Friday, October 8, 2010

House Of Thule- Beta Impressions

 
So, the NDA has been lifted for HoT and I wanted to post up a few thoughts. I suppose lets start with the housing. Plenty of pictures. The insides are rather small but they are nice. I enjoy the housing aspect but the fact that every neighborhood looks exactly the same was a surprise to me. There are no trees and there were none you could add on your plot, I hope this will be something added in the future. The neighborhoods look a bit naked still.

I'm a bit disappointed that you cannot sell from your house like you can in EQ2. All of the housing items could be bought from the vendors there and the items as well as the houses were very cheap. I don't know if they will go higher when it goes live but I sort of doubt it. They were around 5-10k plat. Not expensive really, which was nice. There are multiple ways to pay the rent and you actually buy the plot of land you plop your house onto, each person can buy two plots. I didn't expect a broker system though, since we got extended bag space but it's still something I think this game really needs. As a player it's something I really want.

The houses were charming though and I plan on having my own and decorating it nicely. I was going to pre-order but I am still debating if I will wait on it a bit or not. With the station pass I'm playing more than just EQ lately. Anyhow here's a peek at the housing and a glimpse at some furniture!







The furniture was very EQ-ish. I have taken some pictures so you can see what I mean. I am very glad housing was added in but I had hoped for just a bit use for the houses. I suppose in time things will be added. Yay for housing! You access the housing through the guild hall, there is a new hallway added, you can't miss it!


While I did not have a chance to group I did solo a few things on different characters in the new expansion.. or in some cases I attempted. There were several mobs who had summoning removed in the entry zone but still many others summon. I did not have a chance to try out many classes like the Mage, who would have done better soloing. I am sure some would have been better than others, I just didn't have time time to try them all and sort of got off on a bad foot with a few characters, getting my hiney handed to me. These mobs hit hard much like UF mobs. Even the entrance zones are much easier with a group.

Will this expansion change the direction of the last expansion? I think we're headed on a course straight from 1999 ;) Just kidding, but seriously this expansion still has a hardcore feeling. I think many casuals will not be too excited about some aspects. This is Everquest, we're still scared to die and mobs still hit like freight trains! I will say that the zones were lovely but I spent more time in the housing area trying things out and reporting bugs or sending feedback there. Don't expect this to be a laid back casual expansion!


I think I had hoped for things to be less severe in this expansion but this is Everquest. I appreciate the chance to try things ahead of time at reporting bugs as well as handing in my feedback. It was something I was very excited to be part of. These are not in-depth musings on the expansion as I only had a chance to scrape the surface and not really delve into the expansion. I was a bit wary to do so and the severity of the mobs sort of had an impact on how much I play the game lately. However with friends this seems like it could be a lot of fun, with the right class you could do much more so than I am making it seem. After all, I ran around mostly on a Rogue! So take my complaints with a grain of salt and check it out for yourself.

It's awesome we get housing and new content. I am big on content added on a constant basis and SOE has been very good about this over the years. A new expansion is always something I look forward to! If I wasn't in beta I'd be absolutely dying to see housing and furniture so I want to share. Here's a few more pics to tide you over until release, enjoy!








See you in Norrath!
-kaozz

2 comments:

  1. That is a really big snake.

    I want a house so bad. I can't wait for launch day, heh. Player housing and increased bag space in one expansion. If we'd just had offline trading too, this expansion would have taken out the whole list of things everyone wants but though we'd never get.

    I was also surprised to notice that some recent patch added a preview graphics option for geaer, which is neat.

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  2. Haha, yes it was!

    Oh I know so close to having everything I ever wanted in EQ! Maybe next expansion we will get the offline traders.

    There's also epic augs in the works. Very exciting and cool. I'd love to have that on epic'd characters!

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