Welcome to the Update 8 Preview on Lamannia!
I will again be your Coordinator on Lamannia. What does that mean? Simply put, it's my job to make sure things run as smoothly as they can on Lamannia while you are previewing. I'll be making sure the bugs entered in the bug system are getting processed, gathering known issues and release notes, and helping you to focus on topics we are looking for feedback on at the time we need it.
We have been working on Update 8 for a while now, and I'm excited about it. The Content team has outdone themselves with four new quests that continue the story line from Update 7. Our Systems team worked together with the content folks to bring us some great new crafted Droaam items using the same technology that was employed in the Mabar event. The folks over in Art have put together some amazing new armor looks that you can apply to your existing armor using the Cosmetic Armor system. A group effort has finally brought us a very useful set of Rogue Hirelings, and the Half-Elves have received their Dilettante Enhancement lines. All that, changes to the Drow enhancement lines, and many bug fixes are a part of Update 8.
If you were involved with the Lamannia Preview for Update 7 and still have that client installed, you can simple patch up and start previewing Update 8. If you need to install a new Lamannia client, see the link in my signature for an Update 7 installer which works much more smoothly than the one we previously had available. If this is your first time previewing on Lamannia, check out this thread for some details on the program.
We have not purged the characters already on Lamannia from the Update 7 release, so if you had characters on the server, they will still be there. And if your characters are showing up in http://my.ddo.com/charactercopy and you have transfer attempts available, you can copy others over using the tool.
Over the next few weeks I will be opening up various threads to collect your feedback on topics from Update 8. While you are welcome to make comments on different parts of Update 8 at any time, these threads will show you the topics we looking for immediate feedback on. Today I am opening up five threads, four for the new quest series, and one, along with an online survey, for rogue hirelings.
I am looking forward seeing and talking to many of you in game on Lamannia during the Update 8 Preview cycle. Don't be surprised if you see the occasional LFM up with some variation of +Thoon as the party leader.
Enjoy!
-- Thoon