It is likely to become significantly louder about the double package of SOE, Everquest Next and Landmark in the coming months. Both games are slowly entering a hot phase.
The two sister projects Landmark and Everquest Next are both apparently making great progress. While Landmark (a sandbox open-world builder) is already in closed beta with new patches continually being released that drive the game forward, important announcements for Everquest Next are expected at SOE Live, a convention by Sony Online Entertainment. The developers have teased fans in one of the recent reports on Everquest Next that significant new features are on the way for SOE Live in mid-August. Above all, there is excitement about surprising players with something that has not yet been mentioned.
While the biggest optimists are speculating that this could even mean a release date, others suggest that perhaps an alpha phase for late December/early January might be announced in mid-August.
Emergent AI of Everquest Next could advance the genre
Most fans who are watching Everquest Next are eager to see how the “Emergent AI” develops. It is intended to control dynamic events where the mobs react to player behavior, successes, and failures, making the world feel even more alive than in Guild Wars 2. While most fans are focused on the sandbox and world-building options of Landmark, interest in Everquest Next has so far mainly been on the ability to change and destroy the world.
A destructible environment would elevate gameplay in combat to a level not yet seen in the genre. Creative solutions for mob encounters would become possible. The “Emergent AI” could have a similarly significant impact on the genre since new aspects could always be derived from content once introduced.
MMOs from the last generation like World of Warcraft are struggling significantly with their raids becoming monotonous in repetition and challenge players with achievements or increased difficulty to defeat enemies multiple times, but in different ways. Current MMOs like WildStar rely on a dynamic raid where bosses appear in various variations week to week.
Whether there will be more information about the Emergent AI at SOE Live will be one of the most exciting questions of the event. Otherwise, unless the early access of H1Z1 has started by then, everything will revolve around that.
Some SOE fans expect a release of Everquest Next no earlier than mid/late 2015, some even mention 2016.
And what’s happening with Landmark?
The free-to-play Landmark could enter an open beta as early as August, after SOE Live, in a kind of “soft launch”. So far, nothing “official” is known about this. Observers expect that it will happen this year, and a date will be announced at SOE Live.
