All City Festivals and all Aether Flying Races were enabled during Double XP week, but if you missed it, or worked on leveling characters instead, then we’re now back into our regular schedule of City Festivals for the first week of every month.

June is on the horizon and as the new month begins the New Halas City Festival will come to Norrath! The festival is planned to start on June 1st at 12:01am PDT and will run until June 7th at 11:59pm PDT. The Far Seas Caravan can be found near the Cairn of the Huntress.

Read More @ EQ2 ZAM

From Piestro on the EQ2 Forums:

In applying Game Update 60 we have found an issue with Battlegrounds affecting our International and EQ2X players. Battlegrounds have been temporarily disabled for these players as we address this issue, and we will let you know when we have it resolved.

Remember those Temporary Flying Mounts available at all levels during the Destiny of Velious launch party? They’re back!! Although there’s been no announcement on the EQ2 forums, players noticed that these mounts are once again available from the Marketplace for 0 (zero) SC. Just type /marketplace , choose Mounts, then Premium, then Flying Mounts.

UPDATE: The free temporary flying mount appears to be part of this weekend’s Memorial Mania TRIPLE  StationCash event, as the EverQuest2.com Announcement has been updated with info on all the in-game items available in all SOE games.

EQ2Wire would like to know, will you attend Fan Faire 2011?

Do you have a question you’d like asked at Fan Faire by EQ2Wire? If so, post it in the Comments, or send us an e-mail!

If you are in the US and were planning to stock up on and redeem a bunch of StationCash cards this weekend, you might not be aware that the Wal-Mart exclusive StationCash cards, which reward not 1500SC but 2000SC for $15, have been confirmed to triple in value when redeemed during this weekend’s Triple StationCash event.

Between 12:01 AM PDT May 27, 2011 and 11:59 PM PDT May 30, 2011, redeem any SOE Pre-Paid Game Card and get TRIPLE Station Cash for a limited time only!

While any StationCash card can be redeemed for StationCash in EQ2, even cards branded for DCUO or FreeRealms, Krakus of Butcherblock has confirmed that the $15 Wal-Mart StationCash card will yield 6,000SC when redeemed this weekend.

If you watched yesterday afternoon’s SOE Fan Faire webcast, then you already know that Linda “Brasse” Carlson will be stepping up as this year’s official Host of Fan Faire. A Jace Hall-free weekend in Vegas  is certainly something to celebrate with lots of Dwarvish Ale. 🙂

I’ve been wracking my brain on stuff that I can say that won’t get me fired! We’ll see how that turns out. I’ve already got approval from Legal on a couple of them. Now we just have to get approval from Community and Smed.

The EQ2 special in-game item for our Fan Faire attendees has just been announced on SOE’s Facebook page.

• “Prismatic Cloud” – This magical rainbowed mount is sure to carry you all the way!

From EverQuest2.com:

We’re back up and Early Bird pricing has been extended until May 31st!  We’ve been busy planning and have announced several updates to the schedule and will continue to do so over the coming weeks, so please continuously check back for details!  Thank you again for your patience and we look forward to seeing you in July!

All-Access Passes to the expanded SOE Fan Faire are now available for purchase at the early bird price of $119.00 USD which includes access to developer forums, panels and roundtables along with goody-bags and giveaways.

Attendees who register after May 6, 2011 can purchase an All-Access Pass for $129.00 USD.

Less than 7 weeks out, we are rather short on details about the Fan Faire itinerary of events. Still if you want to save $10, you’ve got until May 31st to register at the reduced rate.

Before it was so rudely interrupted by a few hackers you might have heard of, the  StationCash “May Madness” deal had been announced and was slated to run from May 2nd–5th. Prior to Friday’s announcement, players noticed that May Madness was indeed in effect and we now know it will run until May 25th.

Discounts cover a wide range of services including Character Slots, Guild Renames, Character Transfers, Character Name and Race Changes, as well as Vitality, Evac, and Tracking potions. Check out the EverQuest2.com article for the complete list of discounts.

And starting on May 27th, SOE will be having its first Triple StationCash event. This event will unfortunately be limited to StationCash cards only, making it mostly a North American event.

Between 12:01 AM PDT May 27, 2011 and 11:59 PM PDT May 30, 2011, redeem any SOE Pre-Paid Game Card and get TRIPLE Station Cash for a limited time only!

Visit your favorite Station Cash Card retailer to stock up on cards now and be ready to redeem when the event begins next weekend!

Clearly this is a measure to try to get enough sales volume on the cards to persuade retailers to continue to stock the cards (or restock in the case of retailers who have dropped SOE’s cards). Note that most StationCash cards are branded FreeRealms, with newer multi-game cards that double as StationCash or a monthly subscription to specific SOE games. ANY card you buy with “StationCash” and a value written on it can be used. StationCash cards can be redeemed at SOE.com.

Adding to the Identity Theft Protection plan already announced for US customers, today, SOE has announced a similar program for EU customers.

For customers based in the United States, we have made arrangements with Debix, Inc., one of the industry’s most reputable identity protection firms, to offer AllClear ID PLUS at no cost to Station Account holders for 12 months from the time an account holder registers for the program. To qualify, Station Account holders must enroll by June 28, 2011. US – based customers will receive an email in the next few days, confirming how to access their redemption code for this service. For more details on the program, click here.

For customers in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, we will provide a complimentary 12 month identity protection program offered through Affinion International Limited. Customers will have the option of enrolling in the program for 60 days from May 14, 2011 (when SOE services were restored) by contacting Affinion. The identity protection program will provide customers with monitoring, surveillance, reporting and insurance. Affinion is one of the world’s largest and longest-tenured providers of identity protection services. More details on how customers can take advantage of this service will be available soon. Read the Press Release.

For all other customers, we are actively investigating similar programs or other measures in other countries or territories; more information on those programs or measures will be provided as they are implemented.

One of the side benefits of the Welcome Back program, which has seen all City Festivals (Qeynos, Freeport, Neriak, Kelethin, and Gorowyn) live simultaneously, is that we now have access to items on the merchants which weren’t going to make an appearance for several months. From Domino:

The new stuff was originally intended to slowly be revealed over the next half year as the festivals cycled around … but with them all turned on at once you have a bit of a deluge of new goodies! Glad they are enjoyed anyway.

There may be some new things coming in the mushroom rings after GU60, too … but live servers will have to wait for next month to see those!

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.

A player brought an issue to our attention with inaccurate StationCash balance. We can confirm this as on the SOE website, we show the correct balance but in-game, it shows not even 0SC, but just a blank space where the value should be. As a result, I’m not able to buy anything. Even players without a corrupted SC value are reporting that buying items and adding funds with a credit card are not possible.

UPDATE: StationCash values were corrected about 1 hour after this was written.

As you are enjoying today’s Double XP and Double StationCash event, you may want to take note of deals coming up on May 2nd-5th that could reduce the cost of an Additional Character Slot to just $3.50, a Race Change to just $5, or a Character Copy or Guild Rename to $8.75. Other consumables including a Vitality potion will be just $3.50 if you buy your Double StationCash today.

From EverQuest2.com:

Sale! Sale! Sale!

Item Name	Regular Price	Sale Price
Additional Character Slot	1000	700
Porion of Disgenderment	750	500
Guild Rename Potion	2450	1750
Race Potion	1450	1000
Potion of Amnesia	950	700
Character Transfer Token	2450	1750
Character Copy Token	2450	1750
Norrathian Witness Protection Pack	1750	1000
Charm of Escape	50	25
Potion of Quickened	50	25
Summoning Charm	75	50
Scroll of Tracking	50	25
Portable Globe of Swift Travel	150	100
Potion of Vitality	950	700

Take advantage of this weekend’s Double Station Cash Saturday and stack up the savings! Visit the Station Cash page to learn how you can purchase SC online or from a retailer near you.

Once the sale begins, buy these items and more by clicking the SC button in game, or type /marketplace in your chat window.

From EverQuest2.com:

Time is running out to register for Fan Faire 2011 at the early bird price of $119.00 US!

All-Access passes to the expanded SOE Fan Faire are now available for purchase at the early bird price of $119.00 USD which includes access developer forums, panels and roundtables along with goody-bags and giveaways.

From Amnerys on the EQ2 Forums:

To thank players for their patience during the recent service interruption, we will be hosting special events this weekend across our game portfolio, including a Double Station Cash day on Saturday, April 30th. We are also working on a “make good” plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms.  Details will be available soon on the individual game websites and forums.

EverQuest II and EQ2X will also be holding a Double XP day on Saturday, from 12:01am PST to 11:59pm PST. This will affect tradeskill, adventure and AA XP.

To redeem game cards for Station Cash, visit the Game Cards webpage. The types of cards below are eligible for SC redemption (denominations may vary). Purchases can also be made through your account, which is always accessible at SOE.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience players may have experienced as a result of the recent service interruption. As a global leader in online gaming, SOE is committed to delivering stable and entertaining games for players of all ages.

In the wake of Sony’s PlayStation Network being totally inaccessible for 6 days, following by the news that the entire system had been compromised (all names, addresses, phone numbers, other personal info, and possibly all credit card information on file), naturally players of Sony Online Entertainment games such as EQ, EQ2, PlanetSide, DC Universe Online, Vanguard, FreeRealms, etc. have been wondering if any of their information was compromised.

Here’s what we know:

• SOE’s Account Services and Customer Databases are separate from the PlayStation Network and were not compromised.

• Double StationCash and other Player Events are being scheduled for this upcoming April 30th weekend to “make it right” due to EverQuest2.com and other services being down over the last weekend.

In a thread from a returning player who demanded a flying mount before he’d commit to coming back to EQ2 as a full-time player, SmokeJumper posited a rather interesting thought regarding flying mounts, Velious content, and the fact that both require level 86+. What would you think about being able to start a character at level 90?

Read on…

Hey folks, the OPs comment about not wanting to level up to play in Velious and get a cool mount is a reasonable discussion. At the risk of laying foundation for a flamewar here, I’d like to propose an idea to you and see how you feel about it.

Ready? Try not to judge until you’ve read it all. It’s definitely going to make a few of you think about wearing a troll costume, but if so, please keep in mind that this is just an idea. It’s a discussion. That’s all. I am serious that I’m asking for feedback.

Dethdlr’s Adornment Calculator now has the non-class specific, non-raid dropped red adornments up as beta. Let me know if I got any of the numbers wrong and I’ll see about getting them fixed. I believe I’m going to wait until after GU60 to do the rest since there may be changes headed our way from SOE.

Hope you like it. 🙂

From EverQuest2.com:

Between April 22 and April 25, get Double Station Cash when you redeem an SOE Game Card or buy StationCash (excluding SC by SMS)! Plus, check participating games for special Spring-themed or sale items. See eligible Game Cards here. (Excludes original 30-Day Game Card which doesn’t redeem for Station Cash.)

Participating games include EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest II Extended, Free Realms, Star Wars Galaxies, Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, and PoxNora. Check back later in the week for more details on game-specific Spring items and sales!

Presumably, this is from April 22 at 12:01am [4:01am EDT, 8:01am GMT] until April 25

This year’s EQ2 Winback program for players who may be taking a break from EQ2 or are trying other MMOs has a great premise. 1 week of free play, and EVERYONE playing EQ2 gets access to Flying Mounts, with an active or inactive sub at levels 1-90!

From EverQuest2.com:

From April 14th at 9:00 am PDT until April 21st at 7:00 am PDT, all inactive accounts in good standing who logged in between 6-17-10 and 2-28-11 will be able to rejoin the adventure in Norrath!

Check out what’s changed since you left, and take to the skies! Here are three great reasons to log in now and play:

Take to the Skies!

It’s your turn to experience the rich realms of Norrath like never before by taking flight on your very own Gryphon mount. Simply log in, visit the in-game Marketplace, click on the Take Flight Promotion, and grab the free “Enchanted Gryphon Call” to summon your flying mount; yours to fly until April 21st.

New Content to Explore!

We’ve also updated the content on all eligible accounts to include all the expansion packs, up to and including Sentinel’s Fate! Power level through this new content with complimentary XP potions to catch you up faster.

Get Up to 3000 in Station Cash Bonuses!

As a participant in this event, you can earn Station Cash bonuses in the following ways:

• Earn 500 SC when you re-subscribe for 1 month. You’ll get 1000SC when you choose a multi-month subscription (3, 6, and 12 month plans available).
• Earn 1000 SC when you buy the Destiny of Velious Expanion pack.
• Or Earn 2000 SC when you buy Destiny of Velious: Digital Collector’s Edition.

I recently spent several hours researching what adornments I wanted to put on my new gear.  This required going to multiple pages on multiple sites and manually calculating all the information I needed to know about adornments.  This led me to think, there has to be a better way.

What resulted from that thought was Dethdlr’s Adornment Calculator.  Details after the break.

Today’s Update for Tuesday, April 12, 2011 brings PvP Character Transfers to and from PvP servers, fixes for the Storm Gorge PQ, fixes bugs in instances and raid zones including Tower of Frozen Shadow which has been broken since a week ago Thursday preventing raid progression, and eliminates harassment of other server’s chat channels (players were able to join the 1-9 and other numbered chat channels of other servers).

After many years of requests, it is now possible to transfer characters from PvP to PvE and vice-versa on both regular and exchange-enabled servers (exchange-to-regular is still not allowed).

One of the problems that the developers have been working on lately is to make sure that  non-participants or “slackers” don’t get rewarded in Public Quests.  In the original version of the Public Quests, which started out with an arbitrary threshold of acceptable spell casting or DPS, too many AFK players were getting chest drops, at least in the eyes of other players, who expressed their concerns to developers.

For Dev Gninja, this was an unacceptable situation that needed to be rectified.  He was mad about it.  So back to the drawing board he went, increasing the threshold yet again in the metric that records participation.  The result?  Storm Gorge PQs are not rewarding the people who are giving their fair share — probably not the outcome he expected.

A lot of development time was focused on being punitive to — most likely– a small minority of people who wanted something for nothing.

This year, Fan Faire has eschewed the different levels of access to Fan Faire in favor of a single All-Access ticket price of $129 with an early bird discount of $10.

From EverQuest2.com:

Get ready to celebrate this summer at SOE’s annual Fan Faire with your fellow gamers and the creators of your favorite SOE games! Register now and join us at Fan Faire, the prime time to meet up with old friends and make plenty of new ones while getting a behind-the-scenes look at your favorite SOE titles, participate in live game tournaments, experience live quests, attend developer panels and more!

All-Access passes to the expanded SOE Fan Faire are now available for purchase at the early bird price of $119.00 USD which includes access developer forums, panels and roundtables along with goody-bags and giveaways.