..................................................................... ------------------------------ July 24, 2002 ------------------------------ *** New Interface Available *** The new EverQuest user interface is now available for use on Live servers. Many of you will find that it runs faster than the old interface. It is extremely customizable, and offers all sorts of features including resizable windows, fading windows, a pet control window, and flexibility through the XML files. We decided to offer it for optional use as a sort of Beta II for folks on the Live servers that haven't had the chance to try it out on the Test server. To activate the new interface: * Log into the game. * Type /newui into the chat bar and hit enter. * Log out and exit to your desktop and then log back in. or * Before you log in: * Open the EQclient.ini file in your EverQuest folder with a text editor (notepad works fine) * Find the [Defaults] section of the file * Add a line that reads: NewUI=TRUE * Log in We want to thank all the folks that have helped us test the interface and have offered a wide variety of useful ideas. Enjoy the interface! *** Bazaar Now Available *** Those of you that own Shadows of Luclin now have access to the /bazaar and /trader functions. These functions only work in the Bazaar. You can find the Bazaar on Luclin, adjacent to the Nexus and Shadowhaven. /bazaar opens up the Bazaar Search Window, which allows you to easily locate specific items for sale by Traders in the Bazaar. /trader opens up the Bazaar Vendor window, which allows you to make items available for sale to others in the Bazaar. You can only use the Bazaar if you have the new interface turned on. See the message above for details. Again we'd like to thank the folks that helped us test this feature. And we'd like to apologize for the delay in delivery of the Bazaar. We think that you'll find the finished product to be a good one. ** ViewPort ** One of the new commands available only with the new interface is /viewport. You can use this command to change the size of the gameplay area. /viewport [distance from left, distance from top, width, height] All of the distances and numbers for the viewport command are in the same measure as your screen resolution numbers. For Example: Let's say you are running in 800 x 600 video mode and you want to create view the game only in the top half of your screen (not that you would). You would type: /viewport 0 0 800 300 The top left of your screen is 0 and 0. 800 is the width of your screen, and the 300 is one half of the height of the screen. /viewport reset - will reset the viewport to the default setting. ** New Vah Shir Models ** We have developed new models for the Vah Shir for use with the old world. You may now choose to turn off the Luclin version of the Vah Shir models and use these new models if you wish. These new Vah Shir models require less memory and you may want to use them in place of the Luclin models to improve system performance. ** Spells ** - Fixed a bug with the bard songs Warsong and Battlecry of the Vah Shir that caused them to slow you down when used without other haste components. - Fixed a bug with bolt spells that caused double hits due to elevation. Sorry Mages. - Removed the "Ahhh... I feel much better now!" message from certain spells when the caster is over level 35. -Removed the reduction in damage to Damage over Time spells when used on NPCs that are moving. - Mind Wrack will now consider the z-axis when calculating the maximum distance group members can receive the beneficial affects of the spell. - Song of Sustenance should prevent unnecessary hungry and thirsty messages. - Bind Affinity can no longer be cast on any ungrouped player in arenas. - The caster of Voice Graft will once again see what is being said. - Spells that transfer hit points over time from the caster to a target will no longer take effect on the target (the hit point gainer) if the caster (the hit point giver) isn't also affected by the spell. - Added a spell effect message to Magician epic. - Beastlords now get Endure Disease at level 24 and Resist Disease at 51 ** Pets ** - Pet Resistance Changes: Pets will now use their master's level and resistances when saving against spells cast by NPCs (against PCs pets will use their own resistances and level as they always have) - unless the pet has special resistances, in which case it will use that resistance. - Altered pet summoning spells so that they always summon the most powerful pet possible, instead of pets within a 5 level range. - /pet report health now uses the same user defined color as spell text. - /pet report health will now display a list of the effects on the pet. - Mage fire pets should now cast their damage shields more often. - Wizard, Druid and Cleric pets and familiars can now be buffed by characters other than their owner. ** PvP ** - Fixed a bug on Tallon and Vallon Zek that made player characters in non-human illusions immune to ranged attacks. - It is no longer possible for PC's to fear other PC's at all on any server. The same was also done for charm. - Pets can no longer be affected by charm spells. This should fix the issue that caused charm spells to make pets disappear. - NPCs who are pets of players and call for help from other NPCs will have their cries fall on deaf ears. ** Alternate Advancement ** - Dire Charm will now send a message to inform the caster that the charm has broken by Feign Death. - Spell Casting Subtlety should work properly for all levels of the ability. ** Zone Specific ** - Corrected a problem with a treasure table in Marus Seru. - The drakes in SkyShrine should no longer be dropping cloth caps. They should now be producing Drake Eggs. The drakes are very happy about this. - The mountain lions in Steamfont now have jawbones. They are happier about this than the Drakes are about their eggs. - Hoshkar should no longer appear as a bag, qualifying him as the happiest of them all. ** Horses ** - Fixed a bug that was allowing characters to change into illegal forms while on horseback, causing some unusual displacement problems. Characters will no longer be able to turn into those illegal forms (elementals, for example) while on a horse. ** Quests ** - Corrected an issue with the Proudfoot Greaves recipe. - The Vex Thal key quest has been changed slightly. Celestial Rifts will no longer be used to create the key - a new item replaces them called a Planar Rift. Planar Rifts are acquired by defeating the same creature as before, however all future Rifts are going to be No-Drop. A Celestial Rift can be placed in a forge by itself and 'combined' to create a Planar Rift. Please be aware that the new Planar Rifts are No- Drop, and should only be converted in a forge by the intended owner. Old-style Celestial Rifts may be converted into the new Planar Rifts for a period of one month from this patch. If you have any rifts currently, be sure to convert them to the new style within 30 days. This change is not intended to make it more difficult or time consuming to acquire your Vex Thal key. Many players had brought forth concerns regarding the ability to hoard Celestial Rifts, which had the potential of causing some long-term issues. This fix addresses those concerns, and does not add any difficulty for players currently working on this quest. ** Items ** - Shissar-bane bows should be working. - Irontoes Tipped Beer Stein should now look like a stein rather than a bag when equipped. - The Intricate Shield can now be used by Dwarves, High Elves, Iksar, Vah Shir, Barbarians and Half Elves. - Imbued Steelsilk Helms now have plate graphics. - Large Fine Plate Boots can now be worn by Bards. - Crustacean Shell Helm now has a graphic. - Pickbringer's Chainmail Boots are now wearable by Gnomes. - Forged Firebrand Halberd now has a halberd graphic rather than an axe graphic. Also, because it is a two-handed slashing weapon, it can no longer be used by Bards. ** Dialogues ** There were a few NPCs that were not responding properly to their quest text. This has been fixed for the following NPCs: Wizard Schrock, Seamey Whirewhisker, Oglard, Morgalanth Tal`Raeloen, Verona Rankin, Gunex, Waltor Felligan, Nallar Q`Tentu, Lord Nethryn and Cilin Spellsinger. ** Miscellaneous ** - NPCs no longer have a chance to break root when being healed or buffed. - /split no longer has a chance to cause a loss of coins if done while a group member is gating. ** Grouping ** We have revamped the grouping system. This is a major rewrite of the system that should have little effect on gameplay, with the exception of removing the bugs with the old system. Players should no longer have issues with their group due to the link-death of any member (including the leader), zoning and other such issues. There is also a new command available. /makeleader - The leader of the group can now reassign who the leader of the group is by use of this command. *** News from Faydwer *** It is rumored that the major cities of Faydwer have announced a call to arms for all young adventurers. News of mysterious bloodthirsty goblins to the west setting up encampments has prompted all residents of Kaladim, Kelethin and Felwithe to all begin preparing themselves for what they think may be a momentous battle. Intelligence originating from the Scouts of Kaladim and Kelethin has informed their respective leaders of a possible alliance between a mysterious aqua goblin tribe and the Orcs of Clan Crushbone. Due to the possibility of an attack by either or both of these powerful tribes, guildmasters of all cities have begun the training of young soldiers brave enough to heed the call to defend their homeland against all unknown creatures and new inhabitants. *** Call to Arms *** Tarlain moved along through the tunnel at a brisk pace, a wistful smile painting his weathered features. His arm reached out from under his travel stained greatcloak so that his hand could traced the side wall of granite while his mind recalled the many times he had passed through this tunnel in his youth. It had been many years since and the memories of his training in the woodland ways within the environs of Surefall glade filled him with a peaceful nostalgia. This nostalgia all but vanished as Tarlain rounded the final curve and broke into the tree filtered sunlight of Surefall Glade and beheld a most unexpected sight - a line of Qeynos foot soldiers marching past the Ranger hall and on toward the far end of the Glade. What could bring the forces of Qeynos here? Knowing this could not bode well, Tarlain strode quickly to the Ranger hall, his eyes on the receding backs of the footmen. Reaching the main hall entrance, Tarlain's sight latched on to a proclamation inked in the flowing hand of a Qeynos scribe and bearing the seal of Antonius IV. It outlined the rising threat of Blackburrow Gnolls invading and despoiling the previously sequestered Jaggedpine Forest. Because of this danger Antonius has lifted his father's ruling to protect those forests and now calls for able-bodied men and militia to join in quelling the expansion of the vile Gnolls. Gritting his teeth at the thought of Gnolls invading the pristine woodlands, Tarlain turned and with a hand on his longsword, set off to catch up with the guardsmen and throw in his lot against the dogs of Blackburrow. (Note: Jaggedpine Forest is only available by using the optional files download option in the advanced section of the EverQuest patcher. Be aware that the download required for this new zone is relatively large.) ..................................................................... ------------------------------ July 27, 2002 3:00 am ------------------------------ Items fixed over the last few days or with this patch: - Pets summons are now working correctly. We've fixed the error with their maximum hit scores, along with giving some increases in offensive skills to allow them to hit more accurately. - Improved Singing Mastery to match the values given by Instrument Mastery - Corrected an issue with bard charm songs - Various other fixes. :) ..................................................................... ------------------------------ August 14, 2002 ------------------------------ - New Luclin Port Spells for Druids & Wizards. - Luclin Port Spells now usable from anywhere. - New AA abilities added to Intelligence Casters and Priests. - New Graphical Compass added to new UI. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 4, 2002 3:00 am ------------------------------ Please note: there are a lot of changes going into the game with today's patch. Some of these changes (such as the changes to resistances and spell stacking) will change aspects of the game that may make gameplay different. Keep this in mind when you log in. With system-wide changes like these it is entirely possible that there are still bugs. Please report these bugs using /bug, and know that we will work to fix them as fast as we can. But also note that some intended changes might appear as bugs (perhaps a spell no longer stacks with another spell). Feel free to report these as bugs if you are unsure. But please keep in mind the changes listed here as well. ** Petitions ** - /viewpetition displays the petition you have in the queue, if any. - /deletepetition deletes the petition you have in the queue, if any (unless that petition is currently being viewed by CS staff). ** Keyrings ** We will be resetting all keyrings with this patch. This will mean that all existing keys in the keyrings will be removed. You will need to place keys back onto the keyrings. Keys are added to the keyring by using the key. The keyring is a part of the character, not a space in inventory. To find out what keys you have just type /key and the game will give you a list. If you have recently deleted a key, please contact your GM for a replacement. ** Experience Changes ** - We have smoothed out level progression from 50-60. This should mitigate the "penalty effect" that occurs in levels 51, 54 and 59. Note that it will cost the same experience to level from 50 to 60 as it did before. Also, death experience loss will appear different in some levels. This is an unfortunate side effect that must remain to prevent some experience exploits. - We have rebalanced the rewards for killing NPCs for characters over level 50. NPCs that are considerably weaker than you will give you less experience. NPCs give more experience the higher level they are, and for the best results you should fight the most challenging monsters you can reasonably manage. ** Spells ** - Fixed the "You have been healed for X damage" message. It once again reports the actual amount of damage healed. - Added a message telling the caster when NPC can't be charmed. - Fixed a bug with duration boosting Alternate Advancement abilities and foci that was only allowing the first 12 buff slots to be modified as opposed to all 15. - Fixed a bug that was allowing focused and Alternate Advancement ability enhanced damage spells to do more damage than they should (meaning that both the Alternate Advancement and the Focus improve the base damage. The focus damage was never supposed to compound with the added AA damage.) - Enchanter spells that have a hit point component and a stun component can now be partially resisted. -The Enchanter "visage" series has had their recast time reduced to make them more useful. -Shadowknight and Necromancer Drain type spells can now be clicked off by the recipient of the beneficial portion of the spell. For example; Shadowknights and their group members can now click off the effects of spells such as Torrent of Hate. While the target of spells such as Shadowbond can click it off if they so choose. -Torrent of Hate should no longer overwrite Call of the Predator - Repaired some problems with Beastlord stat buffs - specifically that the higher level ones weren't always better than the lower level ones. - Furious Strength made available to Beastlords at Level 54 - Dexterity made available to Beastlords at Level 57 - Stamina made available to Beastlords at Level 57 - Divine aura is now available to Paladins at level 51, instead of level 55. - Harmshield made available to Shadowknights at level 51 - Augment Death made available to Shadow Knights at Level 60 - Death Peace made available to Necromancers at level 60 - Flaming Sword of Xuzl has casting time reduced from 6 to 2.5 seconds, recast increased from 2.5 to 60 seconds and mana cost lowered from 600 to 250. - Unswerving Hammer of Faith has casting time reduced from 6 to 2.5 seconds, recast increased from 2.5 to 60 seconds and mana cost lowered from 600 to 250. -Added a new line of spells for Shadowknights, Voice of Darkness. Merchants in Echo Caverns have been able to appropriate many of these new spells, but Voice of Terris has so far eluded them. -Added two new Mesmerize type spells for Bards, one at level 40, and one at level 58. Rumor has it that Serilia Whistlewind has recovered the melody written by Sionachie, but has been unable to locate the transcript for the Dreams of Ayonae. -Whispers in the taverns of Katta Castellum speak of recently discovered Ancient melodies. Brave adventurers search far and wide for the song of the ancient combine empire, and the Lullaby of Shadows. - Higher level PCs will be more resistant to lower level NPCs' spells. - Increased the number of spells that can be in effect on a given NPC to 30. ** Spell Stacking Changes ** We've made two changes to the way spells stack. Damage Over Time (DoT) spells are spells that linger on the target doing damage. Until today two different characters could not have the same DoT spell on the same target. As long as one copy of the spell was active any new version of the spell would not take hold. After today the same DoT spell cast by different casters can affect the same target at the same time. Also, if you cast a DoT spell on a target and you already have that spell active on it, the spell will refresh. (Note: It will not be possible to stack Lifeburn). This does not allow for inferior spells to stack along with superior spells. (Example: Two Necromancers can both land Boil Blood on the same target. However, Heat Blood, being an inferior spell, will still not stack.) Several DoT spells that have debuff components such as Tuyen's Chant of Frost and Breath of Ro will not stack due to the balance issues of having several hundred points of Resistance debuffs on a single NPC. We've also rewritten the way that spells stack with other spells with the same benefits (for example, to spells that give bonus hit points). Generally speaking spells may now 'bounce' off each other (neither overwriting the other) and stacking issues should now be easier to resolve. In specific: - Warder's Protection should have considerably fewer stacking and overwrite issues. Thanks to the folks at the Ranger's Glade for all of their help in 'tracking' this down. - Druid Damage Shields should now all stack in the correct order. - Druid HP buffs are no longer overwriting stronger cleric HP buffs. - Harness of Spirit and Visions of Grandeur should interact a bit more sanely. - Existing effects should no longer be stripped off when the incoming spell isn't going to take hold. - Boon of Garou and other illusions now interact the right way. - Spells that have both group and single target versions (and no special coding to tell them otherwise) now mutually overwrite each other. ** Resistance Changes ** We've made some fairly drastic changes to the way the spell resistance system works. Previously, there was only the smallest benefit to having resists over a certain value. We've reworked resistance in its entirety, completely replacing the old system with one that is more logical. The idea behind the changes is pretty simple: Resists should matter in a way that makes sense. Important things to note about the new resistance system: - Resists matter more for PCs. There are now tangible differences between having 50, 150, and 250 in a given resistance, for example. Resistance buffs, bard songs, and resist gear have actual value, all the way up the line. - Conversely, resistances also matter more for NPCs. Some NPCs became more vulnerable to things they have always been vulnerable to, other NPCs became more resistant to things that they were inclined to be somewhat resistant to. - Resistance debuffs should also have more value, all the way up the line. For the first time, resistance debuffs now have the ability to bring NPCs that were lure-style only down into the range of being hit by normal spells. - The hard level limit involving players casting on NPCs has been removed. This used to be referred to in EQ folklore as the "Six Level Limit" (It was actually 1.25 times the caster's level, but more people likely thought about it the other way.) This means that in the vast majority of cases, there is at least a small chance that a person will be able to connect a spell with an NPC, even if they are out of that NPC's traditional level range. - Overall, against NPCs that have medium-to-high resistances of a given type, expect to see more full hits, fewer partials, but more full resists in the new system. Taken over time, the damage done by PC casters to semi-high resistance NPCs should be approximately the same, but will definitely improve when the proper debuffs are applied (we wanted to make sure that this did not turn into a universal nerf of casters). We look forward to seeing how these changes play out in front of a larger audience. ** Line of Sight Changes ** - For spells that require Line of Sight (LoS), the LoS check is now at the beginning of the spellcast, not the end. - Spells that require but do not have of LoS will now fail immediately. - Harmful spells require LoS. - Most Beneficial spells still do not require LoS. - Bind Sight type spells do not require LoS. - Any beneficial spell containing a Cancel Magic component requires LoS. ** Priest Changes ** - Clerics gain the Bash skill beginning at level 25. They will have a maximum skill of 125 at level 50, 165 at level 60. - Clerics gain Hammer of Judgement - a level 56 summoned hammer with a powerful and frequent proc effect - Clerics gain Yaulp V - a level 56 self-only melee and mana regen buff that adds haste, dexterity, mana regeneration and stamina regeneration. - Clerics gain Ethereal Elixir - a level 60 group version of Celestial Elixir, the heal-over-time spell. - Clerics gain Ethereal Light - a level 58 upgrade of Divine Light, the single target heal spell. - Clerics gain Ethereal Remedy - a level 59 upgrade of Remedy, the single target heal spell. ** Sound and Music ** - We've started work on the sound and music engine. If you used to have sound/music bugs, the first upgrade today might help a bit. This is the first step down a long road. If your particular sound/music issue isn't fixed, please be patient. There's no need to re-report existing sound/music bugs. ** Items ** - Items now display level-restricted statistics besides armor class and damage as a red number with the unrestricted value in parentheses. - Duration focus items now give focus message when a group spell lands on caster. - Blessed Coldain Prayer Shawl has been given a minor upgrade. - Small Cloth Sandals are no longer wearable by large races. - Fixed the Plane of Mischief boxes. ** Pets ** - Changed Specter pets so they're able to equip items and armor. - Pet-only buffs now automatically attempt to target your pet if you cast them with the wrong target or no target at all. - Fixed a bug that would prevent the creation of Familiars and Warders if the caster had created more than 99 in the same zone during the current game session. - The limit on the amount of haste that can be applied to a pet has been changed (aka. The Pet Haste Cap). The amount of haste that can be placed on a pet now scales with the level of its owner. The scaling occurs in a way that is consistent with how much haste a given caster can place on his own pet (using a Level 56 Magician as an example: The idea is that both Burnout IV and Muzzle of Mardu should be useful). ** User Interface ** - Deleting Spells from Spellbook: Storebought spells can be deleted from your spellbook. To delete a spell just right-click it to highlight it and tap the DELETE key. Please note: This does not convert the spell back into a scroll. You will have to buy a new scroll if you wish to re-scribe the spell. No reimbursements will be made for deleted spells. - Item Links: When you inspect an item with Alt-Left-Click, the item inspect window stays up. To paste a "link" to the item you're looking at into your chat bar, click on the item's graphic. That will "speak" a link that others can click on to see the stats of the item, as if they were inspecting it themselves. - Updated the /note window. The old /note command still works as it always has. But you can now use /note without additional text to produce a text window for entering note text. The /note command window should not break existing skins. - Fixed a bug with the tracking window that was showing the sorting set for something other than normal for non-rangers (this was just a visual bug). - Fixed a bug that sometimes caused a crash when zoning with the corpse window open. - Added UI Label type #74 = Player Title - "Reply to" will properly prepend a ;tell in front of names that are from other servers. - Extended the "reply to" queue to 50 names. - Fixed some aesthetics with labels. Percentages will never show above 100 now (even during a heal). Corpse HP will always show 0. - There will now be sound when banking coins. ** Bazaar ** - Added Focus Effect search parameter to the Bazaar. - Items that are no-drop on other servers but tradable on Firiona Vie should now show up in Bazaar searches on that server. ** Alternate Advancement ** - Frenzied Burnout no longer makes the pet suicide after the buff's duration ends. - Fixed a bug that would cause the Dire Charm ability not to reset if an enchanter used it when he already had a pet. - Fixed a bug that was causing Dire Charm to not give the "this mob cannot be Dire Charmed" message or reset the timer in Cazic-Thule. - Added the Quest Completion sound to AA point dings. ** Quests ** - There is a fellow named Moltak in Sol Temple. Killing him gives a negative faction adjustment with the True Spirit faction. BUT, if you have a very, very bad faction with True Spirit, killing him will also reset your faction to a more tolerable level. So don't mess with this fellow unless folks on the True Spirit faction are willing to kill you on sight. - Made some modifications to the faction effects of the Wizard Epic quest. - A powerful warder has been seen in the Skyfire Mountains. Those who seek retribution against Ragefire would be wise to speak to her, she may be able to provide information about his whereabouts. ** Miscellaneous ** - Merchants now display up to 80 items in their inventory. There should also be less delay when opening up merchant windows. - The Help window will now be displayed on startup. This will happen only if it has never been seen before (since this change). - Sirens should have female voices. - Bloodgill Goblins should now sound like goblins. - Several spell caster guild masters are now teaching magic skills. In Shadowhaven: Palomidiar Allakhaji, Loewnsaz_Waldalon and Lamukas Kaesoanls. In Echo Caverns: Kelador, Celerik, Wirgus and Yurian. - Erudites of Prexus now start at the proper location. - Bards singing songs should no longer prevent group members from /split'ting coins. Only teleportation spells being cast in group will prevent /split'ting. This change was required to keep coin from disappearing if a /split occurred while a person was in the process of leaving a zone. - Leather Padding can now be made from Rockhopper Hides. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 26, 2002 3:00 am ------------------------------ ** Planes of Power Pre-Order Bonus ** If you pre-order the PoP expansion you will be able to purchase the Planes of Power original soundtrack CD for just an additional $4.95. *** Important Notice about Alternate Advancement *** - When a character has 30 or more AA points, they will receive a red message stating: Warning: You are currently over the earned Advancement point limit of 30. Please spend some of your stored AA points. You will not be able to earn further AA points until you have fewer than 30. On October 21, 2002, all points over 30 in your AA pool will be deleted. It seems appropriate that Advancement points earned prior to the release of Planes of Power be used for abilities from earlier expansions. In addition, many of the Luclin abilities are pre- requisites for Planes of Power abilities. When the servers come up on October 21st, all unused Alternate Advancement point pools over 30 will be wiped. ** New Spell Effects ** We are implementing a few new spell effects using our new particle effects engine with this patch as a way of easing into the new system. The new effects are faster and give you more control over how they look. We have changed the Display Options menu to accommodate these new options. On the Display tab of the options window you will now find four options regarding particle effects. The first three, listed under Spell Particles are Near Clip Plane, Density and Opacity. These are the options for controlling the new particle effects. They will not change the old particle effects. The old particles are controlled using the Other Particles option. Note on Near Clip Plane: This option chooses how close to you particles cease to be visible. So Near allows particles to be seen right up to the character. Farthest will clip out particles near the character and only show those at the 'farthest' distance. Note on Opacity: This feature works at all settings for cards that support TnL. For other cards setting Opacity to 0% will turn off the effects and any other setting will show them fully. We'll leave it up to you to discover which spells have the new particles... ** Alternate Advancement ** - Beastlords now have access to the Mend Companion ability. - Beastlords now have access to three unique class alternate advancements. - Permanent Illusion used with Wolf Form should no longer result in a wolf tinted by the Enchanter's robe. - Updated Finishing Blow - "This ability gives you a chance to finish off an NPC that is below 10 percent health and fleeing with a single blow. The first level works on NPC's below 50, the second on NPC's below 52, and the third on NPC's below 54. (Non-Warriors must first train one level of Combat Fury to use this ability.) " - Improved Combat Fury for non-warriors to give more value to the points spent after level 1. ** Spells ** - New Druid and Shaman heal spells are available. - The "Your XXX Spell Has Worn Off" messages for DoT spells will now go to the right character. - Illusions that are of a character type that can't wear armor, such as werewolf, will no longer cause the character to be naked when the illusion drops. - Fixed the Illusion wolf form swimming animation. - Shaman and Beastlord Shrink spell has had its location restriction removed. - The outcasts of Echo Caverns have deciphered new magics that allow Dark Knights to channel the essence of terror into their enemies minds. While their initial findings have proven very powerful, rumors exist of even greater magics that might channel the nightmares of Terris Thule herself into the minds of mortals. Where that power might be found is not yet known. ** Items ** - Items that grant bonuses to bandage skill should be working now. - Guise of the Hunter no longer makes the user appear to be naked. - Validus Custodus Battle Axe no longer looks like a bard mandolin when equipped by a pet. ** PvP Servers and Gameplay ** - The recent resist changes have been adjusted for PvP. They will not be exactly as they were prior to the resist change, but they should be reasonable now. Please let us know if you feel they need further adjustment. - Player characters will no longer lose experience in the Arena areas on the Sullon Zek server. - A player character can no longer tell his pet to attack another player's horse when not on a PvP area or in a duel. - Kael, Skyshrine, and Thurgadin on Sullon Zek no longer have the newbie protection code active. - Players should once again be able to use level-restricted clickable buffs on the Sullon Zek server. ** Pets ** - Improved Beastlord pets to scale more reasonably with the level of the Beastlord after level 40. This also puts them into line with the last round of pet balancing, which did not improve beastlord pets at the time. ** Horses ** - Locate corpse songs/spells should now work on horseback. - Detect traps should also now work on horseback. - Fixed a bug that was preventing manipulation of inventory items if a character died with coins on the cursor. - Invisibility on horseback should now make your horse invisible to NPCs as it does the rider. - Zoning with Levitate/Levitation and horse no longer causes the levitation to fail. - Fixed a bug that would cause the horse 'buff' to disappear when zoning in some zones. - Player characters on horseback can now be hit by various missiles, such as arrows, thrown weapons or the various bolt spells from PCs and NPCs. - Call of the Hero should no longer put people under the world when the caster is on horseback. - Dragging a corpse while on a horse will no longer cause the corpse fall under the world. - You can now right click on spells to arrange your spell book when on a horse. ** Zone Specific ** - We believe that we fixed the major source of lockups caused for players in certain zones such as the Great Divide and Shadowhaven. - Hierophant Oxyn in East Cabilis will be showing up again. *** The Following User Interface Files have been changed with this patch *** Updated: equi.xml equi_aawindow.xml equi_optionswindow.xml New: equi_gemsgamewnd.xml ** User Interface ** - The New User Interface will default to ON. Officially, it is now just The User Interface and the other interface is now the Old User Interface. :) - The Fade to Transparency option should now affect all bags. - PC/NPC name on/off settings will now be saved when leaving the game. - CTRL key being pressed while looking up or down no longer creates a cycle of constant panning up or down of the camera. - Wrapping in the middle of the first word in an Item Tag no longer causes all text from then on being included in the tag. - Fixed bug with Item Tags for items that contain comma's in their name. - Pet sit button will now change to stand button if the pet is already sitting. - Added Item Tags to list of buttons in the Chat Options page, you can now change the color of the tags. - Item Tags now appear as part of the standard "You have looted an X" messages. - Hair should no longer disappear in Character Creation of Female Ogre with Luclin models on. - The Tracking window selection color is no longer the same as a yellow con mob. ** Miscellaneous ** - Fixed a bug with /hidecorpse making corpses invisible, but still be targetable. - /Gems is now available in both User Interfaces. ** An Ancient Arises ** Deep within the recesses of a cave yet unknown to the world at large, a dark, menacing figure parts with the slumber that has kept him silent for ages. The eyes of a magnificently ominous beast pierce through the darkness, his memories flowing freely once more. In the depths of this beast's mind sparks the knowledge that his prophetic savior has been released from the ancient magiks of time, let loose upon an unsuspecting world where the kin shall once again reign supreme. "My master's shackles have been trounced, and so it is written that in this world that has been so deftly overrun by pitiful mortals, he shall bring power back to those of the scale." The deep rumbling voice of the beast lingers throughout the cavernous hideaway, the barely distinguishable figure of a mighty lizard moves through the stone and dirt and dust as if to leave the gloomy surroundings and find his place once again upon Norrath proper. "For far too long have I been a prisoner to the overwhelming might that kept me in a state of secluded sleep; for far too long have I been victim to the ancestral elemental forces keeping my master at bay. Now I awaken and bring life back to the disciples; now shall the lifeblood of the Four once again spread the word of prophecy!" The footsteps of this great beast are slow but sure, moving through the depths of the gaping mountain retreat towards the surface. Along the walls, pebbles and stones that have remained dormant for years crumble and crack, falling to the ground as the immense beast walks past. A maze of dead ends and broken paths twists and turns in the expanse beyond the figure's resting place. The skeletons of those who had tried - and failed - to make their way to him in the years he spent in forced slumber remain, tumbled landmarks of heroes long lost. Slowly he moves, his reptilian eyes darting back and forth looking for any meager meals that may still be available. As he proceeds, he steps atop a mighty echelon, overlooking the bodies that could not defy the magical properties of the cave; fools of mortal thought, incapable of fathoming the power that lay beyond them. "Time has been good to you, my faithful warren... let us both pray that I no longer need you. The time for the revival is at hand." ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 27, 2002 1:00 am ------------------------------ This patch fixes a number of issues that first arose in yesterday's patch. We apologise for the additional Scheduled Downtime Page. - Zones should be considerably more stable. - Item links no longer cause display lockups. - NPCs once again choose their targets properly. - Gravity Flux-type spells again function properly. - The Guildmasters of Sanctus Seru are no longer quite as mean as they were previously. - Ring of Flamewarding is again wearable by Wizards. Thank you for your patience, and have a good weekend! - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 16, 2002 4:30 am ------------------------------ ** Odd New Objects in the Land ** Folks across Norrath and on Luclin have reported seeing odd new objects in various locations. They appear to be some sort of magical portal, though local spell casters have yet to discover how they arrived or exactly what their purpose is. They have determined, however, that these objects are slowly building in power. Attempting to use these portals at this time can have unexpected results. Experts recommend that adventurers avoid these objects until they know more. For more information on these odd devices, visit www.planesofpower.com ** Important Notice Regarding Alternate Advancement Reimbursement ** Due to the changes made to Manaburn, Rods of Mystical Transvergence and a previous change to Innate Regeneration, we are reimbursing several Alternate Advancement (AA) abilities. Once you log in today, if you have any of these abilities, please check your AA window immediately! If you have more than 30 unspent points, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that you make certain that your character has 30 or fewer AA points before The Planes of Power launches on October 21st! The return of these AA points may put your total number of unspent points over the 30 point maximum. Your pool will be reduced to 30 the first time you log in after the launch of Planes of Power on October 21st. We will be refunding all Alternate Advancement points in the following abilities: Innate Regeneration Manaburn Mental Clarity Quick Summoning Refunded Alternate Advancement points may be spent in any way you choose. None of these abilities is being removed, and of them only Manaburn is changing. NOTE: Cannibalization, Gather Mana, and Mind and Body Rejuvenation will not function if you do not have the necessary prerequisite, Mental Clarity 3. ** Alternate Advancement ** - Mana Burn will only land any given target only once every minute. If a cast of Mana Burn is unable to land, the timer will not be used. - Spell Casting Mastery once again works in the same manner that it did before the previous patch - Spell Casting Fury and Soul Abrasion will now stack - Illusion Tree and Minor Illusion will no longer be affected by Permanent Illusion - Fixed Purify Soul. It should now cure poison, disease, damage over time spells as initially intended - Reduced the reuse timer on Divine Resurrection from 72 hours to 36 hours - Reduced the reuse timer on Mend Companion from 144 minutes to 36 minutes - Reduced the reuse timer of Warcry from 72 minutes to 36 minutes. Increased its duration from 5 seconds per rank of the ability to 10 seconds per rank of the ability ** Defensive Changes ** - Decreased Monks' ability to mitigate damage (please see the Developer's Update on www.everquestlive.com for more details) - Improved the ability of Paladins, Shadowknights, Warriors and Bards to mitigate damage in some situations - Upgraded Warrior dodge cap to 190 - Upgraded Paladin, Shadowknight and Bard dodge cap to 170 - Upgraded Ranger and Beastlord dodge to 170 and defense to 240 ** Spells ** - Complete Healing will now heal a maximum of 7,500 hit points - The Rod of Mystical Transvergence spell has been altered. The spell has been renamed to "Mass Mystical Transvergence". When cast, this spell summons a Rod of Mystical Transvergence for everyone within 300 feet. This rod is no drop and contains 3 charges of Mystical Transvergence. Each charge restores 360 mana at the cost of 450 health. A player may only use a charge from the rod once every 5 minutes. - Additionally, there is a new "Rod of Mystical Transvergence" spell for sale in the Bazaar. This is a single target spell that summons a rod with 3 charges of Mystical Transvergence. This rod has the same abilities and restrictions listed above. This spell is a targeted summon that costs 400 points of mana to cast. - Changed the way Focus stacks with other strength and dexterity buffs - Circle of Seasons will overwrite Resist Cold - Dance of the Blade should now stack with McVaxius's Rousing Rondo - Harness of Spirit and Rage should now stack properly - Fufil's Curtailing Chant should now stack with Occlusion of Sound - Protection of the Glades should now overwrite Blessed Armor of the Risen - Blessed Armor of the Risen should now stack with Lunar Whispers - Fixed a bug that was causing some applications of spells and ranged attacks from great distance to go unnoticed by NPCs - Contact Innates (such as Boon of the Garou) should now be working for bards - Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause helmets and sometimes hair to disappear after an illusion was cast - Bard songs should now blink on recipients other than the bard ** Encounters ** Due to the number of Luclin encounters requiring original Rods of Transvergence to be defeated by a reasonably sized force, a number of those encounters have been be re-tuned to shorten their duration. ** Interface ** - New Alarm feature added. When you first log in you will see a pop up asking if you wish to set an alarm and if so for how long. There is also an option to choose to never see that pop up again. If you choose this option you will need to set ShowAlarmWindow=TRUE in your eqclient.ini file in order to see the pop up again. The alarm will trigger after the time you set has elapsed, no matter what character you are playing on whatever server, up until the moment you log out. - /played now displays how long you have been playing this session and, if an alarm has been set, how long until that alarm sounds. - /pet sit down should now work on charmed NPCs - Added 3 new context menu options for chat windows: Reply To, Tell a friend, Tell a Raidmember (for future use). Each of which has a submenu containing the list of Reply targets, Friends, or Raidmembers, as appropriate. Clicking on the player's name will place "/tell " on the chat entry line, and move the focus there, closing the menu. - Changed /loadskin. It now brings up a window that will allow you to select a skin from a list, determine whether to use the INI or not, then load the skin. ** Beastlords ** In order to allow us to better tune warders, we have made changes to the way that these pets work. Previously a Beastlord would summon a pet using an ability button and then use level-appropriate buff spells to increase the pet's level. Because of the way this mechanic works, it was very difficult to tune these pets. Hopefully this will have the side benefit of making things a little easier on Beastlords by reducing the number of steps required to cast the pet. Beastlords will now summon their pets using spells rather than an ability. The series of spells that was previously used to buff the pets will now simply summon the appropriate pet. Unfortunately, these pets will no longer zone with the Beastlord, and will need to be resummoned (instead of rebuffed) after zoning. We have made some adjustments to these pets already. - Added the casting time reduction that is already in place for Paladins, Rangers and Shadowknights to Beastlords ** Items ** - Merchants now highly value the Staff of Forbidden Rites and will only sell them at an extremely high price. - Dance of the Blade should once again stack with Nature's Melody and Song of the Deep Seas ** Trade Skills ** - Made it slightly easier to get skill increases while doing Tailoring, Tinkering, Smithing, Baking, Brewing and Alchemy. Made it slightly more difficult to get skill increases with Pottery and Fletching ** Miscellaneous ** - Fixed an issue that was causing zones to crash in some circumstances - Fixed an issue that was causing merchants to behave erratically while handling certain quantities of items - Player Character corpses with no items will decay in 3 real life hours, not 7 days - Fixed a bug that was causing Lay Hands to not heal enough damage - Zoning while on a horse on a boat will no longer cause you to appear on the other side in the water - /face (face picker) will no longer work while under the effects of an illusion - Taunt should be more effective and more dependent on the level of the Taunt skill for PC's and NPC's below level 60. - Levitation can no longer be cast on Traders in the Bazaar ** List of UI files updated or added with this patch ** UPDATED EQUI.xml EQUI_Animations.xml EQUI_FriendsWnd.xml EQUI_PetInfoWindow.xml EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml NEW FILES EQUI_LoadskinWnd.xml EQUI_AlarmWnd ** Fan Faire ** Greetings Norrathians! The portal to the San Francisco Fan Faire has been updated to include a full schedule, forums, hotel information and more. Registration is still open but the reservations are going fast. If wish to join the fun, teleport over to: http://everquest.station.sony.com/fanfaire/ to reserve your spot and see what's new! Those of you who have already registered, we'll see you on the weekend of November 8th in San Francisco! ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 17, 2002 3:00 am ------------------------------ - Some NPCs were unable to cast Area Effect spells and other innate abilities. This would have caused many of the recently retuned NPCs to be considerably easier than intended. - Updated the range on the Magician spell Rod of Mystical Transvergence. - Rods of Transvergence and Modulation Rods can no longer be used by those who do not have enough maximum hit points to survive the mana conversion. Please note: That is MAXIMUM hit points! It is still possible for appropriate level characters to rod themselves to death. - Barbarian Beastlords will once again return to summoning their own dogs. Not someone else's. If you were summoning a dog that didn't appear familiar, please do not worry. Your own dog has returned. He missed you. Please feed him. - Altered the stacking for the Shaman spell Voice of the Berserker to match the other spells in its line. - Aura of White Petals has been updated to have its strength as it was prior to its stacking changes. - In the original patch yesterday morning, /SHIELD was added as an innate ability that all Warriors now gain at level 35. Warriors may now choose to take a portion of melee damage that is intended for another. Warriors, please type /SHIELD for a full description of this ability. You may find that it assists you greatly in your groups. Correspondingly, NPCs and Pets over level 30 who are Warriors were granted this ability as well. Certain NPCs and Pets may choose to protect beings that they have an affinity for, if they believe that it will benefit the shielded being. For now, however, there is not yet a way to manually cause or prevent this behavior in pets. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 21, 2002 Press Release - Planes of Power Live ------------------------------ SAN DIEGO, CA – October 21, 2002– Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, announced today that EverQuest®: The Planes of Power™ will be available in retail stores tomorrow. The Planes of Power introduces high-level EverQuest gamers to an arching storyline and takes players on an adventure of epic proportions with hundreds of powerful new weapons, spells and creatures, 20 action-packed zones and an increased level cap maximum to 65 allowing players to become more powerful than ever before. “EverQuest fans have been waiting for an expansion that reveals more of the lore and history of Norrath,” said Scott McDaniel, vice president of marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “The development team has worked hard to deliver an expansion pack that is incredibly rich in content and rewards our veteran players. We’re confident EverQuest players will find The Planes of Power an exciting addition.” In The Planes of Power, a portal has been unveiled and now travelers can experience a world unlike anything they have ever seen. Players can share in the knowledge of this extraordinary discovery as they fight the most powerful deities to bring justice to Norrath. Players will fiercely battle the minions of Rallos Zek in the Plane of Tactics, join arms with Karana to regain control of the Plane of Storms, and overcome vile pestilence in the Plane of Disease in their quest to unlock the mysteries of the Planes. EverQuest: The Planes of Power Features List: • More than 20 new action-packed “planes” challenging players and pushing teamwork abilities to the limit • Enormous planar city, the Plane of Knowledge, provides a hub for easy travel and player interaction • A new cast of visually stunning non-player characters including Clockwork Golems, Mephits, and Elemental Guardians for earth, wind, air and fire • Challenging new quest system that allows unprecedented depths of gameplay • Over 50 new monsters, hundreds of new items and spells, and expanded trade skill system, and hundreds of new items • All-new raid system that allows up to 60 players to share exciting adventures and gain experience • Increased level cap to 65 including new spells and abilities • A central storyline links the content from every zone into one epic quest EverQuest players looking for a helpful tool to navigate Norrath and beyond will find valuable insight in the EverQuest Atlas. With over 150 detailed maps, the EverQuest Atlas is the most comprehensive collection of maps available for EverQuest and expansions: The Ruins of Kunark™, The Scars of Velious®, The Shadows of Luclin™ and The Planes of Power™. Each map offers valuable insight into the quests, monsters, riches and dangers of each location. EverQuest Atlas is available now in retail stores across the U.S. For more information please visit the official Planes of Power Website at www.planesofpower.com. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 23, 2002 ------------------------------ ** Patch Information ** - Fixed a number of bugs associated with the new sound system. If you were having troubles yesterday and disabled sound and music, please feel free to give it another try today. - NPC sounds should no longer clip out too fast. - The Sound Realism slider in the Options window is once again working. Turning it all the way off will disable Reverb, as the old /reverb command used to. - Quieted down people's personal sounds (sounds that you hear yourself making) a few notches. - In minor updates throughout yesterday, also addressed a number of spells whose effects were no longer making their usual noises. - Assorted content tweaks. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 25, 2002 3:00 am ------------------------------ - Added a toggle command for combat music called /combatmusic - Sounds that fade out will just fade back in if restarted (instead of fading out and starting over as before). This should make combat mode toggling much more pleasant - Added /mixahead command. You should only use this command if you are experiencing sounds skipping. The default value for this command is 8. Basically, this command tells the sound engine how far ahead to pre-mix your sound. The larger the number the further ahead it mixes. So if you are experiencing skipping, you may want to try increasing the mixahead value in small increments (increase it by 2 or 4 at a time). A setting of about 16 is probably as large as you should need, greater than that will cause your sounds to be noticeably delayed. - Swarm and Reanimation-type pets no longer give exp when killed - Swarm and Reanimation-type pets now properly credit their leader when they kill an NPC - Fixed an issue with /raid that was causing some folks to crash - Fixed a bug that was allowing players without Planes of Power to be invited to /raids - Added minimum and maximum price search parameters for the Bazaar - Fixed a stability issue on the servers ..................................................................... ------------------------------ November 5, 2002 ------------------------------ - Monk fists as hand-to-hand weapons now scale to 15 damage/20 delay at level 65. - Corrected a bug with a few spells that were group or ranged but would only work on the caster. - Corrected faction issues with some form changes (illusions). - Fixed the Magic and Stealth manual quests in Plane of Knowledge. - Changed how Force Shield, Barrier of Force and Manaskin interact with Beastlord mana regeneration spells. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ November 14, 2002 ------------------------------ - Addressed an issue with the Vallon Zek encounter. - A certain Ogre in Drunder now returns a vial of blood under the correct circumstances. - The Ring of Torden should now function correctly. - Experience rewards have been increased in Plane of Storms to bring the zone more in line with the effort required, and also more in line with other planes of the same tier. - The servers were not reset for this update. The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 19, 2002 ------------------------------ ** Zones ** - Spectral Parchments, Ethereal Parchments, and Glyphed Rune word drops have been increased significantly in the third tier Planes of Power zones. - The trials within the Halls of Honor have been changed slightly. Please proceed with caution. - Several Planes of Power NPCs are no longer angered quite as badly when they notice a healing spell being cast on a player they are angry with. - Made improvements to the Planes of Power quest armors. - Assorted quest, item, and dialogue fixes. ** Planes of Power Zone Progression ** As most know, progressing through Planes of Power zones requires that certain tasks be performed. In many cases, one of the tasks required involves being on a raid that defeats a particularly powerful foe. One side effect of this progress is that if the tasks were not accomplished in a particular order, a person on a raid may not gain the flag for completing the event, as they did not complete the prerequisite tasks. The majority of "zone boss" style encounters in the first three tiers of Planes of Power zones have been changed to allieviate this problem of completing tasks out of order. As of today, if you defeat one of these foes and do not have all of the prerequisites completed to receive the flag at the end of the event, you will be able to go back and complete the tasks that you have not yet performed. Once you've done that, you may speak with the Seer in the Plane of Knowledge who will make sure that you are then able to progress as if you had performed the tasks in their proper order. - The EverQuest Team .....................................................................