EQ2 Forums - News and Announcements

Nagafen will be coming down Thursday morning at 7am PST for maintenance.  The estimated downtime is 1 hour.

During this maintenance we will be upgrading some of Nagafen's game servers.  After the upgrade is successful we will be monitoring server performance and slowly shutting down older hardware.  Our goal is to eventually have all of Nagafen moved to the new hardware but we will be doing it a little at a time so we can monitor load and adjust accordingly.

Initially we will be moving some zones such as Antonica and Commonlands to the new hardware in hopes that it improves your experience with Warfields.

Hi there, Norrathians,

As they say, the one thing that’s always true about the world is that it changes. That’s true of the world in general, the game industry, and it’s always been true with “EverQuest II”.

The very nature of an MMO is change. We listen, we adapt, and the game grows in features, content, and fun factor as the months and years pass. Now, the expectations of gamers and the industry itself are changing around us, and it’s time for “EverQuest II” to spring forward so it can continue to expand and be successful.

Many of you are aware of the free-to-play model that’s being embraced by many of the big game developers out there. We’re not the first folks to entertain the idea for an MMO, but we do have the biggest and best virtual world to offer in such a model and we firmly believe that we can expose thousands and thousands of new players to the world of Norrath if we embrace that concept.

However, before going any further, I’d like to stop and say that we’re tied into what you, the community of EQII players, have said about selling items with stats and how they affect a game where you traditionally earn your way forward. We completely understand there’s a solid core of you that want nothing at all to do with that. We respect your wishes and, as I’ve personally stated previously, we’re not planning any changes to the current subscription worlds at all. Those servers, that subscription service and that gameplay will continue as normal. We’ll continue to support the existing Live service with content, expansions, features, and events…just as we’ve always done. In fact, we’re upping the ante by providing subscription rewards packages for active users that buy multi-month subscriptions, giving them rewards like cool, unique, exclusive items and Station Cash.

But the free-to-play concept is a strong way to expose the world of Norrath to hordes of new players. Think of it as a huge new way to run a “free trial” like we’ve always done, but without the “14-day” limit, and with a lot more content available to try before you decide whether you want to commit to the game or not. We’ve had over eight years to grow this game, its content and its features, and there’s simply nothing else like it out there.

So, we’re about to launch a bold new service named “EverQuest II Extended” (EQ2X). This is a completely separate service from the standard EQII Live subscription service (EQII). It's aims are simply to attract new players to the world of “EverQuest II” and let them try it out before deciding if and how they want to pay for it.

“EverQuest II Extended” shares all the content and features of Live EQII. It plays the same. It looks the same. It *is* the same, with two obvious exceptions: a) it’s free-to-play, and b) it has a more robust marketplace.

What does “free-to-play” mean? It means that you can download the game and play all of it (except the most recent expansion) all the way up to level 80. Your character is restricted in a bunch of different ways (limited class selection, limited races, limited coin, etc.) and to unlock those features fully, you’ll need to subscribe to Gold level membership. Which, coincidentally, is $15/month. Sound familiar?

What is a “robust marketplace”? It’s exactly the same marketplace that you see on the EQII service, but it also adds lots of “convenience” items. Can’t find a good shield in-game? We sell one appropriate to your level and class. Want a healing potion to use in a pinch? Need an emergency buff? Want to shortcut your research time? Items like that are all available in the marketplace. Do we sell the very best items and equipment? Nope. Legendary and Fabled gear are better than what you can buy in the marketplace. Has the game been rebalanced so that you *need* to buy these “convenience” items? Nope. EQ2X is exactly the same game that you’re playing currently on the EQII servers. Those items are just there if you want them. They are true “convenience” items.

There’s lots more details about all of this (and you can find the FAQ at http://eq2players.station.sony.com/...ay/extended_faq), but remember…this only affects you if you want it to affect you. If you ignore EQ2X completely, then your existing subscription, game, and support are unchanged.

If you’re a current subscriber, and you’d like to take a peek at “EverQuest II Extended” on its new Test server, you can jump into the game at the Free membership level by clicking here and streaming down the game client you’ll need. (http://launch.soe.com/eq2x/) This is the Alpha version of the service and its currently only available to existing subscribers so you can see it for yourselves before the public sees it later. The beta launch of the EQ2X service will occur in mid-August.

Whether you check out the new stuff as a Live subscription player, or as an Extended player, you’ll see examples of how we upgrade the content simultaneously across both services. We’ve significantly improved the UI, skill progressions, new user quest content, tutorials, created the “Regions of Interest” system so you can see where your quests are located, and much more.

Enjoy.

 

-- Dave (Smokejumper) Georgeson.

[Edited for formatting and to add link]

EQII Extended - Feedback and Discussion Thread

This is a notification that UK worlds will be updated at 5:00 AM London Time on 23/07/2010. The estimated downtime will be 2 hours. 

- SOE Operations team

The US servers will come down on July 22, 2010, at 7am PDT for a hotfix.  The Update Notes will be posted in the Update Notes forum when available.

This is a notification that UK worlds will be updated at 5:00 AM London Time on 07/21/2010. The estimated downtime will be 2 hours.

- SOE Operations team

Greetings Norrathians!

We have been made aware of a potential threat to your account security, and ask you to read this, pass it on, link it and let others know.

There is a serious phishing scam being perpetrated right now. You may receive an email telling you that your password has been changed or asking you to log into the linked site for some reason.

Please double check the URL of the site that you are being asked to access. The legitimate SOE site will have this URL: http://auth.station.sony.com. Please do not enter your information on any other site, as it is not secure.

If you feel that your account may have been compromised, please contact CS immediately.

Contact CS:

1. Live Chat - http://www.station.com/kb (Chat Support tab). If you cannot find the answer through the knowledge base, click on the "Chat Support" tab to chat live with a Support Representative. Chat Support is open Monday to Friday, from 10:00am - 7:00pm PST.

2. Email Support - http://www.station.com/kb (Email Support tab).  If you cannot find the answer through the knowledge base, click on the "Email Support" tab to email a Support Representative.

3. Phone Support - Available Monday through Friday from 10:00am - 7:00pm PST, except holidays, at 1-858-537-0898.  If you have forgotten your password required to use our email or chat support, and cannot complete the "Forgotten your password" form, please feel free to contact us via our phone support, and we will assist you from there.

This is a notification that UK worlds will be updated at 5:00 AM London Time on 07/15/2010. The estimated downtime will be 2 hours.

- SOE Operations team

The US servers will come down on July 14, 2010, at 7am PDT for a hotfix.  The Update Notes will be posted in the Update Notes forum when available.

Runnyeye and Splitpaw will be patched at 9pm PDT (4am GMT) on July 14, 2010.

Account services, including account maintenance, all commerce, and Station Store will be down for maintenance for 2 hours on Monday, July 12, 2010, from 10:00 am PDT to 12:00 pm PDT.

The Station Store and all commerce avenues will be unavailable for the entire duration of maintenance. This may also affect the performance of the forums and any or all accounts' abilities to log in.

We apologize for any inconvenience and will resume services as quickly as possible.

This is a notification that UK worlds will be updated at 5:00 AM London Time on the 07/08/2010. The estimated downtime will be 2 hours.

- SOE Operations team

Hey, folks,

We read your posts about wanting a Double XP weekend this coming 4th of July weekend. I went and discussed it with everyone concerned, and voila!, now it's Christmas in July.

NOTE: This is only for cards redeemed beteween Friday, July 2nd 2010 (after 12 noon PDT) and Monday, July 5th, 2010 (before 12 midnight PDT).

This fourth of July weekend, we will be running BOTH a Double Station Cash promotion *and* a true Double XP (+100% XP) promotion.

So go get those Station Cash cards so you can redeem them, and plan to play a ton this weekend! We'll see you on line!

(Details about how to get SC cards and other stuff will be posted later this week, probably on Thursday. Until then, this will be the only announcement you get. Spread the word!)

My Fellow Norrathians:

The US servers will come down on June 29, 2010, at 7am PDT for a hotfix.  The notes have been posted here.

Runnyeye and Splitpaw will be patched at the usual 9pm PDT (4 am GMT on June 29, 2010, provided that Kiara's gnomish time zone converterizer didn't lie).

As some of you may have heard, Kiara is going to be taking on some new responsibilities and kickin’ it old school as the EverQuest Community Manager.  This leaves us with the difficult task of finding someone that’s up to the challenge being the next EverQuest II Community Manager.  Luckily, we have just the person…

Please join me in welcoming Amnerys as the EverQuest II Community Manager!  If you haven’t heard of her or seen her many posts on this forum, be sure to camp her posts so you can learn all about her in her introductory post!

Rich “Greeblen” Schmelter

Director, Global Community Relations

Greetings Norrathians,

Starting at 4:45am PDT on Tuesday, June 29, 2010, the Guk, Najena and Blackburrow servers will come down for an estimated 5 1/2-hour downtime, expected to be online again around 9:15am PDT. During this time the servers will be undergoing maintenance.

We apologize for any inconvenience. If any additional downtime is needed, we will update this post accordingly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Greetings all!

The US servers will come down at 7am PDT for a hotfix.  The notes have been posted here.

Runnyeye and Splitpaw will be patched at the usual 9pm PDT (4 am GMT on June 16, 2010, provided that my time zone converter didn't lie).

Greetings all!

I wanted to let you know that we'll be making some changes to the forums this week.

We will be removing the server forums and replacing them with the following:

Guide Events
Player Events
Guild Recruitment
Roleplaying
Live Gamer

We will be leaving the server forums up for a little while to move some of the stickied threads that folks want to keep into the new forums.

The new forums will appear tomorrow.  If you see a thread in your server forum that you think really needs to be in one of the new forums, please report it and we'll review it and see if it needs to be transfered or if it would just be better to start a new one.

We are locking US Battlegrounds in order to bounce them in 30 minutes for a configuration change.  Estimated downtime after the 30 minute lock is about 15 minutes.

Greetings Norrathians,

Starting at 11pm PDT on June 9th, 2010 (7am GMT on June 10th, 2010) the following servers will be brought down for maintenance.  The downtime is expected to last approximately seven hours.  During this downtime, the affected servers will recieve the hotfix and will not experience additional downtime.  The Japanese server, Sebilis, will be unaffected by this maintenance and will patch at the usual time of 1pm PDT on June 10th.


Befallen

Permafrost

Crushbone

Mistmoore

Oasis


Runnyeye

Splitpaw

Innovation

Valor

Storms


Battelgrounds UK

Battlegrounds DE

Battlegrounds FR


We apologize for the inconvenience and will post updates to this thread if needed.

Greetings,

The US servers not listed in this thread will be patching at 7am PDT.  The downtime is expected to last the usual time (about an hour).

Thank you for your patience and happy gaming!

Account services, including account maintenance, all commerce, and Station Store will be down for maintenance for 12 hours on Thursday, June 3, 2010 from 1:00 AM PDT to 1:00 PM PDT.

The Station Store and all commerce avenues will be unavailable for the entire duration of maintenance.  This may also affect the performance of the forums and any or all accounts’ abilities to log in.

We apologize for any inconvenience and will resume services as quickly as possible.

**Apologies, this was meant to post last night.  Any additional issues you had this morning logging into the forums was caused by a brief network outage we experienced.  I'll update this thread if there is any news about the maintenance.  If you are still experiencing issues logging into the forums or being able to post, the maintenance being done sometimes affects the forum's ability to recognize your login.