Patch Scheduled June 29, 2011

From SOE forums:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 4:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 5:00 am MST, 6:00 am CST, 7:00 am EST, 12:00 pm GMT, 13:00 CET) for a game update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 4 hours. 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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Double XP Weekend July 1 to 4. Oh, also some Marketplace deals

From Piestro, EverQuest Community Manager:

It’s a long weekend coming up for those of us in the U.S.A. and we thought we’d add a little more fun and levity for all of you whether you are celebrating or not!

To start things off we’ll be having daily deals on the Marketplace starting Tuesday, June 28, 2011, and continuing on through Thursday, June 30, 2011, with items announced each day on the EQplayers website and in game in the Marketplace. Make sure to check back every day to see if that item that you want is on sale. You might see something that will catch your eye!

We didn’t want to leave the weekend out though, so starting Friday, July 1, 2011, and going through Monday, July 4, we’ll be having a fabulous weekend sale and Double Experience! Details on the sale will be available Friday, so make sure to take a look!

[Bold added]
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SOE Reduces Prices Across the Board, Announces the End of Star Wars Galaxies

From this Star Wars Galaxies forum post:

We write to you today to inform you that on December 15, 2011, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and LucasArts will end all services (MMO and Trading Card Game) for Star Wars Galaxies (SWG).

In addition, with the loss of one of their games in the Station Access "all you can eat" subscription, they are renaming it the "SOE All Access Game Pass".

Prices for the All Access Game Pass are reduced to $14.99 per month with a 12 month subscription. Other subscription lengths are also reduced in price.

Of more interest to EQ only player, an EQ only subscription is also dropping in price. The cost has gone from $11.99 a month for 12 months to $9.99. Other subscription lengths are also reduced in price.

Note that these prices are for U.S. customers, in U.S. dollars, and do not include possible taxes.

Check out their prices here.
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Safe Passage Mission To Be Investigated

If you can remember back to the days of the Seeds of Destruction expansion, you will remember the mission Safe Passage. Annoying and buggy, most people finally just did it by using pets, which seems like an exploit but is about the only way to do it.

Chandrok, EQ Developer, announced that he is going to investigate the mission. Hopefully it will be finally fixed, 500 bug reporting posts and three and a half years after it went live, but better late then never.

I'm going to try to find some time to look a bit deeper into the problem with this mission. After a quick look I found it's a fair bit more complex to diagnose than a normal mission, which is probably why a fix has been so elusive.

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Fellowship Experience Sharing On Test

The Test Server now has Fellowship Experience Sharing. I'll let SKlug (Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer) explain it:

*** Fellowship Experience Sharing ***
- Ever had a friend or friends that fell behind the rest of your group because they could not play as much as the rest of you? Now you can invite them to your fellowship and enable experience sharing. This allows your combat experience to be shared with them even if they are offline!
- The new system requires fellowship members to-opt in from the fellowship window using the new toggle XP button. There is also a new column in the list that displays the XP sharing status of all members. The fellowship leader can toggle XP sharing for anyone, or each member can toggle their own.
- If you have fellowship XP sharing enabled, you both share and receive combat experience with other fellowship members that also have it enabled.

He also explains more and answers some questions in that thread.

Note that everything on the Test Server is subject to change before going live. The final version of this (if it even makes it past the testing stage) could be very different.

No word on when this might go live.
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Escape to Norrath EQ Trial Secretly Ends

Despite it still being advertised on the everquest.com page and being available for download, apparently it has been discontinued.

TSR Joshua M., Technical Support Representative, SOE, posted this in the SOE forums:

The Escape to Norrath trial has ended. I do believe a new trial is in the works on the live servers but I do not have any official information to post about it. In any case, it shouldn't be too far away.

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Server Lag Issues To Be Investigated

Players all over Norrath are reporting increased and annoying server lag. Most reports involve instances, but some are happening in the normal zones.

SKlug (Steven S. Klug), EverQuest Lead Programmer, posted June 22 on SOE forums:

The server side issues are still being investigated as I posted a week or two ago. The cause of the congestion is not obvious so we're adding a bunch more diagnostics. Those can't go out without a patch though, so we have to wait for the next patch to look at the data. But we're actively looking into it.

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Patch Scheduled June 15, 2011

UPDATE:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 3:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 4:00 am MST, 5:00 am CST, 6:00 am EST, 11:00 am GMT, 12:00 am CET) for maintenance. 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.

Nothing official yet but it looks tentatively scheduled for June 15 based on this SOE forum post:

Just wanted to mention in here (I'm sure Piestro will update it more officially tomorrow) that we are delaying the transfers off until the next live update (which is currently scheduled for 6/15) so we can get code out to live servers that allows us to not destroy epics that are flagged as copied. There were a lot of people that were concerned about that so we implemented a solution. Unfortunately it requires code be pushed live.

-- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

[Bold added]

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Double and a Quarter Bonus XP Weekend - NOT!

From the SOE forums:

It's time to grab your favorite refreshments, dust off your neglected alts, and start your long weekend of hunting, fun, and adventure! The experience bonus will run from Friday May 28, 2010 (10:00 am, PDT) to Tuesday, June 1, 2010 (10:00 am PDT)

Even though we didn't reach 15K goal for the 50% rare spawn chance increase , we have decided to run a Rare Spawn Chance Increase of 25% to this weekend as well! Enjoy!

UPDATE: I've been fooled. Someone bumped up an old post from last year and I never noticed. This is from last year.
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Extra Free Packs in Legends of Norrath Card Game and Free Loot Card

All EverQuest players will receive extra packs free, because of the recent downtime. More interesting is that we also receive a free loot card, any loot item of your choice for your EQ character.

Even if you don't play LoN, a free loot card is worth signing into LoN for.

April Prizing!

We are also extremly [sic] apologetic about the lack of tournaments in April and May, so as a thank you for your patience with us as we reorganized, we will be awarding all Legends of Norrath players a Legacies Loot Card. All players will also receive 3 free Legacies packs.

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Patch Scheduled May 25, 2011

From the SOE forums:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 3:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 4:00 am MST, 5:00 am CST, 6:00 am EST, 11:00 am GMT, 12:00 CET) for a game update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 5 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

Just a quick reminder, if you experience any difficulty with the launcher after the upcoming game update the most recent version of launchpad can be found here.

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Some Client Crashing Memory Bugs To Be Fixed In June Patch

I have attempted to gather information about these [client] crashes [during raid instances], but very very few (most of whom I have been able to help) have sent me any further information. I understand it's not the players' job to fix these issues, but since we have not been able to reproduce the problems in-house, I'm asking for a bit of help. Sending debug.dmp and dbg.txt files to equserclient@soe.sony.com would be helpful.

If these problems are due to memory issues (which the majority of the ones sent in have been). There are some fixes coming in the June patch.

-- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

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Dragorn and Other Tank Mercs Hate Bug To Be Fixed

Dragorn tank mercenaries have been failing to generate the proper hate.

Chandrok, EQ Developer:

I was able to find a bug causing the Dragorn tank merc and a few others to not generate the proper amount of hate. This will be fixed in the June patch.

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SOE Announces "Hardcore Heritage" Temporary Zone Revamps in May, June, and July

From EQ Players site:

Are you ready to revisit some of your favorite classic zones and experience all new challenges? Well Hardcore Heritage is almost here!

Hardcore Heritage, one of our yearly events where we revisit some older zones and update them to provide a more challenging environment, is coming to a server near you soon! Spread over the months May to July, you'll have an opportunity to visit the old stomping grounds with entirely new foes to battle.

The schedule for events is as follows:

5/23 – 6/12

Blackburrow (Level 80)
Cazic Thule (Level 80)

6/13-7/3

Lower Guk (Level 85)
Unrest (Level 85)

7/1-7/21

Crushbone (Level 90)
?????????? (Level 90)

This year we're presenting two newly revamped zones, Crushbone and one other yet to be announced. Nostalgia and loot will abound, make sure you stop by and visit all the old spots from Trainer Hill to Emperor Crush's throne room itself! There's even a new challenge for two to three groups of players, can you defeat Emperor Crush and his stalwart allies?

How will you handle the might of the Crushbone Orcs? Check back in the coming weeks as we reveal the final exciting zone to receive a revamp this year. We're positively chilly with anticipation!

House of Thule $19.95 for US, Canada, Mexico from Direct2Drive.com

House of Thule $19.95 for U.S., Canada, Mexico from Direct2Drive.com:

Click here for details.


House of Thule $19.95 for U.S. Customers at Amazon.com:

Click here for details.
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SOE Announces In-Game Poll Results

Auto-Granting AA Poll Results are in. The results don't surprise me all that much to be honest other than the low number of votes received.

Yes - 55%
No - 21%
Don't Care - 14%
Yes, but not this solution - 4%
No, but I like free stuff - 3%
Yes, but I would choose a different expansion - 3%

No ETA on WHEN this will happen, but pretty safe bet that I'll be moving forward on this.

More surprising however, was the results for the removal of PC/Pet push on NPCs.

Yes - 44%
No - 34%
Don't Care - 22%

I'm really surprised there are so many of you against removal of push.

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

Naturally, SOE is not bound by these results. However, I expect they will implement these changes, as the polls just confirm what they were considering.

From this thread on the SOE forums.
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EverQuest is Back!

Restoration of SOE's game services will begin today. This phased restoration will include the return of nearly all of our portfolio of online games, the reinstatement of our game forums and websites, and added functionality to require players to reset their passwords.

Details on the in-game bonuses:

Double XP, Double Rare Mob Spawns, Double Faction Gains. All players, each character. From now until Sunday, May 22 2011 at 11:59 pm Pacific

In addition, all accounts, including unsubscribed, are getting free time. Even if you haven't used an account for years, you get 45 free days.
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SOE Announces "Make Good" Plan, Details To Come Here

From SOE's EverQuest page on Facebook:

Players with an active house will be credited one month of upkeep costs and the inactive period will be extended from 90 to 150 days. More information on SOE's "Make Good" plan to come!

UPDATE:

First and foremost, all impacted players will receive 30 days of game time added to the end of the current billing cycle in addition to one day for each day the system is down.

Additionally, many games are offering a variety of in-game items and special events to welcome players back once our services resume (per the outline below). This is true for both PC and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system based products.

[Removed non-EQ game information]

* EverQuest®: A series of events, including Double XP, Double Rare Mob Spawns and Double Faction Gains

[Removed non-EQ game information]

And finally, our Station Access subscribers will receive 500 Station Cash, in addition to the subscription time and items listed above.

Additionally, we announced today that SOE will provide its U.S.-based Station Account holders with complimentary enrollment in an identity theft protection program through Debix, one of the industry's most reputable identity protection firms. For Station Account holders who live outside the U.S., SOE will be offering similar programs, if and as available, and will provide details as they're confirmed for each country or territory.

According to their previous post, to SOE will be sending us email with the procedures for Debix enrollment:

Details, including how to sign up for the program, will be emailed to Station Account holders in the United States soon, and you will have until June 28, 2011 to sign-up and redeem your code. Additionally, Station Account holders will be required to reset their password prior to signing up for this program as an added security measure.

Since we have to change our password before signing up, we can't sign up until SOE is back online. So let's hope everyone identity and credit cards are fine until then. Although almost all credit cards should be safe, according to SOE, only a very small number were compromised.
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"Update" From SOE

SOE has provided us with very little information. Not even a daily, "EQ will not be up today" message. One wonders what the PR people as SOE do all day, it sure isn't keeping us in the loop.

SOE has created a Recent Updates page which should help.

UPDATE: SOE has belatedly begun to post "EQ will not be up today" messages on their Facebook page.

UPDATE: With very little information coming from SOE, rumors are everywhere and facts are almost nowhere to be found. The EQ2 Wire seems to be the best place to find out what is going on, since SOE has never understood the word "communication" (hint: try dictionary.com :).

From The EQ2 Wire we hear that Bloomberg.com reports, "The company is in the process of adopting an improved security system and its plan to restart the services fully by May 31 is unchanged".

Naturally, they are talking mostly about the PlayStation Network, since that is where Sony makes the most money. SOE (EverQuest) is just an afterthought.

UPDATE: Industry Gamers has posted a letter they claim was sent to Sony's publishing and development partners about the hack.
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Email from "SOE". Phishing or Legitimate?

Today email has been sent from "Sony Online Entertainment" with the URL of soe.innovyx.net. It has the Subject: "Important Customer Notification". It is a copy of the statement SOE posted on their website.

This email is highly suspicious. All of the links on the page, even though they appear to be to places like www.annualcreditreport.com, www.experian.com, and www.consumer.gov/idtheft, actually lead you to soe.innovyx.net.

Since SOE has reported that hackers have gained access to the email addresses of SOE customers, all email should be suspected of being fake.

It is highly recommended that you be wary of any email purportedly from SOE. Do NOT click on any links you find in such email. Instead, type the address you wish to go to into your browser address bar.

UPDATE: A SOE customer service representative on the phone stated that SOE did indeed send out email to their customers on this. Therefore, the email may be legitimate. However, the warning to be cautious and to NEVER click on email links but to type them in yourself is still good advice.

UPDATE: SOE's web site at https://www.soe.com/securityupdate/ says the following:

A press release was issued May 2, 2011 outlining these details. We are sending customer service notifications via email to all of our impacted account holders whose customer data may have been stolen as a result of an illegal intrusion on our systems. These emails will be sent by Innovyx, our third party email distributor, and will contain either 'soe.innovyx.net' or 'soe.sony.com' in the sender field. [Bold added]

So this email appears to be legitimate.
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All SOE Games and Websites Down for Security Reasons

All SOE games, including EverQuest, are down.

Here are some links from SOE explaining the issues: SOE Customer Service Security Update

And Press Release

Summation:

* SOE servers were hacked. Hackers gained everyone's personal info, including name, address (city, state, zip, country), email address, gender, birthdate, phone number, login name and hashed password. (A hashed password may or may not be secure, depending on how much other information the hackers have and how skilled they are. Theoretically, it should be secure but we don't know the extent of their access.)

* Credit card and bank info is supposedly safe, except for some non-US customers. SOE will be informing them if it is suspected their information is compromised.

* SOE is working to discover what happened and to secure their networks going forward.

* SOE recommends everyone be alert for suspicious email, phone and other contacts. Watching your credit reports and banking and credit cards is recommended and they offer some ways to do so.

* No information is available as to when EverQuest will be back up. It is likely that SOE has no idea. There isn't much doubt that they are working around the clock to try to identify and fix this, but it is very complex and difficult. They do not want to bring the game and their web sites back up until they are sure it is safe. It could be as long as weeks, judging by the PlayStation Network, which has been down since April 20, 2011.

* Subscribers of SOE games, including EverQuest, will get 30 days added to their subscriptions for free. In addition, they will be "compensated" one day for each day they are down. It is likely that the compensation is additional days added to their accounts, rather then a cash refund.

More will be reported here as we learn more.

UPDATE: According to the Associated Press, the SOE servers were hacked on April 16 and 17. Sony has obviously done some major investigation into all their systems after the PlayStation Network hack was discovered and just recently figured out that SOE was also compromised.

"We had previously believed that SOE customer data had not been obtained in the cyber-attacks on the company, but on May 1 we concluded that SOE account information may have been stolen and we are notifying you as soon as possible," Sony said in a message to customers.

UPDATE: According to joystiq.com:

SOE has provided us with the following statement, in which it confirms that its user data was stolen as part of the original [PlayStation Network] intrusion -- not a second attack. "While the two systems are distinct and operated separately, given that they are both under the SONY umbrella, there is some degree of architecture that overlaps. The intrusions were similar in nature. This is NOT a second attack; new information has been discovered as part of our ongoing investigation of the external intrusion in April."

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Double XP and Station Cash Saturday April 30, 2011

To thank players for their patience during the recent service interruption, we will be hosting special events this weekend across our game portfolio, including a Double Station Cash day on Saturday, April 30th. We are also working on a “make good” plan for players of the PS3 versions of DC Universe Online and Free Realms. Details will be available soon on the individual game websites and forums.

EverQuest will also be holding a Double XP day on Saturday, from 12:01am PST to 11:59pm PST.

To redeem game cards for Station Cash, visit the Game Cards webpage.

Read the full statement here.
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Patch Scheduled April 27, 2011

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 12:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 1:00 am MST, 2:00 am CST, 3:00 am EST, 8:00 am GMT, 9:00 am CET) for maintenance. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 9 hours. 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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AA Fixes Coming In May

Several AA fixes are due to arrive in the May patch. As always, things may change. I also expect more fixes to be added.

From a SOE forums thread on Embalmer's Carapace:

Fixed it. Finally found what was causing it to drop early. May patch.

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

From a SOE forums thread on Improved Shield Specialist:

I've removed the damage bonus with ISS, however you should now be correctly getting the agro increases as intended with the May patch. We got some code time recently to give me actual ways to affect your damage, agro, etc. depending upon having a shield equipped or not. Before it was purely damage increases. Now I can manipulate almost anything including agro bonus.

This is something I very much want to use to help diversify the warrior class in the future so you can better utilize your class skills when tanking AND when not.

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

From a SOE forums thread on Acute Focus of Arcanum and Wizard Third Spire of Arcanum Rank 3:

Acute Focus of Arcanum - LevelMax raised to 90.

Third Spire of Arcanum Rank 3 - Level Max raised to 90.

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

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Stomples Day (Easter) Quest Active Until May 1

In the honor of the elusive Stomples, EQ will be celebrating Stomples Day this year!

Wandering about the Plane of Knowledge is Grundle Cogwelder, a Gnome with many questions on his mind. Somehow he’s got it in his head that rabbits come from eggs. Make sure to stop by and visit him soon!

- Piestro, EverQuest Community Manager

Grundle offers a quest to collect some eggs. The reward is an item which when clicked will sometimes turn you into a white rabbit and sometimes cause baby rabbits to appear around you.
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Some Items Now Light Sources, Change Affects Charm of the Elusive Eidolon

From this SOE forums thread:

All helms in House of Thule and all raid weapons now have light sources. It was my error that the patch notes for these changes were not included in the patch yesterday. This should explain why the Charm of the Elusive Eidolon is showing lower stats for most players.

-- Chandrok, EQ Developer

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April 13 Patch Causes Download Problems

The April 13 patch has caused many people to be unable to download and play EQ.

One possible fix is to use the latest new LaunchPad (LP3 or LaunchPad v3). This may be obtained at http://launch.soe.com/everquest/

Here is some advice for installing LP3:

Even better than this, especially when your EQ folders, like mine, do not directly reside in the default folders SOE uses.

1. Run the launcher install program. On the first screen, where it asks you where your EQ folder is, DO NOT use the default path, use the path where your actual EQ folder is (in my case it's both C:\EQ and M:\EQ , since I run one account per actual EQ folder).

2. Let the setup run itself, log in and whatever...

3. When it starts checking for data, cancel it right away, and go to options. (otherwise you'd end up downloading all 6.5GB) Click the Scan button besides "Game Assets" a few lines under the Open Folder button. Wait.

4. When scanning is done, close the options page, and resume the checks.

For multiple accounts, do not check the "Remember this login blahblah" on the screen where it asks for your username and password. If that is checked, LaunchPad will skip the login screen and go straight to patching every time it runs; great for one standalone account, but horrible for multiples.
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"Leap" AAs Bugged

New Hastened Leap AAs were added in the March 9, 2011 patch. Due to a bug, some people have been reporting that they get an error message when they attempt to Leap.

The error message says you can't leap because the recast is [something like] 1193046 hours.

In this thread on the SOE forums, the issue is discussed and it is currently suggested that if your Leap is bugged you should petition.

However, many GMs and other customer service personnel are unaware that this is a bug in the game, and not on your system. Elidroth Renato (Doug Cronkhite), EQ Game Designer, has stated that he has sent an email to them describing the issue and you should tell them if they have any problems to contact him directly.
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SOE Considers Auto Granting Lower Level Toons Free AAs

Something I've thought about in the past and was recently brought up in the forums by a couple people is the idea of granting some AA when you reach the level to use them. The idea being its very hard for a new player to catch up to become useful to relatively current content in any reasonable amount of time. So, without getting too wrapped up in the particulars just yet, I have this question:

Would people be against going back a few years and granting all AA previous to some milestone to anyone who reaches the required level for the AA?

There are some hangups to this question though.

* Milestone point selected for granting AA previous. I'm thinking anything prior to Secrets of Faydwer right now.
* Devaluation of time spent by people not affected by this change (IE - long term players who've earned the AA spent)
* Achievements for AA would be affected since you wouldn't be spending the same number.
* This would affect each class very differently and there would not be enough time to sift through and pick and choose which AA would be auto-granted.

As before, this is not something I'm already doing. This is a request for feedback on an IDEA.

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

You can read more about this and comment on the SOE forums here.
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Update for Raid Looting Bug and Dragonscale Hills Quests March 25th

Ok, so we've pushed out an update that should fix this issue [raid looting bug] when you get a new dynamic zone. It will not fix it for static zones, however, we will be bouncing dragonscale hills at 4am 3/25/11 PDT. After that point the problem will be fixed in dragonscale for the anniversary event. Other static zones will not get the fix until the next full server patch.

-- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

From this SOE forums thread.
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SOE Responds to Anniversary Quest Spawn Problems

Finally, after many complaints for a number of days by players, SOE responds:

For this anniversary we decided to try something new for the players. We included some of the standard quests and events that players have come to expect from our anniversary events. These events reward players as normal. In addition to these standard events we created an event where there are chase items. By the nature of chase items, not everyone will get them, and there will be competition for these items. We felt this brings back some of the nostalgia people have for original EverQuest where this was the norm. We also always intended to have this event happen every year during the anniversary so those who don’t get a chance to finish this year will have an opportunity in the future. All of this said, we see a few things we can do to improve the experience.

For the Mechamatic Guardian raid, we plan to increase the amount of adds that spawn, to help make the parts more available.

For the “Hunt the Shards” task, we intend to increase the amount of spawns available. Additionally, we plan to increase the chances that the rare items will spawn. This will decrease the chance of some of the common items spawning as a result.

We plan on hotfixing these changes either Thursday before prime time, or 4am Friday, depending on when testing can be completed.

Additionally, if you see someone obviously using a cheating program, send a petition. Please use the “Community Standards” option, and note the player that you believe is using a cheating program to cheat on this quest. Be sure to note the person doing it, not their bazaar mules. CS can look into this, and they can see suspicious behavior. Players that prove to be cheating will be dealt with as per normal CS policy for players caught cheating. Customer Service is already going through the logs and finding the most egregious and easily noticed players and dealing with them. Not all cheating is so obviously visible, but this one is VERY evident in the log files. Customer reports of these people will help us catch them faster, and may catch people we might miss just from reading the massive log files.

- Ngreth, EQ Developer

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Patch Scheduled March 17, 2011

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 4:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 3:00 am MST, 4:00 am CST, 5:00 am EST, 10:00 am GMT, 11:00 am CET) for maintenance. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 4 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

From this SOE forums post.
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EverQuest 12th Anniversary Events Begin Monday March 14 *SOME DATES CHANGED*

Double XP:

From Monday March 14 to Wednesday March 16 and from Friday March 25 to Sunday March 27 they will be activating Double Experience.

More Rare Mobs:

From March 14 to March 16 and March 25 to March 27 you'll be seeing a lot more rare mobs too! During the periods of Double Experience, they'll be increasing the spawn rate of rare mobs as well.

Marketplace Deal of the Day:

Starting on March 16 and lasting until March 27, they'll have a deal every day on the Marketplace. They'll be announcing them the day they go on sale, so you'll have to check the EQplayers site or the Marketplace in game to find out.

In Game Events – 12 Days of excitement throughout Norrath!:

Starting on Tuesday Wednesday March 16, 2011 and lasting until Saturday March 26, 2011 Tuesday April 26, 2011 we'll celebrate our 12th Anniversary in game! Not only will we have everything from our previous anniversary celebrations (including quests, fabled spawns, and raids) but this year brings all new challenges to the lands of Norrath!

Read all about these events by going to SOE's official news web pages here:
EverQuest Turns 12!
Even More EverQuest 12th Anniversary Festivities!

UPDATE: Due to an error on SOE's part, the date posted that the celebrations would end was incorrect. I have updated it to reflect that it ends on Tuesday April 26, 2011. NOTE: SOE also says that it starts on Tuesday March 16, 2011. March 16 is a Wednesday, not a Tuesday. I am seeking comment from SOE on whether it starts on Tuesday or Wednesday. However, since it is now Tuesday and the events have not started, I'm assuming it starts Wednesday.
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Intimidation Skillups To Be Fixed Soon(tm)

From this SOE forums thread:

Yup. Aristo looked through the tables and we looked at the code and it was nigh impossible. In order to even have a chance at a skillup, the ability had to succeed.

We actually got some new code time to fix skillups and the way they work. Hopefully you should see the results of that new code sometime soon.

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

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Extremely Long Discussion on Proposed Defensive Changes

An extremely long discussion is currently going on at SOE forums. Here is the gist of it:

Greetings all. Over the years, EverQuest has gone through many changes. Sometimes, these changes have had long-reaching effects the original designers could have never imagined. One of the biggest changes recently has been he dramatic scaling of NPC damage. In order to keep content challenging for raiders, the damage dished out by NPCs has increased to the point we're at today where only the mightiest of tanks can stand up to a difficult target for more than one round. Gone are the days when a caster who accidentally drew the attention of the enemy might have a chance to survive long enough for an experienced tank, or off-tank to draw agro and save the fleeing finger waggler. In our opinion, this has lessened the enjoyment of the game sufficiently that change is needed. Badly.

What kind of change you ask?

We will reduce NPC melee damage across the board. Primarily this would be raid NPCs, but there will be some group changes as well. In short, we want to return EQ to the days when a tank change didn't just mean how many people have to die before a tank can step in; when a caster drawing agro didn't just explode in a single hit. In short, making the game more survivable, more fun, and less punitive for even the smallest mistakes.

Along with the NPC dps reduction, the damage mitigation such as defensive, final stand, knights' mantle and carapace abilities would be overhauled so you still have some emergency situation abilities, but these would last for 18 seconds instead of the three minutes they do now. Warriors would retain their innate mitigation bonus over knights, and would receive a five percent mitigation advantage at 45% damage reduction, as well as an increase to agro generation while this ability is active. Knights will receive a flat 40% reduction ability with no damage caps, with added flavor of SK's adding a lifetap, while Paladins would receive an increase to their healing.

So what does this all mean to you?

Hopefully, more fun in the game again. We also NEED your help in testing the changes. This is obviously no small task. The changes will be pushed out to the test server for a couple months before being implemented on live servers. I can't stress enough how important this time will be for you to help us find any major problems. While we can account for most of the major changes, there is always a chance something will get missed.

Please note, the changes listed above are the MAJOR bullet points. I'm sure there will be more points of discussion and I'm absolutely open to talk about them. Most importantly, this path has NOT been set in stone. It is something we are discussing, but something I feel is very important to the game's health. We are VERY aware this is a big change, and we welcome your opinions on the matter.

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

You can read all of it and comment here.

UPDATE:

The more work I put into this project, the more work I am uncovering that will need to be done in order to achieve the goals I set for success.

While I still believe the basic idea to be sound, the sheer scope of work involved is growing much larger than I expected, and is reaching a point where it may not be feasible or accurately testable. The NPC changes themselves are not hard. That data is fairly simple to adjust and test. Another issue gets into the fact that so much of raiding is scripted with many npc power changes happening within those scripts under specific conditions that the likelihood of catching all the changes accurately would be increasingly difficult.

Then there is the issue of healing. Were casters able to survive even a short increase in agro time, the light tanks and hybrids would then have a much easier job of tanking, to the point that they would be sustainable in a raid fight where they should not be. In short, literally all classes would have to be adjusted. Again, scope of the project growing out of reasonable limits.

In short.. this idea is likely dead in the water unless I can come up with a way to reduce the scope and still achieve the goals I set out in the 1st place. Considering how much I have on my schedule already, it's unlikely I'll be pursuing this further.

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

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Patch Scheduled For Progression Servers Only March 10, 2011

The EverQuest Live Servers Fippy Darkpaw and Vulak’Aerr will be coming down on Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 2:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 3:00 am MST, 4:00 am CST, 5:00 am EST, 10:00 am GMT, 11:00 am CET) for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 2 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

From this SOE forums post.
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Double XP Weekend Begins

Starting on Friday, February 18th and running through Monday, February 21st we'll be having a Double Experience Weekend* in EverQuest. Take this opportunity to get rewarded twice as much for doing what you love. Whether it's getting a few extra Alternate Experience points for your favorite character or using this boost to start off on a brand new adventure, it's hard to say no to bonus experience.

*Double Experience will not be available on the Fippy Darkpaw Server [it may also be presumed that it is not available on the Vulak'Aerr server]

These quotes taken from from this EQ Players News Article.
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Hailing Quest NPC Distance Change Intended, Although Not So Close

The stealth change made in the January 13, 2011 patch forcing you to be on top of an NPC to get a quest update was intended. However, the distance was made too short. It is expected that you will not be able to hail them across the zone but should not need to be in their lap.

I agree the range has been made too small. We'll be bumping it up. But not leaving it wide open like it was before.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

Read more about in in this SOE forums thread.

UPDATE:

Here is a bit more on the issue:

The bug has been in the system for a long time, and was considered an "exploit" (being able to hail an NPC from across the zone). We rarely put exploit fixes in the patch notes. What was accidental was making the range only 20 feet. That will be changed to 100 feet next patch.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

UPDATE:

So with next patch it'll be 100ft with no special consideration of z axis. Restriction is only placed on hails that trigger a task step. If there is no matching task step on the NPC no error is given. The NPC name will be formatted properly in the "too far away" message.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

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Servers Down Monday Jan 10, 2011

From the SOE forums:

Beginning at 10pm PST on Monday, January 10th, ALL SOE games, subscription and commerce services will be unavailable for maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately ten hours.

This might cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.

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

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"Floating Ball" Mob Pet Issues to be Addressed

The floating ball NPCs such as the daydream in Morrell's Castle or the wraiths in Fear Itself are not targetable nor attackable by regular pets. In addition, they "warp" during combat.

We are aware of the issue and working on a solution. Unfortunately it is not a quick fix.

These are "Invisible Eye of Zomm" NPC's with actor tags in their hands.

They move really weird because the client has them constantly spinning, so when the server tels it to move, the client gets out of sync with the server, so they "warp"

Additionally... for some exploit prevention, eye of zomm NPC's cannot be attacked by NPC's... and well, your pets are NPC's (In this weird case, I think mercs act as PC's)

We did not know this before we made them. We are working on a solution, but it is taking some extra time.

This issue discussed in this SOE forums thread.
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Patch Scheduled January 13, 2011

Details have not been officially posted yet, however:

The new tradeskill guy added stat to food and drink that was missing it. Something was done for that charged drink as well.

It should go into the January 13th patch.

UPDATE:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 1:00 am MST, 2:00 am CST, 3:00 am EST, 8:00 am GMT, 9:00 am CET) for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 8 hours. 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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Game Down For Three Hours on Tuesday Jan 11, 2011

From this SOE forums post:

Beginning at 12am PST on Tuesday, January 11th, ALL SOE games, subscription and commerce services will be unavailable for maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately three hours.

This might cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.

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

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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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Patch Scheduled December 8, 2010

From a SOE forums post:

The next patch is Dec. 8th.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

UPDATE:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on Wednesday, December 10, 2010 at 12:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 1:00 am MST, 2:00 am CST, 3:00 am EST, 8:00 am GMT, 9:00 am CET) for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 8 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

NOTE: It is assumed that it is an error that the SOE post says "December 10" rather then "December 8".
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"EverThanks" Begins

From November 22nd to November 30th some special events happen on Norrath.

* From Tuesday, November 23rd to Monday, November 29th, the Symbol of the Sated will be available on the Marketplace at no cost. This symbol causes those around you to yawn as if sated.

* From 12:00 noon (PST) on Tuesday, November 23rd to 12:00 noon (PST) on Monday, November 29th faction hits, both positive and negative, all across the world will be increased.

* From 12:00 noon (PST) on Tuesday, November 23rd to 12:00 noon (PST) on Monday, November 29th, several rare encounters will increase the rate of their appearance.

* The Haunting of Norrath events return on Monday, November 22nd and will remain until November 30th. UPDATE: Not all Halloween events will return, only the two new ones for 2010 that were bugged.

The entire SOE article is here.
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Some Itemization Errors To Be Fixed Next Patch

Some belts are missing potion belt slots, and cultural seals and gloves with the wrong focus effects are on the list to be fixed.

For more, click these links about the belts, the seals, and the gloves.

UPDATE: In addition, the HoT augs currently flagged as Range will have the 1H restrictions changed so they actually fit in ranged weapons next patch. This is reported in this thread.

MORE:

The lack of type 3 slots on [HoT] shields was an oversight on my part. This will be fixed in the next patch.

- Chandrok, EQ Developer

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Enchanter Glyph Spray To Be Fixed In Next Patch

From this thread on the SOE forums:

It's been fixed internally, and had the agro modified significantly. It should be nicely usable with the next full patch.

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

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Morell's Castle Raid On Hiatus

From this thread on the SOE forums:

It has come to our attention that we may have to change the requirements to enter the raid in Morell's Castle. It looks as though someone (me) made some poor decisions about what should be required to get the raid. It all works as designed, but the design isn't very good. Essentially, it's way too easy to get into. The requirements, as they are, would pretty much destroy the raid progression. So it needs to be changed.

So we have given Towerguard Melbur a vacation until we get it fixed.

Also, we have made some fixes to the raids in Sanctum Somnium that we can't push live until our December update. This adds incentive to prevent folks from accessing the Castle raid, so that we can have time to get those fixes in as well.

I'm sorry about the mistake. We're figuring out what changes need to be made now, but can't actually make them without a full patch, and that will happen in early December.

I am extremely sorry about this error and the delay it will cause the guilds that are pushing up to those raids.

Thank you for your patience.

- Absor, EQ Developer

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Target Ring Bugged, To Be Fixed Next Patch

Various memory management problems, which are reflected with a bugged target ring, should be fixed in the next patch.

Found the problem. This will be fixed next patch.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

This thread on the SOE forums discusses the issues.
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Shadowrest Being Removed With January Game Update

From this SOE forums post by Zatozia, Community Relations:

Greetings Everyone!

The Shadowrest zone where old corpses go after the timer runs out will be going away with the Game Update in January 2011. The zone is no longer needed due to corpses not having items anymore.

If you have questions regarding this zone please respond to this thread and we'll try to get answers for you.

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Patch Scheduled November 10, 2010

From the in-game Welcome to EverQuest window:

Events of: 11/10/2010
Live Update
Start Time: 01:00 AM
Ending Time: 08:00 AM
Description: The next live update is scheduled for this date.

UPDATE:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on Wednesday, November 10, 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 a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 7 hours. 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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Important Spell Reward Change

From the in-game Update Notes:

11/03/2010

*** Important News ***

In next week's patch we are adding the Wave of Dreams spell to the same reward option as Denon's Dirge of Disruption and we are adding Sotor's Chant of Flame to the same reward option as Lyssa's Lively Crescendo.

If you have not yet turned in a Glowing Dream Fragment to get either of those two spells, please wait until the patch to do so. If you have already turned in dream fragments, CS is currently in the process of reimbursing you for the fragments you turned in. Please hold onto the new dream fragments to turn them in after the patch.

If you turned in fragments for either of these spells and have still not been reimbursed after next week's patch, please petition for replacement fragments. Please do not petition until after the update.

The EverQuest Team

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Halloween Quest and Group Mission To Be Fixed, Will Re-Occur Thanksgiving Week

Last week our patch person, Aristo, was on vacation.

I tried to muddle through a hotfix.

It seems I got old data hotfixed into Plane of Knowledge.

We are working on a hotfix to get the proper data in. I am trying to streamline it to a few hours, but it may be as late 4am 11/3 (about 12 hours from this post)

We are also going to have this even re-occur thankgiving week since it had so many issues during its normal time.

- Ngreth, EQ Developer

From this SOE forums thread.

UPDATE:

Greetings!

The Haunting of Norrath event will automatically end on November 7th. However, due to the issues experienced, the EQ team has decided to return the Haunting of Norrath over the period of November 22nd to November 30th.

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Hotfix - November 2, 2010

*** Hotfix ***

- Removed see-invis flags from NPCs in the upper floor of House of Thule as it is primarily a travel zone.
- Tick Tock - Corrected an issue that was causing the raid to hang before getting to the clock phase.

From this SOE forums post.
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Experience in HoT Instances Unintentionally Low

It was an oversight.

- Ngreth, EQ Developer

The full thread on the SOE forums is here.
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EQ Halloween: October 24 - November 7

From this SOE forums thread:

Halloween events turn on on the 24th and run until Nov 7th.

Look for an article on the Players page outlining this year's events

- Kiara, EQ Community Manager

The article to come soon (it is hoped).
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Patch Scheduled October 21, 2010

Greetings all,

The servers will be down for a brief update to correct some minor issues.

The downtime should last the usual time (from about 1am PDT until 8am PDT).

We'll post more information (including notes) closer to Thursday.

From this SOE post.

EDIT: Time of patch was changed (SOE updated their post).
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SOE Creates AA Status News Thread

Much like my postings in the beta forums for House of Thule.. I figured it'd be a good idea to have a single place you could reference for AA updates. So.. this is it. I'll try to post here at least a couple times a week to let you know what's up..

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

The thread can be visited by clicking here.
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Server Side Lag Reported

Many players have been reporting cases of "lag" where the game seems slow to respond to commands. Among other things, clicking a spell gem and waiting from 1 to 2 seconds before it begins to cast, clicking a clicky object and having the same, and many other "lagging" things.

If you have noticed this, you can help SOE diagnose and solve it.

I'm trying to collect data on specifically where, when and how is it happening and was just pointing out that giving me a ping time that's higher than what you're used to but still quite excellent doesn't really help identify the problem. So for those having issues:

What server?

What zone?

What time of day?

What kind of internet connection?

And perhaps even what part of the world you live in?

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

Help Mr. Klug by reporting your lag experiences by making a post on the SOE forums in this thread.

Note that this is not about poor frame rates due to lower end graphics cards or processors. This is only for reporting issues that the game server itself is being slow.
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Graphic Display Settings 101

SOE is in the process of updating their information on setting your game graphics for the best balance between quality and performance.

Graphic Display Settings 101 will help you adjust your settings. Several parts should be expanded and improved soon.
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Some House of Thule Acknowledged Bugs, Patch Date To Be Decided

Here are some of the bugs that SOE has acknowledged that have come up since the ''House of Thule'' release.

* Doing a server transfer in a neighborhood or housing zone can make it so your character cannot login with going home.

* Texture streaking issues with Pixel Shader 1.4.

* Can only seem to open 34 bags at a time. There are now 36 bag slots. 24 in bank, 10 on character, and 2 in shared bank = 36.

* Bazaar Trader: With a full inventory of trader satchels (including the new HoT slots), only 40 items showed in trader window. Right clicked a trader satchel to check that it was full, got kicked out of the game.

* The named rotdog 'Rend' in The Grounds is pretty much unbeatable atm. It turns invulnerable after 30sec like it's supposed to, but when it does its model changes from the red rotdog to a "doug" (unarmored human) and the mechanism to remove the invulnerability (mezing it) does not work.

We haven't yet announced when the next patch will be. We're still assessing what needs to get fixed, etc.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

Read about these and more, and add any not already known to SOE at their Update Bugs 10/12/10 forum thread.
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House of Thule Collector's Edition Bag Problem

For House of Thule the "Collector's Edition" offered some extras, at an extra price.

One of the extras was a 20 slot bag, instead of the 16 slot bag that the regular edition offers.

However, SOE stated on at least one of their promotions that the Collector's Edition would offer both bags.

Some players have received both, but some have not. As a result, there are a number of unhappy customers.

SOE has announced that all Collector's Edition customers will now receive both bags.

Last I heard they were flagging all collector's edition purchasers with the 16 slot bag. So if you bought the collector's edition and didn't get the 16 slot bag, please /petition about it.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

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SOE Posts House of Thule Housing "How To"

House of Thule House "How To"
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New Game Graphics Settings May Cause Lagging

Two new options were added under Display > Advanced. "Enable Post Effects" and "Enable Bloom Lighting".

Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer, has mentioned:

If you have bloom lighting turned on that can slow down some kinds of video cards. Try turning it off in Options->Display->Advanced.

Still awaiting comment on the Post Effects.

UPDATE:

You shouldn't need to turn off post effects as they are only used under certain circumstances. But it may provide a slight boost for some people with old graphics cards (nvidia 5xxx series being the big offenders).

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

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Server Restart and House of Thule Pre-Launch Celebration Extended Due To Outages

We apologize for the network connectivity problems experienced over the weekend. Our operations guys and the upstream provider are working to get them fixed.

Unfortunately the outages are triggering a memory problem on the world servers and we have had some instability issues. I am having operations shutdown and restart the servers at 5am PDT to make sure the servers are stable for the Monday before expansion launch.

I wanted to let you know we have decided to extend the xp, rares, and faction bonuses until Monday night when the servers go down to prepare for House of Thule launch.

I'll be sure to set the bonuses again by 6am PDT.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

The SOE forums thread is here.
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House of Thule Launch Information

From this SOE forums post:

House of Thule launches on Tuesday, October 12th!

We're all very excited and hope you are too.

The EQPlayers page will come down on Sunday, October 10th and will not be available again until launch. This will also affect the welcome screen. We'll be posting updates on the forums and on our Facebook page. You can also find us on Twitter!

The servers will be coming down around 10pm PDT on Monday, October 11th.

Pre-orders for House of Thule will no longer be available as of 11:59pm on Monday, October 11th, so if you haven't pre-ordered yet, make sure you do it before then!

At this time, Fan Faire attendees will have their accounts entitled with the expansion, so if you don't see it there yet, don't worry!

Members of the Community team will be arriving at a ridiculously early hour to prep for the Ustream event that starts at 6am PDT. We'll be providing updates on the downtime via Ustream chat, posts on the forums, and updates on Facebook!

We're planning to bring the servers back up at 8am PDT, provided that the gnomes don't get into the works and delay things!

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No Plans to Open Old Flagged / Keyed Zones

With the past few expansions, SOE has opened up older zones by removing flagging and keying requirements. With House of Thule there are currently no plans to open up any more zones.

Read about it in this thread on the SOE forums.
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House of Thule Pre-Launch Celebration

From this SOE forum post:

YOU ALL ARE INVITED TO OUR PARTY!!!!!

Special invitation from EverQuest Producer Thom "Phathom" Terrazas

To Celebrate the HoT Expansion Launch next Tuesday and to thank everyone for their dedication to EverQuest, we are throwing you a bit of a party starting tomorrow.

Starting at 10:00am PDT, Friday October 8 through October 11 at 10:00am PDT, we will be delivering the following:

1. All Accounts Closed (but in good standing) will be given access to the game!

2. Double Experience!!

3. Rare Mob Spawns Increased!!!

4. Faction Gain Increased!!!!

....and our guide program is on full alert for games, quests and tomfoolery!!!

So Enjoy! ---and thank you on behalf of the EverQuest Team!

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"Cloudy Orb of Dreams" Rumors Fly

The "Cloudy Orb of Dreams" is the reward for completing the House of Thule achievement "In the Absence of Fear". It has one charge of "Stare Into the Orb".

Currently, no one knows what it does.

Rumors are flying about what it might do. Currently leading the pack is the rumor that it gets you into House of Thule early, perhaps on October 6th.

No word from SOE on what it does.

Add your opinion at SOE's official forums by posting a reply to this post: Cloudy Orb of Dreams
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Death Bloom to be Nerfed

From this post on SOE forums:

I know this isn't going to be popular amongst the Twitch crowd.. but unfortunately Death Bloom is going to be scaled back. It's currently too strong. I'm not really sure how I fat-fingered the mana/s numbers, but I did.

What I'm looking at doing is increasing the reuse time as well as reducing the mana per tick regenerated.

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

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Invasion of the Fearless Task Bugged, Fixed

Invasion of the Fearless is a group task that is part of the in-game Achievement currently listed for House of Thule called "In the Absence of Fear". It is part of the Prelude Events for the launch of House of Thule.

Many people are unable to see the fires they are required put out. Also, every time you fill up or empty a bucket it moves out of your inventory and onto your cursor. So you then have to put it back in your inventory.

Elegist, EQ Developer has posted:

We've made changes, and we're preparing for a hotfix to increase the amount of time you have to find the fires to 30 minutes. Also, the fires will have actor tags on them, allowing people without particles turned on to see them. Every 2 minutes, guard Aerryn will tell you how many fires are still burning, and there won't be more than 12 up at a time. HP and attack power on all the mobs have also been lowered.

At this time there is no word if SOE even realizes that the bucket problem should be resolved.

Elegist has responded on the bucket issue:

We're testing the changes on Stage right now. There is also a fix in there that should prevent the fire starters from spawning on top of you, and it will also keep them from wandering near the Qeynos gate or going into the basement.

Edit: Unfortunately, we can't change the way the bucket works, since technical limitations don't allow us to hotfix items. You can try placing the bucket on the hotkey bar. When you want to use it, right click on it. Then, when it appears on your cursor, just click the left mouse button while you're still hovering over the bucket hotkey.

UPDATE:

9/28/2010

*** Hotfix ***

The following changes have been made to the Invasion of the Fearless mission to address its difficulty:

* You now have 30 minutes to put out all of the fires in Qeynos.
* Every two minutes, Guard Aerryn will let you know how much time you’ve taken as well as how many fires are still burning.
* Fires now have non-particle effects on them, so those without the ability to see particles should still see the fires.
* There will now only be a maximum of 12 fires burning at once.
* Your enemies have been weakened.
* Fire starters no longer have a chance to spawn directly on top of your group when you talk to Guard Aerryn. They also will not start fires near Guard Aerryn or in the basement of Crow's pub.

The EverQuest Team

For more information on this task, visit the Invasion of the Fearless page at Fanra's EverQuest Wiki.
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House of Thule Prelude Events

From SOE:

Many adventurers have noted that something odd is afoot in Norrath. People are acting strangely indeed!

Normally reasonable people seem to be more aggressive and Norrathian heroes have noticed many strange behaviors in their home towns!

Currently in the game is most of the In the Absence of Fear achievement that currently shows up in the House of Thule section of your in-game achievement window.

According to SOE, on Monday, September 27 the "third part" of the Prelude Events will happen. The "fourth part" will happen on Monday, October 4.

See Fanra's EverQuest Wiki for information on In the Absence of Fear and House of Thule.
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Patch Scheduled September 15, 2010

From SOE forums:

Greetings Norrathians,

We'll be having a hotfix on Wednesday, Septemper 15th to address some issues with the Loyalty Reward program as well as a few other necessary fixes.

The servers are currently scheduled to come down at 12 Midnight [PDT] and be down for an estimated 8 hours.

These times may change, and we will update this thread with any adjustments.

Thank you for your patience and happy gaming!

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Illsalin Models Broken, To Be Fixed

There seems to be a graphical issue with the Illsalin models.

The thing with the Shiliskin should be fixed with the next update.

- Absor, EQ Developer

UPDATE: As of September 14, 2010, this bug is still not fixed.
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Server Merge and Server Launch September 8 (plus a progression server in the future)

From SOE General Dev Updates:

Mayong Server Merge Next Week - (Tunare Server) - Next Wednesday, 9/8/10 during our game update, we will be merging the Mayong Server into the Tunare Server. The Tunare Server will likely be down longer than the other servers to finish the merge. More information will follow on the exact time frames.

New Server Launching Next Week - We will be launching a brand new server with our Game Update on Wednesday 9/8/10. Trakanon is the name chosen by you in our poll results. Character Transfers will not be permitted to Trakanon but we may allow it some day in the future.

Progression Server - A progression server has been asked to be launched for quite some time. When we did the polls last year, the Mayong 51/50 server was chosen as the front runner and a progression server was chosen as a runner-up. The Mayong launched and had a great turnout but we are ready to turn a new page with that server and move onto the next best thing. After popular demand and much feedback by you, we believe a time-locked progression server is the best one to launch next. So we're discussing the best time to launch and best roll out plan to unlock each expansion so that content is maximized and accomplished and balanced so that you are not rushed nor left behind.

Scheduling for a Progression Server - We are currently all hands into development on our House of Thule expansion (launching October 12, 2010) and we are giving it as much attention as needed to ensure a great launch. Focusing on a progression server launch will have to come after the House of Thule, where as a schedule will be determined at that time. We have a time frame in our minds that makes sense to us and with our schedule but we will hold off on announcing that time frame until after a successful expansion release.

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Patch Scheduled September 8, 2010

While not officially announced, per se, it appears there will be a patch on this date.

Next Wednesday, 9/8/10 during our game update...

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Labor Day Bonus XP Weekend

Kiara the EverQuest Community Manager has posted that there will be a holiday experience bonus. How much the bonus will be is still to be announced:

YES!

Official announcement coming soon.

In the meantime the info will be:

September 2nd at noon (PDT) until September 9 at 10am PDT.

UPDATE: It has been announced that it will be a 50% bonus:

Experience Weekend Week - In honor of the Labor Day holiday 3-day-weekend, this Thursday we will be turning up the experience gain and it will run through the following Wednesday Night. (yes, we've heard many comments that not all players are available on the weekend - so cheers to you and to those that will be playing this weekend!) The experience increase will be turned on before noon (PT) on Thursday, 9/2/10 and will be turned off on Thursday 9/9/10 morning no later than 10:00am. The experience increase will be 50% during this time frame!

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Patch Scheduled August 18, 2010

From the EverQuest Players Network Status page:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be brought down at 2:00 am PDT (10:00 am UTC) on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 for an update. Estimated downtime is 6 hours.

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20% Underfoot Experience Bonus to End August 18

I seem to have missed the announcement on the bonus, so here it is with the date on when it ends.

Greetings Norrathians!

We're excited to announce that from July 28 through August 18, we're going to give you a 20% boost to experience in all the Underfoot zones.

If you've been wanting to make that final push to level 85, but just haven't had the time or felt like your experience bar was crawling, now is the perfect time to show the Underfoot who's boss!

Perhaps you are at the level cap, but have some friends who are lagging behind. This is perfect time to help them catch up to you and experience all that Underfoot has to offer.

The Underfoot zones are:

* Arthicrex
* Brell’s Rest
* Brell’s Arena
* Brell's Temple
* The Convorteum
* The Cooling Chamber
* The Foundation
* Fungal Forest
* Kernagir, the Shining City
* Lichen Creep
* Pellucid Grotto
* The Underquarry
* Volska's Husk

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"Hardcore" Versions of Dungeons Coming in August and September

From this post on the SOE forums:

Greetings Norrathians!

We are proud to bring you, back by popular demand, the buffed up versions of your favorite dungeons!

From August 18 through September 6 - Cazic and Blackburrow

From September 1 through September 13 - Lower Guk and Unrest

- Kiara, EQ Community Manager

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Giants, Giants, Giants! Is Back (by mistake)

With little fanfare, the Giants, Giants, Giants! quest is back in the game. Get it, as before, from Tzudani, Emissary of Veeshan, who stands in the Plane of Knowledge near the Guild Lobby.

No word yet on how long it will be around, so get it while you can.

For more information on this quest, visit the Giants, Giants, Giants! page at Fanra's EverQuest Wiki.

UPDATE: It seems that the quest was not supposed to be back, it is a bug. Here is the official word:

This event is NOT supposed to be up. Unfortunately I probably can't kill it before the weekend (it's not generally a good idea to make a last minute change on a Friday...).

If you do the event, we take no responsibility for the problems it might cause with the rewards. Do it at your own risk.

- Absor, EQ Developer

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Old Man McKenzie to Change in September

From this SOE forums post:

We have decided not to give Old Man McKenzie a sabbatical, but changes will be coming to what he does.

The major issue we have is that he gives a HUGE amount of reward, both in experience and items for absolutely zero risk except possibly a small amount of wasted time if you somehow manage to fail.

A smaller issue is people not learning how to play their own class, but this is only a small issue in our opinion, and probably not widely prevalent. We are sure it happens sometimes, but it is not the majority of the cases.

So, in the September patch, we will remove ALL experience rewards from the missions that Old Man McKenzie offers. We may bring the experience back in a modified form in the future, including requiring that you actually participate to gain the experience, but that particular point is still under discussion.

This will leave the monster missions as no risk way of gaining high value items. We continue to have no plans to raise that amount of brews given. If you think the item is valuable enough, then you will need to repeat the mission enough times to get the item. We still consider it too easy to get these items, even with the requirement to grind for a while to get some of them.

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Next Expansion Officially Announced

From EverQuest News:
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EverQuest® House of Thule™ is the seventeenth expansion of the groundbreaking EverQuest franchise. Now in its unprecedented twelfth year, EverQuest continues to add immersive gameplay, captivating storytelling and exciting worlds to its legacy, now set in a never-before-seen dreamland full of mystery and adventure. House of Thule offers an expansion rich in content and packed with game-changing features including a level cap increase and the addition of player housing, which new players, veterans and MMO fans will relish.

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SOE is now accepting Beta sign ups for House of Thule.
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From EverQuest News:
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We are now accepting sign-ups for the EverQuest® House of Thule™ expansion beta. The beta period is expected to begin on Monday, August 9, 2010.

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Go here for more information.
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UPDATE:  More information on  House of Thule can be found at Fanra's EverQuest Wiki's House of Thule page.
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Off Line Trading Under Consideration

From this thread on SOE forums:

We are still considering doing the "Linkdead Broker" thing where you can leave your broker up but be signed off the computer. We just have not been able to get it into the schedule. This will allow folks to turn off their computers when they are brokering, but their account will be logged in.

We will not be doing a fully offline broker model like other games at this point. The resource requirements are huge, and we cannot justify it.

- Ngreth, EQ Developer

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Archery Haste Bugged

It appears there is a bug with Archery. Haste does not work correctly with it.

SOE has posted about it here:

QA has confirmed that Archery and haste have an issue. It is now a bug in Code's Queue.

- Ngreth, EQ Developer

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Gnomish Arcanus Magical Experience Of Norrath XP Bonus

From the Official SOE EQ forum:

We’ve tasked one of our best tinkerers to create a new experience modifying device for your benefit and would like to unveil the Gnomish Arcanus Magical Experience Of Norrath (GAME-ON for short) device today. Not realizing that our tinkerer splits his time as a prankster, we’ve discovered that the GAME-ON device is set to random experience. The best that we can tell right now is that it is set no higher than a 50% experience boost and no lower than 25%. It appears that the GAME-ON device is set to turn on at 10am this morning (Pacific Time) and to shut down at 10am on Wednesday (also Pacific Time). As we get more data, we will share it with you. Otherwise, please accept this as a token of our thanks for your patience and dedication to EverQuest.

- Phathom, Senior Staff

You can read the full thread here.
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Patch Scheduled July 14, 2010

From the EverQuest login screen:

GAME UPDATE NEWS: The next Game Update is currently planned for July 14, 2010.

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Larger Bags Coming Some Time After August

From the EverQuest Producer’s Letter – May 2010:

Inventory Improvements

Much like adding mercenary types, another subject that you voted for was improved inventory. I’m happy to inform you that we have plans to improve your inventory with larger bags!

All I have to say is “About Time”! I don’t know how many times I’ve had to leave a group or area recently just to go sell or delete something to make room for a better item. Ugh! This is going to be nice! There are some additional inventory improvements we’re making but due to final designs not being complete, I’m limited as to what I can say today. Soooo…. if you haven’t heard the update on this subject in the next couple of weeks, you may have to head up to Las Vegas for the Fan Faire in August to hear about them first hand, straight from the horse’s mouth!

Well, that’s a couple of things I wanted to bring you up to speed on and there will be more items to update you on in the very near future – So on behalf of the EverQuest Team, I want to thank you for your continued support and passion for EverQuest. It truly is an honor to be able to work with a team that is as passionate as the customers that play our game.

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Game Update Coming in June

From the EverQuest Producer’s Letter – May 2010:

Coming up in June, we will be releasing our next Game Update: Rage of the Mercenaries! Rage of the Mercenaries fills that special need that has been missing for some of you. A Healer or Tank Mercenary has been the standard but if you don’t need help in those categories, a DPS Mercenary may just do the trick. Thus, the DPS Mercenary will be unveiled in two distinct flavors: A melee damage dealer and a caster damage dealer. Both of these mercenaries bring extra damage output to any party they are in. The melee damage mercenary will do consistent damage, while the caster mercenary will do its damage in shorter bursts, needing more rest. Both mercenaries will have a standard balanced mode where they do damage, but try not to get too much of the target’s attention. Both mercenaries also have a burn mode where they will not conserve mana or endurance, and pay no attention to hate generation, but will deal as much damage as possible, as fast as possible. This may cause them to gain the attention of the target. Finally, the caster damage mercenary will have a mode where it attempts to preserve mana. This mode will do less damage, but will allow it to last longer.

These mercenaries will initially be available at all of the standard mercenary merchants, in all of the standard races. It will also be spread into the already available special mercenaries obtainable through Legends of Norrath and special rewards.

These Mercenaries are on the Test Server now, so check ‘em out now and feel free to give us your feedback before they go live!

* Also releasing in Rage of the Mercenaries, we will have new Hot Zones created for levels 20 through 75 with new quests/rewards and the current Hot Zones will go back to normal (what they were before they were made into Hot Zones).

* The Welcome Screen is getting a great new look to give you more game relevant information and better functionality that you have requested. A Calendar has been added that will contain pre-populate events and dates to keep you better informed of future events. Uncompleted Achievements will now be visible on the Welcome Screen to see challenges that you should accomplish. Thirteen additional pieces of flair will be released at the same time with a few more coming very soon afterwards to fit in line with some future features we have in store for you.

* The Marketplace will be getting some additional features that will help you find what you’re looking for (categorization, searching, etc…). We think you’ll also like the new Item Preview feature that allows you to see what the item looks like in game before you purchase it.

You can read more about this on SOE's official Rage of the Mercenaries page.
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Server Merges Between June 22nd and July 6th, 2010.

Between June 22nd and July 6th SOE will be merging various servers.

Go to the EQ Players Server Merge News web page to learn more.
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EQ Memorial Ding!

From the EverQuest Producer’s Letter – May 2010:

Memorial Day Weekend!

On Wednesday, May 12, 2010, EverQuest launched the EQ Memorial Ding! promotion on the EverQuestLive Facebook page.

This promotion allowed you the community to throttle the XP bonus on Memorial Day Weekend by “Liking” our EverQuestLive Facebook page. In just under one day, we were able to accomplish four out of the first five goals of the promotion (I told everyone we underestimated your power!) …and the fifth goal was crushed within a mere days after the promotion launched, way before the deadline on May 27th. Nice going everyone! Because of the success of this promotion, we may be adding more benefits with some loftier goals.

Along the way to reaching each of these goals, we are giving out some reward items via the Marketplace. Since the five goals were met this past week, we have turned on eleven rewards for you to purchase for no cost. These items will remain through the Memorial Day Weekend for you to pick up so don’t wait too long to log in and claim your gifts before they are taken down. They will go away on June 1st, 2010. [emphasis added]

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Patch Scheduled June 9, 2010

GAME UPDATE NEWS: The next Game Update is currently planned for June 9, 2010.

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Patch Scheduled May 12, 2010

From the log in screen Update Notes:

GAME UPDATE NEWS: The next Game Update is currently scheduled for May 12, 2010.

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