Feldon
Any software update is going to bring bugs. Laryngitis I just wish SoE hadn’t tried to completely revamp the voice system on the same day as all this new content was added. Last night we spent most of time just fiddling around with voice, trying to get it clear and stable. Mostly it was choppy, stuttery, laggy, and folks had a tough time joining channels. We also had to inform a few folks running Windows Firewall that they would need to allow Eq2VoiceService.exe. This service was spun off from the EQ2 client to allow voice chat outside the game...
Game Updates & Maintenance
A week without news, some of you might be getting jittery. 🙂 GU52 is still on Test, getting nipped, tucked, and tested out. I believe they are on track to get it onto live servers perhaps as early as June 16th (my estimate, arrived using my advanced degree in EQ2ology). I know they really wanted it to be on Live before Fan Faire. I’ve already documented the broad strokes of Gu52 in my earlier posts. If you haven’t seen a preview of player made Books, upgraded Hex Dolls and Ranged Weapons, or new furniture coming to EQ2, check out...
One of the biggest complaints about the otherwise fantastic Ward of Elements x2 raid zone is that by upgrading a few pieces of armor to T3, fighters and mages lost huge 5-piece bonuses from their T2 armor. An undocumented fix in GU52 is that these bonuses are now distributed over the set bonuses in such a way that 3 pieces of T2 and 3 pieces of T3 will yield a similar bonus to having 5 pieces of T2. This is fantastic news, as it seemed this would be a long-term fix based on the Zam devchat. Glad they could...
For your viewing pleasure if you have not yet been able to make it over to the Test Servers, look what washed up on the northern shores of Fens of Nathsar not 500 yards from our old friend the Tangrin… It is unexpected to see humans, halflings, giants, and ratonga working so closely together. What could their mission be? Note also that this is not just a temporary event, but that it will persist into the next expansion. Whether we should read further into that is a question that I just don’t have enough information to know the answer...
Here are the notes for GU52 which has now appeared on Test. It is unknown exactly when these changes will go live. FEATURED Charasis: Emperor’s Athenaeum The Order of Rime has managed to re-open this ancient vault of Venril Sathir’s. What secrets lie within? What terrible guardians? Venture in with a single group of adventurers to find out what awaits! Kunark Overland Quests A mysterious army has appeared upon the shores of Kunark and begun pillaging the land and slaughtering those that oppose them. Citizens of Dreg’s Landing in Kylong Plains, Riliss in Fens of Nathsar, the City of...
We’re hearing from EQ2’s new Senior Producer Brenlo that GU52 (Kurn’s Tower BTV, Kurn’s Tower x2, and CEA) will not hit Test and Test Copy until at least Tuesday, May 26th. It is unknown if this will push back the internal estimates of seeing GU52 on Live ‘several weeks’ before Fan Faire.
Check out this preview at EQ2Players which includes additional photos and gives more info on the difficulty of Kurn’s Tower: Breaching the Void (the group zone).
ITEMS Death Chimes will now work correctly. Ill Will now properly applies the heal to the owner of the item. PALACE OF THE ANCIENT ONE Pets should now be able to attack the Void Annihilator. QUESTS Boss mobs should now drop multiple keys for early progression in Veksar: The Invasion. Innate spells used by much of the population in Veksar: The Invasion can no longer be used towards other creatures within the zone. YKESHA’S INNER STRONGHOLD The Archmagus now banishes players less frequently than before. Field General Uktap’s Sappers now take longer to set explosive charges, and do not...
Ok, actually it’s Game Update 52: Monument and Might. GAME FEATURES Player-written books Research Assistants Spell Naming Conventions — As spells upgrade through tiers rather than entirely new names, each subsequent spell will have a roman numeral increment afterwards. For instance Ice Comet and Ice Comet II. Rather than Apprentice I, II, IV, Adept I, Adept III, and Master I, Master II, spells will progress such as Apprentice, Journeyman, Adept, Master, Grandmaster, etc. The end result of this will be spell names such as Ice Comet II (Adept). Level 80 characters currently have their Combat XP converted into Achievement...
ITEMS The Bane Warding line can no longer be stacked by wearing three pieces of two different sets. All Bane Warding spells now deal less damage and cannot trigger more than once per second in PvP combat. The Combat Art damage displayed on the Assassin’s Thirst abilities now matches the bonuses they give. MUNZOK’S MATERIAL BASTION Yzlak Encounter – The clone adds of player priests now have reduced health. Yzlak Encounter – The clones themselves will remain longer before becoming a Yzlak Presence. Yzlak Encounter – Yzlak Presence adds can now be affected by all classes, not just the...
This will be good news for those of you with large guild halls and want to use more of the available guild hall amenities, but not without losing your Hall Guards. In GU52, Hall Guards will no longer take up Amenity slots. Already, mailboxes do not take up amenity slots. Also, as some guilds have used these Hall Guards for other purposes than guarding (indeed they don’t actually have any function and will not ‘defend’ the hall if invaders come in, nor are they agroable), in GU52, they will lose the “Hall Guard” flag under their name. More Info
On May 6th, we were all reassured that the “AA problem” is a figment of our imaginations: In EQII, we allow you to gain achievement experience at a fast rate by questing, discovering new locations, killing named creatures and even by getting certain items without this impacting your adventure leveling. We feel that this ends up being a good overall compromise so players level up in both systems together pretty quickly. So you can imagine my surprise when Aeralik popped into one of dozens of threads discussing the AA Grind with this less than clear comment: Or maybe someone...
A substantial (and undocumented) change which was made to all of the “key mobs” in TSO dungeons was clearly intended to prevent Monks, Bruisers, and Shadowknights from acquiring Void Shards (and Plat in some dungeons). But it now looks like this detrimental effect, called Mandate, may affect groups attempting to clear TSO dungeons. Here’s a thread discussing it. I’ve even got art… Thanks Merriestar: One can assume this is the first half of SoE closing the “Void Shard loopholes” first identified in TSO beta but which got no official attention until just a few weeks ago.
Posted by Kiara: GENERAL Overpaying shard chests in Guk Upper, Guk Lower, Guk Stronghold, Nu’Roga, Veksar and Korsha have had their platinum payouts decreased to be inline with the other zones. ATREBE’S LABORATORY Sannik the Unfinished in Atrebe’s Laboratory has had his damage significantly lowered. PALACE OF THE ANCIENT ONE Players in combat should now be able to harvest energized crystals within Anashti Sul’s room in Palace of the Ancient One. The Void Handlers associated with Pentaclypse and Ultaclypse in Palace of the Ancient One now do slightly less damage. YKESHA’S INNER STRONGHOLD The unstable minions that spawn in...
Lest ye think that the Ward of Elements zone is the only x2 raid zone we will be seeing for a while, Kander has given us an update. Timetraveling and I have no plans to make this zone any easier, we feel that the challenge vs reward is about right. If there is anything you feel that is a flat out bug and needs to be fixed, please feel free to PM either him or me and we’ll look into it ASAP. In other news, we have another x2 coming soon, that will be a tad more… challenging. The Ward of...
Bravo to those of you who have managed to keep up with the 39 page topic on Spell Naming. That’s almost as remarkable as those who have managed to read every single post in the 64 page Research Assistants thread! For the rest of you who just do not have that kind of time, I present some highlights, which offer some insight into just what direction the game is heading. In particular, Aeralik points out how there are some game mechanics which are complex or only really understood by folks who have an in-depth knowledge of how the game...
Posted by Kiara: GENERAL The friends list on the welcome screen will now ignore offline friends if that option is enabled on the community window. ITEMS The 4-piece bonuses on the Paladin, Monk, Berserker, and Defiler Shadow Odyssey raid sets have been improved. The Lycanthrope Bracelet’s effects in PVP combat have been slightly lowered. QUESTS One of the lists of names for the Task “Hidden Agenda” could appear in an unreachable spot on a bookshelf. This has been fixed. WARD OF ELEMENTS Elemental bosses in Ward of Elements now drop non-stacking encrusted gems. The encrusted gems can be unpacked...
Aeralik has chimed in with the first hints of what we can expect in GU52: GU52 has a wide variety of things coming. From what I understand there will be an assortment of new quests and additional content which means additional ways to raise your aa points if you havent yet. You have to keep in mind dfferent people have different responsibilities. My job is to work on the class balance and combat systems which this falls under and like I said is the first part of a greater plan which we will talk about more in the future. ...
GENERAL Players will now see a new Welcome Screen upon login. The Welcome Screen can be disabled by adding cl_show_welcome_screen_on_startup 0 (that’s a zero) to your eq2.ini. You can now ctrl+left click the armor crates in the Station Marketplace window to see all of the armor pieces in the dressing room at once! MUNZOK’S MATERIAL BASTION A mysterious and powerful void entity has made its presence known on Norrath. Although its motives aren’t clear, its powerful presence has sent shivers through even the most powerful denizens of the realm. This zone represents its stronghold and should prove a challenge...
One boulder won’t solve your Aiden problems anymore in the x2 raid zone… Posted by timetravelling: The adds were not intended to ALL be prevented by the boulders. Please try it again, and let me know if y’all have any issues. From Kiara: There will be a quick hotfix at the usual times (7am PDT for US servers and around 9pm PDT for EU servers) to fix the bug with Aiden in Ward of Elements.
GENERAL An issue that was causing UI icons or elements to look blurry and low-quality has been resolved. An issue that was causing low-quality textures on player characters after switching from third person to first person view has been resolved. EVERNIGHT ABBEY Marcus Thex should turn aggro now once all five clan leaders have been slain. ITEMS The Dancing Satyr has learned how to dance and is anxious to show off his new moves. Bite of the Wolf will now trigger properly and apply to the warden. Restitution Master 1 should no longer drop from spell tables. The Signet...
From Kiara: Hello all! We’re going to bring the servers down at the usual time (7am PDT) for a hotfix. We’ll post the notes tomorrow. Included will be a fix for the overly proccerific procs. The x4 raid zone, Munzok’s Material Bastion, was planned to be activated tomorrow, but we’re going to hold off until next week for a few more tweaks. We’ll have the servers back up and running as soon as possible. Thank you and happy gaming! From EQ2 Forums
From Kiara: The fix for the Ward of Elements is planned to go in on Tuesday (4/7) along with Munzok’s Material Bastion (the x4 zone). People have to have finished Ward of Elements to get the level boosting item that will allow them to kill things in the x4 zone. No further info just yet on what will happen for people who have completed the x2 zone but had Najena being shy. When I know more about that, I’ll let you all know. Here you go.
It seems it is my duty after each Live Update to report those bugs which managed to slip through. It’s not a job I enjoy, but someone’s gotta do it. Here’s what to watch for: Warden Mythical/Epic proc is feeding power to the target instead of the Warden. Hire an extra illy or switch weapons until the hotfix. Druid AA “Tortoise Shell” AoE blocker spell is now broken as of LU51. No word on a fix. [discussion] The x4 Raid zone (Munzok’s) did not go live. No word as to why, only to expect an explanation later. Possibly because...
GAME UPDATE 51 March / 31 / 2009 FEATURED Weapon Appearance Slots Players now have access to primary, secondary and ranged appearance slots. The wield style (one-handed, two-handed, shield) of the weapons must match the weapons that are currently equipped. Bristlebane’s Day (3/31/2009 – 4/8/2009) Jesters, thieves, bards and fans of mischief are invited to enjoy the festivities that surround Bristlebane’s Day! You never know what laughs and pranks are to be found, during this enjoyable time of year. Celebrators are present in every home city, and the oddest of objects have been spotted in Antonica, The Commonlands, Darklight...