LU 19b - not surprising

[eldaec]

*** Headlines ***

- New Character Progression has arrived! Choose your final class at level 1, experience new unique progression paths for each race and alignment, and much more!
- Solusek's Eye: New adventures, stories, and rewards!


*** New Character Progression ***
 
Note: We want your feedback! We encourage you to create a new character on the Test server and run through our all-new tutorial islands. Please use the /feedback and /bug commands to offer suggestions or report problems on any aspect of the new character progression, as the EQ2 Team reads these reports daily. With your help, we can make the first experience for new players even more fun!

Character Creation
- New characters now choose a profession at character creation.
- Your alignment (good or evil) determines which class choices are shown.
- As you progress through character creation, your current choices (gender, race, class) are shown.
- Characters begin with several key pieces of class-specific armor that are visible in character creation.
 
New Tutorial Islands
- The original boat tutorial is no longer used. Instead, new characters immediately arrive on one of two new islands. Evil characters explore the Outpost of the Overlord while good characters visit the Queen's Colony.
- Each island has unique inhabitants and feel very different from one another.
- All new quests await to train new adventurers for the challenges that lie ahead.
- Visit trainers on the island to learn about combat, harvesting, banking, and other gameplay elements.
- You can remain on the island for as long as you wish without a restriction placed on your ability to level up (though of course the population will eventually grey out).
 
Professions
- Players now select their profession at character creation instead of moving from archetype to class to subclass. For example, you can choose to play a Wizard at character creation. When you arrive on the tutorial island, you will be a Wizard--not a Mage.
- Distinct spells and arts designed for each profession are now given immediately in place of the more generic archetype and class versions. You feel like your profession right away instead of waiting 19 levels to do so.
- Previous class and subclass quests have either been removed or modified to provide flavor. They are not required to progress in your chosen profession and will no longer restrict your level growth.
- Existing characters that were at the archetype or class level will be prompted to choose a profession before logging into the game. Existing spells and arts will be replaced (at the same quality level) by the new profession-specific abilities.
 
Racial Quest Paths
- Upon leaving the island and arriving in your home village or district, you will begin a new series of quests designed specifically for your race.
- These quests will provide a greater understanding of your race's history and how it fits into the fabric of your home city.
 
Adventure Yard Quests
- Completing your racial quest path will guide you to your city's adventure yards. The adventure yards have new population and quest lines that feel more a part of each city.
- New rewards await those who complete these quests!
 
Citizenship
- The citizenship quest is gone. You earn citizenship on the tutorial island and become a citizen when you leave it.
- There is no longer a cap on your ability to level up due to a citizenship restriction.
 
City Betrayal
- The city betrayal quests currently remain as they were. These quests will be changing significantly in a future update. For example, you will be able to betray your city at any level.


*** Dungeon Exploration ***

Solusek's Eye
- A new group of residents have been spotted setting up camp in Solusek's Eye, at the site of the Solusek Mining Co. of old.
- Check out this highly dangerous, highly rewarding dungeon for new quests as well as high-risk adventure!
- As a follow-up to last week's update notes: Quests in the zone now have their rewards. One dynamic event is not yet connected. If you want to help test what is there, come on in! We'd appreciate your feedback. However, if you are coming to play through the full series, we recommend holding off until next week's Test Update.


*** Writs ***

- More writs should now be visible to choose from when speaking to writ givers.


*** Gameplay ***

- You now receive bonus experience when you kill a single creature with no arrows displayed as well as any number of up arrows. As before, killing a multi-member encounter of any configuration should continue to reward bonus experience.
- Some NPCs will now greet you when hailed if they have no VO associated with their dialog.


*** Guilds ***

- A message is now broadcast to the entire server when a guild reaches level 10, 20, 30, or 40.


*** Spells and Combat Arts ***

- Newly charmed pets should once again follow their master.
- Charmed pets should follow attack commands more reliably. Pesky critters.
- Spells, combat arts, and weapons should never inflict less than 1 point of damage unless they miss. Previously, if they inflicted less than 1 point of damage, it would automatically miss (only affects very low level characters).
- After creating a specific quality level of an item for the first time, the tooltips for completed product icons will update without requiring you to re-examine the recipe.
- Recipes for some subcomponents that were not marked as recipes are now found properly on the tradeskill prepare window.


*** Tradeskills ***

- You can now view the components and subcomponents required to make a recipe.
- There are now recipes for all the new level 1-19 spells and combat arts. These new recipes require no subcombines, and instead have additional component requirements for the final recipe.
- Recipes will now default to the "N" key rather than "B."
- After creating a specific quality level of an item for the first time, the tooltips for completed product icons will update without requiring you to re-examine the recipe.
- Recipes for some subcomponents that were not marked as recipes are now found properly on the tradeskill prepare window


*** Housing ***

- You can now access your house vault from any house via a new right click menu option on the interior door and market board. Yes, this means you can open up your vault from a friend's house that you're allowed to sell from!

*** Commands, Controls, and User Interface ***

- The default key for opening the Recipe Book is now "N" rather than "B."
- "B" now defaults to open all inventory bags.
- "Shift + B" is now the default to open all bags in your bank vault.
- Your friends list will now show the game and server names of friends who don't play on your server. Friends from other games and servers can now be properly removed from your list.
- A message notification will now be displayed when friends on other servers or in other SOE games log in and out.
- Health, power, and resists have been added to the dropdown in the Broker search window.
- Some merchants will now show you items that you can't currently buy and will describe why you can't purchase that item.

[schild]

And this is up on test now?

[schild]

Ok. I don't like the new newbie island. Mostly because it's not done. If this gets rush-jobbed I will be pissed off. I mean, it's NOWHERE NEAR DONE. Bad EQ2 team, bad. I don't want to play very obviously "fall through the world" incomplete areas. Ever.

Also, classes feel like a rush job also.

1. Necromancer & Conjurer - Pet and a DD/DoT spell. Heal at level 3. Pet does about 2-5 damage, spell is negligible.
2. Assassin - Level 1 has a direct damage, sneak, ranged, etc. You start with a 1-1 dual wield dagger with a 1.3 second timer. At level 3 you get a DoT and a backstab that does....38-64?! Wtf? I was one shotting level 4 stuff.
3. After playing coercer for 5 minutes I can see why no one likes it.

Comeon guys. The original newbie island actually managed to turn people onto the game. Right now the island has at LEAST two weeks worth of balance testing to go (whatwith the fact you have like 32 classes or something now). Please don't let the game become SWG-ized with this shit. That's a lot of classes. That's a lot of classes to balance for PvP. It's kinda freaking me out. I hadn't thought about it til I hit the character select screen. Is.....how should I put this... "No Good."

I realize test center is where unfinished shit goes, but you can't even finish the first quest you're given (at least on the evil side), the ale house is a black hole. I didn't even try to finish it on the good side, assuming it's teh exact same thing. Advertising these two islands as different from eachother is also something of a lie. Different mobs, yes, ok. Different dialogue, yea, ok. But it's a reskinning job at most.

I shouldn't get this riled up after only 30 minutes of play.

[eldaec]

Words on the official site suggest that there will be another test update next week, also lot of people are reporting that the values on 1-10 spells and CAs are out of line.

I do think many people have short memories though, messing about on the current live isle of noob you can one shot goblins for several levels with at least a couple of the existing classes.

However, given SOEs recent history of 30 second test cycles I can understand why people worry about this stuff.

[Soukyan]

Ok. I don't like the new newbie island. Mostly because it's not done. If this gets rush-jobbed I will be pissed off. I mean, it's NOWHERE NEAR DONE. Bad EQ2 team, bad. I don't want to play very obviously "fall through the world" incomplete areas. Ever.

Also, classes feel like a rush job also.

1. Necromancer & Conjurer - Pet and a DD/DoT spell. Heal at level 3. Pet does about 2-5 damage, spell is negligible.
2. Assassin - Level 1 has a direct damage, sneak, ranged, etc. You start with a 1-1 dual wield dagger with a 1.3 second timer. At level 3 you get a DoT and a backstab that does....38-64?! Wtf? I was one shotting level 4 stuff.
3. After playing coercer for 5 minutes I can see why no one likes it.

Comeon guys. The original newbie island actually managed to turn people onto the game. Right now the island has at LEAST two weeks worth of balance testing to go (whatwith the fact you have like 32 classes or something now). Please don't let the game become SWG-ized with this shit. That's a lot of classes. That's a lot of classes to balance for PvP. It's kinda freaking me out. I hadn't thought about it til I hit the character select screen. Is.....how should I put this... "No Good."

I realize test center is where unfinished shit goes, but you can't even finish the first quest you're given (at least on the evil side), the ale house is a black hole. I didn't even try to finish it on the good side, assuming it's teh exact same thing. Advertising these two islands as different from eachother is also something of a lie. Different mobs, yes, ok. Different dialogue, yea, ok. But it's a reskinning job at most.

I shouldn't get this riled up after only 30 minutes of play.

And this is why I dislike the idea of the class choice on creation. This game was developed with subclasses in mind and was built and balanced around that. To make the class choice at creation is going to require a lot of development time and effort and is going to seriously misrepresent a lot of the classes. Sure, you'll have your necro spells at level one, but it's going to be very difficult to actually know how the class plays until higher levels. As Sky mentioned, one of his biggest disappointments of EQ1 was starting out as a necromancer and then being relegated to mana refiller at higher levels. Inevitable in EQ2? Perhaps not, but the dynamics definitely change at least a little as you level any class. I guess my point is that this change should stew for a long time and should be a slow deliberate implementation on Test until it is just right. After all, I feel that they got the current setup just right, at least through my current level (20). And I still enjoy the game and still look forward to playing. Shock! Anyhow, as someone mentioned in my thread about the newbie isle changes, the resources being used to make this change could probably have been used elsewhere for something better. I can only hope that this goes well and proves to be a good thing in the long run (most changes are, after all). But I also hope that SOE realizes that they need to stop listening to the whiny bitches and just keep a system in place when they have a "good thing".  :-D

[Trippy]

And this is why I dislike the idea of the class choice on creation. This game was developed with subclasses in mind and was built and balanced around that. To make the class choice at creation is going to require a lot of development time and effort and is going to seriously misrepresent a lot of the classes. Sure, you'll have your necro spells at level one, but it's going to be very difficult to actually know how the class plays until higher levels. As Sky mentioned, one of his biggest disappointments of EQ1 was starting out as a necromancer and then being relegated to mana refiller at higher levels. Inevitable in EQ2? Perhaps not, but the dynamics definitely change at least a little as you level any class. I guess my point is that this change should stew for a long time and should be a slow deliberate implementation on Test until it is just right.

SOE presumably knows how the current classes work at max levels and this change doesn't change that, it only changes the early game from what I understand. And the EQ situation with Necros and other classes in raids was special to EQ since Verant didn't anticipate multiple groups attacking the same target so problems like DoTs not stacking royally screwed over certain classes in raids lke Necros, Shamans and Druids though the later two classes could at least Slow/Debuff/Heal (Shamans) and Port/Heal/Regen (Druids). Necros could pretty much only "twitch" and make people float and buff poison resist if needed since pets were verboten in raids. Oh and summon corpses. SOE I'm sure took all that sort of stuff into account when designing the EQ2 end game, right?

[Miasma]

For some crazy reason I thought the level 20 choice was being done as a /level command like in DAoC.  Just type it and your character is at level 20, I had no idea they were actually going to go through 24 classes and rewrite the first 20 levels.

- The citizenship quest is gone. You earn citizenship on the tutorial island and become a citizen when you leave it.

I kind of liked that quest, I guess it would get a bit tiresome with alts though.

*** Writs ***

Speaking of - I can't get any new ones, they all tell me to see accountant Fowler and he offers me what must be a guild quest, I didn't accept it because I didn't want to screw it up.  Apparently we need two groups to form a raid then go into Antonica and kill some Gnoll that is causing trouble.  The quest level is 17, maybe we could do this on the weekend, it sounds interesting.  The NPCs say "No time for that right now, your guild is needed".

[UD_Delt]

*** Writs ***

Speaking of - I can't get any new ones, they all tell me to see accountant Fowler and he offers me what must be a guild quest, I didn't accept it because I didn't want to screw it up.  Apparently we need two groups to form a raid then go into Antonica and kill some Gnoll that is causing trouble.  The quest level is 17, maybe we could do this on the weekend, it sounds interesting.  The NPCs say "No time for that right now, your guild is needed".

Did you try moving up to the next writ giver(s). There's a different guy for each tier so once you hit 20 you'll have to see the next guy up in the chain.

[Sky]

I guess I'd better put of crafting a few days longer and finish up my wizard class quest! Just got it last night along with that sweet, sweet invisibility.

[schild]

Yes, invisibility makes life super easy as a mage. Hell, you can practically finish splitpaw on your own with invisibility. It's good stuff.

[Miasma]

Did you try moving up to the next writ giver(s). There's a different guy for each tier so once you hit 20 you'll have to see the next guy up in the chain.

I tried talking to all of them that I could find.  Usually if I'm talking to the wrong person they give me a quest that just says "Go and talk to soAndso for the higher level writs".  Now they all give me a quest to go and talk to Fowler who wants to assign me a level 17 guild quest that needs two groups, I'm level 32.

[UD_Delt]

I guess I'd better put of crafting a few days longer and finish up my wizard class quest! Just got it last night along with that sweet, sweet invisibility.

You're lucky, the wizard (all mages) Qeynos class quest was one of the easier ones. The level 19/20 priest quests are/were a pain. The fighter and scout quests were somewhere in between.

If you want any hints (or a walkthrough) of the wizard class quest let me know. I've done that one 3 times now (wiz, conj, and illusionist). If you have app 4ish quality nukes you should be able to solo the whole thing in an hour or so depending a little bit on your luck.

[Sky]

All my spells are AppIV, and I'll be cooking up a couple Adept versions, if the combine gods smile on me. The last couple of nights adventuring netted me two rare components for Suzuki Ink (or whatever it's called). One will go to Freeze, the other I'm not sure yet.

I've only found a single sorcerer book drop, for the damage shield trigger dot thingy.

[Venkman]

This will be a good test to see just how scalable the game truly is :)

I don't know all what changes are planned for newbie content, but the Qeynos (Good) side is Isle of Refuge. Instead of starting on the dock though after the opening ship sequence, you don't have a ship sequence and you land in the world facing the Tower. Some random bugs here and there, a few client crashes, and the early Wizard spells have some balance issues. Nothing big there.

I do like the concept of the iconic professions, but would hate to see this rushed. Each side gets to choose 16 different classes, and while I think it's 10 that are the same for both sides, the six that are unique will give them the most balance headaches for some time yet.

Is it irony, concidence, or conspiracy that their two latest home-grown games, neither of which probably performed anywhere near expectations, both get totally revamped class systems at what amounts to the same time? The chance is far more pronounced in SWG, but as much as the groups are autonomous, I'm suspicious of the timing. I'm sure I ain't the first to notice this.

[Sky]

I don't think either change addresses the problems in either game. Hell, the problems I had with EQ2 were relatively minor. I'd rather have subclasses than a poorly and unimaginatively implemented class system. You have to replace the class progression quests with something, or there's a net loss imo. If you can't take the time to do it well, it shouldn't be done. The original Isle was highly polished and a great modular game experience. Screwing that up would be a crime, it was a great hook.

[schild]

/agree.

This new island best start kicking ass. Soon.

Also, Darniaq, Tinfoil hat plz.

[UD_Delt]

All my spells are AppIV, and I'll be cooking up a couple Adept versions, if the combine gods smile on me. The last couple of nights adventuring netted me two rare components for Suzuki Ink (or whatever it's called). One will go to Freeze, the other I'm not sure yet.

I've only found a single sorcerer book drop, for the damage shield trigger dot thingy.

Quality doesn't matter when making Adept 3's. The only time I would try to get pristine quality is the first combine when refining the rare. The important bit here is having a pristine loam which gets you 3 rare potions/poisons instead of 2 or 1 with the non pristine combines. After that combine it doesn't matter what level you get as the final combine always produces an Adept 3 even at the crude level. Not sure what happens if you don't even make it to crude but that would probably be hard to do.

Freeze is a great choice. After that I chose to upgrade my main single target direct damage spell. Only bad part of that is those seem to upgrade every 5 levels so it has a shorter usage than some other spells. So far I've also used my Master 2 choices (14,24) on the area effect spells.

[Soln]

what was wrong with the original newbie Island?

[Soukyan]

what was wrong with the original newbie Island?

Nothing.

[Venkman]

Wasn't worth a new thread:

Patch 19c

[Sky]

- All upgradeable Combat Arts and Spells below level 10 are now available from the scribe shop in your district/village.
- There are now spell and combat art merchants on both starting islands.

So...why craft at low levels? Setting up my spells/skills was my main crafting under level ten (ok, it's basically all I craft anyway).

[UD_Delt]

I think the vendors will only be selling App 2's as usual. App 4's made by crafting will still be an upgrade.

I've also read a bit about the tradeskill changes coming and they are going to get much easier to make. Basically all subcombines are going away.

Instead of making an Ink, Quilll, and Paper you'll now just collect the harvests and do a single combine.

Recipes for App 4's are now:

Jeweler (Rune of)
1 Raw Malachite
1 Raw Root
1 Raw Lead
1 Raw Tin
5 Coal

Sage (Spells)
1 Raw Malachite
2 Raw Roots
2 Raw Elm
5 Incense

Alchemist (Essence of)
1 Leaded Loam
2 Raw Roots
1 Raw Malachite
1 Leaded Loam
5 Candles

[Alkiera]

- All upgradeable Combat Arts and Spells below level 10 are now available from the scribe shop in your district/village.
- There are now spell and combat art merchants on both starting islands.

So...why craft at low levels? Setting up my spells/skills was my main crafting under level ten (ok, it's basically all I craft anyway).

I'd guess this is only app2s, same as it ever was.  Crafting produces app4s, and adept3s(from rares).  Still, an app3 is better than an app2.  I'd guess what this means is that many classes' new 1-10 combat arts were not available at all, and now are.  And they've added app2 vendors on the islands.  Don't think that is a huge issue.

Alkiera

[HaemishM]

what was wrong with the original newbie Island?

It was boring as fucking a bed post?

I never understood what was so GOOD about the newbie island. I hated it, thinking it was bland, boring crap. It felt like the part of Horizons where "Monsters" were in one spot, "Crafting" was in another, only it didn't have signs telling me that like Horizons did.

[Sky]

Now you've serpentinely put your head in your own craw, Hammy. The Isle was sublime. It's a tutorial, and works well as an integrated whole to introduce many game concepts.

Your comparison to Horizons is ridiculous. EQ2 crafting is always done in an instance, either a warehouse or workshop. Having the tower basement is a fair tutorial for how it works in the game, and makes sense, too. Should one be making chemical combinations in the orc cave? Where should the monsters be, in the outpost, at the bank?

You just said the Wookies are on Endor. Code red, code red, the eagle is in the henhouse.

[UD_Delt]

what was wrong with the original newbie Island?

It was boring as fucking a bed post?

I never understood what was so GOOD about the newbie island. I hated it, thinking it was bland, boring crap. It felt like the part of Horizons where "Monsters" were in one spot, "Crafting" was in another, only it didn't have signs telling me that like Horizons did.

I think the sign was the little glowy DonnieDarkoesqeu trail that led you directly to the guy who gives the tradeskill quest standing right next to the tradeskill instance on newbie isle. Short of a huge glowing neon sign what more did you want?

[HaemishM]

I'm just telling you I thought the whole newbie island was ass. I did not see all the "atmosphere" and great wow goodiness of the Isle. I still don't see what was so great about it. It felt like kindergarden, and I wanted to see the where the big kids played.

[schild]

I wanted to see the where the big kids played.

The big kids played there too.

[HaemishM]

And they stole my damn pudding cups.

[Shockeye]

The world of Norrath is getting a face-lift, courtesy of Sony Online Entertainment. The 19th update to EverQuest II is scheduled to go live on February 2, and will be followed in late February by the launch of the player-versus-player servers.

[Signe]

There is a beta for KoS (whadda name!), too.  I just got an email.  I haven't been playing hardly at all this week past, though.  That Dragon Empire VIII is driving me nuts and I just got Wild Arms 4 in the post.  What to do, what to do?  Everyone is in this KoS beta, right? 

[Venkman]

Not I.

I never understood what was so GOOD about the newbie island. I hated it, thinking it was bland, boring crap. It felt like the part of Horizons where "Monsters" were in one spot, "Crafting" was in another, only it didn't have signs telling me that like Horizons did.

The first time it was fine. It was a tutorial that, unlike other games, actually did a pretty good job of showing you almost everything you'd need to know to play the game.

By the 12th reroll, it sucked. But that's only because by that point, it was just repeating levels 1-(Whatever) to get access to Freeport or Qeynos. In my opinion, they should have just let people start new characters at level 6. Your choice for city was made at character creation anyway.

But that no longer matters.

[Signe]

Ah... I thought the KoS thingy was for the test server but I see it's a completely seperate thing.  My mistake.

[Morfiend]

There is a beta for KoS (whadda name!), too.  I just got an email.  I haven't been playing hardly at all this week past, though.  That Dragon Empire VIII is driving me nuts and I just got Wild Arms 4 in the post.  What to do, what to do?  Everyone is in this KoS beta, right? 

OT. How the hell do you end up getting invites to just about every single beta ever? And no, your not just special like that. Maybe I should start putting [X] Female, on all my beta apps from now on.

[eldaec]

words

OT. How the hell do you end up getting invites to just about every single beta ever? And no, your not just special like that. Maybe I should start putting [X] Female, on all my beta apps from now on.

My bet would be 'never getting around to cancelling a subscription'?

That's about the only thing that ever works for me anyhow.