..................................................................... ------------------------------ July 12, 2000 5:00 pm ------------------------------ *Karana Secondary Split* Hello all, In light of our plans to further balance prime-time population on the servers, we're going to allow another group of players from Karana to split off to Terris-Thule. This Friday we will again open /movelog registration on Karana sometime around 7pm PDT (GMT-8). The GMs will broadcast when registration is open, and we will continue taking /movelog requests for 24 hours. Players wishing to have their characters moved to the new split server will need to run the command "/movelog yes" after registration is opened. As we have identified a minor problem with the hundreds of simultaneous uses of the /movelog command, it is recommended that you wait a few minutes after registration is opened using it. Notes: - /movelog only needs to be run from ONE character, and will count for all characters on that server on that account. - Players who have requested a move should make sure all of their corpses are looted by the time the server is brought down the following Tuesday morning. Corpses will not be duplicated in the new world, and anything left on a corpse left behind by anyone who moves will be lost. - We may or may not be able to move everyone who requests this action, based upon the number of total requests that we receive. - The GM/Guide staff will not be able to tell you whether or not you have been selected until after the move is actually completed. - Karana and Terris-Thule will be down for several additional hours on Tuesday, the day of the next patch. Updates will be given at that time. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ July 19, 2000 7:00 am ------------------------------ ***Patch Day*** *Miscellaneous Changes/Fixes* - The "Safe Points" have been moved in Field of Bone and Lake of Ill Omen to someplace "safer". - You can no longer cast invisibility on any pet. - Foul language issued through /emote will now be handled by the profanity filter. - Corrected a bug that allowed linkdead players to walk through locked doors. - Rangers above level 50 will now do double damage with Archery against non-moving, non-rooted targets. These restrictions allowed us to enhance archery without creating a new kiting problem. - Corrected a bug that had rangers doing less melee damage than was intended except when fighting an NPC who was also a ranger. - Pets, both PC and NPC, will no longer cast "Gate". - A large rat says, "Hit by non-melee for XXX damage", is history. The new message given probably isn't the source of never-ending humor that the old one was. - Updated pathing information in Innothule Swamp. - Corrected many, many, MANY spelling and grammar errors in the world. - Fixed a large number of spell gems and spellbook icons. Take care to take a look at your spell lineup to familiarize yourself with the new gems/icons. *Poison* - Implemented the high level Rogue poisons (level 51+). - Increased Rogue "Make Poison" skill cap. - Substantially reduced chance to fail "Apply Poison". - Rogues will now automatically sit when right-clicking on a poison. - Failure to make a poison will now return the vial. *General Crafts* - The Ant's Potion may now be used anywhere. - The small and large reinforced wristband may now be crafted. - The small and medium studded shoulderpads, cloak, and belt may now be crafted. - The medium reinforced mask may now be crafted. - Sealed Poison Vials can now be crafted. - The Thermal Cloak may now be tinkered. - The "This item is trivial..." message in craft skills has been replaced with "You can no longer advance in skill from making this item". *Items* - The Elven Paladin Newbie Tunic may now be worn by Half Elf paladins. - The Murky Vial will now properly affect the target instead of the player. - Increased stats on many Plane of Sky items. - There was evidently more than one "Fine Steel Dagger" running around in the world. Some of them have been renamed "Serpant's Tooth". - The effect on the Staff of Undead Legions has been changed to something a bit more useful. - The Deepwater Helm now has a significant casting time. The function of its spell allowed a mana-free heal even though it was intended to be a buff. */consent* Some people were spamming others with /consent, causing them to disconnect. As a result, /consent can now only be done once every two seconds. Should you be harassed via this tool, please use /report. Also, please take care to avoid accidentally /consenting someone, as it will be two seconds before you can undo it. *Cazic-Thule and the Feerrott* There has been a significant change to the factions in the Feerrott and Cazic-Thule. Take care not to get killed by NPCs that previously left you alone. The significant upside to this change is that the "Cazic Gate/Portal" can be made much safer in nature for those who work on their faction. *Regen Effects* This week we corrected a bug that caused regen-type spells (e.g. Regeneration, Chloroplast, Regrowth, etc.) to overwrite DOT spells. As a result of this fix, players can no longer accept a regeneration spell while under the effect of a DOT. However, if the regen spell is already in place, the DOT will stack, but not replace the regen spell. This will allow users of beneficial DOTs, such as Call of Bones, to continue using their DOT while under the affect of regen. *Keyed Dungeons* The key for Charasis (Howling Stones) is now NODROP per the patch message from a couple of weeks ago. Furthermore, when your character dies, keys for Charasis, Sebilis, and Veeshan's Peak, will no longer remain with your corpse, but will instead return with your character to its bind point. We made this change to reduce the difficulty and corpse-loss potential of these zones, and eliminate the need to do the key quests multiple times. *Barbed Scale Whip* In the last item patch, this item was changed from its original stats to something inferior, as the game designer was not aware that it was already in-game. It has been changed back to its original stats. *Hiding Corpses* A new command has been implemented in the EverQuest client. This command (/hidecorpses) allows players to suppress the display of player and NPC corpses on the screen. This can be very useful once you've entered a zone with a large number of corpes, causing framerate to decay. It will be particularly useful in the planes. The command supports the following arguments: - ALL: Hides all corpses except yours. - ALLBUTGROUP: Hides all corpses except yours and those of people in your group. - NONE: No longer hides corpses. For community reasons, this option must be set after entering each zone, and will not affect corpses made after you enter the zone. You can reset it while in the zone in order to suppress display of corpses made since you originally set it. *Resurrection* The resurrection confirmation box will now report the name of the person casting the spell as well as what spell they are casting. Furthermore, experience will not be "removed" from your corpse until you accept the resurrection by choosing YES. Previously, any resurrection spell, if declined, would cause the experience to be unrecoverable. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ July 26, 2000 12:00 pm ------------------------------ *Chat and Login* Today's patch contains some new features for the EverQuest chat and login servers. In addition, it enables support for some international keyboard layouts. - Tab again switches between fields in login and registration. - #time will display a time/date stamp. - #reply will send a private message to the last person to message you. - Tab will cycle through the last few people to send you a private message. - Rooms may now be closed by staff members. These rooms are in gray, and no one will be able to enter them until a staff member opens them. Attempting to enter a closed room will display a message. - EverQuest, including Chat and Login, now supports some international keyboard layouts. Information can be found at http://everquest.station.sony.com/s_keyboard.html. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ August 1, 2000 ------------------------------ Greetings everyone! Today's patch contains some changes that we are sure everyone will enjoy: - Canned emotes (e.g. /point) now work on NPCs. In addition, the range for canned emotes has been increased. - /who all "guildname" should now work for players who have /roleplay turned on. - Preferences for the mouselook will be saved in your options file. Those who turn mouselook off each time when starting EQ will only have to do it once more. - The "Chat Filter" tab in "Options" now has an option to filter messages caused by damage shields hitting others. *Fast Drop* Our most exciting change today is an option that allows players to avoid accidentally dropping items on the ground. The new client allows players to set "Item Dropping" preferences on the "General" options tab. The three options that can be set are: - FAST DROP: Items are dropped without confirmation. - CONFIRM: A confirmation box will be displayed whenever you try to drop an item. - NEVER: You are not allowed to drop items on the ground. Alternatively, you can also set these options using the /fastdrop command. The arguments are: - ON: Same as option "Fast Drop" on the General Tab. - OFF: Same as option "Confirm" on the General Tab. - NEVER: Same as above. Please note that whatever your setting, coin will always be dropped without confirmation. Additionally, the FastDrop option only applies to items being dropped upon the ground. Handing items to NPCs will still work regardless of your FastDrop setting. It is highly recommended that you use option "CONFIRM", as GMs will not reimburse any items that are accidentally dropped. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ August 9, 2000 ------------------------------ ***Character Purge*** Time has come to do some cleanup on character data across the servers. On August 23rd (Pacific), we will be doing a system-wide cleanup of level 1 characters. All level 1 characters that have not been played within 30 days from the date of the purge will be deleted. As GMs will not be able to restore any characters that are deleted, please be certain to log in any level 1 characters that you wish to keep prior to the purge. - The EverQuest Team August 9th, 7:00am ------------------ *Guide Application* The Guide Application is now back up at http://guideapp.everquest.com. If you are over 18 years of age, have a good customer-oriented attitude, enjoy helping your fellow player, and are interested in joining the Guide Program, we will be pleased to review your application. *Kunark Users* A new file, emeraldjungle_chr.s3d, is included as part of today's patch. This patch adds additional displayable NPCs to the Emerald Jungle. Please run the "Kunark Patch" by pressing the "Kunark Patch" button on the bottom of the patch program UI prior to entering EverQuest. *Patch Day* Greetings everyone! Today's patch contains some exciting new changes. *General Enhancements* - Text messages that wrap will be indented on subsequent lines. This means that if a person or NPC says something that is more than one line long, all subsequent lines will be indented a few spaces. This should make it a lot easier to pick out separate messages. - The spells "United Resolve" and "Heroic Bond" had their levels transposed accidentally. Rather than putting them back as intended, United Resolve has been changed to Heroic Bond, which means you might have two copies of that spell in your spellbook. Feel free to move one to the back. Clerics get a new group spell at 58 to compensate. - The Wurmslayer is now a one-handed slashing weapon. - The /help command will now list all /-commands available to you. - Rangers, Paladins, and SKs now have mana equivalent to that of a pure caster with the same stats. This will give those hybrids a good deal more mana, regardless of their stats. - NORENT items, items that disappear when you log out, will now show a "NORENT" tag when inspecting the item. - Most summoned items now have the word "summoned" in their name. *Changes/Fixes* - Small Studded Tunic recipe now works - Scaler recipe now works - High Elves can now use the Moss Covered Twig and Branch - Iksar can now wear the Crescent headband. - The Shintl Lowbrew quest will now work - The Rusty Rapier now looks like a rapier. - Elven Wine can now be brewed - Some pelt-dropping animals were always dropping ruined pelts, rather than pelts of quality. This has been repaired. - The Guild-invite toggle in display options will now work. - The faction problems with the Charasis Key Quest have been resolved. - Many pathing errors have been repaired. - Repaired a bug that caused some anomalies after being charmed or feared. - Repaired a bug that kept the Unswerving Hammer of Faith and Flaming Sword of Xuzl from disappearing. *Dragons?* Rumor has it that some new dragons have been spotted in Kunark. It should be noted however that the dragons can be engaged from much further away than is intended. Rather than hold off implementing these dragons for another week, we've decided to implement them now and fix the problem in the next patch. Enjoy :) *New Command For Tracking* New option for those with tracking: /trackplayers. The command will work for all players with the tracking skill. The command has two settings: - ON: Default setting, same as it is now. Players will show up in the tracking window. - OFF: Players will not show up in the tracking window. *Client Customizations* Upon starting EverQuest, a new file (EQCLIENT.INI) will be created in your EverQuest directory. This file contains customizable settings for: - Colors for text messages in the in-game chat window - Default screen viewing mode - Default travel speed (run or walk) The documentation will be included in the online manual in your EverQuest directory once the design is finalized over the next several weeks, but the working document is posted below. We felt that people would rather have access to the customizations right away while we're in the process of building them. Modifying this file is optional. *EQCLIENT.INI documentation* The [TextColors] section contains entries for various text colors in the client. All colors are to be set with Red, Green, and Blue values, in decimal. Valid settings for each color range between 0 and 255. "Black" (0 red, 0 green, and 0 blue) will be white in overlay mode, and black in normal mode. Here is a list of user colors to use as a guide when editing the file: 1 - Say 2 - Tell 3 - Group 4 - Guild 5 - OOC 6 - Auction 7 - Shout 8 - Emote 9 - Spells (meming, scribing, casting, etc.) 10 - You hit other 11 - Other hits you 12 - You miss other 13 - Other misses you 14 - Some broadcasts (duels) 15 - Skills (ups, non-combat use, etc.) 18 - Default text and stuff you type 20 - Merchant Offer Price 21 - Merchant Buy/Sell 22 - Your death message 23 - Others death message 24 - Other damage other 25 - Other miss other 26 - /who command The [Defaults] section contains some default setting for the client. Here is a list of valid settings: RunMode - TRUE for run, FALSE for walk. ScreenMode - NORMAL for the default window view, FULL for the full view with overlays - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ August 16, 2000 7:00 am ------------------------------ *File Patched* This patch contains eqmain.dll, which is used by the EverQuest login/chat frontend. The following changes have been implemented: - #help now accepts arguments. #help #command will return help for the requested command. - Errors issued within the chat/login server frontend now display an "Error Number". Please have this error number ready when requesting technical assistance. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ August 23, 2000 7:00 am ------------------------------ - Corrected a bug that caused items that ran out of charges to "disappear" when the last charge was used. The item never really disappeared, and would reappear after re-logging. It no longer appears to disappear. *Updated EQCLIENT.INI Documentation* If the file does not exist it will be generated by eqgame.exe with default values. If an entry in the file is missing it will be added by eqgame.exe with default values. The [TextColors] section contains entries for various text colors in the client. All colors are to be set with Red, Green, and Blue values, in decimal. Valid settings for each color range between 0 and 255. "Black" (0 red, 0 green, and 0 blue) will be white in overlay mode, and black in normal mode. Here is a list of user colors to use as a guide when editing the file: 1 - Say 2 - Tell 3 - Group 4 - Guild 5 - OOC 6 - Auction 7 - Shout 8 - Emote 9 - Spells (meming, scribing, casting, etc.) 10 - You hit other 11 - Other hits you 12 - You miss other 13 - Other misses you 14 - Some broadcasts (duels) 15 - Skills (ups, non-combat use, etc.) 16 - Disciplines or special abilities 17 - Unused at this time 18 - Default text and stuff you type 19 - Unused at this time 20 - Merchant Offer Price 21 - Merchant Buy/Sell 22 - Your death message 23 - Others death message 24 - Other damage other 25 - Other miss other 26 - /who command 27 - yell for help 28 - Hit for non-melee 29 - Spell worn off 30 - Money splits 31 - Loot message 32 - Dice Roll (/random) 33 - Others spells 34 - Spell Failures (resists, fizzles, missing component, bad target, etc.) The [Defaults] section contains some default setting for the client. Here is a list of valid settings: RunMode - TRUE for run, FALSE for walk. ScreenMode - NORMAL for the dafault window view, FULL for the full view with overlays Log - TRUE for logging on, FALSE for logging off - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ August 30, 2000 8:00 am ------------------------------ *Today's Patch* Today we modified the EverQuest client to implement the following changes: - Corrected a bug that would cause players to crash if they entered the game, exited to the server selection screen, and tried to reenter the game. - Corrected a bug that caused delays when switching between UI modes due to the text wrapping change implemented last week. - The /book command (/book #) now accepts pages 1 through 50, and will switch to the proper page. - Opening your spellbook will automatically cause you to begin meditating providing that you have the skill. - Removed the /meditate command since it is no longer necessary. - You can now activate a hotkey while the spellbook is open by pressing the corresponding number-key. - The "/target [name]" command can be used to target other players by name. Please note that this ability is subject to the range to the target. - EverQuest will now write the original default colors when creating the EQCLIENT.INI file, rather than the new colors that were put in a few weeks ago. - The @-character can be used in emotes to indicate a target. For instance, if you target "a gnoll" and type "/emote laughs cruelly at @", the output will be, "Playername laughs cruelly at a gnoll". - People with the /LFG (Looking for Group) flag set will now have their over-head name prefixed with an asterisk. Remember that you can search for people looking for a group by using the "/who" and "/who all" commands. Typing "/who all ranger 40 50 lfg" will return a list of all rangers between 40 and 50 that are looking for a group. - The "Sense" series (Undead, Animal, and Summoned) will no longer point you towards people's pets. *Note on Voice Recognition* Last week we implemented voice recognition technology in EverQuest. To use this new feature, please refer to the EQROKManualSupplement.doc file in your EverQuest directory. Please note that you must already have a voice recognition engine that is compliant with the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI), version 4.0. The voice recognition technology was tested with Dragon NaturallySpeaking(r) v4.0. Check with the developer of your software to find out if it is SAPI 4.0 compliant. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 12, 2000 3:00 pm ------------------------------ *Guild Maintenance* We are in the process of preparing to do maintenance on the guild database. To that end, guild creation and activation will be on hold for the next three weeks. After that time, we may be running a process to remove inactive or under-subscribed guilds from the system. We would ask and recommend that those in guilds with under 10 separate members (on separate accounts) consider merging and deleting the under- subscribed guild. In addition, it's apparently become common practice for people wishing to register a guild to enter the chat server and advertise there for help creating the guild. This will no longer be permitted. People wishing to submit a guild must organize prior to entering the chat server. Advertising for assistance within the chat server could result in a short-term (24 hour) suspension for the account. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 19, 2000 7:00 am ------------------------------ *Level 1 Character Purge* The Level 1 character purge announced several weeks ago will take place on Wednesday, September 27, 2000, at 7:00am PST (GMT-7). Any level 1 characters that haven't been played within the previous 30 days will be deleted. If you wish to keep any level 1 characters that you may have, please log in and play them between now and 9/27. ***Patch Day*** As a testament to our on-going goal to constantly provide more content for EverQuest players, today's patch primarily consists of *many* content-additions to the game. *New Epic Quests* We are pleased to announce that we have implemented new "Fiery Avenger" style quests for every class in the game (including paladins). The ultimate reward for each quest boasts a custom model with unique particle effects. We think that you will be pleased. Good luck to everyone on your quest. *Class Issues* Rangers: Last week we completed in-depth testing of melee and defensive skills for all melee-centric classes. In the course of these tests we determined that the ranger class was not performing to its intended level, and have made the following changes: - The "Jolt" spell has had its casting time reduced. - The Skillcap on Dodge and Parry has been increased. Monks: High-level monks can now carry increased weight without penalty. The additional allowance is granted at levels 55 and 60. Cleric: Celestial Elixir was failing due to multi-tick cure components that are incompatible with that configuration. We have therefore removed the cure components and increased the healing provided by this spell. After a great deal of consideration, we have concluded that the Mark of Karn spell is imbalanced and requires correction. This spell's current function makes melee classes without dual-wield far less desirable members of the group. As such, the spell has had its duration decreased, its recast-time increased, and its "heal per hit" value decreased. *Fungal Regrowth* "Fungal Regrowth" is now a self-only spell. It was being used as an offensive spell by virtue of its "snare" effect upon the target. Furthermore, we ruled out making it "group only" as with other spells that have this issue, due to a class-balance concern. The spell was reducing the group's desire for classes capable of casting regenerative magic. *Attack Speed Buffs* In this patch we corrected a bug that would cause any "Haste" item combined with any "Haste" spell to automatically yield maximum haste, regardless of the level of "Haste" granted by each individual component. This fix increases the usefulness of better "Haste" equipment and spells. The downside to this is that those who usually have both items and spells active will see a reduced attack-speed unless outfitted with the best equipment and spells. *High-Level Dungeon Balancing* Veehshan's Peak and Sebilis have received loot adjustments in order to address disparities in risk and reward. For the most part, the quality of the "common" loot in Veeshan's Peak is at least as good as the "rares" from Sebilis. *Low-Delay Weapons and Damage Bonus Changes* In accordance with our announcement several weeks ago, two low-delay weapons can now only be equipped in the off-hand. Included in this change are the Mosscovered Twig and the Barbed Scale Whip. The delay on these weapons and the associated damage bonus to weapons in the primary hand made these weapons much too powerful for their availability and the risk associated with their acquisition. In addition, two-handed weapons have had their damage-bonus modified. The damage-bonus for low-delay two-handed weapons (27 or below) created a problem similar to the weapons above and has been reduced. The damage-bonus has not changed for normal-delay (28-39) two-handed weapons. The damage bonus for high-delay two-handed weapons (40+) has been increased. *Server Selection Screen* It has come to our attention that new players often think that the high-population servers are better, based upon the logic that if everyone else is there, it must be a good server. However, in Massively-Multiplayer games, less populated servers are often considered superior for gameplay. Therefore we have marked servers that would benefit from new characters as preferred servers, listing them in "green" in the server selection window. The preferred servers have populations such that an influx of new people would benefit the server rather than cause overpopulation. *Custom Emotes and AFK* Animations with custom emotes have been implemented. Current canned emotes such as /point allow a target other than the current target to be specified. That will continue to work. So if you type "/point Baobob", the usual text will come up. However, you can add custom text to the emote, but you must specify the target as "say" as the target. For instance: /point say points at a gnoll, indicating that he is ready to kill it. ...your character will execute the /point animation, and the text output will be: "CharacterName points at a gnoll, indicating that he is ready to kill it." Finally, you can now set a custom message for when you are /AFK. Type "/AFK " (without the brackets) to set your custom AFK message. For instance, if you type "/afk Grabbing a snack", you will reply with "Grabbing a snack" when someone sends you a /tell. *Skill Gain* The skill-gain rate of many skills is now further modified by character stats. This will allow those with natural affinities towards certain skills to improve at a greater rate. *Trade Skills Enhanced* Many of the trade skills in game have received massive enhancements, including dozens of new craftable items, new fishing and foraging items, and other things to be discovered once in game. In addition, trade-skill specialization has been implemented. Players will be able to exceed 200 points of skill in ONE of the generally available tradeskills. This includes: - Baking - Blacksmithing - Brewing - Jewelcraft - Tailoring - Fletching - Pottery Once above 200 points in one of these skills, no other skill will be able to exceed 200. Specialization restrictions do not include class or race-specific trade skills such as Alchemy, Make Poison, and Tinkering. Players with race or class-specific trade skills will be able to exceed 200 points of skill in that skill, PLUS any generally available trade skill. The enhancement of trade skills is an on-going project. Further enhancements will be made in the coming weeks. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 28, 2000 7:00 am ------------------------------ ***Patch Day*** The following changes have been implemented on the production servers as part of today's patch: *General Changes* - NPC corpses level 55 or over will now last 30 minutes before decaying. This should help those on large multi-group encounters who need some prep-time before looting items. - The item "Woe" has been repaired. If you receive the "Item out of charges" message when your "Woe" attempts to fire its spell, please contact a GM to trade out the item. - The spell "Mark of Karn" has been changed. The recast-time has been reduced significantly and the Hitpoint-return is now scaled inversely based upon the delay of the weapon. In addition, a hitpoint return will only take place when the target is hit with a primary melee weapon, or the primary hand if you are unarmed. - Some more tradeskill component vendors have been placed within the world to make certain tradeskills easier to use in your home town. - "AFK" and "LD" status will now be reported above player's heads. *Fleeing NPCs* Last week's patch caused NPCs to flee more than before due to a bug that was fixed. After evaluating the situation, we decided to reduce the chance to flee, but not to the extent that it was reduced before. NPCs were previously much more "brave" than they should have been. As part of the same change, charmed NPCs also began fleeing when low on health. We've determined that this is not a good situation for the players. As such, we have stopped charmed creatures from fleeing per player request. *Level 1 Character Purge* The Level 1 character purge has been completed. All level 1 characters that have not been played within the past 30 days have been deleted. *New Server Active* Tholuxe Paells, a new server open to new characters only, is now active and ready for play. Enjoy! As a reminder, /movelog registration will take place on Mithaniel Marr and Tunare Friday evening from 6PM to Midnight (PDT: GMT-7). Registered characters will be moved to a second new server, Drinal, early next week. ***User Interface Changes*** Many UI enhancements were made in today's patch: *Moving and Resizing Windows* The data windows in the full screen "HUD" mode may now be moved by clicking in the upper left-hand corner, moving them to where you want, then clicking again. The "spell effect" and "chat" windows can be resized by clicking on the lower right-hand corner, dragging to the appropriate size, and then clicking again. Coordinates for window locations in each resolution are stored in the EQCLIENT.INI file. *Bugs with Several Commands Fixed* We fixed a problem with /book, /sit, and /doability that allowed them to be executed at inappropriate times, such as while charmed or feared. They should now only function when the native button would have functioned if pressed. *Miscellaneous Additions* Added the following /-commands: - /camp: Causes your character to camp out. You must be sitting to use /camp. - /disband: Will disband you from your current group, or turn down an invitation to join another group. - /invite: Will invite the target into a group, or accept an invitation if one is pending. - /attack: Will toggle the state of "Auto-attack". You may also add a parameter of "on" or "off" to explicitly set the state. In addition: - CTRL-1 through CTRL-8 will cast the spell in the specified spell- slot. - ":" (colon: Short for /emote) and "'" (apostrophe: Short for /say) will now bring up the chat line in the same fashion as the /-key and ENTER. - The "R" key (by default) takes you into reply-mode as always, bringing up a reply to the last person sending you a /tell. However, you can now TAB and SHIFT-TAB to cycle through the last 10 people that have sent you /tells. *Pauses in Socials* You may now enter pauses in social batches with the /pause command. /pause takes an argument from 1 to 600, with the value being equal to the number of tenths of seconds (i.e. /pause 100 will yield a 10 second pause). For example, a social consisting of: /sit off /cast 1 /pause 100 /sit on ...would cause you to stand up, cast the spell in slot 1, wait 10 seconds after you've STARTED casting the spell, and sit down. Furthermore, you can also use the /pause command on the same line as another social by separating the commands with a comma. Even though the pause command is specified first, it is executed AFTER the command on the same line. For example: /sit off /pause 100,/cast 1 /sit on ...would have the same effect as the example above. It is important to note that the comma can only be used to separate a /pause command from another, and MUST be specified first on the line. *Emote Codes* The @ symbol has been replaced with a series of %-codes that expand into various pieces of information, and now works in ALL chat channels (emote, say, shout, ooc, auction, group, guild). The new %-codes are: %T - Returns the current target. %S - Returns the subjective gender-specific pronoun for the target (He, She, It). %O - Returns the objective gender-specific pronoun for the target (Him, Her, It). %P - Returns the posessive gender-specific pronoun for the target (His, Her, Its). %R - Returns the race of the target (only works on Player characters). For example, if you have a target of "a gnoll", the following emote: /point say points at %T indicating that he is ready to kill %O. ...Your character will execute the "point" animation with a text output of "CharacterName points at a gnoll indicating that he is ready to kill it." - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 3, 2000 4:00 pm ------------------------------ *Today's Patch* Today's patch consisted mostly of server-side changes, additions, and fixes regarding NPCs and quests. The only item of public note is that the Ragebringer can no longer be equipped in the ranged slot. A data entry error caused it to be initially allowed it to be equipped in that slot. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 13, 2000 7:00 pm ------------------------------ *Important System Configuration Announcement*. As many of you know, over the past couple of months we've made numerous enhancements to the EverQuest client. In addition to things such as new /-commands and other changes of that nature, we've enhanced the UI itself to allow moveable and resizable windows, among other things. At the same time we've been working on a brand new sound engine, and have been further concentrating on optimizing and expanding the capabilities of the EverQuest client. For most applications, the feature set of a version of DirectX is limited to the lowest common denominator between the version that the software is compiled under, and the version running on the client. This means that though you may be running DirectX 7.0a already, and are receiving advantages associated with the more advanced code, the feature-set of DirectX used when in EverQuest is limited to version 5.2. This limits the type and breadth of enhancements that can be made to the client. Given that we feel that EverQuest players would enjoy continuing to see new enhancements for the client, we will soon begin compiling the client under DirectX 7.0a, and implementing the feature- set available within that version. When we do this, everyone will need DirectX 7.0a (or higher) to play EverQuest. Here are some of the possible benefits from DirectX 7.0a: - Better performance (Graphics and Sound) - Gamma Correction working in D3D - Proper Mip-Mapping in D3D - Fixes fogging on some cards. (Some cards have no fogging at all and look pretty bad) - Allows us to use newer interfaces to support such features as full- screen anti-aliasing, and alternate Z-buffering methods, which tend to look better. Changing to DX7 does have a potential downside. Those using older or discontinued video or sound cards that do not have DX7 compatible drivers may need to upgrade to continue playing. However, we feel that the benefits that will come from upgrading to this newer version of DirectX outweigh the potential problems. We plan to begin requiring DirectX7.0a when the EverQuest client is next patched, in two or three weeks. We wanted to be sure to give everyone enough time to check their version of DirectX and install the newest version. You can run DXDIAG.EXE in your Windows\System directory to check your DirectX version and get the newest version of DirectX from here if it is needed. Please keep an eye on the patch message for further information regarding the planned implementation of DX7. *Epic Quests* Due to some difficulties regarding the Epic Quests implemented two patches ago, the epic quests for the Monk, Wizard, and Druid will not be completable until the next patch. While we would like to have implemented updates right away for these issues, we are mid-way in our conversion to support the DirectX changes that have been announced. We appreciate your patience. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ November 15, 2000 3:00 am ------------------------------ ***Patch Day*** Today's patch includes the announced code-updates to use technology included with DirectX 7. You MUST have DirectX 7 or higher installed in order to play EverQuest. Please refer to http://everquest.station.sony.com/f_requirements.shtml prior to contacting technical support for procedures prior to contacting technical support. Today's patch also includes the new "Sound Engine" that we've been speaking about for some time. The new sound engine supports additional EAX features and should address the concerns of SBLive users that have been posted in the past. *Movelog for Povar and Tarew Marr* The /movelog window will be opened for Povar and Tarew Marr on Saturday 11/18 and Sunday 11/19 from 6PM PST (GMT-8) to Midnight. All players wishing to have all of their characters moved (on a per-account basis) from those servers to the new split-server should execute "/movelog yes" during the windows. The physical character move will take place next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. Please check the scheduled downtime page of www.everquest.com for a firm time when it is decided. Remember that corpses will not follow you to the new server, so anyone deciding to move will want to be sure that all corpses are looted prior to the time of the actual move. As this patch features new /movelog logic to eliminate problems with people being left behind, players should not count on customer-service intervention after the physical move if they were unable to execute the command during the window. You will need to be present and execute the command in order to move. *Spell Changes* -- Pixie Strike: Made it less resistible by reducing the secondary resist. -- Song of Twilight: Increased duration. Made less resistible by removing the secondary resist. Allowed it to be cast at any time of day. -- Fixed the effect on the Necromancer Epic Quest Item. The effect was checking resist on each tick instead of running full course. -- Increased the duration of the effect on the Enchanter Epic Quest Item. -- Fixed the "Modulating Rod" so that it can be used by the appropriate races. -- Fixed the Lost Staff of the Scorned -- Maniacal Strength will now correctly overwrite the level 49 strength spell. -- The Death Pact and Divine Intervention spells will now stack appropriately with other spells that have similar effects. -- Modified the "Jonathan's" line of songs to remove the "skin" effect in order to allow bards to use them more effectively in combat. In addition, we made them "Self Only" spells rather than "Single Target" spells in order to allow bards to remain in combat while singing them. *General Fixes/Changes* -- Fixed a bug that caused an NPC on "Sister's Isle" to attack people who were fighting pirates. -- Removed Paladins as an authorized class for piercing weapons in game since they do not have the piercing skill. -- The "Belt of the River" quest should now work correctly. -- Fixed all known problems with the class-specific epic quests. -- Implemented some new race-specific quests for Iksar. -- Positively modified most Epic Quest Items. Please check your items to see your changes. Note: Not all changes will be evident by looking at the item. -- Fixed the NPC bosses in the Plane of Sky that were not dropping the correct loot. -- Your bread tin will now be returned when baking bread. -- Fixed the Wellford Fargin keyword problem in Firiona Vie. -- Made the "Gravebinder" a magic weapon. -- Repaired the Forager Bag. It was causing people to lose weight when placing items in the bag. It is supposed to have a weight reduction component, but was not supposed to cause weight loss. -- Taunt: Increased effectiveness above level 50. Previously, creatures above level 50 could not be taunted by means of the taunt skill. Now, most creatures below the character's level can now be successfully taunted. As a note, the chance to taunt a creature above 50th level is smaller than that of a creature below 50th. *Client Enhancements* -- You now have 10 pages of 10 hotboxes each when in full screen mode. -- You can now customize 10 pages of 12 socials each, increasing the total number of available socials by 108. -- Fixed a bug with the keyboard.txt file causing some keys to translate incorrectly. -- Fixed a bug that caused some window positions to save improperly at higher resolutions. -- All key mappings are now stored in the EQCLIENT.INI file. -- Fixed all known problems with the clipping plane slider. Users should now see differences for the entire range of adjustment in zones that support an adjustable clipping plane. -- Players on PvP servers will no longer show "[LD]" over their heads when linkdead. In addition, these same players will no longer show as "LinkDead" in the /who list. -- Players can now set custom text colors while in game. /usercolor: Usage "/usercolor UserColorNumber R G B" where "UserColorNumber is the number of the color as indicated in the EQCLIENT.INI file, and R, G, and B are red, green and blue respectively. All changes will be automatically saved to your EQCLIENT.INI file. -- OPT files in your EverQuest directory now have a number after the character name indicating the server number. As such, you will now be able to have characters of the same name on two separate servers with different custom options. -- The eqlog.txt file now has a name that includes the server number and character name. For instance, if your character is named "Bobb", and you are on Server 1, your log text file name would be eqlog_01_Bobb.txt. -- Added two new entries to the "Defaults" section of the EQCLIENT.INI file: AttackOnAssist=TRUE|FALSE - Sets whether or not your autoattack turns on automatically when assisting. Defaults to "TRUE". ShowInspectMessage=TRUE|FALSE - Sets whether or not you see the "Soandso is inspecting you" message. Defaults to "TRUE". -- Custom key mappings have been greatly enhanced. You can now set two keys, a primary and an alternate, for each function in game. In addition, things that were previously not customizable can now be set to a key of your preference. Left-click on the key identifier to set the primary key, right-click to set the secondary. -- Added the /note command. /note will append the following text to a file called "notes.txt" in your EverQuest directory. For instance, typing "/note This is a note" will put "This is a note" on the next line in the notes.txt file. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ November 16, 2000 8:00 am ------------------------------ *Follow-up Patch* Today's follow-up patch addresses the following issues from yesterday's patch: - The spell Torpor received an unintentional reduction in effectiveness - Illumination in game was not as bright as it should have been. - Pet using classes unintentionally gained the ability to summon multiple pets. - Bard songs were reacting poorly with invisibility/hide/sneak. - Hitpoints were being reported incorrectly to clients. - Changing resolutions would cause some to crash. In addition, the following changes were left out of yesterday's patch message: - Fixed a bug that would cause some to not be able to cast after being feared. - Data for group members and targets will be updated more frequently. This change should reduce complaints of warping and slow hitpoint and other updates. - Bards received increases in the skill cap for their instrument skills. - Changed the default combo for casting spells from CTRL-1:8 to ALT- 1:8, as CTRL was interfering with players ability to strafe. Thank you for your continued patience. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ November 21, 2000 3:00 am ------------------------------ *Patch Day* Today's patch addresses a few problems noted by customers since last week's big patch. The following changes were made: - Fixed some problems with sound volume being set above the maximum or below the minimum. - Fixed a problem that caused sound volume to be reset regardless of the slider setting upon zoning or entering game. - Fixed a bug that would cause some sounds to be unduly amplified whenever the volume slider was moved. - Fixed a bug causing pink fringes to show on whiskers in association with mipmapping. - Fixed a bug with /usercolor causing settings to be saved in the wrong slot. - Fixed weapon scaling problems with off-hand weapons and those carried by dwarves. - Fixed a bug that caused the client to display an amount of experience in slight disagreement with the server. - Fixed the Paladin Epic Quest reward, which was procing a spell that would do around one million points of damage if left to its own devices. - Fixed a faction problem that made some quests designed to be doable by anyone, regardless of race or class, undoable. In other news, the Tarew/Povar split server, Xev, will be up following the patch today. Xev is named for Xev Bristlebane, the god of fortune. We would have named the new server under its full name if not for an attempt to avoid confusion between the existing "Bristlebane" server (named for Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane) and Xev. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ November 29, 2000 3:00 am ------------------------------ *Patch Day* Today's patch includes updates to the client to address some problems reported by people in regards to the DX7 update, as well as other gameplay issues: - Corrected an older bug that would cause people to stop gaining or losing faction with associates when the primary faction was at its maximum or minimum. Players will now be able to further modify associate factions in the appropriate direction. - Random-effects on weapons carried by pets will now behave as if the pet is a player character rather than an NPC. The change last patch reduced them to a rate below player characters. As part of this patch, target-specific random effects will only work if the target is the intended type. For instance, a weapon that processes "Dismiss Summoned" will only "go off" on a summoned NPC instead of everything. - Added some code that should address if not eliminate a problem reported by people whereas the client would "freeze" for a second or two every few minutes. For those who do not have IRQ sharing and/or driver problems, this should address the issue. - Made final positive modifications to several Epic Quest rewards. Included in these changes: the SK weapon will now allow you to bash while carrying it. - Fixed a problem that gave people problems when exiting the game and attempting to get back in. - Added some code to address reports from people who find exiting from the character-select screen back to the server-select screen rather slow when mip-mapping is enabled. Most of this problem is due to routines in DX required to release resources consumed by mip-mapping and may not be addressable until the next version of DirectX is adopted. - Changed customizable key mappings so that the ESC key will clear the "NOKEY" setting instead of the "Backspace". This means that you can now assign "Backspace" to a function in game. - Corrected a sound problem that would cause certain sounds to be played "rapid-fire" under some circumstances. There is still a potential for this to happen with some other sounds that will be addressed in a patch in the near future. - Corrected a problem in Kedge Keep that made the top encounter more difficult than intended after the server had been up for a while. - Higher level Magician, Necromancer, and Shadowknight pets now have the ability to dual-wield without being handed weapons. The calculation used to determine whether or not this ability exists takes several things into account, but for the most part 39th level and above summons (higher for the Shadowknight) will have this ability. It is possible that you could get a "good" 34th level pet that will, or a "bad" 39th level pet that will not have this ability. - Bards of the land, hark unto me: The notes have been scribed on tattered parchment, two score and nine, for you they are meant. Abandon your mates, though they may fume, and follow the call of the seafarer's tune. - The Monk's hand-to-hand skill cap has been raised to a level equal to their one-handed blunt skill. Remember! Only a few days left until the launch of EverQuest: The Scars of Velious. Reserve your copy at your local retailer today! - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 1, 2000 7:00 pm ------------------------------ *SBLive Soundcards and Hardware Acceleration* Due to some past problems with SBLive cards, users of those cards who called into tech support were asked to turn "Hardware Acceleration" down one notch in DXDIAG. The last patch corrected those problems and most users should again increase hardware acceleration to maximum. To do this: 1. Click "Start" 2. Click "Run" 3. Type "DXDIAG.EXE" and press enter. 4. Click on the "Sound" tab. 5. Increase the "Hardware Acceleration" slider to maximum. Doing this should correct issues such as not hearing certain sounds or sound volume disparities. The only users who may not want to do this are Windows 2000 users. Creative Labs is currently working on new drivers for Win2K, so you may wish to wait until these drivers are completed prior to increasing hardware acceleration. Finally, all SBLive users should get LiveWare 3.0 from http://www.soundblaster.com/liveware/ After installing LiveWare, you will then want to REINSTALL the latest drivers for your sound card. The order of installation is important. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 6, 2000 3:00 am ------------------------------ *Velious Patch* Today's patch requires that Velious subscribers press the "Velious Patch" button on the patch program UI. *Emergency Patch* We appreciate everyone's patience while we address a few issues as tens of thousands of new players check out Velious. This emergency patch addresses several issues: - The transparent inventory screen will no longer come up in 640x480 resolution. It was not supposed to come up as the available screen space is not large enough to house the new screen. - "Disabled" windows in full screen mode will no longer interfere with mouse clicks. - Addressed some item drop bugs in Skyshrine that had the highest-level loot dropping off of yard fodder. This has been addressed with a retroactive item change. We apologize for the inconvenience. - Several disciplines (Resistant, Trueshot, Unholyaura, and Holyforge) have been upgraded. Please read the updated EQManual_Supplement.doc (or .txt) in your EverQuest Directory. - "Dragon Circles" have been fully implemented. In short, you will not be able to receive a teleport to a dragon circle unless you've been to the circle before and carry a soulbound souvenir that spawns at the circle. Please read the updated EQManual_Supplement. - Innate class-based resistances implemented a year or so ago did not take into account levels 50 through 60 with exception to those provided to the warrior. As such, each class that has class-based resistance bonuses (with exception to the warrior) will get an additional bonus as they level from 50 to 60. - The problem of blank faction messages being reported to the players has been corrected. - Screenshots are again enabled. Overall the Velious launch is going very well. We are happy to see that the problems found so far are minor and that we can address them quickly. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 7, 2000 4:00 am ------------------------------ *Patch Day* Today's patch addresses a few issues brought up by players over the last several days: - Fixed an issue with /split that would cause people to go linkdead in the event that they used the command in quick succession. - Fixed a bug where you could not edit socials or skills (via the hotbutton window right click) in fullview mode if you had hidden your "MainMenu" window. - Fixed a bug where you would not see hotbuttons in "normal" mode if you had hidden that window in fullview mode. - Fixed it so you can't use hotbuttons when looting, trading, banking, or using a merchant in fullview mode (which is how it is in normal mode, but with the inventory working in fullview mode now it wasn't blocked properly for that). - Fixed the message for the /dynamiclights command to report properly. - Fixed a problem where INI setting were not being read properly if you had camped or went LD to server select then reentered the game. This was causing various UI problems with window positions and colors being wrong. - Fixed a problem with Sirens Grotto - Some people entering the zone were getting stuck. - Fixed a problem with passage from Skyshrine to Cobalt Scar. Travel in that direction was supposed to require a key. - We believe we fixed a problem where NPCs sometimes would hit a pet- owner no matter how far away the owner was from the pet and the NPC. - Corrected loot drops in Thurgadin. We again appreciate patience while we stabilize following Velious launch. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 8, 2000 3:00 am ------------------------------ *Velious Subscribers* Please run the "Velious Patch" off of the patch program. *New Patch* We appreciate everyone's continued patience over the past couple of days, and are happy to see that the problems that have been experienced are relatively minor compared to those of the past. Tonight's patch is expected to be the last one we'll have to do for a while, so we hope to have you enjoying Velious over the weekend non-stop. Today's patch corrects the following issues: - The user interface problems that occurred as of last night have been addressed, such as window positioning and transparency. Also addressed were problems with targeting, enabling and disabling windows, and switching to and from resolutions above 1280x1024. - Corrected a problem that would cause some Voodoo card users to lock up when killing giants. - Added messages for some new skills that some NPCs have (e.g. Rampage, and Flurry). - Fixed items and item drops in a number of zones. Enjoy your weekend! - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 12, 2000 2:00 pm ------------------------------ *New Velious Subscribers* Please don't forget to run the "Velious Patch" off of the patch program. *New Server* We have a new server that will be coming up next week before the holidays. It will be a split server for Solusek Ro, Karana, and Cazic- Thule. Solusek Ro (which had about 200 people moved off about 9 months ago) and Karana (whose last split about 6 months ago did not go very well) will be split again with Cazic-Thule. Though the population of Solusek Ro and Karana at peak usage times is not excessive, those two servers actually peak about 6 hours before the other servers due to a large overseas population. This is why they are being split as opposed to other servers. /movelog registration for the three servers being moved will open this Saturday at 10am (GMT-8). It will remain open through 12 AM Monday, a total of 38 hours. We apologize for the short notice but to delay the move any longer would mean putting it off until well after the Holidays. By typing "/movelog yes" within the registration window, you indicate that you would like all characters on the existing account moved to the new server. The moves themselves will take place on Tuesday of next week. We also have a new non-split server planned for the very near future as well. It will most likely not go up until after the Holidays. If that changes, we'll be sure to let everyone know. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 16, 2000 12:00 am ------------------------------ *Movelog Reminder* We want to remind players on Solusek Ro, Karana, and Cazic-Thule that registration for move to the new split-server will open 10am PST (GMT- 8) today and will remain open until 12:00am Monday. To register all of your characters on those servers for the move, you must type "/movelog yes" while in-game. Again, you only have to type the command while logged in to *one* character. It counts for all characters on that account and server. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 19, 2000 3:00 am ------------------------------ *Patch Day* Today's patch primarily consists of tuning of Velious zones as well as content and other additions. In addition, the following changes have been implemented on the Live servers: - High-end items that have a activatable (right-click) healing effect have in several cases had their casting times increased. - Factions for some of the higher end encounters in Velious have received some adjustments. Basically, "bad acts" receive more weight than "good acts". For instance, if "A" hates "B" and "B" hates "A", killing "A" will hurt your faction with "A" more than it will help your faction with "B". - The stamina reduction with "Resurrection Effects" has been replaced by a slight attack-speed debuff. - The Ranger's Trueshot discipline now works correctly. It was previously only working versus other player characters. - The Shadow Knight's "Unholy Aura" discipline has received an enhancement. When in use, harmtouch resistances will be checked versus disease instead of magic. In addition, harmtouch will resist in the same fashion as lifetap spells, meaning that unless the creature is immune to disease, you should get full damage most of the time. - The spell attached to the "Fiery Defender" can now be partially resisted instead of being "all or nothing". The net result is that the average damage will be higher. - The Paladin "Holy Forge" discipline will now give paladins triple the normal chance of scoring a critical hit. Each critical hit has a percent chance to be scored as a critical blow. - Added parameters to the /camp command (the command that will cause you to camp out if you are already sitting). "/camp server" will take you back to the server selection screen. "/camp desktop" will take you out to the desktop following a successful camp. Despite popular request, "/camp spawn" will not be implemented. - Walruses now indeed sound like they should. - Added the /chatfontsize [0 to 5] (default is 1) command. This command will allow players to adjust the size of the font in the chat window. - The EverQuest Team .....................................................................