For anyone who hasn’t been paying close attention to the upcoming Warhammer Online MMO, they recently released a considerable amount of information about the guild system for Warhammer Online. This includes a short video located here, and the grab bag questions from their April Newsletter. Here is my favorite question from the grab bag.

Q: What kind of advantages will a guild offer to players beyond chat and finding groups?

A: Beyond the standard features such as guild vaults, cloaks, and guild merchants, we’ve added a layer of game play into our guild system that goes above and beyond standard communication and grouping needs. Guilds gain ranks just like players do, and not just for bragging rights. At each guild rank, guilds gain rewards that benefit the individual guild members and the guild as a whole. Some of the rewards even enhance the role of the member and guild in PvE and RvR.

In addition, the Living Guilds system is designed to offer maximum control and organization to guild leaders without requiring them to make it a fulltime job. A robust set of tools for organizing members and guild leadership, as well as fully integrated messaging and automated news systems, makes it easy to keep tabs on your members. And the guild calendar makes it easy to organize events within your guild OR within your alliances.

It looks like Warhammer Online will contain a number of features that I am surprised we haven’t seen from a major MMO yet. It looks to contain an in game calendar and news system, which is a really good idea. Every guild I have ever been a part of has scheduled events of some nature for the guild as a whole. Everything from Raid nights, to create a new character night, or silly stuff like a new character race from point A to point B. Then with a news system in place, you can let anyone who wasn’t able to attend know what they missed out on, or how the Sunday raid went. Hopefully some other MMO’s will pick up on these features sooner or later. I would love to see an in game calendar for EQ2.

It seems that those expansion files released with the Test update weren’t all that early after all.

According to the French version of SOE’s EQ2players.com site, players will see the return of the god Rodcet Nife in Update 45.  In addition, it appears that the Void will be invading Norrath in this upcoming update, fueling speculation that the upcoming expansion (rumored to be named “The Shadow of Odyssey”) will be centered around the Void. 

The relevant text was here (translation below):

L’événement de Rodcet Nife sera en live avec la mise a jour 45.
Un mystère volontaire entoure cet événement et tous les suivants seront de plus en plus impressionnants menant vers des invasions de grande envergure des créatures du Vide à travers le monde pour toutes les niveaux.

Translation:

The event of Rodcet Nife will be in live with the placement has day 45.  An optional mystery surrounds this event and all the following ones will be more and more impressive leading towards large scale invasions of the creatures of the Void throughout the world at all levels. 

Many thanks to Vulkoor of Antonia Bayle server, who noticed the following files which accompanied the recent Test Update 45 patch.  Virtually all of these files seem related to Expansion 5 (Shadows of Odyssey?  The Shadow Odyssey?):

8233 creatures/tu/valkyrie_greater
8234 creatures/tu/valkyrie_icemaiden
8237 creatures/pets/gigglegibber_crate
8238 _exp05/zones/objects/exp05_dun_miragul_upper/glass_orb
8239 _exp05/zones/objects/exp05_dun_miragul_upper/glass_orb_ped
8240 _exp05/zones/objects/exp05_dun_miragul_upper/glass_orb_ped_real
8241 staticobjects/clothing/wedding_veil
8242 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_bertoxxulous_01
8243 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_comfort_01
8244 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_fizzlethorpebristlebane
8245 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_generic_floral
8246 creatures/tu/skeleton_king_greater_ice
8253 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_dark_energy
8254 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_dark_water
8255 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_sludge
8256 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_traveler
8257 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_vile_putridness
8264 _exp05/monsters/void_storm_tornado
8270 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_anashti_sul_undead
8271 creatures/tu/gods_anashti_sul_undead
8272 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/chest_fungusman_02_armor
8273 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/chest_fungusman_02_armor_white
8274 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/head_fungusman_02_flat
8275 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/head_fungusman_02_flat_white
8276 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/head_fungusman_02_pointy
8277 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/head_fungusman_02_pointy_white
8278 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/head_fungusman_02_round
8279 accessories/npc_wearables/fungusman_02_appearances/head_fungusman_02_round_white
8280 accessories/wieldable_items/weapons/exp05/1h_void_sword01
8281 accessories/wieldable_items/weapons/exp05/1hc_void_axe01
8282 accessories/wieldable_items/weapons/exp05/1hc_void_hammer01
8283 accessories/wieldable_items/weapons/exp05/2h_void_staff01
8284 accessories/wieldable_items/weapons/exp05/void_bow01
8285 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_oathbreaker
8286 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_brellserilis
8287 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_cazicthule
8288 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_innoruuk
8290 _exp05/monsters/bat_swarm
8292 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_tunare
8293 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_ralloszek
8294 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_tribunal
8295 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_quellious
8296 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_solusekro
8297 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_mithanielmarr
8298 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_karana
8300 accessories/wearable_items/cloak/exp05/cloak_sq_01_void_energy
8301 creatures/tu/gods_rodcet_nife
8303 creatures/tu/earth_elem_pet
8304 creatures/tu/riverrock_earth_elem_pet
8308 creatures/tu/obsidian_earth_elem_pet
8309 _exp05/monsters/skull_wisp

Of particular note, seems there’s a new dungeon (Miragul Upper), a least one new possible diety (Rodcet Nife, God of life and healing), a new version of Anashti Sul (Desert of Flames), several new cloaks, and a slew of creatures which seem related to the Northlands or the Void.

Oh, there’s a lot coming in Update 45, alright. For those of you unaware, Update 45 was pushed to the Test Server yesterday. Here’s a quick list of the big changes:

Mounts won’t leave you: Mounts merely suspend now when you feign death or jump on a griffon, sokokar, or cloud. (If you’re a fae or arasai, you might want to deactivate your mount before jumping off of a sokokar).

More bank space: Every character on every account is receiving at least 4 new bank slots and 4 new shared bank slots - oh, and you can now share coin between characters. On PVE servers, you’ll also be able to share coin and goods between good and evil characters on the same account. Obviously, PVP servers have some additional restrictions.

No more nil crystals (or thoughtstones, etc..): ‘Nuff said.

Big changes coming to Coercers: We talked about this when Aeralik first mentioned it.

Better Broker search: You’ll be able to search for +crit, +damage, +double attack.

Shared Chardok sokokar post: So long as you’ve completed the first sokokar quest in Kylong, you’ll be able to hit the second sokokar post in Chardok, so long as any member of your group has access to it already.

BONUS: You won’t find it listed in the notes, but you’ll find new UI files for GuildHalls, NewMapSys, and Vivox. Seems that Guild Halls are much closer to done than we’d previously thought.

Full notes at SOE’s official forums.

In case you missed it, SOE Designer, Steve “Saavedra” Kramer, has been working on a level 80 version of Runnyeye:

The best revamps (to me, of course!) are the ones where I get to scrap everything without worrying about what was in there before, and make an entirely new zone out of it. I was given a choice of zones to do this with a few months ago, and eventually settled on making a level 80 instance of Runnyeye.

Runnyeye itself has presented some challenges, but I think it’s coming together nicely after some much needed housecleaning. When I first went into the zone completely empty, I couldn’t help but think that the goblins really need to clean up this dump, so the first thing I did was start deleting all of the trash piles and modifying the zone art to fit my needs.

The goblins were expecting some guests after all, and it wouldn’t do to invite dignitaries into a hovel.

Read the entire entry at the official SOE Developer blog.

Confirmed updates on the specifics of this dungeon will be posted after the jump (keep checking back).

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My guild is serious about our raiding. My guild is typically considered to be fairly casual by other guilds.

To many of you, those two statements seem to be completely contradictory to each other.

To those of you who consider yourselves a bit more hardcore, it may be hard to fathom how a guild which doesn’t maintain strict attendance requirements, with an active membership of nearly 60 members (outright “bloated” by many raid guild standards), who only raids three nights a week (for only three hours at a time) and who isn’t even to third tier of T8 raiding could possibly even think to consider themselves “serious” as raiders.

Yet, to other players who may not be quite as involved as we are, the thought of a guild which tracks raid points and holds bids for loot, who raids three nights a week (for a whopping three hours at a time!), who is already in the second tier of T8 raiding, and who maintains a large active roster of nearly 60 members could only be described as “serious” raiders.

Truly, “casual” (and “hardcore”) is in the eye of the beholder.
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Well, Bruce over at MMOGChart.com recently posted version 23 of his ever-expanding MMOG subscription tracking data, which got me to thinking: just what kind of numbers are we really dealing with? We hear lots of stats on subscription counts - World of Warcraft’s 10 million subscribers being the best example - but not so much about tallies from individual genres.

Fortunately, Bruce has provided not only a chart of subscription share by genre here, but he also gives access to his raw data. With that in mind, I decided to take a look at the statistics myself….

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Here’s your “small world” story of the day.

I’m at work this morning at a very large, rather well known client.  I’m building out system designs for my team’s next release.  The new data recovery manager that’s been hired is behind me is talking on his phone loudly to a friend.  I’m trying not to eavesdrop, but he keeps mentioning words like “CyberpowerPC” that perk me up.  I was JUST looking over that site this morning to pick up a new gaming rig to replace my aging model.

Just as I’m trying to get back to concentrating on my own work, he also mentions that he’s hoping to go to Vegas “this year”.  Come to think about it, he was mentioning Vegas earlier this morning on a different phone call.  it grabbed my attention because I’d just booked my own room for FanFaire this week, and I was scouring the sites this morning looking to snipe some decent airfare.  Again, I’m thinking maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Then, he mentions to his friend on the phone that he wonders if he should come over tomorrow…”unless you’re going to be playing EQ all morning, and then I’ll just see you in-game”.

Full stop.  What did he just say??

Yeah, he’s talking about SOE FanFaire.  This guy who easily makes over six figures at my work is talking gaming openly.  Come to find out, he’s calling around to his friends this morning trying to see who’s going or not.

Yeah, it’s a small world.  I love this game.

EDIT: It looks like Tipa beat me to it this morning by an hour.

According to the USPTO’s TESS trademark database, Sony Online Entertainment has filed two trademarks for “Everquest II: The Shadows of Odyssey” (77451534 and 77450867).

Based on recent discussions in the lore forums regarding the long lost Shissar and hints in the forums from developers regarding the fact that Luclin is, in fact, not a barren wasteland, this could potentially point to a Luclin based expansion.

However, please note that the recent lore fiction regarding “Escape from Guk” and “Flight of the Mudskipper” could indicate a different locale altogether.

I was having a discussion with a friend over lunch about Earth Day and the amount of attention the environment is picking up in the last year or two by retailers. At some point, we started to discuss our “carbon footprints“. There’s a lot of talk these days about carbon footprints. In a nutshell, that’s the amount of carbon dioxide you and I and everyone else on the planet produces through our daily activities. The carbon footprint is actually a combined total determined by our primary footprint (directly caused) and our secondary footprint (indirectly caused).

Why am I bringing this up on a site dedicated to gaming?

As we our discussion naturally turned to gaming (as it almost always does), we began to try to discuss the contributions support classes make to groups and raids that is often unquantified by most players. We started to talk about parsers and running some controlled experiments on the Everquest II Test Server to verify exactly how much of a boost some debuffs really produced. As we dug into the math, I started to realize how little most players really understand the impact they have on overall damage totals.

In short, we’d started talking about our DPS Footprints.
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