Feldon
From MattMeyer on the Station forums (also posted on the EQ2 forums): A new version of the LaunchPad 4 (4.0.0.421) has been released with the following updates. EverQuest II Character Select Character Select now works again in the EverQuest II LaunchPad. Characters will be present in the Select a character dropdown that have been logged into game within the last few months and displayed in the order of when they were last played. If the account has no characters on it, or you have no account logged in at all, nothing will be displayed to click on. If you...
Year: 2012
With the upcoming reduction in lockout timers from 18 hours to 90 minutes for Destiny of Velious group zones, players will be searching for the best “bang for the buck” dungeons where they might seek item upgrades. Assuming you have already farmed the Public Quests, specifically Ring War and Storm Gorge, you’ve probably moved on to the Velious Dungeons. Game Update 61 introduced Rare Names which have a 25% chance of spawning after certain conditions are met (usually killing at least one named). Furthermore, the rare loot is shared between the rare names making up a dungeon “group”.
After allusions by EQ2 Senior Producer Holly “Windstalker” to a “very detailed list” of issues and bugs and indications that today’s March update would “answer several of the substantive questions“, EQ2 Community Manager Piestro has revealed EQ2’s March Update Plans which contain many things we’ve heard before, but one interesting surprise: There are lots of activities and events to participate in this month! And while you?re busy playing, the Dev team is preparing for the Game Update 63: Skyshrine launch. We are already playtesting internally and excited about this release. As we write this, development is wrapping up and...
@LempoOfGrobb poked us on Twitter to let us know that EQ2 devs have been combing through some recent threads addressing various long-standing bugs. Regarding the Mistmoore Catacombs: The Silver Knives (and Forks and Spoons presumably!) quests, Prathun said: I’ve modified “Silver Wares” so that the knives are always up, but you can only see them if you’re on the quest. The overeager Kaladim Picklord Ryjeka has continued to give out level 66 items despite being located in a level 30’s zone. Prathun again: Picklord Ryjeka no longer drops level 60 items.
We’ve got some vague results from SOE’s first in-game poll, notable for having only been distributed to North American players. From Piestro on the EQ2 Forums: A big thanks to all of you for participating in the first EQII In-Game Poll and helping us get to know you better! We were very happy with the number of you who took the time to go ahead and answer our poll questions and we’ve spent some time going over the data. So, on to the results! We know that the majority of you are exploring overland areas, doing quests, and playing...
From Piestro on the EQ2 Forums: Details on our end are still being worked on to make the solution a reality. Essentially we are going to resolve the difficulties on our end rather than region lock. See Brasse and Smed’s statements. How we accomplish this will mostly be technical mumbo jumbo that doesn’t mean much unless you are a programmer working at SOE and intimately familiar with how our servers are architected AND how our account management works. Sharing those details would be more confusing and less meaningful than just saying “we’re going to take care of it”. We’ve...
This is TOTALLY off-topic to EQ2 and SOE, but I feel it is worth breaking protocol to do a short article. Today is the last day to clear your Google Search History. In case you aren’t aware, every time you have searched Google over the last few years while an active cookie has been running for Youtube, Gmail, or another Google service, your search terms have been kept, including the keywords, date and time you searched, going back years. Washington Post / Bloomberg | Choosing What You Share with Google | MSNBC
From EverQuest2.com: SOE is running an “Extra Day Extra Station Cash” promotion on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. This offer is valid from 12:01am PST on 2/29/2012 to 11:59pm PST on 2/29/2012 only. The offer is not valid for purchases made by SMS or with pre-paid game cards. Buy $5: Get 600 SC (100 bonus) Buy $10: Get 1,250 SC (250 bonus) Buy $20: Get 2,500 SC (500 bonus) Buy $25: Get 3,250 SC (750 bonus) Buy $50: Get 7,000 SC (2,000 bonus) Buy $100: Get 14,000 SC (4,000 bonus) Visit SOE.com Time Zone Conversions PST: Feb 29 @ 12:01am~Feb...
From EQ2 Senior Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums: Hey Norrathians, It’s been (too) many weeks since you last heard from me. I have been watching the forums and been eager to post as these are very exciting times for us. And here I am. I’ve come up for air! In the past month, I’ve been in the trenches with the team reviewing the state of the game and having loads of meetings about our plans as we move forward. I’m fully absorbed in EQII-ness. As you can imagine, the design and art teams continue to be hard...
Sorry we missed this late announcement. From EverQuest2.com: Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 2:30 AM Pacific* on February 28, 2012. This will impact the following services: Account management will be unavailable starting at 2:30 AM to approximately 8:00 AM Pacific* Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces will be unavailable between 2:30 AM to approximately 8:00 AM Pacific* Forums will be read-only starting at 2:30 AM to approximately 7:00 AM Pacific* Login for our games will be affected from 2:30 AM to 7:00 AM Pacific* (players already logged in should not be impacted) We...
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL The beastlord bar will now use the tooltip delay for hotbars rather than the default tooltip delay. ZONE PROGRESSION / POPULATION Vallon’s Tower [Non-Challenge] Normal Mode Vallon Zek should now drop 2 breastplate patterns. Sullon’s Spire [Non-Challenge] Normal Mode Hragdold the Frenzied should now also drop 2 bracer patterns.
From EverQuest2.com: What’s better than the amazing Dungeon Maker system introduced with Age of Discovery? Cheaper Dungeon Maker items, of course! Whether it’s getting the boss pack of spawners – reduced from 1800 DM (Dungeon Marks) to 150 DM — or one of the many cool Glass Weapons available from 100 to 750 DM, we want to make items purchased with Dungeon Marks more accessible to you! It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a specific consumable or a decorative piece of armor, there is something for everyone available via Dungeon Marks. So starting today, February 27, 2012...
From John Smedley‘s Twitter: We’ve come up with a plan to allow ALL players to play on any servers they want. More details to follow. UPDATE from Zatozia: Hey there! We have a status update on this topic for you. A solution to keep the communities together is now in the works! We’ll be providing more details about the solution with an official announcement a bit later but we wanted to let everyone know that it was coming as soon as we could. Thank you all for your great feedback on this topic. UPDATE from Piestro: Just to elaborate...
This week, we’ve heard things crashing and crumbling down from all directions in the EQ2 community, so it was easy to miss an in-game barrier being shattered. We’re talking of course about the Plane of War! On August 25, 2011, Game Update 61 arrived, bringing with it the challenging Drunder and the War of Zek which rages inside it. It has taken six months for the first raid guild to clear the towers of Sullon, Tallon, and finally Vallon Zek on challenge mode, and thus unlocking the Plane of War on the Antonia Bayle server. We took a moment...
In response to a Change.org Petition which has been making the rounds, and whose 600 signatures were sent to SOE President John Smedley and Mr. Büchtmann at ProSiebenSat.1. In response, SOE President John Smedley had this to say: I think we’ve got it figured out and will announce our plan Monday.
We missed this news on Thursday, but word of Planetside 2 and other SOE games region locking are making it to mainstream media, specifically PCGamer.com: Sony Online Entertainment have announced that the running of many of their games is transferring to German publisher ProSiebenStat.1 Games Group in Europe. Games affected include EverQuest II, DC Universe Online, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, and this year’s Planetside 2. While SOE will continue to manage the European servers for their games, European players will no longer be able to play with friends in the US. The two providers will use...
From EverQuest II’s new Community Manager Eric “Piestro” Cleaver who must surely be having a worse week than many of us: Hey folks, There is something I want to clear up. A lot of people are talking about how the EU servers and players are being “sold off”. And that’s very clearly how many people feel and we can respect that. When we’re discussing feelings that makes total sense. We get that it feels this way to many of you. Unfortunately, as language sometimes does, this has sort of run away with itself. It has all sorts of implications...
From Karen Bryan at Massively: With this week’s news about the ProSiebenSat.1/Alaplaya deal, SOE fans were up in arms, and EverQuest II was at the epicenter of the protest. There were concerns ranging from account security to quality of player support, but the biggest concern was the fact that there would be a barrier between U.S. and European players going forward. I’ve written before about how tight-knit the community is in EQII, and that’s probably why you saw some of the strongest protests originate on the EQII forums. That closeness extends to the EQII development team as well. I’ve...
According to the in-game EQ2 calendar, the Chronoportal Events will be returning March 20th at 8:00am PDT and will run until March 29th 8:59am PDT. The Chronoportal events are a series of instances that are meant as a peek into Norrath’s past, taking players to familiar areas of Norrath 500 years ago. In other words, a celebration of the launch of the original EverQuest. For now, we’re calling this unconfirmed as this would mean the Chronoportal event would start the day Brewday festivities end, and would partly overlap with the Bristlebane event. Tip of the hat to Jeehi.
From Calthine at EQ2 ZAM: Good-bye, Domino! Emily “Domino” Taylor, beloved Associate Producer of EverQuest II, announced on Facebook today that she’s leaving EQII. “… today is my last day on the EQ2 team and it’s been nothing but the best times, the best of co-workers, and the best of players, all of whom I’ll miss ridiculously much,” she posted. Emily is best known for being the Tradeskill Developer who took Norrathian tradeskills from a harvesting and creation grind to a playstyle filled with lore, quests, and rich rewards. She made no mention of what she’ll be doing next.SOE...
From Emily “Domino” Taylor’s twitter: Let it be noted, @domino_eq2 is henceforth known as @pentapod. Same person, new challenges to face on a new game. Much <3 to EQ2 always!
For many, the damage is already done, but here are some updates… From John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment via Twitter: We are working on a plan to insure we don’t split the communities up. More info to follow. From Brasse on the EQ2 Forums: As we approach the weekend, we wanted to share that we are working on a plan to keep our communities together with the ProSieben deal. Again, we thank you for your patience – we’ll provide more information as soon as it is available. From Protagonist, a Manager at Alaplaya, CEO of ProSiebenGames, via...
Eric “Piestro” Cleaver has been named as new EverQuest II Community Manager: Hey Folks, My name is Piestro, and I’m a Halfling. /em waits for the “Hi Piestro.” Some of you may have seen me in an occasional post, Facebook update, or tweet in my role as a member of the SOE Community Team. Previously I was assigned to EverQuest, but it’s my pleasure to announce that I am now taking on the role of EverQuest II Community Relations Manager! So who am I? Well, I’m a long time fan of SOE Games, and an experienced Community Relations professional....
Looks like I’m not the only one who noticed that http://soefanfaire.com/ is now redirecting to http://soe.com/. From Amnerys on the EQ2 Forums: Nope, we haven’t canceled anything, nor are we ready to make any announcements just yet. The site is currently down because we’ve been redesigning a lot of our sites and right now it’s just not live. Don’t fret.
From Ark’s Ark: As you know by now, SOE is selling its European players to a company called ProSiebenSat.1. OK, technically, they’re selling them the exclusive rights to run the games within Europe (including the UK), but that includes all the characters on the European servers, and the details of anyone with a character there. The value of the playerbase has certainly been accounted for in the deal, and so we have been passed like chattels to a new master. So who are they, these folks that we suddenly find in control? ProSiebenSat.1 is a German media conglomerate. Their...