NOTE: No EverQuest II content inside.

If you’ve been following Sony Online Entertainment co-founder John Smedley‘s Twitter teases and wondering what he would be doing next, now we know…

• Kickstarter: Hero’s Song by Pixelmage Games
• Massively Overpowered: Exclusive Interview: John Smedley Reveals Hero’s Song, His New Open-World OARPG
• MMORPG: Smedley & Patrick Rothfuss Team Up for New ARPG
• PixelmageGames.com
• Twitch: Watch the CohnCarnage Reveal Video hosted by CohhCarnage, John Smedley, Pat Rothfuss

Kickstarter video on Youtube:

What started as an odd Twitter exchange which felt like a pre-planned stunt turns into a three page backhanded compliment for EverQuest II. From Polygon.com:

Touring the living remains of an 11-year-old MMO
EverQuest 2 has been around over a decade, but there’s still some incredible sights to see in this odd game

My name is Phil Kollar, and I had a weird weekend.

Let’s start our story just over 11 years ago, on Nov. 9, 2004. That was the date that Sony Online Entertainment released EverQuest 2. I had spent a couple years in high school noodling around in the original EverQuest, a period that, despite my inability to make much progress in the game, helped me fall in love with the genre of massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

So I must have been excited for EverQuest 2, right?

…

EverQuest 2 is not a bad game, and I’m happy that it’s still up and running.

Have you got Stormhold (TLE PvE) or Deathtoll (TLE PvP) characters on another account and want to move them to your main account? Do you have them on your main account and want to move them to another account? Now you can. This is a manual process handled through Customer Service and it requires both accounts to be in the same name and address and, I believe, paid with the same credit card.

Note that this is not opening up the much-desired ability to move characters from the Stormhold or Deathtoll servers to a standard ruleset server.

From Roshen on the EQ2 Forums:

Today we’re opening up the Account-to-account transfer service to our Time-Locked Expansion servers, Stormhold and Deathtoll!

Account-to-Account transfers are a way that players can manage their characters. This service allows people to move characters from a single to multiple accounts so those characters can play together at the same time, or move characters spread across multiple accounts into one account to help save on membership dollars each month.

BEFORE you transfer a character from one account to another, remember that you need to contact our Customer Support team! For more information about this, see the knowledge base article here.

We’re happy to be opening this up to the players on our newest servers, and we appreciate your continued support!

Like previous expansions, Terrors of Thalumbra includes shiny “collections of collections” or meta-collections. A number of the expansion’s collections reward a piece which is part of a larger collection. When the expansion launched however, some of these pieces were not being rewarded. This week, Caith went through game logs to award the correct items to the players who had completed the quests but didn’t receive the pieces. From Kander:

We have started reimbursing these missed meta collection pieces. If you haven’t been reimbursed for missed metas, Please email me.
KVALLEE@daybreakgames.com

Email me if you have collections you have completed and did not receive the meta reward. We will of course be verifying any claims via logs.

Second, the collection rewards need to be corrected to properly reward the pieces. This is still in progress…

From Caith on the EQ2 Forums yesterday:

Quick update folks, we’re working on the collection issues, they are not yet fully resolved. None of the collections that have been completed are the final collection for the expansion, so you have not yet seen the final reward. We are aiming at having the issues resolved for next hotfix, we’ll let you know if that changes.

Anyone that completed one of the collections that was fixed in December have been granted the collection pieces that they missed out on. The grants were completed today.

As for the Time-Locked Expansion servers, a significant effort was made to go through heroic and raid rewards for the Kingdom of Sky expansion to bring the items up to snuff. After numerous revamps left the raid gear untouched, it had fallen behind even HANDCRAFTED gear. As per Gninja on the EQ2 Forums, the effort to remedy this imbalance continues:

From the EQ2 Forums:

This morning came the announcement: Kingdom of Sky is now available on our Time-Locked Expansion servers, Stormhold and Deathtoll. The announcement included some artwork I’ve personally never seen…

We also saw a high resolution map of the islands making up Tenebrous Tangle, the Barren Sky, and the Bonemire.

Community also polled players on Twitter and Facebook asking “What have been your favorite places to explore, as you’ve adventured through the lands of Norrath?”

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PST | 10:00am~11:00am EST | 15:00~16:00 GMT | 16:00~17:00 CEST

EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PST | 12:00~1:00am EST | 05:00~06:00 GMT | 06:00~07:00 CEST

• Stormhold & Deathtoll – Approx downtime three hours for Kingdom of Sky content prep.  We’re estimating that these servers will open at 10AM PST.
• Maj’Dul – Approx downtime three hours for server maintenance

Tonight is the last night of Frostfell until later this year, while tomorrow sees the unlocking of Kingdom of Sky on the Time-Locked Expansion servers. Meanwhile on live servers, in addition to a number of content fixes, we will also see a potentially significant change to AAs. Abilities that used to grant Crit Bonus will now grant Potency instead.

Finally we must say goodbye to a feature that has worked inconsistently at best for many years but must have proven too difficult to fix. With tomorrow’s update, the PvP Arena feature will be disabled in EverQuest II, with the rewards from that content, including unique house pets, being moved to the Loyalty merchant.

From the EQ2 Forums:

TIME-LOCKED EXPANSION SERVERS
General

• All encounters received a global balance update that can be adjusted dynamically by development.
• Level 20+ encounters now mitigate damage based on level and tier.
• All blue stats have been unlocked with the exception of crit bonus.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Hail Norrathians,

The vote to unlock Kingdom of Sky content passed last month. This content is scheduled to unlock to players on BOTH Time-Locked Expansion servers Stormhold (PvE) and Deathtoll (PvP) on Thursday, January 7, 2016. This content is scheduled to unlock at 10:00AM PST

UPDATE: We’ll need some additional time to get KoS set up for TLE servers, and we anticipate these servers will unlock to players at 10AM PST. More info here.

There are a lot of updates coming to Time-Locked Expansion servers after this content unlocks. To give you an idea of what’s coming:

• Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level will be raised to 70
• Alternate Advancement Subclass Window will be unlocked with a 50 AA cap
• This launch will include a full balance pass for all TLE content level 30+, including existing encounters.
• All blue stats, with the exception of crit bonus, will be available on the server.
• Cloud Travel will be restored.
• Spire Travel will be restored on Stormhold (PvE) and Deathtoll (PvP), and reverted to its original design, teleporting players every 5 minutes.

The Time-Locked Expansion (TLE) servers offer a unique EverQuest 2 experience different from our traditional servers. Are you unfamiliar with special servers like Stormhold and Deathtoll? You can get more information about what these servers are in the post here!

And in case you are wondering, a balancing and bugfixing pass has been done to try to ensure that Kingdom of Sky is challenging and interesting.

File this under “better late than never” but I’ve been busy with two EQ2 friends visiting from out of town and other activities so I didn’t get a chance to repost the news dropped on New Year’s Eve morning about Bonus XP and 50% Off the Marketplace. Sorry about that. The 50% Off Marketplace promotion is already ended, and the Bonus XP will drop 90 minutes from now. So I’m just posting these here for posterity.

From the EQ2 Forums:

If you’re able to find a free moment this holiday, we’re offering DOUBLE BONUS EXPERIENCE to our All-Access members starting around 12:01PM PST (noon) on Thursday, December 31 and running until 11:59AM PST (noon) on Monday, January 4, 2016.

The XP bonuses will be available for All Access members on ALL servers. This includes our players on Time-Locked Expansion servers.

From the EQ2 Forums:

For the next two days, members take 50% OFF EVERY item in the Marketplace! This starts at 12:01AM PST* on Thursday, December 31 and ends at 11:59PM PST* on Friday, January 1, 2016.

All Access Members normally take 10% off Marketplace purchases. During this sale, we’re adding 40% extra to what they save. This totals 50% OFF Marketplace purchases until the end of this promotion.

Commentary

By the way, the 50% Off Marketplace deal was a rebate scheme where you pay full price for the item and then are debited back the difference…Unless you were on the Skyfire server. For the first twelve hours of the sale, Skyfire players paid full price and never got the rebate. Now that the holidays are over, we’ll keep an eye on this and see if it’s getting resolved through Customer Service.

Daybreak Games, Servers, and Websites are once again under attack this morning as of 7:30am PST. The attack stopped at 8:00am PST and then resumed at 11:00am and has continued unabated as of 3:20pm PST. This sustained attack is being done by a different DDOS crew than the one that targeted SOE President John Smedley, and is directed towards the game H1Z1. EQ and EQ2 (and their forums and websites) being offline is just collateral damage.

NOTE: EU-based EverQuest II servers are co-located in Amsterdam, so gameplay may be possible on these servers.

Original updates after the jump…

Daybreak Games websites and games seem to be intermittently offline starting at 5:15pm PDT.

Update: Players have been reporting that they’re able to login for the last 15 minutes or so. I am logged in and experiencing some lag.

Update from Twitter:

We are aware of current connectivity issues and are working to resolve them. Thanks for your patience.

— Daybreak Games (@DaybreakGames) December 30, 2015

The EQ2 Forums have been updated with this notice from Ops:

Status: 12/29/2015 17:45 PST – We are currently investigating a potential issue with network connectivity to the game.

Enter the EQ2Wire Chatroom

From the EQ2 Forums:

If you’re able to find a free moment this holiday, we’re offering BONUS EXPERIENCE, DOUBLE PERSONAL STATUS, and DOUBLE GUILD STATUS to our All-Access members starting at 12:01AM PST (midnight) on Friday, December 25 and running until 11:59AM PST (noon) on Monday, December 28, 2015.

The XP and Status bonuses will be available for All Access members on ALL servers. This includes our players on Time-Locked Expansion servers.

Not currently an All-Access member? There’s no better time to sign up!

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Maldura: Forge of Ashes [Raid]

• The respawn point for Bereth’s Overlook should no longer be an available option for reviving unless Bereth has been defeated.

Maldura: Bar Brawl [All Versions]

• Priest can now cure themselves of Dalkuhm’s “Borrow Weapons” debuff.

Kralet Penumbra: The Hive Mind [Raid]

• The Psionists will now correctly react to those who attempt to drain their well of power.

ITEMS

• Wrist of the Great Forge is now correctly named Ring of the Great Forge.
• Ethereal Onslaught will now correctly reset Sniper Squad.
• Primordial Burnout will now trigger on combat arts and spells.
• Kiss of Life will now heal for the correct amounts.

TRADESKILLS

• “Malduran Mouths to Feed” should now update correctly for moussaka and bibimbap.
• Recipes from the Dhalgar Home Builder’s Kit recipe book are now flagged as building blocks for the purpose of house item count.

QUESTS

• Enemies in the Ever Deep will now award a random infuser or damaged spiritstone.
• The Event Heroic weekly mission, “Trail of Deceit and Death,” can now be completed.

Last night, Daybreak Games sent out an e-mail to everyone who purchased the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion which includes a “Thank You” video and a Survey. Here’s the video:

The Terrors of Thalumbra survey seems to have some really good questions which will hopefully elicit useful responses and measurements. Here’s the introduction:

Thank you for your purchase of the EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra Expansion.

We’re grateful that you joined us for this expansion and would like to get your feedback so we can ensure the best experience for our players as we move forward.

This short survey should take you no more than a few minutes to complete. Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback.

All EverQuest II players should fill out the survey at the following link: is Let us know your thoughts on the EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra Expansion.

After the jump, we preserve a historical copy of the questions from the Survey…

From the EQ2 Forums:

The vote to unlock Kingdom of Sky content on BOTH Stormhold (PvE) and Deathtoll (PvP) has passed. This content is scheduled to unlock to players on Thursday, January 7, 2016.

There are a lot of updates coming to Time-Locked Expansion servers after this content unlocks. To give you an idea of what’s coming:

• Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level will be raised to 70
• Alternate Advancement Subclass Window will be unlocked with a 50 AA cap
• This launch will include a full balance pass for all TLE content level 30+, including existing encounters.
  • Kingdom of Sky dropped or quested equipment has had a full stat re-distribution to fit with progression.
• All blue stats, with the exception of crit bonus, will be available on the server.
• Cloud Travel will be restored.
• Spire Travel will be restored on Stormhold (PvE) and Deathtoll (PvP), and reverted to its original design, teleporting players every 5 minutes.

To make sure this content is done right, we’re opening up the beta server to test these updates for Time-Locked Expansion servers. The beta server will remain available through the first week of January. If you’re an All Access Member, you’ll be flagged with access to the beta server!

If you’ve been saying to yourself “I’ll buy a Marketplace mount when pigs fly”, now’s your chance…

From EverQuest II’s twitter:

Additional Frostfell themed items are available in the Marketplace starting TODAY! Which items are your favorite?

— EverQuest II (@everquestii) December 15, 2015

From the EQ2 Forums:

As we get ready for the winter holiday, we’re offering 100% BONUS EXPERIENCE to our All-Access members starting at 12:01AM PST (midnight) on Friday, December 18 and running until 11:59AM PST (noon) on Monday, December 21, 2015.

The Bonus XP will be available for All Access members on ALL servers. This includes our players on Time-Locked Expansion servers.

Not currently an All-Access member? Now’s the time to sign up!

NOTE: It seems that XP bonuses on the TLE servers are capped at 40%.

We are happy to report that our update of EQ2U Players for the Terrors of Thalumbra expansion is now complete. We have loaded all of the Quest data for the expansion, including the new Signature lines, adventure, and tradeskill quests. This required updating Factions, Zones, Rewards, and QuestGiver info. This brings us up to 12,183 Quests on EQ2U. We have also re-imported Recipes and can now report that we have 30,948 Recipes on EQ2U. We’re missing 3 and have submitted a bug report on this.

You can see what else we did to update EQ2U in our article from last week.

NOTE: The EQ2 team and Platform have been invaluable in getting us this data and ensuring that the EQ2 Census data API is available and accurate.

US Servers: 7:00~8:00am PST | 10:00am~11:00am EST | 15:00~16:00 GMT | 16:00~17:00 CEST
EU Servers: 9:00~10:00pm PST | 12:00~1:00am EST | 05:00~06:00 GMT | 06:00~07:00 CEST

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Qeynos Province District

• Players will no longer get stuck in Frostfell decorations when zoning out of Agnostic Dungeons.

Kralet Penumbra: Uzulu Deep [Event Heroic]

• Urzzra-Uzulu now opens dialog with you during combat through a separate dialog window for greater accessibility.

Kralet Penumbra: The Master’s Chosen [Heroic]

• Xal’Gilah has slightly slowed the rate at which he gains concentration for resurrecting his minions.

Kralet Penumbra: Tepid Depths

• Depths prowlers no longer cast Aberrant Assault.

Maldura: Bar Brawl [Event Heroic]

• Dalkuhm’s “Borrow Weapons” debuff can now be cured by means other than Cure Curse.

From the EQ2 Forums:

For the first time, we’re putting the most popular pack of Krono – the 5 Krono pack – on sale! Beginning at 12:00AM PST on Friday, December 11 through 11:59PM PST on Sunday, December 13, you’ll be able to purchase the bundle of 5 Krono for only $69.99 USD*.

Currently available in EverQuest and EverQuest II, Krono are in-game objects that can be redeemed for 30 days of membership time. They may be purchased from the Daybreak marketplace for real money only, or from other players via the broker or private trades for in-game currency.

The Krono sale will be happening via the in-game marketplaces in EverQuest and EverQuest II, and on the web. For questions about Krono, visit the FAQ on either www.everquest.com/krono or www.everquest2.com/krono.

*International currency prices may vary.

Commentary

The normal price for five Krono (redeemable for 30 days of All Access non-recurring subscriotion) is $84.99 which works out to $16.99 a month, a buck off the single Krono price. With this sale, Krono are going for $13.99, at least if you live in the USA.  A player in Sweden reported that the price of 5 Krono has actually gone UP with today’s sale.

EverQuest II has one of the most advanced decorating systems of any MMORPG. It likely has more house items than any other game, as evidenced by the frequently updated, screen-busting fansite EQ2Furniture which allows players to see a spinning preview of all 16,325 house items in Norrath. However this paradise of customization has become a huge data storage problem for the EQ2 team and players alike.

Although the Dungeon Maker feature never lived up to its hype or even the lowest expectations due to the anemic customization and storytelling options it offered, it provided mass storage and an almost unbelievable scale for house decorators. All told, each EQ2 character can own 25 houses and 20 dungeons. With an average limit of 1,000 items (plus 1,000 books, plus 1,000 building blocks), that’s an eye-watering 135000 house items per character.

Today is the last day for All Access subscribers to use Free Server Transfer Tokens as the program ends at Noon PST (3pm EST, 20:00 GMT, 21:00 CEST). And that’s important because these special freebie tokens expire (will stop working) at Noon:

Remember, to use these tokens, you must meet these requirements:

• Your account must be at least 30 days old
• A character must be level 5 to transfer
• You can move more than two characters per day. An account will be able to move up to 100 characters (although each character can only move for free one time).
• You still need to be an All Access member to transfer

Players have discovered some issues with these tokens. First up, some players have items “stuck” on the Broker from years ago which were later made NO-TRADE.  They’re unable to move these items out of the broker, yet Server Transfer Tokens require that your Broker be cleared out. Players have had some success with Support Tickets or reaching out directly to EQ2 developers on the forums.

Comment: It is hoped that some grace period will be provided for this issue as this is really a game bug preventing players from using the tokens.

Another issue has been Prestige Housing. Some players are reporting that their houses disappear during the transfer. Support Tickets have been successful in restoring people’s houses, but sometimes all of the items have had their positions reset. If you care about how your house has been decorated, I strongly recommend logging in and clicking the “Save Layout” button first to save a map of how all the items in your house have been placed. Then if something goes wrong, you can do “Load Layout” and everything will snap back into position. [Read More about Housing and Transfers]

EQ2U has received several updates since the launch of Terrors of Thalumbra:

• Loaded all Terrors of Thalumbra Recipes*.
• Loaded all Terrors of Thalumbra Collections.
• Extended the Lore & Legend page to include Cepholex, Fathomlurker, and Poxfiend.
• Updated Guild Achievements.
• Added RELIC, PRESTIGE, etc. flags to item popups and details.
• Added INFUSED support to equipped items on the Character Details page.
• Updated Item Search to include RELIC, PRESTIGE, etc. flags. We’re evaluating turning the flags menu into a row of checkboxes to allow the selection of multiple flags.
• Updated Tradeskill Report to include the 21 new quests in the Terrors of Thalumbra Tradeskill Signature quest line (and a side quest line).
• Guild Search now goes to Level 150.

What’s left to do:

• Load all the Terrors of Thalumbra Quests
• Load Recipes again after tomorrow’s patch to see if the few missing ones come through.

All of this would not be possible without Dave “Maevianiu” Kish on the EQ2 team adding the necessary extra bits of information, as well as support from Platform in exporting and updating data. By the way, I have updated the EQ2 Census API Forums to include all the necessary documentation for other fansites to support this data.