The Big Update pt. deux (on your local test server now)Follow

Here are Moorgard's posts. Have fun reading:

*** Headlines ***

- Heroic Opportunities have been revamped!
- Lots of new armor looks have been added!
- New adventure areas have been unearthed!
- First round of advanced solo encounters added for soloers and small groups!
- Get your first glimpse at Vitality!
- DoT spells are now much more stackable!
- Tabbed chat windows make their long-awaited debut!
- See what your target is attacking with the new Implied Target window!
- Bankers now make change!
- Even more tradeskill bug fixes and improvements!
- Check out the more precice, informative AC value!
- New heritage quests: Golden Efreeti Boots and the Crown of King Tranix!


*** Heroic Opportunities ***

- Using a spell or art other than one needed to advance a starter chain will no longer break it.
- Once a chain has begun, it can be purposefully broken by using one of the archetype abilities that initiates a chain (Lucky Break, Arcane Augur, Divine Providence, and Fighting Chance).
- You now have 10 seconds to complete the Heroic Opportunity wheel instead of 30 seconds.
- Starter chains now properly report who broke the chain. It had been reporting that the the last person to advance the chain was the one who broke it.
- Opportunity shift can be used up to five times to choose a different opportunity.
- Heroic Opportunities have been given enhanced visual and sound effects.
- Players will receive a visual cue when an opportunity has been successfully completed.
- The duration of buff effects has increased from 3 minutes to 6 minutes.
- Heroic Opportunity effects now stack with class spell effects.
- All Heroic Opportunities that hit more than one target now have an area of effect radius of 25 meters.
- Removed the display ranking from Heroic Opportunity starters (Lucky Break, Arcane Augur, and Fighting Chance) since you can't upgrade them.

- The following new Heroic Opportunities have been added:
Fighter, Scout, Mage, Priest: Tears of Luclin - Deals high damage to the target of the player that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
Priest, Mage, Scout: Luminary Fate - Grants power regeneration over time.
Scout, Fighter, Priest: Capricious Strike - Deals high damage to the target of the player that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
Scout, Fighter, Mage Grand Proclamation - Increases the maximum power pool of all party members within range.
Fighter, Mage, Priest: Arcane Salvation - Grants power to party members near the character that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
Scout, Priest: Fervent Quickening - Increases defense by 10 and periodically grants power to the player that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
Scout, Fighter: Ardent Challenge - Increases strength and agility by 10.
Scout, Mage: Resonating Cascade - Grants minor power regeneration to the one who completes the Heroic Opportunity.
Priest, Mage: Celestial Bloom - Grants additional instant healing on the target of the priest who completes the Heroic Opportunity.
Fighter, Priest: Divine Nobility - Grants health regeneration over time to target of the priest who completes the Heroic Opportunity.
Fighter, Mage: Arcane Aegis - Grants increased protection against crushing and magic attacks.

- The following Heroic Opportunities had their damage increased:
Mage: Arcane Fury
Mage: Arcane Storm
Priest: Divine Judgement.
Fighter, Mage: Storm of Ancients
Fighter, Mage: Scholar's Insight
Fighter, Priest: Divine Blade
Mage, Priest: Suffocating Wrath (stifle effect was removed)
Mage, Scout: Arcane Trickery
Scout, Fighter: Luck's Bite
Scout, Fighter: Raging Sword
Scout, Priest: Piercing Faith
Scout, Priest: Divine Trickery
Fighter, Priest, Mage: Archaic Ruin
Fighter, Priest, Mage: Thunder Slash
Scout, Fighter, Mage: Soldier's Gambit
Scout, Fighter, Mage: Trinity Divide
Scout, Priest, Mage: Breaking Faith
Scout, Priest, Mage: Archaic Shackles


*** New Adventures Unearthed ***

- Doorways have been discovered in dangerous locations. Brave adventurers must defeat the nefarious forces that guard these entrances, after which access can be gained to the perils and treasures within. Expeditions report that these doorways may only be unsealed at certain times, so keep a watchful eye when exploring these dark lands!

The Thundering Steppes
- "A Pirate's Hidden Stash" is intended for groups in their low 20s.
- "The Rumbler Caves" is intended for groups in their mid-20s.
- "An Open Grave" is intended for groups in their high 20s and low 30s.

Zek, the Orcish Wastes
- "Tallon Hording Halls" is intended for groups in their low 30s.
- "Sullon Mines" is intended for groups in their mid-30s.
- "The Dark Den" is intended for groups in their high 30s and low 40s.

The Enchanted Lands
- "The Cave of Wonder" is intended for groups in their mid-30s.
- "Cavern of Tangled Weeds" is intended for groups in their high 30s and low 40s.


*** Vitality ***

- Vitality is a feature which augments the amount of XP you receive as you adventure or craft items.
- All characters gain a chunk of Vitality every hour, on the hour, and keep accumulating it until the maximum amount is saved up. It takes a week of real time to go from being completely empty to completely full.
- Each time characters gain experience, they use up a portion of their Vitality and receive a bit more experience than usual. When the character runs out of Vitality, he or she no longer receives bonus experience.
- There are two separate Vitality pools: one for adventure XP and one for tradeskill XP. Your Persona window now features a gauge next to each experience bar that shows how much Vitality you have left.
- NOTE: The Vitality gauges going in with this update are using placeholder artwork. We will be improving the presentation before updating the live servers.

*** Gameplay ***

- Clearer descriptions have been given to Traits and Tradition choices to better explain what they do.
- Encounters made up of multiple NPCs should no longer despawn while in the midst of combat with them.
- Using the eat/drink when hungry/thirsty option will now properly consume sustenance after recovering from a death.
- Characters can no longer access their shared bank while doing the Betrayal quest and a portion of the Bone Bladed Claymore quest.
- Personal status points will now carry over when you leave one guild and join another. Please note that you will not be able to spend your status points until you have joined a new guild.
- If a player visits a broker and attempts to purchase an item flagged as lore which they already possess, the buyer will be informed that they can't purchase another.


*** Quests ***

- Some items required to complete heritage quests have been moved from chests to standard corpse loot, thus allowing players who overmatch the encounter to complete these quests.
- The Lightbringer Wisp should now be seen more frequently.
- Those who have already completed certain quests should no longer cause triggered encounters to spawn.
- The Kleron Osana solo quest should now progress properly.
- Boss mobs in the Flowing Black Silk Sash quest can now be hit by more commonly available weapons. They have also been made more challenging.
- The final mace in the Screaming Mace heritage quest should remain long enough to allow everyone in the party to interact with it.
- Players should now be able to receive quests that were previously not offered if the player did not accept the prelude quest or if they deleted the quest itself. These quests should now be offered: Scattered Notes, A Paradise Dream World, A Tour of the Feerrott, and The Lost Idols of Modinthule.
- Several changes have been made to Gawar's behavior. He should no longer attack players who have completed certain quest stages.
- Bootstrutter's Guide to the Commonlands and Bootstrutter's Guide to Antonica can now be traded.
- The door to the menagerie in the Tobrin's Mystical Eyepatch quest will now bring the entire group over if everyone is on the proper stage of the quest.
- Players should now have more time to speak to the rescued women in the quest for the Short Sword of the Ykesha.
- Boulden and Slaughtergrott will now grant players the Feerrott access quest at level 32.
- Several fixes were applied to the Whispers of Fortune quest.
- Players level 16 and above should now be able to complete the Welcome to Qeynos quest.
- The Famer's Ring quest can now be completed.
- The Ill-Fated Cleric's Journal can now be obtained from Agony every time.
- Noxhil V'sek in Nektulos Forest should now grant players the fourth quest in his series.
- Rewards have been added to the following quests:
Far Seas Requisition ENC0457
Far Seas Requisition ENC0679
Far Seas Requisition ENC0699
Far Seas Requisition ENC0745
Far Seas Requisition ENC0825
Hail to the Derris Heroes
Hail to the Sullon Heroes
Hail to the Tallon Heroes
Hail to the Vallon Heroes
Mettle Testing
Short Range Patrol
The Tallon Plunder Chests
Keys for Hammer
Disrupting the Mining Operation
Utilitarian Desires of the Protectors
Utilitarian Desires of the Toilers
Utilitarian Desires of the Miners
Drodo's Goodies
The Curse of the Bloody Shank
A Menace to Berrybrook
Give the Key to the Glademaster
Give the Key to Captain Vulis
Case of the Missing Person
Case of the Poisoned Wine
The Mysterious Dagger
The Curious Augur's Three Meanings of Life
The Wanderer's Three Meanings of Life
A Message for Kitty
Reliving the Past
Desperately Seeking Butterflies!
Desperately Seeking Moths!
Desperately Seeking Ants!
Granville Restaurant, Nektulos Forest
Granville Restaurant, Thundering Steppes


*** Zones and Population ***

- A more challenging type of encounter is now available for soloers and small groups. This advanced solo content can be found in the Thundering Steppes, Nektulos Forest, and the Enchanted Lands. These solo encounters have an up arrow next to their name.
- Additional encounters have been added to the Commonlands and Nektulos Forest to support solo quests added in a previous update.
- Some bosses in Stormhold, Tower of the Drafling, Commonlands, and Maiden's Gulch have become more formidable.
- The reuse time of Feerrott boat bell has been slightly increased.
- Boss encounters now have a much greater chance to drop artifact quality items, rare tradeskill components, and additional spell scrolls.
- House pets should now wander more freely in five-room homes in Freeport and Qeynos.
- The sliding door in the dojo at Elddar Grove is now less likely to get stuck.
- Lava creeps and searing lurkers will now remain invisible until engaged in combat.
- Vengeful souls are now normal halfling size and wear more appropriate uniforms.
- Val'marr should now be more easily found in the Commonlands.
- The respawn rate of the farmers in the Commonlands has been adjusted.
- A centaur near the destroyed wagons in the Thundering Steppes has increased in size. Some badgers and wolves in that region will also be slightly larger.
- Lions and wolves in the Thundering Steppes have become more defensive of their territory.
- Fixed a door that was not working in the Obelisk of Lost Souls
- Windstalker Rumbler is now more likely to be found.
- Venekor's breath now causes less damage, but will affect all adventurers in its range rather than a single group.
- The item needed to access the Vestibule in the Obelisk of Lost Souls can now be more readily obtained.


*** Items ***

- The appearances of many types of armor have been updated to provide greater visual distinction to players. For example, crafted items of a certain armor type and level range should have a different look from dropped armor of that same type and level range.
- Shroud of the Manastone now has 12 slots instead of 4, and provides 14% weight reduction. In addition, players can now destroy the item if they wish.
- A canvas rug is no longer flagged as a wall item.
- An alder bookcase now has its proper appearance.


*** Tradeskills ***

- Weaponsmiths and Armorers now both have the ability to refine metal bars. The recipe has been added to the appropriate Armorer book.
- The recipes for metal plates and metal rings had their skill requirements changed from weaponry to heavy armoring.
- The pristine versions of crafted cestii now note that they are leather. Icon discrepancies between the final product and the recipe icon have been corrected.
- Lavastorm Robusta Beans and Everfrost Ice Beans are now harvested from culinary sources, not foresting ones.
- Ginseng and Turnips can now be harvested.
- Corrected a typo in a Pristine Ruckas Portrait.
- The recipe for Generic Rough Linen Pattern now requires Stromeir Paper.
- The recipes for Fir Greatstaff and Briarwood Greatstaff now require Fir Stave and Briarwood Stave, respectively.
- The quality level of Boiled Straps will now be factored into recipes that use it as a primary component.
- Players now receive a congratulatory message and bonus tradeskill experience the first time they make a new type of pristine item.
- The following culinary recipes should be much easier to refine: white tea leaf, black tea leaf, oolong tea leaf, green tea leaf, pu-erh tea leaf, roasted carrot, roasted sweet onion, roasted cucumber, and roasted browncap mushroom.
- The recipes for Teak Short Bow and Cedar Short Bow now require Rough Linen Bowstring and Strengthened Cord.
- The recipe for Cedar Greatstaff now requires Rough Linen Fletching and Fulginate Shod.
- The recipes for Oak Greatstaff and Briarwood Greatstaff now require Broadcloth Fletching and Feyiron Shod.
- The recipes for Oak Short Bow and Briarwood Short Bow now require Broadcloth Bowstring and Etched Cord.
- The recipe for Fir Greatstaff now requires Canvas Fletching and Carbonite Shard.
- The recipes for Fir Short Bow and Ash Short bow now require Canvas Bowstring and Boiled Cord.
- Examination of pouches made by tradeskills will now indicate that these are used to hold shurikens.
- Fixed the naming of Murky Shining Elixir, Clouded Shining Elixir, Shining Elixir, and Translucent Shining Elixir. Also fixed the effect that the potion provides.
- Fixed the misspelling of "prsitine" in "pristine canvas rug," "pristine medium quaint maple table," and "pristine small ash dining table."
- The material type was missing from the names of a few furniture pieces, making it difficult to judge their rarity. Added fir to "pristine small double shelf," steel to "pristine sconce," and cedar to "pristine militia double shelf."
- Many morning star weapons that were displaying incorrectly now look like morning stars.
- Fixed the misspelling "curde" in "a crude ornate linen rug" and "a crude oval ash table."
- Changed the name of the recipe "ash oval table" to "oval ash table" to match the actual product being created.
– Adjusted all references to the item "cloth cloth" (currently "cloth thread") to "cloth swatch" to avoid a conflict with the existing item cloth thread. This includes the four quality levels of the item, and all the recipes that use it.
- Advanced Tailoring 41 had the following recipes added to it: Stretch of Augmented Leather, Linen Thread, Linen Cloth, Augmented Hide Plate, and Augmented Leather Strap.
– NPCs who assign tradeskill writs for the Ironforge Exchange and Coalition of Tradesfolke have relocated. Executor Adept Sal`ynelle and Merchant Elbow have moved from North Qeynos to to a cellar behind the Ironforge Estate. Commissioner Venilos and Merchant Juvena moved from being out in the open to a cellar behind the Coalition of Tradesfolke building in the West Freeport.


*** Spells ***

- Damage-over-time spells are now much more likely to stack with other DoT spells, unless using the same spell template.
- If two spells of the same type are applied to a target (i.e. stuns), the second spell will no longer drop when the first one does.
- Kraylith's Curse of the Toad will now change players into a less vocal toad.
- Kraylith's Minor Familiar now summons a less vocal toad.


*** Mechanics ***

- Huge differences (including buffs and debuffs) in stats such as Agility will no longer have as pronounced an effect in battle.
- The stat attributes of level 30 and higher NPCs have been increased.


*** Controls, Commands, and UI ***

- You can now combine multiple chat windows into a single window with subject tabs by dragging one window onto another. The window being added needs to be no larger than the parent window. To separate the combined windows, drag one of the tabs to an open section of the screen.
- The /clearchat command will clear the visible contents of the chat window. Your log file will be unaffected.
- The way we calculate the AC value on the Persona window has been changed. The new number better reflects the overall defensive capabilities of your character, including armor, skills, stats, buffs, Parry, and Deflection. The defensive capabilities themselves have not changed, only the value that is displayed. For futher details, please refer to this post on our official forums.
- You can now withdraw amounts of copper, silver, and gold that are larger than what you have in the bank as long as you don't exceed your total funds. For example, if you have 1 platinum, 0 gold, 10 silver, 20 copper in the bank, you can withdraw 90 silver. Afterward, you will have 0 platinum, 99 gold, 20 silver, 20 copper in the bank.
- You can now make notes next to the names on your Friends and Ignore lists.
- You can now add labels to your bags via the right click menu.
- Fixed a bug causing items with multiple buff stats from being occluded from searches by special type in the Broker/Market window.
- Dragging an equipped item onto an inventory bag should no longer bug the item.
- Fixed an issue caused by pasting in text with a partial link and receiving text with broken links.
- The examine window for recipe books now uses a single alphabetized column.
- Added a "Recipes" button to the tradeskill progess window.
- When completing a step of a quest, the Quest Journal text area should now expand to show what you've accomplished.
- The current and total status columns in the society UI have been combined into a single "Status"' column.
- Text entered following the /p command (for party) will be seen by your party members, just as with /g.
- The following characters can be used on the chat line in place of the corresponding slash command:
: = /emote
' = /say
! = /shout
@ = /guildsay
# = /raidsay
$ = /auction
% = /groupsay


*** Art ***

- Characters using the Gathering ability should no longer slide if they move before the animation is complete.
- Fixed the timing of the scimitar strike effect, as seen in Radiant Strike and other priest spells.
- Added result effects for Wrannstad's Flaming Wind, Sweltering Sands, Conflagration, and Jerzeel's Blazing Sky.
- Optimized sparkling swords in spells such as Bloom and Bloodlust.


*** Audio ***

- Footstep sounds made by someone wearing chain armor should no longer sound as if they are wearing plate.
- Creatures that would occasionally sound like human males should now sound like their own species.
- Qeynos tradeskill zones now have music in them.
- Distinct audio cues now play when characters on your friends list log in or out.

*** UI Files Updated ***

eq2ui_buttonstyles.xml
eq2ui_community.xml
eq2ui_examine.xml
eq2ui_gamedata.xml
eq2ui_mainhud.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_guild.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_impliedtarget.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_mainchat.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_society.xml
eq2ui_newcharscene.xml
eq2ui_popup_bugreport.xml
eq2ui_tradeskills.xml
eq2ui_gamedata.xml
eq2ui_progressbarStyles.xml
eq2ui_mainhud_persona.xml
images/VitVial_UI.tga

mmm nice.. I like the more stackable DoT's and the new solo encounters.

more armor is cool too. ^_^

I'm not completely convinced that being able to see vitality will be a good thing or not. In one respect, I will be able to take a look at my bar and say 'hmm I got a lot of vitality, and I need about 20% to ding, I think I can do this in about an hour max' then again it could be 'damn, I'm out of vitality, ***** playing for now'. I doubt it will be the latter, at least for me - but I can see someone dropping from a group because they aren't in 'optimal xp mode'. =\

Hmm, some really nice stuff coming out.
But, I can't wait untill they come back and nerf some of it. It just looks way to promising..

Very impressive.

Looks like a lot of fixes and new material.

HO wheel only lasting 10 secs is going to make flipping it a bit harder.

And I'm not sure the extension of buff effects from HO is terribly beneficial. As a ranger who gets Swindler's Luck 3 or 4 times a fight I'm quite happy when it fades as it actually doesn't feel like a wasted HO.

And no description of the "DoT spells are now much more stackable!". I wonder if this includes poisons?

I wonder how much will make it live in one piece

Don't like the sounds of this Vitality stuff, sounds like something that will just limit you from being able to level.

Also sounds like they beefed up mobs past lvl 30, wonder how this will play out for the soloers past lvl 30?

That is just semantics.

If at one time you can earn X amount of exp from an encounter and at other times you can earn X/2 (half X) then some people are going to want to refrain from exping when they have no vitality.

Look at it like this. If you are paid $20 an hour and the boss says "Work Saturdays and I'll pay you double until you've earned $400 extra" Are you going to be as keen on doing the overtime when you've passed the cutoff? Even though you're still getting 100% of your pay?

Personally it doesn't make a whole load of difference to me but I can see me waiting quest handins until it is restored. I'm not on a treadmill to level.

I wonder if there are some great SOE surprises in store like "Vitality lasts longer in full groups" or "Soloers lose vitality faster".

There is bound to be the "Why is mine less than his when we always play together"

Full Vitality is 100% additional exp.

Where did you read that? I just went through every Dev post made on the subject on Vitality and not once did they how much bonus was given. (Vitality is first mentioned on page 4 of the Dev Tracker by Moorgard.).

If you have any proof of this at all, then please post a link.

Also, you would end up losing XP by sitting around waiting for your Vitality to fill up. In the time that a person was not getting XP I could have far surpassed them in what their bonus will give them.

The only information regarding the amount of xp vitality grants would be the words "small increase". Other than that, it is anyone's guess as to the actual numbers. I've played both short bursts and long stints, and I have notice no MAJOR change in the amount of XP I gain.

In fact, just the other night, after the xp bonus patch, I played for several hours and because I was watching my XP and figuring out the increase, I found that in X number of kills I would ding. I was spot on. I needed 28 kills at 3 minutes a kill, with a few interuptions I figured an hour and a half of gaming.

{redirection, let's figure out the math of vitality}

They say it takes a week to fill it up from empty, and you get a bit back every hour. I would assume that the bit you get back every hour is a little less than someone grinding would be able to spend. So eventually you will run out.

Every hour you gain (7days x 24hours = 100(%) / 168units = .5952...) roughly every hour you regain a little over .5% of your Vitality, we'll say .6% rounding up.

* So we have 168 "units" in the 100% Vitality bar. Figure it above, as .6% every hour regen rate.

Now, this is math from my character, but I would say that I know the ins and outs of my character and can solo reds without much problem, 3 minutes including battle and downtime between mobs. Taking last level into consideration, every red I killed (after the patch) gave me .5% xp. I've done the math elsewhere, but for the sake of completeness please bare with me.

* .5% per kill x2 = 1%
* 3 minutes per kill x 2 = 6 minutes

* 1% every 6 minutes
* 600 minutes for 1 level (100%)
* 600/60 minutes = 10 hours for a level
* 10% xp per hour
(Yes, I did this the long way, just to show the complete break down)

1 hour of grinding to get 10% xp and you automatically get a chunk of .6% vitality back. Durring the time you are not grinding, you still gain the .6% vitality regen per hour. So giving 8 hours of sleep time, for instance, you would regen 4.4% vitality.

If it were a 1:1 rato of vitality to xp, you would burn through that 4.4% vitality in 44 minutes of grinding. This DOES make sense, but if that is the case, and I am out of vitality after 44 minutes, I did not see a halving of my XP gain.

I would be inclined to GUESS that the vitality, no matter what amount you have only gives you ~5% OVERALL increase in XP gain.

Meaning that, in 1 hour of gaming, instead of getting 10% xp without Vitality, I would get 10.5% xp.


-----------------


Ok, sorry for the rambling - maybe I just confused the situation for others. I just thought I would keep typing and share my train of thought on Vitality, and the way it may relate to XP.

I could be horribly wrong. =)

Edited, Fri Jan 28 14:16:49 2005 by gxm

Well it was in the thread that you yourself linked. In the opening statement Moorgard says:-



Now I (and most people in that thread) read "matching experience for what you earn" to mean that you get 1 bonus exp point for every 1 point of exp you earn.




This was discussed when WoW brought in the "rest" thing. In fact it means that a player who took this attitude could level two or more characters faster than you. Nobody would expect them to log out and twiddle their thumbs. Much more likely to switch betwen alts to always play characters with maxed vitality. It still means you will find people leaving groups because of it.

It still exists, it's called being in a rested state. It gives double experience while it lasts. If you log back in the next day it lasts for maybe 2 or 3 kills, if you wait a week it will last an hour or so of constant killing. I'm 99% sure it lasts for a set amount of experience, not time. Each character gets their own pool, so your main can build up bonus while you play an alt.

It gives the bonus only for MoB kills, not quest turn-ins. That makes sense to me because everyone would obviously exploit it by only doing turn ins when they're rested. If it doesn't work that way in EQ2 now, it probably will before long. Also, in WoW, if you're in a city or town, you're rested - a similar quest shouldn't give more experience because it ends in a city.

Edit: Oh yeah, FWIW, I've never seen anyone leave a group because their bonus ran out.

Edited, Fri Jan 28 16:33:09 2005 by Lydiaele

Edited, Fri Jan 28 17:17:44 2005 by Lydiaele

But he contradicts himself just prior to this statement as follows:



I for one don't consider an extra 100% xp at full vitality to be a bit more experience. In fact with the way he stated it, I don't really know how to interpret "matching experience for what you earn" with any certainty.