In Misty thicket the character i am playing from after a time is no longer able to loot or interact with npcs but can stil target mobs and fight at first i thought it was just one of the warriors then i switched to the other warrior and it also happened on that one never experienced this before so i am thinking it is a misty thicket only bug zoning that character out and then back fixes the issues until it happens again

A few people on discord also said they experienced the bug and using Ring of the Ages click can sometimes fix it or an illusion i tried RoA the next time it happened and it worked

This is an odd problem, might be something in server code, since there’s a relatively easy workaround, going to see if this corrects itself with next server reset

Just tried with a Cratos blade too, jumping into a few different zones. No dice. Have to use the menu to arm pet.

T10 ENC pet works fine, equipping weapons that are in the pack when zoning.

Started again when Halloween was implemented but I figured it was a thuledream issue with the script.

This has been fixed. Any other issues, let me know.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Halloween events are running now through 11/6. Enjoy!


Housegarden halloween zone is available once again, and remember the new command to increase aggro range in Hills of Shade is '/say increase aggro range' , as well as zone pulls work again in Hills of Shade.
If there is ANY griefing as it relates to zone pulling, it will be removed again.

For Akkadius & Sarthin,
        -Draca
              EZ Admin Team

Halloween Event  -   ENDED
Loot  -  ENDED
Exp -  ENDED
Credits  - ENDED (See Donate link on left sidebar)
Rallos Zek event  - DONE

You have unwittingly opened the time rift and allowed me to enter your domain. I should thank you for this, but you are just a simple fool and knew not what your actions would bring. Do you know now what time it is? It is time for me to make an example of you for all this world to witness. Your lifeless corpse will hang from stakes, a reminder of how easily I can sweep your world's inhabitants aside.



"The disciples of Nexus report it has been engulfed in darkness and a spell has been casted upon it.
Meanwhile a strange rift has appeared..."

[Spells/Effects:]

Lower Tier Content

Lower tier content isn't necessarily ignored by Sarthin and I, and if there glaring issues that have just gone unfixed, we will certainly take a look at what we can do now to fix it. Content itself though, and the time required or difficulty/grindiness of it just isn't something that will change. While some people take this as just being stubborn, it really isn't. EZ Server's history, the legacy of it's creator and those who followed are in those zones. They existed as they are, and were deemed by the developer to be in the state that they wished it to be. Abyss, for example, was designed to be the end of EZ Server's progression, hence the amount of time required to complete. Reducing the time required would diminish the feeling of accomplishment, and the collective understanding that every one who has finished it feels when someone '/ooc About to start Abyss, wish me luck'.  EZ Server, while one of the more populated EQEmulator servers, has not been, and will not become a server where the attrition of players who just don't prefer the style of gameplay it provides (and the occasional desire to bash your head on your desk), will dictate changes to content. I realize that sounds harsh, but it is what it is.

Lower Tier Class Balance

This is honestly a short answer, and mostly because trying to explain how difficult it is to balance content is very difficult to do, to people who haven't tried to do it. Lower tier classes cannot be buffed, due to the amount of time to re-balance for their increase in power, and the lack of available testers to provide accurate data, makes it impossible to justify even trying. This is especially true, when the majority of players do not make any attempt to maximize the classes they have, instead relying on the typical Warrior tanking, Paladin healing, most of the rest in auto attack melee. To illustrate this point, I stealth buffed a mid-Tier magician spell about a year ago to nuke as hard as the Idol of the Jailed, and it wasn't discovered for the 6 months it was Live. People just don't try that hard to make the most of what they have, when the next level requires all that min/maxing to happen all over again. I understand why, I didn't either.


I know neither one of these answers is what some people are looking for, but sometimes neither is the content that EZ provides. People will come and go, that's not new, and not something we're actively trying to mitigate through concessionary changes to earlier Tiers.


Hard Mode/Difficulty

Got some notes on where people want to see difficulty.

Hard mode is planned to add several things, at least in T12.

First, and the most obvious is that mobs will hit considerably harder and have more hitpoints.

Secondly, they will cast spells where other regular NPC's would not, or cast more and/or more powerful spells than regular NPC's do.

Third, they will have Hard Mode level loot. This will be a combination of more general loot drops such as essences, spells/spell components etc., but will also drop items that are hard mode versions of the regular armor, but with improved stats.

Beyond that, there are some other ideas that we can play around with, but we'll see how much development time it adds doing some stuff twice.


Other Things

Spells/Effects:
There will be a concerted effort to add some additional useful item effects and class spells, though working with spells which drive everything from item effects to AA's to spells themselves is second to balancing in terms of difficulty. Spells sometimes just refuse to work, or they do not stack as they should, or they work too well and become difficult to balance. That's no one's problem but ours, but it's certainly a topic of thought for us.

Bane Weapons:
Nothing that was planned for T12 specifically, but it seems an interesting possibility for specific fights, though not through a painful, required camp.

Emotes/Interactions:
These are enjoyable from a development standpoint as well, so those will continue.

Box numbers:
There has definitely been an inflation in the amount of boxed characters that people are playing. Some of it is the desire to kill faster, some is more recent efforts by certain players to develop rules abiding macros that make maximizing those groups much simpler. There is no need for massive groups in any zone, and while breaking into Kael is easier with 42 characters, that's also 30 more mouths to feed than a group of 12. Yes, it's more of a struggle with less characters, but it's impossible to finish content, it's just a question of whether you like the challenge of less characters who don't require nearly as many overall kills/bosses, or would rather have the security of numbers.

Along these lines, it is increasingly likely that T12 will limit the number of characters allowed in the zone at once. No final decision on what the number would be.

Do we have dates of when the Halloween event will be this year? I have something coming up that I want to go to but I want to make sure it doesn't interfere with an event.

Halloween will likely start on Halloween, October 31st, and run through Nov. 6th/7th.

I don't want to respond point by point yet. Still watching what's coming through.

I will offer what insights I have in the next couple days.

[*Hard mode would be an increased difficulty for all NPC's in the zone, both in damage output and hitpoints, but they would also award loot more often, and possibly multiple kill credits for quests etc.]

Player input regarding T12

T12 (Vex Thal) is under construction, and while it seems like these developments get to a point fairly quickly and then everything becomes a slog from there, I'm at a point where I would like some input from the community.

So, a few questions:

 • Assuming current Kael difficulty as a baseline, would you like to see new content:
   
   Much Harder
   Slightly Harder
   Same
   Slightly Easier
   Much Easier
 
   We have also been working on the idea/scripting to implement a 'hard mode*' in new content, so if you think the general zone should be slightly easier with hard mode, then that's good as well.

   *Hard mode would be an increased difficulty for all NPC's in the zone, both in damage output and hitpoints, but they would also award loot more often, and possibly multiple kill credits for quests etc.

  • Do you find the background lore, NPC emotes, quest background stories etc. engaging or entertaining, or don't really care much either way?

  • Is there any mechanic that we've used previously that you would, or would not like to see repeated?

  • Feelings on bane weapons?

  • Aside from the content, what would you like to see 'fixed' as part of this Tier? Example I've heard: Item effects are not very useful/being re-used. But it's open ended, whatever you'd like to see done better in some way, or fixed.

  • Since this post will probably get people's attention, is there anything currently broken or janky that you feel needs to be addressed? (completely separate from the Tier).

Anything else that comes to mind, by all means let us know here.

Draca & Sarthin

Guild Leader: (Eronim)
Guild Name: (After Hours)

Thanks!

Done

Gearloose will no longer accept weapons. I tried the following so far:

Glacial Crystal Staff
Preacher, Hammer of Permafrost

This is fixed

Guild Leader: (Gravel)
Guild Name: (Rock and Stone)

Done

NPC's should now hit like trucks, and Guardian Charm should not work.

I tried the new zone said hard to Gerald on all 30 went to public pulled one thinking i was going to get hit very hard and it could not do melee damage to me same as mobs in t10 or lower i am immune to fromtal melee so i zoned my others out equipped guardian charm and did a Zone pull took about 10 mins for riposte to killl them all but never went below 99% health
They seem to be somewhere between T10 and VP on mob health but with hit me chance of T10 or lower which is no chance they punted me alot but once i was in the corner that did not matter either

I fail at my job. I'll make the adjustments needed.

There is a new NPC in Nexus named Gerald. Gerald doesn't say much, but if you tell him 'hard' or 'easy' he will flag you for 'hard mode' content that doesn't really  exist. However, if you want to give it a try, you can get flagged for hard mode (it flags by account) and head to Vex Thal (there's no loot or anything particularly special in VT at this point) and test that it's working. It will check for more than 50% of characters in a zone are flagged as hard mode, and will scale NPC's if so. If this is implemented, it would provide much more challenging content, in exchange for more rewards. Scaling is currently quite aggressive in hard mode, and this is absolutely, by no means a final product, nor indicative of what the final scaling will be.

I just wanted to say thanks for the advice.  I did get farther on the dragon and have some things to try.

Those dragons were always intended to be gatekeepers of sorts to the more difficult content in that zone, and they still seem to do their job. Ultimately, the designed solution, as Vindi said, was to farm the available spell components to get the powerful AE heals from there.

Guild Leader: (Nyxe)
Guild Name: (Nyx's Nightmares)

Done