Failure to Target Group Members by Clicking Their HP Bug

Not being able to target group members by left clicking their HP is a bug and has been fixed internally. - J. Chan, Senior Programmer - Everquest

It is not yet known when the fix will go live.

The full thread is here.

New Pet Functionality Coming Soon

After the new pet functionality has been pushed, the following are some of the new pet features you will have!

1) New pet UI! You will be able to assign buttons to all pet commands in the pet window!

2) Pet target will be displayed under your pets hp bar so you will always know who your pet is attacking!

3) Toggleable buttons throughout the pet UI for sit/stant, focus, hold, taunt, and spell hold!

4) New pet text based commands! You will now be able to toggle all states off or on, or simply toggle the state with a pet text based command. For example, /pet focus on, /pet focus off.

5) New pet attack command will switch your pet to attack the new target regardless of AA's or level. Great for new and low level players! (Old command will still exist as qattack which is what it always should have been).

6) New pet hold functionality! (Ever had your pet not hold properly? Ever have your pet run off and aggro a mob somewhere far away in the zone? Ever have to spam pet back? Well, not anymore!)

7) New pet focus + pet hold functionality (call this pet state "pet convergence" )! This is what the players really wanted, now, when you turn on both the focus and hold states, your pet will attack SPECIFICALLY what you want it to and when finished won't attack or aggro or do anything else! No more pet back, no more of your pet doing anything but what you exactly want it too! Pets not allowed in raids because they might run off, aggro some mobs, and wipe the group? Nah, this ain't happening with the new changes!

8) Improved /pet back off. Fully clears the hate list and stops your pet from doing whatever it was doing before.

9) Bug fixes for: focus failing to work properly when aggroed in certain situations, PERSISTENT pet states now hold on zoning, on logout, and are will now be 100 percent persistent.

10) Coming soon, new and updated full and complete documentation of all these changes!

juhans-DEV
EverQuest Programmer

The full thread is here.

Emergency Patch December 11, 2008

This message was shown in game:

MESSAGE OF THE DAY: Greetings Norrath! There will be a scheduled patch tonight at 2 a.m. Thursday 12/11/08 with an estimated downtime of 2 hours. We apologize for the short notice, please plan accordingly. Thank You!

It is to be assumed that the 2 a.m. refers to USA Pacific Time.

UPDATE:

...tonight's patch is only to fix Win98/ME issues. - Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Assistant Lead Programmer

The post by S. Klug is here.

Powersources Due to Only Drain During Combat

After the next patch (expected about Dec. 9 or Dec. 10) powersources will only use their power while you are in combat mode. (Note, as always, planned changes might not be in the next patch due to more time needed. If so, it might take a bit longer.)

The full thread is here.

SoD Quest Item Storage NPC to be Changed

A new NPC in the Guild Lobby, Flavin Deeppockets, will hold on to some of your SoD quest items for you. This will save you some bank space. Just hand him an item and he will hold it. It will cost you 1 doubloon per item to get an item back. He is east of the magus.

He is soon to be changed, however:

Sorry it took so long to get back on this, but I had to do some research on what was and wasn't possible in the system before I could make a determination.

The SoD quest NPC will be changed to use chronobines instead of doubloons and will buy any of your quest items for 1 chronobine as well. So you'll only ever actually be losing chronobines if you're buying an item you've destroyed or lost in some other maner.

It's important to note that he won't purchase the combined pieces, only the individual quest rewards.

-Ryan, EQ Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

Patch Scheduled October 31, 2008

A patch is scheduled at 2am PDT. The patch is expected to take 3 hours.

LoN Ethernauts Promotion = 5 Free Packs Per Month But None to Drop In Game

From October 9, 2008 through February 11, 2009, current EverQuest and EverQuest II subscribers with paid subscriptions in good standing will receive five non-tradable Ethernauts booster packs per month included with their EverQuest or EverQuest II subscription at no additional cost, for their personal collection.

During this promotional period, the booster pack in-game drops in EverQuest and EverQuest II will be suspended, and will resume on February 12, 2009.

See the full description of the Promotion here.

Huge Increase in HP and Mana Not Intended

People logging on after the last patch found a nice surprise, their hit points and mana had increased quite a bit. Too bad it is a bug.

It was not supposed to go up as much as it did from what I'm hearing. So don't expect it to stay that way forever. Enjoy it while you can. - Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Assistant Lead Programmer

The full thread is here.

Patch Scheduled October 29, 2008

From SOE forums:

All EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be brought down at 1:00 am PDT on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 for a Game Update. The servers are estimated to be down for 7 hours and are due to come back up on at 8:00am. (PDT is -7 GMT: 9:00am MDT, 10:00am CDT, 11:00am EDT, 3:00pm GMT)

Missing Bonus Items to be Fixed Next Patch

10-24-08: Status Update: Any pending issues with bonus items will be resolved with the next Game Update which is pending for next week. - Zatozia, EQ Community Relations Manager

The full thread is here.

No Stats New Jewelery To Be Fixed

New Compartmented Dwarvium and Temporite jewelery are not showing any stats.

Found the bug. Fixed it... but it needs a data patch to go live. I am not sure when the next data patch will be. ...It is looking like next week, though I do not have a specific day (it sounds like Wednesday... but sometimes this post launch patches get pushed a day to Thursday) - Dev-Ngreth, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Oceangreen Quest Pieces Bug to be Fixed

Various quests in Oceangreen are supposed to give you pieces which would later be combined to create something. However, many people are not receiving the pieces.

So after doing some checking, it seems this is real, and is a problem..

However.. There will be a simple way for people to receive the items necessary without having to petition. - Elidroth, EQ Designer

We are implementing something to allow people to NOT have to carry all the myriad parts of these quests around all the time taking up inventory space.

This same system will actually allow people who have lost the item, or in this case did not receive it due to some missing data, to also get the item if they have completed the appropriate content (quest, mission... or whatever the appropriate content was)

There will be more information on this in the future. - Dev-Ngreth, EQ Designer

it is mostly done, it just needs some testing and confirmation that it works.

Assuming it works properly, it should go in shortly after launch. (since it is all but done) We are just in lockdown to try and prevent last minute changes from causing bugs. - Dev-Ngreth, EQ Designer

There wasn't a chance to get this NPC tested before launch. We chose to hold it until after launch rather than send it live undtested. We'll get it in soon. - AbsorEQ, EQ Asst. Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

"Unknown Spell" in Custom UI Short Buff Window to be Fixed

"Ok, this is fixed and should be in the next patch. I need to do some digging to see why it broke in the first place to make sure my fix isn't breaking something else, but barring anything odd, it should be good." - Steven S. Klug, EverQuest Assistant Lead Programmer

See the entire thread here.

Patch Scheduled September 5, 2008

In order to fix a crashing issue, all EverQuest Live Servers (except Al'Kabor) will be brought down around 2:00 am PDT on Friday, September 5, 2008 for an emergency update. They are estimated to be down for 2 hours. (PDT is -7 GMT: 3:00am MDT, 4:00am CDT, 5:00am EDT, 9:00 GMT)

Reuse Delay Gone for Portal to Banner [Revised]

As of the September 3, 2008 patch, the 15 minute delay to reuse the Guild Portal to the Guild Banner appears to be gone. Before then, if you used the portal to go to the banner, you would have to wait 15 minutes before you could do so again. Now, it appears you can use the portal without delay.

No word in the patch message or from the Devs on this.

[EDIT: It appears that the reuse delay is still there. When the banner was tested before, their was no reuse delay, however, it has been reported that the delay is still functioning.]

See Inviso 2.0 Item Bug to be Fixed

I'm sure almost everyone is aware of how putting a see invis aug on an item with faerune allows a player to see a rogue that is using SOS. Is that supposed to happen or is that just a mess up in coding? Sorry if this has been asked before, but I have only heard different answers from different players, and never a definitive answer from a Dev. Thanks! - Sirrod

It's a bug that will be fixed soon. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

No More Multiple Evolving Lore Items

In the next patch evolving items that are lore will be going onto linked lore groups.

If you somehow acquired two versions of the same evolving item one of them will be removed after the patch.

I don't think this will affect most players, but this is a heads up just in case.

- Merloc, EQ Designer

What does this mean? It means if you get an evolving item that is lore, you won't be able to have two of them in different states of evolving.

The full thread is here.

Stealth Change to Healing Clickys

When someone mentioned that healing items were critically healing and being affected by healing AAs, one of the Devs responded:

Actually, it is an intended behavior. I intentionally added it.

While fixing the heal crit issues, I had a discussion with Rytan and Prathun about item-based heal spells. We decided that heal spells from items should be focusable, but only from AAs.

Nuke clicks should be unaffected.

Enjoy!

- Bembaru, EQ Coder

The full thread is here.

Flagging / Keying Change Due "Soon"

New news from SOE:

As I'm sure most of you are aware, backflagging has been a hot topic for EQ for quite a while now. The complex flagging mechanisms for older expansions can make it difficult for guilds that take on new people to experience the content they are wanting to do. With the sheer amount of content between Qeynos and Crystallos it can be extremely difficult for new players to catch up with their friends in any reasonable time frame.

So, in order to make it easier for players to access appropriate content we would like to make some changes to previous flags. All of the existing flags will stay in place, as will the various quest rewards that were additional benefits to their completion. However, the following zones will have an alternate entry criteria of a minimum level. It's important to know that either the previous key OR the new minimum level is required to enter the zone, not both.

Required Level 46

1. The Howling Stones
2. Old Sebilis
3. Cobalt Scar

Required Level 55

1. Veeshan's Peak
2. Vex Thal
3. Sleeper's Tomb
4. Locked areas of the Temple of Ssraeshza

Required level 57

1. Bastion of Thunder
2. Halls of Honor
3. The Temple of Marr
4. Tower of Solusek Ro
5. Drunder, The Fortress of Zek
6. Yxxta
7. Kod`taz

Required Level 60

1. Plane of Water
2. Plane of Air
3. Plane of Fire
4. Plane of Earth
5. Uqua
6. Ikkinz

Required Level 62

1. Plane of Time
2. Qvic
3. Inktu`Ta

Required Level 65

1. Txevu
2. Tacvi

- Rytan_the_Wyrmlord, EQ Asst. Lead Designer

No ETA announced yet.

The main thread is here.

More from the same thread:

The various flag requirements for actually spawning the instances and stuff have not been changed as of this time. So you'll still need 1 guy who has the flags to spawn them in many cases. We're going to look at those and evaluate them on a case by case basis and may change some of them in the future.

- Rytan_the_Wyrmlord, EQ Asst. Lead Designer

Two things to note here:

First, these changes won't occur on the progression server. The point of that server is to experience content as it was released as much as possible, so this runs contrary to that. The work Rytan has been doing has included a check to negate the changes if we're on a progression server. When the progression server eventually catches up to normal servers and essentially becomes a normal server, these changes will kick in.

Second, this is part of a larger push aimed at updating the low to mid-tier game in a way that will culiminate in events aimed squarely at attracting new players and people who have left over the years. This isn't the first change we've made like this recently and certainly not the last. There are a number of other things that will roll out over the next few months so if you're upset about this change because you feel the way to keep the game healthy is to continue to make sure that people new to the game or returning to the game have as steep a hill to climb as those of us who did the climb when the mid level game was thriving and the hill was much smaller, then I'll apologize in advance because you're not going to be getting happier anytime soon. I understand the feeling that it cheapens what you personally had to do to get into the content at the time and Rytan is working out some rewards for that effort, but I think continuing to attract new players that you can actually play the game with once they reach your level is a bit more important than that and, frankly, the online landscape isn't the same as it was. People simply won't tolerate what they would even a couple years ago so we're working to address that.

- Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

Welcome to the Station LaunchPad

EverQuest is now officially on the Station LaunchPad.

Read all about it from the patch notes here.

EQ Producer Letter - 8/13/07

Clint "Jourdian" Worley, EverQuest Producer:

Hello everyone! Now a Producer's letter that has a bit more meat to it compared to the one that rolled out prior to Fan Faire.

The Producer's letter is here.

Commentary: If this is what he considers more meat, then Jourdian must be anorexic.

Fan Faire Report

Here are some issues reported from the latest Fan Faire in Las Vegas.

General Gameplay

* Fizzles – They plan to look into changing the fact that fizzling a spell takes up a gift of mana. Between the MOTP patch and the following one, fizzles didn't use them up and they seemed to agree that fizzles shouldn't use them up.

* AC – Planning to address some issues involving AC caps. They would like to see AC be a more dramatic change than it currently is. Rashere mentioned a few times that visible AC isn't what a players AC actually is.

* Buff Timers – Looking into equalizing buff timers so that some of the fundamental long term buffs will have the same timers.

* % Health – Hopefully they will find a way to put this command into the game. On the wishlist.

* Auras – Code is preventing fixing aura stacking at the moment. Looking into possibly adding a self buff to the aura you cast so that you'll have that on you if you run into an aura stacking issue.

* Rezzes – 1-2 second immunity after rezzes could be possible. They would consider allowing a player to get a couple items looted before they start dealing with the Aes of the zone they're in.

* Hover – The request to have a “no hover” toggle option was mentioned and will be looked into.

* Spell Sets – Possible addition of more spell sets to how many you can have saved.

* Ldon Points – Possible for these to eventually be turned into a currency like newer expansions have.

* Faction / Merchants – It was suggested to link item cost to faction in the case of currency items.

* /Ann – Looking into making this persistent so you don't have to turn it on every time you log on. Also will look into making it channel specific.

* Guild Bank – Possibly adding a coin slot to it

* Guild Lobby – Potentially adding a zone to the bazaar so that players can skip going through PoK.

* Cross Server Instancing – Is not possible and won't be most likely for a long time. This is due to the way the game was created and has nothing to do with people potentially abusing the system. Its a code thing.

* Chaotic Jester – Will not be changed. Its meant to have positive and negative rewards and they have no intention of altering how it works.

* Line of Sight – These issues are code problems and its not something that we can expect to see any changes to soon.

* PVP Recourse Spells – Certain spells may not be used in PVP on normal servers since they have recourses. There was a reason for this initially but since so many spells are now affected by this simple rule, they will look into flagging some spells as PVPable since the reason they weren't allowed doesn't apply.


Class Specific

1. Wizard -

* Cryomancy - Has been changed to unresistable damage and unresistable snare. The snare has been properly set back to 65% which is the maximum amount that you can snare a mob for. Nodyin wasn't sure why it was broken but it should be fixed (if it isn't already in game). Snare immune mobs will no longer have this land on them, however, and that was intentional.

* Spell Changes - The wizard spell changes are still not finalized. The general idea is that you will use a specific nuke to get a proc that will affect only a specific spell so you will need to cast certain spells in order in order to maximize your DPS. This type of casting pattern will appear for the TBS / TSS lines and will be continued with SoF.

* Spell Changes - I pushed both Rashere and Prathun into responding at least twice about the statement Prathun made about burst DPS coming at a higher penalty and sustained DPS being increased. Both of them insisted several times that sustained DPS would be getting an increase and that our burst will not be affected. I'm still very skeptical of this since I still feel that if they start giving us all this sustained DPS...they won't give us the needed burst improvements we need.

* Familiars – I requested a permanent “get lost” feature to be added for the wizards so that they wouldn't have to get rid of them every time they zoned. This was written down to be looked at.

* Burst DPS – Berserker vs. Wizard. In a 2 minute fight where resists and mitigation aren't an issue, Prathun said that a wizard should win when both are equally raid geared. Thats the balance he thinks it should be but that doesn't mean thats the case right now.

2. Shadow Knight -

* Slay ___ - Paladins were never supposed to have Slay Undead in its current form. Slay Undead is WAY too powerful and paladins should be thanking their lucky stars they have what they currently have. They are hesitant to put a Slay humanoid or other such ability in the game since they would do it correctly and SKs would be upset that their ability would be very limited in power compared to the broken Slay Undead. In my opinion they should do it anyways and nerf the paladin one in the process but they didn't say they were going to do either.

3. Warrior -

* Weapon Graphics - These are going to get larger. Merloc doens't like the little swords any more than you guys do.

4. Magician -

* Pet Invis - Removing invis from the air pet.

Misc

* TBS Beta Rewards – There is still no word on these. I believe the difficulty is that they aren't sure if they've got records of who would qualify. They haven't decided completely against them yet.

* Server merges – They feel that EQ has a healthy population right now that isn't drastically changing. Of all of the SoE games, EQ1 has the highest number of subscriptions and while it may seem that the particular niche we play in has a low number, they don't see the numbers to justify any merges at this time.

* Filters – A lot of bugs with filtering text were reported. They will be looking into making pet procs visible and allowing your own spells to be filtered into their own window since that currently isn't functional.

* Caster Armor Graphics – Got no response to this. You can thank Wycca for screwing us here since he got the conversation changed away from this.

* UCS – Going to see if they can get AFK messages to go through for cross server tells and also queuing messages that happen while you're zoning.

* TSS Charm – There will possibly be alternate pieces soon for the charm since raids like Udengar and Ambersnout are rarely done.

* Aug Distillers – Since people were having an issue with buying too many aug distillers and they don't see a reason for them to be no-drop items, they will most likely be making them tradeable.

* Firiona Vie – Rashere is looking into loosening up the rules on the Firiona Vie character transfer rules. This may only affect transfers to Firiona Vie at first but he would like them to be different than they currently are.


Raiding Specific

* Solteris server instability is still being looked at. Nothing new here.

* Level 80 will make TSS raiding content very easy and any guild thats around the demiplane level now should have no trouble with it.

* Powersources - Raid powersources may see a duration increase

* Solteris Spells – Only 19 rank 3 TBS spells have been purchased and they realize there is a problem there. We argued for them to be switched to the phosphite system and they are considering it since there are flags required to buy the spells anyways. They plan on discussing this and possibly adding a third option to solve the problem.


Itemization

* Item Focuses - Will soon be able to have minimums. This could go two ways. Either some focuses could simply just have their minimums raised or potentially you could have to choose between a 10%-75% focus or do a 40-45% focus depending on your playstyle.

* Focus effects – Other than the focus minimums, there isn't any plan to radically change how these work at this time.

* Melee Focuses – Looking into merging Parry and Block. I believe this one got a thumbs up.

* Solteris Focuses – Level cap changes on focuses are possible and likely on Solteris items.

* 2H Weapons – Possible extra aug slot on 2h weapons in the future.

* Caster Weapon Ratios – Will be looked at. He didn't know that there was an interest in seeing the ratios go up but sees no reason not to look into upgrading them.

* Charm Slot Augs – Hopefully will see some new options for this in the next expansion.

* Intelligent Items – Merloc wants to add more of these, just needs the time to do it.

* Gear in SoF - It was said that raiding gear will be nearly 1000 hp and that groupable gear will be near Solteris level. This was a little scary to me since it is such a massive change. It was unclear if this included aug values and powersources or not.


Spells

* Spell Ranks - in TSS and TBS were minimal and smaller than they should be. The concern was that rank 1 spells needed to be an upgrade to their predecessors and they couldn't allow rank 3s to be that much more powerful. With the upcoming expansion there will be much more room to work with and the spells will actually be larger upgrades between the ranks. The rank system will be continuing, no news on if it will be more like TSS or TBS as far as obtaining goes.
* Enchanters - Will be getting an AE knockback + root + mem blur spell in SoF.
* Wizards - Will be getting a Patient Harvest upgrade in SoF since it will be much needed with the upcoming gear changes


Lore

* Sleeper – When he woke up..he ran off to a place called Dragon Scale Hills I believe (someone can correct me..I might have misheard) and he is coming back in SoF. They would not tell us if we will be killing him or doing something like waking him up again.

* Ayonae Ro – Her banishment is what allowed Mayong Mistmoore to escape and attack in Solteris. Now that we have killed him, don't expect to see him back for quite some time but it is possible that he could come back eventually.

-----------------
The full thread is here.

Q & A from Merloc’s Tower – 7/20/07

Throughout the week, Merloc receives questions from various places and answers as many as he can. He wanted to start sharing some of his answers with everyone else so that he wouldn't have to repeat himself.

Here's the fourth edition of Q & A from Merloc's Tower.

EQ Producer Letter - 7/31/07

Clint "Jourdian" Worley, EverQuest Producer, has released his latest letter to players. The link to it is here.

Commentary: This letter basically says nothing. He recently became EQ Producer and upon gaining the position he told us how he would listen to us and he would communicate with us often to keep us informed. Once again, SoE promised us they would be responsive, and once again, they have lied.

Update: Jourdian responded, "I really did mean to shoot out an update instead of a full blown Producer's letter. Once Fan Faire is over I will be at liberty to discuss more about the expansion, new additions to the game and overall concerns and suggestions." Read the entire thread commenting on the Producer's letter here.

EverQuest House of Commons Dev Chat - July 18, 2007

Click here for log.

This chat mentions they are aware that the "West" bug began a new breeding season after the last patch. They also mention that the most hated "feature", expendable Power Sources, are going to be in the next expansion and will be increased in power. So get used to even more boring grinding in crappy missions just to have your gear not suck.

House of Commons Dev Chat Log - June 20, 2007

I've been slacking with EQ lately but here is the chat log for June 20, 2007, click here.

Knight Summoned Steeds Bug, Fix Due Next Patch

Knights have three separate steeds which they can call up. With the new AA window, they were combined into one.

I'm going to fix that. Next patch all 3 lines will be separated out again.

- Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full post is here.

Mage Fire AAs Bugged, Fix Due Next Patch

Mages have AAs that permit them to increase their fire damage. One requires you to assume Fire Elemental form, the other does not. The one that does not require Fire Elemental form appears to be bugged.

Both the "Heart of" and "Core" AAs still exist. The Mage correspondent alerted me that the requirements were set incorrectly on both of them (Requiring rank 3 of the "Elemental Form: X" line instead of the previous rank 1 requirement. I've corrected that bug and it will be fixed in the next patch.

- Nodyin, EQ Designer

Read the full post here.

Careful, or Your Face Will Stay That Way

Making faces really can cause problems. And you thought your parents were just trying to scare you!

i changed my facial features and whenever i zone they revert back to something else. anyone else have this problem? it seems to only happen when i try to use no facial hair and have a bald head.

It's a bug and should be fixed with our next patch.

Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

Read about it here.

New Expansion Release Dates and More

Clint "Jourdian" Worley, EverQuest Producer, has posted a letter about SOE's future plans for EQ. Among other things, he says:

In this Producer letter I am proud to announce that we're changing our tactics so we can accomplish what we have set out to do and do it with the quality we know we can deliver. Our next expansion will be released in November. This will give us more time to polish the game content and features. I am also happy to announce that November will be the month for all future expansion releases as well.

Read his letter to players here.

Upcoming DoT Hate Change

In the near future, we're going to make a change that will reduce the amount of hate generated by DoTs so I wanted to give a head's up. For most damage spells, they generate aggro based on the base amount of damage they do. DoTs do this as well, generating hate based on their damage every tick, but they also generate initial aggro worth one tick of damage when they first land. This means that they basically have one extra damage tick's worth of aggro at all times.

We're changing things so that you won't gain aggro based on the DoTs damage until it actually does its first tick of damage which will bring them in line with other damage spells for the amount of hate they generate.

- Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

DoT Shielding Still Broken

Although the April 18 patch message reported some fixes to DoT shielding, it appears there are still a few problems with it. It seems that while it works now for DoTs cast on you, when the mob that cast it dies, it stops working.

Just checked with code and they've got a fix for this already.

- Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

No word on when the fix will go live.

The full thread is here.

Frostcrypt Trash Mobs on Steroids

Normal mobs in Frostcrypt have been taking steroids, according to reports. Norrath Mob Anti-doping officials have begun an investigation after hearing they were hitting for upwards of 10k.

We've been able to reproduce this problem (as was stated in the Maximum Redfang!!! thread) and it has been given to the coders so they can look into it.

Thanks for the heads up on this issue! - Maddoc, Assistant Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

Massive Changes Coming for Cultural Armor and Tailoring / Smithing

SOE has announced that they will be making some huge changes in Cultural Armor as well as the skill up paths for Tailoring and Smithing.

The changes are too large to detail in this post so you should check out the announcement here.

More Skin to Vines Changes Due

The druid spell Skin to Vines has never worked properly. After several fixes, SOE has announced that they will be making another change. Hopefully, with this change, the spell will finally work properly.

Since Skin to Vines now turns undead and summoned creatures into plants and stops other abilities from working, it seems the cure was more harmful than the affliction. With some new functionality we received a few days ago I was able to change Skin to Vines such that it works on everything except undead and summoned creatures. This should go live in our next major patch. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Prathun, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Additional information:

Good point. Changed it to affect everything but Summoned, Construct, and Undead. Thanks! - Prathun, EQ Designer

DoT Shielding Fixed?

Fast updates on this one...

Code has found and fixed the issue. DoT Shielding was only working if you cast a spell on yourself or in a PvP situation. After the fix, DoT shielding will properly work on any spell NOT cast on you by yourself and will continue to work in PvP.

Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

SOE was not clear it is already fixed in the game or if it will go out in the next patch.

Progression Servers To Merge

On March 28, 2007, we will be merging the EverQuest Progression Servers. Characters will be moved from The Sleeper server to The Combine server and The Combine server will retain its name. The Sleeper server will then be closed.

We will not be doing the low level character wipe at the time of the merge. We will re-evaluate the situation after the merge and determine if the character wipe is needed.

The scheduled downtime is from 4:00 am Pacific Time to 12 noon. We will provide the answers to other questions as needed before the merge as needed.

The full article is here.

Fabled Augments Bugged

The fabled augments can't currently be inserted, but they should be fixed in the next patch.

The 35 AC aug from a 55ish level NPC was a mistake, the 35ac is meant to be 35 endurance and it will be changed in the next patch.

- Merloc, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

8th Anniversary Events Live

SOE has announced a number of things to commemorate the eighth anniversary of EverQuest. Of main concern is the Fabled mobs and a new scavenger hunt.

Anniversary In-Game Events - We have introduced dozens of Fabled Luclin NPCs, we brought back all the fabled fiends of years past and there is a new scavenger hunt! Speak with Tyla Filinav in the Nexus if you are interested in helping her collect a few things. These Anniversary Festivities will be available from March 16, 2007 through April 16, 2007.

Read all about it as well as some messages from current and former developers here.

EQ With All Expansions for $19.99

Apparently SOE has secret plans to release a new edition of EQ with all expansions. I call the plans secret since the press release seems to only be found on Casters Realm and no where else. EverQuest.com and EQ Players have no word on this.

EverQuest® The Anniversary Edition includes all expansions ever created for EverQuest® making it the largest compilation of MMO expansions ever

EverQuest The Anniversary Edition will only be available at participating retail locations and is scheduled for release on April 23, 2007, for the suggested retail price of US$19.99.

Go here to read the full press release.

Allegedly, this was sent out in the Station Newsletter. Since I subscribe to the EverQuest Newsletter (I still haven't received any yet) and not the Station Newsletter (since I have zero interest in their other games), I was unaware of this information.

Developers' Chat March 21st

Click here for a log of the chat.

No Reward for The Domes Are Cracking Mission

Yes the reward is missing. I don't know how it happened but I'll take the hit for this one. We'll need a patch to get this fixed but I've already made the change on Test. As soon as I know when we can fix this I'll let you guys know. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Bazaar Items Lose Pricing

In a stealth 'update', items placed for sale in the bazaar must have their prices input again.

Due to the method for storing bazaar prices, any prices on bazaar listing has been removed. You will need to relist your bazaar items with new prices. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes. Going forward there should be no further issues with pricing being removed from items. - Kytherea, EQ Community Relations Manager

The full thread is here.

Note that the prices should be saved in your bazaar log file, so check your Log folder and you should be able to find them there. However, you have to manually input them into EQ.

Some people have created some programs to automate fixing this. Go here to read the thread.

Melee Bind Coming to Katta Castrum

Currently, melee types can't bind in Katta Castrum, even though it is a city.

I'll change it so you can bind there.

- Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

Station Access Subscription Price Increase

Note: Be aware that this only applies to people with a Station Access subscription, which allows them to play many SOE games for one price. It does not apply to those people who only play and pay for EverQuest.

February 28, 2007
_____________________

News for Station Access Subscribers

We want to give you some important information regarding your Station Access subscription. Effective April 2, 2007, the new monthly subscription rate will be US$29.99 per month (not including applicable taxes).

We know that rate adjustments are never popular, but the increase is driven by our desire to provide our Station Access subscribers with a consistently high quality entertainment experience, as evidenced by our most recent addition to the Station Access subscription plan, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes™.

You don't have to do a thing; you will automatically be migrated to the new monthly subscription rate under your existing subscription plan when your current subscription plan comes up for renewal on or after April 2, 2007.

We appreciate your support and continued participation in our community.

Station Access subscriptions are recurring, meaning you will continue to be billed at the appropriate subscription interval, until you affirmatively cancel your subscription. Subscription fees are subject to tax and value-added tax, as applicable. The subscription charges are in addition to the cost of the games that are part of the Station Access subscription plan. All game software is sold separately.

For more information, please visit: www.stationaccess.com.

Deathknell Flag Problems

Several problems with the Deathknell flags have been reported. Several fixes have been put into place, others will require a full patch.

Read the full thread here.

Forage for Everyone

A forage AA will be made available to everyone in the next few months if things go as planned. We didn't get the code changes we needed to make this work for TSS and it wasn't something that I could do for TBS.

- Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Darkened Chanting Woodspirit in Plane of Storms Bugged

The Darkened Chanting Woodspirit is for the shaman epic 2.0. This mob has several issues that prevent a shaman from completing this part of the epic.

Thanks for posting. I've looked into it and it has been fixed. The change will be live in the next couple of days.

Vahlar, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Quest Fixes Due Next Patch

The Cleansing the Island quest requires that you say to the researcher "vials" and "special potion" for the cures and disguise potion to turn you in to the various animals of the island. He then gives you a stack of 50 cures and one special potion. However, the text never mentions this.

I've added information to his task text that mentions that you have to ask for the potion and the vials. This will go out with the next full update.

- Absor, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

The Secret of Sunset Ridge? quest requires that you hand in the Sunstone Sun Charm that you handed in on a previous mission. Needless to say, since you handed it in earlier, you don't have it now to hand in.

Well that was pretty stupid of us. That happened because of a lack of communication between two designers (my bad).

I've fixed the Sunstone Savages task to not require handing in the Sunstone Sun Charm, but that will have to be updated with a full update, and I don't know when that will happen.

- Absor, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Charm Augment Removal Problem

I'm not sure if this is something new, but it seems like augments with extra text are not displaying solvent information.

I'll ask code to look into it and correct the display so that it displays the solvent type as well.

- Merloc, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Old Sebilis Key Problem

If you have the idol but don't have it on your keyring, it seems you can't go in. It looks like the zone in only checks the /key and not the idol.

I've been working on this problem most of today. I think I know what's going on and have a fix heading over to QA to verify. The problem seems to affect people who only have the idol and don't have it on their key ring yet.

- Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

Update 02/27/2007:

I can get a semi-fix in place without a full patch that will let people use the normal entrance again. You just won't be able to fellowship in until a full patch is done. I'll be looking to get the semi-fix in place today or tomorrow.

Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

Developer Chat - February 21, 2007

House of Commons Dev Chat Log - February 21, 2007

Stacked Items Bugged in Bazaar

I saw something from a coder about looking into something about this.

It seems to be when the seller has more than one stack of an item, and to give the buyer the quantity requested it needs to hit a "second" stack, it does not count anything from the second stack in the money it gives the seller. From the note it looks like the coder found the issue.

I am not sure when the fix will go in, but I expect that it needs a patch.

Though admittedly this will put a crimp in peoples "AFK" sales... if you can just have one stack per item, it should keep your money complete until the fix goes in.

- Ngreth, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Guide to the Katta Castrum Portals

I have placed a guide to the Katta Castrum Portals in my EverQuest Wiki.

The Wiki is here.

The guide is in the Zones section. At the moment, I've placed a link at the top of the Zones section. It can also be accessed by clicking on the link for Katta Castrum. In the future, once TBS has been around for a while, I plan on removing the link at the top of the page but it will still be accessible through the Katta Castrum link.

A direct link to the guide is here.

Please feel free to edit or add to the Wiki any EverQuest information you have.

More on Guild Banners...

The "Banner Material Kit" and "Banner Dye Kit" are the items that are used to create a banner and place it in the world.

When you open the guild window and go to the "Banners" Tab, you should see a list box with a single entry that says "Standard of Honor". Just beneath that list box, you'll see a checkox that says "Show All", select it.

This will populate the list box with a bunch of banners that are going to be greyed out (which means you don't have the components to create them). Just beneath the checkbox you checked is the description window, which will give you a brief description of the banner's effect, as well as the items needed to create that banner, which you may then purchase those items from the two guild banner vendors in Plane of Knowledge.

The "Banner Exchange Insignia" are used to edit the settings (looks) if your banner. The more you change the looks of your banner, the more it's going to cost you by requiring a higher tier of exchange insignia.

- Maddoc, Assistant Lead Designer

Placing a banner requires 12 guildmates to be in the same zone within 150 distance units from the player planting the banner. If they're too far away, they will not be able to place the banner.

- Maddoc, Assistant Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

Veeshan's Peak Mobs Loot Tables Bugged

It seems the mobs are dropping cloth caps instead of their normal loot.

The appropriate folks are aware of this. Currently one of the crash bugs prevents us from even live-copying zones, so we will get it fixed as soon as we can. - Ngreth, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Guild Banner Bugged in Demiplane

It seems you can plant the Banner in Demiplane but when people try to use it, they get this message: "Current guild banner cannot be teleported to".

I brought this up with several people last week, we're looking into it. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

TBS Solteris-Progression Arc Bugged

It seems that the progression Combine Signet Ring is bugged in various ways. Read this thread for more information.

TBS Task "Confront Emperor Vaakiszh" Bugged

The Emperor does not reset on failure. So if you wipe or evac while fighting him, the mission fails.

Sorry about that. I have a fix for this and I'll check when I get in to work to see what the status is on this (has QA verified the fix works?) and figure out when we can get it out to the Live servers. The event can be completed now but just has issues if you wipe. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Bonus Experience Weekend

Bonus Experience Weekend

Greetings,

We hope that everyone is enjoying all the features that The Buried Sea expansion has to offer. The team worked hard to focus on content and features that would enhance gameplay, while reducing the adventuring downtime in between. If you haven't tried it thus far, you can find information about the expansion here.

We would like to apologize for the inconvenience of the amount of server downtime that has occurred since the release on Tuesday. To help you enjoy this weekend, we are turning up the heat! Experience will be increased fifty percent on Friday evening and will remain until Tuesday morning [February 20th] at 10 am Pacific Time.

Enjoy!

~ The EverQuest Team.

The link to the post is here.

TBS Port Spells On The Way

It appears that The Buried Sea expansion will launch without any port spells. They are going to add a wizard port to Katta and a druid port to Buried Sea. This isn't going to make it in time for the launch, but it will follow shortly afterward.

(Checking the official post on lifting the Beta NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement), it appears that I am allowed to relay this information since it relates to game content but I am not allowed to link it to the source or say exactly how I know. But I can tell you it is an official word from SOE.)

Update: I can now link to an official word on the ports. Also here is a developer post on the issue -

Prat made them all - ports, group ports and translocates/zephyrs. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

TSS Item Changes

Just to give a quick update here...

We weren't able to get the TSS item changes in for the live patch this week. It's the top item on Merloc's task list at the moment, though, and I expect he'll be wrapping them up later this week.

Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

Rampage and Other Questions

A while back there was talk of changing the "goes on a Rampage" message to reflect if it was single or AE. Is this still "in the works" or abandoned?

A while back there was talk of adding faction hits to Stitcth and Sothgar (if not all raid trash) to facilitate backflagging. Is this still "in the works" or abandoned?

A while back there was talk that the skels in non-instanced dreadspire were fixed on test to be non-see-ivu and set to normal instead of raid mobs. Is this still "in the works" or abandoned?

Enquiring minds want to know. - Prex_Atlane

1. Fixed and will go live with the next patch. Sorry for the delay. We thought it was done already, I'm not sure what happened with that.

2. That's in progress. Rashere asked me to look at the entire TSS progression arc and I'm going to be doing that over the next few weeks including these raids and faction hits on them. It makes sense to add "backflag" faction to the raids if you can 85/15 into them.

3. I'm not sure about that, I'll check

Nodyin, EQ Designer (02/08/2007)

The full thread is here.

Update (same thread):

AE Rampage will be shown as "Soandso goes on a WILD RAMPAGE" after the patch tomorrow.

Also, the dreadspire see IVU NPCs should be fixed. That change was done a while ago and the data will go out with the patch.

Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

Pets - "Thanks for the Memories"

A bug was introduced wherein pets would forget the NPC they were told to attack. This is due to be fixed in the next patch (February 13).

I believe the "pets forgetting their attacker" problem was introduced with the OOC changes which made an NPC forget about you 30 seconds after you left its awareness range. Since pets are NPCs they are also affected.

We've added a check to exclude PC pets from this calculation which should return them to their previous behavior. Barring any problems, this should go out with the expansion patch.

Rashere, EQ Lead Designer

The full thread is here.

Wizard Instacast Bug to be Fixed

The bug that affects instacast spells, you try to cast one, and if it fails for some reason, ALL your spell gems gray out for the duration of the refresh (10 seconds), will be fixed in the next patch (February 13).

As far as I know the fix for this is done and will go out with the Patch for TBS. If it's still giving you issues let us know after that. - Nodyin, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

In Game Mail Purge Starting February 20

Greetings,

In order to improve the performance of the in game mail system, starting on February 20, 2007, we will be implementing a routine purge that will clear out all in game mail that is more than 4 months old. This will be an ongoing process.

To help players save messages that they wish to hold on to, on February 13, 2007, we will be implementing the new ability to export their email to a text file in the EverQuest directory. To use the new Export feature, take the following steps:

1. Open up the e-mail window (ctrl-E).
2. Select the messages you would like to export by clicking them in the top pane, using shift-click and/or ctrl-click if you would like to select multiple messages.
3. Click "Export".
4. The selected messages are then saved to a file in the EverQuest Mail directory with a name in the format:
SavedMessages_charactername_servername.txt.

This export will need to be done with each character that has mail you wish to save.

Thank you,
The EverQuest Team

The notice was posted here.

Patch and TBS Release Due February 13

On Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 2:00 am PST (3:00 am MST, 4:00 am CST, 5:00 am EST, -8.00 GMT), the EverQuest Servers will be coming down a Game Update, and the release of The Buried Sea Expansion. The estimated downtime is about 12 hours. If further delays are expected we will make an announcement on the EQPlayers website and the official forums.

Druid Epic 1.5 and 2.0 Spells to be Fixed

The druid epic 1.5 and 2.0 weapons have been the only epics whose spell effects have degraded above level 70. This will be fixed in the next patch (when The Buried Sea expansion goes live, ETA February 13).

Yep, done. Changed the following spells to work up to level 75 before scaling down.

Nature's Blight
Silence of the Snake
Season's Fury
Serpent's Silence

- Prathun, EQ Designer

I am unable to link his post since it was made on the Beta forums. He gave permission for people to announce this despite the Non Disclosure Agreement that normally prevents anyone from revealing what is discussed in Beta.

King Odeen Raid Updated

Last night [01/25/2007] we updated the King Odeen raid. The following changes were implemented. Please let me know if you experience any further issues, and thanks for your patience.

• The issue that could cause the King to remain non-combatable while on the bridge MAY have been fixed. We were unable to reproduce the bug, but introduced changes that might have fixed the problem.
• King Odeen should no longer warp from his location at the Hot Springs to the Bridge and from the back of the castle to the Hot Springs. Note the he will teleport beyond the front gate and the castle gate, and run from there (that's intentional).
• Removed some of the basepop in the throne room.
• Fixed the script that modified the King's resistances as he moved from area to area. At each area he will now be amazingly resistant to a specific type of magic (or two).
• The King will remove all spells on him each time he changes locations.
• Reduced the number of adds that the King calls while fighting at the hot springs. Note: we were not able to reproduce the reported swarming issue. This change should reduce the problem and may eliminate it.
• The Wraithguard that protect the King on the bridge no longer summon.
• The Wraithguard that protect the King on the bridge will give up the fight when the King surrenders.

Absor, EQ Designer

The full thread is here.

Guild Banners in TBS

SOE has posted some information about the new Guild Banners that will be in The Buried Sea expansion.

Here is the link.

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.

TSS Rank 2 Spell Drops Increased

To address some issues with spell rarity and location I made the following changes to spell drops:

Effectively doubled the rate that spells drop

Changed it so that each NPC that can drop spells can theoretically drop 4 spells at a time (although the odds of getting 4 spells are very very very very remote)

Changed it so that each NPC that can drop a spell of a given level can now drop all spells from that level. So instead of one spot to get a level 72 Mage spell, you can now go to any spot that drops level 72 spells and potentially get a Mage spell.

We hope that this will address any issues with the spell drops. The expansion is still very young so it will probably be a while of watch-and-wait before we make any further changes to how spells drop in TSS for Teir 2.

- Nodyin, EQ Developer

Full thread is here.

Upcoming Changes to EQ

Rashere, Lead Designer, discusses some changes in the game coming with The Serpent's Spine.

Included are how you earn AAs, spell resists, 'hovering' over your body upon death, character creation, Endless Quiver and dark blue con mobs.

Read it here.

Rashere also talks about the new Out-of-Combat regen system here.

House of Commons Dev Chat Logs – August 23, 2006

Here.

9th Step in BiC Bugged, Fix Due "Soon".

We have a fix for the issues reported in the 9th step of this task currently on the Beta server. Beta players who were copied over and on this step report that they can now progress to the rest of the quest. After the fix is verified by QA we can look into getting this copied out to the Live servers. When I have an ETA I'll let you know.

- Nodyin, EQ Designer

Full thread is here.

A closer look seems to indicate that it will not be fixed until after the release of The Serpent's Spine on Sept. 19, so I would guess the end of September or so.

The Serpent's Spine due September 19

Most likely the next Game Update will be with the launch of The Serpent's Spine on September 19. - Raghnell, EQ Producer

Dev Chat from 8/10 (Unofficial)

News on the new out of combat regen coming and other issues.

Read about it here.

Patch: July 18, 2006

July 18th, 2006
_____________________

- /raid commands should now work appropriately.
- Added /decaycorpse command on The Combine and The Sleeper. You can now target and manually decay any of your own corpses that no longer have items on them. Please help us keep Norrath clean of unnecessary corpse litter.
- Fixed a bug that would cause ground items to not respawn appropriately.

The main reason for this mornings update was to upgrade our hardware (although we did slip in a few minor things). Our operations team is working very hard to get this done but we are going to have to push the server uptime another hour to 11am PDT. Sorry for the delay. - Raghnell, EQ Producer

Stealth Changes to Dain 3 Monster Mission

In the last patch I increased the distance from basecamp the Dwarves have to be before they return to full strength. It's about midway from basecamp to position one so if you move them to a position and then attack from there they'll be full DPS. If you pull the Giants to basecamp they'll do a lot less DPS.

- Nodyin, EQ Designer

Full thread is here.

More changes:

The Dwarves will now be unable to locate the Giants until the zone emote announces they are on the move.

- Nodyin, EQ Designer

The dwarves were never intended to hang out by the East Waste zoneline and perform a coordinated attack as soon as the giants stepped off.

Sound strategic use of the armies is still possible and is now, quite possibly, the only way to win the misison.

- Nodyin, EQ Designer

Full thread is here.

New Expansion Announced

SAN DIEGO, CA – July 10, 2006 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced EverQuest® The Serpent’s Spine™, a new expansion for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMOPRG), EverQuest. EverQuest The Serpent’s Spine will only be available via digital download beginning in September for the suggested price of U.S. $29.99.

“In an ongoing commitment to introducing new features into EverQuest, The Serpent’s Spine introduces the Drakkin, the first new player race since the Frogloks were added to the game seven expansions ago,” said Chris Sturr, Senior Brand Manager, Sony Online Entertainment. “In addition to the new race, players of all levels will benefit from this expansion, as we are including content for levels 1 to 75.”

Players will also be able to explore a new starting city, Crescent Reach, which contains merchants, quests and combat. As in the last expansion, there will be new dynamic features such as auras, traps and destructible terrain. Players will be able to reach level 75 with new spells, raids and abilities.

Read about it here.

More on NPC Changes

Some NPCs are likely hitting for more and others for less than before the patch. The change involved switching old world NPCs over to newer systems. Old NPCs all had hand-set values, which led to a lot of variance from NPC to NPC even within the same level range due to different designers making different NPCs (the dreaded "under con"). It also made it very difficult to tune since each individual NPC has to be tracked down and changed if you decide a certain range of NPCs needs to be adjusted.

Under the newer system, NPCs of the same level start with the same baseline values and modify from there based on the NPCs capabilities and class (warriors have more hps, giants hit slower and harder, werewolves are vulnerable to fire, golems have low intelligence, etc.) so depending on what the NPC was set at before, it may have gained or lost damage dealing capabilities in the conversion or it may be dealing similar damage, but in a different fashion (hitting harder, but slower for instance).

This only affected NPCs who weren't already on the new system, which is basically NPCs from Original EQ, Kunark, Velious, and Luclin. It was also limited mainly to NPCs below level 50 and excluded event NPCs, which have to be tuned case by case regardless.

If you come across any particular NPC that seems to be way out of line compared to other NPCs of the same level around it, feel free to call it out and I'll go have a look. I'll just need the zone and the full name of the NPC to find it.

Rashere - EQ Lead Designer

Full thread is here.

NPC Changes

As posted by Maddoc:

Hey everyone,

In the last few years, much has changed in the world of EverQuest, which is a great thing for all of us -- It's what keeps us all interested in the game and enjoying the time we spent playing.

In developing a server like this, we have to be mindful and aware of those changes such that we can make an informed decision on what course of action to take when addressing any issues as they come up. As you might imagine, there are years worth of content to be aware of, enough so that some of the changes require a lot of time.

The change that I'm about to explain makes huge strides towards dealing with what you guys feel is one of the biggest issues to overcome for this server. This same change is also why I've been largely unavailable for the last week or two. The change is not small, affecting a great portion of EverQuest and it's NPC's, nor is the change to be taken lightly, needing as much testing time as you guys are able to muster. If you have a character and haven't participated in beta for a week or two, I'd encourage you to please log in and test everything out.

With that said, the changes that have been made are going to affect a number of NPC attributes in an effort to address the power disparity between melee-classes and caster-classes in the early stages of progression on these servers. So, without further ado...

NPC Health - This has been increased on average for most NPC's.
NPC Armor Class - This has been reduced on average for most NPC's.
NPC Overall DPS - The overall dps done by NPC's has been reduced slightly on average for most NPC's.
NPC Damage - This has been reduced on average for most NPC's.
NPC Melee Speed - This has been reduced slightly (meaning they hit faster than previously) on some NPC's, though most will be roughly the same.
NPC Resists - This remains largely unchanged, staying the same on average for most NPC's.

NPC Effective Spellcasting Level - In the last year or so, PC spells got a pretty big boost in power, which means that NPC's also got a pretty good sized boost in power as well. I think the best way to address this is to get a means to specify an NPC's spellcasting-level independent of it's actual level.

As an example, this means that I can now tell a level 50 NPC to only cast level 42 and lower spells, without changing the NPC's level at all. With this functionality, I can reduce the spellcasting power of the NPC's without reducing anything else. With this change, you should see a very noticeable change in the NPC's spellcasting power, particularly in the level 25 to 40 range.

DISCLAIMER : Given the nature of these changes, I'm speaking of an 'average', so there will be situations where an NPC or small group of NPC's that now resist more now than they did previously, likewise you will see situations where an NPC or small group of NPC's will resist less now than they did previously. This applies to all of the information listed above.

I've made these adjustments to about 70% of the NPC's so far and that data will be hitting the server this afternoon. There are still some NPC's that have not been fully converted yet, so I'll post when those are done as well.

There's one more thing that I have on my plate to do to address some of the melee concerns (that I'm sure will be posted in this thread), so stay tuned and please throw as much testing as you can at this change.

This change has reportedly happened on all live servers, not just the progression ones. Changes have happened to many NPCs in most pre-PoP zones. Resistances are reported to have increased as well.

This quote taken from here.