EQ2 Producer Letter: What’s to Come for Sept to Nov!
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 us make sure it’s good, clean fun.
When is Altar of Malice Launch?
The expansion launch for All Access members will be on Nov. 11, just a few days after we celebrate our 10th anniversary!
On Nov. 25, the expansion will be available to everyone.
When can I buy the expansion?
It’s a bit different this year as we aren’t having a pre-order period. If you are an All Access member, you can buy and play the expansion on Nov. 11.
If you’re not a member, you can purchase it on Nov. 25 and gain access to the expansion.
Prices haven’t been determined yet, but we’ll let you know soon!
What is included in the expansion?
Here’s the overview:
· Level 95-100 Adventurer and Tradeskill levels
· Level 95-100 Adventurer and Tradeskill Prestige Abilities
· Level 95-100 Grandmaster spells/combat arts
· Rare Ancient Spell scrolls to Level 100
· Over 100 quests
· Level 95-100 Tradeskill quests
· New Tradeskill Recipes
· Lots and lots of loot!
· 14 heroic zones
· 6 raid zones
· 6 advanced solo zones
· 2 Contested zones
· 2 Overlands
· 4 new Avatars of the Gods raidsWhat isn’t included in the expansion?
The new player race — the Aerakyn — is what we call a “live” feature and not included in the expansion. Everyone can access the new race on Nov. 11. Like the Freeblood race, it is a separate purchase. We aren’t settled on the pricing yet, but we’ll share that info as soon as it’s available. The Aerakyn player race comes with built-in wings that become a flying mount at level 85 as well as custom wing-attack animations too!
Guild Level 100 is another live feature that’s available to everyone which will come with upgraded amenities.
Will there be a Collector’s Edition?
Yep, we are working on the awesome stuff we want to package together right now to make it memorable and special.
What’s coming in the Update schedule?!
Here’s the schedule we have at the moment. During late September through November, we’ll be adjusting our weekly content update schedule with a few breaks so we can focus on the expansion beta and launch:
· September
o Sept 9: PvP Deathmatch Zone: Balance of Theero Sept 16: Broker anywhere for All Access memberso Sept 23: Performance Updates. This includes code updates that have shown performance improvements in the player clients and servers. (For details, see Dave “Maevianiu” Kish’s and Douglas “Endymion” VanDerveer’s posts in the Beta Server Updates thread: https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php?threads/beta-server-updates.550828/#post-6096895)o Sept. 30: 5 Level-Agnostic Dungeons & Grandmasters released!· October
o Oct. 1: Friends and Family Betao Oct. 7: All Access Beta Beginso Oct. 9: Nights of the Dead beginso Oct. 14: Open Beta beginso Oct. 21: Send/Receive email attachments anywhere (All Access Only)· November
o Nov. 7: Heroes’ Festival launcho Nov. 8: EverQuest II’s 10th Anniversary!o Nov. 9: Tenth Anniversary Veteran Reward: Isle of Refuge Prestige homeo Nov. 11: Altar of Malice Expansion Launch for All Access memberso Nov. 25: Altar of Malice Expansion Launch for allLots of stuff coming! We’ll be sharing more details as we go along too, from expansion lore to feature details in articles and EQ2 Insider.
We can’t wait to see you in game!
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Comments (16)
Xaaria
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So we’re gonna get 85-95 grandmaster spells/combat arts as well on Sep. 30?
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danejasho
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Not clear to me if the Aerakyn race will be “free” to All Access subscribers.
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uncle
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i think itll be like free blood and you’ll have to pay for them
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badcat
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I remember freeblood was given out to us members who had a paid subscription i think in either November or December as part of Velious winter rewards. However everybody else had to buy it.
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Sisca
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Yes, it was part of the Velious Winter Rewards for February 2011. You had to have been gold or better for December & January as well as purchase and activate the DoV expansion to get the Freeblood for “free”. Otherwise it was 2000 SC.
Just being a paid subscriber wasn’t enough you had to purchase the expansion.
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Noluk
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The new player race — the Aerakyn — is what we call a “live” feature and not included in the expansion. Everyone can access the new race on Nov. 11. Like the Freeblood race, it is a separate purchase. We aren’t settled on the pricing yet, but we’ll share that info as soon as it’s available.
So..no it will not be free to anyone.
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Kruzzen
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Not sure I like this. always pre-order to get the discount. 🙁
It’s a bit different this year as we aren’t having a pre-order period.
And since the price of the collectors edition is stupid high after the preorder.
🙁
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Feldon
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We dont know how much the collector’s edition will cost — hopefully not $90.
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Zzzz'z
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No pre-roder. No mention of x-pac cost. If it is anything like the Labor Day Sale that means a BIG increase in cost. 🙁
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Moose
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I normally preorder the collectors edition and now.. Well it looks like just normal at this time.
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badcat
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if the only difference is gong to be the playable race, then no I will not order it. I kind of thought wow they have no clue of what to put in the pre-order. Tell’s me that marketing has really blown it this time.
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Striinger
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Start saving now and they’ll likely have some purchase incentives.
Can anyone confirm that SOE live attendees get the expac (for certain)? I assumed but you know how the saying goes. 🙂
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Jeehi
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Striinger, yes we do. There has been no word yet though on a collectors upgrade to it though.
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Feldon
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It was in the letter we got with badges. It was on the soelive website.
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Jeehi
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Let me clarify that ,those with the premium passes to SOE Live get the standard edition; the day and night passes do not.
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Oxymorphone
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Will they fix Inquisitors’ reactive heals. I feel so useless.
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