If you have been hoping for an empty lot to build a house from the ground up, that moment has finally arrived, with the Tenebrous Tangle Island Refuge! She’s not much of a looker unadorned, but with a soft item limit of 800, and a hard limit of 1,100 items with both expanders, it will be interesting to see what players come up with. Although there’s been nothing official, we suspect that the Felwithe Mansion will land in the next week or two. From EverQuest2.com: Ready to move on up? The Tenebrous Island Refuge lets you live on your...
Year: 2011
Today’s July 27, 2011 update notes address issues with the Spires and Dragon Ring Events on those servers where the events are still running. This update does not yet include a fix for servers that have already completed the events and those affected players who were present but didn’t get credit due to crashes, not having the right quest, or their mob despawning.
Niami Denmother has turned in another entertaining preview of this year’s Tinkerfest Event. More recipes, more quests, and more house items adorn this perennial favorite. Check out her writeup at EQ2Traders. Tinkerfest 2011 runs July 29th through August 8th.
From the EQ2 Forums: This week on the Jethal Silverwing Show.. Jethal and Elquin either have the show of their dreams, or get their accounts banned for life, as they are joined by Sony Online Entertainment President, John Smedley! Do YOU have a question for The Smed? Leave your question Here and we’ll make sure to get the answer you’re lookin for! Tuesdays at 10pm Eastern, 7pm Pacific As Always, Join us IN GAME by typing /join antonia_bayle.ogr
As borne out in several different threads on the EQ2 Forums, starting with the original Dragon Ring and Wizard Spire Event Feedback Testing thread created on May 15th, all has not gone smoothly during the Spires and Dragon Ring Events. These events are still running on most servers, although the lucrative Spires event has been completed on many. So what were the biggest problems? Let’s spell them out and address them one by one. UPDATE: We have corrected several mistakes from the original version of this article which erroneously attributed the need for x2 Fighter Debuffs to Ulbrow in...
Here are your update notes for July 26, 2011 from the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed a bug that would cause /camp login to sometimes go to character select even if a character was given. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Sullon’s Spire and Tallon’s Stronghold x4 raid zones (NOT challenge mode) Several of the encounters in these zones have been made less powerful so that the challenge from these zones is more in line with the rewards. QUESTS Heritage It should no longer be possible to create a situation where the Head Usher in the Tower of Frozen Shadow cannot be...
Feldon
July 26, 2011 1:38 am
Here’s our fifth video from SOE Fan Faire 2011 “Programming for MMOs”. If you’d like to view the transcript from this panel, check out our Geek Panel: Programming for MMOs writeup. We’ll upload an HD version of this video soon.
Feldon
July 25, 2011 3:33 pm
EverQuest2.com has taken a moment to recognize the MMO and EQ2 Fan Sites which were on the ground covering this year’s 2011 SOE Fan Faire. EQ2Wire.com covered all 7 EQ2-specific panels, plus the MMO ‘Geek’ Panel with EQ2 devs. Coverage of the rest of Fan Faire, including live webcasts, podcasts, the Tournaments, Live Events, and the Costume Contest were covered by a variety of websites. If you missed Fan Faire this year, we’ve got you covered. Because EQII has the best fansites and podcasts around, we have a ton of links to share with you, both from our in-game...
Feldon
July 24, 2011 4:51 pm
Here’s our fourth video from SOE Fan Faire 2011 “EverQuest II: Questions and Answers #1”. If you’d like to view the transcript from this panel, check out our EQ2 Panel #4 – Questions and Answers #1 writeup. We’ll upload an HD version of this video soon.
Feldon
July 24, 2011 4:49 pm
Here’s our third video from SOE Fan Faire 2011 “EverQuest II: Tradeskills and Housing”. If you’d like to view the Slides from this panel in higher quality, check out the updated EQ2 Panel #3 – Tradeskills and Housing writeup. We’ll upload an HD version of this video soon.
We’ll be back tomorrow with a post-game analysis of the Spires and Dragon Ring live events which are now complete on many servers. But in the meantime, here’s a response from EQ2 Associate Producer Domino on the EQ2 Forums: Hi folks The first servers have completed both events, congratulations! And as you’re aware, there were a number of unintended issues that occurred. We’re sorry that this event didn’t run as smoothly as we would have liked, and apologize for your understandable frustration. We didn’t want to postpone this anticipated event any further, especially as we had already planned another...
Butcherblock x4 Spires Raid Just over 17 hours after the Spires and Dragon Ring Rebuilding events were restarted on all servers, the Freeport (EQ2X) server has now completed their Wizard Spire rebuilding. These overachievers now turn their attention to rebuilding their Dragon Ring (already at 69% completion). Not that it’s a competition, but the presumed frontrunner Antonia Bayle server is currently at 97% completion on their Spires. Domino was surprised at the pace of this Live Event: Looks like the first servers are likely to finish the first rebuilding event today (my goodness, some of you are working hard!)
If you’ve had it with mobs ‘warping’ around during fights due to the 5 meter melee range changes introduced with Destiny of Velious and recent attempts to fix it, there’s a thread for that. While I was initially happy to see the minimum melee range on mobs changed from 2 to 5 meters, allowing me to use all my ranged combat arts at melee range, the downside to this sweeping change quickly became apparent. Mobs started dancing around, unable to attack me. Later fixes to try to eliminate the dancing effect made mobs more likely to warp around. With...
The Spires and Dragon Ring Rebuilding events have relaunched, albeit reluctantly on some servers. For servers that had already surpassed 50% progress when the event was taken offline last week (Antonia Bayle and Freeport had reached 99%), they were rolled back to 50% to give other players on the server a chance to complete it. But it looks like this week’s changes to the events may not have done enough. After 12 hours, Antonia Bayle has already reached 69% completion on Spires. So what changes were made to these events while they were offline?
When SmokeJumper unveiled Build Your Own Dungeon at Fan Faire, it took the audience about 0.3 seconds to notice that a key item on the announcement Slide: Players would drive Adventurers or avatars through these Player-built Dungeons, rather than playing their own characters. From the look on SmokeJumper‘s face when he read this line, the collective unrest from the audience was not unexpected. Since the announcement, there has been plenty of discussion on the EQ2 Forums foretelling the feature’s doom, using the abandoned Arena system as an example. Players want to play their own characters in DYOD designed dungeons,...
From Gninja on the EQ2 Forums: The event will be turned back on Friday at 5pm PDT. That’s 8pm EDT, 01:00 BST, 02:00 CET. As previously stated, the events will be reset back to 50% complete per server if they’d reached that point. We’re hoping that the event will run for a few days at least so that players get a chance to participate. While the event is running, there are different quests and events to acquire tokens. Once the event concludes, I believe the only way to get tokens between then and Game Update 61 will be a...
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums: Hmmm…Valor didn’t go off as planned and we got a hitch in our plans for the other US servers. But the upgrades are still coming! Valor should be upgraded next week (in other words, before the end of July). We’re still getting info back from the hardware folks for the remaining US server upgrades, but it shouldn’t be too long after that. More info soon.
Today’s update changs the flag on the new Incandescent Swiftwing (Phoenix Gryphon) to HEIRLOOM, restores the ability to switch accounts without completely closing the EQ2 client (previously ProfitUI users had been using /camp) with a new command /camp login, as well as a couple of other fixes in Zek and Drunder. From the EQ2 Update Notes: GENERAL You can now use “/camp login” to get back to the client login screen. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Temple of Rallos Zek [Challenge] The Idol of Rallos Zek’s falling debris should work normally now. ITEMS The Heirloom tag has been removed from...
The new gryphon mount demoed at Fan Faire during the Art & Animation panel drew a lot of Oohs and Aahs from the crowd. It might be called an Incandescent Swiftwing (will we need to replace it with a Fluorescent model soon? 😉 ) but I’ll always think of this stunning mount as a Phoenix Gryphon. From EverQuest2.com: Take to the skies and light up the night! Only an 85th and higher adventurer or tradeskiller is able to command this fiery gryphon, said to have been created by the experiments of Velketor himself. This mount is Lore, No-Trade and...
From the EQ2 Forums: Gifting has now been reenabled, with a 2 gifts per 24 hours limit. StationCash gifting had previously been disabled due to a resurgence in plat farming and a concern that money laundering might be taking place.
Today’s Update includes numerous tweaks to the harder Velious dungeons, further reducing the difficulty of many zones, as well as the aforementioned reduction in the cost of Velium Shard armor (Ry’Gorr armor is now 25 shards per piece, 20 if crafted). A glitch with Leaper or Glider mounts and pets (especially Coercer pets) has also been resolved.
While we don’t have a definite date when the Dragon Ring and Wizard Spire Rebuilding events will be coming back, there have been a series of updates and questions about them which is worth consolidating into one place. Due to the Spires event running every 30 minutes instead of the planned hourly interval, and some underestimation of players’ desire to participate, the event had been nearly completed on several servers less than 18 hours after it began. Perhaps the availability of Velium Shards on the vendor was a stimulating factor. Either way, the event was suspended and the devs...
Feldon
July 17, 2011 2:35 pm
Here’s another video from SOE Fan Faire 2011, this time “EverQuest II: Questions & Answers #2” which was actually the last EQ2 panel on Saturday. The EQ2 design and development teams were on hand to take player questions during this dedicated Question & Answer session at this year’s Fan Faire event. Yes, I’m posting these videos out-of-order. The Q&A panels required no editing so that’s why they get posted a bit earlier than some others.
If you’ve been thinking of plunking down your hard-earned Velium Shards on Ry’Gorr armor, or burning up stacks of Legendary and Fabled gear from Drunder zones to get enough ore to craft Drunder armor, you may want to wait. Wednesday July 13th’s Test Update Notes included an item we initially overlooked: ITEMS The first two tiers of Velium Shard Armor should now require less Velium Shards. The amount of ore obtained from smelting down a piece of Drunder loot has been doubled. Thurgadin shard armor currently costs anywhere from 33 to 90 shards per-piece when purchased from the vendor,...
Feldon
July 17, 2011 4:52 am
Here’s our second video from SOE Fan Faire 2011 “EverQuest II: Art and Animation”. New this year are Kilts, Animation Retargeting, a New Outfit, and new flying mounts including a Flying Squirrel. If you’d like to view the Slides from this panel in higher quality, check out the updated EQ2 Panel #2 – Art and Animation writeup. We’ll upload an HD version of this video soon.