EverQuest: Omens of War Previews

A couple more previews for Sony’s EverQuest: Omens of War expansion were posted over the past couple of days. The first is at Allakhazam’s Magical Realm:

If you recall your days as a hapless newb, I’m sure you remember your first encounter with an orc/gnoll/kobold/etc. Though it punched, kicked, slashed, hacked you to a pulp, it only made one sound for attack, and one sound when being hit. With the new mob models, not anymore! Under the new system, sounds are tied to animation. Now, when a Chimera attacks you, the lion head roars as it bites you, the snake part hisses as it strikes. This system will be in place only in the new zones for the time being

Perhaps the biggest graphics change of all is the introduction of shadows. This is very cool. With the shadow setting toggled, all characters and mobs project a true to life drop shadow (I guess we’ll finally find out if Vampires really don’t have shadows next trip to Mistmoore!). These new shadows work just like their real life counterparts. If the sun is behind you, you get a long shadow. Overhead, and you get a relatively short shadow. If you are on broken terrain, your shadow follows the terrain. No more need for that /time command! Now you can tell when it is just by the position of the sun, or the moons!

And the second is at EQTraders:

was shown a lot of fantastic new art: from realistic-looking moss-covered walls, to mobs with fantastic ice and fire effects. (The frost spreading across the floor as one mob stalked after a hapless halfling was most impressive!) Mind you, none of the beasties that I saw were ones that I’d want to meet in a dark alley without a strong party behind me, but they put up with my ogling due to my escort at the time.

Even in the old world, there are a few new effects: air bubbles when you’re underwater, being able to see small plumes of frost when you breathe the cold air of Halas, etc. Of course, if Brenlo hadn’t reminded me to surface for air, I’d probably have done something silly and watched the bubbles until I drowned, but I’ve always been fascinated with the little details. {grin}