Shortly after SOE’s data breach in May 2011, the company partnered with Vasco to provide security key fobs for its customers. These were made available for purchase as well as being given out to all Fan Faire 2011 attendees. Since then, requests to produce a mobile security app serving the same purpose on iPhone and Android have been numerous.

Now it looks like an EQ2 player (SandsMans) has stumbled upon an official Daybreak Defender app on the iPhone app store, apparently published without fanfare on October 24th, 2015,  which should theoretically offer the functionality of a mobile authenticator keyfob.

iPhone users who wish to add security to their Daybreak Games accounts can now Download the Daybreak Defender app and use it in lieu of a physical key fob. Please note that we have not yet tested this app!

Two factor authentication (password + key fob or mobile app) is more important than ever as Daybreak no longer recovers stripped/deleted characters even in the case of hacked accounts.

UPDATE from Daybreak Games:

@EQ2Wire We are looking at options to expand availability beyond iOS, but have no specific details/dates to share right now.

WARNING: If you add the authenticator to your Daybreak account, be sure to remove it BEFORE deleting this app from your phone. Otherwise you will need to contact Customer Support which can take multiple days.

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PST | 10:00am~11:00am EST | 15:00~16:00 GMT | 16:00~17:00 CEST
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PST | 12:00~1:00am EST | 05:00~06:00 GMT | 06:00~07:00 CEST

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Maldura

• A Far Seas Trading Company representative has arrived in Maldura and will now sell Age of Malice blank runes in exchange for Coin of the Grand Artificer (they are still also available for far seas tokens from the original sources). She can be found in the Mushroom Bar and Grill.

Maldura: Algorithm For Destruction [All Versions]

• The electro-charged battery is now automatically placed in your inventory, when appropriate, during the encounter with X-O Arachmech.

Kralet Penumbra: Uzulu Deep [Event Heroic]

• Urzzra-Uzulu’s Thought Graze now drains more power.
• Urzzra-Uzulu’s Thought Overload is now limited to 20 meters.
• Fixed a bug that caused Urzzra-Uzulu to keep its stoneskin active throughout the encounter.

Around Thalumbra, there are a number of fun timed quests that can be completed for a variety of rewards! I have seen a lot of people asking about these quests and the rewards, so I decided to make a short guide to how they work and where they are!

First of all, the timed quests are repeatable every 2 1/2 – 3 hours, and they vary in difficulty from very easy to pretty hard. They all require you to complete a set of tasks within the allotted time, or it will fail and you will have to wait before trying again. All of them reward you with the same thing, a “Dirt encrusted key”, which can be unpacked for a reward, as well as some coin and faction.

Unpacking a “Dirt encrusted key” awards you with “Ancient silver engravings” which can be sold for status, as well as one of three possible rewards:

• An ancient gold key
• An ancient platinum key
• An ancient umbrite key

These keys are then used to open corresponding treasure chests which appear randomly out in Thalumbra. The different keys correspond to different tiers of loot, where opening a gold treasure chest, being the lowest tier, awards you with something of solo quality and going up from there. You may have to fly around for a while before finding any chests, and it is possible to use multiple keys of the same type on the same chest. There is therefore no harm in saving up a bunch of keys until you manage to find one!

Now that you know what the rewards are, you might be thinking “This sounds fun! Where can I start these quests?” Here you go!

To date, there have been ten different timed quests discovered:

  Crate Courier (465, 19, 885) (easy)
  The Lost Miner (446, 85, 366) (easy)
  Rubble Rampage (184, 79, -440) (easy)
  Swimming For Shrooms (950, 43, 198) (easy)
  Unsealed Tombs (362, 177, 555) (moderate)
  Memory Bloom (515, 73, -167) (moderate)
  Millions of Leeches, Leeches for Me (342, 483, 100) (moderate)
  Extinguish the Flames (-107, 232, -692) (Hard)
  Pox Raiding (-428, 258, 393) (Hard)
  Leech Liberator (-404, 31 -497) (Hard)

EQ2 Lead Designer Kyle “Kander” Vallee is not usually one to tweet, but he dropped an interesting note this afternoon! For those thinking that the Time Locked Expansion servers would receive no attention going forward, you couldn’t be more wrong. Now that expansion 12 is out the door, work begins on the 13th expansion. We might also get a spring content update (fabled zones, perhaps?).

Today we start planning for TLE tweaks, early spring content [hopefully] and Exp13. Anyone got ideas for where they want to go? I do…

— Kyle Vallée (@EQII_Kander) December 1, 2015

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PST | 10:00am~11:00am EST | 15:00~16:00 GMT | 16:00~17:00 CEST
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PST | 12:00~1:00am EST | 05:00~06:00 GMT | 06:00~07:00 CEST

Fr0m the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Kralet Penumbra

• Reduced the random chance to get multiple scouts in Kralet Penumbra encounters which will reduce the overall amount Dark Assault is being cast.

Kralet Penumbra: Tepid Depths

• Reduced the damage on Mental Detonation and Aberrant Assault. Lowered spell dps on Mind-Rippers and Spell-Eaters.

Maldura: Algorithm For Destruction [Agnostic]

• Electro-charged reinforcements now drop electro-charged batteries.
• X-O Arachmech now drops an X-Electro-charged battery.

Maldura: Bhoughbh’s Folly [x2 Raid]

• When speaking to Bhoughbh to turn in his requested items the quest “G.W.A. Gnemlin With Attitude” should update for all members of the raid.

Maldura: Forge of Ashes [Raid]

• Kyrus will no longer death touch players who are returning to collect their soul shard.
• The Forge Golem has been increased in difficulty.

From the EQ2 Forums:

There will be a brief general maintenance at 5:00AM PST* on Tuesday, December 1, 2015.

During this maintenance, logins may be intermittently impacted.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not a game-specific maintenance. There will be no update or patch notes.

Thank you for your patience.

~The Team at Daybreak

Players who are continuing to soldier on with end-of-life operating systems like Windows XP and Windows Vista have been struggling to use the in-game EverQuest II Marketplace, especially over this Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend. EQ2 Developer Maevianiu has posted that he will shoehorn a fix in for these operating systems, although they will have some functions limited due to the lack of security offered by these versions of Windows:

 Vista is no longer supported, but I am working on a fix. Our next scheduled update is Thursday of next week so it should be out with that. In the meantime Vista and XP users will not be able to use the marketplace. Additionally, Vista and XP users will have limitations on what they can do in the marketplace due to security issues with those operating systems once the fix goes live.

For those players affected, they can still purchase the 25% discounted Daybreak Cash from the website. From Jamiss on the EQ2 Forums:

You can purchase Daybreak Cash from the shop at https://www.everquest2.com/shop.

There have been some clarifications posted by EQ2 Community Manager Roshen on the Free Character Transfers which will be usable from December 3rd til the 10th…

Some people are asking if our normal rules for transfers can be relaxed during this free transfer window. For our transfers during Dec 3 – Dec 10:

• Your account must be at least 30 days old
• A character must be level 5 to transfer
• You can move more than two characters per day. An account will be able to move up to 100 characters (although each character can only move for free one time).
• You still need to be an All Access member to transfer

and finally…

REMINDER: you will need to remove items from the broker before you’re able to transfer. To transfer, you must have no items listed on the broker (including boxes, crates, display cases, and coins)

From the EQ2 Forums:

CENSUS

• Added infusion stats to census output.
• Added prestige flag to census output.
• Added infusable flag to census output.
• Added relic flag to census output.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General

• Beastlord and Channeler Trainers have returned to Freeport and Qeynos.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Hail Norrathians,

Now that server merges are complete, we want to give you the option to move your characters to a server where you can play with your friends. Starting on at 10AM PST* onThursday, December 3, and running until around 12PM PST* (noon) on Thursday, December 10, 2015, players will have the option for one FREE server transfer for each of their characters, between the following servers:

• Antonia Bayle
• Halls of Fate
• Maj’Dul
• Skyfire

How Do I Transfer for Free?

From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue causing houses to think you have less house vault slots than you should.
• Fixed a bug where the three center deity window abilities would overlap slightly with the gold rings around them.
• The stack count now shows on infusers in the infusion window.

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Thalumbra

• Aberrants in Thalumbra no longer drop Amygdalan loot.

Tomorrow is the launch of Terrors of Thalumbra, EverQuest II’s twelfth expansion!

From the EQ2 Forums:

All EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:00AM PST* for the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion update. Estimated downtime is approximately five hours.

EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra is scheduled to unlock to players at noon pacific** on Tuesday, November 17, 2015.

Time Zone Conversions

• PST: November 17 @ 7:00am – Noon
• EST: November 17 @ 10:00am – 3:00pm
• GMT: November 17 @ 15:00 – 20:00
• CEST: November 17 @ 16:00 – 21:00

and your Update Notes from the EQ2 Forums:

TERRORS OF THALUMBRA
Deep underneath Norrath lies a realm on the edge of the Plane of the Underfoot, known as Thalumbra. This expansive, subterranean domain is home to fabled races and ancient terrors!

When the dark shroud upon this land is pierced by Lanys T’Vyl, the recently resurrected demigoddess of Malice, it spells doom for all! You are a hero on the stage of Norrath. Will you play your part and protect Norrath from those who seek to destroy it? What mysteries will your torch uncover deep beneath the surface? Can you withstand the terrors of Thalumbra?

From the EQ2 Forums a few minutes ago:

Hello all,

We’ll be performing maintenance on UCHAT throughout the evening, Wednesday, November 11, 2015. There will be periods of time that this is unavailable to players.

Keep an eye on the EverQuest II forums and social media for news if additional downtime is needed.

We appreciate everyone’s patience and their support!

and Twitter:

We're performing maintenance on UCHAT throughout the night. There will be periods of time that this is unavailable to players.

— EverQuest II (@everquestii) November 12, 2015

EverQuest II’s twelfth expansion comes in not two but three editions, including a spendy Premium edition at $139.99. This higher level option adds an Equipment Upgrade bundle (the equivalent of six “gems” or whatever the equivalent in the expansion is), a Weapon Adjustment bundle (change the damage type or delay of up to 3 weapons), and a Darkhaven Cavedrifter mount which, through gameplay, can be upgraded. A recent update to the Terrors of Thalumbra beta, currently ongoing for those who pre-ordered any version of the expansion, has revealed the in-game Achievement which upgrades this mount.

Maintenance is complete as of 11:00am PST:

The general maintenance is now complete and services are back online. Please note, @H1Z1game is still undergoing a game-specific update.

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) November 10, 2015

Should be the last time we need this diagram…

From the EQ2 Forums:

The server consolidation for the Freeport, Permafrost, and Nagafen servers merging into Skyfire will start on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 7AM PST*. This downtime is expected to take 24 hours, which means these servers are scheduled to be unavailable until Thursday, November 12, 2015 at 7AM PST.*

From the EQ2 Forums last night. Perhaps this will end the login queues…

Maj’Dul and Halls of Fate servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 at 9:00AM PST* for server maintenance. Estimated downtime is approximately 30 minutes.

There are no update notes for this maintenance.

Time Zone Conversions

• PST: November 4 @ 9:00am
• EST: November 4 @ Noon
• GMT: November 4 @ 17:00
• CEST: November 4 @ 18:00

On November 8th, EverQuest II will celebrate its eleven year anniversary. As EQ2’s first four expansions each awarded 90 days of bonus time when purchased, some players who have been with the game since the very beginning will soon accrue twelve years of game time. I can understand some hesitation by the EQ2 team to spend a lot of time developing rare/special rewards that few players will ever see, such as rewards from time-limited events. These rewards are discouraging to those players who missed these events. Even though it will be several years until I see this reward, this writer is having a very hard time not being insulted by the the granting of 365 Loyalty Tokens to those who have supported the company for so long.

Calthine put it better than I can: “I’m not insulted, just very, very disappointed. There’s no creativity or caring in this reward. It’s like getting a gift card for you anniversary.”

From EverQuest2.com and on the EQ2 Forums:

Norrathians! It is once again time to celebrate, as EverQuest II is turning ELEVEN this year! We’ve had eleven amazing years of adventures together, and we’re looking forward to many more creatures to slay, shinies to discover, and memories to be made. As you’re gearing up for the launch of Terrors of Thalumbra, our next expansion, make sure you save some time to enjoy the Heroes’ Festival which returns to Norrath on Friday, November 6th.

Travel to Qeynos or Freeport to take part in all the festivities. The Festival will be around until Monday, November 16th.

Here is what most EQ2 players are seeing when trying to use the Launchpad to get into EverQuest II right now. Some are able to avoid the issue by starting the EverQuest2.exe client directly. Similar issues are being experienced by some users on the forums and Daybreak websites. More as we have it.

and from twitter:

Some additional issues with login servers have come up. We're working on it now. Sorry for the continued inconvenience.

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) November 2, 2015

The first two Server Merges are now under the EQ2 team’s belt, with Crushbone, Oasis, and Butcherblock becoming Maj’Dul while Guk, Unrest, and Everfrost were reborn as a unified Halls of Fate server. Soon we’ll see Freeport, Nagafen, and Permafrost become a new combined Skyfire server. The technical requirements of doing a three-way merge has certainly thrown the team some curve balls. In the hours after the Maj’Dul server came up, there were several server crashes due to memory usage.

To keep Maj’Dul stable, a login queue was instituted for Free-to-Play accounts to lessen the load. The queue was then extended to the new newly merged Halls of Fate server for the same reasons. This queue is not a mere inconvenience as some players have been locked out in excess of 18 hours. Player outrage at the dichotomy experienced by All Access subscribers vs. Free-to-Play users (some of whom claim to spend in excess of $15 a month on the Marketplace) has grown increasingly shrill.

Fortunately, EQ/EQ2 Executive Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale commented in-game over the weekend on the Maj’Dul server that these queues will soon be going away:

F2P will have Queue issues until Tuesday with our fixes. The queue drops as the population drops. Obviously weekends are tough. But it should be gone on Tuesday.

The queue is temporary. It was that or server crashes. The queue for F2P gets longer the more members who bypass it. It’s not ideal, obviously, but we should have it fixed Tuesday.

All Daybreak sites and games will be under a 2+ hour maintenance window on Thursday, October 29, 2015. Login servers and account management may be unavailable during the maintenance.

Updated Info

As of 4:45pm ET:

This morning’s maintenance is now complete. You should be able to access account management & creation.

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) October 29, 2015

Please read our FAQ below for answers to the most common questions you might have once the new combined Halls of Fate server is online (scheduled for 7:00am PDT). This new server combines all the characters and guilds from Guk, Unrest, and Everfrost. The EQ2 dev team have been logged into the new Halls of Fate server, monitoring the situation, and answering questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Help I’ve lost my hotbars!
A: Type /load_uisettings and choose your character from your previous server.

Q: My EQ2 Launchpad still shows characters from Guk, Unrest, or Everfrost. How do I fix this?
A: You will need to go to Character Select screen and then close EQ2 for your Launchpad to be updated. Alternately you can delete your logincache-en directory from your EQ2 folder.

Q: Why doesn’t Call to Guild Hall work?
A: Before anyone can Call to Guild Hall, at least one member of the guild will have to visit the Guild Hall Attuner item in their guild hall to trigger an update to everyone’s Call to Guild Hall ability. It may necessary for every person to travel to the guild hall first and re-attune your CtGH.

Players are currently experiencing issues getting through the login server across all Daybreak games. On Twitter, Daybreak has stated that they are currently looking into the problem.

The team is continuing to investigate login errors. Thank you for the reports and your continued patience while we work to resolve it.

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) October 29, 2015

We are investigating the reported login issues across games and forums. Thanks for your patience.

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) October 28, 2015

From the EQ2 Forums:

There will be periods of time that UChat and Marketplace services will be unavailable on all servers starting Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at 7AM PDT* and ending Thursday, October 29, 2015 at 7AM PDT.*

We’ll be performing maintenance on UChat and Marketplace services during period of time that the server consolidation happen for Guk, Unrest, and Everfrost servers merging into Halls of Fate (get more info on this server merge here).

Note: These services will not be down for the entire 24 hour period. There will be periods of time while these services are interrupted or unavailable during this maintenance.

Thank you for your patience and your support!