December 15th Patch message

[Donnel]

Amazing. simply......amazing.


December 15, 2004
*** Update Headlines ***

-----------------------------

* Backflagging
* Gates AA point refunding
* New Hot Spots
* Mistmoore & Splitpaw revamps going to Stormhammer


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

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- 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 & stopping of various weather types due to zoning and Wake of Karana should be working correctly.

- /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

[Thommus]

- /who commands now display both class title and base class name for players over level 50, e.g. "Bedazzler (Enchanter)" *

Was this really needed? What is the purpose of the level based titels now? It might as well say [70 Rogue] Thommus again.

[Carnhus]

So Ebayers can quickly identify whos day they can ruin

[Drem]

the backflagging revamp is just ridiculous. i feel it takes away some of the zones' "specialness" if anybody in the game can just 85 in

i might as well not even have my time flag ><

[Tacks]

wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Drem]

Hello. Might I interest you in some British Bread?

[lauranthala]

You must not have had to spend ridiculous amounts of time backflagging yet. 85/15 for time and god is one of the best things they've done in a long time.

[Drem]

yeah, it makes the game easier, which is stupid because this game is easy enough compared to four years ago as it is. now it takes all the glory out of actually having to work to see the fun zones

[lauranthala]

I see where you are coming from. My view though is that once I've achieved the "glory" or getting some flag or progression, I want to move on to the next thing and not have to constantly relive that glory over and over and over and over and over....again. Sure, going back and backflagging I guess forces new people to "earn" their flag, but let's be honest- how hard is it to ride along on a raid that's trivial for the guild doing it and which they've done xxx times? When you are flagged that way, you never really do appreciate it.

Perfect example- Uqua. We've had to do some backflagging here recently and it's been pretty easy, especially at level 70 now. A lot of recruits have been saying "Hey, that zone was fun- why don't we farm it?" To those of us that spent months and months dying in that zone and know exactly how ugly that zone can get within seconds, we have no desire to be there any longer than we have to. So yes, technically these recruits "earned" their qvic flags by going through the raid, but they can't really appreciate it. Might as well do the 85/15 and allow the older members to forget the nightmare. =)

[Drem]

fair enough

[labbats]

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. *

Nice timing Verant. I think I read about 1000 posts about this topic on MonklyBusiness.com, oh, about 3 years ago.

[Dylan]

- /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. *

In other words, you no long have to be at keyboard to play a bard... great...

[lauranthala]

My understanding of the /melody command is it will be great for when you're sitting around not doing anything and just need 2 or 3 songs twisted over and over. However, if you're in an exp group or raid and you're pulling, doing HoS, fading, mezzing, slowing, hasting group, etc, you're still going to be doing a lot of manual twisting if you want to an even halfway decent bard. Bard is one of the couple classes I've never played though so can't say from personal experience.