(left to right) Greg Agius [EQ2 Brand Manager] interviews Rich Waters [EQ2 Lead Designer], Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson [EQ2 Senior Producer] and Salim “Silius” [EQ2 Developer, Itemization], about the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion including reader questions.

Upcoming Dev Chat Webcasts:

This Friday, February 18th, members of the EQII Development Team will join us again to talk about itemization in Destiny of Velious. This will be the last in our series of four Live Webcasts leading up to the Destiny of Velious launch! Be sure to tune in to learn more about the upcoming features and get the scoop straight from the people who work on EQII every day.

• Friday, February 18 at 4:00 pm PST: Topic TBA

Topics will be announced soon. Tune in on Facebook or on Stickam to watch the fourth webcast this Friday!

Submit your Questions on the EQ2 Forums

From EverQuest2.com:

Established by Dain Frostreaver the First after the coldain were driven from their city in the Crystal Caverns, Thurgadin has served as the home for the coldain dwarves for hundreds of years.  Nestled within the northnernmost mountains of the Great Divide, Thurgadin has protected the coldain from relentless attacks, and acted as a welcoming and secure place for many adventurers who visited Velious in the past.  However, the noble city was always under threat, as the Kromrif were determined to wipe the coldain off the face of Velious.

Continue reading at EverQuest2.com…

From EverQuest2.com:

EQII Mobile is a now available for Blackberry, as well as Android and iPhone. EQII Mobile allows you to connect to EverQuest II remotely and interact with various game features while communicating with other players in-game.

From EverQuest2.com:

A ton of in-game events are coming up, including some run by media sites, some run by players, and some by the Community Relations Team! Have you made plans to attend yet?

Massively Livecast – EverQuest II: Saturday, Feb 12, 9:00 p.m. EST

This week, Karen from Massively will take a closer look at the mentoring system in EverQuest II. She’ll cover the basics of how to mentor down in level, highlight the chronomage system, and then take a trip into Deathfist Citadel, a lower-level instance from the original EverQuest II that remains one of her favorite zones. Let’s hunt some orc! Click here for the Livestream link!

Check out EverQuest2.com for more details of the upcoming Player Events on Antonia Bayle and Lucan D’Lere, as well as the Community events on Feb 15th and 17th.

Sorry folks. Fought with the asinine sound control panel in Windows 7 for over an hour. Could not get it to record it’s own output. Recording Wave Out is 2 clicks on my XP laptop, but it crashed this evening after 7w3d2h without rebooting. Oops.

Last week, SOE got the webcast up on YouTube within 90 minutes so maybe they’ll be quick on the draw again.

Also there will be another webcast hosted by Massively’s Karen B. tomorrow night.

If you have been holding out on buying the Destiny of Velious Collector’s Edition wondering what the ‘special effect’ on the house item ‘Tserrina’s Wedding Present
‘ is, now we know. From the EQ2 Forums:

The item has the same buff as “The Spear of Sentries”, the deity prelude award for Marr.  It is house placeable only (not guildhall), but has no recharge time, and can be used by anybody who visits the house.

MMO news conglomerates Massively and MMORPG.com have scored exclusive interviews and screen shots of the upcoming EQ2 expansion Destiny of Velious.

• Exclusive screen shots of EQ2: Destiny of Velious @ Massively (use link below to see the screen shots)
• EQ2: Destiny of Velious Screen Shot Gallery @ Massively
• Exclusive screen shots, interview with Dave Georgeson and Carlos Mora @ MMORPG

If we or any other EQ2-specific fan site is provided with screen shots or other  content, we’ll be sure to let you know.

After previous indications that only Australia’s pricing of Destiny of Velious was being looked into, today brings the news that UK pricing will see an adjustment as well. From the EQ2 Forums:

UK Customers:

The DoV collector’s edition is now priced at 44.99GBP. The standard edition remains at 29.99GBP. Both prices include the required 20% VAT Tax.

Australia Customers:

The DoV collector’s edition is now priced at 67.95AUD. The standard edition is now priced at 45.95AUD.

NOTE: Customers who have already pre-ordered will be charged at the new lower rate.

Do the Math

With this change, the UK now has complete parity with the US on the pricing of the Destiny of Velious Collector’s Edition:

$60 + 20% VAT = $72.

£44.99 = $71.90.

Europe and Australia are still a bit higher, about $5-8. And this does not take monthly subscriptions or StationCash into effect, which have long since been overpriced.

We applaud this change to fair pricing, and would have willingly held Wednesday’s article for comment had we known this news was coming.

From EverQuest2.com:

When adventurers seek out the lands of Velious, they’ll soon discover that Lodizal, a great and ancient turtle, will transport them to the lost continent.

Continued at EverQuest2.com…

After yesterday’s update activated the Erollisi Day event, some players were reporting crashing issues in Halas. Others reported issues in Antonica as players were able to spawn unlimited gazebos. An interim fix for the Halas issue was implemented, with today’s update providing a more permanent solution. Also, last year’s quests are now repeatable. All of the issues with Erollisi Day were spelled out in this thread.

From EverQuest2.com:

Erollisi Day events are now live in EverQuest II! Log in to find new quests, crafts, house items and more! Love letters will be sent, gifts of chocolate and flowers will be exchanged, and romance will be in the air.

Erollisi Day may be a holiday that celebrates love and romance, but it is also a chance to celebrate the fellowship we share with all of those around us. It’s also a good time to stop and reflect on the people who make your life better. Make plans to tell them how much you appreciate their presence in Norrath, whether it’s with words (an in-game book?) or through gifts (so many pretties to choose from!)

From Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums regarding crashes when entering New Halas since Erollisi Day was hotfixed:

Just an update to say that we are troubleshooting the problem and will let you know as soon as we have a fix available.

The American prices for the Destiny of Velious digital downloads are well known — the regular edition is $39.99, while the collector’s edition runs $59.99. We are very happy to see that the days of preferential treatment for the Retail version are over. Last year’s 7 day retail headstart and the confusion leading up to the launch for European customers was the source of much frustration, so we are quite satisfied with this year’s simplified options. So then all is wine and roses, right?

Well, it may surprise American players to learn that customers in some other countries are seeing prices up to 33% higher for the collector’s edition than US customers are seeing. Here is the current pricing for the digital collector’s edition outside of the US:

• UK current price is £49.99. That’s $79.96 USD, a 33.3% markup.

• Europe current price is €54,99. That’s $74.90 USD, a 24.9% markup.

• Australia current price is $74.95 AUS. That’s $74.18 USD, a 23.7% markup.

From EverQuest2.com:

On February 7, 2011, all players who met Beta eligibility qualifications will be accepted into the Destiny of Velious Closed Beta. The flagging process should be completed around midnight (12:00 am PST on February 8th).

If you registered for the Destiny of Velious Beta and accepted the NDA prior to February 7, 2011, as well as met all of the Beta eligibility qualifications, you will be added to the Destiny of Velious Closed Beta, which begins February 7 and runs through 11:59 pm PST on February 14, 2011.

Please remember that the NDA is still in effect throughout the duration of the Closed Beta, and all experiences in the Beta are to be kept private until the NDA is lifted.

We hope you enjoy Destiny of Velious, and we look forward to reading your feedback on the private Destiny of Velious Beta Forums.

Believe it or not, the Destiny of Velious Webcast #2 for February 4th has already been posted on Youtube. This was recorded at SOE, so it has smoother playback than the webcast.

(left to right) Greg Agius [EQ2 Brand Manager] interviews Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson [EQ2 Senior Producer] and Greg “Rothgar” Spence [EQ2 Lead Programmer], about the upcoming Destiny of Velious expansion including reader questions.

Download Destiny of Velious Webcast #2 MP3 for February 4, 2011.

EverQuest II, Destiny of Velious, and the contents of this webcast are copyright Sony Online Entertainment.

This was a LIVEBLOG of the Destiny of Velious Webcast #2 (February 4th).

Chat today was originally going to be Itemization. Instead, it was about Flying Mounts.

• Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson, Senior Producer EverQuest II
• Greg “Rothgar” Spence, Lead Programmer EverQuest II
• Moderator: Greg Aguis, Brand Manager (Marketing) for EverQuest II

From Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums:

Things are going very well and considering the extra time we expected from moving the data a long distance, we’re actually running ahead of schedule. Our QA department is checking things out now and if we don’t find any issues we hope to have the server up early.

Thanks for your patience during this downtime!

and later:

Update:

We are still having some issues with the chat portion of the merge, its just taking a little longer than expected to move friends lists, mail, etc.

Everything else looks good so as soon as I have more info, we will let you know.

With 6 and 7 room houses now outstripping the storage capacity of even medium-sized Guild Halls, some players figured out that the StationCash Marketplace Item Expanders could be placed in guild halls.

Today’s hotfix changes that:

• Fixed a bug where players could use marketplace item expanders on guild halls.
• Players who have done that will have the item expander applied to their personal house when they next zone into their personal house and the item expander will be removed from the guild hall.
• If this puts a guild hall over its item limit it will still have the items but you will not be able to add more items until the item count is reduced.
• The character house item bonus from the marketplace expander now properly applies to your home and shows in the total number of bonus items in the UI.

We did our afternoon check of EverQuest2.com and were surprised to see an announcement about a webcast scheduled for tonight. Here’s the scoop:

Are you in the mood to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day in a non-traditional way?  The SOE Community Team knows just how you feel!  Join the Community Team along with some members of SOE Development Teams as we chat about the upcoming in-game Valentine’s Day-themed activities.  Learn more about what’s going on in-game for our Valentine’s Day celebrations straight from the folks that work on the games you love to play.

Also on the agenda for this Webcast is a little surprise.  We hope you will join us on February 3, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. PST to see what this entails.

Tune in on Facebook or on Stickam to watch the first webcast this Thursday!

And don’t forget tomorrow night’s Destiny of Velious Webcast #2:

Friday, February 4 at 4:00 pm PST: Join Dave “Smokejumper” Georgeson and Rich “Waters” Waters as they talk about itemization in Destiny of Velious. They will again be answering questions from our players, so submit your questions through the forum links below.

Should I stay up until 2:30am to cover this AND tomorrow night’s webcast too? Sleep is overrated, right?

UPDATE: Cyliena pointed us to a post by Amnerys on the EQ2X Forums which shed a bit more light on tonight’s webcast:

If you tune into the SOE Webcast on Thursday, 4pm on Stickam (or the Stickam tab on our Facebook page) you should find Kaitheel talking about Erollisi Day and a few devs from other games talking about their holiday events.

Instead of two downtimes, the Runnyeye -> Splitpaw merger will happen in one fell swoop.

From the EQ2 Forums:

The Runnyeye and Splitpaw servers will begin merging on Thursday, February 3, 2011.

Runnyeye will be taken offline for the last time at 2pm PST (10pm GMT) on Thursday, February 3.

Splitpaw will be taken offline at 9pm PST on February 3 (5am GMT on February 4).

Splitpaw will then undergo the regular weekly hotfix before merging. Once the hotfix has completed, the server will stay offline for another estimated 27 hours while the merge takes place.

The merged Splitpaw will be offline for an estimated 27 hours and is scheduled to come back online as soon as the merge has completed. We estimate an uptime of around 8 am GMT on February 5.

From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums:

There are now official EQII Mobile forums so we can discuss the app and troubleshoot issues.

It’d be fantastic if you could direct all conversation on EQII Mobile to that location so the dev team (AFK Interactive) can pull out issues and resolve them as quickly as possible.

Thanks all!

EQII Mobile Forums

From Kaitheel on the EQ2 Forums:

Barring any unforeseen issues arising, the current plan is:

• Erollisi Day will be activated on all servers (international and & test included) Wednesday Feb 9th.
• Erollisi Day will be deactivated at the end of day on Sunday Feb 20th for most servers.
• For servers that are affected by merges during the event’s time period, we will extend Erollisi Day to the end of day on Monday Feb 21st.

Also, if you have a bunch of tokens from other seasonal events taking up valuable bag space:

There is going to be an NPC that exchanges any of the different love loot (notes or candy) for a single type. It’ll function exactly like the [Nights of the Dead] candy trader did. That should help with the inventory!

Revising a previous announcement, here is a notice from the EQ2 Forums:

This is a notification that Splitpaw will be updated at 12:00 AM London Time on 02/02/2011. The estimated downtime will be 18 hours.

– SOE Operations team

A new date for the Splitpaw/Runnyeye merger has yet to be announced.

From the EQ2 Forums:

All SOE forums will be undergoing maintenance on Wednesday, February 2, 2011, from 10:00am PST until around 11:00am PST [18:00~19:00 GMT].

During this time the forums will not be accessible. We will return to regular functionality as quickly as possible.

We apologize for any inconvenience!