With EverQuest II going Free-to-Play in December 2011, it seemed inevitable that the original EverQuest would follow in its younger brother's footsteps. Well, today is that day, as EverQuest Producer Thom "Phathom" Terrazas has just announced that in early March 2012, EverQuest will be going Free-to-Play!

This is some big news for EverQuest players, both current and anyone nostalgic enough to want to set foot back into the game. It also comes alongside EverQuest's 13th birthday on Friday, March 16th! For anyone who hops into the game at EQ's F2P launch, they'll also receive a "Welcome Pack," which includes a unique Mercenary, some Bayle Marks, Experience Potions, a unique in-game item to display in your home, and a Weapon Ornamentation!

SOE has also provided a player matrix to give more detail on how they plan to implement this Free-to-Play transition, and it looks like it shouldn't have too much (if any) of an impact on pre-existing subscribers, while still offering some easier options for returning players. Finally, SOE will also be hosting a Community Webcast on Thursday, February 2, 2012 to cover this shift, so be sure to get your questions in on the EverQuest Facebook Page or via Twitter to @EverQuest.

Notes for all:

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Highlights

• Mercenary Roster Quest - A new tradeskill quest is available to obtain a mercenary slot for your roster by adding Hero's Barracks as a reward, if it has not been maxed at 4. See Mercenary Captain Cecille in the Plane of Knowledge. You must have mastered all basic tradeskills to take this quest.
• The achievement "Master of Alaris" now grants Hero's Barracks as a reward, which grants an additional mercenary slot, up to the maximum of 4.
• Players who participated in Beta can now Claim their reward!

UI

• Added the ability to tint any control a certain color from the UI XML. The new property is called BackgroundTextureTint.
• Converted the button tinting from the "Buy Slot" button in the Mercenary window to use the new tinting option.

  Changed

  • EQUI_MercenaryManageWnd.xml
  • SIDL.xml

Full Patch Notes

Soon you'll be able to get all of your Diablo III questions answered at the newest addition to the ZAM Network: The Diablo III Database (D3DB).

The Diablo III Database has officially joined the ZAM Network! Combining the passionate enthusiasm of the D3DB team with the experience of the ZAM Network & Wowhead team means that D3DB will be your premiere stop for any and all Diablo III questions you might have. They've even got an amazing proprietary Diablo III character planner!

Currently we are in the process of streamlining the D3DB user experience to feel more like using other sites on the ZAM Network, like Wowhead and Torhead, but there are also some big plans to get you, the players, all the cutting edge information you need to get ahead in Diablo III.

So keep an eye on D3DB.com as we get closer to the launch of one of the most highly anticipated games of 2012!

Highlights

• You can now add more mercenaries to your roster! Unlock slots in the Marketplace and keep the mercenaries with you for when you need them!
• All classes now have a new group of Alternate Advancement abilities available in Veil of Alaris.
• New Hot Zones have arrived! You can now augment your adventuring experience in Crescent Reach, Blightfire Moors, The Great Divide, Stone Hive, Dranik's Scar, Goru`kar Mesa, Plane of Disease, Blackfeather Roost, Sunderock Springs, The Steppes, Vergalid Mines, Direwind Cliffs, Ashengate, Korascian Warrens, and the dreamscape of The Feerrott. To find out more, speak to Franklin Teek and Skal Nethus in the Plane of Knowledge.
• Frostfell has arrived again in Norrath, and Santug's helper is looking for assistance in the Plane of Knowledge!
• Tanya Bekines in Sunrise Hills has a new Guild Hall for sale.

UI

• Made the map window resizable.
• Added the key map option in Options -> Keys for Potion Belt Slot 5.
• Fixed a minor issue with a stretched arrow in the guild management window.
• The Mend button will now properly depress and un-depress, and will no longer disappear when zoning.
• Fixed an issue where in full screen mode a 3x4 hot bar would resize to a 2x6, and then 1x12, every time the UI was reloaded.
• Changing the ranks of guild members in the access tab should no longer cause the alphabetical ordering to swap. Additionally, issues with the access tab when members are removed should no longer occur.
• Fixed a bug that was causing the guild access list to not update when the hide alts or show offline buttons were enabled or disabled.
• The options window now displays its options as checkboxes instead of large buttons. Clicking on the boxes or label text will enable or disable the options. When an option is enabled, its text is highlighted.

  Changed
  

  • EQUI_CharacterCreate.xml
  • EQUI_GuildManagementWnd.xml
  • EQUI_MapViewWnd.xml
  • EQUI_MercenaryManageWnd.xml
  • EQUI_NameChangeMercWnd.xml
  • EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
  • EQUI_Templates.xml

Full patch notes are here