..................................................................... ------------------------------ January 26, 2005 ------------------------------ Mistmoore and SplitPaw revamps live for all servers New and improved Lavastorm! Item Changes ________________________ - Many Epic 2.0 effects have been modified. Please see the EQforums at Eqforums.station.sony.com for details. - These items are now primary and secondary slot usable: Totem of Shattered Hope Wand of Twisted Fate Infernal Staff of Fiery Fate Bazu Claw Hammer - Increased the drop rates on some items from Planes of Power zones that were too rare. - The ending effect (casts when the rune wears off) of the Enchanter 1.5 and 2.0 epics has been changed so that it won't cause initial aggro on surrounding NPCs. It will only lower the enchanter's hate on NPCs in the area of effect that are already aggro on him/her. - Mace of Grim Tidings is now No-Drop - Added a Globe of Discordant Energy drop to Anguish. - Fixed the combine for the cleric epic 1.5, AA points should now be rewarded. People who missed their AAs can hail Tavon to receive their AAs, if they have spoken to Natvil already. - Revised the various Anguish armor sets. Some pieces now have effects added. - Earring of Eternal Flame - This item now has the focus effect of Flame of the Lightbringer - Anuek Dagger of Eye Gouging - This item now has a +12% mod to backstab. - Upgraded the +damage augments from Tacvi Spell, Discipline & AA Changes ________________________ - The skills windows will now show the modified skill of the player, including buffs/item mods, etc. - Added a negative resist modifier to Crippling Strike, Stunning Kick, and Eye Gouge. - Modified Hastened Purification of the Body to reduce the base time. - The spell, Elemental Simulacrum Recourse, should no longer be removed when the recipient is hit in melee. - Hide will work while levitated again. - Tiny companion will again switch target to the pet correctly. - An exploit with Lifeburn has been corrected. - /stopsong, /cast, and anything starting a song other than /melody now clears the /melody buffer as intended. - Bard Chants should once again generate the correct amount of hate. - Fixed problem with the Ranger AA Guardian of the Forest where if you had maxed buffs this AA would not reset if it did not take. - High level shaman pet should now automatically dual wield. - Modified the effect slots for Hobble of Spirits so that it will stack with other contact innates. Code Changes ________________________ - Players will now receive a message when they are too close for ranged weapons to be used when /autofire is being used. - Ranged weapons are no longer subject to additional z-distance limit checks. - Server side collision fixes have corrected various problems in certain areas in new zones such as the ramp entering Abysmal that was causing warping problems for NPCs. Event Changes ________________________ - Players can now select a type of LDoN Adventure (Rescue, etc.) when requesting one from the Recruiter. - Lowered combat regeneration of the Dragorn and Bazu forms in the Trial of Adaptation. - Modified the spawn timer on the Tyrant of Nightmare in the Plane of Nightmare and the Decaying Lightcrawler in the Plane of Disease. Both should make more frequent appearances. - Lowered spell resists significantly in all MPG Raid and Single Group trials. - Fixed some oddness that happened sometimes when Memblurring Hanvar. - The non-loot dropping version of Arch Magus Vangl will be easier than the loot dropping version. Miscellaneous ________________________ - Changed the level 70 bard /who title from Performer to Harold, er, Herald. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ February 15, 2005 ------------------------------ ** Welcome to Dragons of Norrath! ** A series of events has transpired across the world of Norrath and the familiar faces of Firiona Vie and her nemesis Lanys T'Vyl return to find themselves at the forefront of the events. Unbeknownst to them, a dark influence has seeped into the world of Norrath causing new tensions to arise and conflicts to intensify as the dawn of a new age emerges. The Age of War is upon the people of Norrath and heroes return in this ultimate, unending battle between good and evil. Prepare for EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath and return to the lands between Halas and Lavastorm as you seek out the Nest, the ancestral birthplace of all dragons, long sealed away and hidden from the eyes of Norrath. But beware, if the Nest is exposed too early during the Brood Dawn, all dragons and their eggs will be cursed for eternity and death will storm down on all Norrathian's not in their service. Featuring new lands with enhanced graphics, bold new storylines, and updated creatures including goblins, drakes, dragons and the ominous Frost Giant! EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath is the next great expansion pack for the fantasy saga that is EverQuest. Make ready with new features such as the interactive world map, use your potion belt to access magical items quickly, and swap between weapon sets using the bandolier. Plus, with the all new guild hall you can easily get your guild ready to encounter anything that comes your way! EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath is bursting with new adventures and intense battles for players of all levels. ** Features ** * Bandolier * To open the Bandolier window use the 'B' key. The bandolier will provide you with a quick and easy way to wield your weapons in different predefined combinations. When a weapon set is activated, the bandolier switches the currently equipped weapons with as many of the weapon set items it can find in your inventory. To add a bandolier, first click on the slot that you want to fill. Then click the add button. You can name each set. The weapon set that will be saved as the weapons you currently have in your inventory (primary, secondary, range, and ammo slots). You can make hotbuttons out of the weapon sets for easy, quick swapping. * Potion Belt * To open the potion belt window use 'shift P'. The Potion Belt allows for quick use of inventory items, such as potions or magical devices. To add a potion belt enabled item to the potion belt, simply put the item on your cursor and click in one of the belt slots. Then simply right click on the item to use it. Please note that not all clickable items are usable from the potion belt. * The Barter Zone * The entrance to the Barter Zone is in the western section of the Plane of Knowledge. The default in-game map has the location marked on it (this may not be true if have a custom map). To setup your character as buyer, use the /buyer command to bring up the Buyer Barter Window. When you'd like to sell an item quickly without heading to the bazaar, use the /barter command to bring up the Barter Window. Please refer to the context tips or the manual for more information. * The Guild Lobby and the Guild Hall* The entrance to the Guild lobby is also in the western section of the Plane of Knowledge. The Guild Hall entrance is at the back of the Guild lobby accessible by active guild members. Guild Lobby: - Looking for Guild and Looking for Guild Member tool: You can use the looking for guild tool or the looking for a guild member tool by clicking on the note boards. In the Guild Lobby use your map to find the note boards. - Corpse Summoning: Speak to a Disciple of Luclin. This Disciple can sell you a level appropriate soulstone. Take the soulstone to a nearby Priest or Priestess and they'll summon all of your existing corpses in Norrath directly to your feet (except those corpses that are in Shadowrest). Be sure you loot your corpses quickly because they won't be there long! Guild Hall: - Guild Portal: The guild portal is activated by speaking to the gnome in the Guild Hall. You will need to purchase a focus stone from him and then hand it back in order to focus the portal on a specific location. Once the portal is focused, step on the crystal platform to bring up a yes/no dialog box. Clicking yes should teleport you away. - Mana/Health regen pool: Walking into the back right room in the Guild Hall will cause you to regenerate health, mana, and endurance at twice your normal rate. You should see a text message when you enter the area of the pool as well as a particle effect on your character. - Buff Timers: Buff timers are paused while in the Guild Hall. - Guild Tradeskill Objects: Various tradeskill tools are located in the Guild Hall for easy access by guild members. * Missions * Mission givers for Dark Reign and Norrath's Keepers can now be found in Lavastorm. These mission givers offer quests for groups of 3 to 6 players that take you into the Dragons of Norrath. Only a few missions are available at first, but as you gain faction and earn their trust, more missions will open up. Missions make use of a new shared task system that shares space with the Task window (Alt-Q). You can manage the players in your shared task from the new Shared Task tab in the Task window. Successful completion of a mission will reward you with crystals that can be redeemed at mission vendors in the two camps. Each side has their own crystals that they award and their mission vendors will not accept crystals from the opposing side. You can create stacks of crystals for trading to other players by clicking on the crystals display in the inventory window. The reclaim tab under the crystals display will add any crystals you have in your inventory. You can only spend crystals that are listed in the display, so be sure to reclaim before visiting a vendor. ** Live Patch Information ** The EQ Mail System! EQ players now have the ability to send persistent messages to players who are not logged in! To use this new feature, take a look at the new icon that has been added to the window selector. This icon will change color when you have unread messages. It also blinks for a short period of time when new mail arrives. To open the mail window, click on the icon or use CTRL-M. Here are a few other helpful hints. Sending Messages - To send a message, press the "Compose" button. Enter the character name of the recipient in the "To" field, a subject and the message itself. Press the "Send" button and mail icon of the recipient will start blinking! Please be aware that you can currently only email one recipient at a time. Receiving Messages- If you are online, new mail is delivered to you immediately without delay. When you open the mail window, the number of unread messages is put between square brackets close to the "Inbox" list title. In the mail window, your messages usually appear sorted by date. You can click on the column header to change the sort type and order. You can also resize the width of a column with the mouse, just click and drag a column header separator. Viewing Messages - To view the body of a message, select it in the list. The message text window displays the message fields in a different color, followed by the text of the message. Managing Messages- When a message is selected you can reply to the sender or forward the message to another player by pressing the corresponding button. An appropriate default subject will be inserted for you and a copy of the original message is added to the mail composition window. Deleting Messages - You can also delete messages, in which case they will be placed in your "Deleted Items" folder. To select multiple messages for deletion you can use SHIFT-click and CTRL-click. The "Deleted Items" list is where your deleted messages go. The total number of messages in that list appears in the title. Two additional actions are available to you when managing your deleted messages: you can restore deleted messages using the "Undelete" button, and you can permanently delete all the messages by click on the "Empty Trash" button. NOTE: You can send a message to yourself. You can also send a message from the command line using the "[mailto" command. Syntax: [mailto If the subject contains whitespace, you must enclose it in double quotation marks. Example: [mailto LadyCandy "You are so sweet!" Dear LadyCandy, etc. etc. - The "M" key now opens the map. - Fixed the following Omens augmentation combines: Aug Inlay Titanite of Quickness Aug Inlay Brilliant Titanite of Quickness Aug Inlay Radiant Titanite of Quickness Aug Inlay Titanite of Pure Quickness Aug Inlay Brilliant Titanite of Pure Quickness Aug Inlay Radiant Titanite of Pure Quickness Aug Inlay Tourmaline of Quickness Aug Inlay Brilliant Tourmaline of Quickness Aug Inlay Radiant Tourmaline of Quickness Aug Inlay Tourmaline of Pure Quickness Aug Inlay Brilliant Tourmaline of Pure Quickness Aug Inlay Radiant Tourmaline of Pure Quickness - Modified the Hammer of the Dragonborn so that it has an instant casting time, but a 10 second recast. - Dagger of Evil Summons now has a 120 second recast time. - Increased the range on Blood Pact. - Pristine Purifying Sapphire is now no-drop. - Assistant Researcher's Symbol now has the focus Quickening of the Anuek. The Hit Points, mana and end have been adjusted to 285. Added + 20 attack, 2 hit point regeneration, 2 mana regeneration. Added +3 to combat effects, strikethrough, and accuracy. - The following Anguish armor pieces have been upgraded: Gladiator's Plate Sleeves of War Faithbringer's Armguards of Conviction Dawnseeker's Sleeves of the Defender Bladewhisper Chain Sleeves of Journey Duskbringer's Plate Armguards of the Hateful Everspring Sleeves of the Tangled Briars Fiercehand Sleeves of the Focused Farseeker's Plate Armbands of Harmony Whispering Armguard of Shadows Ritualchanter's Armguards of the Ancestors Blightbringer's Armband of the Grave Academic's Sleeves of the Arcanists Glyphwielder's Sleeves of the Summoner Mindreaver's Armguards of Coercion Savagesoul Sleeves of the Wild Wrathbringer's Chain Sleeves of the Vindicator - The low level quests in the new Lavastorm had their requirements lowered. They were previously set to high for their intended level. - Lowered the agro range on NPC's in Lavastorm. - Certain NPC's in Lavastorm will no longer assist each other. - The Goblin runner in Lavastorm should no longer run past the zone line into Nektulos Forest. - The Goblin Messenger in Frontier Mountains should get stuck in the geometry and disappear much less often now. - Moved the spawn location of Valorian Guardian Florik in Halls of Honor A to an easier to get to location. He was previously spawning in a location that was harder than the intended level of the quest. - Shifted the focus on the Bladewhisper Chain Wristband to the Bladewhisper Chain Boots. - The focus on the Paladin Epic 1.5 is no longer restricted to only group heals. - The Wand of Wintergrip can no longer be equipped in the secondary slot. - The click effect on the Beastlord and Magician epic's has had its duration increased to 20 minutes. - Kraylor Nalsiv in Plane of Knowledge no longer requires you to hand him your epic to receive your title. He now responds to dialogues instead of item turn-ins. - The Mirrored Mask from Anguish now has a half second cast time and an 80 second recast. Reflective skin also now has an 18 second duration. This should make the mask easier to use when used correctly. - Fixed a bug with the Zun Muram in Txevu. Previously he was not dropping his signet for the alternative access to Tacvi 100% of the time, due to a bug. This has now been corrected. - Karsor the Mad returns. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ March 3, 2005 ------------------------------ *** Bazaar & Barter Zone *** --------------------------------- We have made the Bazaar zone free for everyone. In addition to this, we have consolidated the Barter zone and the Bazaar zone into one hybrid zone, which uses the existing Bazaar zone. You will now be able to activate both the /buyer commands and the /trader commands in the Bazaar zone. In addition to this change, we have made a few other changes for your convenience. - Removed the zone line from the Bazaar to the Barter zone. - Added a zone-line from the Bazaar to the Plane of Knowledge. - The Barter zone entrance in the Plane of Knowledge will now teleport you to the Bazaar zone. - Barter search on Firiona should not filter the NODROP items that aren't NODROP on Firiona. - Right-clicking on a merchant-name in the UI will now create a find-path to the merchant. - Right-click in the Bazaar / Barter search now closes your current find path, and if the timer has expired, generates a new find path to the Buyer / Trader indicated on the line which was right-clicked. - The map has been updated with more information, specifically which areas of the zone allow you to be a /buyer and which allow you to be a /trader. The Barter zone is still active, so those of you who are camped out in the zone will be able to log in just fine, though you will want to migrate to the Bazaar in order to set up your buyer. Please make sure that you are not weighed down with coin and items before leaving the zone, or you may find yourself unable to move. *** Spell & Skill Changes *** --------------------------------- - Moved the contact abilities on spells Spirit of the Leopard and Spirit of the Panther to avoid a stacking conflict with the berserker epic effect. - Monk Return Kick and Double Riposte AAs can now be triggered on the same attack. - Combat abilities will now always hit creatures that require magical weapons. - The Berserker ability Rage of Volley has been modified so that it will hit magic required NPCs regardless of the axe that's equipped. - Increased the charges on the items summoned by Molten Orb and Lava Orb from 3 to 10, and increased the mana cost on the spells that summon them. - Summoned Lava Orbs, Molten Orbs, Shadow Orbs, and Soul Orbs are now no drop on the Firiona Vie server. - The recourse effect of the shadow knight epic 1.5 and 2.0 effects should now go to the short duration buff box. - The monk 1.5 and 2.0 effects will now heal for approximately as many hit points as the buff adds to your maximum hit points. *** Item changes *** --------------------------------- - The following items have been made No-Drop: Potted Dark Lady Ancient Tooth of Archanalia Scrap of Dark Cloth Deformed Dragon Embryo Silvery Dragon Scale Fragments Golden Dragon Scale Fragments Metallic Dragon Shell Fragments Ruined Dragon egg Desiccated Drake Corpse Shattered Draconic Symbol Dark Dragon Scale Cracked Lavaspinner Egg Fragments of Zebeker's Bone Chips Black Wing Drake Talons Egg of a Saved Clutch Frothing Drake Blood Mottled Goblin Meat Lavaspinner's Silk - The crystals used as points for Norrath's Keepers and Dark Reign are once again tradeable on all servers. - Hammer of Delusions effect has been changed to Euphoria. - Shadow Orb can now be in a stack of 5. - Chests in Skyfire for the Veeshan's Peak access quests should now be available for 30 minutes after being dropped by the defeated NPC. - Harbinger Spire Blueprints now drop more often. - Stone of Marking will no longer be used if a player can not bind in that area. *** Quests, Missions & Events *** --------------------------------- - Added a quest to Corrigan Hawthorne in the Bazaar to award PvP points for legacy Sullon Zek insignias. - Decreased difficulty of the Megalodon encounter in Lake Rathe. - NPCs will now offer you missions based on your average group level rather than the level of the player requesting the mission. - Added a fix for the problem of a player in the process of zoning when the mission is completed not being given the reward; when finished zoning he will then receive the reward. - We've changed the way that corpse lock works when an NPC is killed by someone in a shared task. You should no longer see corpses locked to a shared task when you are killing NPCs not related to a shared task. *** Tradeskills *** --------------------------------- - The trivial values of many tradeskill recipes have been modified, please make sure to check your recipe lists. - The Dragons of Norrath Tradeskill Quest NPC's will now accurately recognize your ability to wear the armor they're helping you craft. *** Email *** --------------------------------- - We will now be using the mail system to send players notifications. The first use of this is with the messages you get when you reach certain levels. - Mail composition window gives focus to the first empty field (To, Subject, Msg, in that order). - The delete action now reselects the position of the first item in the deleted selection. Same for undelete. - Players may now map a key to toggle the display of the mail window. *** Guild Hall *** --------------------------------- - You can now assign guild banker status even if the guild member is not online. - The merchant music will stop when you close the guild bank window now. - Guild bank lists are now sortable (note that the permissions field sorts by permission type from most public to least public and vice versa, not alphabetically) - If you logged out in the guild hall, it will no longer send you to last your adventure/expedition zone in point. *** Miscellaneous *** --------------------------------- - Guild masters will once again allow to you get started with your training in Research, Alchemy, Poison Making, and Tinkering. - Hastening of the Aneuk had a typo in the name. Anuek has been changed to Aneuk. - The boats in East Cabilis should look like boats again. - The Bandolier and Potion Belt window shortcuts/binding will now save properly. - The map window will properly tint the map area again on the map tab. - We've made significant changes to the fog and rain settings in all original EverQuest zones. Visibility should be greatly improved in many of these zones and rain will generally be more infrequent. Seasonal changes from rain to snow have also been incorporated into these zones as appropriate. In addition, we've increased the visibility in all zones when it is raining or snowing. - Added a new command, /tasktimers, which will display a list of shared tasks and how long you must wait before you can undertake that shared task again. This will be incorporated into the task window in the near future but we wanted to make the functionality available to players as soon as possible. - Fixed the bug where players would appear with someone else's pet after zoning. - Fixed an issue where a Link Dead player is killed, the killer will no longer be able to loot an item. - Zek players will now be able to begin the process of selecting a new server to have all characters on their account moved to. Those Zek players who have already executed the /movelog command will be moved to the server they chose, unless that server was Solusek Ro or Kane Bayle. Zek players who chose either of these servers will need to execute the command again, choosing a new server. If you have changed your mind as to which server you would like to move to, the /movelog UI (after Thursdays update) will have a disregard button. Using the disregard button will cancel any pending movelog requests and allow you to execute a new movelog request. We will begin processing the movelog requests on Friday night (March 4th) and will continue nightly for a period of 30 days. Any accounts that have executed the movelog request will need to make certain they have no corpses in the world. If you have a shared bank already in use on your destination server, you will need to empty either shared bank out as only one will be available after the movelog is complete. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ March 16, 2005 ------------------------------ EverQuest's 6th Anniversary -------------------------------------- To help celebrate the 6th Anniversary of EverQuest, a fresh scavenger hunt has been added. Check in Firiona Vie, Overthere, or Dreadlands for more on this quest. Finish this challenging hunt and you will receive a potion that doubles your experience for 30 minutes and comes with 10 charges. Your old friends, the Fabled NPCs have returned to Norrath and bring the fabled versions of their items with them. Look for new Fabled NPCs in your favorite Kunark zones. General -------------------------------------- - Increased the spell rune drop rates for Greater Muramite Runes and Glowing Muramite Runes in Muramite Proving Grounds and Riftseeker's Sanctum. - Reduced the number of mobs that will summon in Veksar. - Volkara in the Volkara's bite mission has been made a little more challenging. - The fight against Vishimtar has been made more challenging. - The Citrine Spell Stone has been renamed to Citrine Spell Bauble. - Level 20, 40 and 60 Tradeskill Pattern Book Quests for Wood Elves, Kelethin Half-Elves, Dwarves, High Elves and Gnomes have been altered slightly to make them a bit friendlier to complete. - The encounter with Grinbik in Bloodfields for the Ranger epic has been made a bit less confusing. - "A shady Highpass citizen" in Highpass will look kindly on you and spread the word on your increased friendship if you complete his tasks. - Several missions have been tuned to bring their completion time on par with the other DoN missions: Diving for Lavarocks Dragon Eggs Diseased Pumas - When the task "Keeping the Goblins Out" has been finished you should now get the completion text. Items -------------------------------------- - The Icefloe Hammer is no longer a 1 handed piercing weapon, it is now 1 handed blunt and the bonus to backstab has been removed. - The Lance of Engulfing Flame now has a proc instead of a worn spell. - The Robe of Transcendent Thought has been changed to Drape of Transcendent Thought. - Various Anguish class leg pieces have been altered. - Academic's Pants of the Arcanists now has the focus effect "Frost of Anguish". - The mana preservation focus on several Tacvi chest pieces has been increased slightly. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ March 17, 2005 ------------------------------ *** Missions *** ---------------------------------- - Added the ability to see invisible to some of the NPCs in The Nest instances. - Set some of the boss NPCs in Dragons of Norrath missions to summon. Being kited was making them sad. - Removed a bug in the Rivals mission in The Nest that allowed groups to complete the mission more than once without speaking to the quest-giver again. *** Tradeskills *** ---------------------------------- - Added some missing Troll cultural items to vendors in Neriak. - Added a book to outline the creation of the new cultural sewing kits. - All of the new cultural sewing kits can now be traded in to Caerlyna in the Bazaar for tokens. - Meeka Diggs in Rivervale no longer sells Iron Thread and should now sell the three sizes of Mercurium Thread. - Changed the text on Culturally Inspired Armor - part 3 to accurately reflect the pelts used for Half Elven cultural tailored armors. - There was a new "Chunk of Ice" created for the Dragons of Norrath expansion. This new "Chunk of Ice" has been removed and replaced with the old "Chunk of Ice" on the forage tables for all Dragons of Norrath zones. They should also now drop off some of the colder dervishes. All of the new Dragons of Norrath drink recipes that used "Chunk of Ice" (Curdled Cream, Iced Coffee, Iced Tea and Iced Mountain Tea) now use the old "Chunk of Ice". - Fixed a bug with the recipe for creating Barbarian cultural leather swatches. The recipes were mistakenly using the "Norrathian Needle" instead of the "Northman Needle". - Fixed a bug in the recipe for creating the Dragons of Norrath cultural armor patterns that could allow a player to recover their ruined book with a successful salvage. Sorry, that was unintentional. - Removed the Erudite Sewing Kit from vendors. The new kit is created by players and should replace the old kit. - Fixed the Feir'Dal Fletching Kit. Really, we did. - Fixed the Surefall Fletching Kit. (This was actually fixed with the last update). - Fixed the Reinforced Jeweler's Kit. (This was actually fixed with the last update). - Changed the Dragons of Norrath cultural recipes that used "Quill" to now use "A Quill" (used in research recipes). "A Quill" is also now sold on the appropriate vendors. (This was actually changed with the last update). *** Ranger Epic *** ---------------------------------- - Modified the encounter with Grinbik in Bloodfields for the Ranger epic slightly. Previously he could respond with the phrase "I wish to speak with the one that freed me." when he was not actually free (for example, if the Marshal was still alive). Now he will not give that response until he has actually been freed. Hopefully this will remove some confusion from the event. - A Ranger at the proper stage of the quest will now only trigger the Herrian Warfrost encounter if he or she goes down the corridor near where he hangs out and is at the proper stage of the quest with the necessary item on them. (This change actually went in with our last update). *** Fabled Item Changes *** ---------------------------------- - The Fabled Mrylokar's Bracer has been made lore. - Several Fabled NPC's have had their difficulty modified. - The Fabled Glowing Kunzar Amulet will now be equippable in the neck slot. - The Fabled Incarnadine Breastplate has had Iksar added to the race-usability list. - Several Fabled Items have been returned to their previously tradable status on the Firiona Vie server. - The following items have had their stats modified: Fabled Jaundiced Bone Greaves Fabled Insignia Protector Bracelet of the Corrupter Wristband of Spectral Corruption Bracer of Corrupted Souls Bracer of the Debauched - The following items have had recommended levels added to them: Fabled Necklace of Superiority Fabled Rod of Mourning ..................................................................... ------------------------------ April 12, 2005 ------------------------------ *** Headlines *** ------------------------------------ - A new button has been added to character select: Return Home. If a character has not been played in the past 6 hours, this button is enabled and pressing it will log the character into the game in their starting city. - If a character is logged out for more than an hour, full health, mana, and endurance will be granted upon logging in. This is still a bit under development. You may not be quite at 100% but very close. - Re-envisioning has begun! - Over 600 Spell modifications. - New zone art for the character select screen and character creation. Crossing the bridge while in Explore mode will allow you to enter the world. Note that all characters are in the same area now. There are no longer class specific areas. - New Hot Spots!* The Warrens Netherbian Lair Echo Caverns The Scarlet Desert The Tower of Frozen Shadow The Hole The Grey Howling Stones The Halls of Betrayal (Chardok B) - There are 2 new keyboard shortcuts in the Command section in the Options menu, Open Inventory Bags and Close Inventory Bags. Setting these, then using them will open/close all your general inventory slot bags (bag1-bag8). - Added a teleportation stone to Arena in Plane of Knowledge.* *** Re-envisioning Specifics *** ------------------------------------ - Many modifications have been made to the cast times, recast times, mana costs, and damage potential of many single target direct damage spells. The largest changes have been in level 1-50 spells, but many 50+ spells have been adjusted as well. These changes have caused the damage-per-second potential and/or the damage-per-mana values of these spells to be increased and should benefit the classes who use these spells in nearly all cases. Note that this also includes special purpose spells such as undead and summoned direct damage spells. Please check the in game descriptions for specific changes.* - The 750 cap on mana increase spells has been removed.* - The hard-coded level 52 NPC cap on Fear spells has been removed. We will be adding new fear spells in the near future which will allow players to fear higher level NPCs.* - Assassin’s Feint will now work on NPCs level 60 and higher.* - Spells with poison counters no longer have innate agro added. The spells themselves still generate aggro based on their other properities, but you will see a reduction in the amount of aggro generated in many cases.* - NPC’s innate 20% resistance against rain spells has been removed.* - You will now receive messages in your chat window when you are healed by any heal-over-time spell. This includes both short term HOT spells as well as long term regen spells. You will receive the message if the spell actually gave you health back, so will not receive messages when at full health. These messages can be turned off through a new filter in the options window.* - Ranger, Beastlord, and Paladin heals have been upgraded. See the spell descriptions in game for details.* - The AC cap and percentage return on AC over the cap for monks has been increased.* - Increased the knock back effect on the Warrior AA Press the Attack. - Theft of Thought will no longer return only partial mana from NPCs over level 52. In addition, the spell was changed so that it will only return as much mana as the NPC has if that is less than the amount that the spell is trying to steal. So it will steal 400 mana from an NPC that has 1000 mana, but it will only steal 100 mana from a NPC that has 100 mana.* *** Spells, Skills & AAs *** ------------------------------------ - Increased the effectiveness and decreased the casting time of the Ranger AA Auspice of the Hunter.* - Increased the amount of damage absorbed by the Bard AA Shield of Notes.* - Increased the damage done while using the Bard AA Dance of Blades.* - Added a negative resistance mod to the Shaman AA Virulent Paralysis so it is more likely to land on NPCs now.* - Modified the proc chance on spell Lightning Channeling and Storm Channeling. Both of these spells now have an increased proc chance. - Sound of Divinity and Sound of Might will now use their own separate shared spell timer. - The spell enhanced learning can no longer have its duration increased by Alternate advancement skills and/or focus effects. - Flames of the Valiant and Flames of Redemption should now proc more often and be resisted much less often. - Protection of the Wild should no longer be overwritten by Strength of the Hunter.* - Spirit of the Panther and Spirit of the Leopard have been modified. NPCs were able to trigger the effects of these spells at a much higher rate then players. The rate of NPCs triggering these effects has been lowered to match PCs. Additionally, the base damage of the effect has been lowered, and the spell will now only land on PCs and pets that are a part of your group. - Removed the focus effect limiters from Persuasive Gaze, the focus effect found on the enchanter epic 1.5. It now works on any detrimental spells up to level 70 the same way the focus effect on the enchanter epic 2.0 does.* - Fixed a problem with focus effects that reduce hate. It was not using the highest effect if more than one focus effect was worn. - Dragon Fang and Leopard Claw will now generate less hate. *** Items *** ------------------------------------ - Items that have a combat or clickable spell effect that was changed due to the spell changes in this patch have either had their proc rate adjusted to compensate or use a new spell to maintain their damage potential. - The Anguish chest pieces now have additional worn mods and a new spell focus effect. - The Anguish wrist pieces now have additional worn mods. - Mirrored Mask will no longer conflict with other recast timer based items such as the Soul Orb. - Hammer of Rancorous Thoughts is now a 39/25 weapon with a 225pt proc. - Dragonkiller is now a 34 (+2 magic)/21 weapon. - Mace of Grim Tidings is a 32/22 weapon. - Broken Mandible of the Broodqueen is now a 12/18 weapon and has a +5% mod to backstab. - Fang of Kessdona now has +12% mod to backstab. - Crescent Palemoon now has the focus Aneuk Glare. It also has +15 avoid, +4 spell rune and +4 regen. - Aegis of the Amber Moon now has +3 shielding, +4 dot rune, +6 regen. - Bladewhisper Chain Gloves of Journeys now has Cleave V as the worn effect. - Bladewhisper Chain Legguards of Journeys now has the focus of Alacrity of the Ikaav. - Summoned: Burning Shank should proc more often. - Eye of Yar`Lir is now called “Oculus of Yar`Lir”. - Bracelet of the Corrupter now has +2 mana regen. - Wristband of Spectral Corruption now has +2 mana regen and +20 attack. - Bracer of Corrupted Souls now has +2 mana regen and +20 attack. - Bracer of the Debauched now has +2 mana regen and +20 attack. *** Missions, Quests & Events *** ------------------------------------ - Added the following new Dragons of Norrath missions House of the Autumn Rose (Norrath's Keepers Only) Plunder the Hoard (Dark Reign Only) A Goblin's Escort Halfling's Treasure Map Signal Fires Sudden Tremors These will show up on the usual mission givers once you have enough faction. - Modified the shards awarded for many of the Dragons of Norrath missions to better reflect how long they are taking to complete. - Changed the adventure “The Gilded Scroll” to fix some situations that could cause players to be unable to finish the mission. Now the Noble Kirin Scholar will not spawn before the real scroll is found. We also fixed a problem that could, in very rare cases, cause the real scroll not to be placed on an NPC. - The corrupted drake adds in the Vishimtar encounter will now respawn correctly after a failure. - Made a change to Burning Woods that should reduce the number of NPCs that get stuck under the world . This should make the hornets easier to find. - Increased the drop rate for the Collector's Fire Hornet Wing and Collector's Iksar Witch Doll. - We've extended the 6th anniversary scavenger hunt so that it will be available through Sunday, the 17th. - Changes were made to all Muramite Proving Ground trials. The major changes are: Adaptation is slightly easier, the trial of Ingenuity was significantly changed, and NPC resists in all single group trials were lowered. - Corrected a problem that was causing some NPCs in the Muramite Proving Grounds to show up in the wrong part of the zone. - In the Citadel of Anguish it's no longer possible to fight Arch Mage Vangl without completing the Keldovan, Jelvan, and Hanvar events first. - The Warden Hanvar encounter has been made more challenging; you may wish to bring some extra allies with you. - Beware, if you are too close to a wall the swarm adds in the Mata Muram encounter will spawn directly on top of you. - Increased the drop rate for the Tongue of the Zun’muram off Zun’Murum Tkarish Zyk in Txevu. - Changed the quest that gives alternative access to Txevu. When you hail the golem at the end of Inktu`ta it will check your items and flags and do the following: If you do not yet have a Qvic flag, the golem will give you the Splinter of the High Temple. If you do have a Qvic flag, the golem will give you whichever High Temple pieces you are missing. If you already have a Txevu flag, the Cipher of Txevu item, or all three fragments of the High Temple, the golem will ignore you. Likewise, when you complete the Qvic backflag, if you have the Splinter of the High Temple from completing Inktu`ta you will automatically receive whichever High Temple pieces you are missing. This change allows the combination of Inktu`ta and the Qvic backflag quest to count for Txevu access and the two can be completed in any order. This change is not retroactive. - A bug was fixed so that Alkron Wyrmsong will no longer give bards a cloth cap when an error is made during the quest for Epic 2.0 *** NPCs *** ------------------------------------ - Modified King Xorbb in Beholder. He will now drop Slime Crystal Staff 100% of the time. - Players can no longer attempt to give stacks of items to NPCs. The NPC would treat the stack as one item and you would lose the rest. There is now a check to help with people putting in a stack of items and losing them. - Items given to an NPC by a PC will no longer count as a Task item when looted. - NPC pathing code has been reviewed and some changes have been made which should prevent NPCs from becoming stuck and eventually becoming invisible. Please let us know if you see this happen any more. - The Cube Fragments in the Gates of Discord Sewer trials will no longer get stuck in the geometry. - The Soulbinder at the Firiona Vie outpost is now able to bind you to that area. *** Tradeskills *** ------------------------------------ We have changed the chance to gain a skill up when using tradeskills. Previously there was a large increase in the average number of combines needed for a skill increase for skill values of 160 through 190. This made sense when 200 was the skill cap. We have changed the algorithm to remove the harsh spike in combines required for skill ups from 160 to 190, making it a more reasonable to increase all the way up to 300. For more details please see the post here: http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Trade&message.id=5800 - Alabaster Beak and Ivory Stormrider Canine are now marked as usable in tradeskills. - Dragons of Norrath brewing items now drop off NPCs. They were only available through foraging before. - Added the race name to the Unfired Cookie Cutters. New item names are: Unfired Barbarian Cookie Cutter, Unfired Gnome Cookie Cutter, Unfired Troll Cookie Cutter and Unfired Animal Cookie Cutter. - Added the recipes for four cookie cutters for Luclin beasties. The sketches and molds should be easily found on vendors. - Added the appropriate effects to Dragons of Norrath potions. - The recipe for dough made from Rock Hopper Egg now uses Rockhopper Egg. It turns out that there were two items with similar names, but the one used in the recipe doesn't drop in game. - Removed the recipe for chain jointing that was used in Planes of Power armor. This recipe was removed because the jointing is no longer used in any recipes. - You will now only need to collect half the number of items for the level 65+ Vah Shir racial armor pattern book quest. *** Server stability *** ------------------------------------ - We believe we have corrected the problem with the excessive server lag that has been happening in most raid zones. A guild from one of our live servers was willing to come over to our test server and verify the raid in pofire was working properly without causing the zone to lag out. They were able to complete many of the stages of the raid successfully and even multiple times without issue. There was one instance of a mob warping after getting in a bad location, but we have made vast improvements from its current state. We have also improved our logging code to better detect similar problems should they occur again in the future. Please let us know if you experience any problems related to this. - The memory leak problems that have recently been affecting the world servers has had much progress. Several memory leaks related to the previous update have been corrected, and server stability has improved measurably as a result. We will continue to monitor the servers closely for memory leak issues. - A zone crash in Chardokb related to the Korucust encounter has been fixed. - A zone crash related to guild tribute being toggled while a player was being charmed or feared has been fixed. *** Chat filtering *** ------------------------------------ - Pet responses to commands (except for /pet leader) are no longer broadcast, but go only to the owner of the pet.* - Pet responses to commands can now have a selected color and be redirected to any chat window.* - Pet spell-casting messages can now have a selected color, be redirected to any chat window, and be filtered to not show at all.* - Assassinate, Deadly Strike, Slay Undead, and Finishing Blow messages will now be displayed in the Melee Critical message color and redirect/filter as other crits.* *** Mail System *** ------------------------------------ - You now have quick access to all of your character mailboxes on the current server from any of your characters. *** Title Suffixes *** ------------------------------------ - The title system now supports title suffixes. The first use of this new feature are the server titles. *** Guild Hall (Guilds) *** ------------------------------------ - Added a guild tribute master to the guild hall. - The guild bank no longer accepts NORENT items. - Fixed a bug that allowed players with out the proper flags to remove items from the Guild bank. - Using any Eye of Zomm type spells in a guild hall will no longer take the client to server select. *** Bazaar/Barter *** ------------------------------------ - Added and Augment pool and Augment Solvent Merchant in the Bazaar. - Added new search criteria to the Bazaar search: min level, max level. Any items which match all other search criteria, yet have a rec or req level outside the boundaries set in the new fields will not be returned by the search. - The barter UI code has been improved. There were some issues related to keeping the client properly synchronized with the server which have been fixed. It now more accurately tracks changes in inventory when multiple players are interacting with a buyer. Also, if a buyer has a LORE item, any buy-lines that require the LORE item will now automatically disable because the buyer would not be able to complete the transaction (because it would result in two lore items on the buyer). Previously this was causing a client-server sync issue that would result in a player being disconnected. - Barter Search Window: Right-clicking on the item sought by Buyers found in a search will display that item. You now have to right click on the Buyer's name to get the search path. *** UI *** ------------------------------------ - Fixed an issue causing custom UIs to show bad data in unused buff slots. - The Task display now properly displays tasks with a large number of elements. - On character select, if you want to go back into the tutorial, just click the tutorial button below the list of characters. It is no longer a toggle button. *** Miscellaneous *** ------------------------------------ - Increased the maximum level range spread for LDoN adventures from 7 to 10 so you can now group with someone 10 levels above or below you. - Critical heals now produce a message similar to other spells that crit. - Fixed corpse looting bugs for corpses that have been summoned or moved out of dynamic zones. - Closing multiple bags while using the bank no longer causes the client to crash. - The raid locking system had various bugs which are now fixed. Please let us know if you encounter any problems with the raid tool. * Denotes a community request. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ April 20, 2005 ------------------------------ *** Events *** ---------------------------------- * The Girplan Guardian encounter in the wizard epic had its difficulty lowered to bring it more in line with other epic 1.5 fights. * Rumors have been spread that the Ring of Scale have started to investigate the new vampires of Mistmoore(RoS faction quest is in). * Eryke Stremstin for the monk epic in the bazaar should no longer fall under the world. *** Items *** ---------------------------------- * Changed the name of the Basilisk Tooth to be Great Reptile Tooth. * Changed the name of Racnar Hide to Great Reptile Hide. * Great Reptile Teeth can now drop off crocs in Plane of Earth and Plane of Nightmare. * Great Reptile Hides can now drop off raptors in Cazic Thule. * Pile of Gravel can now drop off Gargoyles in Plane of Nightmare and the Hole. * Tribute values on certain Kunark chest and legpieces has been decreased . * Horn of Doomcalling now has +2 mana regen. * Supple Crimson Choker now has a +2 mana regen. * Clawhammer is now a 70 damage, 32 delay weapon. * Many items with over 160hp in DoN raids and small events were incorrectly marked with type 4/7 augmentation slots. These now have type 8 augmentation slots. * Shed Ikaav Skin drop rate/locations adjusted to include Ikaavs in the Ruined City of Dranik. * Mindreaver's Shoes of Coercion now has the focus of Alacrity of the Aneuk. * Earring of Dragonkin is now called "Earring of Wurmkin". * Mask of Forbidden Rites is now flagged all/all. *** Item Spells *** ---------------------------------- * Deafening Strike now increases the duration of Fellstrike Discipline. * Ture's Anger now increases the duration of Blind Rage Discipline. *** Spells *** ---------------------------------- * Lowered the duration of many fear spells cast by NPCs. * Reduced the number of NPCs who cast fear throughout the game. * Changed all PC pets over level 52 so they are once again immune to fear. * Several spells were not set to the correct proc values in the previous update to compensate for the change in pet base proc rates. The following spells have had their proc rates adjusted to be the same as they were before the previous patch: Might of the Wild Spirits Savage Wildcaller's Blessing Hobble of Spirits Primal Fusion Elemental Conjunction * Corrected the hate generated by the enchanter spell Howl of Tashan and the monk ability Dragon Fang. *** Miscellaneous *** ---------------------------------- * Added level up text for all levels between 11 and 70. * A bug affecting skilling up in combat skills at all levels and tradeskills at low levels has been fixed. Skilling up at these levels should be back to normal. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ May 11, 2005 ------------------------------ *** Headlines *** -Many quests in city zones that give XP as a reward now give significantly more. -Four new missions are available that take you back to Qeynos, Unrest, Befallen, and Hate's Fury. -Veteran's Rewards will be available on May 13th. You can find out more details about these rewards here. -The required levels on many spells level 50 and below have been changed so that all casting classes will now receive at least 1 new spell every level. -Great new functionality has been added to the mail system. Some of the major features are listed below, but also check the bottom of the patch message for details. -Multiple recipients, including a dynamically generated guild mailing list. -EverQuest mail forwarding. You can now have your EverQuest mail forwarded to the e-mail address registered with the station account of the character you are playing. NOTE: you cannot reply to the forwarded mail. -New Address Book. You can now setup mailing lists on your client and store your friend's addresses in your address book. *** Spells & Skills *** -Players who only have the first two ranks of the Spell Casting Fury AAs will now do double damage on a successful spell crit, the same as if they had the third rank. -Players who only have the first two ranks of the Ingenuity AA will now do double damage on a successful spell crit, the same as if they had the third rank. -DoT spells for nearly all classes have been adjusted to scale better as players gain levels. Additionally, most of these spells have had their casting time significantly reduced. A number of additional changes have been made. Please see in game descriptions for updated information. -Pet heals are now generally more efficient, have shorter cast times, and will remove poison and curse effects in addition to disease effects. -Frost Guard now has a 1 hour duration. -Rangers now gain the ability to triple attack starting at level 60. -Berserker's Frenzy skill now has a minimum damage cap starting at level 51. -The return on AC over the cap has been increased for monks, paladin, and shadowknights of level 50 and higher. -Based on player feedback, we have removed the notification to the caster that occurred whenever a heal-over-time spell made an exceptional heal and added new functionality to let the caster know when their spell has worn off. -All caster, priest, and hybrid classes now learn Meditation at level 1. -All priest and hybrid classes now learn Channeling at level 1. -All detrimental spells that have a duration will now notify their caster when they wear off. -All hybrid classes now learn Abjuration, Alteration, Conjuration, Divination, and Evocation at level 1. -All buffs that last at least 24 seconds and do not go to the short buff window will now notify their caster when they wear off. -Share Wolf Form will no longer have its buff timer decremented in the Guild Hall. -Shield of Notes and Dance of Blades will now properly reset if they fail to take hold. -Lich Sting and Reaper Strike now grant a buff to the group as well as the Shadow Knight triggering the effect. The benefit for the Shadow Knight will be significantly larger then the benefit to the rest of the group. -Kessadona's Flash of Insight is now known as Kessadona's Roar and has been changed to be a direct damage cold based spell. *** Items *** -Seal: Mastery of All is now no-drop on the Firiona Vie server. -A Gem-Etched Key was dropping off of common crocodiles in Plane of Earth. This erroneous drop has been removed. -The Rod of Shaded Wrath has been slightly upgraded. -Many items with over 165 hps were given type 8 slots instead of type 7 slots. -The Tainted Heartstone and Charm of Exotic Speech will now properly give full stats when all uncommon languages are mastered. -All flowers of functionality are now inventory clickable. -All armor and weaponry on the Dragons of Norrath vendors now have an additional type 9 augmentation slot. -New type 9 augments can now be found on the Dragons of Norrath vendors. -Some additional weapons on the Dragons of Norrath vendors are now rogue usable. -Blightbringer's Pants of the Grave now has the focus effect Venom of Anguish. -Improved the damage/delay ratio of some of the weapons on the Dragons of Norrath vendors. -Beaded Hoop of Demise now has +10 combat effects and +5 strikethrough. -Chains of Anguish now has the focus effect Avariciousness of the Ikaav. -Shroud of the Surging Storm now has the focus effect Avariciousness of the Ikaav. -Ring of Deterrence now has the focus effect Avariciousness of the Ikaav. *** Quests & Events *** -When Brevik Kalaner combines the high temple pieces to form the Cipher of Txevu, the player will now also receive Qvic access if they do not already have it. -When zoning into Kod`taz, if a player has the Inktu`ta high temple piece as well as Qvic access, they will now receive any other high temple pieces they may be missing. -Removed the large particle effects from King Gelaqua's room in Riftseekers. This should help with reported visual lag issues in that area. -Fixed a spawn issue in Firiona Vie involving Hero Goxnok and a Drachnid spy. -Guttertusk the Cruel has been spotted wandering the city of Dranik. -Raids in Gates of Discord dynamic zones now require a minimum of 12 people to start. -Corrected a problem that was causing the Kunark dragons to not drop their spells or, in the case of Trakanon, his teeth. -Vyril Nightfire in Mistmoore is seeking adventurers to help destroy the new inhabitants of the castle. *** Tradeskills *** -Added a new alchemy recipe to create Essence of Froglok. It can be made in much the same way as the other essences. *** Missions *** -We have made improvements to how mission rewards are given in situations where the mission was completed while a member was zoning, charmed, feared, or dead. -Your mission token or any item you receive at the completion of your mission will now automatically go into an open slot in your inventory. You will not see it on your cursor anymore. If your inventory is full then the token or item will be attached to your cursor the next time you zone. -Savil Tranquilsong has made an important breakthrough in his work uncovering the history of Unrest and is looking for adventurers around levels 55 to 70 to assist him. Seek him out in the Butcherblock Mountains if you are interested in helping. -Rumors have been circulating of increased activity around Hate's Fury and a growing discontent among the merchants of the Broken Skull Clan. A merchant in the Crypt of Nadox is looking to hire a few hearty souls around levels 55 to 70 to help keep the Clan in check. -Guard Freklin in Qeynos Hills has gotten himself into hot water after being caught sleeping on the job and is now stuck on gnoll watch. He is looking for adventurers around levels 15 to 35 to help him get back into the good graces of the guard. -The ancient necromancer Marnek Jaull has returned to the dark halls of Befallen and kidnapped the daughter of a paladin of Prexus for use in his evil rituals. Derin Mausrel, uncle of the kidnapped girl, has traveled to West Commons in search of adventurers around levels 30 to 40 to help him rescue his niece and destroy the necromancer once and for all. *** User Interface *** -There is a completely new interface for the chat filter. -The Bandolier "auto swap" will now maintain its state through relog. -There is a new Merchant Interface window. Items are now displayed in more intuitive list. *** Miscellaneous *** -Added Label EQType 134 - Currently Casting spell. Added it to Casting window. -Bug fix for entering the game by walking through the arch in explorer mode of character selection. If you were logged out in an instanced zone, you will not see multiple of each character if that zone was not up. -For servers that have movelog command enabled, players will now see what servers have their current name in use already. - We have changed the text description of certain flags on the item inspection window. NO DROP is now NO TRADE and NO RENT is now TEMPORARY. -Names above players/NPCs should now be visible at twice the distance they were before. *** E-Mail Features *** Audio and text notifications of new mail. Mail Window -New Options and Address Book buttons. -The Options button brings up the options window (with the Mail tab selected). -The Address Book button brings up the address book window. -New "Reply All" button. -New "TO" field visible in the view pane (where you read your email). It shows all recipients, except those that are BCC. Mail Composition Window -New "From" field that shows you who you are when sending an email.(Useful now that you can quickly switch between the mailboxes of your different characters on the current server). -You can now send to multiple recipients at once, by separating them with comas. You can also use an address book entry name. -When pressing "Reply All" from the Mail Window, the lists found to match exactly (both name and addresses) with an entry in your address book are compacted to the name only, other entries are written in full. -The Sync button is there to synchronize your TO field with your address book. This is mainly useful when replying to all: it helps you add new entries to your address book or update old ones. In the latter case, you will be notified of the differences: name differs by case, addresses removed, addresses added. The note field is preserved during the update. Address Book Window -New window to edit your address book. -Fields for name, addresses and note. -Checkbox to make the entry name private, which means that during address expansion, the addresses will be written as if you had selected them individually, not in the mailing list format. -Automatic update of the "Guild" entry. [Transient (not saved) and read-only.] If you leave the guild, the entry disappears. If someone is added/removed from the guild, your address book is updated. New Options Tab for the Mail System -Address book filename, configurable per character. -If you select an existing address book file, it loads it. -If you select a new filename, it creates it with the current in-memory address book state. -The address book can be edited by hand, or copied between installations. Mail Forwarding Option. -When turned on, incoming email is forwarded to the email address you registered in your Station Account. Revised Command-Line Syntax for Sending Mail -More than one recipient is now allowed. Use the comma to separate them. -If you need a space, for an example if you are sending to a mailing list that contains a space in its name, then you need to enclose the whole list of recipients between double-quotes. -To make a recipient BCC, precede it with a -. -Addresses written in the command-line are expanded according to the address book rules. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ May 18, 2005 ------------------------------ *** Spells *** - With the last patch, we made a change to the way that intoxication effects work so you are no longer completely immune to them if you have maximum alcohol tolerance. Instead, you now mitigate the effects based on your alcohol tolerance skill. Due to this change, intoxication effects have been reduced or removed from a number of detrimental NPC spells where they would now cause the encounters to be more difficult than intended. - Storm Guard and Frost Shield now have 60 minute durations. - Increased the range on Kessdona's Roar. *** Missions *** - Skrepiz Plaguebringer will now only appear when you have completed all previous requirements in the Rise of Marnek mission. - If you are on the mission to Unrest, Nisha Lightbrook will now respond to your first hail instead of requiring two hails for a response. - You will no longer be able to loot the notes for the Hate's Fury mission out of order. *** Items *** - Gloves of Wicked Ambition now have +5 to stun resist, +6 to dot shield, and +2 to mana regen. - Mirrored Mask now has a type 8 augmentation slot, by request. Now players can bind a focus augment to the item if they wish. - Gem of the Spring Wind from the good DoN camp is now named "Shard of the Spring Wind" and is now a type 7 and 8 augmentation. *** Alternate Abilities *** - Raised the cap on AA's so that those people who were maxed out can receive all of their Vet rewards. - The shape changing effects of the Jester of Bristlebane will now disappear after 10 minutes. *** Code *** Windows 98/ME: - Users with these operating systems should no longer experience the bug where there UI renders but the 3D scene does not when they first enter the game. -- The EverQuest Team ..................................................................... ------------------------------ June 29, 2005 ------------------------------ A large patch was implemented today. Grab a coffee for this one. ================================== *** Headlines *** - Plane of Time Instancing! - Plane of Time has been fully instanced. Every raid that enters the zone will now get its own instance of the zone. - New Tutorial! - A new tutorial is now available, featuring new art, new models, new quests, and a new player experience that will take you from level 1 to level 10. - New Newbie Armor Quests! - New armor quests pick up where the tutorial leaves off, taking players from 11 to 20. - You can now invite players to your group across zones. We have enabled the ability to use the /invite command with a players name to allow you to invite someone that is not in your current zone. - "Auto Consent Group", "Auto Consent Raid", and "Auto Consent Guild" buttons have been added to the options window; when checked, your group/raid/guild will automatically be given consent to move any new corpses you drop. *** Items *** - Ogre Femur Club is now monk and beastlord usable. - The tier1 and tier2 quested breastplates in Omens of War now have click effects that are usable from inventory. - The Rod of Mystical Transvergance and Summoned: Modulating Rod now both have a 5 minute item recast timer. This will give both items a visible indicator for the recast time of the rods when used in the UI. - The suffusive weaponry from the Trial of Ingenuity is now attunable. - The Longbow of Chaos now has a type 4 augmentation slot. - Haggard Trusik Shawl now has +15 int instead of +15 wis. - Plaguebreeze now has +4 regen, +20 attack, +1 shielding, and +5 avoidance. - The Dragonshade Mask now has the worn effect of Cleave V and the activatable effect of Assassin?s Blood. The recast time on the activatable effect has been changed to two minutes. - The Obsidian Battle Sword has a new graphic. - The Blade of Vesagran is now a one-handed slasher. Please petition if you have an augmentation that will not fit in your blade now that it has changed to a slasher. *** Tasks, Missions, and Quests *** - Increased the amount of time that a mission zone can be empty of players before it shuts down from 15 to 30 minutes. This should help groups who completely wipe out get back to the zone before it shuts down and resets. - If you are on the mission to Unrest, Nisha Lightbrook will now respond to your first hail instead of requiring two hails for a response. - Sleeping on the job: Gnoll Archers will now call for reinforcements if you have killed them before completing the previous elements in the task. - Sleeping on the job: Holinix, Djerr, Grarrax, - Fixed an error that was causing some tasks that had elements in Grimling Forest to be impossible to complete. *** Events *** - The Specter of Rage in Uqua will now accept the Orb of Rage again. - It should no longer be possible to get double-loot and double-lockout on the MPG Trial of Endurance. - The Vishimtar encounter has been retuned. Beware the cursed black dragon! - After Vishimtar's demise, Creeping Doom will fade and skeletons will cease spawning on player death. - Standing directly under Rikkukin when he fires off a directional attack is now a bad idea. - Lockout timers for Anguish bosses are now 4.5 days long instead of 4.9166666 (repeating, of course). *** Skills, Spells - Added new spells in the Spirit of the Panther line for Shaman at levels 50 and 57. - Added new spells in the Ward of Righteousness line for Clerics at levels 50 and 57. - Added new level 50+ fear spells for Clerics, Necromancers, Enchanters, Shadowknights, Bards, and Druids. - Added new melee guard Disciplines for Shadowknights and Paladins, both at level 56. - Added a new Point Blank Enthrall spell for Enchanters at level 68. - Added new spells in the Spirit of the Panther line for Shaman at levels 50 and 57. - Added new spells in the Ward of Righteousness line for Clerics at levels 50 and 57. - You'll have to convince Karsor the Mad to part with the above new spells. - Storm Guard and Frost Shield now have 60 minute durations. - Modified the Frenzied Burnout AA so that it now has a 15 minute reuse and will better stack with other strength and attack enhancing effects. - The mana regeneration portion of the Enchanter spell Breeze now scales from 5 at level 14 to 6 at level 20. - Fixed a stacking problem with Shadowknight and Ranger Self buffs that were being overwritten by the druid Hand of Ro line. - Increased the innate AC bonuses granted to level 66+ pets by focus effects. - Increased the melee damage bonuses provided by pet focus effects on level 66-70 pets. - Lowered the endurance cost on many Berserker Axe abilities and the battle cry line. - Refunded and removed Spell Casting Subtlety from Shadowknights. - Shock of Lightning was recently changed into a new spell, Icicle Shock. In answer to concerns from several players at the loss of Shock of Lightning, the spell has been returned to it's previous form. - Guard of Blood Recourse has been changed to a instant heal for 600 HP instead of 400 for 2 ticks. - Alternate Ability timers for newly acquired activatable AAs will properly initialize to allow for immediate use. - Veteran rewards on accounts that have no expansions now work properly. - Leadership assist ranges now have the same distance rules as the /assist command. - When rogues using Shroud of Stealth /con an NPC that can see invis but not shroud of stealth, they will now get a message telling them the NPC cannot see them but can see normal invis players. - Players will now receive 1 skill point in any new skills available when the reach a new level. - Spell hate for spells with a fixed amount of hate now include hate-focus effects. Previously, spells with fixed amount of hate assigned to them would disregard hate focus effects. - Fixed the issue with Wrath of the Wild that caused it to last until a rune expired. *** Tradeskills *** - Added a minimum chance to gain a skill up on many of the Dragons of Norrath cultural tradeskill recipes and many of the Omens of War augmentation recipes. This will make it easier to gain an increase in skill when doing these recipes in most cases where the character has a high skill. - Some Velium weapons can now be converted into small Velium bars by smiths. You will need to use the Velium Smithy Hammer in order to break down these weapons. - Speckled Pine Fruit can now be foraged. - Palm Leaf can now be foraged. - Added a recipe to create Rainwater Dressing. - Added a recipe to create Spiced Heartfruit Greens. - Midnight Stones and Sandstone Pearls can now be crushed in a Mixing Bowl, not a Mortar and Pestle. - Increased the stack size of Dragons of Norrath cultural Patterns and Molds to 200 (400 for wrist patterns and molds). - Caerlyna will now exchange Ice Cream Churns for tokens. - Added information to bag tokens that will tell the player some of the information about the bag they represent. *** NPCs *** - There is a new potion vendor in the Plane of Knowledge. He sells some nice new potions as well as some of the ingredients that alchemists will need to make those potions. - The Taskmistress Krisz encounter can now be triggered. Speak to the NPCs in Riwwi for more information. - Several NPCs in the Abysmal Sea are now more willing to chat. They no longer require proof of dedication to their cause. - New merchants have moved into Lavastorm. - Some of the Ferans in Riftseekers will drop Softened Feran Hides more often now. - Some of the Ferans in Riftseekers will drop Quality Feran Hides more often now. *** Veteran rewards *** - The Veteran Reward buffs are now immune to being dispelled. - The Veteran Reward buffs will no longer freeze their timers in the guild hall. *** Optimizations *** - File caching has been enabled which should yield performance improvements, especially on lower end systems when dealing with the UI (opening/closing windows, loading a UI, ...). *** Exodus and Related Issues *** - The exodus bug where a player could possibly die during the small amount of time after the spell is cast but before they actually zone, should now be fixed. We did the best we could trying to reproduce the situations that have been described to us and they have been fixed in our test cases. Please let us know if you continue to experience an issue like this. - Spells such as Exodus, have a chance to fail which happens for each person that gets hit by the spell. This means each person has a chance to not get ported. If you fail to get ported, you now receive a message notifying you of the failure. - Teleport bind(AA) will no longer leave the caster behind. If the spell is successfully cast, then everyone will be ported. Previously the caster had a 2% chance to not port. *** Features Enabled for All *** - The raid window is now available to all players. - The LFGroup windows are now available to all players. - Line-art mapping is now available for all zones. *** UI *** - The Potion Belt will now remain visible after zoning (if it was visible before zoning). - The advanced display options window has been enhanced substantially. Please note that the Advanced Lighting option is for video cards that support 1.1 Pixel Shaders and above. Also note that the advanced lighting is still being tested with some of our known player hardware configurations. If you experience any issues with it on, please turn it off. Not all hardware combination have been verified to be fully functional. For those that can use it, check out how cool the lighting looks in some of the old zones like the commonlands with the NPCs and their spherical light influences. It looks great. - The help window has been merged with the petition window. *** Misc *** - You will no longer get experience back from a corpse whose rez timer has expired when using the Veteran AA Expedient Recovery. - The level restriction for entering the tutorial has been changed to allow level 10 and under. - Fixed an old issue with particles. If you had your client running for 10 or so hours, some particle emitters would start to show huge particles. *** Chat Channels *** - There are now system owned, persistent chat channels and players will auto join some of these channels. Players level 20 and under auto join the "NewPlayers" channel, over level 20 auto join "General" and a class specific channel, and there are continent based channels as well. Auto joining channels can be disabled under the options window. *** Pet Commands *** - The "/pet follow" command works properly again. - The "/pet report" command works properly again. .....................................................................