Are you a dedicated decorator that likes to play with house layouts?  If so, check out Gracey’s course in EQ2 Layout Editor being held this Thursday, March 17, on the Test server:

This Week’s Topic:  New to the layout editor?  We can help!!

Time:   THURSDAY @ 5pm PST, 8pm EST, (Friday @ 01:00 GMT)

Where:  Test Copy server – Gracey’s 1 Room Gorowyn house

What to bring:  yourself and maybe some paper and a pen for notes

What level do I need to be:  You can make a level 1 char on Test Copy if you don’t already have a char copied over.

Chat:  If you come to Gracey’s house or let us know in either Antonia_Bayle.Homeshow or Test.Test we will get you a guild invite and we are using Norrathian Decorator Academy guild for chatting. Sending a tell to me around class time will get you an invite into the guild as well.

Fun stuff to come:  Tiling displays are set up in the guild hall to help you work through some of the most common problems – it’s in Halas if you would like to visit.

Reports on previous classes have been very positive.   Beginners are welcome! For instructions on how to access the Test server,  see page two of the original thread.  For an introduction to the EQ2 Layout Editor,  EQ2 Designers.com has a good tutorial.

After reading the Upcoming Housing Improvements! thread on the EQ2 Forums, and then hearing more about these changes in the Velious Webcasts, one might have logically concluded that these changes would be IN Velious.

You’ll recall that SmokeJumper referred to the Freeblood Estate, as well as Miragul’s Summer Home (part of the Velious Digital Collector’s Edition) as being smaller prestige homes that would connect to your main house once these changes went into effect.

After the jump, we get an estimate about when we might see Multiple Housing Ownership…

Today’s surprising announcement (in light of comments last week about the unliklihood of characters being able to own more than one home in the forseeable future) is that in a future update, players will be able to own multiple houses. The announcement also confirms the names of some of the upcoming Prestige housing which we first picked out of vpk updates, namely the Dojo and Opera House. Along with the Skyblade Skiff,  Freeblood Manor, and the Everfrost Summer Home (Miragul’s Managerie) this will bring the Prestige housing options up to 5.

Today we explore something near and dear to a growing number of crafters — the ability to “break out” of houses and build truly unique structures.

Rhyme‘s Mid-Century Modern house on Guk (More Screenshots)

The new Freeblood race has a special “Ferocity of the Freeblood”, as well as access to housing “Freeblood Lair” and “Swarm of Bats” mount/buff. The details of how these are unlocked and what issues players will face if they change race have been addressed in different posts over the last 24 hours. Here are the highlights. Also inside, a glimpse of something we have heard rumors about before — that some new feature is coming to EQ2 housing with the release of the Destiny of Velious expansion.

Today’s hotfix refunds the purchase cost of Research Assistants, adds 200 house item slots to The Mistmoore Crags Estate and a few other things.  Read the full hotfix notes after the jump.

From Rothgar on the EQ2 Forums:

The Mistmoore Crag Estate item limit should not have been less than the other large houses already available. We’ve decided to up the limit from 600 to 800. This change should be going out in the next hotfix.

EQ2Players.com has a news item up announcing the new 7 year veteran reward, your very own Mistmoore Crag Estate!

It looks like it’s going to be quite impressive.  More pictures are available at EQ2Players.com.

There was quite an amusing thread with several devs posting screenshots and info over the past week about this new housing.  All of it false of course but pretty humerous.  Definately worth a read.  It includes comments like this from Haohmaru like this:

Hey all!

We’ve decided to give a sneak peek of the Mistmoore Crag Estate. After much deliberating and rock paper scissors, we decided on…

A Boat!

But, should we just do a boring old boat? Would that even be interesting? What else could we do to make it unique and unlike anything seen before? So then we got to thinking… and thinking… and then, EUREKA!

Ladies and Gents – I present to you, the Mistmoore Crag Estate. Your very own floating coffin. And yes, for those wondering, the lid does indeed close during the day locking you and your friends inside. TELL ME THAT DOESN”T ROCK!

Even includes screen shots of the coffin.   Kinda makes you wonder who spiked the coffee at SOE last week.  🙂