EverQuest To Go All Access April 29

On or about April 23 April 29, all Gold EverQuest members will have their plans changed to SOE All Access memberships.

There should be just three changes:

• In addition to being a Gold EQ member, you will also have equivalent access in EverQuest II, DC Universe Online PC, PlanetSide 2 PC, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and the upcoming EverQuest Next and Landmark.
• Instead of just receiving your monthly 500 Station Cash automatically, you must now log in each month at least once to receive that month's Station Cash.   Upon logging in, it will be granted.
• All Access members will receive a 10% discount on most Marketplace purchases.

SOE also plans to include Dragon’s Prophet in some form in the future.

There is also some mention of "exclusive promotions and offers throughout the year".

There should be no changes in your cost to play EverQuest, you just gain additional access to their other games.

For full information and a FAQ list, see The Revised SOE ALL ACCESS PROGRAM FAQ!

UPDATE:  Roshen, EQ Community Relations posted:

 Dear Players,

In an effort to ensure that the transition to the new All Access membership plan is as seamless as possible, we are going to be taking a little more time to test. So, we will be pushing the launch date of All Access to Tuesday, April 29th. Because of the portfolio-wide nature of this plan, this may prevent us from doing any individual game updates in EverQuest, EverQuest II, Planetside 2, and DC Universe Online. These updates will resume normally after the All Access launch. We appreciate your patience and you’ll agree that our new membership offering is worth the wait.

Sigil of the Blade and Sigil of Thokk Augments Wrong, To Be Fixed

The Sigil of the Blade and Sigil of Thokk damage augmentations have their values reversed.  Sigil of the Blade should have the 16 damage (as a 2 handed weapon aug) and the Sigil of Thokk should have the 10 damage (as a 1 handed weapon aug).

They were mistakenly reversed.

They will be changed in the next patch.

SOE statements here and here.

Heroic Stats to be Added to Rain of Fear Weapons

From a post by Chandrok, EQ Developer, on the SOE EQ forum:

I had overlooked the fact that RoF weapons did not have heroics when these items were made. Heroics will be added to RoF weapons in the next update.

"Part 3" of Call of the Forsaken Expected in May

From the Happy Birthday EverQuest! post on the SOE EQ forum by Thom Terrazas, EQ Producer:

 Call of the Forsaken Content

We are planning our next set of content that ties into the Call of the Forsaken expansion for May. That is our current plan - It shouldn’t change but if it does, we will keep you posted.

Double XP and Lockout Reduced Weekend Friday, March 14 to Sunday, March 16 [March 20 for Lockout]

From the Happy Birthday EverQuest! post on the SOE EQ forum by Thom Terrazas, EQ Producer:

Bonus XP Weekend!

Starting on Friday, March 14, we will have a Bonus XP weekend that runs through Sunday, March 16. Remember that Bonus XP will vary for some players with all the XP modifiers in game and with XP Potions available. While we call it bonus, it will be double XP for most players.

Lockout Timers Reduced!

Also starting Friday March 14, Lockout timers will be significantly reduced through March 20th! More loot for everyone! Stay tuned for messaging about rare mobs spawning more often in the next week.

UPDATE: SOE announced more details:

Bonus XP will start in about 30mins (~noon Pacific time [Friday]). It'll end Sunday at midnight.

Lockout Timer Reduction will reduce lockouts by 30%. This will also start in about 30mins (~noon Pacific time [Friday]) and end at midnight at Thurs, March 20.

UPDATE AGAIN:  SOE announcement (same info as above in a direct statement).

Patch Scheduled February 19, 2014

Not officially announced but 99% likely.  From the February 13 Developer Chat:

JenarieEQ: easy question piestro - is there a date for patch or is 'sometime next week but not monday' still the best guestimate  :)
Piestro [EQ Community Relations]: Patch will be on the 19th Jenarie *99%*

EQ Developer Chat Transcript

On February 13, 2014, SOE had a EQ Developer chat where players could ask the Devs questions.  Here is a link to the transcript of the chat:

EQ Resource: February 13, 2014 - EverQuest Developer Chat Transcript

UCS Stability Change

The Universal Chat Service (UCS) has been unstable, failing, and causing massive spam for about a month or more now.

SOE has finally addressed players regarding the issue by posting:

As may know, we have been occasionally running into UChat issues where for periods of time the chat service will continually reconnect. We are continuing to investigate these issues and in an attempt to help with the stability of this server we will be switching the server back to a limit of 200 players per channel.

This change will go into effect later this afternoon.

We will also continue to monitor the servers and continue reviewing our diagnostics tools to see where we can address the stability issues.

We understand how important UChat is and we're asking that you please let us know in this thread if you see anymore issues (or if the problem persists).

Jenn Chan
Technical Director, EverQuest

Gold Member Monthly Free Station Cash To Change

From the SOE forum:

Dear EverQuest Gold Members,

We regularly evaluate our offerings at SOE to ensure we are consistently delivering great games and products, while also offering exceptional value to our players. Given that we just started a new year it seemed like the perfect time to add more value!

The week of February 3rd, 2014 we will be making a very important change to the Gold Membership level in EverQuest The current benefit of receiving 500 Station Cash (SC) monthly will be replaced with a new program that allows you to select one single item valued up to 2000 SC each month. Nearly all items within the games’ Marketplace will be available for this selection. Players Studio, bundles and additional exclusions may apply. This new benefit must be claimed each month that you are a member as it will not carry over to subsequent months.

We appreciate our customers, especially our valued members, and therefore are excited to bring you this additional value.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in game soon.

Best,

Sony Online Entertainment

UPDATE: In response to player complaints, SOE has changed it back to 500 SC per month. However, you must log in each month to receive it.

Hate Rising Beta Opens, Some Details Revealed

SOE has opened the Beta for Hate Rising. In addition, they have revealed some details on what to expect:

• No new zones.
• More Heroic Adventures.
• "There are no new spells / AAs for the Call of the Forsaken: Hate Rising."

As more details become available, Fanra's EverQuest Wiki's Hate Rising page will be updated.

SOE Announces EQ New Year's Events

No details, but there will be some New Year's events.  From the December EQ Producer's Letter in the SOE forum:

 That’s next year [Hate Rising], but before this year ends, we have some exciting Quests and Missions as part of our New Years [sic] events that kickoff on December 26th and last through the middle of January. You can speak to several friends in the Plane of Knowledge to get started on the 26th!

UPDATE: Unfortunately, it appears there are no new quests or missions this year.

Call of the Forsaken Part 2 "Hate Rising" to Come in January

From the December EQ Producer's Letter in the SOE forum:

 Just around the corner in January, we will be launching Call of the Forsaken: Hate Rising. In Hate Rising, you will be able to continue your adventure with all new Heroic Adventures, new raids and missions; new equippable gear across group and raid content, and a nice set of rare items you’ll hardly believe.

Also, a big change will be coming to our Heroic Adventures. We have scaled our existing Heroic Adventures by level, so you can play this exciting content earlier. So that means if you are level 85 and you haven’t played Call of the Forsaken yet, you will now be able to receive the tasks and quests from the quest givers. A little side note on level spread for missions: stay tuned for some more information from Prathun in the very near future on what we’re hoping to accomplish!

Call of the Forsaken: Hate Rising will go into an Open Beta early January. If you participated in Beta for the expansion, you will be able to enter as soon as we launch. If you did not participate beforehand, don’t fret. We’ll have a timeframe in January that you’ll be able to apply and get in very quickly, and soon discover how an iconic EverQuest character will play a large role in Norrath over the next year.

As we learn more, the Fanra's EverQuest Wiki Hate Rising page will be updated.

SOE Live 2014 Announced

From SOE Live news:

SAN DIEGO – Dec. 12, 2013 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) today announced that its annual community fan event, SOE Live, will take place at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Aug. 14 – Aug. 17, 2014.

...

Additional information will be announced in the upcoming months.

SOE Live tickets will be available for purchase in early 2014.

What's To Come In 2014

Here are some things that SOE has announced to come in 2014. EQ Producer Thom “Phathom” Terrazas has posted his November Producer's Letter which says:

• Heroic Adventures will be opened up to lower level characters.
• Explains more about how mercenary AA experience works.
• Journeyman 5 Mercenaries: Changing some of the aspects of the quest to smooth out how you achieve them and possibly have another means of obtaining this tier.
• More content, all free, but some will require Call of the Forsaken.  Including more Call of the Forsaken storylines.
• EverQuest’s 15th Anniversary in March:
• New Race/Class combinations - Froglok Monk and one other to be announced.
• Plane of War
• Player designed missions - missions designed (well, actually, just the concept was designed by players, the nuts and bolts are being done by SOE) at SOE Live by participants there.
• Heroic Characters -  In EQ2, returning players can create a Level 85 Character.  Something similar to, but slightly different, will be coming to EQ.

Read the entire letter if you want more details.

Patch Scheduled Wednesday November 6

Lots of bug fixes in this patch.

From SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 at 5:00 am US Pacific*. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 3 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

Patch Scheduled Thursday October 10

From the SOE EQ forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Thursday, October 10, 2013 at 6:00 am US Pacific*. 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

SK Merchant, Wizard Mercs Among Bugs To Be Fixed

From the SOE forum:

It's a bug [wizard mercenary low dps]. We've identified the cause of the bug, haven't tested the fix yet. Once we're ready we'll let you folks know when we're patching in the fix.

 Also from the SOE forum:

It's a bug [no Ethernere Tainted West Karana Shadow Knight spell / disc vendor], we have a fix incoming for this.

Patch Scheduled Monday Night for Call of the Forsaken Release

From the SOE EQ forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Monday, October 7, 2013 at 8:00 pm US Pacific* for the release of EverQuest: Call of the Forsaken! The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 14 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

Call of the Forsaken: October 8

SOE has announced a date for CotF:

Hello my Norrathian Friends!

Since SOE Live, the team has been cranking away at the Expansion, Call of the Forsaken. It gives me extreme pleasure to work on EverQuest right now with such a creative team, delivering to you, the 20th Expansion this Fall.

Beta for Call of the Forsaken started soon after SOE Live and we are now extending Beta through October 7th. That also means we are moving the launch of the expansion a couple weeks as well to October 8, 2013. If you haven’t jumped into the Beta yet, there is still time to adventure through some of our new zones like Bixie Warfront and Neriak Fourth Gate before they go live! We are flagging accounts daily and we welcome everyone to check out the expansion and send us feedback while we finish with polish and tuning. More information on Beta Sign Ups

If you have been following the expansion details, then you will know that one of the biggest features for Call of the Forsaken is the customization with Mercenaries with their own AAs and power-added Armor. To give everyone a taste of what to experience with the new Mercenary Armor, we are giving everyone that Pre-Orders Call of the Forsaken before October 7, an exclusive piece of Mercenary Armor. We hope you will check out the expansion on Beta and take advantage of the Pre-Order exclusive item! More information on Pre-Orders and In-Game Rewards

Our Big Bags bring all the boys to the yard! That’s right, last Friday we started a Super Sonic Sack Sales Spectacular with Big Bags back in the Marketplace. They will be available for a couple weeks so be sure to get yours before they are gone.

I want to thank all of you checking in and reading my letter. The EverQuest team is excited with much anticipation to bring you the 20th expansion in just two weeks from today. If that isn’t rewarding enough for us, we are already discussing ways we can continue the storylines in additional game updates that tie into the expansion throughout the year.

See you in game soon!

Thom Terrazas
Senior Producer, EverQuest
Sony Online Entertainment, LLC.

What we've got here...

...is failure to communicate.

Currently seen as a patch note for the Test Server, no word from SOE on the following:

 - The Hardcore Heritage events in Nagafen's Lair and Castle Mistmoore have been extended by one week. They now end on Monday, September 30th.
- Giants, Giants, Giants and Dragons, Dragons, Dragons return! They will be available from September 27th, 2013 to October 28th, 2013.

So we don't know for sure if this is going live or not.