From EQ and EQ2 Executive Producer Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums:

What’s Up for EQII?

We have a lot in store for our intrepid Everquest II players. We’re excited to be discussing the launch of two new Time-Locked Expansion Servers for PvE and PvP sometime this year.

Along with that, the team is moving forward with a strategy of treating our players as real gamers who don’t need to be handheld for everything they do. What this means is we feel we need to trust our players to learn and achieve things without us having to give you all the information ahead of time. There’s a big difference between “head southwest and uncover the mystery of the green fog” and “go find the green fog that I put on your map for you.” Our players are smart and we want EQII to be a thinker’s and strategist’s game.

Today we release a new Rumrunner home with a décor set for our decorators, a store version of the Zeppelin mount for anyone that likes to float about in style, and new Summer Ethereal items will start dropping in Altar of Malice heroic zones (including Rum Cellar) for our adventurers.

We’re also currently testing Character Restore and Item Restore functionality on Beta which we hope to release soon.

On Tuesday, June 23, we will release Echoes of Faydwer Fabled Dungeons with all new updated loot and fun for level 100. There are 3 heroic dungeons, 3 advanced solos and 1 raid with a challenge version. Here’s the zone list:

· The Fabled Acadechism [Heroic & Advanced Solo] · The Fabled Court of Innovation [Heroic & Advanced Solo] · The Fabled Crypt of Valdoon [Heroic & Advanced Solo] · The Fabled Freethinker Hideout [Raid & Challenge Raid]

Then, in early July, we’ll introduce the ability to quest and worship Erollisi as a god for new miracles and blessings.

We can’t forget Tinkerfest! It will launch on July 17 with new content!

And later in the summer, we’ll see more Ethereal weapon drops.

For those who are curious, we’re doing a fair amount of technical and backend work to help our performance and to move toward cross-server functionality. We also want to address server population issues. We’re focusing on the first part of this work which is adjusting our architecture.

We also have been continuing to work on the content for our release later this year. Toward the end of summer as we head into the Campaign release timeframe later this year, we’ll be releasing some prequel events and designers will be sharing details about upcoming features with you. Today in our Twitch stream, designers previewed an upcoming feature that allows you to increase stats on new equipment. We also have a new item type in the works for this year’s campaign referred to as Relics which are extremely powerful items where only one can be equipped at a time, per character. Kander, Caith, and Kaitheel (yikes!) discussed these features in our livestream today and you can watch the replay here.

We’re enormously grateful for the support of all of our players and we’re excited about what’s coming up for EverQuest II!

Sincerely, as always,

Holly “Windstalker” Longdale
Exec Producer, EQ & EQII

Today Robert “Caith” Fouts, Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall, and Kyle “Kander” Vallee were joined by EQ2 Community Manager Ry “Roshen” Schuller to talk about upcoming changes in this fall’s expansion-sized Campaign, or as the EQ2 team has been calling — the Campansion. Here are my rough notes, subject to my interpretation and these are mostly not direct quotes. Any mistakes are my own!

Amplifying Infusing

Players have be able to upgrade armor through Gems and adding Essences to change the Damage type on Weapons. However this has been very limited as it requires the devs to create hundreds of items for each boost/change. A new feature is coming with this fall’s Campansion #12 (Expansion-sized Campaign) called Amplifying Infusing which will allow items to be customized and upgraded on a more detailed level. Not all items in the game will be upgradeable, as this will be limited to items in the expansion and perhaps a few AoM/RC items. For example, you might get a bauble from a zone that allows you to boost stats or add a totally new stat to an item. You will be able to change the Weapon Delay (1, 2, 4, 6, 8) and Damage Type (Mental, Fire, Noxious) on Weapons.

current prototype of Amplifying

Amplifying Infusing requires a dropped material (which could be rare) to boost an item. We’re not sure what it costs just to change the stats, delay, or damage type on an item. The prototype shown just costs plat, but the finalized version will use a material. This will work alongside but not replace Reforging which will largely remain in its current form. The plan is to have a longer expansion Beta test this year so that more feedback can be collected on this feature.

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately one hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. (Approx. 3:00PM London Time on June 4, 2015). Estimated downtime is one hour.

Alle deutschsprachigen Server werden um 16:00 CET am 04.06.2015 zwecks einer Serveraktualisierung heruntergefahren. Die vorgesehene Stillstandszeit wird etwa 1 Stunde(n) betragen.

Le serveur de langue française sera arrêté à 16:00 CET le 04-06-2015 pour une mise à jour du serveur. Le temps d’arrêt sera d’environ 1 heure.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Precipice of Power [Raid]

• Samhain adds in the Cazic-Thule encounter have been removed.
• The zombie effect should no longer spam from the spell “Heart Stutter”. It should only play once the spell is applied.
• Duration between adds has been increased in the Cazic-Thule Encounter.
• Duration between “fear” increments has been very slightly increased.
• Judicators and Bailiffs should now despawn when Tribunal has been defeated.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Attention players: we will perform a general maintenance beginning at 6:00AM PDT* on Tuesday, June 2nd. The current estimated downtime for this maintenance is three to five hours, depending on the service.

This maintenance may impact the following Daybreak services across all games:

• Commerce functions, including purchases, for all games
• Game & Web logins for all Daybreak sites
• Forum access (login, posting, and viewing abilities) for all Daybreak games.

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

Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance.

~The Team at Daybreak

Time Zone Conversions (If Maintenance Runs 5 Hours)

• PDT: June 2 @ 6:00am ~ 11:00am
• EDT: June 2 @ 9:00am ~ 2:00pm
• BST: June 2 @ 14:00 ~ 19:00
• CET: June 2 @ 15:00 ~ 20:00
• AEST: June 2 @ 11:00pm ~ June 3 @ 4:00am

UPDATE: Here’s the official announcement:

We’ll be streaming on Thursday, June 4, 2015 starting at 1PM Pacific* on the EverQuest 2 Twitch channel.

Join Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, Robert “Caith” Fouts, Kyle “Kander” Vallee, and Ry “Roshen” Schueller for this stream as we show off just a few of the things coming up for EverQuest 2, and chat with players live via Twitch chat.

Join us for this stream, and log into Twitch to chat with us and other players. We look forward to talking with YOU during this stream!

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on twitter:

We have lots of news for #eq2 next week on what's coming up. Summer ethereals, Fabled dungeons and other news on the June 4th livestream.

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) May 27, 2015

P.S. we are doing an #eq2 stream on June 4. @Roshen will give infos after he punts me for jumping the gun.

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) May 27, 2015

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately one hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 9:00PM PDT* for an update. (Approx. 5:00AM London Time on May 28, 2015). Estimated downtime is one hour.

Alle deutschsprachigen Server werden um 6:00 CET am 28.05.2015 zwecks einer Serveraktualisierung heruntergefahren. Die vorgesehene Stillstandszeit wird etwa 1 Stunde(n) betragen.

Le serveur de langue française sera arrêté à 6:00 CET le 28-05-2015 pour une mise à jour du serveur. Le temps d’arrêt sera d’environ 1 heure.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
F.S. Distillery: Stowaways [All Versions]

• The barrels used against Sir Wharfie should always respawn and be visible should the encounter against the armored rat reset.

F.S. Distillery: Distill or Be Killed [Heroic]

• The achievements, Like a Bull in a Pirate Shop and Crowd Control, are now achievable.

USER INTERFACE

• Fixed a bug where some attribute values were exceeding the maximums displayable in the UI.

TRADESKILLS

• The recipe for Smite Corruption II (Grandmaster) may now be crafted.
• The recipe for Unflinching Will V (Grandmaster) will now correctly return Unflinching Will V (Grandmaster) when crafted.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Conjuror

• Plane shift will now grant chance to proc pet’s primary quick attack.

Necromancer

• Undead Knight IX appearance is now that of a Jun’Rah.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Attention players: we will perform a general maintenance beginning at 7:00AM PDT* on Wednesday, May 27th. The current estimated downtime for this maintenance is two to five hours, depending on the service.

This maintenance may impact the following Daybreak services across all games:

• Commerce functions, including purchases, for all games
• Game & Web logins for all Daybreak sites
• Forum access (login, posting, and viewing abilities) for all Daybreak games.

Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance.

~The Team at Daybreak

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
F.S. Distillery: Distill or Be Killed [Heroic]

• A stuck rum bottle during the encounter with Grogmogo can now be interacted with.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Beastlord

• Feral Stance will now apply final ability damage to pets when over level 96.

Paladin

• Corrected an issue with Amends III that caused it to lose effectiveness when upgrading from expert to master. Master and Grandmaster are now more potent.

Conjuror

• Earthquake will now also interrupt.

TRADESKILLS

• The recipe for Unyielding Will (Grandmaster) is now located in Fighter Grandmaster Recipes Volume IV.

ITEMS

• Pure Malice and Deception I, II and III effects will now apply to pets.
• Killing Chamber’s proc buff will now show in maintained spells.

From the EQ2Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
General
Werner Thunderleg will now cast Total Domination correctly.

F.S. Distillery: Beggars and Blighters [Raid]
Kildiun the Drunkard has had his health increased.

MERCENARIES
Katastra Vilehex now has a more tank focused buff package.

ITEMS
Corrected an issue with Offensive Focus effects that prevented them from working for some classes.
Sigil of Defiance will now grant melee skills and defense instead of casting skills.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Phantom Sea

• Werner Thunderleg can now be found hanging out in Kithicor Forrest in the Phantom Sea.

F.S. Distillery: The Rum Cellar [Solo]

• Fixed a crash in the Rum Cellar solo instance.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
Scouts

• Scout Offensive stances will no longer spam requires level 96 when zoning.

Warden

• Dawnstrike Strike, Icefall Strike and Whirl of Permafrost now do more damage.

Inquisitor

• Strike of Flames, Invocation Strike, Strike of Corruption now do more damage.

Druid

• Howling with the Pack will now heal mercs.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Phantom Sea

• T’Kaela should no longer have an incorrect Rum Cellar requirement.

F.S. Distillery: The Rum Cellar [Solo]

• At no time will death result in being stuck in the storeroom.
• The damage inflicted by Aerial Attack has been slightly increased.

F.S. Distillery: Distill or Be Killed [Heroic]

• The cannon used against The Red Corsair will no longer be stuck in operation by another member of your party when it shouldn’t be.
• Charanda will no longer be stuck immune in either the normal or challenge mode encounters.
• Brokenskull Rum Party – No more than 20 Brokenskull pirate zipliners should spawn when the mission starts, and they should all remain on the Rum Run should they not be added to anyone’s hate list when they land.
• Pets or mercs can no longer be targeted by Portia Rumuffin.

As we reported earlier this week, Daybreak Games President John Smedley recently gave an interview to GamesIndustry.biz which included the following comments:

“I firmly believe the days of the WoW-style MMO are over,” Smedley said. “And that means we have to change with the times. Luckily, we were kind of early on that bus as opposed to late. But we’re changing what we’re making. Look at H1Z1. Is it an MMO? Sure, by definition, but I would consider it a session-based online game with a lot of people. And I say that because the average life expectancy in H1Z1 might be 45 minutes, and that’s what today’s gamers want. How many people do you still know that are still raiding in WoW every night, or EverQuest and EverQuest II? It’s just the time commitment necessary has changed so much. That means we need to change with the times, and we are. So we’re getting interested in a broader array of games and gaming styles.”

There are those among the community who didn’t particularly like some of the things he had to say.  Yesterday, he took to Reddit to “clarify” what he was talking about.  I’ve added my two cents on the subject over on the page at Reddit which as of right now is up to 120 comments.  Let him know what you think about his comments and clarification.

Here are your update notes for Thursday, 30 April 2015:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
F.S. Distillery: The Rum Cellar [solo]
Fixed a crash that would occasionally happen in the rum cellar solo zone.
The radius in which some of the guards will see you along the Rum Run and near Kildiun before sending you to jail has been slightly reduced.
Portia Rumuffin should no longer be stuck with her secret recipe buff.

F.S. Distillery: Distill or Be Killed [Heroic]
Any party members still within the sugarcane press will be freed upon defeating Yipnik.

ITEMS
The Fishbone Earring’s water breathing effect is no longer removed upon zoning, relogging, or death.

NOTE: No EverQuest II content

I’ve been a huge fan and supporter of emulators for years, despite the totally unwarranted slight against them that they somehow constitute “theft”. Developers and players of emulators are typically the most passionate of played who have purchased these games many times and want to play them on a different platform. Some games are long forgotten and hard to acquire, so emulation is the best solution.

Recently, MassivelyOP has been extensively covering the popular SWGEmu with several live casts and interviews. Players who miss EverQuest as it existed shortly after launch had no option until the Project 1999 emulator appeared. SOE president John Smedley spoke fondly of emulators in his Reddit Ask Me Anything a couple of years back, and thus far SOE has taken no action against these sites. Still, the official policy has been that emulators are not allowed. Until now.

My apologies for this one being a bit late.  Here’s the note about today’s downtime:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately one hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 9:00PM PDT* for an update. (Approx. 5:00AM London Time on April 30, 2015). Estimated downtime is one hour.

*Time Zone Converter

Along with today’s update notes:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
F.S. Distillery: The Rum Cellar [solo]
The zone entry warning message will now only show for players that do not have the “Exchange of Favors” quest.

ITEMS
Rumsoaked Cloth Sandles is now spelled correctly.

QUESTS
Drink is the Key – The sign text on the steam valves now identify that the proper tool must be equipped.
Drowning in Drink – Quest now rewards “Jaestern’s Prestige Reserve” or “Busted Far Seas Crate” house item each time.
Drowning in Drink – “Lift Key” has been renamed “Fermentation Tank Lift Key”.

As of noon Pacific, the Rum Cellar update has launched on US EQ2 servers.

Information on the new Downloadable Content (DLC) know as the Rum Cellar can be found on EQ2 Zam and EQ2Traders. Class balance tweaks for Summoners, Scouts, Fighters, and other quality of life features such as spending and un spending AA points are included in Game Update 70 and do not require the purchase of the Rum Cellar.

Europe?

EU servers unlocked at around 2:45 pm PDT (21:45 GMT).

RU servers are apparently up now as well.  Rum all around!

Here are the patch notes for 28 April 2015 which include the notes for the new downloadable content (DLC), the Rum Cellar Campaign:

RUM CELLAR CAMPAIGN NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE

• 2 Solo Zones (1 Solo and 1 Advanced Solo)
• 3 Heroic Zones (1 Heroic, 1 Event Heroic, 1 Event Heroic-Challenge)
• Raid Zone with 10 Bosses
• Lots of Loot, including drops of a Rare Elite Mercenary and a Zeppelin Mount
• New Achievements and Titles
• New Adornments and a new adornment set bonus tier
• 30 New Collections
• Merchant who accepts Far Sea Ferrin (who also sells a Zeppelin Mount!)

Update: “Unlocking US live servers now.” – Bunji

Update: Downtime is now expected to extend until Noon Pacific time.  However, the link to purchase the Rum Cellar Campaign is now active, so we can pretend that’s the pre-order time window.  🙂

Today marks the launch of the Rum Cellar Campaign which can be purchased here.

For those that haven’t been following along, the Rum Cellar Campaign is the first attempt at delivering Downloadable Content (DLC) for a price, rather than through traditional expansions (not counting the old Adventure Packs that were meant to be in addition to expansions, not a replacement for expansions).  It contains the “Far Seas Distillery” with 1 Solo, 1 Event Advanced Solo, 1 Heroic, 2 Event Heroics and a large Raid version for $15 ($13.50 for All Access).  Altar of Malice is required and should be available as a bundle for those that have yet to purchase AoM.  There will be another large Campaign this fall around the usual expansion release time.  The content released throughout the year in these Campaigns should add up to what we might have traditionally seen in a yearly expansion.

Roshen posted this on the EQ2Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers and website will be brought offline on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for the Rum Cellar Campaign Patch. Estimated downtime is approximately three hours.

Players will NOT be able to play this campaign until after this patch has completed, even if they purchase the campaign prior to this maintenance.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for this update. (Approx. 3:00PM London Time on April 28, 2015). Estimated downtime is three hours.

Alle deutschsprachigen Server werden um 16:00 CET am 28.04.2015 zwecks einer Serveraktualisierung heruntergefahren. Die vorgesehene Stillstandszeit wird etwa 3 Stunde(n) betragen

Le serveur de langue française sera arrêté à 16:00 CET le 28-04-2015 pour une mise à jour du serveur. Le temps d’arrêt sera d’environ 3 heures.

*Time Zone Converter

Update notes for this downtime can be found in the Game Update Notes forum once they’re available.

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

EDIT: Approx downtime is now three hours.

EDIT 2: This downtime will affect the website as well.

Update: As part of the launch festivities, Daybreak Games will be livestreaming as well:

Don’t miss today’s EverQuest 2 stream! To celebrate the launch of the Rum Cellar Campaign, we’ll be streaming today, Tuesday, April 28, 2015 starting at 11AM PDT* on twitch.tv/EverQuest 2

From the EQ2 Forums:

Attention players: we will perform a general maintenance beginning at 7:00AM PDT* on Monday, April 27th. The current estimated downtime for this maintenance is three to five hours, depending on the service.

This maintenance may impact the following Daybreak services across all games:

• Commerce functions, including purchases, for all games
• Game logins
• Web logins for all Daybreak sites, including account creation
• Forum access (login, posting, and viewing abilities) for all Daybreak games.

Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance.

~The Team at Daybreak

Maybe we’ll finally see Daybreak Games new logo? The company has existed without an official logo or branding campaign for well over two months now. Maybe they’re transitioning station.sony.com to daybreakgames.com?

UPDATE: What was supposed to be a one hour downtime this morning has turned into an all day event of stumbling servers, uppity login servers, and unexpected downtime:

• Server Downtime April 21st
• Unable to Connect to Login Servers (created by Caith to let players know there’s a problem)
• General Discussion forum (numerous EQ2 servers have come down and back up)

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Brokenskull Bay: Fury of the Cursed [Raid]

• Corrected an issue in the Captain Krasnok encounter that allowed the Spirit of Gluttony to be killed when it shouldn’t be.

Ssraeshza Temple: Echoes of Time [Raid]

• Each of the Grimling bosses should no longer cast curses on players if they have been killed.

ITEMS

• The Ssraeshza Sword Sentinel house item can now once again be scaled up to its previous maximum size. The default scale remains small enough to fit inside a room.

From the EQ2 Forums:

US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT* for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately one hour.

EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at 9:00PM PDT* for an update. (Approx. 5:00AM London Time on April 15, 2015). Estimated downtime is one hour.

Alle deutschsprachigen Server werden um 6:00 CET am 15.04.2015 zwecks einer Serveraktualisierung heruntergefahren. Die vorgesehene Stillstandszeit wird etwa 1 Stunde(n) betragen.

Le serveur de langue française sera arrêté à 6:00 CET le 15-04-2015 pour une mise à jour du serveur. Le temps d’arrêt sera d’environ 1 heure.

and from the EQ2 Forums:

TRADESKILLS

• Turtle Shell Buckler and Turtle Shell Mageshield recipes will now correctly accept rough agate.

ITEMS

• Elemental essence infused Dagger of the Ancient Assassin is now correctly named Brokenskull Captain’s Shortspear, and has had its damage rating corrected.
• The scale of the Ssraeshza Sword Sentinel house item has been reduced.
• Prospective fix to prevent Hemotoxin from applying damage twice in the same activation.

The Permafrost server is next up to migrate from Oracle to EnterpriseDB. From the EQ2 Forums:

The Permafrost server will be brought offline on Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at 3:30AM Pacific* for server migration and maintenance. This server is estimated to be unavailable until approximately 2PM Pacific.

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

EQ2 Lead Designer Kyle “Kander” Vallee has posted more details on the upcoming Rum Cellar DLC, as well as a peek at the large fall update which the EQ2 team has been careful not to describe as an expansion, yet will have an overland zone, quest lines, and numerous dungeons.

I’m relieved to read some of the details and this paints a better picture overall of what we can expect this year. If I had to ask for “one thing more” in the statement, I’d have liked to see the Echoes of Faydwer Fabled dungeons mentioned by name. They’re a nice summer holdover for players who can run the Altar of Malice instances in their sleep, and it helps us stretch out the content until the fall update. The announcement doesn’t touch on pricing, but I think it nudges in the right direction that we’re not going to be nickel-and-dimed for single dungeon updates. Players just want to know that the overall cost and rate of content release isn’t going to unexpectedly jump. Without that assurance, it’s understandable that some players are hesitating about the Rum Cellar DLC.

For many of them, it’s not the pricing of Rum Cellar so much as the total pricing for all the content coming in 2015 that players are curious about. If the overall number excluding extras such as prestige houses, mounts, and mercs is reasonable, then I think people will get on board. I plan to buy Rum Cellar on my main account, and will evaluate the Octoberish update when it’s around the corner. So without further ado, let’s read up!

From the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Fellow Norrathians!

I was asked by Windstalker and a few other prominent Norrath citizens to come and expand on the information about the Rum Cellar Campaign as well as give some hints about what we have in store for the future.

From the EQ2 Forums:

The Butcherblock and Crushbone servers will be brought offline on Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 3:30AM Pacific* for server migration and maintenance. These servers are estimated to be unavailable until approximately 2PM Pacific.

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