..................................................................... ------------------------------ July 14, 2004 ------------------------------ Headlines! Veeshan's Peak has been re-worked. Enjoy the new challenge. A new Adventure Zone appears on Stormhammer. You can now remove augments without losing them. Veeshan's Peak! With this revamp we have Updated the level and NPC list for the zone: Please note that this zone is now an elemental level zone! The entry quest to Veeshan’’s Peak has been changed. The original key quest has not been modified. However, the new entry quest uses the old key and offers an alternate quest to do instead of the original key quest. - Items in the zone are now of elemental planes quality. - Faction now matters: Dragons in Veeshan’s Peak will now speak to players if you have the correct faction and can understand them. - New quests and lore: The dragons in Veeshan’s Peak will now give players the option to acquire items through questing for them. - The zone is now an exp zone as well: Hunting in the areas before the dragons yields experience and loot. New Adventure Zone for Stormhammer Stormhammer gains a new adventure zone. This is a 2 group adventure zone for characters of level 65. Can you help the Eldritch Collective find and rescue Professor Bartleby Beckelbracker? Search the Desert of Ro for the whereabouts of Bartleby and his assistant Bomo and try to save them from the steel clutches of their enemies. Augment Removal * - You can now purchase special "distillers" that will remove augmentations without destroying them. These distillers are sold by a merchant in Butcherblock. The item inspect window for an augmentation will tell you which distiller is required to remove it. - The existing solvents can still be used to destroy an augmentation if you don't want to keep it. You no longer need a different solvent for each augmentation slot. The interface will allow you to select which augmentation you wish to delete. - For those with custom UI's, you will need to update your EQ_Container.xml file in order to use the new augment window. Pets * - Zoning pets are in. Persistent pet data includes: Items, Spell Effects, hit points, mana, name, height, and mana cost to summon them. All PC summoned pets should zone with you in all instances except for when you die. Pets will also follow the same rules as no rent items if you log with a pet. - Pets can be shrunk again. Please wash them in only Cold water to prevent inadvertently reducing their size. Tribute Changes * - Some items have had their favor value lowered. - Players will now "Pre-pay" for tribute benefits. When benefits are activated, the player will immediately be charged for those benefits from their Favor pool. After that, the player will be charged every 10 minutes for the next 10 minutes of benefit. If benefits are deactivated before the timer is depleted, no refund is given for the time remaining. - Players now have the ability to activate/deactivate the tribute benefits they've selected (as a whole) whenever they like using a button on the Tribute Benefit Window. However, every time the player activates his benefits, he will be "Pre-pay" (see above). The ability to change selected benefits (downgrade) away from the Tribute Master has been removed. - When visiting a Tribute Master, the player's benefits will deactivate. Players may re-organize their selected benefit load, but will not be able to "preview" the benefits (seeing the effect on their character when the benefit is selected). Benefit descriptions should give the player a good indication of what the benefit will do when activated. - The EQ Label that shows the Tribute Benefit Timer will now show green when benefits are active and gray when they are not. Item Changes - Manastones will no longer work in Forgotten Halls. It was not intended for the item to be used there and some naughty folks were taking advantage of the zone. - Malcohm Thimbleton, in the Plane of Knowledge will now swap out some Robe Graphic items for Tunic Graphics. * - The Staff of Revealed Secrets now has a 2hb weapon model instead of the little stick it had before. Enjoy your bigger stick. UI Changes - It is now possible to display your mana as a numeric value on your inventory screen. * - By mousing over your buff icons, you will now be able to see the buffs remaining duration. * Berserkers - Berserkers now have innate crits beginning at level 12. - Tainted Axe of Hatred now comes in stacks of 20. Additional Notes - You now have the ability to sell back LDoN items and augments to the adventure merchants for a percentage of their original cost. * - We have increased the number of NPC debuff slots from 30 to 50. Necromancers rejoice. * - The Doppleganger AA's re-use timer has been reduced to 30 minutes. * - Sprint and Planeswalk have had their movement rate increased. * - Beware! Many named mobs in Gates will now summon. - The Hide all traders option, for the Bazaar, will no longer need to be reset each time you enter the zone. * - /stopspellcast will no longer give spells recast delays. - Leadership: Group/Raid mark npc should now update for people that are added to the group or raid. - Main assist will no longer clear if the main assist zones. - Bards should once again play the stringed instrument animation when playing a stringed instrument song. - Hynid fleshrippers, tide feasters, and shore stonemites in Natimbi no longer hit so hard. ..................................................................... ------------------------------ July 15, 2004 ------------------------------ - Issues for shaman and druids with the Healing Adept AA have been corrected. - Finishing Blow will correctly be capped by level. - Kick Mastery, Vicious Smash and Strengthened Strike no longer increase the damage on all melee attacks. They now only apply to their intended attacks. - You will again have to hide to use your rogue Sneak Attack abilities. - Item recast timers should display correctly. - Planar Durability will now add the correct amount of hit points. - You now will be able to see mana displayed numerically on the default UI. To see the mana value, you will need to view the mana bar on your inventory screen. - A casting time has been added to the Demi Lich Skullcap. - Some clickable items from the new Veeshan's Peak have been modified. - Berserkers who had purchased the AA, Fury of Ages, are being refunded the purchase points in order to fix a data error. You will be able to re-purchase the AA for the same cost. Clarification - Malcohm Thimbleton, in the Plane of Knowledge will now swap out the following Robe Graphic items for Tunic Graphic items: - Guardian Robe - Shade Silk Robe - Shainai's Nightie - Bile Stained Robes - Cured Shade Silk Robe - Robe of the Azure Sky ..................................................................... ------------------------------ August 11, 2004 ------------------------------ Headlines! _____________________ New PVP System goes live * Raid Leaders can set up and change groups from the Raid Window * Special Skies are back! New Hot Zones EQ will now be more friendly in Windowed mode All New PVP System for PVP Servers * _____________________ The Watch List: - Safe Zones: We’’re still looking into a better solution for the problem of safe zones. Expect some kind of change in the future. - Point System: There are still concerns of potential exploits with the point system at this time. Therefore the selection of PvP items available on the merchants will be limited to consumable items for now. We’ll monitor the accumulation of points after this update. If all goes well, we will add a selection of equipment to the merchants in the near future. - Sullon Tokens: As a secondary concern with the point system, we are delaying the addition of the turn-in quest for Sullon Zek tokens. If there’s a potential problem with the point system that eventually requires us to make adjustments to the way points are awarded, we don’t want players to end up with less than full credit for these tokens. Once the point system has had any potential issues ironed out we will add a quest to turn in your tokens for PvP points. PvP Changes - Melee attacks have a 50% increased range. This does not affect thrown weapons or archery. - All safe zones have been removed save Shadowrest and the Bazaar. - The maximum damage any one spell can do is now capped at 40% of the target’s total hit points, down from 75%. - Archery damage has been increased to 80% of its base damage in PvP, up from 66%. - Being stunned while on a horse will now cause the horse to disappear. This only applies to stuns caused by other players. - Lowered player melee mitigation, effectively lowering Armor Class by 20%. This will increase the damage potential of melee weapons in PvP. Originally the targets full armor class was considered. - Player spells now have a separate duration field for PvP. Individual spells will continue to be tuned during beta. - Player spells now have a PvP specific resist mod. Spell lines with resist mods differing from their normal adjusts initially include: Movement Rate Root Enthrall Mana Drain Stuns Direct Damage Damage over Time Pet procs/innates - Added higher level snare spells for rangers/druids with increased resists mods. This should allow them to land snare spells with similar frequency to other snare spells. These spells are available on the PvP merchants for 1 point each. - Necro and Mage pets have had their PvP resists increased to closer match the existing Beastlord pet resists. - Lowered the duration of most snare, Enthrall, and Root spells and abilities. - Berserker snare is no longer unresistable. - Added a set of pumice stones to the PvP merchants that will cast various forms of dispel magic with a 1.5 second cast, 12 second cast time. - Arena deaths will now place you at your bind point, and not in shadowrest. - PvP Resurrection effects now last 5 minutes + 1 minute/negative vitality point. The Max duration is now 15 minutes instead of 25. - Made further changes to prevent hill ghosting. Please test this and give feedback. - Ranged weapons are no longer restricted by the Z axis, allowing greater freedom of use on varied terrain. - Snare will now properly slow mounts. The mount will still be faster then normal running while snared, but will considerably decrease their movement rate. - Spells now have a minimum chance of landing of 5%, up from 2%. - Water will no longer cause you to be immune to people outside of water and vice versa. - Zoning with low health will no longer set your hit points equal to the amount of +HP gear you are wearing. - Players killed in PvP combat will now spawn in Shadowrest with full equipment. A naked corpse will remain in the location they died for 3 hours. Note that this effectively removes item loot from Rallos Zek. With the addition of no drop augments it became rather trivial to effectively remove item loot from the server anyway, and we felt the benefits of the new death system outweigh the benefits of an item loot system. - Players who are killed in PvP combat will respawn with special resurrection effects on them. The duration of these effects is variable dependant on how frequently they die. - Summon Corpse Potions are now usable by any class/race. - A system to score PvP kills has been implemented. For more information see below. Scoring System The new scoring system will award points to any player who kills another player. If the player is grouped the points will be split between the players in the group. The points awarded will be based on three things: 1. Level of the killer 2. Scoring Modifier a. Level Difference b. Infamy Difference c. Vitality score 3. Time since the victim was last killed by the same player. 1. Level of the killer Each kill has a base point cost determined by the level of the killer. All subsequent modifiers apply to this base number. 2. Scoring modifier The scoring modifier is based on three things. Each of these factors results in a score that is then applied in whole to the point value of the kill. a. Level Difference For each level the killer is above or below the victim, the scoring modifier increase by one point. If you kill some one who is higher level than you, you’ll gain more points then you will for a lower level character. You will also subtract points from your modifier for killing a player lower level than you. Higher level characters are more powerful, and should be worth more points. A victim must be at least level 20 to awards points. b. Infamy Difference Each time you kill another player, points are added to your infamy pool. At certain thresholds a player will gain an infamy level. When a player is killed, the infamy levels are compared and the killer gains a scoring modifier point for each infamy level his victim is above him. He can also lose scoring modifier points for killing someone who is of lower infamy. Infamy will gradually deteriorate while the player is online. Players who regularly PvP are generally of higher skill level then those that do not. This encourages players to kill other players who are of more equivalent skill. c. Vitality When a player is killed their vitality is set to –10. For each 5 minutes they are alive, they will gain back two points of vitality. This vitality total is added directly to the scoring modifier. A player who dies very frequently is worth less points then one who stays alive longer. d. Group bonus Groups of 4 or more will receive a bonus % of points for each kill. 4/10%, 5/15%, 6/20%. Example: Frizznik kills Rytan. Frizznik is level 60, while Rytan is level 62 for a level difference of 2. Frizznik has an infamy level of 5, while Rytan has an infamy level of 2, which results in infamy difference of –3. Rytan has not recently been killed, so his vitality is 0. Level Difference + Infamy Difference + Vitality = Scoring Point Modifier or 2 + (-3) + 0. Each scoring modifier point adds or subtracts 5% to the base score. Normally Frizznik would gain 100 points for killing Rytan, but because of the scoring point modifier he will gain 95 points instead. 3. Time since the killer has killed the same victim Players that repeatedly kill the same player will see a steep decrease in the amount of points a player is worth. They will gain half the points for the kill they normally would for each time they kill that player in a 24 hour period. After the score has dropped below 1 point, they will begin to lose points for killing the same player. Leader Board The leader board tracks the players with the most total PvP. A number of other useful statistics will be available in the leader board. Point Rewards Players will be able to redeem their points for equipment via a Lost Dungeons of Norrath style adventure merchant interface. These rewards will span from level 20 on up to 65 and include some pieces that are of elemental quality and possibly beyond. A player’s point total is capped based on their level. They cannot gain more points once they hit that cap, although they can gain more infamy. There will be a number of consumable PvP items that will be focused on PvP combat, and will only function against other players. Windowed Mode * _____________________ The EverQuest process is now more friendly. Alt+tab'ing to other windows should be much more responsive.You can also choose to adjust your maximum Frames Per Second(FPS) in the Options Window under display settings. The valid range for the slider is 10 to 100. The default is 100 which means EverQuest will not throttle your FPS. Lowering your setting will cap your FPS at that value and free up the CPU for other tasks. Raid Window Additions _____________________ - The raid window contains a new row of buttons which the raid leader can use to organize the raid members into groups. - Lock/Unlock: The raid must be locked before the raid leader may use any of the new buttons. - RemLeader: Removes the 'Group Leader' flag from the selected player from the 'Players Not in a Group' list. (Only 12 players may be Group Leaders, so this may be necessary to allow creation of a new group with a new leader). - NoGroup: Removes the selected player from their current group and put them into the 'Players Not in a Group' list. - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12: Moves the selected player into the numbered group. Hot Zones have changed! * _____________________ Hunt for greater XP rewards in the new Hot Spots. Make your way to the following zones. 60-65 Plane of Torment 55-60 Chardok 50-55 Grieg's End 45-50 Nurga 40-45 City of Mist 35-40 Kaesora 30-35 Dalnir 25-30 Hollowshade Moor 20-25 Runnyeye Kill a few goblins for me. Oh, and that Grieg guy. AA Changes _____________________ - The cleric AA Touch of the Divine has had its healing power increased. The original ability has been refunded, so players who wish to retain the ability will need to purchase it again. The portion of the AA that will remove detrimental effects, when it goes off, will not be going in with this update. - The necromancer AA Swarm of Decay has been refunded. - The shaman AA Call of the Ancients has had its description changed to reflect the fact that the summoned ward casts healing spells, not endurance regen spells. The ability has been refunded because of this confusion. - The rogue ability Seized Opportunity has had its chance to work significantly increased. - The druid ability Viscid Roots was increasing the chance for roots to break, not decreasing it. This has been corrected. - The paladin ability Hastened Piety now affects the reuse time for both Hand of Piety and its upgrade, Pious Supplication. Previously, it wasn’t affecting Pious Supplication. - When an AA is an upgrade of another AA and both are triggered abilities, players can make a hotkey and use either one, but will only get the upgraded effect if they use the hotkey for the upgraded ability. - The Mass Group Buff AA will now reset if you duck to cancel the spell. - The double attack AA now works with secondary hand attacks. Consent Changes * _____________________ There are some new consent commands available for groups and raids. - /consent group -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged by all of your current group members - /consent raid -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged by anyone in your raid (including people who join the raid later) - /consent guild -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged by anyone in your guild - /deny group -- removes the flag - /deny raid -- removes the flag - /deny guild -- removes the flag Tacvi Changes _____________________ - Tacvi will no longer give lockout timers. Instead, when you beat an encounter there, you will gain a timer for that specific event. Then, when you come back to the zone, if that timer hasn’t expired yet that particular event won’t be up, but other events in the zone will be if it has been long enough since the last time they were defeated. - Loot in Tacvi has been given a thorough audit. Many changes were made including changes to the statistics of the items, changing item names, changing where the items drop, and over a dozen new items were added to the zone. - The Tacvi zone timer was increased from 6 hours to 12 hours. Misc. _____________________ - Diamond Dust will now drop more frequently in permafrost and can now also be found in SolusekB * - Names will now scale with character they’re associated with. So a giant will have a much larger name than a Halfling will while retaining its much smaller brain. - Names for larger characters will be visible from a greater distance than the names for smaller characters are. They will also scale up slightly as you increase your distance from a character, making them more readable from a greater distance. - Tinting should now work properly again on Robes, let the Fluorescent Pink tinting begin! - We have added Tooltips for your status bars.* - We have made some changes to the fonts EQ uses so that they are more clear and visible. - Pets will no longer attacks NPCs after their owner has COH'd - The Fiery Defenders particles should no longer blink - If your Minor Illusion fails, you will be able to use another illusion on yourself without zoning. - Instant cast combat abilities can once again be used when you have a discipline up. - Augments now fit into multiple slot types. - Zoning pets will now save their taunt toggle settings. - Spell damage done to yourself will no longer display to others. - Pets will no longer poof when you are Call of Hero'd. - Weapon Augments will now proc properly. *denotes a community requested change ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 14, 2004 ------------------------------ Headlines ___________________ Omens of War is live! New Teleportation Spells to Barindu. Just me and my shadooooow! Reflective Water? Register now for the New Orleans Fan Faire. Omens of War ___________________ Explore the war torn lands of Kuua and reap the benefits of new AAs, spells and items including the new, powerful, Epic 2.0. Lush new areas, filled with beautiful creatures and vibrant, living landscapes await you at every turn. We hope you enjoy all that EverQuest: Omens of War brings to the game. Travel to the Omens Zones ___________________ The Priests of Discord in Norrath believe they have been granted a gift. A unique knowledge has been bestowed upon them which they believe was granted as a reward for preaching the way of Discord. That gift, they claim, is the knowledge of a way to a world that is enveloped by Discord itself -- an ethereal poison that wreaks havoc and strife upon all it touches. Speak to a Priest of Discord to learn how to enter the World of Kuua. The Task System ___________________ Only have a short time to play or are you waiting for a group or raid? Immerse yourself in a Task. You can find Task Masters all over Norrath. They can be found in most home cities as well as in places like the East Commonlands, the Butcherblock Mountains, Toxxulia Forest and the Swamp of No Hope. For the more daring individuals, the most challenging tasks can be found by speaking with Task Masters in the Dreadlands and the Overthere. You can open the task window by hitting Alt+Q and start enjoying this new game-play style and enhancement to the EverQuest experience. Be mindful of turning in task items in stacks, as with all quests in EQ, please seperate the items before turning them in for a reward. Epic Weapons 2.0 ___________________ Will you be the first of your class to earn these powerful new items? Guild Tribute ___________________ Omens of War expansion brings a new Guild Tribute system. This system will allow guild members to donate items/cash for Tribute points, and allow officers to select benefits that the entire guild will receive, deducting the cost from the guild’’s tribute pool. Guild Tribute is an extension of the tribute system introduced in Gates of Discord and purchasers of either expansion, will be able to reap the new benefits. Retail Claim Item ___________________ Those of you who purchased the retail version of EverQuest: Omens of War will need to use the /claim command in-game to receive your in-game items. Enjoy! Select your title ___________________ You can hit Shift+T to bring up the new Title selection UI which will allow you to choose from the titles you have earned, through AAs, levels or accomplishments, to be shown with your character name in- game. Voice Macros ___________________ Using Ctrl+V will bring up the new Voice Macro UI. There you will see a list of available voice macros as well as the options of Play, Tell, Group and Raid. Selecting a macro and play will play the macro for you only. Selecting a macro and using one of the other options will send the voice macro to either a tell (using the person you have targeted as the recipient), group or raid. To create your own voice macros, make a sound file using the same name as one of the existing voice macros, which can be found in your EverQuest>Voice>Default directory and place it in your EverQuest>Voice> User directory. You can create hot keys of your favorite Voice Macros by selecting the macro you would like and clicking and holding on the Tell, Raid or Group button until the icon appears on your cursor. We hope you enjoy this new way to immerse yourself into the EverQuest experience. New Spell Slot ___________________ For the first time in EQ, you can open up a new spell slot by learning the Mnemonic Retention AA ability. 9 Spell slots! Wow, Why I remember in the early days of EQ, we only had 8 spell slots and we liked it. We cast spells all day, going uphill both ways. You whippersnappers have it easy =) More Buff Slots ___________________ If you find that you need more room for beneficial buffs on your character, activate the Mystical Attuning AA and open up more room in your buff slot window. Improved Customization for Graphics ___________________ -There are now 3 sets of options (Spell, Environment, and Actor). All 3 sets have similar options that affect each type of particle. These options allow for more customization when setting up your display and filters. -An "advanced" button has been added under the display tab in the options window. This will allow you to toggle some of the new settings, for our new customizable graphics and effects. You will most likely need to expand the options window to see the new Advanced button. - Shadows; Toggles the new dynamic shadows. - Water Swap*: Switches between old style water, and new reflective water the next time you zone. - 2.X Pixel Shaders: Toggles the use of pixel shaders 2.0. - 1.X Pixel Shaders: Toggles the use of pixel shaders 1.0. - Vertex Shaders: Toggles the use of vertex shaders. - Sky Reflection Type*: Set to Static to use a preset reflection or Dynamic to have the sky reflected on the water. - Dynamic Update Interval: Control the CPU costs of the dynamic reflection by adjusting how often to update the reflection texture - Dynamic Sky Reflection Size*: Allows you to control how large the reflection texture is. (The * indicates a setting that will take effect next time you zone). - You can now see real time shadows within the world of Norrath. Use the shadows option in options>Display>advanced to turn them off and on. Now, even when soloing, you will never be alone. Those of you with older video cards may have some performance issues when attempting to use shadows. If your machine does not meet the recommended system specifications, we suggest that you play with shadows off. - Enjoy sunsets and moonrises viewed above EverQuest's new reflective water which is available for everyone, wherever there is static water, e.g. Oceans, seas and lakes. You can toggle the new water shaders on and off using the Water Swap button, under options>display>advanced. Zoning Screen ___________________ When zoning, you will now see the loading splash screen. You have not crashed, do not be alarmed. New Improved Particles ___________________ -You will now be affected by the environment around you, be sure to check out these effects especially under water, in frigid weather, dry climates and upon death. Spells ___________________ - Clerics Symbol and Aegolism spell lines no longer require reagents. - Necromancer pets will no longer require peridots. - The beastlord spell, Tureptan Spirit, now has a healing component. - New transportation spells are available in the Abysmal Sea. Check with your transportation spell contact for more information. - Bard PBAoE spells will no longer damage targets that are moving, however any other spell effects from the PBAoE spell will still be applied to the targets as usual. - Beneficial spells can now be used in the EverQuest tutorial. Skill Cap Changes ___________________ - Piercing now caps at 250 at level 60 for warriors, rangers and beastlords. - 1h Blunt and 2h Blunt now cap at 250 at level 60 for beastlords Items ___________________ - The Timespinner pet will no longer cast spells. - The Dagger of Death has had its AC value reduced. - Some of the new Omens of War items will now display an "Attunable" attribute, which means that they can be traded freely until they are equipped or augmented. Attunable augments will become no-drop flagged when added to an augment slot, attunable items will become no-drop when equipped. You will not be able to auto-equip an attunable item that has not been attuned to your character. Please be mindful of the new Attunable flag before equipping or augmenting new items. Alternate Advancement Abilities ___________________ - Berserkers have received some new AAs. This should bring their AA selection up to par with comparable melee classes. - Added the ability for shadow knights to train the Gates of Discord ability Improved Theft of Life and the Planes of Power ability Suspended Minion. - The healing wards that priests can summon using their Gates of Discord AAs are now immune to most spells. - Lowered the reuse time on the Magician ability Host of the Elements to 15 minutes. - Added the ability to train Quick Damage to Magicians as a Luclin Class ability. - Increased the critical hit chance for the Wizard Gates of Discord AA Frenzied Devastation. Fan Faire ___________________ We are proud to announce the Halloween, New Orleans Fan Faire! The event dates are October 28-30, 2004, and space is going fast! The last day to guarantee your spot by pre-registering is October 11th. For more information, please go to http://everquest.station.sony.com/fanfaire/ See you in New Orleans! UI Changes ___________________ The following XML files are new or have been modified: - EQUI_Animations.xml - EQUI_BuffWindow.xml - EQUI_CastSpellWnd.xml - EQUI_DynamicZoneWnd.xml - EQUI_GuildManagementWnd.xml - EQUI_GuildTributeMasterWnd.xml - EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml - EQUI_TaskSelectWnd.xml - EQUI_TaskWnd.xml - EQUI_TitleWnd.xml - EQUI_TributeBenefitWnd.xml - EQUI_VoiceMacroWnd.xml - EQUI.xml - EQUI_AAWindow.xml - EQUI_AdvancedDisplayOptionsWnd.xml ..................................................................... ------------------------------ September 23, 2004 ------------------------------ Monk Epic - Speaking to certain monk epic mobs will no longer reset the monk's progression. - Monks that turned in their letters will now be able to continue the quest from where they currently are. - Monks should have an easier time locating the lost Disciple. Guild Tribute - Players with Gates, but not Omens, should now be able to open the Guild Tribute Master to both opt-in and donate for Guild Tribute Benefits. - Suspended pets will no longer vanish when their owner turns invisible. - Skies will now show correctly for Windows 98/ME users. - Warriors will be reimbursed for their Press the Attack AA. They can buy the ability with its new range if they wish. - Salvage will no longer return items that would be returned normally. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 13, 2004 ------------------------------ - Summoned pets no longer vanish when their owner turns invisible - Froglok animations are now fixed, seriously, no really we mean it this time. - Continue the Adventure! Read the first in the new series of EQ Novels. Warrior Epic ______________________ - Modified the way Decaying Lord Galuk Drek is spawned in Veksar. He should now be more approachable and less of a bottleneck for those warriors at this step. - Lowered the respawn time of the Dragorn Champion in Wall of Slaughter significantly. We have also lowered his aggro and help radius. Bard Epic ______________________ - Corrected an issue in the Dragons Necropolis that caused more NPCs to be present than was planned for. - The Kithicor Forest encounter should now reset properly. Ranger Epic ______________________ - Rangers triggering the Senvial, Grinbik and Uisima events for their Epic quest will need to have the trigger item on their person. - It should no longer be possible for a ranger with Senvial’s Blessing to get the reward for the Senvial event. Druid Epic ______________________ - Corrected an issue with the Coven spawn in South Karana. - The Blackened Dryad event in Kithicor should now respawn correctly after a failed attempt. - Only the druid who initiates the Goblin Hide and Seek event will be allowed to the loot the bag upon completion. - More than one Druid can now summon and talk to the Compelled Spirit. - We have increased the drop rate of the carved Prexus totem. Magician Epic ______________________ - The Path for finding the air essence should last a bit longer. - Magicians will now receive a message when the air essence is not available. Gates of Discord ______________________ There’s a new NPC in Natimbi that will make traveling to Qvic much easier. Speak with her for a small teleport. Tradeskills ______________________ - Alchemists can now create Amber Resin. - The Feran Glove and Boot recipes will now combine and return their intended items. - The recipe for the 56th level Necromancer spell, Servant of Bones, should now combine correctly. - The Dagger Blade Mold, used in Gates smithing recipes, has been renamed to a Knife Blade Mold. Items ______________________ - Seething Fists of Slaughter- Previously this item had no equipped slots. This now has primary and secondary equippable slots - Fangs of the Serpent- Previously this item had no equipped slots. This now has primary and secondary equippable slots. - Bone Plated Sledge - This item now has 36% haste instead of +36 atk. - Boots of Shifting Time - Previously these boots had a worn leather graphic. They are now a worn plate graphic instead. - Zulaqua's Cloak - Added 30 AC to this item - Crystal Dagger - This item now has a +12% backstab mod. - Tome of New Beginnings - Berserkers now can equip this item. - Lambent Stone of Focus - This item is now a type 7 and type 8 augmentation. - Crystal Mail Sleeves - This item now has berserkers as usable classes. We have removed Beastlords from this items usable classes. AAs ______________________ Altered Spell Casting Reinforcement and Spell Casting Reinforcement Mastery so they will no longer increase the duration of the following spells. - Flame of Redemption - Hawk Strike - Fateseer’s Boon - Protection of the Eye - Savage Wildcaller’s Blessing - Flames of the Valiant - Falcon Strike - Prophet’s Gift of the Ruchu - Aegis of Abstraction - Might of the Wild Spirits Altered Healing Adept, Advanced Healing Adept, and Healing Adept Mastery so they will no longer increase the healing of the following spells. - Harmonic Balance - Divine Balance Misc ______________________ - Added a new option to turn off the loading screen when zoning. You will still see the progress bar. - Added a new shadow command to allow you to turn off the shadows in your text bar. The command is /shadow - Changed the Dynamic Zone window to show player status in the member list. Online players are yellow, Link Dead players are red, Offline players are blue. - Hide / Sneak will now remain active across zone lines. - All NPCs in Omens of War expedition zones are now KOS. Beware! - Summoned pets will no longer vanish when their owner uses invisibility! Rejoice! - Vallon Zek should no longer assist Tallon Zek. The Rogues Hour! ______________________ RA Salvatore presents a brand new series of EverQuest fantasy novels. Explore the ever-expanding world of Norrath in the first book, EverQuest: The Rogue’s Hour, available in stores soon. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ October 25, 2004 ------------------------------ Headlines! Items for Anguish! New Storybook entry. Omens of War ________________ Due to a database error, itemization of the Anguish zone was lost. We have re-itemized the zone and wish you luck in uncovering its riches. Tradeskills ________________ - Fire Beetle Eyes now stack. - The Smithing Chisel is no longer flagged Lore. - Lightning Core is now stackable. - Changed the name of the Gnomish Vanishing Device to Half Capacity Gnomish Vanishing Device. - Golanda Nuts now stack. - The Beauty of a Simple Stone should now have text. - The Sandblasted Ringmail Bracelet and Large Sandblasted Steel Girth should now fit the appropriate-sized races. - Caerlyna should no longer be dispensing no-drop bag tokens. - The cast time on the 5 and 10 dose Greater Elixir's of Concentration should now have the same cast time as the single-dose version. Berserkers ________________ Warcry and Hastened Warcry should now work as intended. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 15, 2004 ------------------------------ *** Update Headlines *** ___________________________ * Backflagging * Gates AA point refunding * New Hot Spots * Mistmoore Backflagging * ___________________________ As you know, when a guild gains or loses members, they often find themselves dedicating a large amount of time re-playing content that they have long since completed in order to gain access to zones for newer members. During our Community Summit this last summer, and in many subsequent discussions, we have heard the recurring desire to find a way to ease the frustrations associated with this backflagging. While the issue is not as simple as removing flags altogether (we feel flags are necessary for the zones they are currently attached to), we have looked into ways that we can reduce the frustrations of backflagging and feel that we have arrived at a fair and equitable solution, which is detailed below. - A new implementation of the 85/15 rule has been introduced into Planes of Power zones including the Plane of Time. This should resolve the outstanding problems that occur from time to time with the current 85/15 implementation. - The new 85/15 has also been introduced for the locked zones in Gates of Discord. - An alternate means of flagging guild mates for locked content in Planes of Power and Gates of Discord has been implemented that will allow you to flag raid members for the zone you are in by completing raid content within that zone. The implementation varies slightly from zone to zone to fit the story and nature of the zone, but in general will involve killing a raid target within that zone, looting an item, and completing a single group quest to change that item into a zone flag. This only applies to zones that don't already have a single group task or system to gain access. AA Changes ___________________________ - Reduced the cost of many Gates AAs. Players will receive a refund equal to the difference on AAs that now have a lower cost. * - Changed the monk AA Crippling Strike to an activated ability that does an eagle strike attack as well as a snare. - Changed the monk AA Stunning Kick to an activated ability that does a round kick attack as well as a stun. - Changed the monk AA Eye Gouge to an activated ability that does a tiger claw attack as well as reduces the targets offensive ability. - Due to major changes in how these work, AA points for Crippling Strike, Stunning Kick, and Eye Gouge have been refunded. - Reduced the reuse time of the Ranger AAs Frost Arrow and Flame Arrow to 3 minutes. * - Hobble of Spirits will now stack with the Beastlord's proc buffs. * - Fixed problem with the Beastlord AA Bestial Alignment where if you had maxed buffs this AA would not reset if it did not take. - Duration enhancement focuses and AAs should now increase the duration of pet buffs. - If your stored AA's go above 30, they will no longer be set to 30 when you zone. However, you should still not be able to gain more than 30 unless you get a refund, get the AA from a GM, or get an AA from a script. * - Fixed an issue with Half Elf Paladins of Tunare and the Origin AA. * - If your character was created before EQ started storing starting location data, when you log into the game you will now be prompted to choose your home city from a list of valid starting locations for your character. You will only need to do this once and once this has been set, it cannot be changed. This will correct the problems with the Origin AA not returning some characters to their expected home city. Zone and NPC Changes ___________________________ - Hot Spots have been moved (level ranges are approximate): * Shadeweaver’’s Thicket 1-30 Kurn’s Tower 10-25 Unrest 15-30 Crystal Caverns 25-35 Solusek’s Eye 25-45 Katta Castellum 30-60 Lower Guk 35-55 Nagafen’s Lair 40-55 Umbral Plains 50-60 - Respawn time for the bosses in Tacvi has been increased from 3 to 5 days. - Some Tacvi loot has been upgraded. Bosses now drop more items per kill and some all new items have been added to the zone. * - An alternate entrance into Tacvi has been added in Txevu that will allow guilds to bypass the Zun’Muram after they have defeated him at least once. Guilds that have previously defeated the Zun’Muram will need to do so at least once more before they can use the new entrance. * - Gilipus of Ak`Anon has joined the Beta Neutral Faction. You will now be able to complete his quest without having to raise Gem Choppers Faction. - The 3 Tormentors in the Jelvan event now share hatelist when idle or aggro. Anyone that is on one Tormentor's hatelist, but not on the other 2 Tormentor's hatelist will be added. This should make it difficult (if not impossible) to avoid AOEs. - Modified the Warden Hanvar event, all guards should appear in their appointed places. - Fixed a bug in Anguish that could make Warden Hanvar unkillable. - Clicking on the door to Anguish while having the Seal: Mastery of All on your person will now prompt red text indicating your flag has been granted. - The respawn of Globes of Discordant Energy are now tracked on the event timer for Anguish. The method for obtaining the Globes has not changed. - The pile of stones that was used as a secondary zone between Dranik and Bloodfields has been removed. There is now an actual zoneline there. - Plane of Justice - previously, you could not click the red teleports to leave the Seventh Hammer's room unless the Seventh Hammer was dead (or not up). This has been changed so you can leave the room as long as it is not aggro. If you click on a portal while he is aggro, you should get a message and remain in the room. - Grennet Stormhand in North Qeynos is no longer a task master since he is part of a quest. His task master job has been taken over by Jorren Boxmover. - Increased the maximum duration for all Labyrinth Trials from 1 hour to 2 hours. When an event is successfully completed, the instance will shut down in 30 minutes. If it is failed, the instance will shut down in 5 minutes. - Changed the reclusive Girplan event in Bloodfields so that each NPC in the sequence stays up for 15 minutes instead of 3 minutes before depopping. - Elemental NPCs are once again Charmable in Bastion of Thunder. Epic Alterations ___________________________ - Updated some text to clarify what is needed for the bard epic 2.0. * - Part of the rogue epic that could be skipped has been repaired as this was not intended to be possible. - The zonewide shout that occurs when killing base pop NPCs in the special instance of Vxed for the paladin epic has now been removed. - Added another check to the monk epic to make sure that the monk looting the item also has the Mark of Justice needed to access the 7th Hammer's area. - More details regarding the combine for the Beastlord Epic 2.0 have been added to the text. * - Fixed the hand in to Uisima for the Ranger Epic 1.5. - Added a hint to the Druid Epic 2. * - In the Hider Event in Frontier Mountains for the Druid Epic 1.5, the goblins should teleport a bit less frequently. * - Additional lore has been added to the rogue epic 2.0. * - Moved the Dark Huntress from Mistmoore to the Tower of Frozen Shadow. - Changed a few of Lirprin's dialogues to hint at where the last few steps are that players are missing. * - Arly Golyeck in Paludal caverns will now accept bribes from half- elves, or those that are in half-elven illusion while also wearing a Burnoose of the Halfbreed. Tradeskill Changes ___________________________ - The Tradeskill window will now allow up to 500 favorites (up from 100). * - The drop rate of spiderling silk has been increased, as there are many new combines that require this item as a component. * - The Rune of Zephyr should now drop off of the appropriate level of NPC’s. * - Several Tradeskill recipes have had their missing ingredients added to the game. These items will now drop off of appropriate NPC’s. * - Increased the drop rate of Tae Ew Scales. * - Increased the drop rate of Putrescent Blood. * - Made several quest-related combines "Learnable". * - Fixed a few grammatical issues with the "Forge of Icewell Arms" book. - Fixed an issue with one of the Abysmal Sea tradeskill books (The Beauty of a Simple Stone). It should now be able to be read. - Fixed the recipe for the Imbued Northman Kite Shield (Rallos). - Fixed the research recipe for Malosini, it should now combine properly. - Fixed the recipe for Tuna Rice Surprise, it will now return the Wok on success. - Fixed the Large Sandblasted Steel Girth, it is now usable by the appropriate races. - Fixed the Sandblasted Ringmail Bracelet, it is now usable by the appropriate races. - Fixed the multiple-recipes for Vegetable Oil, they will now return the correct yields. - Fixed the disparity in between the cast-times on the various "Greater Elixir of Concentration" potions. - Added the Blood Treated Kaniz Hide to the game. - Added a recipe for players to create a package of vegetables. * - Added a "Fully Charged Gnomish Vanishing Device" to the game. * - Added LDoN Foraged items to the Interactive Objects in all LDoN zones (this includes the foraged alchemy components). * - Removed the lore tag from the Smithing Chisel. * - Taught Barbarians how to make Large Leather Gorgets and Pants. * - Evaluated the PoP Smithing disparity between plate and chain. * 1. One block of ore will now yield two sheets of metal. * 2. Removed the Chain Jointing requirement from the combine. It now requires one Superb Leather Padding instead. * Item, Spell, Discipline and Skill Changes ___________________________ - Auto range attack implemented, no longer will it be necessary to range attack manually - /autofire is a toggle command that will fire your ranged weapon until you run out of ammunition, turn on autoattack to switch to melee combat, or use the /autofire command again. * - /melody ability implemented for bards - To use /melody, type /melody . The numbers are the same numbers you would use for the /cast command. The melody will repeat the songs in the specified order until a note is missed due to an interruption. * - Modified Mirrored Mask, so it is no longer no rent and poof on death, however the click effect only works inside Anguish. - Increased the chance on the Cleave effects to affect DPS as they were originally intended. - Fixed a bug with the Frenzy of Conquest benefit. - No-rent containers no longer poof on login if they contain items. They instead change into an unenchanted container with the same number of slots, and a chat message notifies the player. * - Changed the Mark of Justice to take the player's group instead of just the player when attempting to engage The 7th Hammer. * - Cryston, Staff of the Riftnow has the focus of Quickening of the Ikaav. - Dragorn Head Statue Piece and Dragorn Torso Statue Piece are now very large and can fit in bags. - Clear Rock and A Large Rock are now very large and can fit in bags. - Polished Stone of Renewal can now be used by berserkers. * - Berserker: Hastened War Cry has been fixed. - Bards will stop playing songs when feign death effects hit them (some NPC encounters do this). - Players are no longer able to have Form of the Great Bear and a mount on at the same time. - Holyforge will now increase your chance to slay undead, and if you have the Slay Undead AA you will have an even greater chance of a slay with Holyforge. * - The spell Nature's Blight was not increasing the damage as stated and should be working as intended now. * - Fixed a bug with haste items and haste augments. Their effects were stacking when they shouldn't have. It will now only take the greatest haste effect from the item including augments. - When combining the aegis of chaotic worship with the soul temper and a flask of water, you will receive the temper and the aegis of chaotic worship back if you don't have the correct flags instead of just the aegis back. - The Monk's feign death success rate has been improved. It was previously capped at 95% at 100 skill and now it ramps up the success rate for higher skill levels. * - Fixed several inconsistencies with pets affected by focus items. - Increased the mana regen gained by Elemental Simulacrum. - Touch of the Devourer was changed to allow partial damage when it is resisted. This is an increase in the overall damage of the spell. - New items are available on the PvP point merchants. * - Might of the Wild Spirits and Savage Wildcaller's Blessing should now stack better. - The effect on the Wristband of Secrets no longer works on other players. - Increased the focus % of the following effects: Hastening of the Ikaav Quickening of the Ikaav Alacrity of the Ikaav - Increased the potency of Pure Spirit. - Nature's Balance should now only remove beneficial spells from the target. - Removed the scaling focus mods from the following spells: Force of Ikkibi Order of Trushar Sylvan Anger Taelosian Geomancy Burning Night Anger of Taelosia Sylvan Kindle Clear Fire - The the class-specific quest chest armors from Omens of War now have a .8 second cast time. - The pre-nerf LDoN armor sets can now be sold back to the merchants, like other LDoN items. They are the versions with two type 2 slots and one type 3 slot (instead of one each of types 1, 2, and 3). These items are those with the following in the item name: Royal Attendant * of Sand Incorporeal * of the Specter Mucus-Drenched * Immortal's Bloodied * Miscellaneous ___________________________ - Multiple procs on a pet are now working properly. * - A resource leak in the graphics engine was corrected and we have seen a measurable improvement in client stability as a result. - The sky system now influences the ambient lighting. - Animated traps such as the ones in soldunga/b are now detected by the collision system and will cause a small amount of damage. - You can once again target things on the other side of a water surface and other passable surfaces. - Added code to check and validate specialization skills. If the values are not legal, the player will be informed why they are not legal and they are reset. - Added popup confirmation dialog when you attempt to give an augmented item to an NPC. * - Added optional parameters to /book command -- /book open, /book close. * - Fixed bug where a player who had more than 2 million plat in his inventory was unable to purchase anything from a vendor or trader. - /yell messages are no longer displayed if the yelling player is in your ignore list. * - Some models that were scaled dramatically could cause the collision system to fail, resulting in warps to ceiling and other strange side effects. For example the vases in dranikcatacombsa at 1000,-1011, 0 would always cause players to be pinned to the ceiling due to this bug. - Players standing on the lip of an edge should now slide down off them more smoothly. - There have been some optimizations to the collision system. You should see improved performance in zones with very large stationary objects (potimea, bloodfields, etc). - Fixed a number of small bugs in the zoom camera behavior. These fixes include removing the possibility of having the first mousewheel click causing the camera to bounce back into first person, a bug that could cause the camera to get stuck “one click” out of first person, as well as smoothing out the camera motion a bit. - Scrolling to third person and tabbing to another window should no longer cause the screen to bounce back and forth. - Summoning mounts in certain places should no longer cause players to fall through geometry. - Getting out of water should be much easier to do. * - Mounts are no longer dismissed when zoning. * - Spell scribe timers (putting a new spell into the spell book) now take only 1 second. - Players should no longer experience 20k falls when standing on cliff edges while suffering from low frame rate. - The bounding radius for small races was too tall, preventing them from accessing some areas. For example, gnomes couldn't enter the small huts in Steamfont. This was a global problem that is now fixed; that is just one example. - Weather effects are now working properly when the Wake of Karana spell is used. Additionally, sounds related to starting - /who commands now display both class title and base class name for players over level 50, e.g. "Bedazzler (Enchanter)" * - Fixed a bug that caused a lot of writing to the dbg.txt file during a raid. Zone Revamps - Mistmoore (Legends) ___________________________ In Mistmoore's Catacombs, the servants of the Trueborn, a sect of vampires with Mayong Mistmoore's blood flowing through their veins, grew tired of their masters throwing them into the fray against the Norrathian intruders. They came to desire more power for themselves. It was not long before the first words of dissension crept through the catacombs on the will of whispers. The Trueborn servants congregated in dark, musty halls away from the eyes of their masters and over time their numbers grew along with their ambitions. Their time had come and soon they would rise up to claim their rightful place in Mistmoore Castle, gaining accolades from Lord Mayong Mistmoore himself for their brilliance and bravery -- or so they supposed. Over several months, the Trueborn traitors recruited an army to their cause. On a black night as the moon was swallowed by a thick veil over Faydwer, they struck, killing their masters and leading their army toward Mistmoore Castle. They slaughtered all in their path and many masters of the Scions sect, the Trueborn's rival blood-children of Mayong, were destroyed that night. The fierce wave of the lesser Trueborn rushed into the cellars of Mistmoore Castle without detection. Unbeknownst to all but the servants, Norrath's adventurers had uncovered winding caves beneath the surface that bypassed the castle’s defenses. In a matter of hours, the castle was overrun and the servants of the Trueborn declared themselves the true Children of Mistmoore. Since taking control of the castle, many Children have busied themselves repairing the damage from the battle while others continue to seek the magical ore that was uncovered in the catacombs. They all prepare, waiting for the day their master returns to grant them glory. Zone Revamps - Splitpaw (Legends) ___________________________ Farsoth Mal, son of the Ishva Mal, leader of the Verishe Mal tribe, sat by his father’s side watching him rule his minions in Splitpaw Lair. His father may have conquered this lair some years ago, but Farsoth believed they should rule far more than just one underground kingdom. He grew to despise his father for his lack of ambition and many hours were spent in bitter arguments between the two. The Ishva Mal grew tired and angry at the ceaseless challenges to his authority, gaining as much contempt for his son as his son had for him. During a particularly heated argument of growls and grisly barks, the Ishva Mal reminded his willful son that his power was absolute and that he shared his throne with no one. With one quick motion, the Ishva Mal brandished his spear and sliced off his son's paw, determined that he would finally win the respect he deserved from his son. But the Ishva Mal's cruel methods would prove to be his downfall. The Ishva Mal grew to be a greater tyrant each day, so much so that the Verishe Mal mages and warriors secretly formed the Council of Nine to challenge his rule. Farsoth saw the plans the Verishe Mal had in store for his father, but did nothing to stop them and instead chose to use them to his advantage. Farsoth learned much from the council's mages and became obsessed with the summoning arts they practiced. His fascination eventually led to a plan that would secure the throne . . . for him. Through all he'd learned from the Verishe Mal mages, he believed he could summon a powerful entity from the Plane of Fire itself. Farsoth thought with such power at his side, nothing could stop him from ruling the Splitpaw Lair and any lands he desired. He prepared for weeks, researching and gathering the reagents he required and finally he set to work to summon a terrible beast to bring an end to his father's rule. Farsoth was distracted by his own anger, forgetting vital components as he wove the spell and the unthinkable happened. Flames shot out of the portal that Farsoth opened and, at the same time, rocks rained down upon the inhabitants of the lair. Then, the portal shifted its focus and water flooded into the corridors, extinguishing the flames and washing away the rocks. The portal shimmered once more and waves of all types of elementals poured into Splitpaw. Farsoth certainly attained part of his goal. His father was killed, but so to were most of the gnolls he wished to lead to greatness. Now he is a prisoner to the swarms of enraged elementals that have made Splitpaw Lair their new home. * Denotes a change requested by the community. - The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ December 17, 2004 ------------------------------ We apologize for the recent issues with our attempt to ease backflagging. Our coders and designers have worked tirelessly through the night to come up with tonight's update which should resolve the backflagging solution issues. We have also identified a few other issues and added corrections for them as well. - Backflagging issues have been resolved. - Raids can again enter Anguish. - Huntress / High Priestess titles should now display correctly based upon gender. - An itemization issue in South Karana and Splitpaw has been corrected. - The debuff in the Muramite Trial of Efficiency will not cast as often. - The mirrors in the Tower of Frozen Shadow should once again function properly. - The Monk AA Hastened Purification of the Body has been corrected to be 10% of the newly reduced reuse time for Purify Body. - Added the spell Tranquility of the Glade to the ranger's repertoire, which rangers can recieve by turning in a rune. - The berserker ability Crippling Strike should now have a fixed duration -- The EverQuest Team .....................................................................