead Content Designer Noel (Ilucide) Walling and Lead Mechanics Designer Jennifer (Kirstie) Gerull who shared some of the ideas they were floating around.

The most popular question about big updates is always (when) and both Walling and Gerull were quick to assure us that this change wouldn’t be going in with Game Update 51 with the Lavastorm revamp. (The project we’re working on now,) Kirstie stated, (is what we’re calling Research Assistants. They will be a mechanism in game that will allow you to have an NPC perform research upgrades to your existing spells while you are either online or offline.) The current plan they have is to grant a single research at a time on one character per account so the advantages are bestowed at a regulated pace.