Live Update #12

[Theramor]

Today, SoE released the next major Update. Here are the Patch Notes....

*** Headlines ***
- Change your bind point to anywhere in your home city!
- Invite other players into groups, raids, and guilds when they aren't in the same zone!
- Quest journal how holds 75 active quests!
- Sort your quests by the current zone for each quest step!
- Explore the Shattered Lands with greater freedom and ease of travel!
- Earn experience for your guild by collecting status loot!
- Learning tradeskills is made even easier with new artisan quests!
- Gain coin and better loot from defeating creatures!
- Guilds no longer lose status when members leave!
- Add a new hotkey to toggle between your two most recent targets!
- Lots of user interface tweaks and improvements!
- The quest completion ding is back!
- Mysterious activities around the mines of Norrath introduce our latest live event!

*** Change Your Bind Point ***
- You may now complete a quest that gives you the ability to set your bind point to any location in your home city.
- Citizens of either Qeynos or Freeport can undertake the quest to gain this ability.
- Those seeking this new way to bind themselves to their hometowns need only learn the secret from either Ethurien in Antonica or Heilanna in the Commonlands.
- After you gain the ability to bind yourself to a new location, your Call of Qeynos or Call of the Overlord spells will return you to that spot.
- You can change your bind point as often as you like, to any location in your home city itself.

*** Cross-Zone Invites ***
- You can now invite other players into your group, raid, or guild regardless of whether or not they are in the same zone you are.
- To invite a player outside your current zone into your group, enter the "/invite X" where X is the name of the potential group member.
- When you receive an invitation to group, the confirmation window will display the name of the zone where the player inviting you is located.
- Commands such as /makeleader now work across zone lines as well.
- Guild commands such as promotions now work across zone lines.
- You will now be able to see the Health and Power of group members who aren’t in your zone. Updates to their stats will occur every few seconds. The names of group members not in your zone are displayed less brightly.
- The tooltip for group members now shows which zone they are in.

*** Quest Journal ***
- The quest jounal now allows 75 active quests instead of 50.
- You can now sort your quest journal according to the current zone for quests rather than the quest type or starting zone.
- For example, if you are working on a quest you received in Antonica and the next step takes you to the Thundering Steppes, you can sort your quest journal by current zone and that quest will be listed under "The Thundering Steppes."
- To use this feature, just click the drop-down menu at the top of the quest journal. Change from the default of "Sort by Category" to "Sort by Current Zone."
- Note: When using this feature, some quests will be lumped together under "Unknown." This is because we are still in the process of assigning current zone information to some of our thousands of quests. There is no need to file a bug report or petition about such quests, as we will be adding that information in the near future.

*** Zone Access and Travel Changes ***
-There are no longer level restrictions or quest requirements on the following zones: Fallen Gate, the Orcish Wastes, the Enchanted Lands, Drafling Tower, the Feerrott, Everfrost, and Lavastorm.
- The access quests that were restricting travel to the Orcish Wastes, the Enchanted Lands, the Feerrott, Everfrost, and Lavastorm are now optional and provide item rewards. After you complete any of these quests (or if you have done so in the past), speak to Scholar Milnik on the docks of the Thundering Steppes to receive your reward. All boat rides associated with the overland access quests are now instanced adventures that can be repeated once you have completed the quests.
- Harbormasters in East Freeport and Qeynos Harbor now only sell tickets to the Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest. These two locations now function as travel hubs to the rest of the world. From the Thundering Steppes you can travel to the Orcish Wastes, the Feerrott, and Everfrost. From Nektulos Forest you can travel to the Enchanted Lands and Lavastorm.
- As Kizdean Gix's key is no longer needed to enter Fallen Gate, he has retreated from the Commonlands.

*** Status Loot ***
- In addition to completing writs that are assigned to you by city NPCs, you can now earn guild status by turning in new kinds of dropped items.
- Many of the NPCs around Norrath now have a chance to drop items that the major political factions in each of city are after. Be on the lookout for these new types of Scrying Stones, Amulets, Sealed Documents, and Relics. There are different varieties of each of these items for each level range.
- You can sell these new items for status points to the same NPCs that assign writ quests. This is a whole new way to increase your guild level and personal status.
- Regardless of whether or not you are in a guild, status loot can be traded to other players or sold to regular NPC merchants for cash.

*** Artisan Quests ***

- We have introduced a series of quests for new players to better explain how to become an artisan and to help them decide which style of crafting they prefer.
- Examining the note given to new players by Assistant Dreak on the Isle of Refuge (or obtained when they leave the island) will now grant a quest leading them to their tradeskill society.
- Once inside, budding artisans will be guided through the steps of making many different types of items. This will explain the benefits of each of the crafting classes.
- New players will learn how the crafting process works, plus earn tradeskill experience and cash through these quests. Each stage of the "Seeking a Profession" quest awards a different volume of the Artisan Essentials series.
- Completing the quest series provides a tunic that gives bonuses to artisan skills and will make the crafter a citizen of their home city if they haven't become one already.

*** Loot Improvements ***
- Sentient creatures now have a chance to drop coin when you defeat them.
- Various forms of wildlife will drop damaged pelts or hides.
- Creatures no longer drop random body parts and other gross items as loot. Who wants to pick up skulls or clumps of maggots anyway?
- Some creatures drop loot items that can be used in tradeskills. If an item can be used in crafting, examining it will explain how.

*** Guilds ***
- Guilds no longer lose status or levels when an established patron leaves the guild or ceases to be a patron. Thus, guilds never lose the levels they have already earned.
- Deguilding or removing patron status from someone who has been a patron for less than a week will result in a loss of that player's status contribution. The amount removed will vary based on how close to a full week that person has been a member. Guild leaders electing to remove a patron will receive a warning as to how this will impact their guild's status.
- Guild levels are now capped at 30. Additional guild experience cannot be earned until the guild level cap is raised.
- There was a bug causing many guild levels to show as one less than they really are. This is now fixed, thus guilds may notice their level increase by one.
- You can now (for a 5 silver fee) send an in-game mail message to every member of your guild. Address your mail to “guild.” You cannot attach items to the mail, and you can only send messages to the guild of which you are a member. Guild leaders can decide which ranks have permission to send guild mail.
- You will no longer be able to complete two guild writs at the same time by killing the same NPC.
- You can now receive a new tradeskill writ every 20 minutes instead of every 30 minutes.
- The Tradesman gear bought from the City Merchants is now wearable by all classes.

*** Mysteries in the Mines ***
- Pale rat-like creatures, similar to ratonga but smaller, have been spotted in and around various mines in places like the Commonlands, Antonica, and the Orcish Wastes.
- Rumors abound of ancient artifacts these beings may be seeking.
- The creatures are said to be in the employ of some greater, more sinister power.
- Qeynos residents can find out more information from Pearl Honeywine in Qeynos Harbor, while Freeport citizens can learn details from Mareva D'iniv in North Freeport.
- The quests will lead you to different destinations depending on your level range.
- The quest for high-level players will lead them to a highly challenging new single-group dungeon instance. This zone will remain available even after the live event has been completed.

*** The Splitpaw Saga ***
- If you previously earned the trust of the gnolls in the "A Darkened Shard" quest but deleted or sold your shard, you will now be able to purchase another shard from Gumgullet in the Splitpaw Den. If you deleted the "A Darkened Shard" quest in attempting to acquire the shard again, the "earning the trust of the gnolls" stage of the quest should now update when you zone into the Splitpaw Den.
- To avoid confusion, "a glowing azure shard" with the Buoyancy effect is now named "a luminous azure shard." The version of "a glowing azure shard" with the Return to Splitpaw spell has not been changed.
- The Crawler's Nest should no longer lock cautious adventurers out of the final room. In addition, the queen has barricaded her lair more securely.
- Defeating Tesch Val Nurkal or Nisch Val Valkar no longer sets the success timer for their zone.
- The two-hour success timer for the solo arena will now only be applied after a reward is claimed.
- The Flammable Fur zone is now limited to a maximum of six characters.

*** Gameplay ***
- Food and drink effects will no longer disappear if you revive in a zone other than the one in which you died.
- NPCs were not properly receiving their innate spell effects (such as see invisible) when they spawned, although they did receive these abilities if they were engaged and reset for any reason. These NPCs will now have their innate abilities present when they arrive in the world. As a result, some creatures will now see invisible (or be invisible, for that matter) that didn't seem to before.

*** Zones and Population ***
- Certain instanced zones now have limitations on the maximum number of players that can be inside them at any one time. Any player characters who enter the zone and exceed that maximum will be kicked out to the parent zone after 20 seconds. Characters about to be removed from the zone will receive a warning that this will happen. If a different player leaves instead, the first player will be notified that they will no longer be removed from the zone.
- Guard NPCs should no longer go on a zone-wide killing spree after attacking a single target.
- Skulkers in the Forest Ruins no longer flee when low on health.
- Forest Flares in Nektulos Forest now have a new appearance.

*** Epic Encounters ***
- The area-of-effect range of large creatures now matches the range in which you can hit them.
- Most instanced epic raid zones now only allow the intended number of players inside. Anyone who exceeds this number will be kicked out of the zone after 20 seconds.
- Varanak the Everlasting will no longer immediately attack those who revive in the zone after being defeated by him. In addition, the statue has once again been reminded that his duty is to aid Venekor.

*** Quests ***
- The quest reward window is no longer blocked when you have character advancement options available every two levels.
- Heritage quests can be deleted from your journal, and now fall under the 75-quest maximum.
- Charly Ashlash in Lavastorm is no longer attackable, and thus no longer needs to hide from those scary adventurers.
- Priest Kelian will no longer offer the priest class quest to level 20+ priests that hail him. In addition, Kelian had decided to dress in a more priestly manner.

*** Items ***
- Stacks of arrows will no longer unequip and end up in inventory when zoning or logging in.
- Master chests will now decay 20 minutes after they become available for open looting.

*** Spells and Combat Arts ***
- The Apprentice IV version of the Swashbuckler's Gibe ability now has the proper effect.

*** Tradeskills ***
- The recipes for creating primary interim components using Apothecary, Geomancy, Timbercraft, and Weaving which required 10 fuels now require 2.
- You should now be able to complete and advance in quests to make Middling Thirst for Blood.
- The Yew Fighting Baton recipe now uses woodworking reaction arts instead of weaponsmith reaction arts.

*** Controls, Commands, and User Interface ***
- Chat windows and tabs should save their settings and channel information more reliably.
- Brackets now appear around item links in the chat window, i.e. [item name].
- You can now assign a key to toggle between your two most recent targets. To set a key, open the Options menu and click the Controls category, then click the plus sign (+) next to Targeting Keys. Click the box next to "Select Previous Target" and choose which key you'd like to use.
- The Raid window now correctly shows when raid members are dead.
- Mentoring information now fits properly in the Raid window.
- Typing /whoraid will send a list of all raid members to the chat window; /whogroup will send a list of group members to the chat window.
- The /wc command works the same as /whochannel, which sends a list of channel participants to the chat window.
- Mousing over a bag in your inventory now lists the contents of that bag in the tooltip.
- Bags in your inventory now say "Open" if you have them open.
- Locking a hotkey window will now prevent you from dragging hotkey icons from it.
- Stats and resistances now show up properly when examining an item that you aren't wearing.
- The Skills window now displays the Tracking, Fist, and Poisoning skills.
- Examining a weapon now lists its damage type (slashing, crushing, or piercing) under the Skill heading.
- Examining a piece of armor now shows whether it is Cloth, Leather, Chain, or Plate armor.
- Hitting a function key a second time will now target that character's pet. For example, hitting F2 once will target that group member. Hitting F2 again will target that player's pet.
- The Maintained Spells window is now much more informative about each spell's target. Mousing over an icon will show "Self" as the target if the spell is cast on you, "Pet" if the target is a pet, "Group" if it is a group spell, and the name of the target if it is someone other than yourself.
- Tooltips now update properly to show the number of charges remaining on an item.
- Group members are now visible on your map even when you haven’t journeyed to that area of the zone yet and the map only shows black.
- Zoning with a buff active will no longer give you a message that you've lost the buff.
- The parental control timer now gives you multiple warnings before you are logged out.
- Scholar and spellcasting headings now show up properly in the Skills window.
- Double-clicking the quest helper window when it displays a quest update will now open the quest journal to the updated quest instead of the currently selected one.
- You can now show a time stamp on each line of text that appears in the chat window. To enable this feature, open the Options menu and click the User Interface button, then click the plus sign (+) next to Chat Window. Check the "Show chat message time" box.
- Bag labels will now persist when you zone.
- You can no longer delete a quest while the category name is selected.
- Sorting by name in the Tracking window now ignores con color.
- If you are typing a line of text and hit a movement key to run away from something (causing "wwwwwwwwwww" to appear in your chat line, for example), your character will soon begin running forward and the repeated character will be removed from the chat line.
- Bag windows are no longer resized when window positions are reset.
- UI modders will be pleased to find that group dynamic data now works properly. Mod away!

*** Audio ***
- Completing a quest once again triggers a nice little congratulatory jingle.
- Completing a heritage quest triggers a special sound that should be familiar to EQ veterans.

*** UI Files Updated ***
eq2ui_popup_bug.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_skills.xml
eq2ui_gamedata.xml
===========================
Steve Danuser, a.k.a. Moorgard
Game Designer, EverQuest II

Detailed XML changes to follow.

Alot of good updates this time around.


T