SOE: About That Station Cash

With all SOE games and web sites down since 2 May and SOE giving out 30 days free play time plus one day for every day out the outage, SOE is in serious financial trouble, especially if the Bloomberg report about the PSN network target date of return of 31 May is true.

So what might help SOE's bottom line (and save some games) once all the security problems are solved?  The much maligned Station Cash.  That's right.  With SOE potentially giving out 2 months of game play for free and gamers probably leery of buying new games from a company that suffered such a serious security breach, I see Station Cash as the primary revenue stream for SOE for a significant period of time.  That is good for Free Realms and EQ2 Extended which already rely on Station Cash sales, but what about other games?  EverQuest and EverQuest 2 already have the Station Cash shops in game so maybe they can ride out the economic storm if a large number of players don't come back.

As for Vanguard and Star Wars: Galaxies, games without a cash shop?  This may be the end, particularly for SW:G.  After this fiasco, can anyone doubt that players will flock to SWTOR?  If the original release date (Q2 2011) for SWTOR had been met, I would say that SW:G is dead now.

I remember back when Station Cash was introduced players complaining that it would ruin EQ2.  Wouldn't it be ironic if Station Cash actually helps keep EQ2 from closing its doors in the aftermath of the security breach?

My Predictions for 2011

For the first time I will attempt to predict the future in the MMO world.  And for not the first time, I will undoubtedly make a fool of myself on the blog.  But since that has never stopped me in the past, on with the predictions.

New games:

Although a lot of new MMOs are scheduled for release, I'll only make predictions about 2 games that I hope to play in 2011, Star Wars: The Old Republic and RIFT.  First, SWTOR.  As much as I would like to go out on a limb and predict the game will not launch in 2011, I just don't want to look like that big a fool.  Then again, I want to play this game, so picking an earlier date may just be wishful thinking.  So I will predict a 2011 Q4 launch for the game.  If I have to pick a month, I'll pick December.

I have greater hopes for RIFT.  I predict that they will make their announced launch date of Q1 2011 and will do very well, ending the year with between 300-400 thousand subscribers.

Existing games:

Eve Online - I will predict that not only will I finally get to walk around in stations with Incarna, but that during the month Incarna is released the peak concurrent user mark will once again break and will hit over 67,000 concurrent accounts.  According to Eve-Offline, the current mark is 60,453.

Other predictions for Eve Online is that the game will end the year with between 380-400 thousand active accounts and that the Sansha invasions introduced in Incursion will no longer be active.

EverQuest 2 - EQ2 will continue to lose players throughout the year, especially to RIFT.  By the end of the year, talk will again begin about the need for another round of server mergers.  In the meantime, EverQuest 2 Extended will do well, but the F2P service will still remain separate from the subscription service.

Star Wars: Galaxies - I'm going to go off on a limb and predict no server merges in 2011.  I am also going to go out on a limb and predict SW:G will not go F2P in 2011.  I think that SOE is saving its Star Wars love for Clone Wars Adventures.

Player multi-media:

One thing I really love is when games turn into true virtual worlds that spill over outside the computer screen.  I think that 2011 will prove to be a banner year in this regard for my favorite game.  In Eve, Incarna will give New Eden's film makers something new: avatars.  No longer will player-made videos be restricted to ships and still photos of players.  I predict a flood of new Eve videos will flood YouTube and that by the end of the year bloggers will be making up lists of best videos of 2011.

Also in Eve, I expect the podcast community to grow.  Lately the number of podcasts has grown (I currently have 7 in my feed) and I will predict that by the end of 2011 I'll be able to not only list 10 Eve podcasts on the blog, but get some flak for leaving someone out.  Hopefully that is not just wishful thinking.

That is all my predictions.  I could make more if I actually got into the world more, but New Eden has been such a good place to be that I haven't really wandered around too much.

Hotfix for EQ2's Game Update 58

Okay, so SOE is not calling today's downtime for EverQuest 2 to install a hotfix an emergency.  And I guess that with all the content in Game Update 58 that more good than bad was introduced.  Feldon at EQ2 Wire even has a post on all the under-documented and stealth additions included in GU58.  But just when I'm wondering if I should spend some time back in EQ2, seeing the long list of things needing to be fixed is a bit discouraging.  It makes my decision to wait until the Velious expansion comes out look better every day.

Am I overreacting?  Perhaps.  I'll provide the notes for today's hotfix below and let you be the judge.

USER INTERFACE

• Fixed tooltips on the welcome window and marketplace window for item icons.
• You can now set Auto-Roll options under Group Options (/groupoptions or Alt-O Group Options)
• This will allow you to Auto Greed, Auto Lotto, or Auto Decline loot without having to press the button each time. (Auto Need is not available)

STREAMING CLIENT

• Fixed an issue where the client would incorrectly give a free disk space warning.

MOUNTS

• Mounts in the mount window will no longer show up for sale on a merchant.
• Fixed a bug with the Ykeshan Bear not using the correct appearance when equipped in your mount appearance slot.

ITEMS

• Daring Roundshield and Imbued Daring Roundshield should have proper protection values now.
• Priests should no longer be able to equip the Daring Roundshield and Imbued Daring Roundshield.
• Sifu’s Focused Leggings should now have stonewill 2 on them.
• Bone Hilted Smasher should now have slayer’s conviction instead of defiant stand.
• Kaborite Longbow should only have followthrough on it now.
• Bonebreaker’s Edge should only have 1% riposte chance now.
• Earthen Shard should now be flagged as fabled.
• The house pet "a mini-cognatic bixie bopper" is now no-value.

QUESTS

• The journal text for the quest "Into Crushbone Territory" has been corrected to reflect Tuathil Laeds current location in Greater Faydark.
• The quest "In Search of the Feerrott" can now be completed by good characters.

 LIVE EVENTS

• Dying in Mistmoore’s Research Hall should no longer revive you in his Inner Sanctum.

TRADESKILLS

• Writ givers should now correctly open their dialog without opening a merchant window.

ZRAXTH’S UNSEEN ARCANUM

• Anathraxxis Fetidspine should no longer spawn as the challenge mode version when you wipe on the normal version.
• (Challenge Version) Treskar Throatpuncher’s Mana Soul now shuffles hate properly.
• (Challenge Version) Deathbone Lord Krasick now spawns add waves more reliably.
• Anathraxxis’ loot tables have been altered.

EQ2X - Silver Members Can Buy From Broker

Here is something from Smokejumper that might get me to put down Dragon Age long enough to log into EQ2X again...

Silver members can now buy items from the Broker.

They still need to purchase broker credits to *place* items onto the Broker, but they now have unlimited capacity to BUY from the Broker.

Enjoy!

(hat tip: Feldon)

I don't mind not selling on the broker.  It was the not purchasing that hurt.  And I bet Silver members not being able to buy hurt the Gold and Platinum members also.

But this change will not get me to give up any Eve Online time.  I've got another research agent to recruit!

Patch Day for WoW and EQ2

Tuesday's are usually patch day, and both World of Warcraft and EverQuest 2 are pushing out patches today.  The World of Warcraft patch, 4.0.1, will require 12 hours of downtime and is so big Blizzard pointed out the instructions to use the background downloader.  I couldn't find patch notes, but I did find a couple of forum posts about class mechanics changes, changes to glyphs and a cap on the number of members in guilds.  The last will affect not only The Instance podcast's AIE guild, but also an organization familiar to Eve players, the Mal'Ganis server's Goon Squad.

UPDATE: WoW Insider has a post on the patch.

Meanwhile, SOE's EQ2's GU58, Arcanum Revealed, is expected to only require two hours of downtime.  Feldon has posted the patch notes on EQ2 Wire already.

Unlimited Character Slots in EQ2

Finally, the announcement I've been waiting for.  Smokejumper made this announcement on the EQ2 forums yesterday.

We've solved some technical issues recently and we can now offer character slots for sale. (Something previously unavailable.)  So as of October 5th (Tuesday), character slots will be available for purchase in the marketplace.

Here's a couple quick facts to answer obvious questions:

1. Slots are pemanent. You pay for them once and they stay on your account forever.
2. You can purchase any number of character slots. There is no limit. You want 20, 30 or even a bajillion character slots? Go for it.

Regarding Station Access subscriptions:

1. Character slots sold are *in addition to* any slots you are getting by being an SA subscriber. (Example: If you had 12 slots available as an SC subscriber and you purchase two more slots in the marketplace, you'll now have 14 slots available.)
2. If you cancel your SA subscription, and then buy slots to replace the slots you were getting, your characters *will* still be present in those purchased slots (they won't get deleted during the swapover).

Character slots will be available in the in-game marketplace for 1000 SC each.

Only having seven slots available to me with a regular account was one of the main reasons I haven't returned to EQ2.  Once I started playing Eve Online, I just couldn't justify paying for a Station Access account for just two additional character slots.  But now?  I can just pay for two extra slots and I'll have all 9 of my characters available to me.  And if I really want to get crazy, I can dual-box because paying for two accounts will actually be cheaper than paying for one Station Access account, even accounting for the extra copy of EQ2 I'll have to purchase.

Of course, I do have a new current fantasy game love (not WoW), so I won't be rushing out to get Sentinel's Fate right away.  In fact, I'll probably wait until the next expansion that comes out in February.  But still ... all I can say is, "It's about time, SOE!"

EQ2 Patch Notes: September 15, 2010

Not much going on with the patch today.  And no update to the EQ2X cash shop or other F2P only news.

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug causing some zones to not be available for zoning.
• Fixed a bug were Experts and Masters of the previous tier could be automatically overwritten in your hotbar by an Apprentice spell.

TRAVEL

• The Stonebrunt temporal pathfinder will now properly zone you into Sundered Frontier instead of leaving you high and dry in the middle of the sky.

ITEMS

• Ykeshan Spellbears and Warbears can be used below level 80 and no longer can be combined below level 80

EQ2 Patch Notes: September 1, 2010

Today a lot of players of EQ2 Extended are going to get what they asked for.  Classes can now be purchased!  I want to play a mystic, and now I'll be able to.  Also available is limited access to the broker.  The way I hear SOE is doing it makes sense, and will probably need to be a post of its own.  But for now, here are today's patch notes fresh from Amnerys:

EVERQUEST II EXTENDED

• Classes can now be purchased individually off the Marketplace and through character creation.
• Armor crates have been added to the Marketplace selling sets of armor for all levels.
• You can now purchase Broker Credits from the marketplace!
• Broker Credits can be used for a one-time purchase or sell action on the broker for Bronze and Silver members.
• Selling and purchasing stacks of items count as a single broker credit so use them wisely!

USER INTERFACE

• The XP bar will now stay put through relogging.
• The bonus xp from max level characters now displays properly at character select.
• Your UI settings should now be restored after using the /loadui command.
• The mini-map zone name will now display correctly after using /loadui.
• Fixed a bug where using /loadui while banking would keep you from using the banker until you zoned or logged out.
• Fixed a highlight bug on the city selection page of character create.
• Parts of the achievement interface and all of the paperdoll windows that were red will now be blue when loading the “Default Blue” skin.
• The background color of the paperdoll is now exposed to the UI files via the PaperdollBackgroundColor property.
• Fixed a bug causing coin to not be draggable to the coin section of the Character window.
• The Character window has undergone a few changes:
• The Auto-Inventory area has returned.
• The stats dropdownbox has been replaced with buttons
• The main tabs were moved back to the top of the window, sub-tabs were moved to the bottom.
• Your character’s name was moved to the titlebar.

WELCOME WINDOW

• The item of the week will display the item of the week description rather than a copy of the message of the day.
• The Sentinel’s Fate Daily Mission now appears on the Welcome screen.

QUESTS

• Adventurers looking to worship Anashti Sul and on the quest "Gathering Feathers" should now be able to locate the necessary scroll within Gorowyn's Grand Atheneum.
• Darklight Wood: You can now defeat ghoulish Nerian to update your quest.
• Feral Citizenry: Ghoulish Nerians should no longer remain in an “unattackable” state after being exposed to the Strobe of Innoruuk.
• The statue of Razorwing Steeldown within "Ascent of the Awakened" will now grant a replacement "Totem of Aaryonar" to anyone who has lost it and completed the quest "The Riddle of Razorwing."
• The "Totem of Aaryonar" is no longer removed upon completion of the quest "Feeding the Flames.”  It is now removed upon completion of the quest "A Final Froglok Word."

ITEMS

• Troubadors who have completed the quest "An Ayonic Journey" can now read all of the pages within the book, "The Case of the Lost Lute."
• The wicked wand of malice has been altered. The effect attached to the wand is now an on equip effect. The 10% cast speed on hostile spells has been changed to a generic 10% cast speed mod attached to the item.
• Roehn Theer: Godslayer Breastplate rewards have been made more in line with the challenge.
• Shroud of the Faithful is now claimable one per character.
• Fixed a rendering issue with Dendroxa the Envenomed.
• Stigmatic Frenzy now correctly triggers on the caster's group.

ABILITIES

• Damage Reflection abilities can no longer do more than 300% of the max health of the caster before Crit Bonus and Potency.

Inquisitor

• Chilling Invigoration is now correctly modified by the Inquisitor's stances.

POPULATION

• Stonebrunt Highlands: NPC Combatants found outside of Quel’ule should no longer fly up into the sky.

ASCENT OF THE AWAKENED

• Drop rate of the "Ornate Winged Eye" has been increased and should now drop even if mobs are grey.

THE VIGILANT: INFILTRATION

• There should now be a new respawn area in the beginning section once the first two groups of Zeklings have been defeated, thus keeping the circle of death from occurring.

ICY KEEP: RETRIBUTION

• Kastus & Odaufe should no longer one shot players with their respective frostbite damage shields. It is still recommended players not hit them with the wrong damage type however as they can still easily kill players with them.
• Kastus & Odaufe should no longer regain their damage shields if not killed quickly enough after being hit with the ice axe.

UNDERFOOT DEPTHS

• Mosaasus now has a smaller hitbox area.

PERAH’CELSIS’ ABOMINABLE LABORATORY

• Players now have more time to get to the platforms to prevent his adds from coming to life.

PALACE OF ROEHN THEER

• Zone-in issue has been fixed.

The Evolving EQ2 Extended - Smokejumper's Latest

Although EQ2 Extended, the free-to-play version of EverQuest 2, is in "Soft Launch", the beta tag really still applies.  EQ2 Executive Producer "Smokejumper" has released a couple of tidbits to keep players interested, or at least meet some of their demands.

One item I'm happy to hear about is the ability to purchase classes.  Smokejumper gave this tidbit on the EQ2 Extended forums Thursday.

Well, I was going to announce it later, but we'll be making classes available for sale to Bronze and Silver members soon. I don't have an ETA yet because the work for that is not completed or tested yet...but soon.

So that will change the matrix somewhat. (No more details for now. We'll launch full details when the work is completed.)

We'll probably make other tweaks as we go along. Extended is like a retail store in some respects. Changes will occur as we figure out what's right for the game and the business...but that's going to take time for us to watch and evaluate before deciding any further changes.

An issue near and dear to my heart concerns Station Access users.  I've been looking at what I would get if I reactivated my SA account.  Smokejumper wrote this on Thursday.

Station Access is for players that like to play more than one game. If you don't appreciate the current stable of games, there are a slew of new ones coming soon. (Chief among them is DCUO, which looks to be pretty playworthy.)

SA is for players that like playing more than one game. The fact that many EQII players are using it primarily for extra character slots is not lost on us. We're discussing making some changes in the near future to allow other options for folks that want more slots, instead of having to be an SA subscriber.

However, as far as SA players feeling betrayed somehow that SA doesn't offer more perks in EQ2X? Well...it does give you Gold membership. That's a perk over and above what an SA was previously offering, so it's definitely providing value to the SA subscriber.

Essentially, if SA was worth your money before, then it's still worth it now. We're not planning on any additional perks for SA subscribers.

Part of the reason I don't play on the EQ2 Live servers right now is that paying $30 a month so I can have access to all 9 of my characters (that's two extra character slots) on the live servers just doesn't make sense.  But if I can purchase extra character slots on the EQ2 Live servers, I might go back.  Then again, if EQ2 Extended really draws me in, I might reactivate my SA account to also get the Gold membership so I can sell items on the broker.  Of course, if DCUO comes out and I like it, then a Station Access account really would make sense.

EQ2 Patch Notes: August 24, 2010

SOE is pushing out another patch today for EQ2.  The only difference between the EQ2 Live and EQ2 Extended versions concerns the AA slider bar when a player upgrades to gold membership.  Also the changes to the Mastercrafted tags on items is designed so that Bronze and Silver members in EQ2 Extended do not have access to items labeled Mastercrafted that are really Legendary or Fabled in quality.  The version from EQ2 Extended is below.

MENTORING

• Increased mentoring xp bonus given when mentoring another player.
• The experience bonus for having players mentor you adds the percentage displayed in the tooltip rather than modifying the base experience from killing a monster.

USER INTERFACE

• Dynamic icons on the world navigation map will now continue to update after reloading the UI.
• Fixed an error in the maintained window causing an icon to become stretched.
• UI Modders can now disable the snapping behavior of the XP bar by setting the “EnableSnapping” property to false.
• When you upgrade to gold your AA slider will remain at 50 until changed and will not default to 0.

TRAVEL

• All bell travel should now have an option to enter Freeport or Qeynos directly depending on your alliance.

ITEMS

• Mastercrafted items that are actually better than Mastercrafted will now say so (such as MASTERCRAFTED LEGENDARY or MASTERCRAFTED FABLED).
• (Fan Faire request!) City Tokens are now also worth status.  Guildhall Commodities Exporters and Sanya the General Goods merchant at City Festivals will now pay 250 status points for them, if you don’t wish to use them to purchase festival goods.
• The five mounts that were missing from the mount merchants have been returned.
• The following mounts now move at +25% movement speed: Gorowyn Destrier, New Halasian Courser, Kelethin Courser, and Neriak Destrier.
• The Skyblade Skiff received by platinum fan faire attendees is now claimable one per character instead of one per account.

PVP ITEMS

• Kinetic Barrier, Elemental Barrier, Combat Expertise, Suppressed Rage, Free Movement and Reflection should no longer send error messages to the chat log during PVE Combat.

QUESTS

• New Halas Citizens with the quest "A Final Froglok Word" will now find they can continue conversing with Lady Erillis and complete the quest.
• Recipes for the new Steamfont tradeskill quest line now require the appropriate level of fuel.

PALACE OF ROEHN THEER

• Pets should no longer trigger retributive effects when fighting the sages Mandoril, Medorius and Mikla.
• Zone in should only zone the individual player instead of the entire raid.

GREATER FAYDARK

• All instances of "Amythest Pond" have now been corrected to "Amethyst Pond" in Greater Faydark

EQ2 Extended: Thoughts After The First Weekend

This post isn't intended to be a comprehensive review of EQ2 Extended.  In fact, some of what I list below is part of Sentinel's Fate and not limited to EQ2 Extended.  However, not having played SF I don't really know the difference.  And I'm not going to discuss one of my loves in EQ2, crafting, because I didn't make it to New Halas.  But I did get two characters up to level 10, so think of it more like notes I've taken as I start exploring the game instead of any kind of review.

First, I created a human berserker and a half-elf inquisitor.  Having never played a half-elf, I didn't realize they have tracking.  After doing a few quests, I realized the tank really should have tracking, so I re-rolled, creating a half-elf berserker named Rosemary and a human inquisitor named Noizy.  Back to level 1.

Two, a lot of people were playing (including a barbarian guardian named Vanhemlock).  I started playing and my inquisitor was in the 11th instance.  Pro tip: you can invite other characters across instances (/invite [character name]).  Then you can right-click on the character's name in the group to be transported to that instance.  I noticed that since I did that the first time that my characters have been logging into the same instance every time.

Appearance.  I noticed that when I look at my character that I am using the SOGA model but everyone else is using the original EQ2 character models.  I went ahead and set my appearance for both appearances at the character screen.  If you want to see all SOGA, all original models, or mix and match, a player has to go to Options and click on Alternate Appearance to select the types of models to view.  I'm selecting SOGA, not just because I think half-elves look better, but to make the game feel a bit different than EQ2 Live, since I always used the original models when I played the first time.

Another change is that I was able to use the appearance slots at level 7 instead of level 20.  I'm guessing there is no longer a level limitation, but I didn't check it until I hit level 7.  And in Sentinel's Fate I think the appearance of the gear got better.  Below is a picture of my two characters at level 10 over looking a camp in the Frostfang Sea zone.

Rosemary (left) and Noizy in Frostfang Sea

Okay, so the armor appearance doesn't distinguish between classes.  But I think it looks cool, especially with the SOGA models.  And the best thing is that I didn't have to buy it out of the cash shop.  You can bet that if I ever reactivate my EQ2 Live account that I'll be using the chronomage to get this armor on my ranger.

A New UI.  The UI is different than what I was used to last October.  For instance, if you want to replace bags, go to your character screen (default is "C").  I had to ask in local how to do that.  I'm such a noob!

In-Game Map.  The map has undergone a change, with some of the functionality first introduced in Warhammer Online.  While not done as well as World of Warcraft, the map does show where to go to find quests.  Whether because the directions in the quests are easier to follow or because of the map, I haven't gone to an outside web site for information on quests.

Bag Space.  I have Silver accounts, which means I get 3 bag slots on my character plus 3 character bank slots and 2 shared bank slots.  And I received a 24 slot bag and 2 4 slot bags starting out.  And then fairly quickly I received a 12 slot harvesting bag.  Sure, it only holds harvested items, but 12 slots!  That is a lot more bag space than I received when starting characters a long time ago.  In fact, that's more bag space than I have on my 4 level 16-18 characters in World of Warcraft.

Alternate Achievement.  I had heard of the Alternate Achievement slider bar and was looking forward to using it.  Apparently the slider bar does not work for Bronze and Silver accounts.  For those looking to level lock, the /disable_combat_exp command still works to toggle combat xp gain on and off.  Also, experience gain can be toggled on and off by right-clicking on the experience bar and using the menus.

Macros.  If you are dual-boxing, you can make your life easier by creating macros. The first thing I did once I got both characters on the same instance was create macros to follow each other.  Then I became annoyed at having three bags I could not access always pop up in front of my face every time I hit the B key so I wrote a macro to only show my three usable bags.

Picking Up Shinies.  I find that I'm still addicted to picking up collectables (aka shinies) but since I can't put them on the broker I'm leaving ones I don't need for others.  I wonder if that will make collecting them easier for everyone in game.

Effects Nerf.  I've heard about the effects nerf.  I haven't really noticed anything except for transmuting.  No more major light show.  Of course, I'm playing a berserker and an inquisitor, two classes I have little to no experience with, so I really can't tell how much was toned down.

Character Copy.  Quite frankly, I wish that SOE had not allowed characters to transfer from the subscription servers to EQ2 Extended.  I realize that with the split in the game into subscription and F2P servers that SOE would have fired up the player base even more if the split had been complete.  Also, the fact that some players would pay $35 to copy a character over so that their EQ2 Live subscription would also cover their EQ2 Extended Gold membership was a way to not only make a quick buck but also hang onto subscribers a bit longer.  This was especially important with a lot of players believing that SOE was abandoning the subscription servers to whither away and that EQ2 Extended was the wave of the future.  But I really liked the idea of having a new server where everyone started over, especially with the new rules brought about by having the limited Bronze and Silver memberships.  Having level 90 characters running around this soon is kind of disappointing.

EQ2 Extended Macro: Opening Your Bags

Having two Silver accounts in EQ2 Extended means that I only get 3 of the 6 normal bag slots.  I'm okay with that.  What I don't like is that every time I open my bags, the three bag slots that I can't access show up.  I'm guessing that this is a subtle hint that if I upgrade my account that I can have all 6 slots.  Whatever the reason, I find it annoying.  So I pulled out some of my old knowledge of EQ2 and created a macro that would only open the three bag slots I paid for.

For those who have never created a macro, click on the EQII button in the lower left corner of your window.  Select Socials and then click on the Macros tab.  To begin editing, click where indicated.

The macro is a three command macro.  In the Macro Step drop down menu select Command and then click on the Add Step button three times.  In the text boxes that appear, type in the commands below.

/bag_open 1 0
/bag_open 1 1
/bag_open 1 2

Once that is done, click on the Test button to make sure the macro works.  Once that is done, click the OK button and then drag the icon for your new macro to one of your action bars.  If you put it on the first action bar, you can open your bags with one keystroke.

Very Quick First Thoughts On EQ2 Extended

I got into EQ2 Extended last night and made two station accounts which I quickly upgraded to Silver.  Right now I have two level 4 characters, a berserker and a inquisitor.  I started both in the New Halas starting area since I never played Sentinel's Fate.  Right now, my older computer is running on Balanced settings and my newer computer is running on the default settings with Shader 3.  That is beautiful.

A couple of things I noted.  First, the game is streamed onto my computer, which meant I got to play right away.  I liked that in Free Realms and I like it now, even if it is causing lag on my older computer.  But that just may be my anti-virus software.  You can see when data is downloaded because a cute little dragon appears and you get to see the rate at which the data is downloading.

The other real quick item of note is that the default character appearance are the SOGA models.  I'm going with the SOGA models just because I like those models for half-elves over the original models and my inquisitor is a half-elf.  Yes, I may not be playing the game right with that choice, but I'm not buying a racial pack this early in the beta.

I know this isn't much, but I've only run a couple of quests so far.

Maybe Today?

The launch of EQ2 Extended beta was pushed back to today.  Gee, maybe this is a real beta and not a marketing ploy.  Think so?

Patches and Upgrades and Delays, Oh My!

This just in: the launch of the beta for EQ2 Extended is delayed one day until tomorrow.  Which is too bad since my WoW server, Darrowmere, is one of the servers that will be down all day today in preparation for Cataclysm..  Also tomorrow is the deployment of patch 1.0.4 for Eve Online: Tyrannis.  TQ is scheduled to be down from 11:00 GMT to 13:30 GMT.  I better make sure I have some long skills queued up for training because the announcement post didn't say 13:30 GMT of what day.

Yes or No: EQ2 Extended

Do I give SOE’s EverQuest 2 Extended free-to-play service a try when the beta opens up August 17th?  That is, assuming I’ll be able to get into the beta in the first place?  After all, I’m a former long-time player of EQ2.  What could it hurt, right?

The first thing is to examine the options to figure out if the F2P version is even worth bothering with.  I have 4 plans to choose from: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.  Well, actually 3 since the Platinum version is not available at launch.  And getting the Platinum version would be pretty silly right now anyway.  And quite frankly, Bronze is not an option for me.  Only Adept level spells?  And only 2 bag slots?  Sorry, but considering how much space I was used to in EQ2 and now in Eve Online, I’m not putting up with that restriction.  Get a Gold membership?  If I’m going to do that, I might as well re-sub to the real EQ2, now called EQ2 Live. 


Okay, so I will go with the Silver membership.  The Silver membership sounds perfect for dual-boxing.  Three bag slots (up from two), two shared bank slots (up from none) and Expert (the old Adept III) level spells.  Yep, those things are worth paying a one-time $10 fee.  And while I am restricted to 8 classes, those are classes I am interested in playing.  I never leveled any of those classes to over 15 and I never played six of the classes: brigand, warlock, wizard, guardian, berserker or guardian.  The other two classes, swashbuckler and inquisitor, I played around with and they were interesting.

The Silver membership, like all plans except Platinum, is limited to four races: human, erudite, barbarian and half-elf.  Other races are purchasable.  Given the class choices, I don’t think I would purchase another race.  This means I could probably have two Silver membership accounts.  Would I really need more than two Silver accounts to adventure with?  I doubt it.  If I need more crafters, I can always put them on a Bronze account.

See what I just did?  I’ve justified creating 3 or 4 accounts.  Sure, having played Eve I’m used to multi-boxing, but with this F2P model it just makes sense.  I wonder if SOE is going to attempt to combat the practice.  I hope not.

Now that I’ve talked myself into creating 2 Silver accounts, what about Gold or Platinum.  If I want to return to EQ2 Live, then Gold makes sense.  But if I just want to stay in EQ2 Extended, then Platinum may be the real value of the four plans.  Think about it.  For $200 I would have one year of game play.  In addition, I get $60 in Station Cash over the course of the year and access to the latest expansion.  Access to the latest expansion means not shelling out another $40.  And since I hear the next expansion comes out in February, that means not paying SOE $80 for expansions in the first year.  But for purposes of this evaluation, I’ll just count this value at $40.  And with unlimited access to races, I wouldn’t need to shell out another $6.50 to create wood elf characters.

So let’s see.  If I plan to play for 12 months I can pay $200 and get the latest expansion ($40) plus $60 in Station Cash plus free wood elf characters.  Or I could get a Gold membership and pay $180, and if I want to play the latest expansion content I would need to shell out another $40.  And I get no Station Cash.  And have to pay $6.50 for wood elves.

I've been wondering why anyone would purchase a Gold membership.  Then the idea hit me.  If you are going to pay $14.99 for a Gold membership anyway, why not get a subscription to EQ2 Live and that way you can play in both settings?  If there is a mechanism to encourage players to go from EQ2 Extended to EQ2 Live, that is it.  And since you can pay for more than one month at a time and get a cheaper rate in the subscription game than on an F2P server, I wonder how many F2P players would get a subscription to EQ2 Live just to save some money?
Update: You do not receive a Gold membership with a EQ2 Live subscription unless you pay $35 to make a copy of a character from the EQ2 Live servers to the EQ2X server.  The other way to get a Gold membership on both EQ2 Live and EQ2X servers is to open up a Station Access account.

The only thing giving me pause is paying the $200 up front.  But that is what the beta is for.  To really find out if EQ2 Extended is worth playing or if it will fall flat on its face.  With SOE not offering Platinum memberships out of the box, I’m betting Smed isn’t too sure of the final verdict either.

But for now, I’ll just get a couple of Silver memberships and go to town dual-boxing.  That is, if I can get into the beta.



Related posts: EQ2 Extended: Thoughts After The First Weekend