Patch message July 24, 2007

[Impmon]

Yay more patch to fix what the last patch broke... and a revamped
Innothule Swamp

*** Highlights ***

- Innothule Swamp Revamp: As the stench of evil pullulates throughout
the region surrounding the home of the trolls, the denizens of the
Innothule Swamp surface to see the rejuvenated swamplands.

- SOE Fan Faire: The 2007 Vegas Fan Faire from August 2nd-5th is
approaching. Online registration is now closed, but we've still got
plenty of room for walk-ins! Walk-in Registration will begin at the
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Thursday, August 2nd at 4:00pm. Visit
http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire for more information.

- SOE Block Party: We invite you to join the SOE team in San Diego on
July 28th for the second annual SOE Block Party. Visit
http://eqplayers.station.sony.com for details.


*** Items ***

- All items that have a clickable aura now have a cast time of .5
seconds.
- Changed the 2 avoidance to 2 DoT shielding for Buckler of
Corruption.

*** Quests & Events ***

- Changed the names of Sacred Stone I and Sacred Stone II to The
Kobold Hearthstone and The Stone-fed Shaman respectively.
- Gnashclaw Stonefed will not become "active" until a player on the
"The Stone-fed Shaman" quest gets into the area of the orc fort. This
should help prevent him from being killed by folks that are not on the
quest.
- Gnashclaw's aura now makes the orcs near him a bit tougher, so
beware the Stone-fed shaman.


*** Spells ***

- Sorcerer's Spell Guard now has its hit limit reinstated.
- Less powerful pet focus effects should no longer override more
powerful pet focus effects.
- Sporali Advisor should no longer be overwritten by Malo.


*** Tradeskills ***

- It seems that the gnomes made a mistake on the roboboar supplemental
upgrades. They have since adjusted the containers so that all will
work appropriately. (The recipes were bugged, now they work. There
will be no change as far as you the players see, other than the fact
that it will now work.)


*** AA ***

- Added a damage component to the wizard AA Cryomancy.
- Removed ranks 4 - 6 of Blood Tithe. All points spent on this
ability have been refunded.
- Modified the way the Wizard AAs Frenzied Devastation and Prolonged
Destruction work so that they will have a buff icon when active.
- Increased the cost of Glyph of Arcane Secrets to 4 points.
- Corrected the "Heart of" and "Core of" AA lines to only require rank
1 of their respective prerequisite AA lines instead of rank 3, as it
used to be.
- Separated the Paladin and Shadow Knight "Steed" lines.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4 and 5 of the Innate Lung Capacity
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing lung capacity by the
appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as they
did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Extended Notes line
of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the bard song range by the
appropriate percentage and will now increase it by the same percentage
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Double Riposte line
of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-riposte rate by
the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as
they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Ferocity line of
AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-attack rate by the
appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as they
did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Knight's Advantage
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-attack rate
by the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 7, 8, and 9 of the Speed of the Knight
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the rate to fire an
additional 2H attack by the appropriate amount and will now increase
it by the same amount as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 7, 8, and 9 of the Fury of Magic line
of AA's for Clerics, Druids, Shaman, Enchanters, Magicians, and
Necromancers. These ranks were not increasing the spell crit-rate by
the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as
they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 9, 10, and 11 of the Spell Casting
Fury Mastery line of AA's for Wizards. These ranks were not increasing
the spell crit-rate by the appropriate amount and will now increase it
by the same amount as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the Lightning
Strike line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the flurry chance
by the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.


*** Zones ***

- Fixed an issue that caused crashing out during raid phase
transitions in the Solteris: Stalwart Defenders instance.


*** Miscellaneous ***

- Fixed an issue with the Rogue's Backstab ability button that caused
it not to work when clicking it too many times before it was ready to
be activated again.


*** Previously Updated ***

- The Rear Guard Balreth event has been slightly tuned up in
difficulty.





- The EverQuest Team

[Lance Berg]

Post by Impmon
Yay more patch to fix what the last patch broke... and a revamped
Innothule Swamp
*** Highlights ***
- Innothule Swamp Revamp: As the stench of evil pullulates throughout
the region surrounding the home of the trolls, the denizens of the
Innothule Swamp surface to see the rejuvenated swamplands.

They keep doing this, and it just annoys the crap out of me. They don't
add new content, they just move stuff around and change the art. In the
meantime, they make the zone laggy as all hell, and make the maps
obsolete. As a side effect, they make old writeups about the locations
of quest mobs obsolete as well... but there I can't honestly complain,
as using walkthru's isn't an inherent feature of the game.

If they added new content, I'd be all for this kind of thing, by the
way; its just that to me, a graphic update on a zone practically nobody
uses is a colossal waste of time

Oh, and "pullulates"... is that a word?

Post by Impmon
*** Items ***
- All items that have a clickable aura now have a cast time of .5
seconds.

I don't know what clickable auras are or what the old cast times were.
If they used to be instant, this is a big nerf, means you can't cast on
the move or in a non interruptible way. If they used to be slower, I
guess this is a boost?

Post by Impmon
- Changed the 2 avoidance to 2 DoT shielding for Buckler of
Corruption.

Why?

Post by Impmon
*** Spells ***
- Sorcerer's Spell Guard now has its hit limit reinstated.
- Less powerful pet focus effects should no longer override more
powerful pet focus effects.

Mage buddy just noticed this effect, got new minion of darkness gloves
out of Vex Thal and they didn't make any difference to his pet... until
he put his LDoN diamond in inventory.

Post by Impmon
*** Tradeskills ***
- It seems that the gnomes made a mistake on the roboboar supplemental
upgrades. They have since adjusted the containers so that all will
work appropriately. (The recipes were bugged, now they work. There
will be no change as far as you the players see, other than the fact
that it will now work.)

Yeah, thats not a noticeable change!

Post by Impmon
*** AA ***
- Separated the Paladin and Shadow Knight "Steed" lines.

Unholy Steed was messed up as of last patch, it vanished from your AA
list if you'd purchased it. I had to clear my UI due to a bug, and the
only way I got my pony working again was to look up the /alt action
number for it (85) Maybe this fix had something to do with that?

Post by Impmon
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4 and 5 of the Innate Lung Capacity
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing lung capacity by the
appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as they
did prior to the AA consolidation.

Least popular AA ever? No wonder I never heard it was broken, I never
heard of anyone who bought it!

Post by Impmon
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Extended Notes line
of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the bard song range by the
appropriate percentage and will now increase it by the same percentage
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Double Riposte line
of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-riposte rate by
the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as
they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Ferocity line of
AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-attack rate by the
appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as they
did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Knight's Advantage
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-attack rate
by the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 7, 8, and 9 of the Speed of the Knight
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the rate to fire an
additional 2H attack by the appropriate amount and will now increase
it by the same amount as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 7, 8, and 9 of the Fury of Magic line
of AA's for Clerics, Druids, Shaman, Enchanters, Magicians, and
Necromancers. These ranks were not increasing the spell crit-rate by
the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as
they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 9, 10, and 11 of the Spell Casting
Fury Mastery line of AA's for Wizards. These ranks were not increasing
the spell crit-rate by the appropriate amount and will now increase it
by the same amount as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the Lightning
Strike line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the flurry chance
by the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.

Glad to see the AA consolidation was so well checked before being put
into play. Thats a LOT of stuff that didn't work right!

Post by Impmon
*** Miscellaneous ***
- Fixed an issue with the Rogue's Backstab ability button that caused
it not to work when clicking it too many times before it was ready to
be activated again.

Oh man that must have been funny to see!
Can't believe thats a 6 hour patch. Sounds like the sort of thing they
used to do in two or three.

I mean, its obviously not as though they use the remaining time for testing.

Berg, 70 SK, Combine

[Eric D. Braden]

Post by Lance Berg

Post by Impmon
Yay more patch to fix what the last patch broke... and a revamped
Innothule Swamp
*** Highlights ***
- Innothule Swamp Revamp: As the stench of evil pullulates throughout
the region surrounding the home of the trolls, the denizens of the
Innothule Swamp surface to see the rejuvenated swamplands.

They keep doing this, and it just annoys the crap out of me. They don't
add new content, they just move stuff around and change the art. In the
meantime, they make the zone laggy as all hell, and make the maps
obsolete. As a side effect, they make old writeups about the locations
of quest mobs obsolete as well... but there I can't honestly complain,
as using walkthru's isn't an inherent feature of the game.
If they added new content, I'd be all for this kind of thing, by the
way; its just that to me, a graphic update on a zone practically nobody
uses is a colossal waste of time
Oh, and "pullulates"... is that a word?

I think the redesigns are pretty nice. I see the same negatives you
do, though. If I made much needed upgrades to my PC, I wouldn't be as
bothered by the hardware lag, but I can't complain, because my PC is
seriously outdated. I agree on the lack of new content, though. If
you're not going to add new content to draw people there, why on earth
would you have your folks working on a redesign? I like that they
break walkthroughs. I don't think Allakhazam and its ilk have
"ruined" the game, and I use them liberally, but mysteries were a big
part of why I loved this game the first time I played (a friend and I
spent tons of time investigating the broken quests of Kurn's tower
before they finished the iksar progessive weapon/shackle quests).

And yeah, pullulate is a word...I had to look it up :P

1. to send forth sprouts, buds, etc.; germinate; sprout.
2. to breed, produce, or create rapidly.
3. to increase rapidly; multiply.
4. to exist abundantly; swarm; teem.
5. to be produced as offspring.

[Richard Carpenter]

Post by Lance Berg

Post by Impmon
Yay more patch to fix what the last patch broke... and a revamped
Innothule Swamp
*** Highlights ***
- Innothule Swamp Revamp: As the stench of evil pullulates throughout
the region surrounding the home of the trolls, the denizens of the
Innothule Swamp surface to see the rejuvenated swamplands.

They keep doing this, and it just annoys the crap out of me. They
don't add new content, they just move stuff around and change the art.
In the meantime, they make the zone laggy as all hell, and make the
maps obsolete. As a side effect, they make old writeups about the
locations of quest mobs obsolete as well... but there I can't honestly
complain, as using walkthru's isn't an inherent feature of the game.

The *only* negative aspect I've seen to these zone revamps is that I
suddenly don't know my way around them anymore. Aside from that, it can't
be argued that the new zones look much better (though their first pass at
Nektulos Forest still kind of baffles me - I very much like the final
incarnation, though).

I don't have any problems with lag in the revamped zones, btw. /shrug

Post by Lance Berg
If they added new content, I'd be all for this kind of thing, by the
way; its just that to me, a graphic update on a zone practically
nobody uses is a colossal waste of time

Perhaps. I am curious as to what criteria they use to choose the next zone
to revamp, however. Personally, I think Kelethin would be an excellent
choice. Yeah, it's kind of deserted these days, but I really can't argue
with them revamping graphics anywhere.

As for the rest of the patch - *yawn*.

[Impmon]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:58:07 -0400, Lance Berg

Post by Lance Berg

Post by Impmon
- Innothule Swamp Revamp: As the stench of evil pullulates throughout
the region surrounding the home of the trolls, the denizens of the
Innothule Swamp surface to see the rejuvenated swamplands.

They keep doing this, and it just annoys the crap out of me. They don't
add new content, they just move stuff around and change the art. In the
meantime, they make the zone laggy as all hell, and make the maps
obsolete. As a side effect, they make old writeups about the locations
of quest mobs obsolete as well... but there I can't honestly complain,
as using walkthru's isn't an inherent feature of the game.
If they added new content, I'd be all for this kind of thing, by the
way; its just that to me, a graphic update on a zone practically nobody
uses is a colossal waste of time

Same here. I took a peek on the test server and I don't like the new
version. it's not as dark and gloomy as the old zone. Looks more
like a tyical backyard swamp rather than a swamp next to the home of
troll's.

A lot of the zones had been revamped, broke many quest writeups, often
broke existing quests as well, and added a lot of lags. All for the
sake of making the old world up to standards.

The way the revamped zones are spreading, upper/lower guk or feerott
could be next.

Post by Lance Berg
Oh, and "pullulates"... is that a word?

Yep... a new word for me but it's spelled correctly and is listed on
dictionary.com:

pul·lu·late (pu(l'y?-la-t')
intr.v. pul·lu·lat·ed, pul·lu·lat·ing, pul·lu·lates

1. To put forth sprouts or buds; germinate.
2. To breed rapidly or abundantly.
3. To teem; swarm: a lagoon that pullulated with tropical fish.

[Faned]

Post by Lance Berg

Post by Impmon
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Extended Notes line
of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the bard song range by the
appropriate percentage and will now increase it by the same percentage
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Double Riposte line
of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-riposte rate by
the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as
they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Ferocity line of
AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-attack rate by the
appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as they
did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 4, 5, and 6 of the Knight's Advantage
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the double-attack rate
by the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 7, 8, and 9 of the Speed of the Knight
line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the rate to fire an
additional 2H attack by the appropriate amount and will now increase
it by the same amount as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 7, 8, and 9 of the Fury of Magic line
of AA's for Clerics, Druids, Shaman, Enchanters, Magicians, and
Necromancers. These ranks were not increasing the spell crit-rate by
the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount as
they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 9, 10, and 11 of the Spell Casting
Fury Mastery line of AA's for Wizards. These ranks were not increasing
the spell crit-rate by the appropriate amount and will now increase it
by the same amount as they did prior to the AA consolidation.
- Corrected an issue with Ranks 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the Lightning
Strike line of AA's. These ranks were not increasing the flurry chance
by the appropriate amount and will now increase it by the same amount
as they did prior to the AA consolidation.

Glad to see the AA consolidation was so well checked before being put
into play. Thats a LOT of stuff that didn't work right!

And that's not even all the stuff that was broken. I'm hoping there are
some unmentioned fixes as well (such as critical mend percentages having
been chopped in half since the last patch).

[Mark Rafn]

Post by Impmon
- SOE Fan Faire: The 2007 Vegas Fan Faire from August 2nd-5th is
approaching. Online registration is now closed, but we've still got
plenty of room for walk-ins! Walk-in Registration will begin at the
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Thursday, August 2nd at 4:00pm. Visit
http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire for more information.

Anyone here planning on going to this, or gone to previous ones and have any
advice on what not to miss? I'm going to be in Vegas for other reasons,
and I expect to get a chance to stop in at the FF on one or two days.
--
Mark Rafn ***@dagon.net <http://www.dagon.net/>

[Richard]

Post by Impmon
Yay more patch to fix what the last patch broke... and a revamped

Fix?

Since todays patch, EQ crashes constantly on me. I can no longer log one
of my characters in at all. I reset the ui to default, I deleted all the
zone files for the zone he's in. As soon as it finishes loading the zone
files EQ crashes.

Yay for patches.

[Don Woods]

Post by Richard

Post by Impmon
Yay more patch to fix what the last patch broke... and a revamped

Fix?
Since todays patch, EQ crashes constantly on me. I can no longer log one
of my characters in at all. I reset the ui to default, I deleted all the
zone files for the zone he's in. As soon as it finishes loading the zone
files EQ crashes.
Yay for patches.

Sounds like something might've gotten corrupted in the character's
UI files (character_server.ini and UI_character_server.ini). Try
moving those aside and see if that helps.

-- Don.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
-- See the a.g.e/EQ1 FAQ at http://www.iCynic.com/~don/EQ/age.faq.htm
--
-- Sukrasisx, Monk 68 on E. Marr Note: If you reply by mail,
-- Terrwini, Druid 58 on E. Marr I'll get to it sooner if you
-- Teviron, Knight 58 on E. Marr remove the "hyphen n s"
-- Wizbeau, Wizard 36 on E. Marr

[Dude Rawr]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:27:09 -0500, Richard

Post by Richard
Since todays patch, EQ crashes constantly on me. I can no longer log one
of my characters in at all. I reset the ui to default, I deleted all the
zone files for the zone he's in. As soon as it finishes loading the zone
files EQ crashes.
Yay for patches.

Delete or backup your current UI files, then delete them from the EQ
folder. Run EQ and see if that fixes it. If so, quit EQ and back up
the new UI files cause if its anything like whats been happening with
me you'll need them. Memming a spell, crash and corrupted UI. Zoning
into revamped area, crash and corrupted UI. Trying to loot my
corpse... you know what happened.

[Jaorr_Blade]

Post by Dude Rawr
On Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:27:09 -0500, Richard

Post by Richard
Since todays patch, EQ crashes constantly on me. I can no longer log one
of my characters in at all. I reset the ui to default, I deleted all the
zone files for the zone he's in. As soon as it finishes loading the zone
files EQ crashes.
Yay for patches.

Delete or backup your current UI files, then delete them from the EQ
folder. Run EQ and see if that fixes it. If so, quit EQ and back up
the new UI files cause if its anything like whats been happening with
me you'll need them. Memming a spell, crash and corrupted UI. Zoning
into revamped area, crash and corrupted UI. Trying to loot my
corpse... you know what happened.

Wow that happens to me A LOT now. Never thought about the UI or INI
files. Just had it yesterday again in fact and I had to wait till the
RETURN HOME button was active this morning and that fixed it (once I
got to a different zone). My issue on this and several other toons
was initiated by zoning, which never completed...hung up. So when I
relogged in, I clicked the character screen "Enter World" button, and
it went dead. Waited 2-3 minutes, then the black SERVER screen pops
up. If I then try to re-enter the server, I get a "one character is
already logged in" dialogue. So I have to wait another 5 for the toon
to LD, I suppose sitting idly in the zone I just tried to log into.
Verified this morning time on my buffs had elapsed. Did it 5 times,
then gave up. Waited a day, clicked "Return Home", then I was able to
log in.

BTW, I use the stock UI, nothing special, don't mess with too many
macros, just a couple. All my toon screens are pretty much identical
to the way I like the windows, so I have very little variation in
them.

I do have a number of separate text windows open though, to separate
GENERAL, MELEE, OOC, TELLS, SKILLS, GROUP, and ZONEWIDE DEFAULT.
Often wondered if that was too much.

Jorr

[Don Woods]

Post by Jaorr_Blade
Wow that happens to me A LOT now. Never thought about the UI or INI
files. Just had it yesterday again in fact and I had to wait till the
RETURN HOME button was active this morning and that fixed it (once I
got to a different zone). My issue on this and several other toons
was initiated by zoning, which never completed...hung up. So when I
relogged in, I clicked the character screen "Enter World" button, and
it went dead.

[snip more in same vein]

This doesn't sound like character-related files; it sounds more like
your files for that zone are corrupted. Once you used Return Home
and got in okay, what happens if try to go back to the problem zone?
What happens if a different character tries to zone into there?

Assuming that your client is disconnecting whenever any character
tries to log into a particular zone, I'd suggest removing all files
relating to that zone (especially the map files; I've definitely seen
this symptom when the map data is malformatted), doing a full file
check to replace any essential files, and then trying again.

-- Don.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
-- See the a.g.e/EQ1 FAQ at http://www.iCynic.com/~don/EQ/age.faq.htm
--
-- Sukrasisx, Monk 68 on E. Marr Note: If you reply by mail,
-- Terrwini, Druid 58 on E. Marr I'll get to it sooner if you
-- Teviron, Knight 58 on E. Marr remove the "hyphen n s"
-- Wizbeau, Wizard 36 on E. Marr

[Richard]

Post by Don Woods

Post by Jaorr_Blade
Wow that happens to me A LOT now. Never thought about the UI or INI
files. Just had it yesterday again in fact and I had to wait till the
RETURN HOME button was active this morning and that fixed it (once I
got to a different zone). My issue on this and several other toons
was initiated by zoning, which never completed...hung up. So when I
relogged in, I clicked the character screen "Enter World" button, and
it went dead.

[snip more in same vein]
This doesn't sound like character-related files; it sounds more like
your files for that zone are corrupted. Once you used Return Home
and got in okay, what happens if try to go back to the problem zone?
What happens if a different character tries to zone into there?
Assuming that your client is disconnecting whenever any character
tries to log into a particular zone, I'd suggest removing all files
relating to that zone (especially the map files; I've definitely seen
this symptom when the map data is malformatted), doing a full file
check to replace any essential files, and then trying again.

It is the character INI file. The ingame petition is seriously broken now.
I was trying to bring up my potion belt, and hit p instead of shift-p. For
many, maybe not all, opening the petition window now crashes EQ, and, you
have to edit the character INI file to fix it.