Free Braxi Mount is Yours to Claim

SOE has given all EQ players one free Braxi mount (Lava Braxi):

Congratulations! You have completed the third month of the Facebook Quest! Your new Braxi mount has been awarded. All players who have logged in to EverQuest from the conversion of free-to-play through Monday, August 27 have received this prize. Log in to game and “/claim” your mount today!

Details about the fourth and final Facebook Quest will be revealed in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out and get ready for that final push to the finish!

The mount appears to grant 300 HP, 250 mana, 250 endurance and an unknown amount of AC when ridden.  It also appears to be runspeed Run2, which is not the fastest speed.  It is unknown if it will increase its speed to match a faster mount, if you own one.

Double XP for Labor Day Weekend

From EverQuest Community News:

Double Experience in EverQuest this Friday to Monday!

Starting at 10:00 am Pacific on Friday, August 31, 2012, and lasting until 11:59 pm Pacific on Monday, September 3, 2012, we'll offer a Double Experience in EverQuest! Take advantage of this Double Experience Weekend and watch those XP bars skyrocket!

Expansions No Longer Purchase-able with Station Cash Beginning August 27th, 2012

From EverQuest Community News:

Starting Monday, August 27th, 2012, we will no longer accept Station Cash as a payment method for Expansions and DLC Packs. Real-world currency will be the only way to purchase these products.

The reason for this is simply that these products require a high level of development resource and are therefore a substantial cost. We want to continue to run aggressive Station Cash promotions, which we know our customers love, but cannot continue to do this and protect the revenue that we need to offset these costs.

In consideration of our players who would like the opportunity to purchase current Expansion and DLC Packs with Station Cash, we are running a 50% discount on them from Friday August 10th until Sunday August 12th*.

As always, if you have questions about your Station Account or Station Cash Balance, please contact customer service at http://www.soe.com/support.

Veil of Alaris Half Price August 10 - 12

From EQ Community News:

Get 50% OFF when you buy any expansion pack. Hurry, sale ends 8/12/12.

• Veil of Alaris™ (was $39.99 NOW $19.99)
• Veil of Alaris™ Collector’s Edition (was $89.99 NOW $44.99)

Offer is valid from 12:01AM PDT 8/10/2012 to 11:59PM PDT 8/12/2012.

Patch Scheduled Friday, August 3, 2012

From EQ Community News:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Friday, August 3, 2012 at 6:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 2 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

UPDATE:  The patch notes state this patch is to fix the server lag issues:

*** Emergency Update ***

- Corrected an issue that was causing server CPU use to spike and adversely affect game performance.

Raid Lag Issue To Be Addressed

On the SOE forum, Piestro, EverQuest Community Manager, commented in the thread about the lag been seen lately on raids:

We're hard at work on this issue, no announced fix yet though.

UPDATE: The Friday, August 3, 2012, patch noted above will hopefully fix this issue.

New Armor Graphics System Coming in August

From the SOE forum:

Introducing Hero's Forge!

Hello Norrath!

I am excited to announce the newest feature for EverQuest launching in August: Hero’s Forge!

Hero’s Forge is a new armor system that allows you to dramatically change the appearance of your armor. Working similarly to our augment system, which has also received upgrades, Hero’s Forge is an add-on system that will be sold per character.

Once you purchase this new system for a character, you will be given one set of armor that you can use immediately. You will receive a Plate, Chain, Leather, or Cloth Armor Set, depending on your class preferred type. Any character that has the feature will also be able to obtain a selection of armor, including multiple color variations and different styles through all sorts of different activities within EverQuest.

We plan on continually adding new armor and color variations after this brand new system goes live. In addition to the armor found in game, we plan to offer additional sets, colors, and pieces through the Marketplace in the future, though the finest pieces will be available all over Norrath through normal game play.

We can’t wait to see your reaction to this amazing new apparel available in EverQuest. Good Hunting!

Thom “Phathom” Terrazas, on behalf of the EverQuest Team

So far it looks like you have to purchase the initial system (for real money and/or Station Cash?) for a yet unannounced amount per character. You get one set of armor and can get others through both in-game and out of game (Station Cash) ways.

Living Legacy Raids Secret Return?

It appears that the Living Legacy raids are back in the game.   Without a single word from SOE, the NPCs appeared and are offering the raids.

Join in the discussion on the SOE forum, and maybe SOE might even comment!

Knowledge of Alaran Culture - Advanced Now Auto Granted

From the SOE forum:

All players who are level 91 or higher will receive Knowledge of Alaran Culture - Advanced automatically upon entering any Veil of Alaris base zone.

This will grant the players the ability to purchase Veil of Alaris AAs that require this.

Game and Services To Be Down For 8 Hours Thursday, July 26, 2012

From the SOE forum:

We will perform maintenance beginning at 12:01 AM on Thursday, July 26, 2012; this will impact the following services:

Game Logins (across all SOE games) will be unavailable from 12:01 AM Pacific* Thursday, July 26, 2012, to approximately 8:00 AM Pacific* Thursday, July 26, 2012.

Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces, will be unavailable from 12:01 AM Pacific* to approximately 8:00 AM Pacific* Thursday, July 26, 2012.

Account management will be unavailable from 12:01 AM Pacific* to approximately 8:00 AM Pacific* Thursday, July 26, 2012.

Forums will be unavailable from 12:01 AM Pacific* to approximately 6:00 AM Pacific* Thursday, July 26, 2012.

Players who are already logged in will be logged out from the game.

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

Click here for a Time Zone Calculator.

EQ Players Character Listings to Return "Some Time in the Future"

Piestro, EverQuest Community Manager, posted the following in the SOE forum:

When the site was redesigned for Free-to-Play we included a space for this functionality to return, however no specific dates have been promised as this is still very much a work in progress. Because this functionality requires work by the game team, web team, and a number of other teams within SOE it's difficult to say exactly when this will happen. We still plan on this at some time in the future however!

Mysterious /Q Death Cause Discovered, To Be Fixed

From JGray, EQ Developer, in a SOE forum thread:

We've tracked down this issue. Essentially, if you /quit, /exit, or go linkdead, when the zone took over your character, any items that you had equipped that were unusable (yellow, or purple for augments) were having their hit point bonuses subtracted from your health. If the hit point bonuses from the disabled items added up to more than your total health, then you'd die. The fix didn't make the past patch, but should be in with the next one.

Alaran Language AA Requirements To Be Removed in the August Patch

To purchase some Veil of Alaris AAs you are required to have certain levels of Alaran language.  This requirement will be removed in the August patch.

Doug "Elidroth" Cronkhite, Sr. EQ Game Designer, commented on the issue:

Once you're level 90, you'll automatically get the first of the Quest AA. At level 91, you'll get the second one, which will allow you to buy all the VoA AA that were locked behind the language requirement.

This was unable to be put into the July 18 patch:

Unfortunately we discovered this issue well after design lock, and there was no way we could get this in this morning's patch. We'll look at what's possible, whether this will require a full downtime, and make our determination how to proceed. We are still working hard on this issue and understand its importance to players.

Elidroth gave an explanation on why it was not in the July patch here:

Apologies all..

I made a mistake in the script that was running to handle this on the AA side and it wasn't caught until after design lock was already passed. This will go in for the August patch. Feel free to yell, scream, and burn me at the stake if you wish. My fault alone on this.

UPDATE:  Elidroth posted some more info on the subject:

I have already detailed what will happen with respect to AA. That is the area I control. Basically what's going to happen is when you log in, if you own VoA, you will be auto-granted two Special AA:

Knowledge of Alaran Culture, and Advanced Knowledge of Alaran Culture. The second one is what's required to get the rest of your class-based AA for the expansion. This simply makes the Alaran language not important FOR AA ONLY. I don't control armor, spells, or anything else.

Also, I don't make the call on bringing down the servers to patch this. I fixed my part of the problem, but server reboots go up the chain of command to be approved or not.

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, July 18, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Wednesday, July 18, 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 EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

25% Off Some Memberships For A Limited Time - Now Live!

From the SOE forum:

Starting Wednesday July 18, get 25% OFF when you buy a NEW or UPGRADED multi-month recurring membership!

Check out this link for Membership benefits!

Players who sign up for a new or upgraded multi-month recurring membership to any of the following games will receive 25% off the regular price:   EverQuest, EverQuest II, and DC Universe Online (PC only). If you have an existing recurring membership, this offer is only valid for a new recurring membership with a longer term (e.g., upgrade from a 3-month recurring to a 6-month recurring) or for an upgrade from a single-game recurring membership to an All Access recurring membership. If you have an existing 12-month recurring membership, you may redeem this offer for a new 12-month recurring membership at the discounted price. Promotional pricing will begin on your next billing cycle and will continue until your recurring membership lapses or is canceled. Offer is valid between July 18, 2012 at12:01AM PDT and July, 23 2012 at 11:59PM PDT.

Many details have not yet been revealed.  Join the discussion, COMING SOON: 25% OFF MEMBERSHIPS! - Discussion, with your questions and hopefully some answers from SOE.

UPDATE:  The promotion is now live.  While SOE still has not given the details on how to sign up, here is how:

You need to go to your account with SOE and choose "Game Pass Info" (View or change your Game pass (subscription) information).

Once you do that, you are offered the discounted rates.

For a 12 month subscription to EQ it is $89.88 plus applicable taxes.  Which is a nice discount from the regular $119.88.

According to Piestro, EverQuest Community Manager, "The discounted rate stays as long as you maintain the subscription. So as long as you don't cancel you keep the discounted rate."

European & UK Pre-Paid game cards: Use Them or Lose Them

From the SOE forum:

To our European customers,

We wanted to let you know that SOE will no longer be selling pre-paid game cards in Europe as of 07/20/12.

As we begin to transition our games to our European partner, ProSiebenSat.1 Games, customers will be able to take advantage of new methods of payment including pre-paid options, such as PaySafe, via their new ProSiebenSat.1 accounts.

IMPORTANT: For the few European customers who have already purchased an SOE pre-paid game card but have not yet redeemed it, please visit www.soe.com/gamecards now to redeem it! You must redeem any existing SOE pre-paid game cards before 07/23/12 [emphasis added]. If you experience any problems with your game card redemption, please contact SOE customer service at www.soe.com/support for assistance. Don't forget to mark your calendars for July 23rd 2012 and redeem your SOE pre-paid game cards before then!

Thank you for your continued support!

Sony Online Entertainment

UPDATE: Piestro, EverQuest Community Manager, answered some questions:

This is just for the cards purchased in Europe. With the current ProSiebenSat.1 Games deal, demand for SOE cards will be fairly low (ProSieben customers will have their own cards). Hence those cards are being phased out the market, and we wanted to make sure you were all aware. 

LoN Tiger Raptor Mount Color Change Unintentional, To Be Fixed

Posted by JGray, EQ Developer, on the SOE forum:

We're aware of the issue [Tiger Raptor color change] and are fixing it. It was not an intended change.

Double XP Weekend July 6 - July 8

From the SOE forum:

Starting at 10:00 am Pacific on Friday, July 6, 2012, and lasting until 11:59 pm Pacific on Sunday, July 8, 2012, we'll offer a Double Experience in EverQuest! Take advantage of this Double Experience Weekend and watch those XP bars skyrocket!

Jaggedpine Forest to Surefall Glade Teleport Crystal Broken, To Be Fixed

From Dzarn, EQ Developer, on the SOE forum:

The crystal at the outpost did (and is supposed to) send you back to Surefall Glade. I recently broke this when I was doing some work in Jaggedpine. I apologize for the inconvenience and will have the fix in soon™.

SOE Investigating Valley of Lunanyn Crashing

Many people have reported crashing when zoning into the Valley of Lunanyn.  JGray, SOE Programmer, is working on fixing the issue.

If you crash, please be sure to send in the information needed to help SOE fix it:

If it gives you the box to send crashing information to Sony, click Yes and you don't need to do anything else.

If, however, it doesn't give you that box, please look in your [EverQuest Client]\Logs directory and e-mail the dbg.txt and debug.dmp file to EQUserClient@soe.sony.com.  Also please include what you were doing before the crash.  They need this information after you crash but before you reload EQ.