Feldon
From Rothgar: We are going to begin unlocking servers as QA completes their test. It looks like Butcherblock will be coming up in a few minutes.
EQ2
Rothgar, who has been up for how many hours now? brings us this update… The upgrade is looking good and we should have the servers up soon. The QA department is just doing their final pass. We have a 30 minute downtime scheduled tomorrow morning to roll out a hotfix for all servers. Since we had to skip our normal hotfix window this morning due to the database migration, we are doing it tomorrow instead. We’re still planning on going forward with the PvP server merge Wednesday night at midnight PST. Initially only Venekor will be brought down to...
From Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums: All 3 servers are currently up and locked while our QA department goes through the normal testing process to confirm everything looks good after the upgrade. We are specifically testing characters and guild halls on each of the three servers that had problems copying over last time. So far those are loading fine so everything is looking great. I’m hoping that we will be ready to bring the servers up within the hour. and Glip the Gnome: Hey all! We are smoketesting the servers right now before we open them back up. Right...
The latest news… Update: The downtime for Nagafen, Butcherblock, and LDL has been extended to around 10pm PDT this evening. We apologize for the extended downtime. As a result of this, the team has already extended the Moonlight Enchantments event an extra day to make up for all the time that these servers will be missing. Thank you again for your continued patience. This makes 22 hours estimated downtime.
To compensate for the server wonkyness, server downtimes, and slow start on the event, Moonlight Enchantments is extended through 11:59pm PDT October 22nd.
Due to two mistakes in how the Server Downtime scripts were triggered last night, ALL servers must be rebooted. This will happen in a few minutes. The issue: All West Coast servers, not just Butcherblock, Lucan D’Lere, Nagafen, were set to stop allowing instances (dungeons) from being created starting at noon today. Announcement by Rothgar: I just wanted to take a moment to explain some of the broadcasts you may have seen and what is happening with the servers. Last night, prior to the maintenance for Butcherblock, Nagafen and Lucan D’lere, we scheduled the downtime which is responsible for...
The latest news on those 64-bit Upgrades: Things are still going well, however it is looking like it’s going to take a bit longer than we had originally anticipated. We’re now looking at an uptime of around 4pm PDT. If we need to adjust the time again, we will be sure to update this thread. Thank you again for your patience. Rothgar is posting updates regarding the downtime to a discussion thread on EQ2 Forums. I apologize that the server downtime was not made more clear. We discussed it a few times in other threads while the maintenance was...
Sorry for the late post on this but Butcherblock, Nagafen, and Lucan D’Lere servers are currently down to complete the maintenance which was attempted last week. Note that ALL 3 servers are being upgraded at this time. Hopefully at noonish Pacific time, we’ll be running 64-bit and see some significant improvements to zoning time, zone lag, etc. The announcements on the EQ2 Forums: Greetings all! This is to let you know that Nagafen, Butcherblock, and Lucan D’Lere will be down from Midnight PDT tonight (October 19th) until Noon PDT Tuesday October 20th, while the team migrates Nagafen (only!) [all...
After reprinting the excellent Letter to SoE written by Shianne (Spritelady), we here at EQ2Wire weren’t expecting much of a response. So today’s detailed feedback from timetravelling was a real eye-opener. As he says, there is a fine line between challenging and frustrating. Some fights in TSO are just plain annoying with the unbelievable amount of curing they require. Nobody is asking for easier fights, just ones that are not hair-pulling annoying, fights that healers are quitting over. Here’s the refreshing quote from EQ2 Forums: A good thread with some excellent feedback! From the population side, we are definitely...
If you are just about fed up with the out-of-memory crashing in EQ2 since Game Update 53 — I know I am! — you’ll be interested to know that the major causes of the issue have been identified and fixes are in the works. As soon as an updated client is available, we’ll let you know. When I start to see texture corruption, I minimize and then maximize the window every few minutes. It’s really a sad workaround. Rothgar posted on the EQ2 Forums: We’ve been taking a lot of snapshots of memory allocations and comparing this data to...
Spoilers ahead… Maze If you have been struggling to complete the Nightmarish Hedge Maze as part of Nights of the Dead, especially as a mage or pet class, you may be interested in this thread on the EQ2 Forums. Of course if you’d rather be challenged to figure it out for yourself, then don’t. 🙂 Fog Another item as part of Nights of the Dead you may not want to miss may make your head a little more Foggy than usual. Again, if you’d rather figure it out yourself, then don’t visit this forum thread on the EQ2 Forums....
One of the exciting aspects of the 2009 Nights of the Dead live event is the contested x2 Headless Horseman Knight. No less exciting (and surprising) than the loot that drops from said encounter: Hallows Gallows Bloodthirsty Choker 2.0? \aITEM 430679940 306448646:Hallow’s Gallows\/a Soulleach \aITEM -1026839664 -1911359172:[Soulleach]\/a Secret Sash \aITEM 71107619 -1772367845:[Secret Sash]\/a Brainless Belt \aITEM 1534172351 1374785267:[Brainless Belt]\/a and of course these humorous items: an oddly empty crate \aITEM -1414756000 -2003420917:[an oddly empty crate]\/a Frictionless Piece of Eight \aITEM -1495753407 -624402372:[Frictionless Piece of Eight]\/a Note that some players are reporting issues with the new Hedgemaze zone (an instance...
Nights of the Dead is now live! The event runs through November 9th. The zones were not available first thing this morning, but this issue has been addressed.
If you have been following the increasingly train-wrecky Legends of Norrath Affects Gameplay topic on EQ2 Forums, you know that the Legends of Norrath card game is on the cusp of making powerful items available within the EverQuest 2 universe. Already, by purchasing booster packs of cards (at $2.99/ea) and/or playing the LoN card game, one can acquire cloaks, mounts, appearance items, potions, and other items within the EQ2 world. So far these items have drawn the line at being comparable to dungeon/raid drops. Many have argued that EQ2’s $15/month subscription + $50/year expansion cost should be more than...
Most of my gametime these days is either raiding with my Ranger, or leveling my Dirge alt. I do live events (looking forward to Nights of the Dead), but otherwise, I’m fairly bored with the runaround quest lines. Groups in the 20’s-60’s are few and far between, but that is an issue for another blog post… Our guild is currently running Ward of Elements (I have all but shoulders and the cloak from Aiden) and we do as much x4 raiding as we can with 2 1/2 groups. That’s the first 3 named of Tomb of the Mad Crusader...
This week’s hotfix will be hitting today, October 13th (not the date on the Update Notes announcement). EMPEROR ATREBE’S LABORATORY The zone boss, Ka’El Ka’Vrish, should now reset properly in Kor’Sha. ITEMS Fists of Judgment will no longer indicate that they have a duration. MIRAGUL’S PLANAR SHARD Tuskers will now stagger his memwipe effects. Enraged Haladan no longer gets an AE auto attack buff when he goes berserk, but will instead proc Haladan’s Fury (frontal only, slash damage AE spell). PVP You may now speak to the Priest of Discord on all PVP servers. PVP weapons have been adjusted...
From EQ2Players: The leaves are turning and the air has become crisp in the land of Norrath. Ghoulish activity has started to increase. It can mean only one thing; the return of the Nights of the Dead. Norrath’s annual Halloween celebration will be returning from 12:01am PDT on October 16th and will run through 11:59pm PST on November 9th. New this year: New Haunted Hedgemaze in Nektulos Forest! New holiday collection. New Headless Horseman in Nektulos Forest. New rewards for some of the old Nights of the Dead Events! New illusions from the goblins. New costume illusions available from...
And that concludes the EQ2 ZAM Chat. Guests were: Alan <Brenlo> – EQ2 Producer Brett <timetravelling> – Dungeons/Content Nathan <Kaitheel> – Live Events/Quests <Gninja> – Quests, Zone Design, Live Events Greg <Rothgar> – Lead Programmer Paul C. <Frizznik> – Mechanics Paul M. <Cronyn> – Lore, Content, Quests Emily <Domino> – Tradeskills Rough Chat Logs of this event are now available at EQ2 ZAM. Some of the topics that stuck out to me: Brenlo: At the moment we have no plans to (have) LON cards (drop from mobs). That is why we went to giving each active player 5 packs...
Domino brings us some tradeskill news from Game Update 54, expected in November: I wanted to take a minute to let you know that with the next game update (54) which we should see before Christmas, there will be an additional set of daily missions in each of the 3 Kunark factions that tradeskillers can assist (Bathezid’s Watch, Riliss, and Danak). They aren’t anything fancy, they’re very similar to the daily missions in Grobb, Tupta, and Firmroot moot – same type of tasks, and about the same amount of time. There are 4 per faction and they’ll rotate on...
The EQ2 development team is looking to repeat the successful Bug-squashing campaign of 2008. Rothgar has started a new thread to help get this project started. If there is a specific bug, interface inconsistency, or complaint you have about the game interface, please check out the new What Bugs You the Most? thread. Note that the thread is not for complaints about zones, itemization, or class balance.
Here are your EQ2 Update Notes for October 7: GENERAL Legends of Norrath (LoN) cards and booster packs that drop in game are once again tradeable. ACHIEVEMENTS The Maj’Dul Monitor Achievement now accepts quests completed in the Courts. MIRAGUL’S PLANAR SHARD The dire and alpha snowbeasts associated with Enraged Haladan now have somewhat less health. Hard Mode: Brilliant Adepts have less health. Boreas and Argos should no longer cast Trio of Teeth on players while they are leashed. Curse of Confusion now lasts 18 seconds rather than 30 seconds. PALACE OF THE ANCIENT ONE Anashti Sul will no longer...
Imago-Quem has posted more screen snapshots of Shaders 3.0, the graphical upgrade coming to EQ2 in Game Update 54. I believe these are all images of North Freeport. “Day” Before | After “Rainy” Before | After “Night to Morning” Before | After “Indoors” Before | After Previous screenshots shown of Nektulos Forest: “Nek Castle” Before | After “Nmarr’s Ascent” Before | After “Nek Forest 1” Before | After “Nek Forest 2” Before | After “Underwater” Before | After
Memory Issues Despite the updated EQ2 Client, some players are still reporting issues with running out of memory in EQ2. One workaround users are reporting, is to periodically minimize and then maximize the EQ2 application. This seems to reclaim some memory. The EQ2 dev team continue to search for the cause of these issues and intend to release another updated EQ2 client in the next few days. Chronomage Missions Thanks to Atan for testing out and reporting back on the Chronomage Missions. If you read EQ2Wire, you know that 3 new NPCs have been added in East Freeport (on...
Well, now we know the real reason that Avatar Loot was nerfed. It wasn’t because it was “overpowered” or because it would “break the next expansion”. It was so similar items could be put on the endboss of an instance. As posted by Jasuo on the EQ2 Forums, two of the charms dropped by Miragul in Miragul’s Planar Shard (x4 raid zone) are very similar to Avatar Charms: and yes, we will be back later today to talk about the new EQ2 zone which requires a LoN item to access.
Much has been made of the difficulty, and more importantly the limited desirability of the loot that drops in the new raid zone — Miragul’s Planar Shard — which arrived in Game Update 53. Players capable of killing these mobs already have access to far superior gear, and indeed some of these items were not as good as Ward of Elements or even group instance drops. Significant changes are expected to both the difficulty of the zone and the quality of the loot in tomorrow’s Hotfix. Gninja advises us that further changes to the difficulty of the zone should...