FanFaire Fandango

Yep, that's right, it's part the third of my second-hand (or second-rate) FanFaire coverage.

Here are some pictures from a thread on the official forums.

And if you want more forum fun check out the devs' comments in this thread, this one , this one or this one. Not much to comment on there other than that everyone seems to have had a great time so nice job SOE for putting together a fun event. That kind of event planning is tougher than it sounds. Well, I just read a little further and found this thread complaining about lack of organization. Not being there myself you'll have to decide on your own.

Okay, on to EQ2Realm for some reports by Arthais. Notable:

The guild system (i.e. Patrons, status) will not be changed significantly. I know the patron issue is a touchy and difficult subject for many guilds so I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. I think I'm okay with it but it is a drama magnet.

The scalable instancing in Splitpaw is supposedly even more flexible than LDoN. I'm kind of looking forward to trying this one.

Well, lets crack open the EQ2Vault and check out Sassee's Fan Fair Coverage. Of note:

There was discussion of making some of the mobs for heritage quests triggerable as opposed to timed camps. I'm sure this will be a popular idea as standing around waiting for a mob to spawn is not my idea of gameplay. I'd probably prefer to slay a hundred mobs to spawn the one I want than just hang out blindly hoping. My misadventures in camping Captain T'Sanne can be found somewhere in this post.

There is a mention of attempting to raise the Test Server's population. Sassee states that SOE "might" allow free character transfers to test. Wait, they don't now? To me, they should absolutely allow free transfers to encourage population growth on test. I mean, aren't you really performing a service for SOE by playing on Test? I still don't understand why you can't copy a character onto Test, which was discussed but is not in the cards. Am I missing something here? I don't grasp the rationale of not having as many people on Test as possible. But if you do, please post a comment...I've been wrong before.

Sassee's got much more there, including this nice piece which captures the FanFaire flavor, so head on over and check it out.

Some much needed excitement may be on the way in the tradeskill area. If you ever tradeskill you definitely need to check out this thread by Frizznik where he lists a ton of notes from Fan Faire.

Artisans will apparently be able to complete quests which will then enable them to finish full stacks of refined items at once. A second quest will allow you to complete recipes with only half the progress needed and a third will grant you special attire which will boost your tradeskill prowess. Can't wait to get my pants of Alchemy +2.

Let me tell you, it will take something like that to lure me back into those underground sweatshops of tedium. But wait, they are intending to move some of the crafting to the open air environments. I guess that explains the strange tradeskill island, known to players as "Santa's Workshop" which mysteriously appeared in Everfrost some time ago. It's a fun place to get a little tradeskilling in while you're waiting for guildmates for a writ run or just feel like chilling in Everfrost.

Frizznik has a lot of other notes up so check it out. He has also already made some changes to culinary drinks and has answered a bunch of additional questions. Nice to see.

Also, if you want more tradeskill info from Fan Faire you can check out this report from EQ2 Traders Corner. There are plenty of non-tradeskill notes there as well.

If I see any more Fan Faire info I will be sure to bring it to you. And perhaps I will see you there next year...