July 7 Patch

Discussion:

July 7 Patch

(too old to reply)

Lance Berg

2007-07-05 11:37:48 UTC

Got up this morning to find a "patch in ten minutes" message on my
bazaar mule. Announced hours 4am PST and 9 hour patch time. That means
we should be live again at 4pm my (EST) time, we'll see. Here's the
Patch message:

Upcoming Updates

The Next Game Update is planned for Thursday, July 5th with an estimated
downtime of 9 hours. This update is expected to include the following:

*** Highlights ***

- AA Window Changes: The AA window has been revamped and many of the AA
lines have been consolidated to make them easier to find.

The biggest change you'll notice when you first open the AA window is
that there are only 4 tabs now - General, Archetype, Class and Special.
The first three tabs are fairly self explanatory and the Special tab
will hold any AA that doesn't fit into other tabs. For example, the
"Glyph" (expendable) AAs will be on the Special tab and various AAs that
have been used for progression for several expansions will live on this
tab as well.

With the new UI, there are a series of drop down menus you can use to
view only certain sets of AAs. Additionally, all of the column headings
can be clicked to order the visible AAs by that column in either forward
or reverse alphabetical order. Finally there is a "Can Purchase" button
in the new UI that will narrow the list down to only the AAs that you
currently qualify to purchase.

In the past, new AAs have been created that were pure upgrades to
existing AA lines from previous expansions. These added many ranks of
similar abilities, each with its own name. To cut down on the amount of
data that each of the new tabs holds, many of those types of AA lines
have been consolidated into a single line. This should make it easier
for you to see where you are in a line without the need to search
through multiple tabs. You will still have all of the AAs you had
previously, but their names and ranks may have changed and you may need
to recreate hotkeys for some of the abilities in order to ensure you are
using the highest rank's effect.

- Item Window Changes: The Item Window has a new look and some helpful
new functionality. We've changed the window to be easier to read and
you will now find a button in the middle of the window that will let you
toggle between the item's base stats and its stats with augmentations.
In addition, the name of the item will change colors depending on if you
can use it or not.

- Triple Attack has been implemented as a skill for those classes that
had it innately before. You will automatically receive the appropriate
skill for your level with this patch. Characters becoming eligible for
triple attack after the patch can receive it by visiting their guild master.

- Misty Thicket Revamp: Halflings across the world of Norrath rejoice as
the hills of Misty Thicket flourish into a new paradise.

*** Recently Reported Issues ***

While some of the other issues that were resolved in this update were
reported via bug reports, here are a few we'd like to highlight this update.

Issue: Guilds not able to send guild wide emails with text in the body.
Summary: All of the players in the guild are able to send in game mail
messages to the entire guild that have text in the main body. The email
is sent, there is a subject line, but none of the text entered in the
body of the mail.
Status: In-Game emails should now send correctly to guilds. The maximum
message size is now set to 4500 characters. The address list will
display "Too many addresses to display" if it is longer than 500
characters but the message will still be sent.

Issue: Enchanter Epic 1.5
Summary: The Cryptic Page in Ocean of Tears could no longer be located
after the zone was revamped.
Status: The note was moved to an island to make it easier to find.

Issue: Task - Pepe's Got a Brand New Bag
Summary: NPC Rion is not giving the correct item for the task 'Pepe's
Got a Brand New Bag'.
Status: If you ask Rion "Where is Pepe?" after you receive the poison
sac back from Rion, he will now properly give you the doll.

Issue: Black Wolf Tooth
Summary: Players are unable to find the drop 'Black Wolf Tooth' for an
armor quest.
Status: The black wolf tooth was added to other black wolves throughout
the newbie areas of the game.

*** Items ***

- Jagged Claws of Rending have returned to being weapons built
specifically to destroy Draz Nurakk.
- Staff of the Hiveslayer and Wingcrusher now have a type 4 socket type,
instead of type 7.
- Darkfell Bow is no longer bard useable.
- Twisted Staff of Temporal Paradox is now useable by beastlords.
- Paza's Cursed Remains can now be equipped in the ammo slot and cast
time is reduced to 2 seconds.
- Type 13 and 14 Purity augments are available for purchase from Trader
Vallarines in Katta Castrum.
- Augmentation solvents to dissolve (destroy) the purity augments are
available for purchase from Trader Difius in Katta Castrum.
- Bulwark of the Firebringer and Buckler of Corruption are now monk and
beastlord useable.
- Twisted Staff of Temporal Paradox is no longer dwarf useable.
- Increased stats on several Solteris items.
- Increased spell effects on Solteris items.
- Increased mods on most Solteris items.
- Added one extra potion belt slot with Solteris belts.
- Solteris items vendors will temporarily buy back equipment for 100% of
the cost.
- Changed augments in TBS from Katta Castrum and the habitats to be
useable in socket type 8 in addition to socket type 7.
- Re-added the spell focus effect back to Valorium Belt of Devotion that
was mistakenly removed.
- Increased the number of items summoned by Ton Po's Mystical Pouch and
by Dusty Worker's Soriz Pouch from 20 to 100.
- Slightly increased charge amount on Pure Energeian Orbs.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Lowered the minimum players required to attack Rallos Zek's final form
in Plane of Tactics to 6 people.
- Updated the valid zone for some older Ocean of Tears quests to the new
Ocean of Tears.
- The Goblin Dojo event can now be started with 6 players instead of 12.
- Added faction adjustments to several raids in Ashengate.
- The Monk epic event in the Ocean of Tears will again spawn a reward chest.

*** Spells ***

- To help balance the way healing items work from class to class,
healing-based AAs no longer work on heals cast from items. Items that
cast healing spells that are not castable by normal players and were
previously affected by healing AAs have had their healing amount
increased accordingly.
- The 30 second global cool down on the bard song Brusco's Boastful
Bellow has been changed to a 30 second spell cool down.
- The spell cool down on Bind Affinity has been removed.
- Long term heal-over-time (HoT) spells will now display their messages
after zoning.

*** NPC ***

- Made Jala and Lyjak in Shar Vahl less greedy in their merchant dealings.
- The Hatchet and Redfang events in Demi-Plane of Blood will now drop
back flag items.
- Bark at the Moon and Rampaging Servant pets will now enrage properly.
- Mage pets from The Serpent's Spine will now spawn pre-equipped with a
full set of Phantom Plate armor.

*** Tradeskills ***

- New Cultural Symbol QUESTS have been implemented. At this time it is
only the quests, and not the other upcoming cultural drop changes. If
you still have one of the old quests they can still be completed. The
NPCs will still respond. The target NPCs are still up and still
dropping the items as they were before. You just will not be able to
get the new quests any more as the NPCs will now only give out the new
quests.
- The recipe for making the unfired runed potion vials used for throwing
have changed. There are no new items, just a reorganization of what is
used in order to make them less expensive to create. The Art of
Delicate Throwing Things books have been updated with recipes that match
the changes.
- The alchemy potions Distillate of Antidote X, Distillate of
Immunization X, and Distillate of Regeneration X now require Hypericum
instead of Wormwood. You can find Hypericum where you would find Wormwood.
- Fixed the naming on the pattern books to match the patterns they make.
- Fixed the failure return on some Fishy brewing.
- Fixed the Additive in the spell research recipe for War March of the
Mastruq.

*** Missions ***

- The task leader should no longer change when the leader zones.
- Zhisza - Counter Attack: All 3 major (named) mission targets will now
return home when idle if they have moved from their spawn location.

*** AA ***

- Consolidated many AA lines. AAs that were logical extensions of
previous abilities have been consolidated into single lines. For example
instead of 5 different AA lines to increase critical spell hits, there
will now be 1 AA line with more ranks.
- There are 4 new expendable AAs available:
* Glyph of Stored Life - Stores some of your heath in a protective
shield around yourself. Your health is returned when your protection
fades or is lost.
* Glyph of Frantic Infusion - This ability increases the damage done by
your pet in three steps. The first step will increase your pet's minimum
damage by 10%, the next by 15% and the final step by 20%.
* Glyph of Angry Thoughts - This ability increases the hate you generate
by 30%.
* Glyph of Courage - This ability increases many forms of damage.
- There are now additional ranks of the AA "Mastery of the Past". Ranks
4 through 9 will allow you to increase the maximum level of spells that
are immune to fizzling to the following levels: 61, 63, 65, 66, 68, 70.
Note that the new Mastery of the Past AAs are tied to the level cap
increase expansions. Ranks 4, 5 and 6 are Omens of War AAs and Ranks 7,
8 and 9 are Serpent Spine AAs.
- Added Mastery of the Past to all casting classes which did not have
the AA previously.
- Corrected issues with Touch of the Cursed in certain instances.
- Spell Casting Deftness, Quick Damage, and Quick Buff now work on
spells with a minimum casting time of 3 seconds instead of 4 seconds so
they are consistent with how spell casting foci work.
- Alternate Abilities that are interrupted by player death will now have
their timers reset appropriately.

*** Zones ***

- Misty Thicket Revamp: Halflings across the world of Norrath rejoice as
the hills of Misty Thicket flourish into a new paradise.
- Buffs will no longer count down while you are in the Guild Lobby.
- The entry orb into Solteris now allows 85/15 entry into the zone.
- The Kerra Catfish, thought to recently be extinct, have been found
again and are breeding strongly.
- Characters should no longer get stuck in the geometry when Level of
Detail is set to minimum in The Buried Sea zone.
- The Ghost's Vengeance spell will no longer cause the Ghost, Guardian
of Razorthorn event to crash.
- The Atlas entry for Ocean of Tears should now point to the new map.
- Moved one of the fights with King Odeen away from the hot springs.
Hopefully this will improve performance for some players. Also reduced
the number of NPCs in the zone by about one third.

*** Miscellaneous ***

- A long and outstanding projectile weapon problem has been fixed.
Previously, if you shot an arrow or a projectile spell such as a
firebolt, the visual representation of the projectile would actually hit
its target after the player was notified of the hit. Now it is
syncronized such that the output to the player's chat window is
appropriately updated with the projectile hit information when the
visual representation of the projectile actually hits its target.
- The /who command should now process quicker.
- The Tip Window for Dragons of Norrath merchants should now show correctly.
- Solvents that destroy augments now display a destroy message instead
of safely remove message.
- Drakkin should now receive the level up messages directing them to new
zones at level 20, 25, and 30.
- /melody now terminates for bards when they get silenced. They should
no longer get spammed with "You can't cast now, because you are
silenced" messages.
- Loot permissions are now passed as part of corpse messages and are
updated to the world when loot permissions are changed except if a
corpse is ported to another zone.
- If a merchant has no items to sell, it will now use the welcome that
contains no item names.
- Armor should no longer disappear after using illusions.
- Updating the price of an item without changing the price will no
longer increment item count in the bazaar search.
- After attempting to invite a player that does not exist or is not
logged in, an error "Player soandso was not found." is now displayed in
red text.
- The Link All button will now wrap links onto the following chat line.
This will allow a list of items spread over multiple lines to be sent
over chat channels. If the amount of text is long enough that a link
can't fit on the line without exceeding the text limit, only the links
that fit will be shown.
- You can drag corpses through teleporters once again.
- When auto attacking an NPC, characters will no longer lose a fraction
of a second from the delay on each swing.
- Faction losses/gains while shrouded (not in a monster mission) will
now affect your main character appropriately.
- Players that camp out on a boat and use the Return Home button should
now get sent back to their home city.

*** User Interface Changes ***

- A problem has been addressed and fixed regarding full screen mode.
Previously, users would experience "bleed through" where background
applications would sometimes draw through the EverQuest window in full
screen mode, and where the mouse cursor might periodically change to the
background application's mouse cursor. This mouse issue appears to have
been fixed, and the "bleed through" of background application drawing
has been significantly reduced.
- GUI handling of containers with an odd number of slots has been
changed. The last slot will be aligned with the container icon if it
exists. This could affect some custom UI skins.
- Using the escape key to close the petition window should no longer
cause a crash to desktop.
- Froglok characters should now appear with their selected look after
character creation.
- Vah Shir and Guktan illusions should now appear with matching heads
and body colors.

- Changed -

EQUI_PotionBeltWnd.xml
EQUI_AAWindow.xml
EQUI_ItemDisplay.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_DynamicZoneWnd.xml

*** Previously Updated ***

- Lowered the hit point value for all of the adds spawned in the mission
"Counter Attack" in Zhisza.
- Reduced the hit points of several of the adds in the mission "Confront
Emperor Vaakiszh."

- The EverQuest Team

Lance Berg

2007-07-05 12:29:15 UTC

Permalink

Post by Lance Berg
*** Highlights ***
- AA Window Changes: The AA window has been revamped and many of the AA
lines have been consolidated to make them easier to find.

Why monkey with something that isn't broken?

Post by Lance Berg
The biggest change you'll notice when you first open the AA window is
that there are only 4 tabs now - General, Archetype, Class and Special.
The first three tabs are fairly self explanatory and the Special tab
will hold any AA that doesn't fit into other tabs. For example, the
"Glyph" (expendable) AAs will be on the Special tab and various AAs that
have been used for progression for several expansions will live on this
tab as well.

Sounds annoying, actually, for those that don't have all expansions, or
those of us on the Combine where we aren't actually IN expansions past
DON yet. I don't know what that last bit means at all.

Post by Lance Berg
With the new UI, there are a series of drop down menus you can use to
view only certain sets of AAs. Additionally, all of the column headings
can be clicked to order the visible AAs by that column in either forward
or reverse alphabetical order. Finally there is a "Can Purchase" button
in the new UI that will narrow the list down to only the AAs that you
currently qualify to purchase.

Those features do sound handy.

Post by Lance Berg
In the past, new AAs have been created that were pure upgrades to
existing AA lines from previous expansions. These added many ranks of
similar abilities, each with its own name. To cut down on the amount of
data that each of the new tabs holds, many of those types of AA lines
have been consolidated into a single line. This should make it easier
for you to see where you are in a line without the need to search
through multiple tabs. You will still have all of the AAs you had
previously, but their names and ranks may have changed and you may need
to recreate hotkeys for some of the abilities in order to ensure you are
using the highest rank's effect.

This sounds... a little scary. I can't remember for sure, but it seems
to me some of those things had a cost per level that went 3 6 9 3 3 3 3
and so on. Ranks may have changed? I hope there's at least the same
effect as I have now, and that there's no increase in the costs for the
next ranks compared to how they are now. On the plus side, I agree that
there are lines where it seems expansion after expansion it was more
of the same thing, but with different names; this will make it easier to
keep track of where I am.

Post by Lance Berg
- Item Window Changes: The Item Window has a new look and some helpful
new functionality. We've changed the window to be easier to read and
you will now find a button in the middle of the window that will let you
toggle between the item's base stats and its stats with augmentations.
In addition, the name of the item will change colors depending on if you
can use it or not.

Weird, but I like the idea of seeing the base item instead of having to
look at item and augment and do the math. Will make it simpler to
compare something I'm wearing to a drop to see if its an upgrade, and to
look at items like quest rewards that people post links to.

Post by Lance Berg
- Triple Attack has been implemented as a skill for those classes that
had it innately before. You will automatically receive the appropriate
skill for your level with this patch. Characters becoming eligible for
triple attack after the patch can receive it by visiting their guild master.

Wow, so if you got Triple Attack yesterday, you've got a maxed out skill
in it today, but if you ding that same level today after the patch,
you'll be skilling it up from (0)? sucks to be you!

Post by Lance Berg
- Misty Thicket Revamp: Halflings across the world of Norrath rejoice as
the hills of Misty Thicket flourish into a new paradise.

Rejoice. Yeah, thats what I do every time a zone is "upgraded" from the
old standard to a hugely laggy new look with no new mobs or quests, and
my maps stop working. Yay.

Post by Lance Berg
Issue: Enchanter Epic 1.5
Summary: The Cryptic Page in Ocean of Tears could no longer be located
after the zone was revamped.
Status: The note was moved to an island to make it easier to find.

There's a stunning example. Ocean of Tears. Messed up. Moved to an
island... well thats a help at least, reduce the area to be searched to
about 10% of the zone, instead of somewhere at the bottom of the ocean
with no clue where.

Post by Lance Berg
*** Quests & Events ***
- Lowered the minimum players required to attack Rallos Zek's final form
in Plane of Tactics to 6 people.

RZTW is the only kill I'm missing for EP access. I doubt this is good
news, we're on Combine and trying to stick mostly to the progression, so
my guild ( and my character) have mostly gear from POP and before... we
aren't going to take out RZTW with one group. But some people in the
three higher Combine guilds are in high end GOD, OOW, and even some DON
gear. If they can waltz in there with one or two groups, there's a lot
more likelyhood he'll be killed before we get to him.

Post by Lance Berg
- Updated the valid zone for some older Ocean of Tears quests to the new
Ocean of Tears.

More "gosh this revamping a zone without upgrading it was a lame thing
to do" evidence.

Post by Lance Berg
- The Monk epic event in the Ocean of Tears will again spawn a reward chest.

Well thats good at least, those epic events are tough and its good to
have some rewards dropping to help encourage people to come assist you
with them.

Post by Lance Berg
*** Spells ***
- To help balance the way healing items work from class to class,
healing-based AAs no longer work on heals cast from items. Items that
cast healing spells that are not castable by normal players and were
previously affected by healing AAs have had their healing amount
increased accordingly.

That sucks! As an SK, I get a lot of mileage from lifetap procs, in
part because I've invested in AA that improve my healing and my DD. A
nominal 100 point lifetap proc gets me 200 quite often (one of the two
critting) and even 400 sometimes (crit nuke, crit heal). This change
will both decrease my "regen" and the usefulness of all those AA I
spent. Plus, less crit spam, which as we all know on raids is the whole
goal.

Post by Lance Berg
*** Tradeskills ***
- New Cultural Symbol QUESTS have been implemented. At this time it is
only the quests, and not the other upcoming cultural drop changes. If
you still have one of the old quests they can still be completed. The
NPCs will still respond. The target NPCs are still up and still
dropping the items as they were before. You just will not be able to
get the new quests any more as the NPCs will now only give out the new
quests.

Worded incorrectly I wager, you won't be able to get the OLD quests
anymore... although I wouldn't put it past SOE to get the actual work
wrong as well.

Post by Lance Berg
- The alchemy potions Distillate of Antidote X, Distillate of
Immunization X, and Distillate of Regeneration X now require Hypericum
instead of Wormwood. You can find Hypericum where you would find Wormwood.

OK, what exactly is the point of this? The recipies have been changed
to require a different item, but that different item is found right
where the old one was?

Post by Lance Berg
- There are now additional ranks of the AA "Mastery of the Past". Ranks
4 through 9 will allow you to increase the maximum level of spells that
are immune to fizzling to the following levels: 61, 63, 65, 66, 68, 70.
Note that the new Mastery of the Past AAs are tied to the level cap
increase expansions. Ranks 4, 5 and 6 are Omens of War AAs and Ranks 7,
8 and 9 are Serpent Spine AAs.
- Added Mastery of the Past to all casting classes which did not have
the AA previously.

I've never seen the point of this line. I fizzle very rarely as it is,
do I really need to pump dozens of AA in to first make fizzling low
level spells I never cast anyway, and then finally the high level spells
I do use, fizzle slightly less?

Post by Lance Berg
- Corrected issues with Touch of the Cursed in certain instances.

What does that mean? I haven't bought the AA yet, the whole "do stuff
to my Harm Touch" set of AA's are low on my priority list. But what
were the issues, and why did you only fix them in certain instances,
what instances, and what is the change? So much detail on other patch
notes, and this one just "guess"

Post by Lance Berg
- Spell Casting Deftness, Quick Damage, and Quick Buff now work on
spells with a minimum casting time of 3 seconds instead of 4 seconds so
they are consistent with how spell casting foci work.

Thats an improvement, in addition to being more consistent, its also
going to apply to more spells. Spells people care about well that I
don't know, haven't been interested in these for my SK yet... I didn't
even realize they wouldn't work on spells from 3 to 4 sec cast time,
just assumed they would. Are there lots of spells on other classes that
will benefit from this change?

Post by Lance Berg
- Alternate Abilities that are interrupted by player death will now have
their timers reset appropriately.

As in "since it didn't go off before you died, we'll pretend you didn't
use it"? Could we do that with Discs too? Sucks to activate Unholy
Aura and then die before HT. For that matter, Unholy Aura discipline is
stupid, shouldn't be a duration thing, should just instantly HT upgraded
when I click it. It has no use beyond HT, and there's no way to get HT
again so quickly that I could use it twice during the UA duration.

Post by Lance Berg
*** Zones ***
- Buffs will no longer count down while you are in the Guild Lobby.

Huge help. The introduction a few days ago of the Guild Hall on Combine
meant that buffers and rezzers no longer hung out in the Lobby, where
you might be able to tip them for rezzes and buffs; they moved into the
Guild Hall to preserve their buffs. Now perhaps they'll move back out
to the spot where half the dead on the server show up! Sad news for POK
though I'd guess... and the Lobby may get a bit crowded.

Post by Lance Berg
*** Miscellaneous ***
- A long and outstanding projectile weapon problem has been fixed.
Previously, if you shot an arrow or a projectile spell such as a
firebolt, the visual representation of the projectile would actually hit
its target after the player was notified of the hit. Now it is
syncronized such that the output to the player's chat window is
appropriately updated with the projectile hit information when the
visual representation of the projectile actually hits its target.

I hadn't noticed this, if it entered my perception at all I guess I
assumed it was lag.

Post by Lance Berg
- The /who command should now process quicker.

I had noticed this. Used to be nearly instantaneous, but recently its
taken 10 seconds or so on average. Disconcerting.

Post by Lance Berg
- Solvents that destroy augments now display a destroy message instead
of safely remove message.

No, I just destroyed a couple augments last night and got a destroy box.
Maybe SOME of the solvents were displaying the wrong message, but the
ones I bought, in BB wayfarer camp, didn't.

Post by Lance Berg
- /melody now terminates for bards when they get silenced. They should
no longer get spammed with "You can't cast now, because you are
silenced" messages.

Less spam for bards, good thing. Bad news for bard BOTs though, who now
will have to restart melody after silence ends, instead of just leaving
it run thru a brief one. On the other hand, canny bards know that
picking one song and sticking to it lets you operate during silence.
Hope this still works.

Post by Lance Berg
- Loot permissions are now passed as part of corpse messages and are
updated to the world when loot permissions are changed except if a
corpse is ported to another zone.

What? Mob corpses? That makes no sense. My corpse? Its not lootable
by others and I don't care what zone its in or if it was moved I don't
want it lootable by others, and I don't want it not lootable by me.

Post by Lance Berg
- Armor should no longer disappear after using illusions.

Bah, this was a great way to see your enchanter's groupmates in their
skivvies. No, really I appreciate this, its weird raiding with a bunch
of people who look like fresh rolled newbies.

Post by Lance Berg
- Updating the price of an item without changing the price will no
longer increment item count in the bazaar search.

Didn't notice this, sounds odd. But harmless.

Post by Lance Berg
- After attempting to invite a player that does not exist or is not
logged in, an error "Player soandso was not found." is now displayed in
red text.

Good, I sometimes get told "invite Boborand" and it turns out they
misspelled his name (or I have) and he's really Bobborand. I invite a
nonexistant player, and then wonder why he's not hitting follow. Now
I'll know right away.

Post by Lance Berg
- The Link All button will now wrap links onto the following chat line.
This will allow a list of items spread over multiple lines to be sent
over chat channels. If the amount of text is long enough that a link
can't fit on the line without exceeding the text limit, only the links
that fit will be shown.

Sounds good for those mobs who drop a bunch of items with long names.
Does present the opportunity for massive spamming though... have they
considered removing the link all button that shows up when you loot your
own corpse?

Post by Lance Berg
- You can drag corpses through teleporters once again.

Nice.

Post by Lance Berg
- When auto attacking an NPC, characters will no longer lose a fraction
of a second from the delay on each swing.

What does this mean? Fraction of a second is... wow thats a huge change
sounds like. The difference between an 18 delay and a 10 delay is a
fraction of a second. How big was this fraction, and was it in our
favor or against it? Why NPC only, did delay work differently in PvP?

Post by Lance Berg
- A problem has been addressed and fixed regarding full screen mode.
Previously, users would experience "bleed through" where background
applications would sometimes draw through the EverQuest window in full
screen mode, and where the mouse cursor might periodically change to the
background application's mouse cursor. This mouse issue appears to have
been fixed, and the "bleed through" of background application drawing
has been significantly reduced.

Yeah that was annoying. Good, I hope this works.

Well I guess I'll go do some useful work. Responding to the patch took
just as much time as I would have spent monkeying around on an alt before
going and making swords anyway. Down side is, patch will still be going
on when I'm done and ready to play some more!

Richard Carpenter

2007-07-05 13:52:48 UTC