From Casters Realm:
The basic layout is there are 13 Brand spanking new zones:
Crescent Reach (1-20)
Blightfire Moors (20-40)
Stone Hive (30-50)
Goru`kar Mesa (40-60)
Blackfeather Roost (50-70)
The Steppes (55-75)
Icefall Glacier (65+)
Valdeholm (70+)
Frostcrypt, Throne of the Shade King (70+ Raids)
Sunderock Springs (55-75)
Vergalid Mines (65+)
Direwind Cliffs (70+)
Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale (70+ Raids)
And Highhold Pass has undergone a massive revamp. Now you may be curious why my addled brain has chosen to order the zones as such, well for those of you who remember Dragons of Norrath and Velious there are two very distinctive paths.
The expansion is nestled within the Serpentspine Mountains, a range of mountains that runs in the center of Antonica. This area of the expanion used to be ruled over by giants and ogres back before the Raellosian wars and the invasion of the planes. Great civilizations rose and fell in this time and for the most part had closed their borders until recently. What changed all of this was the creation of the Drakkin race. Mortals since the elder age and much before have been indiscrimitly destroying the dragon races, invading their nesting grounds, and pillaging their holy temples and cities. Six elder dragons chose to break from the wisdom of the Scale and Claw of Veeshan to create a race of gaurdians to protect the future of Dragonkind...The six dragons in the Circle: Venesh the Greenblood (green); Draton`ra, Master of the Void (black); Keikolin, Bringer of Enlightenment (gold); Mysaphar, Seeker of All (white/silver); Atathus the Red Lord (duh); and Osh`vir the Windspirit (blue).
These dragons formed their own council and travelled across norrath selecting (in the case of the evil dragons kidnapping) humans to form this new race of theirs, and chose Nokk an ancient city of ogres from before the curse that made them into the semi-intelligent race of today and built a new foundation of civilization called Crescent Reach. Crescent Reach (CR) is the heart of this expansion, with several hundred quests revolving around here. Players of any race/class combination may choose to start here, and Drakkins may choose to be any class but Beastlords, Berserkers and Shaman (this is subject to change).
Players are intended to play the tutorial before moving on to CR but it is not neccesary as there are a plethora of newbie training yards, guildmasters, spell merchants and more. In addition all of the tradeskill mastery quests as well as newbie introduction quests for tradeskilling have been ported to CR. All players who wish to find a home in CR may do so, but must begin by introducing themselves to the ruling Drakkin council, and beginning to build a reputation and loyalty among the various factions located here (somewhat similar to EQ2). This is taken a step further if you are a Drakkin and may develop various racial abilities once you have become famous enough to take on quests personally for your Dragon patron. There is a tremendous amount of the small details that are designed to bring CR to life and more are added every day, from drunken dwarves to jealous brothers there is literally a novella worth of stories here.
One of the nicer features of this expansion is that there are many model revamps including oozes, bears, spectres and more that will echo across all of Everquest. There is also enough content that players may experience from 1-75 and never need leave the expansion, with quests and hunting ground for all the levels between. It is also the most ambitious expansion ever with almost 70k words of just storyline/lore (with a new delievery mechanic), 500+ quests, almost 1400 PC+NPC spells/effects, several thousand items and more spiders then you can shake a giant's shoe at. The zones themselves are all on the scale of Wall of Slaughter or larger, to include ones that are not only flat, but move into the Z plane as you ascend. There is a good mix of outdoor zones as well as dungeons with most content being set firmly in non-instanced zones.
Blightfire Moors is located just outside of CR and is the origin of the curse that afflicts the giants who attempted to overthrow Rallos Zek after his failed foray into the Plane of Earth. Permanently overcast, undead abound here as well as old temples and buildings from a bygone age. Light plays an important part of this zone and the events located here. There are group and multi-group events for lower level players as well as large tracts of camping and mini-dungeons located in caves throughout. Gnolls, Goblins, Giants, Undead, Witches, Oozes, Animals you name it and they live here. The swamp areas between the fog, environmental sounds, witches, and overcast skys are quite the experience, and if your not careful you will get seperated from your group even if they are mere feet away as you sink to your doom in the marshes.
Past the marshes and through the swamps we arrive at one of the most beautiful zones ever to be created for the Everquest IP, Stone Hive, the land of the Bixies. This is a level 30 to 50 dungeon and home to the newly evolved bixie race. There are 3 primary areas (center, above and below) as well as outdoor areas for hunting and exploring. This zone has several distinct areas that lend themselves to groups camping and being able to pull a wide variety of mini-named monsters.
Beyond the Bixies is Goru'Kar Mesa, home to the Satyrs, Centaurs and other Fey races. This is a very important zone in the expansion where players must first begin to choose as the expansion branches into two seperate paths, one that leads up a glacier and the other towards a volcano (one towards freedom and the other towards an opressive regime,run by Dyn'leth bent on capturing slaves for his army and holding a holy relic, the Scale of Veeshan, and corrupting the very land with his Volcano, what will be the future of Dragon-kind). This zone is also the 'Buffet' for the nearby griffins and harpies in the Roost. There are also many dangerous environmental factors here that players must be mindful of or risk a grisly death, this becomes even more important and deadly the deeper you venture into the expansion. One of the most memorable areas in this zone is the Tree of Life, it is here that hope resides for the Drakkin.
The Roost is home to Harpies, Griffins, and Soldiers... much like the ascent you move from area to area as you work your way up, do not fall, do not get picked up by a harpy and thrown to your death... its a long walk back. This is a good place to mention a new death mechanic (similar to EQ2) in which you die and remain at your corpse with the option to return to your bindpoint or wait for a resurrection, the fact that forced zoning has been removed speeds up gameplay significantly and will be a boon to raider and group-player alike.
There are several interactive objects (nests) here that you can destroy that will summon monsters (it kind of reminds me of Gauntlet) and make great experience camps with named mobs and all. To access the higher (and more rewarding areas) players must complete quests to use the griffin transporters as you move through the three plateuas and finally the Queens roost.
Heading further up the Glacier you arrive in The Steppes, the steppes here are cut by an ancient glacier that has receeded to the north and you'll find that the zone slows upwards are you head north. This branch of the expansion deals with the story of the giants and their curse. When The Rathe cursed the giants, there was one sect that managed to avoid the curse because they didn't join in the fight, these giants retain their intellect and live in a city to the north called Valdeholm, but suffer under a curse of their own, Rallos has his own cursed involved here, though...for their cowardice, Rallos cursed the Krithgor (the giants here) and when they die, they rise again as shades whose only purpose is to destroy their former friends and family. The Krithgor pretty much keep to Valdeholm these days...venturing beyond it draws the attention of the shades. Giants, Shades, Wolves, Orcs, Goblins and more abound here and the tunnels are very dangerous.
Icefall Glacier holds the distinction of being where the invasion to the Plane of Earth took place, the remains of the portal play a key role in this zone. More of the Goblinoid/Giant races and their servants abound as well as a cold expanses reminscent of Velious.
Valdeholm, the Giant city overlooks a giant iceflow that covers the remains of the endzone Frostcrypt. In front of the city are the Wraithguard, outcasts of the Krithgor who hold the line against the shades of Zek. This is a 70+ outdoor dungeon containing the Kirthgor and their pets.
Frostcrypt, Throne of the Shade King is the endzone for half of the expansion...frostcrypt is both an end game dungeon and a raid zone...similar to dreadspire, the raid zone is instanced while the dungeon is static. The front area of the zone is largely mindless undead while the shades, the true terrors, make their home deeper inside.
Moving to the other path Sunderock Springs begins our journey toward the volcano and is the other half of the main storyline. This side of the story centers around Dyn'leth, a half-dragon/half-elf who controls an artifact of veeshan and lords over this domain, he's raising an army for conquest and enslaving Drakkin to his cause. Geothermal fissures and springs are dangerous to players so be warned.
The Vergalid Mines lay underneath the Springs towards the cliffs, this mine fuels Dyn'leth's war machine and is manned largely by slaves, both giant and Drakkin. Those drakkin touched by the red or black dragons are evil and willing participants in dyn'leths army, the blue and green are the neutral dragons and you'll find some of them willing and some slaves, silver and gold make up the good dragons and are hard to turn to slavery. More mini-named as well as the global rare drops. At the bottom of the mines lay Vergalid himself, he was one of the guardians of the scale that Dyn'leth now controls and was injured during solusek ro's upheavel of these mountains, he lay trapped under rocks for years, being mentally tortured by Lethar, another guardian of the scale (and eventual father of Dyn'leth) who wanted control of the scale himself.
Direwind Cliffs is the ascent to Ashengate, like Frodo climbing mount doom, ash hangs heavy in the air and the burning skies... this is the staging area for Dyn'leth's army. This area has been devastated by the corruption coming down from the volcano so is pretty much dead and undead.
Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale and final endzone along this storyline. It is very reminiscent of the Temple of Veeshan, although there is some structural damage from when Solusek Ro raised the mountains and destroyed the forests. One of the important features in the west hall is the Tears of the Betrayed, he lava flowing from the eyes of the dragon is based off the guardians that Lethar killed to gain control of the scale. In the central hall is a gift from Queen Veeshan to her brood, a single scale that occupies most of this vaulted room with a honor gaurd of Drakkin, it holds a power over dragons that Lethar and Dyn'leth have used.
TSS will also host a number of new changes to design and aquisition such as the spell system. We will be experimenting with Spell Ranks (much like EQ2) in which the base spell for core/critical spells are easily obtained perhaps through a vendor or a common drop or easy quest, but there are upgrades to said spell through harder means that increase the power of said spell.
Character creation has also been revamped and is much smoother to use, many of the promised changes on eqlive such as the downtime system and spell resist systems will be revamped and the new Con system that will allow dark blues to be more readily identified.
The basic layout is there are 13 Brand spanking new zones:
Crescent Reach (1-20)
Blightfire Moors (20-40)
Stone Hive (30-50)
Goru`kar Mesa (40-60)
Blackfeather Roost (50-70)
The Steppes (55-75)
Icefall Glacier (65+)
Valdeholm (70+)
Frostcrypt, Throne of the Shade King (70+ Raids)
Sunderock Springs (55-75)
Vergalid Mines (65+)
Direwind Cliffs (70+)
Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale (70+ Raids)
And Highhold Pass has undergone a massive revamp. Now you may be curious why my addled brain has chosen to order the zones as such, well for those of you who remember Dragons of Norrath and Velious there are two very distinctive paths.
The expansion is nestled within the Serpentspine Mountains, a range of mountains that runs in the center of Antonica. This area of the expanion used to be ruled over by giants and ogres back before the Raellosian wars and the invasion of the planes. Great civilizations rose and fell in this time and for the most part had closed their borders until recently. What changed all of this was the creation of the Drakkin race. Mortals since the elder age and much before have been indiscrimitly destroying the dragon races, invading their nesting grounds, and pillaging their holy temples and cities. Six elder dragons chose to break from the wisdom of the Scale and Claw of Veeshan to create a race of gaurdians to protect the future of Dragonkind...The six dragons in the Circle: Venesh the Greenblood (green); Draton`ra, Master of the Void (black); Keikolin, Bringer of Enlightenment (gold); Mysaphar, Seeker of All (white/silver); Atathus the Red Lord (duh); and Osh`vir the Windspirit (blue).
These dragons formed their own council and travelled across norrath selecting (in the case of the evil dragons kidnapping) humans to form this new race of theirs, and chose Nokk an ancient city of ogres from before the curse that made them into the semi-intelligent race of today and built a new foundation of civilization called Crescent Reach. Crescent Reach (CR) is the heart of this expansion, with several hundred quests revolving around here. Players of any race/class combination may choose to start here, and Drakkins may choose to be any class but Beastlords, Berserkers and Shaman (this is subject to change).
Players are intended to play the tutorial before moving on to CR but it is not neccesary as there are a plethora of newbie training yards, guildmasters, spell merchants and more. In addition all of the tradeskill mastery quests as well as newbie introduction quests for tradeskilling have been ported to CR. All players who wish to find a home in CR may do so, but must begin by introducing themselves to the ruling Drakkin council, and beginning to build a reputation and loyalty among the various factions located here (somewhat similar to EQ2). This is taken a step further if you are a Drakkin and may develop various racial abilities once you have become famous enough to take on quests personally for your Dragon patron. There is a tremendous amount of the small details that are designed to bring CR to life and more are added every day, from drunken dwarves to jealous brothers there is literally a novella worth of stories here.
One of the nicer features of this expansion is that there are many model revamps including oozes, bears, spectres and more that will echo across all of Everquest. There is also enough content that players may experience from 1-75 and never need leave the expansion, with quests and hunting ground for all the levels between. It is also the most ambitious expansion ever with almost 70k words of just storyline/lore (with a new delievery mechanic), 500+ quests, almost 1400 PC+NPC spells/effects, several thousand items and more spiders then you can shake a giant's shoe at. The zones themselves are all on the scale of Wall of Slaughter or larger, to include ones that are not only flat, but move into the Z plane as you ascend. There is a good mix of outdoor zones as well as dungeons with most content being set firmly in non-instanced zones.
Blightfire Moors is located just outside of CR and is the origin of the curse that afflicts the giants who attempted to overthrow Rallos Zek after his failed foray into the Plane of Earth. Permanently overcast, undead abound here as well as old temples and buildings from a bygone age. Light plays an important part of this zone and the events located here. There are group and multi-group events for lower level players as well as large tracts of camping and mini-dungeons located in caves throughout. Gnolls, Goblins, Giants, Undead, Witches, Oozes, Animals you name it and they live here. The swamp areas between the fog, environmental sounds, witches, and overcast skys are quite the experience, and if your not careful you will get seperated from your group even if they are mere feet away as you sink to your doom in the marshes.
Past the marshes and through the swamps we arrive at one of the most beautiful zones ever to be created for the Everquest IP, Stone Hive, the land of the Bixies. This is a level 30 to 50 dungeon and home to the newly evolved bixie race. There are 3 primary areas (center, above and below) as well as outdoor areas for hunting and exploring. This zone has several distinct areas that lend themselves to groups camping and being able to pull a wide variety of mini-named monsters.
Beyond the Bixies is Goru'Kar Mesa, home to the Satyrs, Centaurs and other Fey races. This is a very important zone in the expansion where players must first begin to choose as the expansion branches into two seperate paths, one that leads up a glacier and the other towards a volcano (one towards freedom and the other towards an opressive regime,run by Dyn'leth bent on capturing slaves for his army and holding a holy relic, the Scale of Veeshan, and corrupting the very land with his Volcano, what will be the future of Dragon-kind). This zone is also the 'Buffet' for the nearby griffins and harpies in the Roost. There are also many dangerous environmental factors here that players must be mindful of or risk a grisly death, this becomes even more important and deadly the deeper you venture into the expansion. One of the most memorable areas in this zone is the Tree of Life, it is here that hope resides for the Drakkin.
The Roost is home to Harpies, Griffins, and Soldiers... much like the ascent you move from area to area as you work your way up, do not fall, do not get picked up by a harpy and thrown to your death... its a long walk back. This is a good place to mention a new death mechanic (similar to EQ2) in which you die and remain at your corpse with the option to return to your bindpoint or wait for a resurrection, the fact that forced zoning has been removed speeds up gameplay significantly and will be a boon to raider and group-player alike.
There are several interactive objects (nests) here that you can destroy that will summon monsters (it kind of reminds me of Gauntlet) and make great experience camps with named mobs and all. To access the higher (and more rewarding areas) players must complete quests to use the griffin transporters as you move through the three plateuas and finally the Queens roost.
Heading further up the Glacier you arrive in The Steppes, the steppes here are cut by an ancient glacier that has receeded to the north and you'll find that the zone slows upwards are you head north. This branch of the expansion deals with the story of the giants and their curse. When The Rathe cursed the giants, there was one sect that managed to avoid the curse because they didn't join in the fight, these giants retain their intellect and live in a city to the north called Valdeholm, but suffer under a curse of their own, Rallos has his own cursed involved here, though...for their cowardice, Rallos cursed the Krithgor (the giants here) and when they die, they rise again as shades whose only purpose is to destroy their former friends and family. The Krithgor pretty much keep to Valdeholm these days...venturing beyond it draws the attention of the shades. Giants, Shades, Wolves, Orcs, Goblins and more abound here and the tunnels are very dangerous.
Icefall Glacier holds the distinction of being where the invasion to the Plane of Earth took place, the remains of the portal play a key role in this zone. More of the Goblinoid/Giant races and their servants abound as well as a cold expanses reminscent of Velious.
Valdeholm, the Giant city overlooks a giant iceflow that covers the remains of the endzone Frostcrypt. In front of the city are the Wraithguard, outcasts of the Krithgor who hold the line against the shades of Zek. This is a 70+ outdoor dungeon containing the Kirthgor and their pets.
Frostcrypt, Throne of the Shade King is the endzone for half of the expansion...frostcrypt is both an end game dungeon and a raid zone...similar to dreadspire, the raid zone is instanced while the dungeon is static. The front area of the zone is largely mindless undead while the shades, the true terrors, make their home deeper inside.
Moving to the other path Sunderock Springs begins our journey toward the volcano and is the other half of the main storyline. This side of the story centers around Dyn'leth, a half-dragon/half-elf who controls an artifact of veeshan and lords over this domain, he's raising an army for conquest and enslaving Drakkin to his cause. Geothermal fissures and springs are dangerous to players so be warned.
The Vergalid Mines lay underneath the Springs towards the cliffs, this mine fuels Dyn'leth's war machine and is manned largely by slaves, both giant and Drakkin. Those drakkin touched by the red or black dragons are evil and willing participants in dyn'leths army, the blue and green are the neutral dragons and you'll find some of them willing and some slaves, silver and gold make up the good dragons and are hard to turn to slavery. More mini-named as well as the global rare drops. At the bottom of the mines lay Vergalid himself, he was one of the guardians of the scale that Dyn'leth now controls and was injured during solusek ro's upheavel of these mountains, he lay trapped under rocks for years, being mentally tortured by Lethar, another guardian of the scale (and eventual father of Dyn'leth) who wanted control of the scale himself.
Direwind Cliffs is the ascent to Ashengate, like Frodo climbing mount doom, ash hangs heavy in the air and the burning skies... this is the staging area for Dyn'leth's army. This area has been devastated by the corruption coming down from the volcano so is pretty much dead and undead.
Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale and final endzone along this storyline. It is very reminiscent of the Temple of Veeshan, although there is some structural damage from when Solusek Ro raised the mountains and destroyed the forests. One of the important features in the west hall is the Tears of the Betrayed, he lava flowing from the eyes of the dragon is based off the guardians that Lethar killed to gain control of the scale. In the central hall is a gift from Queen Veeshan to her brood, a single scale that occupies most of this vaulted room with a honor gaurd of Drakkin, it holds a power over dragons that Lethar and Dyn'leth have used.
TSS will also host a number of new changes to design and aquisition such as the spell system. We will be experimenting with Spell Ranks (much like EQ2) in which the base spell for core/critical spells are easily obtained perhaps through a vendor or a common drop or easy quest, but there are upgrades to said spell through harder means that increase the power of said spell.
Character creation has also been revamped and is much smoother to use, many of the promised changes on eqlive such as the downtime system and spell resist systems will be revamped and the new Con system that will allow dark blues to be more readily identified.
