Frostfell Goblin Illusion Quest Broken

The Frostfell quest to get the Mask of the Grumpy Goblin, a mask with Effect: Illusion Frost Goblin, is not available this year. Maynar Furrwik gives the task.

Unfortunately, Maynar was removed due to technical difficulties so the secondary quest is not active this time. - Zatozia, EQ Community Relations Manager

Read the entire thread here.

Campfires and Guild Banners Not Working In Underfoot

In the most cases, it looks like the campsite/banner teleport disables were unintentional. We will look into it, but I have no ETA for you, or even if it will make it into the patch on the 15th.

There may also be a reason for it in some zones, so this is also not a promise that it will be relaxed in all zones, or really any zone. Just that we will look into it.

- Ngreth, EQ Designer

The entire thread is here.

Frostfell Live December 9th through January 8th

From EQ Players News:

Frostfell Adventures

As the air starts to chill and the frost begins to cover the ground, the season of Frostfell begins. No holiday season is perfect though and a couple of your fellow Norrathians need your help to make Frostfell a merry holiday for all! Visit your favorite major city and the Plane of Knowledge to find out how you can help.

The season of Frostfell will embrace Norrath from December 9th through January 8th. Various events will be available at different intervals throughout the season. So make sure you join in the fun before Frostfell is over for another year.

Although there are no new events for 2009, most of the past quests can be done at this time.

Patch Scheduled December 15, 2009

From the main Official EQ Forums page:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on December 15th at 1:00 am PST (PST is -8 GMT: 2:00am MST, 3:00am CST, 4:00am EST, 9:00am GMT, 10:00am CET) for the main launch of the Underfoot expansion and a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for about 7 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed!

Extended Patch and Underfoot Preview Info

The servers will be coming down again at 8:30am PST [December 10, 2009] to address the Underfoot access issues. I guess the network maintenance finished early, so they brought the servers back up.

There will be no rollbacks for those of you who got your bonus Underfoot preview for two days. However, if you camp out in an Underfoot zone, you will be moved to Plane of Knowledge after you log back in. Those that pre-ordered, but did not qualify for early access will of course be able to return to Underfoot this Tuesday morning.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

The SOE post is here.

Patch Scheduled December 10, 2009

Beginning at 1:00 AM PST on Thursday, December 10, 2009, all SOE game servers will be offline for hardware maintenance. This includes all of our MMOs as well as TCGs. We expect this downtime to last around 5 hours.

In addition, All EQ Live servers will be undergoing an additional downtime until 11am for a Game Update to correct issues with the Early Access for Underfoot.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume all affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

The link to the SOE post is here.

EQ Players Going Free

From a SOE EQ forum post by Zatozia, SOE Community Relations Manager:

We are pleased to announce that beginning December 17, 2009, SOE will no longer charge separately for access to Station Players premium features for each of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, EverQuest and EverQuest II. Access to standard and premium Station Players features will now be included at no additional cost for all subscribers to each of these games (with active, paid subscriptions in good standing.) Station Access subscribers with active, paid subscriptions in good standing will continue to have access to all Station Players standard and premium features.

Station Players subscribers currently in a paid billing cycle will continue to have full access to the Station Players premium features they have already paid for through December 16, 2009. Station Players subscribers who have prepaid subscription time that extends their subscription period past December 16, 2009 will receive a pro-rated refund for any such pre-paid excess subscription payments*. Such refunds are expected to be issued by January 17, 2010.

We appreciate your loyalty and commitment to SOE's games and look forward to bringing you more enjoyable products and game features in the future.

*Please log in to your Station Account to update your billing address. If a valid credit card is active on your account, refunds will be applied to such credit card. If your account is paid via SOE Game Card or other SOE accepted payment method, we will send a check in the refund amount to your current billing address. No refunds will be given for Station Access accounts as a result of SOE no longer charging separately for Station Players premium features.

Not mentioned but it is fairly obvious that EQ Players is going free for the reasons that it has never worked right, few people have been paying, and, most importantly, the key reason to use it (finding out what quests/flags/keys you have) is obsolete with the Underfoot in-game "Achivement System" to tell you.

Patch Scheduled December 7, 2009

From the EverQuest LaunchPad Update Notes (updated by SOE to fix time zone errors):

Game Update News: All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on December 7th at 10:00 pm PST (PST is -8 GMT: 11:00pm MST, and the morning of December 8th at 12:00am CST, 1:00am EST, 6:00am for GMT) for the Early Access Launch of the Underfoot expansion and a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for about 10 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.