Test Patch Notes 02/25/05

[Paton]

Test Patch Notes 02/25/05 (http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tup&message.id=23)


*** Headlines ***

- Act as a mentor for your lower-level friends with the new Mentoring system!
- New treasure is available for solo players and small groups.
- Grouping made even better with reduced shared debt.
- Solo and small group XP increased even more, especially for players over level 30.
- Artisans can let buyers know they're available with the new /LFW (looking for work) tag.
- Quest coin and experience rewards have been increased.
- Friends and guilds can now share housing more effectively.
- Experience a new level 50 raid battle in The Deserted Mine.
- Enjoy a new solo instance in the Commonlands: Valley of the Rogue Magi.


*** Mentoring ***

- Act as a Mentor for your lower level friends with the new Mentoring system!
- When you right click a lower level group member, you will see an option to Mentor them.
- Selecting "Mentor" will set your level to that of your lower level friend, and you will operate at the same effective level as your groupmate.
- The Mentor and Apprentice will receive experience, loot, and quest credit as if the Mentor were the same level as the Apprentice. Mentors, be sure to revisit any of those quests or locations that you may have missed along the way!
- The Apprentice will receive an experience bonus while under the guidance of a Mentor. Up to 5 other players can act as a Mentor for a single player at the same time (each increasing the experience bonus).
- Mentors receive viable amounts of experience and advance toward their actual level while mentoring, though at a slightly reduced xp rate.
- All of your gear will scale with you. You don't have to go out and get different gear to mentor friends of different levels.
- While you are mentoring, you can use any of your abilities that you would normally have at that level.
- You can select "Stop Mentoring" if you wish to stop acting as a Mentor to your ally. If the Mentor or Apprentice leaves the group, the Mentor will go back to their original level.


*** Solo and Small Group Loot Improvements ***

- All solo and small group encounters in the following zones have the chance to drop improved treasure: Antonica, Commonlands, Nektulos Forest, Thundering Steppes, Orcish Wastes, Enchanted Lands, Rivervale, Feerrott, Everfrost, and Lavastorm.
- It will be easier to collect sets of armor and accessories from certain types of creatures. A solo creature that drops one armor type is likely to drop armor pieces of the same type. A creature that drops accessories is likely to drop more accessories.
- More loot! You will now see more items of various levels drop in the world than before.
- There is now greater variance in the loot type and volume that normal solo creatures will drop and the loot that advanced solo creatures will drop.
- Encounter drops are now separated by the high and low levels for each zone. For example, level 12 solo encounters in Antonica will drop level 10-14 appropriate gear, spells, and recipes. A level 16 solo encounter in Antonica will drop level 15-19 items.
- Progressive solo population has been added to Enchanted Lands, Orcish Wastes, and Thundering Steppes.


*** Increased Solo and Small Group XP ***

- Solo and small group experience has been increased again to further enhance the solo/small group game. Players over level 30 will especially notice an increase in solo and small group experience gain.


*** New Zones ***

- New Level 50 Raid Zone: The Deserted Mine can be entered from the Orcish Wastes. Protect the Coercer you find within, or who knows what might happen.
- New Solo Instance: Valley of the Rogue Magi can be found in the Commonlands. Encounter elementals, gargoyles, skeletons, zombies and more within.


*** Looking for Work (/lfw) ***

- Artisans can now let other players know they are willing to take crafting requests with the /lfw command.
- Using /lfw works much like the /lfg (looking for group) tag. Players can perform a "/who lfw" command and find artisans willing to take crafting requests.
- Players can also search for a specific profession, such as "/who carpenter" for a list of Carpenters who are online or "/who lfw alchemist" to get a listing of Alchemists currently flagged as looking for work.


*** Gameplay ***

- We have reduced the percentage of debt shared by group members.
- Gaining Swimming skill now increases your swim speed.
- Encounter behavior has been changed such that if an encounter breaks and would have reset (and respawned the same encounter), it will now check if it was overpowered or overmatched and, if not, it will instead unbreak and become a viable target for a short period of time. If the encounter is killed successfully during that period of time, players will receive all of the original encounter bonus and some portion of the loot.
- The time required to camp out has been reduced from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
- If a player was kicked from a guild while offline, their spendable guild status points would be lost once they rejoined a new guild. This should no longer occur.
- Encounters should no longer break if your pet lands the final blow on a wild dog in The Sprawl.
- All group members in the same zone when a guild is created should automatically receive an invitation to join it.
- A pop-up message will now let players know that they must use their boat tickets before camping or leaving the zone.
- Flying mounts should no longer have a random orientation when they first start flying.
- Fixed an issue that was sometimes preventing an encounter from ever resetting after being broken.


*** Housing ***

- Players can now share housing more effectively.
- Items marked NO TRADE can be placed in a house by Trustees or the Owner.
- All NO-TRADE items placed in a house remember who placed them and can only be picked up by that player.
- The house Owner and any Trustees can move any NO-TRADE items placed in the house.
- The house Owner can destroy NO-TRADE items not owned by them.
- NO-TRADE items already placed in houses before the update are treated as follows:
- If items with identical names are found in the house, the first 4 items of the same type are set to NO OWNER.
- NO OWNER house items cannot be picked up until they are claimed. The "pickup" menu item is replaced with a "claim ownership" menu item for these items.
- After the first 4 identical items are set to NO OWNER, all subsequent items of the same type are automatically owned by the house Owner.
- If the Owner of the house wishes to claim all NO OWNER items, that character can use the command /house_own_all to do so.
- If the Owner of the house uses the "Collect Contents" button, they will NOT pick up NO OWNER items, they must explicitly claim those items using the right click menu or /house_own_all.
- Example: A house contains 3 "Know your Gnolls" books and 12 Simple Forges. All 3 "Know your Gnolls" books become NO OWNER and can be claimed by any Trustee or the house Owner. 4 of the Simple Forges become NO OWNER and can be claimed by any Trustee or the house Owner. 8 of the Simple Forges are automatically owned by the house Owner and can only be picked up by that character.


*** Zones and Population ***

- The number of fishing spots in many outdoor zones has been reduced, making way for other harvestable resources.
- The success and failure boat timers for the following zones have been set to 25 minutes: Orcish Wastes, Enchanted Lands, Everfrost, The Fanged Sea, and Lavastorm.
- The Windstalker Rumbler should no longer break the encounter when attacked.
- The restrictions placed on zoning into Blood Skull Valley have been lessened: Players can now enter with 1-24 people instead of 12.
- Modifications have been made to The Malevolent Knight in the Freeport Graveyard.
- Some modifications have been made to the Drayek event in Icebound.
- More elder hawks have been spotted near their nesting grounds in Thundering Steppes.
- Lower level deer should no longer roam in the higher level areas of Thundering Steppes.
- All solo encounters within A Pirate's Hidden Stash, The Rumbler Caves, and An Open Grave should now be of the correct difficulty.
- Rognon the Angler should no longer spawn twice in the same instance.
- Zoning out of the Crypt of Vox will now allow you to arrive in a safer location.
- Evacuating the dungeon instances in the Thundering Steppes and the Enchanted Lands should now take you to the dock area of those zones.
- Wildlife in front of the gnoll towers in the Thundering Steppes will no longer break the encounter when attacked.
- Advanced solo creatures in the Thundering Steppes will now be aggressive toward travelers.
- Gurk Strongarm will be found within the mill in Orcish Wastes more often.
- A typo in the name of some lizardman encounters in the Feerrott has been fixed.


*** Quests ***

- Quest coin and experience rewards have been increased from this day onward. The experience increase will be especially noticeable in non-repeatable quests that are of a lower level than your character. You'll want to complete any quests that you may have missed during your journeys in Norrath.
- Books providing details on the Norrathian calendar can now be found in each city's library.
- All items that initiate a quest have been changed to NO-TRADE.
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes prevent players from starting the Feerrott access quest.
- Logan Belchbottom's "Lost Friend in Fallen Gate" can now be completed by those who outleveled the quest after receiving it.
- An item used in "Far Seas Supplier - Elven Attack" can now be obtained in order to complete the quest.
- The "Nektulos Creature Cataloging" quest will now require players to seek out "a dusk dart" instead of "a voracious bleeder".
- The quest "A Foul Wind" can now be found under the "Access" category.
- The quest "The Idol of Fear" can now be found under the "Access" category.
- "The Treaty For Treasure" quest can now be found under the "Access" category.
- Players should now be able to complete "Fresh Samples", even if they've already outleveled the quest.
- Tome quests in Obelisk of Lost Souls and Serpent's Sewer should now have a quest category added to them.
- A new version of "Children's Rhymes" has been added. Please note, the original version in a player's quest journal will remain unaltered.
- Permafrost tome quests will now be listed in the appropriate section of the quest journal.
- Taskmaster Deldrin's dialogue has been clarified.
- The "Karnath the Forgotten" quest in Thundering Steppes should now be easier to complete.
- Added the correct quest category to item and tome quests in Serpent's Sewer if they previously lacked them.
- Added the correct quest category to item and tome quests in Obelisk of Lost Souls.
- The target for the "Wanted Gnoll Bandit!" quest has been changed to a darkpaw raider.


*** City Sabotage ***

- Some Sabotage quest objects in South Qeynos, West Freeport, South Freeport, North Freeport, East Freeport have been relocated.
- An inaccurate quest detail with "Towers of Stone" has been corrected.
- "a wandering cow" has been renamed to "an infected cow".


*** Items ***

- Prismatic weapons now have improved damage/delay and more effective procs.
- Merchants no longer sell items related to Erollisi Day.
- Heritage items are now NO-TRADE and NPC merchants desire to get their hands on these rare items.
- The Inscribed Wooden Staff no longer has a typo in its name.

[Paton]

*** Spells and Combat Arts ***

- Assassin changes:
- Slip Away should now function correctly and its description has been clarified.
- Assassin's Mark should now function correctly.
- Torment is now called Assassin: Torment to prevent confusion with the Inquisitor and Coercer versions of this art.
- Bard changes:
- Denon's Deafening Strike will now share a reuse timer with Quick Strike.
- Berserker changes:
- Press will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Rupture will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Tides of War will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Bloodlust is now called Berserker: Bloodlust to prevent confusion with the Fury version of the art.
- Brigand changes:
- Lurk and Craven Walk will now place a reactive feign death effect on the Brigand. The reactive effect will take place the next time the Brigand is damaged.
- Maddening Shot will now reduce the target's power.
- Low Blow and Dirty Blow have had their growth levels adjusted.
- Plead for Mercy now has an Apprentice IV quality spell effect.
- Waylay should now have an appropriate description reflecting that it has a chance to stun the enemy.
- Cuss Apprentice IV should now have the appropriate spell effect.
- Bum Rush now has the chance to interrupt your opponent.
- Bruiser changes:
- Roughhouse Apprentice IV will now decrease deflection appropriately.
- Cleric changes:
- Redoubt should now display a grammatically correct message when cast.
- Coercer changes:
- Demoralizing Gaze should now function correctly.
- Bewilder's prose text should no longer have any grammar errors.
- Torment is now called Coercer: Torment to prevent confusion with the Inquisitor and Assassin versions of this spell.
- Mind's Eye, Dreadful Thoughts, and Consuming Thoughts have had their power reduction reduced to be more in line with that of Illusionists.
- Conjurer changes:
- Vexation can now be upgraded.
- Flameshield will now do Heat damage instead of Divine damage.
- Geotic Brand's buff effects will no longer fluctuate after zoning.
- Provocation and Vexation now tick at the proper interval.
- Fiery Doom will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Flaming Agony will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Spiked Rain will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Aqueous Hunters now has a more water-based visual effect.
- Aery Stalker now has a more air-based visual effect.
- Rockslide's examine information no longer redundantly indicates that it "Casts Rockslide."
- Defiler changes:
- Degeneration, Atrophy, Contamination, Suppuration, Loathsome Seal, Tierbold's Pestilent Miasma, and Mizzmog's Sallow Degradation now correctly debuff stamina.
- Baleful Countenance's description has been changed to reflect that it has a fear proc.
- Dirge changes:
- Wail of Woe now deals mental damage.
- Druid changes:
- Elemental Amending should now give the appropriate resistances.
- Vigor now displays the appropriate text message when cast.
- Fury changes:
- Call of the Hunt now provides an out-of-combat run speed increase.
- Feral Pulse will now transform the target into a ghost lion instead of a wolf. It should also correctly affect all nearby members of your group.
- Toxic Quills should now function as intended.
- Feral Tenacity now has an appropriate visual effect.
- Seizing Brambles should now function correctly.
- Bloodlust is now called Fury: Bloodlust to prevent confusion with the Berserker version of this spell.
- Dooming Swarm will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Deadly Swarm will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Guardian changes:
- Ruin and Ferocious Charge will now do slashing damage over time appropriately.
- Anchor Apprentice IV now has an attack speed decrease.
- Illusionist changes:
- Construct of Order, Construct of Light, and Basten's Construct of Light will no longer remove maintained effects.
- Dismay will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Speechless will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Unsar's Endearing Splendor's prose has been modified to reflect its intended functionality.
- Devitalizing Stare has had its power regeneration reduced slightly.
- Inquisitor changes:
- Scolding Alleviation will now affect the entire group.
- Dogmatic Healing will now provide a minor attack speed increase.
- Oppression and Torment now correctly debuff stamina.
- Oppression now appears in the maintained spells window.
- Fanatical Reverence's description now indicates that it increases damage per second rather than attack speed.
- Reproach is now called Inquisitor: Reproach to prevent confusion with the Swashbuckler and Templar versions of this spell.
- Torment is now called Inquisitor: Torment to prevent confusion with the Assassin and Coercer versions of this spell.
- Monk changes:
- Everburning Flame had its duration increased to 15 minutes.
- Mystic changes:
- Fallacy had a spelling error in its prose that has been corrected.
- Delusion, Fallacy, Chimerik, Cry of the Ancients, Howl of the Ancients, and Kelian's Curse of Spirits now correctly debuff stamina.
- Necromancer changes:
- Revivication can now be used to resurrect your allies.
- Zarvonn's Vitae Gorge was changed so it deals damage over time and heals over time as well. The spell should also show up in the maintained spells window.
- Terror no longer stuns the caster while the fear spell is in effect. This should remove the "Interrupted!" message that was being displayed.
- Pestilential Blast and Skinrot will now debuff your opponent correctly.
- Boon of the Lifeless and Words of the Wicked now tick at the proper interval.
- Grisly Mark, Horrific Mark, and Nevagon's Pestilential Mark now correctly debuff stamina.
- Accursed Cloud will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Breath of the Unearthed will now appear in the maintained spells window.
- Opal's Aggravating Seal now shares a reuse timer with Agitation.
- Predator changes:
- Hann's Quick Stab will now share a reuse timer with Quick Strike.
- Elaa's Relentless Ambush will now share a reuse timer with Ambush.
- Priest changes:
- Courage had its prose file updated to reflect the chance to proc Blessed Weapon.
- Ranger changes:
- Steady Aim had its duration increased to 15 minutes.
- Natural Selection will now deal AoE damage.
- Longshank will now stealth the Ranger on a successful hit.
- Huntsman's Trap should now snare an attacker if it successfully damages the Ranger.
- Survival of the Fittest now correctly debuffs stamina.
- Miracle Shot and Miracle Arrow will now grow to the appropriate levels.
- Rogue changes:
- Hager's Befuddling Strike will now share a reuse timer with Quick Strike.
- Snoop will now display flavor text within the chat window.
- Smuggler's Talent will now display flavor text within the chat window.
- Scout changes:
- Escape no longer displays its rank, as it is not upgradeable.
- Quick Strike will now share a reuse timer with Hann's Quick Stab, Denon's Deafening Strike, and Hager's Befuddling Strike.
- Ambush will now share a reuse timer with Elaa's Relentless Ambush.
- Shadowknight changes:
- Tainted Caress and Cursed Caress should again allow for the creation of Tainted Essences.
- Grim Harbinger should now function correctly and will provide a message in the chat window.
- Infernal Pact should now proc correctly.
- Tainted Sacrament no longer overwrites maintained spells.
- Grim Harbinger should now function correctly and will provide a message in the chat window.
- Shaman changes:
- Eliania's Salve of the Spiritist had a text error in its chat message. This has been fixed.
- Sorel's Withering Limbs now correctly debuffs stamina.
- Summoner changes:
- Agitation now ticks at the proper interval.
- Buffs applied to a pet will no longer remain after the pet owner leaves the group.
- Essence Shift and Bloody Ritual will no longer cause your pet to run toward you.
- Swashbuckler changes:
- Disheartening Guile should now work correctly. It now has a 6 second duration and decreases your opponent's crush, slash, and pierce mitigation.
- Cat's Paw now has a 20 second duration and should work as described.
- Flash of Steel now interrupts and reduces the agility of your target at a reduced hate level.
- Brazen Thrust should now work correctly. The knockback effect has also been changed to an interrupt.
- Dexterous Slashing's description has been modified to reflect the functionality of this combat art.
- Swarthy Distraction's reactive hate proc will no longer cost power when it triggers.
- Ambuscade's knockback effect has been changed to an interrupt.
- Razor Edge now has a stun effect.
- Frigid Blast now drains your opponent's power. Its description also indicates that the ability requires a bow rather than any ranged weapon.
- Bootleg's description has been changed to reflect that it gives an enhanced movement speed. Its duration has also been changed to 15 minutes.
- Dazzling Shroud should now work correctly.
- Feigned Bravado's description has been clarified and its duration has been increased to 15 minutes.
- Bladeweaver will now correctly lower hate production. Its description now indicates that the art gives Stamina rather than Strength.
- Bladeweaver and Dexterous Slashing agility buffs now stack with each other.
- Lie in Wait should now function correctly. When stealth is broken, the Swashbuckler's strength should increase and the attacker should be mesmerized.
- Reproach is now called Swashbuckler: Reproach to prevent confusion with the Inquisitor and Templar versions of this art
- Watery Shot's description now indicates that the ability requires a bow rather than any ranged weapon.
- Hamstring's description now indicates that you must be behind or flanking the target to perform this ability.
- Templar changes:
- Reproach is now called Templar: Reproach to prevent confusion with the Swashbuckler and Inquisitor versions of this spell.
- Troubador changes:
- Lore's Magniloquent Roust now works as described.
- Exquisite Shrill now correctly debuffs stamina.
- Warden changes:
- Sylvan Embrace will now affect all group members within 10 meters of the caster.
- Benison of the Wild is now an upgrade to Blessing of the Wild as intended.
- Warlock changes:
- Bellengere's Sapping Salvo has received the same upgrades as Dark Distortion.
- Heneva's Viral Blast now has the same icon as Noxious Bolt.
- Devastation had its reuse timer adjusted to 45 seconds.
- Wizard changes:
- El'Arad's Custodial Warding can now be canceled via the spell window.
- Concurrence can now be canceled via the spell window.
- Fiery Pulse has a new description and icon to reflect that it is a heat-based spell.


*** Traits, Traditions, Tactics, and Training ***

- Erudite: Summon Wisp will now be on its own reuse timer and will not prevent you from summoning a normal pet.
- Barbarian: Cold Retribution now appears in the maintained and spell effects windows.
- Half Elf: Tend Wound had a minor grammar error that was fixed.


*** Heroic Opportunities ***

- Shower of Daggers should now have the correct proc effect. Its description has also been corrected.
- Soldier's Instict's prose has been corrected.
- The following Heroic Opportunity buffs can now be canceled via the spell effects window:
- Crucible of Life
- Inspiring Piety
- Scholar's Insight
- Resonating Cascade
- Divine Nobility


*** Tradeskills ***

- Removed lower level refined and interim products that tradeskill merchants were selling. Bread, pasta, and a packet of spices will still be sold because these items are used through every level range.
- Fuels used in tradeskill production will now display which tier they are best suited for in their examine text.
- Examining a recipe should now show exactly what type of fuel is required for that recipe.
- Recipes for shurikens have been added to Artisan Essentials Volume 8, Outfitter Essentials Volume 18, Weaponsmith Essentials Volume 21, Weaponsmith Essentials Volume 31, and Weaponsmith Essentials Volume 41.
- Increased the number of charges on poisons and potions that were previously missed.
- The events that occur during production of ebon plates have been changed to heavy armoring instead of weaponry.
- The examine text on poisons will now display the maximum number of times that the poison can trigger before it fades from your weapons.
- Doubled the effectiveness of Reduce Heat.
- Modified high grade honey to allow for pristine item production.
- Changed the descriptions of Stain, Laminate, Enamel and Glaze to indicate that durability is reduced rather than power.
- Wash recipes have been added to Apothecary recipe books.
- Thread recipes have been removed from Apothecary recipe books.
- Several totem recipe descriptions have been corrected.
- Apothecary, Weaving, Timbercraft and Geomancy reaction arts are now granted at the appropriate levels.
- The Vigor of Trust spell recipe has been added to the appropriate scholar volumes.
- Several Provisioner recipes have had their levels adjusted to match the level of the book they came from.
- Certain crafted containers that did not previously show up on merchant sell lists will now do so.
- Feyiron Plate and Feyiron Ring recipes were contained in both Armorer Essentials Volume 29 and Volume 30. The duplicate recipes have been removed from Volume 30.
- Pristine and Crude Alder Bookcases now have the correct appearance.
- Recipes for shurikens have been added to Artisan Essentials Volume 8, Outfitter Essentials Volume 18, Weaponsmith Essentials Volume 21, Weaponsmith Essentials Volume 31, and Weaponsmith Essentials Volume 41.
- Tin Hunting Arrows will now produce in a higher quantity per combine than before.
- Merchants should now sell the following fuels: Walnut Kindling, Mulberry Kindling, Cherry Kindling, Hickory Kindling, Mesquite Kindling
- Refine recipes contained within Apothecary recipe books now use the Thaumaturgy Technique and Apothecary Knowledge.
- The level and difficulty of the Blackened Iron Arrow Head recipe has been corrected.
- Worked shallots should no longer be edible.
- The durability of the worked quality Strengthened Leather Strap has been increased to the appropriate level.
- Blinding Strike Apprentice IV is now named Eye Rake Apprentice IV since it scribes that spell.
- The extra copies of the Iron Bar recipe have been removed from Geomancy Essentials Volume 10.
- The extra copies of the Iron Plate recipe have been removed from Geomancy Essentials Volume 10.
- The extra copy of the Burlap Thread recipe has been removed from Weaving Essentials Volume 10.
- The extra copy of the Burlap Yarn recipe has been removed from Weaving Essentials Volume 10.


*** Commands, Controls, and User Interface ***

- The Community window will now allow you to sort your friends by whether they are online or offline. There is now a checkbox that allows you to toggle only showing friends who are currently online.
- There is now a message in the chat window letting you know when an NPC spell has been interrupted.
- Chat window tabs will now number themselves more logically. A tab can never be given a blank title.
- Combat start and stop messages will now go to the proper chat filter.
- Chat updates for skill increases should now match the on-screen message.
- Examining an item involved in a quest should now correctly close the dialog box after being put away.
- Attempting to swap an empty bag with a full bag should no longer destroy the empty bag.
- The location for the graveyard icon on the Commonlands map was updated to be more accurate


*** Art ***

- Made some improvements to riders floating above horses.


*** Audio ***

- Tradeskill device cues should now be easier to hear.
- You can again change the speaker type from within the game.
- Added "/playsound " which plays 2d sounds locally.
- This is to support user sound modifications--It lets users trigger any sounds locally for testing/script feedback.
- Users can modify sounds by placing properly named wav files into /ui/sounds or /ui//sounds
- The UIBuilder documentation has an initial list of these wav files.

[Slyvver]

- Removed lower level refined and interim products that tradeskill merchants were selling. Bread, pasta, and a packet of spices will still be sold because these items are used through every level range.

What exactly does this mean? Does this mean that Nutmeg, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Basil, Thyme, etc (Depending on Tradeskill Society level), will no longer be sold? Can someone on Testserver let us know?

[Zuklaak]

abrasive sandpaper - 14c
aerated mineral water - 6c
apothecary essentials volume 1 - 4s,80c
apothecary essentials volume 2 - 19s,20c
apothecary essentials volume 3 - 76s,80c
apothecary essentials volume 4 - 3g,7s,20c
artisan essentials volume 3 - 1s,20c
artisan essentials volume 4 - 1s,20c
artisan essentials volume 5 - 1s,20c
artisan essentials volume 6 - 1s,20c
artisan essentials volume 7 - 1s,20c
artisan essentials volume 8 - 1s,20c
artisan essentials volume 9 - 1s,20c
beeswax candle - 9s,22c
bread - 2c
brown coal - 14c
candle - 4c
cedar incense - 14c
Celestial Solution - 58c
Celestial Suspension - 58c
cherry kindling - 14c
coal - 4c
coarse sandpaper - 58c
cocoa - 18c
cream - 6c
cream cheese - 6c
dark brown coal - 2s,30c
diamond sandpaper - 9s,22c
Diluted Solution - 6c
distilled water - 18c
dull black coal - 58c
egg - 6c
Exquisite Solution - 2s,30c
Exquisite Suspension - 2s,30c
fiber filament - 58c
filament - 4c
fine filament - 9s,22c
flour - 6c
garnet sandpaper - 2s,30c
gel wax candle - 2s,30c
geomancy esstials volume 1 - 4s,80c
geomancy esstials volume 2 - 19s,20c
geomancy esstials volume 3 - 76s,80c
geomancy esstials volume 4 - 3g,7s,20c
hickory kindling - 55c
incense - 4c
jasmine incense - 58c
Larent Solution - 14c
Larent Suspension - 14c
lustrous black coal - 9s,22c
mesquite kindling - 2s,21c
milk - 6c
mulberry kindling - 4c
packet of spices - 1c
parrifin wax candle - 14c
pasta - 2c
patchouli incense - 9s,22c
pepper - 6c
raw hops - 6c
salt
sandlewood incense - 2s,30c
sandpaper - 4c
sugar - 6c
Supernal Solution - 9s,22c
Supernal Suspension - 9s,22c
Suspension - 6c
tallow wax candle - 58c
thread filament - 14c
timbercraft essentials volume 1 - 4s,80c
timbercraft essentials volume 2 - 19s,20c
timbercraft essentials volume 3 - 76s,80c
timbercraft essentials volume 4 - 3g,7s,20c
walnut kindling - 1c
weaving essentials volume 1 - 4s,80c
weaving essentials volume 2 - 19s,20c
weaving essentials volume 3 - 76s,80c
weaving essentials volume 4 - 3g,7s,20c
wire filament - 2s,30c
yeast - 6c

[Slyvver]

Thank you for the information! Are there any *leveled up* Societies on Test?

I find the information here a trifle odd: before this Bread was never for sale on a vendor, but Dough was. Now Bread is for sale for 2c, and the Dough (from which the Bread is made), which used to be bought for 6c, now must be made - and costs 13c to make? So all pie, cheesecake, and cookie recipes just got more expensive, and all recipes for Breaded items, poppers, and Sandwiches just got Less expensive?

And it appears that the spices (like Nutmeg and Basil - can't tell about higher level ones), aren't included - so all recipes to make items that included those are now more expensive also?

If the above information is correct, then it would appear that someone doesn't want as many food items going into the marketplace. Currently, we can make items that involve the level-appropriate spices without *having* to get the spices, so we are limited only to the other items in the recipes. This change means that the number of spices will be limited to what folks can forage - thus limiting food production to either making items without those foraged spices, or choosing WHICH items to make.

Ie, if I have managed to forage 20 Raw Nutmeg, then I will have to choose whether I use that for either Candied Jumjum, Candied Pecans, Dried Jumjum, Nutmeg Cake, Nutmeg Cookies, or Nutmeg Fizzlepop. (And the cost for making the Finish items goes up from 6c to 13c for Nutmeg.) This by extension also limits those items which use those items... Thus, fewer items going to market, and the costs of those items increasing.

I fail to see how this is going to "improve" anything. Or, is this list different if a Tradeskill Society is leveled up?

[Anya]

highest society on test right now is wayfarer's stockpilers which is at 6 so cant answer that one.

[kennicotti]

Seems like a typical patch of late. Adventurers get more loot, more cash, and more experience. Crafters, specifically those in the food services, will now have a much more difficult time making finished products and as a result prices will likely rise.

Thanks for posting what is still available on the test server. I have no idea why they would make this sort of change, it seems counter intutive. It hurts the new crafters and simply makes it more tedious for the existing ones (wait... that is just like the recent patches). Was there some sort of dough exploit that I wasn't aware of? Sheesh...

[GeyrWhitefalcon]

This also removes all the shaped stuff that low levels have been using of late to gain levels. I dont want to have to go locate the appropriate subs/worts for that t1 weap a guildie needs bah!

:confused:

[kennicotti]

Pulled these comments off the test forum on the Sony EQ2 boards:

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=testdev&message.id=411&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
- - - - -
"ALSO, dropped goods are now even better and more common than crafted goods"
Good. All I can say is, its about time. Drops have been very disappointing
on the live servers.
- - - - -
>>The sellback on hertage quest items seems a bit high, unless a huge influx of plats to the servers is intended.

Agreed Kwong, 20plat an old T4 heritage item like Polished Granite Tomahawk seems a bit on the high side. 5plat for your DWB also seems way too high.
- - - - -
so?it doesnt mean you will actualy get that drop which is better,you shouldnt have 2 buy ALL your gear just 2 have the best,would be nice to actualy find some items from time 2 time that are better then what you bought of the crafter.
- - - - - -
My only problem with the "AQ" comment... at lvl 20, I decided to buy trader made equipment that was Orange to me (since I couldn't replace much at lvl 19, and could replace everything at lvl 20)... and I did my AQs.... and the crafted stuff was almost always better (marginally, but still better).

There needs to be more drops that are at least equivalent to crafted equipment.
- - - - - - -
I really wish the Dev team would decide whether or not crafters should have to rely on players buying goods to make a real profit on their trade. This loot change is going to work against crafters doing so, yet recent changes work against us making good money off of vendors, writs, or even workshop tasks.
- - - - - -

I think if we want crafters voices to be heard, there should be some over on test. The general flow of the thread was that people wanted better drops, better than crafted. Not many sticking up for the crafters.

[Astarelle]

Agreed Kwong, 20plat an old T4 heritage item like Polished Granite Tomahawk seems a bit on the high side. 5plat for your DWB also seems way too high.

That is pretty darn high. My husband almost didn't attune his DWB since he had something almost as good but didn't sell them because they weren't going very high. If they sell for 5p, I think almost everyone will look for a cheaper drop that is similar and just sell the boots. The stats on those heritage items are going to have to improve even more if they don't want people just selling them off. Someone could outfit their entire character and buy a horse for that polished granite tomahawk if it really sells for 20p.

There needs to be more drops that are at least equivalent to crafted equipment.

I know this person is compairing level 20 armor to AQ stuff, but the statement is so ridiculus. Crafted items already have a very hard time competiting with dropped stuff.

[Viliarna]

Not surprisingly, the players who adventure want something for 'nothing', and they want it right away.

'Nothing' in this context, of course, means "nothing that they wouldn't be doing anyway, i.e., killing mobs and collecting loot."

EQ1 was plagued with this mindset. Twinked characters are an example; why bother working a character up the hard way when you can just outfit him with the best right off the bat? So is purchased platinum (currently being offered for $30 or less in EQ2). Ram a character up to the high end ASAP, and remove anything that stands in my way.

EQ2 makes some nods in that direction (notice how you essentially start at about level 5 adventurer and level 4 or 5 crafting by the time you do all the silly tutorial-type stuff?). Now, we see that the current designers and developers are again willing to give into the need of players to have everything, and have it at once. Why make adventurers purchase equipment when they can simply have it drop off mobs? Whatever the players want, they will get.

Crafters? Well, we aren't the point to the game anyway, so if we are going to have a viable system, we'd best be plenty noisy about what we want. :)

[Haidara]

Wow lots of changes. Pretty shocking atcually.

I'm glad they are increasing rewards for quests though. I was so fed up doing quests and getting a nominal 1sp 35cp reward at level 25.

As for the whole loot issue, there does need to be a way for adventures to obtain money in order to have cash to buy from crafters.

While I don't agree with mobs dropping armor comparable to crafted, I do think they should drop some items with a higher (npc) resale value for time to time. If for no other reason then to put disposable income in the hands of the adventures.

I was fairly un-impressed last night after killing several of the "an enraged platipuss" and "a deadly platipuss" and each time it only dropped "mammal meat" worth 58cp on the vendor. 58cp from a level 22 mob is pretty lame.

[DeWeasel]

I was so fed up doing quests and getting a nominal 1sp 35cp reward at level 25.


Not to get into a griping contest, but I completed a blue-con quest in TS last night (I'm lvl 25 atm) and was rewarded with 58cp. This was after killing about 20 blue-con solo mobs...

Anyways, I /bugged that so fast it would make your server spin :) I'm glad they are working on fixes for things like this. I'm sure they'll get it straightened out eventually.

[Kinch]

All I have to say is QUIT COMPLAINING. Please!

Last patch they revamped the entire tradeskill system to remove interdepentcy, simply because we complained. Now your not happy with what they are doing now?!?!? Really, please stop it and just enjoy the stupid game. It is very disheartening to read all the complaints. If you dont like stop playing, personally i welcome change it makes things more interesting.

Sincerely
Fed up.

[Stewy]

The changes to the wholesaler vendor are devastating, and they have removed any need/reason to level up your wholesaler. Here I was hoping they would enchance the leveling of hte TS societies and here they have made them meaningless.

I just don't get it. I really think they are giving TSer's the big finger these days. What's even more amazing to me is the entire lack of discussion on the subject.

I'm stunned.

p.s. - some of these items are worth complaining about. IMO

[kennicotti]

Dear Fed up,
I have a few questions regarding your post.

1) Are you complaining about what people are complaining about or just that they are complaining? That is do you agree with the changes that Sony has made and you are complaining about their complaining about the changes, or just that they are complaining about the changes? Inquiring minds want to know.

2) For example one change on test is that we now have to make dough and thyme from scratch. Therefore if we want to make a sandwich we now have to make 2 more combines, for no experience and for a lot more cost. For example currently dough is 1cp, and thyme is 14. On test eggs are 6cp, flour is 6cp, fuel is 4cp. Thyme you now have to harvest yourself or buy from the open market at outrageous prices. Therefore what used to cost 15cp, now costs 26cp plus the raw thyme cost (time or money), and now takes a lot longer for no experience benefit. Therefore you will probably have to raise prices to cover increased costs and time requirements when you make a sandwich. Which means that people are less likely to purchase it as it costs more.

Do you like these changes? Do you think they improve game play, game experience, game quality? Personally I think these changes make the game play more tedious, more time consuming, and results in products that players are less likely to purchase.

3) How about that some crafter professions, they players can purchase similar items off NPC vendors, and apparently now (from a post on the Sony boards) with the new fuel costs, the crafter produced items cost MORE than the vendor items. Does this add to the game experience?

4) How about the fact that one of the main “events” in crafting has been to level up your society. (I am ignoring for the moment that it is so tedious and pointless that practically no one does it now). One of the main reasons was the ability to purchase the subcomponents off the vendors. This made it easier to make higher level products and solved the problem of as the bulk of players go to higher tiers, the lower level tier components become available. For example, on my server there is lots of severed wood, teak, briarwood, ash, etc. However there is only 1 listing on the broker for severed elm. There are no listings for roots or tubers. Most of the players are no longer harvesting T1 and T2 resources. There is one listing for raw thyme on the broker. There are two listings for lead and two listings for tin. Each of those listings is more than T3 or T4 resources now cost.

This fact will make it *much* more difficult and *much* more time consuming for new crafters to enter the game and to “level up”. Do you think this is a good idea, bad idea, worthy of complaint?

5) Personally I had a lot of fun crafting before the patches in February. They have reduced the fun factor so much I am one of those that has cancelled their accounts. I play games to have fun. If I want tedium and annoyance, I can always get another job (my current job I like a lot). I believe that Sony does not mind people complaining as much as you would think. I am making a distinction between complaining and whining. Complainers have some sort of facts to backup their position, whining simply state their unhappiness with no facts/theory to support it. I have seen very few, if any, whining posts on this board. Almost everyone supports their position with facts or theory. Where Sony starts worrying is when people stop complaining and start leaving, which is happening now (at least those crafter that I know). Look at this board (EQ2 Traders). There is now less traffic than there was a month ago. People are getting fed up and are leaving the game, and I can’t say that I blame them.

6) How about the new patch notes on test which have better drops, money, and experience for adventurers. This is the same patch that removed the intermediate combines from the tradeskill vendors. It is clear in my mind that Sony is seeing the crafters depart and they are making changes to keep the adventurers happy.

7) Given the apparent knee jerk changes to crafting since release it is clear from my point of view that either:
a) They have a dart board for changes and they toss out the darts once a month, and then see how much they can complete in a week making sure to leave lots of loopholes that they can add to the dart board next month.
<or>
b) They have few people very overworked, probably overstressed, trying to make near impossible changes in the time demanded with no overall design document which clearly states how crafting is supposed to work and not being able to take the time to analyze the impact of the changes.

I am *not* going to give Sony any slack. They made the mess that they are in, no one else. They decided to release early with crafting not well thought out, or well implemented. Sony has a *long* history of releasing products then “fixing” (or nerfing) them a few months after release. I can’t think of an EQ expansion that did not follow this pattern (never got the last few). If they continue to make stupid decisions I will continue to bash them, not because I care, but because it is good entertainment value (I ceased caring a long time ago). Now the new crafting developer I will give some slack, and I wish him luck.

8) And yes, some changes were needed and long overdue. The main issues are not that the changes were made, but they were so drastic, that large portions of the game are now not really useful (writs, societies, etc.) for the time involved. Perhaps not in all cases, but in many, many cases.

[Kinch]

Dear Kennicotti,

Like I said above, changes make things interesting. My overall point was this, most of the complaints are either a) complaining that some class has something better than me, b) that my class doesnt work the way I want it to, or c) I am not making/having as much xxxxx (money, fun, etc.) as I want to. I question what the point of it all is. I mean honestly do you complain this much about everything in life or just about the game that you dont pay for anymore (post above states you cancelled your account)? Why dont we all (EQ2 community in general) try to provide positive feedback instead of "nerf this nerf that". Have you ever considered that if we all had provided a positive feedback to the interdependency issue, we would have ended with a better game? Instead, SOE gave us what we whined for, an end to interdependency. Now the societies dont work well (or at all), and then we turn around and whine about that. Personally if I were SOE, I would tell you all to forget it and run the game with a set goal in mind. But no we complain and gripe and whine until they nerf it in fear of us leaving. Then what are we left with? A game that stinks and we have no one to blame but our selves. And then we whine about THAT.

MY POINT: Instead of complaining that you want something better with nothing but negative ideas, provide SOE a positive feedback indicating how it would be better. If we all did this, then the game WOULD be better to play.

And for the record, I was complaining about everyone else complaining. And numbered lists bother me (too much like work), so I apologize if I didnt respond to each of your numbers.

[Viliarna]

Dear Kennicotti,

Like I said above, changes make things interesting. My overall point was this, most of the complaints are either a) complaining that some class has something better than me, b) that my class doesnt work the way I want it to, or c) I am not making/having as much xxxxx (money, fun, etc.) as I want to. I question what the point of it all is. I mean honestly do you complain this much about everything in life or just about the game that you dont pay for anymore (post above states you cancelled your account)? Why dont we all (EQ2 community in general) try to provide positive feedback instead of "nerf this nerf that". Have you ever considered that if we all had provided a positive feedback to the interdependency issue, we would have ended with a better game? Instead, SOE gave us what we whined for, an end to interdependency. Now the societies dont work well (or at all), and then we turn around and whine about that. Personally if I were SOE, I would tell you all to forget it and run the game with a set goal in mind. But no we complain and gripe and whine until they nerf it in fear of us leaving. Then what are we left with? A game that stinks and we have no one to blame but our selves. And then we whine about THAT.

MY POINT: Instead of complaining that you want something better with nothing but negative ideas, provide SOE a positive feedback indicating how it would be better. If we all did this, then the game WOULD be better to play.

And for the record, I was complaining about everyone else complaining. And numbered lists bother me (too much like work), so I apologize if I didnt respond to each of your numbers.
In other words, he's whining about whining. ;)


Hey, someone had to say it! :p

[Astarelle]

MY POINT: Instead of complaining that you want something better with nothing but negative ideas, provide SOE a positive feedback indicating how it would be better. If we all did this, then the game WOULD be better to play.

People - including myself - have done feedbacks in game suggesting how to make societies work better. One of the biggest things I think they should do is offer new recipes for status points in your workshop. They could have added sub-components to the wholesalers and let people purchase them with status points. Those points should be used for something.

Not everyone wanted dependencies removed especially the way they did it. A lot of people wanted dependencies balanced. What people say they want and what SOE does are often different things.

I don't advocate complaining for the heck of it. At the same time SOE was making changes to help armorer and weaponsmiths, they added this box within a box thing for selling. As a carpenter I cringed to see my market flooding. Now some carpenters want boxes attuned. I don't. I think that would be silly. That doesn't mean I don't want dozens of other carpenter issues dealt with.

Sometimes pointing out what needs to be fixed is called complaining. But if we don't do it we will never get carpets that sit on the floor, teak boxes that actually have all their slots, sconces that fit on the wall properly, etc.....

[kennicotti]

Thanks for the reply. Do you find the complaints valid, invalid or is this irrelevant? I agree with you on a) that I really don’t understand the “grass is greener on the other side” posts a lot of the time. I think b) and c) are valid in terms of game design issues. A lot of the posts I have seen are constructive. Many offer very good methodologies on how to fix the current trade skill system.

I believe that the reason Sony removed interdependency was that it was not working, not just because we were complaining about it. People could not advance because the sub-components that they needed were just not available on the vendors. Players were getting frustrated and canceling their accounts (which Sony *does* pay attention to). Most players I know created alts to supply these needs. I did as I refused to pay the inflated prices on the brokers. Consequently my alchemist alt was the only one to reach level 50. But that was mainly due to the ability to print money (which they should have fixed long before they did).

There are many, many posts on how to improve the game. These are from the first page on the general trade skills board:

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq2/showthread.php?t=3680

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq2/showthread.php?t=3721

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq2/showthread.php?t=3709

The first one is *very* well thought out and presented. If Sony implemented those ideas it would *greatly improve* the game. There are also well thought out posts on improving the game on the Sony boards. However none have been answered by Sony. People want the game to be fun and enjoyable. After a while people become less enthusiastic and more annoyed, so you get less “positive” complaints and more “whiny” complaints. I don’t know if the game would be better if everyone submitted “positive” complaints. I don’t think we have that much impact on the game design.

Also people are complaining because of the bait and switch aspect of how Sony has changed the trade skill economy. People started trade skills with certain expectations on how they worked. To simply have them switched around 3 months after release and find out that your profession is now useless would be annoying. It is also annoying, and to some people game breaking, in that you can’t change it, you are stuck with it. If you want to try another profession with your character you are SOL.

As a paying customer (at least for the next couple of weeks) on a game that I would like to enjoy playing, I have made suggestions on how *I* would like to have seen it designed. I would think a publisher would like to have that sort of information. Not that I expect them to implement what I want, but if enough people voice support for an idea, it may happen.

And no, I don’t complain that much in real life, but I am home from work and this looked like a good way to procrastinate from doing the stuff I really should be doing.

[Goonie]

I will say MOST of the changes seem to be good. It does however, seem like they are catering more to the adventurers than the crafters. Maybe this is intentional? Maybe being a crafter is turning into more of a "prestigous" thing than a means of income? Dunno, but it kinda stinks. Then again, Im a die-hard EQ fan and will be here till the bitter end. I just dont want them to compromise the difficulty of the game anymore than they already have.

[Haidara]

The changes to the wholesaler vendor are devastating, and they have removed any need/reason to level up your wholesaler. Here I was hoping they would enchance the leveling of hte TS societies and here they have made them meaningless.
I think in thier minds (SOE), the wholesalers are no longer needed because everyone can make their own interims...

I just don't get it. I really think they are giving TSer's the big finger these days. What's even more amazing to me is the entire lack of discussion on the subject
Alot of artisans have moved into T3 and beyond. The leveled up wholesalers mostly help you at T1 & T2 so maybe alot of people don't see it effecting them as much, or it hasn't sunk in yet how much it will effect them...

Personally I made sure went out last night and purchased several stacks of items from the wholesalers.

[Kinch]

In other words, he's whining about whining. ;)


Hey, someone had to say it! :p

LOL!!!! I just wanted see what people would say. I obviously got a reaction.

[Kinch]

In all honesty, there seems to be much more "the sky is falling" complaining than, "hey that might work". Everyone complained about the interdependency patch, but everyone I talk to is very happy with it. The world didnt end with that patch and it isnt likely to end with this one. That is my real point. Give it a shot instead of going nuts.