Brekkee - *Looker* With all the new fuels now, do you plan to label them fully when a crafting recipe is selected? Currently my provisioner struggles with only "kindling" as a descriptor. What kind of kindling, or coal, or candle, etc. would simplify things for crafters.
Cao - We’ll be addressing that issue with the next update. You’ll know which type of fuel and what tier of fuel you’ll need.
Cao - Done

Brekkee - *BreeOge* I have a question, why did they nurf the SK UndeadMount. It should be a SK ability for speed just like pathfinding or anything else.
Cao - We looked at all of the various speed buffs in game and realized we needed to make some adjustments across the board in order to maintain the challenge that mobs present to people traveling through zones. We adjusted several different speed values including the Crusader mounts. They now provide some speed benefit without creating an imbalance relative to other speed buffs.
Cao - Done

Brekkee - *Shikar* Could you explain by what you mean in todays patch with "all tradeskill classes can now refine their own materials and components"? Is this doing away with tradeskill dependancies?
Gallenite - Sure -- Essentially, what we had before was a system in which all of the tradeskill classes needed other artisans just to advance. There wasn't any analog of "soloing," for artisans, really, since the majority of professions were dependent on others (more)
Gallenite - What we've moved to is a system in which everyone has the ability to do all of the refines and interim manufacturing for themselves if they choose to -- it costs you more fuel to make items out of other people's traditional recipe tree, but it's possible. And then the true differentiation is left in finished products -- those remain unique per profession
Gallenite - it's analogous to what we're doing with much of the game -- soloing should work, be fun, and profitable.. grouping (with dependencies) should be the more profitable alternative
Gallenite - Hope that made sense. :) (done)

Brekkee - *Sass_Tonya_VN* With the change to items (needing to be attuned), what are some ideas so that the pure adventurer who does not craft can make money enough to upgrade spells/abilities and items when needed?
[SOE]Dymus - The attuned items are sellable to merchants in game and an item can be sold before it is attuned. We are also increasing some of the drop rates across the world and making certain types of items more common which should allow both use or a source of money.
[SOE]Dymus - Done.

Brekkee - *LoW* With the added power wizards and warlocks have, there are now problems with tanks holding agro. Any chance of upping the hate on their taunts? A lvl 50 warlock can obtain agro almost 100% of the time now in a group mob situation, with no hope of the tank getting it back.
Moorgard - We gave wizards and warlocks a substantial power increase. As someone once said, "With great power comes great responsibility." Just because you can do a ton of damage doesn't mean you don't need to be careful using those abilities.
Moorgard - Managing aggro is everyone's responsibility, not just that of the tank. (done)

Brekkee - *Squeg* any chance that since so much of our stuff must be attuned now, that we could get a way to display it in our rooms, since we can no longer pass it to friends, guildies, and alts?
[SOE]Dymus - For certain trophy items (heritage items especially) we will be adding in the ability to convert the item into a housing placeable objects. We would like to keep it to these more important or harder to obtain rewards.
[SOE]Dymus - Done.

Brekkee - *FrostLord* What's the reasoning behind the almost 4 fold increase for Artisan Fuel costs between the tiers? Do you really think the players can afford that much coin to gain tradeskill xp?
Cao - The reason for the increase is that the value of items that drop in the world increases at a similar rate. Previously, Artisans were using base level fuels and selling the products back to merchants at prices that were set according to the increasing scale. (more)
Cao - This created a huge profit imbalance that we needed to address. Accordingly, we implemented increased fuel costs. Artisans will still be able to sell those products back to NPC merchants, however, and recoup their cost of production.
Cao - Done

Brekkee - *Squeg* do the harvesting tools available from merchants actually do anything? And if not can we get some idea when they'll be useful?
Moorgard - They don't currently do anything useful, unless taking up an inventory slot is considered useful. ;) We plan to add harvesting skill boosts to them, but don't have an ETA on when those will go in.
Moorgard - done

Brekkee - *Looker* Suggestion: add a feedback option on the Test Server for suggestions from players. Any chance that might happen?
Gallenite - The /bugs and /feedbacks that come in from test server are handled slightly separately, as we know we need to deal with them on the version currently in testing. So, that part' salready there. Additionally, test server players that are recommended by another test server player as actively playing on test, gain access to a special board on the EQ2 forums for more immediate feedback on the things that are about to go from test to live,
Gallenite - (done)

Brekkee - *Silence* How do elephants get into those tiny little dens?
Gallenite - Crisco.
Gallenite - (done)

Brekkee - *Treh* First of all I want to thank you for such a wonderfull patch, but I would like to ask why you decided to do Attunable Items rather than item degration with rare invulnables. Thanks. That is of course assuming that item degration was an option.
Gallenite - There's an interview going up on (another site that I won't name out of respect to our hosts) tonight where it's explained in pretty painstaking detail. The short version is: "Completely losing items once you have them is not a lot of fun in games where items are more rare and valuable than destructable commodities."
Gallenite - EQ2 just isn't set up to be a game where items are things that come and go. One happy medium between "All items are always in circulation, forever" and "items are disposable commodities that you're constantly churning through" seems to be "One person can use a valuable item, forever."
Gallenite - (done
Gallenite - )

Brekkee - *Korvin* As it stands now as a provisioner, I can craft enough food and drink for myself, and maybe two other people. Let alone selling on the market. Time is a HUGE factor. Will provisioners be able to take multiple raws and components and make multiple finished recipes eventually? Even making 2 pork chops, or 2 fayberry tea's at once would help immensely.
Cao - We’re currently looking at the Provisioner production time issues. There are currently issues with having multiple products in this line of recipes, but the community has offered some good possible solutions. We’re looking at those and other internal possibilities now.
Cao - Done.

Brekkee - *Punk_Brad* Will you be looking at the damage dealt by the other mage classes, now that you've raised Wiz/Warlock damage?
Moorgard - One big change we made recently was to increase the number of DoTs that stack. We wanted to measure the effect this had on other mage classes before tweaking their damage output.
Moorgard - We're in the process of fixing some bugged spells, and are measuring mage damage output so that we get them where they should be in terms of DPS. (done)

Brekkee - *TreeHugger* Can you tell us more about the new solo zones? Can a small group choose to enter solo rather than heroic instances? What is the consequences? Less xp?
[SOE]Dymus - You can choose which zone instance you wish to enter. The differences would be changes in XP, difficulty of the creatures you face, and the rewards you can earn for the instance.
[SOE]Dymus - Done.

Brekkee - *ColdSausage* Tell us more about the City Sabotage missions. Are we actually entering opposing cites or are there new instanced adventure zones?
higby - You actually enter the opposing city, you have to be careful to avoid the guards and still find and destroy all your objectives in a set amount of time. Exciting!
higby - Done

Brekkee - *LoW* Cazic-Thule seems to be a very buggy zone with people being feared into walls, and mobs disappearing into them. Any hope of seeing a fix?
Gallenite - You bet. The CT pathing issue (particularly downstairs) came up around here this morning, actually. It's one of the things that's being looked at right now. A fix'll be out for it as soon as we can have the problem solved, tested and shipped.
Gallenite - (done)

Brekkee - *Korvin* Next Question: I've had a lot of fun with the collection quests. Fun at times, frustrating at others, but over all really nice. Will more be added later to the game? Also...the coin collections provide a scroll but no xp? Will that be looked at?
higby - Yep, we have plans to create new collection quests as we release new zones and new live events, for instance, the upcoming adventure pack has a couple new collections in it. As to the coin collections, I can look into it, but like a lot of the collections it's highly dependant on your current level relative to the level of the collection.
higby - Done

Brekkee - *Kayless* Have you thought of relaxing guild status points restrictions in changing guilds? Right now the guild you leave loses xp and there's a lot of guild involved if you are a patron and you leave.
Cao - We likely won’t be changing the loss of guild experience when a patron leaves. We added this rule to make sure that players wouldn’t hop from guild to guild. We want a patron’s commitment to the other members of the guild to be meaningful.
Cao - Done

Brekkee - *Homer* How much do pets and furniture affect housing costs? Is it true that the more stuff you put in your house, the cheaper the rent?
[SOE]Dymus - Some items do reduce the status cost for houses. This is useful for the higher end housing.
[SOE]Dymus - Done.

Brekkee - *BreeOge* Can we get a way so that our Alt's can use one house instead of multible houses. Items that I have on my alt I cannot place in my main characters house becuase he is not the owner. Can we please have a way so that our alts and/or other player characters can place lore items in a house.
Cao - A player’s house is a shared space. This means that items intended to be used exclusively by one player (such as lore and no trade items) aren’t available for use or placement in it. We want to make sure housing provides a fun place for players to interact with one another without blurring the lines between what one person owns and what several people share ownership of.
Cao - Done

Brekkee - *Oooka* lvl23 bezerker skill sunder is in the lvl33 alchemist book.. is this an oversight(bug) or planned?
[SOE]Dymus - That is a bug / oversight. It will be fixed, thanks for the reminder :)
[SOE]Dymus - Done.

Brekkee - *Korvin* Heritage quests have been quite an interesting experience in learning about the game, and the history. Especially for someone like me who never played EQ1. I suspect more will be added, but all I have seen have required at least a group at some stage. Will any be added that can be soloed?
[SOE]Dymus - Because of the reward heritage quests are all meant to be difficult and heroic, often requiring a group or a significant time investment. If any solo heritage quests are added later they will often be items that have memorable names but may not be as powerful as the current items.
[SOE]Dymus - Done.

Brekkee - *wario* There were lots of quests available to us at the lower levels from every village. There seem to be less available as we level up and less available in the main cities. Is it part of the plan to keep adding level appropriate quests?

Gallenite - (BTW, while the current question gets answered -- Just saw an email fly by with a pathing fix for cazicthule. Looks like some level of improvement wil be hotfixed tonight.)
[SOE]Dymus - We're continuously adding quests to the game. Each update is adding a significant number. As you get higher in level the depth and difficulty of the quests often increase. We're trying to focus some of the higher level quests in more obtainable areas in order to make them more accessible.
[SOE]Dymus - Done.

Brekkee - *Korvin* I've had the chance to get all sorts of suffixes for my character's name. But I have yet to see anyone with a prefix before their name? Are prefixes in the game yet? And if so, about what level could we expect to get them? Are they harder to get then suffixes?
Cao - The prefix titles are actually mainly gained as rewards for completing writs. Like many of the other prestige items (e.g. horses, special clothing), these titles are awarded for special service to each of the five major factions for Qeynos and Freeport.
Cao - Done.

Brekkee - *Sass_Tonya_VN* I was wondering what prompted the change in the con system, and will there be a "con system guide for dummies" like me? :)
Gallenite - We wanted to try out something that might be a bit more relevant to the kinds of questions people need to ask when eyeballing a target. Namely, "can it eat me?" In the new system, it's pretty obvious which targets fall in to that category by the ornateness of the borders.
Gallenite - As for the guide --->http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive.vm?id=362§ion=Development&month=current
Gallenite - Right there. :)
Gallenite - (done)

Brekkee - That will wrap it up for tonight. I’d like to thank the folks from EverQuest 2 for coming! The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://eq2.stratics.com
Brekkee - Thank you all for joining us! You can join #EverQuest2 to chat more about the game.

* Gallenite waves *

Moorgard - Thanks for coming everyone!

Cao - Thanks for coming all! See you in game.

higby - smell ya later!

Gallenite - Take care, everyone - Thanks for comin' by. And thanks, stratics folk, for havin' us :)

[SOE]Dymus - Thanks for joining and the questions everyone.
* [QT]Elm is now known as Elm *