Welcome to the official Preview for Game Update 29! This is a special game update, coming as it does simultaneously with the launch of our much-anticipated third expansion, Echoes of Faydwer. There is a boatload of information already available that describes exactly how cool Echoes of Faydwer is going to be, so we won’t belabor that here. Instead, we wanted to briefly highlight just a few of the many exciting changes for everyone in the coming update. 

Guild Levels
Although Echoes of Faydwer does not raise the level cap for players, it does raise the maximum level that a guild can achieve – and this is true for all guilds, whether or not your members have purchased Echoes of Faydwer. All guilds can now reach level 60 and gain access to new nobility titles and guild rewards, including expanded bank space. All guilds can also choose a unique heraldry pattern – although each guild member will need to purchase the expansion in order to display your unique guild heraldry on their cloak, of course.

Secure Commissions
How many times has this happened to you: you have the ingredients for a special recipe, but you don’t have the skill to craft it; random guy X, hanging out at the loom, has the skill but not the ingredients? Should you trust him? I mean, he’s hanging out at a loom – he should be trustworthy? Right?

But you’ll never have to worry about this again! Along with the new secondary tradeskills in Echoes of Faydwer comes a great new way to securely commission work from crafters. It’s a bit like a trade panel – you present your ingredients, the crafter presents his recipes and skills (and possibly other ingredients), and both of you get to see what is going on at each step of the way so there’s no confusion. It’s a great leap forward for crafters and non-crafters alike!

And More!
This is a short Preview, largely because we’ve already shared so much about the upcoming expansion in other venues. But as always there is a lot more going on than we’ve can ever touch on here. Game Update 29 and the Echoes of Faydwer expansion together are chock full of exciting changes and amazing content. You’ll just have to wait ‘til launch to see them all. But until then, here are a few more smaller changes to whet your appetite:

Check out the new and improved character generation flow. It’s more intuitive and a lot more lovely.
All characters can now wear a second earring.

  • Our trusty mounts finally got the attention they deserved, with improved appearances and much more realistic animations.
  • The chat window has undergone some appearance changes. Try it out!
  • We’ve made a number of improvements to hotkey bars and inventory icons. In addition to improving functionality, these changes also improve overall client performance.

Feel free to discuss this latest update in this thread!