Other People Crashing When You Zone In or Get Rezzed?

It's been noticed that rezzing someone (or even someone just zoning into a zone) has been causing other people to have their EverQuest game crash.

It appears the cause is the rezzed or zoning person having a Sepulcher ornament on their gear.  Removing the ornament seems to fix the problem.

Beyond an off-hand remark in this forum thread, I've found nothing else on the issue.

Double Station Cash Game Stop Weekend

From the SOE forum:

Buy SOE Pre-Paid Game Cards at participating GameStop locations now and redeem between Feb 24th and Feb 26th* to get Double Station Cash! Redeem in-game or at www.soe.com/gamecards

*Redeem between 12:01am Pacific Time 2/24/2012 and 11:59pm Pacific Time 2/26/2012.

President's Day DOUBLE Experience Weekend (oh, and Marketplace sale)

From EQ Players:

This weekend only*, we’re giving you up to 30% off services available in the EverQuest marketplace. (Check out the list below to see the items that qualify for this sale)

Spend your three day weekend filling up your experience bar! From 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on February 17, 2012 through 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on February 20, 2012, we'll dramatically increase experience gains from mob kills to make your holiday weekend extra special! Make sure you log in during Bonus Experience** and enjoy the extra ding!

*Promotional offer valid from 4:01AM PST 2/17/12 to 11:59PM PST 2/20/12 only

**Experience awarded per kill will increased by up to 50%; please note that other modifiers and caps will still be in place and will affect experience gain normally. As a result, total experience gains may vary slightly, depending on each individual's situation.

UPDATE:

Double experience has now started. Enjoy!

-Piestro
EverQuest Community Manager 

SOE Still Silent Regarding 2012 Fan Faire

Except for a poll created in August 2011 and a post in the poll thread explaining the reasons for the dates in the poll, SOE has remained silent on information regarding the 2012 Fan Faire.

Right now, it is unknown if there will even be a 2012 Fan Faire, as the lack of information does not bode well for it.

Many people have to request vacation days well in advance for their jobs and every day of SOE delay means less people will be able to attend.

Fanra's EverQuest Wiki now has a Fan Faire page which will be updated as (if) SOE posts more (any) information.

UPDATE:  In this SOE forum thread, Where Art Thou Fan Faire Info?, Piestro, EQ Community Manager, replied:

...As to not having dates and such announced this early, there are many more constraints we face that are not transparent to the players. Getting contracts signed, buy in from all internal and any external partners that need to be involved, etc. We understand people's desire for this information and will get it out as soon as we can.

EQ Mac To Continue, For Free

From the SOE forum:

After announcing our intention to sunset EverQuest (EQ) Mac in January, the response we received from the passionate EQ Mac community has resulted in our decision not to sunset the game at this time. Moving forward, we will be removing subscriptions from EQ Mac so that it will be a free game that everyone can continue to play and enjoy. We will look closely at Mac for our future titles.

Linda "Brasse" Carlson Director, Global Community Relations, SOE

Anchors Away!

Currently houses and plots (including guild) are limited to one Primary anchor and one Secondary anchor.

In response to player requests, Chandrok, EQ Developer, announced:

Good news everyone! The restrictions limiting the number of anchors that can be placed will be lifted next patch.

For those who don't know, an anchor allows any character to port to their anchor once every 72 minutes.  Anchors can be placed in your house or yard, or guild house or yard.   Anchors and the device to port to them are sold by the Loyalty vendors for Loyalty Tokens (Crowns) .

In addition, Druids and Wizards get spells that allow them to port themselves or their group to their own anchors, as well as to TL group members to either the caster's or the member's anchors.

EQ Players to Work?

Although SOE refuses to give an ETA, they are working on a new and improved EQ Players site.

What will it be like?   So far only SOE knows.

It can be expected some time after the March Free-to-Play update goes into effect.

The only answer received as to exactly when is: Soon™.

Many Questions Remain on Free-to-Play, Some Answered

The biggest controversy surrounds the "Recruit-A-Friend" (RAF) program, which promised bonus experience "forever" if you or your friend created a linked account.    With Free-to-Play (f2p), SOE announced that "forever" really means, "until we change our minds".

Since a number of people opened new accounts, spending hard earned money to do so, solely on the basis that they would gain the bonus experience, they are rather upset.

SOE's current response seems to be "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware).

They also claim that code limitations prevent RAF from working with EQ once they enable f2p, even on paying accounts.   They continue to refuse to refund money spent by those who were deceived into thinking "forever" means what dictionary.com claims.

In addition to the RAF issues, Piestro, EverQuest Community Manager, also commented on some other questions:

Game code and mechanics. We're still looking into ways around the code limitations [preventing RAF from working]. Our goal is the middle of this week for an update on the situation, even if it will be "still trying".

Veteran Rewards: Free and silver accounts will accrue time.

Fellowship XP sharing: I'll defer to the devs on this one, I suspect yes to at least join and share xp. I'd expect them to be able to create fellowships as well but am not sure.

Loyalty: The maximum earning rate (velocity) for free and silver accounts is capped at a significantly lower value, but they will still accrue loyalty points. Bags of plat will not be exploitable under the system though.

Character and Server Transfers: As far as I am aware these will be allowed as normal. It hasn't specifically come up in any meetings I've been a part of.

*These statements are a reflection of my understanding at the current time. During the final phases of implementation they may change.

All this and far, far more than you want to read of people complaining is in this thread on the SOE forum.

The Traitor Revealed Mission Bug To Be Fixed

The Erillion, the City of Bronze group mission The Traitor Revealed has been shown to have a bug where the first step, "Let Archon Xalvir escort you", refuses to update.

Upon the bug being reported on the SOE forum in this thread, Chandrok, EQ Developer, replied:

Your conclusion appears to be correct. I'll be changing area update coordinates so it works properly.

Monk Suppressive Strike Limited, To Be Fixed "Soon"™

From Elidroth, EQ Developer in this SOE forum thread:

Just a heads up.. The team has decided that Suppressive Strike is too powerful to remain in game. So I'm going to be removing/refunding the ability.

To fill the void/problem of monk pulling casters, I'm going to be creating a new ability that effectively works like the SK's Hate's Attraction, flinging the NPC to you. This resolves a number of issues that came up with the way Suppressive Strike works. Yes, I'm aware of the possible issues the fling can have and does have with the SK ability, but this is really the only solution the team came up with.

You can expect this for the February patch.

Later he amended his post with the following:

The HA type ability got held up due to other things which took priority. Nothing I could do about it. Sometimes, when your boss comes in and says "Do this.. now" you have to drop what you're working on and do it.

UPDATE (post by Elidroth, EQ Developer):

It's pretty simple.

The silence caused the NPC to not be able to cast spells, but it didn't stop it from TRYING to cast. So basically, it would just stand there and do nothing at all. It was possible to completely stop an NPC from doing anything at all while you beat on it mercilessly.

As for the cost, I completely agree 15aa is too high. For march [sic], I'll refund this version of Distant Strike, and create a new one at a more reasonable cost. I'll also have the HA type ability in place. That one might cost a bit more

EverQuest Patcher / Login Down For Some

For some players, attempting to log into EQ gets a network error.  In addition, they can not reach the SOE EverQuest forums.

Since some people have no problems, while others had the problem but it disappeared, while others still report being unable to log in, it appears that it is somehow related to SOE's network as it connects to various ISPs and/or geographical locations.

Bypassing the LaunchPad and patcher and directly logging in seems to enable everyone with a problem to log in.

How to bypass the LaunchPad and patcher:

1. Go to your EverQuest folder (if you aren't sure how to get there, the LaunchPad has a "gear" icon on the lower left side, press the gear to bring up the Advanced settings menu, then click on Open Game Directory) . 
2. Find the file "eqgame.exe" (it may be listed as just "eqgame").
3. Make a shortcut to desktop for it by right clicking it, choosing Send to, and picking Desktop (create shortcut). 
4. Right click the new shortcut on your Desktop and choose Properties. 
5. Change the Target to: C:\whatever is here leave alone \ whatever is here leave alone \eqgame.exe patchme.  

In other words, leave the Target exactly how it was, just add patchme to the end (leaving a space between eqgame.exe and patchme).

NOTE: If the Target is in quotation marks you need to add a space and patchme after them. For example: "C:\whatever is here leave alone \ whatever is here leave alone \eqgame.exe" patchme. 

See this link if you want pretty pictures.

Remember to only use this for now. Don't use it after SOE fixes the problem. Because you need to have an up-to-date patched EQ to play after they patch.

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, February 8, 2012

From EQ Players:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 3:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 5 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

Merc Healer Fixes Coming Soon(tm)

Currently on Test Server:

*** Mercenaries ***
- Several changes have been made to Healer Mercenaries:
- After level 85, healer mercenaries no longer cast the Promised or Elixir lines of spells. These spells may return in the future when mercenaries learn to cast them more effectively.
- After level 75, healer mercenaries no longer cast Complete Heal.
- When at full health and mana, healer mercenaries will no longer sit.
- Healer mercenaries now respond more quickly when the main tank in their group enters combat.
- The power of the healer mercenaries' spells have been slightly increased.
- The Reactive stance has been modified to favor constantly casting direct heals without regard for mana cost.
- Note: At the moment, mercenaries have trouble healing players that have high-HP regen buffs on them. Until this changes, avoid using spells such as Splendrous Guardian, Spiritual Enrichment, or Promised Renewal if you want your mercenary to heal you. [Bold added]

In addition, from Elegist, EQ Developer in the same thread:

In general, the healer mercenaries have trouble handling most regen buffs or deferred heals. The code fix for this appears to be relatively simple, but we have to make sure our changes don't adversely affect other aspects of mercenary behavior. We are trying to put in a fix for this by the time Free-to-Play goes live. Until then, though, if you are having trouble getting your mercenaries to heal you, try dropping some of your regen buffs or not using deferred heals. If you can, experiment with different healing spell combinations and post your findings. [Bold added]