House of Thule Half Price At Steam and Direct2Drive

House of Thule can be purchased at Steam for $19.99. The following things are assumed, it would be best to ask Steam and/or SOE to confirm them:

a.) Limited time only. Most likely this offer will end after the holidays.
b.) For new accounts only. The page claims it will not work for current accounts. I would suggest checking with SOE if you have a current account and wish to upgrade it to HoT.
c.) You must provide a valid credit card to register and play.
d.) You must sign up and install Steam.

Also note that many people are reporting problems downloading and installing EQ through Steam. It is currently suggested that you begin the downloading through Steam, once the download reaches 1-2%, you can right click the expansion in your Steam games list, then "View game properties", one of the tabs has the key which you can enter via the "accounts" page on Sony station.

At that point, you can download EQ through the Sony Station Launcher and then enter the key you need.

Underfoot is also on sale for $9.99 from Steam if you prefer to get that instead. If you get HoT, it includes Underfoot and all other expansions.

This thread on the SOE forums explains more.

UPDATE: Direct2Drive also has EQ at half price, plus a extra 10% discount code "Grinch".
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Patch Scheduled December 15, 2010

An emergency patch is due:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 5:00 am US Pacific (US Pacific-PST is -8 GMT: 6:00 am MST, 7:00 am CST, 8:00 am EST, 1:00 pm GMT, 2:00 pm CET) for an update to resolve a few emergency issues. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 3 hours. We apologize for the inconvenience. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

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Servers To Be Down Thursday, December 9, 2010

In addition to the patch on Wednesday December 8, there will also be a server downtime on December 9.

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 1:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 2:00 am MST, 3:00 am CST, 4:00 am EST, 9:00 am GMT, 10:00 am CET) for SOE Network Maintenance. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 11 and ½ hours.

This downtime is separate from the Game Update downtime on Wednesday, December 8th. We apologize for the inconvenience. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

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Ninja Nerfs to Alleviation Effects

On the Test Server, Sympathetic Alleviation items from Underfoot are now not working on 87+ spells.

From the thread, we discovered that all older Alleviation Effects have been either nerfed or will be nerfed.

The lack of patch notes on this change was an oversight on my part. This was a change that was meant to be made back before HoT launch, at the same time I changed the Agreeable Alleviation spell line to cap at 86. The truth is that we simply made these spell lines too good and we needed to close them down. HoT augs have a similar mana return line, just not with as high of a return.

I know this will not be a well received change but it's a necessary one. Sorry for the confusion.

- Chandrok, EQ Developer

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Frostfell Coming December 8, 2010 through January 8th 2011

Frostfell Preview!
(December 8, 2010 through January 8th 2011)
Frostfell Overview

As the season of Frostfell slowly peeks over the horizon, several of your fellow Norrathians are making their way to the major cities and the Plane of Knowledge in search of adventurers willing to help them with their holiday tasks.

Frostfell will be celebrated throughout Norrath and beyond from December 8, 2010 through January 8, 2011. Various activities and events will be available at different intervals throughout the season, so make sure you're ready to join in the fun on day one.

Two new adventures, Operation: Jolliness and Gathering Holiday Cheer, are coming as well as the old quests returning.

Read the SOE official post here.
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Alas poor Enrage.. I knew it...

Though we're past design lock for the December patch, I thought I'd pass along that with the January patch, we're removing Enrage from NPCs from the game entirely.

- Elidroth Renato (Doug Cronkhite), Game Designer, Sony Online Entertainment, LLC

Read the entire thread on SOE forums here.
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EverQuest Switching to LaunchPad 3

On December 1, 2010, EverQuest will be switching over to the LaunchPad 3 version of the download client. The older versions will no longer work to download and patch EverQuest.

In order to help with this transition, please share your feedback about any issues that you currently experience with LaunchPad 3. LaunchPad 3 can be accessed through this link.

Note: LaunchPad 3 is not the same as Station Launcher.

The above quote is from this thread on the SOE forums.

Note: Station Launcher is separate from LaunchPad and should continue working.

UPDATE:

The launchpad upgrade will likely not happen until January.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

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DoT duration issues with multiple casters

Currently, the first caster to land DoT "A" on a mob will have it land with all extension bonuses (AA/potion/etc). The second, third, and beyond casters to land DoT "A" will have it land for only base duration.

I had QA verify this before Thanksgiving, which they did, and it's now in the coding bug queue, but I have no view into where it is on their priority list. I'll see if I can get some info.

- Elidroth Renato (Doug Cronkhite), Game Designer, Sony Online Entertainment, LLC

From this thread on the SOE forums.
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