As you are enjoying today’s Double XP and Double StationCash event, you may want to take note of deals coming up on May 2nd-5th that could reduce the cost of an Additional Character Slot to just $3.50, a Race Change to just $5, or a Character Copy or Guild Rename to $8.75. Other consumables including a Vitality potion will be just $3.50 if you buy your Double StationCash today.

From EverQuest2.com:

Sale! Sale! Sale!

Item Name	Regular Price	Sale Price
Additional Character Slot	1000	700
Porion of Disgenderment	750	500
Guild Rename Potion	2450	1750
Race Potion	1450	1000
Potion of Amnesia	950	700
Character Transfer Token	2450	1750
Character Copy Token	2450	1750
Norrathian Witness Protection Pack	1750	1000
Charm of Escape	50	25
Potion of Quickened	50	25
Summoning Charm	75	50
Scroll of Tracking	50	25
Portable Globe of Swift Travel	150	100
Potion of Vitality	950	700

Take advantage of this weekend’s Double Station Cash Saturday and stack up the savings! Visit the Station Cash page to learn how you can purchase SC online or from a retailer near you.

Once the sale begins, buy these items and more by clicking the SC button in game, or type /marketplace in your chat window.

A player asked why the Character Sheet (Persona Window) received yet another revamp with yesterday’s update. SmokeJumper had this tidbit:

[While players] didn’t ask for a new character sheet, but they *are* asking for something that will be solved after this change is in place. Here’s what got fixed with this change:

• Your multiple homes are now listed in the “Housing” pane. (Previous to today, you could only own one house, so a list wasn’t necessary. It is now.)

• It puts us in a much better situation to add more categories in the near future to take care of “inventory clutter” issues by creating new categories and taking those items out of your backpacks. This is a very common player request and we’ll be attacking a bunch of that soon.

Game Update 60 has finally reached Test and there is a lot of content here, including 3 new heroic dungeons, 3 new x4 raid zones, and a new x2 raid zone, a new Battleground, as well as major changes to PvP. Also look out for several changes and tweaks to classes, as well as a hard-to-miss huge nerf to Dirges, with Chimes/Cacophony of Blades no longer interrupting.

“The Children of War”

The Fortress of Drunder has emptied of Rallos Zek and his armies as they pass into the Plane of War to prepare for their eventual march on the Western Wastes. The Demi-Gods, Tallon and Vallon Zek, are subjugated within its towers, ignorant of Rallos’ grand scheme. Only Sullon Zek, the Maiden of Rage, is aware of what is to transpire. Trapped within her own tower, she has taken great risks to seek out worthy and daring heroes and guide them into the walls of Drunder.

Now it is up to you to grapple the Minions of Zek and battle your way through events that will gain you amazing allies and set into motion a war that will end all wars!

After the jump the full Game Update 60 Notes as they appear on Test (subject to change between now and May 17th):

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There are going to be a lot of questions about how the new Multi-Housing works in EQ2, so I suggest reading the extensive FAQ posted on EverQuest2.com about it.

South Qeynos Prestige Home Access

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One concern about the Neriak Opera House prestige house on Test was that the stage did not have any stairs to reach it, requiring feather fall or other floating to reach it. Also, the seats of the theater were oddly shaped, possibly trapping players. Haohmaru has checked in a fix (and provided a screenshot):

We have added stairs to each end of the stage. Hopefully we can update your homes before GU60, if possible.

We also fixed an odd issue with the lips on each seating rung. You could get stuck under the small overhang for no apparent reason.

From EverQuest2.com:

Time is running out to register for Fan Faire 2011 at the early bird price of $119.00 US!

All-Access passes to the expanded SOE Fan Faire are now available for purchase at the early bird price of $119.00 USD which includes access developer forums, panels and roundtables along with goody-bags and giveaways.

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Today’s update includes just a couple of bugs caught on Test:

HOUSING

• Prestige Home deeds are now Heirloom.
• Fixed a bug that would cause a guild to lose refund status when moving guildhalls.
• Fixed a crash bug.

If you haven’t already heard about the revamped Persona Window coming in Game Update 60, it takes what we got in Velious and polishes it up to a mirror shine. The Velious Persona window seemed half-finished to us and, apparently, to Rothgar.

Going live today, the new Personal window is a big improvement over the large paradigm-mixing one we got with Velious. It actually behaves a bit more like 2 separate windows again, with Stats (and all possible traits about your character) in a toggleable sidebar, while your Equipment, Mounts, Faction, and other character progression information now takes up roughly the same space they did pre-Velious.

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From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

Hey, folks,

We left the HEIRLOOM tag off the prestige homes. (It’ll be added to them tomorrow.)

So for today, if you were planning to buy a bunch of one type of house and then transfer it to all your different alts, please don’t do it that way. Or if you do, please realize that the HEIRLOOM tag won’t be present until tomorrow.

For today, please just realize that each character can only own one of each type of Prestige Home. If you buy more than that, you won’t be able to use them.

As of tomorrow’s hotfix, you’ll be able to transfer any duplicates to other alts, if you so desire.

What’s a Prestige Home? After the jump…

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Fr0m Zoltaroth on Twitter:

Servers should start opening shortly just finishing up internal smoke testing.

Naturally this would be the first batch of servers which were updated.

From Amnerys on the EQ2 Forums:

To thank players for their patience during the recent service interruption, we will be hosting special events this weekend across our game portfolio, including a Double Station Cash day on Saturday, April 30th. We are also working on a “make good” plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms.  Details will be available soon on the individual game websites and forums.

EverQuest II and EQ2X will also be holding a Double XP day on Saturday, from 12:01am PST to 11:59pm PST. This will affect tradeskill, adventure and AA XP.

To redeem game cards for Station Cash, visit the Game Cards webpage. The types of cards below are eligible for SC redemption (denominations may vary). Purchases can also be made through your account, which is always accessible at SOE.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience players may have experienced as a result of the recent service interruption. As a global leader in online gaming, SOE is committed to delivering stable and entertaining games for players of all ages.

SmokeJumper has been providing frequent updates on today’s installation of Multihousing into EQ2:

Hi, folks,

Today’s housing feature has to do a lot of massaging of the house database elements. This takes a considerable amount of time (a bit like a world merge, actually).

This means that when we take servers down, they will be down for 2 or 3 hours while we do that process. We should have all the servers up by mid-afternoon sometime (Pacific time).

The servers that are currently running are Antonia Bayle, Barren Sky, Harla Dar, Guk, Everfrost, Unrest, and Crushbone.

The next batch will be Splitpaw, Butcherblock, Nagafen, Freeport, Permafrost, Oasis, Crushbone, Valor, Storms, Sebilis, The Bazaar and Vox.

So be patient with us a bit. Multiple House Ownership and Prestige Homes will be here today!

As to the question of exactly when the servers will be up (with +hours corrected):

Mid-afternoon sometime (Pacific time)

Add +8 hours in the UK and +9 in Germany to any Pacific Time estimate we give. So mid-afternoon our time is something like midnight or later in Europe.

Update as of 9:00PM GMT+1 (noon PDT):

Crushbone is one of the servers that will come up in the first batch in an hour or two from now.

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Here are your update notes for today, April 28, 2011. They include the introduction of Multi-housing. Thanks to Cyliena over at EQ2 ZAM for the formatting:

HOUSING UPDATES

• Each character can now own up to 10 houses of any combination (as long as he or she meets the house prerequisites).
• House purchases are now based on alignment rather than citizenship.
• The marketplace house item limit increasers now only apply to a single house. Additionally, the marketplace house item limit increaser will no longer stick with your house as you move from house to house, but it still stacks with the tradeskilled house item limit increaser.

More information and FAQ can be found here on the Official Forums.

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It is our understanding that Game Update 60 will be hitting Test and Test Copy today. Domino’s post is not a confirmation, but taken with other posts, strongly suggests it:

Most likely early afternoon (PST) but times may vary depending on a variety of factors. There will be an in-game broadcast to warn you.

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

Hi, folks,

Today’s housing feature has to do a lot of massaging of the house database elements. This takes a considerable amount of time (a bit like a world merge, actually).

This means that when we take servers down, they will be down for 2 or 3 hours while we do that process. We should have all the servers up by mid-afternoon sometime (Pacific time).

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In the wake of Sony’s PlayStation Network being totally inaccessible for 6 days, following by the news that the entire system had been compromised (all names, addresses, phone numbers, other personal info, and possibly all credit card information on file), naturally players of Sony Online Entertainment games such as EQ, EQ2, PlanetSide, DC Universe Online, Vanguard, FreeRealms, etc. have been wondering if any of their information was compromised.

Here’s what we know:

• SOE’s Account Services and Customer Databases are separate from the PlayStation Network and were not compromised.

• Double StationCash and other Player Events are being scheduled for this upcoming April 30th weekend to “make it right” due to EverQuest2.com and other services being down over the last weekend.

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Our most commented post here on EQ2Wire so far has been the “What if?” discussion started by SmokeJumper pondering whether EQ2 should offer some sort of shortcut to level 90.

Many players expressed their opinions from one extreme to the other and everything in between. Some players demanded that this take place on another server. Others made the fair point that many players would find themselves at 90 with utterly no idea how to play their class.

I fell along the line that since 1-85 has *already* been trivialized due to itemization changes and neglect in the last ~18 months, why not provide a way for players who already have a a level 90 character to ding another from, say, 50 to 85? Already, many of us earn our AAs from level 15-65 when it’s most easily obtained, and then close our eyes, grit our teeth, and push through the mind-numbing errand quests from 70-85.

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In a thread about the new Character Sheet coming with Game Update 60, Rothgar got a bit sidetracked by players asking for a bit easier time when rearranging hotbars and the icons on those hotbars. These changes will take effect when you are in Window Rearranging Mode (press F10):

I’m going to make the opacity of the windows 90% when arranging windows so its a little easier to see through them.

As far as hotbars go, the icons will be visible but disabled so clicking anywhere on the window will allow you to position the window. If you hold the SHIFT key, the icons will become draggable, even if you have dragging disabled for that window, allowing you to reposition the icons.

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According to Frizznik on the EQ2 Forums (when answering a question about why certain tradeskill materials wouldn’t go into the Harvest Depot), indicated that GU60 is now locked and thus should be hitting Test soon. With a live date of May 17th, I wouldn’t want to take the odds on 3 raid zones, 3 dungeons, and all the other content of Game Update 60 being bug-free.

It looks like the classifications on the Rough Pearl and Rough Nacre should work for recipes that require those ingredients so I flagged those so they can go into the depot. May have to wait a while for it to hit live though since we already passed GU60 lock.

If you have been following the posts (and tweets) of Emily “Domino” Taylor, Tradeskill lead for EQ2, over the past few months, you’ve probably picked up on her increased involvement and interaction with the other parts of the EQ2 team. Today’s news that she has stepped up from Tradeskill Lead to Associate Producer then is not too surprising, as she has already produced and contributed to several live events and had a hand in creating increasingly elaborate content beyond that of Tradeskills.

Domino has quickly grown from creating new tiers of tradeskill content (for most tradeskill classes, a mostly copy-paste operation) to producing complex quests and designing entire events. We’ve seen the introduction of elaborate Heritage quests, the first ever Signature tradeskill quest (the Coldain Prayer Shawl), as well as Tradeskill Epics, and a large variety of content for tradeskillers, all while more than doubling the number of recipes available to Carpenters and other classes.

And all along, Domino has made a point of communicating with players moreso than many other developers, and rapidly correcting the numerous shortcomings and frustrations of the EQ2 tradeskill system as it existed when she took over. I think one could safely say that, with the exclusion of the actual “mechanics” of crafting (the dull 1-2-3-1-2-3 four second crafting cycle), Tradeskills are one of the most polished parts of EQ2.

So with today’s announcement that Domino will be taking more of a “big picture” vantage point on the EQ2 development process, who will pick up the Tradeskill banner? As it turns out, someone who is no stranger to the task: Paul “Frizznik” Carrico. I’m hopeful that with his background in game mechanics and content design, he’ll be able to lend a hand to continuing to shepherd tradeskills, while addressing some of the mechanical shortcomings of the actual crafting process (the aforementioned 4 second crafting cycle having proven to be a more effective sleep aid than Diprivan), as well as the niggling bugs and caps that have largely hampered the draw of Crafting and Harvesting skill buffs. As we saw last week, Frizznik has wasted no time and already put through some changes in Harvesting speeds for lower level characters.

After the break, the full announcement…

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From the EQ2 Forums:

All U.S. servers will come down for a hotfix at 7am PDT [15:00~18:00 GMT] on Thursday, April 28, 2011. The Splitpaw server will have its also have its hotfix the same day at 3pm London Time. The expected downtime for all affected servers is three hours.

Update Notes are not yet available.

For me, since DoV came out, the “hot zone” hasn’t seemed to be very “hot”. I’ve said this in a few threads and have seen others chime in with different theories on why they seem that way.  There may be fixes to this coming our way in GU60.  Details after the break.

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From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

I don’t have the ETA yet, but we are making the purchases and we’ll get the hardware replaced on the servers that have not yet been upgraded (Guk, Everfrost, Unrest, Butcherblock, Permafrost, Oasis, and Splitpaw).

It’ll take some time to get these changes implemented (takes a while to order them, get them delivered, and then installed at the various data centers), but we’ll update you with details when we know more.

They’re coming!

Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson has lent another timely interview to Massively, this time on Game Update 60 and plans for the future. Some theories are confirmed, but most of Georgeson’s cards remain close to the chest.

Interview at Massively

In a thread from a returning player who demanded a flying mount before he’d commit to coming back to EQ2 as a full-time player, SmokeJumper posited a rather interesting thought regarding flying mounts, Velious content, and the fact that both require level 86+. What would you think about being able to start a character at level 90?

Read on…

Hey folks, the OPs comment about not wanting to level up to play in Velious and get a cool mount is a reasonable discussion. At the risk of laying foundation for a flamewar here, I’d like to propose an idea to you and see how you feel about it.

Ready? Try not to judge until you’ve read it all. It’s definitely going to make a few of you think about wearing a troll costume, but if so, please keep in mind that this is just an idea. It’s a discussion. That’s all. I am serious that I’m asking for feedback.

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