EQ2 Redux

B.O.L.O.!!! Fan Faire 2010 August 5th - 8th

cody@bncdiagnostics.com (Cody) — 2010-03-05T23:14:00Z

Once again it has been a while, Donnie and I are going to be "working" on a little nugget for everyone tonight! SO STAY TUNED!

I have been fairly active in game, but i have a son now so don't have the time that i used to. I have leveled Wipiid to 84 so far since the expansion and i got my Epic weapon about 1-2 weeks ago (Thanks to Donnie and our friends in Order of the Rose). So much more to say but you will just have to listen to it instead of read it! Catch our next pod cast in the VERY NEAR FUTURE!

Also as the title shows Fan Faire 2010 has been announced. Donnie and I have both put in for the time off already. It will be in Vegas at Bally's again this year.

Cody "Wipiid" Fawcett

Its been a while....

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2010-02-08T19:47:00Z

We could say alot but lets just say for now we got lost. I myself have been active since the last show but have not been able to play much in the last few months. Since I have started up again and with the impending expansion coming out now I figured now is a great time to start the show up again.

So stay tuned and hopefully a new show will be out in the next week and more to follow.

Donnie "Talnor" Hall

Day 4 and overview of Fan Faire

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-29T17:35:00Z

Well day 4 started at 4:45 due to an early flight. No major troubles checking out, getting to the airport or flying into St. Louis. The flight into St. Louis was 35 minutes early in fact. The drive home was a labor of sleep deprivation as we had to switch off driving between myself and my wife.

Finally arriving back in Kentucky we picked up our little one, who was glad to see us, and headed home. All in all not much of a day 4 but they assure us that Fan Faire is a 4 day event and the travel day is part of it. Dosen't seem that good to me.

So what did we think of Fan Faire this year?

The Good

Bally's was so much nicer than the Hilton. The room was clean and cheap. The bedding could use a bit of a upgrade as could the tv but not bad. There were not as many food options it seemed as there was at the Hilton but when you took in you could walk to the Paris hotel without going outside well you doubled your food choices.

SOE had their game face on and did very good at getting vendors in and really doing a great job at setting up the different areas where Fan Faire was held. Their store offered alot more to buy, which I did, and they had more areas set up for fans to enjoy.

Not having to leave the building for any events was another major plus.

Brenlo did a great job as MC, but one wonders with his new position if this is his last year?

The Bad

SOE is still not getting the hint on crowd control for entrance into some of their events. A little help from their staff would go a long way in stopping alot of rude people from getting ahead of people like me who try to remain calm and not hurt people.

The farewell dinner was mexican. Come on, thats just asking for travel day trouble. And it wasn't very good, better than last year but still not what I had hoped.

The Swag bad ordeal.... Me and my wife were in early on early registration. My bag was mostly empty and hers didn't even have a schedule in it. When we went to complain they told us they had ran out of things and it was just too bad. They even acted slightly annoyed that my wife wanted a schedule. Couple this with the fact that Cody and his wife got in 2 hours after us and got a majority of the swag and that one of the big "this is what your money gets you" bulletpoints in effect made us lose out on some of what we had coming to us. Some of you may think well what were you missing and I can tell you this we got a pen and paperwork. Thats it.

Some of the panels were hidden somewhat and could have used a bit more signs and the signs could have been bigger and darker.

Some of the panels could have used a bit more iron fisted moderation due to them being railroaded.

I do understand that SOE spends alot of money on this and probably loses some but it still seems a little jam packed and could be spread over a day or two more.

I think they could have done a better job with the Matrix Online shutting down. They more or less footnoted it but should have had a farewell showing during the community address.

Lastly they did not announce anything about the next Fan Faire. While this may actually be good as they were waiting to see how Bally's turned out one can only hope they give a bigger lead time than usual.

OK, I know what you are saying, "Donnie, from the looks of it there was more bad than good." Well yes and no. Numerically yes. Overall most of the bad was minor and the good was major items.

Me and the wife had a great time and I believe Cody and his did as well. Will we come next time, yes. Oh yes we will be there.

So to wrap up this was a great Fan Faire. I got to meet Cody and his wonderful wife as well as get into a room with like minded gamers which just rocks. They had more to buy and more to see than last year and the hope is next year will be even better.

For those keeping track I walked away about $29.00 in the plus from the casino and my wife was about $80.00 ahead. Take that casino! Of course they got us on food and the spa. Dang you spa!

In the next few days we hope to get together and put a audio edit of the entire trip. We hope to have that out within a weeks time. For those of you who followed us in Twitter and on here as well we want to thank you for following along on our trip to Fan Faire. Maybe next time we will see you and talk with you at Fan Faire instead of hearing from you from afar.

Now, lets get back in the game!

Donnie "Talnor" Hall

Day 3

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-29T01:44:00Z

Well lets start day 3 by oversleeping. I had planned on attending the 1st showing of Evercracked but missed it due to difficulty in getting my alarm properly set the night before. Cody was able to see it and though it was awesome as well as it dropping a mere few seconds of what they are calling Everquest "Next".

So for me the day started with breakfast, my wife donning her shopping attire and donning her trust weapon "Credit Card". Interesting fact my wife's credit card has a +5 to in debt quicker, anyways.... I prepare and finally head down for the second showing of Evercracked.

I get there with about 15 minutes to spare and have a hard time finding it. Apparently they were doing some of the live quest in the same hallway outside. Between that and the G.I.R.L. gamer panel I didn't see the room for the showing but with some help from Cody found my way there.

I was worried the showing was not going to be full but near the end the room packed in very nicely. Jace Hall stood up and gave some opening remarks (I know hes not a lawyer) and went right in to the movie. The movie was very good and Jace brought that right mix of energy and comedy that EQ is known for. He and his crew did one heck of a job on that movie and should be commended for the way they accurately portray the history of EQ without making its fans to be some weird group of wackos (we are but we don't like people to point it out).

Next up EQ2 panels. So 2 o'clock rolls around and Cody is not here. He has gotten him self stuck in traffic looking for some food. And they just start dropping information like crazy. Here are some of the highlights or at least what I thought was important.

Tradeskilling

With Odus they are doing away with loams to help balance the cost of rares across the board. They are also making soft gems, and hard rocks have separate spawns so if you harvest one you don't have to wonder about what it will spawn back into the world.

They are going to make Transmuting and Tinkering be available to all characters and not have to choose between either but be able to do both. Very nice in my opinion and well needed.

Dominio also said that she would be working with the alternate paths recipes and such as she has time but she has to get all the new 80-90 recipes ready for Odus and that will be her main focus.

Domino seems to be the current superstar of EQ2 mostly due to the way she turned tradeskilling around, this is not to say any other member is not as well liked but she always gets the biggest applause when she is introduced.

Class Balance

Of course the term class balance always brings with it a bad stereotype as its is always a struggle to keep all classes balanced but people should remember that this will always be a ongoing work and will never truly cease.

Summoners are getting some love by looking at their pets so they will be more loved on raids.

Druids are getting some loving in the healing areas with their Heal Over Time so they are seen as not wasting their heals behind other classes.

Work on priest changes somewhat like the fighter changes.

Rogues and Spellcasters will have some upcoming changes the most of which I understand to be that Brigands may get a slight hosing or at least that is what is sounded like from the players.

Itemization

Mythical weapons are not going to be forgotten with the run up to 90 but they will make them relevant but maybe not as weapons but allowing their effects to still be used... interesting.

Also outleveling gear past level 60 will now cause items to begin to lose their effectiveness. This is interesting as they have tried it before and will be odd if they actually finish this in time for the expansion.

So that was the end of the first session, I had to leave the lore session to take care of some home related business but was able to attend the final session with Cody.

Future of the Game session started off with a bang by them showing off the new shader 3.0 effects they are working on. They looked great and will not impact current gameplay but once you see them they make the game look brand new.

They also talked more about auto-mentoring talked about yesterday as well as some of the upcoming achievement changes and how the quest journal will be changed. Also mentioned they are going to work on allowing for tracking of more than one quest at a time.

They are implementing a slider that will allow you to auto adjust how much combat xp is turned into AA points from 0 to 100, of course pvp will have limitations.

During the expansion Q & A they talked about the expansion being only 80-90 in terms of playability (still think it was a good Question Cody). The re-introduction of contested zones and mobs. The ability to decide what level of raid you want to do (upcoming raids only not retroactive).

Unluckily the session soon turned south as they always do with a vocal minority railroading the event into a why do you hate my class question session and we soon left.

After going back to the room and relaxing we decided to head down and line up for the big Dinner. First we were in single file and then they told us to crowd up. At this point the evening went south. I am a large man, both big and wide. I try to remain calm because its the right thing to do and violence solves nothing. People were cutting in front of us stepping on toes bumping us out of the way with the same excuse. I am trying to find my group or I am looking for someone. I too wanted to find someone up further but thought it was rude to cut, well at least 50 people in my area decided they were not rude and did it anyway. I did keep my calm but felt a little less impressed with my fellow gamers. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Once inside we found our group (thats right we didn't even have to cut line) and got seated. There were a few items on the table that the group divided up and then we waited for the food. Whoever planned the meal has no idea about traveling after mexican food. The meal like last year was lacking unluckily and trying to get water was like being in a desert... Which we were.

Anyways Brenlo got up on stage and started the awards to which we watched for some time but had to leave due to an early flight. With that we bid Cody and his wife farewell and retired for the night.

A great day but also a sad one as its the last one with anything going on other than travel.

I will update later on day 4 as well as list my opinion on Fan Faire as a whole.

Donnie "Talnor" Hall

Day 2 - Community address and afterparty

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-27T17:17:00Z

Well lets pick up by standing in line for the Community address. The line was back in front of the main room when we arrived and only grew from there. The line could have used some staff help as it snaked into a corner and then went into the cross-roads room except to get there you had to walk through the line, very irritating.

Unlike last year the doors opened 15 minutes early and the crowd did not make that normal rush but went in calmly. The Bally's facility is just so much better than last years and security was so much more polite (I am pretty sure security for this was not Bally's). We found our table quickly and unknowingly sat down around a group of SOE staff. They were very polite and even took some photos of us.

Also my wife was the one who picked up on this. Brasse sat down at our table in a red dress. I would have never guessed that was Brasse, awesome.

So the show starts and Brenlo does some cheerleading, its so easy to get caught up in a moment when you love the games, that lead to a trailer for all the games so Smed could sneak up on stage. Smedly began the address by talking about a more focused approach to customer service and went right in to the customer service part of the address.

Customer service did their song and dance with some appropriate pops for getting rid of the overseas company and going with more local (USA) service. They discussed the amount of banned accounts which since 2008 has been over 275,000 accounts. And the large part of those were paying accounts. Nice to know the company is finally unafraid to do the right thing even though they lose some upfront income. People should remember that.

Next up was FreeRealms. They announced that they would be passing the 4 million mark next week which is just crazy. The servers haven't even been live 2 months yet. They announced they are starting up the story portion of the game and continuing to roll out updates as soon as they are ready as well as discussing the new mini game soccer (I'm a country boy give me a basketball and a hoop). The game seems to be growing very rapidly and for better or worse will be a major portion of their game portfolio. Remember gamers whats good for SOE rolls down hill and will be good for us, as long as they remember who brought them to the dance which they have seemed to have never forgotten.

Free Realm TCG was next, poor guy in the banana suit. I know its a loot card but I hope he lost a bet to have to wear that. They are doing some neat things with being able to put yourself in a physical card and then to have it transferred to a digital card for free. I am not going to get into any details.

Next up, or at least I believe this was the order was Pox Nora, another TCG. Nice looking game but just not into that sort of game myself.

Now they pop up Star Wars Galaxies. I expected a bigger pop like last year but it was a bit quieter than I expected. They went through some game updates and reminded everyone that the game went live 6 years ago this very day. They didn't announce a expansion which I am beginning to think is odd (what will KOTOR do once it launches). They also discussed the Star Wars TCG by the same poor banana suit guy.

DCUO was shown most of it was E3 footage we have already seen but no new annoucnments, especially the rumored launch date that did not transpire.

The Agency was also discussed but it too was mostly E3 footage and no new announcements.

Now, Everquest 2. First Brenlo announced some figures on the station cash and tried to show a direct increase in accounts since its inclusion. I don't mind station cash and have used it for some fluff items but some people in the crowd seem to still not like the idea. He then discussed the new longer Live Update cycles and discussed some of what we covered earlier in the day. Although they did add that the shard of love will come live in a upcoming LU and the fate or EM would be discussed.

Now he announced the new expansion (number 6 for you new kids) Sentinel's Fate. It will be the return to Odus. The screens looked great and some of the new mobs looked really cool but a few looked like sprite swaps of some already in game (hint hint). They also announced it would be launching in February 2010. While this was unwelcome news, we like our November expansions Brenlo explained they are trying to do more with the live game like the old Adventure Packs this caused the longer cycle.

Brenlo Finally announced that they would be launching a new good starting city around the same time as the expansion. They announced Halas and we were shown some early footage. For those who follow us most will know that we have been in a guild called Halasian Redux for some time (we formed it) and have always had a extreme love of Halas due to our early adventures in Everquest 1. So for us to see them releasing Halas it was like a dream come true and was very unexpected. We are very happy geeks right now.

They wrapped up EQ2 talk with TCG talk that normally is boring but there were mention of a new loot card that will allow you to repair all your equipment to 100% once a day.... Oh that will be nice, and expensive lol.

Overall a very nice although short and lacking good details discussion of EQ2. Though they are promising more during the next days panels.... We shall see.

Finally one of the granddaddys of MMOs (also one of the best for its time) Everquest 1. They are dropping their 16th expansion Underfoot (yes 16, Final Fantasy has only announced up to 14 and only released up to 12) as well as a continued commitment to expanding that universe.

The Community Address wrapped up and the bars opened up. What a crowd, that is a tab I would love to see but not pay.

After taste testing some of the special AMP drinks, a few times, we basked in live karaoke. Most did a good job but when Smedly got up there and killed "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns and Roses, well I was just speechless. Not just good, but killed it.

I should mention that Brenlo did do his promised "Copa Cabana" and did it well, you just couldn't follow up Smedly.

So after a few more "taste tests" it was off to the room and sleep. Dreams of EQ2 dancing in my head... There was also some hot chicks in my dreams so I have to give a shot out to some of those girl gamers that were looking good, hats off!

Lastly we would like to thank Craig, SOE staff and all around nice guy, hats off to you as well.

For now that wraps up day 2, more gaming goodness on day 3 including the world premier of Evercracked, stay tuned.

Donnie "Talnor" Hall

Day 2 - partial update

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-26T23:24:00Z

Well today started with attending the Podcast panel. It was a good spirited panel that got off track from podcasting but could not be helped it seems as many in attendance had questions other than podcasting on their mind. It was also in one of the smallest meeting rooms I have seen. It was as my wife put it, cute.

After that we went out looking for things to buy. I got me a EQ2 Journal as well as a pair of Gunnar glasses for my gaming sessions coming in the next few months (Joy!). We played some slots at which I gained an additional $5.90 and my wife dropped about $2.50, gotta love those penny slots.

Dropped the wives off and attended the first EQ2 panel "to kill 10 rats". They did a live change to the bridge gate quest (go out an do it now!) and explained how quests are built as well as some things they are looking into in the future. Some different ways to complete quests and allowing some quests to give out different rewards and some general quests fixes.

Next was the "Adventurer's Guild" panel that started off with a bang. They announced the the current achievement system will be going the way of EQ1 and be renamed "Alternate Advancements" or "AAs" which we are already using. This was in advance of "Achievements" launching in update 53. Achievements should be nothing new for those who are Xbox Live players (find me online TalnorDragonis 40k gamerscore, oh yeah). It will possibly have rewards attached as well as drag in the slayer status. More to come on this later...

Then they dropped the "Auto Mentor" function coming up in GU53. It will allow you to go to do a quest and be given the option of auto mentoring you within a range of 5 levels of the quest level. Share the quest with others and they too can mentor but it will not replace the current mentor system just will be another way to allow people to go back and redo old content. They will also be doing a mission quests system to work with the auto mentor system and will have its own "coin" system and rewards.

They further talked about new changes to future raid content by allowing those who are attempting them to make them more challenge appropriate. This will not be retroactive but could help with allowing other guilds to do content they may miss due to difficulty. More on this as we hear about it.

Lastly GU53 will be due to drop sometime in September.

There were other questions but most were given the "we cannot answer at this time". What that means is they are going to drop alot of info tonight during the community address. So we will update further afterward and after the big EQ 10th birthday bash.

Lastly before we went to recoup we ran into some friends, very nice and were very glad to pose for us. Just take a look.

Fironia Vie - We like the blue and gold.

Antonia Bayle - Yeah we like purple too...

More to come after tonights community address

Fan Faire Day 1

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-26T06:49:00Z

Hello Reduxians,

Once again no audio... Need to fix that but for now a blog update only.

Once I finally got some sleep and awoke the next morning I had some time on my hands to do none other than playing tourist. After a bit of that and waiting for my wife to get her hair cut the time had arrived, registration.

Registration was a different beast for me than it was last year. When myself and Heath arrived in Vegas and got checked in it was past the time they had opened the doors so when we got there we were in a line of about 100. Not bad really, especially when compared to this year. Myself and my wife got in line at about 3:40 and we were at the elevators. All I can say is wow. An hour later we recieved our pass and was finally able to enter the room where they had all the good stuff set up.

We got our bags of goodies (more on that later) and our shirts, some posters and got in line for the survey. After finishing the survey we got to do some walking and looking around. Let me tell you this year they did it right. The Store SOE had actually had some things worth buying, in fact quite a few. I didnt purchase any yet but I will be blowing some cash tommorrow. Also the amount of vendors had grown considerably. The room was actually packed and it was great.

Well during this time Cody and his wife had made it in and we waited for them so we could go eat at the Steakhouse in Bally's. Let me tell you that was some good eating. Costly, but good.

After talking with Cody it became apparent that both me and my wife got hosed on the gift bags as ours had almost 1/2 as much as theirs did, I plan on talking with someone tommorrow to try to rectify this. My wife actually didnt even get any information regaurding events as her folder was completely empty. Anyways...

We then went to the Welcome reception as was entertained by Brenlo in his usual good humor and finally retired for the night.

Updates on the Casino vs myself and my wife. Casino is still down about $3.00 to me and my wife is beating them out of about $80.00 right now so we are doing well.

Looking into tommorrow me and Cody will be attending the podcast event at 10:00 AM and will be following it up with some of the other EQ2 panels later in the day. It seems we wont have time to have a Redux event but this is in part because SOE has done a good job this year of putting this thing together to keep us busy.

So for now I am logging off what follows is a photo of myself taken by my wife. So now you know what to look for, dont be shy I am a very large man but I am cuddly like a bear and will not bite. Just give me a "hey" or "go Redux".

The trip to Fan Faire and Day 0

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-25T07:56:00Z

Well for starters this is a later than expected post and unluckily no audio due to my wife now sleeping. So lets get to the fun stuff, the trip.

We left our home in Kentucky and traveled to St Louis where we caught our flight to Vegas. Nice relaxing drive, had to park in the main terminal and was flying out of the east but still not bad. During our 3 hour drive to Vegas my wife explained to me the entire Twilight series since I have not read any of the books nor saw any of the movies. I no longer need any further Twilight info as I understand everything now and we can leave it at that.

Anyways, we finally get through security (no problems!) and decide to eat before we fly out. We caught a bite to eat at Chili's (personal fave!) and caught our flight. A little bumpy on take off then smooth. Well that is till we started landing, my wife no likely the bumps and it got bumpy. Once on the ground we were told that a storm had just passed through and was enough to close the airport. Well it made us wait on the plane to get to the gate for 45 minutes... And we had made it there 15 minutes early, people were not happy about sitting on the plane and I was one of them.

So we finally get off the plane and met our driver at our baggage claim (I dont like to drive and I like comfort so I splurge). Got our bag and went to Bally's. Had a great driver, real nice lady pleasant trip except it seems every street is under construction.

In Bally's and then into line to check in, glad I don't hate lines because vacations seems to be filled with them. Anyways we checked in and got a great deal on a upgrade (nope, ain't telling) and now have a wonderful suite with a Hot-tub and a Bidet. I am from Kentucky and I am not a hillbilly but I am country so a Bidet is very, very interesting. Looked it up on Wiki and now I can use it to ensure my taint is clean.

Anyhoo, we go out and check out Bally's after we get settled in. My wife looked at the spa, is planning on getting her hair "done" and maybe some ink. Anyhoo, we find that the up escalator is out from the shop areas. Let me tell you, I dont do stairs. I can do alot of things and in my personal line of work it is at times "physical". I have breathing problems so stairs suck, big time suck. Hopefully that is remedied soon.

At this point instead of telling you what went on suffice to say we relaxed. Really relaxed. So at this point we get to where my wife is now asleep and I am going to sleep very soon. I am on the 24th floor yet have no problem hearing the construction going on outside as the entire city seems to be under renovation.

Cody will be coming in today with his wife so it will be good to meet him in the flesh. The dynamic duo will finally get down to having some good Fan Faire fun. Poor Steve is unable to attend but is here in spirit and wishes all of you a drink from his straw. Tomorrow I hope to do some fun things before early bird registration and maybe try to corner some SOE folks.

For now I need to get some sleep badly... Oh yeah, the casino lost $15.00 to me so far. Oh yeah High Roller here.

See you guys later today or sometime during Fan Faire. Audio will hopefully be posted nightly or as soon as possible. Be careful and once i get some sleep we can get this party started again.

Donnie "Talnor" Hall

Fan Faire T-Minus 32 hours and counting

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-24T03:36:00Z

Yes, I know I was going to count it down from 7 but a nice storm took out my modem and once I finally got internet back it was back to in-service. But enough about poor old me, lets talk FAN FAIRE!!!

A little help to those coming in for their first and maybe some new info for those vetrans.

1st. Twitter ok, you may be asking what is Twitter and if so that is ok, Ashlanne has a wonderful post up about how to set up an account, who to add to following, and then link it to your phone. Great way to keep up with SOE goodness. Link to post concerning Twitter by Ashlanne

2nd Last year I tried to take it all in and then did some un-needed running. I hope they have "sitting arrangements" adjusted as last year some of the panels (EQ2 panels mind you, thats whats important) were standing room only. So to get a good seat come early, to get a seat arrive near time. To stand up and be cranky show up late.

3rd Admit it we are gamers. And as such we need to take it easy on the physical shell we are trapped in. Make sure you get some water to carry around with you, some Ibu or Tylenol or "legal" pain reliever of choice, and wear comfortable shoes.

4th Not sure how this will pan out but we hope that there will be less "standing" time for the address and dinner or at least someone be able to convey to us whats going on. Hopefully Twitter may ease some of this if they can coordinate it but this is the last danger, be prepared to stand.

So thats it for now. Cody is brining his wife which is a very good suprise so he may have to be on better behavior so just look around for us or send us a message on here.

Will update more once we get to St Louis!

7 Days to Fan Faire the countdown has begun....

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-17T22:06:00Z

Ok so its 7 days out and what do we know?

Well we know that they have updated the forums with the different things that will be discussed but as many of you know there has been no word on a expansion.... or has there.

Christine "Kiara" Renzetti posted on the official Station forums that "just because we don't call it an expansion panel doesn't mean that there isn't one..."

And like years past there has been the joy of first hearing about the expansion thanks to the way many faithful fans watch over the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. Apparently our EQ2 detectives have found a entry listed as ""EVERQUEST II SENTINEL'S FATE".

So begins the speculation as to what we will hear about at Fan Faire, if it is indeed Sentinel's Fate, and what zones are being brought back from EQ1.

Pretty good stuff to start the countdown with!

Credit to Zam News for original story! Zam News Link

EQ2 Redux Show 17 - Fan Faire Spectacular Year 2!

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-16T04:40:00Z

Later than expected but still before Fan Faire its your Fan Faire Spectacular show! We invite you to come on down and listen in as we talk about Fan Faires past and present as well as go off on some gaming tangents.

Also a reminder that shows 00-05 will be coming down on June 20th. Get those downloads in before I take them on the server and put them in the secret EQ2 Redux archive!

Ding! EQ2 Redux's 1st year of coverage complete

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-06-02T18:43:00Z

DING!!! Welcome to level 2!

For those of you who follow us here at EQ2 Redux we would like to thank you for your continued support as we have now reached the end of our 1st year podcasting. In that time we have changed show formats a few times, got improved audio equipment, lost a podcaster to real life, added two new podcasters, and attended our first Fan Faire.

Pretty good first year. We have had a great time doing it and foresee a great future continuing what we love. Talking about EQ2. So to all those EQ2Redux fans, thank you. Wait till you see what we have in store for the next year.

I do need to make everyone aware that I will be pulling down podcasts 00-05 to free up more room on our server for the upcoming trip to Fan Faire and to make more room for additional content. These will come down on June 20th so if you want to hear them you better get to them fast.

We will be cutting our Pre-Fan Faire special this coming Sunday so if you have anything you want to ask or to talk about please get those questions in soon. We hope to have the show up by the 10th.

Remebering our men on Memorial Day

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-05-25T18:37:00Z

Every year we have our nice 3 day Memorial Day weekend in this country and we at times forget why we celebrate this day. We here at EQ2 Redux would like to take this time to express our gratitude to those that make this day possible.

For those that served and fell in service. For those that served and made it home. For those that continue to serve today.

Freedom isn't free and its good we take time to remember those that pay that bill for us. On behalf of us here at EQ2 Redux, thank you.

Special shout out to Steve for not only taking care of buisness while he served, but making them suck it with a bendy straw. Hats off to you my friend.

EQ2 Redux Show 16

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-05-22T05:47:00Z

Finally back after a month off. We talk all things EQ2 and some other topics including other SOE games and fan faire.

Also Congrats Steve on the new young one.

EQ2 Redux Show 15 - The Return

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-04-13T00:27:00Z

We are glad to finally be back in a new format. Its been two months and finally we are able to get on here and chat about the game we love. We discuss news as we journey into the den of the devourer. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, we are going to Fan Faire. Beware!

Fan Faire Bound 2009

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-03-30T12:35:00Z

Well we have been silent for a while but a new day is dawning. With the month of March coming to a close we are now able to focus on returning to the podcast as well as more gaming.

Fan Faire 2009, well what can we say. The unholy trinity will be there! So for those Reduxians out there, its gonna be time to party Vegas style!

In the near future we will be cutting our welcome back podcast as well as updating information for our Fan Faire coverage. Oh and guess what kiddos, June is EQ2 Redux's one year anniversary. Nice of SOE to throw us a party in Vegas, lol.

More to come very soon!

EQ2 Redux is still alive, its just busy in real life.

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-02-11T20:26:00Z

As some you may know I live in Western Kentucky. As such we are currently in the worst disaster our state has ever seen.

I work in emergency services and as such have been working a few more hours than normal. We lost our power and water for a few days, got it back, and again currently without it.

The county I live in was in such bad shape at one point we had no running water or power at all. We are recovering now but seem to still be having bad luck. As I write this we are having gusts of up to 50 mph and this is causing us to have more damage again.

I wanted everyone to know this as this is why I have only played EQ2 a little and only when I had some power or could steal a little wifi signal.

Our podcast will continue as soon as I can get back to a normal way of life. For now you can follow some very sporadic updates from me on Twitter or Facebook. My twitter account is TalnorDragonis and my facebook page can be found by looking up Donnie Hall Jr, email of bigdon@brtc.net .

I will only be able to update them during work hours and even then only during the breaks I have.

Also please check on www.halasianredux.net for our friend Cody to keep the information flowing as he is still playing in game. For the time being you can contact Cody to keep up on information invloving EQ2 Redux and our guild. Cody is holding down the fort for us.

I also know Steven has been putting alot of hours in at the ambulance and school so he hasn't been on much either. So please remember that Steven may be in Texas but he is still my brother in Emergency Services so keep safe Steve-O.

So keep us in your prayers and I cant wait to get back to the game I love as soon as I take care of the people I love in real life.

Lastly I want to thank the national guard for their response as well as all of our emergency services community as well as our local citizens who stepped up to make a difference. It really makes one feel good to know that your neighbors are there for you.

Donnie

LU Update 51 info

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-01-21T22:21:00Z

This comes directly from a post on EQ2's Official Forums posted by Aeralik, very good write up.

Cody helped dig this up, so big thanks to Cody. I apparently need to do more visits to the Forums.

An Overview

    EverQuest II is a complex game containing 24 classes which all need to have their own personal identity. This results in a number of spells and combat arts which when put together make players very powerful. One aspect where this is very noticeable is with fighters. The goal of the fighter is to deal with incoming damage from an NPC while also making sure the NPC keeps focus on the fighter instead of his or her allies. This was once true and the fighters did just this holding aggro with taunts and absorbing the damage through mitigation or avoidance of the attacks. Overtime, this morphed more into the fighter holding aggro through certain buff combinations and by maximizing their damage potential.

    In short, these changes are about getting back to those roots. Fighters continue to focus on taking damage but now we need to refocus the fighter on holding aggro through their taunt abilities instead of purely through damage.

    From the damage class perspective, things are equally troubled. Most damage classes can freely go 100 percent with little risk due to certain spells they have or may receive. This gives little risk to the damage class and makes certain spells which reduce your aggro have little to no value. Aggro is a two way street. The fighters need to gain as much as they possibly can but the damage classes need to watch what they are doing. This is why the changes are not restricted to just fighters because we want to emphasize this fact.

Aggro Changes

    The most noticeable thing about the aggro mechanics in eq2 is that hate generation has scaled linearly since inception. Damage however has progressed exponentially as new effects and spells have been added to the game. This resulted in reduced threat output from taunts and detaunts. In addition, it was found that aoe based spells and combat arts were adding excessive hate when cast on groups of npcs. Not only did the npc gain hate from the damage applied but a small portion of that hate was added to the npc’s party members. Most of the time you will hit all of them with an aoe based spell so this extra hate spreading was removed so as to not penalize or benefit certain classes more than others due to their spell makeup. For example, take a warlock using Armageddon. This spell can hit up to 5 targets. Hitting all 5 targets would then penalize the warlock with approximately 20% additional hate for all of the targets instead of just adding the damage as hate to each target.

    One of the first things completed was reworking the scaling a bit. To properly scale with other effects taunt criticals, base taunt amount and normalized taunt amount were added similar to how combat criticals and bonuses work today. Aggression has also become more important since it impacts taunt based spells. Aggression will increase the amount of threat added to taunt spells. In addition, higher threat values relative to your target increases the resistability of the fighters core taunts.

    We also expanded on the concept of the single target and aoe tanks. The single target tanks are the guardian, paladin and monk. The aoe tanks are then the bererker, shadowknight and bruiser. The designations are about where the classes excel the most but are not absolutes. A guardian can tank single targets efficiently but they are still quite capable in situations with multiple npcs.

    The single target tanks gained additional efficiency to their single target taunts while the aoe oriented classes improve in gaining aggro in the group encounter settings. In general, the aoe classes have a slight disadvantage in the single target fights by having to use higher power and higher casting time spells. The single target tanks then have higher values and improved efficiency when it comes to single target creatures. Single target tanks should still be effective when multiple npcs are encountered but the aoe tank will be more efficient in these types of encounters.

     As stated above, aggro is a two way street between the fighters and the damage based classes. Certain spell combinations were effectively leaving high damage classes with no risk of pulling aggro even though they were going all out. So the adjustments to abilities like hate gain, hate reduction and transfers were made.

    Hate gain and hate reduction were plentiful from a small number of spells. This made it easy for many players to hit the 50% cap and have little risk from their action. Thus the values were toned down or removed from these spells in favor of new methods. This will in turn allow us to grant these effects sparingly on items and have a meaningful effect. In the past this was not possible due to the ease of hitting 50% through certain spell combinations.

    Hate transfers had similar issue to the hate gain and hate reduction. Hate gain at least allowed for improved hate from the players actions while hate reduction was just removed completely. Hate transfers on the other hand moved hate from one player to another. In limited use, this makes for an interesting gameplay element. However, once again the values often hit an extreme amount. It was decided though to shift the emphasis from the damage classes more to the fighters though. The shift resulted in several transfers like Amends being changed to something more appropriate.

Stances and Spell Consolidation

    When the stances were analyzed several things stuck out. First was players tended to favor the offensive stance for tanking over the defensive stance. This is largely due from the fact that damage is the preferred method for holding aggro. The second was that a fighter essentially ran one of the stances along with several other buffs. A common complaint from all of the classes is time to rebuff after dying. So instead of casting multiple self buffs they were merged into the stances. Third, the skill bonuses and reduction of the stances was changed slightly. Skills have a relatively low cap allowing for a few buffs to quickly get the player there. Thus the skill gains stop in the level 40 range now instead of their continued linear increases. The reductions also have a similar cap and no longer continue a downtrend which in the past made lower level stances slightly more effective due to reduced penalties. Also the skill penalties are much less than they were previously.

    The offensive stances have been altered slightly to give the fighter viability when they are not tanking. It allows them to do decent damage which keeps them viable as an extra in a group or in a raid. Slight damage improvements come with penalties though. In the offensive stance hate gain is reduced, damage taken is increased and taunts actually reduce your threat.

    The defensive stances on the other hand give improved viability to tanking. There is additional hate gain, defensive skills and variety of other effects you would expect from a class built to hold aggro and take damage. Like the offensive stance, these bonuses come with penalties. In this case, defensive stances reduce overall melee damage while also making it more difficult to hit.

    The object of the stances is then to give the player a decision to make. Do they need to tank or are they better off doing damage? The choice is theirs based on the situation. Tanking for a group would make the defensive stance a better choice. Soloing or clearing raid trash might make the offensive stance a better choice.

In Closing

    Hopefully, this gives everyone a little insight into why these changes have occurred. They can be quite shocking at first glance. However, we feel if you play through them with an open mind you will see things are not quite as bad as they may seem. We would encourage people to make use of the Test Copy server and try things out there with their normal group if possible. Using this play data, then submit feedback using the /feedback command. We will then read and evaluate the feedback and make adjustments as needed.

EQ2 Redux Podcast Show 14

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2009-01-19T21:01:00Z

Welcome back to the EQ2 Redux show! This is our first podcast of the year and we get right to buisness. LU 51 is going to change alot of the game. We discuss what is currently on test and where we see it going.

EQ2 Redux Show 13

Donnie@eq2redux.com (Donnie Steven and Cody) — 2008-12-31T03:30:00Z

Well its that time of the year kiddos! We look back on our year in EQ2 and look forward to the new year. Welcome back Steven and Cody who are now offical hosts with myself and a fond farwell to Heath who has moved on from EQ2 to Life 2.0

Come on in and relax the fire is warm and there be ale to drink tonight!