Developer Chat - January 24, 2007

It seems there was a developer chat on January 24th. So far no official logs have been posted by SOE but here is a link to a log:

Developer Chat - January 24, 2007

Developer Chat - January 19, 2007

The log to the January 19 Developer Chat is here.

Official Word On Stealth Spell Changes

Most of these changes are already on Live (sans the Rank III turn-in). Please let me know if you have any questions!

* A vendor named The Quiet Wanderer [location n193, p1633] has moved into Sunderock Springs. He offers spells and abilities of the calming persuasion, including several which were not previously available: Song: Whispersong of Veshma, Spell: Drifting Fog, Spell: Dulcify, Spell: Nature’s Placidity, Spell: Quiet Mind, and Tome of Phantom Silhouette.

* Based on feedback from the Druid community, Wildskin and Blessing of the Wild have been replaced on a one-for-one basis with Blistering Sunray and Sunscorch. The old spells will be replaced with the new ones.

* Based on feedback from the Cleric community, Rectitude and Cure Corruption have been replaced with Blessing of Purpose and Ward of the Dauntless. Rectitude was swapped on a one-for-one basis with Blessing of Purpose. However, because Cure Corruption is used by multiple classes the spell could not be swapped directly with Ward of the Dauntless, so clerics can simply no longer use the Cure Corruption spell. Turning in a Rank III spell rune while you have Cure Corruption Rank III scribed will result in a copy of Ward of the Dauntless Rank III and a return of the spell rune. Aside from that, Cure Corruption can be deleted from the spell book.

* The statistics on the items created by Summon Aenda’s Trinkets have been improved.

* The number of “procs” that Steeltrap Jaws can fire before fading have been doubled.

* Skin to Vines will now work on a wider variety of NPC targets.

- Prathun, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Drakkin and Armor Dye Changes

Drakkin should be able to dye their armor after the next patch. This is a temporary solution while the developers work to implement a new armor dye system.

Read all about it here.

Next Expansion Announced

SAN DIEGO, CA – January 12, 2007 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced EverQuest® The Buried Sea™, a new expansion for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), EverQuest. EverQuest The Buried Sea will only be available via digital download beginning February 13th, for the suggested retail price of U.S. $29.99.

Read the full press release containing details on what to expect here.

Official EverQuest Forum Transition January 18th

Greetings EverQuest Community!

On Thursday, January 18, 2007 Sony Online Entertainment will be transitioning the EverQuest Official Forums to an internal forum solution. Transitioning to this new system gives us the opportunity to offer new functionality, as well as update the system as often as needed as well as allowing us to add new features and perform necessary maintenance.

Your Forum Handles, post counts, posts, etc., will be transferred from the existing forums to the new forums. Bookmarks, subscriptions, friends lists, floated threads, etc . . . will most likely not transfer over. If you currently use any of these, you will want to make note of them before the transition, so that you can set them up once again, after the transition occurs.

Forum Ranks (titles) will go thru some changes. However, you will automatically receive the appropriate new ranks and titles upon login. Those of you with specialized forum ranks and privileges will be adjusted after the launch of the new forums or shortly thereafter.

During the transition period, the forums will be down for 48 hours. A single temporary board will be available during this time. Data will not be transferred from the temporary forum, so don’t get too comfortable there. If any of this information changes, we will post the updated information on the official website.

Once the new forums are live we will provide more information on all of the new features.

Thank you and see you on the new forums!

Kytherea [EQ Community Relations Manager]~~fear the Halfling that wields a giant hammer & is accompanied by a hairless War Hamster~~

"We're off to bash the {insert character class here}"

The post is here.

TSS Progression to be Streamlined

I'm in agreement that the progression is in need of streamlining. Some changes are already in testing and due to make their way to Live servers soon, and others will follow. We're not looking to eliminate the single-group stuff. It's been a part of the progression paradigm for the past several years and it works. However, we are looking to make it less time-consuming. - Prathun, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Update 02/11/2007:

I understand your frustration with the TSS progression. Refactoring the TSS progression will be my first task after we launch TBS and wrap up any launch issues. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

Update is here.

Update 02/18/2007:

Changes to the Frostcrypt Progression should go out with our next patch. Ashengate progression changes will be next after that. My changes involve making more tasks repeatable without needing to do a "set" of tasks and raising the faction gains pretty much across the board for the tasks. I think it will take about half the time it takes now to get Ally with the Wraithguard Leadership. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

This post is here.

EQ Players January Status

EQ Players has posted a January Status report.

The full thread is here.

Dreadspire Skeletons' Vision Goggles to be Seized

The skeletons in Dreadspire have been using contraband goggles to see people with Invisibility versus Undead on them. A raid by the Nerf Police of Norrath is in the works to confiscate them.

It's fixed [the skeletons seeing through Invisibility versus Undead] on Test / Beta but not on Live. - Prathun, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

EQ Players Issues

People using the EQ Players service have reported many problems. In a strange (for Sony) development, a status report has been issued.

Hello,

We are starting the new year here at SOE, and we are commited to providing the best service we can for EQ Station Players. The service has most definitely not been abandoned, and we are currently working on support for the next expansion. We have continually been making improvements, but not announced them in the past. The feeling here has always been "Just one more fix, and then we do a big announcement", which is what has led to buttons showing up on pages with no explanation, or fixes slowly showing up with noone to explain why. We are changing that mentality, so that we have more open communication of the fixes coming out and so that you are more aware of the fact that we hear the issues you are bringing to us, and working on resolving them. In this thread, I will create a list of known issues which we are tracking and try to keep you up to date on the status of those things. Please let us know about any issues you are seeing, and please let us know if there is something you would like to see that you aren't. This service is ultimately for our players, and your feedback is essential to keep it that way.

David Bennett
Platform

This is a list of known issues. This list is to track system-wide issues which are causing problems for many or all of our customers, if your individual issue does not show up in this list that does not mean we are ignoring it, we deal with individual issues through Private Messages or posts.

Known Issues:

1. My Character Doesnt Show Up - This is a known issue which happens when people are restored from a delete, or get into a state which would cause us to mark them as deleted. We are working on removing any situation where your character is not restored in both places, but until then you need to email your Character Name, Server Name, and Station Name to eqplayersqa@soe.sony.com.
2. Not all TSS Items are showing up.
3. /paperdoll does not always work, and the saved image does not upload correctly.
4. The Test Server is not populating data into EQ Players.

Enhancements:

1. On Leaderboards - instead of sorting by Flying Kick Skill, sort by Flying Kick Worn Mods.
2. A List of all Item Stat Mod totals.
3. Profile Items link to Item Details, instead of Character Inventory.

David Bennett
Platform

The full thread is here.

Item / Spell Timer Issue To Be Fixed

This problem affects all items which cast or proc a spell which is the same as a player cast spell. It was mainly noticed with the DA hammer. Characters who cast the DA spell found that the DA hammer would not proc during the 15 minute DA spell refresh time.

Found the problem...

Looks like its caused by linked spell timers. Any item that is activating a PC spell that has a linked spell timer will use up the timer for any other spell on that same timer (including itself). It's just how linked spell timers work.

There's about 30 items that are affected, including the DA hammer. To fix this, I'm going to create new versions of the spells that aren't PC usable and attach those to the items. Should go out next time we patch items and spells to live servers.

Rashere, Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

"A Daring Rescue" Task To Be Fixed

After slaying the Arbiter of Ash, the NPC Hidaga appears and must be hailed. However, on occasion, Hidaga will remain up for only about 20 seconds.

Hey everyone -- here is a little information behind this quest -- Hidaga currently only gives out 12 quest completions per spawn, which may have been why she left in a hurry. Also, once the first player completes their quest by hailing her, she only waits for a short while before porting out unless another player comes to her with the quest. I have removed this timed departure, so she will now wait around for much longer, but will still only complete up to 12 quests.

On a side note, I increased the spawn rate on the Arbiter to be more in line with other rares found in the zone. I hope this helps. - Celrak, EQ Designer

I've just increased the amount of time this NPC will remain up to 30 minutes but Hidaga will still only give out a set number of flags before despawning. I'm passing it to QA and we'll get it out to the Live servers as soon as possible after it clears QA. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

EverQuest Newsletter?

Yes, I just discovered that there actually is an official EverQuest Newsletter that Sony supposedly sends out quarterly. It seems like it is a secret, but I'm going to let the word out :).

To sign up for it, go here.

I think they should do it monthly but at least it is something. As soon as I start to receive the newsletter, I'll post links to it in case you are interested in checking it out without signing up.

Developer Chats

I've been slacking with keeping this blog up to date. As a result, some past Developer Chats were not posted here. Here are the links to them:

House of Commons Dev Chat Log - November 29, 2006

House of Commons Dev Chat Log - December 20, 2006 (Note that the page says November 29 even though this is the December 20 chat)

The next Developer Chat is scheduled for January 24, 2007.

Ferocity VII Broken

It looks like the min_damage_done modifier on Ferocity VII isn't providing any useful bonus to min damage. This is something that we'll need to look into further. - Prathun, EQ Developer

The full thread is here.

Dimensional Instability AA To Be Adjusted

Currently the Dimensional Instability AA will shadowstep you for a maximum distance of 9,000. This can create problems. Other shadowstep abilities have a maximum distance of 50 or 900.

You're right. After confirming with Code that the range is the max distance you can be ported with the spell I changed this AA to a much lower value. I'll pass this on to QA for verification and we'll go from there. - Nodyin, EQ Developer

The full thread is here.

Glyph AA Stacking Failure To Be Fixed

The new TSS Glyph expendable AAs currently use up the three AAs spent on them even when the ability fails due to stacking issues.

I'll talk to Rashere when we get back into the office and see if we can get this changed so if the ability "bounces" for any reason you do not lose it. It's a code change, however, so I'm not in control of when it gets implemented. - Nodyin, EQ Developer

The full thread is here.

"Bane Weapon" Charm Problem To Be Fixed

The Worn Iron Rallosian Relic charm currently has no stats unless you equip a bane weapon. However, there are no bane weapons in the TSS expansion.

This is on my list of things to fix, I agree that it's kind of dumb to have a charm like this with no bane weapons in the expansion. - Merloc, EQ Developer

The full thread is here.

Quest History Limited To 50 Tasks

The Quest History tab that is part of the task window (officially called the Quest Journal) only lists the last 50 tasks you have done.

When you complete more than 50 tasks, the oldest one is removed from the list. Thus, it only lists the last 50.

Read more about it here.