Feldon
The first five level-agnostic dungeons, open to level 20-89 players, as well as the availability of Grandmaster spells at all levels and tiers, is expected this Thursday. Racheal “Afista“ has posted an in-depth preview of what we can expect on the EQ2 Forums: We’re excited about Level Agnostic Dungeons and Grandmaster Spells coming to EverQuest 2 on Thursday, October 2, 2014! So what exactly are these dungeons and why should you check them out? Level Agnostic Dungeons Level Agnostic Dungeons are instances in which characters between levels 20-89 have a chance to group together, regardless of the difference in their...
Month: September 2014
Over the last couple of days, players have noticed their game client taking screenshots of certain Achievements and other in-game activities. It looks like this was an in-development feature which slipped to live a bit prematurely. From Dave “Maevianiu” Kish on the EQ2 Forums: Oh snap! This one is my fault. It got “pulled along for the ride” with the performance increases. It wasn’t ready for live and I’m personally sorry for this one. This feature isn’t finished yet, so I’ll be turning it off with the next hotfix. I am very sorry for it sneaking out like this,...
From the EQ2 Forums: Attention players: we will perform maintenance beginning at 7:00 AM PDT* on Thursday, September 25, 2014. We expect this maintenance to last about two hours. This will impact the following SOE services: Game servers may sporadically lose connection across all games Commerce functions, including purchases for all games Game, web and forum logins for all games Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance. Time Zone Conversions PDT: September 25 @ 7:00am ~ 9:00am EDT: September 25 @ 9:00am ~ 11:00am BST: September 25 @ 15:00 ~ 17:00 CET: September 25 @ 18:00 ~ 19:00 AEST:...
Performance This Tuesday’s update to EQ2 included quite a few tweaks to the EQ2 game client which have produced a substantial upgrade in framerates and overall performance for many players including myself. I have to give a round of applause to Dave “Maevianiu” Kish and others on the EQ2 code side who have worked the last few months to get these changes done. I was personally able to bump up one quality setting and my framerate still increased from 20’s to a steady 45-50. So… There are a few players who have been hung up on these changes though....
It’s time for another zone preview from this fall’s expansion Altar of Malice, this time the overland Phantom Sea. From Nathan “Kaitheel“ on the EQ2 Forums: Unswayed in their quest to find Captain Greymast, the heroes sent by the Overlord of Freeport and by the benevolent Queen of Qeynos, arrive in the Phantom Sea, a body of water peppered with mysterious islands that have not been seen by eyes outside of the Far Seas Trading Company since the Age of Cataclysms. The island of North Dshinn shares a great many commonalities with its southern sister in Tranquil Sea, but...
From the EQ2 Forums: PERFORMANCE UPDATES We don’t want to get into too much detail, but overall we updated some very old libraries to bring EQII up to date. We also updated memory management, fixed some memory leaks as a result, and made some other code changes that look to be improving server performance. Here’re a few notes to give you a bit more detail: Improved client performance on maximum settings. Additionally, altered the “Extreme Quality” defaults to look and run better on higher end machines. This means that non-raiders who do quests, decorate houses, heroic dungeons (without oceans...
From Racheal “Afista” on the EQ2 Forums: We are excited to announce that the game update on September 23rd will include code updates to improve performance on servers as well as player clients! What does this round of updates hold in store for you? These changes will help game performance, whether you enjoy adventuring, tradeskilling, or decorating. Improved Graphical Performance Improved client performance on maximum settings, including “Extreme Quality” Utilized SSE and SSE2 instruction sets Improved how the Welcome window is sent to clients Improved Functionality Improved how the server calculates stats during combat (more to come!) Several improvements...
From master of live events and senior designer Nathan “Kaitheel“, we have our first zone preview for the upcoming Altar of Malice expansion. And before anyone asks, this is NOT repurposed zone geometry, but an entirely new continent developed with the new Terrain Tool. Long had the Far Seas Trading Company provided Norrath’s displaced citizens a place of refuge, an island where they found respite from the chaos of the Shattered Seas, before being transported to the last great cities of Freeport and Qeynos. But strange tidings came and without another word, the seafaring merchants stopped honoring the Pact...
Sometimes life comes at you fast! On September 10th, Linda “Brasse” Carlson posted a remote position opening to work on EQ and EQ2 Community in a very public support role (through a contractor). On the 15th she announced that Racheal “Afista“, well known to crafters and decorators in the EQ2 world for her EQ2DesignGallery.com site and involvement in the EQ2 forums, as well as part-time writer for EQ2 ZAM, had gotten the position. Today, she introduced herself on the EQ2 Forums: Fellow Norrathians, I’m Racheal “Afista” McKenny and I’ll be joining the SOE Community Team working with EQII. Some...
Dethdlr
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale announced today on twitter: We’re going to have a Double XP weekend for members this Friday at noon to Sunday midnight PDT! Wee! Update: Windstalker confirmed that this is for Adventure and Tradeskill, but not Guild XP. Time Zone Conversions PDT: Friday, Sep 19 @ Noon ~ Sun, Sep 21 @ 11:59pm (+ 1 minute) EDT: Friday, Sep 19 @3:00pm ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 2:59am BST: Friday, Sep 19 @20:00 ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 7:59 CET: Friday, Sep 19 @21:00 ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 8:59 AEST: Saturday, Sep 20 @ 5:00am ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 4:59pm
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL [WEEKLY FEATURE – Ed.] All Access Members can now access the Broker almost anywhere. In the EQII menu, select the “Broker” option, or use the /start_broker_anywhere command. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION High Keep: The Bloodless Incursion [Contested] Grulk’s Toxic Submission no longer drains noxious resistance, but instead causes Poisoned Marrow to inflict greater damage. ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT Summoner Minions Translocation can no longer be cast while under the effects of Carnage Shield. ITEMS Totem of the Succulent may now only trigger once a second and has increased damage and healing. BATTLEGROUNDS Balance of Theer...
Wow has it been 3 weeks since SOE Live 2014? I’m hopelessly behind on getting all my post-con stuff done, but Dellmon and Osgz have saddled up and recorded another episode of the best (wait, isn’t it the only?) EQ2 podcast! From EQ2Talk: Episode #77 – What Happens in Vegas recorded on Aug 30 Dellmon and Osgz’s lives are finally returning to normal after SOE Live 2014. With Dell’s on the ground experiences and Oz’s perspectives via Twitch, there is much to discuss. From zombie prom to tournament play to Fippy and a schwag bag, your EQ2 Talk hosts...
If you’ve never heard of Extra Credits, it’s a semi-weekly show by game designer James Portnow and animator/narrator Daniel Floyd, with various guest artists providing the sometimes comical artwork. The series of videos discuss issues pertinent to video games and game studies, particularly discussing issues concerning video game development, addressing the legitimacy of video games as art, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in gaming culture. We try to watch it every week, and we have a sneaking suspicion the EQNext and Landmark teams do as well, as a lot of the concepts they talk about are raised on the...
EQ2Wire will be liveblogging EQ2 Insider Episode #4, which as it turns out will be Maggie “Luperza” Krohn‘s last episode as she has taken a position at Curse.com. You can watch EverQuest II Insider #4 at Twitch right now. This was a live blog of today’s EQ2 Insider Episode #4. Talking about SOE Live and how positive and fun it was. Talking about updates later this year. Kander encouraging people to play Altar of Malice beta as players will earn very nice rewards on Live for their efforts on Beta. Nathan (Kaitheel) will be talking today about Altar of Malice...
As long last we’ve resumed posting videos recorded from SOE Live 2014. After this, we’ve still got the EQ2 Art & Animation panel, as well as three player panels and the Player Studio panel. Oy vey! This was the last panel at SOE Live 2014 for EverQuest II — Questions & Answers #2. Due to room acoustics, this recording took an inordinate amount of time to edit and normalize. Fortunately, Audio quality improves around the 3 minute mark when questions begin.
Forgive us if we have whiplash, as for the third time this year, EverQuest II has been assigned a new community manager. From Maggie “Luperza” Krohn on the EQ2 Forums: Norrathians, We’ve had a short but sweet journey together. Although I’ve been a player in this community for a long time, it’s been wonderful being your Community Manager for the last few months. I am proud of the contributions we have made together in this community, and remain inspired by the passion you all bring to the game with your feedback. We created a new web show series, EverQuest II...
From the EQ2 Forums: PvP / BATTLEGROUNDS All pvp rewards have been doubled. Balance of Theer will no longer grant victory points while dead. Because the EQ2 devs don’t want us doing this…
From the EQ2 Forums: WEEKLY FEATURE Balance of Theer [PvP] battleground! A 6v6 deathmatch zone that is set on Roehn Theer’s platform. GENERAL Options to invite a guild member to a party, a raid, or gossip with them via tells about that healer that keeps forgetting to cure detrimentals are now available via the context menu in the Members list of the Guild window. Resolved an issue where certain wards did not properly display the amount of damage warded in the effects list of their description tooltips and examine windows. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION The Fabled Deathtoll Several minor...
There was a time when SOE kept this kind of information under their hats, but for the last six months, the Player Studio folks have been posting top 10 lists of the most popular items purchased in the EverQuest II Marketplace. What I like about Player Studio is, players get to design things and see them added to their favorite game, while other players get to give feedback to those players and ask for which items they want next! There’s a forum just for Player Studio designers to collaborate and help each other to solve problems and get items up...
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums: Greetings Norrathians, We’re all charged up and busy after a great time at SOE Live! The team is hunkered down and focused on the expansion, fixes, and updates on the schedule. Here are some details! When is the EverQuest II: Altar of Malice Beta? On Oct. 7 we will launch Limited Beta for All Access members. Most of the content will be focused on the Overlands and level increase content. We need your support! Oct. 14 will be Open Beta for everyone. We’d love you to come check out the content and help...
From the EQ2 Forums: EVERYONE can enjoy double status this weekend from Friday, September 5th, 2014 at 12:00 PM Noon PDT, until Sunday, September 7th, 2014 at 11:59 PM PDT! Don’t forget to send us screenshots of your adventures on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus! *This event doubles the base status earned by defeating encounters, or rewarded from quests. Guild status is rewarded from that base amount, so yes it is in effect doubled.
I think these days, most players don’t consider their characters complete, competitive, or at least capable until they have upgraded a significant number of their combat arts or spells to Master level. It was not always so… Are We Entitled to Masters? It may be hard to remember, but there was a time before the Research tab and before Research Assistants when the only way to get Master spells was to defeat enemies. At launch, Masters were unbelievably rare and only dropped from Epic names. Over the years, they have trickled down to Epic trash, then to Heroic bosses. At...
It seems like every year, I sit down to write a post-mortem on SOE Live, and every year I get about halfway through it, realize I’ve probably said too much, or what I say will be interpreted as an attack on SOE, and so I give up. I’ve rewritten and almost deleted this a dozen times in the last two weeks, but at this point, I feel like I should post SOMETHING. Leaving Las Vegas So the panels are long since done, the computers have been neatly packed away, the last goodbyes have been said, and I’m once again...
As recently as this morning, episode #4 of the popular EQ2 Insider livecast was still on track for tomorrow, however it looks like it’s been bumped to next Wednesday. From the EQ2 Forums: BTW! This is now scheduled for 9/10/2014.
Time for our Tuesday Wednesday update notes from the EQ2 Forums. If you were following EQ2Wire, you already filled every slot of your bank with 2 copper shinies to sell for status. For everyone else — this is why you can’t find cheap shinies on the broker… WEEKLY FEATURE Collection items and adornments now sell for status to specific status merchants! POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Edifice Members of the Aerakyn Commanders ring event have had their health lowered.