Hey, Ray! Won't You Please Stay?

Just as I didn't plan on doing two consecutive music posts last week, I wasn't intending to post twice in a row about new content in EverQuest II but that was before I checked my email right after publishing yesterday's post on the Myth and Monoliths update and found I'd been invited to this year's Oceansfull Festival. 

It started yesterday and runs for another couple of weeks, finishing on August 24, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. As I type this my Bruiser is sitting on the edge of one of the platforms in the new dungeon, recovering from having been killed by the second boss. 

Yes, the second. He has indeed managed to kill the first, which puts him well ahead of his dismal performance in Fabled Kurns. It took him a long time, although nothing like as long as it took him to spawn and find the second boss, something that requires an insane amount of swimming up and down pipes, lighting braziers and using waterspouts and whirlpools to teleport around the zone.

 

There's a ferociously detailed walkthrough up on the wiki already. It gives some idea of the nit-picking complexity of the whole affair but you can't get the full, vertiginous effect just by reading two-dimensional text. For that you need to be corkscrewing up a column of water, trying to fend off guards and sharks while watching for the almost invisible exits.

I would say "Thank Prexus someone took the trouble to write such a comprehensive walkthrough" but it's actually not as much help as you might think. For a start, the map references don't really play all that well with the three-dimensional space and as it turns out there's no need to do most of it in the specific order listed. I didn't and all the portals still opened and the named spawned anyway.

In the end I just used tracking to find the guardians, once I'd killed the first and knew what they were called, then swam about almost randomly until I found the portals. Not efficient but it was quicker than trying to follow the bloody locs.

The first boss was annoying. The second boss is very annoying. She's actually the final boss by the walkthrough's reckoning, which might explain the extra level of difficulty. I guess I won't know for sure until I've found the two that come inbetween. 

 

At least they are doable. I know it's my inexperience with the mechanics that's the problem, not a straightforward gear lockout. I'd rather the walkthrough went into detail about how to kill the bosses instead of noting every last twist and turn of the path leading up to the fight. Trying to mouseover the tiny buff icons on the boss in the middle of a fight to see what immunities she has, while scrolling back the through the chat box to see what warnings she emoted isn't my idea of entertainment. I'd rather read the Cliff Notes version from someone who's done it already.

The drops from the first boss were good enough to make it worth the effort, though. 315 Resolve we're up to now on this solo, holiday stuff. That's an upgrade to most of what any of my characters are wearing. 

Aesthetically, the entire zone is gorgeous, although we have seen it before. It's from an earlier expansion, abeit slightly tweaked. The best thing about the whole instance has to be the manta ray at the beginning, the one you have to stand on and ride to the platform. If Daybreak don't make that into a mount and add it to the cash shop they must not like money.

There's also an interesting crafting opportunity you have to find for yourself. It is mentioned in the preamble to the walkthrough but not, as far as I can see, inside the game itself. I thought it was odd that there were fishing nodes inside a dungeon, even one in the Plane of Water, so I got out my rod and after a few casts I somehow managed to fish up a fishing rod, or rather the recipe to make one.

The Oceansfull Fishing Rod lets you breathe underwater, which is something my Bruiser currently needs to buy Totems of the Otter to do, so it's going to be well worth having. Three of the items he needs to make it can only be found in the instance itself. So far he hasn't seen any of them. I hope they don't drop off the bosses...

There's some other new stuff in this year's festival, including nine new items in the clam shells that spawn all around the coast of every major landmass at this time of year. I always enjoy prying those open. There's also a collection from previous years the Bruiser hasn't finished, as I discovered when he was doing the short, fun access quest to the new dungeon.

Given the way yesterday's session debrief got completely out of hand, I'm going to leave it at that. If you play EQII you'll certainly want to go check Oceansfull out for yourself and if you don't you've probably already heard more than you ever wanted to know about it.

I'm off to open some clams. Finger crossed I get something good, not just twenty different kinds of coral.

Boost Me Up

By way of a public service announcement here's a paragraph from today's update notes for EverQuest II :

Destiny of Velious – New Heroic Character

Start your adventures in Destiny of Velious with a free limited 85 heroic character! With the launch of Destiny of Velious, each account will earn a single Level 85 character boost upon logging into the Kaladim server.

This boost is granted once per account and grants gear appropriate for starting adventuring in Destiny of Velious overland content, and may be placed in the shared bank.

Yep! Another one. 

As you might guess from the headline, this particular boost is in honor of the opening of the Destiny of Velious expansion on the Time Limited Expansion server Kaladim. It's kind of a big deal for several reasons, not least that a lot of people have been waiting none too patiently for it to get here.

DoV is one of the larger and more favored expansions. It added the hub city of Thurgadin, consolidated Public Quests as a central feature and it was also the expansion that introduced flying mounts, something that, as we all know, can often be a literal game-changer. I believe the raiding was well-received, too, although that's a long way out of my remit.

For once, the basic Level 85 boost is entirely appropriate. DoV shifts the cap to 90 so 85 is the starting line for what will be end-game content for a good while to come. If anyone had been thinking about playing on Kaladim, this would definitely be the time to do it.

You would, of course, need a subscription. Sorry! A membership. EQII's free to play offer, while still generous, is no longer anything like as inclusive as it was back when Smed was trying to convince everyone F2P Your Way was the future.

I do have All Access membership. And it's the account where I made my character on Kaladim back when the server started. I would not be averse to starting a new level 85 there and running around with the leveling crowd for a week or two.

Shame I don't have a free character slot.

I did consider buying (yet) another one. It's not like I don't have the Daybreak Cash. Thing is, I just did that a few months ago when I made my Vah Shir and I haven't even finished levelling her yet. It seems a bit of a stretch to imagine if I made a fresh 85 on Kaladim that I'd actually play them.

There is another option. It's not a free level 85 character Darkpaw's giving away. It's a free level 85 boost. And as I said I have a character on Kaladim already. I could bump her up to 85. 

I considered that too. The thing is, I really like her. I haven't played her much recently but I did get her all the way to level twenty back when Kaladim launched and that certainly wasn't nothing. She's wearing all her starting armor in her appearance slots and she looks great in it. And I named her Lana. That pretty much sealed it. We bonded, she and I.

Any excuse, eh?

From experience, jumping an existing character sixty levels makes for a disconnect. I've done it a couple of times and it tends to derail the process. It would probably be okay if I went straight from boosting to levelling up to that 90 cap. That would give some context and continuity. 

I'm not going to do that, though. Partly because I have too much else going on at the moment and partly because I've done those levels in Velious a few times too often. I enjoyed it the first two or three times but I'm not keen to see it all again just now.

So that'll be yet another character level boost in the bank. At least it's a bit different from the rest in that I can only use it on one server. Is that an improvement?

The level boost is a freebie but naturally Darkpaw would also like to sell you something. Normally I don't even bother to mention the packs that they put together for occasions like this but I have to say the Destiny of Velious Crate is pretty darn good for the price.

It costs $34.99, which is a lot, but there's a lot inside. There's a flying mount, appropriately, although perhaps less-appropriately it's a dinosaur. Now that's new. Then there's a Velium Multi-forge you can place in your house that acts as any craft station. Incredibly useful. 

There's a 66 slot bag, always very welcome, but this one "includes a friendly (antagonistic) goblin that will jump out and make faces at people behind you. " Seriously, who doesn't want one of those? And there's an NPC who'll port you "right outside all of the critical Velious dungeons". I might want to see a list of which ones count as "critical" but that sounds spiffy, doesn't it?

There's a load more in the crate and it's all good, useful stuff. I'm not going to go through the whole lot. Just go check the link if you want to know. If I go on much longer about it here someone's going to start wondering if I'm being paid to plug the thing. Which, sadly, I'm not. I just know a bargain when I see one.

All the stuff can be used on any server and frankly if this was at a different point in the expansion cycle I'd be seriously thinking about buying one. It's that good. Yet again, though, it's not a good time to invest in EQII because I have too much else going on and it wouldn't get the use it deserves.

Wilhelm had a post up recently about some unusually timely and relevant advertising Daybreak had been doing. I do think this pack looks better targeted and better priced than some we've seen before. I wonder if EG7's influence is beginning to make itself felt?

There's stuff going on in EQII that doesn't require either membership, real money or much of a time commitment, too. I ought to mention that while I'm here.

The Oceansfull festival is back with some nice, new rewards and a new three-part Overseer mission. That will get you a house pet, a permanent illusion and a title. I'm going to run it on several characters. It doesn't take long. Oceansfull runs 'til the 18th and then Scorched Sky begins a week later on the 25th.

I think that's about it for now. Oh, except to honk my own horn a little. I put in a bug report back at the beginning of April and today's patch notes confirmed it had been fixed. Always nice to know someone's listening.

I'll leave you with this mysterious message, also from today's patch notes:

Names

• All servers, except Thurgadin, will now enforce English character names.

Really? We all have to call ourselves things like Nigel or Hilary? 

Bags me Arbuthnot!

Ethereal Message : EQII

It's holiday time in Norrath once again. The brief hiatus ended with the coming of Oceansfull three weeks ago and this morning saw the start of Scorched Sky. Both of them are relatively new, having been introduced to the game in 2018 for the precise purpose of filling the long gap between the end of Bristlebane Day (and Beast'r) in mid-April and the start of Tinkerfest in late July.

I didn't get round to posting anything about Oceansfull when it was on, this year, but I did spend an afternoon beneath the waves and along the shorelines of several different zones. There were several items I wanted for the lakeside Othmir enclave in the Mara Estate home where all my characters tend to hang out these days.

I got everything I was looking for. Like most holiday events in EverQuest II there's no real obstacle to getting anyything you might want, other than time and patience. The boats look especially splendid on Mara's placid waters, I think.

There were also two new quests, both of which I did. One is in Eastern Wastes, the other in Tranquil Sea. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now I reflect, something about those quests does strike me as a little odd. Involving no combat, with only housing items as rewards and designed to scale to all character levels, why put them in such inaccessible spots in mid-high level zones?

It's not that they're entirely unreachable by lower level characters. The areas where the quests take place are entirely safe. Getting to them could be something of an adventure at level ten, though. Then again, that's just the kind of adventure I used to relish, back in the days when I actually had low-level characters.

Scorched Sky started this morning and runs until 7 July. My Bruiser popped in to Darklight Woods to see what was new, if anything. He both was and wasn't a good choice because to him it was all new. I can't remember who I took there last time but it clearly wasn't him.

Unlike Oceansfull, whose watery theme turns up all kinds of furniture and appearance items that catch my eye and whose seaside settings appeal, Scorched Sky doesn't do all that much for me. I have a problem with armor that's permanently on fire. I can't help but imagine it burning the character who wears it.

Flaming mounts don't really light my fire, either. In fact, the whole molten look, incredibly common in many MMORPGs, makes me feel I'm looking at the cover of an eighties' metal album. Probably something by Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Very much not the look I'm going for.

Scorched Sky this year does have something I do like - a new Overseer Quest. To get it you once again need to travel to somewhere rather inhospitable and unwelcoming, the Dragon's Breath Tunnel in the middle of Lavastorm, which I have to admit is about as appropriate place as you could possibly find for a celebration dedicated to Fennin Ro, the Tyrant of Fire and his son, Solusek Ro, the Burning Prince.

So far, no-one at all seems to have written up the new quest, Conflagrant Rites, for the wiki or anywhere else. I started it in the middle of writing this post. I'm on the first part, which takes thirty minutes. The reward for that, other than the next quest in the sequence and a regular Overseer crate, is a flaming, flying book that refuses to be photographed in the Dressing Room.

If it's like previous Overseer holiday quests I imagine it will have five parts, al lasting thirty minutes. If it comes with anything especially good I might pop back in and update this post with a screenshot or two.  
(Edit: I'm on what seems to be the final (at least, it's twice as long) of only three parts right now. The reward is a title, Flame Bearer, and a rolling cinderstone pet, which looks exactly as you might imagine.)

As well as Scorched Sky we also have the first phase of the Summer Ethereal campaign. Ethereals are a tradition in EQII to which I paid little attention for a long time. They're the exact opposite of the usual calendar holidays in that they exist almost entirely to give out top-end adventuring gear. I used to think of them as something raiders did although I think they were always also accessible to Heroic group players, too.

A year or two back, the door was nudged open for solo players to poke thier noses in and peer at the ethereal glow and I started to take a bit more of an interest. This year, seeing that I've been playing regularly and making a decent fist of upgrading several of my max-level characters, I've decided to make more than a token effort at collecting enough Peculiar Medallions, the currency in question

I'm hoping to buy at least one or two of the 200 Resolve accessories. There's a weekly quest called Ethereal Ahoy. It's auto-granted and completes as soon as you finish any of the regular Blood of Luclin weekly quests, including the solos. I finished one this morning and got two dozen Peculiar Medallions.

Summer ethereals, which come in three phases, stay around for about fifteen weeks, so if I did Ethereals Ahoy every week I'd earn exactly enough to buy three items plus three "Shard of Peculiar Allies", the adornment that allows the items to be upgraded. That makes it likely they'll stil be useful even after the inevitable stat inflation of the winter expansion, which obviously increases the appeal.

Whether I'll have the discipline to do it every week remains to be seen but I really ought to be able to manage at least enough for a couple of earrings. EQ2Traders has a detailed explanation of how the event works, if needed.

Last and very much not least there's a fresh trio of free Pride bunny familiars in the cash shop. I'll probably try and knock out a quick post on them in their own right because the whole thing's quite interesting, but just in case I don't get time, I'm mentioning them now. If you play EQII you wouldn't want to miss out on them. Aside from the cultural significance, they're decent familiars (1807 Potency, 807 Crit Bonus, 3.4% to all Attributes) and they can, naturally, be used for Overseer questing.

So much all happening at once. I can't keep up!

Down By The Sea: EQ2

When I got home from the airport yesterday afternoon, one of the first things I did was fire up the PC to check Feedly, which I hadn't looked at for more than a week. The "Latest News" from Pitchfork led the backlog. I checked to see who'd died while I was away. Just Dr. John, of people I've ever heard of, if not actually bought a record by. Also M.I.A, late of this parish, got an MBE, which was nice for her mum.

Next by volume came MassivelyOP, where I found more than a hundred and seventy five news items waiting for me. Scanning the headlines I felt the urge to open fewer than half a dozen, which must say something about the current state of the genre, my involvement, or MOP's editorial policy. Probably all three.

Of the handful of articles I looked at, the only one that really interested me was this, a brief re-phrasing of a Daybreak press release alerting readers to the return of EverQuest II's Oceansfull festival. The MOP piece didn't tell me much but I found a lot more detail at the official website and a full breakdown of all the available activities and rewards at EQ2 Traders.

The latter was linked directly from the EQ2 website itself, something that has become standard procedure of late. The Daybreak post also linked to EQ2 Furniture, a self-explanatory enterprise I haven't had cause to visit before.

The MMORPG genre has always had a touch of the co-operative movement about it, although at times the relationship has fallen considerably short of those high mutualist ideals, and the practice of calling attention to fan sites is far from novel. Still, in these late days, with shrinking audiences and resources, it has never seemed more necessary or welcome.

Oceansfull is a very new festival on Norrath's crowded calendar. It began last year as a very low-key event, "timed to fill that uncomfortable gap between the final flurry of festivals in late Spring and the arrival of Tinkerfest in mid-summer".

This year brings several new additions to the schedule, including a couple of quests, both of which involve a small amount of fighting, presumably so adventurers feel included. I did them both for the first time last night, largely without the aid of out-of-game instructions, although I'm not sure I'd have found one of the two at all if I hadn't spotted the starting location on EQ2 Traders.

The Nursery in Greater Faydark certainly isn't the first place that comes to mind when you imagine beachfront property in Norrath. It's the hidden starting area for new characters that came with 2006's Echoes of Faydwer expansion and if you'd asked me I'd have said it was landlocked. There's never been much of a reason to go there if you aren't a Level One elf or fae and I'd completely forgotten it had a seafront at all.

It does, though, and somehow the Othmir managed to find it. They set up their altars and set off their fireworks in celebration of the Ocean God Prexus but then their arch enemies, the Ulthorks, turned up, which is where we, the players, come in.

I'm always up for some Ulthork bashing. I happily clattered eight of the aggressive walrus-men then fixed three of the altars they'd broken before returning to Kippy for my reward, a choice of scallop shells.

The other quest, much easier to run into by accident, starts at the Commonlands dock. For this one I had to find a missing Othmir and encourage him to return to safety, while I took over his shell-gathering duties and dealt with the mysterious threat he'd glimpsed lurking in the dark waters.

That threat turned out to be some sort of octopoid, although for a while I thought it might be nothing more than a trick of the light. There's a chance for the vicious eight-armed beasts to spawn whenever you pluck one of the sparkling conch shells from the sand but nothing jumped me until I was putting shell number seven into my waterproof backpack.

I only needed eight to complete the quest. As a reward Binn, the worried othmir who'd sent me to look for his friend, gave me three of the golden conches back.

Almost all the rewards for Oceansfull are house items. There are also a couple of appearance weapons - a shield and a staff - and a pet crab. There's also a cloak from the collection, which returns from last year.

The quality and variety of the house items is quite extraordinary. Several have spectacular particle effects and all are worth having. Other than the quest rewards, they're all waiting to be found in personalized black pearls, enclosed in clams beneath the waves, in eleven different locations covering all level ranges.

Although the contents of each pearl is random you can open one every ten seconds or so for the duration of the event, ensuring that, with just a modicum of patience, you should be able to find everything you want. Only five of last year's extensive range have returned for an encore. The rest have been replaced by seventeen brand new options, many of which are real must-haves.

I was particularly taken with the Aqueous Sentinel Plushie, a watery golem inside which fish swim as though encased in a tank. The other plushies are impressive, too. The Marid hunters look particularly good in my Mara Estate home, which is where I'm placing most of my Oceansfull goodies.

Oceansfull began, as it did last year, while I was away on holiday, making this a very late notification. There are still several days left before the Othmir pack up their trappings and start the trek back to Velious.

The festival ends at midnight on June 18, more than enough time to complete all the activities and find all the things you might fancy. I plan on grabbing a few dozen more pearls on characters on two other servers and possibly even on another account.

Sadly, my character on Kaladim will have to miss out once again as the TLE servers don't get the event at all, presumably because neither Othmir nor Ulthorks have yet been discovered there. Given the rewards are all cosmetic that seems a tad unfair but I guess if you choose to wallow in a bed of nostalgia you have to lie in it, too.

As I was playing last night I was also following a discussion in the Test channel, where several people playing on the Test server were linking items from the Scorched Sky festival. It's currently in testing, due to follow Oceansfull on Live later this month. Judging by what I saw, we can expect another impressive holiday upgrade when it arrives.

I'd say "keep up the good work, DBG", but they obviously already are.

Come On In, The Water's Lovely! : EQ2

In my opinion, EQ2 may not have the most MMO holidays but it definitely has the best. The major events - Frostfell, Nights of the Dead, Tinkerfest, Brewday and the rest - come packed with enough quests and collections, races and achievements to keep regular players occupied for days, if not weeks.

As well as the big ticket events there are the monthly City Festivals and the Moonlight Enchantments that follow the lunar calendar. There's almost always something to do in Norrath so you might think there'd be no need to add any more annual events. The EQ2 team would beg to differ.

I only happened to notice the addition of the upcoming Oceansfull festival when I spotted a single-line entry on EQ2 Traders a few days ago. If it hadn't been for the accompanying picture I might have missed it altogether. The news squib links to a full description of the brand new holiday event, which is currently running on the Test server before it goes Live on June 8, when it runs for ten days until June 18.

Oceansfull is the Othmir celebration of thanks to their god, Prexus:

 "For generations, the othmir have been giving thanks to Prexus at this time of year for all he provides, above and beneath the waves. You are welcome to join any you may find celebrating along the oceans' edge, across Norrath. They say if you search the waters nearby their celebration locations, you're bound to find evidence of Prexus' generosity."

The new event seems to have been timed to fill that uncomfortable gap between the final flurry of festivals late Spring and the arrival of Tinkerfest in mid-summer. It's also been timed to make its first appearance almost exactly as I'm away on holiday. I will be back for the last few days, but rather than wait I decided to wake up a few of my old Test server characters and take a look right now.

Niami Denmother describes Oceansfull as "a mellow little festival", in keeping with the well-established gentle, whimsical nature of the ottter-like Othmir race. There may be people who don't like Othmir but if so I don't think I'd want to spend much time hanging out with them.

I've had an abiding affection for the fish-eating, hat-wearing seafolk since they first appeared in EverQuest's Scars of Velious expansion all the way back in the year 2000. I spent many happy hours helping the Othmir protect the beaches in Cobalt Scar, glaring with disapproval at the greedy druids and wizards who chose to slaughter my furry friends for the loot instead.

The Othmir have played a significant, if minor role in EQ lore ever since, cropping up in various contexts in both games. Several of my EQ2 characters have taken on Othmir tradeskill apprentices over the years. I still visit them now and again to give them some more training and copy down the new recipes they discover.

Playing on Test used to require two separate installations of the game but these days you can just toggle from Live to Beta to Test from the Launcher. It works perfectly. I did that, then looked at my large roster of Test characters.

Having played there for five years or so I have a wide range to choose from. I have several level  90s, the cap  when I moved to the Freeport server with the coming of F2P, and plenty more in most deciles down to level 20 or so. I picked my Level 90 Ratonga Bruiser, who was the character I was playing most often when I was a Test regular, logged him in and took him to the nearest qualifying beach, which happened to be at the Commonlands Dock.

I had time to take a single screenshot when the heavens opened and a massive thunderstorm began. EQ2 has some very dramatic weather effects. Freeport goes almost black when rain sets in and even in the Commonlands heavy rain reduces visibility to a few yards. It also leeches the color out of everything, rendering screenshots muddy and miserable. Not ideal for a blog post about a cheerful little summer festival.

Fortunately, travel in EQ2's version of Norrath is quick and easy, especially if you have an All Access Member's right to use the Fast version for free. In a matter of moments I was flying a griffin across Antonica to the Tower of the Oracles, where the handy list of locations at EQ2 Traders told me I'd find Othmir celebrants letting off fireworks and dancing.

I found the otters alright. It wasn't raining either so I was able to snap a few shots as they capered. There was a problem, though. The event consists almost entirely of opening giant clams to collect gifts. Clams live underwater. In EQ2, unlike GW2, you need special apparatus or magical assistance to breathe underwater.

You'd have thought that a level 90, who'd retired at the peak of a highly active adventuring career, would have some piece of equipment that would provide a basic function like Enduring Breath. Or at least a few Totems of the Otter, the crafted consumable that cast that spell. Yes, well... you'd be mistaken.

Five minutes later I was back on the Griffin, heading across Antonica with my Level 60 Inquisitor. Inquisitors can cast spells that let themselves and their groups breathe underwater. So I did that. Then I swam around in the murky waters off the Antonical headland, opening clam after clam.

It's a gloriously soothing experience. The clams are huge and easy to spot  from a distance. There are plenty of them. They have a short timer before you can re-open them, so you can't just stand next to the same one and chain-click, but by the time you've done the rounds of nearby clams the ones you started on are ready again.

There seem to be a lot of items to get. It was a good while before I started seeing duplicates. A lot of the presents are house items in any case, so multiples are welcome. Especially so since GU106 added stackability to most house items.

As well as furniture I got a consumable Othmir illusion and several appearance weapons. It was addictive and fun. In the Test channel several people were saying exactly that, almost purring with satisfaction as the little bursts of dopamine stroked their pleasure centers. I notice no-one ever says developers are scoundrels for including this kind of content - it's ony when they lock it in a box and charge for a key that people begin to claim no-one wants it.

Oceansfull also brings a traditional shiny collection, which takes place on land. I found a few purple shinies but they seemed relatively scarce compared to the norm in other festivals. I didn't really spend long looking - I'll save that for the few days I have when the festival is Live.

All in all Oceansfull looks to be yet another excellent addition to the holiday calendar. It's quite astonishing that the small team left working on EQ2 is able to keep coming up with so much new stuff. This is a simple festival, yes, but it's fun and it fits with the lore, too.

Oceansfull is available on all servers including Progression/TLE from the 8th to the 18th of June. It can be enjoyed by characters of any level at a variety of beaches from starting areas to end game. There are no quests to get - jump right in the water and start opening those clams.

Just don't forget your diving gear!