A few months back, the frequency of StationCash item introductions was increased from a monthly schedule to a bi-weekly schedule. If EQ2Wire reported on all of these items, then 50% of our articles would be about items that, quite frankly, a lot of our readers aren’t that wild about. There was a time when $14.99 paid the bills, kept the lights on, and paid the staff. I’m not sure when we strayed from that.

But sometimes, an SC item is cool enough to warrant mentioning here, especially when it comes with cool art. There is a dearth of cool-looking mounts in EQ2. So this might help…

We leave it up to the reader to decide whether 2500SC (normally $25; $12.50 if you stocked up on SC during a double SC weekend) is reasonable for a large animated skeleton. 😉

SmokeJumper is looking for feedback on placing F2P marketplace items on the test server.  He posted this on the official forums:

Hey, folks,

We don’t have a big enough population on the Test server to run two different Test servers (one for EQII Live and one for EQ2X), and we’d like to get your feedback on whether you think it’s appropriate for us to allow the EQ2X marketplace items to show up on Test.

Since the items are optional, it shouldn’t make much of a difference in your play style, but it would allow us to test them on a real server before they go Live.

Additionally, for anyone interested, they’d probably help leveling a bit, which is always somewhat of a hurdle on this lower-population server.

What do you think?

Thanks for your feedback.

Commentary:

I personally agree with many of the other posters that have already replied who think this would work much better if done on Test Copy. Test Copy gets wiped periodically anyway and gives unlimited station cash. This would seem to be the perfect place to “test” marketplace items.

On Thursday evening, a player logged in to discover that one of their gameplay-acquired mounts, a War-Barded Black Cavalry Horse, had unattuned itself. This led to the discovery that a variety of in-game mounts had vanished from the in-game Stable Merchants, only to be found later on the StationCash Marketplace for a cost of 1250SC ($12.50). Other mounts included the Two-Toned Warg , and the black-saddled Blue Flame Nightmare.

On April 14, 2009, a new Welcome Screen was added to EQ2. It was pitched to the players as an informational window with a small amount of StationCash Marketplace content. There was a lot of negative player reaction, but feedback was balanced against trying to keep the window useful.

And for those players who wanted to avoid the Welcome Screen window, a method was found to disable it. A configuration line (cl_show_welcome_screen_on_startup 0) could be added to your eq2.ini settings file. Eventually the EQ2 team relented and added a “Show this window at startup” checkbox so players could opt out of seeing this window.

With Game Update 57, various in-game Merchants will start carrying StationCash items.

If you think this is worthy of further comment, well read on… If not, well, the word of the day is “slippery slope”.

From EQ2Players:

The choosing of a guild name is a very important rite. To help ensure that your new name is considered carefully, we are introducing Guild Name Change potions at the price of 5500 SC. We believe this price is fair for those who do want a name change, but will also serve as a deterrent to those who might want to frivolously rename their guild every time they have a kerfuffle in the lands of Norrath.

There has always been the option to disband a guild and create a new one with the desired name, but think of all the work and sacrifice that went into Guild XP and levels!

Comments after the jump…

From EQ2 Senior Producer Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson:

We read your posts about wanting a Double XP weekend this coming 4th of July weekend. I went and discussed it with everyone concerned, and voila!, now it’s Christmas in July.

This weekend, from 4pm Pacific on Friday, July 2nd until 10am Pacific on Tuesday, July 6th, we will be running BOTH a Double Station Cash promotion *and* a true Double XP (+100% XP) promotion.

So go get those Station Cash cards so you can redeem them, and plan to play a ton this weekend! We’ll see you on line!

EQ2 Senior Producer SmokeJumper, as well as covic and Rothgar, have continued to respond to criticism about the introduction of the Prowler mounts on the EQ2 Forums. It’s impossible to quote everything they’re posting, so if you read one thread on the EQ2 Forums this weekend, I’d read this one.

The big news yesterday about the new Prowler mounts available via StationCash in the Marketplace is being discussed in the First Ever Mount on the Marketplace thread on the EQ2 Forums.

But as part of the introduction of these SC mounts, the Highland Stalker mount which was included in the Sentinel’s Fate CE retail box has gotten some tweaks as well.

• First, the run animation created for the SC Prowler has been adapted to the Highland Stalker.

• Second, the gigantic, and I mean Sir Mix-a-lot sized rump on the Highland Stalker has undergone plastic surgery.

Some players find the new animation smoother, others find it more jarring. Go figure!

About That Featherfall

Marketing apparently unintentionally embellished one characteristic of the SC Prowler mounts. They do not, in fact, have Featherfall.

And I promise I won’t use the words apparently, unintentionally, and embellished all in 1 sentence ever again. Well, after that last one. Promise.

From EQ2Players:

Introducing the Etheral, Sinister, and Ulteran Prowlers!

Each mount comes in your choice of one of the following versions: Fierce and Arcane. The Fierce version increases Slashing, Aggression, Ranged, Piercing and Crushing of caster by 5, while the Arcane version increases Focus, Ordination, Disruption, Subjugation and Ministration of caster by 5. Both versions of the mount reduce the maximum falling speed of your character and have a 65% run speed.

The Prowlers are guaranteed to be available for at least one month and adventurers can now purchase these new mounts for 2500SC from the Marketplace. These are the first Station Cash items of their kind and are immediately available in-game, upon purchase.

UPDATED Commentary

Close inspection of these three mounts indicates they are NOT a reskin of an existing mount (such as the Highland Stalker in the SF retail box) but something unique.

For 2500 you are getting a single heirloom* 65% runspeed mount with either +5 to all mage skills or +5 to all melee skills. 2500 is $25 ($12.50 if you took advantage of a Double StationCash weekend).

It’s interesting to compare this to the Highland Stalker mount in the Sentinel’s Fate: Collector’s Edition which for $30 gives you a 65% runspeed mount for up to 12 characters on your account.

And I’m sure some of you noticed the “available for at least one month“. So after that what? They go back into the Disney vault for 20 years?

*NOTE: These Prowlers were intended to be flagged HEIRLOOM and will be after next Tuesday’s update.

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.

Some of you may be interested in these Frostfell-themed items coming to StationCash Marketplace on December 22, 2009.

Red Baby Dragon Plushie and Merry Frostfell Backpack

Posting on EQ2Players