Feldon
So we’ve just posted our transcript of last night’s Freeport Revamp webcast. If you don’t want to read the whole thing and just want the top five items you should know, here you go: 5 You will not be able to fly/leap/glide in Freeport. This is something that was promised by SmokeJumper at this year’s Fan Faire before the art team had put in the development hours. They found that framerates were absolutely abysmal if you were able to fly, leap, glide, etc. 4 You will not be able to start characters in Freeport. The revamped Freeport provides a...
Game Updates & Maintenance
Last night’s SOE Community Webcast talked about EverQuest II’s Freeport Revamp. Present were Linda “Brasse” Carlson, Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (EQ2 Lead Designer), Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall (Designer), Jonathan “Prathun” Caraker (Designer), with Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson (EverQuest franchise Executive Producer). And here’s a transcript of most of the Webcast:
Axe
From RadarX at 8:48 Pacific, 11/3/11 on the EQ2 Forums: We are currently investigating login issues with Launchpad and apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience as we resolve the problem. UPDATE: This issue was resolved approximately 30 minutes after the above status post.
Tuesday’s update seems to have disabled the 48 hour grace period for trading loot/items between the members of a group or raid. This change was pushed straight to Live with no testing. And now it may be that the reasoning for this “fix” was to stop a low-priority “exploit”. From Crismorn of Nagafen: SoE tried to fix Contested Kael quest pieces from being traded between group members and thought it was so important and such a huge issue that breaking the entire ability to trade any type of dropped loot would be an acceptable loss, or they [did] just...
Thursday, November 3, 2011 brings a new Webcast about the upcoming Game Update 62, specifically the Freeport revamp. If you have a Facebook account, you can Submit Questions for this Webcast by posting here. Those of us who refuse to get a Facebook account can apparently pound sand. 😉 From EverQuest2.com: Host Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Director, Global Community Relations) will interview Jonathan “Prathun” Caraker (EQ2 Game Designer) and Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (EQ2 Lead Designer) and learn all about the upcoming changes to Freeport. Are you wondering what this historic city will look like, what new quests are on the...
From EverQuest2.com: With the Everquest II: Age of Discovery expansion just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to give players the inside scoop on what exactly is going on with the Freeport re-design. EverQuest II Community Relations Manager, Jennifer “Isulith” Bridges got the chance to sit down with Timothy Heydelaar, Senior Artist for EverQuest II. He was able to give a great overview of what to expect and why the changes to Freeport were made. … The Freeport City revamp is coming winter 2011 with Game Update 62, which is coming out at the same time as the...
From EverQuest2.com: We will perform maintenance on all games and services beginning at 4:00 a.m. US Pacific Time on November 1, 2011. You may experience the following: Logins for all games, websites, and forums may be unavailable between 4:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. US Pacific Time. Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces, may be unavailable between 4:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. US Pacific Time. We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed. This maintenance window corresponds to 11:00-13:00 GMT or 12:00-14:00 CET.
From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Strategist’s Stronghold Severed Windpipe is now curable. Tallon’s Stronghold [Non-Challenge mode] During the Tallon Zek fight Decorin Deahbringer will cast Deathbringer’s Touch and Impending doom less frequently. Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge mode] During the Lieutenant Klaatuus fight the aviak trooper adds have less health, no longer memwipe, and will always spawn at the bosses feet. Vallon’s Tower [Challenge Mode] During the Gindan Commander Angler fight the Diaku Deceptors will wait a while before casting their stunning strike spell. Kael Drakkel All dropped quest items that were previously flagged no-trade now consume the...
Dethdlr
From the EQ2Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Temple of Rallos Zek [Challenge] Bosses should no longer get double buff packages. Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge] During the Statue of Rallos Zek fight the automatons of escalation have reduced abilities and should be easier to handle. The statue itself will wait much longer after its final text before it activates retaliation. Sullon’s Spire [Non-Challenge Mode] Hragdold the Frenzied: Ironclaw Priests now heal for less. Clawstorm mana drain is lessened, and it’s not cast quite so often. Spire of Rage Spells that the Sullonites use now have longer...
From the EQ2 Forums: BATTLEGROUNDS Fixed an issue with queuing for a battleground as a group.
From the EQ2 Forums: DUNGEON FINDER Dungeons are now broken into categories. If a player declines a DF offer, they must wait 15 minutes before they can queue again. The dungeon finder will now give an indication of how many players of each archetype are queued for each dungeon. Any member of the group can now set group options, but everyone in the group must vote on the changes before they apply. LIVE EVENTS Nights of the Dead The headless Horseman should once again be patrolling Nektulos Forest. An Essence of Fear and an Eerie Essence are now being...
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums: Hey, folks, We’ve listened to feedback and there were four areas we agreed needed to be improved to make the feature more useful. Below the list of those four major improvements: 1) The problem: People were joining the DF queue as “Random” and then declining group after group until they got the dungeon they wanted. The solution: If you queue and then receive a group invite…and then decline it…you will then suffer a 15-minute time penalty before you can re-queue again. This solution has no effect on people using the DF normally, but...
Here are your update notes for today, October 12, 2011: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION All Drunder x4 raid zones Sullon’s Spire, Tallon’s Stronghold, and Vallon’s Tower: The named boss NPCs do less damage and have slightly lower health. Tallon’s Stronghold x4 raid zone [non-challenge] The banners that spawn during the Tyrax Terrolus fight now have less health.
With today’s update, the entirely optional Beastlord Prelude #2 quest goes live. It provides an explanation for where Beastlords have been and why they’re now returning to Norrath. Don’t worry — whether you complete these brief lore quests or not, anyone who purchases the EverQuest II: Age of Discovery expansion (when it goes on sale) will be able to create new Beastlords in November. More controversial in today’s update is the removal of any “shard” cost from Thurgadin and Ry’Gorr armor. You can expect crafters to be exceedingly busy today as they fulfill orders for full sets of Thurgadin...
This week we’ve seen the introduction of the Dungeon Finder, and what may be the end of “Shards” (Void Shards, Marks of Manaar, and Primal Velium Shards), at least for acquiring sets of armor. Primal Velium Shards First, let’s tackle the removal of Primal Velium Shards from the “shard armor” equation. The EQ2 team continues the minimalist approach to discussing and announcing mechanics changes, with this reactionary explanation from Gninja: The Thurgadin, Ry’gorr, and Drunder armor sets are direct upgrades to each other. They should scale in difficulty to obtain and that difficulty was off. That was one of...
Here are your Update Notes for Friday, October 7, 2011: DUNGEON FINDER You will no longer lose infamy (a PvP stat) when joining a dungeon finder group. The dungeon Cauldron Hollow should now be listed as a 30-40 dungeon instead of 30-45. Meanwhile on the Test and Test Copy servers, a new feature which will help with Dungeon Finder: Sentinel’s Fate and Destiny of Velious dungeons now have mission givers located within the entrance of the zones.
EQ2Wire wants to know… Will you use the Dungeon Finder? Will your friends? Take the reader survey and we’ll publish the anonymous results soon!
From EverQuest2.com: You asked for it – we delivered! The Dungeon Finder matchmaking system for EverQuest II is finally here! No longer will you have to scour the Looking for Group, Trade, or Auction channels to find a dungeon group. We’ve developed an amazing tool that does the work for you. All you need is to come prepared with your best adventuring outfit and rations.
Tomorrow’s Update brings us a positively reviewed revamp to the Troubador class, as well as a nerf rebalancing of the Dirge mythical effect. However the biggest feature in Thursday’s patch is the widely anticipated Dungeon Finder group-forming tool. Dungeon Finder will be isolated to each server at first, becoming cross-server at some point in the future. This update does not include the controversial removal of Primal Velium Shards from heroic armor. That change will likely go in next week.
From EverQuest2.com: Beginning October 6, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. US Pacific login for all servers, subscription and commerce services will be unavailable for maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately an hour and a half. This may also cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.
Are you spending much time in Kael Drakkel? Drunder? Elements of War? That’s ok, neither are most other people. EQ2 has a storied history of challenging dungeons. Players who have been around since the Fallen Dynasty fondly recall Nizara for its breathtaking challenge. Echoes of Faydwer delivered the instant classic Estate of Unrest. Kunark followed up with the mid-summer release of Veksar 2 and Runnyeye 2 (both forerunners of so-called Hard Mode zones). The Shadow Odyssey had a pair of zingers — Ruins of Guk and the Palace of Ferzhul. However no EverQuest II expansion has played host to...
Today’s update removes the need for Critical Mitigation from Velious overland zones, as well as Kael Drakkel: Throne of Storms and the Temple of Rallos Zek (non-challenge). From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Sullon, Tallon and Vallon x4 raid zones (challenge versions) Many of the adds in the boss encounters now have reduced health. Sullon, Tallon and Vallon x4 raid zones (non-challenge versions) In the non-challenge instances of these raid zones NPC bosses now have less health and do somewhat less damage with their melee attacks and spells. Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge] The...
Reversing yesterday’s odd changes to the Zek and Drunder Breastplates, here Today’s Update Notes for September 28, 2011: ITEMS Temple of Rallos Zek non-challenge BP mitigation values should be fixed. Temple of Rallos Zek non-challenge BP crit mit should be at 34%. Talisman of the Ethernauts should work for real this time. Fixed crit mit values on Elements of War caster legs and forearms. Fixed the stats on the Feinting Dagger of the Cunning Gambit and Feinting Blade of the Cunning Gambit.
Yesterday, Test received an update with these auspicious line items: Kael and Drunder group BPs have been modified to better fit within the progression. Temple of Rallos Zek Raid Hard mode BPs have had their power increased. The result of these changes, however, has been less than desirable. The Mitigation (not crit mit, but the basic mitigation) of all the Breastplates (Robes, Cuirassen, Hauberks, Gis, Tunics, etc.) from Kael Drakkel: Fortress Spire and Drunder: Tower of Tactics has been reduced by over 90%.
From the EQ2 Forums: Beginning September 29, 2011 at 6:00 a.m. PDT subscription and commerce services will be unavailable for maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately two and half hours. This may also cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete. We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed. Time Zone Calculations: PDT: September 29, 2011 at 6:00~8:30...