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See: EverQuest

EverQuest patches up as EverQuest II brings back Moonlight Enchantments

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Yesterday EverQuest pushed out a catch-all patch that made a slew of changes to several of the game’s quests, spells, and events. It’s one of those updates that just patches up a lot of small holes and corrects various issues, such as spells not showing the actual damage being done or pets losing their buffs when zoning into a region. Players will also be able to right-click on charms in their inventory to use those items’ particular abilities.

Over in its sister game, EverQuest II has brought back the Moonlight Enchantments (which ends at midnight tonight, so get cracking!) with new rewards.

“When you pass through these portals, you’ll have a chance to partake in quests that will award tokens,” Daybreak said. “You can take these tokens to the Grotto Merchants to redeem them for special rewards, including over 50 new items.”

Source: Patch notes, Moonlight Enchantments

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Global Chat: The fallout of Fallout 76

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Bethesda’s E3 reveal of Fallout 76 had many gamers and franchise fans talking, no more so than out among MMO bloggers. After all, taking the series online for the first time is a pretty notable occasion, is it not?

“As I said before, I am all onboard with a Fallout survival game,” wrote In An Age. “Exploring the wasteland and looting all the things consists of about 80% of my gameplay in this series, and I am currently on an extreme survival game kick the likes of which I have not experienced since my high school JRPG days. All of that sounds fantastic to me.”

Leo’s Life isn’t as enthusiastic: “I was certainly interested last week. Now, not so much. It’s not the game that I wanted, but it’s probably the game that someone else did.” And Endgame Variable notes that, “The first thing they showed was your basic animalistic gankbox-style PvP. That’s got to be sending a message.”

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One Shots: Fashion patrol coming your way!

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Well that is certainly one way to fill up the comments section with tons of screenshots: asking all of you to show of your best and boldest fashion! We had a virtual fashion show last week in the One Shots comments, and here are my personal favorites of the bunch (although most all were tremendous).

First up is UpayaBlossom, who brings some springtime cheer into the dour setting of Secret World Legends. “Oooh… fashion show? I was born ready for this!” she wrote.

Here’s a weird thought. What if all of the enemies in video games were adorable people and we played as the hideous monsters? What kind of fashion would we sport then?

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‘Magic through serendipity’: Raph Koster on the glorious mess that was Ultima Online

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I was a wide-eyed, naive kid when I first stepped into Ultima Online in 1997, and as it turns out, the developers were too.

That’s my takeaway from reading through the Ultima Online chunk of Raph Koster’s new book, Postmortems. Koster, as any dedicated MMORPG fan will recall, went by “Designer Dragon” back then as the creative lead on the game. Having come from a MUD background, he and his wife Kristin Koster were instrumental in shaping Richard Garriott’s seminal MMORPG and therefore the genre as we know it.

Koster kindly sent us a preprint of the book, unwittingly robbing himself of $35, as I was going to buy it anyway, and it’s massive, folks: over 700 pages spanning three decades and the majority of the online games Koster’s worked on during his long tenure in the gaming industry. Some of those games are definitely of more interest to our readers on Massively OP, in particular Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. It’s the Ultima Online chapters I aim to cover today.

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EverQuesting: A guide to EverQuest II’s new Oceansfull Festival

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So there was an update in EverQuest II recently. It was major enough it had a real name. But honestly, that barely garnered a blink from me. Then devs announced a new Othmir-centered Norrathian festival, and I am all excited! That’s right, throw a party with otters and I am so there. And that’s exactly what the Othmir are doing: partying. They are shaking their tails, tossing up fireworks, and dancing like nobody’s watching. What they aren’t doing is offering any involved quest hoops for players to jump through to join them. (Yes, the game has officially eschewed its name for this event.). They are just being chill and enjoying themselves, and they invite the rest of Norrath to do so as well.

Wait, what? No quests? This is EverQuest II: How will I know what to do? you may ask. That’s where this guide comes in handy. Find out the what, why, and where right here. Just be sure to jump in before 2:59 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 19th, because that’s when the party stops. If you’d rather see a video guide walkthrough, we also have that too!

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The MOP Up: The Black Death improves its profession system (June 10, 2018)

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The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some of it gets backlogged. That’s why there’s The MOP Up: a weekly compilation of smaller MMO stories and videos that you won’t want to miss. Seen any good MMO news? Hit us up through our tips line!

Maybe you’ll discover a new game in this space — or be reminded of an old favorite! This week we have stories and videos from Old School RuneScape, Pokemon Go, EverQuest, EVE Online, Paladins, Titan Quest, The Black Death, Skyforge, Final Fantasy XI, Wizard101, Pirate101, War of Rights, Evolve, State of Decay 2, all waiting for you after the break!

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EverQuest II debuts its otterly adorable Oceansfull festival

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Is it ever too late in an MMO’s lifecycle to introduce a new holiday? We think not! EverQuest II is jazzing up June with a festival that’s all about otters. Oh, you laugh, but give it a few seconds of thought. Who wouldn’t want to go to an otter festival? They hold hands when they sleep — and when they party!

“Although this began as an othmir celebration, pirates, sailors, fishermen, and other ocean-folk have caught on quickly, joining in the reverie and praising the Ocean Lord,” EverQuest II said. “Now, they have decided to expand the festivities even further — for the first time, they have decided to open the celebration to all of Norrath and anyone who may want to join in on the festivities!”

This festival, which runs through June 18th, takes place around certain bodies of water and encourages players to go on a clam shell hunt to earn titles, complete collections, and grab several new ocean-themed rewards.

Source: EverQuest II

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Global Chat: FFXIV re-reborn, State of Decay 2, and Dungeons and Dragons Online

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With the rollout of Patch 4.3, Final Fantasy XIV is offering its players a nice big slice of content to enjoy as we head into the summer. It certainly seems to be a time in which many players are making their way back to the game — or through it.

For example, Harbinger Zero booted back up his subscription to give the game a second chance. Sounds like things are going well: “How can I not compliment the job system? It keeps the game fresh to know I can log in and with a button click change my playstyle while keeping my character and progress.”

Aywren Sojourner recently wrapped up Stormblood’s main storyline and has a few thoughts on the journey (with lots of spoilers, of course). “I hate to say it because there were some pleasant parts to Stormblood, especially in Doma,” she wrote, “but I’m actually just glad to get beyond this story arc.”

We’ve got more MMO blog essays, including ones on making alt-friendly MMOs, State of Decay 2 impressions, and the best and worst of Dungeons and Dragons Online!

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The Survivalist: Eight ways to give Just Survive a fighting chance

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Do you remember at the beginning of May when Just Survive was talking about “working on a plan to go forward”? I understand if you don’t: It almost seems as if Daybreak itself has forgotten about the game, so how can it expect players to remember. Well, with H1Z1 doing so well on the PlayStation 4, maybe — just maybe — the game that actually birthed the battle royale version (that it lost its name to) will get some love. We can dream! And while we dream, we can also help the studio out with its plan-making endeavors. And boy, do I think it needs some help! As it is, the next promised patch sound like little more than maintenance mode and doesn’t really dispel the rumor that the game is on the sunset path. In order to survive, Just Survive needs to step up and offer a bit more than that. So here are eight ways Daybreak can give this survival game a fighting chance.

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The Soapbox: Do MMOs still fall victim to the copycat curse?

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When Radical Heights launched, I was inspired to put together a whole Perfect Ten about why trend-chasing doesn’t work for online games. Obviously, my chief focus was on games that wind up being developed at a rushed pace to cash in on trends and then run face-first into problems with chasing momentary trends, which… you know, you can just read the article; it’s linked right there. But it also prompted a follow-up question by longtime reader Sally Bowls asking why, with all of these issues, why the same rules don’t apply to MMOs.

The answer? Well, there isn’t one answer. There are three answers, all of which are part of the same set of considerations. For one thing, there’s the difference of development time and depth. For another, there’s the time before grinding. And last but not least, well… they do apply, really. But let’s take this piece by piece to talk about why trend-chasing for MMOs doesn’t quite provoke the same immediate reactions as it does for, say, MOBAs.

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EverQuesting: Seven must-dos with your free EverQuest II level 100

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We are smack-dab in the middle of the free level 100 giveaway in EverQuest II for all existing accounts. If you haven’t made your character yet (perhaps you are having trouble choosing between all the races and classes EQII has to offer), you have until Thursday, June 7th, 2018, to do it. And make it I would! Don’t miss out on this opportunity: Now is your chance to see and do things you may never have before, especially if you’ve you’ve been away from the game a long time and/or have never had this high of a level before. This is even a good opportunity for current players who don’t own the latest Planes of Prophecy expansion thanks to the sneak peek period.

OK, so now that you are making one, what can you do with a newly minted level 100? Sure, it may not be the best idea to immediately take it into a max-level raid; you might want to get a good feel for what the skills and abilities are first before some hard-core play. But there are a number of activities that are perfect for your fresh-from-character-creation fighter/healer/scout/mage. Here are seven must-dos to experience while you have the chance!
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EverQuest II’s Seeds of Vengeance has launched with a double XP event – go getcher free level 100 toon

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Live in EverQuest II today is the long-awaited GU106: Seeds of Vengeance update. As Daybreak’s previously noted, the update includes the new Shard of Hate zone, the item examine window UI revamp, and new expert and expert event versions of some dungeons, plus the new fast travel feature to the Plane of Magic. There’s a big sale on cash shop items through the weekend, as well as a double experience event over the holiday to aid your leveling.

Beginning today, Daybreak has also kicked off a promotion granting “all existing accounts” a freebie level 100 heroic character, complete with a familiar, mercenary, flying mount, and a full set of gear, plus temporary access to the Planes of Prophecy so that you can actually level to 105 and check out the new stuff.

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