Feldon
Cronyn has jumped into the fray again with some further details about why the Isle of Refuge is being removed in GU56: Heya folks. I wanted to clear a couple of things up really fast, if I may. As I said, we’re not abandoning Freeport and Qeynos themselves. The existing content that is there will not be different with this change, and we are planning even more things for the cities going forward. Players with citizenship currently in either city will retain it – we’re not removing housing, guild halls, the suburbs, or the quests that exist there. They...
Month: April 2010
Game Update 56 will be imbuing flying carpets, floating discs, and cloud mounts with the power to float. If you are thinking to yourself “Wait, didn’t they already do that?” read on… Carpets, Clouds, and Discs have allowed players to peacefully float throughout Norrath, but only over flat, even, dry surfaces. As soon as the operator of these wondrous mounts attempted to traverse a vertical distance greater than 3 feet, they were suddenly rendered about as effective as concrete shoes. In short, carpets, clouds, and disc mounts have been a virtual death trap over mountainous terrain. I guess they...
The notes for upcoming Game Update 56 included this notation: Many rare drops from the heroic Sentinel’s Fate Zones are now available by speaking to Kaliba Des’Sers in Moonfield Hamlet! Once Game Update 56 was patched onto the Test Server, we were provided screen shots of some of this loot: New Fabled Loot Vendor on Test What’s on the Menu? While a similar vendor was available during the Shadow Odyssey expansion, 150 void shards only gave you access to the most common Fabled drops from each zone (with the exception of the Mistmoore Battle Drums). So this time around,...
Dethdlr
On Tuesday, 27 April 2010, this tidbit made it into the update notes for test: Mounts will now be temporarily suspended while in combat. Basically, in outside zones, mounts would disapear as soon as you enter combat and re-appear a few seconds after combat ended. This had a general negative response on the official EQ2 Forums and led to speculation on how this would effect buffs. Gninja responded with some clarification on the matter: You would not lose any stats or anything you would have normally had your character will just no longer be visually mounted during combat the...
Ebik’s Missing Parts Over on the beach where the ambassadors are you will see a Gnome named Ebik Wooblecog. If you speak to him and click through his very long story he will ask you to find his 3 missing parts… hence the name of the quest ^_^. You will have to find the following: Size 7 clunker Copper-coated springer Triangle spinner These items are rather large and kinda easy to find. The first one is located at: Size 7 clunker is on top of the waterfall, just over the bridge. It is an area called Port View Bridge....
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. Collection Quests There are two collection quests on the island. You must be level 3 to have the harvest ability to be able to complete this quest. The first collection quest is on the beach. You’ll notice some gold sparkling ? marks. If you double click them you will harvest them and get a shell. The shell ? marks can only be found on the beaches of the isle. Upon examining the shell you can add it to your...
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. Arriving on the Island After you exit the tutorial and hit the beaches of the island of a refuge, you’ll need to decide your profession. Head up to Garven who is standing up beside the dock. He’ll welcome you to your new home as a “refugee”, and ask your profession. After answering his initial questions, Garven will request you “prove your worth” by killing one of the invading Goblins, which have suddenly plagued the Island of Refuge. Accept this...
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. Cellar Cleanup The Cellar Cleanup quest is the artisan quest on the island. To start the quest go to Malvonicus’ Tower and speak with Assistant Dreak. You will know who he is, cause he will be bitching about the cellar being a mess. After agreeing to clean up the cellar turn to your left and you will see the door that leads to the instanced cleanup quest. You must do the following to complete the first part of the...
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. EQ2 Allakhazam Writeup for the Isle of Refuge boat sequence: Step 1: Captain Varlos You’ll appear on the ship next to Captain Varlos, double click on the Caption to initiate a conversation. Navigate through the initial conversation, and the Captain will gradually explain where you are, how you got there, and where you’re headed. At the end of the conversation, Captain Varlos will ask you to go speak to his First Mate Waulon, who is located just to the...
It seems we’ll be parting with two islands by May’s end. And while we’ll still be able to catch John Locke, Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, and Kate in syndication, the Qeynos and Freeport starting islands seem destined for a more permanent fate. We are providing continuing (hopefully not excessive) coverage of the impending removal of the EQ2 starting islands. Share Your Story If you’d like to share your story of your experiences either on the Outpost of the Overlord, Queen’s Colony, or on the original Isle of Refuge, shoot us an e-mail through the Contact Us page, or post a...
EQ2Players.com French Community Rep, Soffrina had a chance to interview Domino and ask a few questions. Here are a few excerpts from the article: How do you come up with a decision to add a new thing to the game? Do you listen to the community’s needs, is it a development decision depending on its importance or is it a combination of both? In other words, how do you initiate a project? It is certainly a combination of things. When I play, I’m always watching for things that might be needed or that would improve tradeskills (or indeed the game...
There seems to be some confusion in the In Testing Feedback thread regarding the removal of Qeynos and Freeport as starting choices. I stand by the original article I posted, but some clarification is worth mentioning. Qeynos and Freeport Going Away? Qeynos and Freeport are not being removed as cities. Furthermore to my knowledge, none of the level 6-20 quests in these city zones and surrounding suburbs are going away. Although further testing on the Test Server will be needed to confirm this. Players wishing to experience the Qeynos and Freeport level 6-20 content would need to create a...
The Promise of Battlegrounds The promise of Battlegrounds has been the opportunity to meet players from other servers and challenge them in meaningful PvP combat. It has been a great time-killer while attempting to form up groups. It has been a fun exercise for guilds from different servers wanting to face off in battle. And it has been an opportunity (perhaps too good of one) to gear up. However this promise has largely gone undelivered to the European community. Aside from localization issues (language, number and date formats), European servers almost always undergo software upgrades at a different time...
In February, former EQ2 Senior Producer Alan “Brenlo” Crosby created a thread “What is the Golden Path?” It included this provocative passage: The golden path is the first step in a larger revamp of our new player experience. We took a look at the starting areas, other than Qeynos and Freeport as we plan to move away from those, and reworked content so that it had a better flow. We wanted the quests in Darklight, Timorous and Greater Fay, to give you a better progression path. When asked in the EQ2 ZAM Dev Chat to clarify this position, Brenlo...
Today’s hotfix: ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENTS Fiery Blast and Rhythmic Overture should no longer apply extra damage if cast by multiple people at the same time. ITEMS Many items that had nude appearances have been corrected. PERAH’CELSIS’ ABOMINABLE LABORATORY Arkatanthis’ benthic warlord adds will try and pick a more balanced group of 3 players when they spawn during the challenge mode encounter. The nude appearance items were caused by a bug that slipped in last week which caused female characters to appear to wear nothing but pasties in the chest area. (May want to exercise discretion when viewing that thread since...
It all started with a simple post: “If you’ve ever fancied yourself a writer for EQ2Wire, whether it’s just updates on the happenings around Norrath, including updates on Live Events, shoot us an e-mail thru Contact Us.” Since then, I’ve gone from e-mailing articles to Feldon to full Author, Contributor, and Editor at EQ2Wire. You may have noticed a few of my articles over the past few weeks. Some of you are probably wondering, who is this Dethdlr person? Allow me to introduce myself. I started playing EQ2 on May 15th, 2005 but it wasn’t until August of 2006...
Leading up to the launch of Game Update 56, there will be a prelude quest “A Vision of Valor” with a storyline leading to the rediscovery of New Halas. When this quest goes live mid-May, before the launch of Game Update 56, you’ll be able to pick it up in one of the home cities. From Domino on the EQ2 Forums: You will find NPCs in North Qeynos (at the temple), West Freeport (near the inn), Neriak (by the entrance), Kelethin (near Bayden Cauldthorn), and Gorowyn (at the dock) have a prelude quest to offer. As this content is...
Game Update 56, or least major chunks of it have been pushed to the Test Server. Already, I and other players have noted that certain textures are missing (especially with Shaders 3.0 enabled), and all housing is currently unavailable (making it impossible to take a peek inside the 2, 4, and 6 bedroom New Halas housing. But what may be more interesting is not what files are missing, but what files are unexpected. Because the Live and Test Servers are just another development branch of EQ2, inevitably, some Expansion and future Game Update/Live Event files get tagged and download...
Lessing (known on EQ2Flames as mafoe) has taken screen snapshots of the FABLED loot offered by the new Vendor being added in Game Update 56. Here are links to these screen snapshots: http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XvWh6xG4qE0/S9LAenf-rcI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/2KuKWlshkgY/EQ2_000868.jpg http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XvWh6xG4qE0/S9LAe1IsMHI/AAAAAAAAAKU/Ttdtjvu6500/EQ2_000869.jpg http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XvWh6xG4qE0/S9LAfTEriRI/AAAAAAAAAKY/MaEJl-oV8RM/EQ2_000870.jpg http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XvWh6xG4qE0/S9LAfsymb7I/AAAAAAAAAKc/HmsbcyoJvm0/EQ2_000871.jpg http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XvWh6xG4qE0/S9LAgXpQbpI/AAAAAAAAAKg/0g0DOHH5GSk/EQ2_000872.jpg
Game Update 56 is looking to be a huge update, with many tweaks and adjustments throughout Norrath. In brief… a substantial Travel Revamp more quests in Stonebrunt Highlands to hopefully fill that level 87-90 solo questing gap a new Storyline feature a new Icy Keep x4 Raid Shaders 3.0 Graphical Revamp Research Assistants can help all your characters Blue PvP Adornments Yellow Adornments on T9 Mastercrafted gear Level 90 Character Traits PvP Warfields new Training Dummy options in your guild hall (solo, group, raid, and AE group) and of course New Halas Also of note, is that a vendor...
Domino has posted some background and lore regarding the new tradeskill society, the Ravens of the North, in New Halas. From the EQ2 Forums:
The focus this week has been on new EQ2 Senior Producer Dave Georgeson, and EQ2 Server Performance, which has been a persistent black cloud over EQ2 for the last 2 months. Test Copy Test Copy is getting some major use as it is where PvP and Battlegrounds changes are tested. Gninja advised us: We will be working out a schedule as to when the test_copy server will be pvp vrs pve. We are working it out now and will get back to you guys shortly. Stuck at Character Select An issue with being stuck at Character Select on Thursday...
From Rothgar on the EQ2 forums: We’ve located the issue that was causing the slow performance last Tuesday. This problem had ZERO to do with battlegrounds but they were taken down as a precaution anyway. I know that battlegrounds tends to get the bad rap because it’s new, but they are not always the cause of problems. In fact, we’ve got the character loading issues under control now so that there are no performance spikes as a result of characters going to and from the BG world. We’ve been making some general performance improvements that will help lower the...
After the widespread outages of the EQ2 servers the night prior, a thread was created on the EQ2 Forums to solicit an explanation from the EQ2 Developers, and/or new EQ2 Senior Producer Dave Georgeson, on the cause, and to seek reassurances that the issues are being identified and on track to be resolved. As they tend to do, the thread branched into speculation on the origins of Dave Georgeson’s forum handle — SmokeJumper. Skywarrior posted his theory: Hmmmm. Smokejumpers are extremely brave (or crazy) and well-trained individuals who jump out of airplanes in order to reach remote areas involved...
From EQ2Players: Greetings Norrathians! Sharpen your swords and repair that armor. There will be bonus AA, Tradeskill, adventure experience (XP) this weekend starting at 3:00pm PDT on Friday, April 23rd until 11:59pm PDT Sunday, April 25th (2:59am EDT). Happy adventuring!