November 30, 2001: I hope you're not planning on playing hookie at work on Monday in order to play Everquest (hey you know you do it). Just remember that the game servers are going down at noon pst Monday and won't be back up until 8:00 am on Tuesday. At that point, those of you who have Luclin should be able to start loading the newbie zones with tons of kitty cats. Also, please don't send in new fashion table pictures right now. I'm trying to figure out how to revamp them to reflect the new graphics, but with 28 new zones worth of stuff coming in starting next week, I probably won't get to that for a while.
November 29, 2001: Yes, there are Dark Age of Camelot posts in the news section. We plan on splitting the news posts into separate pages, but for now they are all on one page, because that's how the software is currently designed. We have some great new features coming out soon that have taken up Illia's programming time, and when you see them I think you'll agree they are worth putting up with Camelot news for a little while longer.
New Equipment: Reinforced Dragonspine Vambraces ; Field Plate Boots ; Field Plate Cloak ; Field Plate Collar ; Field Plate Gauntlets ; Field Plate Girdle ; Field Plate Greaves ; Field Plate Helm ; Field Plate Pauldron ; Field Plate Visor ;
November 28, 2001: Our Isp is having router troubles, which is causing the site to randomly slow down to a crawl at times. They assure me that it will be fixed by this weekend, but in the meantime we have to put up with occasional slow periods. Sorry for the inconvienience.
New Equipment: Kylong Boots ; Al'Kabor's Propylon of the Nexus ; Imbued Vale Reinforced Sleeves (Karana) ; Blue Wicker Cloak ; Blue Wicker Shoulderpads ; Blue Wicker Wristbands ; Dwarven Chain Boots ; Dwarven Chain Bracer ; Dwarven Chain Cloak ; Dwarven Chain Mantle ; Dwarven Chain Pants ; Dwarven Chain Sleeves ; Dwarven Chain Tunic ; Dwarven Chain Veil ;
November 27, 2001: We're going to start revamping certain sections of the site over the next week to prepare it for the release of The Shadows of Luclin. I'm trying to track down as many of the new zone names and information as I can and add them in so we can start adding new items and quests to them as soon as people start sending them in. We already added include and exclude Luclin buttons to the advanced equipment search, so those with premium access will be able to look strictly for Luclin items or exclue them from your search if you don't have the expansion. You will notice other things as the week goes on.
New Equipment: Field
Plate Bracers ; Enchanted
Full Plate Vambraces (Electrum) ; Enchanted
Full Plate Visor (Silver) ; Coldain
Velium Short Sword ; Essence
Lens ; Essence
Blade ; Essence
Mace ; Essence
Pearl ; Essence
Ring ;
New Quests: Essence
Lens ;
November 26, 2001: I hope everyone in the U.S. had a nice holiday weekend. We've brought in some new news posters, so the news section should start to get much more detailed and lively. So don't be surprised when new names start appearing as posters. We are going to split up the news posts so that each game site just gets its own news and all posts, including general posts, will be on the main allakhazam.com url, but for now, news for every game continues to be under the EQ site's heading. Oh yeah, and based upon some suggestions sent to me, I added a few other things to the christmas list. I may revise it a few more times yet as I find time and discover things.
New Equipment: Forged Javelin ; Forged Shuriken ; Forged Throwing Axe ; Imperial Wardog Collar ;
November 22, 2001: Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.
November 21, 2001: I figured I'd better mention this now, since when Luclin comes out things might be so Insane I'll forget. For those who signed up for the premium service and do not wish your account to automatically renew itself, you need to click on login in the index and change your account settings to "no" for renewal. Believe it or not, we really don't want to charge you if you don't want to continue the service, and we don't want the charge to sneak up on you before you know it. Of course, based upon the feedback we've gotten about how much you all love the extras offered by the premium services, I would assume that once you have it you will want to keep renewing it for as long as you are playing EQ.
New Equipment: Ice Silk Sash ; Ice Silk Sleeves ; Ice Silk Veil ; Dreezil's Ring of Evasion ; Lady Zavo's Toothpick ; Silver Championship Ring ; Imbued Night Ember Sphere ;
November 20, 2001: Tunare just seems to be going down more and more lately. Here's a few new drops from the Lady.
New Equipment: Essense of Nature; Sap Encrusted Branch; Massive Heartwood Thorn; Petrified Heartwood Flamberge;
November 19, 2001: Today I've got two quest walkthroughs for level 60 wizard spells. Congratulations to those who figured them out.
New Equipment: Vale
Reinforced Wristbands ; Imbued
Vale Reinforced Mantle ; Peerless
Dragonleg Breeches ;
New Quests: Hsagra's
Wrath ; Porlos'
Fury ;
November 16, 2001: Slow day today. Kind of the calm before the Luclin storm.
New Equipment: Braid of Golden Hair ;
November 15, 2001: Here's a very nice quest update for you Iksar Shadowknights, plus a few other things as well.
New Equipment: Greenmist
; Golden
Jaded Bracelet ; Imbued
Field Plate Gauntlets (Mithaniel Marr) ; Imbued
Field Plate Helm (Mithaniel Marr) ;
Updated Quests: Crusaders
of Greenmist ;
November 14, 2001: It's now just short of three weeks away from the release of the Shadows of Luclin expansion. If you haven't seen the screenshots circulating around the various sites, they are worth looking at (we have a few in the news section). The new graphics look great. Yep, this one definitely looks like a keeper.
New Equipment: Peerless Dragonhide Belt ; Ognit's Cape of Salesmanship ; Silver Whip of Rage ; Jaelen's Katana ; Imbued Field Plate Cloak (Mithaniel Marr) ; Golden Leaf Earring ; Imbued Field Plate Pauldron (Mithaniel Marr) ;
November 13, 2001: We've changed the strategy forums so that you can no longer post anonymously. I don't really like doing that, but some pretty obnoxious and vile posts had been added there lately, all by anonymous posters (the erudite and ranger forums being the worst). Those who have posted here a long time know that I'm pretty liberal in allowing all types of posts, including flames. The rating and filter system generally does a good job of raising up the good posts and dropping the bad ones into oblivion, and for the most part I feel everyone should get their say on things no matter how stupid they might sound. But there are limits beyond which a decent person doesn't go. By making you have to post under your name, it means that all of your posts can be rated and contribute to your karma. Your karma not only dictates if you ever get a posting rate title, but also is the level at which all of your posts start. Thus, if your karma ever drops below 1.5, your posts will effectively disappear from the normal filter setting as soon as you post them. I will also ban posters who consistantly break the rules. In general, I'd rather let the rating system work against (and in favor of) posters, since if someone is so bad that his posts drop below that 1.5 average, it is the obvious consensus of everyone who posts here that he is not worth hearing from, but in the worst cases I will ban someone from posting.
It is both free and easy to register to post. Just click on login in the index and the create an account and register a username and e-mail address and you will be sent a password. (or click here).
November 12, 2001: For those of you wondering what is happening with EQ'Lizer, don't panic. I am told they should be up shortly. Also, Caster's Realm, Stratics and Everlore were all down over the weekend for server maintenance. They are all back up and running now and once again providing their excellent coverage of the game.
New Equipment: Jade Meditation Hoop ; Galeth's Blade of Vigor ; Treant Bark Shield ;
November 9, 2001: Just a few updates today.
New Equipment: Intricate Silver Rapier ; Crown of Narandi ; Earring of Cleansing ; Worn Shai'din Naginata ;
November 8, 2001: Yesterday we had about 175,000 unique visitors who viewed over 1.5 million pages and our database was handling over 42 perl requests per second. Now you know why it was a little slow. We're ordering a fifth server to make sure we can handle that sort of capacity in the future. Also, a while ago we lifted the bandwidth caps we had on the site in order to speed things up. We thank those who signed up for the premium service for giving us the ability to pay for these types of improvements.
We've added server-specific forums to the site for those who wish a place to chat with others from your server, plan raids, recruit for guilds, etc. To head off any flame wars, we are not allowing anonymous posts. This means you must be registered and can't check the anon box. It also means that ratings of these posts will affect your karma and thus your title and the initial ratings of your future posts. They are listed under Discussion (formerly strategy) in the index. Or you can click here. In addition, you can now see how many hits you've had on your journal. Also, I put up a new poll.
Also, for those wondering about EQ'Lizer, JC Smith sent me a note to say that they should be back up within a day or two. That's good news.
New Equipment: Craslith ; Sirran's Boots of Insanity ; Abashi's Rod of Disempowermant ; Barbed Ringmail Sleeves ; Baton of Flame ; Well-polished Silver Stud ; Tegi Taskmaster's Whip ;
November 7, 2001: Yeah I know. The site has been running excruciatingly slow all day. It's a combination of some server problems we are working on and the fact that the Everquest servers were down most of the day and EQ'lizer is also down (hopefuly just temporarily), which means our load was increased a lot today. We're working on it and hope to have everything running smoothly again soon. Thank you for your patience.
November 6, 2001: We added the ability to rate the user forums so that it is easier to track the more interesting ones. Check out the journal list at this link. Also, I thought you might want to know that with today's update we now have over 7,000 everquest items catalogued.
New Equipment: Sceptre of Ancient Knowledge ; Scratched Electrum Hoop ; Ring of the Stalker ; Koada'Dal hide Gloves ; Fine Silken Mantle ; Exquisite Silver Turquoise Ring ; Frost Giant Hide Belt ;
November 5, 2001: I want to congratulate fellow EQ'er Curt Schilling, co-MVP of the World Series for the new world champion Arizona Diamondbacks. He put on one of the most amazing pitching displays I ever saw this post season. Good job Curt. You camped that elusive spawn for a long time. A World Championship Ring is some pretty Phat Lewt.
Even though I still have a bunch of halloween event items in my mailbox, I thought I would concentrate on non-gm event items for this update (OK I threw in a few at the end)
New Equipment: Strength
of the Elements ; Oakleaf
Scimitar ; Argent
Protector ; Sphinx
Heart Amulet ; Slick
Leather Courier's Cape ; Nathsar
Breastplate ; History
of the Di'zok ; Mask
of Glamour ; Guide
of the Knowledge Seeker ; Slippers
of the Silent Stalker ;
New Quests: Fusibility
Research ;
Updated Quests: Necromancer
Test of Heart ;
November 2, 2001: Just a reminder about the great features you get through our premium service for about the cost of a cup of Starbucks coffee:
- -- No banner or popup ads on any allakhazam.com site, as well as EQ Atlas. Tired of those popups? Just sign up and they are gone.
- -- Great advanced search features. Check out the greyed out areas for the equipment search and quest search to see what you are missing. You also get the very useful equipment by zone listings. And the best search of all: the ability to enter your characters class, race, level, platinum and equipment, specify the stats you want to raise, and do a search of the entire database for equipment upgrades you can either get yourself at your level or afford to buy from another player. We get raves from people about this one.
- -- Great extra features like your own forum to either post publicly or with your friends, an @allakhazam.com e-mail address, special posting titles and more.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program. They sure gave out a lot of stuff with this event. Here are even more Halloween items (and am I glad it's Friday)
New Equipment: Fine Silken Shawl ; Throat of the Siren ; Gold Threaded Tunic ; Jade Inlaid Hoop ; Silken Slippers ; Headband of the Righteous ; Platinum Rune-Etched Gloves ; Azure Stained Leather Gorget ; Golden Runed Mantle ; Golden Veil ; Charm of the Faith Keeper ; Collar of Might ; Bloodstone Encrusted Gauntlets ; Shining Steel Sword ; Helm of Battle ; Fine Steel Bracer ;
November 1, 2001: Just when you thought it was safe to leave the house again, you get another round of items from the Halloween events to read about. This should keep you busy for quite a while (and I didn't even get to them all). All of these items are GM event items.
New Equipment: Girdle
of the Holy Wanderer ; Forest
Giant Hide Belt ; Silver
Threaded Bandana ; Fish-netted
Gloves ; Jade
Studded Gorget ; locket
of Nature's Guardian ; Cloak
of the Mind ; Fine
Azure Silken Sash ; Idol
of the Wayward Spirit ; Sapphire
Encrusted Silver Ring ; Mask
of the Mentor ; Silver
Runed Jade Earring ; Shroud
of the Death Warden ; Crimson
Band ; The
Harbinger ; Chipped
Diamond Amulet ; Dagger
of Defense ; Nightmare
Hide Cloak ; Silver-Plated
Shark Scale Cap ; Pendant
of the Pressing Mind ; Tarnished
Bloodstone Band ; Tome
of Unseen Darkness ; The
Watcher ; Platinum
Plated pearl Necklace ; Cloak
of the Woven Storm ; Rabbit
Hide Boots ;