Battlegrounds Token Consolidation?

Written by Dethdlr on . Posted in PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

Want some Battlegrounds items but can’t stand some of the zones?  Having trouble getting into some of them as often as you’d like?  If so, then changes may be coming your way soon that will solve those problems.  It looks like soon you will be able to exchange your tokens for “Battleground Tokens” which can be used to purchase items instead of the three different types.

Bunji wrote over on the EQ2Players forums:

Test needs another update before the token exchange will be working correctly.  This should be in the next Test update:

You may now exchange your Gears, Ganak and Smuggler’s tokens for Battleground tokens by speaking to the Sisters of War.

I’ll try and update Test again tonight.

   

BG: Banishment From the Battlefield of Ganak?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

If you’re familiar with the Battlefield of Ganak, the Capture-the-Flag arena for PvP/Battlegrounds, you’ll know that players have demonstrated an uncanny ability to collect the opposing team’s flag and then hide somewhere that the other team cannot reach. Various tools have been used, from in-game tinkered spring shoes, to 3rd party jump/hack/positioning software.

There was a thread soliciting feedback on how the EQ2 team could solve this problem.

Already, there is a Truancy system in place, where if enough players vote that a player has gone AFK simply to collect Battlegrounds tokens.

So how could this new problem of out-of-reach flag holders be resolved? Many solutions were proposed. As of last week, we have our answer:

If a player holds the flag beyond a designated amount of time without entering melee combat, they will see a message flash in red characters at the top of their screen “Get into Combat or be Banished!!“.

If you’d like to read player feedback on this issue and solution, check out the thread on the EQ2 Forums.

Olihin Addresses Raft of PvP Questions, Issues

Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

Remember when Player-vs-Player was the red-headed stepchild of EQ2? Remember when there wasn’t even a PvP developer, but instead those tasks were delegated to developers who already had a full workload? Fast forward to today and one of the areas of the game getting the most attention is the PvP side, including those issues that extend into Battlegrounds.

So let’s go down the list of responses so far from PvP developer Olihin

Game Update 57 Notes

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, Free-to-Play (EQ2X), Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Live Events, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

Today marks the introduction of Game Update 57 to the live servers. Key features of this update include:

  • The EQ2 User Interface has received a facelift, with a new toolbar, a refresh of various windows, and a merged Character/Inventory/Profile window. The default theme is red, but easily switchable to blue by typing /loadui and choosing the Blue graphic set.
  • More character classes are now neutral and may start in either good or evil cities.
  • Spell animations and effects have been revamped.
  • Intrazone travel now supports path linking. Travel within Kingdom of Sky has been improved.
  • Erudin group instances (level 86-90) are now easier to reach.
  • New tradeskill quests have been added in the level 10, 20, and 30 tiers. These quests reward a mount as well as access to what have previously been overpriced Advanced recipe books.
  • Starting areas in Greater Faydark and Darklight Wood have received substantial revamps. Gorowyn has received further architectural rebuilding to improve navigation.
  • All classes have had some group-specific spells postponed until later levels to reduce the number of spells new players get in the first 20 levels.
  • Fighter heals will no longer critically heal.
  • The “Notable Norrathian” contest winning paintings are now available within Norrath but only during the monthly City Festivals (next is Sept 1-7). They are guild hall placeable.
  • Lucan D’Lere has returned to Freeport.
  • Today’s update contains no new dungeons or raid zones.

EQ2X

Also going live today is the public beta for EverQuest II Extended, the Free-to-Play alternative to a monthly EQ2 subscription. Game Update 57 will arrive simultaneously on both servers. EQ2X, as it’s being abbreviated, may be discussed on the separate EQ2X Forums.

PvP Feedback from Fan Faire to drive GU58 and Beyond

Written by Feldon on . Posted in DGC Wants Feedback, Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

Sometimes people don’t believe it, but I know for a fact that developers at Fan Faire really do listen, or at the very least take extensive notes which they reflect upon when getting home.

Some changes are relatively easy and make a lot of sense when the context is explained interactively in a conversation with the developer. Of course big sweeping changes are unlikely while the developers are already in full press mode working on the next expansion, but it’s great when open discussion at Fan Faire can trigger a small but significant improvement. So enough of that…

Olihin (PvP and Battlegrounds dev) has posted a writeup of all the changes he is currently considering or outright planning for the future. He has already indicated that the earliest we might see some of these changes is Game Update 58, but there are no promises. Further, Olihin is requesting feedback on these changes. They are far from going live, so now is your chance for constructive conversation.

Game Update 57 Update Notes for Test/Test Copy

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Art, Appearance, Housing, DGC Wants Feedback, Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding, Tradeskill

Game Update 57 is now up on  the Test and Test Copy Servers and we’ve got the Update Notes. We’ve already taken some new screen shots of the new default interface including the new pictorial tutorials for new players.

  • User Interface – One of the touted features of Game Update 57 is the revamped User Interface. The Persona and Inventory windows have been merged into a Character window. The XP bar has become a sort of “dock” at the bottom of your screen. All buttons and window corners have been rounded off. And for the most part, everything that was blue is now red! No doubt UI modders will come out with a classic re-skin to turn everything back to blue. We will be posting a preview of the GU57 Interface Changes soon. Discussed Here
  • Map Points of Interest – Many points of interest have been added to the default map, including quest locations. This will provide some of the functionality of EQ2Maps.
  • Additional Travel Revamp – There have been additional revamps to Travel. With path linking, you can now choose the ultimate destinations of any inter-zone travel and it will “connect the dots” to get you there. All transport pads in Kingdom of Sky connect to all others, and travel between the three Kingdom of Sky zones is much easier.
  • Character Creation & More Neutrals – The Character Creation screens have been revamped, and several more classes have become neutral, including Assassin, Ranger, Templar, Inquisitor, Coercer, Illusionist, Monk and Bruiser.
  • Extraneous Spells/CAs Removed from Levels 1-15 – Many spells and combat arts that new players generally did not use at level 1-20, such as Taunts, De-Agros, Agro-reduction, etc. have been postponed until level 15+ to decrease the number of new spells/CAs that players are exposed to in the increasingly brief sprint from level 1-20. First Discussed Here
  • Spell Effects Visual Revamp which was rumored for GU55 is now on Test. This is an update/revamp of the animation which plays for each beneficial and hostile effect cast by characters.
  • Lucan D’Lere has returned!
  • Additional Tradeskill Quests have been added at level 20 and 30.
  • Starting Zone Conflicts – Frostfang Sea (New Halas) and Greater Fay starting zones are now under attack by invaders, adding an additional level of interest to these zones. In addition, Gorowyn has received yet another architectural revamp to hopefully improve navigation.
  • General – You can also expect the usual array of tweaks and bugfixes to raid zones, battlegrounds, AA lines, Quests, and Items. Most classes got some kind of benefit here.

As this is all on Test and Test Copy, the EQ2 team are really looking for bug reports, feedback, and comments on everything that’s been added.

Complete Game Update 57 Notes after the jump…

Breaking: Server Transfers off PvP?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

Some very interesting comments on the EQ2 Forums regarding players wanting to transfer off PvP servers from Rothgar:

We’ve been discussing our server transfer policies over the past couple of weeks but don’t have anything to announce yet.  We’ve commented on this subject in the past and are aware of the desires for people to have more open transfer policies between PvP/PvE and LG/Standard servers.  As soon as we have something to tell you, it will be announced.  But for now, understand that your voices are heard.

This may also have some ramifications for LiveGamer <-> Standard servers, but obviously there will be more discussion and feedback before such a change is considered. The discussion started regarding transfers off Nagafen and Vox.

Breaking: Big Announcement on Tuesday, More from SOE Block Party

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Expansion News, Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Tradeskill

Breaking News from the SOE Block Party. Reporting by Serianna.

  • a big hint about larger item limit in houses, possibly from being able to use a 2nd expander.
  • new zone is going to be a guk zone.
  • possibly going to see a differentation in the lower guild halls (halas to look more like the halas housing etc) but still in way early stages on that. not green lighted but devs pushing for it.
  • new crafting quests in mid teirs.
  • some big announcement coming tuesday from smokejumper.
  • also talk about making BGs more dynamic. traps, levers, movable objects etc. with different ways to get points besides just kills and holding stuff and the like

UK-US Battlegrounds, Tinkerfest, Class Balance

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Live Events, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

We’ve got a rollup post of news from the weekend on a few different topics.

UK-US Battlegrounds might be finally getting the necessary kick in the butt to start working tomorrow. There might be a solution in the pipeline for players on distant servers unable to acquire Smuggler’s Den Tokens. Tinkerfest is coming to Test with new quests and rewards. And finally, a new Class Mechanics forum has mysteriously appeared on the EQ2 Forums.

   

Servers Back Up after Extended Maintenance, US-UK Battlegrounds Bridge

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

At 11pm PDT on June 9th, 2010 (7am GMT on June 10th, 2010), several EQ2 servers were brought down for maintenance:

Befallen, Permafrost, Crushbone, Mistmoore, Oasis, Runnyeye, Splitpaw, Innovation, Valor, Storms, Battlegrounds UK, Battlegrounds DE, and Battlegrounds FR

The original announcement indicated that maintenance would take 7 hours. All servers were up after ~13 hours, with a total downtime of ~15 hours for Runnyeye, Innovation, and some of the Battlegrounds servers.

So what was this maintenance all about? And did it include the US-UK Battlegrounds bridging we’ve been hearing about?

UK (Splitpaw/Runnyeye) and US Battlegrounds

Written by Feldon on . Posted in PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

UK and US Battlegrounds Playing Nice Together (or not!)

At the end of April, Rothgar posted news that a future update will allow players on UK servers (Splitpaw and Runnyeye) to join U.S.-based Battlegrounds (provided client-server versions are in sync). Here’s his post back then:

I just wanted to let you guys know that we’ve been making some changes on the backend that will allow UK players from Runnyeye and Splitpaw to play on the same Battlegrounds servers as the North American servers.  Since there is no language issue to overcome, this only leaves the problem of hotfixes and servers that are out-of-sync.

What will happen after the NA servers are updated, you’ll no longer be able to connect to battlegrounds until the UK servers are on the same version.  Typically your update window is later in the day so hopefully this won’t be too impactful.  Ideally you’ll have a better play experience 90% of the time due to the larger BG server but there will be times that battlegrounds will be down for you.

Although originally planned for GU56, and then a week after GU56, this change is planned to go live with tomorrow’s (June 8th) hotfix.

June 8th (Tuesday) is when we are shooting for turning this on, assuming everything is working correctly.

UPDATE: This hotfix has slipped to Thursday, June 10th.

Thursday, June 3, 2010 Hotfix Notes

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Grouping, Live Events, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

Here are your hotfix notes for June 3, 2010:

GENERAL

  • Effects can once again proc on an AE autoattack.

DRUID RING EVENT

  • Tunarian supply officers will now buy items for coin, like many other merchants.
  • The druid portal to Nektulos Forest now lands adventurers closer to the druid ring.
  • An issue preventing players from harvesting magiliths after they died has been fixed.
  • The bug that prevented looting A Floret of Growth with certain group loot settings has been fixed.

SPELLS

  • Ancestral Sentry can once again be cast on raid and group friends.  It can no longer be cast on pets or NPCs.

ROYAL PALACE OF ROEHN THEER

  • Plane Cracker should no longer occasionally cast if Approaching Equilibrium is slain before reaching Roehn Theer.
  • Approaching Equilibrium should now despawn almost immediately upon being slain.
  • Void-charged Soul and Star-charged Soul should now correctly be dispelled from both players when they successfully reach each other.
  • Void-charged Soul and Star-charged Soul now have a 3s delay after being applied before they begin reacting to other nearby charged souls.

BATTLEGROUNDS

  • Hook arrow will no longer cause the victim to drop the flag.

May 27 and June 1st Hotfix Notes

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Grouping, Itemization, Live Events, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds, Raiding

Today’s Hotfix (Patch) fixes a bug in the Druid Ring Live Event, and includes tweaks to itemization, the new PvP Warfields, and numerous bugs in the Icy Keep raid zone. We also include the hotfix notes from May 27, 2010 which somehow got left out.

May 27th’s hotfix notes make mention of a change to Procs which were not working on spells. However, this change resulted in certain procs, specifically Pestilential Rain and Torrent, no longer working properly for melee. You can read more about this issue on the EQ2 Forums. Xelgad has responded:

Thanks for all of the information. We’ll take a look and see if we can’t get this working.

Players noticed that the cap on Arcane, Noxious, and Elemental Resists was seemingly lowered from 80% to 75%.  Xelgad has clarified this change:

The cap was always 75%. The 80% you all were seeing when your resists were high enough in the persona window was a display error. The display error has been fixed, so it is now showing 75%.

Do note that that 75% is against a target that is your level. A higher level target will require higher resists to reach the 75%. Also, some spells are harder to resist than normal (you should see this effect in the spell’s description) and will need even more resists to get to 75%.

GU56: PvP Warfields Coming to Nagafen and Vox

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

Game Update 56 next Tuesday will include a new scenario specifically for the PvP servers. Antonica and Commonlands will become home to Warfields, a scheduled PvP campaign with specific rewards. Here’s PvP developer Olihin‘s update notes:

PvP WARFIELDS

  • Antonica and Commonlands have once again become hotbeds of conflict! Will your lands be overrun or will your forces prevail against the siege?
  • Warfields are Good vs. Evil faction based.
  • Rewards will be Discord Tokens with a higher quantity to the winning team.
  • The event will stagger between Antonica and 2 hours later in Commonlands and last for 30 minutes.
  • The Antonica and Commonlands zones have been CHANGED to 10 level ranges from 4 to allow a wider range of skirmishes.

UK Players (Splitpaw & Runnyeye) on US Battlegrounds?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

European EQ2 players wanting to experience Battlegrounds have had to deal with a series of compromises. Battlegrounds are divided not only by language (French, German, Russian) but region (UK vs. US). As a result, some servers have had such a small pool of players to choose from, that 24 x 24 Battlegrounds have been impossible, locking players out of acquiring some 40% of the gear and rewards available for Battlegrounds.

Rothgar has given us the first bit of concrete good news about solutions to these issues:

I just wanted to let you guys know that we’ve been making some changes on the backend that will allow UK players from Runnyeye and Splitpaw to play on the same Battlegrounds servers as the North American servers. Since there is no language issue to overcome, this only leaves the problem of hotfixes and servers that are out-of-sync.

What will happen after the NA servers are updated, you’ll no longer be able to connect to battlegrounds until the UK servers are on the same version. Typically your update window is later in the day so hopefully this won’t be too impactful. Ideally you’ll have a better play experience 90% of the time due to the larger BG server but there will be times that battlegrounds will be down for you.

I don’t have an ETA on this change yet, but we’re shooting for having it ready by GU56, so near the end of May.

Further, as to what happens when US and UK servers are no longer in synch, Avirodar had this suggestion:

Is it possible to keep the Euro BG servers active, but make it the default choice for Euro players to connect to American BG servers. But if the client verisons are out of synch/different, it will force Euro players to connct to the Euro BG servers instead?

At least, something of that general principal. There are a lot of ways it could be done, a lot of ways the choices can be presented and given to players. It would provide a solution where BGs are never actually “down” for Euro players, there is just small periods of time where getting into a BG map can take longer to join (due to being Euro only) as a result of different client versions.

To which Rothgar replied:

We have been considering that exact solution, but it’s not without problems either. This means we have to have dedicated machines and maintenance on a set of servers that are only used 10% of the time (or less)

But the biggest issue is that stat tracking would be separate depending on which BG world you are connected to. So your games on the UK world would not count towards the stats that occur on the NA world. This will become a bigger issue when the seasons start and stats are used to calculate leaderboards and rewards.

Playing With Yourself — The European Battlegrounds Conundrum

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Itemization, PvP/BG/Proving Grounds

The Promise of Battlegrounds

The promise of Battlegrounds has been the opportunity to meet players from other servers and challenge them in meaningful PvP combat. It has been a great time-killer while attempting to form up groups. It has been a fun exercise for guilds from different servers wanting to face off in battle. And it has been an opportunity (perhaps too good of one) to gear up. However this promise has largely gone undelivered to the European community.

Aside from localization issues (language, number and date formats), European servers almost always undergo software upgrades at a different time (and sometimes different date) than Stateside updates. If the software does not exactly match between two copies of EQ2, then these two players facing off in Battlegrounds could lead to character corruption or exploits. As a result of these concerns, Battlegrounds are isolated by language and country. Thus, the French, German, Russian, UK, and US Battlegrounds clusters cannot talk to each other.

The issues caused, and solutions posited on this subject can all be found in this prominent thread on the EQ2 Forums: Battlegrounds and EU Servers


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