Well, I got caught flat-footed with this one - no preview in sight because I missed the fact that it was going in so soon, but ...

The ability to own multiple homes on a single character is HERE!

• Each character can now own up to 10 houses of any combination (as long as he or she meets the house prerequisites).
• House purchases are now based on alignment rather than citizenship.
• The marketplace house item limit increasers now only apply to a single house. Additionally, the marketplace house item limit increaser will no longer stick with your house as you move from house to house, but it still stacks with the tradeskilled house item limit increaser.
• More information and FAQ can be found here on the EQ2 site

EDIT: You will likely need to re-place your sales crates in all your original homes. Note that the character sheet also changed to allow for multi-home information, among other things, and if you use a custom UI for your character sheet, you will want to check for updates.

April 27, 2011 - Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

This was posted on the SOE forums today:

When it comes to the EverQuest franchise and designing tradeskills, Paul "Frizznik" Carrico is no noob. He's been working on SOE games since 2000 and has had a firm hand in the evolution of Norrath, both before and after the Shattering. He even spent a little time working on Free Realms. More recently, he has been doing great work on the mechanics team, including dungeon and battlegrounds design.

Being a game designer is an ever-evolving job, and often there are opportunities within a team to take the lead on designing different aspects of the game. After a recent shuffle of duties, Frizznik is now heading up Tradeskill Design for EverQuest II. EQII players who enjoy the tradeskill aspect of the game will likely remember him from the early days of EQII, and those whose remember Frizznik's previous work on tradeskills will be happy to know they are still in good hands.

But where did Domino go? Don't fret! She has taken on a new and exciting role with the EQII team as Associate Producer. We'll still be seeing her around as she helps Smokejumper keep the team organized and running full steam ahead, and generally lending a hand where needed.

Now, lets get to know Frizznik a little better! Read More

April 22, 2011 - Double SC Weekend

From the EQ2 forums:

Between April 22 and April 25, get Double Station Cash when you redeem an SOE Game Card or buy SC! (Excludes SMS purchases of Station Cash.) Plus, check participating games for special Spring-themed or sale items.

April 21, 2011 - Emergency Downtime

All SOE games and forums are undergoing emergency downtime at the moment. If you are on facebook, you can check for updates at this link. Otherwise, here is what we have, posted an hour or so ago:

[Ashlanne] All SOE Games, Sites, and Forums are down due to emergency maintenance. We will have them back up as soon we can. We apologize for the inconvenience.

And an update from an hour ago:

[Amnerys] Just a small update: EQII is up and running, however the SOE forums and websites are still experiencing some downtime due to emergency maintenance. We'll have them back up as soon as we can. For players who are having issues with patching and logging in, we're aware of the problem and working to have it resolved as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience!

April 18, 2011 - Housing and Harvesting

The multi-housing feature is on the Test and Test_Copy servers. It will be a bit before I have a writeup done, since we are at the bug-chasing stage right now, but I will get something up eventually. Meanwhile, you can find more details here.

GU60 will also see some changes to harvesting speed and skillups, and Frizznik has given us details in this thread.

April 04, 2011 - Quick Notes from the Patch

The patch today contained a few things of interest to crafters and decorators:

• The chronoportal event merchants in Commonlands and Antonica have returned for a limited time only to accept your remaining ancient platinum coins.
• Tradeskill group dungeon rewards now include a chance at two new recipe books, allowing tradeskillers to craft armor from primal velium shards at a reduced cost.
• The tradeskill component Void Warped Wood is now known as Battle Warped Wood. This wood will now also drop from Velious raid bosses, in addition to the locations it was previously found.

March 31, 2011 - Get Your Race On!

The City Festival returns to Qeynos in a few hours for another 7-day run. According to the patch notes, there should also be a brand new aether race to celebrate, so keep your eyes peeled.

Also remember that there will be special one-day-only Bristlebane goings-on tomorrow in the Enchanted Lands, including harvestables from past holiday events.

Edit: There are 4 new furniture items at the local specialties vendor for the Qeynos city festival. The races in Antonica start at the lighthouse, I have been told.

March 28, 2011 - Have I Got a Deal For You!

Sneaking in on stealthy thief tippytoes, Bristlebane Day, celebration of pranks, mischief and laughter, is suddenly just around the corner ... as in starting in a few short hours. Mum has been spinning in circles, distracted by Brew Day, then Chronoportals, prayer shawls, and real life, but finally, with hours to spare: Bristlebane Day 2011: Have I Got a Deal For You!"

March 23, 2011 - Chronoportal Events

From the patch notes today:

Chronoportals have opened in multiple locations across Norrath! They are said to lead to an ancient time. These phenomena are being researched by Chronomancers who will reward adventurers brave enough to venture inside.

Event Start Times: US Servers: 10 AM PST / International Servers: 9PM PST

Known issues (to be fixed on 3/24):

• Allizewsaur does not have his sounds fully implemented.
• Quillmane has a stutter in its wings when it is descending.

Portals have opened in Sinking Sands, the Moors of Ykesha, Feerott, Thundering Steppes, Antonica, Steamfont, the Enchanted Lands, and Lavastorm. The mages ask that you investigate them all!

EDIT: The in-game mail says to start near the Antonica lighthouse. Hope that helps!

March 15, 2011 - DoV Dungeon Drops Quick Cheat Sheet

Now that the dungeon drops are starting to appear a bit more, and there are factioned crafters who have the recipes from the Forgemasters of Thurgadin faction, here is a rewording of what is contained in the DoV Recipe Book Rundown page:

The three DoV dungeon drops (Bloodied Remnant of Rage, Frozen Shard of Magic, Globe of Coalescing Shadows) are used in a variety of recipes. Each crafting class can do a different group of those recipes, with the recipe books that they can buy with 40K Forgemasters of Thurgadin faction. (Adventurers will need to use the commission system to have the proper crafter make the item.)

• Alchemists - rings
• Armorers - belts
• Carpenters - symbols
• Jewelers - bracelets
• Provisioners - charms
• Sages - necklaces
• Tailors - cloaks
• Weaponsmith - metal weapons
• Woodworkers - ranged (bow/satchel), shields

March 11, 2011 - SOE Announcement for Japan

Our thoughts go out to colleagues, family and friends impacted by the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan. In response to this terrible tragedy, SOE will disable billing for 30 days for people in Japan.

Google has set up a crisis response center for this disaster – please share throughout your network. Thank you.

March 09, 2011 - Brewday 2011!

Brewday 2011 begins Thursday, complete with new crafting goodies. (This is a CHANGE in the release date. Apparently the fermenting is taking a day longer than planned.) I am a bit late with getting a preview together, but it is done at last: Drunken Antics

March 08, 2011 - Phew

I finally updated the calendar with more crafting and world events for the month. In addition, the writeup for the Blessed Coldain Prayer Shawl HQ has been updated with further details, warnings for those with multiple crafters running through the quest at the same time, and so on. I, um, got a tad sidetracked on the final polish because I was working my army through the quest, but it should be done now. Please nudge me on the forums if you find any errors or omissions.

In addition, I have a warning for you about the Frost Gryphon, one of the two crafter flying mounts:

It appears there was an issue introduced to the Frost Gryphon with this morning's update. This should be fixed in the next available hotfix, which we are currently expecting to be Wednesday morning (subject to change pending QA results). Apologies for the inconvenience, we're getting it corrected as soon as possible.

I blame the gnomes ...

Today or tomorrow I hope to have information up regarding Brew Day, which starts Thursday. It hit Test just a couple days ago, and I am just now getting over there to check out the new crafting offerings.

~Mum

March 04, 2011 - Small Notes

I missed these two in the patch notes yesterday:

• Harvest nodes are now available in Eastern Wastes.
• The Mission Stone of Shipyard Cove once more delivers you to a convenient area to the Shipyard Cove mission.

Remember to check the Quests tab for details on all the new DoV crafting quests and how they link together. I also added another chunk to the writeup for What Dreams May Come (The Blessed Coldain Prayer Shawl HQ), and will add the class-specific details in the next day or so. If I figured it right, some players should be ready to pass the faction hurdle for the HQ late Sunday night, early Monday morning, so I will make sure that the class-specific combine requirements are in place before then.

March 01, 2011 - Update Notes and More

Among the other things addressed with the hotfix this morning were several items of tradeskill interest:

• Capru now just tells you to come back “later” rather than “tomorrow”; he really means in 23 earth hours.
• The Stormfeather Brood Guardian from the digital collectors edition is now usable by high level tradeskillers as well as adventurers (once they have unlocked it by completing either the tradeskill or adventure gryphon quests).
• More Velious harvests should now be placeable in harvest depots and harvesting bags.
• The trap site markers for Mira’s “Trap Trip” quest should now be more visible under water.
• The driftwood required by the Forgemasters faction mission is now larger and less inclined to levitate in places.
• The plants required for “Herbal Cure” and “Ritual Gathering” should now be more clickable and less likely to grow at ground level.
• Tradeskillers must now have the Earring of the Solstice either in their inventory, on their person, or in their bank to collect tradeskill collections.
• The Frost Gryphon and Boreal Gryphon tradeskill flying mounts are now usable by tradeskillers level 85 and higher.

(Note that the Earring of the Solstice change was because, since the expansion last week, it was checking for Proof in the Pudding quest completion, not the earring, and those who reset their tradeskill after finishing the quest could no longer see the glowies. With this change, simply owning the earring will allow one to see the red glowies.

In other news, today starts another week-long City Festival, this time back in Neriak.

Today-only, you can also celebrate the final day of the Twelve Days of Velious with Gnomish Aerodome Races!

Get your first taste of flight! Players can queue up to take a gnomish aircraft through a torturous test-pilot course. Aerial race tracks are erected near the entrance to Butcherblock (the most hazardous course), Tenebrous Tangle (the longest course) and Lavastorm (the course that requires the most finesse). Find the gnome next the huge scoreboard, and talk to him to start the quest. Then just step on the teleport pad and you'll be warped to the starting line!

Participation earns prizes, and winners will receive a title as well as the ability to fly the craft around for a short time (aircraft is no-zone and expires after the event is over.) This event lasts for just one day, so don't miss out!

February 27, 2011 - Crafter Flying Mounts FYI

For those crafters completing their quest for the crafter version of the flying mount, please be aware that there is a bug with them that should be fixed with the next hotfix (Tuesday). They accidentally need level 85 adventurer to use. (When they were changed from needing level 90 to use to needing level 85 to use, they lost the crafter tag.) This is a bug, it will be fixed, Domino already has not only been alerted, but spent time over her weekend break to get the fix checked into QA so it will be ready for the next hotfix. Thanks, Domino!

February 24, 2011 - Vedandi Moving

I have been told that the hotfix today will include a move for Loremaster Verdandi and the prayer shawl quest notes into a more climate-controlled area. More specifically, they will be headed to the library inside the Temple of Brell in Thurgadin. I will update various articles accordingly once I am more caffeinated. I will also get up a placeholder for the shawl quest, so that you have information on the starter while I get a bit of a breather before whipping my notes into shape. (It will still be well over a week before anyone has enough Forgemaster faction to progress with Loremaster Verdandi.) Meanwhile, remember that the Mock Turtle Soup article has many links at the bottom for your various DoV crafting information and eye-candy needs, with every DoV crafting quest but the shawl having a quest write-up by now.

Also, remember to keep an eye on the Calendar for the Twelve Days of Velious promotions, as there has been some really nice surprises (like five free character transfer tokens starting in another hour).

February 22, 2011 - Urk!

So, there I was in the middle of several hours of Velious quest writeups this afternoon, when I went to save my work on the site and ... it was dead. Both sites, both sets of forums. Pffft. The day before the expansion. Eventually, after watching me climb the walls for a while, the hubbyogre mentioned that the main Racknine site (our hosting provider) was down, too (on the plus side, this hopefully meant they knew about the problem, on the minus side, it meant we could not get an update on the problem). Over 6 hours later, just as I was about to crawl into bed for a few hours of sleep before the expansion brouhaha, we are finally back up, so I'm going to try to finish the Iceclad Ocean quest preview before I topple. (According to my clock, it is still February 21, but this is posting on the front page as February 22, so expect more posts from me once morning hits here.)

February 22, 2011 - Launch Day, Othmir Day

While we are waiting for the servers to come back up (as always, launch schedules are hard to predict because Bristlebane tends to take an interest at usually the worst possible time), there are new articles linked into the bottom of the Mock Turtle Soup DoV preview article. The quest writeps are also being linked directly onto the main Quests page for the site.

I would also like to remind everyone that SOE is doing a Twelve Days of Velious promotion that started with the bonus xp weekend. While many of the other events are still to be announced, today is "Othmir Day". Everyone (regardless of your expansion status) is able to /marketplace in-game and claim their free 50-charge othmir (otterman) illusion potion. Every alt can claim one, and you have to do so today if you want them to have it. (Note: it is under the expansion button in the marketplace)

February 17, 2011 - Double XP Weekend

Smokejumper just announced a double xp weekend:

In anticipation for the coming of "Destiny of Velious" on Tuesday, we're running a Double XP weekend from 10am Pacific on Friday, 2/18 until 3am Pacific on Tuesday, 2/22.

This affects adventure, tradeskill, and AA experience.

This is your chance to get that alt up to 85 or so so you can plow into the snow and ice of Velious with us!

Enjoy!

(End time was edited after publication due to downtime for expansion patching.)

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