Greetings everyone!

It’s that time of year again – the time for putting up decorations, singing carols, fighting for a playoff spot, gaining a few pounds, and the time when everyone constantly clicks on the launcher trying to gain access to the newest EverQuest expansion! For some of you, the wait is now over! …and for people like me, the weight is now starting!

With the Seeds of Destruction expansion, we gave you a sneak peek at a few zones.  For the Underfoot “Early Access” launch, we wanted to give veteran players a little something extra for their dedication and loyalty to EverQuest.   That’s where the concept of the Road to Underfoot came to life.

The Road to Underfoot kicked off with the Giants, Giants, Giants event. In this event, players fought against some of the largest foes across the gaming world.  Next, the players took on the form of some of their favorite monsters and battled against Ancient Heroes like Vox and Nagafen.  Finally, the Road to Underfoot ended with the Breaking of the Seal.  Cliknar forces broke through the Wall of Living Stone within the Hole on Norrath and armies of flooded out from the realm of Underfoot putting Norrath in danger.  Only brave adventurers can help save Norrath in time.

Though Underfoot will officially launch on Tuesday, December 15, 2009, everyone who completed the three Road to Underfoot events and pre-order and purchased the Underfoot expansion gained access to explore the Underfoot a week before everyone else.  The “Early Access” launch on December 8, 2009 includes the full expansion.

Next week on December 15^th, we’ll see the official launch of Underfoot which allows access to everyone else who purchases the expansion.

In this year of EverQuest’s 10^th Anniversary, we’ve seen the community rally together and show how much they support the game we all love.  The EQ team would like to thank everyone for helping to keep EverQuest going strong.  We’re committed to the game that started it all and to the passionate people that play them. We have a lot planned for the game over the coming year and hope to see everyone continue to be part of EverQuest’s history.

I wish you all a healthy, happy and prosperous holiday season and a plethora of Underfoot content! Last one in is a rotten egg!

Thom “Phathom” Terrazas
Producer, EverQuest on behalf of the EverQuest and SOE Team

Here’s some more detailed information about the Dragon Brood Crypt Key that people have been curious about.

The Dragon Brood Crypt Key Loot Card will allow you to redeem the Dragon Brood Crypt key on one character which will offer a quest that tells them where to go and what to do in order to gain access to the dragon’s crypt. For each person that has the key they will be able to bring 5 other players with them to participate.

While in the zone the group will be able to complete the quest that is triggered by this item that concludes with unique rewards for defeating the boss.  In addition to the items dropped by the boss, the holder of the key will also be able to choose any item they want from the same loot table.  The zone is designed for a group of Level 85 characters, and the items are roughly equivalent power to items that can be found in Korafax group encounters.

Provided that the last steps in this zone are not completed, the key holder can access the zone multiple times with anyone they are grouped with. Individual group members do not have to have a copy of the key to go in with a friend who does.

Once the last step is completed and the final rewards are claimed, the key is consumed and the zone will be inaccessible to the key holder.  However, obtaining another key will once again allow the player access to the zone in the same fashion as it was the first time.

While many of you have expressed concern, creating this encounter didn’t take away from developing the expansion, or other live content we have planned.  Legends of Norrath is popular with many players, and we’re able to use the resources dedicated to LoN to create extra things like this encounter – things we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to make.

Thank you,
Thom Terrazas
Producer, EverQuest Team

Bonus Experience Weekend is now live through Monday!

(51% bonus to commemorate the launching of the Mayong 51/50 server)

Enjoy!

Thom Terrazas / EverQuest Team

With much anticipation, the Mayong 51/50 Server went live Tuesday at 11:00am PDT! If you are hearing about the server for the first time, let me bring you up to speed.

When you create a character on the Mayong Server, you will start off at Level 51 and will be given 50 AA points to spend any way you like. There are 33 Boss Mob Encounters that reward you with first time kill titles, a bit more unique than if you were the second person to kill the Mobs.

As always when opening a new server, there is an inherited feeling for needing to race between players — to be the first at everything. First to kill that; first to get that and a first to 85. So get your race on!

Also, if you have friends that never leveled past level 50 to experience what you have in EverQuest, this is a great opportunity to invite them to enjoy the end game and skip past a few levels and more importantly, to play with your friends.

Lastly, because of the Mayong 51/50 server and Independence Day this weekend, we are granting a “51%” Experience Boost for everyone from Thursday mid day through Monday morning. Happy 4th of July!

See you in game!

About two weeks ago, Producer Clint Worley posted a letter announcing that he was moving off the EverQuest team. For many people, that opened up loads of questions and comments such as: “He was my favorite Producer, I’m going to miss him!”, “Where is he going?”, “Is he choosing to go?”, “Who’s taking his place?”, “I’ll bet it was because of that nerf he introduced in the last update”, etc… Well, I can assure you that he isn’t going far; he is going to be missed; no one strong-armed him into leaving; he still is the favorite producer of Betty in Topeka, KS.; it wasn’t because of a nerf; and lastly, it’s me jumping into the saddle to take his place.

Hello everyone, my name is Thom Terrazas, and I am the new Producer on EverQuest. For the past couple of weeks, I have been spending time getting to know the team, their initiatives and goals; and have begun to get reacquainted with the game that I played endlessly when it launched 10 years ago. Holy Smokes! 10 years! It truly is amazing, remembering a game behind the scenes eleven years ago in beta, watching it grow a tremendous following, seeing numerous expansions launched, and witnessing a continued level of passion from within the studio outward to include players far and wide.

Much like you, I have a long history with EverQuest and a ton of fond memories. Do you remember the first time you needed help from a Game Master? I was one of those GMs that helped you out! I started as one of the first GMs in EverQuest on the Tunare Server and had a blast helping and interacting with all of you! I was in game on “my” server when the first Fiery Avenger was earned! I remember hopping from server to server, running dozens of in-game events; logging into Everfrost, conducting the Ice Giant event and realizing that there was a bug that disallowed the GMs to equally hit players back with the same skill as a regular Ice Giant. Woops, we didn’t last very long! We had a lot of fun back then and it still continues. It’s awesome to think about it now, and to see all the progress EverQuest has made over the years and how other games continue to be measured against it.

Even though I have been busy on other games since then, I’ve never forgotten where it all started (EverQuest) and I never lose track of where it is headed. Sounds like an old girlfriend, doesn’t it?  Nonetheless, from EverQuest in-game support ten years ago, I went on to 6+ years of managing in the Customer Service Department and transitioned to Game Development just over 4 years ago.

I’m very excited to be part of the EverQuest Community and I look forward to meeting you in during Norrath’s second decade. Thanks for your time, I will see you in game, or at Fan Faire in Vegas!

It has been a wonderful time…

Being a part of the EQ franchise starting with EQOA and then Champions Return to Arms and now EverQuest has been a great experience. Moving onto the EQ team in a time of transition from 6-month expansions to 12-month expansions, and working to ramp up the amount of content we roll out for free throughout the year was a very challenging time for both our players and the developers.

We ultimately focused on the quality of our expansions more than ever and made sure that we spent time on addressing not only expansion related tasks but also long standing bugs and issues that had been pushed down the priority list in the past. I am happy to say that we have had more than our fair share of victories in the last few years and we will continue to progress towards making the game even better, cleaner and more fun for all of our loyal fans.

One of the core principles we focused on bringing to the EQ community was listening to player feedback. It is very easy for developers to focus on what we think is right and what should and shouldn’t be in the next expansion. But we leverage the strong fan base that is an amazing resource for creative input and feedback in the EQ Live environment. Listening to the players and setting aside time to implement great new features and fix old broken features creates a dynamic relationship between the developers and players. EQ started out a game that was created and made for players to experience, driven by the developers for the players. I do believe that the EQ of 2009 is a game made for the players — in many ways by the players — and that loyalty and creative friendship is what is truly magical about MMO gaming.

New Server Ruleset Announcement

We recently did a poll for a new server set through the in-game polling system. We have done many polls in the past through the webpage but there are plenty of players that play the game and don’t go to the webpage for information on it. We really wanted to get everyone who plays to cast a vote to accurately represent the players’ choice.

The winning server rule set was… 51/50 server!!!

We are pleased to see everyone cast their votes and can honestly say that we are very excited to see this server roll out to the EQ community. We are starting the work on getting the backend setup and ready to go, and will announce the details soon.

I had a great time and will see you all again…

I have enjoyed working with the team and spending time with the players. Fan Faire, Block Party and a few really funny April Fool’s Day events all ring a bell. The EQ development team has a passion for the game that founded this company and drove the entire online gaming industry forward, and although such a creative environment can get a little complicated at times, they always aim to make a game that will keep you the players entertained, challenged and actively involved with the future of the game.

So have a great time in your EQ adventures, and keep up the creative feedback and suggestions; I promise you that the developers listen! I am not going far, as the world of Norrath has plenty of adventuring left in it for generations to come, so I hope to see all of you in game again in the future!

The new server poll is drawing to a close this coming weekend! If you haven’t already voted, be sure to cast your vote by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 26th! Also, encourage your friends and fellow guildmates to vote as well.

Currently, the 51/50 server is the front runner. It will be interesting to see which one wins!

Please make sure that you take the time to check out the great overview on EQplayers.com.

Tip of the Week – Preparing Your Characters for the Server Merge

I know that many of you have been affected with the recent server stability and I want to assure you that we are well aware of the problem and we are working on multiple angles to fix it. The stability issues started with the update that went out this week. It is tied to server load and it seems to only happen around the peak time of our servers. We do have a lead on the problem and we are hoping to have it resolved before prime time today. Once the fix is ready we will notify all players and there will more than likely be a server bounce to get the fix in place. Thank you for your patience and understanding and we apologize for any inconveniences.

It seems that we have the details worked out and the merge will take place on the 4th of March. We will be sending out instructions to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible and I apologize for the delay.