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January 9, 2001 3:00 am
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***Patch Day***
We're happy to present today's patch, which focuses primarily on
addressing issues that have been brought forth by EverQuest players. We
appreciate the opportunity to spend some time focusing on specific
issues important to you. Today's patch includes the following:
*Disciplines*
- The "Resistant" Discipline now lasts 5 minutes instead of the
previous 1.
- The "Holy Forge" Discipline now lasts 5 minutes instead of the
previous 2.
- The "Weaponshield" Discipline now lasts 20 seconds instead of the
previous 15.
- The "Leechcurse" Discipline now lasts 20 seconds instead of the
previous 15.
- The "Deftdance" Discipline now lasts 15 seconds instead of the
previous 10.
- The "Puretone" Discipline now lasts 4 minutes instead of the previous
2.
- The "Sanctification" discipline now lasts 15 seconds instead of the
previous 10.
- The "Unholy Aura" Discipline now gives a 50% bonus to Harmtouch
(compared with the previous 25%) and causes it to save versus disease,
which should result in even fewer resists in most high-level
encounters.
*Spells*
- "Lay on Hands" has been improved starting at 40th level.
- The "Summon Corpse" spell is now available to Shadowknights.
- Corrected a bug that was causing damage while using the "Trueshot"
Discipline to be the same regardless of the quality of your bow.
- The spells "Focus of Spirit" and "Visions of Grandeur" now stack.
- "Harmtouch" is now resisted as if it were a "Lifetap" spell, meaning
that it is all-or-nothing, and nearly unresistable with exception to
encounters that are immune to magic or out of the acceptable level
range. In addition, maximum damage for Harmtouch has been increased
starting at 40th level.
- We fixed a bug that caused "Lure" type spells (Wizards) to be
resisted more than they should have been in certain types of
encounters.
- Melee attack timers will no longer be reset when a SK, Paladin, or
Ranger cast a spell. Previously these classes had to wait a full attack
delay after casting before they would attack via melee again.
*Miscellaneous*
- You may now adjust the clipping plane in the Hole. Previously, the
clipping plane was fixed. Many people requested the ability to bring
the clipping plane closer to allow them to improve their client's
performance.
- Fixed several problems with trade-skill components that were not
dropping. Also added some new recipes.
- Fixed the Iksar "Shackle of Steel" quest.
- The additional options for /camp (/camp server, /camp desktop) have
been implemented. /camp server will take you to the server-selection
screen. /camp desktop will cause EverQuest to terminate and take you to
the desktop.
*Root and Snare*
Root-type spells and "snare" type spells now use a separate spell
effect.
Previously, "Root" spells would overwrite any snare effect upon the
target. When the root would wear off, the target began moving at full
speed. With this change, when root wears off, snare will still be in
effect. This has a few added effects on the other end.
For instance, root will no longer cancel SoW or Journeyman's Boots
effects. It also allowed us to correct a long-standing bug that was
allowing bards to cancel root on themselves by playing Selo's
Accelerando if Selo's was in effect at the time that the bard was
rooted. As mentioned in a previous patch where the first part of this
bug was fixed, this was not the intended effect.
*Looting NODROP Items*
A new command is now available to EverQuest players.
In order to prevent the accidental looting of NODROP items, the
/lootnodrop command has been added to the client. The command supports
three options: ALWAYS (Default) - You will be presented with a yes/no
confirmation box when attempting to loot any NODROP item. SOMETIMES -
You will be presented with a yes/no confirmation box when attempting to
loot any NODROP items that your race and/or class cannot use. NEVER -
NODROP items will be looted without confirmation.
It is highly recommended that you DO NOT CHANGE this from the default
option, as the GM staff cannot assist in cases of accidental looting.
- The EverQuest Team
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January 17, 2001 3:00 am
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*Baltimore Fan Faire - Last Chance*
Monday is the registration deadline for the Baltimore Fan Faire! We are
almost sold out so hurry and visit
http://everquest.station.sony.com/fa.../fanfaire.html before you
miss your chance to attend this event!
*Patch Day*
The primary focus of today's patch is to implement changes noted in the
new Producer's Letter which can be found at
http://everquest.station.sony.com/news/letter.shtml
It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you read the Producer's Letter before
playing EverQuest. It contains some unprecedented and exciting
enhancements to gameplay.
In addition to these changes, the following changes have been
implemented:
*Bug Fixes*
- Fixed a bug that caused "root" and "snare" type spells to function
incorrectly when stacked. They should now stack properly.
- Fixed a bug that negated the "instrument modifier" for bards using
Selo's, causing them to run slower than they otherwise would.
- Fixed a bug that allowed two or more spells that grant levitation to
stack. Levitation spells should not stack.
- The "Track Corpse" spell now works.
- Tracked down and eliminated several bugs that were causing a very
small percentage of people to crash when zoning or upon entering the
game.
- Fixed a problem with some Ulthork armor that caused it to disappear
on death if the wearer was of extremely low level.
- Tserrina's Whip has been fixed. If you received one prior to today's
patch, you will need to trade out your whip with a GM in order to get
one that works correctly.
- Last week's patch attempted to fix Celestial Elixir, Celestial
Healing, and Torpor, so that they would stack another similar spell,
unintentionally causing it to stop stacking with standard regeneration
spells. This has been fixed. The downside to this fix is that these
spells will now overwrite the "Call of Bones" series. As the three
former spells are cast to save a character's life, this solution
appears to be the most beneficial for all of those involved.
- The stronger /lootnodrop options will no longer prompt you for
confirmation when looting your own corpse. It is highly suggested that
everyone reset their option to the strongest security available:
/lootnodrop ALWAYS (always ask for confirmation).
- Added some code to address an issue reported by a few players, that
being that an NPC named "Ragefire" would die and not leave a corpse.
Though we were unable to reproduce this problem in testing, the code we
added should function as a catch-all for this problem. Please be sure
to let us know how this goes.
*Changes/Enhancements*
- While not mentioned in the Producer's Letter, the Zone Experience
Modifier has also been increased in Guk (guktop), by roughly 12%.
- "Lay on Hands" has been enhanced again to heal more hitpoints.
- Overlooked in the last patch message, new spells were made available
to Rangers and Paladins in the upper levels.
- "Voice of the Berserker", a beneficial spell, no longer drains mana
over the duration of the spell.
- The maximum duration of "Strength of Nature" has been increased.
- A new spell for magicians is now available in game.
- The "Shield of the Eighth" spell will now last a number of minutes
equal to your level.
- You can now use the arrow and enter keys to select characters in the
character select screen. In addition, the last character you chose will
be automatically hilighted when entering that screen. This value is
stored in the EQCLIENT.INI file as "LastCharSel=0-7"
- The ranger's "Trueshot" discipline has had its damage increased after
analyzing data from its fix last week. Prior to the last patch, all
bows, while under the discipline, were hitting as if they were 45dmg
bows regardless of the delay. Last week's patch fixed it so that damage
was based on the damage of the bow. This weeks patch increases damage
bonuses in relation to delay (longer delays yield better damage
bonuses).
- You can now reverse the left and right channels on your speakers
using the /reversesound command. This should be very useful for those
who have had to place their speakers backwards due to cable lengths.
- Made some improvements to Paw, Mistmoore, and The Hole, to address
some concerns brought forth by the players. Both zones had some
problems that would cause them to be exceedingly difficult in some
cases.
- The EverQuest Team
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January 24, 2001
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*QA Openings*
Our Quality Assurance department is looking for some AVID EQ gamers to
join us as testers at the San Diego branch. If you would like more
information please visit
www.verant.com or mail your resume to
resume@station.sony.com with "QA Openings" as the Subject.
Applicants should include their time playing EverQuest, and their
number of characters and their respective classes and levels as part of
their resume.
*Small Patch*
The EverQuest Team is currently hard at work evaluating, planning, and
documenting our project plans for the current year. As such, we did not
plan game updates during this period, forecasted to last a few weeks.
However, given today's server maintenance being performed by our
Operations Team, we were able to include a few small updates. These
include some minor polishing on the Plane of Mischief, as well as the
placement of the wizard's Velious teleport spells on merchants.
Very soon, we'll be back to our continual plans to enhance the game
world. We'll be sure to let you know what we have planned as we can.
- The EverQuest Team
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January 31, 2001 3:00 am
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*File Download*
The file just downloaded contains some new art for use in game in the
future.
- The EverQuest Team
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February 21, 2001 3:00 am
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*Patch Day*
Today's patch contains a wide variety of enhancements and changes. Due
to the number of changes being made, this list is primarily a summary.
Extended descriptions of the changes and the reasoning behind them can
be solicited on the EverQuest Message Boards.
*Spell and Skill Changes*
Druids, Shaman, and Clerics:
--- Superior Healing moved to level 51 for shamans and druids.
--- Casting difficulty of Superior Heal reduced (less fizzles)
--- New level 55 Druid and shaman spell, Chloroblast, similar to remedy
for clerics.
--- New Druid spell at level 60, upgrade to superior healing, Natures
Touch.
--- Created a new spell effect for Celestial Healing, Celestial Elixir,
and Torpor. This will allow them to stack with all other spells, save
spells of the same type (Heal over time). Prior to this, all heal-over-
time spells followed the same rules as regeneration spells.
--- Reduced the casting difficulty of Remedy.
--- Lowered recast time on Wake of Karana
Paladins:
--- Added Endure Magic spell at level 30
--- Added Resist Magic at 55
--- Moved Guard spell from 49 to 39
--- Moved Armor of Faith from 53 to 49
--- Added New level 53 paladin spell: Divine Glory
--- Added New level 59 spell: Celestial Cleansing
--- Defense skill cap made exactly same as warriors
--- Added Yaulp 4 at 60 and enhanced.
Shadowknights:
--- Removed artificially inflated mana cost for pre level 50 lifetap
spells. Please note that post-50 lifetap spells never had an inflated
mana cost.
--- Moved Spirit Tap to level 55
--- Moved Drain Spirit to level 57
--- Added Drain Soul at level 60
--- Grim Aura added at level 22 and enhanced
--- Moved Shieldskin to level 34
--- Pet buff added at 29
--- Added Diamondskin spell at 59
--- Defense skill cap made exactly same as warriors
--- Due to the recent improvements to "Harmtouch", it is doing much
more damage than it would before and unbalances PvP. As such it will
now do less damage in PvP (68% of PvE, down from 80%). In addition,
Shadowknights on the PvP servers were routinely killing themselves via
non-XP losing means and attacking other players with Harmtouch
immediately upon respawn. In order to address this situation, Harmtouch
is no longer automatically "recharged" by death on the PvP Servers.
--- The "Lifeleech" discipline now increases hit probability in
addition to its other effects.
Rangers:
--- Added Endure Cold at 22
--- Added Skin Like Nature at 59
--- Added FireFist at 22
--- Moved Bramblecoat from 49 to 39
--- Added Spikecoat at 49
--- Added resist cold at 55
--- Added Panic Animal at 22
--- Moved Jolt to 51
--- Moved Spirt of Wolf from 39 to 30
--- Added Cinder Jolt (fire-based Jolt spell) at 55.
--- Offense and weapons skill made identical to warriors
--- Added See Invisible at 39
Bards:
--- Added new level 20 Bard Song: Cassindra`s Chant of Clarity
--- Bards defensive skill made exactly the same as a warriors
--- Changed it so that the bard spell Denon's Desperate Dirge to
increase damge by 10pts per level over 45. Also made it so the spell
does 20% more damage using the Puretone discipline.
Magicians:
--- Added new level 59 spell: Valiant Companion
--- Added new level 39 spell: Summon Companion
--- Rain spells no longer count pets against total number of entities
they can damage (all rain spells)
--- Added level 29 spell for Mages: Expedience
Enchanters:
--- Lowered recast time on Visions of Grandeur
*Bug Fixes*
--- Aggressive and Defensive disciplines have been fixed. Before they
would only affect damage taken and not affect damage dealt out. Now
they affect both as designed.
--- Fixed the bug with going to the spellbook when the inventory window
was up in fullview mode. It should work now. Also, fixed a minor bug
where if you were in normal mode and tried to go to the spellbook from
inventory via /book or the keymapped key it would not go, and it would
make the done button not work properly for the inventory mode.
--- Fixed NPC melee ranges to be the same as for player characters. In
other words, if you can hit the NPC, he can hit you. This bug was a
problem with one dragon that could be hit, but could not hit back.
--- Fixed a bug that made it impossible to "Call of the Hero" someone
out of water or lava.
--- Fixed the proc on the Chilled Scythe. Owners of this item will need
to swap it out with a GM.
--- The Kromzek Surveyor Scope now fits in the "Ranged" slot rather
than the "Ammo" slot as before.
--- Fixed a bug that caused the two single-target bard snare songs to
break too soon in some cases.
--- Fixed a bug whereby NPCs would consider the race of a player prior
to the loading of the faction table upon zoning or logging in. This
would cause people to be attacked by things that normally like them.
--- Players should now be properly removed from the group regardless of
how they exit the game.
*Misc Changes*
--- Added text labels to the fullview inventory window "body" slots
(Available only to Velious Subscribers)
--- Added the ability to toggle those labels on and off. Use
/invwinlabels [on/off] (or no arguments to toggle). This is saved in
the eqclient.ini file in the [Defaults] section with the key
InvWinLabels=[TRUE/FALSE]
--- Increased the pre-50 bind-wounds cap for rogues and warriors.
--- Pickpocket now works to a max of 5 levels below you, or level
45...whichever is greater... You can pickpocket NPC up to level 55 if
you are level 60.
--- The mouse pointer will now move at a multiple of its normal speed
when you adjust the MousePointerSpeedMod setting in the eqclient.ini
file. You can set that multiple on-the-fly with the /mousespeed
command.
--- The "AutoHelp" feature that can be set under the options menu has
been enhanced. Spell casters in particular might want to turn it on and
try depressing the ALT key. It's perfect for refreshing your memory in
regards to your spell lineup.
--- If you are interrupted while trying to cast a spell that uses a
component, you will no longer use that component. Jewelers should be
very pleased with this change.
--- Reduced the casting difficulty (fizzle rate) of all spells over
level 56. Spells have always previously been set up so that it's
usually more efficient to use a spell from a previous circle than the
current one. The formula did not take into account the fact that
everyone stops at 60.
--- Changed it so that players will now lose experience when they die
in the Arena in Kael Drakkel. It seems that people were fighting giants
in that arena in order to avoid the death penalty.
--- Naked PC corpses that have experience and are above level 30 will
now last 3 hours instead of 3 minutes.
--- Avatar and Focus of Spirit should now stack
--- Raised the pre and post 50 bind wounds cap for paladins, clerics,
druids, and shaman.
*Item Changes*
--- The effect on the "Frost Giant Beard" can now be used at 35th level
rather than level 50.
--- The Wurmslayer will now fit in a bag.
--- Iksar can now use the Ashenbone Shield
--- Chandged Crystallized Shadow leggings to rentable
--- Changed Gorilla Hide Leggings to show up as leather, was cloth
before
--- Changed Envy from a piercing weapon to a shield so players could
Bash with it. Envy is a parrying dagger.
--- The Shralok Pack is now LORE. It was set to pending-lore some time
ago.
--- The Guardian and Sentry Armor bracers are no longer LORE.
--- Donal's Breastplate can now only be used on any individual target
once every 7.5 minutes. This addresses some of the balance issues that
became apparent given the existence of a mana-free complete heal.
*Trades and Crafts*
--- Fixed the Gator Roll baking recipe.
--- Repaired the notetext instructions for creating a Mixing Bowl with
pottery.
--- Repaired Holgresh Fur Cap and Holgresh Fur Moccasins tailoring
recipes.
--- Made it so that the file is returned in addition to the hammer when
a character fails to forge any of the various chain jointings.
--- Repaired Recipe for Enchanted Tier`Dal Adamantite Bracelet
--- Made it so that the Dwarven Smithy Hammer is returned on a failure
to forge Brellium Chain Jointing.
--- Repaired Field Plate Boots smithing recipe
--- Changed the name of the smithed Enchanted Cabilis Scale armor to
Imbued Cabilis Scale armor for naming convention reasons.
--- Repaired the recipe for converting 3 Enchanted Large Adamantite
Bricks into 1 Enchanted Block of Adamantite in the Tier`Dal Forge, it
was previously only possible in the Oggok Forge.
--- Made it so that the Bread Tin is returned upon a failure to bake
bread.
--- Mithril and Velium Bonings will be stackable.
--- Mithril Studs will be stackable.
*NPC AI - Hate*
We've made a number of changes to NPC AI, specifically to the section
dealing with target-selection, or what's commonly referred to as
"Hate". It is not so much that NPCs react differently to hate now than
before, but that we've changed the way that hate is awarded.
--- We reduced the amount of hate that can be caused by a proc. Due to
the high proc rates at upper levels, the amount of hate generated from
procs, and the spells that were selected for those procs, made keeping
the attention of the creature much too easy a task for the tank.
Simply, it nearly eliminated the challenge of keeping a foes attention
at levels above 50.
--- We've capped the amount of hate that can be awarded to most
casters, specifically for debuff-type spells like the Malo and Tash
series. The hate calculation for these spells takes into account the
number of hitpoints of the NPC and did not "play nice" with the
increased HP limit of Velious. It explains why Enchanters, for
instance, would complain that casting a Tash spell would lead to near-
instant death.
--- We've redressed the amount of hate generated by heal spells.
Previously, and *partly* due to a bug, the high level heal spells such
as superior heal or complete heal would generate no more hate than
greater heal. In fact, so little hate was generated by these spells
that it made controlling NPC aggression trivial. Heal spells will now
generate an amount of hate more in line with the number of hitpoints
actually healed. Due to our desire to leave the lower level game more
or less untouched, two separate caps have been placed for targets level
50 or below, and 51 or above. Heal spells will generate significantly
less hate for targets below level 51 than those at or above that level.
--- We've also re-evaluated ways that players have to reduce their own
hate. While spells in place to allow this are OK, the Evade skill
(possessed by rogues) let them out of their damage too easily. A rogue
that successfully evaded would immediately drop to a level of hate
lower than someone who was in the awareness range, but hadn't done
anything to really upset the creature such as damage it or heal its
foe. This problem was exacerbated by the increase of the size of the
hate list implemented with Velious.
*Tracking*
Tracking now works in full view for all classes that can use it, and
sports a nifty scroll bar that allows players to see everything on the
list. In addition, the /trackplayer setting is now saved to the
eqclient.ini file.
The following options have been put in for Rangers only:
--- /tracksort
--- /trackfilter
*/tracksort options beginning with R are reverse order
*Hybrid Casting*
Hybrids that cast spells in combat were taking double penalties at
higher levels. The casting times of their spells went up, and the
amount of melee damage they do per second went up. This results is
having to take longer to cast spells, and losing more damage/second for
each second taken in casting. To help offset this, Rangers, Paladins
and Shadowknights casting non-beneficial spells that have casting times
greater than or equal to 3 seconds, now get a 3 % reduction in casting
time for each level over 50. 3% at 51, 6% at 52, etc., to 30% at 60.
Again, this applies only to non-beneficial spells.
- The EverQuest Team
09-14-2015, 03:49 PM
Linear Mode
