Patch Notes for December 15, 2009

Here are the patch notes for the official launch of EverQuest Underfoot (from the patcher):

*** Underfoot ***

Welcome to EverQuest Underfoot, the 16th expansion for EverQuest!

The Underfoot centers around the Heart of the World. This is the vast magma ball that floats in the center of a hollow sphere that stretches across a great distance. Standing on any open interior portion of the sphere, adventurers can look up to see the massive, blazing ball of living lava. The sphere is large enough that while individual areas may have a "bowl" shape it is very minor. Lava flows into and out of the Heart of the World from volcanoes, lava tubes and crevasses all around the hollow sphere, like blood into and out of a heart.

The Plane of Underfoot is ruled by a curious being known as Brell Serilis, the Duke of Below. It consists of an elaborate system of caves and tunnels and is inhabited by all sorts of creatures, both good and evil, that normally dwell underground.

In his temple at the top of the tallest volcano, Brell spends his days making new races. Most he destroys, returning them to their primal clay. Some he makes into his servants. Recently things have changed. Conflict exists in the Underfoot. There are those who continue to worship Brell Serilis and those who feel abandoned by him.  Brell's presence is no longer felt in the plane, and in his absence much of the machinery that serves Norrath and other worlds is breaking down.

It is into this troubled realm that adventurers can now travel.

- New Content: New areas for adventurers to explore including Brell's Rest, Pellucid Grotto, The Underquarry, Brell's Arena, The Foundation, The Cooling Chamber, Arthicrex, Lichen Creep, Kernagir the Shining City, Fungal Forest, Volska's Husk, and Brell's Temple. Travel to the Underfoot solo, with a group, or in raids to complete new quests, tasks, and events to acquire new items, spells, tradeskill recipes, and abilities.

- Extended Target Window: Track friends and foes with greater accuracy. The target window now lets you assign people or group roles to specific locations on the window for easy re-targeting.  You can track main tank, raid tanks, main target, main assist, puller, etc., or just put a specific player or NPC in the window.

- New Achievement System: Display and manage your progress through the world of Norrath. The achievement system allows players to track various categories of their advancement such as levels, Alternate Advancements, quest completions, and other progression tracking events. At the launch of Underfoot, players can track their General, Tradeskill and Underfoot progression Achievements. 

  • Open displays achievements you haven't completed yet.
  • Complete lets you toggle the display of achievements you have already completed.
  • Locked toggles the achievements you aren't quite ready to work on just yet. As an example, if you are level 30, you should be focusing on obtaining level 40 instead of level 50.  In some cases, like quest lines, you may be able to complete locked achievements. This helps direct the players to content they should be focused on for their level and progression stage.

- Master Tradeskilling: Create powerful new weapons, armor, food and drink items, poisons and more.


*** Highlights ***

- EverQuest Underfoot is now open to everyone who has purchased it!  We hope those of you who qualified enjoyed the preview.

- Many existing achievements have been reevaluated, possibly causing a change in your total number of achievements.  Please see the description for your achievements as well as the list of changes below for details.

- There have been many changes to spells and AAs.  Please see their sections below for details.


*** Items ***

- Corrected an issue with the Sympathetic Alleviation line of spell procs that was preventing them from restoring mana to the caster.
- The Turn-In Gems for Underfoot spells are now stackable and display the level and class of the spell they will grant.
- Some of the items from Brell's Arena sold for gold tokens can no longer be traded on the Firiona Vie server.
- Gem of Life, Gem of Structure, Gem of Pain, Gem of Resilience, and the Gem of Destruction should no longer be Drakkin equippable or share a lore group.
- Corrected the AC and summon spell on the Many-Pocketed Pouch.
- Placed the proper cast proc of Sympathetic Alleviation VII on Transcendent Fungus.
- All Celestrium Deathwatch armor is now wearable by Drakkin.
    

*** Tradeskills ***

- Cosgrove Powder should now be dropping in expansion zones.
- Altered the recipe for Sothgar's Flame Rk. II to add a Chronal Resonance Dust to differentiate it from Spell: Etheral Conflageration Rk. II.
- Corrected an issue with the stats for the new tradeskill made bows with the underfoot.
- Added Steely Ore to appropriate vendors in home cities.
- Vallon and Tallon Tactical poisons should now offer increased damage when both are used on the same NPC.
- Set the underfoot cultural armor to the proper recommended and required level.


*** Quests & Events ***
  
- Fixed some grammatical issues in many Underfoot quests.
- Shining City mission "The Silent Schism" no longer locks immediately upon accepting it.
- Fixed a repetitive dialogue on Gihbra in Volska's Husk.
- The frail gnoll reavers for the Brell's Rest quest Gnoll with the Punches are actually frail now.
- The description of the spell cast by the Gnoll Disguise item now correctly identifies your disguise.
- The Vile Ooze in the Pellucid quest "A Most Foul Encounter" now spawns at the proper step in the quest.
- Mithril Clockwork helpers in the Volska’s Husk quest "Brell's Will Be Done" no longer attack players.
- Two Volska’s Husk quest givers, Bitelock the Quartermaster and Stoutanvil the Crafter, have been moved closer to the main zone tunnel for easier access.
- In the Volska’s Husk quest "The Arms of Brell" dwarves will no longer return Somnolent Beer to you if the quest successfully updates when you give it to them.
- Bartel in Brell’s Rest should now respond correctly if you have the "Nogol and the Bandits" task active.
- Fixed several faction issues with the Mithril Clockworks for the "Brell's Will Be Done" task.  They should be much more reliable assistants now.
- Brell's Rest raid - The Destroyer should no longer become permanently un-attackable when drawn outside the raid area.
- Fixed a bug that could prevent players from opening the reward chests in the Final Confrontation event in Field of Scale.
- Made a few changes to the Rallos Returns raid to reduce the ability to exploit the design intention of the raid.
- In the Pellucid Quest "A Most Foul Encounter," The Vile Ooze should now spawn properly when you’ve killed 9 Crystalline Hulks. If you lose track of the Ooze, you can talk to Soldys Falfenaar and try again.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Arthicrex task "A Desperate Deed" to become locked if it was not assigned to a group properly.


*** Spells ***

- All three ranks of warrior discipline tomes of Final Stand will now scribe correctly.
- Spell descriptions for Hypnotic Stare enchanter spell line have been updated to reflect current functionality.
- Spell descriptions for Chaotic Befuddling enchanter spell line have been updated to reflect current functionality.
- Spell descriptions for Bestow Undeath necromancer spell line have been updated to reflect current functionality.
- Duration of the Free Action random component of Malediction of Havoc has been set to 2 ticks.
- Sundew Blessing can now be scribed alongside Summer Solstice.
- Modified the following abilities to prevent them from being removed by Splash of Sanctification and other similar effects.
- - Warlord's Tenacity
- - Savage Spirit Recourse
- - Cascading Rage
- - Blood Magic
- - Blood Frenzy
- - Blinded by Fury
- - Overwhelming Rage
- - Battle Leap Effect
- - Juggernaut Surge
- - Self Stasis
- - Inconspicuous Totem
 

*** NPC ***

- Fixed grammatical issues in many NPC dialogs.
- The scaled wolves in the Field of Scale will no longer summon.
- Spineblooms in Brell's Rest will no longer be assisted by other NPCs in the zone.
- Made the rare NPCs in Volska's Husk no longer mezzable and set them to now enrage.
- Dwekvard Gravelpick and Holdegar Bairdun in Brell's Rest no longer have merchant functionality, but will still trade runestone or spell gem items in exchange for Rank II and III versions of Underfoot spells.
- Dwekvard Gravelpick and Holdegar Bairdun in Brell's Rest have had hail dialogues added to help explain their purpose to the curious.
- Kut Kollus in Pellucid Grotto has decided he likes the name Kronk Kollus better.
- Modified the rare (named) NPCs in Foundation to be immune to mesmerization.
- Rare NPCs in Arthicrex and Brell's Temple will no longer summon at full life.
- Fixed a problem that caused players to receive no experience for killing NPCs in certain older zones.

  
*** AA ***

- Edited the descriptions of several Underfoot abilities for clarity.
- Swarm of Decay ranks 10, 11, and 12 should now summon the correct army of skeletal archers to your side.
- Shield of Notes ranks 13 through 15 should now correctly increase the total damage cap mitigated.
- Bard - Vainglorious Shout has been changed from a free targeted ability to a 120 degree frontal cone ability.
- Enchanter - Self Stasis and Friendly Stasis have had their reuse time increased to 15 minutes to match other classes with the same type of abilities.
- Enchanter - The effects of the Azure Crystal have been altered slightly to prevent unintended mana gains.
- Shaman - Inconspicuous Totem’s reuse timer has been increased to 15 minutes to match other classes with the same type of ability.
- Rogue - AA Escape has had its base reuse timer reduced to 24 minutes.
- Quickened Radiant Cure 6 has been removed and the cost refunded to those who have purchased it.
  

*** Achievements ***

- Increased the amount of time allowed for the "Search for Saunk Time Trial" conquest achievement to 40 minutes from 30 minutes.
- Modified the "Shades of Extremism" conquest achievement to include all of the shades in the mission.
- All of the shades in the Search for Saunk mission should now be attackable.
- Fixed various typos in achievement titles and descriptions.
- Fixed discrepancies with some achievement descriptions to avoid potential confusion.
- Fixed an issue where the "Search for Saunk" conquest achievements were not updating properly.
- Fixed an issue where some quests were incorrectly placed in the kill/normal quest achievement category.
- Changed the name of the "Kill Em All" conquest achievement to "Golem Hooky" to better reflect what the achievement is asking you to do.
- The "Alphabet Goop" conquest achievement should now check for the first name of the bosses within the mission.
- Due to some background adjustments your achievements will be reevaluated. This may result in you no longer having an achievement you had before this patch. If this is the case please note the description of the achievement as it should be updated with the new requirements.
- The Gem Collector conquest achievement should now update properly.
- Fixed an issue that caused players to not receive 1.5 epic achievement credit even though they had the 2.0 epic.
- Fixed issue that would result in players receiving achievement credit for their shroud's class epic.
- Changed the name of the Mark of Brell progression achievement to Coin of Brell to avoid confusion with the pre-order item.
- Reduced the range on achievement notifications from nearby players from 400 to 75.
- Raw achievement links will no longer show up in logs.
 

*** Miscellaneous ***
  
- Intro music has been added to certain Underfoot zones.
- You can now use assign empty, auto hater and current targets via the /xtarget command (along with the items you could previously specify).


*** Previously Updated ***

- Corrected an issue that was causing some NPCs in some zones to give more experience than they should have.

 - The EverQuest Team

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