You want the news? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE NEWS! *snickers* Ok, fine! So, here's all the news that's fit to print (and then some!) Thursday, February 25th around MIDNIGHT PST (as in, a couple hours from RIGHT NOW - 3 AM EST / 8 AM UTC) - Strange spirits echo, beckoning you to join them in the Obol Plains for a once-in-a-lifetime quest! Saturday, February 27th around NOON PST (3 PM EST / 8 PM UTC) - The voices of the spirits grow stronger, seeking even more untested heroes from the mortal world to accept their mission. If these ghostly messengers clue us in ahead of time for more expected apparitions, we will let you know here, so be sure to watch! Just remember that this mission is one which can only be untaken a single time, so if you've assisted the spirits in the past, please send along a "relative" in your place. Edited to correct time malfunction. It's not so easy when you're counting on your toes, mkay? Edited again because PST is not EST, no matter how many times I try to type it.
Hello Guides, I'm "Targhan" of the FacePalm Raid Alliance on the Halls of Fate server. I have a request of any of the late-night guides of the saddest kind. On the night before Valentine's day, during raid, we lost a great friend to a heart attack. Losing a friend is one thing, to lose someone in the middle of an activity is another. Our raid-force is hanging on by it's fingernails at this point, even the newer players are affected by this emotionally. Just to clarify, the incident occurred as our raid was performing a normal pull of Wedge Tinderton in Stygian. This was not an AFK, not after raid, not before raid. The entire raid was present and at their keyboards during this trajedy. I know our friendly guides are not ministers, priests, or even rabbi's, but I simply must ask for your help to bring some peace to our raid that has been pained by the stark reality of life. One week from Saturday, March 5'th (10:30pm Eastern Standard Time), our raid will be performing a "memorial procession" in Maldura to honor the memory of "Surepaw McGraw" the character of our friend and raider. His actual wife, who's character in-game is "Misstreeted McGraw" will be in attendance as well. I would truly appreciate any help from the guides in organizing, promoting, and talking to all of us, who have been so affected. I can be contacted in-game or via a PM on the everquest2.com forums. My playtime is usually evenings, but lately the sad events have made it difficult for me to login, as it is with the rest of my raid-force. Thanks in advance, Targhan
Greetings Targhan, The Guides of the Shattered Lands are deeply saddened to learn of your loss, and the loss to our wonderful community on Halls of Fate as a whole. Our thoughts are with Misstreeted and the many friends of Surepaw during this difficult time. We will be in contact with you, via PM here, shortly, to provide any assistance that we can for the memorial procession. Thank you for letting us know of your need, and please know that we will do our best to bring some measure of comfort to you all as you mourn the passing of your dear husband and friend. *halfling hugs*
Howdy Elyshka, Thank you so much, it means a lot to have support for the people that participate in this raid force. Of course, the one who needs the *halfling hugs* the most is Misstreeted (we call her Missy), and I only hope I have given enough lead-time to make this reasonably possible. Again, a big thanks to the entire Guide team!!! Targ
Greetings, Targhan. My thoughts are with you and your entire community. Missy, all I can do is blink back tears, and hold out a hand to you. Please accept my heartfelt condolences.
Just a reminder (and a correction) - our spirit will be arriving in Obol Plains at Noon PST (3 PM EST / 8 PM UTC). Sorry about the mix up there! (All work and no coffee make halfling something something.)
Is there any chance that, in the future, the Newsies quest could be given out with some kind of AoE? The crowds are insane whenever its given out. Thanks for your patience as well, I've got 24 characters with the quest now! I'm not even going to try and get them all finished with double status weekend going, too many people to fight for the mobs. Easier to get the quest done in a week or two, then wait till the next double status to turn it in!
Woot! Thanks so much for YOUR patience, Rargnir! I picked up newsies on all five of my toons who didn't have it yet. Thanks again!
Sadly I missed the quest as I remember it's PST time and didn't check forum again before I rushed home from work and logged on to find it's already ended.../cry Still, gratz to those who got their quests today and thank you guides for your continuous effort to provide us a lot of fun on Norrath, wish I wouldn't miss this again next time
I'll be touching on this subject in a post, coming Soon (tm). Rargnir was very grateful for all of the help that he received today! Aww, that's too bad, Subzero! Hopefully you'll run into one of those strange spirits soon. I'll keep my ear to the ground for more rumblings from the beyond.
File under "Huh, that's weird..." - So, I was having supper with my cousin in Rivervale, and she told me that there have been some very strange things going on lately. Horrible things actually -- too horrible to recount in public. Anyway, she said that the local guard had reports of a gnome acting very peculiar in the area (well, more peculiar than usual, I expect, if it was worth noting), and that he'd most recently been spotted right around lunch time. You know, if I was a betting gal, I bet you might even catch a glimpse of this odd fellow tomorrow, February 28th, about Noon PST (3pm EST / 8 pm UTC). But I'm warning you... it might be kinda dangerous! Halflings beware!
I personally think that the chaotic crowds for these events are part of the attraction; it's one reason why I go, even though I've already done the Nebulous Newsies quest. So Changing Things to Make It Go Faster would not, to my mind, be a particularly good move, as it would reduce the fun. Another reason why I go is to try to help others ... and from a couple of comments made yesterday by Rargnir the Guide about journals he was reading showing that folks had already done the quest, I got the impression that maybe by being there I'm actually hindering, rather than helping... which would make me sad So I have a couple of kweshchuns: It's my understanding that if someone in a group is offered this quest, it's automagically shared with everyone else in the group... Would this apply to raids, too? (If it does, this would be one way of speeding things up without changing anything -- and it would also introduce some who have no experience of raid formations to them, a little bit.) Does the person in the group have to actually accept the quest (and therefore not have done it and not have a full journal) for everyone else in the group to be offered it? (If so, perhaps this would be something worth looking at; but perhaps all that would be needed would be to ask those who've already done it to stand further back.*) * [rant type='white-on-white'] ... although it was apparent from some of the discussions that some requests from the Guide were being ignored -- the most notable one being the request that everyone dismount. There were several folks whittering about some gnomish 'UI setting', which I for one thought was extremely impolite given that the request was coming from a nEsteemed Guide. What is it with some people and their rude insistence on staying mounted (even when they're inside a bank?) I admit that I sometimes uncharitabubbly wonder whether such perversity is a symptom of a terminal aversion to any form of roleplaying (ironic, much?). Adding this particular gnomish UI 'go-faster' facility to Make Things Easier For Some Folk has done more over the years to reduce Norrathian harmony than, well, some other things I could mention. [/rant] ** ** Hey, Norika; how do you do do your fancy button trick?
INFORMATIONAL POST: The Nebulous Newsies - Ok, so let's talk about Newsies, shall we? There's been a good bit of back and forth about how both players and Guides should handle this busy affair, so here's a little peek behind the curtain, about how you, the players, can help us better accommodate crowds: Mounts - Yeah, it can be pretty annoying when you're minding your own business when suddenly -- warg butt. However, for both Guides and players, this issue can be resolved by going into your options (alt+o) and under your display settings for animations, set mounts to "never render". Yes, it takes away the fun of seeing all those nifty mounts (and for us roleplayers, it also affects immersion, but sometimes the needs outweigh the wants), so you can toggle it back and forth at will, whenever mounts are more of a hindrance than a joy. Extra bodies - Mercenaries, summoned pets, fluff pets, harvesting ponies and goblins, etc. THESE can be a real burr in the backside for a number of reasons, the primary of which is targeting. If I want to click on Beastybob, but there's an enormous warder tromping around him, 9 times out of 10 I'm gonna end up targeting the warder, and that slows things down when you multiply it by X number of people milling about. The fewer things I have between me and you means the less wait you'll have. Also, the more unnecessary bodies we have around, the greater the lag for those of us who are currently running an elderly hamster on a steam-powered wheel in our tinkered computing devices. Pretty please, be courteous and dismiss all extra stuff before coming. Size of bodies - There's tons of lovely gadgets and gizmos in Norrath that can make us SUPER BIG and teensy tiny, but please come see us at your normal size. It's easy to miss all of the wee folk, especially when there's giants who ate their Wheaties standing on top of them. We don't want to miss anyone, so kindly just come as your regularly-sized self, so we're seeing you (literally) at your best! Location of bodies - Please keep in mind that most folk do not have eyes behind their heads, so stand in front of your Guide friend so that we can see you. And while we know the temptation to push to the front of the line and stand right on top of the Guide to be seen is tempting, it creates a targeting nightmare, so please do not stand on top of the Guide. Please wait in the front field of vision of your Guide, and I assure you that you will be receiving your task as quickly as possible. Personally, I always try to pick a location where players can spread out in front of me, to make sure that I'm not missing anyone, but if you're hiding behind me, I might not have my view scrolled out far enough to see you (Note: This may not be an issue with other Guides due to preferred play settings, however, it isn't nice to sneak up on anyone. I'm looking at you, scouts. *grins*.) Hail, hail, hail - *peers up, checking the weather* Greeting us is wonderful, and we love to see that you're eager to help! What isn't so helpful is when eager souls continue to hail us repeatedly, as it creates visual clutter for those of us who play with chat bubbles (helps me keep track of what folks are saying when the conversation is flying) and forces chat off our chat windows, which means we might not see important messages. Please do greet us when you arrive, but doing so repeatedly is not necessary. Check your journals - The Nebulous Newsies is not a repeatable quest. Our spirits will scribe the task in the Phantom Sea section of your journal, so look in both your active journal and completed tasks journal, to see if you've received the quest already. If you've done it before on a character, be sure to check on your "relatives" (other characters) to see if they have not yet received the quest. Offering the quest - The nifty widget that we use to offer you the quest does not have an option for an AoE quest offer, as the developers do not program our tools to use such an option. This prevents us from unnecessarily offering tasks to players who are not taking part in our events. As such, it may take a little time to target you, toggle the widget, and offer you the quest. Please know that we're toggling as fast as our fingers can fly, and we will get to you as quickly as we can. We greatly appreciate your patience. Receiving the quest - It is wonderful to see you all working together and grouping up to receive the quest! We love to see our Norrathians coming together as a team, and it makes doing what we do that much more rewarding. If you are part of a group-offering team, please occasionally rotate the person that you're sending to the front to collect the quest, as the Guide may skip over them, having already offered them the quest once (some folks seem to just stand there in place and we don't know if they're at the keyboard and running groups or if they are just soaking in the awesome. *winks*) Once you've received the quest and are not leading a group-offering team, please leave the zone if you can, as there is an upward limit to the number of people who can be in one instance of a zone, and having too many lingerers can prevent others from getting into the instance where the Guide is offering the quest. Socializing with the Guide - We love what we do, and we love spending time with you all. That's why we do what we do! Please do not take it personally if, during this particular quest, we miss something that you've said. We want to chat with you, but for this specific quest, it's a bit too hectic in the beginning to see and hear everything that is around us. A little over 1000 folks came out yesterday (I had to stop keeping track after a while), which was incredible! But please, do come talk to us. It may take us a little while to respond, but the entire reason that we became Guides in the first place is to chat with our fellow players and have fun. If it's during peak hours, you might have to wait about an hour for the crowds to die down before we can catch our breath and chat with you, but in the meantime, we will do our very best to answer your questions and socialize when we can. Thanks for hanging in there and getting this far into the post. I have a tendency to be a bit long-winded (umm, hello... halfling!), but we wanted to address a number of questions and concerns that folks have had regarding this extraordinarily popular quest. A huge shout out to Elder Guide Rynara for coming out and helping me wrangle folks and keeping y'all company while I tried to keep my little quest widget from catching fire. We love ya, Hoflings! Keep being awesome, and we'll be seeing you in Norrath! <3
Is there any way we can get a last minute Newsie quest giver around the time everyone gets off work for those of us that missed the event? (maybe around 5pm est)
