Feldon
Game Update 60 has finally reached Test and there is a lot of content here, including 3 new heroic dungeons, 3 new x4 raid zones, and a new x2 raid zone, a new Battleground, as well as major changes to PvP. Also look out for several changes and tweaks to classes, as well as a hard-to-miss huge nerf to Dirges, with Chimes/Cacophony of Blades no longer interrupting. “The Children of War” The Fortress of Drunder has emptied of Rallos Zek and his armies as they pass into the Plane of War to prepare for their eventual march on the...
Feldon
There are going to be a lot of questions about how the new Multi-Housing works in EQ2, so I suggest reading the extensive FAQ posted on EverQuest2.com about it. South Qeynos Prestige Home Access
One concern about the Neriak Opera House prestige house on Test was that the stage did not have any stairs to reach it, requiring feather fall or other floating to reach it. Also, the seats of the theater were oddly shaped, possibly trapping players. Haohmaru has checked in a fix (and provided a screenshot): We have added stairs to each end of the stage. Hopefully we can update your homes before GU60, if possible. We also fixed an odd issue with the lips on each seating rung. You could get stuck under the small overhang for no apparent reason.
From EverQuest2.com: Time is running out to register for Fan Faire 2011 at the early bird price of $119.00 US! All-Access passes to the expanded SOE Fan Faire are now available for purchase at the early bird price of $119.00 USD which includes access developer forums, panels and roundtables along with goody-bags and giveaways.
Today’s update includes just a couple of bugs caught on Test: HOUSING Prestige Home deeds are now Heirloom. Fixed a bug that would cause a guild to lose refund status when moving guildhalls. Fixed a crash bug.
If you haven’t already heard about the revamped Persona Window coming in Game Update 60, it takes what we got in Velious and polishes it up to a mirror shine. The Velious Persona window seemed half-finished to us and, apparently, to Rothgar. Going live today, the new Personal window is a big improvement over the large paradigm-mixing one we got with Velious. It actually behaves a bit more like 2 separate windows again, with Stats (and all possible traits about your character) in a toggleable sidebar, while your Equipment, Mounts, Faction, and other character progression information now takes up...
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums: Hey, folks, We left the HEIRLOOM tag off the prestige homes. (It’ll be added to them tomorrow.) So for today, if you were planning to buy a bunch of one type of house and then transfer it to all your different alts, please don’t do it that way. Or if you do, please realize that the HEIRLOOM tag won’t be present until tomorrow. For today, please just realize that each character can only own one of each type of Prestige Home. If you buy more than that, you won’t be able to use...
Fr0m Zoltaroth on Twitter: Servers should start opening shortly just finishing up internal smoke testing. Naturally this would be the first batch of servers which were updated.
From Amnerys on the EQ2 Forums: To thank players for their patience during the recent service interruption, we will be hosting special events this weekend across our game portfolio, including a Double Station Cash day on Saturday, April 30th. We are also working on a “make good” plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms. Details will be available soon on the individual game websites and forums. EverQuest II and EQ2X will also be holding a Double XP day on Saturday, from 12:01am PST to 11:59pm PST. This will affect tradeskill, adventure and AA XP....
SmokeJumper has been providing frequent updates on today’s installation of Multihousing into EQ2: Hi, folks, Today’s housing feature has to do a lot of massaging of the house database elements. This takes a considerable amount of time (a bit like a world merge, actually). This means that when we take servers down, they will be down for 2 or 3 hours while we do that process. We should have all the servers up by mid-afternoon sometime (Pacific time). The servers that are currently running are Antonia Bayle, Barren Sky, Harla Dar, Guk, Everfrost, Unrest, and Crushbone. The next batch...
Here are your update notes for today, April 28, 2011. They include the introduction of Multi-housing. Thanks to Cyliena over at EQ2 ZAM for the formatting: HOUSING UPDATES Each character can now own up to 10 houses of any combination (as long as he or she meets the house prerequisites). House purchases are now based on alignment rather than citizenship. The marketplace house item limit increasers now only apply to a single house. Additionally, the marketplace house item limit increaser will no longer stick with your house as you move from house to house, but it still stacks with...
It is our understanding that Game Update 60 will be hitting Test and Test Copy today. Domino‘s post is not a confirmation, but taken with other posts, strongly suggests it: Most likely early afternoon (PST) but times may vary depending on a variety of factors. There will be an in-game broadcast to warn you.
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums: Hi, folks, Today’s housing feature has to do a lot of massaging of the house database elements. This takes a considerable amount of time (a bit like a world merge, actually). This means that when we take servers down, they will be down for 2 or 3 hours while we do that process. We should have all the servers up by mid-afternoon sometime (Pacific time).
In the wake of Sony’s PlayStation Network being totally inaccessible for 6 days, following by the news that the entire system had been compromised (all names, addresses, phone numbers, other personal info, and possibly all credit card information on file), naturally players of Sony Online Entertainment games such as EQ, EQ2, PlanetSide, DC Universe Online, Vanguard, FreeRealms, etc. have been wondering if any of their information was compromised. Here’s what we know: SOE’s Account Services and Customer Databases are separate from the PlayStation Network and were not compromised. Double StationCash and other Player Events are being scheduled for this...
Our most commented post here on EQ2Wire so far has been the “What if?” discussion started by SmokeJumper pondering whether EQ2 should offer some sort of shortcut to level 90. Many players expressed their opinions from one extreme to the other and everything in between. Some players demanded that this take place on another server. Others made the fair point that many players would find themselves at 90 with utterly no idea how to play their class. I fell along the line that since 1-85 has *already* been trivialized due to itemization changes and neglect in the last ~18...
In a thread about the new Character Sheet coming with Game Update 60, Rothgar got a bit sidetracked by players asking for a bit easier time when rearranging hotbars and the icons on those hotbars. These changes will take effect when you are in Window Rearranging Mode (press F10): I’m going to make the opacity of the windows 90% when arranging windows so its a little easier to see through them. As far as hotbars go, the icons will be visible but disabled so clicking anywhere on the window will allow you to position the window. If you hold...
According to Frizznik on the EQ2 Forums (when answering a question about why certain tradeskill materials wouldn’t go into the Harvest Depot), indicated that GU60 is now locked and thus should be hitting Test soon. With a live date of May 17th, I wouldn’t want to take the odds on 3 raid zones, 3 dungeons, and all the other content of Game Update 60 being bug-free. It looks like the classifications on the Rough Pearl and Rough Nacre should work for recipes that require those ingredients so I flagged those so they can go into the depot. May have...
If you have been following the posts (and tweets) of Emily “Domino” Taylor, Tradeskill lead for EQ2, over the past few months, you’ve probably picked up on her increased involvement and interaction with the other parts of the EQ2 team. Today’s news that she has stepped up from Tradeskill Lead to Associate Producer then is not too surprising, as she has already produced and contributed to several live events and had a hand in creating increasingly elaborate content beyond that of Tradeskills. Domino has quickly grown from creating new tiers of tradeskill content (for most tradeskill classes, a mostly...
From the EQ2 Forums: All U.S. servers will come down for a hotfix at 7am PDT [15:00~18:00 GMT] on Thursday, April 28, 2011. The Splitpaw server will have its also have its hotfix the same day at 3pm London Time. The expected downtime for all affected servers is three hours. Update Notes are not yet available.
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums: I don’t have the ETA yet, but we are making the purchases and we’ll get the hardware replaced on the servers that have not yet been upgraded (Guk, Everfrost, Unrest, Butcherblock, Permafrost, Oasis, and Splitpaw). It’ll take some time to get these changes implemented (takes a while to order them, get them delivered, and then installed at the various data centers), but we’ll update you with details when we know more. They’re coming!
Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson has lent another timely interview to Massively, this time on Game Update 60 and plans for the future. Some theories are confirmed, but most of Georgeson’s cards remain close to the chest. Interview at Massively
In a thread from a returning player who demanded a flying mount before he’d commit to coming back to EQ2 as a full-time player, SmokeJumper posited a rather interesting thought regarding flying mounts, Velious content, and the fact that both require level 86+. What would you think about being able to start a character at level 90? Read on… Hey folks, the OPs comment about not wanting to level up to play in Velious and get a cool mount is a reasonable discussion. At the risk of laying foundation for a flamewar here, I’d like to propose an idea...
Continuing last week’s news that Harvesting is being changed to have a faster speed, Frizznik has posted a new thread with a summary of the changes coming to Harvesting Tools: The other thread was getting long, so I wanted to create a new one so folks could easily find the changes to them, and to let you know some new developments. Woodworker made tools are changing. There are no longer seperate tools for each harvesting type. There is now one tool at each tier that gives harvest time reduction and double harvest chance. 20: Ash Harvesting Kit: 2% Double...
From EverQuest2.com: Between April 22 and April 25, get Double Station Cash when you redeem an SOE Game Card or buy StationCash (excluding SC by SMS)! Plus, check participating games for special Spring-themed or sale items. See eligible Game Cards here. (Excludes original 30-Day Game Card which doesn’t redeem for Station Cash.) Participating games include EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest II Extended, Free Realms, Star Wars Galaxies, Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, and PoxNora. Check back later in the week for more details on game-specific Spring items and sales! Presumably, this is from April 22...
SOE Games, Sites, and Forums have been down for at least 4 hours now. Ashlanne posted on the SOE Facebook page: All SOE Games, Sites, and Forums are down due to emergency maintenance. We will have them back up as soon we can. We apologize for the inconvenience.