Upcoming for May 14th, 2003

Here are some of the items we plan to include in the update for May 14th, 2003.

1) More improvements for new players are in the works. We're opening up the Legacy of Ykesha map system for newbie zones to all EverQuest players. This should be very helpful to new players trying to learn their way around the cities of Norrath. Context tips will become available. These are helpful tips that pop up when a player performs certain actions to help our new players to more easily understand the gameplay and controls for EverQuest.

2) The new Plane of Hate will be available on all servers!

3) Veksar will be introduced on Stormhammer. This ancient city was a hub of the Iksar Empire before it fell. There are plenty of interesting things for daring adventurers to discover there.

4) We've fixed an issue r with the Divine Intervention line that caused a character's hit points to get out of sync. This should be a boon to all players that cast or receive that spell.

5) We have increased the power of the Child of Bertoxxulous Necromancer pet. We'll be increasing its offensive power as well as giving it a useful spell ability similar to Banshee Aura.

6) We've remedied the long-standing situation that caused characters to lose all their buffs if they zoned with fewer hit points remaining than the bonus hit points provided by their items.

7) We have increased the maximum amount of mana that can be gained through the use of items by an additional 50%. This should provide a noticeable increase in the mana available to many spell casters.

8) We have completed what we hope will be the final adjustments to the Rathe Council encounter. The encounter should be at just the right difficulty level now, and should provide an interesting challenge to those that undertake it.

9) Travel in two zones should be a little easier now. We will be removing the restriction on Call of the Hero that existed in the Plane of Water, as well as removing the restriction that forbid the casting of Gate spells in Veeshan's Peak.

10) Due to player concerns (and to make the zone a bit more fun to play in), we will be removing the ability to summon player characters recently added to some NPCs in the Halls of Honor. We have introduced another mechanism to address the challenge level in that zone.

11) There will be a couple of improvements to Alternate Advancement abilities as well. We will be giving Beastlords access to the Mass Group Buff ability. This is an ability that many Beastlords feel would be very useful to them and make some of their buffing tasks a bit easier. We will also be reducing the reuse timer for the Magician Elemental Form ability from 72 minutes to 15 minutes. This will allow a Magician to keep the Elemental Form up for as long as he wants.

12) We have corrected a problem that was causing some people to be unable to log back into the game quickly if the were disconnected. This has been a complicated problem to correct, and we're glad to have found and fixed it.

Also, as a heads up to players that have created their own user interfaces for EverQuest, these are the interface files that we expect to change next week.

Targetwindow.xml
Playerwindow.xml
Groupwindow.xml
EQUI.xml


Further Down the Line

In the next month or so we will be implementing some changes designed to bring more fun back into the game. Our experience with Planes of Power has taught us a lot about what we did right and what we should avoid in the future. Building an online game like EverQuest offers us the unique opportunity to see how customers react to our ideas and to adjust them if needed. We'll be taking the opportunity to put some of our experience to work to improve the play experience in EverQuest.



1) Partial Zone Revamps.

These consist of improvements in the experience gain, monster density and/or item rewards in some of the older zones. The goal is to improve the playability and reward for adventuring in these zones without completely remaking the contents of the zone. We plan to do several of these, and we'll keep you updated as we move through these. Currently we are working on a partial revamp of Veeshan's Peak.

2) Experience Range Adjustment.

When Planes of Power was released and the level cap was raised from 60 to 65, the range of NPCs that characters in the new levels could kill to gain experience was smaller than it is for characters of lower levels. This was done to encourage characters to fight more challenging enemies and allowed us to increase the experience reward given for that increased challenge. Unfortunately, this has limited the locations available to 61+ level characters for experience gain, as well as making it more difficult for solo players to gain experience.

This is something that we don't like, and it has had a negative affect on the "fun factor" involved in playing in Planes of Power. To correct this, we will be increasing the level range of NPCs that will give 61+ level characters experience. They will have approximately the same range of NPCs available to them as they did at level 60, and should be able to gain experience in some of their old hunting grounds, as well as in Planes of Power zones.

3) Planar Progression.

Planes of Power has provided us with valuable insight into the group and guild dynamics that are involved in large scale games. The way that we had expected guilds to advance through the story of Planes of Power has become a roadblock for some guilds, and some members have fallen behind and found it difficult to catch up. Obviously this was not our intention. We want players to play with their friends and guild mates.

To correct this issue, we will be removing the flag requirements for entry into the following Planes of Power zones:

Bastion of Thunder
Plane of Tactics
Halls of Honor
Plane of Nightmare
Plane of Storms
Plane of Torment
Plane of Valor
Crypt of Decay

This will make the majority of Planes of Power zones available to everyone, and should allow most guilds to travel and adventure together. We understand that those that have already earned the entry flags for these zones have put some effort into that accomplishment. We will be giving a reward to those that have done so, though you'll have to wait to see what that reward is.

4) Items in the Planes of Power

We will be looking at the quality of Planes of Power item rewards and improving them where appropriate. Items for many of the lower tier gods will be upgraded and more rare items and NPCs will be added to the following zones as needed:

Crypt of Decay
Plane of Torment
Halls of Honor
Plane of Tactics
Plane of Innovation
Bastion of Thunder

5) Class Balance

We are going to look at improving the damage capabilities of melee classes, as they've fallen behind their magic-using counterparts at the very high end of the game. Some options being considered are:

Improve melee damage-increasing disciplines
Improve Planes of Power melee weapons

Additionally, we're looking at the concerns from players about their spells, and changing them where appropriate. The goal here is to remove annoying issues with spells, not necessarily to increase caster power overall.