A Goodbye to Domino

Many players have met a wonderful lady named Emily or "Domino" as she is known to most in EQ2. Some have become very close to her over the years. I personally have only known her through forum posts, twitter updates and SOE videocasts, but I know of the wonderful work she's done.

Many years ago in EQ2 raiding was king. If you had an issue regarding house decorating or tradeskilling it was hard to get things changed and improvements made. Then along came Domino. When she became tradeskill developer, Norrath started to change for the better. She added tons of quests for tradeskillers so we no longer had to stand in front of a stove or loom from 1-90 we could now travel the world and explore like adventurers and it made the tradeskill grind a lot more tolerable. She also helped add more housing items and improve on the ones we had. From what I've heard she had a love of decorating so it was only natural she helped improve that aspect of game by getting us new and exciting items to work with like tiles and tons of other new furniture.

All her amazing work as tradeskill dev paid off as she was eventually promoted to a producer's position. As associate producer she continued to help EQ2 improve on an even larger scale.

This morning I was shocked to see facebook and twitter posts announcing that she has left the EQ2 team. It's a very sad day. As far as I know there's no official word on if she left SOE altogether but because of that I fear the worst. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of Domino.

Domino, Thanks for everything you've done in making Norrath a better place. We love you even if we might not have known you.
-Twinklin

PUG TV features one of my homes... Little Dahling's Carnival

PUG TV features a different Free to play game each night of the week Mon-Fri. Thursdays are EQ2 night. During their online show they tour player decorated homes and player created dungeons. They also have been offering challenges where they give a theme and restrictions to 2 decorators who then go head to head and do their best to complete the task. Players can then vote on which home they think best filled the requirements of the challenge.

Jaedrian does a great job narrating the tours with a little background help from his wife. They used to cram several things into each episode like a dungeon run and a house tour for example. They recently started splitting their episodes up to feature individual homes and dungeons. I saw Jaedrian post on the Homeshow forum not too long ago that he was looking for homes to tour. When I contacted him he informed me that they had been through my botanical garden home on a previous episode. You can see that tour HERE. The garden tour is towards the end of the video around the 1:10:00 mark. I invited them to tour any of my other homes if they wanted to and they chose to do a run through the carnival. You can watch the recorded video HERE. 

Thanks to PUG TV for taking the time to make these videos. They've been very enjoyable to watch. Follow Jaedrian on Twitter @Jaedrian01 or visit their website http://jaedrian.enjin.com/ and TwitchTV channel. 

EQ2 New Marketplace Items- tiara, Heartsfire, and faedrake petamorph wand.

Tiara of the Depths- 500SC

Heartsfire- 400SC

Everlasting Petamorph Wand: Faedrake- 100SC

(turns your combat pet into a faedrake for 2 hours or untl it's killed, wand has unlimited uses)

Also a new 100% XP bonus potion was added for 1800SC, the Extended Potion of the Advanced. It is one use, lasts four hours and grants the bonus to adventure, AA and tradeskill XP. 

Aion NA going F2P as well as 3.0 News!!

Aion Europe switched over to the F2P model not too long ago which left some North American players wondering if we'd be so lucky. Well the announcement has been made and coming with the release of 3.0 is the implementation of a F2P model for the NA servers. Here's the Linky Link to the F2P info website. Here also is the letter from NCSoft making the announcement that this spring we will not only be level 60, decorating player housing and running around on mounts but it will be FREE...

Aion: Ascension Debuts with Innovative Truly Free Business Model and Epic 3.0 Content Update
North American Players to Experience Full Game Features and 3.0 Content Free of Charge this Spring

Seattle, WA – February 21, 2012 – NCsoft®, the world's premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), today announces Aion: Ascension, the Truly Free evolution of Aion, the award–winning fantasy MMO that rivals other MMOs with its stunning graphics, fierce PvP and customization. Aion: Ascension brings players unrestricted access to a world filled with deep lore, exploration and epic faction battles free of charge. Coupled with the change in business model coming this Spring, players will experience everything in the highly anticipated 3.0 content update, including housing, mounts, increased level cap (60), new zones and instances.

Aion: Ascension's Truly Free business model gives players access to the entire game, including the two major expansions, 3,000+ quests, 30+ instances, 18 zones, three instanced PvP games, pets, classes and key social features like the auction house, chat, trade, crafting, gathering and forums. And with new content from the 3.0 update, which provide several new gameplay systems that Aion fans have been asking for, Aion: Ascension will be one of the most compelling MMOs on the market.

Players experiencing the world of Atreia for the first time will be welcomed into the game with a refined starting area with ample content engaging players from the beginning of their journey with guides designed to assist their current efforts and advise them on where to go next. Returning and current players will not only be able to jump back into the game for free, but will find the new content coming in Aion 3.0 a great addition to the already strong offering.

For players wanting a head start, NCsoft is hosting a "Rallying the Troops" event which will give new players an extended no time limit trial with an increased level cap to 40, whilst returning veterans will have their accounts reactivated free for 14 days. In addition, everyone will enjoy permanent increased XP as well as other boosts to help level and gear up to experience the new content faster.

A sample of features coming in the Aion 3.0 content update include:
Housing System – Everyone gets a home. Decorate and party in your new home.
Mount System – A new gameplay system which lets Daevas speed around the world of Atreia in style.
New Instances – Six new instances including a challenging 24-player raid.
New Zones – Two stunning new zones in the Balaur homeland.
New Level Cap – Five new levels bringing the max level to 60.

In addition to the new business model and Aion 3.0 content, NCsoft will implement new RMT countermeasures to ensure a safe and secure gaming experience for all of its players. These highly effective, proprietary methods will specifically target fraudulent transactions, bots and spammers and the confiscation of goods that have been acquired through RMT activities so that players can experience a no hassle/no harassment MMO experience.

Aion: Ascension with the innovative and improved Truly Free business model along with the 3.0 content update is scheduled to launch this Spring. More information can be found at na.aiononline.com.

Moonlight Enchantments 20th-21st

Erollisi Day celebrations are ending tonight but there's always something to do in EQ2 even though I'm a bit late in posting this since it already started, you still have another day left to get your Moonlighting on. If you're unfamiliar with Moonlight Enchantments here are more of those nifty guides on ZAM and EQ2traders.

The event occurs on the 20th and 21st of every month. During these 2 days in Antonica, Darklight Wood, Enchanted Lands, Nektulos Forest and Greater Faydark (exact locations can be found on the guide links) rings of tiny mushrooms spawn. Each ring can be clicked on which zones you into a small solo instance. Each zone's instance is different. There are 1-2 quests in each instance. One of the quests in the Darklight Wood instance requires you to have an artisan level of 2 and asks you to create rootbeer using supplies found in the instance. This quest is repeatable which comes in handy because each quest rewards a token. The tokens can be used to purchase items from merchants in each instance. You can grind out as many tokens as you wish to purchase items from the merchants until your time runs out on the 21st. Most of the items are nature themed house items like trees, grass tiles, flowers and animal plushies though there are a few appearance gear and mount items as well. Each instance also has 1 purple shiny located in it. Only one purple shiny will spawn per instance for each character that month. You can alt hop and get the purple shiny from each instance on all of your characters and hope to complete some of the collections but unless you have a TON of alts and a TON of time it might take the event coming around next month to complete them.

Well that's all I have to say about that.

Double XP, Marketplace Sale, and only a few more days of Erollisi

This weekend has plenty to do in EQ2. If you haven't finished up getting your Erollisi titles, stocking up on candy and love notes for crafting those E-day recipes year round or any other lovey type stuff you wanted to complete you only have a few more days. Erollisi Day celebrations are scheduled to end midnight on the 20th. I know I didn't make an official Erollisi Day blog post so if you want to see all that you can do and get your hands on during this holiday event, head on over to ZAM or EQ2Traders for the always awesome write ups.

Also this weekend will be a President's Day Double XP (17th-20th) and Station Marketplace rebate sale (18th only). The sale will work a bit differently than most SC sales. Instead of items being marked a % off you will purchase items at full price and receive 50+% SC back after you make the purchase. So if I understand the concept correctly, if a 1000SC item has a 60% rebate making the item 400SC and you only have 400SC in your account you will not be able to purchase it. You will have to buy more SC to purchase the item at 1000SC and then get your 600SC back.

So enjoy the weekend in and out of MMOland.