JANUARY 28, 2003

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The response to The Legacy of Ykesha(tm) extension has been overwhelming; we want to thank all of you who have pre-ordered.

In order to better serve ALL of our customers, including those who do not have a credit card, we've decided to make a relatively small number of The Legacy of Ykesha CD-ROMs available at retail as well. Please note, though, that The Legacy of Ykesha CD will likely not be available at retail in the US until as much as a week or more after the "live" date; the delay may be longer for our international customers.

If you have already pre-ordered from us, but you would prefer to wait for the retail CD, you can cancel your pre-order by following these instructions:

1. Go to the Station Store (https://store.station.sony.com/)
2. Go to Billing Info and sign in.
3. View Current pre-orders.
4. Click Cancel button; you will receive a cancellation email.

You may still pre-order the digital download version of The Legacy of Ykesha from the Station.com Store (the download version only - we will not be selling CDs through pre-order) for the special pre-order price of $17.99.

Gameplay and User Interface:

• Further optimizations to reduce bandwidth and 'lag'. It is difficult to describe the value of this change, but it should show a noticeable improvement for many. We've also resolved many of the hit point update and movement issues that occurred recently.
• Made an improvement to the animation code that may reduce the slight delays that can occur when a new player enters a zone.
• Spells on spell book pages 33 to 50 can now be deleted for those who were having troubles.
• Corrected a bug that could cause a crash if a character tried to purchase an item or close the merchant window just as he was leaving the trading range of that merchant.
• Players should no longer get out of range message when trying to target a player on a horse just because the horse has moved a little (but is still in range).
• Corrected an issue in Fungus Grove that was allowing some ranged attacks to land unnoticed by NPCs.

Spells:

• Lull, Soothe, Calm, Pacify, Harmony, Calm Animal, and Rest the Dead should no longer give the: "Your spell did not take hold," message.
• Bard Songs with a "Rune" component should be working properly.
• Sha's Advantage and Savagery are now available on vendors in the Plane of Knowledge.
• Illusion spells used with Luclin models should now show the appropriate hair.
• Infusion of spirit should no longer overwrite Speed of Vallon.
• Sense Summoned will now sense elementals of most types.
• Eye of Zomm and Stalking Probe cast from a horse will now be able to look up and down.
• Call of Rizlona now has casting text for the person that procs this spell.

Alternate Advancement:

• Monk discipline Resistance should increase resistances properly now.
• The Shaman AA ability Spirit Call should now finish casting if you regain concentration after interruption.
• Corrected a problem where right-clicking on an AA hotkey would highlight the wrong ability on the list in the window.
• There will now be a confirmation window available when spending AA points. There is a new selection in the Options menu called Fast AA Purchase for toggling this confirmation.

Items:

• Spirit of Snow and Spirit of Flame will be dropping more frequently now.
• Merchant's Crate of Supplies will now fit into containers that can hold giant-sized items.
• Removed Paladin and Ranger from the list of characters that could use the Hateful Balanced Zweihander. It is only usable by worshipers of Innoruuk, and was never meant to be used by these classes.
• The Resplendent War Maul now has a more appropriate inventory icon.
• Crypt Master's Conjuring Stone is now more valuable to NPC vendors, and they will not sell it as cheaply as they did in the past.

Quests:

• Killing Kazen Fecae is no longer a viable path to the completion of the Necromancer Epic quest.
• Tibrinn Ember now gives a faction modifier for the completion of his quest.
• Hanns Krieghor will no longer grant faction increases just by talking to him.
• There are now a few Iksar in the Plane of Knowledge that are interested in your Iksar racial armor.

Bazaar:

• Corrected a bug in the Bazaar that caused price changes made by traders to only affect one stack of the same item.
• Target Group Buff and the AA ability Mass Group Buff can no longer be used with levitate spells to push traders out of their stalls in the Bazaar.

NPCs:

• The specters and shades in Velketor should no longer be dropping cloth armor.
• Centi Dators should no longer spawn inside walls.
• Oozing Flesh in the Tower of Frozen Shadow should no longer drop Sabretooth hides. It was determined that these creatures are too slow to catch a Sabretooth, and that they do not have the ability to skin them nor the desire to wear (or eat) their hides.
• Elder Spiritualist Grawleh will now respond properly to hails.
• Fittorin Bladespur will now respond properly to hails.
• A Frost Giant Sentry will now respond properly to hails.
• Tanik Greskil will now respond properly to hails.
• Kozyn Gigglephizz will now respond properly to hails.
• Pit Guard Retaj will now respond properly to "What grunts?"
• Lendel Deeppockets now knows how to spell "rogue".
• Corrected text for Arinna Trueblade, she now tells you how to make armbands instead of helmets.
• Prime Patriarch Vuzx should be less likely to leave his usual spot.
• Gindlin Toxfodder should be less likely to be out of his usual spot.
• Deputies Budo and Drebo should no longer get stuck under the floorboards of their tower.
• The River Source in the Warrens can no longer be attacked.
• Moved Mignar Mi`Draskch a little bit so that newly created enchanters would not try to appear on top of him.
• Lorekeeper Zorik is now properly described as a female in text referring to her.
• Peras Glickon will now tell you that he sells food and drink (which he does) instead of spell components (which he does not).
• Fantoal Geabaran should now offer the inventory for sale that he claims to have.
• Old Gourdhead should no longer be disliked by the other natives of Misty Thicket (fixed a faction bug).
• The Muglwump will show up less frequently now.
• Dark Huntress in Mistmoore will now use the correct model and is on the correct faction.
• Corrected the models for elementals in the Plane of Earth.
• NPCs in the "pit" area of Plane of Tactics will now respawn properly.
• Removed Sarnak Slaves from Nurga, since they had no models there to use and looked like the base model human (Doug).

Character Appearance:

• The bald head can now be selected during character creation by clicking the left arrow button (was only available by clicking the right arrow).
• Beard color selection now works for dark elf male, high elf male, half elf male, and dwarf female during the creation of new characters. Note: Dwarf female only has one style of beard.
• The ability to pick a wode is now available at character creation for Barbarians.
• Choosing the "random" button at character creation will now randomly choose a face rather than always using the initial selection.
• Changing from a male to a female character or from a bald character (such as Iksar) to one that should have hair will no longer make the new character appear to be bald.

Miscellaneous:

• Intelligence and Wisdom should now update properly after character becomes drunk/consumes alcohol.
• Fixed a number of doors in Freeport that were opening incorrectly.