EQEmulator Forums - Starting work on Seeds of Destruction

I went through all of the Patch Notes for EQ between SoF and the Steam SoD client release dates. Here is a compiled list of the changes that might be relevant to changes in the client since SoF and may be useful for development of the SoD client:

Quote:

12/23/2008 December 23, 2008
- Improved linkdead recovery: We've decreased the amount of time linkdead players will have to wait to log back in because of a stuck character.
- If you attempt to login to the world when that account is already logged in, you will now be prompted as to whether you wish to kick off the currently logged in player. The logged in player (if it is truly logged in and not link dead) will be prompted whether they wish to allow themselves to be kicked off.
- When going linkdead in combat, a 30 second delay is enforced before the kick is executed.
- When going linkdead while out of combat a 5 second delay is enforced before the kick is executed.
- Improved camera control: We added the ability to rotate the 3rd person camera (the one you get when you use the mousewheel) using the left mouse button. This allows you to move the camera around your character without rotating the character. This is very similar to the way 3rd person cameras work in many other games.

- New Icons for the Original Epics: With the newly discovered old set of icons, we gave the original epic 1.0s their intended art (for the original 1.0 epics that had one made).

- Added a new /merclog command that logs information for the player's mercenary (if they have one) to MercenaryAILog.txt. This command can only be executed once per minute. Also, added a new "mercenaries" bug type to the /bug window. Any bugs submitted with this type also generates the MercenaryAILog.txt file (if the player owns a merc and the merc is not dead/suspended).

- Buff icons from effects that are not removed by death should no longer disappear after receiving a resurrection.
- Fixed an issue preventing targeting players or entities by clicking on their HP gauges.
- Changing the volume in the in-game music player should now work correctly again.

12/09/2008 December 9, 2008
*** Mercenaries ***

- Healer mercenaries will give less priority to healing shamen that are not flagged as the main tank role and that are not being directly attacked. This should allow them to be a bit friendlier with regards to cannibalize.
- Mercenaries should be friendlier to feign splitting techniques. If the puller feigns in camp before the merc has a chance to react, the merc will not attack the mobs hostile only to the puller.
- Mercenaries will no longer attack enemies that are currently engaging targets outside their group (or group's pets).
- The camp radius now scales somewhat dynamically in that if your group is widely spaced, the radius around the group's center considered "in camp" to the AI is increased to avoid a situation where you've pulled an NPC past one of the group's members, but the AI still does not react to it. The minimum camp radius from group center is still 50feet as it was before.
- Healer mercenaries will no longer cast heal spells on themselves that have an invulnerability component, as the AI was never tuned to do this at the right time, and it leads to problems with the mercs appearing to be unresponsive.
- Increased the timer for how often a merc will attempt to resurrect a corpse when the res is not accepted from 2 minutes to 5 minutes.
- The ability to suspend/un-suspend a mercenaries is now locked when in combat and when the player still has a cool-down timer on PvP servers. For standard rule servers, the cool-down timer still does not factor into this, suspend/un-suspend can be done immediately after the hatelist is cleared.
- Tank mercenaries will now default to following their owner (or group) when there are no melee targets even when in combat.
- Mercenary Clerics should no longer cast their spell haste buff on classes that have no mana.
- Mercenaries now appear with a ':' before their name in the tracking window, similar to pets.
- Fixed a bug that allowed a mercenary to keep the effects of an aura permanently after the aura was no longer present.
- Fixed a problem that caused some players that zoned slowly to not be able to unsuspend their mercenary after they zoned.
- Mercenary healers will now only dispel buffs on enemies when in aggressive stance. Since aggressive stance isn't currently in the game (though it may return at some point) healer mercs will no longer be dispelling for now.
- Mercenaries should no longer become bald after various illusions.
- Added a new "Assist" stance for Journeyman and above tank mercs that allows them to operate in essentially a DPS mode. If the tank merc is in Assist stance and not designated the main tank it will not use any off-tanking behavior like it does when in Aggressive stance. It will attack whatever the main assist is targeting (or whatever it last attacked it there is no main assist) and continue to do so until the main assist switches targets. If in Assist mode and designated the main tank the tank merc should behave the same as it does in Aggressive stance.
- Fixed a problem where if you had maxed out your buff slots, healer mercenaries would no longer heal you.
- Fixed a problem that caused the AI to be blind to damage taken from certain spells like Blood Magic or Divine Arbitration.
- Fixed a problem where mercenaries were counting toward the hit limit for rain type spells, causing them to have fewer pulses when in the area of effect.
- Merc healers will no longer cure charmed pets.
- Mercenary "in camp" radius is no longer a sphere. It is now more of a disc to help with problems of mercs healing, etc. when a puller is on a floor above or below.
- Merc healer AI will no longer cast cure spells if somone in the group is at lower than 50% health.
- Mercs will no longer move out of melee range of their target if they are casting a beneficial spells (heals, buffs). This should cut down on a fair amount of unnecessary movement.
- Mercs should no longer run off to follow someone across the zone when their owner is set as puller. They will only follow another group member other than their owner if that other group member is within their awareness radius (about 200 ft.).
- Fixed an issue with out of combat healing AI doing a lot of over healing.
- PvP spell resist and duration values are now used when hostile spells are exchanged between a merc and a PC (for non PvP servers this only applies to the Arena).
- Fixed an issue with merc suspend timers counting down too fast if a custom UI had multiple instances of the timer display.
- Fixed a problem where mercenaries would go bald when removing an illusion and zoning.
- After carefully watching mercenaries since SoD launch some balance changes are being made:
-- You will no longer be able to suspend or unsuspend your mercenary while you are in combat.
-- Journeyman mercenaries will now cast 96% resurrection. Apprentice mercenaries are limited to 90% res.
-- Increased the stats of the Tank Mercenaries starting at the Journeyman tier. The values are tuned to be less than what an equivalently geared player would be but is higher than previous values for various mitigation and avoidance stats useful for a tank.

*** Miscellaneous ***

- Corrected a few Stability issues.
- Fixed a bug that was causing power sources to only be drained when out of combat. Now they only drain while in combat instead.
- The NPC buy/sell/bank window will no longer disappear when the game client is re-sized.
- Players can now decline a group invite when they own a mercenary.
- Fixed a problem that caused player traps (e.g., fadelure, fire rune, bonestitch fetish) to trigger on pets/mounts/mercs, causing all kinds of havoc.
- The incorrect boosts to HP/mana/endurance have been brought back in line with what they should have been. Please see other posts on this subject for more information.
- Fixed a bug that caused certain spells that triggered casting of more spells (like Spectralside and Unity of Spirits) to overwrite each other even though that was not intended.
- Power sources will once again change the color of the affected stats in that slot.
- The potion belt now conveys the cool down timers on potions.
- Fixed a client crash when your pet got more than 30 effects on it.
- Corrected an issue that caused guilded characters to be forcably placed in the guild voice channel upon zoning.
- Changed the way charges are deducted from consumable click items. Now, if the spell on the item is beneficial and it does not land, the charge will not be consumed.
- Drakkin should now revert to a walk/run animation after dismounting.

11/20/2008 November 20, 2008
*** Test Server ***
- HP, Mana, and Endurance calculations have been adjusted to address a few unintended inconsistencies.

We've identified the unintended inconsistencies in the HP/Mana/Endurance formulae that were causing inflated values. We've readjusted the values to be more in line with expectations and to help prevent problems like this in the future.

The net result of these adjustments will be that everyone should see a benefit Over the values present at the launch of Seeds of Destruction, although you will notice a drop from the most recent values if you're level 81+.

10/29/2008 October 29, 2008
- Fixed a few zone stability issues.

- Mercenaries should no longer break mez when using their AE offensive abilities.
- Mercenaries are now allowed in Qeynos Catacombs.
- Fixed an issue that caused healer mercenaries to react incorrectly if a familiar they were buffing was summoned.
- Casting a spell on a mercenary will now give a downtime timer. This is based on the difficulty of the most difficult NPC on the mercenary is engaged with. Spells cast on the mercenary when not in combat should not generate a downtime timer.
- NPCs fighting a mercenary should now correctly call for help from their friends.
- Damage from mercenaries is, like pet damage, no longer considered as "NPC damage" for purposes of calculating if an NPC did more damage than PC groups - They will no longer steal credit for your kill!

- A dead player's corpse will no longer steal the credit for a kill due to DoT spells of the player in hover mode.

- While in windowed mode, changing to another application (clicking or alt-tabbing) should no longer cause the target to clear or change.
- Fixed an issue with toggling between the last two targets.
- Escaping the loot window while looting should no longer cause the client to crash.
- Clicking an empty spell gem slot should no longer cause the client to crash.
- Fixed issue with not selecting the correct target when clicking on the group gauges.

10/21/2008 October 21, 2008
- Level Cap Increase: Players can now achieve level 85. New high level item sets, new Alternate Advancement ability lines, new spells, and new skill caps come with this increase.

- Mercenaries: Mercenaries are NPCs for hire that will aid adventurers in their heroic endeavors. Their levels and abilities will scale appropriately and they will think and act for themselves with limited player guidance. They are designed for extra support or extra muscle in PvE encounters.

Unlike player pets, these NPCs are not directly controllable by players, though the player can give them general orders. They function like a normal party member including taking up a group slot and taking a share of the experience.

Mercenary Liaisons can be found in the Plane of Knowledge as well as all starting cities and will allow you to hire mercenaries based on their race. The Liaisons within the Plane of Knowledge will allow you to hire mercenaries of any player race. These merchants can be found using the Find ability.

Before purchasing a mercenary be sure to read the descriptions, cost value, and restrictions. There are different levels and tiers available. Some mercenaries may not available until you have completed certain content but there are some apprentice and journeyman ones available to all.

Mercenares have a one-time hire cost and an upkeep cost that is charged every 15 minutes. The hire cost is usually much higher than the upkeep cost.

There are two classes of Mercenaries available - Tank and Healer.

Healer Mercenary: Healer mercenaries prefer to heal and buff their owner and others in the group rather than engage directly in combat. These mercenaries can also resurrect players upon death.

Tank Mercenary: Tank mercenaries prefer to melee. They will taunt if it is set to the main tank role. Though it will still attack and behave as a secondary tank if it is not set as main tank.

If your group has someone with the puller role, mercenaries will only assist them when they and any NPCs chasing them are near camp. Any mercenary owned by the puller will stay back with the group.

Like pets, mercenaries will not aggro NPCs on their own.

Mercenaries can be suspended like a pet, though they will remain suspended forever or until you dismiss them. Mercenaries will be suspended automatically when entering most raid zones. They must also be suspended before you join a raid.

If your mercenary dies, it can be revived after five minutes with an additional upkeep charge.

Some mercenaries may not think your gold is worth them risking their life. Those with higher confidence in themselves will cost more money.

- Corpses will now automatically decay after you receive an experience-granting resurrection while in hover mode.
- Corrected an issue that caused NPCs to not receive full damage when multiple ranged attackers hit them at the exact same time.
- Fixed a problem with toggling between the last two targets if last target was selected by clicking the group window or player window using the mouse.
- Fixed an issue where all items in any list window would display a tool tip regardless of whether there was a tool tip string defined.
- Fixed a bug that caused groups to be out of sync when a group member went linkdead.
- Fixed a bug with /hidecorpse looted that caused it to hide your own corpse when you looted it.
- Fixed a bug that caused active and suspended pets to be lost when their owner went link dead.
- Optimized the network traffic for the target buff window. This should result in significant improvements in lag.
- Fixed several bugs with /makeleader.
- Fixed a bug with charm that was causing charmed pets to not properly clear their hate lists.

- Things that shouldn't have a con color (corpses, boats, etc.) will no longer display with a white con in the target window.
- Re-arranged the General Options tab to allow for more options.

10/09/2008 October 9, 2008
- Corrected a few behind the scenes issues with items.
10/07/2008 October 7, 2008
- Group Merge Ability: Looking to fill the last few spaces of your group? Groups now have the ability to merge with each other without disbanding from their own group! With this new feature, the group leader of one group can invite the group leader of another group to join his/her group. If the invitation is accepted, the two groups will merge together to form one group. This change merely allows groups to merge without having to make everyone drop out of their current group. All other group functionality should work as it did in the past. It does not increase the six person group maximum for groups.
- Group Window Enhancements: The following changes have been made to improve the Group Window - We've added mana and endurance gauges for group members. We've added a Group Roles infrastructure. When right-clicking on a member of the group, a leader will now have the roles sub-menu for role administration. If currently the leader of a group, right-clicking the player's health / mana / stamina window will also show the same role administration menu. We also added in the /grouproles command. A group role indicator was also added to the Player Info window.
- Target Window Enhancements: The following changes have been made to improve the Target Window - The target window will now display the buffs on target players, pets, and in the future mercenaries. The Inspect Buffs leadership ability is still needed to view NPC buffs. The target's buff timers displays in hours, minutes, seconds. We've added the ability to remove buffs from yourself, your pet, and in the future mercenaries from the target window. The ability to block buffs on you and your pet has also been added to the target window. The Target Window is now resizable.
- More Firiona Vie Character Slots: We've extended the amount of character slots available on the Firiona Vie server to 3 characters.
-Added the ability for players to target nearest corpse and cycle through the nearest corpses via hotkeys. These will need to be set in the options menu to be used.
-Increased the range of emotes to match the range of say.
-Fixed an issue with damage shield mitigation on items.
-/target will now target the player instead of their familiar, as long as the player is within a reasonable distance of their familiar.
- We now display all bind points for a player when using /charinfo.
- Removed the group leadership AA Designate Main Assist since this functionality is given to all groups through the new Group Role system. Leadership AAs spent on this ability have been refunded in the form of regular AAs.

- Items and coin are no longer left on a corpse upon death. The items will remain equipped and in their respective containers.
- Spells will now remain memorized on a character upon death.
- Players should now be able to equip items for which they don't meet the required level. In the inventory window, the item will be highlighted in yellow if the required level is not met. No benefits will be granted from this item other than being able to equip it.
- Added the concept of revive effects. When you respawn, you will receive negative effects for a while to compensate for having all your equipment and spells still memorized.
- /target will now choose PCs over NPCs when using a partial name.
- If you have a familiar buff but no familiar, it should no longer destroy any other pets you have when you remove the buff.
- All classes now keep their familiar buffs when the familiar is killed or dismissed, not just wizards.
- Fixed a problem with familiars for pet classes. If you have a pet, then summon a familiar, then zone, it will now keep your pet properly with only the familiar buff.
- Fixed some problems with the muted friends list for voice chat.
- Corrected a few issues with group and raid management functions.
- Groups are now somewhat persistent. If you log out and log back in you will still be in your group. Offline players should still be able to be kicked out of groups.
- Fixed a problem with /hidecorpse looted where the client and zone could get out of sync and keep you from looting for a while after that.
- Added /hidecorpse npc which works just like /hidecorpse all except it only hides NPC corpses.
- Drakkin rogues will now sneak at the correct speed when over level 50.
- Added in Group Roles infrastructure. When right-clicking on a member of the group, a leader will now have the roles sub-menu for role administration. If currently the leader of a group, right-clicking the player's health / mana / stamina window will also show the same role administration menu. Also, added in the /grouproles command. A group role indicator was also added to the Player Info window.
- Group members in other zones will now be notified when their group member (that previously logged off) logs back in (grey when they're offline, white when they're online). Their name in the group window changes color as indicated for online/offline status.

- Slash versions of the commands are effective on playername for the channel you are in and only if you are the moderator (raid/guild/group leader)
- Unban only works via slash command since there the banned player is no longer in the channel and therefore no longer available to click on.
- /voicechat unban playername
-Unban only works to unban playername in the channel you are currently in, and only if you are the moderator (raid/guild/group leader)

- The group leader will now be displayed in a different color in the group window and player window. This will work in addition to /groupleader to find out who the group leader is.
- Updated the pet window to display timers in hours, minutes, seconds like the buff window.
- "Caster:" in the buff info window will now display the user name. Also, if there is no caster information available, the "Caster:" line should not appear.
- Added the ability to click on a group member and target out of zone / link dead group members. Using the function keys by default should also bring up the players in the target window.
- Invite, follow and disband/decline buttons are no longer required in the group window.
- Modified the spell gem window to auto-resize based on the number of spell gems activated via Mnemonic Retention.
- Added the ability when using custom UI's to target out-of-zone group members by clicking on their EQType's gauge.
- Fixed a bug seen in custom UI's where the spell name in the buff and short term buff windows would be "Unknown Spell" when there was no buff in that slot.
- In the group window, the gauge size can now be used by custom UI modifiers to set the size for gauges instead of having to change the background size.

9/30/2008 September 30, 2008
- Message to custom UI users: With the next Game Update, we will be releasing several extensive changes to the User Interface (UI). Some of these changes can currently be found on the Test Server and additional changes may be released throughout the week. Please take a moment to visit the Test Server so that you can prepare ahead of time for these changes.
9/10/2008 September 10, 2008
- Fixed a few server and zone stability issues.
9/03/2008 September 3, 2008
- Guild Banners will again be sustainable with only one guild member in the zone.
- Weightless Coinage: Coinage no longer adds to the weight of player characters. Adventurers all across Norrath rejoice... especially monks!
- The timer for returning to the game after going linkdead with a character has been reduced from 3 minutes to 1 minute.

- Station Voice Comes to EverQuest!

- How does it work in EverQuest? -
To begin using voice chat, verify the feature is enabled by opening the Option window (Alt+O) and navigating to the Voice tab. This feature will be turned off by default.

Devices: Once Voice Chat is enabled EverQuest will attempt to connect to the correct hardware.

Push-to-talk key: Initially the voice chat system uses Ctrl+Tab as the push-to-talk key. This can be reconfigured to any available key from the Options window, Keys tab.

Output volume: Master volume for all incoming Voice Chat traffic. This setting is independent of music and sound effect volume settings. Setting this to high results in distortion of incoming speech.

Input volume: The relative sensitivity of your microphone. Turning it up means your microphone picks up quieter sounds. Setting this to high results in distortion of your outgoing speech. The sound indicator gives an estimate of the distortion. Red signifies high distortion, yellow medium distortion and green low distortion.

Testing your setup with Echo channel: The echo channel allows you to get an idea of your settings by broadcasting what you say back to you after a short delay.

- The Voice Bar -
Once Voice Chat is enabled and has successfully connected the Voice Bar will automatically be shown. The Voice Bar by default will remain active as long as voice chat is enabled. A hot key may be mapped to open and close the Voice Bar.

The Voice Bar offers a push to talk button, a list of users of the current channel, what channels are available, a link to Options, and indication of who is currently talking.

The Talk button is simply a push-to-talk button that is mouse activated instead of keypress activated.
The Voice Users button presents a list of the users of the current channel. Clicking on the speaker by any user allows you to adjust the volume of that player relative to your master volume. A particularly loud player can be turned down relative to other voice chat traffic Moderators for a channel are given additional options of muting a player for the entire channel, banning a player from the channel and kicking a player from the channel.

The channel button pulls down a menu of channels available to you. The currently selected one is shown in green if connected. Red if the connection has failed. Unselected but available channels are shown in white.

Voice chat has been integrated into some other interfaces in the game. Speaker icons show up for players that have voice chat active. The speaker icons behave as they do in the Voice Users window, giving access to Voice Chat options specific to that player.

There is currently an issue with leaving a private channel making you unable to invite someone to a new private channel. We are working on resolving this issue, but until then, logging out and back in should clear your channel status.

- Using the /voicechat Command -
The /voicechat command offers the following options:

-- on: activate voice chat (ex. /voicechat on)
-- off: deactivate voice chat
-- Moderator Controls:
-Mute <player> - mutes a player for everyone in the current channel
-Unmute <player>- unmutes a player for everyone in the current channel
-Kick <player>- kicks a player form the current channel
-Ban <player> - bans a player from the current channel and kicks them if they are present
-Unban <player> - unbans a player from current channel

7/17/2008 July 17, 2008
- Spells and procs will no longer reset swing timers for any class, PC or NPC.
- The NPCs that were made easier in our previous patch will now have their proper consider message.
- Fix a problem that was causing some custom UIs to crash while drawing buff icons.
- Improved an issue that was causing poor performance in outdoor zones.
- Fixed an issue that was causing poor performance when switching between background and foreground modes.

7/09/2008 July 9, 2008
- Moved the Max FPS and Max background FPS sliders to the advanced display options window.
- The spell information window has been changed. For buffs that are on you or your pet, you will be able to see the name of the caster, the full duration of the spell, the level required to cast the spell, the skill required to cast the spell, the mana cost of the spell, and the spell description. Non existing buff based spells will display the total duration of the spell in a new format, hours, minutes, and seconds.
- New visual indicators have been added to the buff window icons, and short duration buff window icons. Additionally, the spell counter information has been moved to facilitate the visual display of the buff timer on the respective buff icon. There have been four pieces of visual information added to the buff icons. This includes a visual indicator to show each of four possible pieces of information. The new pieces of information are Buff Timer, Buff Counters, Song Timer, and Song Counters.
- With the description changes added, all relevant counter information for BARD songs, all short duration effects, and regular buffs in either the spell window buff icon or short duration buff icon respectively will also be displayed.
- The buff icon will now display the time remaining in the form of hours (h), minutes (m), or seconds (s) whichever is greater. This significantly reduces the amount physical space used on the icon to print out the remaining time, in effect showing more of the buff or short duration buff icon to the player.

- Ornament Mutation Tools are now available for purchase from Magus Alaria in the Guild Lobby. They can be used to permanently change Ornament items into single use Ornamentation containers.

- We've adjusted the fog settings in all zones to allow for better visibility.

- More fixes for corpse looting problems when using /hidecorpse looted.
- Added the Background FPS slider to the Options->Display window. Allows setting the frame rate for the EQ window when it is not the foreground window. Sliding all the way to the left (the default) will use "Min. CPU" mode. Increasing this above "Min. CPU" can improve auto-follow behavior when the client is not in the foreground.
- 'alpha' and 'ralpha' added to /tracksort command.
- Added new SoF stats to the bazaar search options.
- Fixed a problem causing a client disconnect when consuming or using the last item in a stack.
- Made an optimization that will slightly improve lag in loping plains. This is not a full fix.
- Changed the way CPU affinity assignment works so that when you have multiple clients running and exit one and restart it, you still get correct distribution of CPU assignment. Previously, this could cause both clients to be assigned to the same CPU.

6/11/2008 June 11, 2008
- Added a few new item icons for future items. Custom UIs will need to update to see them.

5/29/2008 May 29, 2008
- The experience gained formulas have been modified to present players with a much smoother increase in the number of kills required to progress through a level as they gain more levels. This change has the side effect of reducing the number of kills required to gain a level in certain scenarios between levels 50 and 75.
- Improvements have been made to load balancing for instance servers that should improve peak-time performance of instances.
- Corpses should once again disappear immediately rather than fading away slowly after looting when using /hidecorpse looted even if all the items have been removed from the corpse.

5/22/2008 May 22, 2008
- The EQPlayers database has received an upgrade to improve performance.

- We have enabled player proximity again. The proximity algorithms have been improved and tuned. Bandwidth usage has been reduced and both client and server performance have been improved. In addition, the delay upon first zoning in should be largely eliminated as any NPCs in your proximity on zone-in are sent by the server before you are officially in the zone (while the zoning screen is still up).
- Player-made powersources will now result in "sealed" orbs which can be right-clicked to create the actual powersources. This will guarantee that players will get a fully-charged powersource, and allow for multiple yields on the tradeskill combine as originally intended.
- Fixed an issue that could cause players with /hidecorpse looted active to be unable to loot+.
- Fixed an issue that was causing players to go linkdead when accepting a resurrection.

5/07/2008 May 7, 2008
- Changed variations of the same SoF evolving item that were not on lore groups to now share lore groups.
- /guildstatus should once again work on any players in the zone regardless of location.
- The Mark NPC command should display NPC names correctly now.
- The /who command will now always put your name last in the list.
- Fixed a problem in the bazaar where if you used mouselook right after right clicking on a trader name in the search window your view would pitch up to look at the ceiling.
- /hidecorpse looted now persists after zoning (the hidden corpses don't persist, but the /hidecorpse looted "mode" does).
- Looting all the items on a corpse when in /hidecorpse looted mode will cause the corpse to immediately disappear, rather than fade out slowly.

4/24/2008 April 24, 2008
- Several speed and stability changes have been made to address issues with proximity loading.
- Leadership AAs should work more reliably with mobs that come from outside of the group's awareness range.
- Several speed and stability changes have been made to address issues with proximity loading.
- The client will now load more information upon initial zone-in to make later movement smoother. There will be a performance hit when first zoning in, however.
- The tracking window updates have been optimized and should be somewhat faster now.
- Fixed issues where /guildstatus and /guildinvite were not working on players outside of proximity range.
- The corpses of group members who die outside of proximity range should once again be targetable by clicking their name and should show on the map.
- Fixed several issues with the /hidecorpse command:
- - You can now hide corpses after being resurrected from hover mode.
- - Corpses of group members not in zone will no longer be hidden with /hidecorpse allbutgroup.
- - /hidecorpse looted will not hide your own corpse.
- The /who guild command should now return players in the zone who are in /roleplay mode.
- The /who count command will again work for all players in the zone.
- Using the center view key after moving downward on a mount will no longer cause your view angle and movement angle to be out of sync.
- Right clicking a player's name in the bazaar window will again face you towards them and generate a path.

4/17/2008 April 17, 2008
- The tracking window can now be sorted alphabetically and reverse-alphabetically. Also, there is now a check box to set whether you want the tracking window to auto-update every six seconds.
- Our UI xml schema has changed. If you are using a custom UI you may need to update this file in your custom UI directory.

- Changes have been made to the way the client is notified about other entities (players, NPCs, etc.) in the zone.
- Zone-wide /who commands now use a similar code path to server wide /who all commands. Note that this will impose a similar time limit to how often it can be used.
- The bobbing effect of levitation has been removed. A new effect that pushes you off the ground about a foot and a half has been introduced.
- Fixed an issue with the "Public if Usable" permission in the guild bank.
- Fixed an issue that could place levitated players below the world when entering certain zones.
- Fixed an issue that would cause levitate to fail if a player's mount was hit by a spell (usually an aura).
- Stacks of two items in the guild bank can now be split.

2/28/2008 February 28, 2008
- Guild Bank items and deposits now sort after the contents have been changed.
- The Adventure window now includes the ability to sort entries by the properties of each adventure entry.
- Added default height sizes to many of the illusions in the game. This should cause illusions of creatures that are typically non-human heights to grow or shrink the user as appropriate when they change into that illusion.

2/06/2008 February 6, 2008
- We've made improvements to increase the stability of the servers.

1/16/2008 January 16, 2008
-Loot All has been changed to help resolve some client disconnect/corpse loss issues. This will cause the loot all to be slower than it was previously. When stability is improved, we will take a look at speeding it back up again.

- Bazaar traders can now resume selling stacks of items at higher cost again.
- Submitting an in-game mail with a blank "To" field should no longer crash the game client for the sender.

12/17/2007 December 17, 2007
Here's some important news regarding the Bazaar.

Currently there is an issue when setting prices for stacked items in bazaar. Do not sell a stack of items worth more than 4,294,967 pp (platinum pieces) total.

12/05/2007 December 5, 2007
- Double fogging has been eliminated and now all in game objects should fog correctly.
- Dragon Heritage/Tattoos should no longer randomly change when using 'face' function in the inventory window.
- Fixed a few graphic issues with removing an illusion buff.
- Fixed a few zone and server stability issues.
- Fixed collision issues that caused problems for shorter characters and characters on mounts.

11/13/2007 November 13, 2007
Level Cap Increase: Players can now achieve level 80. New high level item sets, new Alternate Advancement ability lines, and new spells will come with this increase, including a new AA that grants a new spell slot.

New Loot All Options: "Loot All" functionality has been added to corpses. This includes a "Loot All" button on the loot window and the ability to shift-right-click loot a corpse.

AC Mitigation Improvements: We modified the AC Caps and over-cap returns for mitigation for all classes to bring them more in line with their intended ability to mitigate damage. Warriors, Paladins, Shadowknights, Clerics, and Monks received a minor increase in their mitigation ability. Rangers, Bards, Rogues, Shaman, Beastlords, and Berserkers received a moderate increase in their mitigation ability. Druids, Necromancers, Wizards, Enchanters, and Magicians received a considerable increase in their mitigation ability.

Fog Rendering System Enhancements: An entirely new fog rendering system has been implemented in the EverQuest graphics engine. This new system is used in all zones that currently have fog.

Multi-core CPU Support: If you have a Multi-core CPU you no longer have to manually set their processor affinity! EverQuest will automatically assign itself to an available core. If you run multiple copies of the client, each new copy running will assign itself to the next available core. Those interested in customizing which core or cores EverQuest clients run on, check the forums.

Issue: West Display Bug
Summary: When you face west the video geometry disappears except the UI and the Sky. When you face another direction the issue goes away. Normally this is only fixed by doing a reboot of your PC or reloading EQ.
Status: We have made a change that should reduce the chances of the "west bug" occurring; unfortunately the change requires us to turn off some optimizations. If you want to disable this workaround, please add the following line to your eqclient.ini: DisableWestBugFix=1 (The EQ team would like to thank Community Member Strommmm for his feedback on helping us with this issue.)

10/04/2007 October 4, 2007
- Copy Layout Window: Typing either /copylayout or pressing the Copy Layout button within the General tab of the Options window will bring up a list of all your UI_name_server.ini files with each layout stored in them (along with the ones stored in defaults.ini). Selecting one will copy the layout you selected over the current layout, including any custom skin, viewport and alpha/color/fade settings that might be in use. This can also be done directly (for those with a custom UI that does not contain the new window) by typing "/copylayout resolution INI_filename" where resolution is in the form "1280x1024" or "Windowed" for the windowed layout. INI_filename is optional, and defaults to the currently logged in character’s UI INI file.

*** UI ***

- Fixed numerous UI issues related to changing the game resolution.
- The /viewport command has a new optional parameter. The 5th parameter "scale" can be "0" or "1". Not including it or using "0" causes /viewport to behave the way it always has, allowing a fixed size viewport. Using "1" causes the viewport to scale with the windowed mode EQ window as it resizes.
- Fixed several problems with window layouts and custom skins. The changes affect the way the windowed mode window layout is saved. In most cases your windowed mode layout will be converted for you automatically as you log each character into the game. However, in some cases the conversion will be unable to determine the original size of your windowed mode window. If this occurs you can simply use the new copy layout window (which should be displayed automatically for default skin users) or /copylayout command to copy a window layout of your choice to be your windowed mode layout. For more information visit the EverQuest forum thread on the subject.
(http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/po...opic_id=120218)
- Notes to custom UI builders: There was at least one custom UI that did not render windows at all when they were minimized. The UI changes include persisting the minimized state of windows. In those custom UI's, if you minimize, and the window disappears, there is no way of getting it back unless you manually edit the .ini file to change the Minimized setting.
- Once you have your windowed mode window sized the way you like it, you may now prevent accidental resizing by clicking off the "Allow window resizing" button in Options->Display.
- Like your EQ window to overlap the Windows task bar? This can be enabled with the new "Overlap Windows Taskbar" button in Options->Display.

Next post, I will make a sorted list of the above to help organize it and make it more useful for development.

Ok, here are most of the Patch Notes from above after being slightly organized into categories. Some of the categories overlap, but this should break them up a bit better than just being in random order.

Quote:

Stability, and Performance Changes:

- Corrected a few Stability issues (Note: Many similar notes like this were mentioned through the patch notes).
- Improved an issue that was causing poor performance in outdoor zones.
- Fixed an issue that was causing poor performance when switching between background and foreground modes.
- Added the Background FPS slider to the Options->Display window. Allows setting the frame rate for the EQ window when it is not the foreground window. Sliding all the way to the left (the default) will use "Min. CPU" mode. Increasing this above "Min. CPU" can improve auto-follow behavior when the client is not in the foreground.
- Changed the way CPU affinity assignment works so that when you have multiple clients running and exit one and restart it, you still get correct distribution of CPU assignment. Previously, this could cause both clients to be assigned to the same CPU.
- Multi-core CPU Support: If you have a Multi-core CPU you no longer have to manually set their processor affinity! EverQuest will automatically assign itself to an available core. If you run multiple copies of the client, each new copy running will assign itself to the next available core. Those interested in customizing which core or cores EverQuest clients run on, check the forums.

Camera Control Changes:

- Improved camera control: We added the ability to rotate the 3rd person camera (the one you get when you use the mousewheel) using the left mouse button. This allows you to move the camera around your character without rotating the character. This is very similar to the way 3rd person cameras work in many other games.
- Using the center view key after moving downward on a mount will no longer cause your view angle and movement angle to be out of sync.

Fixes and Adjustments:

- Changing the volume in the in-game music player should now work correctly again.
- Fixed an issue preventing targeting players or entities by clicking on their HP gauges.
- Buff icons from effects that are not removed by death should no longer disappear after receiving a resurrection.
- Fixed a client crash when your pet got more than 30 effects on it.
- Fixed a bug with /hidecorpse looted that caused it to hide your own corpse when you looted it.
- Fixed several bugs with /makeleader.
- Fixed a problem with /hidecorpse looted where the client and zone could get out of sync and keep you from looting for a while after that.
- Added /hidecorpse npc which works just like /hidecorpse all except it only hides NPC corpses.
- We've adjusted the fog settings in all zones to allow for better visibility.
- More fixes for corpse looting problems when using /hidecorpse looted.
- Fixed a problem causing a client disconnect when consuming or using the last item in a stack.
- Fixed an issue that could cause players with /hidecorpse looted active to be unable to loot+.
- Fixed an issue that was causing players to go linkdead when accepting a resurrection.
- /guildstatus should once again work on any players in the zone regardless of location.
- /hidecorpse looted now persists after zoning (the hidden corpses don't persist, but the /hidecorpse looted "mode" does).
- Looting all the items on a corpse when in /hidecorpse looted mode will cause the corpse to immediately disappear, rather than fade out slowly.
- The tracking window updates have been optimized and should be somewhat faster now.
- Fixed several issues with the /hidecorpse command:
- - You can now hide corpses after being resurrected from hover mode.
- - Corpses of group members not in zone will no longer be hidden with /hidecorpse allbutgroup.
- - /hidecorpse looted will not hide your own corpse.
- Fixed an issue that could place levitated players below the world when entering certain zones.
- Fixed an issue that would cause levitate to fail if a player's mount was hit by a spell (usually an aura).
- Bazaar traders can now resume selling stacks of items at higher cost again.
- Submitting an in-game mail with a blank "To" field should no longer crash the game client for the sender.
- Double fogging has been eliminated and now all in game objects should fog correctly.
- Dragon Heritage/Tattoos should no longer randomly change when using 'face' function in the inventory window.
- Fixed a few graphic issues with removing an illusion buff.
- Fixed collision issues that caused problems for shorter characters and characters on mounts.
- Issue: West Display Bug
Summary: When you face west the video geometry disappears except the UI and the Sky. When you face another direction the issue goes away. Normally this is only fixed by doing a reboot of your PC or reloading EQ.
Status: We have made a change that should reduce the chances of the "west bug" occurring; unfortunately the change requires us to turn off some optimizations. If you want to disable this workaround, please add the following line to your eqclient.ini: DisableWestBugFix=1 (The EQ team would like to thank Community Member Strommmm for his feedback on helping us with this issue.)

New Feature/System Changes:

- HP, Mana, and Endurance calculations have been adjusted to address a few unintended inconsistencies.
- The incorrect boosts to HP/mana/endurance have been brought back in line with what they should have been. Please see other posts on this subject for more information.
- Group Merge Ability: Looking to fill the last few spaces of your group? Groups now have the ability to merge with each other without disbanding from their own group! With this new feature, the group leader of one group can invite the group leader of another group to join his/her group. If the invitation is accepted, the two groups will merge together to form one group. This change merely allows groups to merge without having to make everyone drop out of their current group. All other group functionality should work as it did in the past. It does not increase the six person group maximum for groups.
- Group Window Enhancements: The following changes have been made to improve the Group Window - We've added mana and endurance gauges for group members. We've added a Group Roles infrastructure. When right-clicking on a member of the group, a leader will now have the roles sub-menu for role administration. If currently the leader of a group, right-clicking the player's health / mana / stamina window will also show the same role administration menu. We also added in the /grouproles command. A group role indicator was also added to the Player Info window.
- Target Window Enhancements: The following changes have been made to improve the Target Window - The target window will now display the buffs on target players, pets, and in the future mercenaries. The Inspect Buffs leadership ability is still needed to view NPC buffs. The target's buff timers displays in hours, minutes, seconds. We've added the ability to remove buffs from yourself, your pet, and in the future mercenaries from the target window. The ability to block buffs on you and your pet has also been added to the target window. The Target Window is now resizable.
- We now display all bind points for a player when using /charinfo.
- Removed the group leadership AA Designate Main Assist since this functionality is given to all groups through the new Group Role system. Leadership AAs spent on this ability have been refunded in the form of regular AAs.
- Items and coin are no longer left on a corpse upon death. The items will remain equipped and in their respective containers.
- Spells will now remain memorized on a character upon death.
- Players should now be able to equip items for which they don't meet the required level. In the inventory window, the item will be highlighted in yellow if the required level is not met. No benefits will be granted from this item other than being able to equip it.
- Added the concept of revive effects. When you respawn, you will receive negative effects for a while to compensate for having all your equipment and spells still memorized.
- Added in Group Roles infrastructure. When right-clicking on a member of the group, a leader will now have the roles sub-menu for role administration. If currently the leader of a group, right-clicking the player's health / mana / stamina window will also show the same role administration menu. Also, added in the /grouproles command. A group role indicator was also added to the Player Info window.
- Group members in other zones will now be notified when their group member (that previously logged off) logs back in (grey when they're offline, white when they're online). Their name in the group window changes color as indicated for online/offline status.
- Weightless Coinage: Coinage no longer adds to the weight of player characters. Adventurers all across Norrath rejoice... especially monks!
- Ornament Mutation Tools are now available for purchase from Magus Alaria in the Guild Lobby. They can be used to permanently change Ornament items into single use Ornamentation containers.
- Player-made powersources will now result in "sealed" orbs which can be right-clicked to create the actual powersources. This will guarantee that players will get a fully-charged powersource, and allow for multiple yields on the tradeskill combine as originally intended.
- The experience gained formulas have been modified to present players with a much smoother increase in the number of kills required to progress through a level as they gain more levels. This change has the side effect of reducing the number of kills required to gain a level in certain scenarios between levels 50 and 75.
- Changes have been made to the way the client is notified about other entities (players, NPCs, etc.) in the zone.
- The bobbing effect of levitation has been removed. A new effect that pushes you off the ground about a foot and a half has been introduced.
- New Loot All Options: "Loot All" functionality has been added to corpses. This includes a "Loot All" button on the loot window and the ability to shift-right-click loot a corpse.
- AC Mitigation Improvements: We modified the AC Caps and over-cap returns for mitigation for all classes to bring them more in line with their intended ability to mitigate damage. Warriors, Paladins, Shadowknights, Clerics, and Monks received a minor increase in their mitigation ability. Rangers, Bards, Rogues, Shaman, Beastlords, and Berserkers received a moderate increase in their mitigation ability. Druids, Necromancers, Wizards, Enchanters, and Magicians received a considerable increase in their mitigation ability.
- Fog Rendering System Enhancements: An entirely new fog rendering system has been implemented in the EverQuest graphics engine. This new system is used in all zones that currently have fog.

Content Related Changes:

- New Icons for the Original Epics: With the newly discovered old set of icons, we gave the original epic 1.0s their intended art (for the original 1.0 epics that had one made).
- Made an optimization that will slightly improve lag in loping plains. This is not a full fix.
- Added a few new item icons for future items. Custom UIs will need to update to see them.
- Changed variations of the same SoF evolving item that were not on lore groups to now share lore groups.
- Added default height sizes to many of the illusions in the game. This should cause illusions of creatures that are typically non-human heights to grow or shrink the user as appropriate when they change into that illusion.

UI Changes/Fixes:

- The NPC buy/sell/bank window will no longer disappear when the game client is re-sized.
- Power sources will once again change the color of the affected stats in that slot.
- The potion belt now conveys the cool down timers on potions.
- While in windowed mode, changing to another application (clicking or alt-tabbing) should no longer cause the target to clear or change.
- Fixed an issue with toggling between the last two targets.
- Escaping the loot window while looting should no longer cause the client to crash.
- Clicking an empty spell gem slot should no longer cause the client to crash.
- Fixed issue with not selecting the correct target when clicking on the group gauges.
- Fixed a problem with toggling between the last two targets if last target was selected by clicking the group window or player window using the mouse.
- Fixed an issue where all items in any list window would display a tool tip regardless of whether there was a tool tip string defined.
- Optimized the network traffic for the target buff window. This should result in significant improvements in lag.
- Re-arranged the General Options tab to allow for more options.
-Added the ability for players to target nearest corpse and cycle through the nearest corpses via hotkeys. These will need to be set in the options menu to be used.
- Corrected a few issues with group and raid management functions.
- The group leader will now be displayed in a different color in the group window and player window. This will work in addition to /groupleader to find out who the group leader is.
- Updated the pet window to display timers in hours, minutes, seconds like the buff window.
- "Caster:" in the buff info window will now display the user name. Also, if there is no caster information available, the "Caster:" line should not appear.
- Added the ability to click on a group member and target out of zone / link dead group members. Using the function keys by default should also bring up the players in the target window.
- Invite, follow and disband/decline buttons are no longer required in the group window.
- Modified the spell gem window to auto-resize based on the number of spell gems activated via Mnemonic Retention.
- Added the ability when using custom UI's to target out-of-zone group members by clicking on their EQType's gauge.
- Fixed a bug seen in custom UI's where the spell name in the buff and short term buff windows would be "Unknown Spell" when there was no buff in that slot.
- In the group window, the gauge size can now be used by custom UI modifiers to set the size for gauges instead of having to change the background size.
- Fix a problem that was causing some custom UIs to crash while drawing buff icons.
- Moved the Max FPS and Max background FPS sliders to the advanced display options window.
- The spell information window has been changed. For buffs that are on you or your pet, you will be able to see the name of the caster, the full duration of the spell, the level required to cast the spell, the skill required to cast the spell, the mana cost of the spell, and the spell description. Non existing buff based spells will display the total duration of the spell in a new format, hours, minutes, and seconds.
- New visual indicators have been added to the buff window icons, and short duration buff window icons. Additionally, the spell counter information has been moved to facilitate the visual display of the buff timer on the respective buff icon. There have been four pieces of visual information added to the buff icons. This includes a visual indicator to show each of four possible pieces of information. The new pieces of information are Buff Timer, Buff Counters, Song Timer, and Song Counters.
- With the description changes added, all relevant counter information for BARD songs, all short duration effects, and regular buffs in either the spell window buff icon or short duration buff icon respectively will also be displayed.
- The buff icon will now display the time remaining in the form of hours (h), minutes (m), or seconds (s) whichever is greater. This significantly reduces the amount physical space used on the icon to print out the remaining time, in effect showing more of the buff or short duration buff icon to the player.
- 'alpha' and 'ralpha' added to /tracksort command.
- Added new SoF stats to the bazaar search options.
- The Mark NPC command should display NPC names correctly now.
- The /who command will now always put your name last in the list.
- Fixed a problem in the bazaar where if you used mouselook right after right clicking on a trader name in the search window your view would pitch up to look at the ceiling.
- Several speed and stability changes have been made to address issues with proximity loading.
- Leadership AAs should work more reliably with mobs that come from outside of the group's awareness range.
- The client will now load more information upon initial zone-in to make later movement smoother. There will be a performance hit when first zoning in, however.
- Right clicking a player's name in the bazaar window will again face you towards them and generate a path.
- The tracking window can now be sorted alphabetically and reverse-alphabetically. Also, there is now a check box to set whether you want the tracking window to auto-update every six seconds.
- Our UI xml schema has changed. If you are using a custom UI you may need to update this file in your custom UI directory.
- Zone-wide /who commands now use a similar code path to server wide /who all commands. Note that this will impose a similar time limit to how often it can be used.
- Fixed an issue with the "Public if Usable" permission in the guild bank.
- Stacks of two items in the guild bank can now be split.
- The Adventure window now includes the ability to sort entries by the properties of each adventure entry.
- Copy Layout Window: Typing either /copylayout or pressing the Copy Layout button within the General tab of the Options window will bring up a list of all your UI_name_server.ini files with each layout stored in them (along with the ones stored in defaults.ini). Selecting one will copy the layout you selected over the current layout, including any custom skin, viewport and alpha/color/fade settings that might be in use. This can also be done directly (for those with a custom UI that does not contain the new window) by typing "/copylayout resolution INI_filename" where resolution is in the form "1280x1024" or "Windowed" for the windowed layout. INI_filename is optional, and defaults to the currently logged in character’s UI INI file.
- Fixed numerous UI issues related to changing the game resolution.
- The /viewport command has a new optional parameter. The 5th parameter "scale" can be "0" or "1". Not including it or using "0" causes /viewport to behave the way it always has, allowing a fixed size viewport. Using "1" causes the viewport to scale with the windowed mode EQ window as it resizes.
- Fixed several problems with window layouts and custom skins. The changes affect the way the windowed mode window layout is saved. In most cases your windowed mode layout will be converted for you automatically as you log each character into the game. However, in some cases the conversion will be unable to determine the original size of your windowed mode window. If this occurs you can simply use the new copy layout window (which should be displayed automatically for default skin users) or /copylayout command to copy a window layout of your choice to be your windowed mode layout.
- Once you have your windowed mode window sized the way you like it, you may now prevent accidental resizing by clicking off the "Allow window resizing" button in Options->Display.
- Like your EQ window to overlap the Windows task bar? This can be enabled with the new "Overlap Windows Taskbar" button in Options->Display.

Possibly Server-Side-Only Changes:

- Improved linkdead recovery: We've decreased the amount of time linkdead players will have to wait to log back in because of a stuck character.
- If you attempt to login to the world when that account is already logged in, you will now be prompted as to whether you wish to kick off the currently logged in player. The logged in player (if it is truly logged in and not link dead) will be prompted whether they wish to allow themselves to be kicked off.
- When going linkdead in combat, a 30 second delay is enforced before the kick is executed.
- When going linkdead while out of combat a 5 second delay is enforced before the kick is executed.
- Fixed a bug that was causing power sources to only be drained when out of combat. Now they only drain while in combat instead.
- Fixed a problem that caused player traps (e.g., fadelure, fire rune, bonestitch fetish) to trigger on pets/mounts/mercs, causing all kinds of havoc.
- Changed the way charges are deducted from consumable click items. Now, if the spell on the item is beneficial and it does not land, the charge will not be consumed.
- Drakkin should now revert to a walk/run animation after dismounting.
- A dead player's corpse will no longer steal the credit for a kill due to DoT spells of the player in hover mode.
- Corpses will now automatically decay after you receive an experience-granting resurrection while in hover mode.
- Fixed a bug that caused groups to be out of sync when a group member went linkdead.
- Fixed a bug that caused active and suspended pets to be lost when their owner went link dead.
- Things that shouldn't have a con color (corpses, boats, etc.) will no longer display with a white con in the target window.
- Corrected a few behind the scenes issues with items.
- More Firiona Vie Character Slots: We've extended the amount of character slots available on the Firiona Vie server to 3 characters.
-Increased the range of emotes to match the range of say.
-/target will now target the player instead of their familiar, as long as the player is within a reasonable distance of their familiar.
- /target will now choose PCs over NPCs when using a partial name.
- All classes now keep their familiar buffs when the familiar is killed or dismissed, not just wizards.
- Fixed a problem with familiars for pet classes. If you have a pet, then summon a familiar, then zone, it will now keep your pet properly with only the familiar buff.
- Groups are now somewhat persistent. If you log out and log back in you will still be in your group. Offline players should still be able to be kicked out of groups.
- Drakkin rogues will now sneak at the correct speed when over level 50.
- The timer for returning to the game after going linkdead with a character has been reduced from 3 minutes to 1 minute.
- Spells and procs will no longer reset swing timers for any class, PC or NPC.
- The NPCs that were made easier in our previous patch will now have their proper consider message.
- Improvements have been made to load balancing for instance servers that should improve peak-time performance of instances.
- Corpses should once again disappear immediately rather than fading away slowly after looting when using /hidecorpse looted even if all the items have been removed from the corpse.
- We have enabled player proximity again. The proximity algorithms have been improved and tuned. Bandwidth usage has been reduced and both client and server performance have been improved. In addition, the delay upon first zoning in should be largely eliminated as any NPCs in your proximity on zone-in are sent by the server before you are officially in the zone (while the zoning screen is still up).
- Fixed issues where /guildstatus and /guildinvite were not working on players outside of proximity range.
- The corpses of group members who die outside of proximity range should once again be targetable by clicking their name and should show on the map.
- The /who guild command should now return players in the zone who are in /roleplay mode.
- The /who count command will again work for all players in the zone.
- Guild Bank items and deposits now sort after the contents have been changed.
-Loot All has been changed to help resolve some client disconnect/corpse loss issues. This will cause the loot all to be slower than it was previously. When stability is improved, we will take a look at speeding it back up again.

Mercinaries:

- Added a new /merclog command that logs information for the player's mercenary (if they have one) to MercenaryAILog.txt. This command can only be executed once per minute. Also, added a new "mercenaries" bug type to the /bug window. Any bugs submitted with this type also generates the MercenaryAILog.txt file (if the player owns a merc and the merc is not dead/suspended).
- The ability to suspend/un-suspend a mercenaries is now locked when in combat and when the player still has a cool-down timer on PvP servers. For standard rule servers, the cool-down timer still does not factor into this, suspend/un-suspend can be done immediately after the hatelist is cleared.
- Mercenaries now appear with a ':' before their name in the tracking window, similar to pets.
- Fixed a bug that allowed a mercenary to keep the effects of an aura permanently after the aura was no longer present.
- Fixed a problem that caused some players that zoned slowly to not be able to unsuspend their mercenary after they zoned.
- Mercenaries should no longer become bald after various illusions.
- Mercenary "in camp" radius is no longer a sphere. It is now more of a disc to help with problems of mercs healing, etc. when a puller is on a floor above or below.
- Players can now decline a group invite when they own a mercenary.
- Casting a spell on a mercenary will now give a downtime timer. This is based on the difficulty of the most difficult NPC on the mercenary is engaged with. Spells cast on the mercenary when not in combat should not generate a downtime timer.
- Mercenaries: Mercenaries are NPCs for hire that will aid adventurers in their heroic endeavors. Their levels and abilities will scale appropriately and they will think and act for themselves with limited player guidance. They are designed for extra support or extra muscle in PvE encounters.
- Unlike player pets, these NPCs are not directly controllable by players, though the player can give them general orders. They function like a normal party member including taking up a group slot and taking a share of the experience.
- Mercenary Liaisons can be found in the Plane of Knowledge as well as all starting cities and will allow you to hire mercenaries based on their race. The Liaisons within the Plane of Knowledge will allow you to hire mercenaries of any player race. These merchants can be found using the Find ability.
- Before purchasing a mercenary be sure to read the descriptions, cost value, and restrictions. There are different levels and tiers available. Some mercenaries may not available until you have completed certain content but there are some apprentice and journeyman ones available to all.
- Mercenares have a one-time hire cost and an upkeep cost that is charged every 15 minutes. The hire cost is usually much higher than the upkeep cost.
- There are two classes of Mercenaries available - Tank and Healer.
- Healer Mercenary: Healer mercenaries prefer to heal and buff their owner and others in the group rather than engage directly in combat. These mercenaries can also resurrect players upon death.
- Tank Mercenary: Tank mercenaries prefer to melee. They will taunt if it is set to the main tank role. Though it will still attack and behave as a secondary tank if it is not set as main tank.
- If your group has someone with the puller role, mercenaries will only assist them when they and any NPCs chasing them are near camp. Any mercenary owned by the puller will stay back with the group.
- Like pets, mercenaries will not aggro NPCs on their own.
- Mercenaries can be suspended like a pet, though they will remain suspended forever or until you dismiss them. Mercenaries will be suspended automatically when entering most raid zones. They must also be suspended before you join a raid.
- If your mercenary dies, it can be revived after five minutes with an additional upkeep charge.
- Some mercenaries may not think your gold is worth them risking their life. Those with higher confidence in themselves will cost more money.

SOE Voice Chat:

- Using the /voicechat Command -
The /voicechat command offers the following options:
-- on: activate voice chat (ex. /voicechat on)
-- off: deactivate voice chat
-- Moderator Controls:
-Mute <player> - mutes a player for everyone in the current channel
-Unmute <player>- unmutes a player for everyone in the current channel
-Kick <player>- kicks a player form the current channel
-Ban <player> - bans a player from the current channel and kicks them if they are present
-Unban <player> - unbans a player from current channel
- Corrected an issue that caused guilded characters to be forcably placed in the guild voice channel upon zoning.
- Fixed some problems with the muted friends list for voice chat.
- Slash versions of the commands are effective on playername for the channel you are in and only if you are the moderator (raid/guild/group leader)
- Unban only works via slash command since there the banned player is no longer in the channel and therefore no longer available to click on.
- /voicechat unban playername
-Unban only works to unban playername in the channel you are currently in, and only if you are the moderator (raid/guild/group leader)

Misc Update Notes:

- Level Cap Increase: Players can now achieve level 85. New high level item sets, new Alternate Advancement ability lines, new spells, and new skill caps come with this increase.
- Level Cap Increase: Players can now achieve level 80. New high level item sets, new Alternate Advancement ability lines, and new spells will come with this increase, including a new AA that grants a new spell slot.

BTW, hopefully we can get the stretching issue fixed on the forums here at some point. It is pretty annoying.