Game Update: Weds, January 21 @ 5 AM PST

All EverQuest Live Servers will be brought offline on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at 5:00AM Pacific* for the January game update. The servers are estimated to be unavailable for approximately three hours.

Patch Notes for this update can be found here.

Keep an eye on the EverQuest forums and social media for status updates and for news if additional downtime is needed.

*Convert to your local time

Thanks for the early heads up. It's much appreciated.

I'm guessing this preparation for the January update actually includes the update.

Yes. It is fixed on Test.

Patch notes for tomorrow's update can be found here: https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/game-update-notes-january-21-2015.217248/

- If you give an item to your pet that it can't equip, the item will now be returned to you.
I am old school EQ and would like to object to this (sorta) the update should be "If you give an items to a SUMMONED pet....." I know, I know what im about to say proabaly falls under the "this is an exploit we just never got around to fixing" but in the early days of EQ one of the most sure fire ways to get good ambilily faction with an NPC is to charm it. In fact there is ONE quest item that I can think of that people even today still get using this method. its the Gate Hammer in OT. is the one reason that puppet strings from the Fear golems still sell.

If this change is made as it as written, then all quest items will be given back on charmed pets (fixing an age old exploit yes).....but taking out yet another one of those neat cool little tricks people used to get ahead. My personal favoraite of this type was when monster illusions were taken off monster faction (some monsters, most noteably in The Hole) wouldn't attack someone that was an elemental or minor illusion.

Also on occasion (in the ancient days before no drop) some people would charm monsters give them leet gear, and then do a general zone wide (random mob has X gear, or 5k plat) first one to kill it gets the prize. don't see much of this anymore but it was still fun back in the day.

Naturally its the deva's calls, but it'll be sad to see another nifty trick go.

I was one of those that would charm a bear in east commonlands, buff it up, give it some loot, usually fine steel in those days, and then invis to break charm. Then I'd sit some where waiting for someone to shout "that was one tough bear! But it dropped a fine steel sword and 5 plat!"

Is there going to be any fix to the crashing issues when you zone or log onto a different toon it is getting worse and im not the only one having this issue dont do any good to petition it never gets answered it is way worse if you are running more then 1 account...

Hopefully Degmar won't client crash me 50% of the time zoning in after today's patch, although it wasn't mentioned specifically in the patch notes.

In fact there is ONE quest item that I can think of that people even today still get using this method. its the Gate Hammer in OT. is the one reason that puppet strings from the Fear golems still sell.

You can get the hammer without paying those GREEDY fear hounds for puppet strings. Just go to Veeshan's Peak and kill until your Venril Saithir faction is maxxed. Takes about 45 minutes. If he still won't take your jade, use an illusion and it will work. I've done that before, but I can't remember which illusion I used. Even if you buy all the illusions available it will still be cheaper than puppet strings.

Technically this isn't an exploit. Not all Faction quest NPC can be charmed and being so means they were made this way on purpose: to allow them to be attacked, killed, charmed, mezzed, etc.
( Dang it all, I still need peace keepers in Erudin. Amiable faction JUST to get quests to raise faction? No mobs to kill to raise faction? As an Iksar SK that's horrid. only 1 quest available to do to gain faction from scowling to amiably, it gives 2 faction each time it's completed and takes 10-20 min to do due to zoning times... Anyone care to do the math on how long that'll take? I can 2*750*20/60=500 Straight hours just to get to amiable...).
Just by charming an NPC does not remove it's status as a quest npc. For these instances, this update will mess up the works for anyone that may be questing for the faction or items while the npc is charmed.
This needs to be addressed more specifically. ( and hoping... some NPC's are made to be charmable.... lol)

in game:

Alt O --> Display --> Advanced --> Memory Usage: set to LEAST MEMORY USAGE. This may help crashing while zoning into Degmar and other zones.

- August Cultural armor pieces have had their Emblem slots replaced.
Are they being given the normal Focus effects / Clickies that other BPs have in placement of the emblem slots? ( Like tanks usually get focus effect to add an additional tick or 2 to defensive disciplines, and most have clicky effects like SK get 15-20% melee lifetap for usually about 30 seconds or so many strikes. These aren't available on the cultural gear at this time)
Any clarification on the Cultural Armor changes? I craft them and use them on all my toons that can use them. So this directly affects me, and my customers, guildies, and friends.

That's the setting it's always on to aid in faster zoning and less lag in the guild lobby. It's something specific to Degmar and it affects other people I've grouped with as well. I crash maybe once every 2 weeks in regular Everquest, but in Degmar all bets are off. It could be specific to a GPU type or something although I haven't asked for the specs on the other people I've known to crash in the same way yet.

I am paraphrasing what a dev has said previously, but due to the detailed textures in Degmar (probably more about the density of pixels), it sometimes loads in a way that overloads EQ's maximum capacity for CPU or Memory consumption (whichever factor is in play)
The only other thing I could recommend is to make sure your instance(es) of EQ are utilizing all of your processors. You will at least get more FPS / fluid game play if it doesn't help with the Degmar zoning.

did I miss that line in the update notes that the Trophy was fixed??

Confirmed by a Dev in 2 places that it's fixed and was pushed to January's Update.

Found It, just go to the front page of the notes and Ctrl F "Trophy" you will see it:

"- Corrected an issue that prevented the Trophy of the Seafarer from granting its intended stats."

tyvm bro.

Just Wondering when are yall going to change the Hot Zones the Current ones are getting old and boring

Thank you for the reply. I spent a good deal of time optimizing game play performance but I will give it another look as it couldn't hurt. I know my details are on high for my primary install and as much as it pains me to lower it I may just do that until the devs fix the inefficiencies in their coding.