Some further notes:

The Harvesting Supply Depot has gotten some improvements since FanFaire and currently allows 2,000,000 resources with 100 stacks of 20,000 items each.

The Magic Door to Guild Hall item which can be purchased from City Merchants works instantly. Players do not need to have visited the Guild Hall first.

The mailboxes amenity has been updated to allow up to 5 to be placed in your guild hall. This still counts as 1 amenity.

The Courtyard Landmark statues (300p) require Guild Level 80. All other statues require level Guild Level 75.

The Mariner’s Bell: Kunark ports the player to Kylong Plains docks (Dreg’s Landing).

The Maj’dul (Planetary) Orrey does not count towards the Maximum Amenities.

In line with the merging of the Status Executor Hireling and Commodities Exchange Hireling being into one NPC who BUYS status items, etc. from players, we are now getting a Relic and Signet Peddler who is like a City Merchant that sells Signets, Charms, Relics and Symbols. They do not sell any of the other status items like crafting tables or formal wear.  More importantly, they do NOT sell the Magic Door to the Guild Hall.

In other news, the Harvest Supply Depot now feeds into the Tradeskill Tables (if the player is of sufficient permissions in the guild hall to use the Supply Depot and gives a message “Quantities include crafting container.” when viewing a recipe that will draw resources from the Depot.

Because the guild halls currently run on the housing permissions system which only has 4 ranks: None, Visitor, Friend, and Trustee, there is no way to allow certain users to use amenities and not others without giving the folks who CAN use amenities the ability to MOVE them. There just aren’t enough levels of permission.

Guild Ranks?

So I’ve made some posts asking for a Guild Rank Portal or Guild Rank Door which will allow us to block off certain rooms or even entire wings of the guild hall based on guild rank. Then we can put amenities we want to restrict in these areas. I don’t expect it to be bulletproof. If something bugs out, then someone might get past the barrier, and conjurers would be able to summon people beyond such barriers, but it is the broad stroke of making amenities something that are earned rather than automatic which would be very useful for many guilds.

My post can be found halfway down this page, as well as Rothgar’s response. There are subsequent responses on following pages as well.

The Future

According to Jindrack, who has poured hundreds of hours of development time into the Guild Halls gave us a peek into some planned Amenities that we may see in the future:

A hireling to get people into the city raids was one of the ideas I was working on for the initial launch of the halls, but it looks like it will be something that will have to be held for another phase. It works getting you from the guild hall instance to the raid instance, but the problem is getting the players back to the guild hall instance. This is the same kind of thing that has held back an Arena door amenity idea. When that issue gets addressed it is very likely you’ll see those amenities appear, but it will be at a later time.

Ok folks, SoE has taken our gripes to heart and adjusted the upfront and weekly maintenance costs on the various Guild Hall amenities, especially the ones that most guilds will use.

Screen Snapshots from the Test Server show the reduced costs which work out to about 33% less plat and 66% less status up front. Also the upkeep works out to about 40% less gold and 70% less status per week. Check those screen snapshots out here.

Travel

Guild Translocation Beacon
“Call of Guild Hall”
Purchase: 1p, 250k status (-9p -1.75 mil status)
Upkeep: 2g 1,250 status (-8,750 status)

Druid Portal Hireling
Port to CL/Ant/KP/KJ/MY
Purchase: 20p 2,000,000 status (-5p -3mil status)
Upkeep: 40g 10,000 status (-10g -15k status)

Teleportation Spire to the Overrealm
Port to Tenebrous Tangle, Bonemire, or Barren Sky
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-5k status)

Magic Carpet to Sinking Sands
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-5k status)

Portal to Member Housing
Purchase: 5p 500,000 status (-5p 1.5mil status)
Upkeep: 10g 2,500 status (-10g -7,500 status)

Mariner’s Bell (Faydwer)
Port to Butcherblock Mountains or Kelethin
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-5k status)

Mariner’s Bell (Kunark)
Port to Kylong Plains (Dreg’s Landing)
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-5k status)

Mariner’s Bell (Shattered Lands)
Port to Ant/Ever/Lava/Nek/CL/EL/Feer/TS/Zek
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-5k status)

Localized Guild Hall Teleporter
Purchase: 25p 5,000,000 status
Upkeep: 50g 25,000 status

Tradeskill & Finance

Guild Hall World Market Broker
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-15p -4mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-30g -20k status)

Guild Market Broker
Intraguild Broker: sell items within the guild. Not until after TSO is released.
Purchase: 12pp 2,500,000 status (waiting on updated pricing)
Upkeep: 25g 12,500 status (waiting on updated pricing)

Guild Hall Banker
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-15p -4mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-30g -20k status)

Mender Hireling
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status

Guild Hall Crafting Tables
Update: You may place crafting tables purchased from status merchants in guild halls.

Harvesting Supply Depot
Purchase: 25p 5,000,000 status
Upkeep: 50g 25,000 status

Fuel Merchant Hireling
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-5k status)

Gatherer Hireling
Purchase: 20p 2,000,000 status (+8p -500k status)
Upkeep: 40g 10,000 status (+16g -2,500 status)

Hunter Hireling
Purchase: 20p 2,000,000 status (+8p -500k status)
Upkeep: 40g 10,000 status (+16g -2,500 status)

Miner Hireling
Purchase: 20p 2,000,000 status (+8p -500k status)
Upkeep: 40g 10,000 status (+16g -2,500 status)

Commodities Exporter & Status Executor Hireling
Redeem vendor trash as well as status items (documents, amulets, etc.).
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-2p 1.5mil status)
Upkeep: 20g, 5,000 status (-4g -7,500 status)

Guild Hall Stylist
Purchase: 1p 100,000 status (-4p -900k status)
Upkeep: 2g 500 status (-8g 4,500 status)

Stable Hand
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-2p -1.5mill status
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-4g 7,500 status)

Guild Hall Bartender
Purchase: 1p 100,000 status (-14pp -400k status)
Upkeep: 2g 500 status

Guild Cloak Designer
Purchase: 1p 500,000 status (-9p -1.5mil status)
Upkeep: 2g 2,500 status (-18g 7,500 status)

Far Seas Express (mailbox)
Purchase: 1p 100,000 status (+90g +750k status)
Upkeep: 0 (-2g -1,250 status)

Writs

Kunark Adventure Writ Agent
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-5k status)

PvP Writ Agent
Purchase: 10pp 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-15k status)

Tradeskill Recipe Salesman
Purchase: 1p 100,000 status
Upkeep: 2g 5,000 status

Tradeskill Rush Order Agent
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-15k status)

Tradeskill Writ Agent
Purchase: 10p 1,000,000 status (-1mil status)
Upkeep: 20g 5,000 status (-15k status)

Decoration & Fun

Courtyard Landmark
Central courtyard statue for Tier 3 guild halls. Requires Guild Level 80.
Purchase: 300pp 30,000,000 status
Upkeep: none

Maj’dullian Orrey
Doesn’t count towards amenities.
Purchase: 100pp 10,000,000 status
Upkeep: none

Slayer Poster
Purchase: 1pp 50,000 status (-200k status)
Upkeep: none

Uniform Mannequin (up to 5)
Purchase: 5p 500,000 status (-10p -2.5mil status) EACH
Upkeep: 10g 2,500 status (-20g -12,500 status) EACH

Gigglegibber Goblin Gamblin’ Game
Currently disabled for bugfixing.
Purchase: 1p 100,000 status
Upkeep: none

PvP Defense (or decoration on PvE)

Courtyard Statue Sentry (North)
Requires Guild Level 75.
Purchase: 50pp 5,000,000 status
Upkeep: none

Courtyard Statue Sentry (South)
Requires Guild Level 75.
Purchase: 50pp 5,000,000 status
Upkeep: none

Courtyard Statue Sentry (East)
Requires Guild Level 75.
Purchase: 50pp 5,000,000 status
Upkeep: none

Courtyard Statue Sentry (West)
Requires Guild Level 75.
Purchase: 50pp 5,000,000 status
Upkeep: none

Hall Guard
Up to 50 placeable NPC guards (was 20)
Purchase: 1p 100,000 status (-400k status) EACH
Upkeep: 2g 500 status (-2k status) EACH

Training

Creature Conjurer
Purchase: 5p 500,000 status (-500k status)
Upkeep: 10g 2,500 status (-2,500 status)

Guild Strategist
Raid flag — 2 hour timer
Purchase: 100pp 20,000,000 status
Upkeep: 2pp 100,000 status

Training Dummy Supply Chest
Allow members to spawn training dummies for combat practice.
Purchase: 5p 500,000 status (-500k status)
Upkeep: 10g 2,500 status (-47,500 status)

Now that Guild Halls are on the Test Server, we’ve got some more details about amenities.

The Bell to Shattered Lands takes you to:
- Antonica
- Everfrost
- Lavastorm
- Nektulos Forest
- The Commonlands
- The Enchanted Lands
- The Feerrott
- The Thundering Steppes
- Zek, the Orcish Wastes

The Spire to Overrealm takes you to
- Bonemire
- Tenebrous Tangle
- Barren Sky

The Stable Hand gives a 5% speed bonus for 2 hours.

Some unconfirmed info comes to us from Vulkoor of Antonia Bayle.

Since I have seen the model first hand, I can verify that the pic[ture of the bear] is in fact the new Dire Bear model, well one of them. Like the Warg, there are armored and un armored version of the mount.

Also as Valk stated, the crafters mounts aren’t new models per se, but old horse models with saddlebags added to them.

Pre-order Notes are revealing some more information about The Shadow Odyssey!

From GameStop some juicy new details and even a screen snapshot of a new mount — Dire Bears!

Gamestop Pre-Order for TSO

Synopsis:

In an age long passed, a band of extraordinary heroes embarked on an epic journey to free Norrath from the clutches of a shrouded threat. Their everlasting quest would take them to the far reaches of the globe, delving deep into the most dangerous dungeons and undertaking many daunting trials. This was the Shadow Odyssey, and the heroes were known as the Ethernauts. In their time, this epic quest came to an end, and Norrath was saved. But now … history is repeating. It is time for a new generation of Ethernauts to retrace the steps of their honored predecessors through the ruined, rancorous and twisting regions of Norrath to rid the world of the invading scourge and destroy the renewed evil of the Shadowmen.

Details:

A quest seems to have snuck in under the radar, namely a skeleton you can place in your house and which has 50 rent status reduction. Check out the elf outside of Blackburrow.

Game Update #48 was not without a few significant issues!

First and foremost, the introduction of Smart Loot (an item is not awarded if someone in the group already possesses it) to the Veeshan’s Peak Fabled Armor Patterns system introduced a glitch. Namely, linking to these patterns caused the EQ2 client (and possibly your computer) to crash! Due to the severity of this bug, a hotfix to the Client was released this afternoon. In the 36 hours that this problem was live numerous malicious users posted corrupted links in the public chats (often with the name of the item changed to something innocuous or tempting) leading to many users crashing to the desktop or having to reboot their PCs.

Other problems include the excessive triggering of the Wingbeat effect on mobs in VP as well as glitches in the newly added portals.

There are some other problems as well which unfortunately probably won’t get a fix until Monday at the earliest as the servers must come down for content updates.

Game Update #48 sees the introduction of a preview version of a new level 80 dungeon — Veksar — located off Fens of Nathsar at the bottom of the Lake of Ill Omen.

World Events
Two new world events have been added:

• A harvesting quest — Guild Hall Construction — to assist the construction of the guild halls. Rewards include personal and guild status as well as a certificate, statue, and character title after completing the quests 10, 20, and 30 times.
• A murder mystery — Brittle Chips Ahoy — is playing out which requires players to collect bone shards to solve the mystery! Once a certain number of shards have been collected server-wide, the next part of the quest will be unlocked!

Veksar Loot! — Even during testing, some screen snapshots of example loot that drops in Veksar were posted about halfway down this page (once you scroll past all the whining):
Veksar Feedback Thread

The Void Storms quests have come to a close, or are at least on hiatus until they make themselves known in the release of The Shadow Odyssey with a whole Void zone to call their own. Appreciation Notes can now be turned in for nearly ALL of the rewards that were available during the last two quests.

A Guild Member Points system has been added which guilds may choose to use or ignore. It’s another attempt by SoE just like the integration of voice chat to make EQ2 a one-stop shop, freeing raid guilds from the need to depend upon separate DKP (Dragon Kill Points) tracking websites. Some guilds will continue to use their DKP websites, others will migrate to the built-in system. Either way, every EQ2 player who logs in and sees that row of bright yellow zeroes on the Member List is going to ask lots of nagging questions that their guild leaders may not yet be ready to answer!

Everfrost has seen a substantial revamp. Another tunnel has been added to ease travel, 50 new quests have been added, and heroic content has been rearranged to have a more logical progression. Hubs have been added with banking and other amenities as well.

Travel received a significant upgrade. At long last, travelers to Nek Forest and Thundering Steppes can return to the docks near their home cities via bells. More importantly, betrayal of Kelethin citizens to Qeynos due Greater Faydark’s extreme isolation and lack of travel options should be reduced due to the introduction of a Sinking Sands carpet on the ramp leading out of Kelethin (near the Butcherblock entrance). The introduction of a bell from Kylong Plains to Gorowyn will provide an alternate means of transport to and from Kunark zones than waiting for the boat (although zoning 3 or 4 times may not be significantly faster!).

Tradeskill Writs now reward more faction points. 300 for rush orders, 200 for standard work orders. The appearance of crafted cloth and leather items from various levels have received a revamp, as have the stats and properties of the entire range of crafted armor from level 1-59. Many missing items in lower tiers have been added and are now imbuable.

Game Update #48 Release Notes for the complete details.

Fan Faire was 3 weeks ago, but as the information keeps flowing in about the expansion and this blog seems popular, we’re going to go with a slight name change and keep it up!