Public Quests provide different kinds of rewards than we’ve seen in the past. Right now there are 2 Public Quests: Storm Gorge which is Southeast of Thurgadin and the Ring War which is Northeast of Thurgadin. There are plans to add several more Public Quests as we heard about in Beta (possibly the Sleeper!).
The Tower of Frozen Shadow presents a unique, but familiar approach to dungeon progression. Although the seven (or is it eight?!?) floors of the Tower of Frozen Shadow are split up into 3 group instanced dungeons (Shadowed Corridors, Umbral Halls, and Haunt of Syl’Tor), there are quests that span all three. Completion of those quests is necessary to unlock different floors in the Tower.
UPDATE: Added quotes from Gninja.
From covic on the EQ2 Forums:
Update is that we started them and where trying to figure a way around skinning issues. Well our new graphic programmer says he can give me better skinning code. Right now a vert (point at the edge of polygon) can only have two bone influences, making it really hard for long skirt type cloth. Well Alex (GermInUSA) our graphic programmer says he can get me 4 influences. It’s on his task list for about April. Then we will probably block more time for the creating of kilt art assets.
You will laugh at this, but EQ1 has four influences per vert, why we didnt get that, I am not sure.
Dave
All US servers are still down 2 1/2 hours into a 1 hour Update.
Yesterday we read in the EQ2 Dev Tracker that several tweaks and fixes as well as additional debug code were being added for Freeport and Everfrost servers to try to get to the bottom of the problems.
UPDATE: The Network Status Page has been updated to indicate this is now a 3 hour downtime. So much for Double Guild XP.
So if you played in the Beta, or heard tales, you know that like past betas, the solo overland content was rather… challenging. We’re talking badgers and gnolls that ignore 30-40% of damage done to them, have upwards of 100,000 hp, and put out damage in the thousands. Notorious were the crystal spiders needed for the flying mount quest which, if they successfully poisoned you, were doing upwards of 4,000 damage *per tick* until cured. If you didn’t whip out a potion or use that click-to-cure, you were dead in seconds.
2 weeks before Velious Beta ended, SmokeJumper admitted that it was too difficult and so sweeping changes were made. Players who were originally getting slaughtered in Velious overland zones were then able to with stand 2-3 mobs beating on them with few ill effects. When Beta closed, we had been told that more changes would be made to try to strike a balance.
What we’ve seen so far in Velious is that things were tweaked to still present a challenge, but some of the tougher effects have been dialed down.
From Windslasher:
I just got done checking this out and reproduced the bug. It’s not server lag or bad pathing, and doesn’t have anything to do with flying. A small number of spawns that were set up in a certain way have simply stopped working. The worst case of this is the entry room for Obelisk of Ahkzul, but there are other affected creatures as well.
Thanks for reporting this! It will be fixed ASAP.
From covic on the EQ2 Forums:
The classic looking Erudites wear everything a human does from the neck down. They also use the human skeleton so they have all animations of human character. The problem comes with the head. Since their code looks for human outfits they try to put on human helmets which their head would shoot out the top. We made some specific head pieces for them to be used as NPCs.
If there is any doubt that EQ2 devs are working as hard as they can to resolve the persistent Receiving Zone Info issues affecting Freeport and (to some extent) other servers, know that Zoltaroth and Rothgar put in 16 hours on Tuesday, and I know that Zoltaroth worked again until midnight this morning. Sleep is overrated!
It seems every year, thousands of bug reports are submitted to the EQ2 team during Beta. And it seems every year, a few highly visible bugs/exploits make it through. Last year, it was large encounters in The Hole that would respawn if all but one mob were killed. In The Shadow Odyssey beta it was widely reported that most of the dungeons could be completed when mentored down and greyed out.
So this year, so far we know of two:
Lord Doljonijiarnimorinar (Lord Bob) could be exploited to provide loot over and over. Lord Bob was fixed in today’s hotfix.
The EQ2 Update Notes for February 24, 2011 include a variety of fixes and tweaks, and a couple of nerfs. Check them out after the jump…
UPDATE: These are actually the Update Notes for February 24th.
From EverQuest2.com:
February 22: Othmir Day
Everyone who logs in on Launch Day, February 22nd, will receive an Othmir illusion potion. (Even those who aren’t playing in Velious!) The potion has 50 charges, and is available one per character. Just be sure to log in each of your characters during the day to claim a potion, if you want the illusion for more than one character.
This event will run at least until 10am pst (1pm cst, 18:00 gmt). According to some posts by SmokeJumper, this may be extended especially on Everfrost and Freeport which weren’t up until late last night. Remember, to claim this item, go to the Marketplace and select Expansion, then Nipik’s Gift.
February 23: Guild Double XP Day
Build up your guild and your guild spirit with Double Guild XP, today only!
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this seems an odd day to do Guild Double XP. It will likely give something to do for people who didn’t buy Velious or don’t have a level 86+.
February 24: Free Transfer Day
One day only! Get a free character transfer token from the in-game Marketplace and choose your own server. Up to five moves allowed per account.
NOTE: This is transfers WITHIN an account, but not BETWEEN accounts, as this still requires the involvement of Customer Service.
February 25: Snow Days Discounts
Every day’s a snow day in Velious, but today you’ll find lots of cool prices on frosty-themed items in the Marketplace.
After reading the Upcoming Housing Improvements! thread on the EQ2 Forums, and then hearing more about these changes in the Velious Webcasts, one might have logically concluded that these changes would be IN Velious.
You’ll recall that SmokeJumper referred to the Freeblood Estate, as well as Miragul’s Summer Home (part of the Velious Digital Collector’s Edition) as being smaller prestige homes that would connect to your main house once these changes went into effect.
After the jump, we get an estimate about when we might see Multiple Housing Ownership…
In a thread pondering when we might see the rest of Velious, SmokeJumper hinted much:
We didn’t do the Wakening Lands. We just have that one small tribute area to it. Think of it as a doorway to a potential future area.
and:
We intend to grow a lot of the Velious stuff you’re missing. I have to stay mum for a bit until I get approval on *how* we want to roll it out to you, so I can’t say much else at the moment. Sorry.
If you have been abusing milking enjoying the Refer-a-Friend 300% XP bonus for its high speed leveling (and thus AA earning) goodness, especially by parking a level 1 trial account character at the zone-in, well, I’m afraid that has finally come to an end.
From Rich Waters 0n the EQ2 forums:
The Recruit-a-friend program is a great way for you to bring your friends into EverQuest II and help them level up a bit faster by playing together. When you group with a character you’ve recruited, you both gain a hefty 200% experience bonus. Unfortunately, many people were recruiting themselves and using it as a way to power-level their main character, rather than actually playing with a friend.
We’ve added a couple of limitations to the recruit-a-friend bonus to prevent it from being a solo leveling tool. In order to get the recruit-a-friend experience bonus:
From Domino on the EQ2 Forums:
I spent the afternoon today lurking around listening in channels, including the homeshow channel, and heard quite a few comments about some changes to water textures and reflections. (Thanks to all who provided details!)
I talked to GermInUSA, who has been working on improving water and reflections lately. The quick fix is to turn on this display option:
Ctrl-O (open your options); click the advanced button; under the display options, in the “water” section, tick the “water reflections” tick box. (Despite the name, this also affects non-water reflections.)
Rothgar, Zoltaroth, and others on the EQ2 team, as well as OPS (Operations) were up until all hours trying to wrangle Everfrost and the Freeport [EQ2X] servers into behaving reliably. But first, a quick fix for Everfrost players who are missing characters:
Everfrost players who are still missing characters are encouraged to follow the instructions on the EQ2 Forums. In short, go to your EQ2 folder and delete your LoginCache and LoginCache-US folders, as well as any <Servername>_characters.ini files.
After a 4 hour delayed launch, Destiny of Velious went live this afternoon at 1:00pm PST [4:00pm EST; 9:00pm GMT].
Here is an accounting of various issues players are reporting with today’s expansion…
Q: How do I get to the new Velious zones?
A: Head to Sinking Sands and speak to an Othmir Ambassador.
Q: Where do I find the Destiny of Velious Update Notes?
A: Destiny of Velious/Game Update 59 Notes
Q: How do I get my Othmir illusion with 50 charges?
A: Go to the Marketplace, choose Expansion, then Nipik’s Gift.
Q: How do I get started on Flying Mounts for adventure, tradeskill, or Freeblood?
A: EQ2 ZAM’s Flying Mounts Guide
More questions and answers after the jump…
UPDATE: Destiny of Velious is now LIVE after a 4 hour delay.
Just 2 1/2 hours late, Destiny of Velious is now LIVE!!
False alarms are the pits.
It seems that all has not gone smoothly for the Destiny of Velious expansion launch. We are now +45 minutes with no sign of time estimate on when Velious will make its appearance.
No word on Script Rewrites, OSHA Violations (think of the poor gnomes), or Work Visa checks (are those Freebloods from Romania, Hungary, or Druidia?).
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:
Well…launches always have at least one “gotcha” in them to make sure we’re awake and paying attention, I suppose.
We’ve got a missing asset issue that we’re troubleshooting right now. The gates will open as soon as we get it resolved.
More soon!
and later:
We’re missing some assets and working to get that resolved now.
As soon as that’s fixed, we’re good-to-go! No ETA yet, but we’re working on it.
We are receiving wild estimates about how long Velious could be delayed, some up to 3 hours.
It seems we’re the only ones calling today’s update “Game Update 59”, but either way, the Update Notes have now been posted!! The patch notes from the EQ2 Forums (after heavy reformatting and cleanup):
We are still over 2 hours away from the EQ2 servers coming up with the Destiny of Velious/Game Update 59.
Some players are now reporting that when they patch EQ2, they are getting an 800MB download of new Velious assets. There may be another mini-patch right before or right after servers come up.
EQ2 Servers will be going down in about 10 minutes to commence preparations for the Destiny of Velious expansion. We thought we’d take a quick look around the web to see how other press and EQ2 sites are covering the expansion.
We are hopeful that EverSeek, Beetny’s AA Calculator, and Mitzy’s Adornment Guide will be updated soon to reflect Velious changes.
If you find any other sites that are working on EQ2 coverage, please drop a note in the comments and we’ll update this article!
In the last Webcast, we were told to be on the lookout for a trailer for EverQuest II‘s seventh expansion Destiny of Velious. This trailer is now exclusively available for viewing at Massively.com.
Watch the trailer at Massively.com and then come back and post your comments about the trailer, as well as your thoughts on what has, to us, been a very low-key (some would say hush-hush!) launch.
From EverQuest2.com:
We’re just hours away from Destiny of Velious, and we’ve got a little bit of news to share for Launch Day!
First, all EQII and EQ2X servers will be coming offline at 3:00 am PST [11:0o GMT] on Tuesday, February 22nd, and we anticipate having them back online around 9:00 am PST [17:00 GMT], for an estimated six-hour downtime. This includes both international and US servers.
Second, if you had issues pre-ordering the expansion on Monday, February 21st, please try again! All of SOE’s authentication servers were offline briefly today and should now be restored to normal. Pre-orders can be made until 11:59 pm PST on February 21st.
And finally, don’t miss the Launch Day Countdown webcast, beginning at 7:00 am PST on Tuesday morning! We’ll be interviewing members of the EQII team, giving live status updates, and we’ll even have some trivia questions and opportunities to win some EQII shwag! We’ll be on the air until 9:00 am PST, so tune in on Facebook or on Stickam to watch the webcast.
