EverQuest: the Game, the Team: Today and Coming Soon!

If they did that, people would just in front of those doors in pok like they do in the lobby now. Defeating the purpose.

Make the 'buff timer lock' an aura...and make the aura non-existent around the GL door?

It would be so funny if they put in a new area under PoK or in a building where you walked down some stairs and that room was the only place in the zone where buff timers didn't tick down.

If you freeze timers in PoK, then people will clog the area by the GL doors.

Pot meet kettle.

I still like my idea.

There is a part of the guild lobby that exists but inaccessible to players. It was patched live one time and looks like a desert area? (It was also present on the beta server)

This area is off the path. Include an aura in that area that A) Freezes buffs B) Stops hunger and drink


This will make players congregate in the secluded area for there MGBs and AFKs and allow lag free existence to the other players using the amenities of the zone.

Bang.

This does seem like a fairly 'painless' solution to the problem...though you'd have to make sure it's not visible at all from the other parts of the zone if you want it to eliminate lag. ^^

Hopefully they don't mind me posting the patch notes from the patch for Test tonight...

*** Highlights ***

- Celebrate 14 years of EverQuest with our classic anniversary events, starting March 15th, 2013 and running until April 26th!
- New missions, many created with your help at SOE Live 2012, are available starting March 15th, 2013, and lasting an additional month, through May 26th, 2013! The Mechanical Fortune Teller in the Plane of Knowledge will be happy to help players locate quest givers for the new quests.
- NPC melee combat will no longer cause other NPCs to move. Players can still move NPCs and NPCs can still move players.


*** Items ***

- Increased damage on many two-handed weapons from Rain of Fear.
- Many items that were lacking the placeable flag can now be placed in housing as intended.
- Many placeable items, including the paintings sold by Claire Nybright in Sunrise Hills, are now usable by all classes and races so they will no longer default to being hidden when browsing merchant lists.
- A number of mounts, illusions and familiars that were unintentionally unable to be cast during combat have been fixed (Notable examples include the Dragorn War Mask, Party Popper Nimbus and Doll's Mask).
- The Gluttonous Spoon now has a more appropriate icon.
- The Dioptase Fragment is no longer Prestige.
- The Box of Chocolate will now always grant a treat, unlike life.


*** Tradeskills ***

- New types of animal-themed helmets are available for crafting! Seek out the Matricks in the Plane of Knowledge for details, and animals throughout Norrath for materials.
- The research recipes for Enchant Planar Alloy and Mass Enchant Planar Alloy should now use Runic Numen Plaque and Fine Runic Numen Plaque in their combines respectively.


*** Quests & Events ***

- The Corrupted Temple of Veeshan - Cekenar's Chain Lightning spell will no longer do extra damage to classes who can critically cast DoTs.
- Ritual of Terror - The spell Gorilla Roar has been returned to its intended duration.
- The Return of King Xorbb - The mission and raid no longer reset if players are outside of the encounter area.
- The Return of King Xorbb (raid) - Saying "next battle" to Thistlebrush when you have already completed the first two raids in the zone will now teleport you to the proper location.
- Danela's Stand (Mission) - The Ry`Gorr miners in this mission should now be a bit easier to kill.
- Plans Gone Awry - Grolak's vision has improved slightly. He will now insist that there be a golem in front of him before he attempts the ceremony to raise it.
- April 1st is Bristlebane Day! Keep an eye out for an Emissary of Bristlebane in the Plane of Knowledge, who will have a task for adventurers level 55 and up.
- The Mechanical Fortune Teller in the Plane of Knowledge will be happy to help players locate quest givers for the new 14th Anniversary quests.


*** Spells ***

- Fixed many spells, such as Drakkin breath abilities and Remorseless Demeanor, which were incorrectly flagged to be unusable in the Plane of Sky, Kedge Keep, and Plane of Fear.
- Rogue - Corrected Tome: Pinpoint Deficiencies so that it can be used to memorize the ability again.


*** NPC ***

- The fey swarm in Kael Drakkel: The King's Madness now spawns more frequently.
- The black wolves in Al'Kabor's Nightmare now match their name.


*** AA ***

- Beastlord - Fixed a timer issue with Cheetah's Pounce causing conflict with Summon Banker.
- Berserker - Reckless Abandon will now correctly trigger the chance spells after Recourse 2 fades.
- Cleric - Fixed an issue with Touch of the Divine causing it not to work.
- Cleric - Rebalanced the healing power of Touch of the Divine across all ranks.
- Magician - Fixed an issue with Theft of Essence that was causing bane spells above level 83 to not work.
- Necromancer - Removed mana regeneration from Blood Magic to resolve a conflict with Beastlord regeneration spells.
- Paladin - Hand of Piety can now crit again.
- Ranger - Changed Flusterbolt/Blusterbolt to be Alteration spells to resolve an issue where they might proc one of the specialized arrows.
- Warrior - Phalanx of One's Proc is no longer interruptable
- Warrior - Blast of Anger is now an instant ability to resolve a conflict with the Bazu Roar line. Hate values have been increased to compensate.
- Wizard - Kerafyrm's Prismatic Familiar Rank 3 now has the correct description.


*** Veteran Rewards ***

- Bristlebane's Jester has leveled up!
- - Bristlebane's Gift will again fill up a health bar.
- - Bristlebane's Surprise will again fill up mana and endurance bars.
- - The Jester's Shape Change effect will no longer remove the target from their mount.
- - The Jester will no longer hand out a stack of his bread or wine to players that already have bread or wine.
- - The Jester will not offer his bread or wine to players who are in a raid.
- - The Jester has learned some new jokes.
- Staunch Recovery has leveled up!
- - The effect of Staunch Recovery will again fill mana, hit point, and endurance bars.
- The Steadfast Servant has leveled up!
- - The Steadfast Servant's available buffs now scale to max level.
- - - Buffs are roughly one tier below spells available to an equivalent level player, and last 15 minutes.
- - The Steadfast Servant will no longer cast buffs on you if you already have a buff with that effect active.


*** Achievements ***

- The Secrets of Faydwer achievement category has been removed for the time being. It will make its appearance again when the SoF achievements are ready.
- Some rare items from event chests are now available on the raid merchants in Shard's Landing for those who complete the Conqueror of Rain of Fear achievement.
- Achievements have been added for you collectors of Hero's Forge hat ornaments.


*** Progression Servers ***

- Rhenium Ore should now be dropping on Progression servers after Depths of Darkhollow is unlocked.


*** Zones ***

- The following non-combat zones have been changed so that buff timers are suspended: Nexus, Shadowrest, Sunrise Hills and all housing interiors, The Bazaar, The Plane of Knowledge, The Plane of Tranquility, and the Wedding Chapel.
- Many changes were made to creatures in Chapterhouse of the Fallen to make the zone more playable.
- - Wandering NPCs will be less restless.
- - Researcher Vespra, rats, and timeworn servants are no longer aggressive towards players.
- - The undead in the caverns have been moved around and their aggro ranges have been reduced.
- - Reduced the aggro range on all oozles and beetles.
- - Removed several NPCs from the caverns to create some safe areas.
- Parts for new animal-based hat ornaments can be foraged in zones where those animals live. A particularly elusive example is rumored to live in and near the Jaggedpine Forest. Be wary, as foraging too long in one zone will spook the animals that live there.


*** Miscellaneous ***

- An unreachable Collection item spawn point in Chapterhouse of the Fallen has been moved.
- The Evantil's Abode house has had its item capacity increased from 200 to 300 items.
- Corrected an issue which caused the window on kilns and ovens to display as gray rather than transparent.
- Added a "Sent" column to the Merchant window "Parcel" tab to display the date that a parcel was sent.
- Fixed a grammatical typo in the item display window when inspecting real estate trophies.
- Added the slash command /clearallchat. This functions just like /clearchat except that it clears the chat from all of your chat windows.
- The quest reward message will no longer incorrectly display twice when only giving one reward.
- Removed NPC on NPC melee "push". NPCs can still move players and players can still move NPCs.
- Fixed an issue where /autoinventory was not properly updating the item icon when there were multiple items on your cursor.


*** UI ***

- Added some minimum sizes to some windows to prevent overlap and the accidental hiding of information.
- Removed some unused UI XML files.
- The bandolier window will now close when 'Esc' is pressed and it is the active window.
- The "Player Studio" Marketplace category has been moved to above "All Items". Additionally, Player Studio items will now appear side-by-side with SOE created items.
- Added a combobox to the Options window to allow for the toggling of No Drop loot confirmations. This behaves exactly like the previously added /lootnodrop command.

- Changed -
EQUI_JournalNPCWnd.xml
EQUI_MerchantWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_PetInfoWindow.xml
EQUI_ProgressionSelectionWnd.xml
EQUI_TaskSelectWnd.xml
EQUI_TaskTemplateSelectWnd.xml
EQUI_TaskWnd.xml
EQUI_TributeBenefitWnd.xml
EQUI_TributeMasterWnd.xml

- Removed -
EQUI_MeleeBuffWindow.xml
EQUI_NewUserWalkthroughWnd.xml
EQUI_Screens.xml


*** Previously Updated ***

- Corrected several warrior tomes that had been broken and could not be memorized.
- Corrected an issue that was causing free-target heals to fail to cast.
- Corrected an issue that could cause some players' arms to disappear when wearing Hero's Forge plate armor.
- The new Warrior ability Heroic Blade should now affect all skills as intended.


- The EverQuest Team

did someone booboo or they celebrating a day early this year? fabled/annviersry has been on march 16 long as i've played the game...

My house is full, please, please, please, don't make it so you have to do things to your house.

Don't unfreeze PoK people used to gather in that zone and it was worse than the guild lobby is now.

I love all the changes. Thanks! I know you can make everyone happy!

They should be reducing the number of buff timer suspension zones, not increasing it. Social interaction = asking for buffs .. not AFK'ing to recieve whatever buffs get tossed around over the course of 50+ hours and avoiding having to ask for those buffs.

increasing the zones means more likely to spread out the people taht are doing said afking or wahtever theyre doing that makes them appear afk. adding in housing and baz is a great part of that so people arent hitting throne of heroes while they run off to watch tv for an hour so they dont lose buffs in wahtever noncombat zone theyre in. i think youll find the congestion will be better once word gets out taht they dont tick down in these other zones, its not like magically the same 80ppl are going ot be in 20zones at once lol

but they will still congregate in lobby to AFK for free buffs...

Those that MGB said buffs are just as much as part of the problem and not the solution.

I miss MGBs in PoK.
Why?

Because the zone was spread out more, and there were (usually) four places instead of one that people tended to buff at- people would call an MGB at whichever location, and others would run to it. You could see who was alive and kicking, as it were, because of that, and THAT got people sending tells to each other after getting fully raid buffed, when X guild had finished for the day, to form a group and go somewhere. The lobby is far too cramped. In a bigger zone, with more places to be, if you're a buffing class, you can find an out of the way corner to do your thing (And PoK had things to do). In the lobby, with nothing to do other than rez your corpse or run laps (unless you're merely passing through), with everyone jostling each other's elbows, no one wants to move so that people realize they're not AFK. It's a room packed with sparkly statues.

In fact, I think I shall call MGBs in odd places after this patch, just on general principle. Watch out for cleric/chanter/paladin MGBs in the pool! By the tinkering vendors! On the roof of the good shaman guildmaster's building! Bonus points if anyone buffs in Myrist's elevator.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/test-update-03-05-13.4293/#post-53972

I typically MGB Elixer and then move on...

Also, I'll start doing MGB Cert/Symbol in out-of-the-way places, such as the top of the Library tower, the Halas portal stone, or at the Ranger guildmaster. Work for those buffs!

So hero's forge update is not making this patch? This is not going to sit well.

nothing in those patch notes about epic ornaments? sad face

March 16th is a Saturday.
The work week ends on Friday.

It was never as bad in PoK as it is in GL. Not even close.