EQUI.xml
EQUI_ActionsWindow.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_BazaarSearchWnd.xml
EQUI_BazaarWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_SelectorWnd.xml
EQUI_SkillsWindow.xml
EQUI_SocialEditWnd.xml
EQUI_TextEntryWnd.xml
EQUI_TrainWindow.xml
gemicons02.tga
SIDL.xml
window_pieces02.tga

SAN DIEGO, CA – July 29, 2002 – Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), announced today that EverQuest®, the most successful online PC role-playing game in history, hosted a milestone number of simultaneous players over the weekend. More than 100,000 clerics, half-elves, gnomes, and other fantasy characters created one of the largest assemblies of game players to date.

“Reaching such an important milestone is proof that EverQuest continues to enjoy wide popularity bringing people together from all over the world,” said John Smedley, senior vice president and chief operating officer, Sony Online Entertainment. “As we continue to expand EverQuest, most recently launching in the Korean market, we expect to surpass even greater milestones in the future. The EverQuest phenomenon is just beginning.”

Yup. We've got someone looking at the faction hits for the epic quest.

So there's no need to come to the Fan Faire armed or anything like that.

On Wednesday, July 31st, at 12AM PDT, (7AM GMT), all EverQuest servers will be brought down for brief maintenance. The estimated downtime is 2 hours.

Do you run or help run an EverQuest Guild? Does your guild lack a place where you can communicate with each other off line and keep a long-term history? Or perhaps you've wished you could use the Stratics Forum software for your own guilds forums...

Well now you can!

EverQuest Stratics is proud show off our Guild Forums.

These forums are provided so that your guild can have a set of their own forums for both public and private use!

Simply register* your account with our forums, and then post a request for your very own Guild Forums in the Guild Creation Request forum (instructions and guidelines are listed there). *(Current EQSS forum users will need to register a new account as the user database is completely unique.)

You can have one public forum and one or two private forums (members and leadership) for your Guild's exclusive use. You tell us who should have access to your private boards and we'll take care of it. (Public forums can be read and written to by all.)

Now you can maintain a history, discuss recent events, or just chatter away in your own private guild forums right here on Stratics! And don't forget that your guild can also have its own Stratics IRC registered guild channel for real-time chat online when not in game! Great for coordinating tactics while camped out to preserve buffs!

Check it out!

Are you looking for something more than the Stratics forums can offer you? Do you need a faster paced chat experience? Do you want immediate responses to your questions?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then we’ve got just the place for you. Come visit the Stratics IRC network. Check out http://chat.stratics.com for a full listing of information on how to get connected to the network. There is a sponsored room for every game that Stratics has a site for, as well as many other rooms both public and private. Come speak your mind at any time to a live audience, with Dev chats mixed in there for a little bit of spice on occasion. Come visit us in #everquest for some great EQ chat anytime. We’d all love to have you join us.

Our forum speed has been improved and we have numerous forums for you to use! We have General Forums, Class Forums, Server Forums, Race Forums, and Trade Skill Forums!Check them out here!

With the new Serverwide Chat Channels, we at EQ Stratics have started a Stratics Chat Channel. Feel free to stop by and ask questions, chat, promote Gnome Power, and anything else! We have a good time in their. The more the merrier. Join us at /join serverwide.stratics OR to automatically join the channel when you login in, /autojoin serverwide.stratics Cya there!

Tech Support and Live Chat will be closed early on Wednesday, July 31, at 5:30 pm (PST). Normal hours for both Tech Support and Live Chat will resume on Thursday, August 1st.

I know a lot of folks would like to see the functionality of Hitsmode reappear in the new user interface.
So would we. In fact, we’re working on something that would replace it and should have the same or better functionality. We hope to have it ready pretty soon, if possible before the new interface goes fully Live.

Calling all Gnomes to the Firiona Vie Server!
July 30th ... 7:00 Central Time
Roll up a Gnome and Help Defend Ak'Anon!

Background:

Baron Apep (Leader Ebon Storm; Dark Elf) has married
Charizma Silvertongue (Officer Tinker's Pride; Gnome) and
they are now Mr. and Mrs. Sadisticdream. However, all is not
well and the Baron has now vowed to destroy Ak'Anon - the homeland
of his bride - on the Firiona Vie Server Tuesday July 30th at 07:30 CST.

Apep's Plan (and much discussion about what is valid RP!):
http://pub94.ezboard.com/ffirionaviefrm39.showMessageRange?topicID=273.topic

The Epic Poem (with links to background):
http://pub94.ezboard.com/ffirionaviefrm10.showMessage?topicID=365.topic

The Defense Plan:

We gnomes have little hope of defending our homeland without
a lot of help from other lands and races. If you've never visited the
Firiona Vie server, roll up a gnome and start him in Ak'Anon
in time for the fun. If nothing else, you'll help Verant load test!
(And if you know where to find Byg Bynn - bring him along!)

Thanks for your consideration.
=Gneen

It appears that there was an error on the races that could scribe the scroll for this spell. We didn’t intentionally exclude High Elves…
We’ll fix this one soon.

The Art of Norrath has just been updated with some huge additions, including a new induction into the Legends of Norrath gallery.

Join Wyndforge as he paints the Legendary Iena the Vicar, High Priestes from the Bertoxxulous server, who deserves nothing less than to be the newest inductee to the Legends of Norrath. Also meet Keira Ravenheart, high officer of Solusek Ro's legendary guild Paradigm, as she makes a dramatic appearance into the Art of Norrath atop her magical mount in "Spiritwood".

Wyndforge's Art of Norrath
http://art.fantasyonline.net

More paintings and even a new gallery opening, all in the latest update to the Art of Norrath.

The Art of Norrath thanks you for all your past support. Enjoy!

We just broke 100k

I'd like to thank all of you for giving us the chance to entertain you. It's been a real pleasure, and we're working hard to make this game better every day. I'd especially like to thank the EQ team, our Customer Service team and our Operations Teams. They work hard every day to make this game the very best.

Thanks again for all of your support.

MMOGs are fascinating because they appeal to very different communities of players, each with their own interests and playstyles. Nothing could be more different than, say, spending an evening raiding towns and dungeons with your PvP guild, or spending an evening at an ingame gathering with riddle games and poetry recitals with your roleplaying guild – and yet you could do either thing, according to taste, in the same game.

Ithiosar 1
Ithiosar 2
Ithiosar 3
Ithiosar 4

The best way to get a bug fixed is to tell us about it.

The best way to ruin a game is to post game-breaking bugs publically.

I've been here all day, and nobody has sent me any sort of detailed method for selling no-drop items. If you've got it, send it, we'll fix it.

If you think that posting such bugs publically is a good thing, then you might want to consider playing single player games, where you won't be as likely to mess the game up for other people.

Yes, some bugs get lower priority than others. Sure, the bug that is most annoying to a certain class or specific play style might be a while in fixing. But comparing a bit of bad spell stacking to a bug that has the potential of ruining the game is pretty silly. I'm sorry that we can't fix bugs at the speed of light, I wish we could.

But then just this morning on this very board I read about people complaining that we DID fix a bug...

Anyhow, if anyone actually thinks that no-drop stuff can be sold let me know and tell me how. Please.

Alan

You feel a chill travel up your spine and the hair on the back of your neck stands on end as an acient evil passes through and beyond you, carried by a clammy decrepit breeze. "Ith~ee~oh~sar..." it whispers in a hollow voice tainted with vengance. A foul and wretched mist settles over the swamp as an ancient and vile evil is embodied here.

July 27, 2002 3:00 am
------------------------------

Items fixed over the last few days or with this patch:

- Pets summons are now working correctly. We've fixed the error with their maximum hit scores, along with giving some increases in offensive skills to allow them to hit more accurately.
- Improved Singing Mastery to match the values given by Instrument Mastery
- Corrected an issue with bard charm songs
- Various other fixes. :)

Hello all,

Welcome to another issue of the Harpy's Head Herald. Thanks for reading.

As usual, it's been pretty busy around here. We've just finished showing off Planes of Power at E3, our programmers are building you all a new interface, and our artists and designers are building zones and NPCs for the Planes of Power. No rest for the weary here.

At the same time, we're also updating starting quests and newbie zones. Just recently we revamped the cities of Freeport and Ak'Anon to add a lot of new content for new characters. We've even done some work on Qeynos that we haven't really announced yet. Not even that was enough, however. We've also added over 1,000 new trade skill recipes for all levels of skill and added over 150 focus effects to existing items.

Of course, we also launched a new service that allows EverQuest players to change their character's first names for a special fee, and the Vice President of Customer Service also announced a new "global queue" system to better facilitate in-game customer service.

And our web folks (the ones that bring you this fine publication) haven't been resting either. Not only have they completely revamped the EverQuest Live site to make it prettier and much more accessible, they've also updated the Planes of Power site, created the EverQuest II site and the EverQuest Online Adventures site.

Maybe I sound a little too excited, but I have to admit that I can't wait to see what we do next. :)

Alan VanCouvering
Community Relations Manager, EverQuest

Karana sat quietly contemplating the recent turn of events. His head and his heart had been tormented for some time, mulling over the possibilities that lay before him. He had largely avoided directly affecting the destinies of mortals in the past. Even the influence of Bertoxxulous on his namesake plains on Norrath did not draw any action from the Rainkeeper. This is somehow different though. The influence of the pantheon has already reached far beyond any bounds they reached in the past. But of course, the birth of a new demi-god would have that effect. Karana could feel the inevitable tugging at his being toward intervention. But the Rainkeeper does nothing out of reflex or rage. This problem must be meditated upon before any sort of action could be taken, and time was something he had plenty of for the moment.

On Saturday, July 27th, at 3AM PDT, (10AM GMT), all EverQuest servers will be brought down for brief maintenance. The estimated downtime is 2 hours.

We know about the problems some user interface mod-writers are having with multiple instances of the same EQTYPE label. It's a cache-ing bug, and has been fixed. Look for it the next time we patch fully.

Yes - Cross Server chat is something that was done intentionally - At no small amount of work for both our development and ops teams, for that matter.

The reason that it wasn't announced is because in order to allow this, we had to change around the chat systems quite a bit. We needed a few days of measuring what would happen with existing channel chat under the new arrangement as a proof of concept.

If that blew up before anyone was chatting globally, we'd have known that we had more work to do. :)

The other reason that it wasn't advertised yet -- As it stands, people have the ability to spam (and in some cases, are spamming) cross-server without any of the standard in-game repercussions. (i.e. If you're a jerk: I won't group with you, my guild won't help you, etc.) That definitely wasn't part of the plan, and we'd hoped to have that addressed before it was released.

Over the next few days, we'll be adding more controls that allow people to keep their channels and private messages local to their servers, among other things.

The EverQuest Character Transfer Service, a value added service, is now allowing players to transfer characters from PvP servers to non-PvP servers.

Key points to this service change include:

Characters may be moved between one of your accounts to one of your other accounts on the following servers: Sullon Zek ,The Test Server and Firiona Vie. Movement to or from these servers will not be allowed.
Moves from a PVP Server (Rallos Zek, Tallon Zek and Vallon Zek but excluding Sullon Zek) to a non-PVP server are permitted, with the character's pvp switch set to non-pvp status.
Moves from a non-PVP Server to a PVP server (Rallos Zek, Tallon Zek and Vallon Zek but excluding Sullon Zek) are permitted, with the character's pvp switch being set PVP status.

EverQuest is about to break its online record for simultaneous users! GM Brenlo made this announcement this evening:

Greetings Norrath! You can help to set a new EverQuest record! We are close to having 100,000 of you online at the same time! Get all your friends on and help to make this the night we set a new online record!

You heard the man! Shatter EQ's old record by logging in! And while you're in Norrath, have some fun!

Ok, here’s what happened with Instrument Mastery.
Though this seems obvious to me, I want to make it clear how this was supposed to work.

Singing Mastery is designed to improve the bard’s ability to sing songs.

Instrument Mastery is designed to improve the bard’s ability to play instruments.

Now there is a bit of possible confusion when we start talking about songs that are instrument based when the bard is not using an instrument. At that point the bard is singing and instrument song, and it really becomes a matter of taste as to whether Singing Mastery or Instrument Mastery should apply. We’ve decided to base it on the skill used, not whether an instrument is in hand. So Singing Mastery applies to all Singing skill based songs and Instrument Mastery applies to all instrument based songs, whether or not the bard is using an instrument at the time.

No, these two abilities were never meant to overlap. It was a bug when Instrument Mastery gave a bonus to songs that use the Singing skill.

That bug was fixed this patch. Instrument Mastery no longer affects songs that use the Singing skill.

What we’ve decided to do is increase the amount that Singing Mastery affects Singing skill songs by 50%. That should go in the next time we patch.

I’m sorry for not catching this in the patch message. Basically because this was the way it was always intended to be, we were not aware that we’d fixed a bug.

Alan

With all of the new spell gems and with the change to the interface, it seems inevitable that we’d get a few spell icons or a few gem colors crossed.
For example, I hear that Nektulos Portal has the Gate spell icon. We might want to change that to match the other group teleport spells.

And Pillar of Frost seems to have an orange spell gem and it should probably be green.

Here’s a list of the gem colors and what they should mean, for reference:

Yellow: Personal - spells that you can only cast on yourself.
Red: Single Target - spells that affect (and require) a single target.
Blue: Point Blank Area of Effect - spell affects an area centered on the caster, but the caster is unaffected.
Green: Area of Effect - spell affects targets in the area centered on the target.
Orange: Area of Effect Rain - spell affects the area around the target, often in a continuing fashion.

The distinction between Green and Orange is pretty narrow.

So if you see something like this let me know (just reply to this thread). I’ll gather a list.

Thanks.

Alan

The huge popularity of the online adventure game Everquest is causing problems for some players keen to complete key tasks for the characters they control.

Characters in Everquest assume a profession while adventuring in the online world. As they travel, complete tasks and defeat monsters they accrue experience making them more skilled in their chosen profession.

Whether they choose to be a warrior, thief, wizard or priest, all have the chance to complete an epic quest that rewards them with a hugely powerful magical item.

Stratics Central is proud to announce the grand opening of its newest site: EVE Stratics! Focusing exclusively on CCP's EVE: The Second Genesis, EVE Stratics will feature up-to-date news and information about this highly anticipated title.

If you are new to the EVE universe or simply obsessing over it, head on over to our EVE Movies section and view our exclusive EVE E3 movie.

And be sure to join us for our first ever EVE House of Commons discussion tonight (July 24) at at 5 pm PDT / 8 pm EDT on irc.stratics.com in #eveonlinehoc, where developers Reynir "Solaris" Harðarson and Keli "Clover" Óskarsson and producer Mike "Campion" Wallis will discuss "Roleplaying in EVE."

Which Sony Game Interests You The Most?

EverQuest 666 34%
EverQuest II 472 24%
Everquest Online Adventures 56 2%
PlanetSide 56 2%
Star Wars Galaxies 699 35%
TOTAL 1949 100%

It seems that a lot of people cannot connect to the servers, or cannot patch etc.


Is it still just congestion? Any suggestions I can give them besides waiting?

It's still all congestion.


You're right - This is an amazingly heavy update, between the UI and jaggedpine.


The best advice I can give is to disable the Optional files patching and patch those tomorrow. That'll make it a bit easier to get into the game.


Also is there any word on what is causing the crash bugs? Is a follow-up patch planned at all?

One file didn't make it to the patcher. With the patchers loaded the way they are, getting this one file re-updated is taking a while.


Our ops folks are working feverishly on it, if it's not already fixed.


No followup downtime appears to be required -- It's just the 'get this one more graphic file to the patcher.'


Scott Hartsman
Technical Director, EverQuest

If you are crashing to desktop after using the /newui command and cannot log back in without crashing, open up your eqclient.ini (located in your EverQuest directory - typically C:\Program File\EverQuest, C:\Program Files\Sony\EverQuest or C:\Program Files\Sony\EverQuest Trilogy) file and change the line that reads NewUI=TRUE to NewUI=FALSE. We are making the Dev-Team aware of the issue and we will address it in some way.

We forgot to include a comment in the patch message about the removal of the 10% healing penalty for non-clerics. The penalty was indeed removed with this patch.
Also, while we’ve included the new ‘old-world’ Vah Shir models in the patch, you won’t be able to turn them on yet. We’ll have to patch another file to allow you to choose to turn them off in the interface. That should happen soon.

For those of you with characters that summon pets, we are aware of the problem with pets. Currently they are not being summoned at their highest level. Sorry for the problem, we’ll get it fixed as soon as we can.

To activate the new interface:

* Log into the game.
* Type /newui into the chat bar and hit enter.
* Log out and exit to your desktop and then log back in.

or

* Before you log in:
* Open the EQclient.ini file in your EverQuest folder with a text editor (notepad works fine)
* Find the [Defaults] section of the file
* Add a line that reads: NewUI=TRUE
* Log in

/bazaar opens up the Bazaar Search Window, which allows you to easily locate specific items for sale by Traders in the Bazaar. /trader opens up the Bazaar Vendor window, which allows you to make items available for sale to others in the Bazaar.

You can only use the Bazaar if you have the new interface turned on. See the message above for details.

It is rumored that the major cities of Faydwer have announced a call to arms for all young adventurers. News of mysterious bloodthirsty goblins to the west setting up encampments has prompted all residents of Kaladim, Kelethin and Felwithe to all begin preparing themselves for what they think may be a momentous battle. Intelligence originating from the Scouts of Kaladim and Kelethin has informed their respective leaders of a possible alliance between a mysterious aqua goblin tribe and the Orcs of Clan Crushbone. Due to the possibility of an attack by either or both of these powerful tribes, guildmasters of all cities have begun the training of young soldiers brave enough to heed the call to defend their homeland against all unknown creatures and new inhabitants.

As part of tomorrows patch the first Legends zone since its inception will be made available to public serves.
Jaggedpine Forest is located off Surefall Glade and is a low to mid level play zone.

Come visit www.everpals.net. Help us put the socialness back into EQ. In less than three weeks we have grown to over 5000
members. This means that the chance of you finding someone in
your home area that enjoys the same game as you. Also by signing
up you increase everyone elses chances. Please come and join
in on our community. And don't forget to stop by our forums to
check out the latest buzz on the social scene.

Thomas Humburg

Ah yes, contests. A long time has passed since the last contest here at AO Stratics, but this time we got something special for you! The first prize will be a VERY cool poster, signed by Henning Solberg, Funcom's Online Services Director and Ragnar Tørnquist (in the picture), Funcom's Creative Director. The runner-ups will receive different cool AO merchandise like keychains, AO soundtrack and necklaces.

Quite easy questions this time so have a go!

As the Stratics EQ2 site launched today, so too did the Stratics IRC Channel, #Everquest2. Both launches went smoothly and are bringing in enthusiastic and curious fans.

Come join us and chat about EverQuest II. The hottest gaming title yet to come.

To join #everquest2, type /join #everquest2 after connecting to the Stratics Network. Sylvene Firebrand
EQ2S Project Manager
EverQuest II Stratics

While I'd like to see all these games succeed, there are too many factors that point to a massive collapse. First, even taking into account the growth in the market over the next few years, there are a finite number of people who will be interested in the typical fantasy role-playing game, and there are already some good choices with a huge head start on any competition that will be coming out in the coming year or so. Second, the games themselves are set up to almost guarantee that players won't play more than one or two. Most people don't have the time or the dedication to devote four or five hours a day to a game for months on end, and those who do have even less time to devote to a second game.

Stratics Central is proud to present the official relaunch of Horizons Stratics. Featuring Artifact Entertainment's Horizons title, Horizon Stratics will provide in-depth news, game information, message boards, and exciting content about this hot game.

To whet your appetite, Horizon's Stratics is proud to announce it's preview of Horizon's. This preview takes you back to E3 where Artifact Entertainment presented Horizons. It includes an interview with Horizon's developers with some interesting information about the game. You can find the preview here.

Horizons Stratics is also looking for fan art and are currently accepting submissions. If you would like to have your fan art featured on Horizon Stratics, please contact Lyle.

Calling all Gnomes to the Firiona Vie Server!
July 30th ... 7:00 Central Time
Roll up a Gnome and Help Defend Ak'Anon!

Background:

Baron Apep (Leader Ebon Storm; Dark Elf) has married
Charizma Silvertongue (Officer Tinker's Pride; Gnome) and
they are now Mr. and Mrs. Sadisticdream.
However, all is not well and the Baron has now vowed to destroy
Ak'Anon - the homeland of his bride - on Tuesday July 30th at 07:30 CST.

http://pub94.ezboard.com/ffirionaviefrm39.showMessageRange?topicID=273.topic

http://pub94.ezboard.com/ffirionaviefrm10.showMessage?topicID=365.topic

The Plan:

We gnomes have little hope of defending our homeland without
a lot of help from other lands. If you've never visited the
Firiona Vie server, roll up a gnome and start him in Ak'Anon
in time for the fun. If nothing else, you'll help Verant load test!

Thanks for your consideration.
=Gneen

Name Of Submitter = Tortoise of Karana
Level one Emperor Crush raid - Karana
tortoise_eldersquirtle@hotmail.com
Guild Sponsoring Event = Peacekeepers
07/27/2002
8:30 PM EST
On 7/27/02 (Saturday), untwinked level ones of any class or race on Karana are going to attempt a kill of Emperor Crush. This has been accomplished before, so don't pass it off as impossible -- however, due to my level and the fact that I'm not in a uberguild, I'm soliciting help from anyone, because anyone can make a level one on Karana :)

The official thread url is:
http://pub6.ezboard.com/fcouncilofguildsevents.showMessage?topicID=290.topic
although it seems to have degenerated a bit...

Hope to see you there :) If you have any questions post on the thread or /tell Tortoise on Karana.

Hi,

We've had a change up on Test for about a week, and I wanted to share it with you guys and see what you think. Here's the basis of the change -

When a pet is hit with a spell, it uses the resistances and level of it's owner to see if it resists the spell.

This means that if you're a level 60 magician for instance and you've got on various buffs and gear that raise your resistances, your pet will save vs. spells as if it was also level 60 with your exact resistance scores.

Using the owner's level is going to make a huge difference in how well the pet resists harmful spells, and should make a noticeable difference in how well the pets can survive AEs for instance. Allowing the pet to also benefit from your items and buffs means that it will be living a lot longer when fighting casters.

There is a drawback to this, although I think the good outweighs the bad. If we go with this new scheme, it will mean that the pet always uses the owner's saves. Some types of pets currently are highly resistant to poison or disease for instance. Going with the new scheme would mean they will potentially not resist those types of spells as well, depending on the owner's resistances.

Overall, this change would mean that pets are much more resistant the vast majority of the time. I think this would be a very positive change for pet classes, but I'd like to see what people think before we go ahead with it.

Thanks for your time,

- Rich

Dear Mr Absor
I am writing this in hope of a response to my question..

With the upcoming changes to pets that Mr Rich posted about on the mage/necro class boards, i am left wondering that although the changes will be benefical in some aspects, i am puzzled about this:

Will pets lose there (near) immunity to spells of same type eg. Fire pet getting hit with fire spell...
Because if thats the case this is a bad bad change, some mobs (like the one in CoM) REQUIRE fire pets because of the nasty fire AE it casts which can kill players in seconds.

Although i genurally like the changes this is puzzling me, will the pets lose there immunity

Sinceraly...
Atermis
Atermis Entreri
50th Magician
Innoruuk Server

All of this is still in testing, so when all is said and done none of it, part of it or all of it may go Live.

Right now it’s working like this.

Summoned pets will use his owner’s resists and level against NPC spells unless the pet has a natural resistance that makes them immune or mostly so. Note: This only affects summoned pets and it will no affect spells cast by PCs - we don’t want to make a change that might dramatically change PvP until we know more about the effect it might have.

For example, fire elemental pets have incredibly high fire resistance, but low resistance to other type of magic. If someone tries to cast a fire-based spell on this pet, it will use its innate fire resistance because it's so high. If someone tries to cast a poison spell on the pet, it will use it's owner's current poison resistance score instead.

We’ve also added a bit more information to the /pet report health function. It will list the pet’s current effects along with its health.

And what’s with the Mr. Absor? My dad is called… no, wait, he isn’t. He’s called Mr. VanCouvering…

Oh well.

Alan

Q. When is the best time to petition for Customer Support assistance?

A. Although GMs are available 24 hours a day, the best time to petition is between the hours of 12 p.m. and 12 a.m. PST/PDT, when the bulk of our GMs are available

Pre-orders are now being accepted at the Station Store for the upcoming release of the EQ RPG Player's Handbook.

The EQ RPG Player's Handbook is the first in a series of gaming supplements that opens up Norrath to the players in the style of traditional roleplaying. All the familiar classes and races are here, from Paladin to Shadowknight, Gnome to Iksar, as well as all the spells you know--and some you've never seen before.

The estimated release date is August 2002.

On July 18th, Sony Online announced plans to develop EverQuest-based products for the PC and console platforms, and as a role-playing game for the Playstation 2 computer entertainment system.

Snowblind Studios and Rapid Eye Entertainment are the two developers
involved with these projects, which will be marketed under the SOE label.

Rapid Eye Entertainment, founded by Mark Caldwell in 2001, is best
known for their highly successful Might and Magic series of role-playing games. Snowblind Studios is best known for the development of the hit PS2 role-playing game, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

"We've made it a point to work closely with leading developers to
create the best possible gaming experience," said Russell Shanks, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Sony Online Entertainment.

On Thursday, July 18th, at 3AM PDT, (10AM GMT), all EverQuest servers will be brought down for a brief update. The estimated downtime is 1.5 hours.

Yes - As a part of the rollout for the new interface, Beta Two of the new UI and the Bazaar will begin on the Live servers as of the next patch.
It's had an excellent few weeks overall on the Test Server and we'll be running it on the Live servers in an optional mode until we're satisfied with it. We'll give details about how to turn these options on in the patch message.

- Alan

The 10% thing may or may not go Live, we only just started testing it and we'll decide that later. You can expect a bunch of bug fixes and the usual stuff...

On Wednesday, July 24th, at 3AM PDT, (10AM GMT), all EverQuest servers will be brought down for a scheduled patch. The estimated downtime is 5 hours.

The EverQuest Operations Team

South Qeynos
Erudin
Erud's Crossing
East Freeport
OOT
Butcherblock
N.Ro
Iceclad
Oasis
Firiona Vie
Timorous

Translocator Fithop says 'Hello there, Cosmoo. There seem to be some strange problems with the boats in this area. The Academy of Arcane Sciences has sent a small team of us to investigate them. If you need to [travel to Ocean of Tears] in the meantime, I can transport you to my companion there.'

I wanted to make a brief comment about caster balance. Unfortunately for those that are anxious to see the changes completed, we’re going to insist that this be a slow process. Introducing a lot of balance changes at one time isn’t a good idea. We want to keep the number of changes at one time small so that we can judge their effect without too much overlap.

So while everyone, including us, wants to see the “end” of this caster balancing thing, we don’t want to rush to get there without careful evaluation of each change. Please be patient with the process.

We certainly haven’t forgotten to look at the priest classes. With the next patch to Test we will be removing the 10% penalty to healing from non-clerics. Clerics will still get the 5% bonus at all levels, and will still get their heal spells many levels earlier that the other priests.

We want to see how this plays out on Test, obviously, before we consider moving it Live, and before we consider other changes to the priest classes. This is the Test server, so you should neither expect the change to go Live, nor assume that it won’t. Right now it’s there to be tested, and whether it does or does not go Live will be dependent on what we discover on Test.

We are also looking at some changes to help to make clerics be a little more well-rounded, along with addressing some concerns put forth by druids and shamans. Those ideas are still in the development stage, and we’ll talk more about them when we get done looking at the healing changes.

Thanks for your patience with us on this.

Alan

In the first of an ongoing series of community leader interviews, we are pleased to introduce you to Niami of EQ Traders Corner.

In these community leader interviews, you will get the chance to learn a bit more about the driving forces behind some of the more popular and resourceful EQ fan sites.

Why the fascination with the EQ Tradeskills?

I'm a person who has always enjoyed the feeling of creation. I've been actively making handicrafts for most of my life, and have been writing short stories and poems since I discovered RPGs in high school. I was overjoyed when a friend introduced me to EQ during Phase 4 beta to discover a game that allowed me a chance to create instead of "just kill things." I've been tradeskilling ever since.

There was a bit of miscommunication recently about this. We do still plan to put up the name change list in the near future. It’s certainly taking longer to implement than we’d hoped, and for that I apologize.

No matter how much one plays per month, the price is fixed. This "persistent" online game — meaning all events continue even after individual players log off — has proved addictive for many, earning its nickname: "EverCrack." In fact, EverQuest addiction has raised renewed concerns in the media. Shawn Woolley, 21 recently shot himself in an apparent suicide after reportedly playing the game for up to 12 hours a day. His mother blames his "obsession" solely on game makers, although she admits her son had psychological problems before.

No need to panic, friends. :)

The name change registry is going ahead as planned, it's just taking a little longer than we'd like.

This was a simple miscommunication between departments, nothing sinister at all.

Please believe me when I say that those of us who make our living ensuring the integrity of EverQuest wouldn't intentionally do anything to hurt that integrity.

...especially in these times when we're so focused on restoring as much faith as we can with things such as:

more changes than ever based off of player feedback and suggestions
more customizability via the new UI
longer testing cycles to help out with stability
...and more reasonable development goals to keep from over-reaching.
Unfortunately, a symptom of some of these is that there are things that do take longer than they might have before, but it's all because we want to do what's right and what's best -- not the other way around.

We honestly have no desire to shoot ourselves in either or both feet where we can avoid it. ;)

Best,

Scott Hartsman
Technical Director, EverQuest

The Last Full
Measure of Honor is based on a true story from the American civil war.

Usually the voters reward fantasy and science fiction stories. In fact, last
month The Story of the Month contest voters picked an Everquest story. This
story, unique for the contest, stood out and grabbed the title with a
comfortable lead.

But Alisdair,
the author of the story, is no stranger to this contest. In fact, this is his
fourth win.

An Excerpt:

"General," the young man coming out from the house spoke quietly, but with an
undeniable energy. "A letter from his wife has just been delivered." There
was no need to ask who "he" was. The death had been the topic of conversation
in every household in the nation for two days now. But a letter from the
widow was certainly unexpected.



General Joseph E. Johnston took the offered envelope from his grandson David
with the slow deliberation of age and infirmity. Heavy buff paper with a
black border. He lifted it slightly and David, hovering anxiously, took it
and tore it open, handing the letter inside back to the old man. The
General’s eyes took their time bringing the message into focus:



"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of General William
Tecumseh Sherman . . ."



There was more, but he could no longer see the paper. The jumbled flood of
vague images suddenly crystallized in a way only possible for the old when
recalling their past. He was there again, with Sherman. It was more real than
reality.

---

Read It
| Final
Results

---

A Gathering In The Fog
A group of robed figures cuts through the dense fog that fills the corridors surrounding the library. At this hour the night air smells of fog and the harbor that cradles the immaculate white city. Another gray-clad shape emerges from the portal, silhouetted by its blue luminescence. The figure glides down the stairs and nods at a passing sentinel as he makes eye contact with him and smiles. He then quickly makes his way into the structure that stands before the portal. The carved marble sign mounted to the wall of the structure is legible in the faint blue light of the portal: "Temple of Divine Light."

IGNPC: But Planes of Power seems more suited to retaining existing players (those who are bumping up against the experience cap) than enlarging the market by bringing in new players. Does it have much significance for low-level players?

Shawn Lord: We're focusing on the high-end player, but we're throwing in some things that'll make life easier for low-level players and help them get around and experience content. We're doing that with the portal system that we're adding to the Plane of Knowledge. That first plane will be available to players of all level and they can use it to get around from every newbie city to every other newbie city. It'll help them determine whether or not they like their race-class combination, because they'll be exposed to other areas quicker.

Tech Support and Live Chat will be closed early on Monday, July 15, at 12:00 pm (PST). Normal hours for both Tech Support and Live Chat will resume on Tuesday, July 16.

For many of the most common issues regarding all Station.com games, visit the Station Knowledge Base. This simple to use search tool can help in answering and solving most of your EQ support questions.

On Tuesday, July 16th, between the hours of 3AM and 6AM PDT, (11AM-2PM GMT), network maintenance will be performed that could lead to some connectivity issues for some customers.
The following servers will be affected: Erollisi Marr, Cazic Thule, Brell Serilis, The Rathe, Lanys T'vyl, Torvonnilous, Tunare, Quellious, Xegony, Prexus, Bertoxxulous, Rallos Zek, Veeshan, Rodcet Nife, Karana, The Nameless, Mithaniel Marr, Morell Thule, The Seventh Hammer, Saryrn, Sullon Zek

PoP #1
PoP #2
PoP #3

Translated from the meeting minutes of the Dead is Dead convention, Wednesday Night in Norrath Issue #98 is now available!

Episode 98: Is there an echo here? or Is there an echo here?.

The WNiN gang search for new adventure in the dreaded Echo Caverns.

Thanks!

Where do we start? Whether you’ve played EverQuest for 10 minutes or 10,000 hours, or even avoided its siren song, you’ve got an opinion. For lead designer Bill Trost (who also designed the original EQ), the level of expectation is not lost: "[We made decisions] based on how we felt playing the game. Be it camping, the time commitment, the difficulty for new users, or the massive hits for death, we’re addressing the design for people who have never played this kind of game before, or even a single-player RPG."

Hi,

After several weeks of testing www.eqskins.com is up and running.
EQskins.com was created so the Everquest community would have a place to post pictures and info for multiple characters, and have those characters linked to a single account. Sign up for an account to begin posting your character information.

Thanks!

-Brian
webmaster@eqskins.com

Most of these games will fail for several prosaic reasons -- not the least of which is an unavoidable fact of life: The hardcore gamers who make these games successful can usually obsess over only one game at a time. There are only so many hours in a week, after all, and MMORPGs are nothing if not massively time-consuming. (For this very reason, says Cole, "I think there is room for only a handful of these games in each genre.") And because many gamers have long since established a social network on established MMORPGs, it's unclear how these new titles can lure them away.

Tonight (July 9), the EverQuest Invasion Tour will be featured on Tech TV's news program 'Tech Live'! Check your local cable listings for showtimes and visit Tech TV for their report on the summer tour.

The first-ever International EverQuest MEETUP Day is Thursday, July 25@7:00 PM!
MEETUPs are informal, local, face-to-face gatherings where EverQuest
players of all types can talk about all-things-EverQuest ... AND make new friends in the process.

All MEETUPs are FREE and are happening in over 500 cities WORLDWIDE!

We've tried to make it easy by picking some good MEETUP spots for this event, including local cafes, restaurants, and stores.

A new online presentation is now available.

Using player-submitted stories, "Mosaic" is a presentation on how the virtual lives and identities of MMORPG players can affect their real lives and identities in both positive and negative ways.

The presentation for "Mosaic" can be found at:

http://www.nickyee.com/mosaic/home.html

You can find all my other presentations at:

http://www.nickyee.com/hub/home.html

Nick

It's easy to think of the worlds created by MMORPGs as independent entities, far removed and isolated from the real, tangible world. You hear the phrase "It's just a game" both from the insiders and the outsiders. There are players who use the phrase to assert that the game is benign and a new technological past-time. And there are outsiders who use the phrase to question why people would do silly things, such as get married or sell virtual items, in a make-believe world.

No eta yet. We're pretty much waiting for the Test server players to break it real good so we can fix it, then we'll put it Live. I'm not sure how long that will take.

Alan

Baalz wrote:
How long are you planning on testing the new interface on the test server? Do you have any aprox time to when you are to release it on all servers?

I tried it out the other day and its so very good. This is the best thing that ever hapened to EQ, even better then Luclin!

Well thanks!

We don’t have an estimate for the release of the UI or the Bazaar. Right now we’re working on fixing any remaining bugs and features. Keep beating it up and sending us bugs and feature requests and we’ll get it ready as fast as we can.

Alan

Sony Online Entertainment officially announced plans to expand EverQuest worldwide today, releasing versions of the online RPG in five languages before the end of the year. The plan was unveiled by Mario Tokoro, the company's vice chief technology officer, who was speaking yesterday at an Internet event in Tokyo.

Although Tokoro didn't specify which languages SOE will translate EverQuest into, he stated that Korean will definitely be one of them. Both Japan and South Korea have small but dedicated cells of EverQuest fans, a surprising fact considering that the game's only been available in English up to now. There are currently an estimated 430,000 EverQuest players registered around the world, mostly centered in the U.S.; Sony's language expansion will likely cause that figure to balloon in the next year or so.

Greetings Tradesmen of Karana!

As many of you know, the Karana server is one of the few original
servers to open in 1999, and since then the Karana economy has developed and
blossomed to the bustling and busy state it is in today.

My name is Tithonus Arcanus and I am pleased to announce the creation
of a new Guild/Community Organization for the Karana server called the
Norrathian Trade Federation. Our goal is to preserve and enforce the
legendary Karana economy, and in doing so help those new players who
cannot afford what they desire to create savings accounts with us that will
accumulate interest. We will operate and function like a normal guild,
but we will also host a Karana Community trading forum online, similar
to the one hosted by KCoG, but more specific to the needs and wants of
the tradesmen of Norrath.

Anybody who plays on Karana can become a local member of the forum
simply by posting, no applications are needed for use of the trading
categories. On the site the Karana community can trade or sell items, quests
or services to each other, or browse items quest opportunities and
services that the Trade Federation will be offering players of Karana.

If you would like to begin posting on the Forum, or just browse! (The
more participants the better!) You can check us out at:

http://go.to/tradekarana

Thank you for your time and happy trading!

-Tithonus Arcanus
Leader of the NTF
Proud citizen of Karana

Bank Window
Merchant Window
Character Select Screen

The EverQuest Atlas is the most comprehensive collection of maps to guide you on your questing adventure. With over 170 detailed maps into the word of Norrath, including The Planes of Power, this guide will aid players throughout their adventures. Never before has there been a book about EverQuest this extensive.

Each map also comes complete with:
-A description of the location
-Dangers that lurk in each site
-Benefits derived from the locality
-Insight into the monsters that inhabit the area
-A list of notable non-player characters
-Quests associated with each area

-EverQuest: The Planes of Power is the next installment in the best-selling, critically acclaimed EverQuest series. The new expansion pack will introduce more than 425,000 current EverQuest gamers to an arching storyline that takes players on an epic adventure through the Planes of Power, home of the Gods of Norrath. Hundreds of new items, quests and encounters will keep even the most revered players challenged and enthralled.
-In The Planes of Power, a portal has been unveiled and now travelers can experience a world unlike anything they have ever seen. Share in the knowledge of this extraordinary discovery as you fight to bring justice to Norrath. Veteran gamers will face new challenges in each of the 18 newly discovered planes, while new players will benefit from the Plane of Knowledge that hosts scores of new and challenging quests and open portals to Norrath making travel faster and easier than ever. Fiercely battle the minions of Rallos Zek in the Plane of War, join arms with Karana to regain control of the Plane of Storms, and overcome vile pestilence in the Plane of Disease.

-20 new planer zones that push teamwork abilities to the limit
-Hundreds of new items and monsters
-Exciting new quests and challenges await even the most experienced players
-Two planar cities that provide a hub for travel and player interaction
-A central storyline links the content from every zone into one compelling quest
-Allows characters to gain even more power

-Includes EverQuest and the expansions Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, and Planes of Power.
-Limited edition production run of only 35,000 (numbered) units
-Leatherette bound manual and new user strategy guide
-Premium collector's edition pewter figurine
-DC EverQuest comic only available in this collector's edition
-Exclusive cloth maps of the world of Norrath

-All different play styles supported from the occasional 20 minutes before dinner to the hardcore, hours-on-end playfest.
-A massive seamless world packed with cities, dungeons and huge underground lairs.
-Unparalleled character customization, including multiple races, 13 classes, skills, spells and abilities. Character avatars have customizable faces, hair and more.
-Online game play that allows players to team up and fight together, meet friends, form guilds and become heroes.
-Multiplayer cooperative combat including archery and magic.
-Over 1400 unique character abilities with stunning visual effects.
-Thousands of quests to complete.
-Grouping and guilds. Work with your friends to get ahead and join a guild.
-Hundreds of unique monsters and NPCs.

-EverQuest II is not an expansion, but rather a sequel that continues the ongoing history of Norrath and its inhabitants. EQII will introduce a number of features that have never been utilized in massively multiplayer games.
-The primary of goal of EQII is to create and advance a unique role-playing persona within the world of Norrath. This may be accomplished a number of ways, including solving mysterious quests, slaying vicious monsters and crafting powerful relics.
-One of the main focuses for EverQuest II is to design methods of gameplay that will facilitate both casual and hardcore players.
-Players will be able to customize both the character's body and face, as well as their appearance through the equipping of specialized weapons, armor and items.
-Existing EverQuest characters will not be transferred to EQII.

Guruof3D: How detailed do you vision the next generation of MMOG's? For instance, do you think it can become so advanced now as to see Non Player Characters going through daily activities during the day, possibly sleeping at night? More or less doing more than just walking a path.

Brad McQuaid: Absolutely. I think you’ll see significant advances in NPC AI and I think you’ll see worlds that are much larger and detailed. You’ll also see environments that start to become dynamic… where the player will be able to truly leave his mark on the world.

[ Brad McQuaid Interview ]

Tech Support Reduced Holiday Hours

Technical Support, including Live Chat, will be closed on July 4-5 in recognition of the US Independance Day holiday. Normal hours will resume on July 8.

For many of the most common issues regarding Station.com games and services, visit the Station Knowledge Base. This simple to use search tool can help in answering and solving most of your support questions.

Visit here to view our normal Tech Support and Live Chat hours.

For those of you with a little free time, you might want to log into Test and try out the Bazaar.
We’ve got the functionality in. Now we need your feedback and bug reports.

If you see something broken or if you have an idea for an improvement, you can send them to the Dev Corner (or use /bug for bugs).

Thanks for helping us out. We hope you like it.

Alan

** Wednesday, July 03 2002.


** LET THE BAZAAR TESTING BEGIN! **

VENDORS:

- First, create or purchase from Trader Satchels from an NPC merchant in the bazaar.
- Second, place tradable items in the bags.
- At this time you can type /trader and begin setting prices on the items you wish to sell.
- Once you have some prices set and you wish to open shop, you must go to a trading area. These are the rows of tents in the bazaar.
- Click Begin Trader. At this time people will be able to buy from you.


BUYERS:

- To search the bazaar for items for sale, type /bazaar
- To purchase from a player merchant, right click on them as if you were buying from an NPC vendor.


NOTES:

- The bazaar only works in the new user interface! For instructions on how to switch over to the new UI, please see the notes at the bottom of this file.
- You can only be a trader in the trading stalls (rows of tents).
- The name over your head will change slightly when in trading mode.
- The prices that you set for items are stored in your EQ directory. The next time you attempt to sell the same item, the bazaar will assume that you want to use similar pricing until you say otherwise.
- When you close up shop, anyone viewing your current stock will automatically end trading with you.



** CHANGES **

Sorry about the random NPC bugs. It was all one bug.

- The EverQuest Development Team

The monthly voting at fanStory.com for
the Story of the Month has begun. Out of the nearly two hundred stories
written last month only six can be nominated for the vote. Which of these
stories deserves the title "Story of the Month" for July?

The Nominees:

---

Nihilist by href=http://www.fanstory.com/selectprofile.asp?id=503>Niteskie

This adventure begins with a young girl learning how to fight

(Cut Me) Honey
Red by id=2198>Scruff

This is NOT Pinocchio

A Summer with
Toby by Neb

Would you like to upgrade to a large beverage for only a quarter more?
(humor)

The Last Full
Measure of Honor by id=183>Alisdair


A Civil War story of honor and sacrifice

Whispers of the
Dead by V.
Artemis Reyd

Twenty dead and the investigation begins.

Old Friends by
Prometheus

Friends meet and a search begins.

---

Your vote is needed. Read each story and href=http://www2.fanstory.com/poll.asp?salone=1&pid=20>make your vote.

---

The Voting
Booth

---

Wyndforge's Art of Norrath has been updated with 5 new paintings, including all new stories!

Wyndforge's Art of Norrath
http://art.fantasyonline.net

And in case you missed it, the Art of Norrath is proud to announce the recent addition of our greatest portrait yet: Allakhazam of Allakhazam's Magical Realm.

Enjoy!