Darkness Dawns comes early...with more!

To all beloved Norrathians!

We are happy to announce that we are almost ready with GU67: Darkness Dawns, so much so that we decided to launch a week early on Tuesday, July 23! We also thought this would give everyone a chance to play the content before SOE Live (soe.com/soelive) on August 1-4!

Not only that, but the once-mentioned Loyalty/Rewards program we were working on earlier in the year is finally where we want it. We expect to be launching that with GU67 if not very soon afterward. That has become a Daily Objectives system that will reward you for doing the types of content most players do in every play session, be it adventure, quest, tradeskill, and PvP. In this system, we will reward tokens that you can spend on reasonably priced merchants in Freeport and Qeynos that will carry reasonable priced items – some of them veteran’s rewards -- and mystery crates with chances to really great loot. We’ll give you more details on this closer to launch!

Also, as I expect someone will ask, this new system is ultimately an addition to veteran’s rewards we give each year for account age. We will still continue to offer a commemorative veteran’s item each year in November for players.


We’ll see you in game the day Darkness Dawns on July 23!

Holly Longdale
Senior Producer, EQII

P.S. We are pushing the data to Beta today (July 8) and not Test for the time being!

When will it be on Test?

Good question, Cyliena! We will be updating Test this coming Monday! The new AA build window will be on Test as well as the other GU67 content.

Okay, thanks for the info. Though, my personal opinion... you're cutting it scary close. :O Will see ya'll on Test next week!

Thank you for the update Holly. But I do agree with what Cyliena said by the way

/sigh. I don't think there is a typical MMO system I hate more than 'dailies' Hopefully the rewards are truly 'optional' meaning not exclusive to the vendor and absolutely not needed for min/max'ing.

I hate how "special" rewards become available to everyone either thru quests or venders. i.e. Veterans rewards or special items like mounts that are given with certain collectors editions exansions. Special items should remain special and rare.

Any chance we will be getting that increase on how many houses we can own? Or even the ability to own more than one of the same prestige house from the station store? It would be great to have at least the increase from 20 to maybe 50 as mentioned before. I know I would buy several of the same types and I'm pretty sure others would as well.

I agree and disagree. I personally hate dailies. Could not stand them in Warcraft, don't think I can stand them here, but what they do do is offer players, who feel that all they do is wait each week for their raids to start, an alternative to work towards. Those like me who spend most of my week farming Advance Solos and farming Rep items to make some coin would like a little more reward than the coin I make from vendoring all the trash I get. With low drop rates on fabled gear in ACs I feel like I spend most of my time lollygagging about.


On a personal side note: Enough with the updates to everything else. Revamp Tradeskilling! Its dull, borring and puts anyone to sleep that is trying to level it. Find a good balance in time vs. harvesting. Because between the two it takes a long *** time for new players to grind their way up. 9 hours to get to 25 weaponsmith between harvesting and TSing. Ridiculous.

I agree with Yodahh. I absolutely hate the idea of buyable veteran rewards. What are games coming to now, where one person can't have something if it's not available for everyone also?

Ugh, more gambling on 'mystery crates'...

I like that idea, making everything available to everyone, everyday. Special should come from the effort you put into gettting something, not the day you happened to get the game.

Holly thank you for everything you do but please I have one major concern, first of all I want you to know I rarely post on these forums because usually it falls on Deaf ears but Please do not make Veteran rewards purchasable. I have been with SOE now since EQ Beta and EQ2 Beta so you can imagine a lot of time has been spent and I wish I could begin to tell you how much I spent in the years on subscriptions. The only thing that makes us, seasoned veterans, different from the average Gold members is the amount if time and money we have sunken in the game in game subscriptions.

If you allow the items from our veteran reward available for purchase, then all you are doing it destroying the small thank you that you give us for the time we spend in the game. These items are a special reward that should not be purchasable by someone who just started the game. EXAMPLE!!!! They run dailies everyday for 6 months save their tokens and now they can get a Call of the Veteran reward. Don't think this is right

On the other hand Holly you all do a great job and I know the work is hard to balance everything but please don't ruin the game any more. There has been way to many things that are being given away and not truly had to work on

This is EPIC! Thank You so much!!!! You guys rock, really genuine sweet people.

Let's wait and see what vet rewards actually show up on the vendor. Some of the items being veteran rewards doesn't mean all of them will be available.

If you don't like starting a new tradeskiller, you're probably not going to like maintaining one and you may as well skip it altogether and get your goods off the broker. It's not for everyone.

I have to agree with Yodahh and ureo and highly disagree with Cloudrat...Sorry Cloudrat, but for those of us who came from EQ1 to EQ2 on release and who have put in our time and money deserve the veteran rewards, it is SOE's way of saying thank you for being loyal subscribers... to take that away is just wrong... I am sorry but we HAVE earned it period.

The reason for veteran rewards is to encourage people to play the game over a long period of time. I started in the January just after launch. I have taken some time out from the game over the years which is why I just recieved my 8 year Vet reward. With 4 lvl 95 adventurers and 7 lvl 95 crafters on my account I would like to try to be objective about this but I don't think I can.

Most of the Vet rewards are all but useless now when you get right down to it. This is why - Bags, 40+ slot bags can be bought on the broker for a few gold. XP potions, geez I lvl so quickly on new and old toons now that I often forget to use them and if people want them they can be bought with SC. Titles are nice but honestly, how many people actually use them? The same with the mounts (with poor stats), there are so many mounts in game now and they are so easy to get that the only benefit of a Vet mount is the originality of its appearance. Houses like potions are easy to come by and can also be bought with SC.

The only things that a Vet gets that are useful or mark them as a vet are the following:-

Veterans display case - giving a reduction on broker fees.
Call of the Veteran - The best of the vet rewards and most useful, (In my opinion)
Titles - Although I don't use them, I have seen a few who do. At least these show that you have spent the time in game.
The Group revive - In the 8 year crate. I am sure many find this useful but I can't say as I have not grouped since reciving it and not used it.

Put whatever you like on this new vender but keep the unique Vet rewards unique and keep them off please.

What encouragement is there to continue to playing for vet rewards if you can simply go to an NPC and buy them with coins collected from doing a daily quest?

Give everything to everybody. As society has degenerated in the Western hemisphere over the last 20 years with 'inclusivity' and the erosion of the ideology of Work vs Reward, so indeed has online gaming become a love fest of allowing everyone to have everything for minimal effort.

I am pleased with this change, as I have seen since launch a direct correlation between 1.oversimplification of the game 2. removal of unique rewards for HC raiders/ HC crafters/HC harvesters 3. removal of competition through instanced raiding and the constant bleeding of population.

Maybe someone on the SOE team will realise this before the release of EQN and that game will remain untarnished, and will not feel the need to make things so easy to do, and obtain, that ultimately people with feel there is nothing to play for and move on.

Thanks for the heads up Holly, I'll reserve judgement on the new rewards system until after I've seen it. Looking forward to seeing the new update though =).

I have to say that if it takes 9 hours to get to 25, someone didn't follow the questlines that start right in the newbie areas. Even with harvesting getting to 20 shouldn't take more than an hour or so. Another 5 levels should be easy to get in less than another hour with writs (once again even if you had to go harvest). Maybe a brand spanking new player with no friends & no chat might take longer simply because they had to figure things out but 9 hours is way out there.

If you find it dull & boring...don't do it. Anything a crafter makes you can buy from them either from the broker, direct or via commission.

This coming from the same guy who cried for nerfs in the duo zones.