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EQ2 character crests now available!
We're not entirely sure we really needed huge, ginormous character crests to show our EverQuest II characters to the world, but need 'em or not, we have 'em now, so be prepared to see these pasted over your favorite EQ2 forums. We have to admit, they DO look kind of cool. You know what would be even cooler? A whole wall of these, and not just from EQ2, from World of Warcraft and all other MMOs as well. MMO social web developers, take note: we'd love to see a whole wall of these crests in our virtual MMO-themed rooms.Any current EQ2 subscriber can get a crest for any of their characters. First, log in to your Station account on the EQ2Players page. Then, upload a paper doll image if you haven't already done so. Select the character who needs to be crested, select their media tab, click on the character crest tab, et voila, your custom crest, twice life-sized and bling-enhanced. Either use it as-is, or copy the given code to embed elsewhere.
New guide for EQII covers the creation of chat channels
There are times when group, guild or zone chat just don't cut it. Perhaps you want to set up a chat room for you and your family? Or maybe the dirty jokes that your friends throw back and forth would be better suited to a more private setting? EverQuest II's custom chat channels can offer you a safe haven to talk to your loved ones and/or perverted chums, as well as any other groups that you wish to communicate with, and the EQ2Players community site has a new guide that will tell you all you need to know to set up your own (and optionally exclusive, through password protection) chats.If you want to be really out there, you can combine the custom chat channels with the recent guide on cross-server chat, and have friends from all the different SOE games communicating with each other at once -- very fancy indeed.
Be heard this week with EQII and PotBS IRC chats
Stratics is going to play host to some more "House of Commons" IRC chats later in the week, for both EverQuest II and Pirates of the Burning Sea, giving fans a chance to pose some questions to the teams behind these two games. On Wednesday the 18th at 5PM PDT/8PM EDT, the PotBS chat will take place, and will feature producer Joe Ludwig, lead game designer Kevin Maginn, lead world designer Cory Herndon, community relations director Troy Hewitt and community specialist Tom Atkinson-Edwards. Full details on how to join in on this chat can be found here.The EQII chat will take place a day later, on Thursday the 19th at the same time slot of 5PM PDT/8PM EDT. Representing the game in the chat will be Josh Kriegshauser and Greg Spence from EQII Engineering; Kyle Vallee, designer of "Runneye: The Gathering"; Nathan McCall, designer of the Void Storm quest series; and Tiffany Spence and Aaron Bisnett from the community relations team. You can find out how to join this chat at this page, and don't forget that we here at Massively will be speaking to the EQII team this week as well, so you can also drop any questions you might have in today's Daily Grind for us to bring to them.
EverQuest II GU46 -- Runnyeye: The Gathering
Take a favorite EverQuest II low level dungeon, clear it of every living thing, add some doors and remove others. Fill the entire zone with heroic mobs level 80 and up. Put in ten boss fights culminating with an epic fight against High Chief Vohan, a x2 epic fight that compares to Nizara's final fight (hint: Vohan has friends). Add in a double handful of humor, mix it all together in a pot filled with bathing Halflings, and you come up with the latest dungeon redesign from the fiendish minds of the devs at SOE, Runnyeye: The Gathering.This alternate version of Runnyeye (the original is still selectable before zoning in) is made for decently equipped level 80 groups. Like the recently released Shard of Hate raid zone, the fights get progressively harder, so some groups may choose to stay near the top, while only the very best will dare the depths, where the High Chief waits. Who is gathering and why? Perhaps the answer lies with the Halfling warrior crouching at the entrance, the lone active member of the Old Bog Mountain Unit. He talks of three former members who are off doing other things. It might be well worth tracking them down and ask what happened in Bog Mountain, in which Runnyeye is dug, to cause them to quit the Unit. Click on through for a peek inside the depths of Runnyeye: The Gathering. %Gallery-24776%
EverQuest II GU46 -- The Void Invasion
Mysterious dark clouds shot with some evil energy have appeared all over Norrath, in every zone. But they are more than they seem -- they are not storms at all, but portals into the endless realm of the Void itself. The Void Storms gather up the local creatures and implant creatures of blackest shadow within them, then hold them in thrall until the creature has complete control.In EverQuest II's Game Update 46, you will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of the Void Storms, and freeing the native creatures of Norrath from their baleful influence. Your dedication will not go unrewarded; full sets of appearance armor (and one set of ... non-appearance armor) are yours for your hard work. Unusual weapons, a cart-load of house items, and even a pet goblin are also waiting for you ... in our exclusive GU46 gallery, that takes you through the entire quest and the rewards offered for your continued dedication to Norrath's cleansing. Check out the complete quest and its rewards! %Gallery-24768%
SOE provides handy guide to cross-game communication in EQ
Sony Online Entertainment is responsible for quite a number of MMOs, and they've got a useful system in place to allow communication with people across their game worlds. However, many people either don't know about this system, or simply don't know how to wrangle it into doing what they want. To help with this, SOE has written a guide illustrating how EverQuest players can chat to their friends in other games.The games that EQ players can send both private messages and in-game mail to are EverQuest II, Planetside, Vanguard, The Matrix Online, and Star Wars: Galaxies. It's also possible to communicate with players on different EQ servers, but many of the servers have abbreviations that must be used in the commands -- these can be found in the guide. Now don't go acting all surprised when you're hiding from a guild raid on another server and your guild master sends you a tell!
Going back to EQ or EQ2 but -- which server?
SOE's new Living Legacy event seeks to lure people back to their two main EverQuest games (EverQuest Online Adventures for the PS2 and EverQuest Macintosh Edition get no love here) by using shiny new armors and abilities and super-fast leveling. Both EverQuest and EverQuest II have changed in so many fundamental ways in recent years that SOE really wants you to come back and try the games again.Which server to play, though? Both games have many servers. Nothing like World of Warcraft's hundreds, but enough so that its not immediately obvious which one to choose. SOE has prepared a couple of pages that briefly list the servers and tell you what the odd letters next to their names mean, but in this article, we're going to try to examine servers a little more deeply, so that you can create your character knowing the sorts of people you'll find. More details -- LOTS more -- after the break.
Festival of Unity in EverQuest II
All this week, EverQuest II's Antonia Bayle server celebrates its annual Festival of Unity! For one week each year, dark elves and high elves together raise a cup. Fae and Arasai share pollen-dripping sunflowers. Dwarves break out the GOOD stuff and every table is laden down with pies fresh from Halfling ovens. Barbarians take their annual shower. Ogres and trolls eat gnome cookies instead of gnomes. Dogs and cats live together .... The festival runs from Sunday through Saturday in the zone of Antonica. (That floozy must spend all day thinking of new things to name after herself ...) Tuesday's events include Lawn Darts (weren't these called Gnome Darts last year?), Mentored Dueling Ladder and a High Pounce Challenge. Each evening's events start between 7-8 PM US Eastern time and continue until 10-11 PM EDT. If you have a character on the Antonia Bayle server, why not stop by and take part? Or make a character there and dive into a spider pie with a hundred other hungry folks. And gnomes, be sure to wear hunter orange -- sometimes the trolls need a little reminder.
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite MMOG expansion?
With the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming Mines of Moria and the recent announcement that Rise of Kunark is the #1 highest selling EverQuest II expansion as yet, we've been thinking about expansions. Some people insist that all expansions are is catering to the endgame raiders, in creating more levels to run through before serving up new raid instances. Other expansions do bring in things for lower-end players, like Burning Crusade and Rise of Kunark introduced new races to play, and new areas for them to play in. Today we'd like to ask you what your favorite MMOG expansion has been to date and why? Which games desperately need an expansion to bring something new to the game?
Legends of Norrath taps June 7th for next loot tournament
Sony Online Entertainment has a jam-packed summer schedule planned for Legends of Norrath players. Oathbreaker is set to release on June 19th. There's the $100,000 World Championship event at Gen Con in August. The Legends of Norrath promo weekend is underway in both Everquest and EverQuest II. If that isn't enough there's another Loot Tournament coming next weekend on June 7th with all participating players receiving promotional cards and in-game loot rewards. The official details follow: As per usual the entry fee is 10 event passes, and tournament play is limited to U.S. residents. Each participant will receive three Legends of Norrath booster packs, a Vahlai Ka'izal, Hateful Schemer promotional card and his or her choice of either an EverQuest Familiar of Severilous or EverQuest II Flaming Skull loot card. The top 25 finishers in each event also win extra booster packs. If you are interested in LoN but don't want to dump a bunch of cash you can download the client and learn to play for free.
One Shots: Riding to the Fields of Bone
With the recent talk of mounts here on Massively, we thought we'd show off one of the unique mounts that we've gotten a screenshot of lately. While many games boast horses, cats and the like, there's something intimidating about the idea of being run down by a heavily-armored rhino. Today's EverQuest II One Shots comes to us from Robert S. who writes: This is Firelore the 72 Warden, atop his newly acquired Rilissian rhino, just outside the Field of Bone. That mount just screams out for mounted combat, don't you think?Do you have a screenshot of a unique mount, or perhaps a cool-looking monster? If so we'd love to see them! Just send them to us here at oneshots AT massively.com. Yours could be next!%Gallery-9798%
How would you design EverQuest 3?
At the ION '08 conference keynote, John Smedley hinted at another entry in SOE's long-running EverQuest franchise. Since EverQuest's 1999 release, the venerable fantasy game has been seen in such places as game consoles (EQ Online Adventures for the PS2), PDAs (The Pocket EverQuest trilogy for the Pocket PC), Real Time Strategy (Lords of EverQuest for the PC), online collectible card games (Legends of Norrath) and even versions for cell phones (EverQuest: Hero's Call). What could possibly be next for EverQuest?EverQuest on the PC has already split itself between the original game and its sequel, EverQuest II. Releasing a sequel to a still-viable game was a gutsy move, but it fragmented the player base substantially, to the point where neither game, by itself, can challenge newer games such as Lord of the Rings Online. It's this blogger's opinion that SOE won't make that mistake again -- any EverQuest 3 would not be for the PC. It's not a huge leap of faith to assume that the next version of EQ would run on the PlayStation 3. SOE recently shifted from Sony Pictures to Sony Computer Entertainment America, makers of the PS3 and publishers of its first-party software. Beyond that, when Smedley mentioned to the Seattle Times that the PS3 would be a strong platform for MMOs, he certainly very likely had this game (and others we don't know about) in mind.SOE has made some mistakes with EverQuest through the years, but has also had some huge successes and innovations. If you were an EQ3 designer, and all you had in front of you was a PS3 and a blank whiteboard, what features would you include to knock the socks off the players? Customizable quests and raids? A Steampunk theme? Faster, twitch-based gameplay? The ability to make your own cities? How would you make EQ a worthy competitor to today's great crop of MMOs?
EQ2 Game Update 45: A Bertoxxulous quest chain guide
Earlier this week, SOE pushed EverQuest II's Game Update 45 to the servers. Along with letting you take quests you had out-leveled and still give achievement experience for them, extra bank slots, and the complete revamp of the Coercer class, the update introduced Rodcet Nife, the god of healing. Quests to spread the good news throughout Norrath were offered but in the evil city of Gorowyn, darker forces prevail.There, the god of disease, Bertoxxulous, incites his minions to fight against the god of healing with pestilence, death and disease. Yes, it's not easy to sow evil in the fields of good, but worry not. We've been to Gorowyn and done all the nasty deeds so you don't have to. Follow along as we carry on Bert's evil work, infect relatives, assassinate healers, and in general, be real bastards. How to ruin someone's day in three easy lessons! %Gallery-22819%
Rumors of the Void in EQ2 Game Update 45
Keen-eyed SOE watcher Kendricke of Clockwork Gamer has been scouring the 'Net for hints of the nature of EverQuest 2's next expansion. And he may have found a clue on the French version of SOE's EQ2Players web site. The announcement reads, in part (translated from the French): "The Rodcet Nife event will go live with Update 45. Optional quests associated with this event will grow in intensity leading to large-scale invasions of Void creatures around the world for all levels."We've written previously that the next EQ2 expansion, The Shadow of Odyssey, might have something to do with The Void. The Void is a realm of which we know little, aside from being the extra-planar home of the Shadowmen from which they are launching their secret invasion of Norrath. This latest news has us more and more convinced that come November, we may find ourselves exploring the eldritch towers and dead moonscapes of this shadowed realm.What has the god of healing, Rodcet Nife (a flawed anagram of Fine Doctor), to do with the Void? We don't know yet, but somehow his return is mixed up with the Shadowman invasion in some way. We'll know in a couple of weeks when GU45 hits the live servers.[Via Clockwork Gamer]
One Shots: Home again in Greater Faydark
Once upon a time, in an MMO not so far away, this blogger used to play a Wood Elf Druid in EverQuest. As such, there's always been a soft spot for the starting lands of the Wood Elves. What does this have to do with today's One Shots, you ask? Today's lovely screenshot comes courtesy of a recent visit to the improved lands just outside of Kelethin in EQII. Specifically, this is a screen of The Nursery, where new Fae (and Wood Elves and several other races) come into the lands of Norrath. While some do not care for this area, quite a few of our regular gaming group have found it refreshing and fun to wander through the updated version of what used to be our old stomping grounds. It's like being home again -- only prettier -- and you don't have to watch out for those nasty trains to Orc Lift!Do you have a screenshot of a lovely newbie area that just impressed you from the start? How about a "new nostalgia" shot like this? Whatever the case is, whatever your game, we want to see your screenshots! Send those to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with whatever information you'd like to give us about it. %Gallery-9798%
EQ2's Runnyeye gets a revamp!
The first thing EverQuest 2 game designer Steve "Saavedra" Kramer did when given the task of revamping Runnyeye was to go through and clean up all the trash. "The goblins were expecting some guests, after all, and it wouldn't do to invite dignitaries into a hovel." Well, EQ2 fans have become attached to their hovels, and the EQ2 designers want them to keep returning to their favorite haunts. In 2005, Nektropos Castle was re-imagined in the new level 50 instance "Return to Nektropos Castle", and then again in 2006 as a level 70 instance, "Nektropos Castle: Tribulation". Deathfist Citadel was turned from a raid zone into a single group zone with new drops and new armor sets for 40ish players in 2007. Now Runnyeye's time has come, and Saavedra has big plans for it. A nice, new, shiny Runnyeye instance for level 80 players. The goblins are sharpening their knives already.
The next EQ2 expansion is ... Odus
Those who trusted to the Word arrived none too soon, for our ship had barely docked at their primitive outpost when the earth beneath us trembled and rolled. For many long years the earth shook violently, finally tearing Tunaria (that which the humans call Antonica) apart. -- The History of the EruditesIf "The Shadow of Odyssey" doesn't deal with an invasion from the Void (the Shadowmen's home plane), what else can we guess from the name? The title is fairly ambivalent. Is there something called Odyssey that casts a Shadow? Is there a Shadow from a place called Odyssey? Is it metaphorical -- could the appearance of Odyssey bring a darkness to the world?Previous EQ2 expansions have always talked of places -- the Desert of Flames; the Kingdom of Sky; the Echoes of Faydwer; the Rise of Kunark. If they follow this same trend, then, Odyssey is a place. It is unlikely that it is a Shadowman place. It could be; we just don't know yet. Adventuring in the Void would be a truly unique experience.There's no reason to go to another plane of existence for Odyssey... not when we have the whole continent of Odus still unfound. Odyssey, Odus... could the similarity of the names be just a coincidence? Five hundred years in EQ2's past, Erudites were fairly normal looking people. In EQ2's present, Erudites have evolved into something quite different indeed. Gray, almost metallic looking skin; colored tattoos on their bodies that seem to pulse with an arcane illumination. It is difficult to believe that a race so attuned to the threads of magic that connect together the universe would have been unaware of what was happening to Luclin, a moon surrounded by and infused with magic. They would have protected their home somehow.Perhaps they gathered together their most powerful wizards and, using the power that had once torn from the ground an entire Kerran village and the land for kilometers below it and transported it to Luclin, pulled the continent from the land and took it to safety when the moon began to split and their cousins who had followed Quellious' call to travel to Qeynos had gone.Freed from Norrath, Odus would become Odyssey; and in its journeys, would cast a very large shadow indeed. Now that the Age of Shattering is long over and the world of Norrath is at relative peace, they have returned. The Erudites we see around are exiles, waiting for the day when Quellious calls them home again. Could The Shadow of Odyssey have anything to do with the Plane of Shadow? >>>>>
The next EQ2 expansion is ... Luclin
Luclin watched from the shadows while the other gods went about making order out of chaos in their own twisted ways. She saw the meeting, the petty bickering, and the various power plays for which the gods have always been known. Abandoning Norrath, Luclin claimed the barren and forgotten ringed rock orbiting the planet for her own. Unopposed and through the sheer power of her will and magic, she gave life to the moon that now bears her name.We can't know if this is the answer. It might be something entirely different. Based on the recently discovered lore connecting the Everlings, the Tunarian Court,, and the snake-like shissar who long ago fled Kunark for Luclin, perhaps it has something to do with the blown-up moon of Luclin.Luclin was touched by many forces. The remains of the Combine Empire had fled there long ago and the factions of Seru and Katta still glared at each other across the Twilight Sea. The Kerrans who survived their sudden trip to Luclin renamed themselved Vah Shir and built their city of Shar Vahl. The vampiric Coterie spread their influence from the Tenebrous Mountains... and the Plane of Shadow touches the moon in the Umbral Plains.Plane of Shadow... Umbral Plains... Twlight Sea... Shadeweaver's Thicket... many of Luclin's zones are named for darkness, as one side is always dark, one always light, and the shadowed srea between them is the most dangerous place of all. The servants of the goddess of Shadow, Luclin, rule there. Any mention of Shadow as something separate from an object that cast it, leads straight back to Luclin.Assuming "The Shadow" refers somehow to Luclin, what is "of Odyssey"? Odyssey is still probably the name of a place. Perhaps it refers to one of the fragments of the moon. Odyssey clearly refers to a journey filled with dangers and adventure, and what remains of Luclin is still just hanging in the sky. The only journey it makes is round and round Norrath.Because Luclin is such a colorful presence in the sky, its sister moon, Drinal, is often forgotten. There's no way it could have been unaffected when Luclin blew up. Perhaps the beings of Shadow fled there, and are now firming up their grip on the largest moon with nobody to stop them, this time.Of course, this is all just speculation. SOE could announce Monday that "The Shadow of Odyssey" is a plane of spinning beach umbrellas. We don't know, but it's fun to speculate!
The next EQ2 expansion is ... The Void
It has come to the Director's attention that the portals to our outposts may no longer be secure. There is evidence suggesting that beings defeating our operatives absorb residual energy which is detected by the portals. Portals in turn allow these beings to pass through into our outposts. -- Scroll found in the Tower of ZetThe blogosphere blazed with speculation about the title. Cyanbane wondered if this would explore the lore of the Shadowmen.Very interesting idea, that. The Shadowmen are extraplanar creatures who have observed Norrath for centuries, content to lurk around the edges of places like Commonlands or Nektulos Forest, quietly scouting the planet for reasons all their own. In EverQuest 2, they extruded portals to a small portion of their plane, the citadel called , the Obelisk of Lost Souls. Others of their kind invaded Rivervale and the Enchanted Lands, driving the halflings to Qeynos. With Faydwer's rediscovery, another portal was found in Lesser Faydark, this leading to the Obelisk of Blight.. Scrolls found within the Obelisk (while doing the quest "Into the Shadowed Grove") revealed their evil plans. Taking over the bodies of mortals, they would seek to gather an army and invade the Emerald Halls, where they would then take over the mind and body of the Guardian of Growth, the ancient dragon Wuoshi. With the power of the emerald dragon on their side, they could turn the other dragons and rule Norrath. What if the Odyssey was something a lot closer to home? >>>>
Live Gamer now live on Vox and Bazaar servers
The previously-postponed Live Gamer Exchange service has now launched, and EverQuest II players that are into the whole RMT thing can start spending. To get started, you'll need to register at the EQII Live Gamer page, and you can then take part in trading real cash for characters, items or in-game currency for the Vox and Bazaar servers. It looks like the bidding has already begun, so hurry along to the Live Gamer Exchange if you want to snap up the first deals.
