Feldon
Even as EQ2Wire is trying to find an artist or artists to help us tell humorous, interesting stories about EQ2, the development of MMOs in general, and the sometimes tumultuous relations between game developers and the players, we could not help but notice the “Notable Norrathians” contest currently running on the EQ2 Forums and posted by Kiara. UPDATE: Deadline Extended to May 28th! The New Artists My favorite part of EverQuest II’s fleeting 5th Anniversary “Heroes Festival” (during last year’s American Thanksgiving week) was the 10 Player-Designed In-Game Paintings. Initially, an art conteste, the top 10 winners became available...
EQ2Players is highlighting another team member, this time Jeff Jonas, player artist for EverQuest II. My role on the EQII team is to create objects that our player characters use, wear, or ride. I am known as a “wearables” guy. A project like this needs thousands of items to make it fun and exciting. Wearables run the gamut from Barbarian helmets, to collector’s capes, and full vampire armor sets, to wieldables such as swords and staffs, to rideables like the hover discs I have created. Other wearables can be backpacks, or armbands. What’s your favourite thing that you’ve done...
The tireless Niami Denmother of EQ2Traders has turned in another great preview, this time New Halas.
Free Item Players logging into EQ2 in the days immediately following the launch of Game Update 56: Halas Reborn (specifically May 25 ~ 28) will receive a free item, a Frostpaw Kitten.
A new website has been added to EQ2Players with the skinny on Game Update 56: Halas Reborn, introducing the player city of Halas, as well as a new character starting area with level 1-20 content. Halas is essentially a neutral-good aligned city, as evil-aligned characters can visit and complete most of the same quests. Game Update 56 includes substantial features and changes: Halas Reborn — new player city with new housing options (2, 4, and 6 room houses) Frostfang Sea — new level 1~20 starting area leading to Halas The Underfoot Depths — A new x4 level 90 raid...
Raid Targets in Sentinel’s Fate continue to receive nips and tucks in their behavior and strategies. Today’s change to the 3 Sages fight is not without controversy. Check out the discussion thread on EQ2 Forums. Here are your Hotfix Notes for May 4th, 2010: THE PALACE OF ROEHN THEER 3 Sage Encounter (Challenge Mode)- If the incorrect character class (according to the Idolic Stone that sage possesses) keeps agro on that sage for more than 3 secs after that sage has lost it’s prismatic sphere, that character will be hit by a bolt of slaying. SANCTUM OF THE SCALEBORN...
The Halas Prelude event is now available on Live servers. Currently, this quest is only available from Guides (a sanctioned group of volunteer players), GMs, CMs, and other SOE staff. Stay tuned to open chat channels! It’s a brief quest, dealing with the rediscovery of Halas. The quest rewards 2 books. We’ll post a link to a writeup of the quest soon. How to Get the Quest From Domino: The Halas Prelude Event will initially be given out by Guides and SOE staff until shortly before the update launch. Although there are no guides on PvP and exchange servers,...
image courtesy Jethal Silverwing Come to the Faire: Freeport @ Kithicor.org The first week of every month sees the arrival of a traveling City Festival. This month, the City Festival wraps its first tour of the five known cities of Norrath by visiting Freeport. Next month, the City Festival will no doubt make its first appearance in the newly-found New Halas. While some players have shared their exasperation with the obviousness of the ‘content delivery system’ feel to these events (repeat a runaround errand-type quest dozens of times, or craft dozens of items, to earn enough tokens to buy...
New Halas Livin’ We are following New Halas (both the level 1-20 starting content, and as a new player city) on Test, and player comments about both the newbie experience, and how Halas works as a full-fledged city. Living up to the expectations and nostalgia of EQ1 veterans was an impossible task, but there has been a raft-load of comments on the EQ2 forums (and presumably through /feedback) and the art team is making some much-appreciated changes. First impressions of New Halas have regarded the buildings (inside and out) as some of the most impressive and realistic in the...
European EQ2 players wanting to experience Battlegrounds have had to deal with a series of compromises. Battlegrounds are divided not only by language (French, German, Russian) but region (UK vs. US). As a result, some servers have had such a small pool of players to choose from, that 24 x 24 Battlegrounds have been impossible, locking players out of acquiring some 40% of the gear and rewards available for Battlegrounds. Rothgar has given us the first bit of concrete good news about solutions to these issues: I just wanted to let you guys know that we’ve been making some...
Cronyn has jumped into the fray again with some further details about why the Isle of Refuge is being removed in GU56: Heya folks. I wanted to clear a couple of things up really fast, if I may. As I said, we’re not abandoning Freeport and Qeynos themselves. The existing content that is there will not be different with this change, and we are planning even more things for the cities going forward. Players with citizenship currently in either city will retain it – we’re not removing housing, guild halls, the suburbs, or the quests that exist there. They...
Game Update 56 will be imbuing flying carpets, floating discs, and cloud mounts with the power to float. If you are thinking to yourself “Wait, didn’t they already do that?” read on… Carpets, Clouds, and Discs have allowed players to peacefully float throughout Norrath, but only over flat, even, dry surfaces. As soon as the operator of these wondrous mounts attempted to traverse a vertical distance greater than 3 feet, they were suddenly rendered about as effective as concrete shoes. In short, carpets, clouds, and disc mounts have been a virtual death trap over mountainous terrain. I guess they...
The notes for upcoming Game Update 56 included this notation: Many rare drops from the heroic Sentinel’s Fate Zones are now available by speaking to Kaliba Des’Sers in Moonfield Hamlet! Once Game Update 56 was patched onto the Test Server, we were provided screen shots of some of this loot: New Fabled Loot Vendor on Test What’s on the Menu? While a similar vendor was available during the Shadow Odyssey expansion, 150 void shards only gave you access to the most common Fabled drops from each zone (with the exception of the Mistmoore Battle Drums). So this time around,...
Dethdlr
On Tuesday, 27 April 2010, this tidbit made it into the update notes for test: Mounts will now be temporarily suspended while in combat. Basically, in outside zones, mounts would disapear as soon as you enter combat and re-appear a few seconds after combat ended. This had a general negative response on the official EQ2 Forums and led to speculation on how this would effect buffs. Gninja responded with some clarification on the matter: You would not lose any stats or anything you would have normally had your character will just no longer be visually mounted during combat the...
Ebik’s Missing Parts Over on the beach where the ambassadors are you will see a Gnome named Ebik Wooblecog. If you speak to him and click through his very long story he will ask you to find his 3 missing parts… hence the name of the quest ^_^. You will have to find the following: Size 7 clunker Copper-coated springer Triangle spinner These items are rather large and kinda easy to find. The first one is located at: Size 7 clunker is on top of the waterfall, just over the bridge. It is an area called Port View Bridge....
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. Collection Quests There are two collection quests on the island. You must be level 3 to have the harvest ability to be able to complete this quest. The first collection quest is on the beach. You’ll notice some gold sparkling ? marks. If you double click them you will harvest them and get a shell. The shell ? marks can only be found on the beaches of the isle. Upon examining the shell you can add it to your...
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. Arriving on the Island After you exit the tutorial and hit the beaches of the island of a refuge, you’ll need to decide your profession. Head up to Garven who is standing up beside the dock. He’ll welcome you to your new home as a “refugee”, and ask your profession. After answering his initial questions, Garven will request you “prove your worth” by killing one of the invading Goblins, which have suddenly plagued the Island of Refuge. Accept this...
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. Cellar Cleanup The Cellar Cleanup quest is the artisan quest on the island. To start the quest go to Malvonicus’ Tower and speak with Assistant Dreak. You will know who he is, cause he will be bitching about the cellar being a mess. After agreeing to clean up the cellar turn to your left and you will see the door that leads to the instanced cleanup quest. You must do the following to complete the first part of the...
This quest writeup is a historical document of the Isle of Refuge. This zone was repurposed/revamped in Game Update 19. EQ2 Allakhazam Writeup for the Isle of Refuge boat sequence: Step 1: Captain Varlos You’ll appear on the ship next to Captain Varlos, double click on the Caption to initiate a conversation. Navigate through the initial conversation, and the Captain will gradually explain where you are, how you got there, and where you’re headed. At the end of the conversation, Captain Varlos will ask you to go speak to his First Mate Waulon, who is located just to the...
It seems we’ll be parting with two islands by May’s end. And while we’ll still be able to catch John Locke, Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, and Kate in syndication, the Qeynos and Freeport starting islands seem destined for a more permanent fate. We are providing continuing (hopefully not excessive) coverage of the impending removal of the EQ2 starting islands. Share Your Story If you’d like to share your story of your experiences either on the Outpost of the Overlord, Queen’s Colony, or on the original Isle of Refuge, shoot us an e-mail through the Contact Us page, or post a...
EQ2Players.com French Community Rep, Soffrina had a chance to interview Domino and ask a few questions. Here are a few excerpts from the article: How do you come up with a decision to add a new thing to the game? Do you listen to the community’s needs, is it a development decision depending on its importance or is it a combination of both? In other words, how do you initiate a project? It is certainly a combination of things. When I play, I’m always watching for things that might be needed or that would improve tradeskills (or indeed the game...
There seems to be some confusion in the In Testing Feedback thread regarding the removal of Qeynos and Freeport as starting choices. I stand by the original article I posted, but some clarification is worth mentioning. Qeynos and Freeport Going Away? Qeynos and Freeport are not being removed as cities. Furthermore to my knowledge, none of the level 6-20 quests in these city zones and surrounding suburbs are going away. Although further testing on the Test Server will be needed to confirm this. Players wishing to experience the Qeynos and Freeport level 6-20 content would need to create a...
The Promise of Battlegrounds The promise of Battlegrounds has been the opportunity to meet players from other servers and challenge them in meaningful PvP combat. It has been a great time-killer while attempting to form up groups. It has been a fun exercise for guilds from different servers wanting to face off in battle. And it has been an opportunity (perhaps too good of one) to gear up. However this promise has largely gone undelivered to the European community. Aside from localization issues (language, number and date formats), European servers almost always undergo software upgrades at a different time...
In February, former EQ2 Senior Producer Alan “Brenlo” Crosby created a thread “What is the Golden Path?” It included this provocative passage: The golden path is the first step in a larger revamp of our new player experience. We took a look at the starting areas, other than Qeynos and Freeport as we plan to move away from those, and reworked content so that it had a better flow. We wanted the quests in Darklight, Timorous and Greater Fay, to give you a better progression path. When asked in the EQ2 ZAM Dev Chat to clarify this position, Brenlo...
Today’s hotfix: ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENTS Fiery Blast and Rhythmic Overture should no longer apply extra damage if cast by multiple people at the same time. ITEMS Many items that had nude appearances have been corrected. PERAH’CELSIS’ ABOMINABLE LABORATORY Arkatanthis’ benthic warlord adds will try and pick a more balanced group of 3 players when they spawn during the challenge mode encounter. The nude appearance items were caused by a bug that slipped in last week which caused female characters to appear to wear nothing but pasties in the chest area. (May want to exercise discretion when viewing that thread since...