Pre SoF beta question.

[Clix]

I am planning on using my beta key from fanfaire for SoF beta. That being said, Ngreth told me the new jewelry recipes would be testable in beta. My question is will there be vendors on the beta server to sell me jewelcraft components to test? Or do I need to buy components before I /betacopy?

Thanks in advance.

Clix

P.S. I have used EQTraders for years, but just got into tradeskilling in EQ after 5 years playing! Thanks to all of you who make this site so successful. I missed meeting Niami by 1 min. at the pool party in Vegas, but I did get to sit in some panels with Ngreth.

[gggrant]

I am planning on using my beta key from fanfaire for SoF beta. That being said, Ngreth told me the new jewelry recipes would be testable in beta. My question is will there be vendors on the beta server to sell me jewelcraft components to test? Or do I need to buy components before I /betacopy?

Thanks in advance.

Clix

P.S. I have used EQTraders for years, but just got into tradeskilling in EQ after 5 years playing! Thanks to all of you who make this site so successful. I missed meeting Niami by 1 min. at the pool party in Vegas, but I did get to sit in some panels with Ngreth.

Typically there are beta vendors that will sell the needed supplies for the recipes to be tested.

The prices for new components (especially the ones that will become MOb drops) is usually zero platinum. There sometimes may be a few items that are sold and are quite expensive and you may need considerable funds to play with all the recipes. This is where the betabuff exploit comes in. What you do is take an empty character slot and create a new toon. You then use the betabuff command (similar to testbuff in concept) to advance the toon to a selected level (level 65 or 70 is usually best). This will make your new toon the selected level AND give them gear appropriate for that level. You then sell off all tradeable items AND do the bridle/drum turn in to get a bag of platinum to sell. Move the cash proceeds to your shared bank and rinse and repeat until you have the cash you need for testing.

I called this process an exploit, however; it really isn't since your characters on the beta server will not be coming back to live (you copied over to beta, not moved). This means that it will only affect the economy on the beta server, which essentially gets wiped when beta is over. Nobody will care.

One final note: When you do your beta copy, make sure that anything you want is in your bank or on your person, but NOT in the shared bank. The shared bank does not get copied.

[Clix]

That is exactly the information I needed to know, thanks so much gggrant!


Clix

[gggrant]

A couple of things I forgot to mention.

The betacopy command does not work immediately. It is possible that it could take a few days for it to be executed. When you are copied, your toon (and bank) will be copied to the beta server in the state it is in at the time of the copy and not the time you issued the betacopy command. In short, don't issue the command, die and then camp naked thinking you will get that rez and loot your corpse the next day. You can issue the betacopy command multiple times for a toon, and each time it is executed it will overwrite the toon you have on beta. This means if you join a beta guild and then issue the betacopy command again, you will have to rejoin that guild when you are next copied.

Also as per the NDA, once you get into beta you cannot discuss the beta (or even admit you are in beta) outside the the beta server or beta forums. The NDA will not be lifted until shortly before the expansion is launched. While it is possible that SOE themselves may open a thread on the standard forums pertaining to some changes that are being tested in beta, the beta testers cannot start such threads and you are still restricted by the NDA if you participate in any of these SOE created threads.

You will probably come into frequent contact with various Developers curing beta. Keep in mind that they want your input on all aspects of beta but generally the best place for that is on the beta forums. They are really quite busy and don't have time for much chitchat.


On the subject of the Devs. One is an Iksar. You will need an Iksar Hide item to constantly link to him. (Tanned Iksar Hide Leggings, Iksar Hide Masks and Iksar Hide Caps seem to be the player favorites.)

Also, Ngreth is a notorious cross-dresser during beta. He quite often is found running around disguised as a female erudite. DON'T mention how cute he looks. He will stick you up on a wall some place.

[Ngreth Thergn]

:P

Though that was the 75 wizard betabuff Not sure what the 80 wizard betabuff is

One other thing.

If you are in a guild, get removed from the guild before you do the /betacopy command, then go ahead and get added back. There is a bug they have not quashed with the transfer to beta that sometimes gets your guild stuff corrupted, and then nothing we do will get you to join a guild (except a fresh betacopy)

You are of course welcome to stock up on whatever you want, but the vendors are there.

[Nilbus]

One other thing.

If you are in a guild, get removed from the guild before you do the /betacopy command, then go ahead and get added back. There is a bug they have not quashed with the transfer to beta that sometimes gets your guild stuff corrupted, and then nothing we do will get you to join a guild (except a fresh betacopy)

I thought that was only an issue if your char on beta was tagged?

[KyrosKrane]

Yeah. Ngreth meant if your *beta* character is in a guild, deguild him before issuing the /betacopy command on live, then re-guild your beta toon after the copy is completed. Otherwise, your beta toon's guild status will become corrupted and require manual intervention by a GM or dev to fix.