Feldon
From Zoltaroth: We are bringing up BB shortly, once it is up QA will be doing their testing so if that goes well it should be open in a few hours. Permafrost is waiting on Chat server meges to complete we expect about 3pm for that to be done.
Month: December 2010
Here’s our latest update from Rothgar: Both merges are still on track and actually running a little ahead of schedule. However, we can’t start QA until we have the chat merge done. I’ll be out of the office soon so I’ll see if Zoltaroth can keep you guys updated.
Dethdlr
Looking for something to do while the servers are being merged? Check out Rothgar’s Christmas Lights! Today he added “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. Watch the new one and the original four videos in the original article posted here.
From Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums: The merges are still going fine. The chat/mail portion of the merge is a little behind schedule unfortunately so chat may be down longer than expected. I’ll try to provide an ETA later today.
From Rothgar: Update: So far everything is still on schedule. Chat is due to come down in about an hour so we can move mail and friends lists.
The Kithicor/Butcherblock and Mistmoore/Permafrost Server Merges are now underway and you may be wondering if these mergers will lead to more zone lag when the Destiny of Velious expansion launches. Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums: The existing hardware should handle it fine. The merges will actually improve the performance by consolidating zones and making the hardware more efficient. There’s still the possibility of some lag because most of the population will congregate in the new zones, but we will do our best to adjust population limits to keep lag to a minimum. With the last expansion we had issues...
If you are finding yourself at the Character Select screen with duplicate characters or characters still indicating they exist on a server which has been merged, Rothgar offers this advice: There’s a file on your hard drive that keeps a cache of your characters so the client doesn’t have to query the server each time. If you delete your “cache” and “logincache” directories, it should clean them up.
Believe it or not SmokeJumper posted a bit about Game Update 60, which will be anywhere from 1-3 months after the Destiny of Velious expansion launches. It’s expected to have some Battlegrounds and PvP tweaks. His post also talks about EQ2X marketing and EQ2X PvP servers: Answers (but you might not like them): 1) We haven’t started spending marketing cash for Extended yet. That’s slated for January. The reason I bring that up is until we bring more people into Extended, we have no plans to open up a PvP server because too many servers dilutes the population and...
From Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums: I just wanted to post another update and post-mortem for the Unrest merge explaining a few of the issues that occurred.
There’s a double station cash weekend happening from 17-19 December 2010. Looks like finally, for the first time, those outside the US will also be able to take advantage of this: We’re having a Double Station Cash weekend! For the first time ever and for a limited time only, Double Station Cash will be available across all top up amounts and for most payment methods*. Stock up now for double the fun! Offer valid 12/17/10 through 12/19/10. Eligible purchases include those made with credit/debit card, PayPal or pre-paid game cards. Exact start time of promotion on 12/17/10 to be...
If you have been paying for EQ2 with 30-day subscription cards rather than keeping a credit card on file at SOE, you were probably surprised to find that you might not get the December, January, and February rewards. Fortunately, Amnerys has jumped on this issue before it got too far out of hand and gotten this response: Hey everyone! Checking in to clear up a few questions about today’s rewards. 1. Everyone who is actively subscribed and in good standing will be getting the rewards, including folks who pay with game cards. 2. We just started running the process...
SmokeJumper has posted a message regarding Server Merges: Hey, folks, We’ve been posting information about the downtimes, and Rothgar has been pretty cool about talking about the issues and such, but we haven’t made an official posting. So here goes: 1) The pain is short-term. The merges are being done to make the EQII Live gaming experiences better. I think most folks agree that higher populations make better gaming, so we’re doing the merges for that reason. And we’re working hard to get most of them done *before* the holiday break.
Here are your hotfix notes for December 15 2010: LIVE EVENTS Frostfell Tuwasp bixies in Greater Faydark are now the target for the level 5, Kelethin version of Gh’lad Tydingz’s quest, “A Gigglegibber’s work is never done.” Grikbar scamps in Steamfont Mountains should once again advance the level 35, Kelethin version of Gh’lad Tydingz’s quest, “A Gigglegibber’s work is never done.”
From EverQuest2.com: On Wednesday, December 15, qualifying EQII and EQ2X accounts who have met the requirements for Velious Winter Rewards will find a new bag in their /claim window which contains two new items; a Coldain Butler and a Scars of Velious in-game painting. Photos and Details after the jump.
Update: Unrest is now online! Unrest is undergoing final testing after a followup 1 hour maintenance was required beyond the Server Merge to fix some broker and other issues. Once it’s back up, we hope Rothgar and Zoltaroth will drive safe and get some sleep (I recommend blackout curtains, they’re a staple here in Denmark) and we’ll see you back in a few hours for 2 more mergers. 
Tonight, Kithicor, Butcherblock, Mistmoore, and Permafrost all go under the Server Merge knife, so this means all servers will experience some loss of Chat functionality, in-game Mail, and Friends lists. On the Najena -> Unrest merge, this worked out to about 12 hours, so we expect that tomorrow, there will be 12-14 hours of these features being unavailable on ALL servers during the heart of the merge window.
Unrest returned after its Server Merge, but some additional fixes are required (regarding a Broker bug), so the server is down now to apply those fixes. In the mean time Zoltaroth is in the EQ2 Chat.
If you are on Splitpaw or Runnyeye, Innovation or Valor, Rothgar has provided the reasoning for why your server merges are delayed until after the new year: The EU servers need database upgrades and these have to happen before we do the merge. [Further] we take holidays here in the U.S. too and many people will be gone starting next week. We have a company wide “freeze” near the end of December where we don’t do any major maintenance or hardware work so as not to risk outtages for the holiday when people are on vacation. We’re already pushing...
Rothgar has posted some issues regarding Keymapping, Guild Hall Beacons (call of Guild Hall) and housing and guild halls to be aware of once the servers come back up.
If you played EQ1 and are familiar with Magelo, you’ve probably been clamoring for SOE to let us outsource the whole EQ2Players/EverQuest2.com data stream to fan sites who will put in the hours to produce accurate, powerful search engines for the EQ2 data stream. If you have, or are just tired of EQ2Players and want to see something new, this news from Zoltaroth should brighten your day: The current [data] feeds server can generate XML, YML and JSON for consumption. It isn’t quite ready for prime-time yet but it is getting really close.
Updated 3:15pm PST. And um, again today. Subject to change, yadda yadda, here’s the updated U.S. Server Merge Schedule and a note about European Server Merges. From Rothgar: Tonight will complete the second merge of U.S. servers leaving us with 4 remaining merges to perform (8 servers). During the next two merge windows we will be performing two merges at a time. Najena -> Unrest – IN PROGRESS on Dec 14, 2010 Mistmoore -> Permafrost – Dec 15, 2010 at 10:00pm PST (Dec. 16 06:00 GMT) Kithicor -> Butcherblock – Dec 15, 2010 at 11:59pm PST (Dec. 16 07:59...
Rothgar has posted the following update on the Najena -> Unrest Server Merge so far to include info on worldwide chat: Update: The merge process is moving along and still on schedule. Nothing interesting to report, so I guess that’s good. The chat system has been brought down as you’ve probably noticed. This is because we are moving all universal chat data for Najena characters to the new server, Unrest. As soon as this process is complete, we’ll bring chat back up for everyone. So it looks like chat may not be down for the entire time of each...
Last night, a new video of the Ice Wolf Mount reward as part of the Velious Winter Rewards coming in February was posted. For some reason, the video is hosted by Facebook and initially required a Facebook account to view it, but this has been remedied. Remember, the Ice Wolf Mount will be one per account and requires an active subscription for December 14, January 17, and February 8, and that you purchase Destiny of Velious sometime between when it becomes available and December 31, 2011. Fan Faire Update: Those who went to Fan Faire and get the expansions...
Rothgar has been providing updates on the EQ2 Forums: Aaaaaand, we’re off!
So you may remember that Racial Traits/Traditions were nerfed adjusted in Game Update 53 to remove all uniqueness, including all offensive buffs and abilities such as Ratonga bite and Sarnak fire breathing. From Frizznik: Offensive buffs have been removed. We did this to help balance races better against each other. It seems this ‘balance’ applies to only free races. Left out of the initial version of the The Freeblood: More Information and Images announcement on EverQuest2.com was this Racial Trait: Another Racial Trait, “Bloodletting,” grants a minor Lifetap spell to occasionally drain health from targeted enemies. Do you think...