Just wanted to give a quick update of what's been happening, and what's coming up in the next month or so..
Coming Up...• Halloween will be starting the evening of 10/28, running through 11/2. Will include the event itself, double loot, double exp and double credits.
• 2nd run of the Rallos Zek Event is planned for 11/20. Stay tuned for a specific post about this, but it will have a higher level requirement (78+) to participate than during the first run. Unfortunately it is too difficult to plan for lower level groups given the difficulty.
• Tunare encounter in VP will launch in the week or so following Halloween, November 13th at the latest. (see below)
Current ProjectsTunare ExpeditionIn the finale to the storyline from Veeshan's Peak, through the Rallos Zek event, players will engage Tunare in Veeshan's Peak, as her search for the Unholy Writ of War may have gone too well...
This expedition will be incredibly difficult, and while it won't require huge groups to kill, it's also not going to be easy to accomplish with a single group. Tunare will include unique loot drops, including 4 different versions of a new Power Source item: The Unholy Writ of War, which will include some unique effects, but possibly some downside to using it's tainted power...
Tier 11 -Dragonscale Hills Tier 11 is proceeding as expected, currently about a third of the way through an extensive outline. While it's certainly possible to run around just plopping NPC's where you want them, and sort of wing it through quest dialogs as you're scripting, that's not good enough for an EZ tier level. While I was left to learn my own lessons with Veeshan's Peak, and you and I have learned them together, Akkadius is (rightfully) adamant about being able to review my plan for Tier 11. Both him and I want to make sure it feels like a continuation of the EZ experience, and not something where someone with no knowledge of the history of the server would notice a drastic difference in gameplay. While some things will change, and certain items will remain ineffective going forward, it should still have that pleasure and pain balance we've all grown to love. With the amount of complexity involved, including hundreds of items, hundreds of spells, and countless other details, it just takes time. I think that ultimately it will be worth the wait..
Current Tier 11 plans include:
• Faction grinds, collection quests (of course)
• Involved quest lines with randomized tasks (all your characters won't have the same tasks despite being on the same quest) <- I know this kind of sounds dumb, but I think if implemented correctly, it will be a fun change.
• Limited repetitive quests (I'm not a huge fan)
• Chain spawn (think HW) bosses
• Multiple difficulty levels within the zone - some areas will be
impossible very difficult to survive without the increased stats from gearing up in the zone.
• 2 levels of armor upgrades - first set will come fairly early into the Tier, 2nd set will be considerably further into the Tier.
• Coldain Ring War style event - this will include 3 difficulty levels which must be worked up too.
• Expected upgrades to Ring of the Ages, Shield of the Ages, Earring of the Ages, UWXIII and so on..
While I know I have given varied estimations of the date for Tier 11's release, I won't guess any further, but know that once Tunare is released and everything is well, it will be my primary focus to get T11 completed.
Other StuffI know there's been concern lately regarding the population of EZ Server, or at least I've heard it enough to assume it's a concern...it's really not to Akkadius or myself, mostly because this is the way it goes for EZ. Anyone who's played more than a couple of years will know that activity ebbs and floes, and certainly new content helps, but overall our community is strong, and those who step away, will come back.
I have also been somewhat less active in-game, but that's purely a result of the amount of work required for new developments. So if you need anything, I'm around as always. I haven't been as focused on fixes, because there's honestly no current bugs that I'm aware of that are breaking the game for anyone (VP will have one more detune).
Chieftan recently did a great job redoing the Wiki's spell recipe page, and Voyz went through spells that were missing recipes altogether, and was able to make me a list with consistent and non-duplicated recipes so we could get those (mostly SK) filled in. Thank you to both of them.
If you have any concerns that aren't addressed, or any other questions for me, let me know here.
For Akkadius & Rent,
-Draca
EZ Server Admin Team
