EverQuest II Drops Item Restrictions for Free Play

Age of Discovery offerings and item restrictions to change on October 1.

In today's EverQuest II Producer's Letter, Holly "Windstalker" Longdale brought exciting news about the Age of Discovery expansion and upcoming changes to the Membership Matrix.

On October 1 Age of Discovery features will be available individually or as a bundle for Station Cash in the in-game Marketplace. Those who did not want to buy the entire expansion can now choose only the features they want as follows:

  • Beastlord: 2500 SC
  • Mercenaries: 1500 SC
  • Tradeskill Apprentice: 1000 SC
  • Reforging: 1000 SC
  • Dungeon Maker: 1000 SC
  • Bundle of all the above features:  4000 SC

On the Membership front item restrictions are being removed from Free and Silver accounts.  Gold accounts are getting permanent increases to Coin Loot (15% increase) and Mount Speed (10% increase) added to their membership benefits. These changes also happen October 1.

Also on October 1st the AA Bauble, which raises your character to 280AA and is usable at level 10, will be available on the Marketplace for 2000 SC.

Continue reading for the entire Producer's Letter and leave your feedback on the official forums.

Greetings fellow adventurers!

We’ve got more exciting news to talk about today with regard to Age of Discovery expansion as well as a few changes to our membership structure that will launch on Oct. 1. They are pretty simple, so I’ll get right to it!

1. The Age of Discovery expansion – which was our first-ever feature expansion released in 2011 – is going to be available in the game in our Marketplace as a feature bundle as well as individual features for Station Cash (SC).

a. The features will be broken down, like so:
Beastlord: 2500 SC
Mercenaries: 1500 SC
Tradeskill Apprentice: 1000 SC
Reforging: 1000 SC
Dungeon Maker: 1000 SC
b. The feature bundle (all 5 features included) will be on sale in our in-game marketplace for 4000 SC.
c. The standard Age of Discovery expansion in its current form will no longer be available for purchase on the web site or in-game after Oct. 1.
2. Membership changes

a. We are thrilled to announce that we are removing the item restrictions from both Free and Silver accounts. No more item-unlocking! We felt that the restrictions weren't in keeping with a positive experience so we removed it!
b. Gold Members are going to get permanent increases to Coin Loot (15% increase) and Mount Speed (10% increase) added to their membership benefits.
Also, on Oct. 1, we'll start selling an item in our marketplace that will raise your character to 280 AAs (usable at level 10) for 2000 SC.

Next week, we’ll start digging into the Tears of Veeshan expansion details. See you then!

Holly Longdale
Sr. Producer
EverQuest II

Comments

Post Comment
Selling by item
# Oct 12 2013 at 3:13 PM Rating: Decent
*
87 posts
It will be interesting to see how this affects purchases by Subscribers.
Seems like it would make sense to make new expacs break down the same way, by SC.

Edited, Oct 12th 2013 5:16pm by Maccabee4
A bit odd
# Sep 29 2013 at 7:46 AM Rating: Excellent
280 AA's at level 10? I have to agree with nightstarttwo, why did everyone grind away all these years?

Granted, this game isn't about the grind, although it is a necessary part of it, but just giving 280 AA's like that, it doesn't sit right by me.

They have to give the ftp players something, I must admit. I went ftp for a while and it's a completely different game, not even close to enjoyable having played for so many years as 'golden' member.

The 15% extra money is fun, the extra 10% mount speed almost unnecessary, those are already fast enough :)

Interesting... progression/evolution
# Sep 27 2013 at 3:19 PM Rating: Excellent
Avatar
****
4,580 posts
It seems like EQII gets to be the testbed for innovations that maybe make it into other SoE games.

This move is intriging because if an expac selling feature is truly lame... people won't buy it, providing very direct feedback to the devs. Of course... there have been instances in EQ past where something was really nice on expac release and not so great a short time later.
Interesting... progression/evolution
# Sep 27 2013 at 9:22 PM Rating: Excellent
Special Snowflake
Avatar
****
6,786 posts
EQII's always been Smed's favorite monetization testing grounds. From the very beginning, with exchange servers.
____________________________
[img]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a230/calthine/EmptyMind-2.jpg[/img]
Community Manager | QA Lead
ZAM: Support FAQ | Forum FAQ | Forum Rules
Cook Ten Rats
Interesting... progression/evolution
# Sep 27 2013 at 6:33 PM Rating: Excellent
I agree what is the reason I should continue to pay for a memembership when those who do not pay every month get the benefits of such and do not have to buy the full expansions to enjoy them.
work our tails off for aa points to make levels and almost not worth it sony
Post Comment

Free account required to post

You must log in or create an account to post messages.