Highlights
- Everquest 2's new expansion, Ballads of Zimara, introduces visually distinct zones themed around metal and gem combinations, creating unique looks and feels.
- The expansion includes new systems like Chrono Dungeons and Advanced Research, as well as a rework to tanking gameplay to emphasize tank roles in group compositions.
- The research system allows players to target specific loot in a more predictable way over time, reducing frustrations caused by RNG, while Chrono Dungeons revitalize older content, giving more variety to the endgame.
Everquest 2 has just released its 20th expansion, Ballads of Zimara, and it's come with the expected offerings of an MMORPG expansion: new dungeons and raid content and new stories for players to uncover all scattered throughout one of the game's most visually distinct expansions to date. Each of the new zones are themed around a combination of metals and gems like iron and citrine or gold and ruby, resulting in some surprisingly interesting geometry and color combinations that give each zone a unique look and feel.
Aside from the more typical expansion content, Everquest 2 has also introduced several all-new systems like Chrono Dungeons and Advanced Research, and there's also been a rework to tanking gameplay so that tank roles are better emphasized in group compositions. In an exclusive interview with Game ZXC, Everquest 2 Creative Director Kyle Valee weighed in on some of these new features as well as some of their future plans to expand them.
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Everquest 2's New Research System Cuts Down On RNG
All MMORPG players are intimately familiar with the frustrations of RNG as they seek out a particularly rare piece of loot for their collections. Although Everquest 2's developers still want players to enjoy the satisfaction of finally acquiring a rare drop, a new research system has arrived with the expansion that will allow players to target specific loot in a more predictable way over time.
One of the big things we did this year is that we came up with a personal research system, which is one of the features of the expansion. We're trying to take some of the RNG out of the game where people get really frustrated because they want this specific mount, and they can't get it because it drops in this zone and it's RNG. So what we've tried to do is build a whole system where there's still RNG, and there's still stuff that you're gonna want to get, and there's still rare drops and all that stuff, but we took some of the pinnacle pillar type stuff that players want like familiars, mounts and, mercenaries, and we put them into this research system.
So now when you play, you'll get research drops, and they’re like bubbles that give you research time. You can go into an interface and go to these merchants, and you can actually research which means you have X amount of time before you can get the item. So if you want to speed it up, and you want to put all your research into getting the mount that you want, you can do that.
The system looks to be a great way to allow players who may not have time to grind all day for an item they really want, while still rewarding players who do put in extra effort to speed up the timer or get the rare drop the old-fashioned way. Similar to World of Warcraft's trading post system, it also allows players to make progress toward the loot they want while engaging in the content they enjoy, rather than killing the same handful of monsters repeatedly.
Everquest 2's Chrono Dungeons Revitalize Older Content
Another standout feature in Ballads of Zimara is Chrono Dungeons, a system that allows players to revisit dungeons from past expansions. In an MMORPG with 20 years of content, it's always a bit of a shame when many fun encounters are largely forgotten by the player base as they move on to higher levels. By making these older dungeons relevant again, the endgame is given a little more variety and past content gets its time to shine once more.
One of our other features is Chrono Dungeons, which is a system where you can go back to older dungeons. What you do is you go into the older dungeon and you use your Chrono Dungeon device, and it buffs it to current content and current difficulty. So you can go back and play in older content. It's relatively limited at first – we're only doing around three expansions that you can actually use the bottles in – but the plan is to keep releasing other expansions and other content so you can go back and play older content, but play it at the current difficulty level, current buff package level, and earn rewards for the current tiers.
Currently, the system only includes a few expansions worth of dungeon content, but the Everquest 2 team has plans to expand this in the future so that more of the game can remain relevant to max-level players. Combined with the new research system, this has been a remarkably player-friendly MMO expansion that reflects well on the Everquest 2 team's ability to keep the long-running game moving forward.
Everquest 2 is free to play on PC.
