Feldon
From EQ2Talk.com: Episode #44 – Wind Power recorded on Apr 14 EQ2 Talk is excited to bring you Holly “Windstalker” Longdale, EverQuest 2 Producer. We asked her some of the burning questions about mechanics, dungeon finder, the in-game polls, and EQ2 Players. She also gives us a closer look at what the team has in store for players in GU63, offers some insight into the 2-level increase, explains a bit about prestige abilities, and talks about the team’s goals looking ahead. We’ve listened to Episode #44 and here are a few gems: We may get some more detailed information on the...
General
We’re a bit late on this, but on April 4th, a new in-game poll was added to EQ2 about the StationCash Marketplace, specifically some items that were previously only available on the Freeport (formerly EQ2X) server. This issue is being discussed on the EQ2 Forums. Here are the contents of that in-game mail: Greetings, Norrathians! Most players spend a lot of time exploring and soloing, or delving into dungeons with a mercenary. There are items that would be extremely useful for these activites that used to be available on the marketplace on the Freeport server. We’d like to hear...
Donna “Danicia” Prior, Social Media Specialist for SOE, has in the past represented Heatwave Interactive, Bioware, and Flying Lab Software at fan events such as GenCon, PAX, as well as the Game Developers Conference. Her most visible change at SOE so far has been the rebranding of the annual Fan Faire event. There has been speculation that the October 18-21, 2012 event will be more marketing and vendor-driven than past events, but otherwise, we are still waiting for all the details of this fan event to be announced. We did take a moment to ask her some questions in...
Oh look, another StationCash deal… From a note on the EQ2 Launcher and a promotional e-mail from SOE: In other news, the menu bar and navigation on EverQuest2.com now seems to be totally broken in Firefox 3.6.x.
A Sony Corp. logo pictured at an electronic store in Tokyo. (Yuriko Nakao / April 9, 2012) Although it is my understanding that this has no immediate ramifications for Sony Online Entertainment, which has already undergone two rounds of belt-tightening, and recently signed an exclusive European distribution deal with ProSiebenSat.1 which no doubt had financial incentives behind it, this is news that several people have reported in so I’m reposting it. UPDATE: Sony Corp has revised their expected financial losses for 2011 to $6.4 billion. From ArsTechnica: Sony Corp. is planning on cutting loose 10,000 of its employees in...
From EverQuest2.com: Spring Special! Get two times the SC when you buy Station Cash® between April 6th and April 8th*! * Valid from 12:01 AM PDT 4/6/2012 and 11:59 PM PDT 4/8/2012 only. Excludes purchases of Station Cash by SMS. Cards Too! We have confirmed with several players that StationCash Cards also apply to this Double SC event. Time Zone Conversions PDT: Friday April 6 @ 12:01am ~ April 8 @ 11:59pm EDT: Friday April 6 @ 3:01am ~ April 9 @ 2:59am BST: Friday April 6 @ 8:01 ~ April 9 @ 7:59 CET: Friday April 6 @...
In preparation for Game Update 63: Skyshrine (arriving April 17th, 2012), EQII is having a Double XP Weekend. Starting at 12:01 pm Pacific (Noon) on Friday, April 6, 2012 and lasting until 11:59 pm Pacific on Sunday, April 8, 2012 we’ll offer Double Experience in EverQuest II! Take advantage of these three days and watch those XP bars fill up! Time Zone Conversions PDT: April 6 @ 12:01pm ~ April 8 @ 11:59pm EDT: April 6 @ 3:01pm ~ April 9 @ 2:59am BST: April 6 @ 20:00 ~ April 9 @ 7:59 CET: April 6 @ 21:00 ~...
When the ProSiebenSat.1 deal was announced, it was indicated that some EQ2 servers would be IP locked. Existing EU players would be grandfathered into continuing to play on US servers, but US players would not be able to continue to play on EU servers. The IP locking (SOE was careful not to use this term) applied to the servers. After this announcement went over like mustard-flavored ice cream, SOE went away for 2 1/2 months and came back with a different approach. Servers will NOT be region-locked, accounts will be. So if you try to login to your SOE...
And we thought they’d forgotten… From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL All single group instances now have a lockout of 90 minutes. Fixed a bug where lingering dot effects from dead and looted NPCs could start critting. PLAYER HOUSING Marketplace housing deeds will now include the maximum number of placed items, prior to using house expanders, in the description. Increased item limit for Researcher’s Sanctum to 600. ITEMS Drunder x4 priest breastplates (non-Challenge mode) can now proc Celestial Restoration III.
From the EQ2 Forums comes a recap of what we can expect in April. With the exception of a Double XP weekend over Easter, there’s little new to of note except some vague comments about bug fixes. And no word on DOV Dungeon Timers being Reduced to 90 Minutes, which was promised for March. Here are the April Update Plans for EverQuest II! The Skyshrine update (GU 63) is taking the lion’s share of the team’s focus right now (launching in mid-April), but other things are still happening as we continue to smash bugs, improve systems, and look to...
From Brasse on the EQ2 Forums: Friends, We promised that all players would be able to play together, to play on the servers of their choice. This was a huge undertaking, technically, but vital to keeping our players together. Accounts will necessarily be handled separately as games transition. We are working very closely together and we are all are fully committed to serving their customers well. While it will be impossible to address each and every post here, I would like to answer a few.
Confirming rumors we’d heard last week, Blue’s News and StrategyInformer are reporting that SOE is renaming its annual fan gathering from “SOE Fan Faire” to “SOE Live“. Sony has announced the debut of a new convention devoted to Sony Online Entertainment MMOs, SOE Live. The convention will be located in Las Vegas, NV from the 18th through 21st October this year. The convention will take place at the Bally’s Casino. The games that will be showcased at the convention include DC Universe Online, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms, Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures and...
On January 12, 2012, Sony Online Entertainment announced an exclusive publishing and distribution deal with ProSiebenSat.1, a German TV media company whose gaming division Alaplaya has previously known for its pay-to-win browser games. After 2 weeks, we raised some questions about the deal. Yet it would be another four weeks before any official response would come. And if SOE hoped that a vague Frequently Asked Questions about the ProSiebenSat.1 deal would allay fears and reassure players, it couldn’t have had a more opposite effect. Never has the EQ2 playerbase been more united behind one issue than ensuring that ALL...
From the EQ2 Forums: From 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, March 20th, through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 28th, log in to EQII and take part in a look back at Norrathian days of yore. The EQII Team has created this fun event as an homage to EverQuest in honor of the anniversary of the EverQuest franchise, and although the lore doesn’t exactly fit the current story of EQII, they decided to make it extra enjoyable for those who were around for the first iteration of Norrath. Adventurers who take part in this journey through time will find some silly nods to...
When we gained the ability to buy EQ2 subscriptions 1, 3, 6, or even 12 months in advance on the StationCash Marketplace, players rejoiced. With Double and Triple SC weekends, compounded with those handy Walmart bonus SC cards, players have been able to get EQ2 subscriptions for as little as $3.33 a month. However there was an eventual price to be paid for this price discount. EQ2 Subscribers who have paid in advance for their subs with StationCash have had trouble buying Character Transfer Tokens, and been unable to Gift StationCash. We’ve talked about this in the past, and...
UPDATE: We are getting reports that the Wal-Mart exclusive StationCash cards with a +500 bonus are no longer doubling or tripling that bonus. This problem has been corrected, and redeemed cards are being retroactively credited. In honor of EverQuest’s 13th Anniversary, from noon today until tomorrow is Double StationCash. You should confirm that the SC point value shown is correct before completing your transactions. From the original EverQuest forums: In celebration of EverQuest’s 13th anniversary and transition to Free to Play. Your. Way. We will be offering double Station Cash! Hurry, only valid March 16, 12pm PDT to March...
We wish we could concretely confirm that this year’s Fan Faire will take place on October 18-21st. We wish we had twenty-seven 8×10 glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one as evidence. But we don’t. So this will be one of those preponderance of evidence cases. Last August we talked about the poll asking which three fall dates SOE should settle on for Fan Faire (since Bally’s had already been locked up tight for the usual suspects of July and August). Players overwhelmingly chose October 18-21, 2012. Then there was silence....
After the jump, some photos of the Lillipad Jungle Guild Hall, Tenebrous Tangle house, and the get-together in the Isle of Mara. GMs and Guides showed up to bring the Good Gear Man ice cream vendor, Vhalen’s musicians, and of course plenty of fireworks. At the time of this writing, the guild Lilipad Jungle has 358 members on 312 accounts. This guild was created 3 days ago and has already reached level 77 with people doing writs around the clock. The event was livestreamed on TwitchTV.
From EQ2 ZAM – EQII Players Rally around Terminal Child: On the official EverQuest II Forums a player posted a sad plea: My 6 yr old son has cancer and was recently given 6 – 12 weeks to live. He has a frog that he likes to run around Tenebrous Tangle Island on; however, it is sparse and he has requested to add trees, fences, stairs, animals and all kinds of other items to make his island fun and exciting. Are there any decorators out there that would be willing to assist in adding these items (and any others...
Niami Denmother has turned pink at the prospect of the returning Brewday 2012 events. To find out what’s new with this year’s event, look no further than her Brewday 2012 Crafting/Housing Preview. In other news, Omougi, EQ2’s new Tradeskill Developer has announced that carpenters will be gaining access to eleven (11) sets of Building Blocks to be crafted with common materials.
After allusions by EQ2 Senior Producer Holly “Windstalker” to a “very detailed list” of issues and bugs and indications that today’s March update would “answer several of the substantive questions“, EQ2 Community Manager Piestro has revealed EQ2’s March Update Plans which contain many things we’ve heard before, but one interesting surprise: There are lots of activities and events to participate in this month! And while you?re busy playing, the Dev team is preparing for the Game Update 63: Skyshrine launch. We are already playtesting internally and excited about this release. As we write this, development is wrapping up and...
We’ve got some vague results from SOE’s first in-game poll, notable for having only been distributed to North American players. From Piestro on the EQ2 Forums: A big thanks to all of you for participating in the first EQII In-Game Poll and helping us get to know you better! We were very happy with the number of you who took the time to go ahead and answer our poll questions and we’ve spent some time going over the data. So, on to the results! We know that the majority of you are exploring overland areas, doing quests, and playing...
From Piestro on the EQ2 Forums: Details on our end are still being worked on to make the solution a reality. Essentially we are going to resolve the difficulties on our end rather than region lock. See Brasse and Smed’s statements. How we accomplish this will mostly be technical mumbo jumbo that doesn’t mean much unless you are a programmer working at SOE and intimately familiar with how our servers are architected AND how our account management works. Sharing those details would be more confusing and less meaningful than just saying “we’re going to take care of it”. We’ve...
From EverQuest2.com: SOE is running an “Extra Day Extra Station Cash” promotion on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. This offer is valid from 12:01am PST on 2/29/2012 to 11:59pm PST on 2/29/2012 only. The offer is not valid for purchases made by SMS or with pre-paid game cards. Buy $5: Get 600 SC (100 bonus) Buy $10: Get 1,250 SC (250 bonus) Buy $20: Get 2,500 SC (500 bonus) Buy $25: Get 3,250 SC (750 bonus) Buy $50: Get 7,000 SC (2,000 bonus) Buy $100: Get 14,000 SC (4,000 bonus) Visit SOE.com Time Zone Conversions PST: Feb 29 @ 12:01am~Feb...
From John Smedley‘s Twitter: We’ve come up with a plan to allow ALL players to play on any servers they want. More details to follow. UPDATE from Zatozia: Hey there! We have a status update on this topic for you. A solution to keep the communities together is now in the works! We’ll be providing more details about the solution with an official announcement a bit later but we wanted to let everyone know that it was coming as soon as we could. Thank you all for your great feedback on this topic. UPDATE from Piestro: Just to elaborate...