Kingdom of Sky Press Release: Part 3

It's day 3 of my coverage of the KoS press release. Let's get started.

"Brand new pieces of armor, such as Profession Hats, Helmets and Pauldrons, will make your character look more distinct."

This addresses my usual complaint of armor model diversity, though I don't know why only headgear and shoulder pieces were mentioned. If SOE is making cool hats and helmets, I really hope they make some for mage classes as well.

"Over 30 new items to put in your player house."

As I said during my glowing Frostfell review, I always love the house items. I don't go out of my way to buy them but I always think they are very well done when I do. My inn room is getting really cluttered though. I'm thinking about a bigger place, but the prices seem a bit high, especially since there is no real motivation other than increased space.

Oh, since we're on the house items thing, I've gotten some e-mails asking me to address the "carpenter issues." Let me research it and I'll get to it eventually.

"Challenging new zones, from floating islands to menacing dungeons. "
"Ten new adventure zones, from lush jungles to temples of unimaginable splendor."

As much as I like the whole look of the floating islands, I'm glad to hear that there will be some dungeons as well, because I enjoy an occasional dungeon crawl. And it sounds like there will be a real variety of zones. I'm looking forward to exploring them.

"Guild advancement expanded to level 50 "

I don't see why anyone would have a problem with this. But I tell you now, there seriously better be some actual rewards for attaining that level this time. At launch. And I would like a server wide message as well. And a special raid. Hey, you shouldn't have slacked the last time.

"Player versus Player combat will "go live" in EverQuest II near the time of the launch of Kingdom of Sky, a highly anticipated addition to the game that will allow players to fight each other."

Ugh. Terrible. Now, you might be saying, "Hold on Aggro - weren't you excited about PvP?" Well, yes, I certainly am. I happen to be very excited about it. It is the timing I have an issue with. I'll quote myself:

"One final note. For both the PvP and the new Class system, I strongly urge that SOE not roll these out at the same time as the expansion. For one, I hated the way the combat changes and DoF were lumped together. Also, I feel these new changes will give players a lot of new stuff to do which is perfect for the lulls between expansions. At the risk of repeating myself, I would also prefer to wait for the PvP until it is very well balanced, rather than have it sooner."

I saw first hand the ill effects of lumping the Combat Revamp together with DoF. Why not let PvP be something to look forward to in the relative "slow periods" between expansions? Why choose to simultaneously launch two exciting things which can't be enjoyed at the same time? Now I have to decide between jumping into PvP or exploring KoS. I just don't see the benefit. It shouldn't increase expansion sales because it is totally unrelated. Also, the artificially imposed deadline bothers me because I want the PvP to be launched right and perhaps it needs more time in development and testing.

Don't get me wrong, I am very excited about both PvP and KoS. I will approach both with an open mind. But the timing is a nuisance, albeit a minor one.

Stay tuned for my final report on the KoS press release tomorrow.