Confessions of an EverQuest Phase .5 Beta Tester

[mixxit]

From EQX!

I entered the EverQuest world when I received my beta CD on July 1st, about half way into phase .5. I have since been "In Game" roughly 62 hours per week. Let me assure you that I work a full-time (well over that really) job. I've gladly given this game a good portion of my time, and lately was thinking of a way to become further involved. It occurred to me that a perspective on EverQuest was missing from the public forum, that of the beta tester. I thought I would write up my feelings thus far and send them to Brad McQuaid for public distribution if he saw fit. I'll tell you now that there will be no new information released within these writings, just my opinion as a long time follower and message board contributor. Of course, don't bother scrolling to the end to find out who I am, I'm certainly not allowed to fill you in on that.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

After receiving my CD and setting up my account, I quickly made my way to the character creation screen. I decided that my first test character was going to be a Wizard. I've always leaned towards magic in role-playing games, mostly due to its mystery and difficulty. I was also concerned about balance issues surround magic from my time on the message boards. I decided I would start my beta testing endeavor within the walls of Erudin, the acclaimed city of the High Men.

When I first entered the game, it was night. It was DARK. I could barely make out the figure of the merchant standing but a few paces in front of me. Finally, I thought, a game that takes night seriously. I found myself almost immediately wishing I'd chosen an elven avatar, but I would make do. I panned the surroundings and saw some light posts next to a building. The sign showed it to be the great library of Erudin.

I spent the next several minutes figuring out the ins and outs of the user interface. The camera views are really something to behold. I also took this time to inscribe and memorize my first spell, Shock of Frost. Of course, you knew that if you have read up on the data from the E3 convention.

One of the first things I decided to test was the camera views. There has been some concern on the boards that some of the camera views would give unfair or unrealistic advantage in the world. Let me assure you this is not so. I chose one of the overhead camera views and made my way into the library of Erudin. I found that the camera automatically moved to place it with the walls of the Library. It would not extend past the ceiling, which I found to be a very nice feature. Switching to first person, I made my way up the stairs of the great library to the second floor. At the top of the steps, there was an area where you could overlook the bottom floor, with a waist high guardrail to keep the "younger" players from hurting themselves.

Being a bit of a scofflaw myself, I thought I'd see how well this new (and might I say very dashing) character might take a little fall to the first floor. I launched myself over this railing and almost heard the crack as my body his the ground. I laid there for a moment, unconscious, blood leaking from my broken frame, hoping that somehow, somewhere, someone would come rescue me. I met my death in that library, from a fall of a virtual 10 feet.

When I again found myself alive, the precise nature of which I cannot divulge, I made my way back to my broken corpse to gather my goods. I explored the city of Erudin for about an hour before deciding to go to the city of Qeynos, as that's where the majority of the other 15 people or so were. I should note at this point that only half of the city of Erudin was up at this point, it is much larger now.

I exited the library to find that the sun was rising. I wish I could find words to express how beautiful that sight was, after the night that was so dark. Bright colors filled the sky as the sun peaked over the horizon. Colors began to filter into the textures mapped over the buildings and began to show more and more detail. I just had to sit there for a moment as that light broke the shroud of darkness. It was unbelievable. Truly spectacular.

The city of Erudin is certainly a wonder to behold. Everything I saw amazed me, I haven't seen anything like it, in an online game nor any other. I managed to find the docks without too much of a problem, and waited for the ferry I had heard so much about, and shortly found myself on-board the large ship.

After a reasonable ride of the ship, with a short stop on an uncharted island, I arrived in Qeynos. Qeynos is very much unlike Erudin. It is obviously an older, more rustic city with many more people. As I stepped off the ship onto the wooden dock, I received a message within my text display, "Aradune tells you, 'You're in our world now.'" I replied, "And very happy to be here I must say." Aradune and I spoke for about fifteen minutes. I admit I probably wasn't much of a participant in the discussions, since I was still in awe from the graphics.

The conversation came to an abrupt halt as Aradune announced that he had to go investigate a bug someone had reported. I bid him adieu and went to explore the City of Qeynos, that took over 2 hours.

FIRST ADVENTURE

After finally locating the front gates of Qeynos, I received another "tell" from someone named Aramith. Hmmm, "Aramith". Perhaps another incarnation of Aradune Mithara? I think so. He asked if I was "coming with them" this evening. I had no idea where "we" might be going, nonetheless I jumped at the chance. As it turned out, their group was not in need of a Wizard (and certainly not a newbie Wizard) and he suggested that I create a rogue.

It was then that Taedar was born. A dwarven rogue of somewhat dubious nature. After the birth of my rogue, Aramith transferred me to an area known as the commonlands. As it turned out, we would be exploring a dungeon by the name of Befallen. As I appeared, and the graphics filled in around me, I was greeted with the message, "You are now level 13". Whoa, lets rock and role! They explained to me that the dungeon we were visiting was definitely not a newbie dungeon, and I was elevated to a level that would hopefully help me survive and contribute to the group. They provided me with the equipment that someone of this level would probably be able to achieve with hard work, a full set of leather armor.

It turns out that we were still a good distance away from the dungeon, and we had to run for a bit. There were six people in our group that night, all of levels 13-15. We entered the dungeon with a vengeance, intent on making the Befallen pay for their misdeeds.

The fights were fast and fierce. Violent spells flung from Ozymandius' fingertips, while Lagniappe and Gunthar hung back to heal and care for the injured warriors. Aramith, Tudor, and I rushed in in a poorly organized flanking maneuver and surrounded the Undead as the entered the main foyer. Aramith, the strongest of our group, met the creatures while Tudor protected our spell casters and I moved in behind for the deadly backstab. We were victorious in the short run but quickly found ourselves surrounded by fast moving skeletons, zombies, and mummies. We all died that night, some of us several times, the Befallen had won. We took our broken bodies home, and called it a night.

The adventure, overall, was beyond intense. It was very easy to get lost in the moment and develop a blood lust. Sounds that are not in the game were easily imagined as members of our party screamed with pain at the swords, axes, and fists tearing into their bodies. We spent close to 4 hours there that night, and I'm now told that we probably explored less than 25 percent of the dungeon. As we made idle chatter while filling out our bug reports for the evening, something became obvious to me. These people I was with began in the beta some three weeks before me, and they still showed all the excitement of a newbie.

A NOTE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

I have seen many game companies striving toward a graphical work of art often overlook the basic AI of the opponents. This has not been the case in EverQuest. This game has the most advanced AI I've seen. Bar none. Even the little intricacies that make the game more believable were taken into account. As I am battling one creature (say a large bat for this purpose), I've seen a giant rat come up to me, stop, and watch the fight as if sizing me up. You really get the feeling that these things are looking you in the eye, and trying to decide if you are dinner, or something to be feared.

Some attack without warning, others circle in from behind. Still others will act like they are going to go right past you, and suddenly turn around and lay into you with swords, fists, or teeth. The AI definitely appears to be modeled on creature intelligence, some just fight smarter than others. The smart ones will even retreat from a fight and go get help. I have no doubt that the AI programmer is somewhat of a sadist. A sadist with a sense of humor.

You'll know that sense of humor when you see a hill giant way off in front of you in the distance, and 2 minutes later find that it has made a wide circle to sneak up on you from behind.

Add to this some truly impressive tracking and following code, and SPEED. These creatures are FAST. There just isn't any outrunning some, you better hope you have the strength or the speed to get away quickly, and they will follow you for a great distance. I have seen one gnoll retreat from a fight, go get helpers, and return on two different tangents to surround the intruders. I've seen groups split up, half appearing to have lost interest in the fight, only to turn and rush in.

I've really got to put my hats off to this AI programmer, I think he could give the ReaperBot guy pointers.

WORLD SIZE

There has been much to-do on the boards on the concept of zones and world size. Let me begin by saying that Norrath is, well, HUGE. After well over 180 hours of testing, even considering on many occasions I was transported to a given zone by a GM for testing purposes, I've visited at most 18 zones aside from the cities. Of those 18 zones, I know ONE like the back of my hand, many I've only visited once because I haven't been able to find them again, and the rest I frequently get lost in. A straight RUN from the docks of Qeynos to the docks of Freeport would take over three hours in my estimation. That is only if you can avoid being attacked and killed along the way. You see, I have to estimate, because I've never survived the entire trip, even as a 13th level rogue. I have, however, run from Freeport to the middle of the continent, died, only to return from Qeynos to retrieve my corpse. Perhaps I should find someone to travel with, eh? And keep in mind, the main continent is longer than it is wide.

The zones themselves are huge. There is one where I'm sure you could put several hundred evenly spaced people in it and have them not be able to see each other.

ON GOING

I've now had the opportunity to play several different races and classes. I've focused on everything from graphic anomalies, to utility, power, and balance issues. I haven't yet found a race or class that I would call "useless" or "lacking" and I've played many of them. I played one character, starting at level 1, for an entire weekend, and ended up not being able to afford a set of leather when Monday morning came around. Just to give you an idea, a weekends play consists of about 32 hours of play. This is a far cry from other games of the genre where one could afford a set of plate in but a couple of hours. If I had to estimate the amount of time it would take to acquire a set of plate armor, I would have to put that estimate at around 1000 hours of hard play, perhaps more. This is of course assuming that you never die and lose your body that contains your trade in material as you are building up from cloth, to leather, to ring, to chain, and then to plate. And I still have no idea where the much talked about set of dragonscale armor fits in.

To summarize, EverQuest is a project that is beyond comprehension in its quality and complexity. It shows far more engrossing qualities than any other game I've seen. I really can't wait to get a the rest of the beta testers in so I can witness the shouts across the land talking about how wonderful the game is. And to think, they have a LOT more to add.

Article by An EverQuest Beta Tester, Phase .5

[Ed: Mr. McQuaid sent this to us, and I just wanted to thank him for it.]