Had a minute to talk to SmokeJumper 1 on 1. All has not been revealed. More incentives coming for subscription servers. Marketing will promote both games.

More in tomorrow’s panel.

E3 took place this year from June 15-17.  SmokeJumper was interviewed and said that the current subscription model would not change.  When asked after the announcement of EQ2 Extended about that interview, he had this to say:

Yes, at that time, we were discussing the concept. No, we were not ready to commit to it, nor did we have any details of what we might be doing.

On July 27th, EQ2 Extended was announced.  I counted up how many work days passed between the interview and the announcment.  Guess how many work days went by?

In a taxi with Calthine of eq2 zam. F2p discussion has already begun.

From EQ2Players:

If you’re attending Fan Faire and interested in participating in the EQII Platinum-Pass Battlegrounds tournament or the Zraxth’s Unseen Arcanum tournament, you might want to compete with your own character.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and you’re coming to Fan Faire 2010, be sure to download the free Fan Faire app!

Just visit the App Store, search for Fan Faire, and you’ll find the SOEFanFaire app.

Read More

Wifi.. One of the few perks of USAir. That and emergency exit rows for Silver. 🙂

See you in Vegas!

Our own Druidess gives her perspective on the long-term effects of StationCash and what Free-to-Play means for the future of EverQuest II.

Since SoE decided not to sugar coat the news on F2P, I figured I’d return the favor and save the sugar for cookies I plan on baking later.

With Game Update 57, various in-game Merchants will start carrying StationCash items.

If you think this is worthy of further comment, well read on… If not, well, the word of the day is “slippery slope”.

Here are your update notes for Wednesday, 28 July 2010:

UNDERFOOT DEPTHS

• Energized Taehric Construct (challenge mode): The Construct will try and cast Crippling Judgment on his main target whenever possible, rather than a random fighter.  The construct will try and cast Curse of Befuddlement on priests in separate groups, whenever possible, avoiding casting it on two priests in the same group whenever possible.

ITEMS

• The Twisted Alloy Wristlet’s proc, Torturous Paths, has had its damage increased and its proc chance raised.
• Many mage items within Underfoot Depths have received pet effects.

TINKERFEST

• The Tinkerfest quest “Great Balls of Fire” cannot be completed more than 25 times.
• The Tinkerfest titles awarded by the repeatable Tinkerfest quests can now be purchased from the Tinkerfest merchant if you have earned them but did not receive them.

We’ve got Live Coverage of the SOE Block Party by Serianna of Crushbone!

If you couldn’t make it to the SOE Block Party, you can still keep up with what’s going on! Serianna is sending us updates and photos from the ground.

Tinkerfest is a wonderful time each year that players get to experience the zany background of the gnomes and their kooky inventions. What will go boom this time, who will be the new victim or merciless tests with flaky machinery!? When will the madness end?

Starting Friday July 23rd at 12:01am PDT Tinkerfest will be in effect. Bringing to you several quests, lovely house items and fluff and yes, the shinies are back! Be quick to jump on this upcoming weeks event as it will only be available for a short time, ending on August 2nd at 11:59pm PDT this event will wrap up like one of Cinderella’s pumpkin carriages and vanish till next year!

For a complete quest/event list there are writeups at EQ2 ZAM and EQ2Traders.

From EQ2Players:

There’s still a short time to register for Fan Faire 2010! Registration will be closing at 11:59 pm PDT on Friday, July 23. Platinum passes are sold out, but a limited number of Silver and Gold passes are still available.

As always, Fan Faire registrants will receive some special in-game items. Depending on the level of pass you purchase, you’ll get either one cool EQII item, or two cool EQII items. We wanted to give you a sneak peek at the these items, so scroll down to see the goods.

And remember, Silver, Gold and Platinum attendees will get in-game items for every eligible SOE game they have an account for! To see the full list of this year’s items, visit the SOE Fan Faire FAQ page.

We have not been posting individual announcements about the recurring Moonlight Enchantments and City Festivals because we have that information in our new Calendar which appears in the left sidebar of EQ2Wire at all times.

Due to a glitch in the activation of the Moonlight Enchantments event, the event has been extended to July 22nd.

Also, yesterday, I tweaked the sidebar Calendar to display multi-day events just once per month. As a result, I have been able to correct the dates on upcoming recurring events.

Zraxth’s Unseen Arcanum is a new challenging one group dungeon which will make its first appearance at Fan Faire this August.

Tinkerfest opens this weekend, and what better place to find information about this event then at EQ2Traders?

Niami Denmother‘s ever thorough writeup of this event includes all the new quests, collections, and new house items available. Among the many new crafting additions include both diamond plate and hammered steel deck plating. Perfect for adding a small factory or work area to your house or hall.

Tinkerfest will be a limited duration Live Event. It is currently expected to be available from July 23 starting at 12:01 a.m. PDT, through August 2, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. We’re waiting for an announcement from EQ2Players to get confirmation on the end date for this event.

Will you be in the San Diego, CA area on Saturday, July 24th?

The SOE Block Party at SOE Studios in sunny San Diego, CA brings a day you will never forget. Join fellow gamers and developers from SOE for music, food, tours, game previews, giveaways, raffles and much, much more.

SOE will offer activities for the young ones, so bring everyone in the family! Attendance is free!

The SOE Block Party is Saturday, July 24th, 2010, from 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm at the SOE Studio (8928 Terman Ct, San Diego, CA, 92121.). Shuttle buses are scheduled to travel round-trip to SOE from Comic-Con every 30 minutes from 4:00pm-6:00pm.

You can read more information including how to RSVP in the full EQ2Players announcement.

From EQ2Players:

The choosing of a guild name is a very important rite. To help ensure that your new name is considered carefully, we are introducing Guild Name Change potions at the price of 5500 SC. We believe this price is fair for those who do want a name change, but will also serve as a deterrent to those who might want to frivolously rename their guild every time they have a kerfuffle in the lands of Norrath.

There has always been the option to disband a guild and create a new one with the desired name, but think of all the work and sacrifice that went into Guild XP and levels!

Comments after the jump…

From EQ2Players:

With just over a month left until the big event we thought it would be fun to give you a behind the scenes look at Fan Faire!  What goes into planning such a big event you may ask?  When do we start?  Just how many pallets of stuff are shipped to the event, and how many rolls of shrink wrap does it take to keep everything together?  Look no further folks—we have all of the answers right here!

In our quest for insider information we looked to the experts, the Events Team!  Three wonderful ladies make up this team: Jen Belfield (Manager, Marketing Services), Lauren Zeiger (Marketing Events Manager) and Dawn Wilson (Marketing Coordinator Services).

Read More at EQ2Players…

Oh hey, we had a hotfix! The July 7, 2010 Update Notes include several fixes to raid targets and live events. After the jump…

From the EQ2 Forums:

This weekend, from 4pm Pacific on Friday, July 2nd (23:00 GMT) until 10am Pacific on Tuesday, July 6th (17:00 GMT), we will be running BOTH a Double Station Cash promotion *and* a true Double XP (+100% XP) promotion.

We’ve gotten clarification that this is:

Double Adventure XP

Double Tradeskill XP

Double Alternate Advancement (AA) XP

Double StationCash

A StationCash Card Reminder:

The only StationCash cards currently available for purchase are branded as FreeRealms cards with StationCash value. Do not buy EverQuest II gameplay time 30 day cards (if you can even find them), they will not work.

StationCash Instructions on EQ2 Forums

Also, it appears there is a glimmer of hope that we may finally see some movement on European solutions for StationCash cards.

From EQ2 Senior Producer Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson:

We read your posts about wanting a Double XP weekend this coming 4th of July weekend. I went and discussed it with everyone concerned, and voila!, now it’s Christmas in July.

This weekend, from 4pm Pacific on Friday, July 2nd until 10am Pacific on Tuesday, July 6th, we will be running BOTH a Double Station Cash promotion *and* a true Double XP (+100% XP) promotion.

So go get those Station Cash cards so you can redeem them, and plan to play a ton this weekend! We’ll see you on line!

Here are your June 22, 2010 Update Notes:

DRUID RING EVENT

• The druid rings in Feerrott and Loping Plains are now safe destinations for newbies to zone in.
• Kurista, Elwe, Dalarim and Tolla Clorto no longer change appearances every time they zone.
• The Defender of Growth guards are now much more powerful, to better protect the druid rings.
• A couple harvest nodes near the Stonebrunt Highlands druid ring were left floating when the terrain was adjusted. This has been fixed.

PVP WARFIELDS

• Antonica will once again broadcast the call to arms.

PVP ITEMS

• Fallen Foe Charms can now be used by Wardens.

PVP POPULATION

• The Priest of Discord in New Halas now resides closer to the PvP merchants.

UNDERFOOT DEPTHS

• Vaclaz Encounter: Crippling Nausea no longer stuns players.  Instead it causes their actions to have a chance to impede those around them.  Players hit with keen insight no longer can be hit with crippling nausea.  Players with crippling nausea will never be picked to handle the keen insight adds.  Roekillik beastmasters now have more health.
• The Taehric Construct and Vaclaz no longer debuff player’s physical and Noxious mitigation levels.
• Rathgar will now hit players with Deathblow once per 55 secs rather than once per 45 secs.
• Master Syfak’s Roekillik Deathbringers will not cast festing plague as quickly as they did before.

The Vigilant: Rescue

• Amahn Prime Nirel now summons flames and fire more quickly during the fight.

Overview

Welcome to the first installment of Dethdlr’s Dungeon. This is my little place on EQ2Wire to post my commentary on EQ2. Unlike the news items, this is more for opinion based articles from my own perspective. For my first article here I’m going to tackle: How to figure out an encounter.  I’m sure some of our readers know all of this information already but there’s probably a tidbit or two in there that may help someone out.  Here goes…

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.

EQ2 Servers will be coming down tomorrow morning at their usual time for the Tuesday hotfix. After the jump, check out the Hotfix notes for June 15, 2010: