January 24, 2001
I am now working on individual pages for every equipment item. Each page will contain much more than what was just on the quick reference tables.
Equipment: Aqualung (Individual Page), Batfang Headband (Individual Page)
Here is what it said on today's patch:
*QA Openings*
Our Quality Assurance department is looking for some AVID EQ gamers to join us as testers at the San Diego branch. If you would like more information please visit www.verant.com or mail your resume to resume@station.sony.com with "QA Openings" as the Subject.
Applicants should include their time playing EverQuest, and their number of characters and their respective classes and levels as part of their resume.
*Small Patch*
The EverQuest Team is currently hard at work evaluating, planning, and documenting our project plans for the current year. As such, we did not plan game updates during this period, forecasted to last a few weeks.
However, given today's server maintenance being performed by our Operations Team, we were able to include a few small updates. These include some minor polishing on the Plane of Mischief, as well as the placement of the wizard's Velious teleport spells on merchants.
Very soon, we'll be back to our continual plans to enhance the game world. We'll be sure to let you know what we have planned as we can.
- The EverQuest Team
Plane of Mischief Entrance Discovered!:
It seems that Triton, a guild on my server, Povar, has discovered the entrance to the Plane of Mischief! They have posted some screenshots of the zone so take a loot!
January 23, 2001
There will be server maintenance on January 24. All EverQuest servers will be brought down for maintenance on Jan 24th at 3:00 AM PST (GMT-8). Expected downtime is 8 hours.
Today, on the EverQuest Discussion Boards, Alan confirmed that the Plane of Mischief is indeed open. Here is what he said:
I just wanted to clarify that. Despite all of the confusion about it on our end, this plane is open and available. I’m sorry about the conflicting tales you might have heard from our end.
Again, Mischief Plane is open. But, so far, nobody has been able to outsmart the master of trickery to find the way in.
Alan
The Baltimore Fan Faire is sold out! If your name is not on the attendees page of the Fan Faire site, you are not registered! There will be no walk in registrations at this event so you must be successfully registered to attend!
We are planning future events, so if you missed your chance this time, watch for announcements of the next EverQuest Fan Faire!
Cindy Archuleta
Community Relations Manager
Sony Online Entertainment
Erika Check, a reported for MSNBC, talks about Roleplaying games in her article, Farewell, Hack-and-Slash? Check out the article!
Alan Posts on the Official EverQuest Boards:
For at least a few weeks we will be doing some internal work that will prevent us from making any updates to the game unless they are critical (and there are no such things that we know of at this time).
We will still be taking in reports about bugs and other suggestions for change (such as the Class Talk stuff), but we won't be making any changes to the game. And the two-week timeframe is only a guess at the moment, it could go longer.
While this means there will be no changes to the game during this time, we will still be maintaining the servers, the physical hardware, and all other aspects of the game. We are just not changing any aspects of the game software itself.
Alan
January 18, 2001
Someone sent in information that the Velious Druid Portals are being sold at vendors. So, while I was playing in Vel, I checked it out and sure enough, the vendor Phillip Aghllsews (500, -1000) inside a tower in Wakening Lands. The following Druid Circles can now be bought from him: Circle of Cobalt Scar
Circle of Great Divide
Circle of Wakening Lands
Alan responded to the Druid Thread today listing the possible changes/updates that may be made. (Read below for Part 1)
"First I want to ask you all to keep within the generally existing mechanics. We’re looking for balance, but I’m not going to bring a dozen new spell ideas to the team as a balance tool… And, realistically, we have to keep the ideas to things that won’t require a team of artists and programmers to create.
Here’s what I’ve gleaned so far, filtered through my own ideas.
Healing:
Druids (and Shaman) want to be better at healing. Not only would this give them a more active roll at the end of the big raids, while at the same time reducing perceived ‘need’ for clerics at such times. But we also have to keep in mind that healing is the clerics role, and we do not want to infringe on that role.
So the proposal is this:
Move Superior Healing to 49th level.
Add a new healing spell at 55th level. My suggestion so far is Remedy – a fast casting, low healing spell, and a solid upgrade from Superior Healing that won’t really infringe on the clerics power, which lies in big healing spells.
Maybe add another healing spell at 60th level – perhaps Divine Light (though I’d rename it…)
Reduce the fizzle rate on druid healing spells at the 50+ level.
More Quests: There have been repeated requests for more mid-level quests for druids. Though this isn’t really a class balance thing, I’ll keep it on this list.
Charm Animals: For a long time I’ve liked the idea of a druid being able to charm pets without making them angry. But this also has a ton of gameplay issues attached to it. Keep in mind that the main drawback to charm is that aggro factor. Taking it out would require some other serious drawbacks… But I’ve also got that on my list. It should make for some interesting discussions.
The idea of making them act like enchanter pets would certainly help. >” How about a High level charm animal spell that only works on animals that con kindly or amiable. If the spell works, it says "The wooly mammoth decides to join you", if it fails it says "The wooly mammoth declines your offer".”< Right, something like that…
New Druid Rings: I’m not likely to advocate placing new rings, those require redoing whole zones to get graphics in for them. But some of these ideas might be feasible (I’m not saying that they are good ideas, just feasible…):
If we assume that trees themselves can work as foci for druid travel magics:
Surefall Glade
Warslik Woods
Greater Fay OR Lesser FayForm of the mouse! (I’m only slightly kidding, I like the idea).
>”Simple: Damage shield damage gets credited to the caster if more than 8 levels above the one being casted upon- same with mages.”<
Actually, I’ve always wondered why this damage wasn’t always credited to the caster… I’ll ask.
>”Any chance of treant form?”<
Hmmm… just a higher level version of tree form, that would come after wolf form, that is mobile… Interesting.
Other new forms aren’t gonna fly (heh, good pun). As I’ve said before, I’d much rather advocate the use of any free space for giving enchanters more forms.
As for Spirit of Wolf - part II the revenge of the doggie: I’ll suggest it, but I don’t anticipate it happening, and I’m not one that would vote for it.
Soloing: And, as a note, I’m not inclined to suggest improvements to the druids ability to solo. Keep in mind that we are encouraging grouping…
New looks: this isn’t a balance issue. But I’ll bring it up. I wouldn’t expect any new armor looks to come out as a result. Those kinds of things take a lot of resources to make.
Class specific armor is too heavy (Vermiculated): This is also something I can ask about. Heavier than warrior armor?
Elder Spiritist Boots: no component should be needed.
Faydedar: I’m pretty sure someone is looking into this beasty and his lifestyle. I’ll follow up on it.
Quad Kiting: My personal opinion is that the ability to do this should probably be reduced. I will probably suggest changes that have that effect. Though the only one I’ve seen (that wouldn’t also affect the rest of the gameplay for the class) that might work is to reduce the range on AoE spells…
NO LURES! Not gonna happen, I tells ya.
No resurrections either. I don’t see a need for it at all.
I admit that after about seven pages I started scanning instead of reading. But most of what I was seeing were repeats of the same requests. I consider that a good sign, really. But if I missed something that you don’t see above, let me know.
Alan"
Alan
Posts about Druid Balance Part 1:
Alan made a post about the Druid
Balance on the EverQuest
Boards
"Eventually I’d like to do one of these for every class. I know,
your first question is going to be, how did I decide to pick druids to be next?
Well, honestly, it just came up in conversation today with a co-worker.
There’s no trick to it. I would certainly address the ones most in need first,
but until I’ve actually done all these posts, I won’t know which is most in
need… (let’s not make that the topic of this post, please)
So the question is, what is it that the druid community thinks they need to
become a ‘balanced’ class? What is lacking? What is over-powered? - yes,
that’s a valid question for any class –
This time I’m starting this post with very little information to lead with, so
I feel like I’m at a bit of a disadvantage. I do know that, like many other
classes, some druids feel that they don’t have enough to do while at the final
encounter of the big raid. One of the suggestions to change that falls along the
same lines as one proposed by the shaman community, changing/improving their
healing abilities post 50.
I want you to understand that I think druids are pretty well balanced all
around, and I really see little that needs to be changed (and that’s partially
why I picked them to be the topic today…). So you’ll have to be convincing,
logical and articulate to convince me.
Alan"