Please join us on Wednesday, November 29th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #everquest before, during, and after the House of Commons.

We hope to see you there!

November 15th Release Notes
[15-Nov-2006]

Dragon Shard Gift

As a special thank you to our players for the patience and support yougave us during the network issues surrounding the launch of Module 3everyone with an active subscription has been given a dragonshard.

Each character created before November 2nd, 2006 now has a freelevel-appropriate dragonshard in their inventory that will permit themto swap out a previously chosen feat. As feats are an integral part ofcharacter development, dragonshards allow you to tune your characterwith a better understanding of the game and how those choices affectedyour character’s abilities.

For more information on using dragonshards, please visit the DDO Forums or read the article on Dragonshards. Please note: 7-day trial account players are not eligible for free dragonshards.


Changes to the Death Penalty System

We have adjusted the curve that defines the death penalty. You shouldnow see a much smoother progression, and there shouldn't be any radicaljumps in the death penalty as you level. You will notice that the deathpenalty for levels 11 and 12 have dropped significantly. We have alsoadjusted/lowered the rate for multiple deaths. You will find lowerdeath penalties across the board – releasing will no longer bedevastating to your XP bar.

For the full article please click here.


Mail

• You can no longer delete mail that has an item orcurrency attached to it. If you try to delete a message with attacheditems you will receive a pop-up warning message and will have to detachyour items before you can delete the message.
• Opened messages will now be retained in your mailbox for 14 days instead of 3.
• Admin mail that has an item or currency attached will never be automatically deleted.

Auction House

For this update we have done a complete restructure of the AuctionHouse fees. Posting fees have been both reduced and simplified. Previouslywe used a fairly complicated formula to determine the posting fee foran item. We are now going to be using a percentage of the item's valuewhich will increase based on the length of the auction. The new feesare as follows:

8 hour auction = 0.5% of item value with a 5gp minimum
24 hour auction = 1% of item value with a 10gp minimum
48 hour auction = 1.5% of item value with a 15gp minimum
72 hour auction = 2% of item value with a 20gp minimum

Buyout prices, if any, will not affect the posting fee, nor will your set minimum bid. The posting fee is based solely on the item's value. The posting fee will also be refunded for all successful auctions.

We are also adjusting the selling fees. The Auction Houses will nowcharge a blanket 30% of the sell price for all successful auctions.This percentage is the same regardless of the length of the auction.

In addition to the changes to the fee schedule, we are also making someimprovements to the Auction UI to help ensure that both buyers andsellers have accurate, up-to-date information about the state of theirauctions. You should also see fewer "maximum number of bids exceeded"error messages.


In Addition

• We have made some changes to improve server performance.
• Loading times when zoning have been slightly decreased.
• Fixed an issue where auto-attack was sometimes causing client crashes.
• Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause the Marilith to fall off her platform in the circle of eternity.
• Anyplayer that was unable to select their reward for reaching 1750 totalfavor should now be able to talk to Nyx Durandimion again and receivetheir reward.
• Players should now be able to properly return to mouselook mode after viewing the map UI.
• Quest NPCs should function properly with the new interact keybindings.
• TheObscurring Mist effect will now dissipate properly (in some cases itbecame a permanent effect until you logged out and back in again).
• AnyDivine Agility scrolls your characters had are now Flame Strikescrolls. The Divine Agility spell was removed from DDO but the scrollswere not. These new Flame Strike scrolls will not stack with regularFlame Strike scrolls so you should use them or sell them soon to helpprevent confusion.
• Auctioneers are now designated by a new overhead icon and have had the title "Auctioneer" appended to their name.
• It is no longer possible to fall off of The Foothold Tavern Island in the Restless Isles.
• Allof Masei Mkembe's (Zawabi's Refuge) reward options are now workingcorrectly. Previously if you choose high powered martial weapons,normal martial weapons, or normal ranged weapons he would take yourtokens but wouldn't give you the desired reward. If you experiencedthis problem please contact a GM and they will be able to refund yourtokens.

Known Issues

• If you have a feat that you can acquire multipletimes (Improved Damage Reduction, Toughness etc.) and you attempt to exchange afeat you have for another serving of the multiple feat, you will not be able tochoose the multiple feat again. For example, if you have already taken ImprovedDamage Reduction and you attempt to exchange a feat for another helping ofImproved Damage Reduction, Improved Damage Reduction will be listed in the listof valid feats to choose from, but it cannot be dragged into the choice box.
• If you give Galrias the Smith (Relic of aSovereign Past) enough adamantine ore to craft an item and yourinventory is full, then you will not receive the item. It will not bein your overflow slots, it will just disappear. In addition, you willbe unable to get any more items from Galrias because you cannot tradeyour old item for a new one. Therefore, please be sure that you have atleast one empty inventory slot before talking to Galrias the Smith.
• Auctions
  
  • Auctionsthat have ended normally (not cancelled or bought out) are not removedfrom your list of bids until you log out and back in again. Please note: you will be charged twice, so please DO NOT CLICK THE "BUYOUT" BUTTON TWICE.
  • If you are the high bidder on an auction and are then outbid, those bids remain in your list of bids until the auction end and you log out/in again.
    
  • If you click the "buyout" option in the Auction House more than onceyou will get multiple e-mails saying you have won an auction. Only thefirst e-mail will be a valid e-mail and only the first e-mail will haveyour item attached.
• Warforged Titan
  
  • Ifyou or a party member accidentally picks up a crystal from the crystalsynthesizer while fighting the Ancient Warforged and then destroys it,the crystal synthesizer will not make a new crystal and the questcannot be completed.
  • If you or a party member attempts to takea crystal from the crystal synthesizer with a full inventory, you willreceive an error message that all inventory slots are full. The crystaldoes not go into the overflow slots, and is lost. In addition, thecrystal synthesizer never spawns another crystal, so the quest cannotbe completed.

Risia open for the Thanksgiving Weekend
[22-Nov-2006]

As a special treat for the Thanksgiving holiday we are bringing up the Risia Server to give you a chance to play and give feedback on the new dungeons we are adding in the "Evil Resurgent" update. We are using the same servers and character data that we used last time Risia was up, therefore we are giving out 10x the normal XP rate to help get you up and running on the Risia server faster. As a reminder, the servers that had character data copied to Risia last time were: Adar, Aerenal, Argonnessen, Aundair, Fernia, Ghallanda, Kyber, and Lhazaar, and the characters were copied at the beginning of October. Don't worry if your server isn't on this list or if your character has gained levels since the data was copied – the XP bonus will help you catch up in no time!

We are hoping that you will use the time that Risia is up to give us some feedback on our newest dungeons. We have six new dungeons in "Evil Resurgent" and we want to know what you think of them all! "From Beyond the Grave," "Dreams of Insanity," "And the Dead Shall Rise," and "The Enemy Within" are all given in House Jorasco. "The Spawn of Whisperdoom" starts in House Phiarlan and "Haywire Grotto" can be picked up in House Kundarak. We know that it's tempting to play through Shan-ta-Kor with the bonus experience, but we already have your feedback on that quest – we'd really appreciate it if you'd focus on the new quests and let us know what you think in the Risia Test Server forum on DDO.com.

There are two Known Issues for Risia at the moment: please click here to learn more.

Playing on Risia requires the installation of a second DDO client. If you have playerd on Risia before you will be able to simply patch up for the latest version. Click here for the Knowledge Base article with download instructions and other very important information. We will keep you updated with server status throughout the week in the Risia Test Server forum.

Please join us on Thursday, November 30th for a House of Commons with the developers of Toontown at 4pm PsT / 7pm EsT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
• irc.epaxsys.net port 6668, USA - Colorado

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

General chat relating to Toontown will take place before, during, and after the chat in room #toontown. We hope to see you there!

Please join us on Saturday, November 18, 2006, for a House of Commons with the developers of Last Chaos at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing all topics relating to Last Chaos during this HoC, and general chat relating to this title will be in channel #lastchaos before, during, and after the dev chat.

We hope to see you there!

That's right... for the first 10,000 subscribers to the Carpe Diem Open Beta, you will recieve a unique in-game item only available through Stratics!

Carpe Diem is a unique MMO who has just finished its closed beta stage, and promises to provide some very exciting gaming:

There are mounts in Carpe Diem, which you acquire early in the game. All mounts have their own character development and need feeding and caring for. If you acquire high level riding skills you can train your mount to fight alongside you, for example a Knight can train his horse to trample his enemies. This is unique to Carpe Diem, as other MMOs typically provide you with a mount that you merely sit atop and do not interact with. Imagine, being able to train your mount to attack!

Battle in Carpe Diem also has its own unique twist. There is a unique 'possession' system that allows two players to combine as a single fighting unit. A Fey and a human may unite so that monsters will always attack the Human. This leaves the Fey free to unleash devastating offensive magic or choose to keep her human partner constantly healed. Oh, what would it be like to inhabit the body of another to combine forces against wicked foes!

To learn more about this title, and the beta invitation offer, go here!

Mail

• You can no longer delete mail that has an item or currency attached to it. If you try to delete a message with attached items you will receive a pop-up warning message and will have to detach your items before you can delete the message.
• Opened messages will now be retained in your mailbox for 14 days instead of 3.
• Admin mail that has an item or currency attached will never be automatically deleted.

Auction House

In the next update we are doing a complete restructure of the Auction House fees. Posting fees have both reduced and simplified. Previously we used a fairly complicated formula to determine the posting fee for an item. We are now going to be using a percentage of the item's value which will increase based on the length of the auction. The new fees are as follows:

8 hour auction = 0.5% of item value with a 5gp minimum
24 hour auction = 1% of item value with a 10gp minimum
48 hour auction = 1.5% of item value with a 15gp minimum
72 hour auction = 2% of item value with a 20gp minimum

Buyout prices, if any, will not affect the posting fee, nor will your set minimum bid. The posting fee is based solely on the item's value. The posting fee will also be refunded for all successful auctions.

We are also adjusting the selling fees. The Auction Houses will now charge a blanket 30% of the sell price for all successful auctions. This percentage is the same regardless of the length of the auction.

In addition to the changes to the fee schedule, we are also making some improvements to the Auction UI to help ensure that both buyers and sellers have accurate, up-to-date information about the state of their auctions.

With the sheer number of games that exist in our world, we need a better way of finding out what games are available, and if those games are right for us. One such way would be using a guidebook like The Book of Games, Volume 1. They allowed us to take a sneak peak into their extensive informational guide to video games.

Both players of games, and parents of gamers need the tools necessary to determine what games are what. One such tool, is the Book of Games, Volume 1, a massive tomb of information on games, hardware, and research. With over four hundred pages, this book includes information on all major categories of games.

READ MORE about this book now and find out if we think if the tool is right for gamers.

Everquest II House of Commons Dev Chat

Please join us on Tuesday, December 5th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest II at 4:30 PM Pacific / 7:30 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics, however a main focus will be the recent expansion, Echoes of Faydwer.

We hope to see you there!

Tabula Rasa - Closed Beta Contest!!!





Attention recruits! The battle for control of the Universe begins soon... If you want to be on the front lines when the Tabula Rasa beta test starts, we have your tickets right here. Do you have what it takes to join the Allied Free Sentients? Visit our Contest Page to read all the details.

From the ashes of an ancient conflict, a cosmic war threatens all sentient beings with enslavement or extinction. As the Eloh and Bane amass their forces for the final battle, the galaxy’s last free sentient beings are the thin line between life and death, between good and evil. From lush forest planets to volcanic moons, the Allied Free Sentients are making their last desperate stand against the relentless Bane.

Join us and free the universe from the Bane’s brutal onslaught!

Changes to the Death Penalty System

We have completed our initial evaluation of the death penalty system and are in the process of making some changes. The first change we made was to increase the amount of experience you regain by using a Resurrection Shrine from 25% to 50% to match the amount granted by using the Raise Dead Spell. This change is already live and helps ensure that Clerics (and characters with high Use Magic Device skill that use Raise Dead scrolls on the rest of the party) will no longer suffer the worst death penalties of any class.

For the next update we are adjusting the curve that defines the death penalty. You should see a much smoother progression from now on, and there shouldn't be any radical jumps in the death penalty as you level. You will notice that the death penalty for levels 11 and 12 have dropped significantly. We have also adjusted/lowered the rate for multiple deaths. You will find lower death penalties across the board – releasing will no longer be devastating to your XP bar.

We are also investigating another change – when a character is inactive their death penalty will slowly fade away. Casual players and players with multiple characters they like to play are likely to gain the most benefit from this change, and a single bad night will not cripple a character’s advancement.

Sir Lawrence's Scavenger Hunt - November 11-12
[09-Nov-2006]

Sir Lawrence D'Deneith is back with another Scavenger Hunt challenge for adventurers!

"Located throughout Smuggler's Rest and Stormreach's various wards (Harbor, Marketplace, Houses Deneith, Phiarlan, Kundarak and Jorasco as well as the Cemetary), I have hidden rare collectibles in obscure corners, bushes and waters in the city.

My challenge to you, is to find the following:

• 50 Twelve-Sided Crystals collectibles

• 50 Tears of Vulkoor collectibles

• 50 Alchemist's Chapbooks collectibles

Feel free to trade items with friends (or sell if you're an entrepreneur) to collect every collectible needed to win an exclusive Wayfinder Scepter!

I'll be hiding the items for the duration of two bells, during that time, if you find the necessary amount of collectibles, send me a message and I will trade you for a Wayfinder Scepter!

Good luck, and sally forth!

-Sir Lawrence d'Deneith”

The rules:

We will be hosting a live Scavenger Hunt on several servers this weekend. (Don’t worry, if you don’t see your server listed below, we will visit yours soon!)

The events will last two (2) hours each on a given server (see list below for current event servers.)

To win, you must find the following:

• 50 Twelve-Sided Crystals collectibles

• 50 Tears of Vulkoor collectibles

• 50 Alchemist’s Chapbooks collectibles

The collectibles can be found in obscure areas in the public spaces around Stormreach, we recommend taking the time to carefully search the city for these rare items!

You may trade or sell collectibles if you find extras, however, please understand that cutthroat selling of these items will be frowned upon. Let's keep it friendly and fun, people! (Sir Lawrence mentioned that selling items for ham is encouraged. He loves ham and thinks you should too.)

Once all items are found, visit +Sir Lawrence d’Deneith in the Leaky Dinghy and offer him a trade. Give him all the items he is looking for, and upon verification (sorry, while he likes ham, he will not accept it as a replacement for the collectibles) he will trade you for the Wayfinder Sceptre.

The Wayfinder Scepter gives a +1 bonus to your Search skill. (This does not stack with other items that give a bonus to Search.) The scepter is a prize-only exclusive and cannot be obtained through normal gameplay. The scepter does not bind and has no value. No more than one scepter is available to each winning player. If you want more than one, you will need to log in with a different character and find more collectibles.

Schedule

Saturday, November 11, 5PM Eastern - Ghallanda
Saturday, November 11, 8PM Eastern - Aundair

Sunday, November 12, 5PM Eastern - Khyber
Sunday, November 12, 8PM Eastern - Riedra

[Void in non-participating areas of Eberron. Harmful if swallowed. If swallowed do not induce vomiting. Side effects include excitement and bragging rights.]