Live Update #13: September 13. 2005 (Desert of Flames)

[Debillus]

*** Headlines ***

- The Desert of Flames expansion pack is here!
- The long-awaited combat changes are upon us!
- View your faction standing and character details with the improved Persona window!
- Guilds no longer rely on patrons, so all members can contribute!
- Is your wood elf ready to tie the knot, or are you just tired of your surname? Now you can change your last name!
- Aquatic creatures have been banished from the land!
- Group experience debt has been removed!
- Encounter locking restrictions have been relaxed.
- You can now resurrect players that are outside of your group!
- Roleplayers rejoice! You can now use a ` or ' in your last name!
- Sort your Knowledge book by name, level, or category!
- Challenge other players with the new dueling system!
- Share items with guildmates using the new guild vault!


*** Desert of Flames ***

- The EverQuest II team is pleased to announce the launch of our first expansion pack: Desert of Flames!
- Players who purchase the expansion can explore the vast Desert of Ro and the exotic but dangerous bandit city of Maj'Dul.
- Discover exciting new quests, hundreds of new items, new abilities for every subclass, and breathtaking challenges all the way up to the new adventure and tradeskill level cap of 60!
- Battle against your friends in the arenas of Maj'Dul. You can play as your character, or join in fights with players of any level as an Arena Champion.
- Climb walls, use voice emotes to communicate with your friends, and take on epic challenges designed for players level 45 and higher.
- Those who purchase Desert of Flames can /claim a djinn bottle for your home that lets you enter your own magical realm where you can listen to storytellers and learn more about the Desert of Ro. If you are currently betraying your city, you will not be able to use the bottle until you've settled into your new home (all the more reason to finish off those last 499 orcs).
- Desert of Flames is available in your local retail outlet or via digital download. It can be purchased online at The Station Store: https://store.station.sony.com/
- If you purchase the digital download version of Desert of Flames, all necessary files will be automatically downloaded the next time you launch EverQuest II.
- See you soon in the arena! And remember, watch your back in the streets of Maj'Dul!


*** Changes to Combat and Spells ***

This update introduces significant changes to the way combat works and how spells behave. Here is a brief overview of some of the goals of these changes:

- Adjusting spells and combat arts to ensure that damage, healing, and utility are more proportionate among the classes.
-Making spell upgrades more meaningful and satisfying by adding new spells and arts to better fill out character progression and put the emphasis on distinctiveness at the subclass level.
- Removing damage mitigation from NPCs so that your spells and arts do damage in the range listed when you examine them.
- Making the con color of your opponent a lot more meaningful to better indicate the level of challenge you're about to undertake. For example, a red-con opponent should be something you want to avoid, an orange-con opponent should indicate an extremely tough fight, and so on.
- Removing item growth so that comparisons between items are clearer and upgrades feel more satisfying.
- Smoothing out player and NPC progression so there are no longer sudden increases in difficulty around the class and subclass levels.
- Addressing cases where some characters could be made virtually immune to attack through buff stacking.

Below are some specific changes to the various elements of combat and spells. For a more complete list of changes, please see the EQ2Players.com website.

Fighter Changes
- All subclasses of Fighters now have both primary defensive and offensive stances. These stances do not require concentration.
- Monks and Bruisers have an additional stance that offers half the combined offensive and defensive bonuses of the other stances.
- The base health and power pools of Fighter professions have been adjusted.
* Monks and Bruisers have the highest health pool and lowest power pool.
* Guardians and Berserkers have balanced health and power pools.
* Paladins and Shadowknights have the lowest health pool and the highest power pool.
- Crusaders now receive the Spear and Great Spear skills.
- Shadowknights have been given an improved lifetap effect and harm touch reuse.
- The Paladin spell Lay on Hands has been improved.
- Brawlers can now deflect and parry attacks from any direction, not just the front.

Scout Changes
- The spell/art damage of Scouts has been increased.
- Auto-attack damage for Assassins and Rangers has been increased.
- Swashbucklers and Brigands received a slight health increase.
- Rangers, Assassins, Swashbucklers, and Brigands now have both offensive and defensive stances. These stances do not require concentration.
- Bard debuff songs are now 0 concentration, 0-second reuse timer, 2-second cast time, 25m range, toggleable, 15m radius, and 1 minute duration.

Mage Changes
- Mages now have larger power pools.
- Summoned pets cast their spells and arts at the same quality level as the spell that summoned them. For example, an Adept I version of a pet will cast its spells at Adept I quality.
- Enchanters gain a long-duration Charm spell.
- Charmed pets cast their spells and do damage based on the quality level of the spell used to charm them. For example, an NPC charmed with an Adept I spell will use its abilities at Adept I quality.
- Warlocks now have contagious forms of noxious resistance debuffs.

Priest Changes
- Priests now have increased damage capability.
- Priests can resurrect players outside their group.
- Group healing has been improved in efficiency and potency.
- Group cures have been removed from Training options and are now distributed among the Priest subclasses.
- Wards now apply their effects after mitigation
- As wards absorb damage, they now apply hate to the caster appropriate to the amount of damage absorbed.
- Reactive heals now assign their hate to the caster of the spell rather than the target.
- Overall healing potency should be better balanced among the Priest professions.
- Healing spells generate less hate when healing someone who is not currently the opponent's main target.
- Shamans now receive the Great Spear skill.
- Direct heals (both single-target and group) now have more differentiation among subclasses. Each subclass of Priest has different advantages.

Items
- Items no longer grow in effectiveness as the wielder gains levels.
- Items no longer change their con color based on your level. An item's name will be grey if it is ineffective against opponents of your level, white if you can use it, and red if you can't use it.
- Mitigation values have been spread more evenly across armor slots. Chest and leg slots still provide slightly greater mitigation, though less than they did before.
- Physical mitigation has been removed from accessories (ear, neck, rings, wrists, and belt).
- Arcane resist values (Heat, Cold, Poison, Disease, Magic, Divine, and Mental) on all items have been reduced by 40% to make the effects of resist buffs more meaningful.

NPCs
- NPCs no longer mitigate the damage done by spells and combat arts. When a damage spell or art lands on an opponent, its damage should fall within the range shown in its examine information.
- NPCs have a chance to outright resist any type of hostile spell. But when a spell lands, it will apply its full effects for the full duration listed in its examine information. Damage spells and taunts will be resisted less than other types of spells.
- Instead of unleashing all their spells or arts at the start of a fight and then running out of power, NPCs will spread their use of spells and arts more evenly throughout the course of a battle.
- Aggressive creatures will now attack sooner when they notice you.

Personal Traits, Enemy Tactics, Training Spells, and Racial Traditions
- All previously chosen character specialization abilities have been removed. You can select new options after logging in.
- Every ten levels (level 14, 24, 34, 44, and 54) you are presented with a list of four spells or arts. You may choose one of them, which will then be upgraded to Master II quality.


*** Enhanced Persona Window ***

- The Persona window now has three tabs to better organize information about your character.
- The Stats tab shows your level progress, vital stats, attributes, and resistances.
- The Details tab shows your character's last name, house location, and bind point. It allows you to choose from any prefix and suffix titles you have earned, and lets you enter your character's biographical information.
- The Factions tab displays your standing toward any factions with which you have gained or lost favor. Whenever you perform an action that changes a faction from neutral, it is automatically added to the Factions tab.
- Using the P key toggles the Persona window to the Stats tab.
- Using the Ctrl + P keys toggles the Persona window to the Details tab.
- Using the Alt + F keys toggles the Persona window to the Factions tab.


*** Guild Status ***

- We have removed the concept of patrons from guilds. Earned status is now divided by the number of unique accounts in your guild (minimum of 6, maximum of 24).
- Example 1: If you have 40 members in your guild (10 of which are alts) you'd have 30 unique accounts. That's over the maximum cap of 24, so any new guild status earned would be divided by 24.
- Example 2: If you have 4 members in your guild and you earn guild status, it will be divided by 6 (the minimum number).


*** Change Your Last Name ***

- You may now change your last name. Just click the button on the Details tab of the Persona window and click the button.
- You may change your name a maximum of once per week.
- Anyone abusing this privilege can have it taken away by a GM, so please be sure you abide by the Naming Privilege Policy posted on the EQ2Players.com site.


*** Fish out of Water ***

- Aquatic creatures will no longer aggro players who are on land.
- If you fight an aquatic creature in the water and flee to the land, the encounter will break.
- Be aware that if you have so much as a toe in the water, feisty water creatures can and will attack you.


*** Experience Debt ***

- There is now a 50% cap for both adventure and tradeskill experience debt. You can no longer accrue more than 50% of your level in experience debt. If you have more than 50% experience debt when you log on after this change, any experience debt greater than 50% will be removed.
- You will no longer share experience debt for the deaths of other members of your group. Only the person in the group who dies will gain experience debt.


*** Encounter Locking ***

- Encounter locking restrictions have been relaxed for non-raid encounters.
- Raid encounters should continue to behave exactly as before with the previous encounter locking rules.
- Non-raid encounters have been changed as follows:
* There are no longer lock icons on you or your enemies.
* The first group or person to attack a creature will receive any reward it grants upon death, including loot and experience.
* Other players can assist in your fight by damaging your enemies or healing you.
* You will receive a reduced XP reward if your group contributes less than 50% of the damage needed to kill something.
* You can change group options and add/remove people from groups while fighting (note that fighting raid encounters still prevents this).
* Damage credit is correctly tracked if you add people helping you to the group before something dies.
* Any faction increase or decrease the creature grants will be applied to everyone the creature hates when it dies.
* If you prefer to keep outside players from assisting or interfering with the fight, you can use the /lock command. /lock will lock the targeted encounter if the user of the /lock command is a member of the group that first engaged the encounter.
- There is also a group option to automatically /lock an encounter when it is engaged.


*** Resurrection Changes ***

- Resurrection can now be cast on a player who is not a member of your group.
- If someone attempts to resurrect you, a dialog box will appear and requires confirmation before you are resurrected.


*** Last Name Changes ***

- Your last name can now be divided into two parts using either a ` or a '. Roleplayers rejoice!
- Any letter you put after the ` or ' will be capitalized automatically.
- You can now clear your last name using the /lastname command with no arguments.


*** Knowledge Book ***

- You can now sort the knowledge book by name, level, or category forward or in reverse.
- You may arrange the icon layout in zigzag, down, or across patterns, depending on your preference.
* Zigzag: This is the default sort.
1 2 9 10
3 4 11 12
5 6 13 14
7 8 15 16
* Down: Icons will sort down first, then continue at the top of the next column.
* Across: Icons will sort across first, then continue at the left of the next row.
- The following advanced knowledge book sorting commands are now available:
* /knowledgewindow_sort <book> <sort> <reverse> <output>
book = 0 - spells, 1 - combat, 3 - tradeskill
sort = 0 - alpha, 1 - level, 2 - category
reverse = 0 false, 1 reverse
output = 0 - zigzag, 1 - down, 2 - across
* /knowledgewindow_swap <book> <pageA> <pageB>
Swap two pages in the book
book = 0 - spells, 1 - combat, 2 - abilities, 3 - tradeskill
pageA = 1 to N
pageB = 1 to N
* /knowledgewindow_insertblanks <book> <page> <start> <order> <count>
Insert blanks into the knowledge window
book = 0 - spells, 1 - combat, 2 - abilities, 3 - tradeskill
page = 1 to N
start = slot to start (1-16) and depends on the order flag
order = 0 - zigzag, 1 - down, 2 - across
count = number of slots to insert


*** Dueling ***

- Now you can challenge enemies or allies to a duel!
- Targeting another player and typing /duel sends them an invitation to battle.
* The battle will begin shortly after the challenge is accepted. There is a brief timer that counts down to let you know when it begins.
- You can fight in any location, whether it be in a city, inside a house, outdoors, or in the deepest dungeon.
- You can also use /duelbet to initiate a duel and bet on the outcome.
* A wager window, similar to the trade window, will appear if you /duelbet someone.
* You may put items or coin into the window. Once accepted, the duel begins. The winner of the duel will gain any items and coin that the loser had put into the wager window.
* The wager window follows the same rules as the trade window: No Trade items are not allowed, etc.
- To give up before the death blow is landed, type /surrender to end the duel.
- If two players are battling and one zones, camps, or goes linkdead, that player surrenders the duel.
- You must remain within the dueling ring or risk surrendering the duel to your opponent.
* If you stay outside of this ring for too long, you will forfeit the match.
* When feared and outside of the dueling ring, the amount of time available grows.
* When rooted, stunned, or charmed, the amount of time available does not change.
* When outside of the dueling ring without any of these effects, the timer will tick down.
- As long as the player is killed by their dueling opponent, the loser of a duel will be left with 1 point of health. No shard will be dropped, and no XP debt or item damage will result. Neither harmful nor beneficial spell effects will be dropped as a result of losing the duel.
- You can engage NPCs while in a duel. If someone in a duel is killed by an NPC or the effects of something outside the duel (such as a DoT), they will be declared the loser and take a normal death with all the penalties associated with it.
- The outcome of the duel is broadcast to everyone in the zone, whether it be death or surrender.
- You can neither offer nor accept a duel if:
* You are in the same group as the potential opponent.
* Either of you is considering another duel challenge.
* Either of you is currently dueling someone else.
* Either of you is locked to an encounter.
* Either of you is on the hate list of an NPC.
* Either of you is currently dead.
* Either of you is on the other's ignore list.
* Either of you is on a griffin.
- Dueling tests not only the abilities of your class, but how well you play it. Let the battle begin!


*** Guild Vaults ***

- You can now share items with your guildmates using the guild vault.
- You may interact with a banker in order to access the guild vault. Simply right-click any banker to access this option.
- Guild leaders have the ability to set up access to deposit and withdraw items from the guild vault. Use the guild window to set up the guild vault.
- Guild members from both Freeport and Qeynos have access to the same vault.


*** The Bloodline Chronicles ***

- Vampires now have a chance to leave their incisors behind when slain.


*** The Splitpaw Saga ***

- Quest journal text for "A Darkened Shard" is now more descriptive as to what is needed to gain the trust of the gnolls.


*** Gameplay ***

- There is now a griffon tamer at all mount stations in Antonica and the Commonlands. Speaking to the tamer will allow you to select your destination.
- Spell range is now less sensitive to targets being above or below you, which should result in less "out of range" messages in situations where you are obviously in range of the target. Please note that NPCs also benefit from this fix.
- Eating and drinking now work correctly when stunned.
- When feared or fleeing for their lives, creatures will be less likely to choose the eternal void and more likely to select a real point within the zone to run to.
- Players in groups will no longer be prevented from harvesting if their group is in combat. Characters will not be able to start a harvesting attempt if they are currently the main target of an aggressive creature.


*** Zones and Population ***

- A portion of the downtiered content in the following zones has been changed back to heroic encounters: Antonica, the Commonlands, Nektulos Forest, the Thundering Steppes, the Enchanted Lands, the Feerrott, and Zek, the Orcish Wastes. Examples include the scarecrow fields and Archer's Wood in Antonica; crater areas, griffons, and giants in the Thundering Steppes; and Runnyeye goblins and Nightbloods in the Enchanted Lands.
- Boomba in West Freeport now sells some of his old favorites: Dwarf Pickles, Erudite Pickles, Elf Pickles, Gnome Pickles and Halfling Pickles.
- Landing in Everfrost quite by accident, Dovan Farfall finds himself interested in the peculiar history of these frozen lands. Perhaps you can help him uncover more information.


*** Quests ***

- Lore and Legend items found throughout the world will now be based on the new book system. Those currently working on their Lore and Legend quests can continue onward with the version they currently have. Replacements for those who have completed these quests previously will be forthcoming to a merchant near you!
- Vaniki's Ring is available for purchase at a nominal charge for those who completed the quest but did not receive the reward. Please see the Sages in your respective cities.
- Adventurers entering the Shiny Brass Shield quest instance must now stand on the pedestal in order to begin the event. The reward for completing the quest will vary by archetype: Priests and Scouts receive a buckler version, while Fighters and Mages receive a kite version.
- Adventurers can now obtain the Electrified Bone Bladed Claymore after they've finished the original quest. By right-clicking on the forge in Runnyeye with both the standard BBC and Berik, Sword of Thunder in your inventory (but not equipped), you can "Break Berik over the forge." Berik and the BBC will be removed from your inventory and you will receive the Electrified Bone Bladed Claymore. Note: If you choose to do this, you cannot change the EBBC back to the other two swords, so please be sure of your decision.
- The forge will now accept any of the following three types of ebon for the fifth stage of the BBC quest: Ebon Cluster, Shaped Ebon Coin, or Bent Ebon Disk.
- The books that begin Lore and Legend quests should now be removed and replaced with the house book item upon completion of the quest.
- The last stage of The Return of the Light quest will now update for everyone in the group, not just the player that hailed Cannix. Also, the Lucanic initiates will no longer despawn as suddenly.
- Mender Mossclean will once again speak to you when hailed. She is eager to get back to cleaning ash-covered necklaces!
- Leelee Brewbubble has found the remnants of an apothecary's recipe book. Help her collect the components she now needs in Zek, the Orcish Wastes.
- Vida Sweeps in Nettleville Hovel will now talk to citizens of both Qeynos and Freeport.


*** Items ***

- Items now con grey if they are ineffective against opponents of your level, white if you can use them, and red if you can't use them. If you are mentoring down to a lower level, your items will con purple to indicate that their effectiveness has been scaled down.
- Item quality should scale more consistently. This should address most issues where Treasured gear was providing more value than Legendary or Fabled.
- Item resist values displayed in item examine information should match the amount added to your character when that item is equipped.
- Mounts are now lore items, so you can only have one of each type of mount.
- All versions of a Spellbinder's Ebon Sconce should now be usable when placed in a house.


*** Spells and Combat Arts ***

- Maintained spells cast on charmed pets will automatically drop when the charm expires.
- The Warden's Wisp spell should no longer cause players to fall through the world.


*** Tradeskills ***

- Rare Legendary harvested items will now be obtained more frequently.
- Metallurgy, Geology, and Wedge Joint reaction arts for Carpenters should now be set correctly.
- The level 20 Woodworker recipes Canvas Thread & Yarn now use the proper skills.
- The Provisioner workshop task will now accept the correct type of omelets.


*** Housing ***

- You must now type in your character's name to relinquish a home.
- Housing prices for purchase, upkeep, status cost, and status upkeep have changed to be more reflective of realistic prices.


*** Art ***

- Barbarian and froglok males are now shirtless under their armor.
- There should no longer be distortion around the outline of characters or objects visible in front of water. Note: There are different types of water in the game, and not all of them have been updated yet. Please do not /bug water types that still have distortion until this change goes live.
- Griffons now sometimes glide rather than always flapping their wings. Griffons need a break, too.
- Elven females should no longer hold weapons and tools backwards.
- An issue causing tearing in the shoulders of elven female clothing has been fixed.


*** Controls, Commands, and User Interface ***

- A new tooltip system has been introduced that provides more pertinent information to you at-a-glance.
* Tooltips can be adjusted via Options > User Interface > Tooltips
* When using a skin without the new tooltip controls, the game will open a dialog box to let you know what's wrong and will no longer crash the client.
- Quests now indicate if they are epic or heroic.
- You can now turn off combat damage and heal numbers above the heads of PCs and NPCs. In the User Interface tab of the Options menu, click the + sign next to Name and Chat Bubble and uncheck "Show overhead combat feedback."
- Mitigation in the Persona window now shows a value instead of a percent.
- Books can now contain more text.
- When using Smooth Fonts, you can now change all text in the user interface to a small sans serif font. To enable this feature, open the Options menu and click the User Interface button, then click the plus sign (+) next to Game Windows. Check the "Use small sans serif font" box. Note: This option is not available in all localized versions of the game.
- Examining an item that can be used by all classes now displays the level at which it can be equipped.
- There is now a command to open or close all bags in your bank at once. When your bank is open, you can issue the /togglebankbags command, which opens all bank bags if they are closed or closes them if they are all open. You can also assign a hotkey for this purpose in the Controls tab of the Options menu under Window Keys.
- You can only open the bank window when you are banking.
- Faction messages now have their own channel in the Chat window.
- You now have the ability to change the color of faction-related chat messages. In the User Interface tab of the Options menu, click the + sign next to Chat Colors.
- Buff and debuff values now display properly in the Skills window.
- Progress bars better display their values.
- Holding down the space bar while the cursor is in the chat bar will now auto-escape you from chatting and assume that you mean to be jumping.
- Guild level text and member list headings should now fit better when using smoothed font.
- The guild events Join, Leave, Promote, and Demote are no longer affected by the privacy filter.
- The option for generating guild now defaults to on when characters are created. Existing characters should check their privacy settings, as the new default setting applies to them as well.
- The checkboxes on the guild rank permissions and event filters tabs should now feel more responsive.
- Item tooltips should update properly if their condition changes.
- UI modder notes: Support for C/C++ style ternary operator has been added to the UI script language. The UI script language now parses negative numbers correctly. Skill categories can be placed on a particular tab using the "tab" property.
- There is now an option called "Enable Target Nearest with Autoattack" that, when enabled, will automatically target the nearest NPC when auto-attack is turned on.
- The maintained and effects windows now pack their icons according to their size and position onscreen so they will be less intrusive.
- The title screen backdrop has new artwork.
- Hitting the Tab key will no longer target player pets.
- Tooltips on spells and abilities in a hotbar now default to showing their effects data rather than the prose description.
- The tooltip for the clock window will now appear.
- UI modders: Shadowstyle color can now be set through dynamic data system to better support use of greyscale shadow styles.


*** UI Files Updated ***

eq2ui_commonelements.xml
eq2ui_specialelements.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_persona.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_skills.xml
eq2ui_inventory_bag.xml
eq2ui_popup_book.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_person.xml
eq2ui_mainhud.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_knowledge.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_knowledgesort.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_effects.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_maintained.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_clock.xml
eq2ui_loginscene.xml
eq2ui_textstyles.xml