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
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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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