Feldon
By even the most conservative estimate, EverQuest II has been a success for Sony Online Entertainment. How many MMORPGs are still running a decade later? SOE does not publish revenue breakdowns by game, but in the last decade, the EverQuest franchise must have raised some serious bread for SOE. The first two games funded a lengthy gestational development of EverQuest Next/Landmark, the smoothly launched Planetside 2, steady producer DC Universe Online, forthcoming zombie run-and-gun H1Z1, and a couple of valiant but costly efforts including FreeRealms and The Agency. I was initially excited when the “History of EverQuest II – 10th Anniversary...
Game Updates & Maintenance
From the EQ2 Forums: ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT SYSTEM CHANGES Up to 280 AAs will be granted as part of leveling up. Every level after 10 until level 90 characters will receive 3 AA points. Every 5th level characters will receive an additional 2 AA points, for a total of 5. Once a player reaches 280 AAs, all AA grants will cease. If characters are not at 280 AA points upon reaching level 90, they will receive additional points to reach 280. All existing characters will be grandfathered their missing additional AA points. For example, in the new system a level...
Here are your update notes this week. Of course the biggest change is Dungeon Maker being nerfed into oblivion. Also don’t forget that there will be a 3 hours of e-commerce and voice chat maintenance today coinciding with the patch. From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Corrected an issue where coin would vanish when deposited into the shared bank as an exile. DUNGEON MAKER The Dungeon Maker feature is now available to all players. Dungeon Maker dungeons no longer grant experience or rewards. Players can still spend existing tokens in the Marketplace. Most avatars and toolbox objects are available to...
From the SOE Forums: Attention players: we will perform maintenance beginning at 6:00 AM PST* on Tuesday, December 16, 2014. We expect this maintenance to last about three hours. This will impact the following SOE services: Commerce functions, including purchases, for all games Voice chat functions for all games Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance. – SOE Community Team Time Zone Conversions PST: December 16 @ 6:00am ~ 9:00am EST: December 16 @ 9:00am ~ Noon GMT: December 16 @ 14:00 ~ 17:00 CET: December 16 @ 15:00 ~ 18:00 AEDT: December 17 @ 1:00am ~ 4:00am
After reading today’s announcement, your first comment will probably be “Why the **** wasn’t this announced yesterday?!?!“. Your second comment will probably be “I’m never moving my AA slider above 0% again!“. Starting Thursday, December 18th, all EQ2 characters as they level from up will receive an automatic amount of AA points based on their level. At level 10, you’ll be given 5 points. At level 11, you’ll get another 3 points. At level 15, you’ll have received 22 points and so forth. Any EQ2 character currently level 90 but with less than 280 AAs (I counted — it’s 9,785)...
After today’s announcement that Dungeon Maker XP and Rewards are going byebye resulted in some particularly grotesque language on the official forums, we’re looking for any positive news that might help soften the blow. A refund for those who purchased Dungeon Maker in the last 90 days would be nice, but in the meantime, Holly “Windstalker” Longdale’s has posted something mysterious on Twitter about AAs. Maybe the player-unfriendly 280AA/90 hard limit is being removed in favor of a curve or a polite warning or something other than “You shall not pass!” We've got an update coming to AAs next week...
This morning’s game update included dozens of bugs reported by players, some since the launch of Destiny of Velious. From the EQ2 Forums: Do you enjoy adventuring and tradeskilling, but find the occasional bug rather pesky? We had an opportunity to talk with many of you directly at SOE Live 2014. Your feedback helps us find bugs and make improvements to the game we all love. Consider many of those bugs squashed, because we’ve made a lot of improvements in the Bug Bash update so that you can enjoy the activities you love even more! So what changed in the...
From the EQ2 Forums: The weather outside might be frightful, but the Norrathian streets are decorated and the citizens are so delightful! The Gigglegibber goblins and Frostfell elves are spreading cheer throughout Norrath this season and encouraging players to visit the Frostfell Wonderland Village. You can access the Wonderland through the Magic Closets in Qeynos Province District, Freeport, Haven, Kelethin, Neriak, Gorowyn and New Halas. In addition to the return of your favorite Frostell festivities, you can also look forward to plenty of exciting new content this season!
It’s Bug Bash (and Altar of Malice heroic zone rebalancing) time! From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL — BUG BASH WEEK Fixed an issue where you could lose your grandmaster spell if you betrayed. The tooltip and examine window information will now correctly display the damage type of missile weapons. Rejoice! Exiles can now use the shared bank! Exiles can now change suffix titles! SOE Live Request: Added the command /dump_items_to_log, which, true to its name, will write the contents of your inventory to your log. Please note that only items known to your game client will be logged; as...
Looks like this week’s Bug Bash update slipped from its Tuesday slot (Windstalker on Twitter): We are having to postpone tomorrow's update for the time-being due to some technical weasels. We'll update you soon. #eq2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) December 9, 2014 But for those who have been taking a beating in Altar of Malice’s heroic zones, I’m happy to announce that the chiropractor is in town and some adjustments are being made. From Kander on the EQ2 Forums: Our current view of the Altar of Malice Heroic Zone progression is a bit skewed. We will be toning down...
From the EQ2 Forums: US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour. EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, December 3 , 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Approx. 5:00AM London Time on 12/04/2014). Estimated downtime is 2 hours. From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed a bug where mercenary names would show as gibberish on non-english servers. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Zavith’loa: The Lost Caverns [Advanced Solo and Heroic] Fixed a bug that caused Beastmaster Kau’mua to heal for more than intended. Fixed...
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on the EQ2 Forums: The holidays are coming up fast, and we wanted to take a moment to let you know what’s coming up! Bug Bash We are doing a Bug Bash (and have been) that will release on Dec. 9 with lots of fixes. In our Bug Bash, we are also tackling some remaining feedback we received at SOE Live, like: Shared Banks for exiles Exile suffix titles enabled Coldain Heritage Quest no longer requires public quest Ability to drag/drop the mount/dismount spell from the character window to the macro window And, of course,...
First up, starting at 10:00am PST tomorrow (1:00pm EST, 18:00 GMT, 19:00 CET), Free-to-Play EQ2 players will be able to buy and start playing the Altar of Malice expansion. Now for the downtime announcement… US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour. EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Aprox. 5:00AM London Time on 11/26/2014) Estimated downtime is 2 hours. All accounts will also be able to purchase and play our new expansion, Altar of...
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed a bug that allowed agnostic dungeons to bypass level recommended code for XP reduction. Dungeon Maker dungeons now start reducing XP after 95. EQUIPMENT SETS Resolved an issue where the Save option wasn’t available after equipping an item that first required attunement. There is now messaging when a specific instance of an item could not be found when equipping a set. This messaging differs if another copy of the item was found and equipped instead.
From the EQ2 Forums: US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour. EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Aprox. 5:00AM London Time on 11/20/2014) Estimated downtime is 2 hours. and from the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Altar of Malice Experience for defeating NPCs in Altar of Malice Solo and Advanced Solo zones has been increased. ITEMS Expendable items can no longer be transmuted. Refining common harvests can no longer return...
From the EQ2 Forums: US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST (15:00-16:00 GMT). Estimated downtime is 1 hour. EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST (19th Nov 5:00~7:00 GMT). Estimated downtime is 2 hours. From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Elite mercenaries Kenny, Matri Dut, and Perrin should now despawn after 5 minutes of being first hired. Fixed an issue where Kylong Plains was at the wrong location on some Fast Travel Maps. Removed the Burned Woods entrance from the...
UPDATE: EQ2 Servers are back up and accessible after just 40 minutes of downtime. Go play! Assuming we don’t have three hours of company-wide firewall shanigans like we did yesterday… US EverQuest II US Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour. EU EverQuest II EU/RU/JP Live Servers will be brought offline on Friday, November 14, 2014 at approximately 5:00AM GMT. Estimated downtime is 2 hours. and from the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Aerakyn Beastlords will be granted a Reptile Warder when logging in and during character creation.
UPDATE: Today’s Game Update, scheduled to last 1 hour, clocked in closer to 4 hours as an SOE-wide Firewall glitch caused Login servers to be inaccessible for much longer than anticipated. We're back up and unlocked! #EQ2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) November 12, 2014 All servers should be up and running! Please let us know if you encounter a problem. [Afista] — EverQuest II (@everquestii) November 12, 2014 From Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson on twitter: Login issues across the company. Firewall problem. Many games affected. They're fixing it now. Sorry, folks. Soon! — David Georgeson (@DaveGeorgeson) November 12, 2014 Original...
From the EQ2 Forums: US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at approximately 7:00AM PST. Estimated downtime is 1 hour. EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at approximately 9:00PM PST. (Aprox. 5:00AM London Time on 11/13/2014). Estimated downtime is 2 hours. and from the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Castle Highhold [Solo and Advanced Solo] Va’Tak Telaris’ relic of power can always be seen once it spawns.
From Endymion on the EQ2 Forums: Hey everyone, We’ve been getting reports of players not being able to see their inventory when in a house zone (including guild halls). We were able to work with a player on the live servers to determine the cause of the issue and hope to have a fix deployed in the next few days after it makes it through QA. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Table of Contents So what’s new in the expansion? How do I jump into the new expansion content? Why am I not gaining levels?! Are the new overland zones and dungeons re-skinned/re-textured versions of existing zones like we got in the past? Is there a new harvest tier for the expansion, or does level 90-100 become a tier? What material do I use to make Grandmaster spells? Are there new Alternate Advancements (AA’s) or Prestige Points in the expansion? What’s up with the new Ancient spells? How much better than Grandmasters are they? What new Contested Heroic zones can...
From buildmaster Bunji on the EQ2 Forums: ALTAR OF MALICE In the service of the monarchs, the bravest adventurers will journey across the mysterious Shattered Seas to face prehistoric deinodons, petite-yet-perilous pygmies, bone-armored lizard men, salty pirates, and other new, unseen creatures. And while there are dangers on the waters, beware the grotesque, thickening plot hidden deep in the Kithicor Woods. It’s so malicious it could make even the undead’s skin crawl… Features: Level 100 for Adventurers, Tradeskillers, and Guilds New Prestige Abilities to 100 15 Heroic zones 6 Raid zones 6 Advanced solo zones 2 Contested zones 2...
After some initial confusion, the downtime for tomorrow’s big update for the Altar of Malice expansion has been announced. ALL servers will go down at 5:00am PST tomorrow. Time Zone Conversions — Downtime for ALL SERVERS (US, EU, RU, JP) PST: November 11 @ 5:00am til Noon EST: November 11 @ 8:00am til 3:00pm GMT: November 11 @ 13:00 til 20:00 CET: November 11 @ 14:00 til 21:00 AEDT: November 11 @ Midnight til November 12 @ 7:00am
The Aerakyn race will become available for purchase sometime tomorrow and through internal testing, the EQ2 team have discovered an issue affecting hair color and the “hidden personal torch” feature. While this issue might not bother most players, if you’re going to drop $20 or $42 on a race, you might be a little miffed if your character customizations don’t turn out quite as expected. From Afista on the EQ2 Forums: Greetings Everyone, We want to identify a problem that some players might encounter when customizing your new Aerakyns. The Aerakyn have a VERY broad color palette for hair...