Update Notes, Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Live Events, Raiding, Tradeskill

Here are your update notes for Wednesday, 28 July 2010:

UNDERFOOT DEPTHS

  • Energized Taehric Construct (challenge mode): The Construct will try and cast Crippling Judgment on his main target whenever possible, rather than a random fighter.  The construct will try and cast Curse of Befuddlement on priests in separate groups, whenever possible, avoiding casting it on two priests in the same group whenever possible.

ITEMS

  • The Twisted Alloy Wristlet’s proc, Torturous Paths, has had its damage increased and its proc chance raised.
  • Many mage items within Underfoot Depths have received pet effects.

TINKERFEST

  • The Tinkerfest quest “Great Balls of Fire” cannot be completed more than 25 times.
  • The Tinkerfest titles awarded by the repeatable Tinkerfest quests can now be purchased from the Tinkerfest merchant if you have earned them but did not receive them.
   

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

Druid Ring Reconstruction – JW and SS Issues

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Live Events, Tradeskill

Several people have reported on the EQ2Forums that the progress bushes aren’t spawning in the Jarsath Wastes and Sinking Sands druid rings.  Windslasher chimed in with this update:

Drat!

I goofed with the spawns in Jarsath and Sinking Sands, so the progress signs aren’t appearing in those two zones. Unfortunately it’s not a server-specific thing or a setting that I can just change on the fly, so even though I have the fix in the pipeline I can’t tell you how soon it will be on the live servers, yet. It’ll be fixed as soon as possible.

Update: According to the update notes, this should be fixed with the hotfix going in tomorrow morning.

GU56: Daily Adorning Quest

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

The Sentinel’s Fate expansion (and its associated Game Update 55) opened the door to each character becoming a master of Tinkering, Transmuting, and Adorning. At least on Butcherblock, this change promptly doubled the price of all transmutable materials on the open market. Treasured weapons and armor, as well as Adept spells are now trading at record prices.

As a result, tradeskill societies of all major cities have received a visitor named Londiar Inygad who is interested in offering Adorning work to players. These are daily quests, appropriate to your Adorning level which allow you to make 10 adornments per day using materials provided to you by Londiar. These daily adorning quests can be picked up in West Freeport, Gorowyn, Kelethin (at Tunare’s Pages), Neriak, New Halas, and North Qeynos.

Completing these quests will reward you tradeskill experience, a city token, coin, and increase your faction with your city’s primary tradeskill faction.

Optional

These quests are completely optional and only add to the existing means of skilling up your Adorning, which is to transmute items, to make enough powders and fragments, to complete the standard Adorning recipes.

Max Skill Level

NOTE: Your maximum transmuting, tinkering, and adorning skills are based on your highest Adventure or Tradeskill level.

  • A level 80 adventurer or tradeskiller has a maximum transmuting/tinkering/adorning skill of 400.
  • A level 90 adventurer or tradeskiller has a maximum transmuting/tinkering/adorning skill of 450.

Soffrina Interviews Emily “Domino” Taylor

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Tradeskill

EQ2Players.com French Community Rep, Soffrina had a chance to interview Domino and ask a few questions.  Here are a few excerpts from the article:

How do you come up with a decision to add a new thing to the game? Do you listen to the community’s needs, is it a development decision depending on its importance or is it a combination of both? In other words, how do you initiate a project?

It is certainly a combination of things.  When I play, I’m always watching for things that might be needed or that would improve tradeskills (or indeed the game in general) and I have a list of things I want to do when time permits.  The community is also very proactive about suggesting things that they would like, and often these agree with the things I already want to do, or are appropriate to add to the list.  And sometimes there are changes “behind the scenes” that make it appropriate to include tradeskill content of a particular type.  For an example of the latter, when the Lavastorm zone was revised, it made sense to take advantage of the changes and put in a tradeskill quest line in Lavastorm at the same time.  Once I know what I want to do next, I just figure out about how long it will take and run it past the team leads to ensure they agree, then off to work I go.  It’s not a very formal process.

Will there be musical instruments coming soon to EQ2 for players housing?

There are already a reasonable number of carpenter-made musical instruments that can be placed in houses.  There aren’t any current plans to add more.

Will it be possible one day to have outdoor areas in houses so fans of decoration will finally be able to create a real garden?

It’s something that would be decided by our art team, in particular Haohmaru.  We know it’s something that many people would like, but I don’t know if there are any specific plans currently.

Are there any plans of creating brand new quests, like the epic crafting quest?

I am always hoping to add more tradeskill quests.  There are no current plans for another epic quest, but I’m sure there will be more quests of other types.

Check out EQ2Players.com for the full interview.

Game Update 56 Hits Test: Travel Revamp, Warfields, New Raid Zone

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

Game Update 56 is looking to be a huge update, with many tweaks and adjustments throughout Norrath. In brief…

  • a substantial Travel Revamp
  • more quests in Stonebrunt Highlands to hopefully fill that level 87-90 solo questing gap
  • a new Storyline feature
  • a new Icy Keep x4 Raid
  • Shaders 3.0 Graphical Revamp
  • Research Assistants can help all your characters
  • Blue PvP Adornments
  • Yellow Adornments on T9 Mastercrafted gear
  • Level 90 Character Traits
  • PvP Warfields
  • new Training Dummy options in your guild hall (solo, group, raid, and AE group)
  • and of course New Halas

Also of note, is that a vendor has been added to Moonfield Hamlet selling some of the rare Heroic drops from Sentinel’s Fate zones. It will be interesting to see if this is like the vendor added late in the release of The Shadow Odyssey, where only the lesser Fabled items were available, and for a whopping 150 shards/marks each.

With the Test Server being updated nearly a month before we are estimating Game Update 56 will hit live servers, hopefully there will be plenty of time to test out all the changes.

End-of-the-Week News

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

The focus this week has been on new EQ2 Senior Producer Dave Georgeson, and EQ2 Server Performance, which has been a persistent black cloud over EQ2 for the last 2 months.

Test Copy

Test Copy is getting some major use as it is where PvP and Battlegrounds changes are tested.

Gninja advised us:

We will be working out a schedule as to when the test_copy server will be pvp vrs pve. We are working it out now and will get back to you guys shortly.

Stuck at Character Select

An issue with being stuck at Character Select on Thursday was caused by a Configuration issue which has been corrected. EQ2 Forums

Adventure/AA/Tradeskill XP Weekend

The e-mail and EQ2Players announcements for this weekend’s Bonus XP event neglected to mention that Tradeskills will also see a bonus. We have not yet been informed what % the bonus will be, but 30% is a good guess.

Zone Start End
Pacific US Friday, April 23 @ 3:00pm Sunday, April 25 @ 11:59pm
Eastern US Friday, April 23 @ 6:00pm Monday , April 26 @ 2:59am
GMT Friday, April 23 @ 22:00 Monday , April 26 @ 06:59
Copenhagen Saturday, April 24 @ 00:00 Monday , April 26 @ 08:59

Game Update 56 Goes to Test Soon

We don’t have an exact date, but Game Update 56 will be moving to Test and Test Copy soon. When we know exactly what content will appear on Test and Test Copy, we’ll let you know. It would not be surprising if New Halas is not in the first build. EQ2 Forums

Thundering Steppes Revamp Mothballed

Gninja has confirmed the news we speculated about earlier this year.

Unfortunately we will not be making drastic changes to Thundering Steppes this time around. That doesn’t mean there will be no changes but we are not considering it being revamped. GU56 will be full of cool stuff though (Including but not limited to New Halas and some new raids) you should see it hitting test servers in the not too distant future.

A revamp of Thundering Steppes seems to be completely off the development radar at this point, with Butcherblock Mountains stepping in as the “place to be” for level 20-35 content.

Although subject to change, our understanding is that, just like Timorous Deep, level 20 players will be offered a quest guiding them from New Halas to the Butcherblock docks to begin level 20-35 content.

Level 82 Mastercrafted Armor

It seems the strength of level 80 Tier 1 and Tier 2 Shard armor from The Shadow Odyssey was always destined to overshadow Level 82 Mastercrafted armor. But that doesn’t mean the EQ2 team haven’t given up on it yet! Domino has managed to land some additional upgrades to the Level 82 set:

Look for some changes coming to level 82 mastercrafted armor with GU56 (for a start, it should all be level 82 now …) including the addition of yellow adornment slots and some resists. We are also in the process of discussing the possibilities of some stat tweaks.

It now seems even less likely that any of the Tier 1 Marks of Manaar gear will be an upgrade to any player. Note that Tier 2 Marks of Manaar gear (which has Critical Mitigation and better stats) must be sought out in Moonfield Hamlet in Stonebrunt Highlands.

Taking Some of the Anguish out of Adorning

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Tradeskill

Ah… I remember the days… When low-level Adept spells and Treasured gear could be had for a mere 4-5 gold from the nearest broker. Those were the Salad Days (mmmm…Grilled Chicken Caesar). Then the Transmuters came.

Like the Others on the far side of the island, a new wave of Adorners and Transmuters, desparate for raw materials, have unwittingly jacked things up for the rest of us.  When everyone can be an Adorner, and only Adorners can make the cool toys, the market has, not surprisingly, shifted. And inflation, it turns out, is not just for bicycle tires and love toys.

With the cost of these materials now running 15-20g each, I’ve personally thrown in the towel on trying to level more than one Adorner/Transmuter. And this has surely had a ripple effect on those players in the level 20-40 range simply wishing to upgrade gear.

Adorning Work Orders?

It seems the situation has not gone unnoticed by the EQ2 Team. Here’s Domino‘s post from the EQ2 Forums:

Something that we’re considering adding when time permits is a daily adorning quest that would allow you to do X number of adorning combines with materials provided once per day. Obviously, there would have to be quite a few checks to ensure it’s not exploitable, but it’s something that we think could be added as an option to help get adorning past some of the more annoying-to-get-components-in level ranges.

I’m thinking around 10 combines per day (white con or harder as much as possible) might be reasonable. It certainly shouldn’t be an “easy button” or a fast track, but just a helpful assistance.

Again, this is still speculative, not a promise it will happen, but wanted to mention it’s something we’re discussing as a possibility.

Level Lock and Nuke

Of course you can always level transmuting/adorning by rolling a newbie character on either of the islands — Queen’s Colony or Outpost of the Overlord — disable XP at level 3, and just kill mobs over and over. At least until those islands are unnecessarily ripped from the game. Transmuting/Adorning Leveling for Dummies

I’ve been advised that this is potentially just a market correction, and once players either level up, or get bored of transmuting, they’ll move on and prices will settle back down. Now is not the time to buy transmuting materials, but it may not always be so.

Bristlebane Day pays tribute to Gary Gygax, brings Holiday Mash-up

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Live Events, Tradeskill

Bristlebane Day (April 1st) always brings out festivities and a bit of zanyness to EQ2. In past years, we’ve seen /cutemode (also try /cutemode 3 ) and in EQ1, turning everyone into wireframes. But this year, Bristlebane Day has put practicality in the place of tomfoolery.

Today, Bristlebane Day, a unique quest has appeared in the Enchanted Lands, offered by a Sphinx, which pays tribute to the father of Dungeons & Dragons — Gary Gygax.

The folks at ZAM were first to note that 2 of the 3 riddles given were also found in a FreeRealms quest.

Further exploration of the Enchanted Lands and other zones has revealed not only crafting tables from Frostfell, but also harvestable nodes for every recurring Norrath live event, including Nights of the Dead, Frostfell, Tinkerfest, and Erollisi Day.

If you have a desperate need for some event-specific craftables for your house or guild hall, don’t miss your opportunity!

City Festival Rolls into Qeynos (and Freeport?)

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Live Events, Tradeskill

A Story of Dark and Light

Perhaps some Bristlebane Gremlins got into the works because briefly this morning, the monthly City Festival rolled into both Qeynos AND Freeport. According to this report, a few quick-thinking (and possibly light fingered) individuals snapped up a few Freeport furniture items before they vanished. The polished white marble of the regal Qeynos decorations have been countered by Freeport accoutrements with a decidely black color scheme.

Alas, this was a short-term glitch and only those who were quick on the trigger were able to buy these items before the event reset and Qeynos became the only game in town for this month’s City Festival.

While today marks its first appearance with a Live server, Qeynos was the location of the City Festival on the Test server. As a result, the items available have already been fully documented by Niami @ EQTraders,

   

Brewday is Here!

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

Brewday has arrived in Norrath! This celebration of Brell and brew will run from March 11 to the 22nd.

For a guide to the updated events, collections, tradeskill recipes, and quests for this year’s Brew Day event, check out these sites:

Although the event is now available on live servers, Brell’s Bar remains closed until 10:30am PST according to an announcement I read in-game. For further discussion on Brell’s Bar, check out the EQ2 Forums.

Shadows of the Betrayed — Crafting Signature Quest

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Tradeskill

While not breaking news, some folks may not be aware that Sentinel’s Fate offers a Signature quest to level 85+ crafters who have completed the Quel’Ule portion of the Paineel crafting timeline.

Two weeks after you complete the final Quel’ule quest for Researcher Tahar, you will receive an item in the mail from him. He’s actually entrusting a relic to you, though it needs a bit of repair. This is the Shadows of the Betrayed signature quest.

The reward for this quest is a unique appearance weapon which matches your tradeskill class.

As always, Niami Denmother is on the case about all things crafting at EQ2Traders. 🙂

City Festival Rolls into Neriak

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Live Events, Tradeskill

The City Festival has rolled into its third destination since these Festivals began in January. The first event was in Kelethin, then Gorowyn. Today, the City Festival arrives just outside the gates of the city of all things dark and gloomy — Neriak.

Once again, a selection of both local and traveling rewards, house items, and temporary costumes become available.

The theme for Neriak seems to be all things blue. Here’s a sneak of what you can purchase with City Tokens for the next week, before the event rolls on to the next city:

News Rollup for Feb 15-19

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

It has been an interesting week, to say the least. Expansion launch weeks always are. It’s also been a rather bumpy ride for the servers and developers resolving issues that made it through Beta.

We’re trying to get back into the habit at EQ2Wire of skimming the forums and finding the gems of info which may be of interest to our readers. Here’s the standouts for this week:

  • What is the Golden Path?
  • Adornment and Tinkering Recipes Not Dropping
  • Guard Level bump to 95
  • TSO Tradeskill Instance recipe books
  • Will of aTyrant questlines remain
  • nVidia 3D Vision
  • Shaders 3.0

Moonlight Enchantments (Feb 20-21)

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Live Events, Tradeskill

The phase of the moon is just right and the mushroom rings will be active again for a short time.

There are more house items and other rewards than ever for the Moonlight Enchantments event this time around.

The event will turn on at 12:01am PDT on February 20th and run until 11:59pm PDT on February 21st. These times apply directly with no time conversion to all servers.

Bonus XP Weekend Feb 12-Feb 15 2009 & Retail Boxes

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

Bonus XP Weekend!

Kiara brings us news that this will be a Bonus XP Weekend!!

All forms of experience (Achievement, Adventure, and Tradeskill) will receive a 30% bonus from Friday Feb 12th @ 3pm PST (6pm EST) until Monday Feb 15th @ 11:59pm PST (Feb 16 @ 2:59am EST) when the servers will be brought down to patch the Sentinel’s Fate expansion as well as Game Update 55.

Retail Boxes

Some players have reported seeing Sentinel’s Fate regular and Collector’s Edition boxes in retail stores. We’re glad to see this as it will make it easier for some players to buy the game early if they are not able to get to a retail store on the 16thl. Frankly, the release date doesn’t really matter on an MMORPG. Until the servers themselves are patched, you cannot play the new content.

Kiara has encouraged players to NOT enter Sentinel’s Fate product keys into the system (Station.com) until February 16th. The system may get confused by a prematurely entered key. O.o

Erolissi Day – Feb 4 – Feb 16

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Live Events, Tradeskill

Erollisi Day festivities started at midnight, February 4th (after a brief hotfix) and will run until the expansion (February 16th).

Erollisi Day is the celebration of the goddess of love and all things related to the emotion that sets hearts to galloping!

With the return of Erollisi Day, many of your favourite activities from previous years’ celebrations are making comebacks with new rewards!

Erollisi Day @ EQ2Players

Erollisi Day 2010 Event @ EQ2 ZAM

Erollisi Day Crafting @ EQTraders

City Festival Feb 1-7: Gorowyn

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

Last month, the first ever City Festival camped outside the Kelethin gates and provided a selection of both local and traveling rewards, house items, and temporary costumes (I want that Gi as a permanent item!!).

When it pulled up stakes, we had no idea where it would end up next. Early this morning we caught wind of the news that the traveling City Festival had arrived in Gorowyn. The theme for Gorowyn seems to be all things in a deep crimson. Here’s a sneak of what you can purchase with City Tokens for the next week, before the event rolls on to the next city.

cityfestival_gorowyn

While the City Festival is running, City Tokens can be earned for doing tradeskill and other tasks for the event hosts. City Tokens can also be earned any time just by doing City Writs.

If you are going to plan out your Guild Hall or house, there is no better place to lookup Furniture, House Items, etc. than EverSeek.com. Expect them to have the updated Gorowyn city fest items soon!


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