This option should allow Rangers to set “Forced Ranged” and never need to use kludgy macros to ensure they are always doing ranged autoattacks. A ranger never wants to be doing melee autoattacks and we have relied on macros with the command /auto 2 for years.

Further, this will be a sigh of relief to Mages and Priests who will now be able to use their choice of either Focus/Ranged ‘Wand‘ items or traditional Symbol items and still choose whether they want to use the new Spell Weapon Autoattack, or stick to Melee combat. This change will be of particular benefit to Enchanters, Druids, Mystics, and Clerics, all of whom have Alternate Advancement lines that require melee combat for their best effects to apply. This will also allow healers to work around a bug with some cures and buffs which place them into ’spell combat’.

From the May 10th, 2012 Test Notes:

COMBAT

Players can now select their preferred method of autoattacking using the /setautoattackmode command (0 for default, 1 for melee, 2 for spell/ranged) or by the drop-down setting in the Character UI options under “Auto Attack Mode”.

Also, I’ve added a second white adornment dropdown for each slot since a lot of the Skyshrine items have two white adornment slots.  Some two handers even have three white slots but I didn’t add a third dropdown.  Just use the secondary dropdown for those cases and make sure not to choose reuse speed since that doesn’t work in the primary slot.

If you don’t see the second white slot dropdown when you load the calculator, you’re seeing a cached version.  Try holding down Shift and Ctrl keys and press F5, or click the Refresh button/icon in your browser or whatever button/clicking combination you have to do to convince it to really reload the page and you should see the new version.

I still haven’t added in the public quest adornments or the class specific adornments for beastlords, those are still on the list of things to do.

As usual, let me know if you find anything out of whack.

Dethdlr

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Skyshrine: The City of Dracur

• Malicor Kehrn will no longer fight his partner in crime Nefari Kwol.

PLAYER HOUSING

• The Vale of Halfpint Delight door will now display the correct destination.

MERCENARIES

• When Fall of the Phoenix or any other group feign death spell is used mercenaries will cancel their feign death effect when their owner cancels their feign death effect.

• Mortal Embrace (Shadowknight) no longer works on mercenaries.

ITEMS

• The class focus effects on Plane of War armor have been updated.

• Fixed textures on the black marble house items.

QUESTS

• Fixed an issue where “Untapped Potential” would not update correctly in certain situations.

Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 6:00 AM Pacific* on May 15, 2012. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 90 minutes. This will impact the following services:

• Login for all our games will be affected
• Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces will be unavailable
• Forums will be read-only
• Account management will be unavailable

We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: May 15 @ 6:00 ~ 7:30am
• EDT: May 15 @ 9:00 ~ 10:30am
• BST: May 15 @ 14:00 ~ 15:30
• CET: May 15 @ 15:00 ~ 16:30

Have you ever wanted to do more or be more involved with your game? Have you ever wanted to help run events or play as NPCs in-game? If the idea of bringing your favorite SOE world to life excites you, join host Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Director of Global Community Relations) as she chats with members of the Volunteer Event Guide Program!

They will talk about what the program is all about, what kinds of fun and exciting events they create and run, and, most importantly, how you too can become a part of the program! Our guests will also explain a bit about how they got involved, the history of the program, and what to expect from it in the future.

Join us on Thursday, May 10, 2012, at 4:00 p.m. US Pacific Time* on Twitch TV! The webcast is expected to last about 20 minutes.

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: Thursday, May 10th @ 4:00~4:30pm
• EDT: Thursday, May 10th @ 7:00~7:30pm
• BST: Thursday, May 11th @ 0:00~0:30
• CET: Thursday, May 11th @ 1:00~1:30

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.

Skyshrine: the Underdepths

• Sevalor’s Deathless now has a 35 second duration, rather than permanent.

Skyshrine: The City of Dracur

• The Dracurion mender will now buy your unwanted wares.

Dracur Prime: Sevalak Awakened

• Arreken’s Skystorm should only affect the player who does not cure it.

Shadow Odyssey

• Shard chests should award only a void shard when opened by players above level 90.

ABILTIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

Shadowknight

• Death Cloud should no longer heal the targets while Death and Destruction is active.

TRADESKILLS

• The rare harvest discrepancy for t10 precious metal nodes has been corrected.

ITEMS

• Scout boots focus effect now properly applies to swashbucklers.

• Restorative Counter II, III, and IV should now trigger heals on the target of the proc instead of the caster.

• Pantaloons of Runed Silk should now correctly have their set bonus applied to them so they match the rest of the set.

• Cleric Forearms now have the correct focus effect.

QUESTS

Withered Lands

• The book “A Romp Through the Withered Lands” should now be available on the Shady Swashbuckler if you have completed the quest “Techgnical Difficulties”

• The quest “All You Need is Time” should correctly update.

• The quest “Removing the Corruption” should now update the group when you remove the corruption from Kerr.

Dracur Prime

• While on the quest Gate Uncalling, it is no longer possible for the golem to shut down until all 3 portals have been closed.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

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.

Skyshrine: the Underdepths

• Sevalor’s Deathless now has a 35 second duration, rather than permanent.

ITEMS

• “Skyshrine” scout boots focus effect now properly applies to swashbucklers.

• Restorative Counter II, III, and IV should now trigger heals on the target of the proc instead of the caster.

• Pantaloons of Runed Silk should now correctly have their set bonus applied to them so they match the rest of the set.

QUESTS

Withered Lands

• The book “A Romp Through the Withered Lands” should now be available on the Shady Swashbuckler if you have completed the quest “Techgnical Difficulties”.

We made it! Whew! The Skyshrine Game Update went live and was well tested thanks to the community at large as well as the internal teams. We are all really proud of it and it seems like a good bunch of you are enjoying it too.

While we are still watching Skyshrine and responding to any issues that come up, we are obviously marching onward to our next big projects. Also, as we’ve said many times, we are looking at the existing game and how to make improvements to what we have. We’ve jotted down a few things below that are in progress this month to give you an idea of just some of what we’re working on right now.

We hope to release them in May but won’t until they are ready:

• Remember in December 2011 on Test server we offered the ability to play as your character in Dungeon Maker? We took a look at the results and it was pretty clear we needed to make some significant improvements. Our team of engineers took to doing some research and experimentation and has come up with a great solution that we feel will have other applications as well. We are calling it “Level Agnostic” game play. What it means is that no matter what your level, you will be able to go into Dungeon Maker as your character and be effective. While that’s a bit of a no brainer, this goes for groups in Dungeon Maker too. We have already done early tests of groups of level 90s with level 50s and lower and it’s really fun! There’s a bit of tuning we need to do here and there, but there are definitely other ways we can use this. We are still in testing and want to get this one right, so we are going to do a lot of testing before we go live. And of course we’ll have it on the Test server when we feel it’s ready.

• On a more practical side, the team has been looking at low-impact solutions to improve the game experience for everyone. One of them was to be able to target an NPC and have an indication of what quest they might update. The engineering team already has this working for simple quests. The challenge now is to make sure we get every quest in the game flagged appropriately. That’s going to take some time, but the functionality is already there and it’s been great to see it working in game. We are hoping to get the first phase of this out to the Test server soon.

• Another challenge the team faces is being responsive during testing during our Beta periods. It’s very frustrating for designers and engineers to be testing raids and group content and have to stop due to a bug or difficulty and have to wait a day for another build. Not anymore! The engineers are already well into developing a testing tool that allows developers to make changes on the fly in real time. This is HUGE news for us and those players who help us test certainly will recognize the value. We certainly hope to start using this during testing for our next update.

• We are also starting to push through a list of historical bugs and prioritizing those and we’ll give updates on those as we go forward.

So from all of us, to all of you, thank you for the amazing support and playing the best MMORPG around!

Holly “Windstalker” Longdale

GENERAL

• Fixed a client crash that could happen when trying to examine an item in certain situations.

• Skyshrine: the Claws of Veeshan faction will now be in the Destiny of Velious category along with all other DoV factions.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Skyshrine : The Forbidden City of Dracur

• A Pennant of Skyshrine Loyalty can now be purchased from the Skyshrine City faction merchant once you have earned enough faction with the Claws of Veeshan. This pennant will allow you to return to Skyshrine from any house or guildhall.
• Editor’s Note: This item requires +10,000 Claws of Veeshan faction and 100 plat.

Dracur Prime [Challenge]

• Nenlarn the Ebon Claw’s adds will now come less often.

• Hammilkor Barka the Undaunted’s reaping whirlwinds cast Vitiating Zephyr much less often.

Lyceum of the Recondite [Challenge]

• Termagore the Butcher summons amorphous sludgers less often.

Skyshrine: the Underdepths

• Sevalor and Putretor will no longer be stuck invulnerable if one should die before the other.

Skyshrine: the Underdepths [Challenge]

• Dagarn the Destroyer now casts Fiery Feedback 50% less often.

Dracur Prime: Sevalak Awakened

• The static elementals that Sevalak spawns will now appear as a single group of 6 rather than 2 groups of 3.

• Sevelak of Storms will now drop his proper loot.

Covenant District [Challenge]

• Commander Mirrakar the Soul Merchant will now spawn when the four previous bosses are slain.

Plane of War

• All bosses now drop raid shards.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

Coercer

• Force of Intellect now properly modifies only reactive heals and not death prevents.

QUESTS

Guide Quests

• Players who have completed the guide quest “Techgnical Difficulties” should now be able to pick up a copy of the journal from Shady Swashbuckler in Netuklos Forest. Players who get the quest in the future should get the book as a reward.

ITEMS

• Weapons awarded through the quest “Slaying of Sevalak” have been increased in quality to better reflect the challenge.

• Hammer of the Dragonkin Generals is now Dagger of the Dragonkin Generals.

An exciting time in SOE history has arrived and we are very pleased to be celebrating it with you, some of the most passionate DC Universe Online fans! As many of you know, SOE has partnered with ProSiebenSat.1 Games to provide and market eight of its games to players in Europe, including EverQuest® II, DC Universe™ Online, Free Realms®, Star Wars®: Clone Wars Adventures™, Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, and PoxNora®, as well as the upcoming PlanetSide® 2 and the next game in the EverQuest® franchise.

Specifically, the above mentioned SOE games will be made available through the ProSiebenSat.1 Games service in more than 40 European territories, including Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Other countries may be added at a later date.

Today, Linda “Brasse” Carlson has come forward with answers to a number of questions which have been outstanding since January when this deal was first announced. Her comments from the EQ2 Forums:

Hello folks,

We are moving closer to transitioning our first game, DCUO, to ProSiebenSat.1 in Europe. This means we are far enough along to clarify a number of outstanding questions, although not all. We thank you for your patience in allowing us the time to ensure the information was accurate and confirmed possible to carry out.

I am going to use the list of questions compiled by Lempo here as a base – thanks Lempo! Some of these questions have previously been answered, but this is a very long thread and it’s easy to lose sight of so many posts, so these things bear repeating:

Lempo’s Question List:

Will billing information and account information retained and maintained by SOE?

Billing and account information for EU players will be retained, maintained and administered by ProSiebenSat.1 based on information that EU players enter when they create their new account. No direct transfer of account information will take place.

Will cross server communication mail/chat/server channels be permitted?

There is no physical change to the servers, so cross server services should work exactly as they do now. Cross-game mail should continue to work as well. Items cannot be sent via mail cross-server now and this will not change either.

Will players be able to continue to transfer servers assuming recurring billing/account age etc. are met?

Players can transfer servers subject to the same terms as they do now. Again, there is no change to the servers, merely in the account management and Marketplace.

Will new accounts have the choice in who to sign up with SOE/ProSiebenSat.1?

New accounts will be assigned according to their billing country (or, in the case of free players, the country on the account). Players in The ProSiebenSat.1 regions will be assigned to ProSiebenSat.1, and those outside of the regions will be assigned to SOE. Akella continues to serve Russia.

Will ALL players continue to receive LoN cards (part of US subscription, if not they get less and adjustments are needed)?

LoN cards are tied to membership in EQ and EQII. Any EQII players who have a membership as a ProSiebenSat.1 customer will continue to receive LoN cards as part of their benefits.

Will ALL players have access to EQ2 Players?

Yes, as EQ2 Players tracks character information across all servers. No changes are being made to the servers, and all player characters are being tracked. The website can be accessed from anywhere, and while the ProSiebenSat.1 version of the EQII site has not yet been built, it will certainly include vital features such as the EQ2 Players data.

How much will accounts be at ProSiebenSat.1?

They will be economically similar, but the prices will never be one hundred percent equivalent, because world currencies change by the day. This is not something that we can control. I’ve had accounts in EU games before and found the rate I paid varied a lot. As ProSiebenSat.1 will undoubtedly use the Euro, you should see less fluctuation. Unless the world adopts a single global economy, there will be differences. Keep an eye on the ProSeibenSat.1 site and forums for further information!

Will ProSiebenSat.1 customers continue to get 500 SC or will there be a clear equivalent of Alaplaya points?

ProSiebenSat.1 is working on a pricing and product strategy for all games and will offer a similar monthly grant to the existinng EQII recurring membership bonus. Again, because world currencies and economies differ, it may not be identical, but equivalent. We are not sure what the game currency will be called yet, but watch the ProSiebenSat.1 site and forums for announcements!

Will accounts be deleted for inactivity? If not will Alaplaya’s FAQ be changed to reflect such because it says they can.

The ProSiebenSat.1 FAQ/TOS needs to be amended to declare that they will not delete characters for inactivity, a post explaining that they do not really do that on the forums is not sufficient.

Answering these questions together as they are fundamentally the same: I believe that the ProSiebenSat.1 team has changed that information already, in response to such requests.

How will Station Access accounts be handled, i.e. will they still have the same access to games not included in this deal?

They will have access to their SOE games on their SOE login. As games transition to ProSiebenSat.1, they will use the ProSiebenSat.1 account to log into those.

Will ALL accounts be able to access and POST on the official SOE forums (for feedback on mechanics to the devs etc)?

Yes. We have no plans to region lock any forums on the SOE or ProSiebenSat.1 side.

Will the guide program continue to be available on ALL servers?

As long as there are Volunteer Guides able and willing to support the servers, of course there will be Guides on all servers. We are meeting next week with representatives of the Guide Program to talk about how we can better support, promote and celebrate their efforts in our games. Shout out to all our amazing Guides out there!

How will /bug and /feedback be handled?

Bugs and feedback submitted in game will continue to go our QA department as they do now. Bugs and feedback submitted on the forums will be forwarded to the dev teams by the Community Management and Customer Service teams of both SOE and ProSiebenSat.1.

Will players get a free transfer to a US server if they do not wish to create a ProSiebenSat.1 account or play on their servers?

There will be no free transfers offered, because the state of the servers remain unaffected by the transition. All servers are maintained by SOE and ALL players can exist on the servers of their choice. Only the account and Marketplace are affected by the change, regardless of what server players reside on.

What will happen to SC on accounts that had existing characters on EU and US servers the FAQ states it will be converted into ProSiebenSat.1’s currency, but players may have other characters on US servers and in EQ that will require the retention of their SC?

The SC balance at time of transition will be credited to the new ProSiebenSat.1 account, which is different (and better than) a straight conversion. To be specific, the SC will be mirrored in ProSiebenSat.1’s currency, such that if you started with 750 SC, you will end up with 750SC on your SOE account and an equivalent amount credited on your ProSiebenSat.1 account. From that point forward, the accounts are separated and currency is added separately, but I think you’ll agree that this is a pretty generous solution.

Will the EU and Akella servers be included in the in-game polls that you will be using to influence the direction of the game?

Keep in mind that the servers are not changing from their present state. Akella servers ARE segregated already, so they will remain separate. In-game polls will continue to be offered in exactly the same way that they are offered now. Moreover, feedback from the ProSiebenSat.1 maintained forums will also be delivered to the Dev teams for all games, just like we do with all current feedback (including any provided in our International forums).

Additional questions  (again, some previously answered but reiterated here):

If a customer has membership time remaining at the time of transfer, what happens?

Membership time will be carried over at the time of transition, whether it’s a few days or several months. For DCUO players, this means those with lifetime memberships will carry over as lifetime memberships.

Will veteran rewards and account age be transferred (for the purposes of accruing new veteran rewards)?

These will be in synch at the time of transfer. ProSiebenSat.1 has stated that they’d like to continue veteran rewards. As these are a promotional feature, they may begin to diverge over time from promotions offered in the US, so watch for details!

For users who undergo relocation from one geographic region to another, how will their account be handled? Will they be able to transfer their account to the appropriate region?

Accounts are based on the billing country’s address, and can be changed accordingly when people relocate.

For US customers who travel overseas, or EU customers who travel outside of the ProSiebenSat.1 region: will they be IP locked and unable to access their account? What about US Military personnel?

Players can log in on any server using the account appropriate to their billing address. If you are a US player serving in the military or on vacation in a ProSiebenSat.1 region, you can still log on with your US account.

I am in the UK and play on a US server. Will the ProSiebenSat.1 launcher conflict with the US server (patches, data, relevant news features, etc.)?

The launcher will be customized as it relates to account location, news feed, etc. for ProSiebenSat.1 territories, regardless of what server you play on.

When a player tries to register with ProSiebenSat.1, what happens if their SOE account name is already taken?

The player can choose a new account name that is available on the ProSiebenSat.1 account system, without affecting the transfer of their characters and items. The two are not tied until the transfer of data is initiated. We are currently working on an instructional process for DCUO, EQII will get something similar before the transition.

Will my /claim items still be available?

All character and item data will be transitioned, so these should be available. If you encounter any difficulties, Customer Service will be ready to help.

How will we ensure consistent standards in Customer Service across the two providers?

The SOE and ProSiebenSat.1 Customer Service teams have been working closely for some time to ensure strong information flows as well as consistent processes and toolsets across the games. They will continue to work together after the games transition.

Will we get 30 days notice of the transition?

We always endeavor to provide 30 days notice of any action affecting accounts, whenever it is technically possible to do so. Our track record is pretty good in this regard. It is our intention to provide 30 days for these transitions and our engineers are working hard to make that happen. Please take the time to ensure that your email address is current and accurate in “My Account”, and that you have enabled email communications. We send customer service notifications via email, although we will also post the information to the forums.

Some unknowns:

Will the KeyFobs EU players spent a lot of money on continue to work for them?

We are still looking into this and do not have an answer yet, but if there is any reason they cannot be used, players may contact our Customer Service team for a refund at the time of transition.

When will ProSiebenSat.1 game cards be available for people who prefer that payment method?

ProSiebenSat.1 is reviewing their monetization and game cash models at this time. Watch for details as they become available, on the ProSiebenSat.1 site and forums!

Will existing SC cards continue to work under ProSiebenSat.1?

This is still under discussion, but we will provide info as soon as it is available and in advance of the transitions. Remember that any SC you have on your account will also be credited to your ProSiebenSat.1 account at the time of your account’s transition so that it appears on both (and then the paths diverge and remain separate from there).

Will ALL players have access to Test, TestCopy and Beta servers? (ALL meaning EU and US players)

How will access to beta forums be handled?

Two similar questions here, so I am grouping them together. I have submitted this question to the EQII team, but as Test and TestCopy operate as regular servers for all intents and purposes, there should be no barrier to entry. EQII’s game updates are typically handled on Test/TestCopy. Beta opportunities and parameters are always decided when we have an actual Beta process in the works! We have confirmed that the PlanetSide 2 Beta will be open globally, but we have no details to share on precisely how it will be handled yet.

And in the end…

Remember that no matter how well we prepare, and how smoothly things go, there will always be edge cases in any complex transition, as we’ve seen with our long experience across numerous launches, expansions, server merges and our recent Free-to-Play transitions.

Our Customer Service teams are gearing up to assist all customers with any issues that may arise, while both the platform engineers and development teams are working hard to make these transitions as seamless as possible.

Your feedback during the transition process is critical – our Community Team will be monitoring forums and social media for issues and concerns when the time comes, to have them addressed as soon as possible.

#

Brasse

UPDATE: Brasse responds to Whilhelmina’s questions:

Will we have to pay double if we play different games?

See my answer above regarding Station Access.

Will station market be different on different servers?

Will we have the same SC promotions/items on all servers?

These are similar questions, so I’ll answer them at the same time. All servers are identical in content. The account management, subscription services, promotional offers and Marketplace will differ in some respects (items offered on the Marketplace will probably be identical unless they are tied to regionalized promotional offers). We anticipate working closely with ProSiebenSat.1 on many promotions, and they will certainly have their own as well. They are far better positioned to tailor promotions sepcific to the EU audience than we are. =)

No hard data on the prices we will pay, conversion rates and so on still.

You won’t have to deal with conversion rates, everything will be in Euros. We do not have hard data on prices, no. Those are under discussion at ProSiebenSat.1 – watch their website and forums for announcements! EQII is not transitioning tomorrow. =)

Will the patches be delayed like you already do for EU but this time for the prosieben launcher?

Patches will be scheduled as well as we can. There is no perfect time for everyone, of course. The transition for EQII is a long ways off yet, and so no scheduling has been worked out for post-transition patches. We will continue to provide notification as far in advance as we can of patches, but as you know, that is typically not more than 24 hours in advance.

As far as I know QA never gets /bug or /feedback sent from Storms if they’re in french and if one of our (2 I think) GM takes the time to translate them, so yeah, it will not change, we still not be able to bug, feedback or typo anything.

Well, with ProSiebenSat.1 you’re about to get a whole lot more dedicated international support. =) I do not work in QA, but as an example, our Community Relations Team has been sharing our daily, weekly and monthly reports with our counterparts for some time, so that they are aware of the scope of information (feedback, bugs, concerns, kudos) that we pass on to the Devs/QA/Support/Platform/Execs. They are keen to do the same.

#

and about Station Access and Vanguard:

- Station Access is a promotional offer. Existing Station Access holders (regardless of regional location) can continue to partake of Station Access under a grandfathering clause until they decide not to use it any longer. All current games are included.

- For people NOT already enrolled in Station Access, we are no longer selling the SOE version to EU customers. That said, ProSiebenSat.1 is discussing their own version of our Station Access, which of course requires at least two games in order to make any such promotional offer feasible. They can then assess whether or not they feel the promotional offer is worthwhile to them for games offered by ProSiebenSat.1, or whether they wish to maintain separate memberships across any number of games, including SOE games that are not transitioning.

We will certainly see other promotional offers that are extended only to ProSiebenSat.1 accounts, or potentially only to SOE accounts. Such is the nature of promotional offers.

Incidentally, news that Vanguard is also going to transition to ProSiebenSat.1 as well was leaked some time ago, and we’ve not denied it. We do not have full details yet and NO information on timeline, not even a hint. It needs to convert to free-to-play first.

This leaves one major SOE MMOG that has not been announced as transitioning, EverQuest. PlanetSide 2 will launch on both services at the same time.