EZ Server

Download Veeshan & Spell Files Here (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SKGDWMHNdbNlrPwc0p9jb3NBFloR_4Gr?usp=sharing)

UPDATE 10/15:
Due to last minute spell changes, I will be posting the updated zone and spell file tomorrow evening, so I don't have to do it twice.

To anyone participating, this zone, as I've said several times, is designed to be quite difficult. While there may be more elegant solutions than I am using, these mobs will hit hard, cut through defensives, heavily mitigate incoming damage, and generally re-arrange your face. They respawn fast enough to be unforgiving, and you will find some of your lifelines will not work, or not be effective. Keep in mind, that tuning mobs to hit hard enough to do substantial damage, but not one-shot players, is more of an art than a science, so if you have hard time during this testing, don't be discouraged, such is the way it goes during 'Beta' testing. I don't want to make changes to data with any serious amount of players online, so if it turns out I've either over or under shot it, we'll have to adjust and try again in a future testing session.

As I've said before (possibly just while talking in OOC), I'm not doing anything with previous zones as it relates to the use of certain items/augments etc., the designers of those zones had the same availability as me to limit them, and chose not too, so I won't meddle in that. What I choose to limit in my zones, is of course up to me. Now, does this mean that I'm just going to take the low road, and disable anything that I feel is game-breaking, or not functioning in it's intended way, or otherwise goes against the 'feel' I want for a zone? Yes, actually, that is what I'll do. What I will do though, is give people an alternative, that will work in these zones, but at a reasonable level of effectiveness. Not immediately, and not for this zone, but I'm not going to gimp an item like Ignore Death for example, and not replace it with something. What that is, we'll have to figure out.

Look here tomorrow night (Saturday 10/16 - 9pm PST) for a Drive link with updated files.

 
10/17 Testers Needed

   I am looking for some folks to help with wide ranging testing of 10.67, next Sunday October 17th, from 5am-11am PST. This will include nearly all aspects of the zone including quests, itemization and (maybe) bosses (although they are key locked, so if you can get to them in 6 hours, they're all yours (and something is horribly wrong)).

Few notes about this zone:
   This zone is intended to be very difficult, even when well geared. Respawns are quick enough that you need to keep moving, and some of the normal lifelines you rely on will not work here. If you wipe, you're clearing back. Mobs in this zone use a combination of mechanics to make them more difficult to kill, and their damage is high. Bosses ramp this up even further, and will require more than tanking and spanking. Attention must be paid to adds, spells etc. to avoid high damage mechanics, or to prevent highly effective beneficial spells being cast on, or by, bosses. My intention is that you will have to use your other boxed toons as more than just mindless DPS, while still not placing too heavy an emphasis on any given class. All that being said, I still want it to be fun to play through, and using this time for an open beta test gives me a chance to see what may not play as well as I hoped.

   This is an open test, anyone can jump on Test server and participate, which obviously will give you some advanced information. There will be no 5 piece UA check in place yet, and because character data was transferred in early September, your characters may not match your Live character, I won't have time to fix that before this testing.

   Ultimately, this is to try and work out any bugs, or tuning issues before it hits live, as changes to Live data are made in a controlled rollout, not the hack and slash approach I can take on Test data (where Akkadius can bail me out *ahem*). As always, I'm open to suggestions, complaints, problems...whatever you're thinking, lay it on me so we can talk about it.

    If you think you can make it, email me at ezserveronline@gmail.com or PM me here, or just log on the EZ Test Server (it's down the server select list a bit) next Sunday, port to Veeshan's Peak and have a go!

-Draca

I'll be there with bells on  ;D

Tank

I wish all of you who participate in the test a lot of fun and hopefully some good testing. Maybe this is also a first step to bring people back who are pausing at the moment.

I hope to read some feedback on monday when I return to the game.

Yap, I should be there also.

Slippz

I can come for a couple hours.  Have some family over the weekend so my time would be limited.

UPDATE:

        I will be posting a Google Drive link on Friday sometime in the main post for this thread, which will include a updated spell file and zone file to be installed in your base Everquest folder. This will allow the correct NPC models to load, and obviously not get spell errors.

        Thanks to everyone who has indicated they'll be coming, I am definitely a little nervous, and expect that not everyone will be satisfied with something less than a full tier update. I have learned a lot during the past month and half, and while it may be a limited zone, it's given me experience with development workflow and using various game mechanics to achieve my desired outcome and should serve me well as I continue into new developments. I'm not a game designer, I'm not even a good coder, but what I lack in skill I make up for my passion for continuing to evolve EZ Server, while always remembering what it is we all seem to like about it, self-punishment.

       Obviously, things can change, and quite possibly things will be changed on Sunday as unintended 'features' are discovered. I also can't fix every class's issues in a single zone, although there are several classes who are better represented here than others.

Teasers:

• Ring of the Ages has been extended to 1050, although the means to upgrade it has changed.
• Shadowknights receive some upgrades to tankability in the form of gear, and class specific spell.
• Ranger-only UW level bow
• Caster robe - improvement over UA
• Upgraded All Classes Belt
• Ranged Item upgrades for all classes
• Exact duplicate of the Group Cure Clickie as a spell for several classes
• Effective AE Healing spells for DRU and SHM

       As I've said, it's not a full tier, but there are certainly worthwhile upgrades available, and we'll continue to work on other classes usefulness going forward. I'll be less available on Live this week as I try and put some final polish on Veeshan's Peak for Sunday, but I always check Discord OOC, so just yell in there, and I'll try to get to you.

      -Draca

Sounds great draca. Most of the upgrades would be very helpful for sure.
But why is there another UW bow? Aren‘t there already 2 UW bows?

Another question: when VP goes live, is it possible to provide a new ez server/spell files package that includes all (necessary) files?

  It's UW level, but it's not in the UW lore group, so you could have a UW melee weapon, while still having UW level ranged attacks if you're into that sort of thing.

  And yes, there will be a file package attached to the release of Veeshan's Peak once it goes live.

Ah cool. That is good to know. But if I complete the HW Bow Quest with Ranger I will have a problem soon haha.

Anyway I like the idea of class only items coming with this zone. Maybe every boss could have its own loot table with class specific items aswell. Like in other zones with armor patterns (plate, chain etc). I really would like to see more class specific items but maybe this is what happens already and draca wont tell us yet hehe.

Will the new file package also include HW and other event related files or do you still have to download them separately?

If you need some one to test from mondays to fridays between 11pm and 8am PST just give me a hi. Would gladly help testing aswell.

See update in top post.

Results!

Thank you to everyone who came out:
Tankus, Ekiir, Miriya, Sonaspud, Fec, Kendiian & Icestriker

I want to especially acknowledge Icestriker, who spent many hours in the past week repeatedly banging his head into comically under or overtuned mobs, and waited while I tried to figure out what dumb problem I'd created.

I think everyone seemed to enjoy it, and everyone was able to make some progress into the zone, at varying levels of efficiency. We found some issues that need to be addressed, some stuff that seems to work as I'd hoped, and generally a successful first crack at it.

I know it seems a simple thing, but I've spent now thousands of hours working on various announced, and unannounced projects for EZ, with Veeshan's Peak taking up most of my free time for the past month getting ready for this, so I was nervous to see how it played. Thankfully, it seems like we're on the right track.

Again, thank you to everyone who's helped me so far, it means a lot. There will be another open test at some point in the next couple weeks, as well as specific boss testing which will be a closed test, for which anyone interested can PM me here so we can get you signed up for that.

Hands up I didn't do anything I just looked in and looks good the first guards look hard just need healing. Ild of gone longer but still got at least 6 weeks till hand heals up. I just wanted to look in to new content.

I am looking forward to going live. Good work

If anyone has input regarding Veeshan's Peak, please post here. I understand that the difficulty level is a step above most content, and requires more DPS and Healing than we've grown accustomed too, but that is as I intend it to be. While the 5 piece UA may seem high, it's also pretty much the minimum amount most characters need to survive. There is no guarantees that minimally geared groups will be able to progress all the way through this zone, as mobs ramp up from beginning to end. I don't want mobs one-shotting, and there's no death touch mechanics, or annoying dispelling abilities, but that doesn't mean that a straight auto-attacking Paladin might not have some issues as you get into the 3rd and 4th Tier mobs. I know people want to use different classes for different things, and while it's hard to get away from a Warrior tank, this zone gives you a chance to dust off those underused characters, and get some utility out of them. I appreciate feedback, good, bad or in-between.

Here are some of the items on my list following testing:

• Caster NPC spawn that should be pathing, was not. - Fixed
• 1st Enslaved Dragon Soul you come across was showing out of range - Adjusted path grid
• Players are not dismounted upon entering zone, can bypass a lot of the zone - to be fixed
• Lava swimming shortcut is unguarded from entrance - Fixed
• Locked boss doors likely bypassable - fix and/or log door bypassers
• Drolvarg Pup's aggressive mom does not despawn and is unkillable - Fixed
• NPC's level are too high for crowd control -Appropriate NPC levels have been adjusted, some spells may be modified to allow wider range of class utility (in terms of max effective level of snares/mez/lull type spells)
• NPC's are immune to snare - Fixed (where applicable)
• Respawn is fast, wiped and had to clear back - Yup.
• Not many safe spots - to be looked into

Please provide any feedback you may have. If you're interested in testing, the Test server is always online, Veeshan's Peak is open, go take a look around.

-Draca

I really REALLY like the story in the new zone! Rent always did a good job with Lore in zones but this one was so good I kinda felt sorry for the Drolvarg! The mobs are hard, for me if I got 3 or more, and take FOREVER to kill. I only took one group in but fought for a few hours. The dragon soul was a fun fight...drolvarg pups make me laugh....Lillya's line about being kind to each other...HA! Just an all around good job, maybe some tuning left to do, but is all around really good! People will need to dust off some pulling techniques! Pulling with my bard, Damaskus, like I did on live was SO much fun...just need a CRAP TON of dps!

Nice job, man.

I made it up to the first enslaved dragon soul and got wtf-stomped a few times, but won in the end. Pup/mom wiped me quick, need to retry that one. Mob damage felt right (wearing a Gorgon's Stare, not a Guardian charm). Just need to remember the old ways of EZ when it wasn't just pulling a whole zone while sucking cheeto dust off our fingers with one eye on netflix. A great throwback and start to a new zone.

Looking forward to spending more time.

Jumped in today to check things out.  Was interesting.  Ran 11 toons, all with UW12 except the three rogues with ST daggers.  All toons have EOTA except the three rogues.  I'll be putting EOTAs on them for sure.  Took quite awhile to take each mob down.  I saw Denzig taking on the Mother.  Thought I was far enough away but half my toons were gone in a flash, including my MT.  That was a bit weird.  I rezzed up and continued on.  Very noticeable increase in mob dps after getting a bit further past that point unless I just totally missed something, like my mitigation buffs, but I digress.

Looking forward to getting in there for real.  Thanks for all the hard work Draca!