It’s time to usher out 2023 with another Producer’s Letter! As the remaining days of 2023 begin to fade, we would like to take a stroll through memory lane and recap the year. But first, a little about what’s coming up! 2024 is going to be a huge year for the EverQuest Franchise, EverQuest II turns 20 years old, and EverQuest is going to be 25! We will not let either celebration go gently into that good night either! We have so many plans, events and more for the Year of Darkpaw: An EverQuest Celebration! This year, EverQuest II turned 19 years old, and I hope everyone is enjoying their mount and new items from the Heroes’ Festival. The 20th expansion, Ballads of Zimara, was released a few weeks ago with Chrono Dungeons, Advanced Researcher and a host of quests, achievements, and collections. Also, 2023 saw the release of Empire of Antiquities, Shattered Overture, and Fractured Skies. Zarrakon, the PvP server, was released this year and so was the Swag Store. The Swag Store contains so much great EQII merch including mousepads, t-shirts and coffee mugs with some of your favorite art! There was content added to many of the in-game events, such as Erollisi Day, Chronoportal Phenomenon, Brewday Festival, Bristlebane Day, Beast’r Eggstravaganza, Summer Jubilee with the new Plume equipment slot, Tinkerfest, Oceansfull, Nights of the Dead, and Panda, Panda, Panda! Phew! New Pride Month familiars, The Great Cloak Caper, reworking of Gear Up, Level Up into Swag It Up, and Terrors of Thalumbra, Kunark Ascending, and Planes of Prophecy becoming free to all round out the bigger beats of 2023. Here is 2023 in a nutshell: January Renewal of Ro Raid Zones Unlock Raj'Dur Plateaus: The Hunt Sandstone Delta: The Standing Storm February Varsoon unlocked Fallen Dynasty - Explore the Island of Mara and its environs. New updates to Erollisi Day Renewal of Ro Raid Unlock Takish Badlands: The Boundless Gulf March New updates to Chronoportal Phenomenon New updates to Brewday Festival New updates to Bristlebane Day Game Update 122: Empire of Antiquity Beta Opened Server Merge: Tarinax to Antonia Bayle Server Merge: Kaladim to Antonia Bayle April Launch of the EverQuest® II Swag Store New changes to Kael Drakkel New updates to Beast'r Eggstravaganza Game Update 122: Empire of Antiquity launched Varsoon unlocked Echoes of Faydwer New PvP TLE server, Zarrakon, launched May Season 2 of the Swag Store Released Mercenary AI Update June New updates to Summer Jubilee and a new equipment slot for a Plume New content for Tinkerfest New Pride Month Familiars Varsoon unlocked The Estate of Unrest, Shard of Fear, and three instanced Avatars New The Great Cloak Caper community event July Terrors of Thalumbra, Kunark Ascending, and Planes of Prophecy Expansions were added as free-to-play Zarrakon unlocked Echoes of Faywer The Great Cloak Caper continued August Varsoon unlocked Rise of Kunark Swag Store updated Large updates to Summer Jubilee's Oceansfull Festival Game Update 123 (Shattered Overture) and Expansion Prelude (Fractured Skies) Open Beta Extra Life Incentives announced September Game Update 123: Shattered Overture and Fractured Skies launched Updates and a small revamp to Panda, Panda, Panda! - Those fluffy rapscallions will no longer require you to complete all their previous adventures to embark on their latest escapade. October 2023's Expansion Beta + Pre-order New updates to Nights of the Dead Varsoon unlocks Runnyeye: The Gathering, Veksar: The Invasion, and Shard of Hate November Extra Life Game Day Extra Life server bonus week New updates to Heroes' Festival - Celebrate our 19th Anniversary! 2023's Expansion Launch - EverQuest II's 20th Expansion! December New updates to Frostfell Varsoon unlocks The Shadow Odyssey Now back to the Year of Darkpaw: An EverQuest Celebration! We have been thinking up and making ready all sorts of fun things for the entire year. To start things off, on January 1st until January 31st we're giving away this adorable pet: Maxembert the Feisty. Aren't they just the cutest? Once you get them in game, maybe you can stay for a while and hunt down all of the items in the new fabled collections, of which there are 5 new ones in January. Perhaps you'll want to browse the new wares from Darkpaw Celebrator Katrynn. Also kicking off are new missions, achievements, and a new event called Masquerades of Divinity. More on that to come, but for now, be on the lookout in January for the Herald of the Fathom Lord to guide you to your journey. Maxembert the FeistyStay tuned for more information about the Year of Darkpaw: An EverQuest Celebration and all the other surprises we have in store for 2024! This is going to be good! The heat is on for 2024, Jenn Chan Head of Studio Join us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.
Since you can't post in game update notes, I want to ask a quick question here, because there was no mention of the issues with the constant mercenary chatter and dancing... has that been fixed yet? -
For me mercenary stopped "dancing" after patch, if it was not fixed for you it is always better to post in bug reports, they check that forum more often.
Thank you and happy early 20th birthday (and 25th)! I've been playing EQ2 for almost all of the 20 years and played EQ before that. For the most part, I've been pleased (we'll exclude BoL from that, please) as the game progressed. I DO have a request. The 15th anniversary event, Dragon Attack!, was GREAT! Tons of fun! The tack that was on the loot table for the various dragon cycles was terrific (and a great start for the current tack). ESPECIALLY the Dragonsoul/hide/whatever Hackamores of Status and Saddle/Hackamore of Harvesting, which went by BOTH ADV and TS levels, so that even my lower level (say 90s) ADV who were high level TSers could benefit from the status bonus. That was incredibly helpful, particularly since many of the upper level TS quests HAVE STATUS REWARDS. The ones I got were mostly No-Trade, though I've seen (and bought) tradeable Hackamores of Status on the broker; I can't afford the millions of plat those go for now, of course. Many of my characters are mid-90s or 100s for ADV (either re-rolls or newer) but maxed for TS (well, they WERE ). However, NONE of them can use the current Hackamores of Status because the common ones go by ADV level ONLY; I'm not certain of those that use patterns, since I haven't looted a pattern for those. PLEASE either have a similar loot table for the Year of the Darkpaw events OR have the current Hackamores of Status and Saddles/Hackamores of Harvesting go by EITHER ADV or TS levels. I don't mean this as a rant, honestly, just a request, since the Dragon Attack! events had such a loot table (AND were so much fun!); if you're going to have similar events, could you perhaps look into this as an option?
Update on Overseers, and any mention of all the rejected agents we have accumulated? Or did I miss it?
hi there Jenn, The baby is sooo cute! Yes i agree could we have Dragons attack again? That would be so much fun.
Ah! I've only just returned and thought the ridiculous dancing was a peculiar quirk of the mercenary I'd selected!
Wow, I came back in July so I didn't know what the empire of antiquity update was. Looking it up, I have spent more time and had more enjoyment from this update and the shattered overture update than I believe I will with the expansion. That is crazy that the game update had more fun content to me than an entire expansion is playing out to be. So I guess I cannot wait to see what you have in store for us in 2024 as you guys seem to really nail the game updates. I hope to see more of the fun like you guys did with the Shattered Unrest and the D.I.R.T.Y. tradeskill quest line.
Its a cuteness overload, reminds me of the EgoFilm squirrel...funny stuff, especially the Retrieve the sofa in 2 steps video on tictok. with that said I would really like to respectfully request a way to turn off other peoples fluff pets/familiars etc.. if there is a command in game that does that already please let me know
Hail and well met! IIRC DX11 was always meant to ship in 2024 for EQ2 (according to the previous roadmap posted here on the forums). The DX11 API port is currently on the Beta test servers for EQ1, and got delayed a little bit in order to iron out and fix the remaining bugs and regressions after the initial port (which is a good thing in my book). I can only assume the engineers are going to finish working on that first before EQ2 gets upgraded, so that pretty much means 2024 for both games at the time of this writing. Btw, they went for DX11 because it offers better compatability with a broader range of hardware, among a number of other reasons. EQ1 current state on DX11 -> https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/directx-11-api-port-is-on-test-server.292584/ For now you can play EQ2 with Vulkan enhanced performance though, which can literally double your framerate on Linux. See here for more info: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/eq2-on-linux-and-mac-guide.604032/page-8 Would love to see an ETA for DX11 and EQ2 though. What I'm reading over at the EQ1 forums does sound really exciting to say the least!
To Celebrate EQ2 20th, bring back life time membership, 20th Anniversary would be perfect excuse to offer up a few thousand lifetime memberships for sale!
