From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Temple of Veeshan: Guardian’s Edifice

• Klandicar should no longer cast Chaos Bolt more than intended.

Temple of Veeshan: Halls of the Betrayer

• Corrected an issue that would sometimes cause the doors behind Grendish to not open when they should.

PvP

• Converting a mount to a house item must be done within a house on PvP servers.

 

A topic is raging on the EQ2 Forums about PvP and Flying Mounts. Rothgar has waded hip-deep into this one, asking for player feedback.

Rothgar posted this:

If we changed it so that players have a chance to knock other players off their mount, would that alleviate some of the issues? I realize it probably doesn’t solve the entire issue, but perhaps its a move in the right direction.

A player responded:

Please no knee jerk reactions like just giving people the ability to knock others from the sky. Those that cannot melee, bow shoot, or bring mage pets to bear on an oppenent on the way down will be at a disadvantage. People like sorcerers would die more becuase they cannot cast on the move.

Believe it or not SmokeJumper posted a bit about Game Update 60, which will be anywhere from 1-3 months after the Destiny of Velious expansion launches. It’s expected to have some Battlegrounds and PvP tweaks. His post also talks about EQ2X marketing and EQ2X PvP servers:

Answers (but you might not like them):

1) We haven’t started spending marketing cash for Extended yet. That’s slated for January. The reason I bring that up is until we bring more people into Extended, we have no plans to open up a PvP server because too many servers dilutes the population and we’re not willing to do that yet. However, we *would* like to do a PvP server. It’s currently slated to be the third server, assuming we can kick start population beyond its current levels.

Today’s hotfix adds house items (furniture) to a merchant in Hua Mein, moves Research Assistants into the UI, fixes an exploit in StationCash Item Gifting, and offers additional tweaks to PvP and PvP Warfields. After the jump, your Hotfix Notes for December 7, 2010.

Here are your hotfix notes for November 23, 2010:

MARKETPLACE
You can now use the Marketplace at Login / Character Create to purchase account related items such as character slots!

You can now send gifts to your friends from the Marketplace!
 
ABILITIES
If the caster cancels a maintained spell that he cast, it will cancel the spell for everyone in the group.
 
PVP GENERAL
Fixed a crash bug from Battlegrounds and PvP combat.
 
QUESTS
Sinking Sands: The Beetle Herding quest line should be working correctly now.

Amnerys has posted the complete Game Update Notes for Game Update 58: Arcanum Revealed on the EQ2 Forums.

Here they are after the break:

Remember when Player-vs-Player was the red-headed stepchild of EQ2? Remember when there wasn’t even a PvP developer, but instead those tasks were delegated to developers who already had a full workload? Fast forward to today and one of the areas of the game getting the most attention is the PvP side, including those issues that extend into Battlegrounds.

So let’s go down the list of responses so far from PvP developer Olihin…

Sometimes people don’t believe it, but I know for a fact that developers at Fan Faire really do listen, or at the very least take extensive notes which they reflect upon when getting home.

Some changes are relatively easy and make a lot of sense when the context is explained interactively in a conversation with the developer. Of course big sweeping changes are unlikely while the developers are already in full press mode working on the next expansion, but it’s great when open discussion at Fan Faire can trigger a small but significant improvement. So enough of that…

Olihin (PvP and Battlegrounds dev) has posted a writeup of all the changes he is currently considering or outright planning for the future. He has already indicated that the earliest we might see some of these changes is Game Update 58, but there are no promises. Further, Olihin is requesting feedback on these changes. They are far from going live, so now is your chance for constructive conversation.

Some very interesting comments on the EQ2 Forums regarding players wanting to transfer off PvP servers from Rothgar:

We’ve been discussing our server transfer policies over the past couple of weeks but don’t have anything to announce yet.  We’ve commented on this subject in the past and are aware of the desires for people to have more open transfer policies between PvP/PvE and LG/Standard servers.  As soon as we have something to tell you, it will be announced.  But for now, understand that your voices are heard.

This may also have some ramifications for LiveGamer <-> Standard servers, but obviously there will be more discussion and feedback before such a change is considered. The discussion started regarding transfers off Nagafen and Vox.

The focus this week has been on new EQ2 Senior Producer Dave Georgeson, and EQ2 Server Performance, which has been a persistent black cloud over EQ2 for the last 2 months.

Test Copy

Test Copy is getting some major use as it is where PvP and Battlegrounds changes are tested.

Gninja advised us:

We will be working out a schedule as to when the test_copy server will be pvp vrs pve. We are working it out now and will get back to you guys shortly.

Stuck at Character Select

An issue with being stuck at Character Select on Thursday was caused by a Configuration issue which has been corrected. EQ2 Forums

Adventure/AA/Tradeskill XP Weekend

The e-mail and EQ2Players announcements for this weekend’s Bonus XP event neglected to mention that Tradeskills will also see a bonus. We have not yet been informed what % the bonus will be, but 30% is a good guess.

Game Update 56 Goes to Test Soon

We don’t have an exact date, but Game Update 56 will be moving to Test and Test Copy soon. When we know exactly what content will appear on Test and Test Copy, we’ll let you know. It would not be surprising if New Halas is not in the first build. EQ2 Forums

Thundering Steppes Revamp Mothballed

Gninja has confirmed the news we speculated about earlier this year.

Unfortunately we will not be making drastic changes to Thundering Steppes this time around. That doesn’t mean there will be no changes but we are not considering it being revamped. GU56 will be full of cool stuff though (Including but not limited to New Halas and some new raids) you should see it hitting test servers in the not too distant future.

A revamp of Thundering Steppes seems to be completely off the development radar at this point, with Butcherblock Mountains stepping in as the “place to be” for level 20-35 content.

Although subject to change, our understanding is that, just like Timorous Deep, level 20 players will be offered a quest guiding them from New Halas to the Butcherblock docks to begin level 20-35 content.

Level 82 Mastercrafted Armor

It seems the strength of level 80 Tier 1 and Tier 2 Shard armor from The Shadow Odyssey was always destined to overshadow Level 82 Mastercrafted armor. But that doesn’t mean the EQ2 team haven’t given up on it yet! Domino has managed to land some additional upgrades to the Level 82 set:

Look for some changes coming to level 82 mastercrafted armor with GU56 (for a start, it should all be level 82 now …) including the addition of yellow adornment slots and some resists. We are also in the process of discussing the possibilities of some stat tweaks.

It now seems even less likely that any of the Tier 1 Marks of Manaar gear will be an upgrade to any player. Note that Tier 2 Marks of Manaar gear (which has Critical Mitigation and better stats) must be sought out in Moonfield Hamlet in Stonebrunt Highlands.

So far, we’ve spotted a dozen individuals who seem particularly interested in player’s triumphs and exploits in the Battlegrounds.

• The Tinmizer’s Tinkerers want you to straighten things out in the Gears of Klak’anon
• The Pirates of Gunthak want to hear of your conquests in  Smuggler’s Den
• The Iksar want to know when you will next face the challenges of the Battlefield of Ganak

Each camp offers 2 different quests for their Battlegrounds zone — defeat other players, or complete the scenario.

Qeynos Harbor seems to be the quest hub for good characters wishing to participate in Battlegrounds. Those of the evil persuasion can find these tasks in North Freeport.

Calthine of EQ2 ZAM is reporting that Battlegrounds are now on the Test Copy server.

Here’s the Battlegrounds window:

(flip through images)

Note: There is currently an issue preventing people from being pulled into the Battlegrounds interface when clicking the “Queue” button. Devs are on the case.

If you have not yet had a chance to work out the puzzle we posted an hour ago (with corresponding pieces being posted on EQ2 Zam, EQ2 Traders, etc.), then don’t click this link: