IGN has done a feature editorial on the new Station Cash feature.

I neglected to post the dates for Frostfell ... it will run through January 9.

Have fun! Happy Holidays!

Sharing cleared instances in the Shadow Odyssey with other players, allowing them to loot shards, will no longer be as easy as it was when TSO launched.

The developers specifically addressed the issue in this week's developer chat, stating they are changing the way shards can be collected.

In the Deep Forge instance, to complete the Cold Heat Quest, you must now kill an automated hammer as well as collecting idols to complete a shard mission. The hammers also despawn, making it almost impossible to bring people in to collect shards.

EQII Producer Bruce "Froech" Ferguson had this to say about the Station Cash Program on the SOE boards:

"This has been a very interesting thread! As I mentioned in my blog post this morning, we here at SOE are really trying to listen to everyone, and there are a lot of good comments here. However, there have been some concerns posted that ring very true to me, and have been points of discussion here at SOE as we talked about the Marketplace. All of us agree that the last thing we want to do with this new system is to upset game balance in any way. We talked at great length about what sort of items would make sense in this context, which would serve the basics of being fun, convenient, and allow you to customize your character, without gaining an advantage over others. Sure, it would be easier for us to just slap in some swords or armor with uber stats, and put them out there. But that wouldn't really meet the needs that we've long heard from you in various ways, and frankly would make life much more difficult for us as well. Any future items that you may see in the Marketplace will be similar to the ones that went out today. They won't impact balance, truly.

There has also been a comment or two worrying about trading these items which I wanted to address. We have no plans to allow any of these items to be traded, and in fact built the system with that expectation. Any item we add in the future will share the no-trade and no-value flags, so that unscrupulous folks can't jigger the system so that they can just buy the items, and either turn them into plat by selling them to others, or "sell" them at some reduced rate for cash. We spend enough time chasing down gold farmers, another issue that comes up repeatedly, and adding an additional way for them to operate was a non-starter for us.

When it comes down to it, we just wanted to add some ways for folks to buy some additional fun, convenience, and customization, and not make it a requirement for everyone to get ahead.

Enjoy, and please keep the comments coming, we really want to hear from you!"

Y'all are cordially invited to the next exciting Allakhazam Developers Chat! Members of the EverQuest II Developer and Community Teams will be there, bring your questions! If you'd like to submit questions in advance, PM me here or on the EQ2 'Zam Forums, or send e-mail to [email protected] (subject Dev Chat).

Thursday, December 11, 4:00pm PST
In the #EQ2 channel on Allakhazam IRC
General chat during the actual event will be in #EQ2-FFA

Station Cash, the new real money transaction options for EQ and EQ2, is now live.

From the SOE FAQ:

"Station Cash is Sony Online Entertainment's new virtual currency that players can buy to fund a virtual wallet. Once a wallet has been funded, Station Cash can be used to purchase premium in-game items through the in-game Marketplace in EverQuest� and EverQuest� II.

While in game you'll be able to access the Marketplace by selecting the option from your EQII Menu in game. Here you will conduct all your purchases from your Wallet using Station Cash. Once you have a credit card on file you can easily add Station Cash to spend in either EverQuest or EverQuest II.

There are many types of items easily purchased and delivered directly to your character in game. There are safeguards with Station Cash so that your purchases will be delivered to your inventory.

A valid credit card is required to fund your Station Wallet, instructions on how to add a credit card to your account is available for your convenience."

Use your EQ2 menu in game to bring up the marketplace tab, where you can find all the items available and their prices.

Massively.com has a station cash walkthrough that covers all the menus and the items you can buy.

Niami Denmother at EQ2Traders has done it again with their extensive coverage of Frostfell crafting options.

Check out Frostfell Isn't Cancelled on their site for pictures and descriptions of everything you can make for the Frostfell holiday.

If you like Jethal Silverwing videos, you won't want to miss Frostfell Don't be Late.

From SOE:

Limited Customer Service Friday, December 12, 2008

Please be advised that SOE phone support and in-game support will be unavailable this Friday, December 12th. Phone support will resume at 10:00am Monday, December 15th. In-game support will be available during their normal business hours however response times may be delayed, response times will resume to normal on Saturday December 13th. Chat and email support will be available normal business hours on Friday December 12th. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.

Kwill was in Hawaii this past week! Yes, it's paradise. For any of you that live there, I am jealous ... I never want to leave once I arrive.

The EQVault Shadow Odyssey winners have been chosen and notified! Winners were chosen through a random number roll using EQII's random number generator in game.

If you got an email from me, congratulations, and enjoy your expansion.

Thanks to everyone for entering our contest.

I think there's just too much cuteness in EQII these days. I make sure everyone knows just how I feel in this edition of my editorial column, Kwill's Quill: Too Much Whimsy.

The player community is reporting that the two-shard reward missions in the Shadow Odyssey are not longer appearing on the NPC that used to offer them. These extra reward misisons were offered once a day on the Moors. Whether it's a long rotation or they are gone for good, currently it isn't possible to get a two-shard mission. This may be one of those things that was just a new expansion promotion to get people jump started on the shard track. So far, there's been no official SOE response on the boards, at least.

Official SOE Podcast #51 is live!!! This is official SOE Podcast #51, our Thanksgiving Podcast! In this Podcast we chat with Hal the Lore Dungeon Hamster, we hear a �Dramatic Thanks,� and we get to hear all the things for which listeners are Thankful.

Kiara posted:

"Your experience with Everquest II is very important to us and we would greatly appreciate your feedback. As such, we�ve implemented live surveys in-game to hear what you have to say about EQII. To access the survey, log in to EQII and use the /survey command in-game. Your responses will help us enhance gameplay, which we hope will provide you with a more enjoyable EQII in the future.

Your responses will be kept confidential and will be used solely for the purpose of helping to improve SOE�s products and services. Participation through the Survey Analytics site is governed by Survey Analytics� Privacy Policy.

Thank you for your time � we appreciate your feedback."

Brasse has another great comic for us, this time celebrating Thanksgiving!

I hope all the Americans had a great Thanksgiving ... there are 4 million fewer turkeys in the world today ... enjoy your leftovers!

Some enterprising players have ferretted out some old school gaming references in TSO (and of course, got in a little spat about it.)

Fun stuff though. Keep watching the thread for more posts!

Previously, there was a problem with everyone in a group being able to get a void shard at the end of a TSO mission, unless the group made sure that free for all looting was set when opening the final chest.

Rothgar, EQII programmer posted on November 21: "This bug has been fixed, its just waiting on the next hotfix to happen."

Gameplay


Corrected an issue with Merchants and Menders knowing what the real value is of a copper in Norrath.
Pet pathing should be a little less perilous.

Raids

Befallen Stronghold
Tyrannus and some of the adjacent Voidmen no longer teleport you quite as far. His flux is a little less powerful as well.

Palace Raid
Tythus Tynzok will no longer expel players from the island. The Shadow Odyssey

Alla's has information on new gods Anashti Sul and Rodcet Nife, as well as the TSO Missions and the Moors of Ykesha quests.