No "patch" notes?
Lance Berg
Tuesday 6/13/2006 for an update. Estimated downtime is 8 hours.
If I'm doing the math right, then downtime started at 7am EDT, which
means they expect to be down till 3pm EDT, and will probably actually be
up by 5pm, for about 10 minutes till they figure out that will-o-wisps
are dropping JBoots, then repatch for the next four or five days.
Thats expected, no biggie.
But what I can't find is the traditional "patch notes" with which to
occupy myself while weathering the patch process. Nothing came up when
I tried to log in, except a message (greatly appreciated) telling me
that the login server was closed, "probably" because of a patch.*
Went to the EQlive site, and while it does in fact inform me that all
the servers are down (except the Mac one), it doesn't say what the patch
contents are. The "upcomming updates" talks at length about things
being done on Test. The "recent updates" shows the April 19 one.
What about the TODAY one, thats neither upcomming nor recent?
And of course traffic here on AGE is so low these days that the most
reliable source of all, someone racing to post the patch message here as
fast as possible, also hasn't materialized!
Lance
*(Ok, not appreciated. Take the time, guys, to actually change that
message when there IS a patch in progress, and change it back when the
patch is OVER, don't leave a generic "probably" message up forever, its
just as meaningless as not having a message there at all.)
Lance Berg
Lance Berg wrote:
> All EverQuest servers will be coming down at 4:00 AM PDT (-7 UTC) on
> Tuesday 6/13/2006 for an update. Estimated downtime is 8 hours.
> But what I can't find is the traditional "patch notes" with which to
> occupy myself while weathering the patch process. Nothing came up when
> I tried to log in, except a message (greatly appreciated) telling me
> that the login server was closed, "probably" because of a patch.*
>
Looks like maybe its to update to Dx9.0c? While I have that, it turns
out I still fail the test, because updating automatically thru windows
update doesn't include some .dll file thats apparantly necessary... to
pass the test, although possibly for no other purpose. Anyway, can I
download just that file? Nope, apparantly you have to go thru the
manual route to install Dx9.0c. Nice time waster there, eh?
Luckily at this point I'm on DSL instead of connecting via my cell phone
so thats no big deal I guess, working on it.
Lance
Lance Berg
Lance Berg wrote:
> Looks like maybe its to update to Dx9.0c? While I have that, it turns
> out I still fail the test, because updating automatically thru windows
> update doesn't include some .dll file thats apparantly necessary... to
> pass the test, although possibly for no other purpose. Anyway, can I
> download just that file? Nope, apparantly you have to go thru the
> manual route to install Dx9.0c. Nice time waster there, eh?
OK so thats done. Running the test DX thingie now reports I'm ready.
Kind of a Spongebob moment.
Vidden
I know they are patching up the new DirectX and they are also changing
the hot spots. Oh, and they are changing it to where you start losing
exp at level 6 now instead of 11.
__________________________________________________________
Submitted by: Vidden
This message was submitted through the Erollisi Marr Forum
Tony
*** We've now upgraded to DirectX 9.0c! ***
- Continuing our efforts to keep pace with current technology, EverQuest
will be upgrading to DirectX9.0c to allow us to take advantage of many
of the new features and fixes since our last upgrade in the middle of
2003. You will need to be sure that you are currently running
DirectX9.0C . If not you will need to download it. This can be done by
simply going to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=56513
Make sure you:
1. Get the April 2006 DirectX 9.0C redistributable version (Caution:
Download is about 52 MB) at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fb73d860-5af1-45e5-bac0-9bc7a5254203
2. Run directx_apr2006_redist.exe. Extract the files to an easily
identifiable directory.
3. Go to the directory the files were extracted to in step 2. Run
"DXSETUP.EXE" from that directory.
4. Accept the license agreement. Allow the installer to update the
DirectX components.
- Nektulos Forest got a face lift! Check out the amazing new look.
- The Guild Lobby is now available to everyone.
- The 8th-year veteran reward Throne of Heroes, a gate ability that
transports veterans to the throne room in the guild lobby, is now
available to those who are eligible.
- The map window now has an option to display your group mates.
- To help smooth the transition to incurring death penalties for new
players (losing experience and leaving a corpse), the level when you
start to incur death penalties has been lowered from level 11 to level 6
and the amount of experience you lose when you die now starts at a very
small amount at level 6 and slowly ramps up from there. We've added a
corpse summoner to the tutorial who will summon corpses for free for
anyone who is level 10 or under.
- New Hot Zones! With this patch the old hot zones have been reverted to
their previous values and a new set of hot zones has been selected! The
following zones are now the "Hot Zones"!
Level 20: Swamp of No Hope
Level 25: Overthere
Level 30: Timorous Deep
Level 35: Emerald Jungle
Level 40: Dreadlands
Level 45: City of Mist
Level 50: Skyfire
Level 55: Karnor's Castle
Level 60: Veksar
*** Spells ***
- Fire pets should now regenerate mana appropriately.
- Pet spells and weapon procs now report to the owner and can be
filtered appropriately.
- The refresh time on Spirit of Bih`Li has been reduced.
- The damage on Bloodpyre and Heartblaze have been increased.
- The effect from your aura will no longer be removed if you use an
illusion.
- Having an aura up should no longer cause targeting issues while you
are under illusions.
- Illusion: Werewolf now uses the new werewolf model. This applies to
enchanter spells and item effects.
- Bard songs will now stop pulsing when an NPC forces the bard to feign
death.
- You can now turn off messages generated by bard songs affecting your pet.
- Buffs that increase run speed will no longer overwrite AA run speed
increases that are better than the buff.
- You can now specify beneficial spells to block by name using the
Blocked Buff window. This will allow you to block spells that don't have
a buff icon without editing a file.
- Attempting to gate or teleport to a zone that isn't currently running
will no longer result in your spell bar being locked up.
- Several spell texts which were gender-specific have been changed to
something more gender-neutral.
- Added a wear-off message to Elddar's Grasp, Puratus, Harmony of
Nature, and Mind Shatter.
- Short duration buff icons should now be a consistent size.
- Eyes of Zomm have been sedated and should no longer decide to attack
their owners from time to time.
- Sitting while levitation wears off will no longer leave your character
looking like he's falling until you stand up again.
*** AAS ***
- Added the 8-year veteran reward Throne of Heroes, a gate ability that
transports veterans to throne room in the guild lobby.
- Pious Supplication has been renamed to Improved Hand of Piety.
*** Items ***
- Increased the amount of experience that evolving items gain when you
kill an NPC. In addition, you will now gain more experience toward your
evolving item when you are in a group, similar to how normal experience
works.
- Reduced the amount of experience required to level up intelligent
items. If your items now have more experience than is required to level,
they will evolve the next time they gain experience.
- Due to the changes to how fast you gain item XP, the amount of XP
required to evolve the Cloak of the Spirit Tracker has been increased.
- Evolving an item should no longer cause occasional crashes.
- The aura effects from Prophecy of Ro "clicky" items are no longer
restricted to only hitting your group. In addition, they will no longer
recast their effect every 6 seconds, but instead will remain on a
character for as long as they are within range of the aura.
- Throwing axes should now pull from ammo/inventory appropriately.
- Lowered the duration on the spin stun on Peace of the Disciple Strike
and One Hundred Blows while in PvP.
- Bane of Muram and Curse of Muram now last 18 and 36 seconds respectively.
-Modified the Battleworn Symbol of Rage. The charm was calculating
values higher than intended and now should be on par with other
Demiplane of Blood level charms.
- Changed all four of the Furious Bash Augments from DoD that use
Ambleshift's Amazing Automated Amalgamator to Improved Block.
Additionally the names of the Chronal, Discordant and Bazu seals have
been changed appropriately.
- Altered the Favorable Breezes line of augments from DoD that use
Ambleshift's Amazing Automated Amalgamator. They now give a different
progression of effect.
- Increased the level required to equip the following augments to 45 to
match the level that their effect is able to be used: Carnivorous Coral,
Deepwood Hunter's Stone.
- Increased the level required to equip the following augments to 60 to
match the level that their effect is able to be used: Green Fire
Phosphorous, Frozen Malachite, Jagged Dragon Scale, Turquoise Lifetap Sieve.
- Increased the level required to use the following augments to 65 to
match the level that their effect is able to be used: Volcanic Sink
Geode, Deep Crust Frozen Malachite, Vein Sap Mineral, Ethereal Sky
Stone, Faerie Luck Stone.
- The Mystical Aptitude effect will now last its full 20 minutes.
- Vibrating Gauntlets of Infuse and Vibrating Hammer of Infuse are now
lore to each other. This is to prevent players from getting into an odd
state that could cause a crash.
- Barbarians can now use Naturalist's Leather Arm Wraps.
- Roleplayer's Jester now looks like a doll rather than a bag.
- The Burning Affliction focus effect on The Skull of Torture should now
work properly.
- Increased the stats on the Wrought Blade of Hiz.
- Bravefoot Short Sword is now considered a one-handed slashing weapon
instead of one-handed blunt.
- The Cracked Stone of Savagery now has the proc effect of Lifesap I.
- The Shard of Crystallized Rage now has the proc effect of Fiery Strike II.
*** Skills ***
- Made changes to the taunt formula at high levels. A level 60 character
taunting an even con or higher level NPC will now use the character's
taunt skill to determine success rate, similar to what occurs below
level 60. The chance to taunt is roughly the same. In addition, the
reduction in your chance to taunt creatures higher level than yourself
now occurs at a slower rate and the minimum chance to taunt an NPC is
higher. Also, you will now gain a bonus to your chance to taunt NPCs
that are lower level than yourself. To go along with the change to use a
character's taunt skill after level 60, paladins and shadowknights have
had their taunt caps increased to match warriors and ranger's skill cap
has been increased to 200.
- Taunts that fail because of distance will no longer cause you to have
to wait the cool down period before attempting to taunt again.
- Ranged combat should behave much more consistently now.
- Increased the sense and disarm range on many traps throughout the world.
- /con will now properly report whether an NPC can see you sneaky rogues.
*** Tradeskills ***
- Increased the amount of mobs that can drop exceptional shissar blood.
- The tradeskill recipes for Dreary Deeds and Infusion of Spirit have
finally been discovered.
- Merchants across the world realized that they were selling small
pieces of ore at a loss. They have mutually agreed on a price increase.
- The poisons from the Omens of War era will no longer magically create
a vial; they now require two of the appropriate poison vial.
- You will no longer be able to combine ingredients that you have up for
sale in the bazaar.
- The Antonican forge has moved to outside of Armor by Ikthar.
- Failing to create Frost Bunny Stew will now return your pot to you.
- Fixed the bug to the evolution of the tradeskill trophies for players
using lower than master certificates while having a 300 skill.
- Bristlebane's Challenge and Bristlebane's Challenge Meats have changed
to No Drop.
- Fixed a bug in the wording of the Grandmaster's Book of Barbarian Culture.
- Expanded the shark skins that can be used to make advanced poison
vials. There are two shark skin items, both with the same name.
- Seeping Haze poisons will now properly bestow the Seeping Haze proc
effect.
- Bitter feedback poisons will not properly bestow the Bitter Feedback
proc effect.
*** Quests ***
- Removed the "Loot 4" requirement from all of the "Bring Me Their
Heads" quests in Devastation and Stronghold of Rage. This should make
these quests more accessible by allowing characters to collect the items
needed, then get the quest and hand them in to complete it.
- Added an experience reward for the "Bring Me Their Heads" and "Engines
of Destruction" tasks in the Devastation and Stronghold of Rage.
- Fixed a problem with the Shaman epic 2.0 Elder Spirit of Enlightenment
in West Freeport. Seemed he wanted to enlighten himself by wandering
where he shouldn't. He should now happily lead shamans from the Jade
Tiger Inn into the courtyard for the ritual.
- The drop rate of the Twilight Sea armor quest gems has been increased
significantly. In an effort to keep the amount of money entering the
world from those gems roughly the same, the value of the gems has been
reduced as a result.
- Shalowen the Pure will now return The Chalice of Life if you have
completed the single group missions in his arc in order and turning in
the chalice of life drop from the Corruption of Ro raid.
- Exploring the Valley of Xanzerok for the Arcstone quests should now
work correctly when levitating.
*** Events ***
- The LDoN raids have been switched over to use the expedition system.
This means you can add new players to the raid at any time, and the
lockout occurs at the end after a success instead of at the beginning
when the raid is launched. Also, the maximum player limit has been
increased from 36 to 54, and all death count failure mechanics have been
removed.
- The events in Deathknell, Tower of Dissonance now have individual
lockout timers instead of applying a lockout to the entire zone.
- Made some tuning changes to the first raid event in Deathknell.
- The Deathknell Enforcers will no longer use Immobilizing Stone.
- Added a tether to Maestro Tan`Lor in Theater of Blood.
- The lava spout traps have been removed from the Tirranun encounter.
- The traps in the Inktu`ta raid should fire off much less often, as
well as be easier to locate and disarm.
- Mayong will now teleport back to his spawn point if he wanders too far
from his room.
- Fixed a crash bug that could occur in the Demi-Plane of Blood during
the Performer event.
- Drekish the Enforcer of Ro will now properly reset in the event of a
failure in the Corruption of Ro raid.
- You now only need one flagged player to initiate the 18-man Kunark
Monster Mission raid: Fall of an Empire.
- The invaders that breach the walls into the Stronghold of Rage will be
a bit less easy to split.
*** Missions ***
- Increased the distance that the Dwarf armies must be from basecamp in
The Defense of Thurgadin monster mission before they return to full
combat potential. Units moving to forward locations are guaranteed to be
back in combat states when they reach their destinations but may still
be thinking of resting while they are in transit.
- Dain`s Historian Duggans will now review with you which of his
missions you have completed and turned in a seal for that mission.
Simply ask him to "Review" the Coldain History you have studied.
- Corrected an issue that could cause you to not get credit for
finishing the mission "Train" if you were charmed when it completed.
- Corrected an issue that could cause the mission "Creepy Concerto" to
not update properly if there were pets or auras in the mission.
*** Zones ***
- The Guild Lobby is now available to everyone, whether they own Dragons
of Norrath or not.
- Added a guild hall port stone to Arcstone.
- Added an Augment Sealer Pool to Arcstone.
- Fixed a number of crashes that could occur with older graphics cards
in Anguish and Muramite Proving Grounds.
- The portal out of Veeshan's Peak will now take you to the proper
version of Freeport.
- Fixed a problem that was causing NPCs to fall under the world in
Dawnshroud Peaks.
- Creatures in Devastation now travel in smaller packs and are slightly
weaker than before.
- The portal to Dranik's Scar from East Freeport has a visual effect again.
- The entrances to Paineel and The Hole can be lock picked once again.
- The Hunter/Forager cycle in Trakanon's Teeth should no longer spawn
multiple copies of the same creatures.
- Corrected an issue that could cause several non-targetable creatures
to attack you in Halls of Honor.
- Casting Succor in Grimling Forest will no longer put you under the world.
- Fixed a problem with the Guild Hall Portal that could cause the
teleport confirmation window to display the incorrect target zone.
- Fixed an issue in Illsalin that was causing groups of arena combatants
not to despawn after the event.
- You should no longer get stuck behind the grate leading into Dranik
Sewers.
- Kerra Ridge should now be much friendlier to lower level adventurers.
*** NPCs ***
- Updated the character models for many NPCs throughout the world. This
includes changing Illusion: Werewolf to use the new werewolf model.
- The corpse summoners in the guild lobby are no longer fooled by
shrouding down to lower levels before handing in a soul stone.
- Creatures without legs have lost the ability to kick.
- The treants in Theater of Blood that have been shedding hooves and
horse meat will no longer do so.
- Lowered the hit points and increased the respawn time of the door that
leads from Devastation into Stronghold of Rage to make access to
Stronghold of Rage easier.
- The angry and hurt Faydedar that Dolgin helps people bait no longer
has any viable meat on him.
-Terrorantula's children should no longer warp across the desert.
- Summoning a horse should no longer upset nearby NPCs.
*** Maps ***
- Cartographers have been very busy. Numerous map fixes made.
- The map window now has an option to display your group mates.
*** UI ***
- The default size for the barter and bazaar windows has been increased.
- You can now filter the barter window by seller name.
- The guild window should now display information properly for guilds
with over 999 members.
*** Miscellaneous ***
- We've now upgraded to DirectX 9.0c!
- Many pathing issues have been resolved. Monsters rejoice!
- The Universal Chat system will replace the old Channel Server for all
channel operations. All player-owned channels will be moved over
automatically and using channels in the new system is the same as
before, so you should not notice any difference. One of the primary
benefits of this change is that channels now support cross-server and
cross-game functionality. EQIM will no longer work with this change
however we do intend to remedy this situation if possible in the future.
- Luclin character models are now available to everyone, whether they
own Shadows of Luclin or not.
- Increased the amount of experience you gain toward your shroud
progression when you kill an NPC as a shroud. In addition, you will now
gain more experience toward your evolving item when you are in a group,
similar to how normal experience works. This does not affect the
evolving tradeskill trophies, which don't gain experience from killing
creatures.
- Fixed a number of rendering anomalies that could occur throughout the
game.
- Targeting corpses should now be much easier and much less confusing.
- Item links can now be sent across Universal Chat channels!
- Ogre females using voice emotes for Agree and Disagree will now play
the proper voices.
- Player and NPC names should now be rendering correctly at all times
when they are overlapping.
- The EverQuest Team
--
Tony Evans
Saving trees and wasting electrons since 1993
blog -> http://perception-is-truth.blogspot.com/
[ anything below this line wasn't written by me ]
Lance Berg
Tony wrote:
> *** Headlines ***
>
> *** We've now upgraded to DirectX 9.0c! ***
>
> - Continuing our efforts to keep pace with current technology, EverQuest
> will be upgrading to DirectX9.0c to allow us to take advantage of many
> of the new features and fixes since our last upgrade in the middle of
> 2003. You will need to be sure that you are currently running
> DirectX9.0C . If not you will need to download it. This can be done by
> simply going to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=56513
>
> Make sure you:
>
> 1. Get the April 2006 DirectX 9.0C redistributable version (Caution:
> Download is about 52 MB) at:
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fb73d860-5af1-45e5-bac0-9bc7a5254203
>
>
> 2. Run directx_apr2006_redist.exe. Extract the files to an easily
> identifiable directory.
>
> 3. Go to the directory the files were extracted to in step 2. Run
> "DXSETUP.EXE" from that directory.
>
> 4. Accept the license agreement. Allow the installer to update the
> DirectX components.
>
Note that if you use the automated windows updater, you've already got
this... but apparantly EQ won't accept it, instead you have to go thru
this manual process.
> - Nektulos Forest got a face lift! Check out the amazing new look.
Another one? Or is this the one that restores it to similar to original?
>
> - The Guild Lobby is now available to everyone.
Handy, for those of us who haven't bothered to get whatever expansion
that was, or for those "bot" accounts with only the critical expansions.
>
> - The 8th-year veteran reward Throne of Heroes, a gate ability that
> transports veterans to the throne room in the guild lobby, is now
> available to those who are eligible.
>
That would have been funny without the guild lobby being available to
all. I only have 4 veteran points though, since I dropped out of EQ and
sold my account, the first time I left. Since then I learned, just stop
paying and I can join up again later without having to start completely
from scratch.
> - The map window now has an option to display your group mates.
>
Nice. Kind of a slap in the face to the track classes isn't it? One of
the biggest advantages to bard track was being able to find people who
were misplaced as I recall... particularly once they made it possible to
invite people you couldn't see.
> - To help smooth the transition to incurring death penalties for new
> players (losing experience and leaving a corpse), the level when you
> start to incur death penalties has been lowered from level 11 to level 6
> and the amount of experience you lose when you die now starts at a very
> small amount at level 6 and slowly ramps up from there. We've added a
> corpse summoner to the tutorial who will summon corpses for free for
> anyone who is level 10 or under.
>
That seems kind of silly. Wasn't it originally 6? Then 10 and now back
to 6? Make up your minds! Still, if you consider those to be "learning
levels" its nice to actually see consequences to death during them, no
matter how small.
> - New Hot Zones! With this patch the old hot zones have been reverted to
> their previous values and a new set of hot zones has been selected! The
> following zones are now the "Hot Zones"!
>
> Level 20: Swamp of No Hope
> Level 25: Overthere
> Level 30: Timorous Deep
> Level 35: Emerald Jungle
> Level 40: Dreadlands
> Level 45: City of Mist
> Level 50: Skyfire
> Level 55: Karnor's Castle
> Level 60: Veksar
>
Nice to know, printed that out. So... are any of those actually
"indoors"? An outdoor zone thats a hot zone is pretty much the same as
a usual indoor zone, exp wise, isn't it? Several of the zones on that
list have decent exp camps well outside their posted level range.
Am I overlooking something, or are all of those RoK zones? Whats up
with that... if they were all "classic" zones I'd say it was so nobody
felt ripped off for not having bought any expansions.
>
> *** Spells ***
>
> - Fire pets should now regenerate mana appropriately.
But since the only fire pets which use mana suck horribly unless you
manage to run them out of mana so they stop the abyssimally stupid spell
casting choices, this only makes them even more crippled...
> - Pet spells and weapon procs now report to the owner and can be
> filtered appropriately.
Good, I'd really like to know whats going on there, I've often suspected
the procs aren't helping much at all, or wondered if the spells were
going off much or whatever.
> - The refresh time on Spirit of Bih`Li has been reduced.
Hmm, don't remember this seeming "broken"
> - Buffs that increase run speed will no longer overwrite AA run speed
> increases that are better than the buff.
> - You can now specify beneficial spells to block by name using the
> Blocked Buff window. This will allow you to block spells that don't have
> a buff icon without editing a file.
Handy... I didn't even know you could block spells in the first place.
My cleric used to run in fear from Focus...
> - Eyes of Zomm have been sedated and should no longer decide to attack
> their owners from time to time.
How about other party members? Or perfect strangers?
Did they still neglect the issue where you can't cast eye of zomm or
tallon while on drogback?
>
> *** AAS ***
>
> - Added the 8-year veteran reward Throne of Heroes, a gate ability that
> transports veterans to throne room in the guild lobby.
They already mentioned that...
> *** Items ***
>
> - Throwing axes should now pull from ammo/inventory appropriately.
Er, they were broken before? I never noticed.
>
>
> *** Skills ***
>
> - Made changes to the taunt formula at high levels. A level 60 character
> taunting an even con or higher level NPC will now use the character's
> taunt skill to determine success rate, similar to what occurs below
> level 60. The chance to taunt is roughly the same. In addition, the
> reduction in your chance to taunt creatures higher level than yourself
> now occurs at a slower rate and the minimum chance to taunt an NPC is
> higher. Also, you will now gain a bonus to your chance to taunt NPCs
> that are lower level than yourself. To go along with the change to use a
> character's taunt skill after level 60, paladins and shadowknights have
> had their taunt caps increased to match warriors and ranger's skill cap
> has been increased to 200.
> - Taunts that fail because of distance will no longer cause you to have
> to wait the cool down period before attempting to taunt again.
Interesting, although I'll have to see it all at work to figure out what
this really ends up meaning
> - Ranged combat should behave much more consistently now.
Thats really vague. But from looking around, it seems what they mean is
that they will check LOS only when firing the ranged item/spell, not
during the whole trip.
> - Increased the sense and disarm range on many traps throughout the world.
Range? As in distance, or as in skill required, or what?
> *** Tradeskills ***
> - Failing to create Frost Bunny Stew will now return your pot to you.
Great! That really pissed me off! But then again, I made that pot
myself, with a skill much much lower than that required to do so. I
doubt many people care about this one.
> - The drop rate of the Twilight Sea armor quest gems has been increased
> significantly. In an effort to keep the amount of money entering the
> world from those gems roughly the same, the value of the gems has been
> reduced as a result.
Although those armors still aren't very good at all, at least this
should make them a little better in terms of risk vs reward (or tedium
vs reward, if you look at it that way)
> *** Events ***
>
> - The LDoN raids have been switched over to use the expedition system.
> This means you can add new players to the raid at any time, and the
> lockout occurs at the end after a success instead of at the beginning
> when the raid is launched. Also, the maximum player limit has been
> increased from 36 to 54, and all death count failure mechanics have been
> removed.
Hmm, big change? Never did an LDoN raid actually, so I just have to
imagine.
> *** Zones ***
> - The entrances to Paineel and The Hole can be lock picked once again.
Well, my bard would have been very pissed about that, and now
delighted... if it wasn't for the fact that I was gone the whole time it
was broken
> - The Hunter/Forager cycle in Trakanon's Teeth should no longer spawn
> multiple copies of the same creatures.
No? Pity, that would have made getting keys a little faster. Still, no
biggie.
>
> *** NPCs ***
> - Creatures without legs have lost the ability to kick.
What? No more kicking snakes? What on earth is EQ coming to?!!!
> *** Maps ***
>
> - Cartographers have been very busy. Numerous map fixes made.
We'll believe that when we see it
> *** Miscellaneous ***
> - Many pathing issues have been resolved. Monsters rejoice!
Again, we'll see.
> - Luclin character models are now available to everyone, whether they
> own Shadows of Luclin or not.
Great news... or it would be if most of those models didn't suck, and
all of them didn't suck down CPU cycles or whatever it is when they make
your system lag down to a near halt.
Tony
> Tony wrote:
>> - Nektulos Forest got a face lift! Check out the amazing new look.
> Another one? Or is this the one that restores it to similar to original?
Another one - they've reverted to the same original zone layout but
updated the graphics since so many players complained about the
play-school version of Nektulos.
>> added a corpse summoner to the tutorial who will summon corpses for
>> free for anyone who is level 10 or under.
> That seems kind of silly. Wasn't it originally 6? Then 10 and now back
> to 6? Make up your minds! Still, if you consider those to be "learning
> levels" its nice to actually see consequences to death during them, no
> matter how small.
That's their aim - so that people who die in the tutorial pay a small
price, rather than using it as a way of getting back to their bind point.
> Nice to know, printed that out. So... are any of those actually
> "indoors"? An outdoor zone thats a hot zone is pretty much the same as
> a usual indoor zone, exp wise, isn't it? Several of the zones on that
> list have decent exp camps well outside their posted level range.
Outdoor HoT zones probably have better ZEM's than similar level indoor
zones.
> Am I overlooking something, or are all of those RoK zones? Whats up
> with that... if they were all "classic" zones I'd say it was so nobody
> felt ripped off for not having bought any expansions.
They're all RoK, the developer said he likes 'themes'.
>> - Fire pets should now regenerate mana appropriately.
>
> But since the only fire pets which use mana suck horribly unless you
> manage to run them out of mana so they stop the abyssimally stupid spell
> casting choices, this only makes them even more crippled...
Check previous patches to see what spells they now cast ...
>> - The refresh time on Spirit of Bih`Li has been reduced.
> Hmm, don't remember this seeming "broken"
Takes ages to refresh when first memmed for no useful reason.
[taunt update]
> Interesting, although I'll have to see it all at work to figure out what
> this really ends up meaning
It means when mobs are red to level 70 toons they get better than a 1 in
8 chance of taunting them which is good news for most of us fighting
those mobs.
>> - The LDoN raids have been switched over to use the expedition system.
>> This means you can add new players to the raid at any time, and the
> Hmm, big change? Never did an LDoN raid actually, so I just have to
> imagine.
Yeh big change. The raids were a complete pain in the arse due to the
death count issues, now they sound like they might be worth messing with.
Palindrome
wrote:
>Nice to know, printed that out. So... are any of those actually
>"indoors"? An outdoor zone thats a hot zone is pretty much the same as
>a usual indoor zone, exp wise, isn't it? Several of the zones on that
>list have decent exp camps well outside their posted level range.
The XP in Gunthak was always great, and that's an outside zone. I
solo'd 2 levels on a 38 ranger yesterday afternoon in a couple of
hours.
As you say, I wonder how many are outdoor hot zones now...
Palindrome
Dude Rawr
>*** We've now upgraded to DirectX 9.0c! ***
I could have sworn they said everyone had to change to 9.0c like 2
years ago. Everyone remember the Eternal night sky for 98/Me users?
Thats when I think it was but I can't find anything on the forums or
news.
b
"Dude Rawr" <nos...@private.org> wrote in message
news:7b4u82taso45trj1q...@4ax.com...
i'm pretty sure that was just regular ol' 9
if it were really important, someone could google it and find out the exact
version ('9' is different from '9.0', maaaan!)
Beal
Lance Berg wrote:
> Cool, patch notes!
>
> Tony wrote:
> > - The map window now has an option to display your group mates.
> >
> Nice. Kind of a slap in the face to the track classes isn't it? One of
> the biggest advantages to bard track was being able to find people who
> were misplaced as I recall... particularly once they made it possible to
> invite people you couldn't see.
As a track class, I for one don't give a damn and am very happy to see
this added.
> > - To help smooth the transition to incurring death penalties for new
> > players (losing experience and leaving a corpse), the level when you
> > start to incur death penalties has been lowered from level 11 to level 6
> > and the amount of experience you lose when you die now starts at a very
> > small amount at level 6 and slowly ramps up from there. We've added a
> > corpse summoner to the tutorial who will summon corpses for free for
> > anyone who is level 10 or under.
> >
> That seems kind of silly. Wasn't it originally 6?
Originally, I'm pretty sure, it was 1 for both corpse recovery and
experience loss. I know for a fact that I was chasing down my corpse
in my first few levels. But that was 2002 when I started.
> Then 10 and now back
> to 6? Make up your minds! Still, if you consider those to be "learning
> levels" its nice to actually see consequences to death during them, no
> matter how small.
>
>
> > - New Hot Zones! With this patch the old hot zones have been reverted to
> > their previous values and a new set of hot zones has been selected! The
> > following zones are now the "Hot Zones"!
> >
> > Level 20: Swamp of No Hope
> > Level 25: Overthere
> > Level 30: Timorous Deep
> > Level 35: Emerald Jungle
> > Level 40: Dreadlands
> > Level 45: City of Mist
> > Level 50: Skyfire
> > Level 55: Karnor's Castle
> > Level 60: Veksar
> >
> Nice to know, printed that out. So... are any of those actually
> "indoors"?
Veksar is the only one. The idea that there was a "dungeon bonus" was
always an over-simplification of the ZEM. SolB, for example, hands out
quite crappy experience, but is most certainly a dungeon. For anyone
wondering, I browsed through some thread the other day on hotzones, on
the sony boards. Just an FYI for those that were wondering as I was:
Hot Spots are zones where the base ZEM has been increased. All
experience is therefore modified, not just for those in a level range
or in a group or anything like that.
> An outdoor zone thats a hot zone is pretty much the same as
> a usual indoor zone, exp wise, isn't it? Several of the zones on that
> list have decent exp camps well outside their posted level range.
>
> Am I overlooking something, or are all of those RoK zones?
Yes and they did that on purpose from what I read.
> Whats up
> with that... if they were all "classic" zones I'd say it was so nobody
> felt ripped off for not having bought any expansions.
What percentage of the population doesn't have kunark? 0.5%? You
cannot have even bought the game (other than aftermarket) without
getting Kunark in the last several years. They don't even sell just
original EQ do they?
> >
> > *** Spells ***
> >
> > - Fire pets should now regenerate mana appropriately.
>
> But since the only fire pets which use mana suck horribly unless you
> manage to run them out of mana so they stop the abyssimally stupid spell
> casting choices, this only makes them even more crippled...
Good motivation to buy the discipline AAs.
> > - The refresh time on Spirit of Bih`Li has been reduced.
>
> Hmm, don't remember this seeming "broken"
Nice for raids anyway.
> > - Buffs that increase run speed will no longer overwrite AA run speed
> > increases that are better than the buff.
This is one I am happy to see. Monks and Bards probably even more so.
> > - You can now specify beneficial spells to block by name using the
> > Blocked Buff window. This will allow you to block spells that don't have
> > a buff icon without editing a file.
>
> Handy... I didn't even know you could block spells in the first place.
> My cleric used to run in fear from Focus...
They added this with PoR didnt they? Or was it DoDH?
> > - Made changes to the taunt formula at high levels. A level 60 character
> > taunting an even con or higher level NPC will now use the character's
> > taunt skill to determine success rate, similar to what occurs below
> > level 60. The chance to taunt is roughly the same. In addition, the
> > reduction in your chance to taunt creatures higher level than yourself
> > now occurs at a slower rate and the minimum chance to taunt an NPC is
> > higher. Also, you will now gain a bonus to your chance to taunt NPCs
> > that are lower level than yourself. To go along with the change to use a
> > character's taunt skill after level 60, paladins and shadowknights have
> > had their taunt caps increased to match warriors and ranger's skill cap
> > has been increased to 200.
> > - Taunts that fail because of distance will no longer cause you to have
> > to wait the cool down period before attempting to taunt again.
>
> Interesting, although I'll have to see it all at work to figure out what
> this really ends up meaning
I am very happy to see my Ranger getting a bump here. Though it may
not have been as critical to them, Ranger taunt has always been
horrible.
> > - The LDoN raids have been switched over to use the expedition system.
> > This means you can add new players to the raid at any time, and the
> > lockout occurs at the end after a success instead of at the beginning
> > when the raid is launched. Also, the maximum player limit has been
> > increased from 36 to 54, and all death count failure mechanics have been
> > removed.
>
> Hmm, big change? Never did an LDoN raid actually, so I just have to
> imagine.
I see this having zero effect on anyone.
Tony
>>> - The LDoN raids have been switched over to use the expedition system.
>>> This means you can add new players to the raid at any time, and the
>>> lockout occurs at the end after a success instead of at the beginning
>>> when the raid is launched. Also, the maximum player limit has been
>>> increased from 36 to 54, and all death count failure mechanics have been
>>> removed.
>> Hmm, big change? Never did an LDoN raid actually, so I just have to
>> imagine.
> I see this having zero effect on anyone.
It will affect the people on the progression server, which is why it was
changed and then retro-fitted to the normal servers.
Additionally, it may be something our guild looks at for something
different to do on raid day.
Beal
Tony wrote:
> Beal wrote:
>
> >>> - The LDoN raids have been switched over to use the expedition system.
> >>> This means you can add new players to the raid at any time, and the
> >>> lockout occurs at the end after a success instead of at the beginning
> >>> when the raid is launched. Also, the maximum player limit has been
> >>> increased from 36 to 54, and all death count failure mechanics have been
> >>> removed.
>
> >> Hmm, big change? Never did an LDoN raid actually, so I just have to
> >> imagine.
>
> > I see this having zero effect on anyone.
>
> It will affect the people on the progression server
No one even did LDON raids when LDON was new...
D.J.
Tony <tony@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:
] Lance Berg wrote:
]
] > Tony wrote:
]
] >> - Nektulos Forest got a face lift! Check out the amazing new look.
] > Another one? Or is this the one that restores it to similar to original?
]
] Another one - they've reverted to the same original zone layout but
] updated the graphics since so many players complained about the
] play-school version of Nektulos.
And the pok book is substantially further away from the DE city. Can
be interesting...
JimP.
--
http://www.linuxgazette.net/ Linux Gazette
http://crestar.drivein-jim.net/ June 12, 2006
http://www.drivein-jim.net/ Jan 5, 2006: Drive-In movie theatres
http://poetry.drivein-jim.net/ poetry blog Feb 9, 2006
Richard
news:1150236617.8...@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com:
Well, my previous two guilds did try them a couple times.
--
Graeme Faelban, 70 Shaman <Reviction> Erollisi Marr
Sean Kennedy
news:1150234688.9...@c74g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
> Originally, I'm pretty sure, it was 1 for both corpse recovery and
> experience loss. I know for a fact that I was chasing down my corpse
> in my first few levels. But that was 2002 when I started.
It was definitely level 1 for corpse loss at release. As for XP loss,
that I don't remember. I do know that they got rid of that in 02 or
or 03.
--
Arch Convoker Mairelon Snapbang
Feral Lord Bosra Snowclaw
Lanys T'vyl (Retired)
Mairelon, 48th Paladin
Bosra, 22nd Hunter
Swifthawk, 20th Shaman
Tindayen, 21st Druid
Hi, my name is Sean and I'm an alt-aholic
Tony
> No one even did LDON raids when LDON was new...
Because risk vs reward was out of whack which is exactly what these
changes intend to address.
Beal
Tony wrote:
> Beal wrote:
>
> > No one even did LDON raids when LDON was new...
>
> Because risk vs reward was out of whack which is exactly what these
> changes intend to address.
Well ok but it seems like making it easier to raid the Kael Arena or
something. At this point who is going to bother? And the way they
made it easier seems even more out of whack, considering they just
allowed you to bring more people in to the instance (and allowed you to
add them after you start). Now that loot is old and anyone who can put
together a 50-person raid isn't going to bother with LDON. I could be
wrong of course but it seems to me that at the very least, if you
wanted to encourage LDON raiding you would either make it more
rewarding (attracting raiding guilds) or make it easier for smaller
groups, since the only guilds that would benefit don't have quite so
many level 65 or 70 players available to raid.
Tony
> Tony wrote:
>> Beal wrote:
>>> No one even did LDON raids when LDON was new...
>> Because risk vs reward was out of whack which is exactly what these
>> changes intend to address.
> Well ok but it seems like making it easier to raid the Kael Arena or
> something. At this point who is going to bother?
Note where LDoN is in terms of progression and gear. It's instanced
content with Elemental quality loot, in an environment where you will
have guilds competing for non-instanced spawns.
> made it easier seems even more out of whack, considering they just
> allowed you to bring more people in to the instance (and allowed you to
> add them after you start). Now that loot is old and anyone who can put
> together a 50-person raid isn't going to bother with LDON.
Wrong, I can put together a 50 person raid on Fennin Ro for which the
loot in those LDoN raids IS an upgrade. Not all raiding is at the
highest end of the game (thank God). However, my main point was and
still is, the change was made for the progression server and just rolled
out to the others because they can.
> wrong of course but it seems to me that at the very least, if you
> wanted to encourage LDON raiding you would either make it more
> rewarding (attracting raiding guilds) or make it easier for smaller
> groups, since the only guilds that would benefit don't have quite so
> many level 65 or 70 players available to raid.
We raid once a week, a collection of family / casual guilds who are now
EP flagged, kill DoN dragons and STILL raid with some people who are
level 56 if the level requirements don't prevent them.
We never enforce attendance, we encourage but don't restrict which
character you can bring and we raid anything which people don't usually
see, as well as farming loot stuff for people to get upgrades. For a
long time, most of our raid force wasn't even level 70 although that has
changed naturally over time as those people have levelled.
I wish people didn't see EQ in such a black and white no-raid or
high-end-raid light. There is a spectrum of activity in EQ, and we're
considering the LDoN raids as viable targets now that,
1. we won't have to turn people away due to the restriction on numbers
2. we can add people who turn up late
3. the main mechanic which made them a bitch for casuals is gone (death
count)
Impmon
wrote:
>Note that if you use the automated windows updater, you've already got
>this... but apparantly EQ won't accept it, instead you have to go thru
>this manual process.
The first version of Directx 9.0c that was installed by auto installer
is missing a few files while the April version is complete and
required for EQ. Blame Microsoft for this one.
--
When you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already
too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX
Spam block in place, no emil reply is expected at all.
Lance Berg
Impmon wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 14:31:25 -0400, Lance Berg <emp...@dejazzd.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Note that if you use the automated windows updater, you've already got
>>this... but apparantly EQ won't accept it, instead you have to go thru
>>this manual process.
>
>
> The first version of Directx 9.0c that was installed by auto installer
> is missing a few files while the April version is complete and
> required for EQ. Blame Microsoft for this one.
I'd be happy to. Doesn't make any sense to me, even if it happened to
miss a few files, why didn't they just put them in the pipeline when
they figured that out? I mean, thats how this auto update thing is
supposed to work, I get fed new files all the time.
And if that wasn't good enough, then why not make a package with just
the few new files available? Sure I don't care at the moment, because
on DSL it only took a few minutes, but plenty of people are on much
slower connections (including myself 5 months per year) and I don't see
the sense in forcing a 58meg download when apparantly 99% of that was
already on my system.
I wasn't trying to point fingers though, I was just trying to tell
people what was going to happen (which is long over with by now, of course)
GraemeFaelban
Lance Berg wrote:
> <snip>
> And if that wasn't good enough, then why not make a package with
> just
> the few new files available? Sure I don't care at the moment,
> because
> on DSL it only took a few minutes, but plenty of people are on much
> slower connections (including myself 5 months per year) and I don't
> see
> the sense in forcing a 58meg download when apparantly 99% of that
> was
> already on my system.
>
It was a 12MB download that I did that grabbed the necessary files off
the MS site, you really did not have to do the full download.
__________________________________________________________
Submitted by: GraemeFaelban