EverQuest II’s Kelethin City Festival begins with a week of new festivities, items and quests for 2012.
In what may go down as the best decision in EQ2 history, or a total overreaction to a problem that could have been solved with a 15-20% reduction across the board, Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson has announced that in the very near future, the Critical Mitigation stat will be COMPLETELY GOING AWAY.
First introduced in The Shadow Odyssey, greatly expanded in Sentinel’s Fate, and then becoming the most important stat within Destiny of Velious as an alternative form of progression to raising the level cap (which is technologically challenging), here’s the announcement of this revelation from the EQ2 Forums:
We’ve listened to all of your conversations since Critical Mitigation was originally introduced. The dev team has extensively debated about it internally. (Very extensively.) But ultimately, we decided that the right move for EQII is to remove Critical Mitigation entirely from the game.
Critical Mitigation initially seemed to do what it was designed for, but it has always suffered from a complete lack of intuitiveness for players, and it’s not a forward-extensible system. Ultimately, it doesn’t add any fun factor to the game.
So we’ve decided that a complete removal of it is by far the best solution for all concerned.
Here are the details:
- Critical Mitigation (the stat) has been removed from the game.
- Critical Mitigation no longer displays on the Character pane (for obvious reasons, since it’s no longer in the game).
- NPCs no longer use Critical Bonus to add to critical damage.
- Buffs and debuffs that have Critical Mitigation elements to them will have those elements replaced with other elements instead, so that those buffs/debuffs do not lose effectiveness.
- Critical Mitigation values on adornments will be replaced with hit point values instead.
This change will be coming to Test soon and then to the regular servers soon thereafter.
NOTE: This change has no effect on PvP game play. The “PvP Critical Mitigation” stat is still useful for game balance in PvP play and is not being changed.
Trust me when I say that I checked the calendar more than once when reading this announcement. The only proximate holiday is represented above. 
What Do You Think?
- So do you think this is a good move?
- A total overreaction?
- How is SOE going to provide progression without raising the level cap?
- Is there any reason to run Heroic content anymore (outside of Drunder) now that armor is essentially free and shards are no longer needed for Critical Mitigation adornments?
Feb 012012
A selection of Velious raid mobs have been doubling up on Area-of-Effect attacks since the expansion’s launch nearly one year ago. Atan (of Unrest) summed up the issues:
Condition 1: Modifieable timers line up such that a mob casts 2 different abilities simultaneously.
Condition 2: Ability that normally comes ever 40 seconds comes twice in a row with no delay.
Seems they are both bugs to me, but condition 1 is probably just a result of your design.
Maevianiu is getting serious about addressing the AoE double-casting by raid mobs in Velious raid zones and had these responses:
I cannot speak on Condition 1, I’ll leave that to the designers.
However, Condition 2 is definately a bug, and I’ve been chasing it for a while now and frankly. I cannot make it happen.
So I’m adding in some extra logging to try to pickup on when you guys make it happen and see if I can track it down from there. I’ll post in this thread later today with the zone(s) the logging has been activated in and you guys and post when it happens in those zones and hopefully we can find the cause and get it fixed.
And, if you guys can find a way to make it happen please post it here it will go a long way to getting this fixed.
and:
The logging is now active for any instances started after the time of this posting on the “Throne of Storms: Hall of Legends [Challenge]” zone.
Update:
Logging is also enabled in Foundations of Stone [Challenge]
Here are your Update Notes for January 31, 2012:
GENERAL
- Fixed a bug where some characters wouldn’t show on character select.
ZONE PROGRESSION / POPULATION
Tower of Frozen Shadow (Raid)
- Tserrina’s spell “Wing Buffet” should no longer cause priests to become knocked back.
- Adds spawned from shadow doors should no longer spawn quite as quickly.
- The number of adds that spawn from shadow doors has been slightly reduced.
Tower of Frozen Shadow: Umbral Halls
- Demanti Sheda should no longer have issues resetting his encounter.
- Demanti Sheda’s spell “Paralyzing Fear” should now stun instead of fearing and has been reduced in duration.
Elements of War [Challenge]
- Terrinon Bloodclaw now has less strikethrough ability.
Tower of Tactics
- Lady V’uul will no longer spawn archers once defeated.
Vallon’s Tower [Challenge]
- Ambassador Grindstone’s Council Judgment proc now only lasts half as long and is no longer a curse.
- During the Hand of Vallon/Golem fight the golems should no longer get out of color synch or double cast any spells.
- During the final Vallon Zek fight – Fighters no longer destroy domes if they enter with the wrong color. Only non-fighters destroy domes in this way. You have more time to react before the domes spawn to get out of the way, and after the domes spawn to get in the proper color dome. Tactical Toll no longer snares players.
Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge]
- Tyrax Terrolus will no longer curse the main tank with Tyrax’s Edict.
Kael Drakkel contested
- Boss mobs will now cast curses less frequently.
Stonebrunt Highlands
- Ghazi the Conqueror should no longer retreat from battle with mercenaries.
DUNGEON MAKER
- All Dungeon Maker avatars should now be the same tier.
ITEMS
- The elemental disc mounts from the 8th year veteran rewards should now be able to be used by 85th level tradeskillers.
- Yellow adornments on the Ry’Gorr, Thurgadin, and Snowfang merchants should now offer options for beastlords.
- Fertilizer treasure should once again be able to be sold on the broker.
- The AOE radius on Tradeskill Apprentice priest 2hander procs has been reduced from 25m to 5m.
- Added beastlord items to loot tables for [Echoes of War].
- Increased crit chance on [Echoes of War] 2 handed weapons.
QUESTS
Beastlord Epic
- There are no longer two axiom within the Great Divide that share the same name.
Jan 302012
We reported last week on the double-casting of AoEs by Destiny of Velious HM (hard mode) raid targets, making many fights either nearly impossible, or requiring exceptional luck.
According to Kander, this is now being looked at:
It is definitely a bug and we definitely intend to fix it. We have code looking at it right now.
Meanwhile, Gninja remains our point man on all things Mercenaries. At the prodding of players, he has nailed down some issues, first with Defiler mercs not taking advantage of wards:
Took a look at this. It seems they are still warding but they are giving heals nearly full priority. I will rebalance it a bit so they keep wards up as well.
and on the subject of mercs not being diligent about keeping pets or warders alive:
I will take a look and see if I can find the problem. Mercs “should” heal pets with single target heals. If they are not it is a bug and I will see if I can fix it.
Gninja is aware of, but unable to reproduce an apparent bug with mercs not being re-summonable once suspended not for 2 minutes, but 24 hours.
I have seen reports of this but we havent been able to reproduce it on our end. The only thing I can think of is that it is some sort of UI related issue.
He then asked for character name, server, and details to help diagnose the issue.
For those who continue to be concerned about mercenaries that “cower” when too many mobs are wailing on them (as unintentionally happens on the first named in Forgotten Pools), Gninja reminded us that even when playing the ‘cowering’ animation, mercs are still acting, but at a reduced potency:
If the cower visual aspect is causing confusion I can see about getting some better visual aspects added in instead of making them cower but the mechanic of them gaining a debuff when they get too much attention is not going to go away anytime soon. This does not mean that we might not release mercs later down the road with larger thresholds but for these base mercenaries the threshold will be staying as is for now.
Bug of the Week
A bug we have personally seen regarding Beastlord Warder Specialization Points (aka Warder AAs). You can buy the end-line abilities (giving you a new 5th or 6th Primal) even if you don’t have the 3 points needed to buy them. The number of Available Warder Specialization Points will display as -2. However your Warder SP will reset every time you zone.
From EverQuest2.com:
Crushbone and Permafrost will be undergoing maintenance beginning at 4:00 AM Pacific* on January 31, 2012. We expect this downtime to last for approximately 8 hours.Chat will also be down for the Freeport and Oasis servers during this time.
We apologize for this interruption and will bring the servers back online as soon as the maintenance is completed.
Time Zone Conversions
- PST: 4:00am-noon
- EST: 7:00am-3:00pm
- GMT: 12:00-20:00
- CET: 13:00-21:00
Jan 302012
Last week, MMORPG posted an interview with Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson.
The article is a bit light on revelations and threw a few softballs like “The Dungeon Maker is a brilliant addition to the game. Can we expect more functionality now that it seems like the community loves the feature so much?” , it could still be an interesting read, especially players looking for any scrap of information about the upcoming fourth game in the EverQuest franchise (you didn’t think we forgot about EQOA, did you?).
Great ideas only really shine if you’re first to market with them. So we’re giving ourselves lead time against our competitors by being as close-mouthed about the game as we can until we feel like we’ve got a bit of a lead for launch. And then we’ll talk about it. You can’t imagine how much we want to talk about it. We’re bursting.But for now, all I can say are the things I’ve said before: a) It’s a reimagining of the Norrathian universe of characters and places; b) It’s utilizing the same Forgelight MMO engine that “Planetside 2” is using (and that engine is looking incredible right now), and c) this is not the MMO you’re used to playing. We aim to make something extremely different this time around. High-fantasy? You betcha. Norrath? You bet, but expect some twists. Magic? Swords? Sorcery? Yup, yup, and yup. But beyond that…imagine all you want. Our aim is to make something cooler than what’s in your head.
Although EQNext is still pretty much top secret, Zoltaroth did post a picture of some members of the EQ2 and EQNext teams at a paintball range. Hey, we’ll take anything we can get including a pic of Rothgar’s armory.
Jan 302012
It is now two weeks since the announcement that ProSiebenSat, a TV and radio broadcast firm based in Germany, will become SOE’s ‘Exclusive Partner’ in Europe. ProSiebenSat’s gaming division, Alaplaya, is mostly known for poorly supported region-locked free-to-play browser games.
The announcement immediately raised fears which, to date, have received no official (or unofficial) response from SOE beyond two posts from SmokeJumper asking for more patience:
I can’t give you the official answer yet. I’ve been specifically asked to wait until the full FAQ and everything is created for this.
However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with Proseiben.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.
I need to wait to talk about other details until all the p’s and q’s are arranged. (When we partner with folks, the discussions always take longer because it’s not just us making the decisions, and this is a big arrangement with many details to hash out.)
I am sorry this is taking so long, but the answers are coming soon.
After the jump, we address some of the issues that players are uncertain about:
Region Locking
The largest concerns have been over Region Locking, or the restriction of gameplay on certain servers to certain geographical regions via IP address checking. The only consistent workaround is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Players in North America, some of whom work odd hours, as well as a number of US military on assignment in Europe have always had the freedom to play on traditionally European servers like Splitpaw, Valor, and Storms. Likewise players from Europe have had the option to play on American servers such as the popular Antonia Bayle.
- Will players in Europe and the US be ‘region locked’ to only play on certain servers?
- Will server transfers be possible between US servers and Splitpaw (the remaining UK server) after the contract goes through?
- Will EU players be able to access Vanguard, a game with no current EU server?
Customer Service
When you reach the right person, SOE Customer Service has traditionally been very good to excellent.
- Will players in Europe be reliant upon Alaplaya staff for any technical or support problems with SOE games?
Accounts
A relevant passage from the announcement has this to say:
We are pleased to announce that the renowned developer and publisher Sony Online Entertainment and ProSiebenSat.1 Games agreed on a cooperation which means even more fun and diversity for the steadily growing portfolio of games which can be enjoyed with your alaplaya account.
also a post in German by a moderator was translated by an EQ2 player:
With regard to account questions etc. We are working with SOE on an FAQ. Everything will be easy and uncomplicated. Don’t Worry! More info soon. We will surely grow massively.
- Will players login to EQ2 and other SOE games through the current Station system, or will they be transitioned to Alaplaya’s login and forum systems?
- Will players keep their current StationCash balances, or will this get turned into a different currency?
Update Schedule
EQ2 servers geolocated in Europe (Amsterdam) are typically updated 14 hours after US servers. Will game patches take place on a different schedule or possibly be delayed?
Localisation
One of the problems with maintaining a text-heavy game like EverQuest II in the German and French markets is localisation. Some of the translations in EQ2 for certain items or quest text are legendarily bad. Could Alaplaya’s involvement lead to improved translations?
What do you think?
Is it time to worry yet?
Jan 272012
Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson has posted a bit of a Twitter followup after his rather abrupt pronouncement that we should only expect three Game Updates this year, with the next one not arriving until sometime in April:
Funny how when you come back from relaxing, you always run real hard to catch up. Does this make sense? Really? Humanz iz odd.
DoV, Book 2, Chapter 1! (GU 63) : Withered Lands and Skyshrine. A big new overland, group instances, a contested dungeon, raids, and more!
Sometimes things go right. And then because of that, they keep going right because that becomes normal. This is a good time for SOE.
Follow EQ2GU on Twitter!
SOE Forums Go For Security Theater
If you like posting on the EQ2 forums, you’ve probably been seeing a lot of the above screen.
Over 2 weeks ago, the SOE forums lost the ability to store login information using cookies. In other words, anyone who was not actively browsing an SOE forum or website was logged out after 15 minutes of activity. At the time, this was explained as a temporary glitch.
However last week, EQ2 Community Manager Amnerys (who returned to work at SOE in early January) had this unbelievable update on the issue:
Amnerys posted elsewhere:
A player who contacted a different forum administrator received this cryptic info:
It hasn’t been made clear what security reasons there were for invalidating cookies after 3 hours. I posted an explanation for why requiring a login every 3 hours is just Security Theater: