SOE Live 2012 - After Action Report

SOE Live 2012 - After Action Report

by Fanra

This is a report of my trip to SOE Live.  Obviously, I couldn't do everything.  Some things were scheduled at the same time and I could only be in one place at a time.

Yes, I'm aware it's been three weeks since SOE Live, sorry for the delay :).

Thursday

Beginning - Registration and Badge Pick-Up:

SOE Live officially began with registration / picking up badges at 3pm Thursday.

For those with pre-ordered badges, the line was relatively short.  I joined the line and soon was asking for my badge.  Since I was on a player panel (and therefore got my badge for free) I was told I needed to go to the VIP / Media line instead.

Ironically, the VIP line was much longer and slower than the non-VIP line.

Once I finally managed to get to the front of the line, the sole person serving it seemed to have some difficulty with the software.  I wanted to get my character name (Fanra) up top in the largest print with the game (EverQuest) under that and then my server name (Bertoxx) and finally my real first name.  It wound up with my real first name, EverQuest, Fanra and VIP, in that order.

The badge has your name on one side and a partial schedule on the other side.  The partial schedule was fairly useless, as it was missing most of the important information.  What was more of a problem was that the badge tended to flip over all the time, so I spent a large amount of time checking to make sure the side with my name was being shown.  Many people had the non-name side showing, making it rather difficult to figure out who they were.

Everyone picked up their "goodie" bag with the phat lewts that SOE gave out.  In the bag was a note explaining that SOE would also be giving out various in-game awards to attendees.  Although it mentioned that, "...all registered attendees will receive the upcoming EverQuest®: Rain of Fear...", it failed to mention that it would be the Standard edition and not the Digital Collector's Edition.  Although I think everyone pretty much assumed that.

More importantly, it didn't mention that for $20 attendees could upgrade their Standard edition to the Digital Collector's Edition, something I asked Brasse about and she confirmed that this is an option.  So if you want the Digital Collector's Edition, be sure to go to your online SOE account and order it now, as the prices may change or bonus items may not be available once RoF goes live.

Kickoff and First Keynote Address:

Rather than one Keynote Address, there were three.  This first one was 99% PS2 (PlanetSide 2, not PlayStation 2).   This would be a familiar theme of the SOE Live, PS2 is the next big thing for SOE and all the stops were being pulled out for it.

Friday

SOE Player Studio panel:

More information on the Player Studio.   Not much here that you can't learn by visiting the SOE Player Studio web page.

 

EverQuest Live Quest:

This was a LARP (Live Action Role Playing) event.  We formed up into groups of six? (I don't remember the exact number) and went to various places in the room.  A Dev or Guide (I think they were all Guides but I can't be sure) would give us a challenge and we would get scored on how well we did.

One was to give the shortest path to a zone.  For example, how do you get from PoK to Katta Castellum in the least number of zones.  Without using ports or the guild portal.

Another was throw some beanbags at a target representing ship to ship combat.  Another was to "train" some "mobs" around a "zone" (all imaginary in the room) while singing a happy song.  Another was to use a rubberband gun to shoot at a target.   Another was an EQ Charades game.   One was to take a Barbie type doll and make some Hero's Forge armor for it out of paper, tin foil, glue and various other items.

This was reasonably fun and it was nice of SOE to have this.

Player Panel: Making Data Sexah - Building Fan and Player Sites with SOE Data Feed:

This is titled a Player Panel but it was more of a SOE panel.  SOE described their service which provides anyone with the raw data from their games.   Currently working for EQ II and planned for EQ and SOE's other games.

Basically, you can request the same information as you get in-game on items, spells and other things.  You can also get information on players.

Known in-house at SOE as "Census".

When it is finally working for EQ, it should enable EQ Players to be reactivated.  It will also allow anyone (re: Fan Sites) to pull the data as well.   So if you have a quest on your web site, you can link the reward directly from SOE.

For those concerned about in-game privacy, there will be an option to "opt-out" of allowing everyone to see your characters.

For EQ, most of this information on spells and items is already available from sites like Lucy's, Allakhazam's, Magelo and other sites.   Census will allow those sites to be more accurate and enable them to get the information with less effort, they won't have to rely on players sending in the information.  Other sites will also be able to get the information without having to build their own database from scratch.

Census will not reveal an item until at least one player has discovered it.

Player Panel: Power to The People - Fansites:

This was the panel I was on.  Linda "Brasse" Carlson, SOE Director, Global Community Relations, was moderator.   Linda discussed that SOE was getting more involved in the "Community".    Besides myself, someone from DCUO Unlimited, EQ2Wire and Allakhazam (or ZAM, as they call themselves) was there.  The ZAM person was only representing EQ2, however.  In addition, someone from Wikia, a wiki hosting site, was there.

Most of the panel was about how SOE is partnering with Wikia and will encourage the wikis there and provide them with some information.

The Wikia person was very friendly and eager to help out.  Unfortunately, Wikia itself is user and administrator unfriendly and very hard to manage.   Based on the open source and popular MediaWiki software (used by Wikipedia), the extreme customization that Wikia does to the software makes it difficult to use and adapt to individual wikis.

I can understand why SOE has partnered with them, as they most likely provide the largest single source of eyeballs.  But the actual wiki you get is what happens when you design by committee.  Overcrowded, difficult to understand, difficult to navigate, and things are changed for no reason other than to be different.   Administering them is a nightmare.   Things are bolted on for no reason, unless you consider crowding pages to be a reason.

Strangely, the huge number of advertisements is not the reason why I can't deal with them.  It's more the fact that things are changed for no reason and you have to jump through hoops to do things, if you can do them at all.   25% of the page is wasted blank space, for no reason.

Other than that, the panel went well.

I asked about the lack of communication on several issues.  One was the return of Dragons, Dragons, Dragons! and Giants, Giants, Giants! without any notice.  Even more annoying was the ignoring by SOE of several requests on the SOE forum asking when they would go away.  It was clearly hinted that the return of those quests was an accident, which explained the lack of notice.  Still didn't explain why no one at SOE would say when they would end.

I also asked for separate forums on the SOE forum for players reporting bugs and asking for features.  That would be best with some kind of database, so that players know that the bug has been already reported or the feature has already been suggested.  It could also contain a comment by SOE that they are working on the issue or the feature has been decided not to be included, etc.

I understand the database part would be a lot of work, but separate forums would be easy.  We could at least start with the forums and think about the database later.  I was told that SOE would "think" about it.  Which is either a true statement or a very nice way to tell me "not going to happen" :)

SOE Keynote Part 2:

This Keynote Address actually discussed EverQuest!  Not much I remember that isn't already covered in many places elsewhere.

Pool Party:

It's a party.  At a pool :).   Free drinks (although I did tip) and sit around the pool.  The music was, as usual, too loud.  I never understand the idea of gathering with your friends to drink and talk, and being unable to talk because the music is too loud.

Very few went swimming (October in Vegas is not as hot as July), but yours truly did.

 

Saturday

EverQuest Death Death Death! Tournament:

I did not attend this.  My guildmates who wanted to do so found out too late that you had to be there to sign up at the beginning, the program guide did not mention this.  As a result, they were unable to do this.

EQ: Rain of Fear - Don't Get Wet!:

This is the big panel on Rain of Fear.  Most of what was said has been already released to everyone on the EQ web site.

Not mentioned much is that there will be a easy quest to get your Alaran up to 100, for those who still haven't gotten it to that point.  This seems to be only for those who continue to play in VoA, as I don't think Alaran will serve any purpose in RoF.

Some other highlights (as best I can recall, don't quote me on this:):

• Chapterhouse of the Fallen zone is a previously hidden part of Befallen which is inhabited by The Burning Dead, which is a necro cult.  Expect this zone to be very popular with paladins.
• The Breeding Grounds is a revamp of Dragon Necropolis.  It will have some new types of dragons, Terrorwing and Fearwing dragons.  There should be no see-inviso mobs there, but will have traps (which might knock off your inviso)  Lava there will hurt.
• Temple of Veeshan is a revamp of NTOV.  13 Boss dragons.  It is an instance.  12 of the dragons will be T2 VoA raid level and Vulak is a T4 VoA raid level encounter.  There will be no faction hits in the zone.  And, yes (I asked), these guys will dispel your buffs.
• Shard's Landing - This is the starting zone and the hub of RoF.
• Valley of King Xorbb will be the end zone of RoF.

EQ: Drawing Death - Design a Mission:

Design a mission with a Dev.  This is where we broke up into groups of around six and each group sat with a Dev.  We then tried to design a mission.

This was pretty straightforward.   My group wound up with Elidroth.  He's exactly like he seemed from the time I saw him answer questions in a webcast.  Rather dour, does not suffer fools gladly, stubborn, but interested in improving EQ.

We designed a quest which he said would likely make it into the game, he was rather taken with it.

The idea I came up with was, since Rain of Fear was sending shards of fear everywhere, that a previously brave creature was suddenly struck with fear.  I proposed a clear rip-off (or homage, if you prefer) of the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz.  A creature that used to be brave was now afraid of his own shadow.  The players would be tasked with helping him recover his courage.

Under Elidroth's direction, the group proposed ways to construct the quest and fit it into the Rain of Fear.  It was tentatively titled, "The Timorous Dragon", and hopefully makes it into the game.  Should you like it, I'll be happy to take the credit and if you don't like it, you can blame everyone else involved :).

EQ/EQII: The Business of the EverQuest Franchise:

There was a great deal mentioned here about the future of EQ, EQII and LoN.

I got the chance to mention to Thom Terrazas, the EQ Producer, that the way to get new players into EQ would be a brand new client, with improved graphics.  This would also help solve many problems, especially crashing.  What I heard back was what I expected: it would cost a huge amount of money and take up a lot of programming talent.  In other words, SOE isn't going to invest that kind of money into EQ.

Thom Terrazas also had no idea about the crashing in EQ, which might not matter, since it is the job of coding to deal with it.  Still, it was a strange disconnect.   I let him know some small details in the hopes that, as management, he could look into allocating more resources into fixing it.

About halfway through the panel, they invited up the Marketing guy for SOE, who should have been there from the beginning.  He was asked about the lack of advertising for EQ.  He said they were advertising, mostly with web ad boxes in FarmVille type games.

He said that advertising for EQ was mostly aimed at people looking for nostalgia.  I didn't get the chance to tell him he might be better off marketing EQ as the game for hard core gamers.  Think WoW is too easy for you?  Looking for a REAL challenge?

There was a great deal covered by SOE in this presentation about the future of EQ.  I can only hope that SOE can post at least the PowerPoint presentations online for everyone.

Here are some highlights of what I can remember:

• Less Marketplace Focus.  SOE wants fewer employees working on the Marketplace and more on the games themselves.  The Player Studio is part of this, to get the players to do more of the work, so fewer SOE people are needed.
• More Free Content / Less Expansions.  SOE said they want to shift from only providing new content once a year during the expansion (and charging us for it) to providing new content year round for free and more content in general.
• They plan to make Marketplace items cheaper.
• Move Marketplace "Appearance Items" to Tradeskillers.  Appearance Items would be created using tradeskills, with a rare mob dropped item needed.  The rare mob dropped item could also be purchased in the Marketplace.  I'm not sure what exactly "Appearance Items" include.  It will be seen how rare the drops are to see if this actually changes much as far as needing Station Cash to obtain them.
• De-Clutter the Marketplace UI to make it easier to find items.
• Krono.  Which has been explained by SOE on their web site.
• PoN - Point of Need .  This involves having a window pop up when you need something in the game and offer it to you for sale for Station Cash.  For example, when you die, while in hover mode, a box might appear offering you a rez for Station Cash.

I also mentioned regarding the PoN plans that some players (like myself) don't ever expect to use them, so that we would like an option to avoid the advertising for them.  I pointed out that the current SC button in the game can not be removed without using a custom UI modification.

I stated that I understood the concept, as far as SOE revenue was concerned.  But I did suggest at least offering us the chance to check a box, "Don't offer this again for a month", since I knew it was unlikely they would offer us the ability to remove these things permanently (with the ability to bring them back if we change our mind).

There really needs to be an option that we can choose whether or not to see these advertisements, considering we pay them a subscription fee.

I was told this would be "considered", for what that is worth.

Player Panel: EverQuest - A Player Perspective:

I just popped into this panel, which was supposed to be about veteran players discussing the inner workings of the game.  I didn't stay long.  The beginning didn't start well, as the members of the panel seemed to have no idea what they were supposed to talk about, and seemed to have done zero preparation.  I even heard one of them remark that he just signed up for this for the free pass, an intention I totally understand since I did that myself, but which doesn't excuse a failure to actually contribute to the proceedings.  Maybe things improved once I left, I hope so.

Geek Out With SOE Coders!:

This is the panel where I annoyed the SOE programmers.  They discussed a lot of things and answered some questions, but I only remember those that I was interested in and asked.

All my questions were about EQ, as I don't really care about the other SOE games.

Crashing:  I really beat the dead horse on this issue.  I kept repeating that VoA has been out for about a year and we still are crashing.  Although most of the crashing relates to a patch around the time that Free-to-Play went active.  Still, there are people who have been crashing entering Valley of Lunaryn since VoA first came out.

I was told (which I already knew) that they have fixed a number of crashing issues.  I replied that I was aware of that but people are still crashing a lot.  I mentioned that Thom Terrazas, the EQ Producer, was unaware of the crashing issues, but I also mentioned that maybe he didn't need to know it, as long as the programmers were on the case.

Jen Chan, EQ Lead Programmer, soon left the panel, whether because of my constant harping on these issues or because she was scheduled to also be on another panel at the same time as this one, I'm not sure which.  A bit of a mistake there by whoever was scheduling.

I asked about druids and bards being able to sort tracking results, like rangers can, since someone at SOE once posted a while back that this was a coding issue, which made no sense.  SOE coders confirmed that it is a Dev choice, not a coding issue. 

I hope to post more on this later, as I think this is one of the most misguided Dev decisions ever.  How a UI option becomes a class skill boggles my mind.  Apparently only rangers understand the alphabet and sorting by alphabetizing.  We need Sesame Street on Norrath, it seems.

I asked about if merc tanks could leave push rooted mobs alone when more than one mob was on aggro, so we can use push root for crowd control, as it is designed for.  I was again informed this is a Dev decision, coding can work it out if requested of them.

I mentioned that the Universal Chat Server (UCS) sucked, with it going down constantly.  I was told that a new UCS was in the works, with, as usual, it coming to other SOE games first, then coming to EverQuest, Soon™.

I also mentioned that no one uses the EQ Voice Chat since it sucks.  I asked if it would be fixed and was told that since no one uses it, they don't see a need to fix it :).  I was also told that an improved Voice Chat was on the list to be done, Soon™.

It was not outright stated but implied that the new UCS and Voice Chat are likely to be years away from implementation, due to the many other higher priority issues.

Grand Banquet:

Not much to say about this.  There was some food and prizes and the costume contest. 

They decided to have voting for the costume contest be done by texting, which left me out of it, since I don't have a phone with texting.  That was fine, as I really didn't care too much anyway.   Of more importance was that the voting had to be redone, as the first attempt was marred by a failure to properly identify who you were voting for.  In addition, sitting in the back it was hard to read the screens showing how to text for each contestant, they need to work on making the numbers larger and improving how it was displayed. 

Not all of us are 18 years old with 20/20 vision.  It also did not stay up long enough.  Still, it was a good attempt to improve older methods of just trying to judge who got the most applause.

As mentioned above, once again the sound system was not up to snuff, but we could make out most of what was said. 

Still, the poor sound system turned out to be of a benefit when the "Planetside 2 Meth Partners" (as I call them) were doing their show.  I'm not sure if it was during the Grand Banquet or before, but everyone at my table; not being 15 year old kids into First Person Shooters, calling everyone obscene names while T-bagging them, and generally being too cool for skool; found them very annoying.  I'm sure they were doing their best to hype PS2 and try to bring some enthusiasm to it, but I think everyone in the room became dumber from having to endure it.

Also, for some reason the air conditioning was way too high during this and most of us were freezing.

Still, it was well worth attending and SOE did their best to put on a good show.  Brasse was in full regalia with her dwarfish accent as M.C. and kept things moving, with some help from her Server Hamster assistants.

Suggestions for This Year / Next Year:

Make the badge software easier to use.  Print the person's information on both sides.

Do something about the sound in the "Bally's Event Center" (Keynote room).  It is too loud and echoes.

Make the DJ lower the sound at the Pool Party.

Make sure the Program Guide mentions that you must be there at the start of the EverQuest Death Death Death! Tournament to sign up or you can't participate.

All the Panels had a sign outside saying what the panel was.   However, the poor person in charge of changing them when a panel ended and a new one began was unable to get to them all quickly.  It would be a better idea to have all of the signs for the day on the stand, so anyone there could just take the old one and put it in the back and show the latest one.

The Raffle needs to be done differently.  The way it was done involved certain times (usually twice a day for an hour at a time) that required people to form a line to the wheel of prizes.  Waiting on a line for 30 minutes to reach the wheel was not cool.  The line stretched through the entire room, winding back and forth.  Because I was unaware of how it was done, that some of the times were the same as the time of panels, and the fact that you could only redeem one ticket at a time, I only managed to use one of my three raffle tickets.  I got a string of beads on a bottle opener, about the worst prize you could get.  I can't complain too much since I got a free pass, though.

All the "PowerPoint" presentations should be made available online after the SOE Live is over (or during it).  This way people who were not there can view them.  Also, recording all sessions and showing them on the TwitchTV channel would be nice, but I'm not sure how practical that would be.  

RoF Pre-Launch Shard Collection Quest To Stay

The Rain of Fear pre-launch quest "Fear Shard Collection" will not end once RoF begins.  Unlike other expansion pre-launch quests, this one will remain in the game.

Piestro, EQ Community Relations:

Just to clarify this quest has nothing to do with progression. Nor is it a launch event in the fact that it isn't going away after a set period of time. It's pretty much here to stay. After launch it will continue to be available for the foreseeable future. Drop rates will be bumped with the Expansion patch, and there are some slightly more farmable spots in RoF.

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, November 7, 2012

From SOE EverQuest Community News:

Server Downtime for Game Update – Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Posted On 11/06/2012

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 3:30 a.m. US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 4.5 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

"Secret" Triple Station Cash: Sunday, November 4

From Allakhazam's:

Apparently Sony Online Entertainment was planning a triple Station Cash event this week, but has postponed it due to hurricane Sandy. According to John Smedley, president of SOE:

We were going to run a surprise Triple Station Cash promotion tomorrow. Due to the horrible storm and our East Coast players being impacted ... we are going to move that promotion to this upcoming Sunday November 4th. We normally do not announce these, but under these conditions we ... decided it was the right thing to do. Smed

Update: Linda "Brasse" Carlson tweeted: "RT @neodraykl: @Brasse @j_smedley What’s eligible for the triple promotion? SC cards or online purchases? [Everything except SMS!]" So I'd save those Walmart and SOE Live cards!

SOE Maintenance Thursday, November 1, 2012

From the SOE forum:

Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 5:00 AM Pacific* on November 1, 2012. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 3 hours. This will impact the following services:

• Login for all SOE games may be affected 
• Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces, may be unavailable
• Account management may be unavailable

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

*Convert to your local time

SOE Games Undergoing Maintenance October 29, 2012

From EQ Community News:

Maintenance Notice: Monday, October 29, 2012

Posted On 10/26/2012

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Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 4:00 AM Pacific* on October 29, 2012. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 4 hours. This will impact the following services:

• Login for all SOE games will be affected for the first hour
• Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces, will be unavailable
• Account management will be unavailable

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

*Convert to your local time

Double XP Weekend: Friday, November 2nd through Sunday, November 4th

From the SOE forum:

CONGRATULATIONS!
Back in May, we launched our Facebook Quest. With true Norrathian spirit, players rallied behind their games and vigorously promoted the EverQuest and EverQuest II Facebook pages. We were so impressed with the effort you've all put in over the past few months that both games will be rewarded with a Double Experience Weekend!
We're starting tomorrow with EverQuest II! The Double Experience Weekend will be from 12:00pm (noon) Pacific on Friday, October 26th through 11:59 pm on Sunday, October 28th.
EverQuest will have their weekend next, from 12:00pm (noon) Pacific on Friday, November 2nd through 11:59 pm on Sunday, November 4th.
Congratulations to all players from both games, and enjoy the weekends!

Rain of Fear Beta Registration Opens

From the SOE forum:

We are now accepting sign-ups for the EverQuest® Rain of Fear™ expansion beta.

As with previous years’ beta, the sign-up process has been made easier for you… and for us! Once you sign up, the system places you in a pool of potential beta testers. When the invite stages occur, beta testers will automatically be selected from that pool. We will, however, still be limiting the number of participants during different beta stages—the difference is that now you don't have to wait for a window of opportunity to sign up. The beta sign-up page will remain open until the beta ends. Once you sign up, you do not need to sign up again.

Please remember that when you sign up to participate in any beta you agree to the Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) terms. In short, this means you agree not to disclose information about the expansion. You must read and accept the full NDA before you get placed in the pool.

Before clicking the link below, make sure you update your email address on your account. If you do not update your email address, emails sent by the system may not be delivered to your account.

You can update your email address by clicking the email settings button under the My Account option. Got that? Update your account before signing up for beta! For your convenience, the beta page has an option to update your email address.

Sign up for the EQ Expansion Beta

See you in Beta!

UPDATE:  From EverQuest Community News -

Rain of Fear Beta Membership Requirements

Sign-ups are underway for the EverQuest® Rain of Fear ™ expansion beta!

This year, beta will be available exclusively to Gold and All Access Members. Only those with Gold or All Access membership will be considered from the pool of potential beta testers.

In addition to having a Gold or All Access membership, when you sign up to participate in beta, you agree to the Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) terms. You must be a Gold or All Access member and must read and accept the full NDA before you get placed into the beta pool.

Ready to sign up for beta? Click here to get started!

The Haunting of Kithicor Event Begins

From the SOE forum:

Greetings Norrathians!

As the air fills with an eerie mist, the haunting of Norrath becomes imminent. The undead unearth and the ghouls and other fiends begin to lurk about scaring unsuspecting adventurers in the Kithicor Forest.

The Guides and the Community Team invite you to join us for a chilling event this October.  Check out the schedule below to find out when your server will be haunted by our presence!

• The Rathe - Tuesday, October 2^nd, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Vox - Tuesday, October 2^nd, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Firiona Vie - Wednesday, October 3^rd, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Xegony - Thursday October 4^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Antonius Bayle - Friday, October 5^th, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. PDT*
• Bristlebane - Monday, October 8^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Bertoxxulous - Tuesday, October 9^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Povar - Wednesday, October 10^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Tunare - Friday October 12^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Luclin - Wednesday, October 24^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Erollisi Marr - Thursday, October 25^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Cazic-Thule - Friday, October 26^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*
• Drinal - Monday October 29^th, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. PDT*

Location: Kithicor Forest

Do you dare come out of hiding?

 *Convert to your local time

Patch Scheduled Tuesday, September 25, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 4:30 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 3.5 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, September 19, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 1:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 7 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

Upcoming Player Studio™ Will Allow You To Make Marketplace Items

From the SOE web site:

Player Studio™ is a new program that invites (initially US-based) players to download sample geometry, learn how virtual items are constructed, and try designing items. You can try your hand at writing a creative name, item description and rationale for how it fits into the ongoing narrative storyline.

Selected items will be offered for sale in the SOE Marketplace alongside items created by staff artists, priced in SOE's Station Cash virtual currency. Revenue from the sale of these items will be shared back with the creative player.

The program is not yet officially running, but you can read up and even start creating items now. More information will be released at SOE Live 2012 in Las Vegas, NV.

Nineteenth Expansion "Rain of Fear" Announced

SOE announces Rain of Fear expansion:

EverQuest celebrates an unprecedented 20^th major game release with the Rain of Fear™ Expansion. Thirteen years after the initial launch of EverQuest and 19 expansions later, Rain of Fear™ continues an exciting storyline that started two years ago with the mysterious House of Thule™ Expansion, and continued in Veil of Alaris™.

You and your friends destroyed the newly created god, The Triumverate, causing an explosion that rocked Norrath and released the stolen power of fear. This power is returning to Norrath, falling from the sky in the form of crystalline shards.  Who will gain control of the essence of fear and bring balance between good and evil? 

The Harbingers of Thule entreat you to gather the essence of their lost god before it falls into the hands of others.  You will uncover the mysteries of the giant crystals that have fallen to Norrath, explore newly discovered lands, revisit the frozen wastes of Velious, and battle old foes empowered by shards, confront them and reclaim the power of fear.

Along the way you will progress up to the unprecedented level of 100!  We're pretty excited to see the first character reach level 100 in EverQuest, a true gaming landmark.

We will also be adding a few amazing features to this classic game.  We will be adding a way to track your relative aggro level.  Ever wanted to know when the bad guy was about to turn around and mash your rogue before it happened?  With the new aggro meter if you get caught over-aggroing, you'll have no real excuse. There are also new Collection and Hunter Tasks; these will allow you to gather up various items all over Norrath as well as track your kills to gain new titles and new rewards.  Want to become the Gnollslayer?  Gnomeslayer?  Now you can.  We will also be making some major improvements to the brokering system.  The Autonomous Brokering system (name may change if people continue to have issues pronouncing it...) is something that you have asked us for, something that we've wanted to make for you, for years. You will be able to turn off your computer and keep your trader up in Bazaar!

 Join the discussion at the SOE forum or visit Fanra's EverQuest Wiki Rain of Fear page for more information as time goes by.

Temporary Paladin Divine Stun/Healing Light Nerf

From the SOE forum:

Just a heads up for you Paladin types..

Healing Light will no longer proc from the AA Divine Stun. This is a TEMPORARY change until such time as code has time to address a significant exploit with this combo. No other stuns are being affected.

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

Dragons, Dragons, Dragons and Giants, Giants, Giants! Return

The Dragons, Dragons, Dragons group/raid quest and the Giants, Giants, Giants! solo/group/raid quest have returned to the game.

There has been no announcement from SOE, so we don't know if this is intended (it is assumed that it is) and no idea of how long they will remain in the game.

Free Braxi Mount is Yours to Claim

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

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

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

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

Double XP for Labor Day Weekend

From EverQuest Community News:

Double Experience in EverQuest this Friday to Monday!

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

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

From EverQuest Community News:

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

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

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

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

Veil of Alaris Half Price August 10 - 12

From EQ Community News:

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

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

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

Patch Scheduled Friday, August 3, 2012

From EQ Community News:

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

*Time Zone Converter

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

*** Emergency Update ***

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

Raid Lag Issue To Be Addressed

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

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

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

New Armor Graphics System Coming in August

From the SOE forum:

Introducing Hero's Forge!

Hello Norrath!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Living Legacy Raids Secret Return?

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

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

Knowledge of Alaran Culture - Advanced Now Auto Granted

From the SOE forum:

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

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

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

From the SOE forum:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click here for a Time Zone Calculator.

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

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

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

Mysterious /Q Death Cause Discovered, To Be Fixed

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

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

Alaran Language AA Requirements To Be Removed in the August Patch

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apologies all..

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

UPDATE:  Elidroth posted some more info on the subject:

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

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

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

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, July 18, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 3:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 5 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

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

From the SOE forum:

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

Check out this link for Membership benefits!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the SOE forum:

To our European customers,

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

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

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

Thank you for your continued support!

Sony Online Entertainment

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

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

LoN Tiger Raptor Mount Color Change Unintentional, To Be Fixed

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

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

Double XP Weekend July 6 - July 8

From the SOE forum:

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

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

From Dzarn, EQ Developer, on the SOE forum:

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

SOE Investigating Valley of Lunanyn Crashing

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

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

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

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

LaunchPad Memory Problem Fixed, But Not Pushed To Everyone

SOE has fixed the problem with the LaunchPad not remembering your User name and/or Password. However, they have not pushed this fix to everyone, as many people are still reporting it.

To fix it:

•  Exit EQ completely.

• Go to your EverQuest folder.

• Delete all files with "LaunchPad" in the name (LaunchPad.exe, LaunchPad.dll, LaunchPad.ini) (LaunchPad.log don't matter).

• Delete the folder "LaunchPad.libs" (note that for some, if extensions are hidden in your Windows, it might be called just "LaunchPad"). Deleting the folder will also delete what is in it. Be careful you are only deleting the LaunchPad folder (and the contents of it), and not your entire EverQuest folder.

• Go to http://launch.soe.com/everquest/ and download the LaunchPad there.

• Run the downloaded file. When it asks you what to do, choose Repair existing EQ and pick your EQ from the drop down. Also, let it do the DirectX thing.

• LaunchPad should now remember your User name and Password.

You might not have to delete all the files I listed or do every step.  But I know this works.

UPDATE:  I've been told that just deleting the LaunchPad.Cache directory (Everquest->LaunchPad.libs->LaunchPad.Cache) fixes this and should be easier.  I'm unable to test this but if it works, that is better.

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, June 27, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 2:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 6 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

EverQuest Memberships with Station Cash Back Until Monday

From EverQuest on Facebook:

As previously mentioned, we plan to remove the ability to purchase EverQuest Memberships with Station Cash. We again apologize for any inconvenience caused when these were removed without warning last week. As promised, we reinstated them to give those customers who wished to the opportunity to purchase. On Monday 18th June, we will remove Station Cash Memberships while we assess the best way to move forward. As always, we thank you for your feedback!

Marketplace Items 1/2 Off for Three Days

Don’t miss the SOE Weekend Blitz half price sale!
Get half price on every station cash item in-game!
Hurry because this is a limited time event!  It ends on Monday June 18, 2012*

*Offer valid from 12:01AM PDT 6/16/2012 to 11:59PM PDT 6/18/2012; PC only.

"Who Are You Again?" LaunchPad Forgetting User

Since Thursday June 14, the LaunchPad isn't remembering who you are, even if you check the box to do so.

SOE has responded quickly to this issue:

We're aware of this situation and are working on our Launchpads to resolve it. I don't expect this will be a super quick fix but something that'll take a bit to address.

Crashing Issues Still Under Investigation

People are reporting crashing issues. Two kinds of issues seem to be occurring. One is simply having the game crash for no apparent reason. The other seems to be related to when people Alt-Tab. Both kinds of crashes seem to get one or both of the following error messages:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Runtime Error!
Program: game path\eqgame.exe
abnormal program termination

EverQuest Windows - Application Error
The instruction at 0x70cfba63 referenced memory at 0x70cfba63. The memory could not be read.
Click OK to terminate the program.

To report errors, you can send email to equserclient@soe.sony.com with as much information as you can of how it happened. Attach to your email your debug.dmp and dbg.txt files. They can be found in your Logs folder inside your EverQuest folder.

As for the Alt-Tab issue, Technical Support Representative Alexander S posted the following:

Hello My friends! I understand there's been quite a bit of you guys experiencing crashing issues when Alt tabbing. I encourage you each to send support tickets so we can find a correlation between the computer's experiencing this. Since this isn't happening to all the players, then we will need to do some research by gathering DXdiag/Msinfo information from players who are experiencing this issue. With your Cooperation, we will be able to get this resolved! Thank you again for your patience!

He posted also links explaining how to gather the info:

How to Contact Support: https://help.station.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/28939

How to Create a DXDIAG/MSINFO https://help.station.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/28973

UPDATE:

J. Chan, Lead Programmer for EverQuest, replied to a player's questions:

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

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

The standing around crash and the alt-tabbing issues are separate issues and we're trying to track them down separately.

Berserker Decapitation, Off With It's Head?

The Berserker AA Decapitation is not working.  Elidroth, EQ Game Designer, announces they are investigating:

OK.. so I've gotten our coding staff involved in figuring out why this isn't working properly. The data is exactly the same between beta and live, and while it works perfectly on beta, it isn't triggering at all on live. It's frustrating to say the least.

I'll let you know as soon as I find out something more.

Six Days of Double XP Begin Wednesday

From EverQuest Community News:

Starting at 12:01 pm Pacific (Noon) on Wednesday, May 23, 2012, and lasting until 11:59 pm Pacific on Monday, May 28, 2012, we'll offer a Double Experience in EverQuest! Take advantage of this special extended Double Experience Weekend and watch those XP bars skyrocket!

Veil of Alaris On Sale For A Limited Time

The Veil of Alaris expansion is on sale for about half price [$19.99] from May 18, 2012, and lasting until 11:59 pm on May 20, 2012.

From EQ Community News:

Haven't yet taken a peek behind the Veil of Alaris? Well now is the time! Starting at noon on May 18, 2012, and lasting until 11:59 pm on May 20, 2012, we're giving a deep discount on Veil of Alaris and the Veil of Alaris Digital Collector's Edition.

Don't wait too long to pick up a copy of Veil of Alaris though, because this deal won't last forever! Head to the Shop or grab a copy in the in game Marketplace now!

Fix to Constant Crashing Issue on Test?

Reports have come in about a large increase in the game crashing over the past few weeks.  SOE has posted that they have made some changes on the Test server which may help:

Modified how we handle memory management to help reduce our memory footprint. This effects all of the models and animations for everything in the game. This will also help with current systems that are currently crashing due to out of memory issues.

It is hoped that we might see these changes go live in the June patch.

Some Belts to Gain Potion Slot in June

Many belts give you an additional potion belt slot when you wear them.  But a number of belts have been reported that do not do so, although players seem to feel they should.

Chandrok, EQ Developer replied to the concerns in this SOE forum post:

The potion slot was simply overlooked. It will be added in the next patch.

It is unknown which belts will get a potion slot.

Maintenance Scheduled Tuesday, May 15, 2012

From the SOE forum:

Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 6:00 AM Pacific* on May 15, 2012. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 90 minutes. This will impact the following services:

• Login for all our games will be affected
• Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces will be unavailable
• Forums will be read-only
• Account management will be unavailable

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

*Convert to your local time

Low AA Bonus XP to Increase in June

Currently, if you have under 2500 AA, you get bonus AA XP.   The bonus degrades linearly from 500% [normal xp times 5] at 0 AAs, to 100% [normal xp] at 2500 AAs.

Elidroth, EQ Game Designer, posted the following on the SOE forum:

OK. So I'm taking the bonus to 4000AA, with a 1000% bonus degrading linearly to normal XP at the 4000 mark.

June patch.

Patch Scheduled Monday, May 14, 2012

From EverQuest Community News:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Monday, May 14, 2012 at 11:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 4 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

UPDATE from SOE:

Was a typo in the announcement, the downtime starts at 7AM not 11AM.

Also, this is hardware maintenance to hopefully help alleviate some of the problems that have been happening recently.

Also, the approximate downtime changed from 4 to 6 hours.

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, May 9, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 3:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 5 hours. Keep an eye on the EverQuest website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

Double XP in Five Zones Until May 9th

From EverQuest Community News:

There's little better than a weekday surprise, and we've decided to bring you a little weekday Double Experience action! It's available in just a few select zones, so make sure to get in on the party while it lasts!

From now until Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 3:00 am Pacific* all players will receive Double Experience in the following zones:

• Kaesora
• Sebilis
• The Buried Sea
• Fortress Mechanotus
• The Grounds

Enjoy!

*Convert to your local time

Triple Station Cash on 4/28/12 Only

From EverQuest - Community News:

Get TRIPLE Station Cash for 24 hours only!

Hurry! This offer ends at midnight!

*Valid from 12:00AM PDT 4/28/2012 through 12:00AM PDT 4/29/2012. Excludes purchases of SC made by SMS.

EQ Coming Down the Entire Day on Monday, April 23, 2012

From EQ Community News:

Maintenance Notice: Monday, April 23, 2012 – 24 Hours!

Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 12:01AM Pacific* on April 23, 2012. This will impact the following services:

• Login for our games WILL be affected from 12:01 AM Pacific* to approximately 11:59 PM Pacific*
• Commerce transactions, including purchases on our websites and in-game marketplaces will be unavailable between from 12:01 AM Pacific* to approximately 11:59 PM Pacific*
• Account management will be unavailable starting 12:01 AM to approximately 11:59 PM Pacific*
• All Games will be unavailable starting 12:01 AM to approximately 11:59 PM Pacific*

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

*Convert to your local time

"Emergency" Patch Scheduled Thursday, April 12, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 5:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 3 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

Although no reason was announced for the patch and it doesn't state it is an "emergency" patch, it is believed that the reason for it is to fix the "Worn" Focus Effects bug and other problems.

"Worn" Focus Effects Broken

It appears that items with an effect that contain the word "Worn" in them are not working after the latest patch.   An example would be arm armor with, "Effect: Cleave IX - 05 (Worn, Casting Time: Instant)".  This affects everyone, but melee classes seem to have the greatest loss of power.

It is assumed that this bug crept in when SOE removed the necessity to equip most clicky items in order to click them.

More on the issue can be found on the SOE forum here , here and here.    No word yet on when it will be fixed.

Fan Faire Finally Announced, Given Name Change

Danicia, SOE Community Relations:

Mark your calendars for October 18-21! Sony Online Entertainment is bringing all the fun of Fan Faire back to Bally’s Las Vegas with a new name, SOE Live!

The official web site is www.soe.com/soelive

Prestige Tag Bugged / Too Low Level?

From Elidroth, EQ Developer, on the SOE forum:

From what I understand, the major cause for problems were a bug with powersources causing all your armor to be labeled as Prestige even when it shouldn't have been.

The level at which the Prestige flag is set is going to be a topic of discussion at our weekly meeting tomorrow morning, but nothing that comes out of that meeting will be in the Thursday patch. That will have to wait until the next patch.

Patch Scheduled Thursday, March 22, 2012

From the SOE forum:

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 2:00 am US Pacific* for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 6 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Time Zone Converter

Some Augs Marked Prestige By Mistake

There are about 5,000 threads on the SOE forum complaining that far too many items are marked "Prestige".  The Prestige tag means that you must be a Gold member to use the item.

While the main issues have not been addressed by SOE, Elidroth, SOE Developer, did mention:

A lot of the augs were mistakenly flagged as Prestige. It's something I'm going to bring up in our weekly systems meeting.

I'll let you know where we're going with this as soon as I can.

Double Station Cash in EQ for 24 Hours

From the SOE forum:

In celebration of EverQuest’s 13th anniversary and transition to Free to Play. Your. Way. We will be offering double Station Cash! Hurry, only valid March 16, 12pm PDT to March 17, 12pm PDT*

*Excludes purchases of Station Cash by SMS

Note that you have to buy your Station Cash through EverQuest at http://everquest.station.sony.com/shop.

If you already have SC cards you can redeem them through http://everquest.station.sony.com/shop or in-game to qualify for the double Station Cash.

New 13th Birthday Anniversary Celebration Quests to Be Around Longer, Old Ones Shorter

From this SOE forum post:

The 13th anniversary events this year last for 13 weeks.  The older events should last 1 month.  The usual reason for the extension is when there are gating [sic] bugs.  Those were fixed for previous ones.  We of course hope we have none for the new ones.

In previous years the anniversary events lasted for six weeks, so the older events will actually be around for two weeks less than previous years.

EverQuest's 13th Birthday: Two Weeks of Bonus XP, Increased Rare Spawns, and More

From the SOE forum:

To help celebrate EverQuest's 13th birthday, there will be bonus experience, an increased spawn rate on rare mobs and a special 13 themed marketplace sale. These specials will run 3/16/2012 through 3/31/2012.

Yet to be answered, the percentage of bonus xp and if the dates are for the bonus xp and spawn rate or just the marketplace sale.

UPDATE: It appears that the bonus xp will be an additional 30% and that both the bonus xp and rare spawn rate increase will be from 3/16/2012 through 3/31/2012.

EverQuest's 13th Birthday Anniversary Celebration Begins March 16

From EQ Players News:

We're celebrating EverQuest's 13th birthday! Beginning at 12:01 AM PDT on Friday, March 16, 2012, we will be launching EverQuest Free to Play. Your Way. This year we are combining it with one of the most exciting things to happen in the history of EQ. Mark your calendars and get ready for one huge celebration, with 13th Anniversary events and the transition to free-to-play both coming on March 16!

To celebrate EverQuest's 13th birthday, players will be able to embark on anniversary missions and quests. Stop by the Plane of Knowledge to join the celebration. Just look for the festive anniversary décor to get started.

There are thirteen new themed quests, including a spectacular mission as some of the greatest villains of EverQuest, a raid to stop a familiar face from gaining ultimate power, and over 40 events from past anniversaries.

Events will be updated as they are discovered at Fanra's EverQuest Wiki Anniversary page. Naturally, expect sites like Allakhazam to also have info.  Checking several sites as well as the official SOE forum tends to work best if you want to know about the latest info.

EQ To Be Down All Day Thursday For Free to Play and Anniversary Patch

From EQ Players News:

On Thursday, March 15, 2012, at 12:01 AM PDT* (midnight) the EverQuest servers will be taken offline in preparation for the launch of EverQuest Free to Play. Your Way. Downtime is expected to last until Friday, March 16, 2012, at 12:01 AM PDT (midnight).

This year we are combining the Anniversary update with EverQuest going free-to-play, so the servers will be down for a full 24 hours. More information about the 13th Anniversary will be posted later this week.

While the servers are down you can join us on the EverQuest forums, the EverQuest Facebook page, and on the EverQuest Twitter feed for updates, games, and more! We will also have an EverQuest Anniversary webcast on Twitch.tv starting at 4:30 PM PDT, and we will release an EverQuest themed podcast.

Mark your calendars and get ready for one huge celebration, with the 13th Anniversary events and the transition to free-to-play both coming on March 16th!

*Time Zone Converter

There is some confusion as to whether this is Thursday or Friday, as the statement by using the word, "midnight", makes it unclear.

Currently, no one at SOE has clarified the issue.  However, from posts by players on their forum, it appears that the game will be down on Thursday and the use of the word, "midnight", by SOE was a mistake by them and it should never have been added to the statement.

UPDATE:  Assuming that SOE got it correct, the latest information on the Anniversary Celebration states it begins on Friday, so we can assume that the downtime will be all day Thursday and the servers are planned to be up on Friday.

EQ Down Again (March 7), Hopefully Back in an Hour

From the SOE forum:

The EverQuest US servers will be taken offline for a quick server re-start at 12:45 PM PST. The downtime is expected to last one hour. Antonius Bayle will be taken offline for a quick server re-start at 16:00 PM PST. The downtime is expected to last one hour.

All US servers will be down from 12:45 PM PST until 13:45 PM PST. Antonius Bayle will be down from 16:00 PM PST until 17:00 PM PST.

We apologize for this interruption and will open the servers as quickly as the maintenance is completed.

*Convert to your local time

EQ Down March 5-6 for Maintenance - EXTENDED

From EQ Players News:

Maintenance Notice: Monday, March 5, 2012

Important: We will perform maintenance beginning at 11:00 PM Pacific* on March 5, 2012. Login for all games will be unavailable starting at 11:00 PM on March 5, 2012, to approximately 5:00 AM Pacific* on March 6, 2012. There will be extended downtime for account management and commerce transactions, and the forums will be read only, until approximately 7:00 AM Pacific* on March 6, 2012.

EverQuest will also have server maintenance during this downtime. Povar and Antonius Bayle will be taken down at 03:00 AM. Once the login maintenance is complete, Antonius Bayle and Povar will be open for play. Players that log into the Test server before the maintenance starts should not be impacted.

All of the other EverQuest servers will be taken offline at 12:00 AM Pacific* on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. The estimated downtime for this maintenance is 12:00 AM to approximately 04:00 PM Pacific* on March 6, 2012. If the maintenance is completed early the servers may be opened up before the estimated time.

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

*Convert to your local time

UPDATE:

All of the EverQuest servers (except for Antonius Bayle) were taken down at 12:00 AM Pacific* on Tuesday, March 6, 2012. The servers are being moved to a new location and having all of their hardware upgraded. This downtime has unfortunately taken a little longer then planned. The new estimated time for completion and reopening of the servers for play is 12:00 AM PST March 7, 2012.

We apologize for this interruption and will keep you informed if this information changes.

*Convert to your local time

Other People Crashing When You Zone In or Get Rezzed?

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

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

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

Double Station Cash Game Stop Weekend

From the SOE forum:

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

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

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

From EQ Players:

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

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

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

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

UPDATE:

Double experience has now started. Enjoy!

-Piestro
EverQuest Community Manager 

SOE Still Silent Regarding 2012 Fan Faire

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

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

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

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

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

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

EQ Mac To Continue, For Free

From the SOE forum:

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

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

Anchors Away!

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

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

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

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

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

EQ Players to Work?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Veteran Rewards: Free and silver accounts will accrue time.

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

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

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

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

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

The Traitor Revealed Mission Bug To Be Fixed

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

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

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

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

From Elidroth, EQ Developer in this SOE forum thread:

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

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

You can expect this for the February patch.

Later he amended his post with the following:

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

UPDATE (post by Elidroth, EQ Developer):

It's pretty simple.

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

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

EverQuest Patcher / Login Down For Some

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

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

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

How to bypass the LaunchPad and patcher:

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

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

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

See this link if you want pretty pictures.

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

Patch Scheduled Wednesday, February 8, 2012

From EQ Players:

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

Merc Healer Fixes Coming Soon(tm)

Currently on Test Server:

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

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

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