Veil of Alaris expansion(Linked to ZAM)

We attended a pair of Fan Faire panels to get all the details on EverQuest's Veil of Alaris expansion and other upcoming features.
During my time at SOE Fan Faire, I attended two separate panels that answered the question, “What's coming next for EverQuest?” Both panels focused heavily on the Veil of Alaris expansion that's scheduled to launch in November, as well as some of the other features you can expect to see in-game throughout the year.

While the panels were held on separate days, they basically covered the same content. Keep reading after the jump for an overview of everything we learned at Fan Faire!

The Lore Behind the Expansion

Alan VanCouvering kicked things off with a summary of the lore surrounding the Veil of Alaris expansion. “We definitely plan to give you a bunch of the lore up front, but you'll be able to fill out the details by doing additional quests,” he said. “We have every intention of making sure all of the story gets into the game.”

Alaris is a planet on another plane. The natives are mortals who create their gods. While Norrathian gods are essences of the planes of power, gods on Alaris are Alaran citizens that have ascended to their new role. They started off as heroes and legends, and their fame ultimately gave them to power to turn them into gods and influence the people who worship them.

One day, the Discordians arrived and tried to wipe the Alarans out. Most of the planet was destroyed because the Alaran gods couldn't fight back, so the remaining gods decided to work together to escape. Some of the gods sacrificed themselves to hold back the Discordians, while others sacrificed themselves to open a portal to Norrath.

The remaining Alaran god arrived in Norrath's Age of Scale, also known as the time of the dragons. Once the dragons noticed the god's presence, the god sacrificed its power to bring up a veil and hide the continent so the dragons couldn't find it. The Alaran gods have been dead for awhile, but with enough worship they will regain their strength.

Also, just to clear up any confusion, VanCouvering explained that the Alarans are both genders and have their own pronoun. During the panels, he made sure to correct himself and say “it” whenever he was discussing the gods.



Veil of Alaris Zones

Following the lore discussion, VanCouvering showed the audience a lengthy video tour of some of the new zones that are coming in the expansion.

•Argath, Bastion of Illdaera is where you'll be entering the expansion.
•Beasts' Domain is a Norrathian zone filled with alien foliage.
•The Resplendent Temple is dedicated to the Alaran god of splendor.
•Sarith, City of Tides is built in the image of the Alaran god who arrived in Norrath.
•Rubak Oseka is a temple of the sea built in the shape of a giant conch shell.
•The Pillars of Alrah are dedicated to the god of magic. Alarans have four types of magic: light, dark, pure and nature. This zone has a temple for each one.
•The Sepulcher of Order is a zone for all the gods. It's full of temples that act as resting places for the fallen gods.


Veil of Alaris Features

Producer Thom Terrazas then outlined all of the features that are coming in the expansion.

•There will be 12 new zones (4 of them being end zones), as well as new quests, spells, missions and raids.
•The level cap will be raised by 5 to level 95.
•A new rank-based guild permission system will add about four more guild ranks and give players a lot more control over who can do what in the guild. You can change the names of the ranks and assign different permissions to those ranks. There will be approximately 32 different permissions that can be individually assigned, such as bank access and guild tags.
•The new guild permissions will also have a tie-in to housing. You'll be able to assign your entire guild permission to hang out in your house and move around your stuff.
•There will be two new guild halls, and both will have interior and exterior models. They also created an exterior model for the current guild hall. You can decide if you'd like to keep the statue or remove it.
•The tracking of housing objects will be easier.
•The new guild trophies will be similar to housing trophies.
•The hotbar system is getting a revamp. You will be able to resize the hotbars to any width and height, as well as resize individual buttons. The amount of buttons on each hotbar will be increased to 12, and you'll be able to place more hotbars on the screen.
•You will be able to click on items in your inventory that are linked to your hotbar. This means you'll be able to cast from your hotbar without opening up your inventory.
•Cooldown timers will be visible when you click something on your bar. The team said the visual cooldown timer will be difficult to implement for some AAs, but it can be done with macros.
•They're adding a new parcel delivery and money system. You'll be able to interact with a vendor to send your items to players on your server.
Other Future Plans

During the second panel, Terrazes outlined even more features that are planned for EverQuest.

•Offline brokering is coming. You will be able to log out your character while you're selling, which means you don't need to leave your computer on overnight. You can set up shop in your home and guild halls, and they'll possibly allowing you to broker in places that aren't in your home. Players can buy directly from you and get the item immediately, but there will be an extra charge.
•They're going to allow you to have more than one mercenary, but you can only play one at any given time. There will be a delay in reuse and recast times, but this will give you more flexibility. You will have access to a high amount of mercenaries. This feature isn't tied to the expansion, but it should launch around that time.
•Bigger bags should be coming back to the marketplace in the next couple months. They will also be added as drops in the game, but not as tradeskill items.
•A simple item comparison tool will be added to the game.
•They're working on a feature that will easily allow you to upload EverQuest videos to YouTube. It might be available by the end of the year


Getting Players Into the Game

Lastly, Terrazes discussed some features that are currently in the game that attempt to recruit new players into Norrath. Most of the people in the audience weren't aware these features existed, and Terrazes said they plan to make the welcome screen more useful to promote them.

•Recruit-a-Friend recently launched, which gives you benefits for bringing your friends into the game. Your buddy starts at level 51, but not on progression servers. They also get high experience gains. If the invitation is accepted and your friend subscribes to the game for a month, you will automatically receive one month of credit for EverQuest.
•There is also a free trial available for players who don't want to use the Recruit-a-Friend feature.
•Fellowship experience allows players in a fellowship to share experience even when they're offline. This keeps friends from outleveling each other.