Lately I’ve been spending my evenings time-warping back to 1999. I take on the guise of a very pointy white-haired elf and I romp through the world of Norrath.
I’m playing EverQuest Legends, one of the new old MMOs that is revitalizing the world of subscription RPGs. Like the recently announced World of Warcraft: Forever (ominous!), EverQuest Legends adds new zones and content to the MMO that started it all. Developer Game Jawn does this with an eye on preserving “the magic of EverQuest,” as executive producer David Youssefi put it in a video interview conducted in late August. He was joined by lead content designer Eric Wellman, to discuss their road map for the game, and how they’re bringing it all online.
“I remember what the game was like when I first logged in, you know, 27 years ago,” Youssefi said. “It sort of swallowed you into this different universe. And it almost was like a different place, but it was real in my mind.”
This is the feeling of the original EverQuest, and he said that chasing it drives the Legends project.
“For me, it was about trying to rediscover whatever those elements were that made the whole greater than the sum of the parts that that game had,” Youssefi said. “EverQuest Legends, as it looks and plays, and sounds, and feels right now, that was lost to time, and we had to go back and we had to get the original art assets, the original music, the original spell effects, and sort of reassemble everything.”
“There’s something about the world of Norrath, as it was, it gets its claws into you and it does not let go,” Wellman added. He’s also a longtime player, having joined EverQuest with his brother at age 10.
Now Game Jawn is lining up a procession of updates and one very notable expansion. Kunark, the continent first introduced in original EverQuest’s Ruins of Kunark expansion in 2000, is coming to Legends. The Rulers of Kunark expansion is pegged for December, but before that Game Jawn has to fill out some more of the Norrath map.
Lake Neriuss and Nektropos Castle will be the first area to be sketched in, in an October update. This will be familiar ground to some EverQuest players: Nektropos Castle is from EverQuest 2. The Castle itself will feature high-level content, while Lake Neriuss will be friendlier to lower-level players.
“We’re kind of bringing that zone back, but then also kind of doing our own thing with it as well,” said Wellman. Outside the castle is a lively trading hub overseen by Lord Everling, and inside the castle…
“Who knows?” Wellman said coyly. “People don’t tend to get through them. There’s, for some reason, some heavy guard presence at the gate.” One of the first challenges for players then, will be to complete quests and gain access to Nektropos Castle and discover its secrets.
For Youssefi, one of the most impactful changes is to the kinds of loot that players will find in different areas of the game.
“The original itemization of the game was frankly boring,” he said. “What about a level 20 dungeon, or level 30 dungeon? Why is everything a piece of leather that has, like, one AC?” He praises the work that Game Jawn has done to rework the loot tables in certain dungeons — including the Nektropos Castle.
“That comes with its own itemization,” said Wellman. “We may look at some of the stuff that was in EverQuest 2 as inspiration to make little homages, but for the most part will be its own entire thing.”
The update will also feature Half-Dark Elf as a playable race, which will come with their own new starting zone. Its scope necessitated that Game Jawn push back the release of its other planned fall update, Rujarkian Hills. Rujarkian Hills was initially scheduled to go live in September, but on Sept. 17 Youssefi announced on the EverQuest website that it would be pushed back to 2027, to make way for Nektropos and the upcoming Kunark expansion.
Rujarkian Hills is a rugged, sandy zone populated by Death Fist orcs and other wildlife. The focus here is not on quests, but rather on exploration — and killing things.
“There’s a little side path [in the Oasis of Marr] that’s been there for 27 years now,” said Wellman, “but it’s just kind of walled off.”
The so-called “Orc Highway” seemingly leads to the Rujarkian Hills, which are visible on maps of the continent Antonica. Previous editions of EverQuest have explored caves underneath the hills, but the Hills themselves have been impassable.
“It’s something that’s been nagging in a lot of people’s heads for a long time, and a number of people on the team, and we’re like, “Why don’t we just do it?”” said Wellman.
The zone will serve higher-level players, some of whom have been vocally disgruntled about a lack of advanced content.
Wellman recognizes the gap that needs to be filled. “We need more experience zones kind of in that range,” he told Polygon.
Those who are binging the game likely have memories of decades of additional content that hasn’t yet made its way to Legends. After 64 hours of gameplay, I’m only just starting to do raids and explore difficult areas like The Hole. As a City of Heroes and Warframe veteran, I realize that’s baby numbers for an MMO. But I’m also enjoying other games, and trying to get off my damn computer once in a while, and the happy accident is that I have yet to run out of things to do in EverQuest Legends.
I’ve also given myself the metagoal sitting in every Big Chair in the game, which is going to take some time.