Kunark Patch History

Kunark Era

Core Kunark Era

April 24, 2000 3:00 pm

Hello All,

Due to the unfortunate problems we have had with our order processing system, it doesn't look like every person that ordered Kunark will receive it in a timely fashion. We sincerely apologize for this unanticipated problem. We expect that roughly 90% of the people who ordered will be receiving their orders by today.

Because of the problems we have had we will be refunding anyone who ordered Ruins of Kunark on or before Wednesday April 19th and does not receive their orders by today for their shipping costs, as well as crediting their accounts for one month of gameplay. This applies to International orders as well.

We'll be taking care of these refunds via email at kunarkrefund@verant.com, and it will be necessary for anyone that wants to take advantage of this refund to send us your Station Name, billing name and address on the account and the date you placed the order. Please also include "Kunark Refund" in the subject line.

We are very sorry for the problems that have come up.

The EverQuest Team

April 27, 2000

Hello all,

I wasn't able to get this in the patch message this evening, but I'd hope you'd help spread it around. I'm also having new /MOTD's put on the servers to be sure that people get the word.

/movelog registered accounts from Veeshan and Bristlebane will be moving to Saryrn, Xegony and Bertox to The Seventh Hammer.

I'd like to remind everything that corpses will not follow the account, so everyone will want to make sure that there corpses are looted, or they will be lost. I'd also like to note that more people requested the move than we will be able to accommodate, and we appreciate everyone's understanding in this matter.

-Gordon

April 28, 2000

(This patch was not in Allakhazam. It came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000428.html)

Spells

• "Scale of Wolf" is now group-only. You must be grouped with the target in order to cast this spell upon them. This change was made due to the fact that Scale of Wolf overwrites Spirit of Wolf , which may be more desirable in some situations.
• The "Cannibalize II" spell has been enhanced.
• Corrected a bug with "Song of the Sirens" that caused an unintended level-cap to affect the spell. Bards should now be able to charm everything that they once could with this spell.

Binding in Timorous Deep

Due to a feature within the zone, players can no longer bind within Timorous Deep. This functionality was intended in the zone prior to launch, as binding presents a possible balance issue. Players who are already bound in this zone will retain their binding location until they bind someplace else.

Iksar Quests

A few items associated with the Iksar newbie warrior quests have been repaired. The EverQuest team would like to extend thanks to those who reported the problems.

Iksar Factions

As announced in the patch server message yesterday, this morning we corrected a bug in Iksar faction that allowed them to travel outside Kunark without fear of being attacked by most things. In the event that any young Iksar find themselves in a bind/death loop, please /quit, log in another character, and /petition for assistance.

Server Splits

The recently announced server splits will be completed roughly two hours after the other servers come up from this patch. Movelog registered accounts from Veeshan and Bristlebane will be moved to Saryrn, and Xegony and Bertox to The Seventh Hammer. As requests to move were very strong, we were not able to move everyone who requested. We appreciate everyone's understanding.

May 12, 2000

(NOTE: This patch was not in Allakhazam and came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000512.html)

Newbie Guards

As we are sure many people are aware, there are guards that exist specifically for the purpose of giving new characters a place to run in order to be saved from a certain death. However, as many people have mentioned, these guards are frequently either dead, or engaged by players choosing to hunt them. This makes things very frustrating for newer players, and with the large influx of new players due to the release of EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark, we decided that a change was warranted.

Though we do not have a problem with players choosing to hunt guards, the newbie guards themselves, specifically the ones at the gates of cities and in the vicinity of newbie zones, need to remain alive under most circumstances. To that end, we have buffed up these newbie-protecting guards, made them immune to magic, and given them some pretty good healing properties, in order to make them less attractive to people hunting them.

In addition, though we have left the guards inside cities as-is from the perspective of power, we've also found a problem with the respawn rate. Previously they were typically on a six-minute timer, making them spawn much faster than an equivalent NPC would in a dungeon. We have normalized the respawn time of guards inside cities to bring them in line with dungeon NPCs.

May 16, 2000 10:00 am

General Changes

• Sounds have been updated for NPCs in Kunark. Your Iksar should no longer sound like humans.
• Dark Elven worshipers of Solusek Ro and Bristlebane will no longer be natively KOS to the outpost in the Overthere. Take care that if you have taken actions allowing you to be judged sufficiently by your deeds, you may still find yourself KOS.
• Increased the number of frightfingers in the Plane of Fear. Previously only 3 frightfingers would pop per respawn.
• Several problems with the guards that were buffed up last week have been addressed. Some guards that should not have been buffed have been fixed. In addition, due to the level of the new guards, they all gained the ability to innately see-invisible. The level of those guards has been reduced so that they no longer automatically get this ability, making it a bit easier to sneak by them.
• Many quests have been updated and/or fixed, both in terms of ease of completion and reward.

Item Updates

• Corrected a typo that had the Canyoneer Pike marked as NO RENT, causing it to disappear on logout.
• Corrected the model for the Axe of the Iron Back . It was showing as a 2H sword when equipped.
• The Halcyon Broadsword was mistakenly marked as an artifact. This has been corrected.
• Corrected item icons for various pieces of Burynai Hide Armor . It was displaying improperly in the inventory slots.
• The Skull Mask of Innervation has been changed so that it must be worn to activate its effect.
• Corrected a problem with the Scourgetail Whip whereby the damage and delay figures were transposed yielding a 30 damage, 5 delay weapon.
• The "Illusion: Iksar " spell scroll is now droppable/tradeable.
• The Goblin Eye Poker now looks like a dagger instead of a small sack.
• Cone of the Mystics , which incidentally also looked like a small sack, now looks as intended.
• Corrected a typo that had the Goblin Skull Crusher 's effect set to the "Lull " spell, which is not appropriate for a melee weapon. The "Lull " effect has been replaced with an appropriate effect.
• The Pouch of Mistletoe Powder will now impart its effect on the targeted character.
• Mosquito Wings are available in game once again.
• Many items had incorrect usage restrictions, and have been repaired.

As always, we strive to avoid making negative changes to items that already exist in game. However, there are cases where a particularly unbalancing error has been made, such as with the Scourgetail Whip mentioned above, where the item in question must be fixed in interest of maintaining game balance.

We will continue to repair problems, add content, and enhance gameplay in both Kunark and EQ proper. We appreciate everyone's support.

Thank you,

The EverQuest Team

May 25, 2000 8:00 am

Patch Day

Greetings all! The following changes have been implemented on the Live servers:

Spells/Songs

• Voltaic Draught, a high level wizard direct damage spell was

improperly saving versus resistance to cold. It now appropriately saves versus magic.

• The higher level bard song by Brusco was improperly healing the

target instead of damaging it. This has been corrected.

Items

The Shadowknight class-specific quest armor, Darkforge armor, has had its weight decreased substantially.

The Runed Fighter's Staff, previously useable by Monks and Warriors, has been restricted to Monks only. The statistics on this staff are much more powerful than normally allowed for warriors. This change is retroactive and will be reflected on items currently in inventory. Though we strive to avoid negatively adjusting items after they have been earned, this item presented a balance issue, making the change necessary. We apologize to warriors that currently own this weapon.

A data error with the Symphonic Saber, causing it to report "Item out of charges", has been corrected. Due to the dynamics of this particular issue, current owners will need to contact a GM to trade this item out for a new, properly working version of the item.

The Burning Rapier (rogue weapon) has been enhanced. In addition to an increase in statistics, it received a stronger spell effect. The lightsource effect on the weapon has been removed due to an aesthetic rogue desire to be "sneaky" :)

The effect on the Hangman's Noose will now work properly.

General Changes

• Some NPCs in Dalnir were casting spells much too powerful for their level. They have been adjusted.
• Pathing information has been updated in Highkeep. NPCs and pets should have a much easier time of navigating the zone.
• Some Quest-NPCs were not spawning properly in Rathe Mountains. These issues have been corrected.
• A handful of problems reported with research practice via the Concordance of Research have been corrected. All practice-rune recipes should now work correctly.
• Gorilla's in Burning Wood now have a new texture set that properly reflects their undead status.
• Fishing should now work properly in Kunark zones.
• /yell now reports the proper direction to people hearing the yell.
• Corrected a bug that gave some races the impression that they were allowed to start their character in Cabalis. They were never actually allowed to create the character there, however the indication that they

could has been fixed.

• Corrected sound issues that were causing some crashes to the desktop in certain cases.

We are in the process of patching music files (*.XMI) for zones in which music does not currently work. There are 55 small files (around 2K each) that will be patched over the next couple of days to enable music in all of the affected zones.

The zone of Timorous Deep has been tuned and itemized. Certain aspects of the changes have made certain areas of the zone more dangerous, but the reward should be well worth the risk. Feel free to visit this zone and search out its treasures at your leisure. Note: These changes went in on Monday.

Upon investigation, we discovered a deficiency with the amount of experience being rewarded in many Kunark zones (mostly dungeons). The affected zones have been updated, and adventurers should notice the greater experience reward in return for the increased risk and challenge associated with these zones.

• The EverQuest Team

June 6, 2000 8:00 am

• Patch Day*

Greetings! The live servers have been updated to reflect the newest data on the Test Server:

• General*

• Some new spells are available for the hybrid classes. Check your

Kunark spell vendors.

• Found and corrected a problem causing people to fall to their deaths

upon zoning. The majority of these issues should no longer occur.

• Corrected outstanding issues with several quests, including the Brain

Bite, Shackle of Rock, and the Barnal Flamehands quest.

• Increased treasure in many Kunark zones including The Emerald Jungle,

Sebilis, and the Frontier Mountains.

• Upon review we've increased the drop-rate of level 51+ spells in

Kunark. They should be more plentiful now.

• Updated pathing information in many zones, making it easier for pets

and other NPCs to get around the zones.

• Items*

• A problem with the spell effect for the Luminary Two-Handed Sword.

Current owners of this weapon will need to contact a GM to trade their sword out for a working one.

• The Gunthak Harpoon is now rentable. It will remain in your

possession when you leave the game.

• A couple pieces of Blood Ember armor have been reduced in weight.
• Reduced the weight on several Monk weapons found in Kunark.

• PvP Teams Servers (VZ/TZ) and Illusions*

Due to an outstanding bug that allowed a player to permanently mesmerize or stun opposing team members when coupled with an illusion, illusions will now automatically cancel when the person wearing the illusion casts an offensive spell upon any player-character. Players should keep this in mind before attacking with spells in an area where their faction standing is less than desirable.

Illusions are defined as any spell that makes a character look different than they actually are. This includes all racial illusions, as well as other illusions such as Treeform, Wolfform, and the Call of Bones series.

• Risk and Reward*

The concept of risk and reward is very important to the game of EverQuest. Ideally, situations that provide a greater reward should also provide substantial risk. Over the past several weeks, we've been identifying areas in game where risk and reward are at a disparity, and making necessary adjustments.

In most cases, those adjustments are in favor of increasing the reward for a specific action. For example, we recently increased the experience awarded in many Kunark zones to offset the sometimes- considerable risk associated with adventuring there. We also do this quite frequently by increasing the reward associated with a quest by enhancing the item, as we did last week with the Burning Rapier quest.

However, in some cases there are instances where reward is far in excess of the risk involved, and we will be correcting these issues like those above as we come across them. For example, there are many cases where a solitary and stationary outdoor creature has a "fast spawn", yielding the reward of fast experience-gain without the commensurate risk.

Though it is not our policy to announce changes to individual NPCs, we did want to let you know that you will see risk/reward disparities corrected over the next several weeks.

• PvP Teams (VZ/TZ) Character Transfers*

As many people playing upon the PvP-Teams servers are aware, Vallon Zek and Tallon Zek have different rules regarding looting rights from PvP combat. Vallon Zek allows the victor to loot all coin plus one item from the fallen, whereas Tallon Zek allows only coin-loot with no right to loot items.

Due to the fact that the looting rules were changed on Tallon Zek post- production, we've decided to allow characters on both servers a one- time character-move. Registration for the move will open at 6:00pm PDT on Friday, June 9th, 2000, on both servers, and will be open through 12:00pm PDT on Monday, June 12th, 2000. You can register for the move by executing the "/movelog yes" command during the registration window. There is no limit to the number of people that we will allow to move between Tallon and Vallon Zek, so there is no reason to rush to enter the command.

Please remember that once you register for the move, your decision can not be rescinded. The actual character-move will take place sometime next week, at a time to be announced later. Please keep in mind that corpses are not moved in a character-move, so we'd recommend against leaving unclaimed corpses around after Monday of next week if you've asked to be moved.

Questions about the move process will be addressed in the Gameplay Message Forum available via www.everquest.com.

• The EverQuest Team

Updates Not Included in This Patch Message:

• Banshee Aura has had its duration increased.
• Scale of Wolf and Spirit of Scale will no longer be canceled by being

the target of a melee attack. Ranged attacks and spells will still cancel the spell.

• Shaman can now cast Charm Animals
• Some enchanter and shaman spells have had their casting times/mana

costs altered.

• Augment , Glamour of Kintaz , Rapture , and Clarity II have had their

mana cost lowered.

• Root spells that cause damage (Druid roots, Hungry Earth ) now work

properly.

June 15, 2000 8:00 am

Patch Day

Hello everyone,

Over the past few weeks, a portion of the EQ team has been working on The Hole, in preparation of its release in the near future. Even so, a number of changes and additions were made in today's patch. Most of the changes are in regards to quests:

• The "Fleshy Orb" quest has been completed
• We've received word that "Fabian" has been spotted somewhere on Norrath.
• Froglok Forager s and Hunters should been seen more regularly.
• Lord Grimrot should be seen more frequently.
• Skill in tailoring is no longer required to craft The Robe of the Lost Circle .

A few items have also been changed this week:

• The Robe of the Lost Circle has been enhanced.
• The Staff of Temperate Flux and the Rod of Insidious Glamour now have a short casting time associated with their activatable effect (See Below).
• The Gunthak Harpoon is again NORENT, meaning that it will disappear when you log off (See Below.)

Casting Times on Staff and Rod

We received word a few weeks ago that some people were using these items to "spam" other players with their spell-effect messages, causing them to disconnect. Though /ignore will allow you to filter out text messages caused by people on your /ignore list, it will not allow you to filter out spell-effect messages for spells cast upon you.

The short casting time should prevent the problems associated with the targetable and activatable effect on these weapons, however you will have to stand still to use them now.

Gunthak Harpoon

In the last item patch, we made the mistake of making this weapon "rentable", meaning that it does not disappear upon logoff. Basically, one of our game designers heard that the weapon was NORENT, concluded that it must be a bug, and took the initiative to fix it. Unfortunately, the stats on this weapon, despite its disadvantages of weight and its non-magical composition, make it much too powerful for its location and difficulty in obtaining it.

For these reasons, the weapon is once again NORENT, and will disappear the next time that you log out. This is a retroactive change and will affect weapons already in possession. We do apologize to those who acquired it within the last week expecting that it would be a permanent weapon.

Chat / Login Process

The Chat and Login server components are now completely separate, meaning that players will no longer have difficulty logging in due to an excess of people in the chat server.

- The EverQuest Team

The Hole Era

June 22, 2000 9:00 am

The Hole

We are pleased to announce the opening of The Hole, a high-level dungeon on the continent of Odus. The Hole is a complementary addition to EverQuest, available to all subscribers regardless of their Kunark status. The files necessary to enter The Hole are available via the "Optional Patch" button at the bottom of the patch program interface. The files are quite large (about 9MB total), so if the download is going slowly, you may want to postpone downloading the files until later.

As mentioned above, The Hole is a high-level dungeon, designed to support characters starting at about level 40. It should be regarded as extremely dangerous. As a note, jumping in The Hole from Paineel is NO LONGER A SHORTCUT TO TOXXULIA FOREST. The GMs will not recover corpses for people who fall, or jump, or attempt to levitate into The Hole.

Vallon Zek is now Coin-Only

As we announced earlier this week, due to the number of people specifying interest in "coin-only" loot on Vallon Zek, versus those wishing to retain item- loot, we have implemented "coin-only" looting rules for PvP combat on Vallon Zek.

Resurrection

Previously, players had to be resurrected within two hours after death in order to receive any experience back as part of the resurrection. Due to the increased size and difficulty associated with Kunark zones, we've raised this limit from two hours to three. This should assist players and make it easier for them to obtain an experience-returning resurrection within the time limit.

Warping

We put in some code that should help decrease the "ghosting" (NPCs appearing to be some place they aren't) being reported in some of the larger Kunark zones. Please let us know how this goes.

Locked Doors

We noticed few weeks ago that it is common practice to use NPCs to open locked doors rather than by using the services of someone that is able to pick locks. In order to protect and increase the value of the abilities of the lock-picking classes, NPCs have gained the ability to walk through locked doors without opening them.

Vox and Nagafen

Over the past couple of weeks, we've received more and more reports of these dragons being bested by smaller and smaller groups of higher- level (high 50s) adventurers. As we've always felt that Dragons should be special encounters that require a large number of people, we were left with some choices.

One choice available to us was to increase the power of the dragons to a level where the level 60 folks would find them challenging. This would have the disadvantage of forever placing them out-of-reach for those who did not buy Kunark, and place them further out-of-reach for those who did, but are just now approaching the levels where they could go on Dragon raids. Another possible solution was to make the dragons flee (depop) when engaged by a more powerful group of people. This would have the undesired effect of allowing some people to deny others the experience of fighting a dragon.

Instead of raising the bar as mentioned above, we've instead decided that dragons, or at least these two dragons, should have the magical ability to pick their own fights. Players of level 53 or above will now encounter some difficulty when attempting to assist in combat with these dragons. This should help 40s and low 50-level characters with their chances to encounter a dragon without worry of getting forced out by much higher level players. In addition, it also has the added effect of creating a natural progression from the younger dragons of Antonica to the elder and more formidable dragons of Kunark.

-The EverQuest Team

June 29, 2000 7:00 am

Patch Day

Though today's patch is primarily comprised of fixes to various bugs that have been reported by the players, we're also pleased to announce a few enhancements:

• Ranger spell "Jolt" now has a lesser casting time.
• Many new recipes for the "Make Poison" skill are now in game.

Features include: Several new poison books, stackable components, new suspensions, some purchasable components, and players now have the ability to purchase vials. Please check your vendors.

• Increased spell-drop percentages in three difficult Kunark zones

where drops were less than should be expected.

• Corrected an error in the drop rate for a couple cleric spells making

them unavailable.

Quest Fixes

• Fixed the "Minotaur Horns" Quest
• Fixed a misspelling in the guild-note for Erudite clerics worshipping Cazic-Thule .
• Fixed a misspelled keyword in the Trueshot Longbow Quest.
• The guild note for gnome clerics now states the appropriate gender for the guildmaster.
• Fixed the "illegible cantrip" Quest.
• Fixed the "Hunt for Meat" Quest.
• Removed Jinkus Felligan's doppelganger from Halas.
• Fixed the "Travis Two Tone " quest.
• Fixed the "Aglthin Dasmore " quest.
• Fixed the "Gather Components " quest.
• Fixed the "Lion Meat " quest.
• The Fleshy Orb quest and "Fabian " should really be fixed now. These were not correct after the last patch due to a data export issue.

Item Fixes

• Fixed spelling of "Basilisk Egg"
• The Brass Ring is now worn on the finger, instead of the waist.
• Fixed the "Broken Minotaur Lord's Horn"
• Fixed race/class restrictions listed for the "Bullsmasher". Item listed some inappropriate classes.
• Fixed race/class restrictions listed for "Patchwork Armor". Items listed some inappropriate classes.
• Fixed the model for the "Cast Iron Rapier".
• Fixed Race/class restrictions for the "Crushbone Belt". Item listed some inappropriate classes.
• Fixed the mundane "Electrum Peridot Bracelet" so that it would equip in the proper slot.
• The "Bloody Mantle" may now be equipped.
• Fixed the effect on the "Canyoneer Pike". Current owners of this item will need to trade it out with a GM in game.
• Fixed the "Howling Harpoon". Item was previously casting its spell upon the wielder, rather than the target. The fix will be automatically applied to existing items.
• Fixed the icon for the Degenerated Guk Weed.
• Fixed the icon for the Enshrouded Veil.
• The Splitpaw Hide Tunic will now look like "Leather" when equipped.
• "The Crusade of 1312AG" and "The Forbidden Tome" will now remain with the character after logout.
• Fixed race/class restrictions listed for the "Mortificator Staff". Item listed an inappropriate class.
• Fixed the icon for the Spectral Bow. In addition, removed "BRD" from the class listing since Bards do not have the Archery Skill.
• Removed excess classes listed on the "Silk Lined Steel Helm".
• Fixed the effect on the "Theurgist Mace". Current owners of this item will need to trade it out with a GM in game.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed bug that caused NPCs to say "cant open politethnks.txt"
• Fixed bug that caused NPCs to say "Can not open file NERDRGATT.txt"
• Fixed "cannot open file guards.txt" bug with Butcherblock dwarves
• Fixed "Cannot open item2monster.txt" problem with goblin whelps in Butcherblock .
• Lizardman mystic s no longer think that the Feerrott belongs to the Sabretooth Gnolls.
• Fixed a ghost in Field of Bone who was inappropriately labeled as living, causing "undead only" spells to fail.
• Improved pathing in Sebilis .
• Improved pathing in West Freeport .
• Fixed the color of several spell-gems.
• Fixed recipe for a "Block of Clay " in the Basic Pottery book.
• Stone Skeletons in Lake Rathe can now be affected by "undead only" spells.
• Fixed several merchants who did not have wares to sell.
• Fixed several dozen spelling and grammar errors in NPC text and the spell database.
• "Folded Sheet Metal " may now be crafted via blacksmithing .
• The "Unfired Urn ", "Onyx Encrusted Urn ", and "Small Bowl " may now be crafted via Pottery .

- The EverQuest Team

July 19, 2000

(NOTE: This patch was missing from Allakhazam and came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000719.html)

Miscellaneous Changes/Fixes

• The "Safe Points" have been moved in Field of Bone and Lake of Ill Omen to someplace "safer".
• You can no longer cast invisibility on any pet.
• Foul language issued through /emote will now be handled by the profanity filter.
• Corrected a bug that allowed linkdead players to walk through locked doors.
• Rangers above level 50 will now do double damage with Archery against non-moving, non-rooted targets. These restrictions allowed us to enhance archery without creating a new kiting problem.
• Corrected a bug that had rangers doing less melee damage than was intended except when fighting an NPC who was also a ranger.
• Pets, both PC and NPC, will no longer cast "Gate".
• A large rat says, "Hit by non-melee for XXX damage", is history. The new message given probably isn't the source of never-ending humor that the old one was.
• Updated pathing information in Innothule Swamp.
• Corrected many, many, MANY spelling and grammar errors in the world.
• Fixed a large number of spell gems and spellbook icons. Take care to take a look at your spell lineup to familiarize yourself with the new gems/icons.

Poison

• Implemented the high level Rogue poisons (level 51+).
• Increased Rogue "Make Poison" skill cap.
• Substantially reduced chance to fail "Apply Poison".
• Rogues will now automatically sit when right-clicking on a poison.
• Failure to make a poison will now return the vial.

General Crafts

• The Ant's Potion may now be used anywhere.
• The small and large reinforced wristband may now be crafted.
• The small and medium studded shoulderpads, cloak, and belt may now be crafted.
• The medium reinforced mask may now be crafted.
• Sealed Poison Vials can now be crafted.
• The Thermal Cloak may now be tinkered.
• The "This item is trivial..." message in craft skills has been replaced with "You can no longer advance in skill from making this item.

Items

• The Elven Paladin Newbie Tunic may now be worn by Half Elf paladins.
• The Murky Vial will now properly affect the target instead of the player.
• Increased stats on many Plane of Sky items.
• There was evidently more than one "Fine Steel Dagger" running around in the world. Some of them have been renamed "Serpent's Tooth".
• The effect on the Staff of Undead Legions has been changed to something a bit more useful.
• The Deepwater Helm now has a significant casting time. The function of its spell allowed a mana-free heal even though it was intended to be a buff.

/consent

Some people were spamming others with /consent, causing them to disconnect. As a result, /consent can now only be done once every two seconds. Should you be harassed via this tool, please use /report. Also, please take care to avoid accidentally /consenting someone, as it will be two seconds before you can undo it.

Cazic-Thule and the Feerrott

There has been a significant change to the factions in the Feerrott and Cazic-Thule. Take care not to get killed by NPCs that previously left you alone. The significant upside to this change is that the "Cazic Gate/Portal" can be made much safer in nature for those who work on their faction.

Regen Effects

This week we corrected a bug that caused regen-type spells (e.g. Regeneration, Chloroplast, Regrowth, etc.) to overwrite DOT spells. As a result of this fix, players can no longer accept a regeneration spell while under the effect of a DOT. However, if the regen spell is already in place, the DOT will stack, but not replace the regen spell. This will allow users of beneficial DOTs, such as Call of Bones, to continue using their DOT while under the affect of regen.

Keyed Dungeons

The key for Charasis (Howling Stones) is now NODROP per the patch message from a couple of weeks ago. Furthermore, when your character dies, keys for Charasis, Sebilis, and Veeshan's Peak, will no longer remain with your corpse, but will instead return with your character to its bind point. We made this change to reduce the difficulty and corpse-loss potential of these zones, and eliminate the need to do the key quests multiple times.

Barbed Scale Whip

In the last item patch, this item was changed from its original stats to something inferior, as the game designer was not aware that it was already in-game. It has been changed back to its original stats.

Hiding Corpses

A new command has been implemented in the EverQuest client. This command (/hidecorpses) allows players to suppress the display of player and NPC corpses on the screen. This can be very useful once you've entered a zone with a large number of corpses, causing framerate to decay. It will be particularly useful in the planes. The command supports the following arguments:

• ALL: Hides all corpses except yours.
• ALLBUTGROUP: Hides all corpses except yours and those of people in your group.
• NONE: No longer hides corpses.

For community reasons, this option must be set after entering each zone, and will not affect corpses made after you enter the zone. You can reset it while in the zone in order to suppress display of corpses made since you originally set it.

Resurrection

The resurrection confirmation box will now report the name of the person casting the spell as well as what spell they are casting. Furthermore, experience will not be "removed" from your corpse until you accept the resurrection by choosing YES. Previously, any resurrection spell, if declined, would cause the experience to be unrecoverable.

July 20, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000720.html)

Emergency Patch

Due to the problems encountered in yesterday's patch, some additional data has been moved to the live servers today. As part of this patch, three new changes are included:

• /Consent no longer gives other players permission to loot your corpse. Instead, it only gives them the ability to drag your corpse using the /corpse command. This change is due to player request stemming from number of customer service issues raised by some players who were using /consent as a way to steal the belongings of other players. The change will eliminate those concerns and make the game more enjoyable for all of those involved.
• Yesterday's patch changed the way spell-damage messages are reported to the caster. The new text was dark blue, making it hard to distinguish from the background when in HUD mode. The text color has been changed to "yellow" due to player request.
• Duel messages will no longer be broadcast to the world unless the winner of the duel is over 10th level. This should greatly reduce the number of duels with inappropriate names that have been occurring in the game.

We would like to apologize to everyone for the problems stemming from yesterday's patch, and let you know that we have taken steps to greatly reduce the possibility that something of that nature could happen in the future.

July 26, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000726.html)

Chat and Login

Today's patch contains some new features for the EverQuest chat and login servers. In addition, it enables support for some international keyboard layouts.

• Tab again switches between fields in login and registration.
• #time will display a time/date stamp.
• #reply will send a private message to the last person to message you.
• Tab will cycle through the last few people to send you a private message.

Rooms may now be closed by staff members. These rooms are in gray, and no one will be able to enter them until a staff member opens them. Attempting to enter a closed room will display a message.

• EverQuest, including Chat and Login, now supports some international keyboard layouts. Information can be found at http://everquest.station.sony.com/support/general/keyboard_layout.jsp.

August 1, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000801.html)

Today's patch contains some changes that we are sure everyone will enjoy

• Canned emotes (e.g. /point) now work on NPCs. In addition, the range for canned emotes has been increased.
• /who all 'guildname' should now work for players who have /roleplay turned on.
• Preferences for the mouselook will be saved in your options file. Those who turn mouselook off each time when starting EQ will only have to do it once more.
• The 'Chat Filter' tab in 'Options' now has an option to filter messages caused by damage shields hitting others.

Fast Drop

Our most exciting change today is an option that allows players to avoid accidentally dropping items on the ground. The new client allows players to set 'Item Dropping' preferences on the 'General' options tab. The three options that can be set are:

• FAST DROP: Items are dropped without confirmation.
• CONFIRM: A confirmation box will be displayed whenever you try to drop an item.
• NEVER: You are not allowed to drop items on the ground.

Alternatively, you can also set these options using the /fastdrop command. The arguments are:

• ON: Same as option 'Fast Drop' on the General Tab.
• OFF: Same as option 'Confirm' on the General Tab.
• NEVER: Same as above.

Please note that whatever your setting, coin will always be dropped without confirmation. Additionally, the FastDrop option only applies to items being dropped upon the ground. Handing items to NPCs will still work regardless of your FastDrop setting.

It is highly recommended that you use option 'CONFIRM', as GMs will not reimburse any items that are accidentally dropped.

August 9, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000809.html)

Character Purge

Time has come to do some cleanup on character data across the servers. On August 23rd (Pacific), we will be doing a system-wide cleanup of level 1 characters. All level 1 characters that have that have not been played within 30 days from the date of the purge will be deleted. As GMs will not be able to restore any characters that are deleted, please be certain to log in any level 1 characters that you wish to keep prior to the purge.

Guide Application

The Guide Application is now back up at http://guideapp.everquest.com. If you are over 18 years of age, have a good customer-oriented attitude, enjoy helping your fellow player, and are interested in joining the Guide Program, we will be pleased to review your application.

Kunark Users

A new file, emeraldjungle_chr.s3d, is included as part of todays patch. This patch adds additional displayable NPCs to the Emerald Jungle. Please run the "Kunark Patch" by pressing the "Kunark Patch" button on the bottom of the patch program UI prior to entering EverQuest.

General Enhancements

Text messages that wrap will be indented on subsequent lines. This means that if a person or NPC says something that is more than one line long, all subsequent lines will be indented a few spaces. This should make it a lot easier to pick out separate messages. The spells "United Resolve" and "Heroic Bond" had their levels transposed accidentally. Rather than putting them back as intended, United Resolve has been changed to Heroic Bond, which means you might have two copies of that spell in your spellbook. Feel free to move one to the back. Clerics get a new group spell at 58 to compensate. The Wurmslayer is now a one-handed slashing weapon. The /help command will now list all /-commands available to you. Rangers, Paladins, and SKs now have mana equivalent to that of a pure caster with the same stats. This will give those hybrids a good deal more mana, regardless of their stats. NORENT items, items that disappear when you log out, will now show a "NORENT" tag when inspecting the item. Most summoned items now have the word "summoned" in their name.

Changes/Fixes

Small Studded Tunic recipe now works. Scaler recipe now works. High Elves can now use the Moss Covered Twig and Branch. Iksar can now wear the Crescent headband. The Shintl Lowbrew quest will now work. The Rusty Rapier now looks like a rapier. Elven Wine can now be brewed. Some pelt-dropping animals were always dropping ruined pelts, rather than pelts of quality. This has been repaired. The Guild-invite toggle in display options will now work. The faction problems with the Charasis Key Quest have been resolved. Many pathing errors have been repaired. Repaired a bug that caused some anomalies after being charmed or feared. Repaired a bug that kept the Unswerving Hammer of Faith and Flaming Sword of Xuzl from disappearing.

Dragons

Rumor has it that some new dragons have been spotted in Kunark. It should be noted however that the dragons can be engaged from much further away than is intended. Rather than hold off implementing these dragons for another week, we've decided to implement them now and fix the problem in the next patch. Enjoy :)

New Command For Tracking

New option for those with tracking: /trackplayers. The command will work for all players with the tracking skill. The command has two settings:

ON: Default setting, same as it is now. Players will show up in the tracking window. OFF: Players will not show up in the tracking window.

Client Customizations

Upon starting EverQuest, a new file (EQCLIENT.INI) will be created in your EverQuest directory. This file contains customizable settings for:

Colors for text messages in the in-game chat window Default screen viewing mode Default travel speed (run or walk) The documentation will be included in the online manual in your EverQuest directory once the design is finalized over the next several weeks, but the working document is posted below. We felt that people would rather have access to the customizations right away while we're in the process of building them. Modifying this file is optional.

EQCLIENT.INI Documentation

The [TextColors] section contains entries for various text colors in the client. All colors are to be set with Red, Green, and Blue values, in decimal. Valid settings for each color range between 0 and 255. "Black" (0 red, 0 green, and 0 blue) will be white in overlay mode, and black in normal mode.

Here is a list of user colors to use as a guide when editing the file:

1 - Say
2 - Tell
3 - Group
4 - Guild
5 - OOC
6 - Auction
7 - Shout
8 - Emote
9 - Spells (meming, scribing, casting, etc.)
10 - You hit other
11 - Other hits you
12 - You miss other
13 - Other misses you
14 - Some broadcasts (duels)
15 - Skills (ups, non-combat use, etc.)
18 - Default text and stuff you type
20 - Merchant Offer Price
21 - Merchant Buy/Sell
22 - Your death message
23 - Others death message
24 - Other damage other
25 - Other miss other
26 - /who command

The [Defaults] section contains some default setting for the client. Here is a list of valid settings:

RunMode - TRUE for run, FALSE for walk.
ScreenMode - NORMAL for the default window view, FULL for the full view with overlays.

August 17, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000817a.html)

This patch contains eqmain.dll, which is used by the EverQuest login/chat frontend. The following changes have been implemented:

1. help now accepts arguments. #help #command will return help for the requested command.

Errors issued within the chat/login server frontend now display an "Error Number". Please have this error number ready when requesting technical assistance.

August 17, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000817b.html)

Some additional changes were included in today's patch that were not listed in the patch message earlier today. This patch message is a replacement for the one posted earlier:

Miscellaneous Changes

• /trackplayers now supports a "GROUP" option, allowing trackers to exclude all player characters, except ones in their current group.
• The EQCLIENT.INI has some new features, including one allowing logging (/log) to be on by default. Updated documentation for the EQCLIENT.INI file is at the end of this patch message.
• Activatable items, such as Journeyman's Boots, can now be activated by the corresponding number-key if placed in a hotbox.

Items that are "out of charges" now display "Charges: None" when inspecting the item.

• Attack-speed buffs and debuffs will now stack correctly. In other words, lower level spells will no longer overwrite higher level spells of the same type.
• The "U" key (short for "use") has had its functionality enhanced. It now does the equivalent of a single left-click and single right-click at the center of the screen. In addition to opening doors, it will now consider and inspect PCs, consider NPCs, and use bankers, merchants, and guildmasters.
• Fixed the way that spell-effect icons are displayed on the UI. Previously, after adding several "buffs" to a character, one of the icons would be placed down in the chat window.

Chat/Login Server

This patch contains eqmain.dll, which is used by the EverQuest login/chat frontend. The following changes have been implemented:

1. help now accepts arguments. #help #command will return help for the requested command.

Errors issued within the chat/login server frontend now display an "Error Number". Please have this error number ready when requesting technical assistance.

Looking for Group Flag

Players can now indicate that they are "looking for a group" by typing /LFG. This command will flag your character in both zone-specific /who lists, and the server-wide "/who all" list with "LFG". The LFG flag will remain active until you either enter a group or log out. Players can search for other players who are LFG by using filters in the /who command. For instance, to find rangers between level 40 and 50 who are looking for a group across the server, type "/who all ranger 40 50 lfg".

It is our hope that this flag will make it easier for players to seek out group members, allowing for more adventuring with less preparation time.

Updated EQCLIENT.INI Documentation

If the file does not exist it will be generated by eqgame.exe with default values. If an entry in the file is missing it will be added by eqgame.exe with default values.

The [TextColors] section contains entries for various text colors in the client. All colors are to be set with Red, Green, and Blue values, in decimal. Valid settings for each color range between 0 and 255. "Black" (0 red, 0 green, and 0 blue) will be white in overlay mode, and black in normal mode.

Here is a list of user colors to use as a guide when editing the file:

1 - Say
2 - Tell
3 - Group
4 - Guild
5 - OOC
6 - Auction
7 - Shout
8 - Emote
9 - Spells (meming, scribing, casting, etc.)
10 - You hit other
11 - Other hits you
12 - You miss other
13 - Other misses you
14 - Some broadcasts (duels)
15 - Skills (ups, non-combat use, etc.)
16 - Disciplines or special abilities
17 - Unused at this time
18 - Default text and stuff you type
19 - Unused at this time
20 - Merchant Offer Price
21 - Merchant Buy/Sell
22 - Your death message
23 - Others death message
24 - Other damage other
25 - Other miss other
26 - /who command
27 - yell for help
28 - Hit for non-melee
29 - Spell worn off
30 - Money splits
31 - Loot message
32 - Unused at this time

The [Defaults] section contains some default setting for the client. Here is a list of valid settings:

RunMode - TRUE for run, FALSE for walk.
ScreenMode - NORMAL for the default window view, FULL for the full view with overlays.
Log - TRUE for logging on, FALSE for logging off.

AUGUST 23, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000823.html)

Level 1 Character Purge

We've decided to postpone the previously announced purging of level 1 characters that had not been played in the past 30 days. Should we reschedule this process in the future, we will again give fair warning prior to implementing the purge.

Today's Changes

Today's patch consists mostly of content changes within EverQuest, such as new quests, corrections to existing NPC texts, and adjustments to spawn times associated with quest NPCs and other NPCs in general.

/help will now display emotes, guild commands, and normal commands separately.

/sit will cause your character to sit. "/sit off" will cause your character to stand.

"/cast #" (where # is 1 to 8) will cast the spell memorized in the corresponding slot.

"/book #" (where # is the even displayed page number divided by 2) will take you to the corresponding page of your spell book. For instance, to flip to page 27/28, type "/book 14".

"/doability #" (where # is 1 to 10) will fire the specified ability. Abilities 1-6 are those that are set on the "Abilities" page; Numbers 7-10 represent those that are set on the "Combat Skills" page.

/whotarget can be typed to do a /who on the targeted PC.

"/language #" (where # is a number corresponding to the desired language) selects the chat language to use in general communication.

"/language help" displays a list of available languages and their corresponding number. "/language" alone displays the current language.

/meditate causes you to sit down, open your spellbook, and begin meditation.

In "HUD" mode, the Chat Box will now take advantage of higher resolutions to display more text before wrapping down to the next line.

Fixed a bug that allowed users to /quit out of the game immediately without penalty. Normal operation is supposed to cause /quit to leave the character in-game and linkdead for a period of time to discourage this action.

Again changed the functionality of the "U" ("use") key. It will no longer inspect players or loot corpses. All other changes implemented in the last patch stand.

Added new customizable color options to the EQCLIENT.INI. The working documentation for this is below.

Corrected a bug that caused items that ran out of charges to "disappear" when the last charge was used. The item never really disappeared, and would reappear after re-logging. It no longer appears to disappear.

Updated EQCLIENT.INI Documentation

If the file does not exist it will be generated by eqgame.exe with default values. If an entry in the file is missing it will be added by eqgame.exe with default values.

The [TextColors] section contains entries for various text colors in the client. All colors are to be set with Red, Green, and Blue values, in decimal. Valid settings for each color range between 0 and 255. "Black" (0 red, 0 green, and 0 blue) will be white in overlay mode, and black in normal mode.

Here is a list of user colors to use as a guide when editing the file:

1 - Say
2 - Tell
3 - Group
4 - Guild
5 - OOC
6 - Auction
7 - Shout
8 - Emote
9 - Spells (meming, scribing, casting, etc.)
10 - You hit other
11 - Other hits you
12 - You miss other
13 - Other misses you
14 - Some broadcasts (duels)
15 - Skills (ups, non-combat use, etc.)
16 - Disciplines or special abilities
17 - Unused at this time
18 - Default text and stuff you type
19 - Unused at this time
20 - Merchant Offer Price
21 - Merchant Buy/Sell
22 - Your death message
23 - Others death message
24 - Other damage other
25 - Other miss other
26 - /who command
27 - yell for help
28 - Hit for non-melee
29 - Spell worn off
30 - Money splits
31 - Loot message
32 - Dice Roll (/random)
33 - Others spells
34 - Spell Failures (resists, fizzles, missing component, bad target, etc.)

The [Defaults] section contains some default setting for the client. Here is a list of valid settings:

RunMode - TRUE for run, FALSE for walk.
ScreenMode - NORMAL for the default window view, FULL for the full view with overlays.
Log - TRUE for logging on, FALSE for logging off.

VOICE SUPPORT, AUGUST 24, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000824.html)

Voice Recognition Support

We are pleased to announce that EverQuest now supports standardized voice recognition technology. If you have a standardized voice recognition package (such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking) on your system, you can refer to the EQROKManualSupplement.doc (or .txt) file in your EverQuest directory for information about using the new features.

Voice Recognition

EverQuest now supports standardized voice recognition packages, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking(r).

Activating Voice Recognition

You must already have a voice recognition engine, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking, installed on your system, and have the default user (this was "Unknown" for me) trained, etc. You do NOT have to run the engine yourself, the game will do that for you.

Once in EQ, bring up the chat bar (hit enter) and type in "/voice". Make sure it gives you the message, "Voice Recognition will be *ON* the next time you run the game..." If it does, then quit all the way out of EverQuest like the message instructs you to do and re run it.

After you have done this, you should get a message in the chat box when you get back in letting you know that Voice Recognition is Enabled. You must turn the Microphone on though. Typing in the /microphone command (/mic also works, perhaps even /mi) will toggle the microphone on/off. Voice commands and dictation are ignored when the Mic is off, and the game starts up with the microphone off.

Other related typed commands:

/vrdelay - Allows the user to set how long EQ will Sleep in the main rendering loop in order to improve voice recognition response. The higher the delay, the lower framerate will be, so it is recommended that the user start with "/vrdelay 1" and go up by one each time until they are happy with the voice recognition response time. Use the lowest number that provides adequate response time.

August 30, 2000

(NOTE: Allakhazam did not have this patch, it came from http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000830.html)

Today we modified the EverQuest client to implement the following changes

• Corrected a bug that would cause players to crash if they entered the game, exited to the server selection screen, and tried to reenter the game.
• Corrected a bug that caused delays when switching between UI modes due to the text wrapping change implemented last week.
• The /book command (/book #) now accepts pages 1 through 50, and will switch to the proper page.
• Opening your spellbook will automatically cause you to begin meditating providing that you have the skill.
• Removed the /meditate command since it is no longer necessary.
• You can now activate a hotkey while the spellbook is open by pressing the corresponding number-key.
• The "/target [name]" command can be used to target other players by name. Please note that this ability is subject to the range to the target.
• EverQuest will now write the original default colors when creating the EQCLIENT.INI file, rather than the new colors that were put in a few weeks ago.
• The @-character can be used in emotes to indicate a target. For instance, if you target "a gnoll" and type "/emote laughs cruelly at @", the output will be, "Playername laughs cruelly at a gnoll".
• People with the /LFG (Looking for Group) flag set will now have their over-head name prefixed with an asterisk. Remember that you can search for people looking for a group by using the "/who" and "/who all" commands. Typing "/who all ranger 40 50 lfg" will return a list of all rangers between 40 and 50 that are looking for a group.
• The "Sense" series (Undead, Animal, and Summoned) will no longer point you towards people's pets.

Note on Voice Recognition

Last week we implemented voice recognition technology in EverQuest. To use this new feature, please refer to the EQROKManualSupplement.doc file in your EverQuest directory. Please note that you must already have a voice recognition engine that is compliant with the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI), version 4.0. The voice recognition technology was tested with Dragon NaturallySpeaking(r) v4.0. Check with the developer of your software to find out if it is SAPI 4.0 compliant.

ILLUSIONS EXPLAINED, August 31, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/19992002.php)

Why are enchanters not given the ability to cast these very same race/creature illusions upon either the group as a whole, or individuals in a group? (You already HAVE the code for specific-case faction issues with the already in-game illusion series of spells)

I agree that the code exists, is in game, and would be easy to do. Our reasons for not implementing illusions on others via enchanters is that its not what we had in mind for them. It's part of the premise for the enchanter class.

Are you explicitly saying that in order for an enchanter to cast any illusion spell on themselves/others that a faction adjustment MUST take place and that for this reason, Verant would not attempt to try to code a spell allowing an illusion change to any NPC model in a particular zone? Or would Verant consider allowing enchanters to create illusions with no faction adjustments?

Illusions always have faction adjustments. They adjust the "race" portion of the faction formula. The game/faction engine does not allow someone to appear as a different race without adopting the faction settings for that race. As such, special allowances have been made for every race that can be illusioned. Opening more races to this would require a massive revamp of the faction engine and how it interacts with illusions. That revamp would constitute a major change to what defines EverQuest. Furthermore, the diversity the various areas in the game would surely lead to some bugs that would be implemented in the course of the revamp. Given these reasons, a change along these lines does not have benefits that outweigh cost.

Aside from faction issues, are you saying that by essentially allowing the 'minor illusion' spell to also include NPC models, in addition to the myriad of other object models in a particular zone, that this creates some sort of a problem? If so, could you please elaborate?

I think that I covered this one above. If I need to elaborate further, please let me know.

- Gordon

September 13, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000913.html)

Guild Maintenance

We are in the process of preparing to do maintenance on the guild database. To that end, guild creation and activation will be on hold for the next three weeks. After that time, we may be running a process to remove inactive or under-subscribed guilds from the system. We would ask and recommend that those in guilds with under 10 separate members (on separate accounts) consider merging and deleting the under-subscribed guild.

In addition, it's apparently become common practice for people wishing to register a guild to enter the chat server and advertise there for help creating the guild. This will no longer be permitted. People wishing to submit a guild must organize prior to entering the chat server. Advertising for assistance within the chat server could result in a short-term (24 hour) suspension for the account.

Epic Weapons Era

September 19, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000919.html)

Level 1 Character Purge

The Level 1 character purge announced several weeks ago will take place on Wednesday, September 27, 2000, at 7:00am PST (GMT-7). Any level 1 characters that haven't been played within the previous 30 days will be deleted. If you wish to keep any level 1 characters that you may have, please log in and play them between now and 9/27.

As a testament to our on-going goal to constantly provide more content for EverQuest players, today's patch primarily consists of *many* content-additions to the game.

New Epic Quests

We are pleased to announce that we have implemented new "Fiery Avenger" style quests for every class in the game (including paladins). The ultimate reward for each quest boasts a custom model with unique particle effects. We think that you will be pleased.

Rangers

Last week we completed in-depth testing of melee and defensive skills for all melee-centric classes. In the course of these tests we determined that the ranger class was not performing to its intended level, and have made the following changes:

The "Jolt" spell has had its casting time reduced. The Skillcap on Dodge and Parry has been increased.

Monks

High-level monks can now carry increased weight without penalty. The additional allowance is granted at levels 55 and 60.

Cleric

• Celestial Elixir was failing due to multi-tick cure components that are incompatible with that configuration. We have therefore removed the cure components and increased the healing provided by this spell.
• After a great deal of consideration, we have concluded that the Mark of Karn spell is imbalanced and requires correction. This spell's current function makes melee classes without dual-wield far less desirable members of the group. As such, the spell has had its duration decreased, its recast-time increased, and its "heal per hit" value decreased.

Fungal Regrowth

'Fungal Regrowth' is now a self-only spell. It was being used as an offensive spell by virtue of its 'snare' effect upon the target. Furthermore, we ruled out making it 'group only' as with other spells that have this issue, due to a class-balance concern. The spell was reducing the group's desire for classes capable of casting regenerative magic.

Attack Speed Buffs

In this patch we corrected a bug that would cause any "Haste" item combined with any "Haste" spell to automatically yield maximum haste, regardless of the level of "Haste" granted by each individual component. This fix increases the usefulness of better "Haste" equipment and spells. The downside to this is that those who usually have both items and spells active will see a reduced attack-speed unless outfitted with the best equipment and spells.

High-Level Dungeon Balancing

Veehshan's Peak and Sebilis have received loot adjustments in order to address disparities in risk and reward. For the most part, the quality of the "common" loot in Veeshan's Peak is at least as good as the "rares" from Sebilis.

Low-Delay Weapons and Damage Bonus Changes

In accordance with our announcement several weeks ago, two low-delay weapons can now only be equipped in the off-hand. Included in this change are the Mosscovered Twig and the Barbed Scale Whip. The delay on these weapons and the associated damage bonus to weapons in the primary hand made these weapons much too powerful for their availability and the risk associated with their acquisition.

In addition, two-handed weapons have had their damage-bonus modified. The damage-bonus for low-delay two-handed weapons (27 or below) created a problem similar to the weapons above and has been reduced. The damage-bonus has not changed for normal-delay (28-39) two-handed weapons. The damage bonus for high-delay two-handed weapons (40+) has been increased.

Server Selection Screen

It has come to our attention that new players often think that the high-population servers are better, based upon the logic that if everyone else is there, it must be a good server. However, in Massively-Multiplayer games, less populated servers are often considered superior for gameplay. Therefore we have marked servers that would benefit from new characters as preferred servers, listing them in "green" in the server selection window. The preferred servers have populations such that an influx of new people would benefit the server rather than cause overpopulation.

Custom Emotes and AFK

Animations with custom emotes have been implemented. Current canned emotes such as /point allow a target other than the current target to be specified. That will continue to work. So if you type "/point Baobob", the usual text will come up. However, you can add custom text to the emote, but you must specify the target as "say" as the target. For instance:

/point say points at a gnoll, indicating that he is ready to kill it. ...your character will execute the /point animation, and the text output will be: "CharacterName points at a gnoll, indicating that he is ready to kill it."

Finally, you can now set a custom message for when you are /AFK. Type "/AFK " (without the brackets) to set your custom AFK message. For instance, if you type "/afk Grabbing a snack", you will reply with "Grabbing a snack" when someone sends you a /tell.

Skill Gain

The skill-gain rate of many skills is now further modified by character stats. This will allow those with natural affinities towards certain skills to improve at a greater rate.

Trade Skills Enhanced

Many of the trade skills in game have received massive enhancements, including dozens of new craftable items, new fishing and foraging items, and other things to be discovered once in game.

In addition, trade-skill specialization has been implemented. Players will be able to exceed 200 points of skill in one of the generally available tradeskills. This includes:

• Baking
• Blacksmithing
• Brewing
• Jewelcraft
• Tailoring
• Fletching
• Pottery

Once above 200 points in one of these skills, no other skill will be able to exceed 200. Specialization restrictions do not include class or race-specific trade skills such as Alchemy, Make Poison, and Tinkering. Players with race or class-specific trade skills will be able to exceed 200 points of skill in that skill, plus any generally available trade skill.

The enhancement of trade skills is an on-going project. Further enhancements will be made in the coming weeks.

September 28, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000928.html)

General Changes

• NPC corpses level 55 or over will now last 30 minutes before decaying. This should help those on large multi-group encounters who need some prep-time before looting items.
• The item "Woe" has been repaired. If you receive the "Item out of charges" message when your "Woe" attempts to fire its spell, please contact a GM to trade out the item.
• The spell "Mark of Karn" has been changed. The recast-time has been reduced significantly and the Hitpoint-return is now scaled inversely based upon the delay of the weapon. In addition, a hitpoint return will only take place when the target is hit with a primary melee weapon, or the primary hand if you are unarmed.
• Some more tradeskill component vendors have been placed within the world to make certain tradeskills easier to use in your home town.
• "AFK" and "LD" status will now be reported above player's heads.

Fleeing NPCs

Last week's patch caused NPCs to flee more than before due to a bug that was fixed. After evaluating the situation, we decided to reduce the chance to flee, but not to the extent that it was reduced before. NPCs were previously much more "brave" than they should have been.

As part of the same change, charmed NPCs also began fleeing when low on health. We've determined that this is not a good situation for the players. As such, we have stopped charmed creatures from fleeing per player request.

Level 1 Character Purge

The Level 1 character purge has been completed. All level 1 characters that have not been played within the past 30 days have been deleted.

New Server Active

Tholuxe Paells, a new server open to new characters only, is now active and ready for play. Enjoy! As a reminder, /movelog registration will take place on Mithaniel Marr and Tunare Friday evening from 6PM to Midnight (PDT: GMT-7). Registered characters will be moved to a second new server, Drinal, early next week.

User Interface Changes

Many UI enhancements were made in today's patch:

Moving and Resizing Windows

The data windows in the full screen "HUD" mode may now be moved by clicking in the upper left-hand corner, moving them to where you want, then clicking again. The "spell effect" and "chat" windows can be resized by clicking on the lower right-hand corner, dragging to the appropriate size, and then clicking again. Coordinates for window locations in each resolution are stored in the EQCLIENT.INI file.

Bugs with Several Commands Fixed

We fixed a problem with /book, /sit, and /doability that allowed them to be executed at inappropriate times, such as while charmed or feared. They should now only function when the native button would have functioned if pressed.

Miscellaneous Additions

Added the following /-commands:

/camp: Causes your character to camp out. You must be sitting to use /camp. /disband: Will disband you from your current group, or turn down an invitation to join another group. /invite: Will invite the target into a group, or accept an invitation if one is pending. /attack: Will toggle the state of "Auto-attack". You may also add a parameter of "on" or "off" to explicitly set the state. In addition:

( CTRL-1 through CTRL-8 will cast the spell in the specified spell-slot.

• ":" (colon: Short for /emote) and "'" (apostrophe: Short for /say) will now bring up the chat line in the same fashion as the /-key and ENTER.
• The "R" key (by default) takes you into reply-mode as always, bringing up a reply to the last person sending you a /tell. However, you can now TAB and SHIFT-TAB to cycle through the last 10 people that have sent you /tells.

Pauses in Socials

You may now enter pauses in social batches with the /pause command. /pause takes an argument from 1 to 600, with the value being equal to the number of tenths of seconds (i.e. /pause 100 will yield a 10 second pause).

For example, a social consisting of:

/sit off /cast 1 /pause 100 /sit on ...would cause you to stand up, cast the spell in slot 1, wait 10 seconds after you've STARTED casting the spell, and sit down.

Furthermore, you can also use the /pause command on the same line as another social by separating the commands with a comma. Even though the pause command is specified first, it is executed AFTER the command on the same line.

For example:

/sit off /pause 100, /cast 1 /sit on ...would have the same effect as the example above. It is important to note that the comma can only be used to separate a /pause command from another, and MUST be specified first on the line.

Emote Codes

The @ symbol has been replaced with a series of %-codes that expand into various pieces of information, and now works in ALL chat channels (emote, say, shout, ooc, auction, group, guild).

The new %-codes are:

%T - Returns the current target. %S - Returns the subjective gender-specific pronoun for the target (He, She, It). %O - Returns the objective gender-specific pronoun for the target (Him, Her, It). %P - Returns the possessive gender-specific pronoun for the target (His, Her, Its). %R - Returns the race of the target (only works on Player characters). For example, if you have a target of "a gnoll", the following emote:

/point say points at %T indicating that he is ready to kill %O. ...Your character will execute the "point" animation with a text output of "CharacterName points at a gnoll indicating that he is ready to kill it."

October 3, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20001003.html)

Today's patch consisted mostly of server-side changes, additions, and fixes regarding NPCs and quests. The only item of public note is that the Ragebringer can no longer be equipped in the ranged slot. A data entry error caused it to be initially allowed it to be equipped in that slot.

Guide Program

Looking for a Challenge? Would you like to dedicate some time each week to helping your fellow players? Have you ever wondered how you might better serve the gods of Norrath? If you can picture yourself spending about six hours per week walking through the moonlit deserts of Southern Ro, basking in the saunas of Lavastorm, and working as a team to make Norrath safer and more enjoyable for all, then...

Please point your browsers to: http://guideapp.everquest.com

Fill out the Guide Application today! The EverQuest Guide Program might be the new challenge you seek, or the new adventure you never imagined.

Server Split to Drinal

Accounts on Mithaniel Marr and Tunare will be moved to the Drinal server following the patch. The source-servers, along with Drinal, will remain down for a period of time following the completion of the patch in order to allow the split to take place.

November 15, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20001115.html)

Today's patch includes the announced code-updates to use technology included with DirectX 7. You must have DirectX 7 or higher installed in order to play EverQuest. Please refer to http://everquest.station.sony.com/support/system_requirements.jsp prior to contacting technical support for procedures prior to contacting technical support.

Today's patch also includes the new 'Sound Engine' that we've been speaking about for some time. The new sound engine supports additional EAX features and should address the concerns of SBLive users that have been posted in the past.

Movelog for Povar and Tarew Marr

The /movelog window will be opened for Povar and Tarew Marr on Saturday 11/18 and Sunday 11/19 from 6PM PST (GMT-8) to Midnight. All players wishing to have all of their characters moved (on a per-account basis) from those servers to the new split-server should execute '"/movelog yes' during the windows.

The physical character move will take place next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. Please check the scheduled downtime page of www.everquest.com for a firm time when it is decided. Remember that corpses will not follow you to the new server, so anyone deciding to move will want to be sure that all corpses are looted prior to the time of the actual move.

As this patch features new /movelog logic to eliminate problems with people being left behind, players should not count on customer-service intervention after the physical move if they were unable to execute the command during the window. You will need to be present and execute the command in order to move.

Spell Changes

• Pixie Strike: Made it less resistible by reducing the secondary resist.
• Song of Twilight: Increased duration. Made less resistible by removing the secondary resist. Allowed it to be cast at any time of day.
• Fixed the effect on the Necromancer Epic Quest Item. The effect was checking resist on each tick instead of running full course.
• Increased the duration of the effect on the Enchanter Epic Quest Item.
• Fixed the 'Modulating Rod' so that it can be used by the appropriate races.
• Fixed the Lost Staff of the Scorned.
• Maniacal Strength will now correctly overwrite the level 49 Strength spell.
• The Death Pact and Divine Intervention spells will now stack appropriately with other spells that have similar effects.
• Modified the 'Jonathan's' line of songs to remove the 'skin' effect in order to allow bards to use them more effectively in combat. In addition, we made them 'Self Only' spells rather than 'Single Target' spells in order to allow bards to remain in combat while singing them.

General Fixes/Changes

• Fixed a bug that caused an NPC on 'Sister's Isle' to attack people who were fighting pirates.
• Removed Paladins as an authorized class for piercing weapons in game since they do not have the piercing skill.
• The 'Belt of the River' quest should now work correctly.
• Fixed all known problems with the class-specific epic quests.
• Implemented some new race-specific quests for Iksar.
• Positively modified most Epic Quest Items. Please check your items to see your changes. Note: Not all changes will be evident by looking at the item.
• Fixed the NPC bosses in the Plane of Sky that were not dropping the correct loot.
• Your bread tin will now be returned when baking bread.
• Fixed the Wellford Fargin keyword problem in Firiona Vie.
• Made the 'Gravebinder' a magic weapon.
• Repaired the Forager Bag. It was causing people to lose weight when placing items in the bag. It is supposed to have a weight reduction component, but was not supposed to cause weight loss.
• Taunt: Increased effectiveness above level 50. Previously, creatures above level 50 could not be taunted by means of the taunt skill. Now, most creatures below the character's level can now be successfully taunted. As a note, the chance to taunt a creature above 50th level is smaller than that of a creature below 50th.

Client Enhancements

• You now have 10 pages of 10 hotboxes each when in full screen mode.
• You can now customize 10 pages of 12 socials each, increasing the total number of available socials by 108.
• Fixed a bug with the keyboard.txt file causing some keys to translate incorrectly.
• Fixed a bug that caused some window positions to save improperly at higher resolutions.
• All key mappings are now stored in the EQCLIENT.INI file.
• Fixed all known problems with the clipping plane slider. Users should now see differences for the entire range of adjustment in zones that support an adjustable clipping plane.
• Players on PvP servers will no longer show '[LD]' over their heads when linkdead. In addition, these same players will no longer show as 'LinkDead' in the /who list.
• Players can now set custom text colors while in game. /usercolor: Usage '"/usercolor UserColorNumber R G B' where 'UserColorNumber is the number of the color as indicated in the EQCLIENT.INI file, and R, G, and B are red, green and blue respectively. All changes will be automatically saved to your EQCLIENT.INI file.
• OPT files in your EverQuest directory now have a number after the character name indicating the server number. As such, you will now be able to have characters of the same name on two separate servers with different custom options.
• The eqlog.txt file now has a name that includes the server number and character name. For instance, if your character is named 'Bobb', and you are on Server 1, your log text file name would be eqlog_01_Bobb.txt.
• Added two new entries to the 'Defaults' section of the EQCLIENT.INI file: AttackOnAssist=TRUE|FALSE - Sets whether or not your autoattack turns on automatically when assisting. Defaults to 'TRUE'. ShowInspectMessage=TRUE|FALSE - Sets whether or not you see the 'Soandso is inspecting you' message. Defaults to 'TRUE'.
• Custom key mappings have been greatly enhanced. You can now set two keys, a primary and an alternate, for each function in game. In addition, things that were previously not customizable can now be set to a key of your preference. Left-click on the key identifier to set the primary key, right-click to set the secondary.
• Added the /note command. /note will append the following text to a file called 'notes.txt' in your EverQuest directory. For instance, typing '/note This is a note' will put 'This is a note' on the next line in the notes.txt file.

November 16, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20001116.html)

Today's follow-up patch addresses the following issues from yesterday's patch

• The spell Torpor received an unintentional reduction in effectiveness.
• Illumination in game was not as bright as it should have been.
• Pet using classes unintentionally gained the ability to summon multiple pets.
• Bard songs were reacting poorly with invisibility/hide/sneak.
• Hitpoints were being reported incorrectly to clients.
• Changing resolutions would cause some to crash.

In addition, the following changes were left out of yesterday's patch message

• Fixed a bug that would cause some to not be able to cast after being feared.
• Data for group members and targets will be updated more frequently. This change should reduce complaints of warping and slow * hitpoint and other updates.
• Bards received increases in the skill cap for their instrument skills.
• Changed the default combo for casting spells from CTRL-1:8 to ALT-1:8, as CTRL was interfering with players ability to strafe.

November 21, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20001121.html)

Today's patch addresses a few problems noted by customers since last week's big patch. The following changes were made:

• Fixed some problems with sound volume being set above the maximum or below the minimum.
• Fixed a problem that caused sound volume to be reset regardless of the slider setting upon zoning or entering game.
• Fixed a bug that would cause some sounds to be unduly amplified whenever the volume slider was moved.
• Fixed a bug causing pink fringes to show on whiskers in association with mipmapping.
• Fixed a bug with /usercolor causing settings to be saved in the wrong slot.
• Fixed weapon scaling problems with off-hand weapons and those carried by dwarves.
• Fixed a bug that caused the client to display an amount of experience in slight disagreement with the server.
• Fixed the Paladin Epic Quest reward, which was procing a spell that would do around one million points of damage if left to its * own devices.
• Fixed a faction problem that made some quests designed to be doable by anyone, regardless of race or class, undoable.
• In other news, the Tarew/Povar split server, Xev, will be up following the patch today. Xev is named for Xev Bristlebane, the god of fortune. We would have named the new server under its full name if not for an attempt to avoid confusion between the existing "Bristlebane" server (named for Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane) and Xev.

November 29, 2000

(Allakhazam fail: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20001129.html)

Today's patch includes updates to the client to address some problems reported by people in regards to the DX7 update, as well as other gameplay issues:

• Corrected an older bug that would cause people to stop gaining or losing faction with associates when the primary faction was at its maximum or minimum. Players will now be able to further modify associate factions in the appropriate direction.
• Random-effects on weapons carried by pets will now behave as if the pet is a player character rather than an NPC. The change last patch reduced them to a rate below player characters. As part of this patch, target-specific random effects will only work if the target is the intended type. For instance, a weapon that processes 'Dismiss Summoned' will only 'go off' on a summoned NPC instead of everything.
• Added some code that should address if not eliminate a problem reported by people whereas the client would 'freeze' for a second or two every few minutes. For those who do not have IRQ sharing and/or driver problems, this should address the issue.
• Made final positive modifications to several Epic Quest rewards. Included in these changes: the SK weapon will now allow you to bash while carrying it.
• Fixed a problem that gave people problems when exiting the game and attempting to get back in.
• Added some code to address reports from people who find exiting from the character-select screen back to the server-select screen rather slow when mip-mapping is enabled. Most of this problem is due to routines in DX required to release resources consumed by mip-mapping and may not be addressable until the next version of DirectX is adopted.
• Changed customizable key mappings so that the ESC key will clear the 'NOKEY' setting instead of the 'Backspace'. This means that you can now assign 'Backspace' to a function in game.
• Corrected a sound problem that would cause certain sounds to be played 'rapid-fire' under some circumstances. There is still a potential for this to happen with some other sounds that will be addressed in a patch in the near future.
• Corrected a problem in Kedge Keep that made the top encounter more difficult than intended after the server had been up for a while.
• Higher level Magician, Necromancer, and Shadowknight pets now have the ability to dual-wield without being handed weapons. The calculation used to determine whether or not this ability exists takes several things into account, but for the most part 39th level and above summons (higher for the Shadowknight) will have this ability. It is possible that you could get a 'good' 34th level pet that will, or a 'bad' 39th level pet that will not have this ability.
• Bards of the land, hark unto me: The notes have been scribed on tattered parchment, two score and nine, for you they are meant. Abandon your mates, though they may fume, and follow the call of the seafarer's tune. (the level 49 song is now available).
• The Monk's hand-to-hand skill cap has been raised to a level equal to their one-handed blunt skill.

Remember! Only a few days left until the launch of EverQuest: The Scars of Velious. Reserve your copy at your local retailer today!