May 2016 Producer’s Letter

Good day, Norrathians!

It’s hard to believe we are almost out of spring and into summer! I wanted to take a moment and let you know what the team is working on and what’s coming.

First, Quarm! This new server will launch this summer! It’s a limited-time server where all characters are on a race to defeat Mata Muram! Here are some details:

• New server with Omens of War-era features, zones, and advancement.
• Goal: Race to defeat Mata Muram.
• Based on your accomplishments on Quarm, you’ll be able to earn special rewards that can be claimed by characters on another server (live OR progression).
• Start at level 51 with 50 AA and gear.
• Free trading of items (like you can on the Firiona Vie server).
• True Box.

We’ll have more information to share on the Quarm server as we get closer to opening this up to a beta test with players. Like our other special servers, access to Quarm will require membership.

Progression servers have been moving along nicely. Hard to believe that Ragefire opened on May 20 last year! Lockjaw and Phinigel both unlocked The Scars of Velious content on their servers recently, and players there have quickly been making their way through that era’s raid content.

The Memorial Day weekend is coming up and we have something special planned for players. Stay tuned to hear more at the end of this week.

Also, on June 1, we will launch our new Legends of Norrath Loot Pack – Legend of the Jarsath Destroyer – on our marketplace. This new pack will have loot from The Jarsath Destroyer, Fall of the Estarim, Debt of the Ratonga, and Drakkinshard. The previous loot pack, The Legend of the Dragonbrood, will go into the vault at the end of the day on May 31, so don’t miss out! It’ll be a while until it’s seen again!

And, as is true each year, we are well into our next expansion’s development. We’ll start giving you details as we get a little further along this year.

We are looking forward to another great year with our Norrathian faithful at our sides. Thanks for joining us!

Sincerely, as always,

Holly “Windstalker” Longdale

Will the special rewards for Quarm Server be unique, old or new once-in-a-lifetime items (artifacts - i.e. Breezeboot's Frigid Gnasher, Oakwynd, or new illusion)?

Probably either a big bag, unique mercenary contract, unique ornamentation, etc - I'd be very surprised if it were something like Oakwynd.

Will Quarm open with all expansions up to OOW open? or will there be some sort of progression up to him? .. will Mata be the only target needed to "win"? like will you have to beat the other expansion bosses too?

I guess if characters are starting with 50 aa's luclin will be open at the start at a minimum.

if all ex packs are open up to OOW, I doubt this server will be open for more then a month .. maybe less.

True.

Probably more concerned if it's just a free "Legend of the Jarsath Destroyer" LoN Prize Pack for all that effort.

Wouldn't hurt to see BFG or Oakwynd though...

not even one thing about the future of EQ just more stupid progression server crap.

Expect announcement about the future of EQ more around august-september when next expansion get announced.They have to trickle the info a few bits at a time not say everything in 1 shot.Marketing rules.

I'm imagining the time investment required to win, and it's rather terrifying... On the other hand, I do love Omens of War.

I'd also echo disappointment about the glaring lack of EQ-live related news, but I can't say I'm surprised.

This is the server that true box was meant for (because of the goal-based nature).

Normal progression servers are the ones that should have free-trade of loot even more than this one.

Q: Since Quarm is also going to be a "truebox" server will people be able to play it simultaneously while playing accounts on other servers?

The server honestly seems like a side distraction so not being able to play main characters at the same time will limit the amount of people that may give it a shot.

2-3 weeks of going hard isnt terrifying.

Just watch less than a month you will see the Serverwide message.

month? hell, 10 days tops starting at 51 with 50 aa.

This

True, I am waiting for them to announce Underfoot, First Creation Race.

Ill take off work for that .

Edit: and make us start at level 1.

Seems pretty clear to me.

If they wanted it to be a grind, they wouldn't give level 51 for free. I would guess the server backend changes they talked about previously have already made it very easy to spin up new servers now, and they are intentionally trying out the idea of short-lived servers for a specific purpose.

So what happens once the goal is achieved? All characters are deleted (server reset) and another race is implemented? Or does "limited-time" server mean it just vanishes after it's over?

That will probably depend on the success of the server. If it goes good, I can't see why they wouldn't start over one again with some other race.

I think once mata muram is kill some people get rewards and then server and all characters on that server get deleted.

Like the idea, liked the idea of a seasonal style server when they first floated it.

It depends on your perspective I suppose, as well as what "going hard" entails. I might enjoy playing EQ 6-8 hours a day for 2 or 3 weeks, but playing twice that sounds rather terrifying to me. I don't really know how much effort people would be willing to put into this server, so I don't really know which of those two outcomes is more likely.

Edit: Also depends on how OoW flagging/keying works, which I'm not familiar with. If there are artificial limitations that prevent content from being done continuously (e.g. the keying system TBM raid have), playing every waking moment is much less helpful.

no thanks