August 11th Patch Notes

August 11, 2004 _____________________ Headlines! _____________________ New PVP System goes live * Raid Leaders can set up and change groups from the Raid Window * Special Skies are back! New Hot Zones EQ will now be more friendly in Windowed mode All New PVP System for PVP Servers * _____________________ The Watch List: - Safe Zones: We're still looking into a better solution for the problem of safe zones. Expect some kind of change in the future. - Point System: There are still concerns of potential exploits with the point system at this time. Therefore the selection of PvP items available on the merchants will be limited to consumable items for now. We'll monitor the accumulation of points after this update. If all goes well, we will add a selection of equipment to the merchants in the near future. - Sullon Tokens: As a secondary concern with the point system, we are delaying the addition of the turn-in quest for Sullon Zek tokens. If there's a potential problem with the point system that eventually requires us to make adjustments to the way points are awarded, we don't want players to end up with less than full credit for these tokens. Once the point system has had any potential issues ironed out we will add a quest to turn in your tokens for PvP points. PvP Combat Changes - Melee attacks have a 50% increased range. This does not affect thrown weapons or archery. - The maximum damage any one spell can do is now capped at 40% of the target's total hit points, down from 75%. - Archery damage has been increased to 80% of its base damage in PvP, up from 66%. - Being stunned while on a horse will now cause the horse to disappear. This only applies to stuns caused by other players. - Lowered player melee mitigation, effectively lowering Armor Class by 20%. This will increase the damage potential of melee weapons in PvP. Originally the targets full armor class was considered. - Player spells now have a separate duration field for PvP. Individual spells will continue to be tuned during beta. - Player spells now have a PvP specific resist mod. Spell lines with resist mods differing from their normal adjusts initially include: Movement Rate Root Enthrall Mana Drain Stuns Direct Damage Damage over Time Pet procs/innates - Added higher level snare spells for rangers/druids with increased resists mods. This should allow them to land snare spells with similar frequency to other snare spells. These spells are available on the PvP merchants for 1 point each. - Necro and Mage pets have had their PvP resists increased to closer match the existing Beastlord pet resists. - Lowered the duration of most snare, Enthrall, and Root spells and abilities. - Berserker snare is no longer unresistable. - Added a set of pumice stones to the PvP merchants that will cast various forms of dispel magic with a 1.5 second cast, 12 second cast time. - Arena deaths will now place you at your bind point, and not in shadowrest. - PvP Resurrection effects now last 5 minutes + 1 minute/negative vitality point. The Max duration is now 15 minutes instead of 25. - Made further changes to prevent hill ghosting. Please test this and give feedback. - Ranged weapons are no longer restricted by the Z axis, allowing greater freedom of use on varied terrain. - Snare will now properly slow mounts. The mount will still be faster then normal running while snared, but will considerably decrease their movement rate. - Spells now have a minimum chance of landing of 5%, up from 2%. - Water will no longer cause you to be immune to people outside of water and vice versa. - Zoning with low health will no longer set your hit points equal to the amount of +HP gear you are wearing. - Players killed in PvP combat will now spawn in Shadowrest with full equipment. A naked corpse will remain in the location they died for 3 hours. Note that this effectively removes item loot from Rallos Zek. With the addition of no drop augments it became rather trivial to effectively remove item loot from the server anyway, and we felt the benefits of the new death system outweigh the benefits of an item loot system. - Players who are killed in PvP combat will respawn with special resurrection effects on them. The duration of these effects is variable dependant on how frequently they die. - Summon Corpse Potions are now usable by any class/race. - A system to score PvP kills has been implemented. For more information see below. Scoring System - The new scoring system will award points to any player who kills another player. If the player is grouped the points will be split between the players in the group. The points awarded will be based on three things: 1. Level of the killer 2. Scoring Modifier a. Level Difference (Each kill has a base point cost determined by the level of the killer. All subsequent modifiers apply to this base number.)For each level the killer is above or below the victim, the scoring modifier increase by one point. If you kill some one who is higher level than you, you'll gain more points than you will for a lower level character. You will also subtract points from your modifier for killing a player lower level then you. b. Infamy Difference - Each time you kill another player, points are added to your infamy pool. At certain thresholds a player will gain an infamy level. When a player is killed, the infamy levels are compared and the killer gains a scoring modifier point for each infamy level his victim is above him. He can also lose scoring modifier points for killing someone who is of lower infamy. Infamy will gradually deteriorate while the player is online. c. Vitality score - When a player is killed their vitality is set to 10. For each 5 minutes they are alive, they will gain back two points of vitality. This vitality total is added directly to the scoring d. Group bonus - Groups of 4 or more will receive a bonus % of points for each kill. 4/10%, 5/15%, 6/20%. 3. Time since the victim was last killed by the same player. Players that repeatedly kill the same player will see a steep decrease in the amount of points a player is worth. They will gain half the points for the kill they normally would for each time they kill that player in a 24 hour period. After the score has dropped below 1 point, they will begin to lose points for killing the same player. Example: Frizznik kills Rytan. Frizznik is level 60, while Rytan is level 62 for a level difference of 2. Frizznik has an infamy level of 5, while Rytan has an infamy level of 2, which results in infamy difference of 3. Rytan has not recently been killed, so his vitality is 0. Level Difference + Infamy Difference + Vitality = Scoring Point Modifier or 2 + (-3) + 0. - Each scoring modifier point adds or subtracts 5% to the base score. Normally Frizznik would gain 100 points for killing Rytan, but because of the scoring point modifier he will gain 95 points instead. Leader Board - The leader board tracks the players with the most total PvP. A number of other useful statistics will be available in the leader board. Point Rewards - A player's point total is capped based on their level. They cannot gain more points once they hit that cap, although they can gain more infamy. There will be a number of consumable PvP items that will be focused on PvP combat, and will only function against other players. Windowed Mode * _____________________ The EverQuest process is now more friendly. Alt+tab'ing to other windows should be much more responsive.You can also choose to adjust your maximum Frames Per Second(FPS) in the Options Window under display settings. The valid range for the slider is 10 to 100. The default is 100 which means EverQuest will not throttle your FPS. Lowering your setting will cap your FPS at that value and free up the CPU for other tasks. Hot Zones have changed! * _____________________ Hunt for greater XP rewards in the new Hot Spots. Make your way to the following zones. 60-65 Plane of Torment 55-60 Chardok 50-55 Grieg's End 45-50 Nurga 40-45 City of Mist 35-40 Kaesora 30-35 Dalnir 25-30 Hollowshade Moor 20-25 Runnyeye Kill a few goblins for me. Oh, and that Grieg guy. AA Changes _____________________ - The cleric AA Touch of the Divine has had its healing power increased. The original ability has been refunded, so players who wish to retain the ability will need to purchase it again. The portion of the AA that will remove detrimental effects, when it goes off, will not be going in with this update. - The necromancer AA Swarm of Decay has been refunded. - The shaman AA Call of the Ancients has had its description changed to reflect the fact that the summoned ward casts healing spells, not endurance regen spells. The ability has been refunded because of this confusion. - The rogue ability Seized Opportunity has had its chance to work significantly increased. - The druid ability Viscid Roots was increasing the chance for roots to break, not decreasing it. This has been corrected. - The paladin ability Hastened Piety now affects the reuse time for both Hand of Piety and its upgrade, Pious Supplication. Previously, it wasn't affecting Pious Supplication. - When an AA is an upgrade of another AA and both are triggered abilities, players can make a hotkey and use either one, but will only get the upgraded effect if they use the hotkey for the upgraded ability. Tacvi Changes _____________________ - Tacvi will no longer give lockout timers. Instead, when you beat an encounter there, you will gain a timer for that specific event. Then, when you come back to the zone, if that timer hasn't expired yet that particular event won't be up, but other events in the zone will be if it has been long enough since the last time they were defeated. - Loot in Tacvi has been given a thorough audit. Many changes were made including changes to the statistics of the items, changing item names, changing where the items drop, and over a dozen new items were added to the zone. - The Tacvi zone timer was increased from 6 hours to 12 hours. Misc. _____________________ - Diamond Dust will now drop more frequently in permafrost and can now also be found in SolusekB * - Names will now scale with character they're associated with. So a giant will have a much larger name than a Halfling will while retaining its much smaller brain. - Names for larger characters will be visible from a greater distance than the names for smaller characters are. They will also scale up slightly as you increase your distance from a character, making them more readable from a greater distance. - Tinting should now work properly again on Robes, let the Fluorescent Pink tinting begin! - We have added Tooltips for your status bars.* - We have made some changes to the fonts EQ uses so that they are more clear and visible. -- The EverQuest Team *denotes a community requested change

Comments

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PvP system and general feedback
# Aug 18 2004 at 1:10 PM Rating: Default
is useless in EQ. Unless the game is planned from the start for it it is a waste of time and code. The class balance is non-existent. SoE is just digging things deeper by devoting so much time and effort to a 5% share of their rapidly declining population.....We rarely have merchant problems anymore because the bazaar is only half full at best anymore, not because SoE actually fixed anything. The continued random crashes to desktop and their continual adding of useless eye candy without decent client side controls keeps raising the bar beyond many people's connection and machine spec's while NOT providing any significant gameplay bonus or added features, just wasted cpu cycles expanded bandwidth needs.
SoE seems to have missed the boat on gameplay vs eyecandy and sems destined to strangle them selves and kill off their own customers. Support has NOT gotten any better with the new brush you off service tool, which just eliminates any real customer feed back will forcing less potential customer contact. Pathing and wall warping HAS NOT GOTTEN BETTER in the new zones, and they've NOT EVEN addressesed the old trouble zones in any way shape or form...While EQ is still the best game going it is not getting better, and if you stand still it seems like you are going backwards.
Dang!!
# Aug 14 2004 at 3:47 AM Rating: Decent
I cant stand the new name scales!
Dang!!
# Aug 14 2004 at 3:46 AM Rating: Decent
I cant stand the new name scales!
Looks good ta me
# Aug 13 2004 at 1:35 AM Rating: Default
Looks like an overall good patch to me. I play on care-bare bertoxx so the pvp doesnt matter to me. I really like that they now have a hotspot for 60+. Ya, it looks like they "hotspot" the zones that never get much action...I myself have never done any grouping in PoTorment..so that'll be kind of an adventure. I also like the windowed mode changes (bout time). Im indifferent to the name scaling...never seemed like a problem to me..but then again, Sony only fixes things that need no fixes. Oh, and the pink thing...ooooooh ya...awesomenesstodamax (one word).

Bleh?
BLEH!
pvp changes
# Aug 12 2004 at 4:49 AM Rating: Default
item loot hasnt existed on other server's besides rz for a ong time if ever at all most pvp server's were coin loot only. with the addition of LDoN item loot died anyways so why not get rid of it. as for people leaving that isjust sad while I agree that EQ never cared about pvp they are making some sort of an effort here and who know's maybe it will be a good thing. I have played high end on blue and red server's and I wouldn't leave RZ for anything. It is much more realistic imo every action has a reaction etc. You can't go around killing people without being branded a criminal so to speak.
Time will tell
# Aug 11 2004 at 10:05 PM Rating: Decent
RZUtilitie you have some good points but alas...most have been made and ignored for years by the developers.

on your list #5 about corpse camping....if i understand it properly they actually did fix it! (suprize to us all) by respawning a player killed in PvP in shadowrest with full gear. some punk kid can no longer CC someone if they are no longer in zone or thier gear is no longer in zone. This also takes care of forward LnSing. This is great for entire guilds who are competing for zone control (one of the primary factors for PvP anyway was to control a mob, camp, or zone imo). In otherwords...no more battle rezzing player killed toons so they can rejoin the fight or forard LnS.

I was confused on your opinions of required level for items and recommended levels. You seemed to contradict yourself. I myself like the idea of getting a really uber piece of gear at a low level with lowered stats. (the recommended level concept) It's fun for me to see my gear get better as i myself gain levels. De-leveling should also lower the stats in the same manner as they were gained and your absolutely right about all your points on peeps that de-level.
If your under level 51 you should not have AA's and such until you regain the proper level for them.
I have thought on more than one occasion that SoE wanted to drive it's own players away...or at least drive them into EQ2. I suppose to some extent that is true. But just the amount of time they put into this one patch (reguardless if it was a good or bad thing) makes me think they will try to keep EQ1 around for some time to come. Time will tell.
EQ PvP sub-par
# Aug 11 2004 at 8:46 PM Rating: Decent
EQ's PvP system was never really worth mentioning anyways. Especially on the normal servers. But I do like these new hot zones. But have they still kept the old ones or just adding new ones?
RE: EQ PvP sub-par
# Aug 12 2004 at 9:38 PM Rating: Default
The Patch said the zones had changed, I went on and tried some of the old Hot Spots out, I was not getting the same Exp I was before.

Of course, Gunthak was still crowded, no one wants to go to Kaesora unless they can Port or have a Porter with them. I went there to check it out and I was the only one there.


Edited, Thu Aug 12 22:38:54 2004
New hotspots
# Sep 27 2004 at 4:47 PM Rating: Decent
I think the hotspot for level 60+ was a good idea, but then before this patch it was possible to hunt in dulak or nadox for xp at those levels.

Overall I think this changing of the hotspots didn't make a whole lot of sense. People *liked* the old hotspots, as they were always crowded on my server (tholuxe)- and were the only low level zones besides pok to have 30+ people... now ask yourself, how many people do you expect to see hunting in dalnir RIGHT now on your server even though the xp is better? 1 or 2 at best.
The low level hotspots now just don't do much for me... the low level hotspots now have little solo opprotunity, whereas before you could solo all over the place in loy. And even if you do have a group, most of these zones have something that make them annoying, which somewhat negates the better xp.

I figure the real reason sony changed the hotspots is because people were flying through levels in loy (due to pulls being super easy there for most part, and the vast amount of camp spots) but I guess they like it cramped and annoying at least a little bit.

LoY was a good expansion, with the right idea... lots of mobs, easy named, mostly easy pulls... I wish they'd kept at least one of the zones as a hotspot.

Edited, Mon Sep 27 17:52:35 2004
AGhh..
# Aug 11 2004 at 7:33 PM Rating: Decent
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661 posts
HATE you sony. Hate you!
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Antonius Bayle
Hot Zones
# Aug 11 2004 at 5:51 PM Rating: Decent
21 posts
Cool, I'm glade SOE is finally reviving some of the old zones.
why do they mess up pvp?
# Aug 11 2004 at 4:48 PM Rating: Decent
I like pvp... I think its fun.. but to a degree...
Now pvp is just about gear.. "he with the best gear wins.." and that's not right... GM's don't even exist on Rallos so the annoying bored high schoolers on weekend nights are still going to exploit what they can...
Why does SOE continue to pretend to listen to us?
Wanna make pvp a challenge and fun?... try this

1. No more AA's when you delevel.. your 51 AA's will stay with you untill you delevel passed 51... not fair that a 15 rogue is considered uber becasue he has Assassin's strike or whatever

2. Pvp only the people your level... or just one level above or below.. not 4-8 like some of the servers

3. Bring the loot back... it was the only reason to pvp

3. make aug's have a required level... like you can't level to 20 to aug all your gear then delevel to 10... just make all augs have a required level (ex. int+1 aug req. lvl 15?)

4. Make the mobs harder for the quests, not just harder to spawn.. that makes quests more enjoyable and people will actually do quests and a roleplayer might actually have fun... it may not have much to do with pvp.. but if people can do fun quests where mobs actually exist (Epic mobs like Lord Begurgle have the dumbest spawn rate.. because of lazy programmers), they would go out and get the no drop quested gear and loot won't be an issue

5. No more corpse camping... its not funnny... All most of these pk's want to do is waste people's time... why do we let them? Lets institute the rule of CC'ing being wrong

6. how about no more travel between Legends and Rallos... the gear available on Legends out does all of Time and GoD so its not fair... I can't afford $40 a month to get better gear, so I can be considered uber... (might as well jsut EBay a toon and be really uber, right?... no wait then SOE doesn't get any money from that sale... hmmm... interesting)

7. Time geared 65+'s and Elemental geared folks should only be able to PVP their own people... one you are Time flagged.. you can only pvp time flagged people...

8. No more recommended level items... Make it all required level

9. Nothing should have a proc of 300dd at level 1... at 55 or 60 is cool... but make that same weapon proc for 10-15 at level 1 and have it level with you...

10. Increase minimum pvp level to 20... You don't really know how ot play your toon until 20 anyway.. might as well be able to get to get a few more hp to pvp at that point... make pvp more interesting..

I have a lot more ideas... and I know I will get burned for it.. but I don't care... I've played since befroe Kunark and I thought the game was fun... I don't wanna leave but it seems like SOE wants us to leave EQ...
RE: why do they mess up pvp?
# Aug 12 2004 at 7:45 AM Rating: Decent
Agree
Yes i agree too, i think that one of the worst thing is PVP range level, super true after 63, PvP MUST be permitted only to same level.
There is no fun for a 58 being killed by all bored 65!
Zic on Tallon.
RE: why do they mess up pvp?
# Aug 11 2004 at 7:30 PM Rating: Decent
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I have to say I agree 100%. I HATE what they've done with the no loot. That's sad.

The corpse camping I can agree with as well. This is honestly rediculous. I'm not going to play on a PvP server with these rules. lol EverQuest at all for that rate. This patch really ruins it.
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Antonius Bayle
All PvP on any game is Care-Bear
# Aug 11 2004 at 3:42 PM Rating: Default
I don't play on the PvP servers anyway as all PvP in every MMORPG out there is care-bear. Every one of them. I think PvP should be total hard-core in that if you die you can be looted for everything you have on you AND in the bank, it also erases your account and then can never get another account again using the same credit card and the data from the CD you bought can't be used again to set up a new account, meaning you have to go out and buy another version of the game........anything less than this is just care bears. Anyone calling anyone else a care-bear and NOT adhering to this hard-core rule set are themselves care-bears and not tough at all. I don't care if you have tons of PvP points and are level 65 with all AA's and every item in the game...if you don't play hard-core like I said it doesn't really have much risk and you might as well be playing Candy-land.

(I'm joking of course...or am I?)
Goodbye RZ PvP
# Aug 11 2004 at 3:25 PM Rating: Good
/wave RZ PvP

As a RZ player of five years, this is the final straw for me. Time to go to SZ or try Firionia Vie.
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