E3 Endnotes

As the media types shake off their hangovers and take a break from sorting their swag E3 reports continue to trickle in.

I'd first like to direct you to an informative look at the expansion over at EQII Vault. In addition to mentioning some stuff I've already covered, there are some new points:

As hinted earlier, the "griffon ride" of the expansion will be a flying carpet.

The PvP system sounds fun so far with a variety of games, a matching system that allows you to set up games and join games in progress and npc's that cheer for you if you win.

I sort of scoffed at the new voice emotes but apparently there will be phrases such as "Heal me!" which might be helpful in combat. I hope they have one for me that says, "I overnuked yet again and have aggro...sorry!" Perhaps they will add a "Hey, baby, nice breastplate - want to cyber?" for aspiring followers of Ceciliantas.

"Sometimes, there will be times when you have to jump from wall to wall to accomplish a quest or task, which should prove interesting." Or annoying, I'm not sure yet. As someone who regularly falls down that hole in CT as well as taking the occasional spill down the Zek elevator shaft I'm not sure I'm coordinated enough to pull the whole wall jumping thing off.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in the article is this quote: "I also found out that SOE will likely introduce PvP servers further down the road but was given no timeframe." Wow, watch out for the firestorm on the forums when people get wind of that.

OGaming also has a lengthy preview up. It adds to my fear of clumsiness by stating that there will be "the ability to shimmy from rope to rope while hanging on." You have fallen and taken 8,494 points of damage.

OGaming also covers the Station Exchange system which will apparently utilize the in-game mailbox system and require Paypal. I quoted the pricing system earlier but this version is a little more detailed so I am quoting it as well: "When placing an item or character up for auction, SOE will charge a non-returnable fee of $1.00 for listings, and will take a 10% cut from each item that is sold. If an item does not meet the reserve that has been placed, the 10% will not be taken out, and a seller is given the option to take the item back and place it back on the character, or to try again, for an additional $1.00 listing fee."

With all the focus on the expansion it's easy to forget it's unloved sibling, the Splitpaw Saga adventure pack. With that in mind, here's a link to a Gamespot look. It mentions the scalability of mobs and loot as well as the use of movable objects. Splitpaw is apparently the leader of a "group of secretive gnolls." If there's anything I hate more than a gnoll, it's a secretive gnoll.

It's worth noting that the expansion will not only have raid and solo content but will also have group content. This should go without saying but some forum members were concerned about a quote in the Gamespot preview I linked earlier. Scott Hartsman clarified in this thread.

Come to Gaze has a first hand E3 report up. He was unimpressed with Vanguard.

Finally, some more glamour shots of the SOE booth can be found here and here.