EQ2 - The Shadow Odyssey expansion thoughts

I've been keeping abreast of developments in the EQ2 world recently, though I do think the devs have somewhat lost the plot since the days when I started playing. I played between the release of two expansions, the first one bringing back one of the best-loved continents of original EQ1 and raising the level cap to 70, and providing a full levelling experience right from level 1 to level 70 on just that continent. The second one brought back probably the best loved continent from EQ1, raising the level cap from 70-80 and adding a HUGE amount of new content. In the meantime, the devs had added a new raid zone and a brand spanking new starting city and starting zone, which I thought was fantastic.

Recently, they've not added a great deal in the way of new or seriously revamped zones - and those are the lifeblood of an MMO. Adding new tradeskill recipes and balancing classes is vital too, but new content is THE single most important thing to an MMORPG. Recently, a proposed skeletal revamp that would allow new weapons and armour graphics to be created much faster (and therefore have modellers make each one higher quality) has fallen through, and no attempt has been made to revamp the old zones of EQ2 that are extremely dated and offer a poor gaming experience.

I could understand that if a new expansion was on the way, one that would offer a whole new path to level 80-90 on a wonderful new continent, but sadly that appears not to be the case. I was holding out high hopes for a combined return of the final two continents from the golden age of EQ2, Odus and Velious. Odus was a continent available in the original EQ1 on release, the starting zone of the Erudites, a race already in EQ2. It's certainly conceivable that Odus could be remade to offer a levelling experience from 1-70/80, while Velious could be added for higher level players from 80-90. For those of you unfamiliar with EQ1, Velious was the second expansion to EQ1 that provided content for levels 35+ when the level cap was 50, and it was awesome. Given the massive success of the returns of Faydwer and Kunark in the last two expansions, I'm disappointed that SOE did not continue along the same path. EQ2 hasn't got many years left in it, I'd have thought, so it's a shame that they haven't fully tapped the rich vein of history while EQ2 is still in its heyday.

Oh well, it's something I'll have to get over. It seems EQ1 veterans only make up a smallish proportion of the EQ2 population, so keeping us happy probably isn't the top priority. So I'll move onto the meat of the expansion, the content. In a nutshell, it offers no raise in level cap but a raise in the number of AA points that can be earned (like talent points in WoW) and some new trees to go with them, a new overland zone and a bunch of dungeons - many of them favourites from EQ1. Oh, and there's some new quests and the chance to earn 'shards' from running the dungeons, which can be traded in for high-level gear - making epic equipment grindable for non-raiders for the first time in EQ2.

That's it, though, and I find myself feeling fairly underwhelmed by it all when compared to the last two expansions. Sure, in terms of raw zone increase, the new expansion will have 20 and that's probably close to what Faydwer offered, but only one is an overland zone and so the world's not going to feel much bigger. The addition of new dungeons is going to be cool, but unfortunately it completely invalidates all the existing max-level dungeons, so the net gain of playable zones isn't really going to be that much. The new quests and AA trees are another bonus, but then the previous expansions had the former in spades and offered similar AA gains through raising the level cap.

Additionally, the choice to let players grind endgame gear is a bad one, I think. I'm all for giving the non-raiders more to do, but I don't think they should be rewarded with the very best gear for the simple reason that it just turns the endgame into a grind, after which there's literally nothing more to do. I remember the virtually compulsory faction grind in Alterac Valley in pre-BC WoW once you hit level 60, so you could get your epic ring, mount and weapon. I understand that a lot of players don't have the time to raid any more - I'm one of them - but I still think raiding has its place in MMORPGS, as they're the ultimate incarnation of teamwork and essentially teamwork is what an MMORPG is about. But I still understand non-raiders' concerns that they'll never be able to compete with raiders due to the gear advantage the latter have, for instance in PvP, but giving the non-raiders access to the same gear seems to wrong solution to me. I'd simply make raid gear unusuable in PvP, preserving the advantage of having it but still allowing the non-raiders to hold their own if it comes to a confrontation.

Okay, that aside, let's look at the zones. Innothule Swamp is the overland zone, in EQ1 the home of the trolls and an all-round cool zone that sat pretty close to the Feerott. I think the devs have missed a chance to introduce a new starting city by bringing Grobb back, but that's probably just me. Anyway, presumably Innothule will act as a hub for all the new dungeons, which include such familiar faces as Guk, Najena, Mistmoore and Befallen. Several of those names are very well-known among EQ1 players, but it just doesn't strike me as enough. I know the original EQ had the Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion, which in principle was very much like this one (sadly though I never played it) in the way it had a lot of dungeons and allowed the player to complete missions to earn high level gear, but the one thing that EQ1 had over the current iteration of EQ2 is that the gameworld at that point was MASSIVE. After only one expansion, EQ1 had some 80 full zones (and none of them instanced copies of other zones). LDoN was the 6th expansion of EQ1, so as you can imagine the gameworld was absolutely huge by then.

Really, I genuinely think the Shadow Odyssey sounds like a great idea for an endgame. But EQ2's not complete enough to warrant it yet. The game's just not big enough, and the progression is currently all shot to hell. The LDoN-style expansion is like a cherry on top of an ice-cream - it's a fantastic final touch, but it just looks silly if you put it on a half-finished ice cream. To me, the Shadow Odyssey is a step backwards from previous expansions. They've been getting steadily bigger and better up until now, but the proposed Shadow Odyssey plans just seem like a half-hearted attempt to make an expansion by bolting together a bunch of new zones (and not even outdooor zones) without bothering to connect them up properly and make them into a cohesive unit. Much like the original EQ2, in fact.

To me, the Shadow Odyssey seems like it should be released as one of the now-defunct Adventure Packs, rather than an expansion in its own right. And I'm disappointed that it's the best that SOE have to offer for this year's expansion, frankly. Not really doing a very good job of enticing me back.