Hot Fun In The Summertime : EQ, EQII

I had another post planned for today but since I appear to have appointed myself unpaid P.R. rep for the EverQuest franchise that's going to have to wait. This is a time-critical announcement!

In recent years, Daybreak Games have been making a big deal out of summer with a long series of special events and offers in both EQ games. In EQII the Ethereal season is already under way but yesterday saw the start of the Summer Spectacular in both games.

Now, I'm guessing this is an event that's going to run across the whole season but that's speculation on my part because so far all we have is the schedule for the first week, July 1 to July 8. Let's bow to seniority and start with EverQuest.

The headline feature here is a 76% boost to all XP, faction and "rare drop rewards". Why 76%? July 4th maybe? For years and years bonus xp always came in round numbers, usually 100%. Of late it's been pegged back to 50%, which is generally not enough to get me to log in if I wasn't going to anyway, so 76% is an improvement.

The bonuses are for everyone, free to play and Members alike, "Members" being what DBG now prefer to call "Subscribers". Subscription is apparently a word we don't use in polite company any more.

While I might not log in for XP I will always make the effort for free stuff. Logging in this week will get you "two timely and celebratory familiars: the Metamorph Totem: Murikaglider and the Metamorph Totem: Cernerder'Eh Murkglider". They'll be autogranted to your Reward window as soon as you log in, provided you're a Member.

I confess I'm not exactly sure what they are. I didn't know EQ had familiars other than the ones Wizards use. Whatever they are, whatever they do, I want them! Also, Murkgliders look cool.

The Cernerder'Eh Murkglider in action.
Does Stargrace know about this?

That's about it for EQ other than some stuff returning to the cash shop. On to EQII, which gets the better deal from this event in my opinion.

For a start the bonuses, which again apply to everyone, go the full monty: "Status, Guild XP, and Currency rewards will be doubled throughout the event." Two of those are very significant features for anyone playing the game regularly and boosted XP is always attractive to anyone who fancies dropping back in for a session or three.

Members also benefit from double doubles on currency: "Members, your already-doubled membership currency bonus is doubled AGAIN during the event. This includes Ethereal currency!" With Ethereals always being a major draw, that's going to be popular.

But what about the free stuff? Don't worry, it's coming, and there's more than you might think.

The official announcement talks about a free mount, available via the DBG in-game store: "Log in and visit the Marketplace for a very special (and free!) Scorched Sky Carpet Mount. This will only be available during the event. Members only".

Even though I only saw the press release late last night, the lure of a free mount was enough to make me log in immediately. It's ironic, given that I once left the Live game to play on the much quieter Test Server for five years almost purely because the introduction of flying carpets annoyed me so much, but now I love them.

This is a particularly impressive model, too, with lanterns hanging from all four corners. The way they swing as the carpet corners is entrancing. It's a pity my Berserker's cloak clips straight through the carpet but you can't have everything.

Another thing that's not made clear, either in the announcement or in game, is whether the carpet applies once per account or once per character. I rather wanted it for my Shadowknight on the Antonia Bayle server but not at the expense of my Berserker on Skyfire, who has to have All The Things, so I asked in general chat.

EQII players can be snarky but they just love to answer questions. I got an immediate response confirming the good news: the carpet is per character.

EQII also gets a cash shop deal that doesn't  apply to EQ, which seems odd. All EQII players, F2P included, get 20% off "most Marketplace items". Members get their regular 10% discount on top, making it a great time to pick up anything you've been on the fence over as well as restocking those consumables. Can't have too many tracking scrolls.

All of that seems pretty sweet to me. Let's hope it's just the start of a long, hot Summer of free stuff and special offers. Also, Gninja confirmed in a reply to a thread on Raiding (for some reason) that the Panda will be back with his amazing pre-expansion upgrades for a third year in what will no doubt be Days of Summer 3.

Don't you just love sequels?