Without question, the best time to start a new character to play on Al’Kabor is now. Vintage is planning on hosting a “Meet and Greet” event in the upcoming week to introduce ourselves and meet all the new faces, as well as handing out gear and plat. Stay tuned for the date(s) and time.

We’re so excited that more people have discovered the preserved treasure Al’Kabor exists and SOE has given us the chance to re-live our golden days of EQ as it was a decade ago. Welcome everyone to the server! Welcome home!

But later, as the dust was clearing, a ray of light appeared as the community united to work together and with SOE to keep the server alive. Heartfelt stories of what Al’Kabor meant to everyone, the value of preserving EQ as it was meant to be locked in the original Planes of Power expansion, and the loyalty of its player base throughout the years were expressed through forums, emails, private messages and phone calls.

Last night, Smedley tweeted (https://twitter.com/#!/j_smedley)

Ok EQ Mac Players. You are a wonderful group of players. We will leave it running with no changes or subscription fees. Details soon

Again, the EQ Mac community was in shock of the announcement, but overwhelmed by thanks as their prayers and wishes were answered. EQ Mac will not be shut down and this server we all call home lives on!

Another official announcement by the Director of Global Community Relations last night:

Ladies and Gentlemen, some of you may have read this on the official forums already, but thought I’d drop by here to share this as well:

After announcing our intention to sunset EverQuest (EQ) Mac in January, the response we received from the passionate EQ Mac community has resulted in our decision not to sunset the game at this time. Moving forward, we will be removing subscriptions from EQ Mac so that it will be a free game that everyone can continue to play and enjoy. We will look closely at Mac for our future titles.

Feel free to join the ongoing discussion here as well: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?&topic_id=182908

;-)#
Linda “Brasse” Carlson
Director, Global Community Relations
Sony Online Entertainment.

However, there were sacrifices that had to be made in order to keep Al’Kabor alive. Sometimes you have to amputate a limb if you want to survive…

Hobart posted this morning: (http://www.eqmac.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11102)

I have very little new information and I’m sure I’ll have more by next week. But, here is what I can tell you.

- The game will be F2P. What does this mean you say? It means you don’t have to pay to play. Right now there are no plans to have a marketplace. That could possibly change at some point. But don’t worry about that now.
- We are working on allowing new accounts to be created. This change came in hot last night and our billing team will need to play catch up.

****ATTENTION PowerPC users and users of the OLD LaunchPAD.****
- As of right now, the old LaunchPad will die at around around the original shutdown date of Alkabor. (3/29)
- Alkabor will be moving to the new LP4 launcher that you currently see for EQ and EQ2.
- What this means is that if you are using a PowerPC, you will lose access to the game. (*NOTE* I’ll try and support PowerPC, but the effort to do this is not simple.)
- If you are still using OSX 10.4 the GameLauncher will not run. You must upgrade to 10.5 or higher.

Although players with PPC clients will no longer be able to log in (at least for now), it seems to be a small sacrifice for the greater good.

In the meantime, since Vintage first heard of the Doomsday news, our members have been squeezing every ounce of classic EQ that Al’Kabor provides on our weekly raids. Targets such as Derekor the Vindicator and Statue of Rallos Zek, Telkenor, Zlandicar, Dozekar the Cursed, Dracolich have all fallen to us, Vintage-style.

In the upcoming weeks, we plan on breaking into Sleepers Tomb with a larger than ever force, and North Temple of Veeshan. If you’re looking to jump in on old school Velious raids with us, head over to our forums and apply to join!

We’re looking forward to a huge revival in the Al’Kabor playerbase and our guild with the news of EQ Mac becoming Free to Play! See you in Norrath!

“Beauty is an ephemeral commodity. Yet true beauty lies beyond Fate’s meagre grasp and Mortality’s paltry sway”
-Steel, Daniel

The amazing journey that has been EverQuest: Macintosh Edition has created an untold number of adventures, and bonds between its players that will last far beyond the years of the game. As the saying goes, however, all good things must come to an end, and so the time has come for the Al’Kabor server.

On Thursday, March 29, 2012, the Al’Kabor server and the EverQuest: Macintosh Edition will be closing. EverQuest: Macintosh Edition has had a wonderful run, seeing an incredible tightly-knit community band together to accomplish feats of heroism that remain unsurpassed in the annals of MMORPGs. Overcoming the challenges of the Planes of Power in their near original form is not a task for those who are not dedicated to victory, and we here at SOE are in awe of your dedication and commitment.

We know you will have many questions about what this means, and we have prepared this FAQ in an effort to answer some of these questions. During the remaining weeks we will also be enjoying some time in game with you, the players of Al’Kabor, both to see if the final raids in the Planes can be completed before the final days of EverQuest: Macintosh Edition and to celebrate the community that has kept this game strong throughout the years. Please keep an eye out on the Official EverQuest: Macintosh Edition sub-forum so that we can communicate with you the days and times when we will be joining you in game.

Thank you all again, and we hope that we can join you in fond remembrance of the unique and wonderful experience that has been EverQuest: Macintosh Edition.

Closure Announcement FAQ

Is EverQuest: Macintosh Edition being shut down?

Yes. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is expected to sunset EverQuest: Macintosh Edition on March 29, 2012. SOE will terminate membership/subscription billing for EverQuest: Macintosh Edition on January 31, 2012, but you can continue enjoying the game at no charge through March 29, 2012.

What happens to all the code/data for EverQuest: Macintosh Edition? Can I open an emulator server for EverQuest: Macintosh Edition?

SOE will retain all of the code and data from EverQuest: Macintosh Edition, and will not license or authorize the operation of an EverQuest: Macintosh Edition emulator or fan operated EverQuest: Macintosh Edition server.

Will I have to keep paying for EverQuest: Macintosh Edition, even though you’re shutting it down on March 29, 2012?

No, you will not have to keep paying for EverQuest: Macintosh Edition. All regular billing for EverQuest: Macintosh Edition will end on January 31, 2012. After this time, you will be able to continue playing the game at no charge (except that Internet fees are your responsibility) until the shutdown date on March 29, 2012.

What is the refund policy for pre-paid EverQuest: Macintosh Edition subscriptions? I just re-subscribed, how will I get a refund?

We will stop all billing for EverQuest: Macintosh Edition on January 31, 2012. For players who have purchased prepaid time via a membership/subscription plan, SOE Game Card or other retail game card that extends the subscription period past January 30, 2012, SOE will provide a pro-rated refund for the time left on the subscription after that date. If a valid credit card is active on your account, any refund will be applied to such credit card. If your account is paid via an SOE Game Card or other retail game card, we will send a check in the refund amount to your current billing address within 90 days after the game ends. Please be sure to update your email and mailing address in your Station Account as this may be critical to the refund process.

Please note that billing for All Access Passes will continue after January 30, 2012 and we will not be issuing any refunds for All Access Passes.

What about Game Cards?

The last date to redeem any Game Cards for game time in EverQuest: Macintosh Edition is January 30, 2012.

Will the EverQuest: Macintosh Edition Website and/or Forums be available after the service shuts down?

All websites and forums associated with EverQuest: Macintosh Edition will be removed after the game shuts down.

What event do you have planned for when EverQuest: Macintosh Edition is shut off?

We do expect to have a celebration for all EverQuest: Macintosh Edition players, to celebrate the proud history of EverQuest: Macintosh Edition. More details will be forthcoming in a forums post in the near future.

Multiple Dozekar the Cursed and Drakes were slain in the Halls of Testing, completing a Mask of the Silver Eyes (Zeff), Braclet of Speed (Shlomo), and many more.

We paid our old friends in Plane of fear a visit, Dracolich and the Golems were not happy to see us, but gifted us with a Grotesque Girdle (Bibble) and Fearsome Shield (Zemos) anyways.

We then decided that Derakor the Vindicator was someone who had been evading us for too long. After a few attempts, we finally put him on his back and rewarded ourselves with a shiny new Chestplate of Vindication (Shamz).

Next, our force was feeling too loved by the dragonfolk, so we slayed Klandicar and Telkenor too so they wouldn’t get comfortable with us running around the Western Wastes and Temple of Veeshan. Shiny new loots dropped: Circlet of Suffering (Number), Klandicar’s Talisman (Rojo).

Of course, Zlandicar wasn’t forgotten, our old punching bag and Sleepers Tomb key farm… Loots from Zlandicar this past month included: Cowl of Mortality (Ground, Twisten), Massive Dragonclaw Shard (Zemos), Zlandicar’s Talisman (Kapowie, Dimitre), Frakadar’s Talisman (Ground, Twisten), Zlandicar’s Heart (Dimitre), First Brood Talisman (Dunkirk).

Lastly, some armor from Halls of Testing to fill in some of our member’s missing Skyshrine armor slots.

Unadorned Chain Sleeves: Quickin
Unadorned Chain Sleeves: Shamz
Unadorned Chain Gauntlets: Shamz
Unadorned Plate Vambraces: Zemos
Unadorned Plate Boots: Zemos
Tattered Silk Pantaloons: Akuto
Tattered Silk Gloves: Dimitre
Tattered Silk Gloves: Blic

And many other armor pieces were guild banked for future members who join our raid force!

Beginning the year in the Kunark expansion, Vintage defeated and farmed the six legendary dragons of Veeshan’s Peak, showering the guild with some of the rarest loot Al’Kabor has seen. As we grew bored of the same scales and scenery, Vintage unlocked the new Velious expansion and immediately tested our raid force’s strength with the likes of Woushi, Lord Bob, Woushi, Kelorek Dar, Velketor the Sorcerer, Zlandicar, Dracolich, Derakor the Vindicator, and Statue of Rallos Zek.

Over the Summer, the guild had eyes for bigger targets, as we raised our Claws of Veeshan faction together in order farm armor from Temple of Veeshan’s Hall of Testing. We relentlessly farmed Skyshrine armor for everybody resulting in an even more effective team capable of killing the same targets at the beginning of the Summer with only two thirds of our attendance! Along with crafters and questers completing Coldain Shawls and other quested upgrades, a leaner, meaner Vintage raid force emerged.

Reaping the benefits of all the farming and questing, Vintage began collecting Sleepers Tomb keys, currently at 18, and defeating more difficult mobs such as Klandicar, Dozekar the Cursed, NToV’s Ikatiar the Venom and West Wing’s Gozzrem and Telkorenar.

Vintage’s goals for 2012 are to begin farming Primal weapons from Sleeper’s tomb for our members, and push into North Temple of Veeshan and the Cazic Thule revamped zone. Many challenges await and Vintage will be looking forward to steamrolling through Velious in the new year! Are you interested in joining? Head over to our forums and apply to the guild!

Happy New Years!

- Vintage

Tomorrow, October 4th is Vintage’s Second Birthday and we would like to share it with the entire server by hosting an “old school” East Commons Traders Day! Many members of Vintage will be there to buy, sell, trade or give away items, gears and spells from the Classic and Kunark era that we’ve amassed in our journeys, and we welcome you to come out with your own items and coin to revive the Classic EC Tunnel experience many of us remember before the Bazaar was introduced.

There will be giveaways, prizes, casino games, duels, auctions, wtb and wts spammage. This is perfect for those who are new to the server, or even your alts who may not have any gear to come out and get something nice to take home. There will also be dropped Kunark and Velious spells aplenty available, so you can complete your spell books!

The event will be happening between 7pm and 9pm ET til whenever the zone dies down. We hope this event will bring together the community and everybody enjoys the nostalgic EC Tunnel trading experience and standing around in the tunnel chatting with one another! This will also be a great opportunity for everybody to meet and greet the Vintage members who have been cooped up in the cold tundra of Velious for the past few months.

Differing motivations among Vintage heroes explain this reinvigorated yearning for glory. Some, like the dwarves of old, doubtlessly have their hearts set on collecting more of the marvelous treasures that have been found searching the lands of Velious. Filled with dreams of magically infused silks, tough and sturdy dragon hides, and swords, daggers and maces of immaculate workmanship, this faction of Vintage members boldly pursue the most difficult encounters possible because of their hope of finding rewards beyond wonder. Other members are driven, not unlike the orc slavers of Faydwer, for dominion and control. These members see this Vintage band of adventurers as a convenient means to achieve that end as they hope to quench their thirst for power. Still others are just fun-loving and witty souls enjoying the laughs, discussions and cold ale that necessarily are present in a company compromised of such individuals that Vintage has.

Whatever their reasons, an excellent collection of Vintage fighters, thinkers and healers have been gathering, travelling, and destroying much over the past month. A wide assortment of fierce beasts, hated foes and even valued allies have fallen to this wrecking squad during that time. Some highlights of what Vintage has slain over the past month include:

6 Zlandicars
1 Statue of Rallos Zek
1 Derakor the Vindicator
3 Harla Dars
A Dracoliche, Terror, Dread, Fright
2 Dozekar the Cursed
Kelor Dek’Torek for his prized Orb of the Infinite Void
1 Gozzrem
3 Telkorenars
2 Mygas for the Wizard Dragon Bane scroll
1 Ikatiar the Venom

Additionally this month, the guild saw the advancement of two of its sturdier members, Bearclaw and Redneck, obtain the coveted Savage Lord title. The guild’s first thief hailing from Halas obtained his Ragebringer. Two well traveled explorers, who are surprisingly trustworthy for Iksar folk, decided to make Vintage their home and were greeted with sword, cloak and fine jewelry as well as companionship in their training and development. Many holding this land’s most esteemed titles for their classes have devoted time to other areas they can become masters in, including languages and tradeskills. Soon two hafling druids will join the elite who wear the blessed prayer shawl of the Velious dwarves.

With 11 actively present members now having the rare key to Kerafyrm’s Lair, it won’t be long until more priceless weapons emerge from that tomb. Whispers have reached our ears that there may even be more beautifully enchanted weapons than the priceless we have seen in the grave beneath the Wastes of the East.

We’ve come a long way from assembling for the purpose of defeating fire and ice giants of Antonica and we still certainly have an arduous path before us as we peer down into the halls of the Temple of Veeshan, Sleeper’s Tomb and Kael Drakkel. This motely group of gnomes, a smattering of other races, and gnomes, however, has never been deterred by a challenge.

So, cheers to all my Vintage brethren with frothy beverage in hand to the accomplishments of the past month, and to the successes and adventures that await.

- Ashlawn Pride

Vintage has been flexing it’s muscles lately and yesterday, we proudly killed a new target, Ikatiar the Venom. Congratulations to the following for fresh wyvern loot:

Ancient Wyvern Hide Boots: Quickin
Ancient Wyvern Hide Leggings: Monkus
Cloak of Venom: Scarboar

Afterwards, we continued our rampage and slayed Zlandicar, restoring some CoV faction and attaining another key to Sleeper’s Tomb. Vintage plans on raiding ST soon, within the next few weeks.

With that in mind, Vintage is actively targeting the mobs that we are capable of doing. As people notice that list is ever increasing. The current goal is to continue to farm the mobs we are farming and working more mobs into the rotation. As we get better this will become easier. Rather than spend 2-4hrs on one mob we’d like to spend 4 hours on 3-4 mobs. This is becoming much easier for us.

This past weekend we downed Zlandicar (unslowed due to lame shamans) and then moved on to Telkenor in ToV West Wing for a flawless kill. After that, we moved into HoT for symbol/armor Farming. This netted us an entire set of plate minus bp and some other extras while we got a bunch of symbols and finished Shuvits Cloak of the Fire Storm which he is now working to obtain since Telk killed his faction. Poor ogre!

We would like to continue this trend into the future and keep this as an ever increasing pwnage across Velious. While leadership will be working on raid mobs that we feel we can do if anyone feels we are missing out on a mob we could do let us know so we can try it.

The place we hurt most right now is Healers/Tanks being on all at the same time. Doing these mobs with just 1 warrior and sometimes no hybrids is very hard but we have yet to let that stop us. If that means we get 1 of the beefiest Main Tanks ever then so be it! No one likes 3rd string tanks anyways.

So with everything in mind keep on questing, farming and leveling. Please note that minimum requirements for Resists in Velious is 150 unbuffed and every member needs to be working towards that goal.

- Wejbot Neversleep

On Wednesday, August 24th, twenty four adventurous raiders gathered at the usual rusty fire pot in Halls of Testing, as we met at many times before, preparing for a night of Skyshrine armor farming. On this particular night, we noticed something was different… there was a foul stench in the air, an unfamiliar groaning echoing through the hallways and an eerie flickering of flames sending tingles down our bravest ogre’s spines.

Our scouts seeked out this disturbance in the hallways to discover that the fabled Dozekar the Cursed has returned to his lair. Within minutes, scouts from other guilds were entering the zone preparing to farm Dozekar, but respectfully gave way to our raid for the first attempt.

So Vintage did what we do best, we rain danced around the fire pots for the chances of good loots, trimmed every gnome’s beards and mustaches (to look good for the fight of course), and sang war songs to pump us up for our upcoming epic battle.

When the time came that we were ready, everyone got into their positions and the fight began. Heals were spammed, daggers stabbed, ogres bled and high elves cried. A long test of endurance ensued as our fighting strategy adjusted during the battle several times to the strengths and weaknesses of our foe. 80%… still doing good, 50%… low on mana… 30%… recovered and holding steady… 20%… we can do this, 10%… burn burn burn!… 1% Dozekar breaks free from Tugur’s Insects and wildly flurries on our tanks and continues to devour everyone! As Dozekar’s health bar lingered at 0.1% and his last breath seemed to slip further and further away, Kapowie, one of our wizards who gated halfway through the fight (we think he had to change his pants), came running through the doors of the Halls of Testing, watched as the last half dozen or so members were being devoured, and timely conjured the clutch killing blow to save what was very close to a 0% wipe to Dozekar the Cursed!

Here are some screenshots from our unforgettable battle with Dozekar!

Fist pumps soared high. Epic, memorable moment for Vintage, as we prepare to start our snowball of slaughter season in Velious.

Congratulations on Tears:

Emerald Tear: Wejbot – already completed for Buckler of Insight
White Tear: Rokstar – will be used for Mask of the Silver Eyes
Poison Tear: Shuvit – will be used for Cloak of the Fire Storm