Feldon
Lest ye think that the Ward of Elements zone is the only x2 raid zone we will be seeing for a while, Kander has given us an update. Timetraveling and I have no plans to make this zone any easier, we feel that the challenge vs reward is about right. If there is anything you feel that is a flat out bug and needs to be fixed, please feel free to PM either him or me and we’ll look into it ASAP. In other news, we have another x2 coming soon, that will be a tad more… challenging. The Ward of...
Month: April 2009
This is my 4th posting on Research Assistants. If you have not read all 64 pages of the marathon topic, you may have missed some info. SoE wants to add Research Assistants to EQ2. These will be NPCs which will take one of your existing spells and upgrade its tier after a specified amount of time. That time varies by the tier of the spell. If you have an Adept III version of a Tier 8 spell, then the Master version of that spell might take a month or more to research. What is known about these Research Assistants...
Bravo to those of you who have managed to keep up with the 39 page topic on Spell Naming. That’s almost as remarkable as those who have managed to read every single post in the 64 page Research Assistants thread! For the rest of you who just do not have that kind of time, I present some highlights, which offer some insight into just what direction the game is heading. In particular, Aeralik points out how there are some game mechanics which are complex or only really understood by folks who have an in-depth knowledge of how the game...
Some of you will be thrilled to know that FreeRealms is out of Beta and now LIVE. I have not kept up to date on FreeRealms since its splashy debut at FanFaire ’08, but it certainly showed a lot of promise in the initial demo and playthrough. There are a gazillion things you can do once you login. You can race cars, buy and care for a pet, go out adventuring, questing, and exploring, craft, play minigames (checkers, chess, cards, puzzle games, etc.) chat with friends, put on a concert, etc. It’s The Sims meets Guitar Hero meets Petz...
EQ2 has added some of the most attractive furniture yet for the game. I think many people have been hoping for a nice, “clean” set of wooden, upholstered chairs for years now and we finally got them. Not to mention an awesome looking hutch. Unfortunately these new house/guild items are being made available at an extra cost through the StationCash system. While I appreciate that carpenters and woodworkers have received many additional recipes in the last year (thanks Domino!), a nice set of all-purpose chairs, table, and hutch have remained elusive. Until now. I guess if you’ve gotta have...
On April 22nd, 2009, Allakhazam (now known simply as ZAM) relaunched their EQ2 Portal. First announced at Fan Faire in August ’08, the new website is the first (and possibly only?) fan site with live data feeds directly from EQ2. This means that EQ2 Zam has live Broker search which are on just a few minutes delay. Also, loot drops from the various dungeons now have actual percentage drop rates. As of April 28, EQ2 ZAM’s live data is only available for US servers. No word on when EU and other servers will be providing this data. I will...
Posted by Kiara: GENERAL The friends list on the welcome screen will now ignore offline friends if that option is enabled on the community window. ITEMS The 4-piece bonuses on the Paladin, Monk, Berserker, and Defiler Shadow Odyssey raid sets have been improved. The Lycanthrope Bracelet’s effects in PVP combat have been slightly lowered. QUESTS One of the lists of names for the Task “Hidden Agenda” could appear in an unreachable spot on a bookshelf. This has been fixed. WARD OF ELEMENTS Elemental bosses in Ward of Elements now drop non-stacking encrusted gems. The encrusted gems can be unpacked...
Aeralik has chimed in with the first hints of what we can expect in GU52: GU52 has a wide variety of things coming. From what I understand there will be an assortment of new quests and additional content which means additional ways to raise your aa points if you havent yet. You have to keep in mind dfferent people have different responsibilities. My job is to work on the class balance and combat systems which this falls under and like I said is the first part of a greater plan which we will talk about more in the future. ...
From EQ2 Forums: From 3:00 AM PDT until 6:00 AM PDT on Thursday, April 16, 2009, the EQII servers will be undergoing maintenance and will be unavailable. Also beginning at 3:00 AM PDT on Thursday, April 16, 2009, SOE Account and Commerce flow, Station Store and the Station Marketplace will be unavailable due to maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 5 hours. This might also cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically...
GENERAL Players will now see a new Welcome Screen upon login. The Welcome Screen can be disabled by adding cl_show_welcome_screen_on_startup 0 (that’s a zero) to your eq2.ini. You can now ctrl+left click the armor crates in the Station Marketplace window to see all of the armor pieces in the dressing room at once! MUNZOK’S MATERIAL BASTION A mysterious and powerful void entity has made its presence known on Norrath. Although its motives aren’t clear, its powerful presence has sent shivers through even the most powerful denizens of the realm. This zone represents its stronghold and should prove a challenge...
There have been concerns about having spells with a roman numeral and then spell qualities within a tier having roman numbers (App I, App IV, Adept I, Adept III, Master I, and Master II) as far as difficulties with Broker searching or confusion among new players who have to deal with a spell named, for instance Shadow Leap II (Apprentice II). Careful reading of Aeralik’s posts had led many people to believe that this spell renaming was just the first step in a bigger process. Naysayers, looks like you just got served. 😉 We got our hint on what...
Thanks to Denyo who has posted this great screen snap and list of all the epic encounters in EQ2 which reward a trophy: EQ2: Darathar, Vox DoF: Djinn Master, Godking KoS: Lord Vyemm, Tarinax TFD: Chel’Drak EoF: Wuoshi, Mayong, Clockwork Menace RoK: Venril Sathir, Trakanon, Leviathan TSO: Gynok, Ykesha, Zarrakon, Aiden
One boulder won’t solve your Aiden problems anymore in the x2 raid zone… Posted by timetravelling: The adds were not intended to ALL be prevented by the boulders. Please try it again, and let me know if y’all have any issues. From Kiara: There will be a quick hotfix at the usual times (7am PDT for US servers and around 9pm PDT for EU servers) to fix the bug with Aiden in Ward of Elements.
GENERAL An issue that was causing UI icons or elements to look blurry and low-quality has been resolved. An issue that was causing low-quality textures on player characters after switching from third person to first person view has been resolved. EVERNIGHT ABBEY Marcus Thex should turn aggro now once all five clan leaders have been slain. ITEMS The Dancing Satyr has learned how to dance and is anxious to show off his new moves. Bite of the Wolf will now trigger properly and apply to the warden. Restitution Master 1 should no longer drop from spell tables. The Signet...
From Kiara: Hello all! We’re going to bring the servers down at the usual time (7am PDT) for a hotfix. We’ll post the notes tomorrow. Included will be a fix for the overly proccerific procs. The x4 raid zone, Munzok’s Material Bastion, was planned to be activated tomorrow, but we’re going to hold off until next week for a few more tweaks. We’ll have the servers back up and running as soon as possible. Thank you and happy gaming! From EQ2 Forums
As expected, the “Spell Naming Convention” thread is getting a lot of attention. Currently, Summoner (Conjuror / Necromancer) pets have distinctive names. I can see where folks are coming from when they say that having just one name for all of them would be a step backwards. Also, some of the spell names are pretty good through the tiers. If only the less imaginative spells were renamed that would make more sense. Finally, there have been folks suggesting either an Adjective system where all the spells have the same name, but a new adjective is added to the front...
I admit it. I can sometimes be pretty nostalgic. I grew up on Final Fantasy II for the SNES (which was actually Final Fantasy IV in Japan). I loved the game. The storyline, the gameplay. I was really excited when Final Fantasy III came out (actually Final Fantasy VI in Japan), and I made it about halfway through and then things came up in life. But I really enjoyed the Final Fantasy series. Years later, I bought a Playstation (the original) on the strength of Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Final Fantasy VII. I didn’t get very far...
From Kiara: The fix for the Ward of Elements is planned to go in on Tuesday (4/7) along with Munzok’s Material Bastion (the x4 zone). People have to have finished Ward of Elements to get the level boosting item that will allow them to kill things in the x4 zone. No further info just yet on what will happen for people who have completed the x2 zone but had Najena being shy. When I know more about that, I’ll let you all know. Here you go.
The new x2 Ward of Elements zone is certainly creating a lot of discussion! Some say it’s too hard and requires full fabled/mythical. Some say it’s easy. Some say the 5 day lockout is too long, but I am with those who feel that if each named drops 2 patterns or 1 pattern and 1 exceptional fabled item, and the whole zone is on Smart Loot, then folks can get upgraded very quickly in this zone. So far I think it is a good zone to bridge the gap between grouping and raiding and helping to gear folks up...
Don’t like your character’s name, gender, or appearance? Change it! Coming to StationCash on April 7th… EQ2Players
Editor’s Note: This was later declared to NOT be an exploit and that no further action would be taken. In a shocking about-face, after 4 1/2 months of tolerance, EQ2 devs have reversed course and now consider mentored Void Shard runs to be an exploit and intend to patch the game so shards cannot be acquired in this manner. Presumably with the addition of daily solo shard quest, EQ2 devs now intend to close this loophole. From Kiara: This is an exploit and we are currently working on a fix for it. I’d suggest not doing it. Whilst you...
It seems it is my duty after each Live Update to report those bugs which managed to slip through. It’s not a job I enjoy, but someone’s gotta do it. Here’s what to watch for: Warden Mythical/Epic proc is feeding power to the target instead of the Warden. Hire an extra illy or switch weapons until the hotfix. Druid AA “Tortoise Shell” AoE blocker spell is now broken as of LU51. No word on a fix. [discussion] The x4 Raid zone (Munzok’s) did not go live. No word as to why, only to expect an explanation later. Possibly because...