Feldon
For the third time, the transition from individual Gold subscriptions for each of SOE’s games to a single All Access pass has been postponed. From Dexella on the SOE forums: Dear Players, In an effort to ensure that the transition to the new All Access membership plan is as seamless as possible, we are going to be taking a little more time to test. So, we will be pushing the launch date of All Access to Tuesday, April 29th. Because of the portfolio-wide nature of this plan, this may prevent us from doing any individual game updates in EverQuest,...
Game Updates & Maintenance
So last Thursday, Holly “Windstalker” Longdale posted a Producer’s Letter for EverQuest II. The letter included a few phrases which seemed open to interpretation and so we waited to post these notes to see if there might be some clarification. There hasn’t been, so here’s the letter: Greetings Norrathians! It’s been an exciting year so far for EverQuest II and we have a lot more to come! Since All Access membership was announced earlier this year, as well as news on our new weekly update direction, we’re having a great time bringing more to the game each week. There’s...
From EQ2 Community Manager Margaret “Luperza” Krohn on the EQ2 Forums: As was widely reported, a vulnerability called “Heartbleed” was recently found in OpenSSL (the popular open-source software used to encrypt and secure computer communications) that could potentially allow data theft on systems using OpenSSL. Like many others around the world, some of SOE’s sites used OpenSSL, but those sites were fully patched – closing this exploit. We have no evidence of any breach or data theft, and the chance of any particular user password having been compromised is very slim. Nonetheless, we will let you know if we recommend...
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter: We are bundling High Keep Contested & Bloody Shank heritage quest for the 23rd update. No hotfix next week, but a major leap ahead… #EQ2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) April 11, 2014
According to SOE President John Smedley, the first gameplay footage of an in-development game at Sony Online Entertainment will be revealed tomorrow on Game Talk Live from 5-6pm PDT (8-9pm EDT, 1:00 GMT, 2:00 CET). watch http://t.co/OfEekcv325 tmw between 5-6pm PST if you are interested in the new game we haven’t announced. there is gameplay footage — John Smedley (@j_smedley) April 8, 2014 We also heard from one of the developers on this mysterious team: So I just found out that you guys are going to find out what I’ve been working on really soon… 5-6pm tomorrow http://t.co/pe2SehbUH7 — Jimmy...
Dethdlr
Fairly large update notes from the official forums. Changes to taunts, 350 AAs, PvP updates, and mages say a fond farewell to carrying around a single, special arrow among other things. Read the full notes after the break. WEEKLY FEATURE Players at level 95 can now level up their Alternate Advancements to level 350! GENERAL Mounted combat pets now retain their illusion form after the player lands with a flying or gliding mount. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION General Respawn and evacuate locations have been added to The Trembling Lagoon, Dythra’s Lair, and Cleansing of the Cove. Previously, respawning...
On Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014 at 2:00 PM PDT, EQ2’s new community manager Margaret “Luperza” Krohn (aka PurrfectStorm), hosted the first EverQuest II Insider livecast on Twitch. This 1 hour broadcast included EQ brand manager Adam Key, Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, Akil “Lyndro” Hooper, Chris Garlick, Gary Daugherty, and Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall. Alas, a recording of the livecast was not preserved either by SOE or Twitch (due to a settings glitch), so this episode joins Doctor Who and other vital shows as missing presumed wiped. That said, a few resourceful players who watched the Livecast were good enough to take notes and so we can...
In my Spring weather-fueled absence from Norrath, I’ve missed more than a few announcements, so let’s get caught up, shall we? From the EQ2 Forums: A flying meaty monstrosity has been spotted…and spotted…in the realm of Norrath! It would seem Bristlebane takes small statures to heart given the size of the little wings on these brand new barnstorming Bovochs! To share his glee and innovation, Bristlebane has made his flying Bovoch’s available to those brave enough to take one to the air during the most hilarious of holidays from Friday, March 28th, 2014 to Thursday, April 10th, 2014! The...
From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Edifice Klandicar should no longer cast Chaos Bolt more than intended. Temple of Veeshan: Halls of the Betrayer Corrected an issue that would sometimes cause the doors behind Grendish to not open when they should. PvP Converting a mount to a house item must be done within a house on PvP servers.
From the EQ2 Forums: WEEKLY FEATURE Bristlebane Day event starts on 3/28! POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Tears of Veeshan Corrected an issue that was causing some spells to ignore wards. Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Edifice Klandicar and Zlandicar should no longer heal from non-player kills. Zlandicar’s spell “Necrotic Evisceration” can now trigger reactive spells. Klandicar’s spell “Cognitive Evisceration” can now trigger reactive spells. Klandicar’s spell “Chaos Storm I” has been changed to “Chaos Bolt I” and can no longer be area effect blocked. Klandicar’s spell “Chaos Bolt I” can now trigger reactive spells. Merig, Harin, Gerid’s spell “Commanding Leadership”...
Cyliena over at EQ2 ZAM has reported the appearance of a new Guild Hall type, based on the upper and lower parts of High Keep. This new Guild Hall choice is currently on Test, and was first noted by Kuulei. It’s unknown how the High Keep hall will be acquired/earned, or when it will become available. We’re still hoping for a Halas Tier 1 guild hall. Most smaller guilds only need a 5 room, and Halas has a beautiful exterior and great overall appearance. Read More
So this one ALMOST took me, but fortunately I read through the thread further and realized it was not posted by a developer or sourced from any official post. Originally entitled “PvP Update Notes for March 25, 2014“, a player named Xray started a thread laying out an extensive series of changes — some minor, some drastic rule changes — to the PvP-only Nagafen server which would completely change how the server works, and more importantly, make PvP relevant enough that players might come back. I won’t quote the entire bullet point manifesto, but it’s a captivating read if...
From the EQ2 Forums: All EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on March 20th, 2014 at 7:00 AM PDT for an update. The expected downtime is approximately two hours. WEEKLY FEATURE Two new Heritage Quests are now available for players to pursue: Speak to Loremaster Dorondal in icy Thurgadin. He has many treasures to offer, and among the most valuable lies Zlandicar’s Heart. If you can find what he’s looking for, the Heart will be yours! High among the cliffs of Steamfont, a gnome sits, wondering at his fate. Unable to descend the sheer rock wall, he puts pen...
Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, along with the producers for EverQuest, EverQuest II, and EverQuest Next/EverQuest Next Landmark have all given updates on what’s coming this March and a peek into April. At the 1:35 mark, Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, Senior Producer for EQ2 gives a quick recap on the new content cycle, what we’ve seen, and what’s to come. A bullet point summary after the jump…
From the EQ2 Forums: All EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on March 11th, 2014 at 7:00 AM Pacific Time for an update. The expected downtime is approximately two hour. Time Zone Conversions PDT: March 11 @ 7:00am ~ 9:00am EDT: March 11 @ 10:00am ~ Noon GMT: March 11 @ 14:00 ~ 16:00 CET: March 11 @ 15:00 ~ 17:00 AEST: March 12 @ 12:01am ~ 2:00am From the EQ2 Forums: WEEKLY FEATURE Weapon Damage Bonus and Spell Weapon Damage Bonus are now displayed under the Autoattack category in the character sheet window. Max Health % is now...
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed an issue where gaining AA experience could display an invalid message. Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Edifice Spirit of Malice adds in the Zlandicar encounter should no longer hit players once for each player they hit with their “Bone Slice” spell.
From the EQ2 Forums: All EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on March 4th, 2014 at 7:00 AM Pacific Time for an update. The expected downtime is approximately two hour. Time Zone Conversions PST: March 4 @ 7:00am ~ 9:00am EST: March 4 @ 9:00am ~ 11:00am GMT: March 4 @ 15:00 ~ 17:00 CET: March 4 @ 16:00 ~ 18:00 AEST: March 5 @ 12:01am ~ 2:00am Here are the update notes: WEEKLY FEATURE Channelers can now be made Heroic! Brewday event begins March 6th!
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter: In homage to EQ and its 15th anniversary, 2 Heritage quests launch later this month for the Hero Bracer & Zlandicar’s Heart! #eq2 #eq — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) March 3, 2014 Also, it looks like further down the road, another heritage quest will be coming — Rainmare. A preliminary version of the quest (called “Past is Prologue”) slipped out to the Test and Live servers before it was ready and players didn’t take long in finding it. Kaitheel posted that the quest is still in development and will appear later on.
Since EQ2 is going to have weekly updates going forward, we might as well get an acronym going for it. So… This Week In Norrath, we can expect: This week Lvl. 85 Heroic Channelers are coming as well as bug fixes! Brew Day, Chronoportal, and Bristlebane Day holidays in March too! #eq2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) March 2, 2014
From EQ2’s new community manager Luperza: The US EverQuest 2 Servers will come down on February 27th, 2014 at 7:00 AM Pacific Time for an update. The expected downtime is approximately one hour. EU servers will come down beginning at 9:00 PM PT (6:00 AM CET February 27th, 2014) for the same update. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 2 hours. JP servers will come down beginning at 5:00 PM PT (10:00 AM JST February 28th, 2014) for the same update. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 2 hours. And no I didn’t add all those time zones. They...
Oh hey, there was an update today. A big one for PvPers. Got some personal stuff going on but will be back to 100% soon enough. From the EQ2 Forums: WEEKLY FEATURE – NEW TUNARIA WARZONE This PvP server contested zone is accessed by right-clicking the discord portal from any city zone, the same portal that is used to access champion’s respite/battleground servers. Zone information New Tunaria Warzone has been set to have around 36 players, any more then that and it will spin up another copy of the zone and new players will be placed there. Upon entering...
From the EQ2 Forums: WEEKLY FEATURE Loyalty Merchant Noble Tark Validus has a new item to assist gold members who wish to change their city alignment or betray their adventure profession. Noble Toowik Mclure has new adventuring equipment available for sale. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION The Fabled Halls of Fate Knockbacks should occur much less frequently. Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Ediface [Raid] Corrected a bug in the Pyrelord and Controller fight in which the same target was selected every time for the red and blue ground AEs. Targets are now selected randomly, as intended. TRADESKILLS All Player crafted Round...
From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale on Twitter: This week’s weekly update (tomorrow) includes the Oakmyst prestige home that players voted for last year! Bug fixes too! #eq2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) February 18, 2014 Also with tomorrow’s update there’s several new Gold member-only Loyalty Merchant items, including a Betrayal token and equipment. #EQ2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) February 18, 2014
SOE is having a companywide maintenance tomorrow. Here’s the announcement from the EQ2 Forums: Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 3:00 AM Pacific* on February 18, 2014. This maintenance is expected to last 4 hours. This will impact the following services: Account management, which includes logging into our websites, submitting, updating, or viewing Support Tickets. Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces. Forums will remain open during the downtime however you may lose permissions and experience occasional disconnects. Login for our games MAY be affected. Time Zone Conversions PST: Feb 18 @ 3:00am ~ 7:00am...
From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Fabled Laboratory of Lord Vyemm Fanning the Flames should no longer hit quite as hard when hitting 24 players. PVP PvP charms can once again be used within PvP zones.