..................................................................... ------------------------------ April 6, 1999 News Bit from John Smedley ------------------------------ Music works on all sound cards. If you still aren't getting music, double check to make sure that music is turned on in-game. In addition, you may not have correct drivers, and/or you may not have it set properly. In any case, either call our tech support or go to the tech support area in chat. Please be advised that music DOES have a performance impact on the game, although it is a small one. Frame Rate Speedup - Our resident graphics genius sped up the game a fair amount. Those of you in areas like Greater Faydark should see some real improvements. Corpse Bug - We've been tracking a nasty little bug that would make corpses disappear. I'm sure many of you know firsthand about this one. We finally nailed it and it should be safe to die again ;) There's a whole bunch of other stuff that has been fixed as well and is listed in the patch message. Just as an FYI we did find a server-side bug that's been fixed and we will probably have to down the servers one at a time to update since this bug is one that really needs to be fixed. One final Item: Yes, glide on banshee's is coming back. It should be in later this week. - John Smedley, President and CEO: Verant Interactive, Inc. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ April 29, 1999 News Bit from John Smedley ------------------------------ Here's a summary of what was done in the last 2 days 1) We did a major hardware upgrade to our primary router here in San Diego. 2) We worked with CERFnet to do a router upgrade to their facility here in San Diego. 3) We moved Karana over to CERFnet 4) We brought up Rodcet Nife I think you will find now that the packet loss should be basically gone... at least on our end. We were definetely causing some of the loss before (only when we hit major numbers) but now things are very, very clean running and that is with 23,582 people on just as I write this (a new record). Does this mean that EVERYONE'S Packet Loss is gone? Absolutely not. BUT, I did some surveys in most of the worlds and about 750f the people told me their Packet Loss was great. If you are having problems now, do a traceroute to chat.everquest.com and send it to the email address traceroute@verant.com and we will take a look. We take our customers connections very seriously, and if a whole lot of people on one network are having a problem we will do our best to look into it. It doesn't mean we can always get the reaction we want (some networks are just plain bad) but many times we can help find a legitimate problem and help correct it. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 13, 1999 ------------------------------ Bug Fixes: - Players levitating should be easier for other PCs to see. - When charmed/feared and killed players should not be returned to the character selection screen. - Lore items in containers that are dropped should not be destroyed. - Charged items, such as the Staff of the Observers, should correctly report the number of charges remaining after zoning. - Corpses should remain lootable even if a player goes linkdead while looting - A player under the effect of charm or fear can no longer open their spellbook or sit in order to escape the effects of these spells. - A player using online help should no longer be locked into the help screen if another party initiates a trade. - Non-melee items equipped in weapon slots should no longer mutate if the pc is charmed. - Extremely large NPCs, ie Vox, should not suicide when stuck. New emotes: - Here is a list of new emotes that have been added to the game: agree, amaze, apologize, applaud, plead, bite, bleed, blink, blush, boggle, bonk, bored, brb, burp, bye, cackle, calm, clap, comfort, congratulate, cough, cringe, curious, dance, drool, duck, eye, gasp, giggle, glare, grin, groan, grovel, happy, hungry, introduce, jk (just kidding), kneel, lost, massage, moan, mourn, peer, point, ponder, puzzle, raise, ready, roar, salute, shiver, shrug, sigh, smirk, snarl, snicker, stare, tap, tease, thank, thirsty, veto, welcome, whine, whistle, yawn. PVP Changes: - In order to make PVP combat between spellcasters and melee types more viable some changes to PVP spell effects have been made. All damage spells cast in PVP combat will do less damage to the PC than the same spell would do to an NPC. When a PC is under the effect of a root-type spell there is a 20% chance that they will break free when a direct damage spell is cast upon them. Spell Changes: - Levitate: All players may now cancel this effect. - Paralyzing Earth now Wizard and Necromancer useable. - The Mana cost on some Magician damage shields has been slightly reduced. - Alter Plane: Hate and Alter Plane: Sky have been changed into higher level spells. - Succor: Ro (Druid) is now a level 39 spell (previously a typo as a level 49 spell. - Curse of the Simple Mind (Enchanter) now lowers both Int AND Wis. - Selo`s Consonant Chain (Bard) should now work better. - Shadow Vortex (Necro) is more effective. - Screaming Terror is now an all or nothing save. This should stop the 'train' problems that it was causing. - Gravity Flux will now research correctly for Wizards. - Lich and Bond of Death are now researchable for Necromancers check your tomes. - The different types of Words of Collection and Words of Acquisition are now more easily identifiable. - Dead Man Walking (Necromancer) has been renamed Dead Man Floating. - Ignite Bones (Necromancer) has had the movement component removed. This means that it will no longer break root and snare spells, and that it will now stack with the darkness line. - Syvelian`s Anti-Magic Aria (Bard) has been fixed. - A bug in some of the AoE code has been fixed. AoE spells will now effect more monsters. - Some Magician Summoned items are now lore items. Items that have turned lore have had other small benefits added to them. - Dance of the Fireflies (Druid) has been changed from Divination to Conjuration. - Rangers have gained the spell Dance of the Fireflies (level 15) - High Level Enchanter Illusion spells have had the remainder of their effects implemented. - Magi research components have been added to more monsters throughout the world. - There is a new pet command: /pet taunt and /pet notaunt. Pets default to /pet taunt - The Rods for the Ice Comet quests will now pop much more often. - Envenomed Breath (Shaman) has had its damage raised slightly. - Scourge (Necromancer and Shaman) has had its damage raised slightly. - Enchantment of Light and Enchantment of Brilliance (Enchanter) have been replaced by new enchantment spells. These spells have been added to a hidden vendor somewhere in the game. - New quests for Necromancers to research their pets have been added. Pets: - High level pets (44th and 49th lvl spells) do less damage - Pets will now navigate some outdoor and dungeon areas better DoT Changes: - If the monster is in melee with you, there is no change to how a DoT spell works. - If the monster is running away from you (fear, wounded, etc.), there is no change to how a DoT spell works. - If the monster is moving when the damage from the DoT is applied (happens every few seconds), it will take 66% of the damage that it would have taken. - DoT spells have all had their duration slightly increased. If the monster moves for 18 seconds during a fight, it will take as much damage from the DoT as it would before the patch. If the monster moves for less then 18 seconds during a fight, your DoT will do more damage then it would have done before the patch. If the monster moves more then 18 seconds during the fight, it will take less damage then it would have before the patch. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 22, 1999 ------------------------------ Magic: - Illusion: Werewolf (enchanter) now stacks with other attack speed spells. - Casting times on the higher level Ward series (Cleric, Magician, Necromancer & Druid) have been slightly lowered. - The Lich (Necromancer) spell will now provide more mana. - Surge of Enfeeblement (Necromancer) should now work consistently. - Enchanter Wolf Illusion is now Outdoors only. - Paralyzing Earth can now be scribed by Necromancers. - Thicken and Crystallize Mana now produce their proper potions. - All research quest combinations should now work. - Eyes of the Cat now provides infravision as the description states. General: - Summoned food and water will now disappear when the user logs out. - If the player is under the effect of Minor Illusion, and exits the game, upon reentry to the game, the Minor Illusion icon will remain. - Summoned items will no longer remain indefinitely when placed within a bag in the bank. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 28, 1999 ------------------------------ The following changes have been implemented with the latest patch, most importantly, changes to corpse resurrection. It should be noted that all corpses generated previous to this patch may not be resurrected, however, all corpses generated from this point forward may be resurrected with the changes listed below applying. - Corpses that are older than 2 hours cannot be resurrected. - Corpses that are produced from a duel cannot be resurrected after 10 minutes. General Enhancements - A Yes/No request window is now brought up when ever turning in the PK note to the Priest of Discord. - It is now possible to manually reorganize icons within the spell book. This may be performed by right-clicking on the currently placed icon (the icon will then be highlighted), then right-clicking on the desired slot you wish to move it. - Pet damage inflicted during PvP combat has been slightly reduced. - It is now possible to place items marked as "No Drop" in the bank. - NPC corpses will only remain for 8 minutes, even while looting. - If a party member goes link-dead, the remaining members will be notified. - Pets with less than 20 hit points cannot receive hit point buffs. - When viewing an invisible PC with See Invisible, the name will be shown in parentheses over the character. - All beneficial speed spells may be canceled left-clicking on the spell icon. - We have also made revisions to the /text command section of the EverQuest manual. Fennin Ro Specific Enhancements - Experience and looting rights is now awarded based on group aggregate damage (i.e. If a group's combined damage if greater than an individual player, the group members will be given the exp. and looting rights). We will be gathering the results of this data throughout the day, and if need be, incorporate this change on other "live" servers. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 13, 1999 ------------------------------ Optional Patch - A new zone, The Temple of Solusek Ro, is now available via the optional patch. General Enhancements - Experience and looting rights are now awarded for group aggregate damage. This is now true for ALL servers. We still consider this change in 'TEST' and will conduct a poll as to whether it positively addresses the kill stealing situation in approximately 2 weeks. - As mentioned on Saturday, Rubicite armor will no longer spawn. The new class specific quests to obtain the new armor are now in for each class that could wear Rubicite. - Journeyman's Boots will no longer spawn where they did but rather are the products of a quest. - To address trade fraud (players removing items/money immediately prior to trading to deceive the other player), items/money may only be removed by clicking on the "Cancel" button. - When receiving a text message from either an NPC or PC speaking in a language other than "Common Tongue", if the user's language skill is high enough, the language being spoken will be noted preceding the text. - The fishing pole will now appear in the player's hand whenever the fishing skill is used. - A number of quests were both added and enhanced throughout the zones. Trade Skills - A number of new items have been added to Blacksmithing. Spell Enhancements - Some of the Items that Magicians summon with their spells have been made better or had their effects increased. - Fufil's Curtailing Chant, Tuyen's Chant of Flame and Tuyen's Chant of Frost have all had their effects slightly increased. - The Burnout Series has had the negative HP component reduced (improvement) and the stat buff increased (improvement). Because of this, the spells are no longer permanent. They now have a 15 minute duration. Burnout III has also had its casting cost reduced. - Illusion: Werewolf attack speed component now works as intended. - Insipid Weakness will research as intended. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ November 1, 1999 ------------------------------ [Kunark News Release] EVERQUEST POSITIONED TO AGAIN CONQUER ONLINE WORLD WITH EVERQUEST: THE RUINS OF KUNARK EXPANSION PACK - Expansion Pack Features All-New Continent, More Than 20 New Adventure Zones and an Enhanced 3D Engine - FOSTER CITY, Calif., November 1, 1999 - 989 Studios, a Sony Computer Entertainment Group Company, announced today that its highly anticipated EverQuest®: The Ruins of Kunark™ expansion pack, which is an add-on to the most successful online role playing game ever released - EverQuest -will be available in March 2000. The expansion pack will provide the more than 225,000 current EverQuest gamers with an all-new continent, more than 20 new adventure zones, numerous characters, an additional playable race and an enhanced 3D engine. "EverQuest has a wildly devoted fan base who are constantly craving new challenges and experiences in the massive world of EverQuest," said Jeffrey Fox, vice president, marketing, 989 Studios. "EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark continues the legacy of EverQuest and takes it many steps further with a more detailed world that offers 40 percent more gameplay and breathtaking graphics." EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark takes players on a mystical quest to the continent of Kunark, home of the Iksar race. On the continent, players face all-new challenges and rewards in their quest for dominance and survival. EverQuest fans can get more information and an early look at EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark by visiting the exclusive expansion pack web site at www.everquest.com/kunark. Existing EverQuest players will be able to purchase the expansion pack directly online; pricing information is currently under discussion. New players will be able to purchase a retail version, which will include all aspects of the original EverQuest, along with the increased features included in the expansion pack EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark. 989 Studios - EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark Key Features New continent "Kunark," located south of Faydwer More than 20 new adventure zones featuring both beginner and advanced zones including: lakes, jungles, crypts, caves, dungeons, ancient towers and underground castles New playable race, the Iksar (Lizardman) A new cast of visually stunning non-player characters; grey dragons, reptilian monsters, giant scorpions, man-eating plants and more More object animations featured throughout Kunark that include earthquakes and other violent natural phenomena A highly detailed world with three times the amount of polygons and larger textures than the EverQuest world All-new ships that will sail from both Antonica and Faydwer to Kunark Newly created art by famous fantasy artist Keith Parkinson Increased level difficulty range allows players to advance further in the game. The most successful online role-playing game ever released, EverQuest features a multitude of adventures and quests with an interactive storyline that evolves according to a player's individual decisions. Players can choose to begin the game in any of the three continents, with more than 90 adventure zones and 13 cities. Each of these continents feature: diverse species, economic systems, alliances and politics. Throughout this adventure, players form groups, strategic alliances and gather magical artifacts in their perilous and exciting quest to conquer the world of Norrath. The Station@sony.com is the official provider of EverQuest, with software updates and news about the game, message boards and other community features, as well as an easy-to-use billing system for EverQuest's monthly subscription fee of $9.89. Verant Interactive is an independent development studio that develops cutting-edge online games. Based in San Diego, California, Verant Interactive has a staff of over 70 employees who consist of the development teams responsible for the online games Tanarus and EverQuest. 989 Studios, a Sony Computer Entertainment Group Company, is a wholly- owned division of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. and is the third-largest PlayStation® software publisher in North America. Headquartered in Foster City, California, with additional development studios in San Diego and Santa Monica, 989 Studios develops software for the PlayStation game console and online markets. 989 Studios is a recognized leader in the entertainment software industry, with top franchise titles such as NFL GameDay™, Twisted Metal®, Jet Moto®, Cool Boarders® and EverQuest™. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 1, 1999 7:00am ------------------------------ The following changes and enhancements have been introduced with the latest patch: *Monk Enhancements* -The Feign Death changes which were mentioned on November 16th are now live. *Spell Enhancements* -Tishan (Enchanter) and Malise (Magician/Shaman) spells now stack. -The Pet bug (where if you have a pet, certain monsters can attack its owner anywhere in the zone) has been fixed. -Alenia`s Disenchanting Melody (Bard) should now work. -Screaming Terror (Necromancer) has changed. It is no longer a "Run Away" Fear spell - instead the targeted creature will cower in terror until it takes damage (similar to the Enchanter's Mesmerize spell). -The Environment limit (Dungeons only) has been removed. -Pact of Shadow (Necromancer) now has a 12 second recast time -Summon Waterstone (Magician) has been added to the game. - The EverQuest Team ********************************************* ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 8, 1999 7:00am ------------------------------ The following general enhancements have been introduced with this patch. - /Pet No Taunt and /pet taunt now works - Bard Levitation is now working as intended. - A number of spears are now available to the Shaman class. - Dazzle and Entrance (enchanter) have had their casting times reduced. - A number of NPC guards have received an increase in stats. - Screaming Terror is now functioning as intended. *Zone Specific Enhancements* As previously mentioned, Paw becoming a mid-level dungeon is imminent. So heed our earlier warning! Both Fear and Hate planes have been enhanced, in terms of how often loot is dropped by NPCs. *Race Enhancements* Barbarians, Ogres and Trolls may now slam magic mobs when equipped with magic shoulders. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 14, 1999 ------------------------------ - A revision was made to a bug with Dragons, which was introduced with the patch last week. - The new Necromancer spell, Summon Corpse, is now live and functioning as intended. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 21, 1999 ------------------------------ After a week of thorough testing, the Summon Corpse spell is now functioning properly (we promise!), and available on all servers. - In addition, it is now possible to cast Cancel Magic on non-grouped players on the PvP and PvP-teams servers. - All changes were made on the server-side, therefore no patch is required. From everyone on the EverQuest team, and Verant Interactive, we would like to wish all of you safe and happy holidays. .....................................................................