We are continuing to receive a trickle of reports that some players are being changed into race/gender combinations that they did not request. While this appears to only be affecting a few players, since this is a permanent change to the character and we want to play it safe, we are going to suspend the race/gender change service at this time until we can track down and fix the problem. We have been unable to reproduce the reported problems in a testing environment so do not have an ETA on a fix. Due to the difficulty in reproducing the problem, we anticipate that it may be several days before the service is returned. For the few players who have been left in a state other than their requested race/gender, we apologize for the inconvenience and you will be given an opportunity to issue the command again to return to your preferred race/gender combination once the service returns.
4/01/2008
The problems previously reported with the race/gender change service have been corrected and we are re-enabling the service at this time. In addition, we've reset the system so everyone may request a fresh change even if they have previously used the system. If you were inadvertently changed into a race or gender that you did not request, please re-issue the command to be returned to your original race/gender combination. Again, this service will only work if you are in a static, non-instanced zone, so please be aware of your location when you issue the command.
4/01/2008
We've been receiving reports from some players that their characters have been changed into a different gender or race than the one they requested. We have identified one possible cause for this problem and will be making changes to the system to prevent this from occurring. In the meantime, we have cleared out the request logs and temporarily suspended the service while we sort out the problems. The service will return as soon as we have a fix out on the live servers. Our current ETA on the return of the service is 1 hour.
4/01/2008
EverQuest is pleased to announce the introduction of a new service that will allow you to permanently change the gender or race of your characters. This is something that has been requested by players since the inception of the game, but has only recently become possible due to changes that have been made in how characters are stored.
In order to make the use of this feature as simple as possible and to allow you to request this service without leaving the game, we have added NPCs to every static (non-instanced) zone in the game that listen for the key phrase "I want to be a <race/gender>". All you have to do is shout your request to the zone and when the NPC hears the key phrase, they will add your request to the processing queue. The NPCs do not currently have a way to respond to requests via the shout command, so you won't get a response to your request. This is something we plan to add to the system later, but we didn't want to hold up the release of this service.
For example, if you have a female character and want to request a change to a male character, you would issue the following command:
"/shout I want to be a man" (note: "I want to be a boy" and "I want to be a male" will also work)The service can take compound requests which include a change to both your race and gender. If you wanted to change your character into a female iksar, for instance, you would issue the following command:
"/shout I want to be a female iksar".Because we are anticipating a large amount of interest in this feature and wish to prevent possible performance problems that might occur, the servers are being limited to processing only a certain number of requests at a time and each character will only be allowed to change one time. Once your character has been changed, subsequent requests will be ignored. During heavy request times, it may take up to 24 hours before your request is processed. If your request hasn't been processed within 24 hours, please reissue the command, ensure you are in a static, non-instanced, zone, and make sure that you have spelled the name of the race/gender properly when you do so.
Important Note: Once the service has been requested, it cannot be altered and the change to your character is permanent. GMs are not able to assist with reversals, so please be absolutely sure about your decision before requesting the change. Changes to your race may alter your faction standings, so please be careful when exploring the world right after a race change.
Enjoy,
Addendum: If you aren't comfortable with the new gender or race change service being offered, you can elect to ignore the effects:
Under the [Defaults section] of the EQClient.ini, file, add:
IDontLikeFun = 1
This will disable the graphic changes for you.