Fan Faire 2010!

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I'll be heading down to Fan Faire again this year! I'll be taking pictures this year, and I'm also going to try something new this year: Twitter! You can follow me as @EQ2_Barx , I'm going to try and post major updates as I go. Viva Las Vegas! -- lordebon 01:59, August 4, 2010 (UTC)

Twitter's broken right now... Obviously, this must be your doing, from Fan Faire. =P

Hope you're having a great time! I've never had the money to attend. -- Mysterious drake 22:34, August 5, 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, twitter isn't cutting it atm so I'm just going to post highlights. Unfortunately the setup they have for EQ2 panels has been positively abysmal so far this year. They have it in the main, huge event center that has everyone sitting around tables... but then they have the projector set up with a little portable screen that you can't really see outside of the first row. Some highlights so far are:

• Destiny of Velious is confirmed as EQ2's next expansion. (Smed even joked that we players are always finding out the expansion names, usually on the day they file the trademark haha).
  • DoV will launch in early Feb (I think Feb 9 was the date mentioned)
  • Includes at least 2 overland zones, and at least 8 or 10 raids (going off memory, couldn't get pictures there)
  • Will have contested raids, but rather than being overland they'll be instanced -- each raid trying contested will get their own instance, but the mob will still be contested: if a guild in one instance is currently pulling it, everyone else in their own instance will see the mob as busy with an NPC attacker.
  • 4 HQs this expansion, including the dreaded Coldain Prayer Shawl
  • No level cap increase. Will be an AA cap increase, but they haven't decided on how much or what kind of new AAs there will be vs more AA in old trees.
  • Flying Mounts! . All old zones will support flying mounts, though there will be restrictions on how high you can fly so that you don't get outside the geometry. Flying mounts will function like server-controlled mounts while in flight (ie no casting or combat while in flight). The one we saw was a griffon.
  • Lots of Othmir. We saw lots of different Othmir models, although they're not going to be a playable race.
• The upcoming change to make more classes neutral in GU57 will be explained with lore in GU58. Ratonga will also be made a neutral race rather than evil.
• Lucan is back in his place in GU57. Far Seas TC is up to something and that story will be continued to explain why Qey/FP are not getting newbies.
• Click-to-cure and Autoattack bars are on the list to be added to the default UI, although no ETA given.
• Fighter balancing is ongoing. Guardians are the focus atm. We should hear more at the mechanics panel today (I'm going to try and get an up-front seat today).
• They're sticking with EQ2X being separate from EQ2Live. The reason they gave that EQ2X will not kill EQ2L is that so many people will be looking up EQ2X and being presented with the choice between F2P and the full-feature subscription EQ2L that some will go to EQ2L. Apparently the 14-day trial for EQ2L was a major underperformer, with most new EQ2L players coming from either RAF or their bring-back promos. Time will tell whether or not their prediction is true.

They're posting videos on SOEFanFaire at Facebook -- they're not the best quality, but if you want to watch some of the panels they're a good option. -- lordebon 14:58, August 7, 2010 (UTC)

And a little bit more news from this morning's Launchpad panel. The existing old launcher that came with the game discs (called LP1) will be eventually upgraded to the launchpad that serves the streaming client (called LP3) -- this should not change whether or not the game client streams or not, it'll just change the appearance of the launchpad when it goes into effect. The updated LP3 will have the option to log in directly to characters (which has been a long time coming). ETA for this should be a few weeks.

Also, the current Station Launcher (LP2) is going to be replaced in favor of a new multi-game launcher they're internally calling LPX for now. LPX will feature the ability to update multiple games as well as social network features including eventual tie ins with the game for things like guild chat and voice chat, plus data feeds ala EQ2Players. LPX is modeled a good bit after Steam, and it seems like a pretty nice updater so far. -- lordebon 19:29, August 7, 2010 (UTC)

Will you continue to update here or on Twitter or on both, or what? I can't honestly say I've ever had much use for Twitter.... But either, I can't see your posts either because there are none or because I need to register and "follow you" or whatever. -- Mysterious drake 07:21, August 8, 2010 (UTC)

Twitter wasn't working from the start so I stopped trying to use it. The last few highlights from yesterday's panel:

• They're going to look at separating the house item limit on your house from the item limit on the moving crate (IE giving the crate a separate item limit).
• The guild harvest depot may be getting a size (# of stacks stored) increase.
• DoV will introduce the first ever tradeskill-only Heritage Quest... the one and only Coldain Prayer Shawl!
• Three new lower-level tradeskill quests or questlines (at 10, 20, and 30). Once completed these will allow the player to buy their advanced books for that tier (Hooray no more 10p for L29 books).
• Rangers will be removed from the game, because seriously who plays a ranger?
  • Just kidding. There's going to me some mechanics changes, and bows and 2H weapons should see an increase.
• There's going to be a new game data feed server, which should not only make things like EQ2Players more accurate but also allow people to tie into it via an API, opening it up to far more users.

Much of the rest of the stuff that was covered, especially in Q&A, was class-specific so I didn't take many notes. On the Warden side, the mythical click will be fixed so that it can be cast on self and Serenity with the AA stifle immunity will be fixed so that it can be cast while stifled. Other topics included dumbfire pets and their uselessness on mobs with any AE, the necro undead tide and the lack of mob corpses, and much much more. This year they had a lot less presentation and a lot more Q&A. -- lordebon 16:26, August 8, 2010 (UTC)

Just saw the Destiny of Velious fly-over video, now that SOE has released it to the web.....
/drool -- flying mounts -- Mysterious drake 04:07, August 11, 2010 (UTC)