from Everquest Community News

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

July 06, 2012 - Double Experience Weekend

Beginning at 10:00am PDT Friday, July 6th until 11:59pm PDT Sunday, July 8th SOE is Doubling Experience! Combine that with the modified AA acceleration and those of you with fewer than 4,000 AA should be able to have a good weekend grinding out some experience!

June 27, 2012 - Patch Notes for June 27, 2012

*** Highlights ***

• Modified how we handle memory management to help reduce our memory footprint. This affects 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.
• Changed the AA experience boost for low AA counts from 2500 to 4000 AA. The bonus now tapers linearly from 1000% to normal experience over this new range. Progression servers will not get this bonus until Veil of Alaris is unlocked.
• Fixed a bug that could cause some fast bows to lose speed when at maximum haste and using a haste quiver.

***Items ***

• Most beds now offer the ability for you to take a nap on them when placed in real estate zones.
• The Ethereal Dreamweave Satchel and Dreamweave Satchel are no longer tradable on Firiona Vie.
• Tweaked the archery minimum delay regarding quivers.
• Prescient Fleeting Quiver is once again 90% weight reduction.

*** Tradeskills ***

• Improved the healing focus on all Veiled Seals of the Healer.

• Added the tradeskill useable flag to a large number of items, such as non-placeable tradeskill containers, items that modify your skill levels, and tradeskill tools.

*** Quests & Events ***

• Xanuusus should be more responsive to multiple rangers attempting to demonstrate an act of faith as part of their epic 1.5 pre-task.
• Bristlebane has been shuffling his Deck of Spontaneous Generation and has thrown in a few new tricks. (Five previously unobtainable items that resulted from combinations of mischief cards can now be created.)
• A previously unobtainable item that Einhorst McMannus has been after for many years can now be found.
• The shadows in Innothule Swamp have come alive once again. Ssynthi in Castle Mistmoore might be interested in this.
• Two Sides of the Stone (Raid) - Reduced the detrimental effect of many spells within the raid.
• Two Sides of the Stone (Raid) - "Blobs" now wait a small amount of time before doing damage.
• Two Sides of the Stone (Raid) - Reduced how often adds spawn during the Avatar fight.
• Two Sides of the Stone (Raid) - The amount of recovery time allowed between split phases has been increased.
• The Triune God (Raid) - The Triunity will no longer choose pets as targets when casting Erasure or Mind Strip.

*** Spells ***

• Fixed a problem that was causing all rune spells (or spell shields) on an entity to break when any one broke.
• Fixed a problem that was causing unexpected effects when some spells were cured, such as creating throwing daggers.

*** NPC ***

• Alinai Kaneriti in Butcherblock Mountains should now have a more appropriate title.
• Corrected an outstanding issue with the appearance of mountain giants in Kunark and Basilisks in Jaggedpine Forest.
• Sylisa Cogsworthy and Gaelsori Heriseron in the Bazaar are now happy to help you with delivering and receiving parcels.

*** AA ***

• Changed the AA experience boost for low AA counts from 2500 to 4000 AA. The bonus now tapers linearly from 1000% to normal experience over this new range. Progression servers will not get this bonus until Veil of Alaris is unlocked.

*** Achievements ***

• Corrected an issue that prevented the "Hero of Bloody Kithicor" achievement from being completed.
• Added a list of tasks to the Alaran Language Master achievement that shows the language points for completion of various task groups. You may need to close and re-open your Achievements window after completing a task to force an update.

*** Progression Servers ***

• Corrected an erroneous "vote failed" message that could appear midway through a voting cycle.
• Improved messaging when a vote to unlock an expansion wins, loses, or ties.
• Corrected several spells that were not available on the updated Plane of Knowledge vendors at the appropriate time.
• The neighborhood should no longer be accessible on Progression servers until the House of Thule expansion is unlocked.

*** Miscellaneous ***

• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred on a progression server when clicking on the atlas button in the map window.
• Fixed a graphics engine issue that potentially causes the alt-tab crashes.
• Reduced the overall memory consumption used when zoning by no longer pre-loading textures that aren't currently in use.
• Fixed a bug that could cause some fast bows to lose speed when at maximum haste and using a haste quiver.
• Corrected the path of the Sirensbane through Erud's Crossing.

*** UI ***

• Added the ability to inspect and preview reward items in the Reward Selection Window both by using the Inspect and Preview buttons and by alt-left and alt-right clicking the item icon in the window.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the selected reward option to reset to the top option when selecting a reward item for the first time.

- Changed -

• EQUI_RewardSelectionWnd.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

• Removed several NPCs from progression servers that should not have been active until much later.

- The EverQuest Team

June 20, 2012 - Meh

Many of you are aware that our forums have had issues over the past couple of months, including getting reported as an attack site. We thought we had it all cleaned up after much gnashing of teeth, back and forth with the vbulletin folks and with google, and after taking a needed sanity break, I turned on forum registrations again last week. For less than a day. Not only did we get hit with a fresh spate of spammers, but once again we've been reported as an attack site, indicating that there is still an underlying security issue to be tackled. All I can do about it is whimper at the hubbyogre, who handles all the coding, software and security side of things, and wait for him to poke at vbulletin, wait on a response, poke at the code, etc. So, I am sitting here, again, feeling pretty helpless, while I get flooded on several fronts (my forums, SOE forums, facebook, ICQ, etc., etc.) by folks asking if I know about the problem.

So ... meh. (Which is the sound of an unhappy halfling who is helpless to do anything but sit and wait.)

We know about it, it is being worked on. There is no ETA. The sites themselves are fine, but the forums for both sites are iffy.

I wish I was able to find something positive to say about this, but ...

MEH

June 15, 2012 - SOE Weekend Blitz!

This applies to EQ, EQII, FreeRealms, DCUO, Pox Nora, MtG: Tactics and Clone Wars Adventures:

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*

June 09, 2012 - Upcoming changes to subscription payment methods

In EQ and EQ II, the option to use station cash to pay for subscriptions will be removed by June 15th. If you've been keeping station cash with the intent of funding a non-recurring subscription, make sure you complete your purchase before next Friday. The bonus station cash promotion for this weekend appears to still be on. Redeem a game card for station cash and receive 500 bonus SC.

April 18, 2012 - Extended Downtime Warning

From SOE:

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

April 10, 2012 - Server Downtime April 11, 2012

All EverQuest Live Servers will be down on Wednesday, April 11, 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.

*** Highlights ***

• Destrea Kinmare in the Plane of Knowledge needs your help to stop the cruel experimentation that is underway within The Hatchery. Completing this mission provides a health and mana boost to the Dragonscale Skystrider Mount, which can be purchased in the Marketplace.
• Modified the functionality of prestige items so that armor or weapons with prestige augments inserted do not become prestige.
• Made numerous changes to Tier 3 and Tier 4 Veil of Alaris raids.
• Most items with activated spell effects can now be triggered from within your inventory.
• Maxed tradeskill trophies now produce a 24 slot tradeskill component bag in addition to the 12 slot general carry-all.
• You can now create an Extraplanar Trade Satchel using Extraplanar Silk.
• Reduced the number of players required to experience several older raid events.
• Secalna Galnor can now send you to the tutorial if you are level 10 or lower.
• Corrected an issue where players who had completed non-repeatable tasks in the past were not receiving achievement credit. This should clear up many issues where players were unable to complete the Hero's Journey meta-achievements.
• You can now ask Arias to send you to a different instance of the second Tutorial zone, if the initial instance is too full and another one is available. Just tell him that you [wish] to go.

*** Items ***

• Nearly all items that previously needed to be equipped in order to activate their spell effect should now be useable from your inventory if you are capable of equipping that item. These changes intentionally exclude a number of quest and bane items.
• The Rod of Alsa Thel can now be placed in your bank.
• The Midnight Veil can no longer be stored in banks or real estates.
• The Woodwind Finesse effect on the Twisted Reed Flute will no longer affect PBAE songs.

*** Tradeskills ***

• Maxed tradeskill trophies now produce a 24 slot tradeskill component bag in addition to the 12 slot general carry-all.
• You can now find Extraplanar Silk in Veil of Alaris and House of Thule zones. To find instructions on how to use it to craft an Extraplanar Trade Satchel, visit Bookseller Shoden in Argath or Sherin Matrick in the Plane of Knowledge.
• Looted cultural crafting components now have small coin and tribute values.
• Added a coin or tribute value to many looted poison and jewelry tradeskilling components.

*** Quests & Events ***

• Destrea Kinmare in the Plane of Knowledge needs your help to stop the cruel experimentation that is underway within The Hatchery. Completing this mission provides a health and mana boost to the Dragonscale Skystrider Mount, which can be purchased in the Marketplace.
• Time and Tides raid - Lowered the initial DPS of High Priests within the raid.
• Time and Tides raid - Those who are currently on top of a High Priest’s hate list should no longer receive a whirlpool emote.
• Time and Tides raid - Increased the amount of time characters have to respond to the whirlpool emote.
• Time and Tides raid - Decreased the radius of the whirlpool effect.
• Two Sides of the Stone raid - Significantly lowered the amount of HP Vision or Decay will heal when a condition is "failed".
• Two Sides of the Stone raid - Characters who are dead and unable to follow the "jump" emote will no longer trigger the fail condition.
• Two Sides of the Stone raid - Characters now have a little more time to execute their "jumps" and remove "filth".
• Unearthing Alra raid - Clarified the effect of each tower.
• Unearthing Alra raid - Made a number of changes to the messaging to better explain some previously ambiguous mechanics.
• Cacophony of Power raid - Decreased the mana drain on Dissonance of Depletion.
• Order of Three raid - Removed an unnamed exploit.
• Order of Three raid - Decreased the melee damage of all three main bosses.
• Order of Three raid and mission- The long-term debuffs (Life Enhancing Light, Coat of Oilflowers, Song for the Sea, and Coat of Roiling Water) no longer prevent out of combat regen.
• Order of Three raid and mission - Reduced the radius of Bonds of Guilt and changed the spell's effect from a long snare to a short stun.
• Fumerak the Quintessence raid - Fixed a number of bugs, reduced the damage output of Fumerak and its adds, and improved the messaging.
• The Triune God raid - Prevented the Blinding Lights from moving in a cluster and affecting avatar pathing.
• The Triune God raid - Reduced the sphere of influence sizes for Blinding Lights, Filth Clouds, and personal charm effects. Blinding Lights no longer has a knockback component, and its damage has been reduced.
• The Triune God raid - In the first phase, now only 4 of 8 crystal shards need to be destroyed. You also can damage the Triunity for up to 10% of its health, instead of 5%, on each vulnerability window.
• The Triune God raid - Charmed avatars will now stay focused on attacking crystal shards.
• The Triune God raid - In the second phase, the HP of crystal relics has been reduced by 30%, and their vulnerability window has lengthened.
• The Triune God raid - A checkpoint has been added after the second phase.
• The Triune God raid - The length of time between several emotes and their consequences has been increased.
• The number of players needed to start the following raids has been reduced to 6: Ancient Heroes - Lady Vox, Ancient Heroes - Lord Nagafen, Big Bynn's Return, Crazok Moonfang, Fippy's Revenge, Ralkor's Crystals, The Fanged Moon, and The Soulbleeder Must Bleed.
• Reduced from 4 to 1 the number of players required to be at each altar in the "exiles" portion of the Inktu'ta, the Unmasked Chapel raid.
• The number of players required for the following events has been reduced from 18 to 6: Muramite Proving Ground raid trials, and Erdna the Sleeping Giant in The Steppes.
• 13th Anniversary quests - Removed the option for 1 AA point as a reward. The quests now grant a small amount of experience upon completion.
• 13th Anniversary quests - Lowered the re-use time of the mining pick used in "Responsible Mining".
• 13th Anniversary quests - Corrected a few issues with "Ferocious Feralings" and "Rumor Has It...".
• 13th Anniversary quests - Added an achievement related to the missions.
• 13th Anniversary mission - The AA reward has been increased to 5 AA points, but may now only be selected once.
• 13th Anniversary raid rewards - Players who have already completed the raid should be granted a reward set via their raid achievement. The reward set allows you to select either augmentation that drops from the event. This choice is only granted once. Subsequent victories will allow you to choose between receiving factions or experience.
• Quests granting reward sets that offer faction gains will now adjust opposing factions accordingly.

*** Spells ***

• Enchanter - Increased the damage on Mana Reiteration Strike and Mana Repercussion strike.
• Magician - Exigent Minions and Exigent Servants have discovered a new ability that will only work against certain strong raid targets.

*** NPC ***

• Fixxin is in a great mood due to the 13th anniversary and will be more likely to chat with folks that he normally does not like.
• Geniveve, the Tribute Master in Crescent Reach, will now accept the tribute of any race, not just Drakkins.
• Laurentiu and Marilena in Goru`Kar Mesa are more willing to accept the help of higher level adventurers undertaking the Hero's Journey.
• Secalna Galnor can now send you to the tutorial if you are level 10 or lower.
• Corrected an issue where Cook Idriak was not accepting the Ripe Bixie Heads for his task "Heads Above the Rest".

*** AA ***

• Enchanter - Mesmerization Mastery is now restricted to single-target mez spells only. Area-of-effect spells are not extended.

*** Achievements ***

• To complete the "7th Anniversary Tasks" achievement, you now only need to finish one of the three tasks.
• Added a list of tasks to the Alaran Language Master achievement that shows the language points for the completion of various task groups.
• Corrected an issue where players who had completed non-repeatable tasks in the past were not receiving achievement credit. This should clear up many issues where players were unable to complete the Hero's Journey meta-achievements.

*** Progression Servers ***

• Small Grease Jar Sketches are now available.

*** Mercenaries ***

• Bloodbone Skeleton tank mercenaries will now keep the attention of their targets as reliably as other mercenaries.
• The following caster DPS mercenaries now cast at the same speed and generate the same amount of hate as other mercenaries - Amygdalan, Aviak, Bloodbone Skeleton, Dragorn, Gingerbread Man, Girplan, Hadal, Marionette, Rallosian Ork, Sarnak, and Swinetor.

*** Miscellaneous ***

• Added two small signs in the Guild Lobby to signify which door will take you to a standard guild hall and which door will take you to a real estate guild hall.
• You can now ask Arias to send you to a different instance of the second Tutorial zone, if the initial instance is too full and another one is available. Just tell him that you [wish] to go.
• Made it so that members that do not have access to prestige items will no longer be able to insert a prestige augmentation into an item.
• Modified the functionality of prestige items so that armor or weapons with prestige augments inserted do not become prestige.
  • The item slot now appears purple when an item has an augment that is prestige (but the item itself is still enabled).
  • When examining the item, the item name will appear purple, and any augments that are disabled as a result of being prestige appear red.
  • If the item itself is prestige, and disabled as a result, then prestige augments are factored into the item display stats.
  • If the item itself is not prestige, then disabled prestige augments are not factored into the item display stats.

*** UI ***

• Made it so that every UI window will have the "Help" option in its right click menu.
• Fixed an oversight where the "Style_Qmarkbox" didn't actually make the window display its "?" in the title bar. Now it will.
• Converted all the locations from defining the visibility of the "?" in code to the XML file instead.
• Added the "DecalSize" and "Location" properties to the ListboxColumn UI type. This allows custom UI designers to specify the size and positioning of graphical elements within list boxes. This has been implemented in the EQUI_MarketplaceWnd.xml for an example.

- Changed -

• EQUI_AAWindow.xml
• EQUI_AdventureLeaderboardWnd.xml
• EQUI_AdventureRequestWnd.xml
• EQUI_AdventureStatsWnd.xml
• EQUI_AlertHistoryWnd.xml
• EQUI_AltStorageWnd.xml
• EQUI_AudioTriggersWindow.xml
• EQUI_BandolierWnd.xml
• EQUI_BankWnd.xml
• EQUI_BarterMerchantWnd.xml
• EQUI_BarterSearchWnd.xml
• EQUI_BarterWnd.xml
• EQUI_BigBankWnd.xml
• EQUI_BodyTintWnd.xml
• EQUI_ClaimWnd.xml
• EQUI_CombatAbilityWnd.xml
• EQUI_DynamicZoneWnd.xml
• EQUI_FellowshipWnd.xml
• EQUI_FriendsWnd.xml
• EQUI_GiveWnd.xml
• EQUI_GuildBankWnd.xml
• EQUI_GuildManagementWnd.xml
• EQUI_HotButtonWnd.xml
• EQUI_Inventory.xml
• EQUI_ItemExpTransferWnd.xml
• EQUI_JournalNPCWnd.xml
• EQUI_LeadershipWnd.xml
• EQUI_LFGuildWnd.xml
• EQUI_LootWnd.xml
• EQUI_MailAddressBookWindow.xml
• EQUI_MailCompositionWindow.xml
• EQUI_MailWindow.xml
• EQUI_MarketplaceWnd.xml
• EQUI_MerchantWnd.xml
• EQUI_NewPointMerchantWnd.xml
• EQUI_PetInfoWindow.xml
• EQUI_PlayerCustomizationWnd.xml
• EQUI_PointMerchantWnd.xml
• EQUI_PotionBeltWnd.xml
• EQUI_PvPLeaderboardWnd.xml
• EQUI_PvPStatsWnd.xml
• EQUI_QuantityWnd.xml
• EQUI_RaidWindow.xml
• EQUI_RealEstateItemsWnd.xml
• EQUI_RealEstateLayoutDetailsWnd.xml
• EQUI_RealEstateManageWnd.xml
• EQUI_RealEstateNeighborhoodWnd.xml
• EQUI_RealEstatePlotSearchWnd.xml
• EQUI_RealEstatePurchaseWnd.xml
• EQUI_SendMoneyWnd.xml
• EQUI_SkillsWindow.xml
• EQUI_SpellBookWnd.xml
• EQUI_StoryWnd.xml
• EQUI_TaskSelectWnd.xml
• EQUI_TaskTemplateSelectWnd.xml
• EQUI_TaskWnd.xml
• EQUI_TitleWnd.xml
• EQUI_TradeskillWnd.xml
• EQUI_TradeWnd.xml
• EQUI_TrainWindow.xml
• EQUI_TributeBenefitWnd.xml
• EQUI_TributeMasterWnd.xml
• EQUI_TributeTrophyWnd.xml
• EQUI_VoiceMacroWnd.xml
• EQUI_VoteResultsWnd.xml
• EQUI_VoteWnd.xml
• EQUI_ZoneGuideWnd.xml
• EQUI_ZonePathWnd.xml
• SIDL.xml

January 30, 2012 - EverQuest is Going Free-to-Play

/Tell Norrathians INCOMING BUFFS!

Hello everyone - I hope you all are doing well early on in the New Year! With an exciting Veil of Alaris expansion just released in November, we're thrilled to announce the next big adventure for EverQuest®. After listening to your feedback and suggestions over the past few years, I'm happy to announce that in early March 2012, EverQuest will be going free-to-play.

You can read more here

In other news, while our hosting provider finally got our two months of missing data back from the data restore place, that was over two weeks ago, and we never saw any of the data ourselves, nor are they forthcoming with updates. Once I get information on bandwidth and such from the hubbyogre, I will be asking both our EQ and our EQII communities for hosting recommendations. Please, please, please, wait until I ask and post in the proper thread. While they are very well-meaning, the flood of private messages, IMs, in-game tells, facebook messages and so on offering recommendations is already overwhelming and very hard to to keep track of, especially on the bad fibro-fog days. I should have that post up later this week. Thanks!

~Mum

January 11, 2012 - Patch Day

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, January 11, 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.

Patch Notes:

January 11, 2010
__________________________________________

***Highlights***

• Mercenary Roster Quest - A new tradeskill quest is available to obtain a mercenary slot for your roster by adding Hero's Barracks as a reward, if it has not been maxed at 4. See Mercenary Captain Cecille in the Plane of Knowledge. You must have mastered all basic tradeskills to take this quest.
• The achievement "Master of Alaris" now grants Hero's Barracks are a reward, which grants an additional mercenary slot, up to the maximum of 4.
• Players who participated in Beta can now claim their reward!

***Items***

• Vyer's Stud is now usable by beastlords
• Prescient Fleeting Quiver now has 39% haste.
• Rustic Coat of Carnage and Modest Warmonger Coat now have Sundering Discipline Quickening
• Rustic Coat of the Assassin and Modest Carnifex Coat now have Eradicator Discipline Quickening.
• Empowered trophies now have their intended graphics.
• The Token of Fanfare should now be far less intrusive.

***Tradeskills***

• Some tradeskilled ornamentations were showing the incorrect icons. These have been fixed.
• Soloist Ascension Sleeve seal of the Warchief now correctly has String Resonance.

***Quests & Events***

• Mercenary Roster Quest - A new tradeskill quest is available to obtain a mercenary slot for your roster by adding Hero's Barracks as a reward if it has not been maxed. See Mercenary Captain Cecille in the Plane of Knowledge. You must have mastered all basic tradeskills to take this quest.

**Spells**

• Scent of Terris should now correctly modify corruption resists instead of counters

**NPC**

• Krongar the Enrager may now appear after killing Rallosian Defectors in the Valley of Lunanyn.
• Prowler's in Beasts' Domain will no longer remain in the same spot where they lose agro.

*** AA ***

• Origin is now auto-granted at level 5 to all players. The reuse time has been lowered to 18 minutes.
• Hastened Origin has been refunded, as it is no longer relevant.

*** Achievements ***

• The achievement "Master of Alaris" now grants Hero's Barracks as a reward, which grants an additional mercenary slot, up to the maximum of 4.
• The achievement "Make Haste" for the mission "Secrets of the Stones" now requires the fragment delivery within 15 minutes, as intended, rather than 8 minutes.
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the completion of the "Pillars of Success" achievement during the mission "The Growing Threat."

*** Progression Servers ***

• Sooty Fine Runic Papyrus is now dropping on progression servers.
• Unfired Shade Summoning Figurine and Shade Summoning Figurine, for the quest "Vampyre Troubles," can now be combined on progression servers.

*** Miscellaneous ***

• Changed the default window size for EQ on a fresh install to default to the current desktop resolution.
• Made a change to prevent out-of-memory crashes on 64-bit systems. On 64-bit operating systems, EverQuest will now use 4GB of address space instead of only 2GB.
• Changed the default display for chat filters to automatically hide SPAM marked messages.

*** UI ***

• Added the ability to tint any control a certain color from the UI XML. The new property is called BackgroundTextureTint.
• Converted the button tinting from the "Buy Slot" button in the Mercenary window to use the new tinting option.

- Changed -

• EQUI_MercenaryManageWnd.xml
• SIDL.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

• Corrected a flag that was hiding Veil of Alaris type 3 augment spells on live servers.
• Corrected a bug that was causing players to fall through the world in the air maze portion of the East Sepulcher of Order.
• Sarith City - Rebel Assault - Experience for most opponents in the mission has been reduced.
• Sarith City - Rebel Assault - Riago Barthes no longer summons extra sets of NPCs when spam-hailed.
• Resplendent Temple - Two Sides of the Stone - The raid should now reset properly during the second phase.
• Resplendent Temple - Two Sides of the Stone - Vision of Splendor should no longer heal itself during the second phase if all players manage to remove the spell "Filth" within the time limit.
• Resplendent Temple - Two Sides of the Stone - The split portions of the event (Shadow/Vision) should now reset the raid if they are idle for more than 5 seconds after being aggroed.
• Quests - Frostfell - The "a hungry predator" mobs will now return to their spawn points when idle.

January 04, 2012 - Happy New Year!

After waiting several weeks for the restore of the database that was replaced in mid December, we've decided to go ahead and start re-entering all the information into our current version of the database. We lost all the updates that happened between mid October and mid December, so we'll be replacing as much of that as possible. We started working on this in earnest yesterday. So far we've managed to restore many of the basic items from VoA and many pottery recipes and brewing recipes. Today we'll work on some research, baking and jewelcraft with more recipes and items to follow. We'll get new pages set up asap.

Please keep your discoveries coming in, we'll get them updated as soon as possible.

January 04, 2012 - Site Update

My apologies for the silence over the holidays, as I was hoping against hope that we would have a happier update, or a rough ETA, before I posted. Neither has happened, so here is all I can tell you.

As many of you were aware, we had some serious site downtimes at the beginning of December. After much gnashing of teeth, whimpering and moaning on our part, our hosting provider found the issue. We were told that it was a controller failure, and that our sites had been moved to another server.

There was just one problem.

They restored us to the last full backup, apparently from mid-October.

You can guess what my blood pressure did at that point if you think about what has happened in EQ and EQ2 since that time.

We were told that they were working recovering the rest of the data before the holidays hit.

After a couple weeks of silence due to holiday absenteeism, we were told today that the "entire blade" was shipped to a data recovery expert, and that there was no ETA, but the expectation of a full recovery.

No more gnashing of teeth - it is giving me migraines. No more whimpering, unless they're deep primal whimpers. I am just sort of watching my hope at seeing the lost data any time soon dwindle into nothingness. Keep the faith for me if you can, while I try to just push the stress from my mind for a bit?

For those who are wondering why this is so stressful, here is what that 2 months of lost data entails:

EQ

• Untold amounts of expansion-related data entry by our hard-working volunteers - recipes, items, spawn information, etc.
• Underlying database updates by the hubbyogre to fields, etc. so that said data entry could proceed. (I had to impinge on his final day of vacation on Monday to have him redo all the changes he'd done, since I had given up hope on the restore)

EQII

• The Nights of the Dead preview, story, and all associated images
• The expansion preview and story, and all supporting articles and images (other than the apprentice information, which is echoed in the undamaged forums)
• All the housing guide updates by Therendil, plus the prestige housing article
• The Frostfell preview/story, and all associated images (thankfully, we had a fabulous volunteer working on redoing my cobbled together Frostfell images, so I can run with those, when I find motivation to tackle this mess

Some things, like the item/recipe information on the EQ side, can be redone with a lot of hard work. Other things, like my previews and stories, absolutely cannot be recreated without that restore, due to my habit of composing directly into the site editor.

Anything we do on either site to articles or the EQ item/recipe/etc database since the data loss can/will be overwritten by a restore, as the database replaces those article/item/recipe/etc ids with the old data. So, we could find ourselves spending days and days replacing what we can, only to have it get all jumbled in with the old stuff in a horribly confused mess. Or we could find ourselves stalling for another couple of weeks, only to find that the expectation of a full restore was mistaken.

There is no happy choice at this point, and I know it has to be frustrating to the communities as well. Know that, if anything, we are even more frustrated than you are.

Hang in there, folks! When we know more, you will know more.

~Mum

December 21, 2011 - EQTC restore coming soon!

You may have noticed that EQTC had been experiencing intermittent, unscheduled downtime for the past several weeks. Finally, the company who hosts this site/database figured out the problem and "moved" us to a different server. Unfortunately, the "move" was a restore of a database from the latter half of October, rather than our current database. That means that two months worth of updates, including hundreds of recipes for Veil of Alaris that have been entered into the database, aren't appearing in this copy of said database. You can follow this thread for updates on when the restore will happen. Hopefully not too much longer!

October 12, 2011 - Server Downtime October 12, 2011

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 3:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 4:00 am MST, 5:00 am CST, 6:00 am EST, 11:00 am GMT, 12:00 pm CET) for a game update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 5 hours.

*** Highlights ***

• All accounts will be granted a one-time gift of 250 Station Cash the next time they log in!

*** Items ***

• Berserker leg armor from House of Thule now has the proper Frenzy mods.
• The Ancient Text from the Veil of Alaris launch event can now be read. Be sure to read it before the expansion launches!
• Fixed an error that was causing Ranger breastplates to no longer focus the effects of the Focused Tempest of Arrows spell line.
• The Polished Crystalline Jewel augmentation will now properly fit into armor.
• The minimum mana required for spells to trigger focus effects on the Underfoot shawls has been increased.
• Rocketeer Boots now share a common cooldown timer.
• The Veilbreaker Executive Escape Device recast timer will no longer interfere with other items.

*** Tradeskills ***

• Bile Spines now stack.

*** Quests & Events ***

• House of Thule Raid Completion titles have been added, including the server first titles. They will be available immediately to anyone who has earned them.
• Fixed a potential crash that could occur in the mission "Hippity Hoppity Kill."

*** Spells ***

• Bard - Added minimal mana costs to Dirge of Dreams and Noira's Song of Suffering to allow them to be used more easily in melodies.
• Corrected a data error that was causing fizzled spells to cost an indeterminate amount of mana (but usually 0).

*** Progression Servers ***

• The Veil of Alaris launch event NPCs should no longer be present on Progression servers.

*** Miscellaneous ***

• Resolved some remaining pathing issues in the upper floors of the House of Thule.
• Game cards can now be redeemed in game in the Marketplace for Station Cash.
• "Fellowship MOTD:" will no longer appear when there isn't a message but you are in a fellowship.
• Fixed a crash when leaving certain items in augmentation sealers.
• Added a new "move down" key with default keyboard binding of the "END" button. Holding this key down while levitating will cause the player to move downward, even while in 3rd person camera modes.
• Changed jump button behavior for mounts. Previously, jump was disabled for players on mounts. Now if you are mounted the jump button will work. Mounts, like players, can not jump when they are levitating.
• Mounts will no longer be dismissed in very shallow water. They will still be dismissed if the water is deep enough to allow players to swim.
• Corrected the appearance of the Sirensbane in Qeynos.

*** UI ***

• Added vitality bars to the experience and alternate experience gauges in the inventory window. They appear as a green bar at the bottom of the experience bars. The bars represent the percentage of available vitality compared to the vitality cap. When they are full of vitality, the bar will be full. When they have no vitality (or when the max is 0) they will have an empty bar.
• Fixed an issue with the Extended Target Window where marking a target slot as My Mercenary's Target was not always displaying the mercenary's target.
• Items with a negative faction skill mod will now display as having a faction skill mod in the item display window.

- Changed -

• EQUI_Animations.xml
• EQUI_Inventory.xml
• EQUI_MarketplaceWnd.xml
• EQUI_RealEstateItemsWnd.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

• Fixed several issues with the upcoming launch events that were reported by players on Test. Thanks for the help!
• Fixed a crash bug related to languages.
• Fixed an AA experience text bug where it would give unnecessary warnings in certain instances.
• Fixed a bug that could display your other characters' guild information when switching characters.
• Fixed a crash bug related to some trigger and chance spells.
• Emissary Grusal should no longer be on vacation within the Dragons Dragons Dragons zones.
• Lowered the purchase price on plots and all real estate upkeep costs by 90 percent. Houses and other such items have the same purchase price. The minimum cost of any non coin based currency is still 1.

- The EverQuest Team

August 31, 2011 - Double Experience Weekend and Double Station Cash

Starting Friday, September 2, 2011, and continuing through Monday, September 5, 2011, experience the glory that is bonus experience in EverQuest. Simply play the game as you normally would and receive even more experience for the things you enjoy doing! It's easy and fun, and we'll see you in Norrath!

Between September 2 - 5 you can purchase Station Cash in-game, via your Station Account, or redeem an SOE pre-paid game card and receive double Station Cash!

August 31, 2011 - Emergency Downtime this morning

All EverQuest Live Servers will be coming down on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 6:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PSTis -8 GMT: 7:00 am MST, 8:00 am CST, 9:00 am EST, 2:00 pm GMT, 15:00 CET) for a emergency maintenance. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately 2 hours.

August 09, 2011 - Fan Faire 2012?!

Yes, plans are already underway for Fan Faire next year, and SOE is asking for feedback from the community regarding the three possible dates in September and October of next year. If you would like to cast your vote and/or read more about it check out this post.

July 08, 2011 - Fan Faire Notes

Since a sick halfling is unable to clone herself to be in multiple panels at the same time, Mum notes from the Fan Faire for EQ were/are going to be belated, and few and far between. However, one of the backstage blogger winners is Tharkis, and he will be posting to his blog as time and access allow. You can follow it at www.tharkis.com

July 01, 2011 - Double Experience Weekend!

Here are the patch notes from this morning's emergency game update:

*** Double XP Weekend ***

- Enjoy double XP through the 4th of July!

*** Experience Fixes ***

- Fixed an issue when you have members of two or more fellowships with experience sharing enable (sic) in a single group. Members of fellowships after the first one would receive no experience (group experience or shared fellowship experience).

- Shared fellowship experience will now only be reported once per granting period.

- You will no longer receive incorrect messages about receiving experience for killing gray con NPCs.

Hardcore Heritage Continues

Visit Crushbone and Permafrost for some level 90 fun through July 21st

May 27, 2011 - Friday Updates

Memorial Mania has started! You have until 11:50 p.m. PDT on May 30 to redeem prepaid game cards for triple Station Cash. Stock up and enjoy your favorite goodies from the Marketplace today!

In-game rewards for Fan Faire attendees have also been announced:

EverQuest®

• Marionette Puppet Strings - These puppet strings will allow you to own the contract for a Marionette Mercenary!
• Exotic Mount Whistle - This exotic mount is from a far away undiscovered land!
• Gnomish Welcome Sign - This phosphorescent painted mechanical sign welcomes guests to your establishment!

EverQuest® II

• “Prismatic Cloud” – This magical rainbowed mount is sure to carry you all the way!

You can find the full announcement here. I am looking forward to seeing some of you in Vegas for the Fan Faire!

~Mum

Printer Friendly version