From the EQ2 Forums:

DUNGEON MAKER

You can now play as your character in Dungeon Maker dungeons! Furthermore these dungeons are “Level Agnostic” meaning that anyone of any level can group together and do them together! While the dungeons will be a bit more difficult for a lower level character than a higher level character, they will still be able to play together.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Skyshrine: Betrayal in the Underdepths

In the challenge mode Dozekar fight the Magmatic Elemental and infernal assassin adds will not spawn as frequently as before.

Niami Denmother, maven of the irreplaceable EQ2Traders, sat down for an interview with Eric “Piestro” Cleaver about EQ2 tradeskills and Game Update 63. The interview can be found on the EQ2 forums:

With tradeskills being a frequent topic of conversation around the forums, and an area of EQII that I find especially fascinating, I decided to have a chat with EQTraders.com?s very own Niami Denmother to find out a little bit more about tradeskills and what makes her tick.

Piestro: What got you interested in tradeskills in MMOs?

Niami: I was invited to the final phase of beta for the original EverQuest, and ended up hooked the moment I combined items in my spit and came up with something edible!

Piestro: How did you get involved with EQ2?

Niami: I was already busy with our EQ tradeskills site, but the hubbyogre convinced me that we should look into EQ2 tradeskills as well. So, I hopped into the beta a couple weeks before launch, discovered the wonders of furniture, and got slurped in.

In one of the most puzzling interviews we’ve seen on the EQ2 forums, EQ2 Community Manager Eric “Piestro” Cleaver interviewed tradeskill designer Brian “Omougi” Ferguson about the Tradeskill content in the recent Game Update 63.

While it’s expected that a Community Manager interviewing a designer or developer will softball the questions, the lavish praise on this paucity of content has truly raised the hackles of the EQ2 player community. Reaction from the Tradeskill community to Game Update 63‘s blink-and-you-missed-it Tradeskill content has been universal and unequivocal disappointment.

Specifically, the Withered Lands “tradeskill timeline” consists of just 6 quests. Meanwhile, the two new Tradeskill Apprentices require 18 days of waiting for each recipe (which requires 6 rare dropped materials). The raid Apprentice in particular requires some 1,500 platinum worth of crafting rares and materials just to create it, and each TS Apprentice raid recipe requires 6 rare raid-dropped materials. It would not surprise us if months go by before all of the TS Apprentice raid recipes are discovered.

With our unbridled skepticism out of the way, read the full interview after the jump…

Here are your updates for May 10, 2012.  The quest All You Need is Time in Withered Lands should now be fixed as well as the ratio of Tier 10 precious metal rares.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Withered Lands

• Hexapola: players outside the raid should no longer cause the raid to reset if they agro raid insects.

Skyshrine x4 raid zones, challenge mode

• Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spam messages about reckless adds unless an add actually spawns due to the Time Vortex Curse.

• Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spawn Ancient Dracurian Seer’s if there are already 3 or more of them present in the zone.

Today’s update notes exclude any fixes for the top Game Update 63 issues. From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where some characters would not be able to use a free respec on the tradeskill tree.

• Fixed a bug where F1 would not toggle between a beastlord player and his summoned warder if he had a different warder selected in his character window.

PLAYER HOUSING

Prestige Home: Storm Tower Isle

• A weather controller has been added to the home (the carving adjacent to the front door). The zone will always default to a thunderstorm, but now you may change it to a light rain or none at all, when you visit.

It’s one week since Game Update 63: Skyshrine launched, and overall, the update was rather polished with no show-stopping bugs, especially compared to Destiny of Velious and Game Update 61. There are always going to be a few issues that slip through in an update of this size, and already we’re seeing 2 big fixes today with Class Focuses and 40% Haste on Scout/Fighter/Priest gloves.

We’ll update this list as they are resolved:

EQ2Wire is proud to present our Game Update 63: Skyshrine Frequently Asked Questions guide.

UPDATED April 24, 2012.

After the jump, find out how to reach the Withered Lands and Skyshrine, what kind of solo, group, and raid content is available, a bit more about Prestige Points, and how to get started in Game Update 63 regardless of your play style!

From EQ2Talk.com:

Episode #44 – Wind Power

recorded on Apr 14

EQ2 Talk is excited to bring you Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, EverQuest 2 Producer. We asked her some of the burning questions about mechanics, dungeon finder, the in-game polls, and EQ2 Players. She also gives us a closer look at what the team has in store for players in GU63, offers some insight into the 2-level increase, explains a bit about prestige abilities, and talks about the team’s goals looking ahead.

We’ve listened to Episode #44 and here are a few gems:

• We may get some more detailed information on the breakouts for certain In-Game Poll questions, but providing detailed numbers on some of the questions would possibly provide information to competitors. We may see a future poll with more detailed questions about StationCash “power” items breaking out the use of power items in groups vs. raids.

• Only your FIRST poll entry on your account “counts”. The number of character alts you have does not determine how many “votes” you get.

A new Game Update is upon us, which naturally means that Niami Denmother has been living and breathing Test, reporting bugs, trying out recipes, and preparing a veritable compendium of information for interested crafters!

• GU63: Crafting Preview @ EQ2Traders “Draggin’ and Puffin'”

• GU63: Carpenter Recipes @ EQ2Traders

• GU63: Withered Lands Crafting Quests @ EQ2Traders

• GU63: Skyshrine Elite Apprentices @ EQ2Traders

Commentary

Niami’s exhaustive coverage belies the dearth of crafting content in Game Update 63. In fact there are just six quests for each tradeskill class, 4 recipe books (Essentials 91 and 92, and Advanced 91 and 92), and 2 Elite Tradeskill Apprentices, one from the solo/duo or group instances, and one from the Underdepths raid zone.

All but the most leisurely crafters will complete GU63’s “crafting timeline” in less than an hour. There is also nothing new for adorners or tinkerers. If the Qeynos Revamp (GU64) doesn’t contain any crafting content, it’s going to be a long wait for more — November or December 2012.

Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, EverQuest Franchise Director of Development, steps up and hosts the second Game Update 63: Skyshrine Preview Webcast, with guests Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, EverQuest II Senior Producer, and Akil “Lyndro” Hooper, EverQuest II Lead Designer.

After the jump, notes about the Game Update 63: Skyshrine Part 2 Webcast, as well as hints about Prestige Classes, the Qeynos Revamp, and more!

First reported in July 2011 and again in November 2011, tradeskillers have been reporting the disappearance of recipes from their recipe books, making crafting of those items impossible. Players had found various workarounds to get the recipes to (sometimes) appear, but there was no easy fix. Petitioners were informed that even if a GM made the recipe visible again, it would eventually disappear due to the same bug. The issue was raised again in January of this year, and then last week, Omougi, EQ2’s tradeskill developer, indicated that the issue was being looked into.

And here’s the latest update from Omougi:

Thanks for the information everyone!

Our awesome programmer Maevianiu tracked down the issue and he’s getting it hotfixed in for GU63.  It was only a display bug (yay!) so any missing recipes should automatically reappear in your recipe books after GU63.

Here is your Update Note for April 10, 2012:

DUNGEON MAKER

• Fixed a crash bug with loading layouts in player made dungeons.

Eric “Piestro” Cleaver interviewed Brian “Omougi” Ferguson on the EQ2 Forums about the upcoming Game Update 63:

As we continue on towards the release of Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE, I sat down with Game Designer Brian “Omougi” Ferguson to talk a little bit about tradeskills. Tradeskills are a big part of GU 63 and he had a lot of exciting information to share!

[Piestro] So tell us a little bit about tradeskills in GU 63. What can tradeskillers expect to see once the Game Update is released?

[BF] Game Update 63 contains the first step into the 10th tier of “normal” tradeskill recipes.  Higher quality Handcrafted and Mastercrafted versions of all the normal things you would expect are all included – spells, weapons, armor, food, poisons, potions, arrows, and of course new house items with themes centered around the Withered Lands and Skyshrine. The new gear will be level 91 and 92.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• You will now be told to relinquish your player made dungeons before using the character transfer token.

TRADESKILLS

• Several new sets of housing building blocks have been added to existing “carpenter essentials” recipe groups.

• The maximum scaling size of all building blocks has been increased.

From Xelgad on the EQ2 Forums:

Prestige Points are basically Alternate Advancements that you earn automatically as you level. Details coming later this week.

We’re hoping to have a lot of people on test over the next month, and I think our community team is even working on some rewards for players who are able to make it over there.

To update your Test Client in Launchpad 4, click on the tools icon in your normal live launcher -> Select Game Version -> Public Test -> Apply. Looking forward to seeing what you guys think!

Niami Denmother has turned pink at the prospect of the returning Brewday 2012 events. To find out what’s new with this year’s event, look no further than her Brewday 2012 Crafting/Housing Preview.

In other news, Omougi, EQ2’s new Tradeskill Developer has announced that carpenters will be gaining access to eleven (11) sets of Building Blocks to be crafted with common materials.

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where if an item icon was on top of a warder spell icon that right clicking the item would result in getting the warder flayout instead of the radial menu for the item.

• Fix for Mozilla in-game browser crash when Flash is installed for non IE browsers and a flash site is viewed.

TRADESKILL APPRENTICES

• Decoration recipes now require Toxnettle Roots instead of Colossal Reactants.

From Calthine at EQ2 ZAM:

Good-bye, Domino!

Emily “Domino” Taylor, beloved Associate Producer of EverQuest II, announced on Facebook today that she’s leaving EQII.  “… today is my last day on the EQ2 team and it’s been nothing but the best times, the best of co-workers, and the best of players, all of whom I’ll miss ridiculously much,” she posted. Emily is best known for being the Tradeskill Developer who took Norrathian tradeskills from a harvesting and creation grind to a playstyle filled with lore, quests, and rich rewards. She made no mention of what she’ll be doing next.SOE Announced a new EverQuest II Producer, Holly “Windstalker” Longsdale, earlier this month.

Correction: It’s important to note that ZAM only reported that Domino had left the EQ2 team.

UPDATE: Emily’s Facebook page now states “Worked at Sony Online Entertainment (Associate Producer)”.

From Emily “Domino” Taylor’s twitter:

Let it be noted, @domino_eq2 is henceforth known as @pentapod. Same person, new challenges to face on a new game. Much <3 to EQ2 always!

From EverQuest2.com:

GENERAL

• You can now access your mail without a mailbox!  You can either click the mail buff in your buff window, select mail from the EQ2 menu, or use the /start_mail command! (NOTE: You will only be able to send and receive items and coin by actually clicking on a mailbox in the world.)

ZONE PROGRESSION / POPULATION

Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge]

• Players have more time to defeat Decorin Deathbringer in the Tallon Zek fight before Tallon empowers him.

Vallon’s Tower [Challenge]

• Players have more time to defeat Kulaxis in the Vallon Zek fight before Vallon empowers him.

First I’d like to wish a Happy New Year to all of you. No doubt many took advantage of the Double XP weekend and squeezed in the last bit of Frostfell magic.

In the coming weeks, we should be hearing more from EQ2 developers and their work on the upcoming Game Update 63 coming in February. This update is expected to include new Destiny of Velious content, including dungeons, raids, and more.

Here are some issues we’re tracking this week, some of which got a nod from a developer or community:

• Character Lighting
• EQ2Players
• Invisible Mercenary Healers
• Timorous Deep (Kunark) client crashes
• Tradeskill Apprentice Recipes for Provisioners
• Characters Stuck in Frostfell
• Character Transfer Server Tokens
• What House Items do you want?

Here are your Update Notes for December 20, 2011 from the EQ2 Forums:

DUNGEON / PLAYER HOUSING RATINGS

• The house and dungeon leaderboards have now been converted from the previous 5-star rating system to a new “Like” system.

• When visiting a house or completing a dungeon maker zone you now have the option to “Like” the zone in either of the two categories.

• The leaderboards are now based on the accumulation of likes.

• Awards continue to work as before and are given to the players at the top of the leaderboard.

Brian “Omougi” Ferguson has spilled the beans on Tradeskill Apprentices at EverQuest2.com:

What exactly IS a tradeskill apprentice?

A tradeskill apprentice is an NPC that you can hire to work for you in your house. You will need to be tradeskill level 10 or higher before you can work with a tradeskill apprentice.

Who are these tradeskill apprentices anyway?

The first tradeskill apprentices available for hire will be Coldain dwarves. Now that Velious has been reconnected to the rest of Norrath, the Coldain are eager to learn the advances in tradeskills that have taken place during their years of isolation. They’re offering their considerable skills at research in exchange for the guidance and mentoring of crafters from the mainland of Norrath while they learn.

Smokejumper responded to a thread from nine days ago on the EQ2 Forums asking for a clear answer to what exactly is Age of Discovery.  He basically said what we already knew about the content included in Age of Discovery.  Reading through it and some of his follow up posts, it looks as though the “expansion” will be coming out near the end of November but price and distribution information won’t be released until next week by the marketing folks.

From the EQ2 Patcher:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Silent City: The Delving Dead

• Levels below 90 should actually have collections.

TRADESKILLS

• Appearances on some tranquil threadbare crafted armor have been updated.
• The Scroll of Fire Seeds is now heirloom rather than no trade.