FanFaire Fanfare

I'm afraid my FanFaire updates are going to be based on second hand sources as work got in the way of me attending (that link is to my April preview complete with fake events). Still, there is a lot of interesting news emanating from the fabled den of iniquity in the desert. I know what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas but my thanks to those who sent back reports anyway.

Let's set things off with eq2stratics.com. Tovin posted this report from FanFaire. I'm just going to touch on the points which interest me:

Heritate quests will be moving away from EQ lore to start creating some new lore for EQ2. I think this is a long overdue undertaking as it's important to create some new history and lore for EQ2. You can only delve into that EQ well so many times.

Quests will be more event based in nature. I think this a fantastic idea. Two of the best times I've had doing quests have been events in Sol which created a ton of excitement and laughter in group. I would love to relate my experiences there but I don't want to spoil these events for you.

You may be able to have the pets you use in the Arena to fight also double as house pets. This would be a nice touch if they can do it. I hope the reverse isn't true as my poor duck, Duckly, is not going to get very far in the arena.

As you know the level cap will be raised to level 60 (and that includes the artisan cap). This will mean new spells and arts obviously. What you may not have known is that the level cap for guilds will also be rising, so get those writ runs going. The addition of guild vaults will be a much welcomed addition. Right now many guilds use unofficial guild banks and keep paper records which is unnecessarily complicated. While we're on the topic of guilds can we get a list of guilds by guild level per server and worldwide on EQ2Players.com? Isn't that an obvious list to have available?

More book quests! Everybody loves book quests! Oh wait...

As usual there is a lot of focus on the factions in the city of Maj'Dul. I am still skeptical about this due to the lack of influence factions have had on gameplay thus far.

There will be preorder items that will be fun but not unbalancing. I'm sure many will preorder the expansion regardless. My problem is that when I preordered EQII, it was out in stores for days before Amazon finally delivered it. Anyone else have this issue? The best solution for me would be if you could preorder and then just download it.

They can add teleportation but are not going to do so at this time. I would love some teleportation action myself. When I saw WoW's mage class offered teleportation spells I knew there was no way I was going to pick any other class. Here's hoping mages get similar love in EQII.

There is a bit more there so check out Tovin's report for yourself.

If you are interested in Station Exchange you can check out this quite in-depth report here. Those who have read this site for a while know my feelings on that already so I'm not going to comment.

There is also plenty more info I will be continuing with tomorrow so stay tuned.

And if you really want to get into the FanFaire atmosphere then you need to check out EQ2Ogaming's videos of Blackguard and Smed rocking out on stage. Blackguard is not bad at all. The Smed video starts off slow with him standing there during the overly long song intro and the DJ asking "Where are the Smed fans you guys? Show him love!" But, as rumored, Smed can rock. Serious.