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Brenlo's Sixth Year Message Print News | Mail News Brenlo has written a very nice essay on EQLive. Six years of EverQuest really is an accomplishment, especially in the fickle world of entertainment.
Calling all Guilds Print News | Mail News Submit your guild website for inclusion on our site! It's great way to let people know how successful your guild is, what kinds of things your guild does, and it's a terrific recruitment tool as well.
EverQuest Turns Six and the Fun Begins! Print News | Mail News Scavenger hunts, in game quests and your old enemies from the Ruins of Kunark with a few new friends coming back to give it the old school try!
From EQLive:
EverQuest Turns Six!
In honor of the sixth anniversary of EverQuest, fans of the hugely popular online fantasy game are being rewarded with a host of in-game activities. For the next 30 days, players will take part in special in-game quests and activities that include all-new loot and items.
Zek Moves Print News | Mail News New on EQ Live today is a post detailing Zek server moves. Here's the full post:
Once the servers come up from the update on Thursday, Zek players will be able to begin the process of selecting a new server to have all characters on their account moved to.
Those Zek players who have already executed the /movelog command will be moved to the server they chose, unless that server was Solusek Ro or Kane Bayle. Zek players who chose either of these servers will need to execute the command again, choosing a new server.
If you have changed your mind as to which server you would like to move to, the /movelog UI (after Thursdays update) will have a disregard button. Using the disregard button will cancel any pending movelog requests and allow you to execute a new movelog request.
We will begin processing the movelog requests on Friday night (March 4th) and will continue nightly for a period of 30 days. Any accounts that have executed the movelog request will need to make certain they have no corpses in the world. If you have a shared bank already in use on your destination server, you will need to empty either shared bank out as only one will be available after the movelog is complete.
New Barter Guide @ EQ Live Print News | Mail News Hey... that title rhymes. This is what happens when you update at 3am.
The slightly more insane than me halfling, Brenlo, has posted a guide to the Barter system written by GM Darcfae. Here's a clip:
On the left hand side of the screen you will see a list of all items you have available to sell or trade to others. Just select the item you wish to sell and click on Search. On the right hand side at the top you will see everyone who is willing to purchase your item. Select one of the buyers at the bottom right it will list everything they are willing to trade and/or any coin they are willing to give you for the item. Then just select Find Buyer and follow the trail to the merchant player who is offering you the best deal for your item.
Server Merges Print News | Mail News After the success of the Zek server merges it seems SOE will be merging other servers. Right now they are only starting with four servers, but I would guess more are on the way. Here's the full text from the EQ Live post:
Server Merges
On March 22, 2005, we will begin the process of merging some of the EverQuest servers. As we have seen from the recent success of the Zek merger, combining some of the EQ worlds is beneficial for players� experience. In fact, we have been pleasantly surprised to find that the new Zek server now has a higher population than the four combined servers had prior to that merger. We hope that by merging some of our lower population servers with a higher population server, we will continue to enhance your gameplay experience
Merging Servers
On March 22nd, Antonius Bayle will merge with Kane Bayle and will retain the name Antonius Bayle.
On March 23rd, Bristlebane will merge with Solusek Ro and will retain the name Bristlebane.
We understand that server identity is important to our customers and we will be integrating server titles into the title system to allow you to display your server of origin, should you desire to do so.
Unutilized Character Purge
Immediately preceding the merger, all characters below level 10 that have not been logged in for over six months will be deleted from each of the merging servers and will not be available after the server merge. If you have a character on any of the servers being merged that is below level 10 and has not been logged in for more than six months, you will need to log that character in prior to the scheduled merge date for the relevant server.
Shared Banks on Merging Servers
If you have characters on two servers which are being merged together, you will need to clean out the shared bank on one of those servers. After the merge, only one shared bank will be available on each merged server.
Character Limitations
If you have more than eight characters in total on two servers being merged together, only the first eight characters (in alphabetical order) will be displayed after the merge. Characters other than the eight displayed characters will not be available for selection until currently displayed characters are deleted. All characters from both servers will remain on your account provided that the character was not below level 10 and had not been logged in within the last six months.
Corpses
Prior to the scheduled merge date for your server(s), please be sure that you clear any unclaimed character corpses from the world. Character corpses will not be transferred to the newly-merged server. Once the merger is complete, all corpses on the servers affected by a merge will have been purged.
Duplicate Character Names
It is possible that characters on servers affected by the merge will have duplicate names. In the event that characters on the new, combined server do share a name, the character with the most played time will be entitled to keep the name. All other characters will have the letter X appended to their name and will be eligible for a name change. Characters can use the in-game /changename command to request a new name. The new name is subject to the conditions set forth in our naming policy which can be found here: Naming Policy.
LDoN Leader Boards
After each merge is completed, as characters log into their newly-combined server, the leader board will be re-populated with standings. Although your points will be unaffected by the transfer, your standing may have changed based on the new, combined population totals.
Complimentary Character Move
Shortly after each merger is complete, we will allow all customers affected by a merge a one-time, complimentary character move to the server of their choice. For each customer with an account on a newly-merged server who request such a move, all characters associated with that customer�s account will be transferred to the selected server. All characters will bring their items with them in the transfer.
It should be interesting to see how existing guilds will accept the merges.
New Halfling Hodgepodge Print News | Mail News A new Halfling Hodgepodge was posted today. A few of the topics this time are Dragons of Norrath encounters, new tasks, and tracking NPCs.
EQ Players, You've Got Mail! Print News | Mail News A new post over on EQ Live explains how to use the Mail system. I'm sure most of us already know, but if you don't:
Now you can send in-game messages to other players even if they're not logged into the game! Here's how to use this new EverQuest feature:
1) To open the Mail Window, either click on the Mail Icon (it's new!) or use Control-M.
2) To send an e-mail, press the "Compose" button in the Mail Window. Enter the recipient's character name in the "To" field; then enter the "Subject" and type in the message. Press "Send."
3) To receive messages, click on an unread message header on the list in your Mail Window. You can also reply to the sender and forward the message to another player.
4) There are also message management features where you can order, delete, or undelete messages. And you can even send a message to yourself.
Topic of the Week - What do you think of Dragons of Norrath so far? Print News | Mail News Dragons of Norrath has been live for 3 days now and initial impressions have been forming.
I started a new discussion on our boards asking what you think so far. What new feature do you love? Seen an area of a new zone that was just amazingly cool? Let everyone know here.
Brenlo�s World Print News | Mail News New to EQ Live boards is a new board entitled "Brenlo's World" where you can get to know everyone's favorite Community Relations Manager.
Topics already posted include photos from SOE during launch day, and a log about how the day went for launching Dragons of Norrath.
For some interesting reads check out the full board here
Mission NPCs taking a short break Print News | Mail News Brenlo noted that mission NPCs for DoN are on a hiatus due to a newly discovered dupe bug. Here's the full post:
Hey folks,
It seems that some among our community have figured out a way to duplicate mission crystals and are being naughty. In order to prevent the naughty folks from taking advantage of this obvious bug, we will be removing the mission NPCs from the world for a while. The mission NPCs will return once the bug is corrected and those who have exploited it pay penance. Additionally the crystals will be temporarily made no-drop while we correct the issue.
We are tracking this issue and are aware of the folks that are using the bug. Their duped crystals will be wiped. Items purchased with the duped crystals will be removed and accounts that were found to be duping may face disciplinary action, which can include banning of the account. If you have duped crystals or items bought with duped crystals we encourage you to delete them now.
Patch Notes 2/15/05 Print News | Mail News New patch today! Dragons of Norrath launches, and new features are in for both owners of the expansion and non-owners. I am so happy they finally added a mail system. And the new Barter system sounds good as well.
Click "Read More" to view the full patch notes. Stay tuned in the next couple weeks for a full review of DoN.
Dragons of Norrath Live tomorrow! Print News | Mail News Tomorrow is the big day. Of course until then if you want to read about what to expect from DoN you should have absolutely no problem finding previews. Here are a few links to previews written in the past couple days:
EQ Vault Dragons of Norrath Preview! [Post A Comment] - Print News | Mail News New on EQ Vault tonight is a Dragons of Norrath preview I wrote based on a tour I was given last night by Brenlo. Overall I was impressed, but I usually am at press tours - if they don't impress you something is wrong!
Included with the preview are over 40 new, 1600x1200 screenshots that I took which show off the new areas, mobs, and interface features.
To read the full preview point your browser here. What do you think about the preview and Dragons of Norrath? Let everyone know and post a comment!
Dragons of Norrath NDA Lifted [Post A Comment] - Print News | Mail News The NDA on Dragons of Norrath has been lifted so now you can talk all you want about it! Here's the full news post from EQ Live:
Feel free to tell your friends about Dragons of Norrath now that portions of the beta NDA have been lifted. However, keep in mind that we are lifting the NDA for discussion of game content and features and not with respect to bugs, feedback, communication between SOE and beta testers, or other confidential communication regarding the beta.
Let those Dragons Loose!
Brenlo
So did you test DoN? What did you think? Post a comment and let everyone know! I'll be going on a press tour in just a couple hours so be sure to check back in the next couple days for my thoughts.
Dragons of Norrath First View @ RPG Vault Print News | Mail News RPG Vault has a short "First View" of the 9th EQ Expansion set to go live next week. Here's a clip:
Reservations While the game's sizable community has proven to be pretty receptive to the earlier expansions, Omens of War launched five months ago, and each new one raises the question as to whether there's a limit beyond which player fatigue will set in. It doesn't seem as if Dragons of Norrath will have very much to help attract new players, and it's also not immediately clear how much of the new content will be accessible to low- and even mid-level characters.
