Feldon
NOTE: This article contains no new information since August’s SOE Fan Faire 2011 event, but since these questions have been coming up more and more frequently, I thought I’d do a recap. EverQuest II: Age of Discovery With its promise of new features rather than new content, EverQuest II’s eighth expansion has the makings of an atypical release. EverQuest II: Age of Discovery is touted to have: Beastlords — The most frequently requested feature of EQ1 arrives with the Beastlord class. The 25th class will wear Brawler equipment but otherwise have an archetype of Scout. Will have a separate...
From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Drunder All Challenge mode raids have had overall health for non-boss NPCs decreased by 25%. Sullon’s Spire x4 raid [Challenge Mode] Aaranae Acrimae: She no longer speeds up the recast of Force of the web as the fight goes on. Temple of Rallos Zek x4 Raid [Challenge Mode] Supreme Imperium Valdemarr and the Statue of Rallos Zek now have significantly fewer hit points. Vallon’s Tower Raid [Challenge Mode] Lichlord Skulldugger fight: Greater deathknights have less health. Maalus will not cast irrevocable death as often on players during his portion of the...
From Zoltaroth on the EQ2 Forums: LG Services should be back up and running. Let us know if you run into any more issues. Sorry for the delay. and from SmokeJumper: …LG is a third-party service. Coordinating with outside people is always more challenging, thus the delay. We apologize for the delay, but it should be fixed now.
After a couple of false starts, it looks like EverQuest II’s Dungeon Finder feature will be hitting the Test and Test Copy servers today. It’s important to note that the EQ2 Dungeon Finder feature will NOT allow cross-server grouping when it goes live. That’s planned for a distant future update. From SmokeJumper on the EQ2 Forums: Hi, folks, The GU 61 feature that got delayed, “Dungeon Finder” is coming to your Test server on Friday, 9/20, in the morning update. Here’s an early peek at the release notes you see then. There are definitely still bugs in the system,...
Here are your update notes for today, September 20th, 2011: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Fortress of Drunder: Citadel of V’uul (x2) Overall health of trash and boss encounters has been lowered. PLAYER HOUSING Added a unique house ID number to saved house layout files. This can be used to identify a file from one house that has the same zone as another house. NOTE: Old version 5 files should still be loadable. New saved files will be version 6 and include the unique ID. ITEMS Kingdom of Sky “Cloud Mount” questline rewards have had set bonuses re-added to them....
Ever since the San Diego power outage on which knocked out all SOE servers, players attempting to use the LiveGamer service to transfer/buy/sell items and characters on the Bazaar and Vox servers have been receiving the following error message: Item not sent! Transfer Asset Failure On September 13th, Bunji posted in a thread discussing this issue on the EQ2 Forums: This issue is currently being investigated. There were two followup posts from Bunji indicating that the service should be working, but whatever was fixed on SOE’s end did not resolve the situation, suggesting a problem on LiveGamer’s end.
There are several options to upgrade your character’s Chest slot in Velious without raiding. There are now three questlines in Velious that offer Chestpieces, including the Othmir quests, the Flying Gryphon questline, and the new Thrael’Gorr quests introduced in Game Update 61. Public Quests have also offered a Chestpiece for those who are either extremely lucky or extremely patient. Depicted at the top of this article is the power progression in Scout Chestpieces from Othmir quest gear all the way to Zek HM. Click the image to view all 11 items side-by-side.
Looks like Dungeon Finder is just about ready to go to Test and Test Copy. From Zoltaroth‘s Twitter feed: Just finished play testing Dungeon Finder for EQ2 again. It’s almost ready for test server, very exciting! Friday September 16 UPDATE from SmokeJumper: It should hit the Test server today. We have one last playtest to do this morning to be sure, and if it passes that, then to Test it goes!
EQ2 Associate Producer Domino has started a new thread in the public Test forum regarding some changes to Pathing in EQ2. It’s not clear if these changes are intended to address the Issues With Mob Warping which we have discussed in the past. We have made a change to the way pathing works in a few zones on Test server, and would like your feedback.Have you noticed anything different? Better or worse?
From the EQ2 Forums: Hello Troubadors! We have finally completed the first draft of our Troubador revamp and would like to get your feedback on these ideas. Our primary goal is to give Troubadors more options during combat that can have a clear effect on the fight. Viewed individually, some of the changes may be considered minor, but we hope all these small and moderate changes will add up to a much more dynamic and interesting class.
From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Plane of War Players may now enter the plane of war, once someone on the server has defeated all 3 demigods of war (Sullon, Vallon and Tallon Zek) in challenge mode. Drunder x4 raid zones Players can now enter the challenge mode Drunder x4 raid zones without having killed the previous demi-god in challenge mode. Sullon’s Spire x4 raid [Challenge Mode] Aaranae Acrimae: Her adds have less health. The rage devourer no longer casts the aoe multistrike.
On Friday, September 16th, Jennifer “Isulith” Bridges, interim EQ2 Community Manager while Amnerys is on leave, will be hosting a Meet and Greet on the Test Copy and Freeport (EQ2X) servers at 4-5pm PDT and 5-6pm PDT respectively. We’re anxious to see what mark she’ll leave on the EQ2 community during her tenure. The natives have been getting restless, and forum trolls seem to have gained a foothold. I’m personally hoping more for “Stand and Deliver” or “The Substitute” and less “Kindergarten Cop“! The announcement from EverQuest2.com:
From Kaitheel on the EQ2 Forums: Nights of the Dead 2011 has been activated on Test and Test Copy! Nights of the Dead once again brings goblins and ghoulies out from the shadows. Those inclined to celebrate the holiday through crafting will find a new book of recipes full of new house items being sold by official event merchants. And those feeling more adventurous can trick-or-treat within Qeynos or Freeport or investigate the multiple haunted locations! But be wary as the mysterious Setri Lur’eth has been spotted at the beach in Nektulos Forest and the headless guardsman has been...
From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Kunark Creatures found within Kylong Plains, Kunzar Jungle, Fens of Nathsar and Jarsath Wastes are once again dropping items. Stonebrunt Highlands Vreshana Kestral will no longer send characters to The Palace of Roehn Theer if they opt not to go.
Gninja provided some great news on Friday for players carrying unadorned gear from Velious’ two x2 raid zones (Tower of Frozen Shadow and Tower of Vuul): The X2 zones drop items with red adornment slots, so those are the shards that will start dropping once my change makes it to the current build. Both X2 zones should be getting the pure primal velium shards dropping from all the named. Providing the means to buy Red Adornments for items with red adornment slots is certainly a welcome change. And the more powerful War Runes retain their rarity as they still...
Announced at Fan Faire and rolled out in late August, the long-awaited revamp of level 20-90 gear was staggering in its ambition. Some 7 years of items, numbering over 50,000, would go under the knife or be recreated entirely for the Revamp. Now just over two weeks since the launch of Game Update 61, it remains unclear just where we stand on the Great Reitemization of EverQuest II. More than anything, players have wondered at the intent of the revamp, seeking out an overall vision of item progression that would flow from level 1 through to level 90 items....
In July, an Aether Flying Race was added to the Thundering Steppes on the Test server. Turns out, this was created specifically for the Community, Customer Service, and Guide teams as something they can turn on for specific events, weekends, etc. This unique Aether Race was activated today, September 10th, on all EQ2 servers. It will be activated next week on the EQ2X Freeport server. Dellmon and Aliscious of EQ2Talk have been running the course like crazy trying to set an all-time track record. Although there is no unique title for completing the course within a specific time, there...
SOE Games, Websites, and Services are back up after yesterday’s San Diego Power Outage caused by a faulty main supply line and some maintenance being performed in Arizona. The Freeport (EQ2X free-to-play) server seemed to come up first, followed by most of the EQ2 servers. Nagafen experienced some database issues due to the power outage and required some additional work. The Marketplace, Character Transfers, and Server Status pages all experienced some outages and additional glitches may occur for the next 24-48 hours.
The increasingly permeable barrier between Test and Live seems to be fluctuating. Someone call Fringe Division! A bullet point in yesterday’s update notes elicited widespread commentary on the EQ2 Forums, leading some to theorize that it was a typo. It wasn’t: Critical chance should no longer appear on items below level 80. The result was many items lost some or all Crit Chance, Crit Bonus, Reuse, etc. Further, items from the new Elements of War heroic zone also got hit with the Nerf[TM] bat, seeing reductions from 42 Crit Chance to just 12%.
While we were sleeping, a power outage in San Diego knocked out all SOE games and websites. Some service has been restored, but intermittent problems persist and likely will for the next few hours. From SignonSanDiego.com: An unprecedented power outage led to controlled chaos Thursday throughout San Diego County and surrounding areas as up to 5 million people coped with the sudden loss of electricity, and officials said power would be restored in waves through Saturday. The outage began at 3:38 p.m. after a 500-kilovolt high-voltage transmission line from Arizona to California failed, triggering a cascade of events that...
Dethdlr
Tank and Spank vs. Complex Scripting vs. Fun In recent years, I’ve seen numerous posts from people complaining about how the different group/raid encounters work. A lot of the complaints say that they don’t want simple “Tank and Spank” encounters. But they also don’t want encounters with complex scripting, fail conditions, cure fests, etc. They want encounters that are fun and challenging without any of those things. So it got me wondering, how do you do that? How do you make an encounter without complex scripting, fail conditions, cure fests, etc. without turning it into a tank and spank...
Here are your update notes for today, September 8, 2011. Of note, War Runes (red, raid-only adornments) are going Heirloom! We’re not really sure what the removal of Crit Chance from lower level items is about — maybe it’s a typo and they meant Critical Mitigation. Considering they just went through and added Crit Bonus to thousands of items (which does nothing without its sister stat Crit Chance), removing Crit Chance would make no sense. From the EQ2 Forums: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Silent City: The Delving Dead If you have completed all the collection quests for the Delving...
Here are your September 7, 2011 EQ2 Patch Notes: POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION Pedestal of Sky Fixed the missing geometry in this zone. Foundations of Stone [Challenge] The blink portion of Icy Snap AOE that the Statue of Rallos Zek casts will now only blink players a max of 2m, and will only affect players a certain distance away from the statue, not players close to it. Sullon’s Spire x4 raid [Challenge Mode] Aaranae Acrimae: Her debuff to max health and mana is greatly reduced. Leechweb does less mana damage on its initial hit.
EQ2 has always had a series of “flavor” items. These are loot drops which serve no purpose other than a bit of interest (a colorful description), and a fixed price at which they can be sold to a vendor. It has not always been easy to pick out these items, although in recent years most have been flagged with a statement such as “You might be able to find a merchant who would give you a few coins for this.” So it would seem the groundwork has partly been laid for a “Sell All Junk” button. Well, it looks...
Progression is a funny thing. Funnel players into too strict a progression path of gear, of levels, of dungeons, and you take away player choice and limit options. Provide too many options or no clear path, and you have player confusion about what they’re supposed to do next in the line of progression. The Shadow Odyssey had a straightforward (if restricting for developers) progression, with 3 and later 4 tiers of armor from Heroic through to x4 Raiding. This is not to mention the open-to-all Shard of Hate raid zone which had internal progression from a named encounter that...