SOE has updated the hotzones:

• Level 20: Everfrost Peaks

• Level 25: Permafrost Keep

• Level 30: Iceclad Ocean

• Level 35: Tower of Frozen Shadow

• Level 40: Great Divide

• Level 45: Eastern Wastes

• Level 50: Velketor’s Labyrinth

• Level 55: Kael Drakkel

• Level 60: Western Wastes

• Level 65: The Ascent

• Level 70: Icefall Glacier

• Level 75: Valdeholm

• Level 75: Frostcrypt

They are really running with the frozen summer theme, haha.

So by the looks of this forum post it appears SOE is serious about getting rid of spamming in their MMOs.  From the page:

*** SPAM filtering ***

• SPAM filtering has been added.
  • Messages flagged as spam will appear as “Soandso tells you, (SPAM)”.
  • Clicking the word (SPAM) in the chat window will display the filtered message.
  • Clicking someone’s name in the chat window will bring up a menu that allows you to report what they said as either spam or not spam (in case the message was mis-flagged as spam).
  • Mails are also filtered for SPAM.  An email flagged as SPAM will have its subject replaced by “SPAM”.

Buttons have been added to the mail window to report emails as spam or not spam (in case they are mis-flagged as spam).

This is extremely good news for Everquest players since the filtering is being developed for this game.  I would imagine similar systems could be setup for their other games.

The following guide explains how to farm T4 essences easily.  Thanks to Mapfiend for the map outline and to Allakazam for the links to the quest info.  I chose to farm essences from the instance Hiding in Plain Sight for a few different reasons:

1. I don’t have to compete with other for the camp site/named
2. Unlike uninstanced named in T4, this guy has some predictability to his spawning.  He either spawns after you kill 15 mobs or he doesn’t spawn at all.

Prerequisites:

• Quest: Times are a Chainin’
• Faction: Kindly with Toskirakk Slaves.

If you need to raise your faction I would recommend the following tasks.

• Find Your Allies
• Whom The Frogs Destroy
• Wraith of the Korascian
• Champions No More
• Disrupt the Siege
• Retinue The Frog-God

The first three tasks must be completed before you can do Champions no More and Disrupt the Siege.  Alla says that Champions/Disrupt the siege gives faction, but I was unable to confirm this.  I stuck to the first three…plus the camp is easier and more named pop there.

Get The Task:

• Talk to Trilyaris (located right when you zone into Toskirakk from the void) and say “meet him”.  She will give you the task, Hiding in Plain Sight.
• Say “ready” to zone into the instance.

Getting to the Camp Site

• Upon Zoning in make sure everyone in the goup is invised

• Using the above map as a guide, make your way to the green dot near the center of the map.  This will be your camp spot for the whole process.

Killing 15 Mobs

• You need to kill 15 mobs before Borskar will spawn.  It doesn’t matter how long/short this takes you – he won’t spawn until 15 mobs have died.
• Swarm pets do count (Wizard’s Call of Xuzl for example), but swarm pet procs from weapons do not count (SK swarm pet sword for example).
• I have found that the warboars have the lowest about of health and hit the lightest of anything in the zone.  They spawn all around your campsite and I have pointed out some of them on the map above.
• When pulling boars be aware of the Rallosian mobs around you – they will social agro if a boar gets to close to them.  They have signicantly more hp and hit a lot harder.
• Note: With an 85 SK with 4.2k AC/26k HP and nearly maxed out defensives I am able to tank 15 of these at a time.  Don’t be afraid to pull at least a few at a time.
• Personally, I used a log parser to help me keep track of how many boars I have killed so far.  When you pull a whole bunch at once, it is easy to lose count.

Checking For Borskar

• According to the Allakazam page he shouts “Lazy fools! None of you deserve to be in Rallos’ army. I doubt any of you are worthy of the heroes death you are soon to enjoy.” when he spawns, but I haven’t experienced this.
• Check along the his path I drew out in the above picture or have a tracker look for him.  I have found he does spawn within 20 seconds or so of the 15th kill.

Killing Borskar

• He has nothing to special about him,but can hit for up to 7k.  This can cause problems if your tank doesn’t have high AC or HP.
• My group makeup is Enchanter,Druid,Wizard,SK and 2 cleric mercs.  I was able to do all this boxed (SK/Wizard on one computer and Druid/Enchanter on the other).
• Set one merc to balanced and one merc to reactive so they don’t heal on the same cycle.
• Used edict of command with the enchanter to charm one of the guards for extra dps.
• Hit my deflection displine with the SK and pulled with harm touch (to ensure good agro).  While the disipline was active I tashed and slowed him with the enchanter.
• Sent the chanter’s charmed pet for dps.
• I then began constant spam heals with the druid.
• I then used twincast/other displines with the wizard and burned him down (while continuing spam heals with the druid).  He went down quickly.

Rinse and Repeat

• Once he is dead and you have looted have everyone drop the task.
• You can keep repeating this until you get all the loot you are after.

As I mentioned before, Landuran and I returned to Everquest Two over the summer.  In theory, so did Myclawz and Greldor, but we haven’t seen them online…at all.  Anyways, over the past few months I have found myself wishing that Everquest Two was more popular than it is. The reality is that a success of an MMO is determined by its launch (and maybe the following month).

Everquest Two had a horrible launch.  On top of that – the game was horrible.  Sony spent so much time making sure that the trade skill system wasn’t trivial that they made it so complex it wasn’t even fun.  The graphics were out of this world.  The combat was ok, but it was lacking that EQ1 feeling we were all looking for.

Everquest Two, as it exists today is a completely different game than it was at launch.  They completely redid the trade skill system to make it a little less painful, added guild housing, improved the solo and small group quests.  Also, they actually go out of their way to have events and seasonal things in the game, which makes it fun.  The graphics continue to improve as systems become more and more powerful. They even have in game voice chat that works (unlike WoW – which is horrible)  …I haven’t seen any of the raid content yet, so I can’t comment on that.

The problem is no one wants to buy a game that is 5 years old and start playing it (unless you are an EQjunkie, of course).  I understand that – I don’t blame you.  This brings me to the point of this entire post – what about Everquest Three?

With all of the lessons learned from making Everquest One and EQ2 image what they could do with Everquest Three.  I realize Verant actually made Everquest One, but Sony supported it long enough that they know the ropes.

Here is what I propose for EQ3:

OS independence:

With consoles basically acting as computers today I don’t think it is unreasonable to support EQ3 on the Playstation 3, OSX, Windows, and Linux.  In reality, the first three I think could happen, but for whatever reason no one likes to develop games for Linux (Thankfully, there is Wine).  With OS independence Sony would have a larger pool of people to buy their game – that is never a bad thing.

Graphics:

Keep the Everquest Two style.  I really like the realism that comes with the graphics.  I also like how the graphics evolve as hardware becomes better and better.  I hate how cartoon like WoW is.

Basic Classes:

Steal this from Everquest One and WoW.  The more classes and specialization you add into the game the more complex balancing, gearing, raiding…everything becomes.  Go back to the original classes in Everquest One and try to revamp them.  Make things more simple and straightforward.

Solo and Group Content:

Continue upon what Everquest Two is doing.  Create solo and duo versions of the group dungeons so casual players will have a chance to experience most of the world.

Scale the loot and difficulty of dungeons dynamically based on how many people are in a group.  This will make things reasonable no matter how many people are in their party, while encouraging people to group together to get better loot…this is an MMO after all.

Keep currency the same.  Everquest one had LDONs and other dungeons that used special crystals to buy things.  It was annoying that each time a new expansion came out your old currency was worth nothing.  At the very least have an exchange NPC that will let you convert one currency to another.

Raid Content:

Make things difficult.  Raiding is not for the casual player and never will be.  Raiding is about putting in lots of time to develop a strategy and coordinate with many other people to defeat an epic monster.  If the fight isn’t epic, it wouldn’t be believable.

Bring back open air raid content.  Everquest One was well known for having dragons in the middle of a low level zone.  This was really cool for a couple of reasons:

1. It brought us back to low level zones we haven’t seen in awhile.

2. It gave everyone a sense of community – the low level players needed us to kill the dragon to make the zone playable.

Quests:

Make quests change.  Nothing makes an MMO more boring than following a guide from Alla or EQ2i.  Imagine if quests were dynamically created and there was no guide.  This is the most complex of all of the proposals, but it is still manageable.  At the very least have a few thousand versions of a quest that are randomly assigned.

Zones:

Create a set of zones for each tier of players 1-10,10-20, etc.  Once you have a set of zones stop.  When you release expansions only release content for higher level players.  Everyone will get a chance to work through the low level stuff if they keep plugging.  By limiting what they can do you push more people towards the level cap which will make finding a group easier on everyone.

Trade skills:

I like the harvesting on Everquest Two.  I would definitely keep that.  I would add a request system into the game so players could create their own writ and place it on the auction house.  Anyone with the right trade skill could fill the writ to earn coin and experience.  I think this would relieve some of the repetitiveness of trades skilling as it exists today.

Events:

Have events going on in game as much as possible.  Best of the Best tournaments, Seasonal quests, anything.  Events are the polish that makes a good MMO great.

Difficulty:

Raids should be hard.  They should make you want to pull your hair out.  They should require lots of communication and dedication.

The solo and group content should be manageable.  Things should be challenging (so it doesn’t get to boring), but not insanely hard.

What suggestions do you have for Everquest Three?

My girlfriend sent me an email a few days ago that was amazing.  I won’t bore you any more with the intro, here is the email:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

VS.

MY GIRLFRIEND.

BY TYLER CURRY

- – - -

I’ve had a lot of time to think about our last conversation, particularly since you ended it by ramming a keyboard through my monitor. I understand that we were both upset at the time and perhaps we said some things we didn’t mean. Well, maybe you more than me, considering I mostly just listened to you shriek and cowered in the corner.

I do not think I am, as you so eloquently screamed, “addicted to World of Warcraft.” I have, however, made a number of unfortunate mistakes, for which I would like to apologize.

I’m sorry I was so late picking you up from the library. I didn’t know they locked the doors at 8, and I’m sorry you had to stand outside alone for two hours. If it makes you feel better, despite its reputation to the contrary, that portion of the city does not have a violent-crime rate significantly above the national average.

You have to consider the position I was in. I was healing for a party with five players in it, all of whom were counting on me to help them defeat Mekgineer Thermaplugg and liberate the Gnomish city of Gnomeregan. Those are the needs of five people, in contrast to just yours, alone. (Note that I’m not even counting the needs of the Gnomish people here, Ashley.) As Spock once famously said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.” You were that one.

Had I looked outside and noticed the freezing rain, I may have made a different decision. Probably not, though.

I’m also sorry I posted those pictures of you on my guild forums, the ones I took when you were passed out. I had no idea they could Photoshop your bra off. That was poor judgment on my part, and I freely admit it. I also should have told you before the chain letter went out. On the bright side, you hated working there anyway.

I also have some things to say that I think you should hear, and, since you forgot to pause long enough for me to speak before your charming little bout of property damage and subsequent stormy departure, I would like to say them now.

Ashley, you have never been willing to accommodate my World of Warcraft needs, or even to compromise the slightest bit.

Last month, when your mother was in a car accident, you called and not only demanded I drive you to the hospital but insisted I stay there to provide “emotional support”—despite knowing full well that I had booked that evening off to fight forest trolls in Zul’Aman. When I suggested you take a cab and that I join you in three to four hours, you unleashed a string of expletives that even my therapist found disturbing. You also refused to wait until we finished off the eagle boss, the one who drops the helm piece I have been trying to get for months.

For the record, she turned out fine anyway. Many paraplegics lead rich and rewarding lives.

Also, what you stumbled upon me doing with that Level 64 blood elf in the back room of the Silvermoon City Inn was neither “sick and perverted” nor “cheating on you.” We were role-playing. That I called you by her character’s name later that evening was just a weird coincidence. I do not wish your body looked like that. You and I both know that it’s physically impossible for humans to have those proportions, at least while retaining all of their internal organs.

However, in the midst of your raging diatribe, sandwiched between the curses and the flailing limbs, you made some very good points. In fact, the words you spoke about commitment, loyalty, and “being there when someone needs you” have sort of inspired me.

Ashley, when I gave you that ring and pledged to spend my life with you, what I didn’t mention was that, eight months prior, in the Level 10 quest “For the Horde,” I had already pledged eternal fealty and service to Warchief Thrall.

Now, with the gates of Ahn’Qiraj opening and the threat of the Silithid invasion looming over Azeroth, the call has gone out for all able-bodied members of the horde to band together in the great war effort. An event like this only happens once in a server’s life, and I cannot honorably abandon my online brethren in this hour of need. I understand that you need me to be there for you, but, Ashley, the truth is, right now, the horde just needs me more.

So it has been a few weeks since my last post.  There are a few reasons for this:

1. I canceled my EQ2 account and was waiting for the WAR open beta to begin for me. (Thanks again to Landuran who bought all the EQjunkies the game).

2. School started again.  For the fellow graduate students out there – you know what a complete time sink this is.

3. UPS & USPS can be annoying (details below)…

I did get a chance to play WAR beta for a few nights, maybe a total of 10 hours or so.  I had mixed feeling about it.  When you first start the game you have to wait through a couple of developer splash screens to come up and also click through two agreements every time you log in.  The annoyance of clicking these agreements has been well documented.

For me, the license thing is annoying, but it isn’t a game breaker.

Once you get into the game the graphics are refreshing.  They are kind of a cross between EQ2 (who goes for realism) and WoW (which is admittedly cartoonie).  The result is scenery that flows in the background and characters that look like a split between Conan (the movie, not the game) and Dragonball Z.  I really enjoy how my Blight Wizard looks like a bad ass. (I went for the spiked hair and a couple tattoos).

The game play in the noob zones (I only played for a few hours) is similar to other MMOs.  You are given some basic quests and are asked to perform some basic functions to get used to the game.  The main difference is the existence of open groups and open raids.  Basically, if you are in the same area as an open group/raid you can join without being invited and everyone works together.  What is really impressive is how seamlessly this works.

Now to why UPS/USPS is annoying – I still haven’t received my game in the mail.  Landuran, Greldor, and Myclawz all already got it.  Mine was shipped UPS, but they handed it off to USPS.  They are holding it hostage somewhere in PA and hasn’t moved in a couple days.  Consquently, I haven’t been able to log on and play (I am busy enough with school that it hasn’t bothered me all to much yet).

One last thing – my weekday posts won’t be back to normal for a couple more weeks.  I have a lot of homework to do & it is more or less consuming my life.

If you have some free time, I would recommend buying WAR and giving it a shot.