Another Friday in July and time for another bullet points post. I am going to have to go back and check, but July seems to be the most popular month for bullet point posts here. My guess is based on my having done the “one year ago” section for the month in review post and seeing that I did four of them last July and the fact that this is my fourth one this month.
At least I have been trying to go easy on future me who will have to write that month in review post in a year by keeping them mostly on related topics in a single post. And this week it is Daybreak.
- EverQuest Producer’s Letter
There was a producer’s letter for EverQuest and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the team is still sticking to the roadmap format they introduced at the start of the year.
Classic EverQuest
I fully expect companies to do something like that then forget about it in two months and never reference it again. But here they not only have it front and center, they took the time to put links in the line items so you could go read about the output of a given item.
There honestly wasn’t much in the current producer’s letter that was of interest to me. Another special rules server is being retired and merged into the Vox server, the designated home for retro refugees.
But coming up in September we’re supposed to get an update to heroic characters… the insta-level option in EverQuest and EverQuest II… so that they will no longer start off at level 85, where they have been for almost a decade at this point. The update will raise them to start at level 100… which isn’t exactly stellar when the level cap is already 120, but it is something I guess.
Also, there are some hints about the upcoming expansions… which to me mostly confirms that we will be getting the usual annual expansion. This year will be the 29th in the series. How many is too many? I guess we don’t know yet.
- EverQuest II Producer’s Letter
As with its older sibling, EverQuest II got its own producer’s letter which also stuck to the roadmap from back in January. There the update was focused on game update 120, called Myths and Monoliths, which is their big mid-year content drop for the current expansion.
The aging second entry, no longer so young compared to the original
There were also some hints about the next expansion, number 19, which we can expect to see by the end of the year if they are sticking to the usual plan… and I don’t see anything to suggest that they are not.
- LOTRO and Support’s Packs
Lord of the Rings Online also had a producer’s letter, which drew attention to the update 33.1.1 and the adventures of the sons of Elrond, Elladan & Elrohir.
However, their 15th anniversary plans do not include and expansion. They haven’t been on a solid annual schedule over the life of the game, so I suppose that isn’t a huge surprise. But they would still like some money from you, so they have introduced Supporter Packs, where you can spend some money on unique cosmetic items along with some LOTRO points.
The packs are $35, $60, and $100, so it is like buying an expansion, just without the content.
I am not the best person to judge the community reaction, but I got the impression “underwhelmed” might be in the ballpark.
Supporter packs, the departure of some staff, and the emergence of a pirate retro server raised the question What is going on? over at Contains Moderate Peril.
- DDO and Perma-death Again
Dungeons & Dragons Online… I don’t know if they do expansions or producer’s letters frankly. I haven’t tried to play it in over a decade. Put I do see news and headlines about it now and then, and it does come under the Daybreak banner, so I might as well add in something about it.
The latest update is the return of the Hardcore League for its sixth season. This is a perma-death server experience where players compete to complete as much content as possible while staying alive. Unlike special servers for other Daybreak classic titles, you do not need to be a VIP subscriber in order to join in on the experience.
As an added bonus, season six has some special dangers waiting for players who might have otherwise mastered the routine in the last five runs.
- PlanetSide 2 goes Under Water
Now I am really out of my depth as what I know about PlanetSide 2 could be written into the margins of a standard trade paperback book without distracting the reader for more than half a page.
But I can read well enough myself to see that they made a big splash with the Surf and Storm update earlier this month which introduced the island continent of Oshur and features under water game play.
Sturm und Drand
Underwater content tends to be one of the few things to disorient me and give me a bit of motion sickness in 3D MMOs, so I am not all that excited about this, but it does indicate that they are carrying on trying new things with the title. And hey, it might even be stable by the time this post goes live.
- H1Z1 Has Absolutely Nothing New
I looked to see what was up with DC Universe Online and H1Z1 to see what they had to report and… well, DCUO is an even bigger mystery to me than PlanetSide 2, but I could at least go to the game’s site and see that there were recent news items and updates.
H1Z1 however… the most recent news item on the game’s web site is from October of 2020.
Remember when this was a thing?
So it goes, another bullet point post comes to an end.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 