Game Mechanics: Sea Worth planking should no longer spawn, but be triggered by traps?

[Jimjam]

I have been reading up on Seaworthy Planking to prep myself for the green server... It's my 5 year plan to get my blue ranger a BFG! Everybody laugh. However, I found something far more interesting!

I see a post dated November 2001 confirming the planks were attainable.

"The wood still spawns in Iceclad, though very rarely. Usually found at the lilly-pad islands."

And again Sep 21 2002

I don't know about the quest overall...but the wood does still spawn. I picked up a plank while waiting for ole Stormfeather last night. Still waiting...lol.

A poster later elaborates on the post-groundspawn mechanic:

As for the wood? It still spawns.

I picked up a plank on June 05, 2002 in Iceclad on Brell.

Th secret is simple. It no longer spawns on the ground. It's a triggered trap. I am sure if you spent enough time looking for one you heard the "No wood here" message? Well, on Jnue 5th, I triggered "Some planks wash up on the shore" and lo and behold, there was the planking.

To answer the mundane questions:

1. I don't know how many traps, and to be honest, I didn't grab a loc, though I was down by the Ratop/Ritop Gnomes when I got the message.

2. It's not for sale. I am holding it for MQ with someone I know.

3. It's there, if you find a loc that spawns the "There's no wood here" message, check the loc every so often, I am sure it's like the 4th shawl guy, several spots and they change what spawns there (only no Death Squad.. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] )

These posts are taken from the quest page. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/q...tml?quest=1210

The Sea Worthy planking page http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=4976 mentions the following on Nov 04 2001 at 11:29 PM:

Ok here are some facts as determined by showeq.

There are a number of level 60 mobs in the zone called 'no wood here'. These are invisible mobs, and it's not the kind of invisible where you can use see invis, they are totally undetectable by players. You can also AE right on top of them and they won't attack you.

It seems obvious these mobs were introduced to take the place of former wood drops. Furthermore I have spent a lot of time in iceclad and I can see every ground spawn in the zone, and I haven't seen this drop in the past 30 or so hours I've spent in this zone.

I can not guarantee this no longer spawns, but it seems very unlikely it spawns. It look like Verant has effectively disabled this quest. Don't listen to guides or GMs they honestly don't know what's going on, these are the facts.

Pulling these sources together, it seems the ground spawns got replaced by untargettable level 60 'trap' NPCs. These seem to be at different locations to where the planks were.

Most of these NPC's were basically defunct PHers that existed only to inform players of where the new spawns could be (they would give a text read out as you passed over them, "no wood here".

At this point I have not found the mechanics of how these trap PHers could be turned over. They don't seem to have despawned by being stood on/triggered, but they would of course have been cycled by server resets.

On occasion one of these traps would not be 'no wood here' and instead give text "Some Planks of wood wash up to your feet" and would spawn a planking.

[Jimjam]

Oh just for extra notes, the bfg item page http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=4970 includes comments indicating planking should be available around Oct 12 2001:

But my friend picked up some planking near the gnomes in IC a few days ago, so it is not broken.