Live Update #19: February 2., 2005

[Debillus]

<b>*** Headlines ***</b>

- New Character Progression has arrived! Choose your final class at level 1, experience new unique progression paths for each race and alignment, and much more!
- Solusek's Eye: New adventures, stories, and rewards!
- Mentor your friends without needing to change your hotbars!
- Adventure writs are now more convenient to obtain and offer clearer rewards!
- The Norrathian Express expands its coin and item delivery service between Qeynos and Freeport!
- Many house vaults gain some extra space!
- Enjoy a plethora of enhancements to the user interface!


<b>*** New Character Progression ***</b>

Character Creation
- New characters now choose a profession at character creation.
- Your alignment (good or evil) determines which class choices are shown.
- As you progress through character creation, your current choices (gender, race, class) are shown.
- Characters begin with several key pieces of class-specific armor that are visible in character creation.
- There are new portraits for every race and gender that you will see when selecting your race.

New Starting Zones
- The original boat tutorial is no longer used. Instead, new characters immediately arrive on one of two new islands. Evil characters explore the Outpost of the Overlord while good characters visit the Queen's Colony.
- Each island has unique inhabitants and quests more suited to the alignment of those who are raised there.
- All new quests await to train new adventurers for the challenges that lie ahead.
- Visit trainers on the island to learn about combat, harvesting, banking, and other gameplay elements.
- You can remain on the island for as long as you wish without a restriction placed on your ability to level up (though of course the population will eventually grey out).

Professions
- Players now select their profession at character creation instead of moving from archetype to class to subclass. For example, you can choose to play a Wizard at character creation. When you arrive in the world, you will be a Wizard--not a Mage.
- Distinct spells and arts designed for each profession are now given immediately in place of the more generic archetype and class versions. You are a member of your final profession right away instead of waiting 19 levels to do so.
- Some of the previous class and subclass quests still exist, but they are not required to progress in your chosen profession and will no longer restrict your level growth.
- Existing characters that were at the archetype or class level will be prompted to choose a profession before logging into the game. Existing spells and arts will be replaced (at the same quality level) by the new profession-specific abilities.

Racial Quest Paths
- Upon arriving in your home village or district, you may begin a new series of quests designed specifically for your race.
- These quests will provide a greater understanding of your race's history and how it fits into the fabric of your home city.

Adventure Yard Quests
- Completing your racial quest path will guide you to your city's adventure yards. The adventure yards have new population and quest lines as well.
- New rewards await those who complete these quests!

Citizenship
- The citizenship quest is gone. You earn citizenship on the tutorial island and become a citizen when you leave it.
- There is no longer a cap on your ability to level up due to a citizenship restriction.

City Betrayal
- The city betrayal quests currently remain as they were. These quests will be changing significantly in a future update.

<b>*** Dungeon Exploration ***</b>

Solusek's Eye
- A new group of residents have been spotted setting up camp in Solusek's Eye, at the site of the Solusek Mining Co. of old.
- Check out this highly dangerous, highly rewarding dungeon for new quests as well as high-risk adventure!


<b>*** Mentoring ***</b>

- Your high level spells are now useable (at a reduced effectiveness) when you mentor a lower level player. No more messing with your hotbar when you want to help out a friend!
- Most spells will no longer drop or suspend when you start mentoring a lower-level player. Instead, they now adjust themselves accordingly.


<b>*** Writs ***</b>

- You can now select from a list of all writs you are eligible to embark upon when speaking to a writ giver.
- Characters who are not in a guild can now do writs for their city's faction.
- The amount of status awarded by writs is now based on your level in relation to the writ's level rather than your guild's level.
- Writ givers will now display quest icons appropriately.


<b>*** The Norrathian Express ***</b>

- Much to the chagrin of both Antonia Bayle and the Overlord, the Norrathian Express has expanded its services.
- Citizens of Qeynos and Freeport can now mail each other items and coin.


<b>*** User Interface Improvements ***</b>

General:
- The default performance profile now varies according to the hardware on which the client is running. New installs will use this default performance profile.
- There is now a /load_uisettings command that allows you to load the UI settings from one of your existing characters. If you type the /load_uisettings command with no arguments, it will prompt you with a list of UI files to select from. You may also specify a specific file as an argument when using this command.
- Scout tracking abilities can now be filtered more specifically by name. It just got a lot easier to look for specific NPCs for the scouts of the world.
- Have friends on other servers or in other games? Great! You can now add friends from other games or other servers in much the same way you would send them a tell (For example, you can /friend unrest.blackguard to add Blackguard from the server Unrest to your friends list).
- Have enemies on other servers or in other games? Great! You can now ignore players from other servers or games in much the same way you would send them a tell (For example, you can /ignore unrest.blackguard to add Blackguard from the server Unrest to your ignore list).
- For those who want to see shorter combat messages, there is now a Hits Mode option (similar to EverQuest) for your chat windows in Options -> User Interface -> Game Features -> Hits Mode.
* Minimal: Shows just the damage numbers or in the case of a miss it shows miss/block/parry. Heals will also just show as numbers.
* Medium: Cuts down on the combat text a bit by removing the damage type and giving you strict basics.
* Full: This is how it exists today.
* Note: Full combat info will continue to be sent to your log file. The Hits Mode option only affects what you see in the Chat window.
- Anonymous and Roleplaying players will now be filtered properly when others perform a search:
* Anonymous characters will not show up for any specific searches made by players.
* Roleplaying characters will not show up in class, level, or race searches, but will still show up in LFG and LFW searches. They will also appear in guild and name type /who searches.
- If you hear something in a language you haven't learned, you are now told what language was spoken.
- There is now a context menu option to select what language you would like to speak in if you right click the Chat window.
- "SOGA Models" are now referred to as "Alternate Models," as players who weren't around for the launch of these models don't know what "SOGA" is.
- Added functionality to choice window so that Enter will submit guard searches and Escape will close the window.
- Some merchants will now show you items that you can't currently buy and will describe why you can't purchase that item.
- There is now a short pause on the revive window (around 3 seconds) before it accepts any input to prevent accidental revives (or reviving in the wrong location) during combat.
- Dialogue conversation bubbles and response buttons can now be detached from an NPC's head so that they don't float around with animations. This is available in the options menu under User Interface -> Name and Chat Bubble -> Attach Conversation Bubble to NPC’s head.
- UI enthusiasts, you now have a few more chat window related options that can be defined in eq2.ini. The defaults are listed next to each item:
* chat_force_mouseover_opacity_min_secs 20.0
* chat_force_mouseover_opacity_per_char_secs 0.1
* chat_force_mouseover_opacity_max_secs 30.0
* chat_force_mouseover_opacity_secs_onscroll 10.0

Broker Window:
- You can now Buy Stacks or Buy Quantities of items on the Broker window.
- The Broker window will now show real-time item quantities. If you buy an item, everyone who has that item on the page they're viewing will see the quantity decreasing. To avoid potential purchasing mistakes that might arise if items you see in the window are bought by someone else, items will show zero quantity instead of disappearing entirely.
- Class information is now displayed for items in the Broker window tooltips.
- There is now an option to pop up a confirmation box when making expensive purchases from the Broker window. The default price is 10 gold, and the slider for the minimum price can be set from 1 gold to 5 plat. This is to prevent the accidental purchase of an expensive item. The option is available in Options -> User Interface -> Game Features -> Broker Window.
- Health, power, and resists have been added to the dropdown in the Broker search window.
- Searching for food and drink should now be a bit simpler. For example, if you search for level 40-49 foods, you will now only see food that is appropriate for that level range.
- The Broker window will now perform a search if the Enter key is pressed while the Item Name or Store Owner fields have focus.
- The broker window buy/stack quantity is now more like the merchant window for consistency.

Commands:
- ESC will cancel spell casts for new characters. Existing characters can map a key to the option in their Options (Controls -> Spell Keys -> Cancel Casting).
- The default key for opening the Recipe Book is now "N" rather than "B."
- "B" now defaults to opening all of your inventory bags.
- "Shift + B" is now the default to open all bags in your bank vault.
- You can now quickly change to a different character on your account by using the following command: /camp <character_name>
- The default use of the ESC key changed slightly:
* If you’re moving a house or world object, object movement is cancelled.
* If you’re casting a spell, that spell is cancelled.
* If you’re not casting a spell, your target is cleared.
* If you have no target, the top window is closed.
- Tab targeting will ignore harvest nodes while in combat. Harvest nodes can still be targeted manually while in combat.
- Shift click on an item icon will now put an item link in your main chat window.
- Changed the default behavior of Examines
* If you double click to examine an item, double clicking it again will cause the examine window to close.
* If you right-click examine an item, right-clicking again will show a [Close Examine] menu item which will close the examine window of that item.

Groups and Raids:
- Raid leaders who have set group loot options to leader-only will be able to distribute loot to any member of any group in the raid.
- Raid leaders can now move a raid member to an empty slot in another existing group by dragging the character name to the desired group.
- Raid leaders can now swap raid members between groups by dragging one member's name on top of the other raid member's name.
- Selecting a raid member multiple times will now toggle between the raid member and their pet if they have one.

Information:
- Poison tooltips will now display the remaining proc count of your poison.
- Haste, DPS, and run speed are now displayed in the Persona window.
- Crush, Pierce, and Slash mitigation values will now appear in the mitigation tooltip on the Persona window.
- Examining a melee weapon and viewing the weapon's tooltip will now display its damage type.
- You can now view the amount of status reduction you currently have from the Housing window.
- When examining an item, your character's class will be highlighted in green if the item is useable for your class.
- Pet names will now display the name of your pet with a purpose tag below (rather than all on one line).
- Durations in racial tradition descriptions will now be displayed in an easier-to-read format.
- The class display on item tooltips, examine windows, and broker tooltips has been condensed so it takes up less vertical space. The level indicator has also been separated out to its own line.
- Players will now receive item discovery notification even if they aren't guilded.
- Hunger and thirst messages will no longer repeat every time you zone or log in. They will only display once every 30 minutes.
- A message will now display during character creation letting you know if your name is currently invalid and why.
- The examine info for a spell will now say if the spell requires you to be sneaking.
- Examine descriptions for Character Traits and Racial Traditions will no longer include duration, casting time, recovery time, recast time, class, or weight.
- Tooltips and examine information on items have been rearranged to be more consistent. Among these changes:
* Weapon type and required skill now appear on the same line. Example: Dual Wield Piercing.
* Armor type and slot now appear on the same line. Example: Plate Armor (Shoulders).
* Shield Factor is now labeled "Protection."
* Classes that can use an item are now listed in alphabetically with commas separating them. If all Fighters can use it, it will say "All Fighters" rather than listing each one.
* If an item can be used by all classes, no class requirement is shown.
* If you can use an item at the time you examine it, the level number and class name will be green.
* If your class cannot use the item, all the class names are shown as red. Level will be white.
* If you aren't of high enough level to use the item, the level number will be red.
* If an item is Attuned, it will not also show No Trade.
* If an item is damaged, the condition number will be red. If the item is at 100% condition, the number will be white.
Mouse Behavior Modification (No mice were hurt during this process):
- The middle mouse button now defaults to auto-run.
- When mouse-click selection mode is set to "Single Click Except Attack", right-clicking a targetable object will target that object in addition to displaying its right-click menu.
- When mouse-click selection mode is set to "Single Click Except Attack", double-clicking on nothing now clears the target.
- In single-click-except-attack and single-click mouse mode, double-clicking something will no longer execute the default action twice.
- In single-click and single-click except attack mode, the "Too far away" message will not be displayed if the target is well out of range.

Quests:
- Quest con colors have been adjusted to mirror the NPC con system. Quest experience has not be affected.
- Coin rewards for quests will now be reported in chat.
- A quest's name and completion text will now display in its reward window.

Waypoint Wisps:
- Wisps will now update more frequently. They seemed to have a mind of their own and a desire to lead lost travelers astray.
- You do not have to get as far away from a waypoint wisp for it to re-path to your destination.
- In cases in which the wisp could not find its way to the destination and would go through walls or the ground, there is now chat text that provides a compass direction to navigate with.


<b>*** Desert of Flames ***</b>

- Tensions between the Ashen Order and the Ashen Disciples seem to be growing. The two orders have become more distinct in their appearance, philosophy, and combat techniques.
- The Djinn Master has mysteriously changed the way he works. He has grounded himself instead of insisting on hovering and the instruments within are now easier to play. Other changes to the way he must be fought are known only to the Djinn Master himself.

- Players that destroyed the Seeker's Notes before being offered the quest "I Seek Knowledge" can now return to Seeker Abdeef in Maj'Dul and ask him for a replacement note to begin the quest.
- You can now spawn the Ghost of Hadal on the final quest stage of "Secrets of a Used Skull."
- Page 15 of the exciting book "The Desert Beasts" can now be found in the Pillars of Flame.
- Players that completed "Wrapping It All Up" before completing "Delving Into Darkness" should now be able to speak to Seeker Abdeef and update the latter.
- The goblin documents will now highlight properly for those on the "Raid the Goblins!" quest.
- The Strength and Agility granted from the Dark Fury Sabre of Anuk has been modified.
- Shadowknights can now use the Wand of Second Life.
- The Staff and Wand of Second Life are usable now at level 57 to be consistent with the other quest rewards.


<b>*** Gameplay ***</b>

- You can now jump off a flying carpet or griffon at any point along your path by hitting your jump key. Beware, as you may take considerable falling damage.
- Small obstacles and minor changes in elevation should now be less likely to prevent attacks from landing on a target. As long as your character has line of sight to most of a target's body, attacks should be likely to hit it. Please note that having the camera in first-person mode provides the best way to judge whether your character has clear line-of-sight to a target.
- You should now be able to attack NPCs that are touching or partially inside a wall.
- By popular request from those unfortunate souls who are prone to meeting an untimely demise, potion, poison, and totem effects will now persist through death.
- When a character successfully uses Safe Fall, the falling sound and "ouch" animation will no longer play.
- Going more than 50 meters away from an encounter will cause the active Heroic Opportunity for that encounter to disappear for you, freeing you to perform other Heroic Opportunities on other encounters. Returning within range will cause the Heroic Opportunity to reappear as long as you aren't participating in any other Heroic Opportunities.
- You can now see how many personal status points you have in your Persona window and earn more of them while you are not in a guild.
- Frogloks have recovered their aqua vision.
- Erudites have recovered their aura sense.
- Jumping now cancels crouching and sitting.
- The range at which you can harvest an object has been slightly reduced.

<b>*** Items ***</b>

- Throwing weapons can now reside within any type of ammo pouch.
- Ammo bags in your base inventory will now accept ranged ammunition before other inventory bags.
- Item drop rates now obey the same rules as experience does when damage is contributed by people or creatures other than the group or person that engages an encounter. That is, you will be less likely to find treasure chests on creatures who players outside of your group help fight. The more damage they do, the less likely you will be to obtain the loot.
Imbued jewelry now applies its effects permanently while it is worn. Imbued effects from these items will stack. For example, wearing two rings with the same strength buff will apply two strength buffs.
- All creature Lore and Legend items now stack. These items are also no longer Lore.
- Language items are no longer Lore and No Value and can stack.
- Reading is fun! Share (most) of your book page finds with your friends, as they are no longer flagged as No Trade.
- Creature corpse loot items should no longer carry the Uncommon or Handcrafted titles.
- The items effects Flow of Fyr'un and Prismatic Glow no longer stack.


<b>*** Quests ***</b>

- You will now see how much status a Heritage quest will award both when accepting the quest as well as in your journal.


<b>*** Zones and Population ***</b>

- Some NPCs will now greet you when hailed if they have no VO associated with their dialog.
- Guard Waters was getting a bit chatty despite being dead off the coast of Antonica. He will no longer speak because, you know, he's dead.
- Shard recovery agents have all retired and have given up their short-lived potion business.
- The following changes were made to Darathar's island:
* Wandering orc scouts now see invis (they're scouts... they should be alert).
* The Rujarkian orcs have taken over in place of the old world's weak species.
* Rawg, Traitor of Zek and Er'aithe the Broodmother are now more challenging, drop appropriate treasures, and can see invis.
* Darathar has been practicing: He is now a little more challenging overall.
* Darathar is now aggressive toward any adventurers he sees.
* He will no longer break from an encounter to fly away.
* Be sure to pay heed to your Wands of Discordant Winds.
- By order of Queen Antonia Bayle, many non-essential residents have moved out of Qeynos Harbor. Unless they were involved with quests or provided valuable services to citizens, they were asked to leave. (Performance in this zone should increase for many players.)
Thyr giants can once again see invis when appropriate.

<b>*** Guilds ***</b>

- A message is now broadcast to the entire server when a guild reaches level 10, 20, 30, or 40.


<b>*** Housing ***</b>

- The Qeynos Exchange and Freeport Reserve have expanded their business and now allow those with more prestigious homes access to expanded vault facilities.
- You can now access your house vault from any house via a new right click menu option on the interior door and market board. Yes, this means you can open up your vault from a friend's house that you're allowed to sell from!


<b>*** Combat ***</b>

- If you cancel the effect of someone's group maintained spells for yourself, it will not reapply after zoning.
- The examine info for damage spells will now show the type of damage that they inflict.
- Invisibility should properly reapply to your pet after zoning or logging out.
- Spells that summon items will now report to the caster if the target could not accept the item.
- Dumbfire pets will now receive damage from AoEs that do not explicitly target them.
- You now receive bonus experience when you kill a single creature with no arrows displayed as well as any number of up arrows. As before, killing a multi-member encounter of any configuration should continue to reward bonus experience.
- Newly charmed pets should once again follow their master.
- Charmed pets should follow attack commands more reliably. Pesky critters.
- Spells, combat arts, and weapons should never inflict less than 1 point of damage unless they miss. Previously, if they inflicted less than 1 point of damage, it would automatically miss (only affects very low level characters).
- After creating a specific quality level of an item for the first time, the tooltips for completed product icons will update without requiring you to re-examine the recipe.
- Recipes for some subcomponents that were not marked as recipes are now found properly on the tradeskill prepare window.
- Any creature that would aggro a player when solo will aggro that player regardless of the level of group members. Creatures that would not aggro a player when solo will not aggro that player regardless of the level of group members.
- There is no longer a base NPC in-combat regen. This was causing issues a low levels yet was insignificant for low levels, so it was removed. Note that spell-based NPC regens will still function normally.
- Charm spells will no longer be broken if the caster loses a duel.
- Fury and Warden damage shields no longer display a spell animation when the attacker receives damage.

NPCs:
- Most creatures are no longer immune to certain damage types. Many will have retained high resistance to particular forms of damage but should no longer be completely immune.
- NPCs just got smarter. They will now use abilities only from their subclasses and have a larger selection of abilities and spells to choose from as they level.
- NPCs that are Rangers, Assassins, Brigands, or Swashbucklers will now use poisons when attacking.
Necromancer NPCs will now use Lich correctly.
NPCs are less likely to use control abilities on player characters.
The effects of NPC-cast knockbacks and stuns have been slightly reduced.
The pets of NPC Necromancers and Conjurors now have less health than a standard NPC of their level. This makes killing NPC pets in combat more of a viable tactic.

Cleric changes:
- Cleric Reactive Heals should trigger on the recipient, even if the Cleric is stunned or stifled.

Coercer changes:
Anguish now has a casting cost that matches other DoT spells granted at that level.

Defiler changes:
- Degeneration has a slightly reduced casting time.

Inquisitor changes:
- Condemn has a slightly reduced casting time and improved debuff amount.

Mystic changes:
- Keening Haze has a slightly reduced casting time.

Priest changes:
- Bodies will again lift off the ground to their feet when resurrected.

Templar changes:
- Disgrace has a slightly reduced casting time.

Berserker changes:
- Open Wounds will no longer fizzle.

Rogue changes:
- Snoop will now properly grant the ability to see stealth.


<b>*** Tradeskills ***</b>

- The tradeskill UI will now display the stack count in the component choice window.
- You can now search for a particular recipe by name from the recipe window.
- The crafter's name will now display on stackable items as long as every item in the stack was created by the same character.
- The maximum stack size of all tradeskill-used fuels is now 100 instead of 20.
- You can now view the components and subcomponents required to make a recipe.
- There are now recipes for all the new level 1-19 spells and combat arts. These new recipes require no subcombines, and instead have additional component requirements for the final recipe.
- Recipes will now default to the "N" key rather than "B."
- After creating a specific quality level of an item for the first time, the tooltips for completed product icons will update without requiring you to re-examine the recipe.
- Recipes for some subcomponents that were not marked as recipes are now found properly on the tradeskill prepare window


<b>*** Art ***</b>

- The first-person camera height for Erudites will now be at the eye level rather than their chest area.
- Halflings now appear slightly more youthful. Perhaps they obtained a certain unmentionable ring that preserves their youth...
- Particle effects will now appear on crocodiles.


<b>*** UI Files Updated ***</b>

eq2ui_gamedata.xml
eq2ui_inventory_market.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_map.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_persona.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_skills.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_tracking.xml
eq2ui_newcharscene.xml
eq2ui_playerhousing.xml
eq2ui_popup.xml
eq2ui_popup_language.xml

<i>The EverQuest II Team</i>