We're a tad late on this one, but if you miss the Qeynos and/or Freeport neighborhoods which were gobbled up by last year's Revamps and wish you could make a home of them, there's an in-game poll you might want to give your input on.
The Test server was updated last night with a number of tweaks, fixes, and improvements.
First up, the Housing and Leaderboards windows have been merged into a new megawindow. From Ahma:
We've added a new window: Housing and Leaderboards. This UI element, which can be accessed via the EQII menu and from the Housing and Leaderboards buttons to the right of the EQII menu, combines some old windows and allows easy access to many housing related features. It allows you to manipulate all your current houses, browse and buy new houses, visit houses associated with the current zone you are in, and view the current housing leaderboards. Please check it out and give us your feedback!
Next, the monthly Moonlight Enchantments event is gaining 2 new quests and 23 new item rewards:
- "Comforting Confections" - Speak with Shasta Evergreen in the Enchanted Zygomyd Grotto
- "Blooming Good Tea" - Speak with Odeyana in the Enchanted Fay Grotto
From the EQ2 Forums:
PLAYER HOUSING
- Fixed an issue where the moving crate sometimes wouldn't show up when moving houses.
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General
- Coin rewards for Advanced Solo zones have been increased.
- Minimum coin rewards for Heroic zones have been increased.
ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Warrior
- Reversal should no longer periodically reapply its visual.
QUESTS
- The recipe "Circle of Flames" should now correctly appear in the recipe book for those who have scribed it.
- Meru should no longer mysteriously die during the quest Gifts From Prexus.
Niami Denmother has come through with another set of previews on her EQ2Traders site for tomorrow's Game Update 66: Scars of the Awakened.
Here's a master list of the reading material I have put together for folks regarding the crafting/housing side of things. The Crafting/Housing Preview contains links to all of the other pages mentioned below, but this should help if you want to shortcut to something specific.
Niami's previews go into some of the new features in Game Update 66 such as Pitch and Roll for house items, pictured below:
And you don't have to memorize the command to hide/show the Housing control wheel above (I personally dislike it, but it's how you must access Pitch and Roll commands), as a new Housing sidebar has been added:
From Holly "Windstalker" Longdale on twitter:
We have more work to do on Player Studio House sales, so it won't be going live with the game update on 4/30. We'll update soon though! #eq2
— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) April 23, 2013
Logo Mockup by EQ2Wire
In addition to the new content in Game Update 66, which hits Beta today and will go live on April 30th, there are numerous class tweaks. But instead of class balance (although there is some of that), the overriding theme of the class improvements in this update could best be summed up as "What Bugs Your Class Most?" All those things about your class that drive you crazy, like having to be directly behind the mob to use your biggest hits as a Dirge, or having to be exactly 5 meters from the mob to do both your Melee and Ranged CAs as a Ranger.
Read over the notes and give us your take. Are these great, long overdue changes, or does it almost go too far, making things a little too convenient? As a Ranger, I'm excited about the changes, but will I become even lazier now that I can stand pretty much anywhere in the room and do my maximum DPS? I certainly applaud a number of the changes which were things that "didn't make sense" which have now been fixed.
After the jump, Game Update 66's Beta Notes...
This was posted over a week ago, but I wanted to post some commentary about the forthcoming ability for house decorators to sell their house layouts on the Marketplace. And since that time, there have been a number of clarifications from EQ2 Programmer Kenneth "Terrogaunt" Roecks which further shed light on what we can expect.
Here's Holly "Windstalker" Longdale's initial announcement:
Greetings to our decorators – existing and potential,
These are very exciting times for passionate decorators! On April 2, when we start Open Beta for Game Update 66 “Scars of the Awakened,” we will also be inviting you to test our Player Studio House category that allows you to buy and sell decorated houses of all types, shapes, and sizes in our marketplace! Sellers earn a real portion of the profits!
We are working on details right now to make decorating simple to do and test. For example, your new character copies to Beta will include the houses you have on your server so setting up homes to sell should be easy.
We are working on a lot of details behind the scenes to get Player Studio Houses ready too, including a new Web page that will allow you to pre-qualify to sell houses through Player Studio (if you’re not already qualified through Player Studio) so you can get ready to sell houses when the category launches. We will let you know as soon as pre-qualifying is live!
Our goal right now is to launch Player Studio Houses with our game update on April 30!
Oh. My. God.
When Beastlords were added to EQ2, the first thing an alarming number of people wanted to tame was Bristlebane's very own Bovinasauros Rex or the Meatbeast! Inexplicably, a month later the Meatbeast was taken away and there were rumblings that not all on the EQ2 team were quite so excited about the idea of players running rampant with them. We thought that was the end of it, but the Walter Bishopesque love for the Meatbeast in the EQ2 community just wouldn't die! After a year of players clamoring, the Meatbeast was once again available to Beastlords and all was once again right with Norrath. We celebrated, smiled, and moved on. But not the insane evil genius EQ2, Senior Animator Tom Tobey and his cohort Christopher Atkins, Character Artist.
Just in time for the April Foolishness of Bristlebane Day, they have given us a full quart's worth of hilarity. I could describe it, but you're better off just watching the funniest video SOE has ever released. If you don't die laughing, then I don't know what to say...
Today, Meatbeast baby pets in five different colors are available for your house, and more importantly, you can now get a Meatbeast mount either a Cow or Bull for 1,950SC. I'm logging in right now!
P.S. for ONE DAY ONLY (April 1st) if you really must, you can get a pink Meatbeast mount.
From the EQ2 Forums:
POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
The Dreadcutter: The Pirate Kings
- The Pirate Kings encounter should no longer gain increasing latency over the course of the fight.
ITEMS
- Creeping Fingers, Tri Color Leaf Tree, Five Leaf Bush Drooping Fern Plant, and Blooming Jacaranda can now be sized even larger.
Logo mockup by EQ2Wire
From Holly "Windstalker" Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:
To all Norrathians,
The Velious saga continues! New lands and adventures will be uncovered on April 30 with Game Update 66 entitled EverQuest II: Scars of the Awakened!
Ever vigilant, Norrathians march united under the banner of the New Combine army, deeper into the perilous continent of Velious.
Finally, the army breaches the borders of a region known as Cobalt Scar - a majestic, lush, but tormented region. And from within dark passages in the surrounding mountains, the inhabitants of Sirens Grotto beckon to all.
From the EQ2 Forums:
Many moons ago, the Dwarves started Brewday in honor of Brell. Now, each year, portals appear in Antonica, Commonlands, Haven, Greater Faydark, Timorous Deep, and Frostfang Sea to lead you to the Bar of Brell, where new and classic adventures await those thirsty and foolhardy enough to enter!
Otengard Brauer has also set up a Beer Garden in the Butcherblock Mountains, but the ale seems to have attracted some goblins. Help him while competing against others in an effort to rid the area of the most goblins. And as you're crawling through the bars and drinking holes throughout Norrath, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for special items of interest to collect!
Brewday begins on March 7th, 2013 at 12:01 am 1:40am Pacific Time and runs until March 18, 2013 at 11:59 pm Pacific.
Guides
For more about this annual celebration, visit these sites which have been updated for the 2013 event:
Time Zone Conversions
From the EQ2 Forums:
NEW RAID ZONES
- New x2 raid zone Wurmbone's End: Nox Incessit (with normal and challenge versions). Entrance located in Jarsath Wastes.
- New x4 raid zone The Dreadcutter: The Pirate Kings. Entrance located in Obol Plains on the dock.
NEW BAG SORTING, SWAPPING AND DUMPING FEATURES
Bag Sorting:
Open up the Bag Options window from the button on each bag to access the filters that you’d like to set for a respective inventory bag. After setting your options, hit the “Sort” button on your Character window. This will send a command up to the server with “/sort_bags name”.
- In addition to sorting by “name”, you can type the sort_bags command yourself and put “level” to sort by level of the item instead.
- Any option that you set for filtering items will also affect which bag the item goes to upon looting!
- If you’d rather a bag not be sorted, feel free to mark the bag as a “Skip”.
I had every confidence that Player Studio would demonstrate the creativity and artistic talent of EQ2 players, but I continue to be impressed by what is being approved and added on an almost weekly basis.
From EverQuest2.com:
Four new cloaks created by a player -- Lyranny -- are now available in the Marketplace!
Halasian Wolfskin Cloak (Top Left)
Erollisi Courter's Cloak (Top Right)
Golden Sun Cloak (Bottom Left)
Halasian Loyalist's Cloak (Bottom Right)
From the EQ2 Forums:
GUILD HALL AMENITIES
Depots
- You can now set tradeskill access separate from withdrawal and deposit access on each Depot's UI.
- Transmuting components are now labeled properly and can be added into the harvest depot by selecting the appropriate choice in the deposit dropdown.
- Treasured - Fragments and Powders
- Legendary - Infusions
- Fabled - Manas
ITEMS
- Augmented Blessing and Augmented Smite no longer stack proc chance. They now increase in effectiveness for each similar effect you wear.
- Augmented Blessing and Augmented Smite no longer proc in PVP combat.
- Augmented Blessing and Augmented Smite's “On Damage Received” effect can now only trigger once every 15 seconds.
DUNGEON MAKER
- XP for weaker creatures has been reduced in dungeon maker dungeons.
From the EQ2 Forums:
GUILD HALL AMENITIES
Depots
- The maximum number of different resources that you can store in a Guild Harvest Depot has been increased from 200 to 1000.
- Several new Depots have been added as guild amenities! Check the “Depot” tab in your guildhall amenity list for details.
- The maximum number of items in a single depot stack has been increased from 20,000 to 99,999.
- Set Access now works with storage containers for the purpose of withdrawing items from the containers. Deposit remains open to all.
- Storage containers will now show the minimum level to use an item instead of the item level if there is one specified.
- You can now use the Deposit All button on depots to deposit every valid component from your bags.
Whew! With a little over 12 hours to spare before Frostfell 2012 goes live, I finally have the Frostfell 2012 crafting preview done! I bet you folks didn't think I'd have it done in time - I know I didn't think I'd finish it before tomorrow! Fortunately, I had some phenomenal help from a pair of SOE Frostfell Elves with regards to most of the images, and I think I caught all the high points.
I take full responsibility for the ogress images that make you want eyeball bleach - I thought they'd help keep you from going into sugar shock as you look at all the nummy Frostfell goodness found in Frostfell 2012 Vignettes
The Thanksgiving holiday falling just after an expansion is always a pain. Just when we need those Tuesday/Thursday updates the most, the fixes start to thin out, or are postponed. But for those who have been waiting patiently (and even if you haven't), the time is finally here for the post-Chains of Eternity Mega Patch. Tomorrow's update contains a ton of fixes to issues that have been brought up repeatedly in /bug, here, and on the forums.
The updates include:
The complete Update Notes after the jump...
From the EQ2 Forums:
Chains of Eternity is EverQuest II's 9th expansion! In Chains of Eternity, adventurers will travel to the realm known as Ethernere in their quest to stop the siphoning of souls from Norrath. Here, the heroes will fight to save not only the mortals of their world, but prevent the imbalance in Ethernere, as well as meet the God of the afterlife, Drinal, the Silver Reaper. They may yet find the answer lies not in fortunes and portents, but deep in Norrath's past. Adventurers will also uncover all new areas in the mortal realm of Norrath.
The fate of the living and the dead are in your hands, heroes! Are you up to the challenge before you?
From the EQ2 Forums:
EverQuest II is preparing to launch its ninth expansion, Chains of Eternity™! This expansion will take intrepid adventurers into Ethernere. Part of this expansion is the two new overlands in the spirit realm: Obol Plains and the Eidolon Jungle.
Nathan "Kaitheel" McCall, Game Designer; Maria Del Casino, Senior Environment Artist; Brandon McDonald, Environment Artist; and Chris Atkins, Character Artist talk about what went into creating the lush environments of Eidolon Jungle and Obol Plains. They may have started with Loping Plains and the Feerrott, but after all the changes, they are almost entirely new zones. The incredible art and animation coming from the EQ2 team continues to astound me.
Linda "Brasse" Carlson has tweeted some interesting news:
#SOE Player Studio has received 78 submissions in two weeks - no mean feat, as creating qualifying items requires serious skills!
— Brasse (@Brasse) November 1, 2012
To date, #SOE Player Studio has 12 submissions in process for #FreeRealms, 13 for #EQ2 and an amazing 53 for #EQ
— Brasse (@Brasse) November 1, 2012
Final bit of cool #SOE Player Studio info: six of these items have been approved & with Finance pending tax forms - next stop, DEV!
— Brasse (@Brasse) November 1, 2012
At #SOELive we said to expect up to 6 months in process for #SOE Player Studio - a lot of that is Dev time and scheduling.
— Brasse (@Brasse) November 1, 2012
From EQ2 ZAM:
To celebrate Nights of the Dead, ZAM has acquired TWENTY-FIVE exclusive Royal Mummy Wrap Crate codes to give away AND some Station Cash! All you have to do is bring us your best EverQuest II Nights of the Dead themed screenshots, and you could be sporting this bejeweled version of the Mummy Wrap with a pocket full of SC!
Full instructions and rules are here. But here's the short version:
Register on ZAM. Upload your most awesome Nights of the Dead themed screenshots here. Wait until November 2 when we'll give prizes out!
Feel free to link and discuss your favorites in this thread on the EQ2 ZAM forums.
I don't want to misquote anyone, so I am transcribing the most clear-cut questions and answers. Anything else will be in the transcript video.
Question about tradeskillers making kilts and getting more styles.
Q: Freeport and Qeynos lets anyone do writs. Neriak is more picky. Gorowyn is selective as well. Can this be made more consistent?
Q: A Krono is $17.99. Why is it more than 30 days sub costs at Walmart for $14.99?
A: We don't endorse the selling of cards in-game, but it's a completely supported in-game method of trading in-game subs.
Q: Are you going to try to stop selling cards for plat?
A: No.
Just starting the EQ2 Art & Animation panel.
Dave "covic" Brown, Tom Tobey, Aaron "Gnobrin" Bisnett, Chris Myers
Lotsa slides.
This is a visual panel, so not going to be a lot of updates.
How we create a 3D environment
Showing a flythrough of a new outdoor 3D dungeon that's being worked on.
The expac will have 9 individual dungeons (not repurposed)
From the EQ2 Forums:
Be on the lookout for frightfully fun items in the Marketplace, including a herd of unicorn mounts! One new unicorn mount will be released each week.
Some of these items will be available year round. From Ahma on the EQ2 Forums:
Some Nights of the Dead items on the Marketplace will be available for a limited time only, like the Tricks and Treats house decorations that have returned from previous years and the new cordon house decorations released this year. (This is a good chance to get your Spooky, Sinister, and Creepy Tricks and Treats if you weren't able to get them before, by the way!)
Other new Marketplace items, though they're released during Nights of the Dead, will be year-round items, like the unicorns.
From the EQ2 Forums:
The skies darken and a blustery wind blows across the land, sending shivers down the spines of all Norrathians. Though it was long ago, the memory of the undead assaulting the city of Maj’Dul is strong. And goblins and ghouls and all things frightful are once again emerging from the shadows on the anniversary of this event! It’s time for Nights of the Dead!
Whether you’re the crafting kind or a daring adventurer, there are new and exciting additions for 2012 as well as returning favorites! There’s something for everyone as all of Norrath comes together to enjoy this holiday!
