Gold Membership?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary, Free-to-Play (EQ2X), Game Updates & Maintenance

Early birds trying out Game Update 57 on the Test and Test Copy servers have encountered an intriguing error message when they try to purchase something from the Broker. (don’t be alarmed by my ProfitUI broker window, it’s the message in the lower right that is worth a second look):

You must upgrade to at least a Gold membership in order to purchase items from the broker.

Game Update 57 Update Notes for Test/Test Copy

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, DGC Wants Feedback, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

Game Update 57 is now up on  the Test and Test Copy Servers and we’ve got the Update Notes. We’ve already taken some new screen shots of the new default interface including the new pictorial tutorials for new players.

  • User Interface – One of the touted features of Game Update 57 is the revamped User Interface. The Persona and Inventory windows have been merged into a Character window. The XP bar has become a sort of “dock” at the bottom of your screen. All buttons and window corners have been rounded off. And for the most part, everything that was blue is now red! No doubt UI modders will come out with a classic re-skin to turn everything back to blue. We will be posting a preview of the GU57 Interface Changes soon. Discussed Here
  • Map Points of Interest – Many points of interest have been added to the default map, including quest locations. This will provide some of the functionality of EQ2Maps.
  • Additional Travel Revamp – There have been additional revamps to Travel. With path linking, you can now choose the ultimate destinations of any inter-zone travel and it will “connect the dots” to get you there. All transport pads in Kingdom of Sky connect to all others, and travel between the three Kingdom of Sky zones is much easier.
  • Character Creation & More Neutrals – The Character Creation screens have been revamped, and several more classes have become neutral, including Assassin, Ranger, Templar, Inquisitor, Coercer, Illusionist, Monk and Bruiser.
  • Extraneous Spells/CAs Removed from Levels 1-15 – Many spells and combat arts that new players generally did not use at level 1-20, such as Taunts, De-Agros, Agro-reduction, etc. have been postponed until level 15+ to decrease the number of new spells/CAs that players are exposed to in the increasingly brief sprint from level 1-20. First Discussed Here
  • Spell Effects Visual Revamp which was rumored for GU55 is now on Test. This is an update/revamp of the animation which plays for each beneficial and hostile effect cast by characters.
  • Lucan D’Lere has returned!
  • Additional Tradeskill Quests have been added at level 20 and 30.
  • Starting Zone Conflicts – Frostfang Sea (New Halas) and Greater Fay starting zones are now under attack by invaders, adding an additional level of interest to these zones. In addition, Gorowyn has received yet another architectural revamp to hopefully improve navigation.
  • General – You can also expect the usual array of tweaks and bugfixes to raid zones, battlegrounds, AA lines, Quests, and Items. Most classes got some kind of benefit here.

As this is all on Test and Test Copy, the EQ2 team are really looking for bug reports, feedback, and comments on everything that’s been added.

Complete Game Update 57 Notes after the jump…

Breaking: Big Announcement on Tuesday, More from SOE Block Party

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News, Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Tradeskill

Breaking News from the SOE Block Party. Reporting by Serianna.

  • a big hint about larger item limit in houses, possibly from being able to use a 2nd expander.
  • new zone is going to be a guk zone.
  • possibly going to see a differentation in the lower guild halls (halas to look more like the halas housing etc) but still in way early stages on that. not green lighted but devs pushing for it.
  • new crafting quests in mid teirs.
  • some big announcement coming tuesday from smokejumper.
  • also talk about making BGs more dynamic. traps, levers, movable objects etc. with different ways to get points besides just kills and holding stuff and the like

Rothgar Talks New UI for Game Update 57

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Game Updates & Maintenance

Although most of what we’ve been hearing from Rothgar over the last year has been closely tied to sorting out Battlegrounds, addressing Server Lag and Performance, and directing Server Upgrades, one of his big passions has been to upgrade the default EQ2 User Interface.

So far, the coolest news about Game Update 57 has been that it will include a pretty substantial polishing up of the default UI. Today, Rothgar has posted some tantalizing details of just what we can expect. And if you will be attending the SOE Block Party (if you will be at Comic-Con, there will be shuttle buses available), then you’ll be the first to see it in action.

Rothgar: Big UI Changes Coming with GU57

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

From SOE-Rothgar on EQ2Interface:

Rest up because you’re most likely going to have a lot of work to do when GU57 hits test server in just over a week!

I can’t go into a lot of detail right now, but we’ve made some pretty big UI changes for 57. The default UI is getting a re-skin and many windows have been modified.

We’ll post more when we can.

This was posted on July 16th, so that would put Game Update 57 onto Test as early as the end of this week.

Update Notes: July 20, 2010

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Here are your brief Update Notes for July 20th, 2010:

ITEMS

  • The Skinbreach Silk Cord should now have resists.
  • Band of the Corrupter should now also proc 75 Agility.
  • Icy Keep: Many of Vrewwx’s Drops from the Challenge Mode have been adjusted to be more in line with the Difficulty.

UNDERFOOT DEPTHS

  • Vaclaz and Vaclaz Released: Non-Priests are now given precedence when choosing who will receive keen insight in order to disrupt the roekillik energymaster adds.  A priest will only be chosen for this task if there are no other raid members available.

Incoming Guardian Love

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Raiding

Xelgad has taken another measured step towards collecting player feedback. Last month, it was a shoutout for Top End Guilds to post some of their highest parses. Today’s request appears to be some light finally being shone on guardians after nearly 2 years at the lower middle of the “fighter” pack in tanking ability.

Greetings Guardians!

First off, allow me say that we understand that the class is being outshined at the moment, and we’re working on it. It’s going to take more than just one change to get Guardians back to working as a strong class again. I’m not going into details yet, but we do have a mechanics change in the works that will at least help a bit to distinguish Guardians as a more defensive tank. Even with that, the class is currently lacking in other areas, including threat generation and utility.

It’s utility that we want to focus this thread on. We want to bring Guardian utility up to the level that the other fighters bring to a group or raid. We have three tentative changes that will be going to test soon:

  1. Got Your Back will become raidwide.
  2. Cripple will become a maintainable debuff with a damage component.
  3. Call of Shielding will also increase the health of the raid. The level 87 version at master will amount to around 1,000 hit points.

We’re looking for feedback on these ideas, and we’re open to boosting Guardian utility even a bit further, especially in heroic content. I want to emphasize that we’re not trying to turn Guardians into plate-wearing Bards or anything of the sort. However, I do want to try to focus this thread on the utility aspect of the class.

UPDATE: These changes will come after Game Update 57.

Icy Keep: Retribution — Vrewwx Gets Nuked

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Raiding

The Icy Keep (an easy x4 raid zone added in Game Update 56) seems to have taken its place as this expansion’s Ward of Elements. We’ve received reports that, with the exception of the final boss, this zone is appropriate for raid groups of as few as 11 players seeking to gear up and work their way into more difficult raiding.

There have been some issues with later bosses which Gninja has just submitted some fixes for:

[I’ve] just checked in a fix that cleans up the Vrewwx fight as well as fixed the respawn points. Now once you have defeated the Corrival you can respawn in his room. Once the Brothers have been killed you can respawn in there and once D’Ina has been killed the respawn resets to the front entrance since its a faster run from there.

I also made the front keep doors allowed to be openned if you have completed the quest “Knocked Out Cold” Thus having killed the dragon before in either normal or challenge mode and completed the questline from the zone. This means those wanting to fight the dragon can do so by openning those doors killing D’Ina and going after the dragon.

Hopefully these changes should make it live next hotfix.

Lag Progress (June 29, 2010 Update)

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Today’s hotfix included some additional lag fixes. Here’s Rothgar:

With this morning’s update we made a fundamental change to how our zone servers throttle their frame rate. Our hope is that this change will allow busier processes to consume more of the server resources and increase performance (reduce lag). Whether or not this change has a noticeable impact will depend on many variables that can only be observed in the live environment and under a significant load.

We’ll be watching things on our end as we ramp up to primetime tonight but I’m also looking for your feedback as to whether or not you’ve noticed an improvement after this morning’s changes.

Thanks!

   

Hardware Upgrade for Guk, Najena and Blackburrow – June 29, 2010

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

From the EQ2 Forums:

Starting at 4:45am PDT on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, the Guk, Najena and Blackburrow servers will come down for an estimated 5 1/2-hour downtime, expected to be online again around 9:15am PDT. During this time the servers will be undergoing maintenance.

We apologize for any inconvenience. If any additional downtime is needed, we will update this post accordingly.

GU57: Heroic Opportunities for Fighters?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Due to the streamlining of spells and combat arts from levels 1-20, specifically several changes to fighter spells and arts, Fighter classes are finding it difficult or impossible to complete Heroic Opportunities.

Game Update 57 will see some changes to fighter classes to resolve this issue. From Xelgad on the EQ2 Forums:

Fighter heroic opportunities have been changed from requiring a taunt to complete them to requiring a ‘Fist’ icon to complete them. Paladins and Shadowknights should soon see that one of their primary spells is now a Fist rather than a sword (Judgment and Malice) and Berserkers will soon see that Body Check and Raging Blow now go up to Raging Blow/Body Check VIII, rathar than VII, and they receive those spells at levels two and three.

Everyone should be able to complete their solo heroic opportunity without toggling a buff or a stance as soon as the rest of the changes make it to test.

Georgeson Shuts the Door on F2P… or does he?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News, Game Updates & Maintenance

On Friday June 4th, 2010, Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) made news by announcing that the entire game was going to a Free-to-Play (F2P) model. Players can maintain a subscription, and receive most of the game and game items, but they’ll need to spend real money to get access to new items which appear on their marketplace.

This begged the question of whether other games such as EverQuest, EverQuest II, or World of Warcraft would move to a F2P model, and if they did so, whether it would be gamewide or if we would see the addition of new isolated F2P servers.

F2P Goldmine?

Thus far, it remains unclear if F2P has been the financial goldmine that SOE expected when they spent millions developing and marketing their kid-friendly FreeRealms. The game is popular, but it’s unknown outside SOE if enough people are buying items in the Marketplace to continue the experiment. Already, there has been one major revamp to FreeRealms, shifting the target audience from 10-15 downwards by making gameplay, combat, and quest completion easier.

Thus far, every addition of RMT elements to EQ2 has been extremely unpopular with players, at least in discussion forums. Applying a F2P model to established Subscription-based MMOs seems to be the “third rail” in MMO discussions. LotRO has jumped into F2P headfirst, marking some classes as premium, reducing character slots for non-paying customers, and putting powerful items in the marketplace.

During the Stratics interview at E3, the Free-to-Play question was raised, and Dave Georgeson (EQ2 Senior Producer) took a swing:

The current subscription model isn’t going to change. The people that are playing the game as it stands right now really like the way it is. They don’t want us to sell items for power in the marketplace. They want to be able to earn their way through and achieve things on their own. They don’t really want people to be able to get ahead with their wallet. So the existing business that we have right now is not going to change. If we were to do something outside of it, it would be completely separate.

Georgeson had a followup clarification on the EQ2 Forums:

We will not be changing your subscription model. We’ve heard you folks loud and clear that you do not want items with stats introduced, you don’t want players buying their way to power, etc. Your world will stay the way it has been and we will continue to support it with new content, items, etc.

Commentary

At first glance, this would seem to shut the door on F2P in EverQuest and EverQuest II’s future. However careful consideration of the interview and reading of these comments would seem to leave a crack open for the possibility of Free-to-Play appearing on isolated servers, much as the  Bazaar and Vox servers allow isolated RMT in EQ2. Clearly we’re in the realm of speculation here.

By the way, some are using the acronym FTP to describe Free-to-Play, however FTP is so widely used for File Transfer Protocol, we will be using F2P.

Expansion Date Guesstimations

We have been guesstimating that the 6th expansion for EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious would make an appearance this November. However based on Georgeson’s comments in this most recent interview, we’re now estimating that the expansion will not hit until early 2011. We’re a little over 1 month away from Fan Faire (August 5-8) so no doubt this date will be locked down before then.

GU57: Streamlining Spells/CAs From Levels 1-20

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Game Update 57 could be a big update, based on some notes already posted in the Test forum, and hints of other changes coming down the wire. The biggest change thus far is the removal of certain group spells from the various player classes from levels 1-20. Because level 1-20, and especially levels 1-10 are considered solo play, those spells which are only useful in groups are being postponed to later levels.

From Rothgar:

These changes are PART (notice the emphasis on the word “part”) of a bigger change that wasn’t fully rolled out to the Test Server.

As you’ve probably guessed, these changes are part of a package to make the game more approachable to new players. There were many spells and abilities that were either useless or made no sense at such a low level.

We can also expect some changes to the default User Interface (UI) appearance of spells and combat arts. Of course, these will be customizable by installing third party UIs. Again from Rothgar:

I’d ask that you wait until you see the other changes that are going with it (to the default layout). Then decide if it fits or not for you.

From SmokeJumper:

You’re seeing some new changes on Test right now. We’re doing a bunch of revamping, some of it to make the game a lot faster when you play it, and a bunch more to make the game more intuitive and cool when start playing for the first time.

The skill progression for the lower levels was a) drowning new players in skills that they didn’t understand, and b) often giving players certain skills way before they needed them. Also, some classes just simply weren’t getting enough useful skills in order to have fun. So we’ve shuffled things around. Details of that shuffling are listed below.

After the jump, the changes to class abilities (mostly from levels 1-20) which have been submitted by Xelgad:

Further Shaders 3.0 Optimizations

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Game Updates & Maintenance

Imago-Quem continues to work nose-to-the-grindstone on Shaders 3.0, improving not only the look, but the performance. A month’s worth of tweaks to Shaders 3.0 since Game Update 56 are now on Test. These improvements fix tons of issues with objects being too dark, too shiny, or just the wrong color. From SmokeJumper:

Shader 3.0 optimizations! Shader 3.0 is now way faster than it used to be. In most cases, it will outstrip Shader 1.0 by 10 fps or more. Very cool. (Okay, we snuck this one out already, but I’m talking about it now because we never really said how MUCH of an improvement it was.)

Ten Ton Hammer, TGN Stratics Interview Dave Georgeson at E3

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Ten Ton Hammer interviewed Dave Georgeson at E3. It’s very difficult to follow the interview, since it’s not clear whose comments are Georgeson’s and whose comments are those of the interviewer. But nonetheless, it’s worth a read. Hopefully they’ll post the video soon.

Meanwhile Stratics (which recently merged with TGN) has posted a video of their own interview with Dave Georgeson.

June 22, 2010 Update Notes

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Live Events

Here are your June 22, 2010 Update Notes:

DRUID RING EVENT

  • The druid rings in Feerrott and Loping Plains are now safe destinations for newbies to zone in.
  • Kurista, Elwe, Dalarim and Tolla Clorto no longer change appearances every time they zone.
  • The Defender of Growth guards are now much more powerful, to better protect the druid rings.
  • A couple harvest nodes near the Stonebrunt Highlands druid ring were left floating when the terrain was adjusted. This has been fixed.

PVP WARFIELDS

  • Antonica will once again broadcast the call to arms.

PVP ITEMS

  • Fallen Foe Charms can now be used by Wardens.

PVP POPULATION

  • The Priest of Discord in New Halas now resides closer to the PvP merchants.

UNDERFOOT DEPTHS

  • Vaclaz Encounter: Crippling Nausea no longer stuns players.  Instead it causes their actions to have a chance to impede those around them.  Players hit with keen insight no longer can be hit with crippling nausea.  Players with crippling nausea will never be picked to handle the keen insight adds.  Roekillik beastmasters now have more health.
  • The Taehric Construct and Vaclaz no longer debuff player’s physical and Noxious mitigation levels.
  • Rathgar will now hit players with Deathblow once per 55 secs rather than once per 45 secs.
  • Master Syfak’s Roekillik Deathbringers will not cast festing plague as quickly as they did before.

The Vigilant: Rescue

  • Amahn Prime Nirel now summons flames and fire more quickly during the fight.

Paineel Portal soon to be less of a Pain?

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Ever walk up to the teleporter in Paineel and accidentally click it instead of right click it?  Did you enjoy your trip to the Airship docks when you did?  Neither did I.  Tagwen of Mistmoore decided to post about it on the EQ2Forums:

PLEASE PLEASE.. I’m so tired of right clicking it or accidentally going to the airship.. the launchpad is used 1000% time more often than people go to the airship…

After a couple posts of support for this change, Gninja wrote this:

I will look into changing this.

Woot!  Looks like soon the default will be where people want to go most of the time when they click the teleporter!


Powered by Warp Theme Framework