I love doing game design thought experiments. They’re just a lot of fun, and adequately fulfill my allotment of “wanking” for a given week. My hopes for the next WoW expansion were a cheery time to lay out, and so today I’m going to do it again with that *other* game I play on a regular basis. With the Living Legacy news now out, the next expansion to EQ2 is that much closer. And yet, EverQuest 2’s The Shadow of Oddyssey is still far enough away that we really don’t know what it will be about. A few weeks back Massively Speaking featured some discussion on the subject, but ultimately it’s very much an open question.

So let’s take a look at EQ2 from the 1000-foot viewpoint, and try to figure out what we could add to the new and updated version of Norrath. We need something that addresses the needs of more than just the high end players; people like leveling up characters, dangit. Right now the prevailing opinion is that this expansion will either be about the mysterious realm of the Shadowmen or a return to Luclin.

I’m a fan of the whole nostalgia thing, so let’s go that route: back to Luclin for some nostalgia, with a bunch of new and interesting stuff besides.

High Concept: Provide content for every level of play, without raising the level cap again. Provide a return to game elements and locations that players enjoyed in the original EverQuest. Offer new experiences to players leveling up yet another character.

Story Concept: Luclin’s shards have begun to rain down from the heavens, changing the face of Norrath and refocusing the attention of EQ’s races on their celestial follower. The shardfall has numerous effects across the globe.

Destroyed Cities: The most immediately obvious change to the game is the destruction of Qeynos, Freeport, and the zones of the Commonlands/Antonica. Massive hunks of Luclin slammed down into the to major metropoli within hours of the fall’s beginning. Astronomers were able to predict their arrival, but only within a short time of the disaster. Most of the citizenry got out, most notably the Lady Antonia Bayle and the Overlord. The respective coalitions of NPCs have decamped to their sister-aligned cities. Antonia, her court, and the majority of the good NPCs are now stationed in a revamped Greater Faydark. An entire city amongst the trees, as well as new platforms in the high branches, has made the once-sleepy cityscape into a refuge camp/new start.

Meanwhile the evil NPCs have joined with their fellows in Neriak. That zone has seen numerous changes as the Overlords mages assist the Arasai in reworking the ancient, crumbling Dark Elf stronghold. Changes would focus on making the place generally smaller, more logical to traverse, and less chunky on systems.

Meanwhile the former-cities and their attendant starting zones have been transformed into brand-new high level content. Contingents of the former city guard block the way to ex-Antonica and ex-Commonlands unless adventurers prove themselves worthy (and have the expansion). The plains and valleys of these once-natural landscapes are now scarred and pitted by fallen shards. The magical energies of Luclin have wrought drastic changes on the creatures of these zones as well. Formly mild and tame creatures in the Commonlands (like elephants) are now shard-tainted terrors. The sentient monsters, the former orcs and gnolls of these zones, are now ravenous beasts with sick, twisted drives. Blackburrow is a place spoken of only in hushed whispers …

Within the cities themselves, shard-tainted survivors run amok. Yet, in both Qeynos and Freeport, the tainted are put to a task. They dig, scouring away the rock and stone to lay open vast tunnels and sewers … they’re looking for something, driven by a singular intelligence. Who controls the shardtainted, and what does he want with those locales?

Path to the Stars: The “plot” of the expansion, essentially, is the attempt to find the root cause of the shardfall. This is essentially a competition between Good and Evil, a quest and dungeon-based progression game to unlock content amongst the scattered shards of Luclin. Both sides on every server would compete to open up content as quickly as possible, with leaderboards noting the progress of each server on EQ2 Players. Guilds that participate in these activities would get keen bennies, like titles and unique non-combat items/furniture. In the neutral hub of Kunark, there’s be a third entirely different collaboration going on. A group of spellcasters and scholars from both factions have gathered seeking not only answers to the shardfall problem but information about what caused Luclin to explode in the first place. This search would actually require collaboration between the two factions, pitting groups of adventurers from both sides against a third group of unknown origins. The two ladders would be interconnected, with progress in one opening up new challenges and rewards on the other. In this way, each server would have a unique experience of reaching the end goal while a having the same experience at the end of the day.

Luclin Mini-zones: Much of the content of the expansion would be based around Luclin mini-zones. Ranging from small-sized proper zones with ecology and such all the way down to singular dungeons, these areas would be the single biggest addition to EQ2. Each shard is tuned for party or raid sized elements, and with the frission between space and fantasy anything and everything is on the table. New shards would unlock over the course of the progression track, and brand new content can be added freely throughout the game’s lifetime. Think of them sort of like LDoN encounters: focused, story-rich events that give great loot and allow players another way to move up the levels/stuff to do at the level cap.

Mounts: As an ancilliary benefit to all this magical research, a number of new and unique mount types would become available. Obviously these mounts could come from a number of different places, but my hopes would be for: cockatrice mounts, giant spider mounts, drake mounts. It seems so obvious to include flying mounts that could work in the Luclin areas that I won’t even delve too deeply into it. It just sounds like a fun idea.

New Race: With the Sarnak now tipping the scales in favour of the Evil side, the Goodies need another playable race. My vote is for a new group that starts on Luclin itself and ties directly into the ancient lore of Norrath. I think the new playable race should be Clockworks. An advanced gnomish design left behind after contact with the planet was cut off, the gnomish machines have been forced to adapt and develop their own culture in a vacuum. This seems really compelling to me because Clockwork characters could be substantially different than everything else on offer in the game. Their body types could be totally unique, and the only other fantasy game to offer a similar ‘robot-y’ experience is DDO.

New Class: In the same vein as the Clockwork, a great addition to the texture of EQ2’s lore would be a “Gunpowder Soldier” class. A group of gnomes somewhere in the shards of Luclin have perfected the firearm over the last many years, and are now training all comers in its use. It’d be a unique ranged DPS class, with for of an emphasis on DoTing than the Ranger’s “shoot, snare, scoot” tactics. He’d offer some unique alchemical benefits too, making him a a great addition to party or raid gameplay.

Whatever ends up in the next EQ2 expansion, SOE’s in a really interesting place. Unlike WoW, which *has* to retain customers with Lich King, EQ2 is in almost the opposite position now. They’re so much better than they were back in the day that the game is essentially born anew. They can be as creative as they want, and as long as the core experience for players remains unchanged I think they’ll do okay. What I’d like to see them do with this next expansion is just knock it out of the park. Take the lessons of Faydwer and Kunark and go “hey look, we rule over here!” Put the game’s best foot forward in all things, and don’t be afraid to color outside the lines a bit.

This Living Legacy stuff is already a great first step. Ramping the playerbase up for the new content can only be a good thing; I can’t wait to see what is actually in store for us.