From the EQ2 Forums:

IMPORTANT: NEW DATE! The new Launcher will go to Beta tomorrow (Wednesday, November 30), and to Live on Thursday, December 1, 2011

If you thought all the bases had been covered on Character Slots with November 12th’s announcement about the Free-to-Play conversion of EQ2, there was one group who still had questions. These players are in the unique position of having characters on both the EQ2 and EQ2X servers AND having also bought character slots.

If you feel a math headache coming on, feel free to run away. To quote SmokeJumper “This situation only affects players that have characters *both* on Live server(s) and EQ2X.If you don’t have characters on Freeport, then this is a non-issue.”

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SOE are getting quick posting their Webcast videos. Below, find the video from tonight’s SOE Webcast for the upcoming Age of Discovery expansion:

The SOE Webcast has just completed with Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson (Executive Producer), Greg “Rothgar” Spence (Lead Programmer), Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (Lead Designer), and Emily “Domino” Taylor (Associate Producer), along with host Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Director, Global Community Relations).

It was brief, to say the least, mostly because it was immediately followed by a DCUO webcast (whose audience showed up during the EQ2 webcast and trashed everyone including SOE and demanded that the DCUO webcast start immediately).

During the entire webcast, Brasse’s microphone was subject to bursts of static and wind noise making it very difficult to hear. We’ll look forward to the Youtube video so we can clarify some points.

After the jump, some updated bullet point notes from the Webcast…

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With tomorrow’s Launchpad 4 rollout, we’re still going to lose the ability to Select a Character from the launcher, it won’t offer Text and Voice Chat or a Friends list, and it won’t provide Background Updates, but that doesn’t mean these features aren’t planned. With the removal of Flash and reliance for Internet Explorer, the new launcher should boast better security.

And according to a detailed FAQ provided by Dan Kinney, it looks like there are some workarounds to keep some of that Station Launcher functionality for the time being.

From Dan Kinney on the Launchpad Forums:

While I am no longer working on the LaunchPad project, I have more than a passing understanding of how it works.  The team is pretty slammed right now getting the final touches on the release for tomorrow for EverQuest II, so I will try to help resolve any issues or concerned.

There have been several posts by our studly community and CS folks, but I’d like to chime in on this forum which has always had more detailed discussions around the LaunchPad.

Is this the version with the Flash-ectomy?

Yes.  No Flashes were used or harmed during this production or operation of this LaunchPad. [One of the biggest roadblocks to moving from Launchpad 3 has been rewriting all of the functionality provided by Flash]

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Well, we’ve been ready to post this for a few hours now and have just been waiting for the Update Notes. But the servers just went down and there are still no notes. From the EQ2 Forums:

All U.S. servers will come down for a hotfix at 7am PST on Tuesday, November 29, 2011. The expected downtime is two hours.

From Isulith on the EQ2 Forums:

I am terribly sorry that someone did not post the patch notes.

Just to explain a bit, since this has come up in the past – someone on the development side usually posts the patch notes and I post the downtime notification for players. That is why they are separated. I will check with them and see what the patch notes were and get some info posted for everyone.

An update from Bunji:

There were no player facing changes with this downtime which is why no patch notes were listed.  The downtime was for some database maintenance.  I can put up patch notes that mention this in the future to prevent confusion.

Starting on Wednesday, November 30th Thursday, December 1st the following launchers/launchpads/patchers will no longer update EQ2 but instead automagically update themselves to Launchpad 4:

• Original EQ2.exe (Retail Launcher)
• Station Launcher (multi-game launcher)
• EQ2 Streaming Launcher (LP3 Streaming)
• EQ2 Launchpad 3 (LP3 Full)

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

Hi folks,

As you know, there’s a ton of new stuff coming to you soon. And soon starts now!

The first step is a LaunchPad upgrade. Starting on Wednesday (November 30, 2011) Thursday December 1st, LaunchPad will be updated automatically for you when you log in. We’re doing it now so it’s out of the way and not an issue before we launch GU 62 (“Freeport Reborn”) and the new expansion, “Age of Discovery.”

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Press & Fan Sites

If you’re wanting to get the word out about your MMO’s upcoming expansion, you’d be a turkey to not focus your attention on multi-game MMO websites. Employing correspondents that attend gaming expos around the globe, these “Press” sites have come to expect a certain degree of red carpet treatment.

Press sites are one of the smartest places to drop a few bucks for a potentially big return. People have decried the lack of advertising in EverQuest II, while Press sites like TenTonHammer and Massively get thousands of eyeballs on their sites every day. There’s always a chance that an article about EverQuest II could bring back old players, or attract the interest of a gamer new to MMOs. Some would call this kind of quid pro quo a necessary evil, but these days, it’s just the cost of doing business. Last week, we saw plenty of that business with a series of tweets as these sites went through the Age of Discovery dog-and-pony show that is the Press Tour.

This Thanksgiving, we wanted to take a moment to be thankful for those EQ2 Fan Sites that didn’t go on Press or Beta Tours, yet continue to support the EQ2 community not just once or twice a year, but every day. Although Fan Sites don’t bring new gamers to EQ2, a vibrant supportive community can sure help to retain existing players.

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Some of you may be familiar with Adam “Ferrel” Trzonkowski, if not by name than from reading his gaming perspective site EpicSlant.com or from hearing the “A View From the Top” podcast which he co-hosted with Massively’s Karen Bryan, or perhaps his current Multiverse Podcast. What you may not know is that Adam is also a published author!

Earlier this year, Adam put down into words his many years of experience as a guild leader in a How To guide called The Guild Leader’s Companion. Containing tips, suggestions, and humorous anecdotes, it’s a virtual manual for running a guild and dealing with the interpersonal conflicts that inevitably arise. The Guild Leader’s Companion was self-published in hardcover form on Amazon and as an e-book.

Now Adam has written a new book — The Raider’s Companion — but he needs your help!

After the jump, an explanation and further backstory on the project…

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From the Society for the Preservation of Superlatives EverQuest2.com:

Let’s journey down the path to the Age of Discovery!  Join Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson (Executive Producer), Greg “Rothgar” Spence (Lead Programmer), Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (Lead Designer), and Emily “Domino” Taylor (Associate Producer), along with your host Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Director, Global Community Relations), to learn all about the thrilling features due in EverQuest II’s next expansion, Age of Discovery. We’ll also share a little insight into the Beta process, how the team has been using your feedback, and what changes are being made!

Join us on Tuesday, November 29, 2011, at 4:00 p.m. US Pacific Time*, on Twitch TV! The webcast is expected to last about 20 minutes.

Be there for a very special announcement!

Time Zone Conversions:

• PST: November 29th @ 4:00pm
• EST: November 29th @ 7:00pm
• GMT: November 30th @ 0:00
• CET: November 30th @ 1:00

From EverQuest2.com:

We know you’ll probably be stuffing your face with Turkey over the next few days, so why not also stuff your experience bars? That’s right – we’re having a Double XP weekend!

This weekend, from 12:01 am PST on Thursday, November 24th, until 11:59 pm PST on November 27th, we will be running a true Double XP (+100% XP) promotion. The bonus applies to AA, tradeskill and adventure experience this weekend. Our French, German, Japanese, and Test Servers will also be enjoying the increase in XP gain. Huzzah!

So have a very Happy Thanksgiving and when you’re done eating with the family, we’ll see you in Norrath!

Time Zone Conversions:

• PST: November 24th @ 12:01 am to November 27th @ 11:59 pm
• EST: November 24th @ 3:01 am to November 28th @ 2:59am
  
• GMT: November 24th @ 8:01 am to November 28th @ 07:59
  
• CET: November 24th @ 9:01 am to November 28th @ 08:59
  

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From EverQuest2.com:

SOE would like to take this opportunity to wish all of those who are celebrating Thanksgiving a very happy one this year! May you all have a great holiday, be safe, drink beer eat hearty and game hard!

Please note that Customer Support will be closed on Thursday, November 24, 2011 so our employees may spend the holiday with their families. On Friday, November 25, phone support will be closed but Live Chat and Email Support will be available during our normal business horus. Email chat will be available as usual on Saturday, November 26, 2011.

To keep with the festive mood, we invite everyone to listen to the GobbleCast 2011, SOE Podcast’s special Thanksgiving episode for this year.

So I wanted an EverQuest II: Age of Discovery wallpaper for my desktop. I change wallpapers often, and thought hey, I’d like to get in the mood. Usually by this point, we’ve received some promotional material for the upcoming expansion, namely high resolution wallpapers, screenshots, etc.

Since I haven’t seen hide nor hair of anything like that, I put together my own 16:9 widescreen EverQuest II: Age of Discovery wallpaper using key art provided to Zam. This is an unofficial wallpaper, but if you’d like to adorn your desktop, feel free to download!

Download Age of Discovery Wallpaper
(1476 x 830 in 16:9 format)

The US Servers will come down on November 22, 2011, at 7:00 am PST for an update.  The expected downtime is two hours.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Assets can no longer be listed for auction on Live Gamer servers.

It seems unlikely that 2 hours of maintenance on every server are needed to push a change to two servers. Perhaps some database maintenance/changes are making made, or some other preparation for the upcoming expansion.

Last night, Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Director, Global Community Relations), Greg “Rothgar” Spence (EQ2 Lead Programmer) and Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (EQ2 Lead Designer) hosted a Webcast about the upcoming Dungeon Maker feature (previously known as Design Your Own Dungeon) in the upcoming EverQuest II: Age of Discovery expansion.

Note: Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson was not able to make the webcast.

Note 2: For the first ~5 minutes of the webcast, Rothgar’s mic was not working at all. At this point, he and Brasse started sharing a microphone.

Note 3: Throughout the webcast, Rothgar refers to the Avatars you use to play through Dungeon Maker-designed dungeons as “adventurers”. For clarity, I have changed all these references to Avatars.

After the jump, EQ2Wire provides an exclusive transcript of this SOE Webcast…

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To date, we still don’t have an exact launch date for EverQuest II: Age of Discovery.

Well, we have a date — November 30, 2011 — but then we’ve seen two other more general time windows of “early December” and “Winter” which might well invalidate it.

If Age of Discovery really hits on November 30th, then this would mean there are 11 days to go til the expansion launches and 2 of those days have become national holidays in the USA — Thanksgiving (a harvest festival) and Black Friday (a capitalism festival).

If the Age of Discovery beta is terminated 1 week before expansion launch as it so disruptively was for Destiny of Velious, then the Age of Discovery Beta could come to an end an alarming 4 days from now. With Dungeon Maker just hitting Beta last night this doesn’t seem plausible.

In other news, some Twitter updates yesterday from EQ2’s Associate Producer Domino which may be of interest:

Currently watching a progress bar increment … as 400 of the earlier registrants for #EQ2 beta get sent their invites! Exciting! =)

Typed up and printed my “to do by expansion launch” list today. Single spaced, it was 2 pages long. >_<

Your Thoughts

Do you think the expansion will be delayed?

From EverQuest2.com:

The Overlord’s Return

The city stirs under a newly revitalized sky. The clouds that once choked the horizon have parted, revealing a powerful presence, now returned. The tall, jagged towers and looming citadels, at once breathtaking and ominous, are lit up by massive, fiery braziers. The Overlord has returned and Freeport is reborn.

I too have returned to the city. I return to reclaim my rightful home. My family has lived here for generations. When violence erupted, we were forced to seek shelter elsewhere, sundered from our homes and scattered across Norrath, waiting for the Overlord’s return.

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PC Gamer has been given an exclusive new trailer with the first footage of the upcoming Freeport Revamp. Here is their tongue-in-cheek description for the video:

Freeport. That’s a nice name. It conjures up warm feelings of boundless possibility – and maybe a bunny or two. It’s like a verbal hug. Now, though, it’s almost hilariously un-apt, because Freeport’s the most puppy-kickingly evil it’s ever been. I’m talking jagged spiky towers, ominous red skies, and batteries that run on souls. Seriously. The revamp’s coming to EverQuest II in Game Update 62, and you can find out all about it by watching the above video.

The video also features brief interviews with Jonathan “Prathun” Caraker, Design Lead for Freeport Revamp, Tim Heydelaar, Environment Lead for EQ2, Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall, EQ2 Designer, and Dave “Covic” Brown, Lead Character Artist.

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So despite the exhaustive EQ2: Free-to-Play Frequently Asked Questions, as well as SmokeJumper’s lengthy Producer’s Letter, there were still a few details and questions that got missed in last Thursday’s announcements.

These EQ2X items are leaving the Marketplace (some previously announced):

• ‘Wand of Obliteration’
• ‘Rune of Devastation’
• Mastercrafted Gear
• Tradeskill Rares
• Crafted Arrows
• Self-Rez Scrolls
• ‘Guild Charter’ unlocks for creating guilds

These EQ2X items are staying in the Marketplace:

• Research Reducers (for researching Adept, Expert, and Master spells faster)
• Regular Bags

Other Points of Interest:

• Free StationCash for recurring EQ2 subscriptions paid with a Credit Card.
• What do Gear/Spell/Class/Race Unlockers actually cost?
• Returning EQ2 players who are considering the Free-to-Play option are less than happy about needing to buy Class/Race Unlocks if their class/race isn’t a Free one.

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Introduced in 2009, the Heroes Festival is a celebration of EverQuest II’s anniversary. From EQ2 ZAM:

The Heroes’ Festival, an annual live event first introduced in 2009, will make its return on Friday, November 18th. Freeport and Qeynos will be filled with festivities to celebrate the 7th anniversary of EverQuest II.

Heroes’ Festival 2011 will run from 12:01am PST on November 18, 2011 through 11:59pm PST on November 28, 2011.

No new quests have been introduced for 2011.

Time Zone Conversion:

• PST: November 18 @ 12:01am – November 28 @ 11:59pm
• EST: November 18 @ 3:01am – November 29 @ 2:59am
• GMT: November 18 @ 8:01 – November 29 @ 7:59
• CET: November 18 @ 9:01 – November 29 @ 8:59

On November 17, 2011 at 7am, all US servers mysteriously went offline. No patch notes were released and no announcement was made other than a “We’re working on it” until shortly before the servers came back online.

7:00am PST – Servers go offline

8:45am PST – Servers were showing as Locked

8:55am PST – Servers are back online.

UPDATE: According an EverQuestII Twitter post, tonight’s Webcast will be a Smoke-free environment:

“Smokejumper” will not be joining us for the webcast today, as was previously indicated. It’ll still be great, though [Isulith]

From EverQuest2.com:

Come check out the EverQuest II Dungeon Maker Webcast! Host Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Director, Global Community Relations) will interview Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson (EQ2 Executive Producer), Greg “Rothgar” Spence (EQ2 Lead Programmer) and Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (EQ2 Lead Designer), and learn all about one of the most anticipated features for the new EverQuest II expansion: Age of Discovery.

Join us on Thursday, November 17, 2011, at 4:30 p.m. US Pacific Time*, as we live stream this webcast on the Twitch TV! The webcast is expected to last about 20 minutes.

Come join us for the fun!

See you on Twitch TV!

Other Time Zones:

• PST: November 17 @ 4:30pm
• EST: November 17 @ 7:30pm
• GMT: 00:30
• CET: 01:30

From the EQ2 Forums:

• Fixed an issue with the 48 hour no-trade grace period.
• Fixed an animation issue with the Soga Human Female model riding on the Terrorbird mount.

With the first fix, it will, once again, be possible to simply collect all the loot during a group or raid and trade it to people at the end, or trade items within a group/raid (those who were present for the kill) in case of a looting mistake.

Network routing issues continue to plague the Splitpaw, Storms, and Valor servers, rendering raiding, grouping, and yes, even crafting neigh impossible. Although these issues aren’t within the SOE data center in Amsterdam, they still need to be addressed with the responsible parties (ISPs) to provide a playable experience for those subscribers.

After initially (and non-constructively) locking threads about Splitpaw, Storms, and Valor Routing issues and directing people to open individual /petitions, an EU Server Performance (November 2011) thread has been created in the Tech Support: Connection Support area where this issue can now be collaboratively addressed.

From Joshua M:

We are experiencing ongoing connectivity and latency issues for a great deal of players connecting to Splitpaw and Valor.  The issue itself does exist outside of our control but SOE is doing everything we can to assist in resolving the source of the problem.  I’ll do my best to provide updates as this progresses but I cannot discuss, nor do I have, specifics.

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And that’s our LAST post this weekend barring any breaking news. We’ve posted almost a ridiculous amount of information since Thursday and you guys (and gals) need the weekend to digest it all. We’ll be back on Monday with more, including maybe some thoughts about the F2P transition!