We’ve got some word of this year’s Fan Faire!

Per the latest SOE pocast (#33), Fan Faire 2008 will be held in Las Vegas, at the Hilton, from August 14-17.

Low bandwidth

High bandwidth

The key bits begin at 25:00.

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UPDATE - The Fan Faire site is live, and confirmed!

http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/

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If Update 44 was the Ranger patch, then Coercers should keep a sharp eye out for Update 45.

In this post made earlier this week by Chris “Aeralik” Kozak, he starts out by stating “[Game Update] 45 will see some significant changes to the coercer class.” He goes on to outline the upcoming changes, which seem designed to address much, if not most of the complaints the coercer community has been griping about for some time now.

Now, for the handful of you who still haven’t tried out Everquest II (and seriously, what’s wrong with you!?), the Coercer is the dark counterpart to the Illusionist class. Coercers are primarily a control and support class right now, with a great deal of their damage coming indirectly (either through the control of a charmed monster or by way of “reactive” damage spells placed on other members of their group).

Coercers get some remarkable support spells, but as a general rule, they have a lot of trouble hitting parses (typically considered the poorest damage dealer - by far - of all mage classes).

The changes being outlined are ambitious, to say the least, and in some ways will revamp the class more dramatically than any other updates since early 2006.

In addition, at least one of the changes will affect ALL Enchanters, Coercers and Illusionists alike. The Volatile Magic achievement (which greatly increases spell damage if the caster is below 30% power) is going to be altered to provide less benefit, but all of the time. This should mean we’ll see an end to enchanters sprinting on raids just to burn through their power.

More on the specific changes after the break.
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For a fascinating look into the world of live MMO coding, take a peek at the personal blog of Everquest II’s Technical Director, Josh “Autenil” Kriegshauer.  Earlier this week in an article at The Joshua Tree, Josh pulls back the curtain on an issue he’s been working with regarding memory leaks.

It’s a refreshing post, because he dives right on in to the actual code changes he’s hoping to make instead of making vague corporate-safe proclamations that “he’s working on it” or “it’s on their list of issues to look into”.  If you’re into programming, you’ll love the post all the more.

For the rest of us, the quick summary is this:  While looking at a problem with lag in Veeshan’s Peak, Josh found a solution that should hopefully help fix quite a bit of lag throughout the entire Everquest II client.

Source:  “Leaking memory by the kilo[byte]“ at The Joshua Tree by Josh “Autenil” Kriegshauer