The Planes of Power
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| EverQuest: Planes of Power | |
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| Developer(s) | Sony Online Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Online Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | October 28, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Online |
| Platform(s) | PC |
The Planes of Power (PoP, POP, or simply Planes of Power) is an expansion to EverQuest — a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The expansion was released in 2002 and is comprised of an assortment of otherworldly planes that do not exist in a planetary sense within the EverQuest universe.
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[edit] General information
The Planes of Power expansion was added specifically to address the fact that the EverQuest community contained both "high-end" players (those who gamed long and often in order attain rewards more quickly) and more casual players. Because of the difficulty and time-consuming nature of the puzzles, quests and encounters which gated access to each successive plane or zone, the game designers were able to add high-end content to the game aimed specifically toward the high-end player and provide more challenge and diversity to the game, while allowing the casual player to continue exploration of older content without as much competition.
In addition to adding new zones to the game, the expansion also introduced a network of portal points through the game realm. Players could use them to quickly and easily travel to and from various regions through a central plane, known as Plane of Knowledge.
The primary goal, or end-quest, of The Planes of Power is access to the Plane of Time. Access to this plane can only be obtained through vanquishing the four elemental gods and goddesses: Fennin Ro, The Rathe Council, Coirnav and Xegony. To gain access to all of the zones of the expansion and successfully enter the Plane of Time, the players needed to complete 28 flag events of all sorts, involving the death of planar deities and deific creatures. These encounters can only be completed with the organized effort of up to 72 players working together simultaneously.
The recommended level, unofficially, for venturing in the various planes introduced in the expansion is 55 or higher, although all but the lowest planes require level 60 or more to be successful in. The maximum level was increased from 60 to 65 with this expansion.
Presently, Planes of Power is considered the low-end expansion for guild/raid level content, with some items in the Elemental Planes and the Plane of Time still reasonably good, and attainable by players with nothing more than bought or single-group (6 people or less) attainable items.
[edit] Controversy
The Planes of Power came after Shadows of Luclin, which had a number of problems with the end-game locations, and this expansion had similar issues. A number of guilds out-paced the rate at which Sony finished fixing content, and became extremely frustrated. Plane of Time, the end zone of the expansion, was not finished until several months after the expansion's release (although SoE has repeatedly said Plane of time was finished on release). The Rathe Council encounter was impossible to defeat in its original form due to overtuning, and was left in an impossible state for months, on purpose some would say, to prevent access to aforementioned Plane of Time. It is rumored that guides and GMs were specifically forbidden to ever enter Plane of Time before it was fixed. Finally, one zone, the Plane of War, was pulled right before the expansion went live (the data for it is present on the retail CDs) due to extensive bugs, and was never opened. During this time, Sony regularly denied there were any problems, much to the annoyance of the end-game players.
The Plane of Knowledge teleportation capability has been accused of making the game too simple to transit through, with nearly every location in the game only a few minutes from any other. Previous to Luclin, it could take a half hour or more to cross the world of Everquest. Others counter this statement by saying that the Everquest game world has grown so large that regular travel is no longer practical.
While Planes of Power was still the most recent expansion, a number of guilds would routinely kill (or 'blow' - simply render untriggerable for the next people) events beneath them to prevent other guilds from progressing through that content. This was derisively referred to as 'cock-blocking', and frowned upon by the lower guilds. This has been fixed by making the zones "Instanced", meaning everyone has their own lock-out timer and set of spawns.
[edit] Zones
Zones are organised as tiers and to access the next tier players have to pass several trials. Tier 0 is accessible by everyone and is used to connect with the other planes, there is nothing to fight in those zones. Tier 1 planes are accessible to everyone, as well, but contain the first trials.
- Tier 0
- Plane of Knowledge
- Plane of Tranquility - the whole plane is the god Quellious.
- Tier 1
- Plane of Disease - home of Grummus.
- Plane of Innovation
- Plane of Justice - home of The Tribunal.
- Plane of Nightmare
- Tier 2
- Plane of Storms
- Plane of Valor
- Ruins of Lxanvom - also known as Crypt of Decay, home of Bertoxxolous.
- Lair of Terris Thule - also known as Plane of Nightmare B, home of Terris Thule.
- Tier 3
- Bastion of Thunder - home of Karana, under attack from Agnarr the Storm Lord.
- Halls of Honor
- Drunder, Fortress of Zek - also known as Plane of Tactics, home of Rallos Zek.
- Temple of Marr - also known as Halls of Honor B, home of Mithaniel Marr.
- Tower of Solusek Ro - home of Solusek Ro.
- Plane of Torment - home of Saryrn.
- Tier 4 (the Elemental planes)
- Doomfire, The Burning Lands - also known as Plane of Fire, home of Fennin Ro.
- Eryslai the Kingdom of Wind - also known as Plane of Air, home of Xegony.
- Vegarlson the Earthen Badlands - also known as Plane of Earth.
- Ragrax, Stronghold of the Twelve - also known as Plane of Earth B, home of the Rathe Council.
- Reef of Coirnav - also known as Plane of Water, home of Coirnav the Avatar of Water.
- Tier 5
- Plane of Time A - a sort of waiting hall for players to gather before entering Plane of Time B
- Plane of Time B
Years later, updates made the Plane of Time B an instanced zone, allowing multiple groups of players to take on these encounters, simultaneously.
