I wanted to start off this Producer's letter by saying THANK YOU to all of the beta testers that are actively participating in The Buried Sea beta. I know that jumping into a work in progress can be frustrating at times, but the teamwork between the developers and the players really makes EverQuest into the classic that it is. Special thanks go out to the guilds that are helping with the larger tuning tasks.
Being able to participate in beta tuning is a huge job for both the developers and the testers involved. I know that many of you want to help out with each beta and we welcome the extra help. We wanted to get in a few new guilds to help us this time around. We tend to stick with guilds that have proven in past beta's that they are professional, on time and willing to work with our developers to ensure a better game for everyone else. If you have not participated in beta tuning with the developers, don't worry. We plan to cycle in new guilds when needed and will send out open calls in a similar manner as we did on The Buried Sea. The guilds that are listed below have all contributed to the tuning passes we are doing on this expansion.
Midnight Tempest - new beta testing guild from our board recruiting
Silent Redemption - new beta testing guild from our board recruiting
Fire & Fury
The Relentless
Silent Resurgence
Township Rebellion
Triality
Our internal Quality Assurance department is hard at work checking all of the new zones, quests, items and additional content that will roll out in The Buried Sea next month, and the work is right on schedule.
I plan on having a weekly feature on the webpage leading up to the launch of The Buried Sea as well, which we kicked it off on Friday with a feature on the Guild Banners. If you haven't seen it - go check it out! They are really cool and they should help guilds out quite a bit by reducing downtime and travel time.
I have been reading the boards regarding me taking over the reigns [reins! -- Ed.] as Producer, and I appreciate the votes of confidence, and also understand the skeptics. The development team and the community have seen many people come and go, and I was aware of that when I joined the team. I am looking to bring a new angle to EverQuest. As I have said before, my intentions are not to change the game, but I do believe that there are quite a few things that could be done to make playing it more fun.
While I can't comment on promises made in the past, I can listen to you now and work with you to make this game a place that you love to come back to everyday. Changes can take some time but making sure that the right changes happen is far more important than rushing anything. Just remember that I am listening, so keep posting!
Clint "Jourdian" Worley
EverQuest Producer
Sony Online Entertainment
Guild Banners Explained[ Comment ] Print News | Mail News | Category: Features Part of the new Buried Sea expansion, coming out in February, is the Guild Banner feature. The developers have posted a page explaining how they work on the EQPlayers site (with pics!).
In a nutshell:
Banners were created to help late arrivals get to a raid.
The basic banner is free to any guild. Advanced banners can be purchased in the guild hall and have extra features. Guilds can customize their banners with emblems and colors.
Guild members purchase special stones in the guild hall to use the banner after it's been placed.
Only one banner can exist in the world at a time.
The banner is planted by the leader or an officer, and stays in place for one hour.
There's lots more detail on the page linked above!
- The "penalty" box with no exits GM's used to summon misbehaving players to in Qeynos Catacombs
- The old message boards that used to exist in Qeynos (disabled with Dx8 revamp I believe)
- Mayong Mistmoore actually existing in Mistmoore (claimed he existed during Beta and was never live, his model is Maestro's model)
- Rubicite Armor, Lustrous Russet Armor - old armor sets that were removed, probably not as well known now as they were in 00/01
- PoFear before limitations imposed, lvl 5 ogres in the zone waiting to pick up armor drops
- Rumors of a hidden area in Neriak 3rd Gate, alternatively accessed via a chamber pot which lead to a secret evil transportation network (there is a hidden tunnel back there, leads nowhere), also linked to the King and Queen actually appearing in Neriak 3rd gate
- Mysterious unfinished zone lines in SolA (it warps you back to where you started), theres a few others spread out across the game (old Oasis had a zone line by Orc Highway, Stonebrunt mountains has several), hot topics back in the day
- The Hole has a big gate and a zone line that leads nowhere, where is the Plane of Underfoot?
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Early Access to Live Servers Begins Friday, January 26th
Sony Online Entertainment and Sigil Games Online announced today that early access for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will commence January 26 at approximately 10:00 a.m. PST. Gamers who placed pre-orders either at retail or digitally will get to experience Vanguard: Saga of Heroes before the game’s official launch on Tuesday, January 30th. Players can select from multiple servers in North America and Europe and are not restricted by region. A link to a list of server names has been released on www.vanguardsoh.com. A character’s selected server during the early access phase will remain the same once the game launches.
The North American subscription fee for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is $14.99 monthly with discounts offered for longer subscription commitments. For players who already have a Station Access subscription, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is included in the $24.99 monthly fee. Players can now pre-order Vanguard: Saga of Heroes digitally and at retail. Additionally, gamers that pre-order the retail version will receive an exclusive endurance buff scroll that will allow their character to sprint for longer periods of time (one per account). Pre-order customers will need to complete their purchase of the full game in order to continue playing after the early access phase.
For more information or to order Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, visit www.joinvanguard.com/buy/.
About Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
The only limits are your own in Telon. The adventurous can choose from multiple paths of exploration within the three spheres of advancement: adventuring; crafting; and diplomacy. Players can delve into the mysteries of Telon, and embark upon quests to slay monstrous beasts locked deep inside rugged mountain ranges. Those with a quick mind can use diplomacy to convince kings to move armies and change the course of history. With player-crafted boats, flying mounts, and customizable player housing, “Vanguard” offers players a world of their own choosing.
Please join us on Wednesday, January 24th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.
You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:
stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.
We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #everquest before, during, and after the House of Commons.
Kwill's Quill: MMO Stories[ Comment ] Print News | Mail News | Category: EQ Live Part of the fun of playing an MMO is all the stories and tales that get told by the community. EverQuest players have the pleasure of having eight years of stories to tell!
Descendants Guild Recruting[ Comment ] Print News | Mail News | Category: EQ Live Descendents is always interested in adding talented, dedicated players to our roster. We are a high-end PST raiding guild on the Saryrn server of Everquest. Current targets include TSS, Deathknell and Demiplane of Blood.
The key things we expect from our guildmates are maturity, team spirit, the drive to succeed, promptness, attentiveness and the ability to play within our scheduled raid times. Our scheduled raid times are Tuesday 7-11pm PST, Thursday 7-11pm PST, and Sunday 6-11pm PST. These times were chosen to enable people on the West Coast with day jobs and active lives to participate. We raid fewer days per week than other EQ raiding guilds at our level, so regular attendance is absolutely vital to our success. If you cannot participate in all of our events in their entirety, Descendents is not for you.
Requirements for joining are:
Level 75
500 or more TOTAL AA points
Keys/flags for Dreadspire and Theater of Blood
Hitpoints/mana/ac within 80% of the average for Descendents members of your class
Good knowledge of zones, and the ability to travel to common raid destinations on all continents with a minimum of death and carnage
The ability to meet all our raid times in their entirety
A reliable, preferably high-speed internet connection
A functioning sound card and speakers
Please recognize that Descendents is highly selective, and we take the application and temp process very seriously. The quality and legibility of an application, responses to questions on the application and conduct during the temp period carry great weight. Our continuing goal is to experience and enjoy the end game of Everquest with people who will make it worthwhile.
Ultimately this is a guild for active, highly skilled players, and our recruiting decisions will be made with the intention of enhancing our team's ability to win the battles we choose to fight. If this sounds like fun, please visit the Descendents website at www.descendents.org for more information, or contact Finista in game with any questions.
I attended the session, which was held in the Pirates Online game space. It was kind of enjoyable listening to the sound of the ocean around my creaking ship while talking about EverQuest!
Here are some highlights:
Taskmistress encounter: It's currently set to 18 minimum. Prathun is going to lower that to a full group of 6.
Prathun on Monk Echo of Misdirection: I plan to change the Echo of Misdirection so that it's only usable outside of combat. I might make a few other tweaks to the ability, as well, and I'm always interested in the community's feedback on these kinds of changes.
Buried Sea Expansion: Rashere: In addition to the features for the expansion, The Buried Sea is set up to offer a lot of single group mission-based content similar to what we did with Dragons of Norrath. There's content both for the more casual players and the high end.
Nodyin: As far as the expansion goes there is going to be a variety of content in the form of Missions that players at a large variety of levels will be able to do and improve their characters. There are several distinct areas in the expansion with a lot of different missions to explore. That's one of the main things I see being a positive for this expansion. We're definately giving the level 71+ crowd a lot more to do than they saw with TSS in this expansion. .... Energeiac armor will allow players to "customize" stats to a certain extent.
Itemization -- Merloc: I'm planning to go over TSS items next week, he'll be adding more secondary mods to single group gear, upgrading some weapon ratios, and he'll be adding/changing focus effects on several items both raid and single group.
Fellowships: Fellowships are a form of mini-guild that are targeted at players who tend to play with the same folks often. They support about a groups worth of players (maybe up to 9...final numbers are still being decided) and allows those players to share a dedicated chat channel as well as create campsites. The campsites, in turn, can be upgraded to provide beneficial effects to the fellowship members that are near it and other fellowship members can use a token to travel to the campsite quickly.
The Buried Sea (TBS) Lore: Vahlar: Nolrog, the lore in TBS is focused on two major themes really -- the Buried Sea and its islands and inhabitants including pirates, aviaks, goblins, sirens and more and the story that drives that area. Under the water, the Combine Loyalists have secured Tsaph Katta over the ages and are working to cure him still. We will have lore available on the site soon to give you more background.
Prathun: The most important thing to know is, there's pirates and Shissar.
TSS: Is it All Underwater?
RashereEQ: Lewin, underwater combat is only a minor part of the expansion and we have made changes to the underwater physics to make it more fun to play underwater.
Prathun: it's funny how often the underwater combat question comes up. There is very little underwater content in The Buried Sea, despite what the lore or zones may suggest.
Vahlar: There is almost no underwater combat in this expansion!
Merloc: Most of the expansion is "under" water, but not "in" water.
Progress in TBS: Merloc: I think the progress will be like a toned down version of the progress in DoDH.
Nodyin: I won't go into too much detail but everyone will need to do the progression to get into the end zone with the normal 85/15 rules in effect.
Merloc: Lewin, there are going to be rewards for completing quest "arcs" that will appeal to both raiders, and single groupers.
The Balance of Levels in the Game: RashereEQ: I actually plan to take a look at the levelling curve, hopefully in the next few months, to see where we can smooth it out...particularly in the 50-60 range.
Join the EverQuest Developers on Friday, January 19th from 4pm-5pm PST in the Pirate's CSG Online "Deserted Isle" main lobby for an EverQuest Developer Chat. To attend the chat you will need to download Pirate's CSG Online which is free to all users. We look forward to seeing you there!
Remember, you have to actually have the game to talk to the developers. It's free though!
Most of these changes are already on Live (sans the Rank III turn-in). Please let me know if you have any questions!
A vendor named The Quiet Wanderer has moved into Sunderock Springs. He offers spells and abilities of the calming persuasion, including several which were not previously available: Song: Whispersong of Veshma, Spell: Drifting Fog, Spell: Dulcify, Spell: Nature’s Placidity, Spell: Quiet Mind, and Tome of Phantom Silhouette.
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Based on feedback from the Druid community, Wildskin and Blessing of the Wild have been replaced on a one-for-one basis with Blistering Sunray and Sunscorch. The old spells will be replaced with the new ones.
Based on feedback from the Cleric community, Rectitude and Cure Corruption have been replaced with Blessing of Purpose and Ward of the Dauntless. Rectitude was swapped on a one-for-one basis with Blessing of Purpose. However, because Cure Corruption is used by multiple classes the spell could not be swapped directly with Ward of the Dauntless, so clerics can simply no longer use the Cure Corruption spell. Turning in a Rank III spell rune while you have Cure Corruption Rank III scribed will result in a copy of Ward of the Dauntless Rank III and a return of the spell rune. Aside from that, Cure Corruption can be deleted from the spell book.
The statistics on the items created by Summon Aenda’s Trinkets have been improved.
The number of “procs” that Steeltrap Jaws can fire before fading have been doubled.
Skin to Vines will now work on a wider variety of NPC targets.
You can read comments from players about these changes here.
Fun Thread: No More Internet[ Comment ] Print News | Mail News | Category: EQ Live What would you do if suddenly the internet was gone? Well you wouldn't be reading this, that's for sure. Anyway, the peeps who posted on the SOE temporary board had some fun ideas about what they would do if the internet was no more.
Check it out now, before the temporary boards go away just like the internet on this thread!
"We will be updating ... to fix some spell issues. Servers will be coming down at 6am PST and the estimate is they will be down for 4 hours.
No, beta rewards will not be given out tomorrow during this update. If you were on my list to receive rewards today and were missed due to servers coming up early and scripts not completed in time, I will be manually fixing those 36 accounts (about 1/3 are done already)."
The servers are now up, and she should be fixing the beta rewards.
If you are experiencing issues, you can check out the problems with the patch thread on the SOE boards.
Kwill's Quill[ Comment ] Print News | Mail News | Category: EQ Live Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will soon be part of the SOE gaming community on January 31. Some of you may already be trying the beta, since with an all-access account came an invitation to try out the beta in the last two weeks of testing.
In this Kwill's Quill I talk about the decision by the Vanguard staff to discard the model of official forums and let the fan sites do all the work. And interesting idea, don't you think?
Patch Today[ Comment ] Print News | Mail News | Category: EQ Live All EverQuest servers will be coming down at 4:00 AM PST (-8 UTC) on Wednesday 01/17/2007 for a game update. Estimated downtime is 8 hours.
