 Kingdom of Sky Press Tour
The Doorway to New AdventureLast week I, and representatives from other community sites, had a chance to tour the Kingdom of Sky (KoS) beta. For those who've seen some of my past EQ beta reviews, I tend to present slightly skewed reviews that give you more of the look and feel of an expansion, and less of the hard data on lore and background, since that tends to appeal to the tradeskillers a tad more. (Of course, with all sorts of furfooted narrative asides thrown throughout, just to add a bit more pizzaz!) So, buckle up and brace yourself for a halfling's-eye-view of the KoS expansion! (Click on the images throughout the article to see slightly larger views of them, by the way.)For those of you who have read the official press release, or seen the tour writeups on other sites, you'll have heard about the new features like adventuring and tradeskill levels increasing to level 70, new armor quests that include profession hats for the adventurers, new Arena Champions and new arenas, PvP servers and suchlike, but what does that really mean to you as an adventurer? As a tradeskiller? I'll get to some of that ... in my own good time.  Beauty is in the Eye of the BeholderAs with any expansion, there's a lot of eye-candy as you roam around discovering all the sights. Floating islands in the sky, new mob models to stare at (although some of them, like this beholder to the right, stare back in the most disconcerting way!), and new indoor and outdoor adventuring areas that should, quite simply, take your breath away.As always, I was quite grateful to be able to play "tourist" and eyeball some of this stuff without getting eaten by the local flora and fauna. (Welllll, more or less. We did get nibbled on, now and then, but it was a ton of fun.) You see, I'm one of those players that artists love, and game developers snicker at. I adore ogling all the pretty artwork, and I'm infamous for staring at it a tad too much the first time that I see it. (Hence why, back in my EQ beta days, one of my first deaths was to a griffon in the Commonlands, as ooooh'ed and ahhhh'ed over how pretty it was!) Not all of the creatures are what I'd call "pretty" this time around, nor are some of them meant to be, but they are all impressively well-done. (I am NOT a big bug-lover, but one of my favorite new models has to be one that looks a lot like it was based on a praying mantis - you'll know exactly which ones I mean when you first meet them! 
Welcome to the Islands, Mon!When you first arrive in Tenebrous Tangle, one of the main entry points into the Kingdom of Sky, be sure to chat with Jabber Longwind (left) for a bit of background on the region. As you might guess from his name, he tends to go on a bit, but there's a lot of ground to cover ... and sky ... and more ground ... There's so much to discover up there, beyond the clouds, where we normally can't see it from the ground. Lots and lots of islands in the sky, some attatched to each other by huge ancient chains, others floating loose. You'll also find the remnants of some of these chains lying around on the ground, which will give you an idea of how massive these things truly are. (For those of you folks who played EQ and are thinking of the Plane of Air right about now, while you can see hints of it here and there, as some of these islands did come from there long ago, this is NOT your great-great-great grandfather's plane anymore, so you'll want to check some of your preconceptions at the door. {grins})
One of the first things you should learn, is "Don't Jump". (Insider joke: unless you're a certain elven lemming-wizard guildmate of mine, and then you can jump to your heart's content ... or at least until you run out of cash for the repair bills!) No matter how tempting it might be to run off the edge of an island and out into the open air, aiming for another island, the results are most usually, with one notable exception, quite fatal. What? An exception to the rules already? The exception is when you Walk the Plank. (see image to the right) Arrrrrrrrrr. The trick, mind you, is to aim for the blue stuff (water) that you see wayyyyy below you, and you'll have enough time during your fall to adjust your angle and say a brief prayer. (The first time that I tried this, I forgot to take into account the extra drag from all my toe-fur, and turned into a halfling pancake on the rocks. I'm happy to say that I've gotten the hang of it since then!)  Travel to and fro on these islands takes a bit of getting used to, for those who are prone to getting lost {raises hand}, but it can be fun once you have a handy cheat-sheet of which what connects to where. On top of the wizzie spires scattered here and there that will transport you from main region to main region, you will find platforms on the various islands that will let you hop a cloud (left) to one or more locations. While you're busy air surfing, remember my rule from above, and Don't Jump, unless you really like those high repair bills. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about this expansion, as I'm one of those folks who gets RL vertigo badly enough that there were a few times in EQ where I'd have to have my hubby come up and navigate through somewhere for me (Death Star in Velk's, invisible bridge in the Deep), and I've had a couple close calls in EQ2. Thankfully, that wasn't an issue here, as you can generally tell when you're getting close to the edge of something without having to stare fixedly down at your toes (which always made the "ulp" feeling for me worse). What's in it for Adventurers?
Much of the adventure content is geared towards adventurers that are level 55 to 70, with a good mix of solo, group and raid content. There are indoor and outdoor adventuring areas, lots and lots of new quests and collections, and of course, there be dragons. (The savvy adventurer who hasn't done so already, would be wise to visit the ogaming site and look into the Speak as a Dragon quest, as you never know when it may be handy to understand their language. You may run into a few familiar names among the dragons, but there are several greater and lesser ones that will be totally new faces. Before the under-55 adventuring crowd gets too disheartened, there are a few goodies for them as well. Various occurrences will now count towards Achievement experience for those that are level 20 and above. Some good examples would be: exploration xp, killing a named mob that provides you with some challenge (level-appropriate), general combat xp, completion of challenging (again, level-appropriate) quests. This achievement xp is gained at the same time as (not in place of) normal adventuring experience, and as you gain achievement levels, you can progress down some very interesting class-specific paths that give your character a lot more customization. You're not meant to be able to obtain all of your class's achievement abilities, so you'll want to study the paths carefully, and decide which one is right for you. (My mystic is quite happy, for example, now that she's got her spirit companion that she grew so fond of in EQ.) For the more bloodthirsty or combative sorts, there will also be new PvP servers, to allow you to pit your wits and skills against other players, instead of just against the creatures of Norrath. To ensure an even playing field at the start, there are not plans to allow character transfers over to these servers. Since I don't touch PvP unless forced to, you can read more about the PvP side of things over in this article on the EQ2Players site.  Goodies for TradeskillersOne of the most massive changes to tradeskills is hitting at the same time as the expansion, and it, understandably, has a few folks in a tizzy. While there are still things being worked out in the couple of weeks between now and the Feb. 21 launch date, here's the basic gist of it: a) subcombines (refines and interims) are going away, b) potions and poisons will be getting a complete revamp, so that they're more standardized across the tiers, and you can more easily figure out what they're supposed to do based on the name. Having tried the new system out on the new recipes, I can state that I, personally, am looking forward to not having to take forever and a decade to make up all the bits and pieces of this and that (no more inks!?!) before I can make goodies for folks, especially stuff from lower tiers, that I normally don't keep sub-parts on hand for. Discovery xp for the various items is supposed to be a bit higher than it used to be, in order to make up for the fact that you're not discovering a ton of refines and interims along the way. For those who used to despair of some of the monotony from crafting, this should be a welcome change. For those who used to use sub-part crafting as a cure for insomnia (I kid you not!) you may want to start looking for other ways to put yourself to sleep. All classes will be getting level 60-69 recipes, of course, but there are a few surprises here and there. Gear ChangesI can't say much about the final stats on items, as those are prone to change still, but with the tier 7 gear, there's some welcome changes to the various armor types to tailor them a bit more closely to the classes that can wear them. For example, there's a tailored leather set that is very obviously aimed toward the WIS-loving druid classes, as well as a set for the more dextrous brawler types, instead of one single set that hovers on the fence, being neither fish nor fowl. This sort of thing will be a welcome change for folks trying to really boost their primary class stats. Carpenter Love
Since carpenters and their long-awaited T6 rares have been a hot topic for many months, I wanted to cover a couple things here. While trying to cram all the new tier 7 normal and rare items into a single one-bedroom apartment may make it look like a yard sale gone awry (right), you'll find some really neat items within all the clutter. On top of some lovely normal and rare furniture carpenters will also be able to make consumable field repair kits. The price tag on these beauties, which are currently slated to repair 40% of your equipment damage, is steep, but when/if you see the repair costs for someone garbed in Tier 7 fabled gear, you'll understand the reason for such a hefty tag. While your everyday adventurer may not invest heavily in these, raiders who are prone to being in danger of having their gear fall off in the middle of sorting out the mechanics of a tough encounter will consider these a godsend! (Sorry, gang, we still don't have solid news on the T6 carpenter rares, other than "soon", but at least we know it's being worked on!)That's enough babble from me, however. The NDA has been lifted, so I suspect you'll find a lot of folks starting to talk about their beta experiences. As for me, I've still got more testing to do before all this hits the live servers, plus I suspect I'm going to need several very long naps before I'm ready to dive into this wonderful new expansion (while I alternately whimper about what it is going to do to our poor database!) {Toddles off without further ado, looking for a comfy pack to nap in}
Created: 2006-02-08 03:43:20 Last Modified By: Niami Denmother Last Modified on: 2006-02-08 06:53:53 Printer Friendly version © 2003-21 Niami Denmother. The fine print. This is a research and information site. All of the information on this site has been gathered and submitted by the players and Niami Denmother. While we try our best to keep the information here as accurate and up to date as possible, rely upon it at your own risk. By submitting information and graphics to this site, you are granting us permission to use the materials in any way that we deem appropriate. EverQuest is a registered trademark of Darkpaw Games LLC. Except as is disclosed on the "about" page, this site has no official connection with EverQuest or Darkpaw Games LLC. All information, articles and graphics on this site are the copyright of EQ Traders Corner, its owners and/or Darkpaw Games LLC and may not be copied or reprinted without the express written approval of the copyright holder. This site is not meant to represent official EverQuest (Darkpaw Games) policy, and we are not responsible for errors and/or omissions that occur due to changes in EverQuest trade skills or information that we recieved from the community that is in error. Hosted By: 
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