Last night, the Destiny of Velious beta forums were taken offline and then restarted from scratch under the EQ2X Forums. It has been indicated that this change was to allow EQ2X players to contribute their feedback and reports in the Beta forums. However this means all discussions and threads about the Beta will need to be restarted, as the current Forum software lacks the ability to move threads from one game to another. Users who have signed the NDA and wish to participate in the Destiny of Velious beta forums must now first navigate to the EQ2X forums and, if necessary, re-register their account to access them.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Attention Fan Faire attendees! Are you in the Destiny of Velious Beta test? Do you want to be?

So far, fewer than 200 Fan Faire 2010 attendees have been flagged because they either haven’t filled out a Beta application, or because they haven’t yet accepted the NDA. If you would like to participate in the EQII Destiny of Velious Beta, these are two things you need to do before we can flag you for access!

If you attended Fan Faire 2010, you will be admitted into the Beta program as a thank you for attending. However, you must still register and accept the NDA. Please make sure that you click this link and register with the same account that you used to register for Fan Faire.

We are hearing reports from the community that the Destiny of Velious EQ2 Beta is now underway. As the Beta is under strict NDA, that is the limit of what we are able to report, however as we get closer to release, we’ll post any free-and-clear information we get our mitts on. 🙂

If you have not already filled out the Destiny of Velious beta application, you may do so here. If you went to Fan Faire you should be flagged by the end of the day today (January 5, 2011).

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

The first 1000 folks (well, actually a few more than that, but roughly a thousand) have been authorized for the “Destiny of Velious” Closed Beta.

You should be receiving emails at the email address you have registered for your Sony Station Account. If you have not receive such an email by the end of the day today (1/4/11), then you weren’t accepted into Closed Beta…yet.

Depending on how many folks pile into the beta, and how many testers we need, we may authorize extra groups of people later this month. Stay tuned for more details!

Those of you that made the cut…congrats! We’ll see you on the beta forums and on the Beta server!

It’s unclear if that 1,000 figure includes or excludes Fan Faire attendees.

The new Freeblood race has a special “Ferocity of the Freeblood”, as well as access to housing “Freeblood Lair” and “Swarm of Bats” mount/buff. The details of how these are unlocked and what issues players will face if they change race have been addressed in different posts over the last 24 hours. Here are the highlights. Also inside, a glimpse of something we have heard rumors about before — that some new feature is coming to EQ2 housing with the release of the Destiny of Velious expansion.

So with today’s official introduction of the Freeblood vampire race to EverQuest 2 as the first Premium race, the remaining secrets have been unveiled. Chief among them is that the Swarm of Bats premium mount/ability available exclusively to Freebloods will, when Destiny of Velious expansion launches and a quest has been completed, be usable as a full-fledged Flying Mount. From the official announcement:

Characters who go on to unlock flying mounts in the Destiny of Velious expansion will also be able to use this ability to fly.

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

Fan Faire folks will be authorized to enter the beta on Jan 5th with everyone else but are automatically authorized (after they fill out the application!)

Smokejumper posted this announcement today on Everquest2.com:

The time for Closed Beta testing of “Destiny of Velious” is upon us!

Applications are now open and available at the following link:

https://account.station.sony.com/au…9&theme=station

Go there, complete the application process, and your application will go into the queue for approval. (Hint: You’re not finished applying until you accept the NDA.)

We’ll be reviewing applications starting on January 3rd, and Closed Beta will begin on January 5th. If you are approved for beta, you’ll get an email letting you know, so check your email (out-of-game only) between the 3rd and the 5th!

PLEASE NOTE: Despite the fact that the beta registration site says that the beta runs from 12/21 to 1/4, the beta will actually run from 1/5 to 1/31. You’re seeing incorrect dates on the current reg site and that will be fixed shortly. Notifications of beta acceptance will not *begin* to be sent until 1/3/11.

Update:  Smokejumper posted this additional tidbit for all the Fan Faire Attendees:

Fan Faire folks will be authorized to enter the beta on Jan 5th with everyone else but are automatically authorized (after they fill out the application!)

Yes, even though you automatically get into the beta, you still have to sign the NDA that is included in the application.

If you feel that EQ2’s expansion betas have been unnecessarily long, we have some great news for you. For everyone else, prepare for a rather abrupt beta this time around. According to SmokeJumper, the Destiny of Velious beta will start “when we come back in 2011”.

The Kithicor/Butcherblock and Mistmoore/Permafrost Server Merges are now underway and you may be wondering if these mergers will lead to more zone lag when the Destiny of Velious expansion launches. Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums:

The existing hardware should handle it fine. The merges will actually improve the performance by consolidating zones and making the hardware more efficient. There’s still the possibility of some lag because most of the population will congregate in the new zones, but we will do our best to adjust population limits to keep lag to a minimum. With the last expansion we had issues with lag in some of the new overland zones, but we will do everything we can to keep that from happening this time.

If you have been paying for EQ2 with 30-day subscription cards rather than keeping a credit card on file at SOE, you were probably surprised to find that you might not get the December, January, and February rewards. Fortunately, Amnerys has jumped on this issue before it got too far out of hand and gotten this response:

Hey everyone! Checking in to clear up a few questions about today’s rewards.

1. Everyone who is actively subscribed and in good standing will be getting the rewards, including folks who pay with game cards.

2. We just started running the process that grants the items an hour or two ago, and it takes a few hours to run, so before long you should start seeing the bag in your /claim, but don’t worry if you don’t see it yet. It’s a completely different process than what hotfixes do, so it wasn’t going to be visible right after the hotfix.

3. Game card subscribers will be getting their rewards in a second round of item grants, so don’t worry if you’re a game card payer and you don’t see yours when other players say they’ve gotten theirs. The team who grants the rewards is running them in two batches, and a few account types are getting items in the first round, and a few get them in the second round. By the end of the day, everyone who qualified should have gotten the items.

Thanks Amnerys for getting this sorted out. No doubt many players are relieved.

Last night, a new video of the Ice Wolf Mount reward as part of the Velious Winter Rewards coming in February was posted. For some reason, the video is hosted by Facebook and initially required a Facebook account to view it, but this has been remedied. Remember, the Ice Wolf Mount will be one per account and requires an active subscription for December 14, January 17, and February 8, and that you purchase Destiny of Velious sometime between when it becomes available and December 31, 2011.

Fan Faire Update: Those who went to Fan Faire and get the expansions as a gift for attending will automatically get the February rewards if they meet the other qualifications.

Check www.EQ2Players.com tomorrow to see the unveiling of the December rewards. December rewards will be granted to qualifying accounts on Wednesday, December 15th.

• Ice Wolf Mount Video @ Facebook

• EverQuest2.com Announcement

This breaking news comes from an SOE GM (we are withholding the name):

As part of having an actual subscription through us is the fact that you get to use the bonus items unlike if you use a prepaid card. They get the special perks because they use us direct rather than going through a third type payment option. So yes, there is a benefit to have an account through us rather than a pre paid monthly gaming card. It may not seem fair that a player may have been playing for years with prepaid cards and feels they deserve the items, but the fact is that players who come to us direct made a commitment and thus reap better rewards.

Another thing with having a subscription is that we do give discounts when you purchase a 3 month or even a 1 year when you use a credit card. I hope that this information is helpful. If you have any further questions please let us know and we will be happy to help.

From the EQ2 Forums.

After the launch of Sentinel’s Fate, players quickly noticed that a huge percentage of the level 81-90 gear had armor appearances from either the newbie islands, or level 40-49 armor sets, just recolored.

It turned out that new armor appearances had been built, but very few had been wired up, so most of the armor had placeholder appearances. It took at least a couple of months for another art build, and much work behind the scenes to get the situation resolved. Even still, there are considerable swaths of armor appearance choices which have remained limited.

Covic does not want a repeat of this and wants players to be genuinely impressed with the wide array of Velious armor options, with not simply re-textures and re-colors, but reworkings and new geometry (bolted-on pieces) to create truly unique appearances.

After the jump, his complete quote.

Ok, that was bad even by our standards… 😉

Anywho, Cronyn has put his two cents in on the Vampire Lore, to try to reaffirm that this isn’t just an afterthought to leverage other popular vampire franchises:

Heya folks! I thought I’d pop in here to help a bit.

So, I wanted to assure you that the lore for the vampires is indeed tied to bigger events and characters. The piece that was posted was mostly intended to be more of an overview, and was intentially more vague. I was hoping to get you all talking, and they start releasing more pieces fo the puzzle to have you work into your discussions. Unfortunately, it clearly did not work how I intended it to, and I apologize for that. What you see (and have surmised) is not the entirety of their origin, and there is more still to be told – I didn’t mean to give the impression that this was all you would be seeing.

Again, my apologies, everyone. I’ll try to fill in the blanks here sooner rather than later.

Thanks again, guys. You all are awesome.

Covic and Gninja have had their share of the hotseat lately over the appearance and lore of the new Freeblood vampire race. After the jump, their insight and responses to questions on these subjects, including some further revelations about the fate of Marcus Thex and the Evernight Abbey fight.

From EverQuest2.com:

We’ve got more info today about the new Freeblood playable vampire race that’s coming to EverQuest II! Read the initial lore story we shared yesterday at this link, then be sure to check back next week when we’ll have additional details and a new lore story that explains even more about this new race and its place in Norrath.

We also have some new screenshots to share, showing a variety of looks, and some of the special features available with the Freeblood. Because the nature of an MMO is ever-changing, we’re not necessarily done with the appearance of the vampires yet. There may be more adjustments and it’s still a work-in-progress, but we wanted to share a sample of the current state of the race’s female appearances.

One of the special features of the Freeblood is a Racial Trait, “Reveal Inner Self,” which lets the character change from attractive to demonic in appearance. Another Racial Trait, “Bloodletting,” grants a minor Lifetap spell to occasionally drain health from targeted enemies.

Editor’s Note: The highlighted section was added after publication.

Covic (Dave) on the EQ2 Forums, designer of the new Freebloods vampire race gives some insight into the design and issues:

I agree that most of our players want to have some freedom in customizing there characters. With the vampires I want there to be enough color options with eyes, hair and skin that players can get the unique look they want. When I make the color wheels for the custom colors I will have most of the color combos pointing to more of a dead look with greens and blues. But I dont want to take options from players that they might want.

New screens should be up soon. Still dialing in some polish and hair combos.

These are the first models that use normal maps instead of bump maps, the models are higher poly count then other character models but still within reason. The most time consuming task is getting outfits to fit on the new geo and the facial custom bone skinnning. But its all be worth the extra effort.

I will give more info about the models when the new screens are up. They are near completion but still doing some tweaks.

It looks like those EverQuest2.com Freeblood vampire screen shots we saw weren’t ready for prime time. SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

The screenshots that were released were not intended to be public-facing. Those have been taken down from the EQ2Players site and will be replaced with real shots soon.

Those screenshots were not approved. Real ones are coming later today that will hopefully reassure you that they’re cool.

He even went this far when asked why such awful screen shots saw the light of day:

I cannot disagree. Those shots should never have been published.

Karen Bryan, known to us for her involvement in the A View from the Top and Shut Up We’re Talking podcasts, has been providing interviews and in-depth coverage for Massively for several months now, and today she weighs in with an exclusive interview with Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson regarding the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion.

The Tattered Notebook @ Massively — Interview with Dave Georgeson

Usually, people want to know the story behind the music. But in this case, it may be the music itself which has more to reveal about the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion.

As first reported on the EQ2 forums, last night’s Test Update patch included music files tied in to EverQuest II’s seventh expansion. The following zones were represented (categories are mine amd subject to change):

Dungeons/Raid:

• Kael Drakkel
• Fortress of Drunder Tower
• Tower of Frozen Shadow
• Velkator’s Labyrinth
• Velkator’s Labyrinth: Kraytok’s Fortress

Overland:

• Deep Gorge
• Iceclad Ocean
• Othmir Camp
• Rygorr Fortress
• South Velious
• The Great Wastes

City:

• Thurgadin

Unknown:

• Rallos Zek

Add this to what we already know from Fan Faire 2010.  We were informed that we could expect at least 10 Instanced Dungeons, 1 Massive Contested zone, 2 Overland zones, and 6 Raid Instances. Concept art was shown for:

• Kraytok’s Fortress Spire & Forgotten Pools
• The Ascent
• Thurgadin
• Fortress Spire

Unique Housing?

We haven’t known what to make of another small batch of files found in this package. We’re talking about:

• home_majdul_library.vpk
• home_neriak_opera.vpk
• home_qeynos_dojo_SG.vpk

Remember at Fan Faire, we were told “We also hope to start looking at options for more unique “Prestige Housing” which would be specially themed houses you could choose instead of normal city housing.” The first of these was the Skyblade Skiff and Crag Estate. Perhaps these offer a clue to the next 3 housing options?

image courtesy Kotaku.com

Kotaku.com landed an exclusive interview with SOE President John Smedley and got some of his reactions to World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm update. Some selected quotes:

Next week’s world-changing expansion for World of Warcraft may not be the only cataclysm to hit a major massively multiplayer online game soon.John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, tells Kotaku that the publisher has been considering a similar game-wide reset for EverQuest II.

“We are looking at it closely, we have been for a number of years now,” he said during a visit to Sony Online Entertainment Denver. “Is it something we would do within the next expansion cycle? Probably not. But I think it’s interesting.”

…

You can read the full interview at Kotaku.com.

If you’ve been hoping for any hint of class tweaks we’ll see in Velious, Xelgad has posted an early preview. Naturally this does not include any mention of new AA lines or other abilities we may gain.

We’re still three months from the Destiny of Velious launch, and more sweeping changes than the ones listed below were made in less time, so take this as an early teaser, subject to change. In short, there is great news for Illusonists and Summoners, and some news for other classes as well.

A thread was created on the EQ2 Forums a couple of weeks ago entitled “Why is there no hype about Velious?” which elicited responses from Amnerys and Rothgar indicating that we’re still 3 months away and not everything is nailed down. This thread raged on.

However the real discussion about the EverQuest II expansion Destiny of Velious and future of Norrath beyond its release has been happening in the elephantine Server Merges Announced by Email thread, which has become sort of an omnibus discussion between SmokeJumper, Rothgar, and the players.

So you might have heard that Vampires, specifically the Freebloods will be a playable race for those who have an active subscription for December and January, and then purchase the Destiny of Velious expansion. We’ve naturally been wondering how a former villain of EQ2 will become a playable race and if there will be any attempt to tie this into existing lore. Meanwhile, we’ve been stocking up on garlic, stakes, and copies of Twilight.

Last night we received an e-mail with some surprising new information about events leading up the the EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious expansion. They include up to six gifts for players with active subscriptions (accounts in good standing) through December, January, and February, as well as rewards for players who purchase the Destiny of Velious expansion.

To get the two unique December gifts, you must have:

• EQ2 or EQ2X account with Gold or Platinum active on December 14th.

To get the two unique January gifts, you must have:

• EQ2 or EQ2X account with Gold or Platinum active on January 17th.

To get the two unique February gifts (Ice Wolf Mount and Freeblood race), you must have:

• EQ2 or EQ2X account with Gold or Platinum active on December 14th.
• EQ2 or EQ2X account with Gold or Platinum active on January 17th.
• EQ2 or EQ2X account with Gold or Platinum active on February 8th.
• Purchase the Destiny of Velious expansion by December 31, 2011.

Update: Lambda has read the fine print and it suggests that Destiny of Velious could be activated anytime by December 31, 2011 to receive the February rewards, if you fulfill the other requirements.

Here’s a look at that Ice Wolf Mount:

And if you caught the Photoshop Disaster above where the wolf appears to only have 3 legs (debateable depending on the angle, although this really points more to the fact that the original wolf models in EQ2 desparately need a revamp), you’re not alone.