Feldon
On/behind/ahead of/who knows schedule, the Altar of Malice beta is now up and running for ALL ACCESS members. How Do I Get to Beta? There is no Non-Disclosure Agreement to accept this year, and no separate Beta launcher to run. To access the Altar of Malice beta, simply close and reopen your EverQuest II Launcher, click on the Version link in the top left corner (US English for US players), switch the region to “Beta“, click Apply, and let the patching begin! Copying characters from live to beta is really easy now. Instead of typing /beta on the live server...
UPDATE from Afista on the EQ2 Forums: These are the correct scheduled server down times for each server. I am looking into why there was a delay and will update you all whenever I have the information. ALL servers are supposed to be patching at the same time. Here’s the announcement from the EQ2 Forums: All US EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 7:00 AM PDT. Estimated downtime is 1 hour. All EU EverQuest II Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, October, 2014 at 7:00 AM PDT. (3:00 PM London Time). Estimated downtime is 2...
Members of the EverQuest II Art team including EQ2 Art Director Tim “Hoahmaru” Heydelaar, Dave “Covic” Brown, Tom “Ttobey” Tobey, and Chris “Phatkins” Atkins talk about the upcoming Altar of Malice expansion, and give us a look behind-the-scenes with concept art, clips and stills. Recorded live on August 17 2014 at SOE Live. Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada. Video edited and produced by EQ2Wire.
Have you been missing x4 Etyma currency (x2 for F2P) ever since this summer’s “Level Up, Gear Up” promotion ended? You’re not the only one… From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter: Tomorrow at 12pm PDT we start our Get Ready for 100 bonuses! For members, includes 25% XP (AA/Adv/TS) & 4x Etyma. F2P get 2x Etyma. #EQ2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) October 6, 2014 Also: Also starting tomorrow until the new expansion, all 2014 Summer Ethereals (Weapons & Jewelry) have a chance to drop in ToV Missions. #eq2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) October 6, 2014
Since September 24th, some 57 players of SOE games have contributed a whopping $3,920 for Extra Life. There’s still time to donate, and you can choose whose name you are donating for. From the SOE forums: On October 25th, Team SOE will join thousands of gamers to share the joy of gaming, be it online, board games, LARP-ing, or whatever. Together, we will raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network charity as part of Extra Life’s annual 24-hour gaming marathon. All proceeds donated will go to the local hospital of each team member! Why are we doing this? Our team is on a mission...
By Akil “Lyndro” Hooper on the EQ2 Forums: Many years ago, while lost in a storm on the Tranquil Seas, the Brokenskull Pirates came upon an uncharted island. The pirates found a secluded cavern to the leeward side of the island to weather the storm. When the seas calmed, they set out to explore the new land, hoping to make a permanent port in the bay that protected them from the storm. Instead they found the urzarach, a sentient race of creatures that are part bear and part spider, who claimed the land as their own. Continue reading after...
From Afista on the EQ2 Forums: Greetings Norrathians! Have you been eyeballing some of those awesome status items on the city merchants? Are you running low on status upkeep for guild halls and need to restock the escrow? Get ready to refill your status, because it’s time for a double status weekend! All-Access Members will earn double personal status beginning tomorrow, Friday, October 3rd at 12:00pm PDT. This double status will end Monday, October 6 at 11:59pm PDT, so make sure you take advantage of it before it’s too late! We want to know what you enjoy most in Norrath....
And here we were making sure that EQ2U was ready for Grandmasters tomorrow… From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter: Update delayed to Tuesday. 8( We're working hard to make it clean and shiny. We found gnarly bugs today that we don't want to give you. #eq2 — Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) October 1, 2014
The first five level-agnostic dungeons, open to level 20-89 players, as well as the availability of Grandmaster spells at all levels and tiers, is expected this Thursday. Racheal “Afista“ has posted an in-depth preview of what we can expect on the EQ2 Forums: We’re excited about Level Agnostic Dungeons and Grandmaster Spells coming to EverQuest 2 on Thursday, October 2, 2014! So what exactly are these dungeons and why should you check them out? Level Agnostic Dungeons Level Agnostic Dungeons are instances in which characters between levels 20-89 have a chance to group together, regardless of the difference in their...
Over the last couple of days, players have noticed their game client taking screenshots of certain Achievements and other in-game activities. It looks like this was an in-development feature which slipped to live a bit prematurely. From Dave “Maevianiu” Kish on the EQ2 Forums: Oh snap! This one is my fault. It got “pulled along for the ride” with the performance increases. It wasn’t ready for live and I’m personally sorry for this one. This feature isn’t finished yet, so I’ll be turning it off with the next hotfix. I am very sorry for it sneaking out like this,...
From the EQ2 Forums: Attention players: we will perform maintenance beginning at 7:00 AM PDT* on Thursday, September 25, 2014. We expect this maintenance to last about two hours. This will impact the following SOE services: Game servers may sporadically lose connection across all games Commerce functions, including purchases for all games Game, web and forum logins for all games Thank you for your patience as we complete this maintenance. Time Zone Conversions PDT: September 25 @ 7:00am ~ 9:00am EDT: September 25 @ 9:00am ~ 11:00am BST: September 25 @ 15:00 ~ 17:00 CET: September 25 @ 18:00 ~ 19:00 AEST:...
Performance This Tuesday’s update to EQ2 included quite a few tweaks to the EQ2 game client which have produced a substantial upgrade in framerates and overall performance for many players including myself. I have to give a round of applause to Dave “Maevianiu” Kish and others on the EQ2 code side who have worked the last few months to get these changes done. I was personally able to bump up one quality setting and my framerate still increased from 20’s to a steady 45-50. So… There are a few players who have been hung up on these changes though....
It’s time for another zone preview from this fall’s expansion Altar of Malice, this time the overland Phantom Sea. From Nathan “Kaitheel“ on the EQ2 Forums: Unswayed in their quest to find Captain Greymast, the heroes sent by the Overlord of Freeport and by the benevolent Queen of Qeynos, arrive in the Phantom Sea, a body of water peppered with mysterious islands that have not been seen by eyes outside of the Far Seas Trading Company since the Age of Cataclysms. The island of North Dshinn shares a great many commonalities with its southern sister in Tranquil Sea, but...
From the EQ2 Forums: PERFORMANCE UPDATES We don’t want to get into too much detail, but overall we updated some very old libraries to bring EQII up to date. We also updated memory management, fixed some memory leaks as a result, and made some other code changes that look to be improving server performance. Here’re a few notes to give you a bit more detail: Improved client performance on maximum settings. Additionally, altered the “Extreme Quality” defaults to look and run better on higher end machines. This means that non-raiders who do quests, decorate houses, heroic dungeons (without oceans...
From Racheal “Afista” on the EQ2 Forums: We are excited to announce that the game update on September 23rd will include code updates to improve performance on servers as well as player clients! What does this round of updates hold in store for you? These changes will help game performance, whether you enjoy adventuring, tradeskilling, or decorating. Improved Graphical Performance Improved client performance on maximum settings, including “Extreme Quality” Utilized SSE and SSE2 instruction sets Improved how the Welcome window is sent to clients Improved Functionality Improved how the server calculates stats during combat (more to come!) Several improvements...
From master of live events and senior designer Nathan “Kaitheel“, we have our first zone preview for the upcoming Altar of Malice expansion. And before anyone asks, this is NOT repurposed zone geometry, but an entirely new continent developed with the new Terrain Tool. Long had the Far Seas Trading Company provided Norrath’s displaced citizens a place of refuge, an island where they found respite from the chaos of the Shattered Seas, before being transported to the last great cities of Freeport and Qeynos. But strange tidings came and without another word, the seafaring merchants stopped honoring the Pact...
Sometimes life comes at you fast! On September 10th, Linda “Brasse” Carlson posted a remote position opening to work on EQ and EQ2 Community in a very public support role (through a contractor). On the 15th she announced that Racheal “Afista“, well known to crafters and decorators in the EQ2 world for her EQ2DesignGallery.com site and involvement in the EQ2 forums, as well as part-time writer for EQ2 ZAM, had gotten the position. Today, she introduced herself on the EQ2 Forums: Fellow Norrathians, I’m Racheal “Afista” McKenny and I’ll be joining the SOE Community Team working with EQII. Some...
Dethdlr
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale announced today on twitter: We’re going to have a Double XP weekend for members this Friday at noon to Sunday midnight PDT! Wee! Update: Windstalker confirmed that this is for Adventure and Tradeskill, but not Guild XP. Time Zone Conversions PDT: Friday, Sep 19 @ Noon ~ Sun, Sep 21 @ 11:59pm (+ 1 minute) EDT: Friday, Sep 19 @3:00pm ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 2:59am BST: Friday, Sep 19 @20:00 ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 7:59 CET: Friday, Sep 19 @21:00 ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 8:59 AEST: Saturday, Sep 20 @ 5:00am ~ Monday, Sep 22 @ 4:59pm
From the EQ2 Forums: GENERAL [WEEKLY FEATURE – Ed.] All Access Members can now access the Broker almost anywhere. In the EQII menu, select the “Broker” option, or use the /start_broker_anywhere command. POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION High Keep: The Bloodless Incursion [Contested] Grulk’s Toxic Submission no longer drains noxious resistance, but instead causes Poisoned Marrow to inflict greater damage. ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT Summoner Minions Translocation can no longer be cast while under the effects of Carnage Shield. ITEMS Totem of the Succulent may now only trigger once a second and has increased damage and healing. BATTLEGROUNDS Balance of Theer...
Wow has it been 3 weeks since SOE Live 2014? I’m hopelessly behind on getting all my post-con stuff done, but Dellmon and Osgz have saddled up and recorded another episode of the best (wait, isn’t it the only?) EQ2 podcast! From EQ2Talk: Episode #77 – What Happens in Vegas recorded on Aug 30 Dellmon and Osgz’s lives are finally returning to normal after SOE Live 2014. With Dell’s on the ground experiences and Oz’s perspectives via Twitch, there is much to discuss. From zombie prom to tournament play to Fippy and a schwag bag, your EQ2 Talk hosts...
If you’ve never heard of Extra Credits, it’s a semi-weekly show by game designer James Portnow and animator/narrator Daniel Floyd, with various guest artists providing the sometimes comical artwork. The series of videos discuss issues pertinent to video games and game studies, particularly discussing issues concerning video game development, addressing the legitimacy of video games as art, and creating intellectual discourse on important issues in gaming culture. We try to watch it every week, and we have a sneaking suspicion the EQNext and Landmark teams do as well, as a lot of the concepts they talk about are raised on the...
EQ2Wire will be liveblogging EQ2 Insider Episode #4, which as it turns out will be Maggie “Luperza” Krohn‘s last episode as she has taken a position at Curse.com. You can watch EverQuest II Insider #4 at Twitch right now. This was a live blog of today’s EQ2 Insider Episode #4. Talking about SOE Live and how positive and fun it was. Talking about updates later this year. Kander encouraging people to play Altar of Malice beta as players will earn very nice rewards on Live for their efforts on Beta. Nathan (Kaitheel) will be talking today about Altar of Malice...
As long last we’ve resumed posting videos recorded from SOE Live 2014. After this, we’ve still got the EQ2 Art & Animation panel, as well as three player panels and the Player Studio panel. Oy vey! This was the last panel at SOE Live 2014 for EverQuest II — Questions & Answers #2. Due to room acoustics, this recording took an inordinate amount of time to edit and normalize. Fortunately, Audio quality improves around the 3 minute mark when questions begin.
Forgive us if we have whiplash, as for the third time this year, EverQuest II has been assigned a new community manager. From Maggie “Luperza” Krohn on the EQ2 Forums: Norrathians, We’ve had a short but sweet journey together. Although I’ve been a player in this community for a long time, it’s been wonderful being your Community Manager for the last few months. I am proud of the contributions we have made together in this community, and remain inspired by the passion you all bring to the game with your feedback. We created a new web show series, EverQuest II...
From the EQ2 Forums: PvP / BATTLEGROUNDS All pvp rewards have been doubled. Balance of Theer will no longer grant victory points while dead. Because the EQ2 devs don’t want us doing this…