Feldon 
Ahead of schedule, the EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity Public Beta is NOW OPEN!
How Do I Get to Beta?
Unlike past betas, there is no Non-Disclosure Agreement to accept, and no separate Beta launcher to run. To access the Chains of Eternity, simply close and reopen your EverQuest II Launcher, click on the Version link in the top left corner (US English for US players), switch the region to “Beta“, click Apply, and let the patching begin!
Beta Copy is 1000% better from how it has been handled in past expansion Betas. Instead of typing /beta and hoping that an hour or two from now, your character will miraculously appear on Beta, the /beta command now takes between 10 and 15 SECONDS to copy your character over.
After the jump, a detailed pictoral of how to do these steps, and some useful time-saving info…
Step-by-Step Getting Into Beta
1. If your EverQuest II launcher is running, close and reopen it.
2. Click the Version link in the top left corrner (US English for US players).
Change the Game Version to “Beta” and click “Apply”.
If you want, you can wait 12-16 hours for the entire EverQuest II game to be redownloaded…
If that sounds like a bad idea to you, then locate your EverQuest II folder (you can click the “Open Game Directory” button in the Launcher).
REGULAR: Ctrl-click on your music and paks folders, and then Ctrl-drag (Copy not Move) them to the new BetaServer folder. This will shave your patching time down to about 15-20 minutes.
STREAMING: Ctrl-click on your assetcache folder, and then Ctrl-drag (Copy not Move) it to the new BetaServer folder. This will shave your patching time down to about 15-20 minutes.
CAUTION: Do not copy the entire EverQuest II folder into your BetaServer folder. There are a number of UI changes in Chains of Eternity (the devs really do try to keep this to a minimum!) For now, you will want to use the default UI until mod authors of ProfitUI, Drums, Fetish, and so on can update their scripts.
NOTE: You do not need to open the two windows side-by-side as I have done them above. You can just ctrl-drag the two folder(s) into the BetaServer folder all in one window.
You should feel confident clicking “Replace” wherever necessary to overwrite any files which may already be present.
Once the copy is complete, switch back to the Launcher and wait 15-20 minutes for patching to complete. You should then be able to Play!!
NOTE: Another issue people are having with crashes can be fixed by deleting your EverQuest II\Launchpad.libs file.
NOTE: If EQ2 Beta crashes immediately after launching, go to your main EQ2 directory and copy the D3DCompiler_43.dll and D3DX9_43.dll files to your BetaServer folder.
What about Beta Copies?
Beta Copies use a totally rewritten mechanism this year. In short, when you type /beta on your live character, your character is copied over in as little as 5-10 SECONDS. This is something written by Ken “Terrogaunt” Roecks who has been adding some serious kick butt features to EQ2 lately.
If you login to Beta and do not see your copied characters, please go to the Character Select screen, create a new character, and then you should see your copied characters.
There have been a number of changes in how name conflicts are handled. In the past, if you copied the same character over 4 times, you’d have Feldon, Feldonx, Feldonxx, and Feldonxxx. Stay tuned to the Beta forums for further details.
Where are the Beta Forums?
Speaking of the Beta forums, they are located here!
Read through Ahma‘s Beta Info post too!
For some reason, my eq2 directory does not match this. I do not have a “paks” or “music” folder. It appears most game content in my directory is in “assetcache”, as it’s over 14gb in size. This is what I copied to my beta folder.
Followed the directions but found that the music and paks folders were not present in my EQ 2 folder. Would the fact I’m running Windows 7 have anything to do with it?
/beta copy does not appear to be working. I tried it 5 times now and over the course of 20 minutes there hasn’t been any appearance of my characters.
It’s just /beta now.
Nevermind. Zoned to character select and found a beta copy button!
Hmm it seems to keep crashing every time I hit play. Seems like it’s attempt to load a full screen version on a dual screen system is causing some problems 🙁
For those who don’t have a Paks or Music folder, you are set to streaming. So you need to follow those directions above.
ok, i dont have a betaserver folder in my directory, what do i do now?
Gonna try it. I’ll be surprised if it lets me into the server, considering past betas were closed invite only then on the final week it went public. I hope they broke out of that mold this time. Accessibility = more testing.
I ran this all as stated, beta copied my toon hours ago from in game (/beta) but nothing. All I had when I arrived into beta was the “welcome and make a new char” screen. No sign of my main anywhere. I even did what was suggested to make the toon appear and nothing. Ah well, guess I’ll go in tomorrow, but a head’s up that they may have a problem with getting chars in.
I ran all as stated too, no luck,,, $OE crap again, if beta starts this bad.. what will the expac be for us… enough said
Another easy way, if you already have a TestServer folder, just rename it to BetaServer. I only deleted my UI folder since I had custom stuff that might not work with CoE. Patched the beta in no time. 🙂
when you open your eq2 directory open it form the patcher as you can see in one of the pictures above. under the “advanced settings” you’ll see the option for “open game directory” and your music and paks folders will be there
Getting in was no problem, that went without a hitch. I even have a bit of Profit UI from game (helps to have the guy who maintains it now as a roommate:D). What I don’t have is my Paladin or my Warden that I beta copied over as stated. Yeah, I could restart one and have a beta buffed one sitting there, but I’d rather have my mains.
NOT a promising start… they sure were confident of the “quick” /beta copy this time… HA
Terrogaunt mentioned that the copy system crashed soon after beta went live, and that it won’t be back up until they can patch the server, so check back tomorrow.
Quick tips:
Everybody in need of a level 91 guild (well, it was 98% towards 91 last night) can shoot a tell to a Heroes of Test officer or ask in channel for a HoT invite. Everybody with member rank can invite to the guild (/guild invite ).
Cloudrat set up a portal house in Small Homes category on leaderboards for easy access to your guild hall if you’re lacking the “call to guild” ability.
Buffers are in starter zones (at least Lyndro spawned one in Halas yesterday). They sell beta buffing baubles. I bought thousands and set some up on the broker, others are in HoT guild bank 1 and HoT Guild bank 4 (officers only for that one, it’s in case the other ones are plundered). Please, do not buy hundreds of them, it is useless. Just buy a couple or hit a buffer.
To reach the new zones, there’s a portal near the Feerrott Wizard Spires.
Still waiting for character copy to work.
If EQ2 Launchpad breaks, delete the EverQuest II\Launchpad.libs file.
I see a bunch of the Baubles on the broker for Hundreds of Plat. Its kinda sad. I can’t test much since I am still in level 1 gear. I am about to do the WL questline to get some decent gear
i also have the same problem i got the music but no paks folder did i do something wrong?
Thanks Feldon for the detailed steps.
Is there a copy delay between EU servers and Beta? Since I used both the copy button and the in-game command (/beta) on 2 different toons and I created a brand new char but still nothing after 30 mins.
The “beta copy” tool seems to be breaking. It was thoroughly tested on Test, but I assume it has troubles handling the load of copy requests.
They said they mailed beta baubles to players, so it should help with the problems of buffers unspawning and jerks buying every bauble around (somebody bought 102 off my broker) or selling them for a bazillion of worthless plats.
I wonder … is 11/13 still a viable target?
11/13 as in “November of 2013”? Possibly. =D
I allowed the client to do its own work, and now when i try to play on the beta side the client keeps crashing….any info?
Probably missing the four D3D DirectX DLL files. Copy them from your live to BetaServer folder.
wondering if UI Copys over as well .. whats it .. the Individual Char.ini?
i forget where that stuffs located .. and or if it will cause a conflict. Always hate going into beta and all Keymaps and UI SETTINGS Are buggered out, and i twitch em for like 4 hours and go to bed having done nothing.