Client Crashes FIX!
If you have had your fill of “EverQuest2.com has stopped responding” errors, Rothgar seems to have finally gotten to the bottom of this one:
We think we’ve finally tracked down a bug that has been happening for awhile and leading to client crashes and the “EQ2 has stopped responding” problem. I can’t guarantee that this fixes EVERY problem out there, but it certainly fixes the most common crash we’ve been seeing lately.
This should get pushed out with next week’s hotfix along with some performance improvements to public quests!
EQ2 Still Runs Oracle
An inquisitive (or is it snarky) player picked up on an ikd SOE press release regarding the switch from Oracle to EnterpriseDB as the server hardware of choice to power their MMOs. It was suggested that the use of this cheaper hardware explained EQ2’s performance issues. It seems in our search for any news about new hardware upgrades, we’ll grasp at any announcement. Although FreeRealms Alas, Zoltaroth and Rothgar have nipped this in the bud:
I hate to kill all the cool conspiracy theories, but all EQ2 DBs are still Oracle. The only EQ2 DB changes we have made since launch are hardware upgrades and performance tuning. The article referenced above is likely talking about new / other projects.
Obviously we’ll provide you an update as soon as we hear when existing EQ2 worlds get moved onto brand spanking new Oracle hardware.
Chairspotting
Observant players noticed a much-requested feature had slipped into Wednesday’s update (and thus disappeared in Thursday’s fix). We’re talking about the /sitchair emote. Alas, it was not ready yet. Rothgar gives us the scoop:
Unfortunately the feature wasn’t ready yet and it snuck in on accident. We’re really sorry to have teased you and taken it away, but our ultimate plans for releasing this bit-of-awesome just aren’t complete.
Sitting in chairs is something that has been requested in every developer chat (wow, when’s the last time we had one of those?) and Fan Faire panel. Players have been asking for it a long time.
Why wasn’t it added before? I am going to go out on a limb and guess that developers initially wanted to do it the 100% “right” way which means redesigning every chair to have a center point, a ’seat height’ value, and adding a proper “sit down” animation to each race. This way everything would line up perfectly. However, players have long since been willing to accept something a lot less polished and putting the onus on us to find the right race/chair combo and positioning that looks “right”. In short: it doesn’t have to be perfect, just do a knee-bend to 50% and we’ll find chairs that we can sit in that don’t look silly. We may also get /sleeping, /faint, and other emotes as ttobey asked for up to 5 emotes players would like to see added for Roleplay purposes.
My understanding is, an emote to “sit” is what’s being added, and it will be up to players to find situations where it works. Just as players have already found ways to make existing emotes do things that no person should ever do to another. 
Hey, it makes for interesting screenshots, right?
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