Alan “Brenlo” Crosby Leaves Sony Online Entertainment

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary

From EQ2 Zam:

Astute fans of Sony Online Entertainment noticed Alan “Brenlo” Crosby changed his job status on Facebook this afternoon.  His Recent Activity says “Alan removed his job as Senior Producer – EverQuest II at Sony.”  A query to Christine “Kiara” Renzetti, EQII Community Manager, resulted in a polite “no comment.”We will report details as they become available.  Wherever Alan is going, ZAM and the EQII Community wish him the best.

He said this to Massively:

Yeah after working together for 10 years, it was my time to move on. Was a great ride and I am going to miss my SOE family.

   

Building a Better Dummy

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Guild halls have an amenity available that allow a person to click on a chest and recieve a training dummy in their inventory.  Right clicking and choosing “use” places the dummy in the guild hall as an attackable object.  This is useful for trying out different casting orders, AA specs, gear, etc. to see what parses better.  The problem is that the training dummies don’t have enough hit points.  If the training dummy dies in 15 seconds, it doesn’t give you much time to determine anything.  Some people have used the training wall in Kunzar Jungle instead since it has more hit points than the training dummies, but there is only one of them per server and you have to travel to KJ to use it.  It would be nice if the training dummies came in more than one flavor.  Apparently Rothgar agrees:

I’ve already made a change to the dummy chest, it just hasn’t been released yet.  You’ll get it with GU56.

You have the option to spawn a solo, heroic and epic dummy.  Each will scale slightly larger in size and their hitpoints will be on par with mobs of that tier and level.

So now you can raid a training dummy if you like.  These changes should be on the Test server if you want to check them out.

Having personally spent many hours beating on training dummies with my assassin, this is really good news.  Depending on what procs when, the parses vary by a large margin.  Having the ability to have fights that last longer should even that out and make those parse runs much more useful.

From /target_previous Bugs to /UseAbilityOnPlayer Enhancements

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

When Sentinel’s Fate was released, it introduced a change in the way the /target_previous command functions.  This change broke some cure macros.  Lets take a cure macro that did this:

/target_group_member 3

Cure spell

/target_previous

If you had group member 1 targeted and clicked the macro for group member 3, all would be fine.  The macro would target group member 3, cast the cure, then go to the previous target which would be group member 1.  All is well.

If you had group member 3 targeted and clicked the macro for group member 3, problems occured.  The macro would target group member 3 (which wouldn’t really do anything since you were already targeting group member 3).  Then it would cast the cure.  Then it would go to the previous target.  Problem is, group member 3 isn’t the previous target anymore since you never changed targets.  It would find out whoever you had targeted before and target them.  Could be anybody in the group depending on the order that you recently targeted people.

This hasn’t been a problem for the click to cure feature in custom UIs because they use a completely different method.  Back in February of 2007 a new command was added to the game: /useabilityonplayer [player] [ability].  For example:

/useabilityonplayer Feldon Cure Arcane

This works fine for custom UIs because they have access to the name of the player and can simply substitute in that name when the button is clicked.  Doesn’t work as well for those creating macros since it doesn’t allow you to specify a player Number instead of a player Name.  In the above example, you would have to edit your macros each time someone new joined your group and hard code the player’s name into the macro.  Kind of a pain.

So how do we get around this problem?  One option would be to change the /target_previous back to the way it worked before.  But the way it worked before was really a bug.  It’s now working as it should have all along.  Another option would be to code /useabilityonplayer to allow group member numbers and raid member numbers as well as player names.  This is what Rothgar is proposing as the fix:

I’m willing to change “useabilityonplayer” to take a number which should allow you to create the cure macros without changing your target at all.  This simplifies the macro and would actually be another slight optimization.

Do you guys feel this is a fair compromise?

We might have to do something like g1-g5 for group selection and r1-r24 for raid selection.

This would solve the problem and as Rothgar said, even simplify the macros.  The above macro would change to this:

/useabilityonplayer g3 Cure spell

It wouldn’t change your target at all but would cast the Cure spell on whoever is in position 3 in the group.  This could potentially even slightly speed up custom UIs that have click cure buttons.  Today, those buttons have to substitute the name of the character into the text of the command they are executing.  With this change, they could be modified to simply use the group and raid position numbers instead.  Probably a barely noticable performance boost but when your machine is struggling to keep up in a raid, every little bit counts.

This is, of course, still in the planning stages and subject to change, but it looks like it would be a nice change for everyone.

New Halas Housing Preview

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

EQ2Players has a preview up about the housing in New Halas.   Andres Rodriguez is the artist responsible for designing the new houses and he took the time to answer some questions and share some pictures.  The houses will be available in two, four and six room layouts and there will also be access to T1 guildhalls.  They will include some built in bookshelves and even a fireplace.  And all the houses in New Halas will include windows with a view to the sea.

New Halas Housing @ EQ2Players

Subscription Numbers on the Rise, Server Mergers on the Horizon

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

In a break from the stock answer that has been given in regard to server merges for the last few years, Rothgar says server merges are something they are considering a little down the road.  The EQ2 world isn’t exactly in the best shape it’s ever been in at the moment with zoning issues, instance lag, contested named fight lag, and broker lag so the dev team has a few issues to take care of before they can move forward with this idea.  But this tells us that the idea is at least back on the table.

Rothgar writes:

We are considering server mergers but they would be a little down the road.  Before we consider any more mergers, databases need to be upgraded and general server performance needs to be addressed.  These are things we are working on and when we feel that we’ve achieved some of these goals we will seriously look at what is best for the EQII population.

And in response to someone claiming that Server merges = Dieing population, Rothgar responded with:

This is most definitely not the case.  Our subscription numbers are on the rise.

The addition of easier character transfers through the Station Marketplace has made population numbers more liquid than in the past.  We are seeing players migrate towards higher population servers like Antonia Bayle and Crushbone.  In fact I’d be willing to bet that AB currently has a higher population than it has ever had in the history of EQII.

In order to stabilize the population, we’d like to increase the numbers across all servers and the easiest way to do that would be to merge some of the lower population servers making more “super servers” like Antonia Bayle.

This would also make better use of our server resources and allow us to re-purpose some of that hardware to better serve the larger worlds.  When you think about the minimum requirements for each world, we need all static zones up and running at all times.  This includes all of the city zones and most of the overland zones.  On some worlds maybe those zones have < 20 people in them when they can easily support much more.  By combining worlds we lower the total number of zones that need to be running by putting more people in them.  So, the hardware that is freed up can be put to use servicing instanced zones which is where players are currently seeing the most server lag.

It’s a win-win for us and for players.  We just can’t do it until we can be sure that your experience will be improved by the process.

As always, EQ2Wire will stay on top of this story and let you know as new developments occur.

Guild Event Issues Fixed?

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Since Sentinel’s Fate went live, many people have been reporting issues with Guild Events not showing properly.  Some report guild levels not showing up in the guild log and AA points from 201+ not being announced and/or logged.  Those days may be behind us.

On 4/12/2010, Bunju from Quality Assurance posted on the EQ2 Forums:

A fix for this issue went in with the last Hotfix.  Are you all seeing the 80-90 ts/adv level and 200-250 AA event notifications now?  Thanks.

Hopefully this is now fixed.

April 11th End of the Weekenditis

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

We wrap up another week in Norrath with some posts from the EQ2 forums from developers and players alike which you may have missed. Also, although no date has yet been announced, work on Game Update 56 has likely reached a feverish pace and we’ll start hearing more about it soon.

Waiting for Zone Info

The EQ2 and SOE teams have been putting in long hours trying to resolve the database and server lag/performance issues since the expansion. Zoltaroth has weighed in with this update:

We are also internally testing some additional updates that should furthur improve zoning (specifically long wait times at “waiting for zone info”).  These changes aren’t through with internal testing yet, and they are pretty big so I can’t give an exact date but they are in the pipeline.

As we posted earlier, Rothgar is keeping us informed on the progress:

We have many more improvements on the way, this is just the first of many.

Efforts to stop Speed Hacking tagging Innocents?

For some time now, certain players have been making use of hacks and external third-party programs for EQ2 which increase the run speed of their characters beyond the maximum limits, or walk, harvest, etc. ‘under the world’, or outright teleport from one part of a zone to another.

EQ2 developers have rarely commented publicly about exploits and their ongoing efforts to curtail them, but a thread was started and followed up on by players who have experienced character or account suspensions through innocuous acts such as harvesting and using zone teleporters.

Rothgar indicated that

“We know when someone is warping or using a speed hack program and you can bet that those players will be contacted soon enough.  Something appears to be triggering false positives and it could be something as simple as the teleporters in South Odus for example.  We are looking into this and will make a fix for it.”

and wanted players to know that account bannings are taken seriously

“We’ve set a threshold high enough that normal gameplay should not trip [the detection code].  So in this instance, if you’re getting kicked, we’ve logged enough significant activity to make that decision.  Obviously the false positives are unintended and will be solved.”

and later, Rothgar indicated that this problem had been discovered and fixed:

Status Update:

I’ve found the issue triggering the false positive and some teleporter devices like those in South Odus would have triggered it.  We’ve disabled the checking for this behavior until we can hotfix the issue.

Some Old, Some New Zone Lockouts

timetravelling has changed some zone lockouts:

Munzoks Material Bastion and Shard of Hate should now both be 2day20hour lockouts once Game Update 56 hits =)

Item Appearances

covic and Kander are continuing to work on getting those Sentinel’s Fate armor/weapon/shield appearances hooked up to items. Apparently work on all those new unique appearances that Sentinel’s Fate was supposed to include continued right up to, and possibly after the release of the expansion.

It looks like a lot of the Sentinel’s Fate armor, weapons, and shields went live with placeholder graphics with the intention of replacing them. This is now happening.

Kander said:

Many of these items got missed on the appearance pass. I am unsure why or how.  We will start changing them for newer appearances ASAP. Please PM me if you have any other specific instances of gear that looks like noobie gear dropping from Sentinel’s Fate raids or even group zones, we will see what can be done.

covic followed up with:

I am seconding Kander on this. I know we made a lot of gear this expansion.  All the screens in this post look like old stuff.  I will talk to him at work on Monday to see what everyone has been sending for screens.

and after the April 7th patch, covic said:

I just talked to Kander today and he said he has been working really hard on getting new item appearance hooked up.  I hope the changes are starting to be seen.

End of the Weekenditis

That’s enough for the end-of-the-week. Hope you are having a great weekend and we’ll be back with more news.

Artist Highlight – Amanda McNair

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

EQ2Players checked in with Amanda McNair this week with another Artist Highlight.  Amanda worked on the artwork for the Shard of Love and the Battlefield of Ganak, the capture the flag Battlefields zone.  Here are some excerpts from the article:

What do you draw from for inspiration for your art in EQII?
I tend to draw my inspiration from everyday life and what is going on around me. When I visit museums, watch movies, or even flip through catalogues, I’m always checking out architectural elements and trying to decide how it was built, or taking pictures so I can use it for reference for my environments. For instance, the new movie Alice in Wonderland has some awesome visuals and is currently inspiring me with what I am working on for the next expansion.
What’s your favourite thing that you’ve done for EQII?
I recently completed the art for one of the Battleground maps—Iksar Ruins (capture the flag). It was really fun to work on because while I was in game testing everything out, I imagined that I was running around with a flag on my back, trying to avoid being killed by the other players. I also created the zone, Shard of Love. I was given a lot of creative freedom on this zone as far as creating the look and feel and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Do you have any special (or just super fun) projects you’re working on now for EQII?
I am working on a new dungeon – top secret as of now 😉 – that will be really unique and interesting. It’s really pushing me creatively to think outside the box.

Another Shaders 3.0 Milestone expected April 23rd

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing

We continue to follow progress on the Shaders 3.0 update. Imago-Quem (Ryan) has continued to work tirelessly on this project and we have an update of sorts.

Originally intended as a graphical bump to improve the appearance of the game in existing and new zones, Shaders 3.0 was expanded and re-prioritized into a sweeping optimization of the EQ2 graphical pipeline engine first, and a graphical improvement second. Part of this process was Imago-Quem providing tools to the EQ2 zone and character art developers so that all new content they create for this and future expansions is fully compatible with and takes advantage of Shaders 3.0. These tools are now in the hands of developers.

Shaders 3.0 is currently enabled on the Test server, and in response to player feedback and testing results, Ryan has been been submitting numerous fixes, optimizations, and updated textures. We had hoped these changes would all make it onto Test today, as then we’d be able to better assess how the finished Shaders 3.0 are going to work out when they are pushed live (possibly as soon as May’s Game Update 56).

However we have learned that Shaders 3.0 will not be updated on Test until the 4th week of April, possibly April 23rd. We intend, once this next wave of fixes are implemented on Test, to do some before-and-after comparison videos.

As always, we will keep you informed on these and other developments.

Tackling Server Performance Issues

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Rothgar has been working closely with the Database folks trying to solve the Server Performance Issues, specifically Server-side Lag, and extremely long Zoning times which have become a major problem facing EQ2 since Game Update 55, the Sentinel’s Fate expansion, and the introduction of Battlegrounds. These Database and Server Lag issues have been so disruptive, that they have largely drowned out discussion on other issues facing EQ2.

Fortunately, Rothgar brings us an update on the situation regarding some long-needed caching being added to how character data is transmitted and stored:

Right now we are addressing the database-related issues and then we will be moving on to the game server performance issues that you’re speaking of.

We have several very positive changes in the works to improving database performance. Today’s hotfix contained a small change that should help and we have several other changes going onto the Test Server. One of the changes I’m most excited about is something that Zoltaroth just finished working on. Character data will no longer need to be loaded from the database when you move between zones. This should cut out a lot of traffic from the database and even make zoning a little faster. If we ever experience a problem with the database like we’ve had in the past, this new caching scheme should keep the database issues from affecting your zoning times.

If this round of changes makes the impact we are hoping for, we will move on to other types of performance issues.

Mythical Weapons Unequippable?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Itemization, Raiding

An unintended consequence of today’s Hotfix seems to be that certain players have been unable to equip their Mythical weapons. Players affected include those who have not progressed in the Epic Repercussions quest. Xelgad has posted this comment:

We’re aware of the issue and looking into a fix. In the meantime, please use the /petition command to contact Customer Service if your weapon cannot be equipped. They’ll be able to fix your weapon for you.

UPDATE: This issue is related to the Balanced Ayr Stone adornment which used to provide +3% Parry and was applicable to weapon slots. On March 1st, it was changed to a less powerful adornment. In Today’s Update, this adornment was internally changed to a Neck Only adornment, but someone forgot to make the adornment auto-remove itself from main hand weapons.

April 7, 2010 Patch Notes

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding

Today’s Hotfix include some anticipated tweaks to Itemization and Battlegrounds, such as resists and fixes to adornments. It also includes a cutback in the amount of damage put out by the 3-headed dog in The Vigilant: Final Destruction x2 raid zone. Even during the Beta, this particular mob was completely out of progression for the difficulty of the zone, gear players are expected to have at this point in the expansion, and intended audience of the zone.

The complete April 7, 2010 Patch Notes after the jump:

Fan Faire 2010 Registration Now Open

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Daybreak Live (SOE Live/Fan Faire)

Registration has opened for the annual Fan Faire 2010 event hosted by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE).  Fan Faire is returning to Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino August 5th ~ 8th, 2010.

Official schedule information for the event is not yet available, but we have been advised that, barring any unforeseen changes, the schedule will be similar to that of past years. I’ve written an outline of what to expect based on previous Fan Faire events. This may be helpful for choosing flights and accommodations.

Fan Faire has added another Pricing tier. In addition to the Silver Pass ($89) and Gold Pass ($109), a new  Platinum Pass ($139) has been introduced. The Frequently Asked Questions page on the main Fan Faire site spells out what is included in these different access tiers. SOE are also making no secret of the fact that all Silver, Gold, and Platinum pass members will receive a free copy of the next EverQuest II expansion.

EverQuest II (Silver/Gold Pass) In-Game Item #1:

Shroud of the Faithful – Woven to match the steed’s trim, this cloak is made in the style worn by Firiona Vie herself when on horseback!

EverQuest II (Platinum Pass) In-Game Item #2:

Skyblade Skiff – Built to support the explorers within the Moors of Ykesha, the skiff now provides a (mostly) stable way to live above the clouds of Norrath

Let’s think about that second one for a minute… “live above the clouds“. That sounds like more than a mount to me. Could they be adding floating housing to the Moors of Ykesha? I think that’s the most ambitious in-game item I’ve heard for just Fan Faire attendees. It sure beats an ale-stained cloak. As soon as we wheedle any more information about this item, including screen shots, we’ll hook you up. 🙂

New Halas Lore & Design Artwork

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

We missed this EQ2Players post from Friday but considering the excitement leading up to New Halas, we thought we’d post it.

Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall has posted some of the Lore about what we can expect from New Halas and the twists and turns of the storyline. Meanwhile, Stacey Norman, Zone Artist, posted about her experiences in designing the city of New Halas.

New Halas Lore @ EQ2Players

By the way, this EQ2Players writeup has a thumbnail image of some of the concept art for New Halas. We wrangled up a link to a large version of this image.

   

Guild Points — Did You Know?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Grouping, Raiding

Over a year ago, the EQ2 Guild window gained a new column — Guild Points. This often misunderstood feature allows your guild leader and management to award points for anything they (or the guild) decides to track. Some guilds award players who earn a certain amount of status, help level the guild, assist other players, or any number of ‘gold star’ type measurements of players. Of course, some guilds don’t use Guild Points at all.

DKP in-game or website?

Raid Guilds have the unique challenge of divvying up the limited amount of Loot acquired each night to 24 (or more) players. Some Raid Guilds use a Loot Council or some variation on guild leadership choosing which players will get which items, it’s arguable that most raid guilds instead use a DKP (Dragon Kill Points) system. DKP is a score or measure of raid attendance, specifically the number of hours each player has participated in raids. Loot that drops during a raid is auctioned off to players who bid with DKP and are in good standing with their guild.

Every guild that makes use of a DKP or DKP-like system has the choice of using this relatively new Guild Points system, or if that guild has an established website, the infrequently updated eqdkp website script.

For those guilds that use the in-game Guild Points system, they may not be aware that there is a command to automate adding and removing points for the entire guild, the raid, a specific group, etc. Rothgar posted the info for this command today:

The /guild command does support a set of commands for manipulating the points system.

If you type “/guild points” and hit enter, you should get the following usage line.

Usage: /guild points [add|subtract] [point_value] [name|all|online|group|raid] [comment]

You should be able to add or remove points from a specific person, all guild members, only members that are online or only members that are in your current group or raid.

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.

Shifting Shards

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

Been saving up your T8 shards for armor?  Soon you’ll need less than you do today.  Frizznik writes on the EQ2 Forums:
  • Tier 1 will cost the same amount of shards as it did before (38 shards crafter-made, 44 shards vendor-bought)
  • Tier 2 will cost the same amount of shards as it did before (112 shards crafter-made, 126 shards vendor-bought).  It will also cost around 5 platinum.  It will no longer require the tier 1 armor piece.
  • Tier 3 will cost the raid dropped mold, the same void shards it did before, and around 9 platinum.  You will no longer have to trade the mold in for a pattern.  You will no longer need the tier 2 piece to buy the tier 3 piece.  If you have traded a mold for a pattern, that vendor will let you trade the pattern back in for the mold.

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,

Battlegrounds Jewelry Bait-and-Switch

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

During the Sentinel’s Fate beta, many of us were surprised at just how powerful the armor and jewelry available from participating in Battlegrounds were. Many of us warned SOE during beta that having Battlegrounds gear that’s better than TSO raid jewelry would make Battlegrounds an expected/required part of progression for guilds.

  • Battlegrounds gear launched with a new stat — Toughness — which is a type of Critical Mitigation that only works in Battlegrounds.
  • Later, the most powerful effects on Battlegrounds gear (i.e. +10% Base Damage) became PvP-only.
  • With the March 30th Update, the Resists and Physical Mitigation on the Indomitable Jewelry set now only apply to PvP combat.

So, it seems we have eventually arrived at the goal put forth by players — make Battlegrounds gear only desirable for PvP and Battlegrounds. Just not before players spent dozens of hours earning hundreds of tokens in Battlegrounds. A conspiracy theorist could make the case that Battlegrounds armor launched with powerful effects to encourage players to come back and play the content, and then the items nerfed a month later to mitigate their effect on PvE gameplay.

Join the Discussion/Rant/Bitching

Sentinel’s Fate Armor Appearances?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing

The feature set for the Sentinel’s Fate expansion has always included a bullet point indicating that Sentinel’s Fate would contain “more new armor appearances than currently exist in the game“. Yet players have been surprised that a lot of the brand new armor, weapons, shields, etc. dropping in Sentinel’s Fate look exactly like existing items.

Kander has shed some light on this issue:

Yes, many of these items got missed on the appearance pass. I am unsure why or how.  We will start changing them for newer appearances ASAP. Please PM me if you have any other specific instances of gear that looks like noobie gear dropping from Sentinel’s Fate raids or even group zones, we will see what can be done.

EQ2Players Frozen in Time since Sentinel’s Fate

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Uncategorized

Luminata contacted me, hoping I would draw some attention to EQ2Players and the fact it has not been updated since the launch of Sentinel’s Fate. There was plenty of activity and postings on the EQ2Players Discussion area from the SOE Platform team around the time of the site revamp, but this renewed communication has again faded since the expansion launched.

No characters, guilds, rankings, or any other statistical data has been updated since February 16th. The EQ2Players site now seems to be at a standstill.

EQ2 Forum Discussions:

How long before SF updates start to appear on EQ2Players ?

Not Updating

Double StationCash Weekend April 2-4

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Daybreak Cash

From ZAM:

Astute ZAM user MarisolBluesurf spotted this spash screen in Free Realms, annoucing a double Station Cash weekend!

The promotional period is April 2, 2010 (after 4pm Pacific Time) through April 4, 2010 (before 11pm Pacific Time).  Only retail card redemptions will receive double Station Cash.  It doesn’t matter when you purchased the retail cards, only that you redeem them during the promotional period.

While this is a Free Realms promotion, anyone with a Station account can redeem retail cards for double Station Cash during the promotional period.  Once successfully redeemed, the cardholder’s wallet balance will reflect the new pre-paid Station Cash balance plus a bonus of 100% of the card’s Station Cash value which can be used anytime. Station Cash can be redeemed in EverQuest®, EverQuest® II and Free Realms™ in-game marketplaces.

For a list of retailers and instructions on redeeming your Station Cash cards, see this post on the EQII forums.


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