Feldon
EQ2 Test Update Notes give a glimpse of what changes we may expect in the future of EQ2. They are always subject to change, sometimes due to player input, sometimes because an item is not ready to go live yet (i.e. Multi Attack over 100%). We nevertheless keep an ear to the ground and an eye on the EQ2 Test Update Notes and occasionally present that information here. The detailed Test Update Notes, which can be found on the EQ2 Forums, contain numerous tweaks and fixes large and small. October 28th’s notes reference the Currency window, Tradeskill Writs, Stonewill...
DGC Wants Feedback
Dethdlr
SOE wants to know where and when people would prefer to have Fan Faire 2011. Your choices are Vegas or Vegas. Go vote for your prefered hotel and dates. Amnerys posted this on the official forums: It’s that time again folks! Time to tell us where and when you want to attend Fan Faire 2011! We have two choices for you, both of them in Las Vegas. The first one sends us back to Bally’s, July 7th through the 9th. The other option takes us to the Hilton, August 4th through the 6th. Head on over to the Fan Faire...
Posted on the EQ2 Forums by Kaitheel: The Heroes’ Festival has begun! A call has gone out to all Norrathian adventurers to commemorate the six years of questing, raiding, tradeskilling, house decorating and socializing. Celebrators, happy to share in the festivities, can be found in North and South Qeynos or West and North Freeport. You may spot some odd things, due to the overlap of both the Nights of the Dead and Heros’ Festival running at the same time, right now. But keep in mind that this will not be the case when it goes live. Currently, the event...
If you’re an officer or leader of a small guild, odds are there have been times late at night, or really any time when you have been the only one logged in, yet wanted to invite your own alts to the guild. Previously, you’ve had to wait until another officer or leader of the guild signed on, or signed in another account, to invite your alts. File this under M for Maybe, but that Guru of GUIs, Rothgar, has had a brainstorm on a possible solution. There is no announced date, and there may be unforeseen issues, but it’s...
SmokeJumper is looking for feedback on placing F2P marketplace items on the test server. He posted this on the official forums: Hey, folks, We don’t have a big enough population on the Test server to run two different Test servers (one for EQII Live and one for EQ2X), and we’d like to get your feedback on whether you think it’s appropriate for us to allow the EQ2X marketplace items to show up on Test. Since the items are optional, it shouldn’t make much of a difference in your play style, but it would allow us to test them on a...
What’s on Test this weekend? Here are just a few items: UI: The XP bar will now stay put between logins. UI: Designers of custom UIs can now set the XP bar to not “snap” to top/bottom. UI: The Character window has seen multiple improvements. UI: The Implied Target arrow now reflects the ‘con’ color of the enemy, and can have its opacity adjusted. Items: 2-handed Weapons and Ranged Weapons have had their damage ratings increased. Ranged weapons will also have a bit of a damage penalty in PvP to compensate. The Guardian class has had over 25 changes...
When you target another player (say your group’s tank, or the raid Main Assist) to channel your damage through, it is sometimes helpful to not only see the Target Arrow (who you have selected), but the Implied Target Arrow (the enemy which your target has chosen). This can be especially important for scouts. So players have asked for a way to customize or more easily distinguish the color and opacity of the Implied Target Arrow. Rothgar’s comments after the jump…
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…
Xelgad has responded to a detailed thread on Illusionist Class Issues: Hey guys, long time no see! We got some good feedback at Fan Faire which I wanted to share. I agree that Time Warp ended up being more annoying than it is fun or rewarding. Unfortunately, it was one of those things that looked okay on paper but didn’t work in practice. We have it changed internally so that there is no longer an immunity timer associated with the spell, and it now grants the Illusionist the buff as well as the target. This should be coming to...
In response to a detailed list of issues with the Monk Class, Xelgad has provided an unexpected commentary: Thanks for the up to date thread! I can’t give an ETA, but we are looking for ways to make Monks more viable in AE-oriented content, especially with heroic content in mind. If the change benefits both brawlers, all the better. In that light, Crane Twirl would seem like a great candidate for a change, but I think the advancement is, at worst, balanced compared to other alternate advancements in the slot, and forcing everyone to take that one would not...
Xelgad has posted a flurry of responses to specific class issues today. This one, in regards to Critical Heals which have been removed from all fighters. For some fighter classes, critical heals might have been overpowered, but for Paladins (joshingly referred to as Healadins), losing all crititical heals has had class altering effects not only in solo situations (which this nerf was intended to fix) but in group and raid setups.
We’ve been hearing about some ranger love for about 3 expansions now, but at Fan Faire, we heard the first concrete info. Xelgad has elaborated on just what we can expect in an update falling between GU57 and GU58 (hopefully 4-6 weeks from now: Greetings, Mighty Forces! AE Auto-Attack and Flurry are indeed on the way for bows. We’re also removing the 20% damage penalty for bows, and we’re increasing the damage rating on all 81-90 bows (along with throwing weapons) by about 10%. The intent is to allow you guys to get full benefit from buffs and gear,...
With now 16 neutral character classes, available in both good and evil alignments, and with recent expansions rarely distinguishing between good and evil when handing out quests, it’s not a surprise that the question of Alignment and the painful (and costly) process of Class Betrayal gets revisited on the forums frequently. However thus far, the official response as been “We have no intention to make it easier, or take away any of the consequences. Betrayal is supposed to have a cost.”
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...
Here is the 6-part Question & Answer panel for EQ2 from Saturday at Fan Faire 2010. [EQ2Wire] Fan Faire 2010 – EQ2 Q&A Saturday Panel (playlist)
I have just posted all 6 parts of the EQ2 Mechanics / Class Balance panel from Fan Faire 2010. [EQ2Wire] Fan Faire 2010 – EQ2 Mechanics Panel (playlist)
Apologies for any typos. They jacked up the AC in here!! Remember folks, lots of EQ2 t shirts, hoodies, and polos.
EQ2 Mechanics and Class Balance panel. Rich Waters, Greg “Rothgar” Spence, Paul “Frizznik” Carrico, Mike “Xelgad” Ganz. Update: As of 2:00AM CDT I have made some cleanup and additional information added to these notes based on memory. There are 3-4 missing questions which will get filled in after the video is reviewed.
Live blog from Fan Faire with q&a on EverQuest II.
With the migration of Nagafen server last week and today’s moving day for Antonia Bayle complete, we should now see whether the new servers finally vanquish the lag monster. Rothgar is seeking player feedback on the server upgrade and, if the move proves successful, we will hopefully see the migration of all servers to new hardware. With this morning’s maintenance, Antonia Bayle received some new hardware which should greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the lag you’ve been experiencing. We will be monitoring the new hardware and phasing out the old hardware over time. Please share your experiences with us.
Rothgar has posted some additional thoughts and clarifications about the new User Interface facelift for EQ2 in Game Update 57 on the EQ2 Forums. After the jump…
Zoltaroth has made some changes to the automated Test Copy scripts so that characters will copy within hours rather than being on a 24-48 hour cycle as they are now. To copy a character to Test Copy, type /testcopy add on any live server. You will then need to choose to login to the Test server when starting up EQ2 with your choice of launcher.
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...
Test Copy has always been a temporary server, subject to complete wipes of all characters and guilds. In fact, the Test Copy server started out as a PvP Test server, and while it has been a PvE server for over 2 years now, the PvP switch has been “flipped” a few times for testing of Battlegrounds and PvP content leading up to Sentinel’s Fate. Despite all cautions to the contrary, some players have built up characters and guilds on Test Copy, so they may be interested to know that another wipe is happening. Test Copy is currently down (we’re...
So we just had a Double XP weekend over the July 4th holiday. It was heavily promoted, and featured in an e-mail and on the forums. EQ2 Senior Producer SmokeJumper posted about spending almost the entire weekend playing and how quickly he earned levels, AAs, and how many groups he got. Now, apparently, it’s time for the pendulum to swing the other way. Yesterday’s Test Server Update Notes include the following details which will eventually make it to Live servers: GENERAL Many instances from Deserts of Flame and Kingdom of Sky are now persistent. This includes Ancient’s Table, Cazel’s...