Feldon
In today’s update for June 13, 2012, EQ2 finally ditches its ancient Mozilla web browser in favor of the Awesomium browser, powered by Webkit (Safari/Chrome). EVE Online recently adopted this browser. This should resolve numerous problems with viewing complex websites in the in-game browser. Armor distribution in Skyshrine zones have been rebalanced to match group/raid distribution. Some Skyshrine group mobs will start dropping Primal Velium Shards, while Skyshrine raid encounters will hand out Pure Primal Velium Shards. And finally, today marks the introduction of Quest Target Icons. If you enable this setting, you will be able to see an...
Game Updates & Maintenance
We didn’t get a Game Update this week, partly due to E3, but we can now look ahead to Test to what’s coming next week. Highlights from the Test Update Notes on the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Withered Lands Named within Withered Lands should all respawn correctly now. Challenge Mode Raid NPC?s (x4 epic) Challenge mode raid NPC’s have had their max health reduced.
While they aren’t glamorous, Content and Itemization are the meat and potatoes of the modern MMO. The thankless job of adding and maintaining these core items may not elicit splashy E3 announcements or garner press attention, but neglect them for a moment, and players will arrive at your gates brandishing pitchforks. Players have been unable to ignore the skewed armor distribution of Skyshrine. In particular, the new solo, group, and raid zones all seem to heavily slant towards priests and fighters. Normally we would be able to confirm this data using Zam’s drop information statistics which they periodically receive...
From Massively: Roleplaying is the red-headed stepchild of MMO design considerations these days, but at least one studio hasn’t forgotten immersion enthusiasts. Sony Online Entertainment has announced a new EverQuest II feature called SOEmote which converts your webcam input into avatar facial expressions. The suite also gives users the option to modulate their voice to something appropriate for their character. “Any game that calls itself a roleplaying game absolutely needs this feature. For other games, it’s just a really good idea that your players will want. Pick a character. Pick a class. And then be that character instead of...
It seems that the laundry list of bugs which arrived with the untested Poet’s Palace Dungeon Maker layout has gotten some attention. Brasse made this post on the EQ2 Forums: First off, thank you for all the detailed /bug reports, and Cyliena’s excellent summary. These have been invaluable for our Dev Team, and the epitome of constructive feedback. Simply telling us we suck, on the other hand, is not particularly helpful. =P Sorry for not posting earlier, but the EQII Devs have been actively looking into these issues since Piestro and I got into office this morning, diligently examining...
Here are your update notes for today, Wednesday May 30, 2012: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Skyshrine All Solo instances in Skyshrine are now a 90 minute lock out, same as heroic instances. ACHIEVEMENTS The achievements “Rallos’ Chosen” and “Vindicator Soren’s Demise” should now update for all members of the raid force that kills him regardless of range. This change should also be retroactive if you have ever defeated him and were not awarded the achievement. ITEMS Dozekar’s Head is no longer lore.
Coinciding with the launch of Game Update 63 was the introduction of the Poet’s Palace ‘Dungeon Maker’ layout. Much to the consternation of testers, this layout went straight to the live servers without any player testing. The end result, is over a dozen moderate-to-severe bugs which make using this dungeon layout challenging for designers and hazardous to adventurers. As this dungeon layout is the key to a contest to drum up interest in the lacklustre Dungeon Maker feature, it’s hard not to see this as another stumble towards player-made content. Cyliena has posted a detailed thread discussing these issues...
The ‘Future of EverQuest II’ webcast has concluded, and we have been left with more questions than answers. The webcast at a glance: the Qeynos Revamp a hint of the Sleeper’s Tomb (GU65) and Kerafyrm (2013) the next Expansion (December?) — more levels, more Prestige Points, includes a totally new area of Norrath rather than revisiting a part of the original EverQuest Play-as-your-Character in Dungeon Maker (using a feature called Level Agnostic Dungeons) On-the-Fly Beta Testing using Quest Items from your Quest Journal instead of fishing around in your inventory the Scope of the Marketplace (even the EQ2 team...
As we first posted here, at long last, an Autoattack setting is being added to EQ2. This will benefit some Mages (Enchanters in particular) and virtually all Priests (Druids, Clerics, and Shamans) whose Alternate Advancement lines heavily favor Melee autoattacks. With this change, players will now be able to equip either Symbols or the newish Focus Ranged “Wand” items and still prefer Melee combat and its inherent benefits. Oh, and Rangers will now be able to set Ranged attacks at all times without the use of kludgy macros. Yay! Autoattack Setting available in the Character/Persona window under Options. Here...
In the waning days of May, while we anxiously await the delivery of those May Update Plans, there’s word of an upcoming Webcast tomorrow afternoon/evening with the lofty title “the Future of EverQuest II“. I think we can expect some hints of the upcoming Qeynos Revamp in August, with maybe a screenshot or two, followed by some hints of the November (or December) expansion and/or Game Update. The EQ2 team have played their cards awfully close to the chest since Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson‘s installation as EQ2 Senior Producer and subsequent elevation to EverQuest Franchise Executive Producer, and more recently...
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed a bug where some characters were unable to use free respecs on the prestige tree. DUNGEON MAKER Fixed a bug where some dungeons would be listed in the incorrect category. Dungeons that are already published should automatically get changed to the proper category without having to republish them. QUESTS The Fallen Swords: Endgame: Rewards have been upgraded. Withered Lands For the quest “A Helping Hand”, if the correct creatures are hunted / killed but the scouts do not help, you should now get a different message than if the scouts were to help...
Dethdlr
Here are your update notes for Thursday, 17 May 2012: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Mount drops in the Underdepths and Betrayal in the Underdepths have been made less rare. Dracur Prime: Sevalak Awakened Sargon the Destructor text messages won’t go to the entire raid anymore, just the person about to be cast upon. The duration of the red text messages has been shortened. Dracur Prime: Vyskudra the Ancient The player who slays an energized storm elemental and those closest to the slayer will receive the Elemental Storm Energy Buff. The Elemental Stormstrike buff will no longer generate hate taunting...
Some exciting news for players who have been wanting a setting for Autoattack during combat in EQ2! On the Test server, a new option has been added to the Character/Persona/Inventory window under the Options panel: This option should allow Rangers to set “Forced Ranged” and never need to use kludgy macros to ensure they are always doing ranged autoattacks. A ranger never wants to be doing melee autoattacks and we have relied on macros with the command /auto 2 for years. Further, this will be a sigh of relief to Mages and Priests who will now be able to...
Here are your Update Notes for Tuesday, May 15, 2012 from the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Skyshrine: The City of Dracur Malicor Kehrn will no longer fight his partner in crime Nefari Kwol. PLAYER HOUSING The Vale of Halfpint Delight door will now display the correct destination.
From EverQuest2.com: Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 6:00 AM Pacific* on May 15, 2012. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 90 minutes. This will impact the following services: Login for all our games will be affected Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces will be unavailable Forums will be read-only Account management will be unavailable We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed. Time Zone Conversions PDT: May 15 @ 6:00 ~ 7:30am EDT: May 15 @ 9:00 ~ 10:30am BST: May 15...
Here are your updates for May 10, 2012. The quest All You Need is Time in Withered Lands should now be fixed as well as the ratio of Tier 10 precious metal rares. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Withered Lands Hexapola: players outside the raid should no longer cause the raid to reset if they agro raid insects. Skyshrine x4 raid zones, challenge mode Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spam messages about reckless adds unless an add actually spawns due to the Time Vortex Curse. Belkreiz Blazeclaw will no longer spawn Ancient Dracurian Seer’s if there are already 3 or...
From EverQuest2.com: We made it! Whew! The Skyshrine Game Update went live and was well tested thanks to the community at large as well as the internal teams. We are all really proud of it and it seems like a good bunch of you are enjoying it too. While we are still watching Skyshrine and responding to any issues that come up, we are obviously marching onward to our next big projects. Also, as we’ve said many times, we are looking at the existing game and how to make improvements to what we have. We’ve jotted down a few...
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed a client crash that could happen when trying to examine an item in certain situations. Skyshrine: the Claws of Veeshan faction will now be in the Destiny of Velious category along with all other DoV factions.
For two weeks, dozens of Guild Rally Flags and AFK players have adorned the central hub of the City of Skyshrine on each EQ2 server. It looks like that is about to change. From the EQ2 Test Update Notes: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Skyshrine : The Forbidden City of Dracur A Pennant of Skyshrine Loyalty can now be purchased from the Skyshrine City faction merchant once you have earned enough faction with the Claws of Veeshan. This pennant will allow you to return to Skyshrine from any house or guildhall. Yet another reason to gain +50,000 Faction with the...
Today’s update notes exclude any fixes for the top Game Update 63 issues. From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed a bug where some characters would not be able to use a free respec on the tradeskill tree. Fixed a bug where F1 would not toggle between a beastlord player and his summoned warder if he had a different warder selected in his character window. PLAYER HOUSING Prestige Home: Storm Tower Isle A weather controller has been added to the home (the carving adjacent to the front door). The zone will always default to a thunderstorm, but now you may...
If you’ve bumped into those three new mercenaries in the old Skyshrine city who just won’t give you the time of day, Gninja has some spoilers for you: The [elite mercenaries] in Skyshrine require a “Key” which you get access to after you have completed the heroic questlines. Through those same questlines, you get a portal to appear in the contested (near the solo zone entrance portal) that will take you back to the city back in time at will. UPDATE: We have some first-hand player notes from Techno: There are 3 “elite” mercenaries in Skyshrine, Inquisitor, Monk (uses...
Continuing a disconcerting trend, SOE Login servers are again having trouble accepting user logins to SOE games including EverQuest 2. From Piestro on the EverQuest2 Facebook page: We’re addressing an issue affecting all game logins now. Sorry for the delay, we’ll have it fixed shortly. The EQ2 Forums are also predictably running slow and throwing random errors. It seems that the SOE infrastructure is literally crumbling before our eyes.
From the EQ2 Forums: ITEMS Scaling dungeons from The Shadow Odyssey expansion should now be dropping loot if the player is level 91+. The charm rewards for “The Path of the Crusaders” should now be in line with comparable quest rewards, and have stats that are more appropriate. Fixed a bug where Dozekar’s head would not convert to currency properly. Fixed a bug that could cause the focus effect for scout legs to stop working. QUESTS Skyshrine: The City of Dracur The quests “Disc of Binding Ruined”, “Temporal Gem Hunt”, and “Final Item for Jorlak” should now appropriately reward...
Barx of Antonia Bayle stumbled onto a quest while browsing their EQ2 Achievements window and confirmed its existence by finding a house item from the Claws of Veeshan faction merchant (in the pre-conflict City of Skyshrine) which is not for sale except to those who have completed said quest. This quest (“Dreadscale Invasion of Dracur Prime“) is mentioned in a quest achievement as being an open quest (PQ?) and is also required to unlock a furniture item at the CoV faction armorer but despite having completed the entire instanced heroic questline I’ve not seen any evidence of it. Google...
EQ2Wire’s Guide to Game Update 63: Skyshrine has been updated as of April 24th with clarifications and additional information about the Skyshrine heroic access quests, Skyshrine group content, the Flying Drake Mount, Claws of Veeshan faction, and Elite Tradeskill Assistants.