We are pleased to help introduce A Bibliophile's Guide to the Books of Norrath, a book cataloging project by our friend Aurelis.  It's been a lot of fun watching her scour ZAM in her mission to catalog every single house item book available in modern Norrath!  

Thus far she's cataloged:

• 428 books that are 100% verified to be attainable (this includes books that can no longer be gotten through normal methods, such as event-specific books, but were at one time available)
• 2 books that have been discovered on some servers but have not been 100% confirmed.  While I count these books, some of you may not.  They have been marked accordingly in the list.
• 20 books that have not been discovered, appear to have been removed very early in the game, or just plain don't seem to exist beyond a link in the EQ2 database.
• 1 book that was once a house item and is kept on the list in memoriam of its untimely demise.

Aurelis is taking comments and contributions on this thread on the official forums. 

The monthy Moonlight Enchantments event will start at 12:01am PDT on November 20th and run until 11:59pm PDT on November 21st.  Domino has hinted on Test about new house items!

It's a one-day event, so if you want a sneak peak to plan your time, try our Moonlight Enchantments guide!

SOE has announced a 25% bonus to Station Cash cards redeemed between November 23 and November 29!

To take advantage of this offer purchase any pre-paid Free Realms Station Cash retail game card. Redeem your card online through www.station.sony.com during the promotional period. Remember that they're branded Free Realms but good in all SOE games that use Station Cash.

Only cards redeemed between Monday, November 23rd (after 10:00am PST) and Sunday, November 29th (before 10:00pm PST) will receive the 25% Station Cash value bonus.  Cards may be purchased anytime in advance, but to receive the promotional Station Cash bonus, cards must be redeemed successfully during the promotional period.  Once successfully redeemed, your Wallet Balance will reflect your new pre-paid Station Cash balance plus your bonus 25% Station Cash value.

The Station Cash granted through Free Realms starter card packs will not be included in this offer.

For a list of retailers and instructions on redeeming your Station Cash cards, see this post on the EQII forums.

A new batch of Sentinel's Fate screenshots were released on the official EverQuest II site!  There's a lot of beautiful scenery and more mob pictures to speculate over.  See them at the EQII site or click here for the ZAM gallery!

Players eager for a sneak peak at the upcoming EverQuest II expansion have been diligently datamining, and some have struck paydirt!  As reported at EQ2 Wire, player Vulkoor found some Sentinel's Fate files being downloaded via the EQII patcher.  This seems to happen every year, but they aren't usually seen until after Beta starts.  He reports 13 mob models with a heavy sword and sorcery, classical mythology, and D&D influence including Cerberus. Chimera, and Beholders.  He's also identified eight sentient races, two dragons, and six models of floating disk.

Meanwhile EQ2 Wire noticed the distinctive filenames in the SOE-released Sentinel's Fate screenshots, and has identified seven potential zones.  Some, like Stonebrunt Mountains and the Hole, were mentioned at Fan Faire.

While it's very early to nail down expansion info, the vpaks are usually a good source.  Vulkoor claims that he's called it right the last two expansions, and we've no reason to doubt him.  It's safe to speculate that at this late date the races and general models are pretty solid.

The pre-order of Sentinel's Fate, the 6th EverQuest II expansion, was announced yesterday with a couple of surprises.  There are three packages:  a digital download, a retail box, and a collector's edition.  There are goodies in the boxes (depending on which you buy) like a copy of EverCracked, Station Cash and a $10 coupon for Sentinel's Fate to entice your friends to play.  The really big surprise:  players who buy a physical box will have access to the new content 7 days sooner than players who purchase it digitally.

Naturally some brouhaha occured.

The big deal with a 7 day head start is that, for many players, MMOs are competitive games.  There are players and whole guilds who play the game as "race to the level cap."  They want to be the first to hit level 90, the first to conquer a zone, the first to slay a boss mob, and the world-wide discoverer of Smed's Sword of Ungoldly Uberness.

As ZAM reported today, the 6th EverQuest II expansion Sentinel’s Fate™ is now available for pre-order.  This highly anticipated expansion features Odus, the continuation of Erudite and Kerran lore, and a level cap increase.  We are very pleased to bring you brand-new screenshots of the expansion that explore Erudin, The Sundered Frontier, Stonebrunt Highlands, and Vastly Deep. Click the picture at right to see this exciting gallery!

We also got our hands on the official trailer!  Click play after the jump.

EverQuest®II Sentinel’s Fate™ and EverQuest®II Sentinel’s Fate™ Collectors Edition, the sixth expansion for the popular online game EverQuest®II, is now available for pre-order at www.everquest2.com! 

The expansion is scheduled to be available exclusively at retail on February 16, 2010, followed by the digital launch on February 23, 2010.  This pack is the complete game, containing all previously released content as well as Sentinel's Fate.  The retail and digital versions will be $39.99.  Additionally, a Collectors Edition including exclusive items is being offered for $69.99.  According to Christie "Kiara" Renzetti, EQII Community Manager, Fan Faire attendees with accounts in good standing will receive a complimentary digital copy of the retail version, with the early access and items associated with the retail version of the game.

Sentinel's Fate, originally announced at Fan Faire, will take players to Odus. It will have 12 new dungeons, 400 quests, and more than 4000 new equipable items. 

EverQuest II is 5 years old now, and SOE Community held birthday parties on Test to celebrate!  Players were treated to tons of free and cheap temporary goodies, pillow and book fights, and devs in fantastic costumes.  Naturaly there was tons of food and drink and presents for the attendees.

Please enjoy this gallery of screenshots from today's party!  Click the pic at the right.

Ryan "Imago-Quem" Favale, EQII Graphics Programmer, has been working on the highly anticipated Shaders 3.0 since before Fan Faire.  He's been great about keeping in touch with the players via the official forums and posting "before and after" pictures of the project.  Many people were disappointed Shaders 3.0 didn't hit Test with GU54 this week.  When asked by players for a timeline on the project he posted:

I wish I could tell you before it hits the news, but decisions are always being made and if I say one thing then it's like a promise and I would get in huge trouble.  I can only repeat what's been announced already about release dates.

The planned date for GU54 is December 1, barring unforseen complications.  Kiara posted in the GU54 Test discussion thread that the new shaders are still undergoing analysis and performance tweaks.  In the meantime, Ryan posted a little teaser video showing the Dragon Armor in Shaders 1.0 vs Shaders 3.0.  See it below the jump!