The second round of Fall Fun bonuses is here, and more adventures are on the horizon!

From Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 12:01 AM PDT until Monday, October 5, 2020 at 10:59 PM PDT, ALL players will experience 50% shorter instance lockout timers!


Grab your gear and head into Norrath - there is extra adventuring to be had! And of course, be sure to check back on October 5 to find out what the last bonus will be!



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).

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All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM PT* for an update. Downtime is expected to last approximately 7 hours.



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).


Achievement Changes: https://achievements.eqresource.com/achievementshistory.php?mdy=09162020
DBStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/dbstrhistory.php?mdy=09162020
EQStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/eqstrhistory.php?mdy=09162020
Faction Changes:
Spell Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/history.php?mdy=09162020


Update Notes:
September 16, 2020
_____________________
*** Highlights ***
- Made many improvements to the Overseer system to make it simpler to find Agents you need when you need them. See the Overseer section below.


*** Quests & Events ***
- Shared tasks will now accurately display a max duration of 24 hours rather than listing unlimited time remaining.
- Franklin Teek remembered that there is no such thing as "highlor" kobolds in Norrath, and has realized that he meant "highland" kobolds. He apologizes to all adventurers who he confused.


*** Spells ***
- Corrected an issue that would cause the messages displayed when a spell is overwritten or wears off to either fail to display or display incorrectly.
- Enchanter - Corrected a missing item that made level 111 animations take more melee damage than intended.


*** AA ***
- Corrected an issue that was preventing multiple Alternate Advancement Abilities from activating from a single hotkey press.


*** NPCs ***
- Lord Bergurgle is no longer susceptible to charm.
- Fixed the models in the Misty Thicket to be more consistent with other fire beetles.


*** Overseer ***
- Fixed an issue that caused the 21st Anniversary Overseer Quest "I Guess This is Growing Up" to remain available after the event had ended.
- Conversion quests no longer enforce rules for iconic Agents, meaning that you can have more than one of an iconic Agent on a single conversion quest at a time.
- You can now start or complete conversion quests when you have hit the active or completed quest caps and they continue to not count towards these caps.
- The DBC costs to recover an incapacitated Agent have been rebalanced. The minimum cost to recover an Agent has slightly increased while the cost to recover an Agent with a multi-day incapacitation has decreased significantly.
- Modified how Available Agents are sorted in the Quests tab for non-conversion quests. They are now sorted by the total number of matching traits and jobs, then by job ranks, rarity, and finally name. This change will usually result in sorting Agents with the highest potential contribution ahead of the pack.
- - Conversion Quests now sort by the total number of idle duplicates in descending order, then by name.
- Optional quest party slots now display their required job rank.
- Agents who offer no benefit to a quest no longer appear in the Available Agents list in the Quests tab.
- Unavailable Agents are now sorted to the end of the Available Agents list.
- Added a tooltip that displays an Agent's name, jobs, and traits when hovering your mouse over an Agent's minimized portrait.


*** Progression Servers ***
- Players may server transfer between progression servers that are in the same or later expansion and within the same or a less restricted ruleset. True box is more restrictive than servers without it. Free trade (Firiona Vie ruleset) is less restrictive than servers without it. Voting unlock servers are more restrictive than servers without voting. This means:
- - Characters on any progression server may transfer to live servers.
- - Characters on Aradune, Agnarr, Coirnav, and Mangler may transfer to Phinigel.
- - Characters on Aradune and Mangler may transfer to Selo.
- - Characters on Aradune may transfer to Mangler or Rizlona.


*** Miscellaneous ***
- When starting a new shared task or dynamic zone, players in a group or raid will be added in order by what group they are in from 1 to 12 in the raid window, followed by ungrouped players. The raid leader will always be added first. This is to alleviate the need to remove and reinvite additional players if there isn't room for them in the instance. Within a single group, the order players are added to the instance is not necessarily what is displayed in the raid window.
- On new characters, autosplit will now be enabled by default.


*** UI ***
- Corrected an issue that would prevent the reward selection window from displaying your pending rewards.
- Fixed an issue where /grouproles could cause your client to crash.


- Changed -
EQUI_OverseerWnd.xml


- The EverQuest Team

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Fall has come early to Norrath this year, which means it's almost time for the first round of this year's Fall Fun bonuses!

From Tuesday, September 8, 2020 at 11:59 PM PT until Monday, September 21, 2020, at 11:59 PM PT, ALL players will receive Double Rare Spawns and Double Faction bonuses during their adventures across Norrath.


Be sure to make haste! These bonuses will disappear when the next round of Fall Fun arrives on September 22!



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).

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It's time for Labor Day weekend in the United States and we're going to celebrate it in Norrath with a bonus!

Double Experience for all servers starts Friday, September 4, 2020 at 12:00 AM PDT (Midnight) and ends Tuesday, September 8, 2020 at 11:00 PM PDT

Looking for other bonuses? Stay tuned for the Fall Fun bonuses announcement tomorrow!



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).

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All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, August 19, 2020 at 6:00 AM PT* for an update. Downtime is expected to last approximately 6 hours.



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).


Achievement Changes: https://achievements.eqresource.com/achievementshistory.php?mdy=08192020
DBStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/dbstrhistory.php?mdy=08192020
EQStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/eqstrhistory.php?mdy=08192020
Faction Changes:
Spell Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/history.php?mdy=08192020


Update Notes:
August 19, 2020
_____________________
*** Highlights ***
- Necromancer - The critical DoT focus effects on the Necromancer epic 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 will now begin to decay in effectiveness when casting spells above level 80.
- Fixed an issue where the task window would sometimes display 'left over' task steps from a different task.


*** Items ***
- Unequipping items whose stats are increased when wearing Power Sources will now immediately remove the invisible augments that provide these stat bonuses.
- - This corrects several issues that indicated that the item can not be modified until all augments are removed.
- Fixed an issue with some Sebilisian Hardcore Heritage items granting the wrong items.
- Removed heirloom from tradeable items since it's redundant.
- Necromancer - The critical DoT focus effects on the Necromancer epic 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 will now begin to decay in effectiveness when casting spells above level 80.


*** Tradeskills ***
- Corrected the spelling of Rallos Zek Devotee's Defense and Rallos Zek Acolyte's Defense to be consistent with other things with defense in the name.
- Corrected the spelling of crystallized in several recipes.


*** Quests & Events ***
- Ralkor Bloodmoon Raid - Fixed an issue that would cause the event to stall once all of the channelers were killed.
- The Conflagration Generals - Added a zone-wide message when a whorling wildfire is hit with the proper spell. The message will indicate who cast what spell and what the special damage is.
- Earning One's Place - Fixed the faction requirement to now work properly. You must be "threateningly" to the Servants of Esianti to get the task.
- Grummus Event (Plane of Health) - Fixed an issue that was preventing the grumlings from "exploding" when they die. They will now cast Explosive Pus as expected when they die.
- Corrected an issue where seasonal events could be scheduled incorrectly during a leap year.


*** Spells ***
- Fixed a client crash when moving or deleting an item in the middle of casting free target spells.
- Updated the message when scribing ToV spells to be more informative.
- Added a message when learning a new combat ability that includes the ability name.
- Corrected an issue that periodically caused the spell bar to become locked out, either after activating an item or while casting spells with the highest ranks of the Bard AA ability Quick Time active.
- Cleric - The Crippling Glare effects from the Shining Rampart line will no longer create a debuff on the target. Reduced the chance to proc slightly (from a base of 10ppm to 9ppm) and changed the heal from a recourse to a trigger cast so that it will now be able to heal you even if the stun can not land.
- Necromancer - The Curse of Mortality line of spells no longer stacks with itself. Increased the damage dealt and mana cost.
- Necromancer - The Swift Deconstruction line of spells no longer stacks with itself or with the Curse of Mortality line. It now deals the same amount of damage as the equivalent spell from the Curse of Mortality line, with the same efficiency. Removed the shared spell timer from the line. This spell line will no longer deal different damage to different targets. Increased the resist modifier so it lands more reliably.


*** AA ***
- Fixed an incorrectly referenced level range in the spell description for the max rank Enchanter Gracious Gift of Mana proc.
- Added a spell description to Enchanter Reactive Rune IV through XIII and standardized the AA description at all ranks.
- Shaman/Magician Wind of Malaise ranks 2, 3, 10, and 11 now have the same expansion and level requirements as the ranks of Malaise that unlock them.
- Magician Companion's Fury ranks 110, 111, 112, 133, 134, 135, and 136 now require expansions that match their level requirements.
- Fixed an issue that could cause Paladin Divine Stun and Disruptive Persecution to have no reuse timer.


*** NPCs ***
- Swarm pets should now have the correct name, even when being summoned at the same time as another.
- Geomar Hapera in Paineel now correctly offers Parcel and Recovery services.


*** Mercenaries ***

- Corrected an issue where mercenaries sometimes displayed numbers after their name.


*** Overseer ***
- Incapacitated agents should now recover naturally more quickly, instead of idling at 0h 0m 0s.
- Added Conflagrant Platinum as one of the rewards for the Ring of Scale tradeskill rewards.
- Fixed an issue with the Agent Tab display when adding an agent while scrolled down.


*** Miscellaneous ***
- Corrected an issue that prevented real estate items from appearing in your Crate of Eviction after transferring servers.
- Made further improvements to reduce lag caused by launching dynamic zones.
- Fixed a potential client crash when adding a new item to the Advanced Loot window.
- Fixed a potential client crash when adding an item to a player's cursor.
- Fixed several new types of zone crashes.


*** UI ***

- Corrected an issue where spell damage was only reporting to 75 feet away.
- Fixed an issue where the task window would sometimes display 'left over' task steps from a different task.
- Fixed an issue that was causing erratic behavior for a raid's delegated main assists, NPC markers, and master looter after a change in raid leadership. This should fix the problem where /assist main or /assist raid would stop working as expected.
- Fixed an issue that would cause an ornament to stick to an item if it had a reward that was claimed while the ornament was in an item. Instead, you will be unable to claim the reward until the ornament has been removed. Players with a stuck ornament will need to use an Ornamentation Stripping Tool to remove the ghost ornament from their item.
- Moved DoT damage taken by your character from the DoTs (Others) filter to the DoTs (Yours) filter.
- Removed voice chat integration from the game.

- Changed -
EQUI.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_DragItems.xml
EQUI_FriendsWnd.xml
EQUI_GroupWindow.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_PlayerWindow.xml
EQUI_RaidWindow.xml
EQUI_TopLevelScreens.xml
EQUI_VoiceActionBarWnd.xml


*** Previously Updated ***
- Fixed an issue where one set of next year's collectibles were dropping from creatures in Mearatas.


- The EverQuest Team

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All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at 6:00 AM PT* for an update. Downtime is expected to last approximately 6 hours.



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).


Achievement Changes:
DBStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/dbstrhistory.php?mdy=07152020
EQStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/eqstrhistory.php?mdy=07152020
Faction Changes:
Spell Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/history.php?mdy=07152020


Update Notes:
July 15, 2020
_____________________
*** Highlights ***
- Made various improvements to world performance and stability related to loading characters, real estate data, and instances.
- Fixed several causes of zone and client crashes.
- Made a number of speculative fixes to address issues with overseer data not loading as expected.
- Added the ability for characters on Aradune to /servertransfer to Rizlona for free. See Progression Servers section for details.
- Norrath now embraces free-range eggs. See Tradeskills section for details.


*** Items ***
- Corrected an issue where some ornamentations would not display after zoning, or in player housing.
- The spell description on Black Fur Boots now correctly indicates that the Spirit of the Wolf buff affects the caster and not their target.
- Snow Griffin Saddle will no longer display as a bag when placed in a real estate.
- Unwritten Glyph and the glyphs sold by Alerynril the Loyal now include the level 115 rank of the glyph ability.
- 'Transforming Surprises' that dropped from Convorteum raids have been removed as they served absolutely no purpose other than to annoy completionists.
- Adjusted the price of the Hero's Forge Suit Consolidator on loyalty merchants down to 781 crowns.
- Painting: Tassel's Tavern when placed in housing should now correctly teleport you to the tavern in classic North Freeport.
- Adjusted the buffs offered by the following marketplace potions to prevent them from being overwritten by other buffs/debuffs: Double Faction Potion, Draught of the Craftsman, Locked Faction Potion, Bottle of Alacrity, the Avian, Buoyancy, the Cetacean, Clarity, Endless Air, Health, Replenishment, See Invisible, Speed, Spirits, Ultravision, and the Ursine.
- Fixed the missing ornamentation slot on Darkened Wind Saber.


*** Tradeskills ***
- Norrath now embraces free-range eggs. You'll find them on some baking merchants. These eggs work the same as snake eggs in many of the generic egg recipes.


*** Quests & Events ***
- Heroic adventures from Call of the Forsaken, The Darkened Sea, The Broken Mirror, and Empires of Kunark have been reverted to use the spell scaling data from when those expansions launched.
- Seeking the Sorcerer (Raid) - It will no longer be possible to avoid Bledrek's Discharge by standing behind things. You will need to move out of the area.
- Seeking the Sorcerer - Bledrek and Bled should no longer target the guardian golems with spells that are meant to cause the target to flee the room.
- Seeking the Sorcerer - The bosses will no longer be willing to chase people down the stairs.
- Tower of Frozen Shadow (Raid - Torment of Velious) - Once all the raids in the zone have been successfully completed, the mirrors will behave as they do in the group version of the zone.
- The Ice Moves - Fixed an issue that could cause the Notes of a Grand Armsman and Smelting for the Grand Master to not drop from the Grand Armsman.
- Crusader Vraket will no longer praise random summoned entities if he cannot find the player that made a kill worthy of mention, he will instead praise himself. After all, he is worthy!
- Cactiikii (Raid) - The atrocious cacti will now only spawn one add at a time instead of four.
- Kerafyrm the Awakened (Raid) - Kerafyrm can no longer be slain, which will ensure that the raid will complete successfully when he is reduced below 5% health.
- Disable the Recycler (Fortress Mechanotus Task) - Added safety logic to despawn the event if it has not been completed for 15 minutes, which should prevent it from getting into a bad state for days.
- Marton Sayer in Qeynos Hills will now reward adventurers with a version of the Gnoll Slayer that does not include Bane Damage before Shadows of Luclin is active.
- - Once Shadows of Luclin is active, the Gnoll Slayer can be converted into the version that provides Bane Damage: Gnolls.
- Made the following changes to the Gloomingdeep Tutorial:
- - Clicking OK at the conclusion of the tutorial will correctly whisk you away to The Mines of Gloomingdeep.
- - Made several formatting and text fixes.


*** Spells ***
- Corrected an issue where creatures slain by direct damage spells reported their death to everyone in the zone.
- Updated the description on some familiar spells that said they summon a minotaur.


*** NPCs ***
- Added a small chance for 'humanoids' in Torment of Velious to drop Raw Velium Ore, Velium Infused Pelt, Velium Infused Spider Silk, or Velium Infused Logs. The ore is in addition to the ore they already drop.
- Thach Jerden decided now was a good time to leave the Plane of Knowledge and embark on a journey of his own. Since he no longer wants your Hardcore Heritage items, we decided to update the Hardcore Heritage armor drops to simply be a right click on the dropped item.
- - We'll miss Thach in the Plane of Knowledge, but hopefully he can find that eagle he keeps talking about...
- Treants in classic zones have reverted to their classic appearance.
- The cages in Combine Dredge are now less feisty, and no longer fight back.


*** Overseer ***
- Corrected an issue where the Finish Now! button would not be disabled if you had claimed 10 Overseer quest rewards.
- When the last copy of an Agent is removed, if that Agent is assigned to an offered quest, the assigned quest will have all Agents cleared.
- Corrected an issue where the number of reported Max Completed Quests could reset to its previous value after zoning.


*** Progression Servers ***
- Added the ability for characters on Aradune to /servertransfer to Rizlona for free. Note that the character needs to be of level 20 or above and your account and character must be at least 30 days old.
- Narron Jenork in Ak'Anon is now available in original EverQuest. He has nothing to say to anyone about anything, including Initiate Watchman armor, until Planes of Power unlocks.
- Iksar shaman Plane of Hate class armors are no longer available until Ruins of Kunark has unlocked.
- Beastlord Plane of Fear class armors are no longer available until Shadows of Luclin has unlocked.
- Berserker Plane of Fear class armors are no longer available until Gates of Discord has unlocked.
- Magus Burlshin will be able to help players on Selo, and possible future fast servers, gain a shard for use in the Shard Experiences task.


*** Miscellaneous ***
- Corrected an issue where /hidemodels hid your character after dying in the same zone.
- Added /hidemodels none as an option to more easily un-hide all players, pets, and mercenaries.


*** UI ***
- Removed the 'All Access Days Left:' label in the inventory window. This most accurate place to find this information is in the Membership Info section of your account at everquest.com.


- Changed -
EQUI_Inventory.xml 


- The EverQuest Team

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Summer Spectacular!

Summer is here, the days are long, and that means it's time to celebrate. Start your July off right with in-game bonuses! Things begin July 1, 2020:

Bonus Rewards!
All XP, faction, and rare spawns will be increased by 76%.


The Summer Spectacular begins at 12 AM PT (Midnight) on July 1, 2020, and ends at 11 PM PT on July 8, 2020.



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).

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All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, June 17th @ 6AM PDT* for an update. Downtime is expected to last approximately 6 hours.



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).


Achievement Changes: https://achievements.eqresource.com/achievementshistory.php?mdy=06172020
DBStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/dbstrhistory.php?mdy=06172020
EQStr Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/eqstrhistory.php?mdy=06172020
Faction Changes:
Spell Changes: https://spells.eqresource.com/history.php?mdy=06172020


Update Notes:
June 17, 2020
_____________________
*** Highlights ***
- Three new pride hares, along with the three introduced last year, will be freely claimable from the Marketplace from June 24th to July 31st.


*** Items ***
- Fixed a problem with the teleport on Painting: Tassel's Tavern.
- Fixed the typo in the Fear-Infused Rachnid Heart. It is now a Fear-Infused Drachnid Heart, as Mayong intended.
- The Human Heritage ringmail, cloth, and leather suits will no longer indicate that they fit into chain and plate armor.
- Fixed some Froststone ornament icons that would look like necklaces after being applied to a weapon.
- Three new pride hares, along with the three introduced last year, will be freely claimable from the Marketplace from June 24th to July 31st.
- Mounts will no longer activate for Paladins or Shadowknights before Luclin.
- Adoptable Heritage Crate Familiars are no longer Heirloom, as the adoptable versions of the items are tradable and the adopted familiar versions of the items are not.


*** Quests & Events ***
- Derakor the Vindicator (Raid - Torment of Velious) - At the point where Derakor starts eating the undead around him, whenever a set of adds spawns he will always wait at least 30 seconds before he eats one. This should address issues with the Don't Eat the Dead achievement.
- Greater Spirit Shield (Achievement - The Broken Mirror) - Corrected a typo in the reward description of this achievement.
- Bugglegupp, Tergon's Spellbook, Toko's Head, Darkforge Helm - Fixed some broken dialogues and other bad behavior in these quests.
- Till Death Do Us Part - Increased the threshold before the raid will reset due to any NPCs being idle.
- Heart of Frozen Shadow - Made the following changes to this raid:
- - Increased the threshold before the raid will reset due to all NPCs being idle.
- - It's again equally likely that spawned specters will be restless or non-restless.
- The Tavern at the End of Norrath (Achievement) - Now correctly indicates that you need to have completed The Fall of Toskirakk in order to have access to Korafax, Home of the Riders.
- Hardcore Heritage, Sebilis Phase - Extended the duration of this event from 2 to 4 weeks.
- The Beast Below - Fixed several issues with the messaging of the mechanics in this raid event. The messages will no longer show # and ! symbols, they will no longer display if the target is invalid, the pop-up message sent directly to a target will now also appear in chat, and chat messages now use the event color / filter.
- Veil of Alaris - If you do not have the correct flags to request raids in the tier that your evolving Record book has advanced to, activating it again should correctly flag you to request access to any tier in which you have completed all raids.
- Convorteum Raids - The "Transforming Surprises" have been removed as they served absolutely no purpose other than to annoy completionists.


*** Spells ***
- Necromancer and Shadowknight - Changed Vampiric Curse and Bond of Death to use resource taps rather than a reflected recourse spell to return health to you.
- Necromancer - Changed the Dyn`Leth's Grasp line of Damage over Time spells to use resource taps rather than a reflected recourse spell to return health to you.
- Necromancer - The Dyn`Leth's Grasp line of Damage over Time spells no longer stacks with itself. Damage and mana costs have been increased.
- Necromancer - The Swift Lifedraw line of Damage over Time spells no longer stacks with itself or the Dyn`Leth's Grasp line. Its damage and mana cost now matches the Grasp line per tick. Reduced the recast time and removed the timer. It no longer deals different amounts of damage to raid targets. Converted all ranks to use a resource tap rather than a reflected recourse spell to return health to you. Moved the memorization category from Taps->Health to Taps->Duration Tap.
- Necromancer - The Dark Leech line of Damage Over Time spells no longer stacks with itself. Damage and mana costs have been increased.
- Necromancer - Lowered the recast time of Zevfeer's Theft of Vitae and Night Stalker to 1.5 seconds. Removed the linked spell timer from Night Stalker.


*** NPCs ***
- NPCs in Classic through Luclin will inflict 20% less damage while charmed.


*** Overseer ***
- Removed the membership requirements for collection, tradeskill, and ornament rewards.
- If you change filters while selecting an agent for an Overseer quest, it will now properly update the selected agent highlighting and count.
- If you are unable to start an Overseer quest, you will now receive a message in the chat window stating such.
- Addressed an issue that could cause the agent count when assigning agents to a quest.


*** Progression Servers ***
- It is no longer possible to unwrap the Sanctus Seru teleport or mount from the Human Heritage Crate until the Shadows of Luclin has unlocked on the server.
- Aradune unlock events will show on the in-game calendar.
- The Demiplane of Blood - It's now possible to launch this raid instance once Secrets of Faydwer has been unlocked for at least one month and the character requesting the raid is at least level 70.


*** Miscellaneous ***
- Corrected an issue where guild names would sometimes display as 'Unknown Guild'.
- The Hero's Forge Suit Consolidator is now available on the loyalty merchant.
- Hero's Forge - Fixed a clipping problem in the backs of the arms that affected some races.
- Fixed an issue that caused a few legacy zones to unintentionally be set as hotzones on non-Progression servers.
- Disabled the use of the keyring window and keyring-item hotkeys during monster missions.


*** UI ***
- Corrected an issue where the LDoN leaderboards failed to display all players in the list.
- Experience reward types will now display more detailed descriptions when previewed in the reward selection window.
- Added the command /rewards to open the reward window.
- Added a chat message when you try to open the reward window without having any pending rewards instead of opening and immediately closing the window.
- Added a confirmation box when attempting to loot an item with a lore-equipped group that matches an item you currently possess.
- Updated the message when failing a tradeskill combine to include the name of the item you were intending to make.


*** Previously Updated ***
- Agnarr: Added three worg mounts to the marketplace.
- Fixed the jumbled up achievement objectives for Human Heritage Crate: Human Art Collector.
- Fixed an error in the Call of the Forsaken reward script that caused it to fail to give currency or keys.
- Beyond the Barrier - It should now be possible for a character to receive the subtask Exploring Crystallos, even if the character had already completed that task.


- The EverQuest Team

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Hail Adventurers,

(TL;DR version at the bottom.)

I'm writing to you today to apologize for all the issues that we've been experiencing with EQ these past few months. We've been moving at a breakneck speed to grow into our newly formed Darkpaw studio and ensure that Norrath is around for many more years to come. Unfortunately, in our haste our "raid wiped." We've failed ourselves and we've sadly failed you, our dear friends, but we've reviewed our parses and we have new strats.

The following are not excuses. As some of you have noticed, we're trying to be more transparent and in doing that, I’d like to acknowledge and provide you information on some issues that we have encountered in the past few months so we can move forward together on the path to great things.

First off, I'd like to address the unexpected down times in the last week of May on the day that Aradune and Rizlona launched. Soon after these servers were unlocked, there was a major outage that affected all of our servers, our forums, and numerous other systems in our infrastructure. In accommodating our growing population and addressing current bug issues, we have been incorporating some new hardware. Unfortunately, the transition with the new hardware did not go as smoothly as planned, which brought on many unforeseen difficulties that we have overcome and a few we are still battling. This took out most of our ability to diagnose the core issue and also took out our ability to use our regular channels to communicate the outage. Once the issue was found and resolved, we focused our efforts to bring up the game servers at the time cost of fully bringing up our diagnostic tools. By not having these internal tools up, we failed to see another growing issue that later caused the second cascading crash that took out all of our worlds for the second time that day. We have taken measures to ensure the initial issue will not happen again. As for the second issue, we have taken steps to prevent it from happening; however, we are still combing through and trying to identify the ultimate underlying causes.

As for the extended downtime on the days of the server merges, you can read about the issues that we encountered at https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/server-downtime-tuesday-may-19th-10-00-am.266229/

You may ask why we needed to do this at the time we did. Simply put, it was to buy us more time to address some bottleneck issues that have caused crashes for all of the servers. For some of the issues that we encountered with the merge, we have already addressed them. For the remaining issues, we will be converting systems to newer infrastructure and identifying and addressing bottlenecks. Specifically addressing the temporary loss of shared bank items and platinum, we have restored all missing items and plat that were lost due to the merge process. You can find the items in your /item overflow window and the platinum will either be in your shared bank or parceled to your first character (alphabetically) on the account.

Let me address the remaining unplanned outages that have affected all or sometimes a few worlds at a time. Know that we share in your disappointment and appreciate any patience you give us during these times. In the past few months, there was a laundry list of underlying causes and rest assured that we have either implemented the definitive solutions or are in the process of developing those solutions. To give you some more details on a few causes and their resolutions, on May 21, we encountered both the The Rathe and Tunare worlds had crashed. Upon investigation we discovered that character sizes had gotten too large and when we tried to load characters above a certain size, worlds would crash. Our normal warning systems for this unfortunately did not trigger and to resolve this, we increased the capacity of character sizes and performed the emergency update later that day to temporarily address the issue. We are currently in the process of converting this to a more dynamic solution that can handle an order of magnitude larger character sizes.

In March and April, we experienced a number of crashes across different worlds. These were caused by a few different issues: 1) our client hotfixing technology, 2) in-game raid invites, and 3) infrastructure hardware failures. With the client hotfixing, we had identified the very edge case scenario that caused world crashes and deployed a permanent fix in the April update.

For the in-game raid invite issues, we had been tracking this issue for more than a year and had completely re-tooled our diagnostic systems and re-wrote large chunks of this system to find the cause of this issue. Unfortunately, in this case, the final diagnostics code that we added did worsen stability but finally clued us in on the smoking gun that showed us the exact situation that had been causing this crash for so long. The fix for this issue was server hotfixed as needed in late April with the fix deployed to the rest of the servers in the May update.

In the matter of our infrastructure hardware failures, we are currently in the midst of refreshing a number of our systems and are working with our partners to build out more regular maintenance plans so that issues like these are minimized in the future. Earlier this year we had completed a number of hardware migrations ranging from as large as total data center moves to as small as replacing memory on a number of our systems. These conversions and moves are critical to the future health of our infrastructure.

Regarding our overall quality levels, this has been a regular battle that we've had to fight many times over. Thank you to the players that have so graciously volunteered their time to assist us over the years on our test server, in betas, and in reporting issues on our forums and in /bug. Recently, as our staff has converted to working from home, many of us are now voluntarily working a notably increased number of hours to make sure our schedules don't slip. We needed to convert people to full-time work from home setup to keep people safe. With the increased stress and the fact that we were not set up to handle everyone remotely working full time, our quality levels have been hurt. These are strange times and we are human. Frankly put, we've been making silly mistakes that we wouldn't have been making a matter of months ago. Not to fret, as I am confident in my team who have been very agile in doing everything they can to fix problems as they arise.

Going forward, we need time to work on the solutions that I've touched on above. I'm asking you to continue to have patience with us and to continue to work with us in these trying times. We're going to complete and release some projects that we feel are almost done and pause for a bit to catch our breath and analyze the pain points from a holistic view. I've asked the team to double down on our current efforts in stability, performance, and quality. As a result, some of you may notice a lack of new things in game for a bit while we focus on these issues. This doesn't mean that our normally scheduled annual plans at the end of the year are at risk. Just that there will be a pause for a bit. In the meantime, please accept our apology and a 25% XP bonus on all servers which we'll be activating in-game starting June 9 at 12 p.m. PT and ending June 17 at the time of the monthly update. We have a great legacy to uphold and I trust that with your help we can make it out of these challenging times and can all share in the raid loot together.

Never give up!
Jenn Chan

TL;DR:

I apologize for the unprecedented issues that we've been experiencing. We’ve fixed some of them. We need more time to work on fixing the rest. Please be patient. Things will get better. We're giving you a 25% XP bonus. Never give up!

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Hail, Norrathians!

This upcoming Memorial Day in the United States is a time for us to remember that many of our players - from all across the globe - have loved ones and friends who have served their countries and given the ultimate sacrifice. We are a fantasy game thoroughly not set in this real world, but we are also a community of real friendships that extend well beyond Norrath. We wanted to take a moment to remember, pay tribute, and offer an opportunity for all of us to come together this weekend.

This weekend, we will be commemorating Memorial Day with in-game bonuses. Take advantage of these bonuses on all servers:

    +50% Experience
    +50% Faction
    +50% Rares

We will also be unvaulting some items on the Marketplace and a 20% (This means an additional 10% on top of your existing discount) Membership Marketplace discount as well so keep an eye out! We wish you all a safe and happy weekend.


The bonus weekend will begin at 12 AM PT on Friday, May 22, 2020, and will end at 11 PM PT on Tuesday, May 26, 2020.



Check this out and more in our EQ Calendar (Be sure to set it to your time zone [in settings on the Calendar] for your times!).

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