AUGUST 11, 2004

Headlines!

• New PvP System goes live *
• Raid Leaders can set up and change groups from the Raid Window *
• Special Skies are back!
• New Hot Zones.
• EQ will now be more friendly in Windowed mode.

All New PvP System for PvP Servers *:

The Watch List:

• Safe Zones: We are still looking into a better solution for the problem of safe zones. Expect some kind of change in the future.
• Point System: There are still concerns of potential exploits with the point system at this time. Therefore the selection of PvP items available on the merchants will be limited to consumable items for now. We will monitor the accumulation of points after this update. If all goes well, we will add a selection of equipment to the merchants in the near future.
• Sullon Tokens: As a secondary concern with the point system, we are delaying the addition of the turn-in quest for Sullon Zek tokens. If there is a potential problem with the point system that eventually requires us to make adjustments to the way points are awarded, we do not want players to end up with less than full credit for these tokens. Once the point system has had any potential issues ironed out we will add a quest to turn in your tokens for PvP points.

PvP Changes.

• Melee attacks have a 50% increased range. This does not affect thrown weapons or archery.
• All safe zones have been removed save Shadowrest and the Bazaar.
• The maximum damage any one spell can do is now capped at 40% of the target's total hit points, down from 75%.
• Archery damage has been increased to 80% of its base damage in PvP, up from 66%.
• Being stunned while on a horse will now cause the horse to disappear. This only applies to stuns caused by other players.
• Lowered player melee mitigation, effectively lowering Armor Class by 20%. This will increase the damage potential of melee weapons in PvP. Originally the targets full armor class was considered.
• Player spells now have a separate duration field for PvP. Individual spells will continue to be tuned during beta.
• Player spells now have a PvP specific resist mod. Spell lines with resist mods differing from their normal adjusts initially include:
• Movement Rate
• Root
• Enthrall
• Mana Drain
• Stuns
• Direct Damage
• Damage over Time
• Added higher level snare spells for rangers/druids with increased resists mods. This should allow them to land snare spells with similar frequency to other snare spells. These spells are available on the PvP merchants for 1 point each.
• Necro and Mage pets have had their PvP resists increased to closer match the existing Beastlord pet resists.
• Lowered the duration of most snare, Enthrall, and Root spells and abilities.
• Berserker snare is no longer unresistable.
• Added a set of pumice stones to the PvP merchants that will cast various forms of dispel magic with a 1.5 second cast, 12 second cast time.
• Arena deaths will now place you at your bind point, and not in shadowrest.
• PvP Resurrection effects now last 5 minutes + 1 minute/negative vitality point. The Max duration is now 15 minutes instead of 25.
• Made further changes to prevent hill ghosting. Please test this and give feedback.
• Ranged weapons are no longer restricted by the Z axis, allowing greater freedom of use on varied terrain.
• Snare will now properly slow mounts. The mount will still be faster then normal running while snared, but will considerably decrease their movement rate.
• Spells now have a minimum chance of landing of 5%, up from 2%.
• Water will no longer cause you to be immune to people outside of water and vice versa.
• Zoning with low health will no longer set your hit points equal to the amount of +HP gear you are wearing.
• Players killed in PvP combat will now spawn in Shadowrest with full equipment. A naked corpse will remain in the location they died for 3 hours. Note that this effectively removes item loot from Rallos Zek. With the addition of no drop augments it became rather trivial to effectively remove item loot from the server anyway, and we felt the benefits of the new death system outweigh the benefits of an item loot system.
• Players who are killed in PvP combat will respawn with special resurrection effects on them. The duration of these effects is variable dependent on how frequently they die.
• Summon Corpse Potions are now usable by any class/race.
• A system to score PvP kills has been implemented. For more information see below.

Scoring System.

The new scoring system will award points to any player who kills another player. If the player is grouped the points will be split between the players in the group. The points awarded will be based on three things:

1. Level of the killer.
2. Scoring Modifier.
• a. Level Difference.
• b. Infamy Difference.
• c. Vitality score.
3. Time since the victim was last killed by the same player.

1. Level of the killer.

Each kill has a base point cost determined by the level of the killer. All subsequent modifiers apply to this base number.

2. Scoring modifier.

The scoring modifier is based on three things. Each of these factors results in a score that is then applied in whole to the point value of the kill.

• a. Level Difference.

For each level the killer is above or below the victim, the scoring modifier increase by one point. If you kill some one who is higher level than you, you will gain more points then you will for a lower level character. You will also subtract points from your modifier for killing a player lower level than you.

Higher level characters are more powerful, and should be worth more points. A victim must be at least level 20 to awards points.

• b. Infamy Difference.

Each time you kill another player, points are added to your infamy pool. At certain thresholds a player will gain an infamy level. When a player is killed, the infamy levels are compared and the killer gains a scoring modifier point for each infamy level his victim is above him. He can also lose scoring modifier points for killing someone who is of lower infamy. Infamy will gradually deteriorate while the player is online.

Players who regularly PvP are generally of higher skill level then those that do not. This encourages players to kill other players who are of more equivalent skill.

• c. Vitality.

When a player is killed their vitality is set to $B!&(B0. For each 5 minutes they are alive, they will gain back two points of vitality. This vitality total is added directly to the scoring modifier.

A player who dies very frequently is worth less points then one who stays alive longer.

• d. Group bonus.

Groups of 4 or more will receive a bonus % of points for each kill. 4/10%, 5/15%, 6/20%.

Example:

Frizznik kills Rytan. Frizznik is level 60, while Rytan is level 62 for a level difference of 2. Frizznik has an infamy level of 5, while Rytan has an infamy level of 2, which results in infamy difference of -3. Rytan has not recently been killed, so his vitality is 0. Level Difference + Infamy Difference + Vitality = Scoring Point Modifier or 2 + (-3) + 0.

Each scoring modifier point adds or subtracts 5% to the base score. Normally Frizznik would gain 100 points for killing Rytan, but because of the scoring point modifier he will gain 95 points instead.

3. Time since the killer has killed the same victim.

Players that repeatedly kill the same player will see a steep decrease in the amount of points a player is worth. They will gain half the points for the kill they normally would for each time they kill that player in a 24 hour period. After the score has dropped below 1 point, they will begin to lose points for killing the same player.

Leader Board.

The leader board tracks the players with the most total PvP. A number of other useful statistics will be available in the leader board.

Point Rewards.

Players will be able to redeem their points for equipment via a Lost Dungeons of Norrath style adventure merchant interface. These rewards will span from level 20 on up to 65 and include some pieces that are of elemental quality and possibly beyond.

A player's point total is capped based on their level. They cannot gain more points once they hit that cap, although they can gain more infamy. There will be a number of consumable PvP items that will be focused on PvP combat, and will only function against other players.

Windowed Mode *:

The EverQuest process is now more friendly. Alt+tab'ing to other windows should be much more responsive.You can also choose to adjust your maximum Frames Per Second(FPS) in the Options Window under display settings. The valid range for the slider is 10 to 100. The default is 100 which means EverQuest will not throttle your FPS. Lowering your setting will cap your FPS at that value and free up the CPU for other tasks.

Raid Window Additions:

• The raid window contains a new row of buttons which the raid leader can use to organize the raid members into groups.
• Lock/Unlock: The raid must be locked before the raid leader may use any of the new buttons.
• RemLeader: Removes the 'Group Leader' flag from the selected player from the 'Players Not in a Group' list. (Only 12 players may be Group Leaders, so this may be necessary to allow creation of a new group with a new leader).
• NoGroup: Removes the selected player from their current group and put them into the 'Players Not in a Group' list.
• 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12: Moves the selected player into the numbered group.

Hot Zones have changed! *:

Hunt for greater XP rewards in the new Hot Spots. Make your way to the following zones.

• 60-65 Plane of Torment
• 55-60 Chardok
• 50-55 Grieg's End
• 45-50 Nurga
• 40-45 City of Mist
• 35-40 Kaesora
• 30-35 Dalnir
• 25-30 Hollowshade Moor
• 20-25 Runnyeye

Kill a few goblins for me. Oh, and that Grieg guy.

AA Changes:

• The cleric AA Touch of the Divine has had its healing power increased. The original ability has been refunded, so players who wish to retain the ability will need to purchase it again. The portion of the AA that will remove detrimental effects, when it goes off, will not be going in with this update.
• The necromancer AA Swarm of Decay has been refunded.
• The shaman AA Call of the Ancients has had its description changed to reflect the fact that the summoned ward casts healing spells, not endurance regen spells. The ability has been refunded because of this confusion.
• The rogue ability Seized Opportunity has had its chance to work significantly increased.
• The druid ability Viscid Roots was increasing the chance for roots to break, not decreasing it. This has been corrected.
• The paladin ability Hastened Piety now affects the reuse time for both Hand of Piety and its upgrade, Pious Supplication. Previously, it was not affecting Pious Supplication.
• When an AA is an upgrade of another AA and both are triggered abilities, players can make a hotkey and use either one, but will only get the upgraded effect if they use the hotkey for the upgraded ability.
• The Mass Group Buff AA will now reset if you duck to cancel the spell.
• The double attack AA now works with secondary hand attacks.

Consent Changes *:

There are some new consent commands available for groups and raids.

• /consent group -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged by all of your current group members.
• /consent raid -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged by anyone in your raid (including people who join the raid later)
• /consent guild -- flags your current corpses so they can be dragged by anyone in your guild.
• /deny group -- removes the flag.
• /deny raid -- removes the flag.
• /deny guild -- removes the flag.

Tacvi Changes:

• Tacvi will no longer give lockout timers. Instead, when you beat an encounter there, you will gain a timer for that specific event. Then, when you come back to the zone, if that timer has not expired yet that particular event won't be up, but other events in the zone will be if it has been long enough since the last time they were defeated.
• Loot in Tacvi has been given a thorough audit. Many changes were made including changes to the statistics of the items, changing item names, changing where the items drop, and over a dozen new items were added to the zone.
• The Tacvi zone timer was increased from 6 hours to 12 hours.

Misc.:

• Diamond Dust will now drop more frequently in permafrost and can now also be found in SolusekB *
• Names will now scale with character they are associated with. So a giant will have a much larger name than a Halfling will while retaining its much smaller brain.
• Names for larger characters will be visible from a greater distance than the names for smaller characters are. They will also scale up slightly as you increase your distance from a character, making them more readable from a greater distance.
• Tinting should now work properly again on Robes, let the Fluorescent Pink tinting begin!
• We have added Tooltips for your status bars.*
• We have made some changes to the fonts EQ uses so that they are more clear and visible.
• Pets will no longer attacks NPCs after their owner has COH'd.
• The Fiery Defenders particles should no longer blink.
• If your Minor Illusion fails, you will be able to use another illusion on yourself without zoning.
• Instant cast combat abilities can once again be used when you have a discipline up.
• Augments now fit into multiple slot types.
• Zoning pets will now save their taunt toggle settings.
• Spell damage done to yourself will no longer display to others.
• Pets will no longer poof when you are Call of Hero'd.
• Weapon Augments will now proc properly.