During the Downtime: GU60, GU61, and Lower Levels

Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, Game Updates & Maintenance, Itemization

While SOE and by extension EQ2 were offline during the 12 day downtime, what were the devs doing? Scrapbooking? Needlepoint? Actually, they continued work on Game Update 60 (now slated for a May 31st debut according to SmokeJumper) as well as looking ahead to Game Update 61 and beyond.

While players were not able to test Game Update 60, the developers have continued to polish it up and add new things while the servers were down, as well as addressing the feedback from players during the short testing period.

   

GU60: Adornments Get More Colorful

Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, Game Updates & Maintenance, Itemization

We’ve been hearing about a new Adornments System in Game Update 60. System is perhaps too strong a word for what we’ve seen on Test. But the changes indeed help to visually distinguish adornments from other items which makes finding them in bags a lot easier.

Item Examine windows have seen a change, as adornment text has been replaced by subtle Adornment “badges” for each color the item supports. Adornments themselves have been given bold new icons which are unique, color-coded, and stand out from other items in both recipe books and inventory bags.

Your Feedback

Does this go far enough to make adornments easier to find and stand out among other items? Would you still like to see an Adornment Helper in-game that shows all the adornments and where they are available from?

Research Assistants Slacked Off During Break

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

So it turns out that some Research Assistants took a little vacation while the servers were inaccessible and did not continue dutifully researching upgrades for all players. After thoroughly investigating the issue, SmokeJumper has posted the planned solution:

Hi, folks,

When we came back online, we intended that Research would have continued to tick along while the outage occurred, so that you all would come back with a fully researched spell. However, that didn’t happen. And there’s no real way to make it automatically happen.

So…in next Tuesday’s hotfix (2011.05.24) we will grant you five (5) potions, each of which will reduce the amount of time you need to research a spell by seven days. (35 days of reduction, total.)

You can apply those potions any way that you desire.

Soon!

Here’s a screenshot of what these potions will look like:

Dragon Ring and Wizard Spire Event Hits Test

Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, Live Events

If you’ve toured Destiny of Velious, you know of the unused Wizard Spire in the Eastern Wastes and abandoned Dragon Ring in the Great Divide. An upcoming live event, recently pushed to Test and Test Copy by Gninja, seeks to rebuild them. These events will be more like Public Quests than past events.

Both events share one currency [tokens] and currency can be obtained in two ways. There are blue collectibles that spawn around the event area. The number of collectibles vary based on the progress of the event. The second way is by defending the respective areas from the attacks that happen when the events kick off. When you enter the area you should receive a quest.

When the events kick off the area should be attacked by waves of attackers. Defeating these attackers and minimizing NPC casualties will reward progression. Allowing them to die will slow progression. As the events gets further in progression the difficulty of the waves will increase.

There is no planned tradeskill component to these events, without engaging in combat, there are options to acquire tokens. Gninja again:

The tokens also spawn around each of the areas as ground spawns like in Tinkerfest.

This event may go live with, or after Game Update 60, it’s not clear.

Update Notes: May 9th (17th?), 2011

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

Here are your update notes for May 9th (17th?), 2011:

USER INTERFACE

  • Fixed a bug with dragging currency to the currency list in the Character window.
  • Fixed a bug with the Character window’s location not saving correctly between session.

HOUSING

  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause stubborn portals to come back after being picked up.
  • Fixed a potential bug with buying a house in a zone that instances.
  • House portals should no longer port you while they are being moved around.
  • Fixed an issue with item placement in the Maj’dul Vacation Suite.

QUESTS

Hold of Rime: The Ascent

  • The collection “Trinkets of the Ascent” can now be found within the Ascent
  • At the time of this writing, the linked notes said “Update Notes: Monday, May 9, 2011”.  My guess is that either the *hope* was for these to go out on May 9th or someone looked at the calendar wrong.

    Update: As pointed out in the comments, these may be the notes from an update that occurred on Monday, May 9th and they are just now being posted.

    Password Change Issues, Research Assistants, EQ2X Compensation, and GU60 News

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    Now that EQ2 has been resurrected, some players have had issues with the mandatory password resets. Others who have gotten into the game noticed issues with Research Assistants. Some EQ2X players at the Bronze and Silver levels feel there should be compensation. EQ2X players at Gold and Platinum already have a compensation package. Finally, players are curious about when Game Update 60 will hit, since we are just 3 days away from the original announced launch date, and there had only been a couple days of testing.

    Details after the jump…

    Tilting at Timetables: Nine Days Down, Unknown To Go

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary

    Today’s notifications at SOE Facebook and SOE Twitter explain that services will not be restored today. With no indication that we’re any closer to a resolution, the question on everyone’s minds is: When will SOE, and by extension EQ2, become available again?

    Crossed Wires About Dates

    Bloomberg.com latched onto a terse quote from a Sony spokesman and published a service restoration date of May 31st, leading many publications to report that the PlayStation Network and SOE networks had little hope of recovery before then. But that’s incorrect, according to Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold. In fact, Sony has yet to announce a date for the restart of the PlayStation Network, which has been down since April 20th, or the games and websites of Sony Online Entertainment, down for 9 days now. At one time it was hoped that service could be restored by Friday May 6th but that deadline was scrapped once the extent of the intrusion into the SOE customer database became known.

    Speculation Running Rampant

    The lack of information from Sony and SOE, with communications to the public no doubt being funneled through a team of Sony lawyers, has encouraged a great deal of speculation. CNET‘s Erica Ogg certainly had a red letter weekend, posting articles thinly sourced from unknown individuals in an IRC chatroom, first prognosticating a third attack, and then basking in the credit for Sony’s alleged thwarting of said attack. Apparently the idea that there was no attack even planned never occured to her. 😉

    Other news sites have posted missives no less farfetched, with conflicting theories as to whether Sony’s PSN and SOE networks were running outdated Apache software, and trying to pin the blame on Anonymous, perhaps a splinter group, or maybe profiteers hoping to acquire reams of credit card data. Readers interested in the lengthy and tangled speculative mess of the PSN/SOE Compromise have had a virtual buffet of editorials and articles to choose from by security professionals, linux gurus, and players big and small inside and outside of Anonymous and other hacking crews.

    But is all this speculation helpful?

    Sony could tell us more, a lot more. Most of us are not demanding a restoration date so much as a window when it *won’t* be done. Checking several times a day has only magnified our perception of time. For those asking “Well, how would you handle it?” look no further than this exemplary press release which might serve as a model for how Sony should be handling this situation:

    Amazon EC2 Service Outage notification

    Yet none of this helps to pinpoint a date. The 51% of our readers who voted “After May 11th” in our How Long Do You Think SOE Will Be Offline? were right on the money, but the only prize forthcoming seems to be a bit of grim satisfaction.

    SOE Customer Info Also Compromised in Initial PSN Attack

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    Between April 17 and April 19, 2011, the PlayStation Network, the online service powering the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles, was compromised. Hackers were able to retrieve the personal/customer information of some 77 million PlayStation Network accounts, including as many as 10 million credit card numbers on file for those customers. This was largely viewed as a retaliatory strike against Sony for their prosecution of George Hotz (GeoHot) who publically posted the PS3 Root Keys allowing owners of PS3 consoles to install their own choice of software, including the much ballyhooed Other OS feature which was prominently featured on the outside of the PS3 box, and which allowed users to install Linux on their PS3.

    On April 22nd, we were assured that SOE was not affected by this break-in. However, with today’s press release (posted just over 1 hour ago), the curtain surrounding today’s Downtime has been pulled back, revealing that Sony’s woes now fully extend to the SOE Customer Database as well. SOE games, forums, and websites were not taken down in an ‘abundance of caution’, but because the entire customer database may have already been compromised/stolen by hackers.

    The press release indicates that customer names, e-mails, and other personal information, including hashed password (which generally CANNOT be decrypted) may have been taken, as well as the bank details of up to 10,700 European customers, and credit card information for another 12,700 European customers from an old 2007 database, however credit card information was stored in a separate database and at this time it is being stated that this was NOT compromised.

    Impacted customers will get 30 days free service and 1 day extra for each day that SOE services are unavailable. It is unclear when SOE services will be restored, but realize that the PlayStation Network is now entering it’s 13th day offline (since April 19th), preventing anyone from playing all  PS3 games online, including the popular Portal 2 and its much-advertised cooperative play.

    Sony Denies SOE Was Subject of Second Attack

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    Bloomberg.com posted a story earlier this afternoon suggesting that SOE’s services were down due to a “second attack”:

    Sony Online Entertainment, a unit that makes role-play games, suspended service after discovering a hacker gained access to its systems in the second such attack on the parent company’s entertainment networks.

    However in speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Michele Sturdivant, a Sony Online Entertainment spokeswoman denied the claim.

    Sony Corp. has shut down a second online videogame network amid an expanding investigation of a computer attack that may have compromised the personal information of millions of users.

    Sony Online Entertainment, a San Diego-based subsidiary that makes multiplayer role-playing games mostly for personal computers, said it temporarily shut down services on Sunday evening amid concerns a hacker had possibly breached its security.

    Concerned About Your Account? Pick up the Phone

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    Although we still have no confirmation or reason to believe that there has been any kind of security breach affecting SOE servers or customer accounts, and we are personally going to just wait and see what is announced, Amnerys has posted on the EQ2 Facebook announcement suggesting that concerned customers can contact SOE Customer Service:

    Any players that have concerns regarding their account status and security should contact CS at 1-858-537-0898 (10am – 7pm PST, Mon-Fri).

    and:

    Please use the following phone numbers for your international area. Remember that these numbers are not toll free and are considered long distance from within each country.

    Players using the “Outside France” phone number will be subject to International fees. UK: (44) 870-600-0267 – DE: (49) 180-500-7774 – FR: Inside France: (33) 825-120-549 – Outside France: (33) 171-230-495

    Note some customers are getting a recorded message encouraging them to call back “next week”.

    We’re sending extra cookies (and coffee) Ima’s way.

    SOE Downtime News Around the Web

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    While there’s nothing new to report about SOE games, services, websites, and forums being down since 2AM PDT, there is growing coverage of this issue around the web.

    Thus far, there has been no additional information posted on any SOE website, SOE Facebook, EQ2 Facebook, or the Twitter pages of any SOE employee or EQ2 team member.

    News sites around the web:

    • GamesBeat
    • PC IGN
    • BBC News
    • Barron’s

    And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that EQ2Flames is experiencing record traffic, with some 4,000 members online at times seeking news about the SOE Downtime. Some visitors are experiencing a busy message (indicated by ‘Database error’).

    All SOE Games, Websites, Services Down Due to Compromise

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    All attempts to reach SOE websites are redirected to http://maintenance.station.sony.com/

    EQ2Wire’s interpretation of this announcement is this:

    ALL Sony servers are now under security review due to the PlayStation Network breach, and in the course of that investigation, flaws in SOE’s public-facing servers were found. We have no reason to believe there has been an intrusion into SOE services, as they are separate from PSN servers. Of course news could come to light stating otherwise, but at this point, it seems that problems were found *before* they were taken.

    UPDATE: It appears that SOE’s entire customer database, excluding credit card info, has been compromised.

    Servers Down for Immediate Maintenance

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    We’ve just seen these server messages:

    Greetings Norrath! The server will be coming down for a brief update at 03:30AM PDT Monday, May 02, 2011. Please find a safe place to log out before the server comes down. For more information on scheduled downtimes (link).

    and:

    SYSTEM MESSAGE: Greetings Norrath! The server will be coming down immediately for a update. Please plan accordingly to be logged off during this time. Thank you!

    Keyring? Quest Items Tab? SmokeJumper Hints…

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    A player asked why the Character Sheet (Persona Window) received yet another revamp with yesterday’s update. SmokeJumper had this tidbit:

    [While players] didn’t ask for a new character sheet, but they *are* asking for something that will be solved after this change is in place. Here’s what got fixed with this change:

    • Your multiple homes are now listed in the “Housing” pane. (Previous to today, you could only own one house, so a list wasn’t necessary. It is now.)
    • It puts us in a much better situation to add more categories in the near future to take care of “inventory clutter” issues by creating new categories and taking those items out of your backpacks. This is a very common player request and we’ll be attacking a bunch of that soon.
       

    In Testing: Game Update 60 Update Notes

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

    Game Update 60 has finally reached Test and there is a lot of content here, including 3 new heroic dungeons, 3 new x4 raid zones, and a new x2 raid zone, a new Battleground, as well as major changes to PvP. Also look out for several changes and tweaks to classes, as well as a hard-to-miss huge nerf to Dirges, with Chimes/Cacophony of Blades no longer interrupting.

    “The Children of War”

    The Fortress of Drunder has emptied of Rallos Zek and his armies as they pass into the Plane of War to prepare for their eventual march on the Western Wastes. The Demi-Gods, Tallon and Vallon Zek, are subjugated within its towers, ignorant of Rallos’ grand scheme. Only Sullon Zek, the Maiden of Rage, is aware of what is to transpire. Trapped within her own tower, she has taken great risks to seek out worthy and daring heroes and guide them into the walls of Drunder.

    Now it is up to you to grapple the Minions of Zek and battle your way through events that will gain you amazing allies and set into motion a war that will end all wars!

    After the jump the full Game Update 60 Notes as they appear on Test (subject to change between now and May 17th):

    Prestige Opera House to Get Stairs

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Game Updates & Maintenance

    One concern about the Neriak Opera House prestige house on Test was that the stage did not have any stairs to reach it, requiring feather fall or other floating to reach it. Also, the seats of the theater were oddly shaped, possibly trapping players. Haohmaru has checked in a fix (and provided a screenshot):

    We have added stairs to each end of the stage. Hopefully we can update your homes before GU60, if possible.

    We also fixed an odd issue with the lips on each seating rung. You could get stuck under the small overhang for no apparent reason.

    New Character Sheet/Inventory/Persona Window

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance

    If you haven’t already heard about the revamped Persona Window coming in Game Update 60, it takes what we got in Velious and polishes it up to a mirror shine. The Velious Persona window seemed half-finished to us and, apparently, to Rothgar.

    Going live today, the new Personal window is a big improvement over the large paradigm-mixing one we got with Velious. It actually behaves a bit more like 2 separate windows again, with Stats (and all possible traits about your character) in a toggleable sidebar, while your Equipment, Mounts, Faction, and other character progression information now takes up roughly the same space they did pre-Velious.

    Prestige Homes Advisory: One Type Per Character

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Game Updates & Maintenance

    From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

    Hey, folks,

    We left the HEIRLOOM tag off the prestige homes. (It’ll be added to them tomorrow.)

    So for today, if you were planning to buy a bunch of one type of house and then transfer it to all your different alts, please don’t do it that way. Or if you do, please realize that the HEIRLOOM tag won’t be present until tomorrow.

    For today, please just realize that each character can only own one of each type of Prestige Home. If you buy more than that, you won’t be able to use them.

    As of tomorrow’s hotfix, you’ll be able to transfer any duplicates to other alts, if you so desire.

    What’s a Prestige Home? After the jump…

    Multi-Housing Now Patching… 2-3 Hours to Go

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Game Updates & Maintenance

    SmokeJumper has been providing frequent updates on today’s installation of Multihousing into EQ2:

    Hi, folks,

    Today’s housing feature has to do a lot of massaging of the house database elements. This takes a considerable amount of time (a bit like a world merge, actually).

    This means that when we take servers down, they will be down for 2 or 3 hours while we do that process. We should have all the servers up by mid-afternoon sometime (Pacific time).

    The servers that are currently running are Antonia Bayle, Barren Sky, Harla Dar, Guk, Everfrost, Unrest, and Crushbone.

    The next batch will be Splitpaw, Butcherblock, Nagafen, Freeport, Permafrost, Oasis, Crushbone, Valor, Storms, Sebilis, The Bazaar and Vox.

    So be patient with us a bit. Multiple House Ownership and Prestige Homes will be here today!

    As to the question of exactly when the servers will be up (with +hours corrected):

    Mid-afternoon sometime (Pacific time)

    Add +8 hours in the UK and +9 in Germany to any Pacific Time estimate we give. So mid-afternoon our time is something like midnight or later in Europe.

    Update as of 9:00PM GMT+1 (noon PDT):

    Crushbone is one of the servers that will come up in the first batch in an hour or two from now.

    Update Notes for April 28, 2011

    Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Raiding

    Here are your update notes for today, April 28, 2011. They include the introduction of Multi-housing. Thanks to Cyliena over at EQ2 ZAM for the formatting:

    HOUSING UPDATES

    • Each character can now own up to 10 houses of any combination (as long as he or she meets the house prerequisites).
    • House purchases are now based on alignment rather than citizenship.
    • The marketplace house item limit increasers now only apply to a single house. Additionally, the marketplace house item limit increaser will no longer stick with your house as you move from house to house, but it still stacks with the tradeskilled house item limit increaser.

    More information and FAQ can be found here on the Official Forums.


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