Feldon
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL Fixed an issue with Guild Halls. Fixed an issue causing the streaming client to use old assets. Fixed an issue which could cause the streaming client to crash on startup. Fixed a disconnect bug where some characters would get dropped to character select upon login. Players will now be prompted for a one-time, free item unattuning: If you answer yes, all items will be immediately unattuned. Any equipped items will be popped into overflow. If you answer no, items will not be unattuned and you will not be asked again.
Itemization
I could write 50,000 words about the disappointing Game Update 61, with referenced links to the nearly 100 forum discussions about its flaws, plus countless player and developer quotes. But what difference would it make? Despite a 2-day delay, and despite pushback from both Developers and Testers warning that the update still needed weeks, possibly a month of work to meet any reasonable measurement of build quality, Game Update 61 was released Thursday, August 25th. It was clear on Monday the 22nd that there was no way the Reitemization of EQ2 would be completed in time for Game Update...
Due to the widespread changes to Itemization in Game Update 61 for level 20-90 items (including Sentinel’s Fate and Velious gear which were rushed for inclusion), a complementary Global Unattune was provided. This was supposed to include every item including Equipment, Appearance, Inventory (bags), and your Bank. However this did not quite work out that way, at least not permanently. Players have discovered that when they login for the first time, most or all of their items are Unattuned, but if they log out that character and log back in, all Bank items get Reattuned. Why? Rothgar explains: The...
Game Update 61: “The War of Zek” UPDATE NOTES A GENERAL SUMMARY OF WHAT’S IN GAME UPDATE 61: All dungeon and overland loot items have been re-itemized. What does this mean? It means loot everywhere should be legitimate for the level it drops for, no matter where you go now. Go explore some nooks and crannies you haven’t seen for a long time and get off the Golden Path! The loot’s good again. The Velious saga continues as you journey past the Citadel of Drunder to the Plane of War itself in a new dungeon and raid, and a...
Summoners, Enchanters, and Shamans have been curious at exactly how Shared Pet Stats work. Fortunately some details have been provided by Maevianiu on the EQ2 Forums: NOTE: Any buffs that affect a group/raid do not transfer from the owner to the pet (that would be doubling up) but single target ones that grant the stats below should go to both the owner and the pet when cast on the owner. The following stats are copied from the owner to the pet: Attributes, potency, ability mod, crit bonus (pvp and pve), crit chance, toughness, doublecast chance (pve and pvp), ability...
Ready or Not, Game Update 61 is going live tomorrow, August 23rd, 2011 Thursday, August 25th, 2011.
The EQ2 design and mechanics teams have been working nose-to-the-grindstone for at least 2 1/2 months Reitemizing EverQuest 2. That’s every weapon, cloak, charm, piece of jewelry, armor, etc. We’re talking 50,000 items — the sum total of 7 years of overland zones, dungeons, and raid zones. To do so and make no mistakes would be a statistical improbability. On June 24th, the first pass on reitemizing Mastercrafted gear appeared on Test. Silius (who has since moved up from “itemization guy” to Mechanics Lead) expressed appreciation for the bug reports that came in, but then 8 weeks of silence...
Dethdlr
With GU61 right around the corner (Tuesday, 23 Aug 2011), SmokeJumper has posted a note on the official forums warning players of some of the changes that will have an immediate impact on players. Read on to see what Smokejumper had to say and our commentary on ways to prepare.
Having used my adornment calculator for a while now, there have been a few times where having the short descriptions in the drop down lists instead of the name of the adornment has been frustrating. Usually, this is when I’m trying to put in what I currently have adorned, rather than starting from scratch. The descriptions work well when you’ve never adorned a particular slot, but there are times when you don’t need them and would rather see the adornment names. For example, if I wanted to send a link to someone that shows my current adornments, I would...
After a growing silence about key parts of Game Update 61, specifically unexpected mechanics and itemization changes in high level gear, Salim “Silius” Grant, EQ2 Mechanics Lead, has stepped up and provided a detailed response to the issues as laid out so well by a determined player, Nevao in a thread entitled May we have a “State of the GU” post? Responses from Silius are in red: Itemization Changes Tier 3 to T8 revamp? Last time I checked there were still reports of items with insanely out of whack stats given the tier (mid-tier items with 40+ weapon skills...
Moments ago, we spoke with Gninja on Test, who has been working hard on spot-checking and fixing any gaps in the Reitemization of level 20-80 items. He’s also been talking to players, examining linked items, and checking bug reports. He also linked some of the loot from Dynamic Dungeons and some higher level items which have gotten new effects. From the EQ2 Forums: If you have specific examples [of itemization issues] please PM them to us. We can take alook at them on a case by case basis. I should also be available on the test server looking for...
For those of you who don’t have 77 minutes to listen to this week’s SOE Podcast, we’ve listened for you and provide details of the “War of Zek-cast”. First, a few bullet points… Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is still expecting 2 entirely new content updates this year, in addition to a number of Bug Bash updates to fix long-standing bugs with the game. Tiffany “Amnerys” Spence, EQ2 Community Manager, is expecting twins and so will be taking some time off from managing the EQ2 forums. Others will step in to tackle this job. The Beastlords Prelude Event launches with...
As we reach August’s midway point, we are potentially in the “home stretch” on Game Update 61. If internal schedules hold true, we could see the next update pushed to live servers in 2 weeks. This is usually the point where player anxiety levels are highest, as what’s on Test seems incomplete and not ready for prime time. Although it’s a well-worn cycle, the question is always “Will it be ready?” Will 2 weeks of dev crunch time result in a solid Game Update 61? Level 20-80 Reitemization We’d caught hints, but Fan Faire brought confirmation that level 20-80...
From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge] Challenge Mode Statue of Rallos Zek no longer has a Knockback effect associated with his Titanic Swipe AOE.
Hot off the presses, er patcher, here are the Game Update 61: The War of Zek Update Notes from the Test Patcher. Game Update 61 is expected to reach the Live servers near the end of August. Game Update 61: “The War of Zek” PLANE OF WAR The time is near for the great Fortress of Drunder to reveal its true purpose to all. The very bedrock of the Eastern Wastes shudders and rocks as a massive planar portal rips itself open within the fortress walls. The sounds of war echo through its halls as the God of War...
Bunji dropped the news that Game Update 61 is hitting Test today: We plan to push the current GU61 content to Test tomorrow morning. GU61 (or most of it) is scheduled to hit Test around 7-8am PST tomorrow morning, 7/28. What’s in Game Update 61? Dynamic Dungeon: Silent City [60~90] Dynamic Dungeon: Djinn Master’s Prism [60~90] Plane of War: heroic dungeon (normal and challenge) Plane of War: x4 raid (normal and challenge) Reitemize Level 20-90 dropped, quested, and crafted Items Alternate Advancement (AA) Revamp, especially Subclass (Monk, Templar, Paladin, etc.) tree. Tradeskill AAs [25 pts] House Rating System Dungeon...
Here’s our sixth video from SOE Fan Faire 2011 “EverQuest II: Mechanics”. If you’d like to view the transcript from this panel, check out our EQ2 Panel #5 – Mechanics writeup. We’ll upload an HD version of this video soon.
Today’s Update includes numerous tweaks to the harder Velious dungeons, further reducing the difficulty of many zones, as well as the aforementioned reduction in the cost of Velium Shard armor (Ry’Gorr armor is now 25 shards per piece, 20 if crafted). A glitch with Leaper or Glider mounts and pets (especially Coercer pets) has also been resolved.
If you’ve been thinking of plunking down your hard-earned Velium Shards on Ry’Gorr armor, or burning up stacks of Legendary and Fabled gear from Drunder zones to get enough ore to craft Drunder armor, you may want to wait. Wednesday July 13th’s Test Update Notes included an item we initially overlooked: ITEMS The first two tiers of Velium Shard Armor should now require less Velium Shards. The amount of ore obtained from smelting down a piece of Drunder loot has been doubled. Thurgadin shard armor currently costs anywhere from 33 to 90 shards per-piece when purchased from the vendor,...
I’ve posted our first video from SOE Fan Faire 2011 “EverQuest II: Freeport and Beyond” which is an overview of everything we can expect from the EQ2 team until November 2011. If you’d like to view the Slides from this panel in higher quality, check out the updated EQ2 Panel #1 – Freeport and Beyond writeup. We’ll upload an HD version of this video soon.
Starting Saturday’s EverQuest II Q&A Panel… Update: This is a video of EverQuest II Panel #7 “Q&A #2” added on July 24, 2011.
Starting the EverQuest II: Itemization, Class Balance, Mechanics panel… Salim “Silius“, Carlos “Gninja” Mora, Greg “Rothgar” Spence, Paul “Frizznik” Carrico, Mike “Xelgad” Ganz
Starting the EverQuest II: Freeport and Beyond panel… Pre-panel Buzz: EQ2Players is being replaced with a new site. Sometime this year, it’s a priority, which it hasn’t been before. Dave Georgeson starting the panel. There’s so much info, they’ll be giving that first and then Q&A at the end. Update: This is a video of EverQuest II Panel #1 “Freeport and Beyond” added on July 14, 2011.
There is a lot of psychology at work in getting a player to come back, month-after-month, year-after-year, to a single game. I wasn’t there, but I’m guessing that the designers of the original EverQuest probably didn’t have the luxury of having a behavioral psychologist on staff to tell them where to put the roadblocks, the sticks, and the carrots, let alone exactly how to balance everything to build a “sticky” audience that would still call EverQuest their ‘home’ 12 years later. The irony of Destiny of Velious is that it is one of the best expansions we’ve had in...
Class-specific red adornments have been added to the EQ2Wire Adornment Calculator by Dethdlr. That’s 221 adornments added to the existing 175 for a total of 396 T9 adornments. And I still haven’t added the ones that drop from the public quests. Choose your class in the class dropdown to have that class’ adornments added to the proper dropdowns. Rather than converting the class specific red adornments from their names to what they do, I’ve just included the names in the dropdowns. For one thing, this should help with those that don’t stack. For another, it means you don’t have...