Normally there is also a post on the SOE forums about this one, but it sort of just slipped through with an announcement on eq2players:

Starting Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 2pm PST and lasting until 12:00am of 2/3/08 PST, there's bonus experience to gain! This bonus experience affects Tradeskill and Gameplay experience, but not Quest experience. Redouble your adventuring efforts this weekend with your guilds and groups, there's bonus experience to collect!

January 30, 2008 - But Wait, There's More!

GU42 prep started innocently enough last week, as Kaisha and I trekked over to the Test server in the wee hours to put together the GU42 Crafting Preview. I remember telling Domino, in one of our chats "It'll be cake to add in these few items and recipes once this is live, and the quest writeup is already partly done." The thing is, Domino remembers that little comment of mine, too. She even saved it, so we could have a "famous last words" moment yesterday!

What I didn't know, and she was not about to tell me last week, was that Tradeskill Cloaks are also going in with GU42 ... and we know nothing about them other than a quick cloak teaser image made up of sections of 6 of the cloaks. We will have a fun week of speculation before we can start sorting out the quests for these lovelies!

But wait, there's more!

It seems that I missed a quiet comment in a thread stating that the Erollisi Day event was patched to Test (there were no patch notes announcing it.) Soooo, just as I was about to head off to sleep last night, I found PMs from Kaisha, not only informing me that there was crafting this time around, but sending me some of the icon images taken from dressing room shots. So, off to Test I went and we killed things and crafted, and killed a bit more until the Erollisi Day Crafting Preview and Gallery was born.

In totally unrelated news, when they are not in the middle of forum maintenance (there is some scheduled for today), check out the poll for the location/date for Fan Faire 2008 and place your vote!

January 29, 2008 - Several More Updates

A few updates have been added to the GU42 crafting preview, as various tweaks happen on Test. (You can find a list of recent updates at the bottom of that page.) At long last, we have a furniture gallery page for sales crates, so folks can see what they will look like in your home. Chain and plate armor progression charts have been updated with tier 8 information. You can check them out on the Crafted Gear Progression Charts page. Last, but definitely not least, that progression charts page now contains player-submitted downloadable crafted weapon charts in an easy-to-print format.

January 29, 2008 - Cloaked in Mystery

The addition of epic weapons in EQ2 has been a topic of speculation and debate ever since players learned that they were being worked on. Precious few details, however, have been leaked, even to the point that they have not been seen on Test yet. Over the next few days this will change -- expect to see various fan site writeups giving you more previews of epic weapons that are being released with GU42 next week.

Meanwhile, however, EQ2TC has a topic even more cloaked in mystery. One that has been such a well-kept secret that, unlike epics, there aren't dozens of threads on the subjects in the forums ... yet.

January 23, 2008 - GU42 Crafting Preview!

What do a tree, a lantern, some mannequins, a new crafting quest and a robe that make's Mum's tush look bigger have in common? GU42, of course!

Game Update 42 is currently on Test, and Mum and Kaisha ran amok over there to get you the low-down on some of the items of special interest to crafters. You can check it out in the GU42 Crafting Preview. You will also want to check out the newest Komic by Kaisha, in which Mum tries out one of these new offerings, and turns self-love into self-discovery.

January 20, 2008 - New Transmuting Guide and Forum Update

We finally found word from Racknine this afternoon on the front page of their site stating that they'd experienced a catastrophic failure to one part of their network (that had, in turn, caused some other stuff to go kablooey). It looks like they've been scrambling to restore stuff, as the front page for their site is once again MIA, but our message boards seem to be back at last. Wheee - good luck getting it all sorted out, guys, and thanks for getting us back online!

Meanwhile, Kaisha put together a great transmuting guide that is now up on our site. You can check it out here. Thanks, Kaisha!

January 19, 2008 - Forums ... Still

Zero word from Racknine on the problem, no response to the voicemail left at the number we have from them. So, no word to pass on to you folks regarding when the forums will be available again.

I am not amused.

January 17, 2008 - Forum Issues

The server that hosts our hosting company's main site also hosts the EQTC and EQ2TC forums (the main sites are hosted on another server). Apparently, they are having issues, as we cannot get our forums to respond, much less the main racknine site. This also means that we cannot open a trouble ticket, as the ticketing system is unavailable. However, in theory, they should be working hard to address the problem, since it impacts them as well as us. Hopefully things will be back up and running soon.

January 17, 2008 - Recipe Book Guides

While our forums are mysteriously napping this morning, Mum is wide awake! As promised last week, some cleanup has been done on the Tradeskill Guides section of the site. Hopefully, you will find it easier to find the guides that you need. Merging the main recipe books guide with the guide for finding EoF recipes turned out to be a lost cause. Instead, you will find a new Recipe Book Basics guide covering the basics of essentials and advanced books for various classes, followed by Recipe Books - A More In-Depth Guide.

Some work was also done on the writeups for the Enchanted Lands adventuring quests that net crafting recipes, and while there is still more cleanup and fleshing out to do, the four quests have been merged into one guide with some added information. More importantly, two of the four quests are sort of bugged, unless you perform them in a certain sequence, and I have details in the guide. (A detailed /bug was submitted yesterday, but if you get to the quest before the devs do, at least you will know how to do them so you don't get "stuck".)

January 16, 2008 - Frostfell

The Frostfell celebrations have come to an end in Norrath. Players who logged out in the Frostfell Wonderland should find themselves on the docks in Thundering Steppes.

January 10, 2008 - More Site Enhancements

While the EQ2 developers are returning from some much-needed rest after the expansion and the holidays, it has given us here at EQ2TC some time to tackle various projects for site improvement that have been on the back burner.

The most major improvements has been in the furniture gallery, where we have replaced the ability to click on a thumbnail gallery image to see a scale-comparison version of the item. Instead, you will be taken to a page that not only includes the scale comparison at the bottom of the page, but includes the recipe for that item. Many thanks to LordEbon for whipping up the bit of code for this new functionality, and for helping Mum manually recode the appropriate galleries.

In another small bit of furniture love, a project that was started well over a year ago (then put on the back burner when the volunteer working on it dropped off the face of the earth), is the inclusion of the thumbnail gallery image in an item examine. If you use the find option on the left navbar to find a specific furniture item, such as search on "bowl", then click on the item name in the search results, you will be sent to a page that includes the item info, image and recipe. Again, this feature has been in place for some furniture for over a year now, but now should be set up for most furniture items that are in our database. (Frostfell items, for example, are not tracked in our database at this time.) Thanks go to Howlingmoon for finishing up the editing on all those items for us!

You will also notice that we slipped in a News Archive button onto the left navbar. This will allow you to page through front page updates that have dropped off the front page, 25 posts at a time. This can be a handy feature if you are a new or returning player trying to get a quick glance at what happened within a given timeframe.

Rather than announce every time I get another food and drink progression chart completed for a tier (T7 is done, I am now working on T6), I finally updated the You Are What You Eat Guide to include links to the charts as they become available.

While whirling dervish mode for Mum is rapidly wearing off, improvements to the guides section are on the radar. Not only will I hopefully get to writing the rest of the Essential series, but updates and revisions to many guides are planned as well as some changes to page layout to make it easier to find the guides you need. It will take a pretty hefty chunk of time (days/weeks) to get it all sorted out, but you should start seeing slow improvements by the start of next week.

January 03, 2008 - New or Improved

As we begin returning to a more normal schedule after the holidays, here is a quick list of what was added or changed on the site over the holidays. On top of two Komics by Kaisha for the holidays, a couple articles got some TLC. The Tier 8 Food and Drink Progression chart now includes the special infusion and reduction recipes for meats. The image for the Nightbane Blood Mail armor has been added to the Deathfist Citadel Armor fashion gallery, completing that gallery. Last, but very definitely not least, the Status and Faction Items for Tradeskillers guide got a needed rewrite and also now includes images of all the furniture items that are sold via the various crafting factions.

Off on that furniture tangent, I still run into folks who are using creative stacking techniques to change the height of the furniture in their home. Frequently. I wince every time I run into one of them and break the news to them that we have had a less painful way to do it for a few months. Use ctrl-mousewheel when you want to change the height on an item. Really. You will save yourself many grey hairs.

December 31, 2007 - Happy New Year!

Kaisha couldn't resist slipping one more Komic in before the end of 2007.

Happy New Year, everyone!

December 28, 2007 - Bonus XP Weekend

Just a quick reminder that another 20% bonus XP weekend starts today, (December 28th) at approximately 3:00 PM PST and will last until approximately 10:00 AM PST on Monday (December 31st).

December 24, 2007 - Happy Holidays!

It is going to be a quiet few weeks due to the holidays and such, but it looks like Kaisha has one more surprise for us, as she caught Mum and the House Ogre in an unguarded moment.

Here is wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

December 20, 2007 - Bonus XP Weekends!

This was taken from the SOE forums:

In celebration of Frostfell coming to Norrath we will be holding a pair of 20% bonus experience weekends! During these weekends, all players of EverQuest II will enjoy a boost in experience gain to celebrate our Norrathian holiday!

The first bonus experience weekend will begin Friday, December 21st at approximately 3:00 PM PST and last until approximately 10:00 AM PST on Monday, December 24th.

The second bonus experience weekend will begin Friday, December 28th at approximately 3:00 PM PST and last until approximately 10:00 AM PST on Monday, December 31st.

Happy questing and happy Frostfell!

While we are on the subject of holidays, here is wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season from Mum and Ngreth!

December 13, 2007 - New and Updated Guides

I am happy to announce that we now have Tier 8 food and drink charts showing duration and stat progression. Like any halfling, Mum is having a hard time deciding which nummy-sounding treat to try first, so wants at least one of everything!

We now also have a quick-reference chart for broker containers for those who just want the names and sizes, plus what they can hold. (This same information is also in the slightly revamped, but much wordier guide on Buying and Selling from the Broker.)

December 12, 2007 - GU41 is Here!

Talk about catching a groggy halfling by surprise! Wheee! I truly did not expect to see this today, so I slept in. However, on the pitter-patter of little Frostfell elf feet, GU41 and all the frostfell celebrations went live today. Good thing we gave you such a detailed preview of it, eh? Make sure to especially make note of the Frostfell Nitty-Gritty guide for important notes on crafting levels, harvesting levels, etc. for the Frostfell crafting stuff.

Patch notes can be found here (which is pretty much what we saw in the Test patch notes in the forums last week).

Once the servers are back up, I will be verifying some last-minute changes that were expected to go in (but were not on Test when I checked yesterday afternoon), and will add an update to this post once I make sure it is all in place.

Update 1: The Feeding Duggin quest series has been changed from needing 90 virtual pulls of shrubs in the specific zones to 100 food harvests from shrubs and dens in the specific zone (harvest 5 meat in a single pull and it gives you credit for 5, instead of a single virtual credit. It will ignore things like pelts, imbue gunk and the like, but gives full credit for meats and food harvests.

Update 2: Snowballs stack to 100 (up from 20) Frostfell harvests stack to 200! (up from 10)

December 11, 2007 - GU41 Mastercrafted, Plus Mum in a Live Broadcast!

It seems I neglected to mention the GU41 changes to mastercrafted armor in my GU41 preview yesterday. While a detailed comparison is impossible for me due to timing, I have managed to do some quick side-by-side comparisons of mastercrafted pieces in a couple tiers. Check it out in GU41 Mastercrafted Armor Changes.

Meanwhile, Mum has agreed to join Dellmon and Zanadi for their live EQ2s-day broadcast this evening from 4 to 6 pm Pacific. Tune your media player to live.onlinegamingradio.com/ogr.m3u. You can also join in the online conversations that will be going on at the time in-game with a /join eq2.guk.ogr and via IRC at onlinegamingradio.com/irc/chat.php

December 10, 2007 - GU41 Preview - Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

So, you heard that GU41 and the Frostfell event are on the Test server, have you? And you are hoping that Mum has the lowdown on it? I bet you are hoping for information on new furniture that artisans of every type can craft. Maybe even some new clothes for a festive holiday look? Perhaps you are just hoping for more hints on dishes that you can get to adorn the table(s) in your home? Thanks in large part to our very own graphical goddess, Kaisha, who has rescued you from having to deal with fuzzy screenshots taken by Mum, we can give you all that, right now. Yep, the EQ2Traders Corner GU41 Preview is up and ready for your drooling pleasure! Enjoy!

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