Feldon
From Domino on the EQ2 Forums: Just wanted to post a quick update since I know folks are looking forward to hearing whose houses we picked, and how. Due to the large number of submissions we couldn’t visit each house in-game, so we looked over all the linked screenshots that Amnerys compiled from the submissions in various places and made a short list of what we thought were the most outstanding houses, which we could then visit in game. There were some really fantastic submissions and it was a great to look through them all!
Month: August 2011
The EQ2 design and mechanics teams have been working nose-to-the-grindstone for at least 2 1/2 months Reitemizing EverQuest 2. That’s every weapon, cloak, charm, piece of jewelry, armor, etc. We’re talking 50,000 items — the sum total of 7 years of overland zones, dungeons, and raid zones. To do so and make no mistakes would be a statistical improbability. On June 24th, the first pass on reitemizing Mastercrafted gear appeared on Test. Silius (who has since moved up from “itemization guy” to Mechanics Lead) expressed appreciation for the bug reports that came in, but then 8 weeks of silence...
In response to a thread about the lack of Battlegrounds activity, SmokeJumper had this surprising comment: We hope to roll out solutions for the [Battlegrounds] matchmaking at the same time as the Dungeon Finder roll out next week (which also uses the matchmaker). If the fixes don’t go in then, they will roll out (very) shortly thereafter!
If you just can’t get enough of Achievements in EQ2, check out Xalmat’s EQ2Achieve.com: EQ2Achieve, your guide to all EverQuest II Achievements, has just returned from a trip to the Test Server with news of all sorts of brand new GU61 related Achievements, including new achievements related to the new House Rating system! For more information, please visit and read my GU61 Achievements Preview.
Niami Denmother has turned in an in-depth preview of Game Update 61, including new House Signs, Tiles, Dividers, Paintings, the new House Rating system, and Furniture. Don’t miss it!
Cyliena of EQ2 ZAM has put in some serious hours documenting tomorrow Thursday’s Game Update 61. If you want the full details of what you can expect in Game Update 61, including walkthroughs, screenshots, and more, we suggest you not miss any of these articles: GU61 Preview: Beastlords Prelude Event GU61 Preview: AA Revamp & New Tradeskill Tree GU61 Preview: Dynamic Dungeons GU61 Preview: Fae and Arasai Take Flight GU61 Preview: Carpenters Get Crafty GU61 Preview: Velious Adventurer Quests
From EverQuest2.com: With the new Legends of Norrath set, Priestess of the Anarachs, scheduled for release Tuesday, August 23, 2011, we knew folks were going to be awfully curious about its contents. In his Producer’s Letter last week, Mark Tuttle previewed the Drachnid Bloodknight and Prestidigitation cards from the upcoming set, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Not only do we have two more of the cards to show off, but we also have a preview of the in-game EverQuest and EverQuest II loot available with this set!
Cronyn, who designed and implemented the Beastlord Prelude Quest, has produced some hilarious MS Paint comic strips in the past, but this is the funniest yet. This was in response to a player request… Cronyn, can those of us who don’t want to go through the whole quest, get one of your legendary MS paint summaries of it?
Dethdlr
With GU61 right around the corner (Tuesday, 23 Aug 2011), SmokeJumper has posted a note on the official forums warning players of some of the changes that will have an immediate impact on players. Read on to see what Smokejumper had to say and our commentary on ways to prepare.
Having used my adornment calculator for a while now, there have been a few times where having the short descriptions in the drop down lists instead of the name of the adornment has been frustrating. Usually, this is when I’m trying to put in what I currently have adorned, rather than starting from scratch. The descriptions work well when you’ve never adorned a particular slot, but there are times when you don’t need them and would rather see the adornment names. For example, if I wanted to send a link to someone that shows my current adornments, I would...
After a growing silence about key parts of Game Update 61, specifically unexpected mechanics and itemization changes in high level gear, Salim “Silius” Grant, EQ2 Mechanics Lead, has stepped up and provided a detailed response to the issues as laid out so well by a determined player, Nevao in a thread entitled May we have a “State of the GU” post? Responses from Silius are in red: Itemization Changes Tier 3 to T8 revamp? Last time I checked there were still reports of items with insanely out of whack stats given the tier (mid-tier items with 40+ weapon skills...
Moments ago, we spoke with Gninja on Test, who has been working hard on spot-checking and fixing any gaps in the Reitemization of level 20-80 items. He’s also been talking to players, examining linked items, and checking bug reports. He also linked some of the loot from Dynamic Dungeons and some higher level items which have gotten new effects. From the EQ2 Forums: If you have specific examples [of itemization issues] please PM them to us. We can take alook at them on a case by case basis. I should also be available on the test server looking for...
It was easy to interpret SmokeJumper‘s suggestion that StationCash purchases could count as “time” towards Veteran Rewards and, taken to its logical conclusion, allow players on EQ2X or even Live to “buy” Veteran time. However this is not what he meant! Here’s a clarification: Veteran subscribers that have been here forever have already received their rewards. That would be a “no” for [taking previous time into account]. We’d only give them “backlog” credits from the last vet reward time to now. But for EQ2X’ers, you’ve never received credit, so you’d get credits as far back as August last year...
For those of you who don’t have 77 minutes to listen to this week’s SOE Podcast, we’ve listened for you and provide details of the “War of Zek-cast”. First, a few bullet points… Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is still expecting 2 entirely new content updates this year, in addition to a number of Bug Bash updates to fix long-standing bugs with the game. Tiffany “Amnerys” Spence, EQ2 Community Manager, is expecting twins and so will be taking some time off from managing the EQ2 forums. Others will step in to tackle this job. The Beastlords Prelude Event launches with...
SmokeJumper mentioned changes to the Veteran Rewards system at Fan Faire and touched on them further today on the EQ2 Forums: I can’t get you a solid ETA yet, but yes, we’ll have a revamp coming. The design is outlined and we’re committed to the concept. Basically, we’ll make a system by which you get a token or credit (or something) every day that you play (for subscribers, including Gold & Plat) and other metrics (for Silver & Bronze folks). Then we’ll create a category of things which are “veteran rewards” that all have costs associated with them. You...
From EverQuest2.com: Join us for the Official SOE Podcast #115 – the “War of Zek-Cast!” Your host, Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske is joined by your co-host Tiffany “Amnerys” Spence. Listen in as they chat about the War of Zek update coming to EQII and reveal the latest Fan Spot Challenge Winner. We’ll also have two interviews for you this Podcast. Linda “Brasse” Carlson chats with Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (returning EQ2 Lead Designer) and Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson (Executive Producer of the EverQuest franchise) first, and then with Kyle “Kander” Vallée and Paul “Cronyn” Molina. Both interviews will cover EverQuest II’s War...
From the EQ2 Forums: Your host Eric “Piestro” Cleaver will be joined by EQII Producer Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson and Lead Programmer Greg “Rothgar” Spence on Thursday, August 18, 2011, at 4:00 PM Pacific, for this week’s webcast on Stickam. They will be talking about EQII’s Game Update 61, The War of Zek, and the new feature that allows players to capture video in-game and upload it to YouTube! Join us on Thursday, August 18, 2011, at 4:00 p.m. US Pacific Time*, as we live stream this webcast on the SOE channel on Stickam! You can also tune in through...
Today’s update is all about taming the difficulty of Zek and other Velious group and raid zones (challenge and normal modes). From the EQ2 Patch Notes: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Sullon’s Spire, Tallon’s Stronghold, and Vallon’s Tower x4 raid zones (NOT challenge mode) Several of the encounters in the zone have been made less powerful so that the challenge from these zones is more in line with the rewards. In particular boss npcs will tend to melee attack for less damage, and many of their aoe spells will also do less damage, as well as be more mitigateable.
As we reach August’s midway point, we are potentially in the “home stretch” on Game Update 61. If internal schedules hold true, we could see the next update pushed to live servers in 2 weeks. This is usually the point where player anxiety levels are highest, as what’s on Test seems incomplete and not ready for prime time. Although it’s a well-worn cycle, the question is always “Will it be ready?” Will 2 weeks of dev crunch time result in a solid Game Update 61? Level 20-80 Reitemization We’d caught hints, but Fan Faire brought confirmation that level 20-80...
From the EQ2 Forums: The Butcherblock server will be offline on Tuesday, August 16, starting at 12:00 AM PDT for an estimated downtime of 24 hours. This maintenance is being completed for server hardware upgrades.
For those who were excited about the Felwithe Manor prestige house teased at Fan Faire, and perhaps have taken a tour on Test, it looks like there’s a wait ahead before they can be purchased. From Amnerys and confirmed by SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums: I’m pretty sure I heard that this will be available sometime within the month or so after GU61 goes live. So I’d say most likely by the end of September. Meanwhile a new style of house has already appeared on Test — a replica of the Court of Blades in the Maj’dul. A thread...
Have you participated in a Plane of War group or raid zone on Test? Care to share some comments/impressions about the zone for inclusion in a future EQ2Wire article? Send us an e-mail or in-game message on Butcherblock.Feldon.
Bunji posted this on August 11th at 5:54pm PDT on the EQ2 Forums: [Everyone having monk AAs] will be fixed tomorrow morning. We couldn’t get the fix in tonight for [because?] the next build includes the house rating system which requires us to update the server databases (needed more time to do the update than normal basically).
Massively’s Larry “Shaddoe” Everett is looking to trial some different MMOs and, perhaps, bring more attention to them. For the next six weeks he’ll be trying out MMOs based on a voting system. Included in his list are EverQuest II and another SOE property: FreeRealms. Choose My Adventure is a chance for Massively readers to guide one member of the writing staff on an adventure in a game of the readers’ choosing. For the next six weeks, I want you to choose my adventure for me. I have tried nearly every major title in the last decade, but I...
Now that some of the dust has settled from Sony Online Entertainment‘s reorganization this spring and with the Denver office (housing Legends of Norrath) consolidation with SOE’s San Diego HQ is complete, Mark Tuttle, Executive Producer for Legends of Norrath, has posted a Producer’s Letter touting the next expansion. We’ve been told to expect ‘smoking hot’ loot, especially if you like mounts and housing.