Hailing Quest NPC Distance Change Intended, Although Not So Close

The stealth change made in the January 13, 2011 patch forcing you to be on top of an NPC to get a quest update was intended. However, the distance was made too short. It is expected that you will not be able to hail them across the zone but should not need to be in their lap.

I agree the range has been made too small. We'll be bumping it up. But not leaving it wide open like it was before.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

Read more about in in this SOE forums thread.

UPDATE:

Here is a bit more on the issue:

The bug has been in the system for a long time, and was considered an "exploit" (being able to hail an NPC from across the zone). We rarely put exploit fixes in the patch notes. What was accidental was making the range only 20 feet. That will be changed to 100 feet next patch.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

UPDATE:

So with next patch it'll be 100ft with no special consideration of z axis. Restriction is only placed on hails that trigger a task step. If there is no matching task step on the NPC no error is given. The NPC name will be formatted properly in the "too far away" message.

- Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Lead Programmer

.

Servers Down Monday Jan 10, 2011

From the SOE forums:

Beginning at 10pm PST on Monday, January 10th, ALL SOE games, subscription and commerce services will be unavailable for maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately ten hours.

This might cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume the affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

.

"Floating Ball" Mob Pet Issues to be Addressed

The floating ball NPCs such as the daydream in Morrell's Castle or the wraiths in Fear Itself are not targetable nor attackable by regular pets. In addition, they "warp" during combat.

We are aware of the issue and working on a solution. Unfortunately it is not a quick fix.

These are "Invisible Eye of Zomm" NPC's with actor tags in their hands.

They move really weird because the client has them constantly spinning, so when the server tels it to move, the client gets out of sync with the server, so they "warp"

Additionally... for some exploit prevention, eye of zomm NPC's cannot be attacked by NPC's... and well, your pets are NPC's (In this weird case, I think mercs act as PC's)

We did not know this before we made them. We are working on a solution, but it is taking some extra time.

This issue discussed in this SOE forums thread.
.

Patch Scheduled January 13, 2011

Details have not been officially posted yet, however:

The new tradeskill guy added stat to food and drink that was missing it. Something was done for that charged drink as well.

It should go into the January 13th patch.

UPDATE:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be coming down on Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 12:00 am US Pacific (US Pacifc-PST is -8 GMT: 1:00 am MST, 2:00 am CST, 3:00 am EST, 8:00 am GMT, 9:00 am CET) for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for 8 hours. Keep an eye on the EQ Players website and the forums for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

.

Game Down For Three Hours on Tuesday Jan 11, 2011

From this SOE forums post:

Beginning at 12am PST on Tuesday, January 11th, ALL SOE games, subscription and commerce services will be unavailable for maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately three hours.

This might cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume the affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

.