[Test] Test Update Notes: Friday, April 23, 2010(2)

[Offical Forums]

FEATURES
NEW HALAS

• The city of New Halas, namesake of the original city of the Northmen destroyed by cataclysm and war, sits in the heart of the isle of Erollis, a treacherous land of biting temperatures and aggressive fauna within the freezing waters of the Frostfang Sea. Originally a village of war hardened dwarves, it has since grown due to being blessed by Mithaniel Marr and reconnected with the Shattered Lands of Norrath. Pilgrims to New Halas can find their way there via a griffin at the docks in the Butcherblock Mountains. New characters created for New Halas will start at Pilgrim’s Landing, an encampment near the isle of Erollis, in the zone Frostfang Sea.
• Note: Residents of Qeynos, Kelethin, or New Halas wishing to change their citizenship should now find an Ambassador with the purpose tag within their respective city who can give clearer guidance on exactly how to do this and where to go.

THE ICY KEEP: RETRIBUTION

• A new level 90+ x4 raid dungeon with associated quests is aimed to give players an easy to moderate challenge! The pesky Frostfoots have found a new way into the Icy Keep and this time the Ice Maidens are ready for them! Join Snarf, Gerbi and many more in their quest to rid themselves of the newly hatched Ice Dragon, Vrewwx! Consider yourselves warned, however… Before entering you might want to bring 23 of your friends to help you get past his guardians.

STORYLINES

• A new “Storyline” tab has been added to the bottom of the Quest journal. The Storyline window will help you keep track of the many adventures you encounter as you explore the world of Norrath. Additionally, the Storyline window will help lead you to new adventures as they become available for you to enjoy!

TRAVEL REVAMP

• We have made several changes to the game in an effort to streamline travel.
• Traveling to different locations uses a new interface.
• Now when selecting a travel location via teleportation, bell, or sokokar/horse/griffon etc. you will do so through a travel map.
• Simply double click your choice, or select it and then press OK to be whisked away.
• Mousing over a location when using world teleportation displays a level range and some background information on the area.
• Bell/carpet zone travel has been consolidated. Bells on the different continents have all been linked together. This means the bells that were in Nektulos are no longer limited to 6 locations. These bells have been reduced to one bell that is linked to other bells across Norrath. Bells used to travel within Qeynos and Freeport have not been changed except that they now use the travel map allowing for more direct connections to where you wish to go.
• Druid portals no longer require the player to have harvested a Blessed Shrubbery.
• Blessed Shrubberies have been imbued by Tunare with the power to transport players to any of the other druid rings!
• Translocate no longer requires a planar symbol.
• Translocate portals were transporting players to incorrect spots in the Bonemire and The Barren Sky. This has been corrected.
• Planar symbols have been removed from vendor lists.Sokokar posts no longer require the Sokokar item.
• They now check that you have completed either the tradeskill or adventuring version of the quest. This affects the following zones:
  • Chardok
  • Jarsath Wastes
  • Kylong Plains
  • Kunzar Jungle
  • Fens of Nathsar
• You are no longer required to visit a Sokokar post before being able to travel there. This affects the following zones:
  • Jarsath Wastes
  • Kylong Plains
  • Kunzar Jungle
  • Fens of Nathsar
• The following zones no longer require you to do a quest or go to a location before accessing the inner zone travel option. The quests that were there previously have been reworked so that players can still do them optionally.
  • Nektulos Forest
  • Thundering Steppes
  • Sinking Sands
  • Pillar of Flames
• The flight paths leading to and leaving from Butcherblock, and connecting to Timorous or Darklight, have been modified some to be more geographically appropriate.
• The following quests have been modified and had money rewards attached to them:
  • Griffon Egg for the Nektulos Tower Stations
  • Griffon Egg for the Steppes Tower Stations
• The following zones now have inner zone travel options or have had new locations added to them:
  • Steamfont
  • Zek
  • Feerrott
  • Enchanted Lands
  • Everfrost
  • Greater Faydark
  • Nektulos
• All spires that can be reached through wizard teleportation should now have a static teleporter and they should all now link to the entire network. This affects the following zones:
  • Greater Faydark
  • Moors of Ykesha
  • Kylong Plains
  • Tenebrous Tangle
  • Bonemire
  • Barren Sky
• All call spells have had their cast times reduced to 10 seconds. This affects the following spells:
  • Call of The Overlord
  • Call of Kelethin
  • Call of Qeynos
  • Call of Gorowyn
  • Call of Neriak
  • Call of Haven
  • Call to Guild Hall
  • Call of Ro
• Guild hall bell amenities have been changed:
  • Since all bells are the same now we have given each one a different look.
  • The sinking sands carpet now acts like a bell but will retain the carpet look for those who like it.

PvP WARFIELDS

• Antonica and Commonlands have once again become hotbeds of conflict! Will your lands be overrun or will your forces prevail against the siege?
• Warfields are Good vs. Evil faction based.
• Rewards will be Discord Tokens with a higher quantity to the winning team.
• The event will stagger between Antonica and 2 hours later in Commonlands and last for 30 minutes.
• The Antonica and Commonlands zones have been CHANGED to 10 level ranges from 4 to allow a wider range of skirmishes.

Event (Offense)

• Four towers located near the three griffin towers and one near the city gate will spawn 10 minutes before the skirmish.
• At the start of the event, the towers will have 5 guardian statues that will need to be destroyed by the invaders.
• The Tower Guardians are protected by powerful magic but are vulnerable to players of certain levels.
• The Purple Tower Guardian will damage anyone level 31 or higher.
• The Blue Tower Guardian will damage anyone level 51 or higher.
• The Green Tower Guardian will damage anyone level 71 or higher.
• The Red Tower Guardian is attackable by all level ranges.
• The White Tower Guardian will be immune until all other guardians at that tower are defeated.
• Destroying the White Tower Guardian destroys that tower.
• If all four Towers are destroyed, the invaders are victorious!

Event (Defense)

• The battles favors the defending team Evil (Commonlands) or Good (Antonica).
• The defenders have 10 minutes to prepare for the siege and must then defend all four towers for 30 minutes.

SHADER 3.0

• EverQuest II now supports Shader 3.0 with new vibrant colors and depth processed by your GPU! To enable this feature, on supported cards, check the ‘Shader 3.0’ box in the Performance section of the Display options.

STONEBRUNT HIGHLANDS

• Many new quests have been added to the Stonebrunt Highlands! Seek out Sous Chef Jailaya in Moonfield Hamlet, Damodar in the Mausoleum of Scholars and Felidael in the Kejek encampment.

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue where a character would stand on their mount for a brief second if they summoned a mount while wielding a weapon.
• Fixed an issue where using a server controlled mount, that was similar to your active mount, would cause your active mount to disappear visually.
• Fixed an issue where the client would sometimes crash if minimized during a flythrough sequence.
• Fixed an issue where using a group illusion while on a mount could render a character topless.
• Fixed an issue causing guild halls to not be available in other copies of the exterior zone if purchased when more than one copy exists.
• Increasing your defense, parry, and/or deflection skills to very high levels will no longer cause your chance to avoid attacks to go down.
• Looking around while moving backwards with strafe should no longer make you reverse directions.

USER INTERFACE

• When inspecting spells and abilities on PvE servers the PvP checkbox will default to unchecked.
• The PvP checkbox will only appear on an item if the PvP description differs from the PvE description.
• The tooltip on avoidance now shows both the normal block and uncontested block value for your character
• The tooltip for stamina has been updated to better explain how it affects spell resistance.
• Players can no longer change their UI while dead (this would cause the revive window to vanish).
• The mouseover tooltip for tradeskill recipes will now properly display the byproduct amounts.

AMENITIES

• The Training Dummy Supply Chest guildhall amenity now provides dummies of varying difficulty.
• Raid an epic dummy! (Loot not included)
• The Training Dummy Supply Chest now offers a set of grouped training dummies.

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