Greg "Rothgar" Spence, EQII Lead Programmer, posted on the official forums that the Nagafen server will have downtime Thursday morning at 7am.  The downtime is expected to last an hour.  Rothgar said that this will begin the process of moving Nagefen to new equipment.

During this maintenance we will be upgrading some of Nagafen's game servers.  After the upgrade is successful we will be monitoring server performance and slowly shutting down older hardware.  Our goal is to eventually have all of Nagafen moved to the new hardware but we will be doing it a little at a time so we can monitor load and adjust accordingly.

Initially we will be moving some zones such as Antonica and Commonlands to the new hardware in hopes that it improves your experience with Warfields.

Here's to a rapid upgrade and a smooth transition for Nagafen!

On the heels of the EverQuest II Extended announcement Senior Producer Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson posted a producer's blog on the Station Blog.  He discusses taking feedback at Fan Faire, working on the next expansion, and changes to PvP and Battlegrounds.

See the entire post at Station.com or below the jump.

Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson, EverQuest II Senior Producer, just annouced on the official forums that SOE will be opening a new EverQuest II service with a free-to-play model.

"[W]e’re about to launch a bold new service named “EverQuest II Extended” (EQ2X). This is a completely separate service from the standard EQII Live subscription service (EQII). It's aims are simply to attract new players to the world of “EverQuest II” and let them try it out before deciding if and how they want to pay for it." Georgeson posted.  EverQuest II Extended is free to play and has a "more robust marketplace".  The program is currently in Alpha, and interested players can get involved with testing at http://launch.soe.com/eq2x/ . 

It's important to note that the existing EQII servers are not changing their subscription model.  In fact, a new rewards program is being developed for players using the regular subscription model, and may involve "rewards packages for active users that buy multi-month subscriptions, giving them rewards like cool, unique, exclusive items and Station Cash," according to Georgeson.

For more information on EverQuest II Extended, see the FAQ on EQII Players.

It's time for Tinkerfest, the Norrathian celebration of all things Gnomish!  Your EQII ZAM staff has gotten the scoop on all the new additions to this popular live event.  We've found new recipes, new quests, and new rewards for last year's quests!  And we've heard that the volunteer Guides have some fun planned too.

Tinkerfest will run from 12:01am PDT on July 23rd until 11:59pm PDT on August 2nd.

If you need a hint or just want a sneak peak before the festivities explode upon us on Friday, see our Tinkerfest Guide!

Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence has annouced an extra hotfix for EverQuest II this week.  The US servers will come down on July 22, 2010, at 7am PDT.  UK worlds will be updated at 5:00 AM London Time on 23/07/2010.   Downtime is expected to last two hours.

LON MOUNTS
Legends of Norrath mounts have all been upgraded to a standard 65% run speed.

PERAH'CELSIS' ABOMINABLE LABORATORY
Arkatanthis the Destroyer: The Benthic adds that challenge group members will try to challenge players unaffected by benthic freeze wherever possible.

SOE has announced that the Executive Producer of ABC’s “V” television series, veteran video game developer and ultra personality Jason “Jace” Hall, as the master of ceremonies of Fan Faire 2010 at Bally’s Las Vegas from August 5-8. Jace Hall wowed the attendees of the 2009 Fan Faire with a preview of the SOE documentary EverCracked. 

Hall will maintain the flow of the show by hosting the annual Kickoff Reception, Grand Banquet and Costume Contest. "I’m honored that SOE chose me as their official emcee for Fan Faire," says Hall. "Giving the show a bit of my own flavor and personality and mixing it with traditions from the past will be just the right combination to make this event PWN 4LL n00bs!"

source:  SOE Press Release

Dolby of our sister site EQII Interface brings us news of a post by EQII Lead Programmer Greg "Rothgar" Spence.  Addressing the popular community of third-party UI developers Rothgar gave a heads up for Game Update 57:

Rest up because you're most likely going to have a lot of work to do when GU57 hits test server in just over a week!

I can't go into a lot of detail right now, but we've made some pretty big UI changes for 57. The default UI is getting a re-skin and many windows have been modified.

We'll post more when we can.

Keep an eye on EQII ZAM and EQII Interface as GU57 hits Test servers for more news when it's available!