Luclin Patch History

From EQArchives
Jump to navigationJump to search

Luclin Era

December 4, 2001 6:00 am

Welcome to Luclin

"As you know, youngster, we of the League of Antonican Bards have made it our primary goal to travel to places before others. It is our duty to see what hasn't yet been seen and to make song of it when we return. We carry news, song and spirit to all of Norrath. We have also taken it upon ourselves to carry personal news in the form of letters wherever possible. And that's what I've called you here to talk about.

...

No, I am not assigning you the duty of establishing a mail route into Grobb. We've lost far too many young bards trying to do that. Recruitment of smart young lads and lasses is nearly impossible when they all think that we plan to send them out to become bard fillet. We've only been able to recruit youngsters that no other guild wanted because they were so...

...

No, of course I don't mean you.

Now stop interrupting.

I have a job for you. You know, don't you, that Al'Kabor has once again been clomping about using his powerful magics without much regard for consequences, don't you?

...

/em sighs.

Ok, your FIRST task is to read up on current events! ()

Your second task is to find out if the rumors about his recent experiments are true. They say (and "they" are pretty reliable) that things such as noble-looking Kerrans calling themselves the Vah Shir, strange beasts of burden and new spells and songs have started showing up on Antonica. They also say that this is all due to the experiments of that Erudite Wizard Al'Kabor. You are to head out to one of the great wizard spires and investigate. If you can, interview one of these cat people and bring us back one of these horses they talk about...

...

Maybe you should talk to my assistant about things like directions out of the city and where you can find some shoes more appropriate for travel."

All this you overhear as you wait outside for your turn to talk to the loremasters of the League of Antonican Bards.

The door opens and you see a dejected and confused looking young bard step out. Following him out the door you hear a bellow,

"I also expect you to let everyone know that we are NO LONGER trying to establish mail routes to Grobb! Trolls can't read very well anyway."

Shadows of Luclin opens up new adventures and new challenges, as well as new rewards for those with a spirit of adventure.

Are you up to the challenge?

Notes for Shadows of Luclin customers

IMPORTANT: do not lose your Shadows of Luclin CDs. Because of the immense amount of data on the three Shadows of Luclin CDs, you will not be able to just copy the executable file into a new directory and download the rest of the expansion. We have placed restrictions on the amount of data that customers can download from our patcher so that massive patching as a replacement for reinstalling from the disk will not impact our other customers. So if you have a hard drive problem or you wish to install EverQuest on a new computer, you will need to have your CD to do so.

TECH SUPPORT: Please visit our Tech Support Center at if you have any problems with your Luclin installation.

/facepick * this new command will allow those of you with Shadows of Luclin to change your characters face. It will only work for characters using the new models. If you've turned off Gnomes and your character is a Gnome, you will not be able to use this command on that character. And it will, obviously, only work for those with Shadows of Luclin installed.

/dismount * This command allows your character to dismount from a horse if for some reason he has lost the ability to do so using the bridle. There is no /mount command, only the bridle will allow you to mount a horse.

Other Changes with this Patch

Along with our preparations for the introduction of Shadows of Luclin, we have made a few other changes with this patch:

    • Gameplay Changes **
  • Increased the amount of mana given by high Intelligence and Wisdom

scores, as well as that granted by items and spells.

  • Fixed a bug that was causing rogues to critical with every use of a

thrown weapon.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the experience bar to displaying incorrectly

after leveling. This also seemed to cause a crash in certain cases when in F10 view.

    • PvP Changes **
  • PVP looting will now display to the group.
  • Empty corpses will no longer disappear when looted by an enemy

player, they will decay at the normal rate for empty corpses.

  • Guards in 'guard zones', such as cities, will continue to protect

characters that they find the least offensive (the one with the highest faction). But guards in outdoor zones will be less likely to join in a fight. They will only come to the aid of people that they like. Otherwise they will not get involved in PvP combat.

  • Etched Peridot of Nature will be removed from all locations,

including those held by players on their characters or in their banks. This item was not intended to be available until Shadows of Luclin went live, and then only in Luclin zones.

    • Spell Changes **
  • Spells that heal less than 10 points of damage will not generate a

message to the player.

  • Velious portal teeth (Great Divide, Wakening Lands and Cobalt Scar)

are no longer required to teleport to those locations. These items are also no longer soul bound.

  • Fixed a bug with the Bard Song of Occlusion
    • New Commands **
  • /stand now implemented. We've added this command because not everyone

speaks programmer and would think that the logical reverse of /sit would be /sit off. :)

  • /particledensity command * Switches particle density on the fly

without having to click it in the menus and exit the game.

    • Some new things you'll see **
  • We now have the ability to flag an NPC as non-targetable. This in

effect renders the NPC non-attackable as well. Clicking on one of these NPCs will cause your current target selection to clear. This functionality is used primarily for the presentation of content. For instance, if we want an NPC to spawn and tell you a story, he can tell his story without being attacked mid-sentance by other players. It also opens up some pretty interesting content avenues. As an example, we can make NPCs unharmable until you do a quest "stripping them of their power".

  • There are several new item classes (types) in the world. For example,

there are weapons that do enhanced damage versus certain races (e.g. Perhaps you'll find a +2 vs froglok sword, or a +4 vs Bear club. In addition we can do the same type of thing with types of creatures (+3 vs humanoid, +1 vs Undaed). We've also added elemental modifiers (e.g. a +4 Fire sword). The bonus value is calculated as and increased DMG stat on the weapon, except that the elemental portion is run through the resistance system before calculating the strength of your hit. There are some items out there with bonuses to some more interesting stats, but we'll leave it to you to figure them out :)

  • There's a lot more out there. Be prepared to reevaluate your

assumptions and redefine the way you approach the world. Proposed solutions to situations and quests that you might have previously written off saying, "They can't do that in EverQuest", might be exactly the way you need to approach the problem at hand. As fellow gamers, we envy you as you approach Luclin and find everything fresh, new, and waiting to be solved. And to those of you who aren't first to solve the quests or adventure in the new areas, we urge you to do so with your friends, and leave the spoiler sites out of it. Good luck on your journies.

Note on New Features

EverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin contains many new features which have yet to stand up to the scrutiny of 400,000 experienced players. Without doubt there will be some situations where we need to reevaluate the gameplay-impact of some of those features and adjust them accordingly to maintain game integrity. As an example, we think that they might accelerate and decelerate too quickly, but will have to wait until we see them used by a broad spectrum of players before we can make a final determination. We thank you for your patience in these matters.

    • Note on Impending Features **

As we approached our launch date we found that several features which are planned are also not yet ready for prime-time. We're currently working on the following items, many of which will be implemented in the very near future:

  • Extra flora in outdoor zones. Sprigs of grass, small bushes, flowers,

etc.

  • A robuste merchantile system in the bazaar that lets you flag

yourself as a merchant, set prices, and conduct business without having to conduct business manually with each buyer and seller.

  • We will be polishing up issues regarding tinted items in game. In

other words, things that shouldn't tint with a tinted item (e.g. your skin) won't tint when the feature is complete.

  • Light beards on high elves, dark elves, half elves, and dwarf females

will be tintable along with the hair color. We are going to leave in the ability for you to change your appearance until after we've added more customization options.

We thank you for your patience and patronage as we implement these features. Good luck with your adventures on Luclin!

- The EverQuest Team

December 6, 2001 3:00 am

  • Fixed Bugs*
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing characters from being bald (those

that were allowed to).

  • Halved the speed of the new Skeleton walk and run animations because

they were playing about twice as fast as they should have been.

  • Fixed a bug that was causing all of the facial features (hair, beard,

etc...) to switch back to default in certain cases when you switched from one face to another (faces with special eyes, like the faces with eye patches and white eye).

  • Fixed a crash bug with /follow.
  • Found and Fixed the crash bug with soldungb and everfrost and other

places.

  • Fixed transparency code with i810 display adapters
  • Fixed a problem introduced into the sound engine that causes

framerate problems and sound stutter in some places.

  • Fixed a crash bug that had to do with dying from your familiar

effect.

  • Research the group buff bug and fixed it.
  • Fixed a crash bug with root and gate.
  • Various item and content fixes.
  • Hot Items* (The items we're considering top priority)
  • Bard issues: We're working to correct the problems bards have been

experiencing with their songs.

  • K6 Processors: We're working to fix, or provide a work-around for

problems AMD K6 users are experiencing when entering some zones.

  • Armor layer tinting (e.g. tinting your armor without tinting your

skin)

We are reviewing the issues sent to us as they are sent in and will be doing daily patches as necessary to get everything working to your and our satisfaction as quickly as possible. Please remember that EverQuest users need to have DirectX 8.1 and the appropriate drivers for their video card. Visit our tech support center first if you are having issues:

http://everquest.station.sony.com/support/luclin/index.jsp

Thank you,

  • The EverQuest Team

December 7, 2001 3:00 am

  • Fixes*
  • Shaved 10 seconds of zoning for every subscriber.
  • Made it so familiars don't get agroed on.
  • Fixed several zone crash bugs
  • Changed a paladin spell * a design error in the spell trivialized

several aspects of the high-end game.

  • Fixed several item and content problems.
  • Fixed several faction issues * some faction information released with

Luclin deviated from norm.

  • The EverQuest Team

December 10, 2001 3:00 am

  • Patch Changes*
  • Fixed a problem that resulted in excessive swapping for people with

particles turned off.

  • Fear spells should again be working correctly.
  • AoE fear spells will no longer work versus players on PvP Servers.
  • Fixed a crash caused by a familiar dying.
  • Fixed a bug with the "Alternate Advancement" system. An artifact from

the removal of the class-based experience penalty several months ago resulted in hybrids gaining AAXP much faster than they should, and warriors and rogues gaining it slower. AA-point cost was designed to be the same regardless of class.

  • Increased the experience cost per AA-point overall after analysis of

point accruals accross the game.

  • Corrected several zone-crashes. Also implemented a workaround to

prevent the Hollowshade crash while we investigate the problem further.

  • Fixed several miscellaneous bugs that were causing crashes or had the

potential to cause crashes on varied systems.

  • Fixed a bug that caused some people to crash when reentering the game

after exiting.

  • Addressed a good number of content-related issues (quest problems,

bad items, etc).

  • Luclin Install*
  • We found that the default install directory for Luclin may be wrong

for some people, specifically those who have copied their EverQuest files into a directory different from their initial installation.

  • Also, we've received a number of calls from Luclin subscribers who've

tried logging in to their character on a friends computer that does not have an install of Luclin on it. This will not work as the files necessary for you to view Luclin content are not present unless Luclin has been installed.

  • We've added code to point out both of these cases in the future.
  • Continued Plans*
  • As we wrap up the technology-related issues over the course of this

week, making sure that everyone who wants to play EverQuest can play EverQuest, the programming team will shift their focus to aesthetic issues such as animation speed/timing, armor tinting, face-picker operation, etc. We do indeed plan on getting to all of these issues in the very short term.

  • The content-team, however, is hard at work on content-related issues

right now, and stands ready to address any broken quests, items, encounter-imbalances, etc., that you may run across in your adventures. Please feel free to visit our forums off of www.everquestlive.com and submit a comment through the Developer's Corner.

Thank you for your patronage,

-The EverQuest Team

December 11, 2001 12:00 am

  • Patch Changes*
  • Fixed a memory leak that was causing excessive swapping when moving

between outdoor Luclin zones.

  • Implemented some changes to zoning that should improve times,

especially for modem users.

  • Fixed several potential crash bugs.
  • You can now only have 100 unused points in your alternate advancement

pool.

  • Fixed the bug that prevented non-Luclin subscribers from seeing the

Vah Shir model.

  • Addressed many content-related problems. We appreciate the reports

we've received.

  • Continued optimizations of the 3D engine.

The EverQuest Team

December 12, 2001 12:00 am

  • Patch Changes *
  • Several changes to hair functionality: Expanded beard color choices

for Erudite males, pushed back the camera a bit for human males when making hair selections (so they can see themselves) and fixed it so that the camera will no longer rotate around Erudites while in hair selection mode of character creation. Also fixed a bug with the left selection arrow sometimes not changing hair color.

  • Fixed the "Entering Luclin" message bug. This was only an errant text

message, it was not causing any crashes or keeping anyone out of the game.

  • Fixed a bug where Vah Shir with an intelligence over a certain amount

could not be created.

  • Fixed a bug with faction-affecting items: They were giving a bonus to

all factions instead of just the intended faction

  • Fixed a problem with arrows and quivers that would result in the

person being logged out.

  • Adjusted the cost of Combine Platemail to be inline with its stats

and other armor available within game.

  • Made several gameplay changes to The Grey. A single group having the

ability to simultaneously engage and prevail against 35+ experience- giving creatures is not in line with the desire for risk vs. reward and the promotion of balanced groups.

  • Removed some bad NPCs in Chardok.
  • Tuned encounters in The Fungus Grove, Maiden's Eye, and Dawnshroud

Peaks.

  • Clarified some quest dialog in Sanctus Seru.
  • Tuned The Deep, also improved the variety of drops.
  • Improved pathing in The Temple of Ssraeshza
  • Improved pathing in Sanctus Seru
  • Improved pathing in Echo Caverns
  • Added some newbie beastlord quests in the old world.
  • Removed the "Lore" tag from the "Darkened Knight's Bracer"

The EverQuest Team

December 13, 2001 12:00 am

    • Texture Cache **

In an effort to improve loading and zoning times, we've added the ability to cache textures to your hard drive. One of the things that your computer is doing when you load up the game or change zones is building textures and putting them into RAM on your computer. Each time you log in or zone the game has to create the textures you need and put them into RAM for use during gameplay.

This, obviously, takes a little time.

We have added an option that allows you to save that information to your hard drive rather than creating it each time you log in or zone.

This does have a few drawbacks. It will require a lot of hard drive space to store these textures. In the most extreme case it could use up as much as 1.5 GB of hard drive space, though this would be the extreme. It could, however, easily use 500 MB of space on your hard drive. And because writing all this data to your hard drive takes a little time, the first time you use this feature it will take a bit longer to log in.

The game will never allow you to fall below 500 MB of space on your hard drive when creating the texture cache. This is to prevent any problems with a shortage of space on your hard drive. But it also means that you will need to have plenty of hard drive space free to use this option; 500 MB plus the amount needed for the texture cache.

Also, if you change any of your setting for graphics {like changing the texture quality) it will have to rewrite these files, meaning that your first log in after making such a change will take longer than usual as it writes these files to your hard drive.

The benefits is that once you have allocated the hard drive space and logged in to create the needed files, the game can then read that information directly into RAM from your hard drive rather than creating them each time you log in or zone.

What this feature does not allow you to do is to increase the settings above those that are recommended. If the game suggests that you only use ten models, turning on the Texture Cache will not make it a good idea to turn on more models. This feature will not change that. Those recommendations are based on the amount of RAM you have available and your video card. The hard drive cache does not effectively add RAM to your machine, it just allows the game to save time creating the textures that your existing RAM and video card use.

There are two ways to activate this feature. You can check the 'Texture Cache' box in the Options screen, or you can turn it on from within the eqclient.ini file. To activate it, add the following line to the eqclient.ini file:

TextureCache=TRUE

This could improve load times dramatically depending on your settings. The more models and graphics features you have turned on, the greater the potential decrease in loading times you will see using the Texture Cache.

Remember: This will require a lot of hard drive space, so be certain that you have a lot of free hard drive space if you turn this option on. The more stuff you enable (models, texture quality, etc.) the more space you will need.

We expect this to be of greatest benefit to folks with 256 megs of RAM and a lot of hard drive space. The more RAM your system has, the less benefit you should expect to see by using the texture cache.

  • Patch Changes *
  • Fixed a pathing problem in the waters of Acrylia Caverns
  • More fixes for face and hair issues: Most notably a bug with Erudite

male hair color arrows changing the hair style instead of the color.

  • Fixed a problem that was causing the % to crash some people when

using in tells.

  • Addressed several potential crash bugs.

December 14, 2001 3:00 am

  • Removing or killing your familiar will no longer have the possibility

of killing you directly. It can, however, take you down to very few hit points...

  • Skyshrine key is soulbound once again
  • Custom Velious helms should now be visible
  • Plate helmets should now be visible on Vah Shir
  • Female humans should no longer see the inside of their heads when

firing a bow

  • Using the ESC key to exit the /facepick menu should no longer lock

the right mouse button

  • Fixed an issue with several transparencies, including Vox and Nagafen

spots, Kael giants helms, halfling helm and old dark elf model hair

  • The Kneel and Grovel emotes are no longer switched
  • The BACK and NEXT buttons on the last page of the keyboard options

now work properly.

  • The 'ALT' pop-up for spells memorized will no longer show up if the

memorized spells window is not open

  • Removed the mipmap setting from in-game Options-->Display menu. The

mipmap setting found at the options menu before log in is now the valid way to change mipmapping settings

  • Improved the pathing in Echo Caverns
  • Staff of Living Sand and Skull-Shaped Sacrificial Hammer should no

longer say that they are out of charges.

  • The Ruthless Bracer is now a wrist item, not a shoulder item

December 18, 2001 3:00 am

    • Patch Changes **
  • Added tools to help us track serverside zone issues that have come up

since the release of Luclin in an effort to solve some continuing problems.

  • Orb of Lost Souls will now have a casting time.
  • Geomantic Focus has had its effect changed.
  • Fixed a problem that prevented Barbarian custom Velium helms from

being visible to other PCs.

  • Corrected a problem with horse acceleration and deceleration in

extremely low framerate situations. Acceleration and deceleration now seem the same at high and low framerates.

  • Fonts should display correctly, regardless of desktop settings.
  • Hoober and his pet have returned. Yes, we used the singular... only

one pet.

  • The wind instruments "ivory horn" and "ivory flawless horn" can now

be equipped.

  • Added Beastlord Guildmasters to Firiona Vie and The Overthere
  • Added several merchants to Freeport (North and East) to round out the

availability of trade supplies there.

    • Note about upcoming changes to the Temple of Veeshan **

In the next patch, we are making a few changes to the monster population in Temple of Veeshan. Places that were previously safe to camp, may not be any longer. Please be sure to not camp deep within the Temple of Veeshan on Wednesday night, or you may be unpleasantly surprised following the patch.

    • NOTICE TO CONSUMERS -* WINDOWS 95 EVERQUEST PLAYERS **

We very much regret that the dramatic upgrades to EverQuest on December 4, 2001 has made EverQuest and all expansions incompatible with Windows 95.

If you are running under the Windows 95 operating system and, therefore, can no longer play EverQuest, and your account was in good standing as of December 3, 2001, you may be entitled to receive a refund of the purchase price for the EverQuest product(s) you recently bought and any subscription money paid for the period December 4, 2001 onward.

In order to obtain a refund, you may do any of the following:

(1) Call (858) 537-0898 M-F, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. PST (this is NOT a toll free call) or (2) Send an email to refunds@soe.sony.com or (3) Send a written request for a refund to:

EQ Refunds 8928 Terman Court San Diego, CA 92121

Please include in your email or written request your name, address, telephone number, email address and station name (but NOT your password).

You will be asked for information verifying your request and, upon the issuance of a refund, your account and characters will be permanently removed from EverQuest. Please allow four to six weeks for processing.

  • The EverQuest team

December 20, 2001 3:00 am

  • Bug Fixes *
  • Fixed a bug with sleeves not showing properly when wearing robes
  • Item Changes *
  • Aqualung charges should now work properly
  • Trade Skill Changes *
  • Regular, medium quality, high quality, mithril, brellium and

adamantite rings, as well as their enchanted versions are now stackable.

  • Added a few trade skill vendors to Ak'Anon
  • Added ore, clay, pottery sketch, baking, and brewing vendors to

Felwithe to round out the tradeskill supplies available in Felwithe and Kelethin.

  • Crafted fishing flies, special fishing poles and special baits now

add a fishing skill bonus.

  • Made all Bait and flies equipable in the Ammo slot.
  • Added clay, ore and brewing supply vendors to Halas.
  • Added several trade skill vendors to Oggok.
  • Localization Information *

Localization on the EverQuest login/chat server has been fixed so that users can once again select French and German. Japanese and Korean have also been added.

To obtain the text files which enable a language, go to the Advanced Options screen in the patcher and click on the appropriate language box before clicking on "Download".

  • Soulbinders *

A new group has appeared in Norrath (and on Luclin as well). Rumor has it that these 'Soulbinders' have dedicated themselves to research on the power and essence of our inner being. Some call them fanatics, as they claim that knowledge of the spirit that dwells within will lead them to an understanding of the whole of existence. Citizens often treat them with the same respect and distance that they treat the Priests of Discord. However, these Soulbinders have dedicated themselves to public service, and for them that service falls along their lines of specialty...

The next time you find yourself far away from home, you might seek the services of a Soulbinder.

/ooc: We've added these "Soulbinder" NPCs to all cities that player characters can start in, as well as Firiona Vie, The Overthere, Shadowhaven and Iceclad at the request of players. It is our hope that these new NPCs will help players by reducing the time it takes to find a bind from another player character.

December 28, 2001

  • Some spots in ToV no longer safe to camp out due to New Drakes and

Wurm spawns being added.

  • A bug allowing multiple pets to be summoned has been fixed.

.....................................................................

January 8, 2002 3:00 am

    • Items **

- All beastlord-usable items are now useable by their requisite races - Regular, medium quality, high quality, mithril, brellium and adamantite rings, as well as their enchanted versions are now stackable. (this time we mean it) - Made Rune Encrusted Short Sword rentable (was No Rent, should not have been) - Fixed Shadowscream and all related recipes so that they return the correct mallet - Reduced the price of the Fuligan Soulstone of Innoruuk and Cloudy Stone of Veeshan - Reduced the price of the first two keys for the Plane of Air - Coterie Mask of the Dead has been retroactively changed to have 5 charges as originally intended - Gauntlets of the Blood Fiend - Warrior has been removed from the wearable classes - Shiny Trinket of Speed - An appropriate level of haste has been added to this item

    • Interface **

- Added /tgb as a short version of /targetgroupbuff

- /shownames now works with the following parameters: no parameter = display the current setting. off = don't show player names over their heads 1 = show only first names of players 2 = show First and Last Name 3 = show First, Last, and Guild (if any) 4 = show Title (if any), First, Last, and Guild (if any)

Also, the LFG, AFK and LD tags will always show if names are not off. There will no longer be brackets around them, and LFG will now appear at the end of the name with the AFK and LD tags (instead of being a * at the beginning)

- A player character will always have a name over its head, even if they are skeletons (unless /shownames is off), with the exception of some rare cases when players are turned into certain NPCs - Added /ttell. This will send a tell to the player character that is currently your target. The command will also allow corpses as a valid target. /ttell'ing a player's corpse will auto-tell that player (this was actually patched earlier along with an emergency patch) - Added IRC style '/me' as a synonym for /emote (this was actually patched earlier along with an emergency patch) - Added '/send' as a synonym for /tell (this was actually patched earlier along with an emergency patch)

    • Spells **

- Necromancer Group spells should now be working, they were only affecting the caster. This includes spells such as: Degeneration, Succession of Shadows, Crippling Claudication, and Zavfeer's Theft of Vitae. These spells have also had their duration increased. Mind Wrack will be fixed soon. - Shadowknight "Torrent" spells have also been fixed and have had their duration increased as well - Flowing Thought effects will now stack - Meditating on a horse occurs only while not in combat - Mark of Retribution should work as intended - The Decession spell now requires you to be in the same group - Levitation can no longer be used in The Deep - Fixed a problem that was still allowing people to Cast Eye of Zomm in Ssra Temple - Fixed a problem that was still allowing people to cast Call of the Hero in Ssra Temple - NPCs that cannot be stunned will once again take damage from damaging stun spells (this was actually patched earlier along with an emergency patch) - Critical heals and nukes now display damage numbers (this was actually patched earlier along with an emergency patch)

    • Zones **

- Characters will no longer take falling damage when in the Bazaar - Characters can now bind in the Nexus

    • Alternate Advancement **

- Made it so the percentages of Spell Casting Fury Mastery scale a bit more - Fixed Soul Abrasion to work with a few spells that it didn't work with before - Dire Charm *should* no longer break (this was actually patched earlier along with an emergency patch) - Mental Clarity and Body/Mind Rejuvenation now give mana regeneration both when standing and medding, as intended

    • Miscellaneous **

- Added a few new socials: /nudge, /pat, /flex, /fidget, /purr and /smack - Changed the automatic targeting code so that it won't automatically target someone that cast a beneficial spell on you - Adjusted the timing of the Luclin Spire activations to more closely match the announcements by the Scions. This has the net effect of reducing the time between portal activations

- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

January 17, 2002

    • Patch Update **

Today we are sending you a couple of new DLL files that should do the following:

- May improve performance in indoor Luclin zones

- Should improve zoning time in many cases, especially in zones with many objects/trees. May also reduce the "hitch" when other players zone in, though it probably won't remove it completely

- May reduce the cases where some players experience a performance reduction after being in a zone for a while

- Fixed a bug that was causing some portions of spell effects and the "bolts" in bolts spells to not show up.

- Generally improve stability.

How these changes affect individuals will vary, but we hope that this will improve game performance a bit over all.

- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

January 23, 2002 3:00 am

      • Patch Information ***


    • Quests **

- Ragefire portion of the Cleric Epic quest has been changed. Please see the Developer's Corner on our web site for more details - Added Quest NPCs to Thurgadin, Kael and Skyshrine for Beastlord quest armor - Gravel leaf tea will now fit in the combine container for the associated quest - Grimling Blood should now be dropping - Idia in the bard guild in Kelethin was telling you to turn in a quest item to the incorrect NPC. Changed quest text to reflect the correct NPC to hand the item to - In Iceclad, Keref Spiritspear won't be so unreasonable when you complete the task that he asks of you - Citizens in skyshrine no longer defend the 'vermin' spiders - Increased the drop rate of the Staff of Elemental Mastery: Earth - Bloody Shak Dratha Hearts should now be dropping - Quest of Nobility should now be working properly - Increased the spawn rate of Brother Qwinn tenfold


    • Items **

- Adjusted statistics on equipment that was dropping in the Umbral Plains. Many of the items had AC that was inconsistent with the armor types of the classes. The AC has been reduced on some pieces and raised on others. In all instances where the AC was dropped a different statistic was raised. Several items received a significant upgrade while others were downgraded - Also in regards to Umbral Plains armor, Ranger has been removed from the plate class armor that was dropping and have been added to the usable classes on the chain equivalent. Bards have been added to the plate equipment list. This might mean that some Rangers will have armor that they can't use. Our Customer Service personnel will trade out that armor for the chain equivalent - Ghoulbane is now No-Drop - SoulFire charges can only be used by Paladins (though they can be used from inventory) - Raised the armor value on many Beastlord specific armor pieces - Added effects to a few of the Wild Lord's armor pieces - Added Vah Shir to Imbrued Plate Mail useable races - Rhino Hide armor is now Druid and Monk usable - The Crustacean Shell Shield is now magic - Scroll of Knowledge can now be equipped in the primary, secondary, and range slots - Scroll of Enlightenment can now be equipped in the primary, secondary, and range slots - Thought Horror Fangs can now be thrown - Iron Scroll of War must now be worn to activate - Cloak of Thorns right click effect should work now - Runed Bone Fork is now equippable primary, secondary and ranged. The "range" value has been removed to prevent people from accidentally throwing them - Spider Fur Collar has been given weight 0.0 to be consistent with other pieces - Dark Cloak of the Sky must now be worn to activate - Sage's Crown is now No-Drop to match every other Velious quest armor - Icicle Circlet is now No-Drop to match every other Velious quest armor - Bone Collar of the Possessed should no longer cause players to crash when inventory is opened - Idol of Rallos Zek can now be used by ShadowKnights - Helm of Grim Blessings can now be used by Wood Elves - Flayed Skin Bracer is no longer a Lore item - Greaves of Avoidance can now be used by all races - Steel Threaded Wrist Wraps are no longer lore - Bravado's Breastplate now grants a larger Hit Point bonus - Guise of the Hunter can now also be worn by human bards and rogues - Primal Cudgel now has the proper effect - Added "Recommended Level" equal to the current item use level for the several items. All of these items require the player to be level 51+ to equip them and/or use their effects. Setting the "Recommended Level" field like this just lets the player know what level they need to be to use the item. The actual utility of the item was not affected in any way, this change is purely informational - Several items have been changed to be not useable by Iksar. They had been erroneously set as Iksar useable in the last item patch. These were primarily items that were usable by Beastlords (and were therefore changed to allow all Beastlord races to use them), but that had been specifically restricted from use by Iksar due to their inherent armor value

    • Zones **

- Shades in Umbral, Maiden's Eye and Vex Thall are now considered undead - Placed portals to and from Great Divide and Nexus - Added many new items to better round out the rewards for high-level Luclin encounters

    • Horses **

- Implemented horse trade in quests. There are now four stable hands who will buy back specific colored bridles located in the stables in the Bazaar - Being stunned will now stop players on horses. Not stopping them when stunned was causing warping and other bad things - Knockback spells, and spells that throw you into the air, now affect people on horses properly - Horses now levitate when their rider should. - Fixed a bug that was causing the client to crash when attempting to follow someone while on a horse. /follow should also now work when the person you are following is on a horse

    • Spells **

- Wizard Familiar spell scrolls will now increase in purchase cost with the spell level - Several spells will no longer be interrupted, spells such as the 'proc' generated by Instrument of Nife - Several spells that were not functioning in the planes have been fixed and now work in the planes - Bards should now gain singing skill when singing and should no longer gain skill in an instrument when they are not using one. - Characters are no longer damaged by damage shields when using throwing weapons - Atol's Spectral Shackles has had its casting difficulty reduced - Made some changes to Nature's Recovery to make it more stackable

    • Visual Issues **

- Wolves and warders should no longer appear to be very small - Characters no longer lose their hair or beard when their illusions wear off - Weapons should now appear properly (sometimes they wouldn't show up at all) when a player zoned in - Characters in wolf or bear form (or other races that aren't player races) should no longer have parts of them tinted based on the armor the player was wearing - Bear form should now look correct to people that zoned in after the spell was cast on them - May have fixed the problem with extra mouse cursor showing in game - Fixed a problem with NPCs, PCs and some objects not being visible in some zones (Wakening Lands, Plane of Growth, Emerald Jungle and Swamp of No Hope)

    • Performance Issues **

- More work on reducing zone times for Luclin city zones - "Hitch" created when player characters enter a zone should be gone now - Fixed a bug that could cause the client to crash in some cases where a character tried to purchase an item from a vendor but didn't have enough money - Characters with pets that zone (horses, familiars and warders) should now be able to zone from North Qeynos to Qeynos Hills

    • New Features **

- Holding shift while clicking the resolution in the options in game will reduce the resolution. If you are already in 640x480 though, this does nothing. Normal click increases the resolution as it always has and still wraps back to 640 after the highest resolution your machine supports. - Using 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions, the /wincolor command, and getting the inventory window in fullview mode are now available to all EverQuest players (these features were restricted only to Velious owners)

    • PvP **

- It is no longer possible to bandage others of the opposing deity team on Sullon Zek

    • Alternate Advancement Abilities **

- Lowered the reuse time on Rampage AA ability from 15 minutes to 10 minutes - Rampage is now fixed. Previously was only hitting one target - Mass Group Buff button should work properly when zoning - Casting Reinforcement should now work on all buffs cast, not just those cast on yourself - The Discipline Duelist should now be doing the correct damage when using Chaotic Stab - LifeBurn should now reset properly after being interrupted - Dire Charm should now reset properly after being interrupted - Fixed the Quick Buff ability to work as described - Leech Touch should refresh properly now - Exodus and Nexus Gate now have a casting time of 1/10th of a second

      • Do you want to join us? ***

So you got your Epic weapon... and now spend your free time holding weekly sight seeing tours to the Temple Veeshan, along with nightly Luclin lunar dinners. If on top of all this you know the name of more Dragons than relatives, we would like to invite you to apply to join our San Diego EverQuest QA Team! For more info please go to our Job Employment site ( http://www.station.sony.com ) to read up on all the juicy details. If you're interested please submit a resume, including your EQ playtime and information on characters owned.

- The EverQuest Quality Assurance Team

      • Fan Faire News ***
  • Congratulations to Union of Power! *

The guild Union of Power has the most pre-registered players attending the Fan Faire! This means that they will be given a two hour slot from 5-7:00 p.m. on Saturday in the Intel Arm Yourself for Adventure Game Room! Everyone else will be limited to an hour of play time.

  • Walk-ins *

Registration is closed, but we will be accepting walk-ins at the Dallas Fan Faire! However, there is a limited number of spaces left! Registration will be at 6:00 p.m. The cost for walk-in registration is $95 to be paid at the door.

Cindy Archuleta Community Relations Manager Sony Online Entertainment

.....................................................................

February 1, 2002

On Monday the 5th we'll be making a change to the way our Live and Test patching works.

A little while ago we combined our Test patcher with our Live patcher. The intent was to remove the confusion that having two patchers can cause and to encourage more people to play on Test.

Well, we're going back to the old way. We are going to split the Test patcher and the Live patcher back into two separate programs.

This means that in order to access the Test Server you will need to run TestEverQuest.exe, which you will find in your EverQuest directory. To play on the Live Servers just start EverQuest as you always have.

There are a few advantages to separating the two patchers. Splitting them up makes it a little easier, as a player, to be sure that you are headed to the right server when you double click the icon. It's also a little more intuitive for those that want to run the game in two directories.

Using two directories for EverQuest does use up a lot of hard drive space. However, for those with enough space that play regularly on both Test and on Live servers, this is a safer and faster way to work. Using the same directory means that each time you change servers (Live to Test or Test to Live) you will have to patch. The data on the Test Server is very rarely the same as that on Live servers.

And for us internally it makes it easier to test new patchers. It gives us one more step for testing. Now we can push a patcher to the Test Server and try it out there after internal testing and before it goes to the Live servers.

In any case, we've decided to move back to the old way. Starting on Monday, February 5th, 2002 you will need to run TestEverQuest.exe to patch and play on the Test server, and Everquest.exe to patch and play on the Live servers.

  • Patch Message Addendum *

The command line argument "/test" should no longer be used to play on the Test Server. Anyone using this should remove this argument from their shortcut. Please manually select "TestServer" from the Advanced Options window to use the Test Server. On Monday, February 05, TestEverQuest.exe will once again be used to patch and play on the Test Server.


- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

February 13, 2002 3:00 am

    • General **

- Improved sound for many users. Should eliminate a lot of the "choppy" sound issues - Fixed one of the link-death-while-zoning bugs - Characters who disconnect while zoning shouldn't be 'stuck' for an inordinate amount of time - Renamed all will-o-wisps and will o' wisps to Fred. - Reconsidered and changed Fred to willowisp. - Pets no longer pace. Pets will now, when close to you, STOP. - Many higher level NPCs now have a random delay before they initially spawn. This means that they will appear at a more random time interval after servers or zones are brought up. This is designed to provide a fairer distribution of these NPCs across all time zones - If you right click to auto-inventory an item that you are looting and it will not fit into your inventory, the item will simply appear on your cursor as if you had left clicked on it

    • Gameplay Related **

- NPC and PC corpses can now be /considered to find out how long until they decay, and PC corpses additionally tell you how long you have to resurrect them - The timer for corpses is now seven days for any corpse over level five, whether the player is on-line or off-line or any combination of the two - Characters below level eight will no longer see light blue cons - Spires will no longer try to teleport you to Luclin if you do not own the expansion, and therefore will no longer move you to the 'safe point' in the zone when it can't take you to the Nexus - Pets can now be targeted by typing their full name after the /target command (or at least enough of it to distinguish it from the owner) - Knockback now works correctly when on a horse - Summoning a horse in Plane of Sky will no longer allow you to levitate - Gating when in the same zone that you are bound no longer causes problems - Horses will no longer disappear when a character is moved to the 'safe point'


    • Trade Skill Related **

- Added several trade skill items to Grobb; including a brewing supply vendor, a brew barrel, a baking vendor, a standard forge, a pottery cooking mold vendor, a kiln, a pottery wheel, and a sketch vendor. - Added water flasks to two merchants in the Bazaar - Added high quality ore vendors to Bazaar, Kaladim, and Qeynos that sell a limited supply of HQ Ore - Fixed an inconsistency with the armor class of Enchanted Imbued Dwarven Plate compared to the armor class of other Dwarven-smithed plate armor - Batwing Pie, Bug Bites and Deadly Medley now exist - Repaired the recipe for Superior Gnomish Spirits\Gnomish Cleaning Substance - Increased the drop rates of cultural armor temper components - Added hilt mold vendors to more cities


    • Quest Related **

- Made adjustments to the Whistling Fists quest - Reduced the spawn time of the Zordak Ragefire in SoldungB. He will now reappear every 24 hours - Repaired some problems with the Luclin Owlbear Dart and Vah Shir Runed Totem quests


    • Spell Related **

- Eye of Zomm and Eye of Tallon are now non-KoS in a fashion similar to familiars - Koadic's Endless Intellect stacking has been fixed. If a player has Koadic's Endless Intellect on them and anyone casts Breeze, Clarity, Clarity 2, Boon of the Clear Mind, Gathering of the Mind, or Gift of Pure Thought on them, it will fail and the Koadic's will remain. - Mind Wrack gives mana instead of taking mana away - Charm is immediately removed from charmed NPC's when the character that charmed them casts invisibility - Made some small improvements to Marzin's Mark - Corrected some stacking issues with Nature's Recovery - Blast of Frost scroll has been made available for Beastlords - Self-only level 51+ spells will no longer fail to cast if the caster has a lower level character targeted. - Egress should once again force a 'zone' to clear aggro - The damage component of Elnerick's Entombment of Ice no longer causes the spell to have a chance at breaking its root component - Snakes in Lavastorm and Paineel are now animals - Hammerheads are now animals - Treants in the Plane of Growth are now plants - Timorous Deep gators, fish, and raptors are now animals - Rock Hoppers in Hollowshade Moor, Shar Vahl and Shadeweavers are now animals - Paludal and Fungusgrove Wetfang Minnows are now animals - Underbulks and Shik`Nar in Fungusgrove are now insects - Rhino Beetles in Shadeweavers Thicket and Hollowshade Moor are now insects - Shrooms in Fungusgrove are now plants - Lightcrawlers in Mons Seru are now insects

    • Zone Related **

- Fixed some of the pathing issues in Maiden's Eye - Dawnshroud Rockhoppers are now giving the proper faction hits - Fixed a pathing bug in Paludal Caverns that prevented NPCs from pursuing characters up cavern walls - Fixed a bug with the clipping plane in outdoor Luclin zones - The Oggok guards will be less friendly to Marsh Bears - Fixed some bugs in the Umbral Planes that were causing NPCs to get stuck - Added content in the Umbral Planes to make it more... entertaining

    • Alternate Advancement Related **

- Act of Valor should now work properly - Re-implemented the Improved Familiar ability. It will now summon an improved familiar that is better then the greater familiar and is very resistant to all spells. It is not immune to spells though, just extremely resistant. - Warcry should now work properly - Life Burn now considers hit points from items and should no longer be interrupted - Area Taunt should be no longer affect creatures on heights or floors above and below the warrior

    • Discipline Related **

- Added the following /disciplines for Beastlords: Level 51: The Discipline of Resistant Level 54: The Discipline of Fearless Level 55: The Discipline of Protective Spirit Level 60: The Discipline of Bestial Rage

    • Item Related **

- Expendable items no longer use mana when 'casting' a spell - Extra damage from either elemental or bane damage should now work for special attacks like backstab - Shield of Auras can now be used by Necromancers - All pieces of Black Pantherskin Armor are now Beastlord useable - Steelsilk Helm should now be visible when using the new models - Windspeeder's haste is now a permanent effect - Shield of Mental Fortitude is now actually a shield and also has a different graphic - Drape of the Deep Thinker now has a robe texture when equipped - Orb of Lost Souls can no longer be "Held" - Dark Cloak of the Sky from 'worn to activate' to 'Race/Class to activate'. The previous change that made it 'worn to activate' was an error. - Items that add bonuses to the Lock Pick skill should function properly now

    • Firiona Vie **

- The Trivial Loot Code present on the Roleplaying server will no longer affect items that are marked solely with the No-Drop flag. No- Drop items that are also Magic or Lore will continue to behave as they did prior to this patch.

- The EverQuest Team

    • Tales **

Grand Master Glox sat silently staring into the black waters of the Cabilis aqueducts, his thoughts tracing and retracing the recent visions that had upset his nights. The Lord Cazic was trying to tell him something, but he could not yet decipher what it was. The hand on his shoulder startled him and he turned quickly, striking the intruder with a quick blow to the chest. The figure crumpled to the cold ground.

Glox stood over him with a look of horror, it was one of his own pupils he had struck. He lay bloodied and bruised at Glox's feet breathing heavily with much effort, he was obviously dying. The pupil reached up toward Glox with something in his hand. Glox took the items from his hand and peered at them intently. There were two items, one was a glistening serpentine scale, the other an ancient stone symbol. Glox recognized the symbol almost immediately with horror. It was the symbol of the Soriz, the ancient Iksar tribe that had been the slaves of the Shissar empire. Glox looked down at his pupil again. "Where did you get this?" The dying Iksar used his last ounce of energy to point up toward the night sky and the moon of Luclin. "sSs... Ssraeshza... has... returned..."

    • A Call to Arms! **

Have you long dreamed of aiding your fellow adventurer? Do you enjoy travelling the world and meeting new and interesting people? Are you over the age of 18 with an EverQuest account in good standing and some free time? If so, then the EverQuest Guide Program may be for you! If you feel compelled to join our ranks, point your web browser to https://guide.everquest.com/guideapp/ and fill out an application!

.....................................................................

February 17, 2002 3:00 am

- Increased the drop rate on some 55-60th level Kunark spells that were overly rare. - Added water and high quality ore to vendors in the Bazaar, as promised in the Feb 13 patch. - Fixed a spawn problem in north Temple of Veeshan. - Fixed a few minor issues with the Whistling Fists quest.

- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

February 25, 2002 3:00 am

- Fixed a problem with the Gnome sitting animation

- Fixed a bug that was causing some people to crash when repeatedly right-clicking spell gems

- Made adjustments for Quellious monks attempting to do Iksar Shackle quests

- Fixed a bug in the way that Alternate Experience was being distributed. Extra experience was being generated for an ungrouped character with all experience going to the Alternate Experience pool. Too little experience was going into the Alternate Experience pool for people grouped that were applying less than 100% of their experience to the Alternate Experience pool.

- Fixed stacking issues with Circle of Seasons and Talisman of Epuration

- Wild Lord's armor effects are now level restricted

- Fixed a bug with necromancer pets that was preventing them from gaining the healing benefit of lifetaps. It turns out that this was affecting all NPCs. It should now be working properly for both pets and NPCs.

      • Fan Faire Registration is Open ***

Registration has opened for the Seattle Fan Faire! We will be at the Doubletree Seattle Airport Hotel on April 19-20. Register early and join us for a great time! Visit http://everquest.station.sony.com/fanfaire/en/index.jsp for registration and all of the details!

.....................................................................

March 7, 2002

    • Patch Information ***

- Fixed a problem with Alternate Advancement ability Combat Fury that was causing rangers using archery and rogues using throwing to have a lesser chance to critical than normal. This did not affect warriors

- We think we've fixed many of the issues that were causing 1018 errors. At the very worst players should be able to log back in faster now

- Fixed a problem that was causing quests to give no Alternate Experience to a character when that character had all experience going into their Alternate Experience pool

- Fixed a bug that was causing Claw of the Savage Spirit, Earthen Band and Breastplate of Day to show a negative statistic modifier

- Fixed an issue with some ATI-based video cards that was causing the inventory screen to flash

- All Levitation spells will now be stripped when entering a no- levitation zone. There was a bug that caused the game to only strip the first Levitation spell found

- Earrings of Endless Speed are now no-drop

- Fixed a bug that was displaying erroneous and duplicate faction messages

- Also added some Tradeskill recipes for items dropping in Akheva and Maidens eye

- Tradeskills (including Alchemy and poison) now take %skill modifying items and buffs into consideration

- Scallywag's Arm Plates (Legends Only) are now wearable in the arms slot (was errantly flagged for the chest slot)

- All soft wicker pieces are now wearable by Beastlords

    • A Tale **

Prime Heirophant Vek leaned over and looked into the jeweled case silently. The young mystic behind him nervously fingered the cudgel hanging from his belt. He knew what was coming. The hold of the faceless had firmly taken hold of his heart and was beginning to squeeze.

Vek turned to him quietly and simply said, "Find them." He then walked silently out of the room.

Hierophant Zand turned to the young Mystic, "Do as he has asked. Do not return until you have the skulls of the ancients in your possession." The young Mystic stumbled as he ran out of the room, visibly shaking.

Zand looked down into the empty skull case. Something glittered softly in the corner of the case. Zand reached in and picked up a small earring, emblazoned with the symbol of the Kunzar.

Zand walked quietly out of the room, and somewhere the soul of a dead emperor laughed with unholy malice.

    • Another Tale **

Halor slashed frantically at the creature before him. He swung down hard, cleaving the great worm in two. Unfortunately there were many more were that came from. Bauric climbed over a rock and stood next to Halor, fighting off another of the worms.

Halor suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right heel and spun violently around, causing his journals to fly out of his pack and onto the hard stone floor. He swung at the worm larva with his sword knocking it away, but too late. The worm had wounded him badly, he could no longer hold himself up on the wounded ankle and he fell to the floor with a crash. Bauric cried out in pain as one of the larger worms bit into his arm. That was the last thing Halor saw before the horde of worms squirmed across the stones and overcame them.

- The EverQuest Team

.....................................................................

March 19, 2002

We wanted to start by letting everyone know how grateful we are for all of the suggestions for improvements that we've received both in EMail and on the various class and server boards. We appreciate all the help you've provided us.

Changes for Low Level Characters

- Characters no longer lose experience for death below level 11 - Characters now begin first level with a stack of 20 food and drink - Items no longer appear on a corpse if you are below level 10, they reappear with the character - When a character "dings" level 10 you will be informed that your items will now be on your corpse - Characters will no longer appear with a Tome of Discord. They must get one from the Priest of Discord - New resurrection, evacuate and corpse summoning spells have been added at lower levels - We've moved the newbie bind points closer to where characters first start out, not outside in their newbie areas - Halflings and Gnomes have new classes available to them: Halfling Rangers and Paladins as well as Gnome ShadowKnights and Paladins. All of the necessary NPCs and items should be available for these new classes

Alternate Advancement Abilities

- Divine Stun is now an activated ability on a 30 second reuse timer with a chance to interrupt NPCs up to level 60 - Most targeting issues with Alternate Advancement abilities should be fixed - Rampage should now consider all viable targets, including PvP targets - Metabolism should be working properly now - Scribble Notes should reduce memorization times to an even greater extent than it did before

Spells/Songs

- Fixed a bard lockup bug that would occur randomly with during cast time - Fixed a song bug that was causing songs to be stuck on, triggered by contact proc buffs procs (such as Boon of the Garou) - The new Cleric and Paladin Resurrection line of spells are now available on vendors - The new corpse summoning spell is now available on vendors, as are the appropriate coffins - The new Evacuate spells are now available on vendors - Memory Blur, Mind Wipe, Blanket of Forgetfulness, Memory Flux, Glamour of Kintaz and Rapture have been given a greater chance of clearing the 'hate list' - Glamour of Kintaz and Rapture also have longer durations - Egress and Abscond have a reduced mana cost and a lesser chance to fizzle - Judgement has been improved to make it a better upgrade from the previous spell in the spell line - Shaman group buff spells (Tumultuous Strength and the Talisman spells - Cat, Brute, Rhino, and Raptor) have been improved to be more in line with the single target versions of those spells. - Added a new line of spells for Magicians that summons focus items - /pet get lost will now kill the buff as well as the familiar - Marzin's Mark now stack with Protection of the Glades - Improved the way that Abolish Disease/Poison and Counteract Disease/Poison work - Fixed it so that whenever a player loses the chance to click on a resurrection dialogue box (such as entering the inventory screen), the game will react as if the user had clicked "no". This should prevent cases where the player can not be resurrected unless they logged out - "Sense" spells should now work while on a horse - Shield of Auras effect has had a stacking issue with Clarity fixed and the component removed - Skin of Shadow has had its night only restriction removed - Demi Lich is now a level 56 spell - Arch Lich has been improved - Translocate spells no longer require that the target be grouped with the caster. Also, the dialog box for this spell will remain longer - Added Sicken and Tainted Breath to a merchant in Shar Vahl - Levitation spells now check to see if you have a second Levitation type spell when it wears off before hurling you to the ground - Eye of Tallon has a longer duration - Spell memorization speed should now take +Meditate% skill items into account - Bard song memorization time should now be faster and is affected by attributes

Zones

- Changed safe spot in Kedge Keep to actually be a safe spot - The Beastlord trainer in Firiona Vie is now more friendly to Beastlords of all types - Vyzh`dra the Cursed has been adjusted to help balance the risk versus reward associated with the encounter

Items

- Sleeper's Tomb Key is now Soulbound - Wand of Casual Blessings is not longer usable by Half-Elves, and is usable by Dark Elves and Gnomes. It also now looks like a staff and not a bag - Corrected some of the Velious quest helm graphics. All helms of this type are no longer displaying a graphic (as intended) and the 'customized' plate helms should all now have graphics (also as intended) - Custom Malevolent Crown should now be the same color as the rest of the armor set - The Beastlord Epic item has been changed to be more in line with other epic items - Grimling Tribal Headdress is now a "head" item and should be equippable - Thexian Loop has had its Haste increased - Headband of Many Visions now grants Deadeye instead of See Invisible - Shield of the Swamp should now have a graphic - Shield of Auras should now have a graphic

Combat

- Pets are now more likely to avoid NPC ripostes - Wizards now have an inherent chance to score a critical blast with their damage spells after 11th level. This ability does not lessen the chance of scoring a critical hit with Alternate Experience abilities that grant criticals

Client/Interface

- Added /dopropertinting command. This command allows you to turn on and off the "DoProperTinting" option in the eqclient.ini file. Activating this command should correct most tinting issues (such as armor tint also tinting the character's skin). But if it causes issues you can toggle it off by using /dopropertinting off - Added /chat commands, that allow players to create their own chat channels. Please read the eqmanual_supplement.doc in your EverQuest directory for more information - Added /hitsmode command. This command allows you to more finely control how you see hits, including seeing them in a window other than your chat window. Please see the eqmanual_supplement.doc for more details - Added /clearhits to clear the current hits in the M2-M5 modes of the /hitsmode command. Again, please see the eqmanual_supplement for more information - Added /showgrass command. This toggles the radial flora (Luclin only) on and off - Added options in the Options screen (under Chat Filter) for filtering out Melee and Spell criticals. Options are All/Me/Off. These can also be activated using the /filter command, and will affect critical hit, critical blast, exceptional heal, and crippling blow messages - Changed /filter to allow you to toggle the various chat filter settings (still also lets you toggle the badwords filter) - Changed /channel to allow you to set your default chat channel. It also now saves this setting in the INI file - Changed the /targetgroupbuff command to be 'persistent'. The state of the switch will be stored in the eqclient.ini file and will be remembered when you log out or zone - Fixed the double messages received when "Soandso's song ends" - Mend should be working properly. "Can not use Mend for x seconds" can still appear, but you now should be able to use mend at the appropriate time - Fixed bug in the client that caused a "You are out of Ammo message" even when you still had ammo - Messages should no longer be lost while you are zoning - Corpses that are made to appear at the "safe spot" of a zone for any reason can now be moved using /corpse as long as the person using the command has /consent for that corpse - Added "AllLuclinPcModelsOff" line to the eqclient.ini file which, if set to TRUE, will skip the loading of all of the Luclin PC models (except the Vah Shir, which always gets loaded no matter what this is set to). This should allow players to set the loading of each race and sex individually for their normal game play, but then quickly turn all models off for a raid or other such circumstances - Added /rtarget function (can be used as /rt). This function targets the last character to send you a /tell. It follows all of the rules for /target - Messages sent to you while you are zoning should be saved and sent to you when you reach the other side of the zone. Messages should no longer be lost while zoning (unless zoning takes more than about 10 minutes for any reason) - You should be able to keep typing whatever you were in the middle of typing when you zoned... but it might not be processed till you're in the new zone - If someone is on your ignore list and they do a /random, you shouldn't see it anymore

Pathing

- Corrected some pathing in Ak'Anon that was preventing some NPCs from reaching certain areas - Corrected some pathing issues in Acrylia Caverns - Corrected a problem with the entrance from Hollowshade Moor into Paludal Caverns that was preventing Beastlord Warders from entering the zone

Miscellaneous

- Many cases where characters would stab themselves with their weapons when sitting should have been eliminated. - Player characters no longer broadcast their location when they are stationary. This should reduce the resources used and improve gameplay. - Fixed a problem that was causing some users to see blocky, unblended terrain where terrain types meet. - Critical hit messages from spells now take into account PvP damage calculations. The actual damage was calculated correctly, it was just displaying wrong on the critical message. - Fixed canoes, they should move forward and backwards normally again. - We have been working to prevent characters from being stuck in the game after link death in such a way that prevents the player from logging back in. Players should be able to log back in no more than 5 minutes after going link dead in all situations. - Added Sharvahl as a "home zone" for Vahshir when taking PvP racial faction hits into account . - We have fixed the ATI flashing problem that some players with certain cards were having when inventory window was up.

Retrieved from "https://eqarchives.com/w/index.php?title=Luclin_Patch_History&oldid=256"