Here’s a peek at my whiteboard circa ‘The Buried Sea’ expansion.

In the upper left is a cubic representation of the different elements used to create power sources. I wrote some background lore that never actually made it into the game, but I’ll share here:

The Combine Alchemists fuse magic, science, and engineering together to achieve technological advancements.

The efforts of these alchemists have born much fruit over the centuries, teleportation, advanced construction techniques, and powerful magics (to name just a few).

Infused Armor is the most recent Combine achievement, and is a testimony to their continuing advancement. By understanding the 9 fundamental (known) elements of life: Water, Light, Shadow, Growth, Decay, Ice, Fire, Earth, and Air, the Combine are able to isolate the pure energy component. This energy, extracted by magic and concentrated by science, can be used to imbue carefully engineered armor with particular properties.

The base element, water, serves as the base point about which the four elemental dimensions revolve, each dimension consisting of two diametrically opposed elements.

The traditional Combine Alchemists follow strict guiding principles, and are very careful in their use of these purified elements. Certain elements can be fused together to form new elements (although there is some debate over whether or not these fusions are actually true elements, or should be called as such).

Among some of the more radical dissenters is a somewhat eccentric alchemist named Halon Griere. Citing irreconcilable differences, he has decided to relocate to the surface Islands and carry out his continued experimentation into the combination of elemental essences. In order to fund his experiments, Halon has entered into an arrangement with the pirates… He provides them with his creations, which they happily test, and in return they provide him with the resources he needs.

The upper right quadrant contains a graph of some different resist curves that I plotted when I was trying different approaches to designing a new resist system. Just under the curves are some rough concepts I drew for the Katta Castrum Portal System before I ditched the whiteboard and pulled out the graph paper.

The “circuit diagram” in the lower right is actually a simple map of the lower floor of the small pyramids. I used it to map out the search patterns for the “Knowledge for Power” mission. If you look closely, there are some pretty solid clues on exactly how the search patterns work.

In the lower left is a crude diagram I drew to explain how our data export system works. In the center is some nice tank concept art that Prathun drew… unfortunately it didn’t make it into the game. In contrast, just below and slightly right of the tank, are two art concepts I drew for Solteris weapons that our artists (slightly) refined and turned into the Lance of Solteris and Pike of the Vampire God.

Keith “Merloc” Turkowski
EQ Designer - Items

 

 

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