Patch Notes for April 17, 2008

Here are the patch notes from today's patch (this is the 'sneak peek' version, subject to change). 

*** Highlights ***

- The 10th Veteran Reward, Summon Resupply Agent, is now available!

- Alternate Advancement experience has been accelerated significantly for those with fewer AAs spent and will scale back down to the normal rate as more AAs are earned.

- Many keyed zones from the Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power, Gates of Discord, Omens of War, Depths of Darkhollow, and Prophecy of Ro have had their key/flag requirements modified.  All players that have obtained the key/flag will still be allowed entry into the zones, as will players that have met minimum level requirements for the zones.  The zones and minimum level requirements are as follows:

- Required Level 46 -
The Howling Stones
Old Sebilis
Skyshrine to Cobalt Scar

- Required Level 55 -
Sleeper's Tomb
Veeshan's Peak
Vex Thal
Locked areas of the Temple of Ssraeshza

- Required level 57 -
Bastion of Thunder
Halls of Honor
The Temple of Marr
Tower of Solusek Ro
Drunder, The Fortress of Zek

- Required Level 60 -
Plane of Water
Plane of Air
Plane of Fire
Plane of Earth
Ikkinz
Uqua
Yxtta
Kodtaz

- Required Level 62 -
Plane of Time
Inktuta
Qvic

- Required Level 65 -
Txevu
Tacvi

- Required Level 68 -
Anquish

- Required Level 70 -
Dreadspire
Demiplane of Blood

- Required Level 72 -
Theater of Blood
Deathknell

- The Season of the Fabled has come to an end. The Fabled NPCs have packed up their camps and are riding off into the sunset for another year.


*** Items ***

- Added new spell drops to Meldrath's Majestic Mansion.
- Increased the drop rate slightly for some spells in Crystallos.
- Added recommended and required levels to some trade skill drops to help clarify their use. This does not change their actual use as trade skill containers do not pay attention to the recommended and required levels of items put in them.
- Added a set of new vendors that sell many of the spell research components. The cost of these have been adjusted so that they sell to an NPC closer to the price it cost to make them, but merchants will sell them at a premium.  This means that you can save money while gaining skill. Also when you make spell combines you can choose between saving money, or saving time. You save money by making the sub-combines yourself, you save time by buying them.
- Chromatic focus is now available for slot 12 augments for Cultural armor.
- The engineer steamworks that work within the guardian have developed devices that help them move within the beast.  Fortunately for adventurers they can be a bit absent minded about them and adventurers can find them lying about.
- A vial of raging heartblood is not as vile as it was previously.


*** Quests & Events ***

- Rylin Coil will now show and give all three tinkering mastery books for the tinkering mastery quest.


*** Spells ***

- The Shadowknight spells Touch of Kildrukaun and Touch of Severan that were linked together to share the reuse timer with a previous Game Update have been unlinked.
- Secrets of Faydwer's Talisman of the Puma has been renamed to Talisman of the Cougar.
- Cast time on Quellious' Word of Tranquility has been reduced from 4 to 2 seconds.
- The Adrenal Boost focus effect has been changed to Life Line, which is a mana cost reduction on Pure Life.
- The Closefisted Claw focus effect has been changed to Ethereal Breath, which is a damage increase on Ethereal Conflagration.
- Breastplate worn effects that enhanced one rank of a spell or discipline now enhance all three ranks.
- Reuse time reduction bonus on Assassin's Efficacy, Impenetrable Body, and Fit of Berserking Rage have been set to 25%.
- The Rage of Tri'Qaras effect triggered from Bulwark of Tri'Qaras is now a damage bonus that stacks with other effects.
- The recourse from the Challenge for Honor line will now appear in the bard buff box.
- The Vinelash Ensnare effect triggered from Vinelash Cascade will no longer overwrite the highest version of Entrap.
- The efficiency of Secrets of Faydwer direct damage spells now scales up on higher ranks of the same spell.
- Improved Block and Improved Parry have been merged.  Any item that previously had Improved Block or Improved Parry will now have Improved Parry / Block.


*** NPC ***

- Halima in Crescent Reach can now be found in the find window.
- Henrik O'Danos no longer sells Hypericum twice.
- Ralfin in Bloodmoon keep will now cast his heal spell less frequently.


*** AA ***

- Added Rangers to the Critical Affliction line of AAs.
- Increased the range of the Wrath of the Wild AA line to match other Damage Shield spells that Druids have.
- Increased the hitpoints and resists of all "Wards" for all classes to make them better able to resist ambient damage.


*** UI ***

- The tracking window can now be sorted alphabetically and reverse-alphabetically.  Also, there is now a check box to set whether you want the tracking window to auto-update every six seconds.
- Our UI xml schema has changed. If you are using a custom UI you may need to update this file in your custom UI directory.

- Changed -

SIDL.xml
EQUI_FindLocationWnd
EQUI_TrackingWnd.xml


*** Miscellaneous ***

- Situation where double length timer was given on events has been fixed. This occurred specifically to people who dropped out of the expedition and hadn't been kicked out of the zone yet.
- Changes have been made to the way the client is notified about other entities (players, NPCs, etc.) in the zone.
- Changed NPC summon behavior to summon the player right in front of their current heading at 1/2 their melee range.  Calculations used to determine when the NPC should summon have been made a bit more accurate.
- Iksar and Wood Elves should be able to increase their forage skill caps after purchasing the forage AA.
- Corrected a problem with hate generation from skill attack abilities such as Hail of Arrows and Decimator's Volley.  They were generating considerably more hate than they should and have been returned to their previous, lower hate generation.
- Zone-wide /who commands now use a similar code path to server wide /who all commands.  Note that this will impose a similar time limit to how often it can be used.
- The bobbing effect of levitation has been removed.  A new effect that pushes you off the ground about a foot and a half has been introduced.
- Fixed an issue with the "Public if Usable" permission in the guild bank.
- Fixed an issue that could place levitated players below the world when entering certain zones.
- Fixed an issue that would cause levitate to fail if a player's mount was hit by a spell (usually an aura).
- Stacks of two items in the guild bank can now be split.


*** Previously Updated ***

- Fixed an issue with the reset of the Kildrukaun event in Crystallos.
- Lockout timers linked on many similar long-reuse spells of the same line.

 

- The EverQuest Team

Comments

Post Comment
PoV changed too, unannounced?
# Apr 21 2008 at 8:17 AM Rating: Decent
*
166 posts
Looks like Plane of Valor changed too. Zoned in, totally unflagged, at level 49. So, might be able to get in around 46ish? Didn't check Plane of Storms...
AAs
# Apr 20 2008 at 7:23 AM Rating: Decent
Its rumored that it will taper off around 750AA's... at least thats what I keep hearing.

As far as Anguish you dont need the sigs or the seal to zone in/loot. As far as DK, looks like everyone over the required level now has the AA to port up to ToB...

My guild was in Anguish the other day, and either they redid Keld or we just really suck, we could find a spot to hide the clerics to avoid the stupid AE. So they couldnt keep the tank up, which was bad...

Nice idea...but
# Apr 18 2008 at 4:12 AM Rating: Default
Nice idea but I do not agree with the levels. As one person pointed out, you have to be 69 to get the signet from RSS but now you can get into Anguish at 68.

Most of the equipment from these zones have a higher level requirement than what you need to zone in. This is very apparent in Anguish as well as the elemental planes and Time. Everything in time is required 65 so what is the purpose for 62?

Sony knows their game is slowly dieing and multi-boxers are their best subscribers. Five years ago someone running two accounts was a "special" thing to see and now if you have less than three bots, you're just Joe Q. Average.

I do understand that player equipment has progressed on level versus gear over time but you come to the point of regardless how nice your gear is, trying to tank something in the Plane of Time at level 60 is going to be quite hard if not impossible without help of higher level players. Then if you do win, what's the point, its still required 65.
10 Vet reward
# Apr 17 2008 at 4:54 PM Rating: Decent
I'm also elgible, but when I logged in it said I had 0.1 years of service and took away all my vet rewards. What does resupply regent do??

Thanks,
Parax
Anyone seen the resupply Agent?
# Apr 17 2008 at 3:26 PM Rating: Decent
It looks like I have enough time in for resupply agent but it isn't showing up on the Vet AA list. Anyone else getting it at all?
boo
# Apr 17 2008 at 2:02 PM Rating: Decent
I want the bobbing effect back with levitate! This is going to cause some deaths around cliffs for sure.
Slot 3 augment missing
# Apr 17 2008 at 8:21 AM Rating: Decent
1 post
What happened to slot 3 augment introduction that was on test server???
Slot 3 augment missing
# Apr 17 2008 at 3:20 PM Rating: Decent
9 posts
Not sure on where they are, but...

you can still get some slot 3 augments from LDoN vendors... there's +dodge and a few others that would benefit players...
Anguish????
# Apr 17 2008 at 7:48 AM Rating: Decent
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91 posts
I am Assuming that one would have to still get the Sigs to be able to breathe in Anguish.? But won't have to loot the seal or do the trials ? Would I be totally wrong in assuming this? Anyone?
____________________________
"Let the Rogue Have it, He'll keep it safe"
85 Rogue of Fennin Ro
Anguish????
# Apr 17 2008 at 4:43 PM Rating: Decent
I think you are right. If you read the stry line as you do the quest it says you need the sigs to be immune to the constant zonewide AE that would normally kill you. The seal whether piggied in and looted or acquired by the 6 trials is what was needed to gain entry without being piggied. Also, those that were piggied and rolled on Seal:Mastery of all can attest to the fact you couldn't loot ANYTHING until you had the seal. How will free entry affect looting?
Anguish????
# Apr 21 2008 at 6:23 AM Rating: Decent
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1,117 posts
There never was an actual zonewide AE in AoA. It was just a lore thing. Otherwise, how would one get rezzed if they zoned in an immediately died?

The sigs are no longer required for access to AoA.
Anguish????
# Apr 17 2008 at 3:26 PM Rating: Decent
***
1,117 posts
You are incorrect. You no longer need the sigs to get in IF you meet the lvl requirement
Anguish????
# Apr 17 2008 at 2:01 PM Rating: Decent
Not sure because they are letting you in at 68 now but RSS requirements are lvl 69 I thought. WHy would they make the entry to anguish 68 but make you wait until 69 to get your sig so you can get in there??
yay
# Apr 17 2008 at 7:41 AM Rating: Decent
Wow, some nice changes and some that actually affect me. The alphabetical track is going to be a minor change but will make my game play easier. And I'm all for the opening of those keyed/flagged zones. Although I will give it a few weeks before i head in to any as they will probably be packed/overcamped.
yay
# Apr 18 2008 at 6:34 AM Rating: Decent


Also, the AA boost is going to be interesting. I have earned one AA on a lvl53 toon and am just putting 20% into AA's. The increase was incredible! I had my dbl exp AA kicked in while hunting LB trolls in Nadox and I was seeing a yellow bar for every 3 trolls I killed. Wow. I don't know about the overall fairness, but I for one, like this change.
yay
# Apr 18 2008 at 10:45 AM Rating: Decent
Quote:
Alternate Advancement experience has been accelerated significantly for those with fewer AAs spent and will scale back down to the normal rate as more AAs are earned


Does anyone know exactly how the AA boost works? The wording can be intepreted a couple of ways. I just assumed that it meant that a person with 0 AA's will get an experience boost and as their number of AA's increased it would slow down and eventually reach the normal lvl of AA experience. However some people seem to have interpreted the "fewer AA's spent" to mean that they should bank up to 30 unspent AA's, spend points on what you want, and then work back up to 30 again so that they have the fewest number of AA's "spent" at any time. I understand there may be times to distinguish between spent and unspent AA's but in this statement are the words "spent" and "earned" suppose to be considered to have different meanings?

I would like to assume that this was just a way for people with zero or a low number of AA's to get a decent number of AA's in shorter period of time. If the banking interpretation were true that would mean that a person with 538 AA's spent and 30 AA's banked or "unspent", would get the same AA experience as a person with 538 AA's and zero banked. Even if the banking interpretation is true, is the experience boost that significant that it is worth forgoing the benefit of spending those AA's to get that boost? I guess the real question is what is the point at which this "significant boost" reaches its "normal rate"?
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