EverQuest Next: Landmark - Catch All

http://www.eqhammer.com/news/terry-m...

EverQuest Next Landmark fans have been talking about character naming, and specifically how to get their desired character name in a game where players can freely move between servers. SOE's proposed solution is the Station Handle - a means of choosing a handle (or surname) that covers all of your characters on a single account. To clear up the many questions that arose when the team announced Station Handles during the December live stream, Terry Michaels, Senior Producer, posted this clarification on the official forums:

It is clear there is a lot of confusion that came from what we talked about in the live stream yesterday, so I wanted to take a minute to try to clear up a number of questions people have about character naming. Some of them are simple and some are more complicated, so my apologies if this becomes a TLDR; post.

Some of these points are covered by other people, but I wanted to gather everything in to one post to refer to.

1) Your Station Name is what you use to log into any SOE game. This Station Name is NEVER exposed to other players. Instead, we have a Station “Handle” which is sort of like a nickname for your account. The Handle is what gets used within the game to identify your character. It has no visible connection for people to use to find out your Station Name.

2) Some people may have set their Station Handle to the same thing as their Station Name (this destroys security, so generally a bad idea).

3) No, you cannot CURRENTLY change your Station Handle.

4) Yes, we WILL be allowing people to change their Station Handle before it would show up in any of our games, though only once.

5) You won't be able to search for other people via their Station Handle regardless of what character they are on, so people can still “hide” by simply not sharing the name of their “hidden” character. As we discussed in the Friends List Round Table question, we only allow people to “friend” someone at the account level if both sides agree. That is an “opt in” type system.

6) You won’t be able to anonymously troll someone that does know you because once you communicate with them, they WILL be able to see the Station Handle portion of your name.

7) By default, people can’t see the Station Handle portion of your name just by seeing your character running around in the world. You have to communicate back and forth in chat for the Handle to become visible to other players.

8) Your Station Handle can be anything deemed acceptable by our naming policies (no curse words, etc).

9) Your Station Handle isn’t your “Last Name” in the game. I used it as an analogy when trying to explain in during the live stream. It wasn’t meant to be taken literally. It is the unique identifier that allows people to have the same name as someone else in the game but that will allow your messages, emails, group requests, etc, to go to the correct character.

So, this sounds silly, but nowhere in the Founder's Packs does it say that you get access to the finished game; just the Beta and Alpha... Am I just missing it somewhere? I don't want to drop cash and then have to buy the game again to get in after the beta closes...

Lol. That's a great point as I don't remember seeing that either.

Edit: Duh, Everquest Next is F2P isn't it?

Except that they did something similar for Planetside 2 and it worked out? I don't know... It's truly just assumed at this point I guess. That'd be a PR nightmare if that turned out to be true.

The game is f2p but SOE has just mentioned that they are thinking about charging one sub ($14.99/mo) and being subbed to all their games including EQ:L and EQ:N.

They do already have this and it is called All Access but it is $5/mo more.

And plenty of games have already done these types of "starter packs": MWO, Planetside 2, TERA, APB Reloaded, Neverwinter, League of Legends(?)

There ya go! F2P that's the primary reason. In their words "Planetside 2 taught us how to do F2P right". That remains to be seen but I did like the way PS2 ended up in that regard.

SOE subscription revamp:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1ulcav/moving_forward_with_subscription_plan_changes/

Subscribe to one PC game ($14.99/month), subscribe to them all. (PS2/3 game inclusion still in the works)

500 in game cash stipend per month, can be stockpiled but must login and claim it.

If you don't login for x months, you won't retroactively get x months worth of station cash added to your account when you do login.

Honestly it is a great bargain but I am still thinking it is better off for me to wait for a double station cash sale and buy the stuff I want piecemeal.

For $15 a month I can subscribe to all their pc games? Sony keeps doing things I like. Who is this company?

Wow, that is an outstanding deal! I used to do the $20 all-acces deal when I was playing several of their games, this will be a no-brainer.

hehe with them dropping Pirates of the Burning Sea there's nothing currently they have that isn't already F2P that i'd want to play.

True, but having an active aub gives nice perks and I like to support a company when I'm using their service more than just to evaluate it.

Oh i'll support (all ready have with the Trailblazer pack) them, but will probably do like fang and go piecemeal

That is an outstanding deal. And if you guys say PS2 is F2P done well, I may buy in.

Yeah, PS2 has an excellent F2P model.

Alpha testing opens tonight for the $100 and $60 founders.
We will get an email with download and login instructions.

P.S. - Yayayayayayayayayay!

Assuming it's not too too late, I'll be on tonight. I have no idea how the chat will work but I'll probably try to have Khoram in my handle, and perhaps try to create/join a GWJ channel if that's even possible.

Hope to see some of you guys on this weekend!

Dammit. This is when I need to stay strong.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Crafting is where the heart is. Stay strong.

That's awesome, can't wait.

just got home from a 60+ hour week. If i'm up i'll be on.

I haven't received my email yet, but I'm going to put some serious time in over the next couple of weeks.

Of course this finally happens when I'm going to be busy helping my girlfriend get herself and her daughter packed up and then moved in with me.

Ah well, I'll sneak some time away for this one way or another. GIGGITY!

if I ever want to see 334 wrote:

Dammit. This is when I need to stay strong.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Crafting is where the heart is. Stay strong.

*waves enabling wand*

One of us, one of us!

I am awake and functional! I just created a EQN Landmark channel on vent

ran, get your email yet? Anyone?

I dropped $60 on it earlier...so weak.

Not me yet =(

edit: so I do have enabling powers... muahahaha!

I haven't got mine yet either. Still standing by. At this point I suspect I'll be waiting until tomorrow.

Watching the recorded livestream from the event today.

I'm watching the pre alpha forums and they've not released anything yet. Emails wont go out till the servers are up.