Feldon
Rothgar has posted some additional thoughts and clarifications about the new User Interface facelift for EQ2 in Game Update 57 on the EQ2 Forums. After the jump…
Game Updates & Maintenance
Early birds trying out Game Update 57 on the Test and Test Copy servers have encountered an intriguing error message when they try to purchase something from the Broker. (don’t be alarmed by my ProfitUI broker window, it’s the message in the lower right that is worth a second look): You must upgrade to at least a Gold membership in order to purchase items from the broker.
Game Update 57 is now up on the Test and Test Copy Servers and we’ve got the Update Notes. We’ve already taken some new screen shots of the new default interface including the new pictorial tutorials for new players. User Interface – One of the touted features of Game Update 57 is the revamped User Interface. The Persona and Inventory windows have been merged into a Character window. The XP bar has become a sort of “dock” at the bottom of your screen. All buttons and window corners have been rounded off. And for the most part, everything that...
Breaking News from the SOE Block Party. Reporting by Serianna. a big hint about larger item limit in houses, possibly from being able to use a 2nd expander. new zone is going to be a guk zone. possibly going to see a differentation in the lower guild halls (halas to look more like the halas housing etc) but still in way early stages on that. not green lighted but devs pushing for it. new crafting quests in mid teirs. some big announcement coming tuesday from smokejumper. also talk about making BGs more dynamic. traps, levers, movable objects etc. with...
Although most of what we’ve been hearing from Rothgar over the last year has been closely tied to sorting out Battlegrounds, addressing Server Lag and Performance, and directing Server Upgrades, one of his big passions has been to upgrade the default EQ2 User Interface. So far, the coolest news about Game Update 57 has been that it will include a pretty substantial polishing up of the default UI. Today, Rothgar has posted some tantalizing details of just what we can expect. And if you will be attending the SOE Block Party (if you will be at Comic-Con, there will...
Xelgad has been paying close attention to feedback on his Guardians: Requesting Feedback thread on the EQ2 Forums. His response to this feedback includes some additional tweaks we might see as a result of ideas submitted by players. These changes are expected after Game Update 57. You can read his comments after the jump…
From SOE-Rothgar on EQ2Interface: Rest up because you’re most likely going to have a lot of work to do when GU57 hits test server in just over a week! I can’t go into a lot of detail right now, but we’ve made some pretty big UI changes for 57. The default UI is getting a re-skin and many windows have been modified. We’ll post more when we can. This was posted on July 16th, so that would put Game Update 57 onto Test as early as the end of this week.
Here are your brief Update Notes for July 20th, 2010: ITEMS The Skinbreach Silk Cord should now have resists. Band of the Corrupter should now also proc 75 Agility. Icy Keep: Many of Vrewwx’s Drops from the Challenge Mode have been adjusted to be more in line with the Difficulty. UNDERFOOT DEPTHS Vaclaz and Vaclaz Released: Non-Priests are now given precedence when choosing who will receive keen insight in order to disrupt the roekillik energymaster adds. A priest will only be chosen for this task if there are no other raid members available.
This week’s rollup post includes news about Antonia Bayle server upgrades, some out-of-whack procs, and further speculation about Free-to-Play (F2P). After the jump…
Xelgad has taken another measured step towards collecting player feedback. Last month, it was a shoutout for Top End Guilds to post some of their highest parses. Today’s request appears to be some light finally being shone on guardians after nearly 2 years at the lower middle of the “fighter” pack in tanking ability. Greetings Guardians! First off, allow me say that we understand that the class is being outshined at the moment, and we’re working on it. It’s going to take more than just one change to get Guardians back to working as a strong class again. I’m...
We’ve got Today’s Hotfix Notes straight from the Patcher for you. They include the aforementioned changes to various instances in Desert of Flames and Kingdom of Sky, some itemization fixes, and tweaks to raid mobs in Underfoot Depths and Icy Keep.
From the EQ2 Forums: The US servers will come down on July 14, 2010, at 7am PDT for a hotfix. The Update Notes will be posted in the Update Notes forum when available. Runnyeye and Splitpaw will be patched at 9pm PDT (4am GMT) on July 14, 2010.
Oh hey, we had a hotfix! The July 7, 2010 Update Notes include several fixes to raid targets and live events. After the jump…
The Icy Keep (an easy x4 raid zone added in Game Update 56) seems to have taken its place as this expansion’s Ward of Elements. We’ve received reports that, with the exception of the final boss, this zone is appropriate for raid groups of as few as 11 players seeking to gear up and work their way into more difficult raiding. There have been some issues with later bosses which Gninja has just submitted some fixes for: [I’ve] just checked in a fix that cleans up the Vrewwx fight as well as fixed the respawn points. Now once you...
Today’s hotfix included some additional lag fixes. Here’s Rothgar: With this morning’s update we made a fundamental change to how our zone servers throttle their frame rate. Our hope is that this change will allow busier processes to consume more of the server resources and increase performance (reduce lag). Whether or not this change has a noticeable impact will depend on many variables that can only be observed in the live environment and under a significant load. We’ll be watching things on our end as we ramp up to primetime tonight but I’m also looking for your feedback as...
From the EQ2 Forums: The US servers will come down on June 29, 2010, at 7am PDT for a hotfix. Runnyeye and Splitpaw will be patched at the usual 9pm PDT (4 am GMT on June 16, 2010, provided that Kiara’s gnomish time zone converterizer didn’t lie).
From the EQ2 Forums: Starting at 4:45am PDT on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, the Guk, Najena and Blackburrow servers will come down for an estimated 5 1/2-hour downtime, expected to be online again around 9:15am PDT. During this time the servers will be undergoing maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience. If any additional downtime is needed, we will update this post accordingly.
Due to the streamlining of spells and combat arts from levels 1-20, specifically several changes to fighter spells and arts, Fighter classes are finding it difficult or impossible to complete Heroic Opportunities. Game Update 57 will see some changes to fighter classes to resolve this issue. From Xelgad on the EQ2 Forums: Fighter heroic opportunities have been changed from requiring a taunt to complete them to requiring a ‘Fist’ icon to complete them. Paladins and Shadowknights should soon see that one of their primary spells is now a Fist rather than a sword (Judgment and Malice) and Berserkers will...
On Friday June 4th, 2010, Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) made news by announcing that the entire game was going to a Free-to-Play (F2P) model. Players can maintain a subscription, and receive most of the game and game items, but they’ll need to spend real money to get access to new items which appear on their marketplace. This begged the question of whether other games such as EverQuest, EverQuest II, or World of Warcraft would move to a F2P model, and if they did so, whether it would be gamewide or if we would see the addition of...
Game Update 57 could be a big update, based on some notes already posted in the Test forum, and hints of other changes coming down the wire. The biggest change thus far is the removal of certain group spells from the various player classes from levels 1-20. Because level 1-20, and especially levels 1-10 are considered solo play, those spells which are only useful in groups are being postponed to later levels. From Rothgar: These changes are PART (notice the emphasis on the word “part”) of a bigger change that wasn’t fully rolled out to the Test Server. As...
Imago-Quem continues to work nose-to-the-grindstone on Shaders 3.0, improving not only the look, but the performance. A month’s worth of tweaks to Shaders 3.0 since Game Update 56 are now on Test. These improvements fix tons of issues with objects being too dark, too shiny, or just the wrong color. From SmokeJumper: Shader 3.0 optimizations! Shader 3.0 is now way faster than it used to be. In most cases, it will outstrip Shader 1.0 by 10 fps or more. Very cool. (Okay, we snuck this one out already, but I’m talking about it now because we never really said...
Ten Ton Hammer interviewed Dave Georgeson at E3. It’s very difficult to follow the interview, since it’s not clear whose comments are Georgeson’s and whose comments are those of the interviewer. But nonetheless, it’s worth a read. Hopefully they’ll post the video soon. Meanwhile Stratics (which recently merged with TGN) has posted a video of their own interview with Dave Georgeson.
Here are your June 22, 2010 Update Notes: DRUID RING EVENT The druid rings in Feerrott and Loping Plains are now safe destinations for newbies to zone in. Kurista, Elwe, Dalarim and Tolla Clorto no longer change appearances every time they zone. The Defender of Growth guards are now much more powerful, to better protect the druid rings. A couple harvest nodes near the Stonebrunt Highlands druid ring were left floating when the terrain was adjusted. This has been fixed. PVP WARFIELDS Antonica will once again broadcast the call to arms. PVP ITEMS Fallen Foe Charms can now be...
Dethdlr
Ever walk up to the teleporter in Paineel and accidentally click it instead of right click it? Did you enjoy your trip to the Airship docks when you did? Neither did I. Tagwen of Mistmoore decided to post about it on the EQ2Forums: PLEASE PLEASE.. I’m so tired of right clicking it or accidentally going to the airship.. the launchpad is used 1000% time more often than people go to the airship… After a couple posts of support for this change, Gninja wrote this: I will look into changing this. Woot! Looks like soon the default will be where people want...
EQ2 Servers will be coming down tomorrow morning at their usual time for the Tuesday hotfix. After the jump, check out the Hotfix notes for June 15, 2010: