Feldon
Research Assistants Many players are reporting that their Research Assistants which they hired paid quested for coaxed hailed to get Master spell upgrades are being rather possessive with the results of that research and not giving up the spell. Rothgar shed some light on the issue, specifically that this problem will occur only when you are logged out of the game when the research completes, and you change zones, or login and out without immediately claiming the spell. In other words, unless you are either logged in, or camped in a zone where you can retrieve your researched spell...
EQ2
Before I start the notes, July 14th marks the availability of the Automated Character Transfer Service. For $25, you can transfer your character from one server to another. Check out the “Station Marketplace” within EQ2. I don’t have a current link for you as far as this announcement, but I can confirm that the items appeared on the Station Marketplace for me this morning. July 14th Update Notes GENERAL The Firiona Vie statue distributed to Fan Faire attendees is no longer a LORE item. EMPEROR’S ATHENAEUM 4 Warriors are no longer control immune. Enchanters, show us what you got!...
Fan Faire 2009 presented a lot of ideas and plans for the future. A scant few were nailed down to a specific time frame. We know that we are getting the Shard of Love and Miragul’s Shard in Gu53, as well as the amazing Shaders 3.0 graphics tweaks. However the rest of Gu53 and any part of Gu54 remain a mystery. You’ll be happy to know that the AA XP Slider is slated to be contained in Gu53! Obviously there is still some time between now and September, so this may change, but this is certainly good news that...
July 7, 2009 Hotfix Update Notes EMPEROR’S ATHENAEUM 4 Warriors in Emperor’s Athenaeum should reset less frequently. 4 Warriors have fewer buffs—especially defensive ones. FENS OF NATHSAR Kaluhm the Northern Lord now drops his treasure correctly. Pulnil the Haggler is less confused about the quests he can offer and advance for those that have completed the quest “Everyone Loves a Snitch”. GUILD HALLS Players at trustee or higher access can change the appearance of mailboxes placed within their guild hall. ITEMS Focus: Lich III on necromancer item sets will now function properly. Focus: Bane of Warding V should now...
The bug that was preventing the Tradeskill Bonus XP in certain instances such as Guild Halls has been corrected. In addition, this July 4th weekend has been changed to award a +50% bonus to Combat XP, Adventure XP, and Tradeskill XP. Although EQ2Players and the forums were accurate, an e-mail that went out could have been interpreted to suggest that Combat XP was getting a bonus this weekend. Thanks Rothgar (source)!!!
Several folks are reporting that bonus Tradeskill XP is not working in certain guild halls or instances but only on outdoor crafting tables. Check your Tradeskill XP bar carefully to see if you are getting the bonus. Note that the e-mail notifications that went about were vague and suggested that July 4th weekend was offering bonus XP for adventure and tradeskilling. In fact this is the first AA bonus XP weekend ever offered for EQ2, along with Tradeskill. Combat XP is not currently getting a bonus this weekend.
For the first time ever, EQ2 will be having a Bonus AA XP weekend. Tradeskillers will also get some XP love as well. 🙂 Posted by Kiara on the EQ2 Forums: To commemorate the holiday weekend, we’ll be turning on bonus AA and Tradeskill exp starting at 4:00PM PDT tomorrow Thursday, July 2nd and running until 10:00AM PDT Monday, July 6th. For the UK servers it will run from 12:00AM (midnight) Friday July 3rd until 8:00PM Monday, July 6th for folks residing in London (presuming I did my conversions correctly). Thanks and happy gaming!
Every EQ2 news site has been abuzz with the news about Sentinel’s Fate as well as changes and new zones expected between now and then. Naimi Denmother’s (EQ2Traders) Fan Faire 2009 Writeup EQ2 Mechanically Speaking Panel @ Zam EQ2 Fan Faire 2009 Report @ EQ2Zam If you have a fan site news link that you think I should be mentioning, please let me know!!
Some concept art from EQ2 Sentinel’s Fate has been posted at EQ2Players.
Thanks to Coniaric for these snapshots of the Shard of Love from Fan Faire. This zone will be going into Gu53.
EQ2 is getting an Achievements system! Much like the systems on XBox where you get points for completing certain tasks in certain games, EQ2 will recognize certain in-game achievements. To avoid any confusion, the Alternate Achievement system in EQ2 is officially being renamed “AA”. If you’d like to read more about the upcoming Achievements system and give feedback or suggestions, check out Rothgar‘s thread on the subject.
Thanks to Ke’la who has posted a video captured from the Shaders 3.0 presentation at Fan Faire 2009. The snapshots are from Nek Forest and show a dramatic improvement in lighting. This should appear in Game Update 53. Once you see the screen snapshots, you realize just how flat, grey, and unrealistic the lighting in Nek Forest has been. Check it out: EverQuest II Shaders 3.0 Video As soon as I get screen snapshots, you’ll see them here on EQ2Wire. 🙂
Here are some less concrete things that were discussed at Fan Faire. Race change is something a LOT of people are asking for. EQ2 devs asked for a show of hands of how many people would like this feature and half the room raised their hands. It IS being looked at. Yes, there was some resistance for lore reasons, and betrayal/alignment/quest issues are substantial, but it’s certainly possible with enough development time. The amount of money they’d make off this would more than make up for it. You can scratch “never” out of your vocabulary for this one. Heck,...
I’ve edited the “EQ2 Fan Faire Rollup” post so many times, trying to get it factually accurate and inclusive, I’m surprised I haven’t worn a spot on the hard drive. We’ve had the facts and figures. Let’s play the game! Soloing to 80? I’ve always considered soloing to 80 a recipe for disaster as you will be at a huge disadvantage. Playing the game solo to 80 ill prepares most classes for grouping. You don’t know how to play your class in a group. You don’t know how other classes complement your class. Soloing to 80 can be bad...
I present the EverQuest II Expansion & Game Update News from Fan Faire in a rollup post. This is partly based on the Fan Faire 2009 Consolidated News by Kalyyn. I started with Kalyyn’s great writeup and have built upon it, adding dozens of new details and minor corrections based on everything I observed at the 2009 Fan Faire EQ2 event in Las Vegas. I’ve archived the individual news posts I submitted over the weekend. If you still want to read them, they’re [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] And now, without further ado,...
Parsing Gravitas, Cures, CoB, etc. Will consider it. Determining where guild rally flag is located? Some coming has already been done for this. Auto mentoring – hail an npc and mentor to a level in 5 level increments. Old quest completion missions. Probably not on PvP. Daily double shard zone in Welcome window or MOTD? Possible. Achievements (like CoH or Xbox Live) like 500 kills, 20 heritage quests, etc. In a new tab in the quest window. Current tier upgrades are coming for bone clasped gridle. Not so much for the bloodthirsty choker. 🙂 Streamling buffing for classes. Buffing...
Some seriously funny, cool, and creative new mob designs and revamped appearances to some existing mobs. More interesting animations. * fighting pandas * displacer beasts * two headed giants * stalagmites * scarecrows Random illusion appearances driving you crazy? Looking at a possibly a Magic Mirror house item to save illusion setups. Npcs only have about 50 animations. Players have about 1,000 animations. Kelethin houses will get a transparent window. Both Kelethin and Neriak houses will have more rooms. Male ratongas with whiskers but without glasses? We’ll look into it. Illusion picker UI to switch illusions in development. Devs...
The comprehensive writeups on Fan Faire and the events and photos are always worth a read if you couldn’t make it. I admit I’m all about the details and the expansion news. I don’t try to cover the whole event as others do that better than I can… One writeup I want to mention is CompleteHeal. Calthine (great to meet her of course!) has a writeup at Zam as well. I took some pics of the event last night, some general Fan Faire pics, and of course lots of pics from the EQ2Flames gathering last night. Hope to get them up...
An interesting day indeed, talking about the game. As much as people may doubt it, most of the Devs really do listen and want folks to play the game. It would pretty dumb if they didn’t. They know the mistakes of Kunark, and the issues (to a lesser extent) in TSO. Oh and talking to Pantz, Crabbok, Atan, and more isn’t too shabby either. Record turnout for the eq2flames mashup. WTF are you Gage? 😛
A line of folks stretching out into the casino, ready to head into the main Fan Faire hall. Then at 8, the welcome by Brenlo, who couldn’t resist havimng a little fun, using every opportunity to hawk the game he is now Exec Producer for — EQ2. Prizes included Turtle Beach headsets, 3d display goggles, and PNY 8800gts video cards. Well, if you could do an emote (you’d think folks would practice by now ;)).
Getting ready to board the sorriest excuse for an airline around. First airline I’ve ever dealt with that cannot offer an exit row to a 6’9″ passenger online, at the ticket counter, at the gate, and when the gate rep made a rude comment about my height not being his fault, I notified customer service. Maybe there is some small satisfaction in getting a cocky employee of the most customer-hostile airline in trouble. But as I stand in a completely backed up jetway, because three gate attendants haven’t learned the fine art of staging an aircraft boarding, I realize...
GENERAL The Order of Rime illusion no longer has a minimum level for use. Fang the direbear has received some additional defensive bonuses. The Eggstractor should now only work on its intended target (which is, of course, eggs). There is a new EQ2VoiceService.exe from Vivox that should resolve some crash issues that players were experiencing. ACHIEVEMENTS Coercer Coercive Healing will once again apply properly to reactive heals. KURN’S TOWER A cinematic event when slaying Ione (with a quest requirement) has been turned on. Fear Kraytoc’s wrath! MUNZOK’S MATERIAL BASTION The void sapper adds associated with Ozyk in Munzok’s Material...
Moonlight Enchantments is a new recurring World Event in the forests of Norrath which will only be available the 20th of every month. I apologize for not getting this information up before June 20th, but it should be available for the 20th of every month hereafter. This event is now known as Moonlight Enchantments (formerly known as the Enchanted Grottos of Norrath). Essentially, there is a mushroom ring in each of the forests of Norrath which can be entered once per month (on the 20th) to visit five unique hidden instances. Each has purple shinies and quests to be...