Posts Tagged ‘destiny of velious’

SOE Community Webcast Transcript: Game Update 63 Skyshrine Pt 1

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

So if you’ve clicked on this article looking for a transcript of last month’s Game Update 63: Skyshrine Part 1 webcast, we have a last minute change. This won’t be a transcript but a summary. If this seems like bait-and-switch, realize that we tuned into the webcast to see:

  • Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, EQ2 Senior Producer
  • Akil “Lyndro” Hooper, EQ2 Lead Designer
  • Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, EverQuest Franchise Director of Development

and there was a slight change in the guest list to:

  • Kyle “Kander” Vallee, Assistant Lead Designer
  • Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson

After the jump, what we were able to take away from Kander and SmokeJumper in this first preview webcast about Part 2 of Velious, the first current-tier EQ2 Game Update since August 2011.

NOTE: We’ll be back later today with notes from Skyshrine Webcast #2!

   

GamesRadar Preview: Honvar Dragon Art and Animation for Game Update 63

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

Steve Merghart, EQII Senior Character Artist and Chris Myers, EQII Senior Animator, show off Honvar, a dragon who will be appearing in the upcoming Game Update 63 this April. Honvar roamed the Western Wastes in the original EverQuest. Steve and Chris are hoping that someone will make a plushie or maybe show up in costume at Fan Faire as Honvar, or as he seems to have been known internally “Lumpy”.

GamesRadar Exclusive: Watch as EverQuest II’s upcoming dragon is brought to life

What Bugs You Most? (Velious and GU60 Edition)

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Note: This article will be periodically bumped to the top of EQ2Wire.

UPDATED: JUNE 18th, 2011

If you miss the pre-Expansion Zone Previews, Interviews with Artists, Animators, and Developers, as well as the quarterly Question & Answer , Developer Chats, and ‘What Bugs You Most?‘, you’ve got company. We’re not sure that 20 minute Stickam videos fully replace all those forms of communication. That said…

There have already been several hotfixes tackling some of the bigger issues introduced by Game Update 60, but there are others which have yet to receive confirmation from developers. We delve into this category today. This is a mixture of bonafide bugs, and also outstanding issues which rise above simple griping into things that are causing significant gameplay problems.

Details after the jump…

EQ2 Producer’s Letter from Dave SmokeJumper Georgeson

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

From DaveSmokeJumperGeorgeson on the EQ2 Forums:

So, you’re probably curious how EQII will be growing and changing in 2011, right?

Well, it’s finally time to share. This year is all about content and entertainment and we intend to give you plenty of both. The following outlines some of the broad strokes to get you thinking about what’s coming…and possibly just a little excited, as well.

First of all, if you’re a “Destiny of Velious” owner, you’re going to be *extremely* happy that you made that purchase. Why? Because DoV is going to be the biggest, best expansion that has ever been made. We’ll be releasing content on a regular basis that continues to tell the “Age’s End Prophecy” saga, and the only price of admission is that you own DoV. The Age’s End story gets really big before it’s done and it’s going to take us a good chunk of time to tell it all, but we’ll do so by releasing chapters of it every few months and building the story a bit at a time. Velious is a big place, and so is this story. It’ll be a good ride.

Secondly, we’re going to revamp Freeport and make Evil an exciting place to be. Freeport (and next year, Qeynos) will become multi-level adventure hubs with instanced content at many levels. The city itself is also getting a facelift as Freeport reorganizes itself to retake its place as a driving power of the world. Additionally, it’s becoming a single zone (instead of many sub-divisions) and flyable. When we upgrade Qeynos, it will get the same visual upgrade and zone treatment, and will bring back the “Greater Good”.

The Gods of Norrath will be returning to once again directly muck about with the lives of mortals. Too long has the world of Norrath spun along on its own axis. It’s time again for it to feel the touch of the divine.

On the non-content side of things, we’re going to be working on a lot of stuff “under the hood” to make your gameplay better. We’re looking into ways to increase the speed of our game and graphics engine, some of which could be very significant, which would obviously make raids and public quests a lot more fun, as well as boosting smoothness of gameplay for everyone. We’re revamping the way that our terrain is created so that we can bring you content more quickly, but still with high quality, thus increasing how big the world can become.

And last but not least, we’re crafting a host of new features and fun ways to play the game. Some of our current ideas are way outside the box for an MMO and we’re pushing hard to bring you new experiences (more on these later!).

We’re already one of the best MMOs out there. This year we’re going to become even more unique and exciting. 2011 is a good year to be Norrathian.

— Dave “Smokejumper” Georgeson

P.S., A detailed feature list of the upcoming GU 60 will be announced soon, and more elements of the longer-ranged features will roll out in successive months. This letter is just to let you know the general direction of where we’re going and what to expect.

DoV Dungeons Getting Tune-Up: Less Crawl More Haul

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

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

We’re making some changes to make dungeons more attractive to players in DoV. We’re adjusting base pop and boss health so that the dungeons take less time to complete so they’re more fun for folks, as well as to allow more frequent chances at boss loot drops on revisits. We’re also making a few changes so that bosses don’t wipe parties so easily since they seem to be a bit tougher than we’d originally planned.

We’re approaching these changes conservatively so that we don’t overshoot the mark. If these changes don’t do the trick, we’ll probably do another round of small changes later. But the overall goal is to make the dungeons more attractive for everyone.

P.S., These are not the only fixes we’re making for tomorrow’s hot fixes, but we wanted to call these changes out specially because those of you that gave up on dungeons because they were too challenging for the payoffs you were getting may want to give it another go now.

Tower of Frozen Shadow Freezes Explained

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

The zone crashes occurring in the x2 Tower of Frozen Shadow instances involving boss Tserrina have been identified by the development team, but cannot be immediately fixed, says Gninja:

We have found the crash issue with Tserrina and it should be getting cleared up within a patch or two. For now if you do not cure the curses it should not crash.

Looks like Tserrina found a way to make her curses stick!

Windslasher: PQ Lag Being Addressed

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Live Events, Raiding

EQ2 Designer Windslasher is working on the lag issues in the Storm Gorge public quests, but apparently it’s not an easy problem to solve:

I am working on changes to reduce lag. I’m very aware of how bad it is, and I consider that the #1 problem to fix. It also happens to be the hardest, which is why the going is slow. That is all.

When Quests Attack! A Review of Quests in Velious

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News

I have a confession to make…

I did few quests in The Shadow Odyssey, and fewer still in Sentinel’s Fate (Odus). Beyond grouping, raiding, and the quests associated with such, my heart just has not been “in it”. After dragging three characters each through Kunark‘s 400 mostly runaround timesink errand quests, few of which had much impact on the overall storylines of Norrath, I vowed to level and earn AAs in future expansions by grouping — even if it had the rush of excitement and expedience of watching paint dry.

So after basically taking Sentinel’s Fate off, I vowed to jump into Destiny of Velious headfirst and do as much content as I could.

I’d have to double check, but I believe I have completed every one of the non-repeatable Othmir questlines including both Fina’s Retreat in the Great Divide and Nipik’s Haven in the Eastern Wastes. I’ve also done all of the Snowfang Gnoll quests, most of the Thurgadin, and about 1/3 of the Ry’Gorr quests.

Herbalist Hireling Guild Amenity Bumps Burnyai for T9 Collectibles

Written by Kwill on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

If you’ve been keeping your Burynai house pet (from the Kunark Pre-Order) on a steady diet of fertilizers and letting the shinies roll in, you’ve probably noticed that they have had no luck producing any of the collections from Odus (Sundered Frontier, Stonebrunt Mountains), Velious (Great Divide, Eastern Wastes), or associated dungeons. It turns out, a new Guild Hall amenity has been added for these Tier 9 zones. Here’s Gninja to explain the new Herbalist Hirelings which accept fertilizer items in exchange for collectable rewards:

.. Right now you should be able to feed the “Herbalist Hireling” any combination of the three items and get a collectible from it. The [older] Burynai will only accept items up to tier8. Combinations using the Tier9 [materials] will not work with the Burynai.

Velious: A Continent Divided by Faction

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Grouping, Itemization, Live Events, Raiding

When Velious was announced, lots of folks asked for Faction to matter. Wish granted! 🙂

Faction must be acquired with the Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, Thurgadin, and Ry’Gorr to buy their adornments (unique to each faction) and gear, and it can be rather slow-going!

The Othmir, Snowfang Gnolls, and Ry’Gorr all have daily (18 hour repeatable) quests to kill overland mobs and gain faction. Crabs for the Othmir quests occasionally drop an item which provides an additional faction boost. Alas, Thurgadin faction must be gained by running dungeons.

A variety of rewards become available once faction milestones of 10,000, 20,000, and 40,000 are reached. After completing all of the solo quests in Velious, most folks will end up with at or above 7,000 faction with each so the first items should be available in just a few days, with the better rewards taking a couple of weeks to earn.

Public Quests drop Cloudy Velium Jewels which can be sold to any of the 4 factions for +500 faction. Also, mobs inside the contested Kael Drakkel can be killed for a small amount of faction gain as well. If you’ve only done the Othmir quests at the arrival point in Velious (Great Divide), you’ve only gotten half the story (and are missing a good chunk of faction). Head to the Eastern Wastes once you’re done.

Thurgadin also has their own crafting faction, the Forgemasters of Thurgadin and you’ll want to befriend them if you are interested in acquiring the Coldain Prayer Shawl. And there are plenty of opportunities to work on Far Seas Supply Division faction, as well as Order of Rime faction if you are one of those people. 😉

UPDATE: This article has received a substantial rewrite since its original publication and is now part of a series of articles about Faction in Velious.


After the jump, we talk more about what else you can get for your hard-earned faction in Velious…

The Twelve Days of Velious – Aether Races

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News, Live Events

For the last day of the Destiny of Velious launch celebrations, every EQ2 and EQ2X player from level 1-90 is able to travel to Lavastorm, Butcherblock Mountains, or Tenebrous Tangle and fly around using a Tinkered flying machine. The quest and event has been placed near the entrance of the zone, thus the level of enemies should not prevent celebrations by all players of all levels.

Once you compete in a race through airborne rings in the allotted time, you receive a temporary flying contraption which is NO ZONE but which you can use to fully explore the entire zone and see just how much fun Flying Mounts are. After completing the race five times, you will receive a permanent C.R.A.S.H. Pad reward which is an appearance flying mount which requires having completed any flying mount quest to use, but can also be used as a 25% ground speed mount. If you love flying, but were hoping for an alternative to the various Gryphon mounts, here’s your chance.

Rewards:

  • 1 run: Test Pilot (title)
  • 5 runs: C.R.A.S.H. Pad flying appearance mount (permanent)
  • 10 runs: Crash Test Dummy Extraordinaire (title)

And according to Wilhelmina, there are special titles for finishing the course within a certain time:

  • 54s in Lavastorm: Smoking Ace (title)
  • 165s in Tenebrous Tangle : Cloud Buster (title)
  • ~80 in Butcherblock : Sea Hawk (title)

Kael Drakkel Reviewed, Tweaks Incoming

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

Kael Drakkel is making Contested Dungeons in EQ2 sexy again. With 15 names, and the largest zone ever added to EQ2 (it’s larger than Solusek’s Eye), there is a lot to live up to here. The zone is intended to be difficult, with loot somewhere between the hardest Velious instances and beginning raids. It’s a new way of approaching contested dungeons compared to The Hole, Karnor’s Castle, Sebilis, and Chardok which all struggled to keep our attention after a few weeks.

Players have been looking for an old school dungeon crawl and Kael Drakkel seems to deliver. It shows a new commitment to creating dungeons that aren’t irrelevant or abandoned after the first week of the expansion. This is the kind of danger and contested experience we haven’t really seen since Castle Mistmoore and Sanctum of Scaleborn and feedback both during Beta and since launch has been surprisingly positive, even from the most jaded raiders.

Kander took a leading role in designing Kael Drakkel, and seems cautious about making any major changes to it. This seems wise, as subtle changes may be all that is warranted here.

Dethdlr’s Dungeon – DoV First Impressions

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Dethdlr's Dungeon, Grouping, Itemization

Dethdlr's Dungeon

Tomorrow marks a week that Destiny of Velious has been live.  I’ve had time to run through the Icy Fingers quest series on three characters, get my flying mount, check out Thurgadin, and even run through the first quest area in the Eastern Wastes.  I’ve also poked my head into the Tower of Frozen Shadows: Shadowed Corridors.  I’ve learned a few things during this time that I’d like to pass on.  This is mainly meant for the non-raiding portion of our audience since the raiders most likely know all of this information already or have the level of gear so that this doesn’t really apply.

The Twelve Days of Velious – All Days Now Revealed!

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News

From EverQuest2.com:

February 26: Double XP Day

Adventure, tradeskill, and AA XP gain are doubled. Saturday only!

February 27: Loot Bonanza Day

Today only, all named monsters will drop loot at 100% probability. Rare mobs will have doubled loot drop chances.

February 28: Expansion Upgrade Day

If you already own the Standard Edition, upgrade to Destiny of Velious Collector’s Edition for $25 on this day only. Pick up the Digital Collector’s Edition and enjoy the bonus items; Cryomantic Armor, the Stormfeather Brood Guardian Mount, Tserinna’s Wedding Present, and the Everfrost Summer Home (seen at this link).

   

Flying Mount Expoiters Suspended

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Uncategorized

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

Hey, folks,

I just wanted to post and let you know that a bunch of accounts (less than 100) got a temporary suspension tonight.

Why?

Because some of them were invited to Beta and then found a way to shortcut the gryphon quest series, which takes a minimum of five days to complete, and were able to do it in minutes. They then told others how to do it and the rest followed along, duplicating the exploit.

Appearances Deceiving in Tower of Frozen Shadow

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News, Grouping

The Tower of Frozen Shadow presents a unique, but familiar approach to dungeon progression. Although the seven (or is it eight?!?) floors of the Tower of Frozen Shadow are split up into 3 group instanced dungeons (Shadowed Corridors, Umbral Halls, and Haunt of Syl’Tor), there are quests that span all three. Completion of those quests is necessary to unlock different floors in the Tower.

UPDATE: Added quotes from Gninja.

Public Quest Schedule

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Live Events

When do the Public Quests (live events that any player, from solo to a full raid of 24, can participate in) run?

From Windslasher:

Storm Gorge runs at even hours — noon, 2, 4, 6 etc. while Ring War starts on odd hours. So one of them starts every hour on the hour.

Why Am I Getting Flattened In Velious?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News, Itemization

So if you played in the Beta, or heard tales, you know that like past betas, the solo overland content was rather… challenging. We’re talking badgers and gnolls that ignore 30-40% of damage done to them, have upwards of 100,000 hp, and put out damage in the thousands. Notorious were the crystal spiders needed for the flying mount quest which, if they successfully poisoned you, were doing upwards of 4,000 damage *per tick* until cured. If you didn’t whip out a potion or use that click-to-cure, you were dead in seconds.

2 weeks before Velious Beta ended, SmokeJumper admitted that it was too difficult and so sweeping changes were made. Players who were originally getting slaughtered in Velious overland zones were then able to with stand 2-3 mobs beating on them with few ill effects. When Beta closed, we had been told that more changes would be made to try to strike a balance.

What we’ve seen so far in Velious is that things were tweaked to still present a challenge, but some of the tougher effects have been dialed down.

Rothgar, Zolratorh Battle “Receiving Zone Info” Issue, Crashes, Trolling

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

If there is any doubt that EQ2 devs are working as hard as they can to resolve the persistent Receiving Zone Info issues affecting Freeport and (to some extent) other servers, know that Zoltaroth and Rothgar put in 16 hours on Tuesday, and I know that Zoltaroth worked again until midnight this morning. Sleep is overrated!

Flying Mounts Early? It Takes a Village

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

It seems every year, thousands of bug reports are submitted to the EQ2 team during Beta. And it seems every year, a few highly visible bugs/exploits make it through. Last year, it was large encounters in The Hole that would respawn if all but one mob were killed. In The Shadow Odyssey beta it was widely reported that most of the dungeons could be completed when mentored down and greyed out.

So this year, so far we know of two:

Lord Doljonijiarnimorinar (Lord Bob) could be exploited to provide loot over and over. Lord Bob was fixed in today’s hotfix.

The Twelve Days of Velious – Guild Double XP & Free Server Transfers

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News, Live Events

From EverQuest2.com:

February 22: Othmir Day
Everyone who logs in on Launch Day, February 22nd, will receive an Othmir illusion potion. (Even those who aren’t playing in Velious!) The potion has 50 charges, and is available one per character. Just be sure to log in each of your characters during the day to claim a potion, if you want the illusion for more than one character.

This event will run at least until 10am pst (1pm cst, 18:00 gmt). According to some posts by SmokeJumper, this may be extended especially on Everfrost and Freeport which weren’t up until late last night. Remember, to claim this item, go to the Marketplace and select Expansion, then Nipik’s Gift.

February 23: Guild Double XP Day
Build up your guild and your guild spirit with Double Guild XP, today only!

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this seems an odd day to do Guild Double XP. It will likely give something to do for people who didn’t buy Velious or don’t have a level 86+.

February 24: Free Transfer Day
One day only! Get a free character transfer token from the in-game Marketplace and choose your own server. Up to five moves allowed per account.

NOTE: This is transfers WITHIN an account, but not BETWEEN accounts, as this still requires the involvement of Customer Service.

February 25: Snow Days Discounts
Every day’s a snow day in Velious, but today you’ll find lots of cool prices on frosty-themed items in the Marketplace.

Hints of Velious II

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News

In a thread pondering when we might see the rest of Velious, SmokeJumper hinted much:

We didn’t do the Wakening Lands. We just have that one small tribute area to it. Think of it as a doorway to a potential future area.

and:

We intend to grow a lot of the Velious stuff you’re missing. I have to stay mum for a bit until I get approval on *how* we want to roll it out to you, so I can’t say much else at the moment. Sorry.

Refer-a-Friend Gravy Train Ends

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

If you have been abusing milking enjoying the Refer-a-Friend 300% XP bonus for its high speed leveling (and thus AA earning) goodness, especially by parking a level 1 trial account character at the zone-in, well, I’m afraid that has finally come to an end.

From Rich Waters 0n the EQ2 forums:

The Recruit-a-friend program is a great way for you to bring your friends into EverQuest II and help them level up a bit faster by playing together. When you group with a character you’ve recruited, you both gain a hefty 200% experience bonus. Unfortunately, many people were recruiting themselves and using it as a way to power-level their main character, rather than actually playing with a friend.

We’ve added a couple of limitations to the recruit-a-friend bonus to prevent it from being a solo leveling tool. In order to get the recruit-a-friend experience bonus:


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