Tag: EQ2

What are You Waiting For?!

For those who may not know (and I bet there are a lot of you) Beckett MOG (Massive Online Gamer) is a magazine that comes out once every 2 months and is filled with all sorts of mmo goodies. For issue 15 (which is set to hit stores on the 24th I believe – but if you have a subscription you would have already gotten it) there were some new writers that the blogger community may recognize. 

One of which was none other then Tipa, who I am of course always in awe of. You can find her article on the SOE Fan Faire in this issue – so be sure to buy it! 

Along with Tipa’s words of wisdom are some articles that I was lucky enough to write for Beckett – including a Veeshan’s Peek dungeon guide, a class guide on EQ2 bards, an exclusive interview about guildhalls, and one on the EQ2 and EQ1 expansions being released. These are my first publications ever and yes, I will admit right now I am shamelessly plugging them and hope readers may even subscribe to Beckett eager for the next issues. Arrogant? No way, I had a LOT of fun writing these, and I’m just a little bit giddy to see my name in print. You’ve got to realize, that I’m a pretty small time person, I don’t consider my site one of the ‘top ones’ out there at all. So this is a huge accomplishment for me and I can only hope that it leads to more writing opportunities. 

So what are you waiting for? Go pick up issue #15 of Beckett MOG, and read up on all the goodies in there. A huge thank you to Kasul also for scanning in each one of the pictures for me since my copy here in Canada will be a while getting here. Also in this issue is a FREE EQ2 house item (and one for WAR too, if the EQ2 one doesn’t sway you) limited editions so go go go… 

Wow, I almost felt dirty writing that whole post, but I’m honestly too excited to care.

Edit: As a side note that I wanted to mention – it is honestly thanks to every single other blogger out there that I write as much as I do. It’s inspiration from those around me that contributes more then anyone will ever know, so thank you!

QoTW: The Far, Far away Pelican

What pirates home is complete without a ship in a bottle – or two? If you were not around to quest for the iksar ship in a bottle (came out during a live event) then don’t worry there’s still hope! Did you know that the island of Mara has an alternative access quest? I’m not sure why it never went as a requirement, it should have (when the adventure pack was first released) for some added flavour I think. 

If you’re fond of house items you’ll be fond of this quest. It starts in Thundering Stepps, walk along the docks up along the back behind the building there and you’ll see Quint Cerlius M.E. amongst some crates. Click on each one and he’ll warn you to leave them alone. Once you’ve clicked on them all, talk to him and he’ll offer you a quest. 

He sends you off to the feerrott to look for the ship, and on the left hand side of the docks in the water you’ll come across a little row boat. 

You’ll board the ship – and even though the pirates are labeled as heroic, you should have no issues taking them down solo. You need to kill all of the pirates that roam the ship – and then take out the named that spawns at the end. Talk to the captain at the end and you’ll get the wonderful house item pictured above. For a complete detailed walk through be sure to check out eq2wikia here. 

It does have a little bit of rent reduction on it, so if you’re looking for knick nacks that are going to help in your rent, add this one to the list! I’m still hoping that some day SOE adds a status reduction to heritage quests that people have mounted to their walls. 

I was tired of the little garden entrance I had to my place, so I created a new sales area. I still don’t like it that much but it will do for now. I’m waiting for GU49 before I do too much more decorating, being able to resize things smaller or lager will be very handy. I’d like to level my monk a little as well, but I think I’ll wait until the experience gets a boost. I’m also looking forward to having my higher level characters tag along with friends and earn extra achievement experience as they mentor. 

In the mean time, I’m trying to grind out writs for Nostalgia (gotta get that guild hall!) eagerly awaiting Beckett MOG Issue #15 (where there should be an article from Tipa and a few from myself), and waiting on GU49!

Woah..

That’s pretty much all I can say regarding all of the new goodies that are coming to EQ2. I’ve spent the better part of this morning reading through a load of information on forums, only to sit here wiggling around in decorating anticipation.

So what’s got me so excited? 

First of all. Because furniture is going to be able to scale, there’s a few recipes carpenters currently have that will be removed – and replaced with furniture examples from Unrest. What exactly are those furniture examples? You can take a peek here, at eq2traders. Don’t they look amazing?

As if that were not enough there is this post here, that gives a little taste of what halloween goodies we’re going to be getting eventually. It was posted a little early by mistake, as the items should not have even been on test – but that’s not going to stop me from getting excited about them. 

Did you know there’s a server wide event going on right this very second? Well, Antonia Bayle is in the lead for it – I have a feeling that Najena doesn’t even know it’s going on. You know that bone chip quest? Well that’s a server wide event – and part two gets released shortly, and you’ll get some very cool items with that as well – if your server works towards it. Not sure that mine will. 

Ok so that’s some new furniture, scaling furniture, and the server quest – what more could there be? How about purple shinies. How about little helmets that look like miners would wear them to work on some big project. How about that battle robot type house item in the main picture? O.M.G.

If all that was not enough, how about that new 5 room house located in the Academy of Arcane Science, that you can’t purchase unless you own a Tax-Free Freeport Residency License? 

Want to see some new guildhall screen shots? Then take a peek here. 

There’s no doubt at all that this is going to be one heck of an amazing update.

A Peek at Game Update 49 – GUILD HALLS!

Want to know what’s coming up next in GU49? Be sure to check out the official SOE forums for all of the details – in the mean time, here are the notes! Looks some some fantastic stuff is coming! REMEMBER that this is just the TEST NOTES so anything and everything can change before these go live. 

SPECIAL EVENTS

During “Raising the Banner” (GU49): A team of dedicated excavators and researchers have begun to uncover a remarkable find in the dunes of Sinking Sands. They have numerous tasks for any recruits willing to help defend the site, excavate relics, maintain their assisting clockworks and provide crafted supplies for the team. They cannot fathom how important this project is and how it is fated to reshape the world of Norrath for years to come!

 

GUILDHALLS

 Construction of the Guild Halls has been completed.  Guilds of qualifying levels can now purchase halls in a variety of locations.  Smaller halls can be found in North Qeynos, South Freeport, Kelethin, Neriak, and Gorowyn.  Medium halls are found in South Qeynos and North Freeport, and large halls are found off the shores of Antonica and Commonlands.  Click on the corresponding doors, or mariner bells on the docks, to access these new structures.

 With the work completed on the coastal fortresses in Antonica and Commonlands the involved parties have retired to their cities and the guards have been recalled to the barracks.

 GAMEPLAY 

 

  • The experience requirements for levels have been significantly lowered primarily affecting the 20 thru 70 level range.  Along with the experience changes, the drop rate for Adept I spells has been increased slightly. 

 QUESTS 

 

  • The Invasion of the Vale quest is now a more appropriate level for its difficulty.  The Shattered Vale in Antonica now has an escape point inside it. 

 GUILD RECRUITMENT 

 

  • Guilds will no longer appear in the guild recruiting list if they don’t have any recruiters online. 

 MENTORING 

 

  • Mentoring other players now grants greater achievement reward for the mentor.0-5 level difference: 0% bonus

    6-10 level difference: 50% bonus

    11-20 level difference: 100% bonus

    21-30 level difference: 150% bonus

    31-50 level difference: 200% bonus

    51+ level difference: 300% bonus 

     

  •  This bonus is only applied to achievement experience gained through combat or loot items, not through quests or exploration. 

  •  Mentors will now receive experience when their apprentice has disabled combat experience. 

ITEMS

 

  • Player made house items can now be scaled using shift+mousewheel. 

  •  You can no longer turn auto consume on while using a griffon or sokokar. 

  • Bayle’s Amulet and the Trinket of the Venerated Fanatic can now be mounted and used as a house item. 

SPELLS 

 

  • Spells which do not expire have been made uninterruptable.  There are some exceptions which include spells which summon pets or have limited uses. 

Bruiser

 

  • Divide and Conquer should now properly apply hate to the entire encounter. 

Fury

 

  • Natural Mask should now gray out when casted. 

Mystic

 

  • The Auspice line should now toggle correctly. 

Templar

 

  • The Redoubt line should now toggle correctly. 

Ranger

 

  • Thorny trap should now work properly for evil rangers on pvp servers. 

 

ACHIEVEMENTS

 Defiler

 

  • Enhance: Fuliginous Sphere will now work correctly. 

 Sorceror

 

  • Ward of Sages should now toggle properly. 

 Templar

 

  • Blessings is now toggleable and has a recast of 2 seconds. 

 SHADOWS

 

  • Shadows should no longer disappear unexpectedly.
  

MULTICORE SUPPORT 

 

  • The game automatically detects if you have more than one CPU. 

  •  EQII now runs better with more than one CPU. 

  •  There is an option to control whether the game uses multicore mode in the Options Window under Display -> Performance. 

  •  If you’re running multiple clients on the same computer you may want to disable multicore mode. 

  • Setting the multicore option has no effect on machines with one CPU. 

 

TRADESKILLS

 Alchemy

 

  • Rare cure potions have been removed and standard cure potions have been upgraded to cure the appropriate levels of effects.  This in turn should help reduce some of the demand for dusts. 

 Carpentry

 

  • With the advent of scalable furniture, carpenters no longer require recipes that make items of different sizes.  The following redundant recipes were removed: vale briarwood guest bed, vale briarwood corner bar, small redwood room divider, small purple lilies, small white lilies, tall redwood streetlamp, tall potted redwood streetlamp, embellished rug, eccentric alder chair.  Existing items will not be affected. 

  •  Carpenters studying the architecture of Unrest have designed a number of new recipes for furnishings in a similar style, to replace the redundant recipes that have been retired. 

Tailoring

 

  • Artisans have designed some new recipes for threadbare and sackcloth vests, and will continue to work on more vest-type cloth armor appearances for the future. 

 Scholars

 

  • Merchants in the courts of Maj’dul are now stocking some additional “Ancient Teachings” recipe scrolls. 

 

PVP

 

  • Illusionists on their epic quest should no longer take lose faction with Freeport when using the Lucan illusion and then removing it. 

 

USER INTERFACE 

 

  • Status values on the housing window will now display separators so large numbers are easier to read. 

  • There is now an option in the Persona window to block voice invites. 

 ZONES

 Veeshans Peak

 

  • The gem drop rate of Veeshan’s Peak has been slightly increased to account for the more frequent patterns. 

  •  Each of the bosses in Veeshan’s Peak now drop an additional gem. 

  • The Taskmaster in Veeshan’s Peak has made new use of his arcane knowledge! Raiders Beware! 

 

Kelethin

 

  • A few of the fae in Kelethin react to a good aligned arasai now. 

 

FAN FAIRE FEEDBACK

 

  • Tunare’s touch has reached the door step of the Teir’dal.  The druid ring in Darklight Wood has sprouted a Blessed Shrubbery.  Druids and adventurers alike should seek out the ring to extend their travel possibilities. 

  • Better search filters for the Recipe window and Tracking window: 

                Instead of a direct match, each word must be present             Words preceded with ‘-‘ (hyphen) must not be present to be matches

              i.e. recipe filtering with “rigid bow” would show ‘rigid scale bow’

              i.e. recipe filtering with “gno –therm” would show ‘gnomish level’ but not ‘gnomish thermometer’

 

  •  If you find a Lore and Legend item for a Lore and Legend quest that you’re on, the tooltip will indicate whether you’ve already examined it or need to examine it. 

  • Sir Valinayle in Stormhold now corrects himself after calling Stormhold Befallen. 

  • Removed the option to go to Prize of Prexus and The Maid for the Mist on the mariner bells unless someone in the group is on that part of the quest.

Annoyed Sony Customer – Sorta

(I put ‘sorta’ at the end of the title because I’ve calmed down some what with the prompt reply to the issue in my petition)

I tend to post the happy go lucky posts all the time, and that’s not to say that I don’t grow frustrated from time to time with MMO’s or my gaming experience. I figure that enough people out there already post complaints and issues and make fun of or discuss why they hate certain things, so I stay away from that sort of writing as often as possible. It’s typically not my style. 

However. Today I’m cranky. 

When EQ2 came out with the adventure packs, it was a two edged sword. New content = YES! But paying for it when we already pay a monthly subscription = BOO. When they were released, I (along with many others) purchased these little extra packs for $5.99 American. 

Now, when you upgrade your account to Station access, these little adventure packs became ‘free’. If you downgraded the account back to a regular account ($14.99 vs. $29.99), the adventure packs went poof — even if you had already previously paid for them. Which already happened to me in the past so I bought the adventure packs AGAIN.

Then RoK was released – and it was an all-in-one compilation of the adventure packs and all expansions already released. Great! Wonderful! Except last week my station access expired and I decided to stick with a regular account — 

And I no longer have access to these adventure packs AGAIN. Even though I’ve paid for them at least twice, and I own RoK (which I bought digitally from SOE at release). 

GAH!

I’m so frustrated. I petitioned in game because that’s the only available option right now (I know what the responce will be, get a hold of technical support edit: I was wrong here, they actually fixed the issue via petition, that was nice) and tried live chat support and email support – and for now I’ll sit here fuming because none of that is open for another hour and 10 minutes. *Eyeballs the clock*

Since RoK CAME WITH the adventure packs to begin with, there shouldn’t be any excuse at all for removing them from my account. What do you mean, no one goes there any more so why am I making a big deal? Well. Maybe it’s just one of those days where anything at all pisses me off, those have been known to happen once or twice. After promoting Sony and their games for so long though, something had to give.

 

Edit: 20 minutes after posting my petition (and this post as well) I received word from GM’s that they’ve added the adventure packs to my account (no idea if that’s been finished yet or not) but it’s nice the error was at least fixed promptly, even if it shouldn’t have happened to begin with.