I’ve been helping Feldon out here at EQ2Wire for about eight months now. My first post was on April 4th 2010 so I haven’t quite been here a full year. In that time I’ve sifted through over seven thousand items to bring you almost 100 articles here on EQ2Wire. Hopefully you’ve found at least a few of them useful.
I look forward to continuing my work in 2011 and bringing you all the latest highlights of what’s going on in the world of EQ2.
Happy New Year Everybody!
The new Freeblood race has a special “Ferocity of the Freeblood”, as well as access to housing “Freeblood Lair” and “Swarm of Bats” mount/buff. The details of how these are unlocked and what issues players will face if they change race have been addressed in different posts over the last 24 hours. Here are the highlights. Also inside, a glimpse of something we have heard rumors about before — that some new feature is coming to EQ2 housing with the release of the Destiny of Velious expansion.
Here are some news items we missed in the flurry of Server Merge and Freeblood news. They include Shaders 3 and Halas buildings, the look of the Freeblood, and Loitering NPCs in Freeport and Qeynos.
So with today’s official introduction of the Freeblood vampire race to EverQuest 2 as the first Premium race, the remaining secrets have been unveiled. Chief among them is that the Swarm of Bats premium mount/ability available exclusively to Freebloods will, when Destiny of Velious expansion launches and a quest has been completed, be usable as a full-fledged Flying Mount. From the official announcement:
Characters who go on to unlock flying mounts in the Destiny of Velious expansion will also be able to use this ability to fly.
The Freeblood vampire race as well as premium accessories are now available on the StationCash Marketplace.
From EverQuest2.com:
The Freeblood race is now available on the Marketplace in EverQuest II and EverQuest II Extended.
You can watch a video of the Freeblood race over at Facebook.
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:
Fan Faire folks will be authorized to enter the beta on Jan 5th with everyone else but are automatically authorized (after they fill out the application!)
The Freeblood Lair housing is now available in the StationCash Marketplace. For 1500SC ($15), any Freeblood character can purchase a tiny cozy intimate version of the Mistmoore Crag Estate (which was a 7 year Veteran Reward).
Cyliena has posted screenshots and more information about this new EQ2 Prestige Housing over at EQ2 ZAM.
CheesePirate.com for EQ2Wire
SOE are trying something new with their EQ2 Bonus XP this time around. Past Bonus XP events have taken place over a weekend or during the holidays which has been good for some players, but not so good for others who are visiting family or working over the weekend. So this time around, the Bonus XP event is a Double XP Weekendish.
From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:
We’re doing Double XP Days from Dec 27th (Monday) to Dec 30th (Thursday). Most of you will be shocked to hear that we’re doing Double XP not actually on one of the holidays and on weekdays instead of weekends. Don’t fall down in shock.
Of course some players are not happy with the new arrangement. I’m not sure they could do an XP bonus event that would appeal to all players without running it for 2 weeks. I predict (educated guess) we’ll see some type of XP bonus in the days or weekend before Velious launches.
Cyliena over at EQ2 ZAM noticed new items in the StationCash Marketplace, specifically the new Freeblood vampire race. Remember, if you have an active subscription for December 14, January 17, and February 8, and buy the Destiny of Velious expansion some time in 2011, you will get the Freeblood race for free. However if you can’t wait, or don’t intend to buy the expansion any time soon, then it’s time to pay up.
UPDATE: This is expected to go live today, Wednesday December 22nd.
By itself, the Freeblood race will cost you 2000SC ($20 at normal price). It is an account unlock which means once bought, you can create as many Freebloods as you want on your account.
Now what about those extras, like the fearsome “attack mode” appearance, or the ability to turn into a swarm of bats and travel at 65% speed, or the special Freeblood estate? Well, they’re what we call extras.
From SOEFanFaire.com:
SAVE THE DATE FOR FAN FAIRE 2011
July 7-9, 2011 @ Bally’s Las Vegas
Make the Trek, Meet New Friends and Get Your Game On!
It seems like StationCash bonuses have been coming more and more often. One might think that there’s no need to get in on this campaign if another one is just around the corner. SmokeJumper has some news:
I think this is the last one for a while also. I think there’s a minor one coming on the heels of this one, but then we won’t be doing another one for several months, probably. (We reserve the right to change our minds, but that’s the plan currently.)
Unfortunately, the maximum StationCash that can be held on an account is 20k, or $100 with the discount. That sounds like a lot, until you add up services like Character Slots, Racial Changes, etc.
From the EQ2X Forums.
There’s a double station cash weekend happening from 17-19 December 2010. Looks like finally, for the first time, those outside the US will also be able to take advantage of this:
We’re having a Double Station Cash weekend!
For the first time ever and for a limited time only, Double Station Cash will be available across all top up amounts and for most payment methods*. Stock up now for double the fun!
Offer valid 12/17/10 through 12/19/10. Eligible purchases include those made with credit/debit card, PayPal or pre-paid game cards. Exact start time of promotion on 12/17/10 to be announced. Look for more details later this week.
*excludes SMS purchases
Here are your hotfix notes for December 15 2010:
LIVE EVENTS
Frostfell
- Tuwasp bixies in Greater Faydark are now the target for the level 5, Kelethin version of Gh’lad Tydingz’s quest, “A Gigglegibber’s work is never done.”
- Grikbar scamps in Steamfont Mountains should once again advance the level 35, Kelethin version of Gh’lad Tydingz’s quest, “A Gigglegibber’s work is never done.”
So you may remember that Racial Traits/Traditions were nerfed adjusted in Game Update 53 to remove all uniqueness, including all offensive buffs and abilities such as Ratonga bite and Sarnak fire breathing. From Frizznik:
Offensive buffs have been removed. We did this to help balance races better against each other.
It seems this ‘balance’ applies to only free races. Left out of the initial version of the The Freeblood: More Information and Images announcement on EverQuest2.com was this Racial Trait:
Another Racial Trait, “Bloodletting,” grants a minor Lifetap spell to occasionally drain health from targeted enemies.
Do you think those offensive buffs and attacks previously available as Racial Traits should be restored in light of this announced Freeblood ability?
Today’s hotfix refunds the purchase cost of Research Assistants, adds 200 house item slots to The Mistmoore Crags Estate and a few other things. Read the full hotfix notes after the jump.
Ever wonder what programmers do in their off time? Sometimes, we program. I write programs for my own use, apps for my guild’s website, even wrote an editor for the raid abilities for Fetish Nightfall a while back.
If you’re Greg “Rothgar” Spence, the Lead Programmer for EQ2, you wire up over 30,000 Christmas lights and program them to go on and off synchronized to Christmas music!
From the EQ2 Forums, when asked if we might see a bonus XP weekend, SmokeJumper dropped this hint:
Yes…but I have to stay mum about details until the announcement is ready.
Looks like the best way to find out is to ask. 🙂
SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums perhaps being too truthful:
It was basically the other way around and our announcement wasn’t very smooth. The [vampire] race was originally intended as a marketplace-only offering and then we decided to also create a way for players to get it as a promotion also.
The marketplace offering comes out sometime this month (it’s not done yet, so dates aren’t exact), but the winter promotion doesn’t end until Velious comes out, so that’s when we’ll give it away to those that want to wait for it.
Lemin summarized it thusly:
Frankly I don’t know which of the two announcements i find more deplorable, you actually come to the live servers and post you intended to add a race through the marketplace? You expect not to lose accounts over that? Quite a lot of people will find that this was your original intent an unforgivable betrayal giving it to us as a afterthought probably wont soothe these people.
to which SmokeJumper said:
I’m sorry that this bothers you, Lemin. But frankly, that offering breaks none of the rules we set for this marketplace on Live. And we are giving it away if you’re patient…and we decided to give it away before we told you about the race in the first place. I don’t see the issue here.
Since putting races on the Marketplace is something that has never been announced to the players until today’s ham-handed announcement, I’m not quite sure how we can compare it to any preconceived set of “rules”.
It looks like Frostfell was patched in early today, instead of the expected December 9th.
EQ2 ZAM has their updated guide ready to go for Frostfell 2010 if you need a refresher, as well as info about the new quests and events.
If you’d like to browse the complete catalogue of Frostfell-related items, look no further than the comprehensive EverSeek which documents an astounding 285 Frostfell items and exactly how to get them.
Don’t forget to check out Niami Denmother’s EQTraders tomorrow with news about that new Hua Mein (panda) furniture as well as coverage of Frostfell 2010.
Today’s hotfix adds house items (furniture) to a merchant in Hua Mein, moves Research Assistants into the UI, fixes an exploit in StationCash Item Gifting, and offers additional tweaks to PvP and PvP Warfields. After the jump, your Hotfix Notes for December 7, 2010.
As has been widely reported, when StationCash Item Gifting was added to SOE games, players realized that they could create new accounts and sign up for trials of SWG, EQ2, and other games and receive free StationCash in each game. With the ability to Gift items, players were able to gift hundreds of StationCash items to themselves without spending a penny.
Item Gifting will be coming back sometime this week, with suitable controls to prevent further exploits. More details after the jump…
From the EQ2 Forums:
We’ve found a problem with the Gifting option for the EQII Marketplace, so the service will be temporarily disabled until early next week when we can patch a fix for this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Commentary
It is unknown how many players exploited the StationCash Gifting feature, what punishment they can expect, or when exactly this feature will be restored.
In response to a conversation about the division of development time between EQ2, StationCash items, and Legends of Norrath, Calthine of EQ2 ZAM made a statement that elicited a response from SmokeJumper. That response confirmed on Thursday what many of us have believed but been unable to prove.
Since the introduction of StationCash Marketplace, StationCash Items have been designed and tested by the main EQ2 team and not, as has been posited, by a separate team of artists and programmers. SmokeJumper indicates that this is changing, and with the revenue from SC/LoN, SOE have been able to justify hiring an artist to create said items.
Editor’s Note: Post has been updated with 2 additional quotes.
SOE have brought back their StationCash Discount program ‘Super Fan’ again, this time offering 25% off and 35% large denominations, as well as special items each day for SOE’s major games. Remember, StationCash can be used for character slots (normally $10 to buy a lifetime character slot), character transfers, and other items. And in time for Frostfell, StationCash items can now be gifted to other players.
From the EQ2 Forums:
