Suka has taken up the mantle of spotlighting EverQuest II players who contribute to the community in meaningful ways and this month she has chosen Niboota.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Today we put a face on Niboota! We are all familiar with Niboota and her marvelous videos tours of different houses on each server. She has done a great job of inspiring decorators and promoting them. She has posted many things on the forums including a detailed post on how to invite her to video tour your home.

Q: How long have you been playing the game?

I’ve been playing since launch, with the exception of a 2 year break after the release of Age of Discovery

Q: What server do you play on?

Antonia Bayle

Q: What inspired you to create videos of houses

I have always loved the housing and been an ambitious tourist. I can easily kill an entire day touring, and what better way to get more people to design homes than to show everyone how much you enjoy them?

Q: Can you tell us how to find your videos? and your website?

The Evertour Entries can be found at http://evertour.livejournal.com

Continue reading the interview and spotlight on the EQ2 Forums…

US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PDT | 10:00am~Noon EDT | 15:00~17:00 BST | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Server: 9:00~11:00pm PDT | Midnight~2:00am EDT | 05:00~07:00 BST | 06:00~08:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

ZONES / POPULATION
General

• Veeshan’s Peak, Chamber of Destiny, and Venril’s Lair no longer require flagging to enter if on a non-TLE server.

Stygian Threshold [Heroic] and [Agnostic]

• Killing either of the two fairies, Diurna or Nocturna, while they are casting their shield spell will no longer keep the remaining fairy invulnerable for the remainder of the fight.

Maldura: District of Ash [All Versions]

• Gavitzle will always retreat regardless of the rate of damage inflicted upon him.

Kunark

• Raid encounters in Kunark which were previously invulnerable can once again be damaged.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Looking to snag yourself some items from the marketplace? Members will receive a 40% marketplace discount for all items from 12 PM PT on Friday July 1, 2016 until 12PM PT on Tuesday, July 5, 2016!

All Access members will be awarded double personal status AND double guild status for the duration of the extended weekend!

Please note that double status will not be included for items purchased from vendors or the Marketplace.

Not an All Access member yet? With bonuses, discounts, access to new content, and more, there’s never been a better time to join!

Thousands of EverQuest, EverQuest II, and Planetside 2 players have purchased content packs and expansions from discount websites such as Steam, PlayerAuctions, and G2A over the last five months. This was all fine and dandy until it turned out that all of these purchases originated with large fraudulent purchases from Steam. The platform’s publisher Valve Inc sent an eyewatering bill to Daybreak Games for thousands of dollars. Valve’s failure to recognize and address this issue until the problem had snowballed to this point is a topic for another article, but what is more near and dear to Daybreak Customers is what will happen with these numerous banned accounts.

I’m sure the peanut gallery will be quick to dismiss affected players as cheaters and cheapskates. However what they’d fail to realize is that many of these expansions and content packs were gifted to other players by friends, family, and guildmates months ago and now these bans are striking accounts which have been active for upwards of 17 years.

After 24 hours of forum debate (especially on the EverQuest forums which were the harder hit community), it seems that cooler heads have prevailed and the bans will be lifted. Instead, the illegitimate content packs and expansions will be stripped from players’ accounts, allowing them to buy them from trusted sources. Now would be a great time for a proper sale, perhaps $25 for the EverQuest II expansion (since the new one is just four-and-a-half months away) or $120 for six keys.

Here’s the e-mail that affected players received:

After last week’s banning and suspension of hundreds of EverQuest II players for running third party software including boxing and botting programs (the bans seemed to be indiscriminate and extremely random), it seemed like things might be getting back to normal. So much for that idea.

For years, it has been possible to buy EverQuest and EverQuest II expansions at a discounted rate on sites like Steam, G2A, and PlayerAuctions. There is nothing in the EQ or EQ2 EULA or TOS that constrains where expansion keys can be purchased. Now that is being called into question as thousands of EverQuest and EverQuest II players who bought a code from the aforementioned market sites in the last five months were banned overnight. We can guess that at least some of these keys were acquired from Akella-Online when they were still publishing EverQuest in Russia. The provenance of all these keys has not been confirmed but they’ve been accepted by the official Daybreak websites for nearly five months now.  Now, all of these customers have been banned for the reason “Chargebacks” even though some accounts purchased the expansion nearly 5 months ago. That is a month beyond the maximum chargeback time.

Today, a new EverQuest II server is opening called Isle of Refuge. Similar in almost every way to existing live servers such as Antonia Bayle, Maj’Dul, Halls of Fate, Skyfire, and Splitpaw, this new server does have one unique difference. All non-Marketplace items which are flagged HEIRLOOM can be freely traded between players as well as bought and sold on the broker. This harkens back to the days of Kingdom of Sky when almost all loot was tradeable.

In response to some questions about whether the new Isle of Refuge server shares anything in common with Stormhold, the Time-Locked Expansion server, we got some answers from RadarX:

Will there be an EU Free Trade server?
There will not be an EU Free Trade server at this time.

Can I buy a Krono / Heroic Character / House / Mount on the Marketplace?
The Isle of Refuge does not have a limited marketplace. Anything that you can purchase on a normal server can also be purchased on Isle of Refuge with the sole exception of a character transfer token as these could not be used.

Is Isle of Refuge a Progression server?
No, The Isle of Refuge has access to all expansion content.

US Servers: 7:00~11:00am PDT | 10:00am~2:00pm EDT | 15:00~19:00 BST | 16:00~20:00 CET

EU Servers: 7:00~11:00am PDT | 10:00am~2:00pm EDT | 15:00~19:00 BST | 16:00~20:00 CET

Update from RadarX:

A few technical issues have delayed this update an additional 2 hours. We’ll update you if an additional delay is necessary!

From the EQ2 Forums:

ZONES / POPULATION

• Scourge Keep: The lockout timers for Scourge Keep [Heroic] and Scourge Keep [Advanced Solo] have been reduced to 3 hours.

Zek, The Scourge Wastes: The Siege [Raid]

• Santifier Goortuk should no longer increase his resolve values as if he was in challenge mode without Fergul the Protector being present.

QUESTS

• Justice for JoJo? – Coltang will appear even if your mercenary or pet helps you along the way.

HOUSES

• Fixed an issue causing house portals to stop functioning.

 

Daybreak Games is performing scheduled maintenance on their Login Servers this morning from 7am to 9am PDT. This information was not posted anywhere — Facebook, Twitter, or any of the Game Forums. Players first reported the login issues three hours ago. Here’s the tweet finally confirming the maintenance…

Today's scheduled maintenance is underway and will impact game logins. We expect the maintenance to complete in about one more hour.

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) June 27, 2016

This morning's scheduled maintenance is now complete. Thank you for your patience. Let us know if you see any continued issues. Thanks!

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) June 27, 2016

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: June 27 @ 5:00am – 9:00am
• EDT: June 27 @ 8:00am – Noon
• BST: June 27 @ 13:00 – 17:00
• CEDT: June 27 @ 14:00 – 18:00

From the EQ2 Forums:

A new day is dawning in Norrath. Head back to the beginning, gear up and group up, and race with your fellow adventurers! Do you and your friends have what it takes to make it to defeat the final event boss before others on the server? Do so, and you will be handsomely rewarded! (And there are rewards aplenty even if you’re not FIRST!) EverQuest II’s first event server, The Race to Trakanon, is scheduled to open on Tuesday, July 12, 2016.

What are Event Servers? What is the Race to Trakanon Event Server?

Event servers are something new for EverQuest II. Each event server will only be available for a limited time, and it’ll be set in some previous era of EverQuest II content. The Race to Trakanon will be set in Rise of Kunark.

Based on your achievements on an event server, players can earn rewards that can be claimed a character on another server of your choice.

Event Servers require an All Access Membership, and will only be available for a limited time.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Welcome to Isle of Refuge.

No, not THAT Isle of Refuge. Well, not quite anyway. This Isle of Refuge is a new special server launching on Tuesday, June 28, 2016.

How will this server be different from Live servers or other special servers (such as TLE Progression and Event servers)? Here’s how:

Isle of Refuge is what we call a “Free Trade Server.” This means that almost all items can be traded freely between players. There are a few exceptions – Heirloom items purchased via a merchant or in the marketplace, granted from repeatable quests, or received via /claims will remain Heirloom.

When Isle of Refuge launches, there will be no transfers allowed on or off Isle of Refuge. This is a new Norrathian community being formed, and we want you all to have the opportunity to build relationships and a thriving player economy. There are no plans to EVER allow transfers off the Isle of Refuge server, though we may open transfers TO this server at a future date. While we’ll have news regarding transfers to Isle of Refuge in the future, at launch all characters will begin a new journey on the server.

A few other things to note about Isle of Refuge:

• There will be limited account bonuses and/or claims at the launch of the Free Trade Server.
• There will be no Battlegrounds access on the Free Trade Server.
• To play on the Free Trade Server, you must be an All Access Member.

US Servers: 7:00~9:00am PDT | 10:00am~Noon EDT | 15:00~17:00 BST | 16:00~18:00 CET
EU Servers: 9:00~11:00pm PDT | Midnight~2:00am EDT | 05:00~07:00 BST | 06:00~08:00 CET

Some nice updates today. Fixes for Amenities placed in the Premium Highhold Guild Hall. The Scourge Keep daily mission has been made less painful (no longer requires 100 kills). Spellbook resetting should come to an end. And those who use Jesdyr’s Layout Editor for arranging items in their houses and guild halls will no longer require a workaround step for loading and saving layouts. From the EQ2 Forums:

ZONES / POPULATION
Scourge Keep [Both Versions]

• The damage shield component of Banshee Skin cast by Rinis the Everslaved can now be bypassed by pets and mercenaries if their owners meet a specific requirement.

HOUSING

• Fixed a bug where the Unique house ID would get saved out improperly.

GUILD

• The Grotto Sailing Ship guild amenity may now be moved after purchase.
• Corrected an issue with amenities in the Highhold Guildhall being placed in an odd location.

QUESTS

• The ethereal daily mission for Scourge Keep, Sanctify or Die, will only require the death of either Sanctifier Maknok or Sanctifier Yegigoth.

SPELLBOOK

• Fixed a bug where characters who had a lot of spells in their spellbook would have it get jumbled when zoning, or logging back in. After this patch. Sort your spellbook once to your liking, then zone to make sure it saves out and you should be good to go!

TLE

• Avatar of Growth’s health has been reduced.

EVENT SERVER

• Merchant Rilsk in the Kylong Plains has a sneak peek of many rewards soon to be available during the Race to Trakanon!

The monthly Moonlight Enchantments event begins tonight! The grottos open up on the 20th at 12:01am PT and close on the 21st at 11:59pm PT. The time applies directly with no conversion for all servers.

New items were added to the grottos this month! Check out Niami Denmother‘s preview on EQ2 Traders! This also got an announcement on the EQ2 Forums:

Beginning on June 20th, the moons will align to allow special entry through mushroom ring portals into the Enchanted Grottos, where players will have a chance to partake in quests to that will award tokens. These tokens can be redeemed for items, including 25 NEW items, available through the Grotto Merchants. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the latest additions:

•New Crowns and Circlets to adorn your fair head
•Various foliage, such as the Zavlith’loa Vine Cluster and the Grotto Ficus
•Mushrooms, including the vibrant Purple Cap Mushroom
•And more!

Launched September 5, 2007, Legends of Norrath began Sony Online Entertainment’s love affair with online trading card games. With solo and multiplayer game scenarios, players were encouraged to buy LoN card packs to build decks and play to complete achievements and for bragging rights. Gameplay took its cues from its real-life counterpart Magic the Gathering, although with Legends of Norrath, no physical cards were sent out — everything is virtual.

The first two Premium Guild Halls were introduced this Tuesday at eye-opening prices of 35,000 DBC ($350) and 40,000 DBC ($400) for the Highhold and Skyshrine zones respectively. Thus far, data analysis tells us that four guilds have acquired these halls — one Skyshrine and three of the Highhold halls.

If you prefer to acquire your Premium Guild Hall through gameplay, well then Good News Everybody!

From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:

Just FYI. We do have other guild halls [different new guild halls] that will be being added to in-game content only coming soon. One just around the corner with GU 101. The plan is to regularly have ones that can be earned through game play in the future.

To be absolutely clear, he is not talking about the Highhold or Skyshrine hall which are available through tickets on the Marketplace. He’s talking about another popular zone which will become available as a Guild Hall which players can then acquire through gameplay. Perhaps a quest series or some token grinding.

Commentary

Daybreak has the right to set whatever price it wants on Marketplace items. And industry trends have shown that a very small group of customers, less than 0.1%, can buy enough items to support an entire game. My concern is, for a small short-term financial gain, the news of this $400 pricetag spreads like wildfire and leads to a lot of player rage and chants of “cash grab”. It’s the summer time and as is tradition players are kicking the tires on other MMOs and other forms of entertainment and evaluating whether they want to stick with the choice they’ve made or consider alternatives. Players are thinking long-term, and I think Daybreak should be too.

From EverQuest2.com:

Norrathians – it’s time to team up with your guildmates to unlock access to the new Highhold Guild Hall and Skyshrine Capital Guild Hall!

These two guild halls may be earned by purchasing guild tickets from the Marketplace [for $1 or 100DBC each]. Anyone within a guild may purchase and make use of these guild tickets. Each ticket increases the count on the guild medal, and once 350 (for Highhold) or 400 (for Skyshrine Capital) total tickets have been used, the medal is granted and the guild will have access to purchase that guild hall from the guild bells in Antonica or Commonlands. Both guild halls also require a guild of level 30 or above.

Grabbed too many guild tickets? They can also be sold on the broker or sold for status!

PLUS, the Skyshrine Capital Guild Hall has a bonus amenity available – the chrono echo of a dragon! Members of the guild that owns the hall may find that she grants a special bonus to them.

Lendiniara

Update: Bloodguts has posted what the reward is:

For anyone wondering what the special bonus item you get from being an owner of the Skyshrine Guild Hall, it’s a Filled Experience Vial (200,000 Adventure Experience)

Instead of being no-value only, it’s Lore/No-Value/No-Trade version. That can only be picked up we believe is every 24 hours once. Not worth the $400 dollars it took to purchase.

NOTE: Unlike all other prestige housing, these two new guild halls require the full upkeep cost of a regular guild hall, plus any amenities.

It seems that an H1Z1 player who is unsatisfied with a certain ruleset did not get their fill with last night’s disruption of Daybreak Games and have decided to DDoS the company once again. Due to Daybreak’s interconnectedness, when one game is affected, all services are impacted. Updates as we have them…

Update: EQ2 servers should now be up and available after the extended downtime.

After the jump, the timeline of events…

All Servers: 7:00am~1:00pm PDT | 10:00am~4:00pm EDT | 15:00~21:00 BST | 16:00~22:00 CET

From the EQ2 Forums:

All EverQuest II Servers, both US and EU, will be brought offline on Tuesday, June 14th, 2016 at 7:00AM PDT* (2:00 PM GMT) for an update. Estimated downtime is approximately six hours.

From the EQ2 Forums:

IMPORTANT NOTICE

• Due to recent required client updates, EQ2 will no longer run on Windows XP or older machines.

QUESTS

• Alchemist’s Component – Leelee Brewbubble has been convinced that the components you have obtained are useful, once again.

ABILITIES

• Fixed a bug that was preventing Ancestral Support from working.

GUILDS

• Skyshrine Capital Guildhall guild tickets are now available for purchase from the Marketplace.
• Highhold Guildhall guild tickets are now available for purchase from the Marketplace.

TLE

• NPC Encounters will no longer have a chance to double attack on the TLE server.
• NPC Encounters now have a chance to strike through avoidance, the higher the level and tier of the encounter, the higher the chance to strikethrough.

Late addition:

Summoners

• Corrected an issues that reduced summoner mitigation when summoning a pet.

On March 16, 1999, EverQuest launched, and with it, a volunteer Guide Program. They would “act as basic customer service/support via ‘petitions’. Issues could be forwarded to the Game Master assigned to the server or resolved by the volunteer. Other guides would serve in administrative functions within the program or assisting the Quest Troupe with dynamic and persistent live events throughout the individual servers. Volunteers were compensated with free subscription and expansions to the game.

In 2003 the program changed for these volunteers, shifting them away from a customer service focus and instead placing them into their current roles as roving ‘persistent characters’ role-playing with the players.” (wikipedia) There’s always been confusion within the player community at large about whether the Guide Program was a part of Daybreak Games, a completely separate entity, or something in-between. We asked for clarification from the Guides and got this answer from Elder Guide Rynara:

The Guide program works side by side with Daybreak, they always have. The Program was never “run” by SOE. Since we are volunteers we are separate and do not work under them in any way but along with them to support the players of EQ and EQII. [While] Kander does not run the Guide program, he does support us as acting liaison to Daybreak. He is our contact.

The leaders of the Guide program back when it started at the beginning of EQ wrote a policy and procedure manual that we follow today. It has been updated and tweaked along the years however the fundamentals still apply today.

While the earlier Guide quests were of a “milk and cookies” nature, in recent years, more dynamic and complex quests have been added. None has gained more visibility than the Nebulous Newsies quest. The reward is millions of status and one of the largest inventory bags available in the game. Players line up by the hundreds to pickup the quest from a Guide (it cannot be acquired by any other means) when word breaks that they will be seeking player help on a server. A new Terrors of Thalumbra guide quest was just added to the Guides’ repertoire this month and it will be interesting to see how frequently it is made available.

Daybreak Games seems to be undergoing a DDoS attack. More as we have it…

Update:

We are recovering from earlier issues. Have a gamey night! (You know what I mean….)

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) June 13, 2016

Still some funk happening with all games. Ops still working on it.

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) June 13, 2016

We are aware of the issues with our games at the moment. Our ops folks are looking into it.

— Holly Longdale (@TheWindstalker) June 12, 2016

We're currently looking into an issue that may be affecting logins and servers across our games. We appreciate your patience!

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) June 12, 2016

From Kaitheel on the EQ2 Forums:

Moonlight Enchantments is active on the Test server!

Why, you ask? Because there are 25 new items available through the different grotto merchants!

Jump in and get a sneak peek at these new items available now on Test, before they are live on 6/20. Please post any feedback you might have pertaining to them in this thread.

Moonlight Enchantments runs on live servers the 20th-21st of every month.

Niami Denmother of EQ2Traders has updated her website with a preview of the new items!

Normally, Game Updates are delayed for the EU server so that they are applied early the next morning rather than disrupting primetime gaming. However when a Game Update includes new content and new items, these updates are done simultaneously with the US patches so that everyone is on the same footing. This morning’s launch of the Summer Ethereal event only applied to the US server, with the EU server (Thurgadin) having to wait until a 9pm PDT / 6:00 CEDT update. Because today also launched a Double Ethereal Coin event, the result was a double whammy of the EU server being almost an entire day behind. The EQ2 team have recognized this and so will be extending the Double Ethereal Coin event (actually quadruple for All Access subscribers) for an additional day.

From Roshen on the EQ2 Forums:

We’ll be extending this first double Ethereal coin promo on Thurgadin. On Thurgadin, the first double Ethereal Coin event for members will be extended until 1:59PM Pacific time on Tuesday, June 14, 2016.

We already posted an article about them, but here’s the official announcement.

From EQ2 Brand Manager Roshen on the EQ2 Forums:

Summer Ethereal Items are here!

During the event players will be able to pick up Ethereal missions from the mission NPC’s in Thalumbra, the Ever Deep. These missions will grant you [eq2u]Umbrite Ethereal Coin[/eq2u]s, and a chance at the current accessory reward or an Ethereal Rune. Umbrite Ethereal Coins may be used to purchase any of the available rewards from the Lylleia, the Ethereal Merchant.

In addition, over the course of the event there will be several periods of time that award bonus Ethereal Coins. Starting TODAY and running until 11:59PM PT on Monday, June 13, 2016 players will receive DOUBLE Ethereal Coins. Don’t miss your chance to stock up on coins early, and pick up the Ethereal items that you’re looking for!

This is in addition to the bonus that All Access members get every day to their alternative currency earned in-game. That means double DOUBLE Ethereal Coins for members during the times for bonus Ethereal Coins.

With tomorrow’s update, the Summer Ethereals event goes live for 2016.

In the past, I have come to view these events a mixture of excitement and dread. Yes, it becomes easier to find groups, however you have to be lottery-lucky to acquire these game-changing items as [eq2u]Phelony, Deathbringer[/eq2u], [eq2u]Fai Thass, The Ravager[/eq2u], and ability resetting items such as Essence of Duality. With the focus on weapons shifted to later this year, the Summer Ethereals this time around are jewelry — Necklaces, Bracelets, and Earrings. In addition, some of the very popular but exceedingly rare Ethereal Runes are now also available through heroic content this summer.

A view of the Ethereal merchant as seen by a Mage. Different items are offered for Scouts, Fighters, and Priests.

RNGQuest

In years past, the only way to acquire these Ethereal items was through repetition. It might take 300 or more dungeon runs to acquire your preferred item. This year, the rewards are presented in such a way that you will either get an [eq2u]Umbrite Ethereal Coin[/eq2u], which can be used to buy Ethereals from a merchant, or you will get an Ethereal item. Please note that the Ethereal Coin currency is NO-TRADE which is necessary to keep the cost low.

There was no downtime notice, but…

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PDT | 10:00am~11:00am EDT | 15:00~16:00 BST | 16:00~17:00 CST
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PDT | 12:00~1:00am EDT | 05:00~06:00 BST | 06:00~07:00 CST

From the EQ2 Forums: