*** Highlights ***

Happy Holidays from the EverQuest Team!

• A Frosty Experience Bonus: To help them celebrate the season of Frostfell, adventurers will be surrounded by a frosty bonus experience increase of twenty-five percent starting with Tuesday, December 23, 2008. The frosty bonus experience will remain until the end of Frostfell, Tuesday January 6, 2009. Enjoy the holidays!
• Fan Faire Workshop Quests: At the 2008 SOE Fan Faire in Las Vegas, several EverQuest players got a chance to participate in a Quest Workshop where members of the EQ Development team walked them through the quest creation process. The following quests have been implemented this update:
• Gyrospire Relocator: Researcher Stripcog has unearthed a device that will allow a being to teleport to the top of each of the gyrospires. Unfortunately, he needs the assistance of others to help get the device working again. This quest was implemented with the assistance of Shadowkiller of Stromm, Ledau of Prexus, and Brasse, Cheremoya, Palarran, Starrla, Xapp, Sumdaye and Numayre from The Tribunal.
• Kicking Tail: Scribe Choone’s party, attempting to help Choone research a story for Gimblefixx, was ambushed and nearly wiped out, save Scribe Choone himself. Choone wants the players to thin out the minotaur warriors enough for his mission to continue, and especially to kill the big mean taskmaster known as Higoren. See Scribe Choone in Dragonscale Hills to find out more. This quest was implemented with the assistance of Hellbent of Firiona Vie, Nizgog, Aroraskie, Indico, and Rigss of Erollisi Marr, and Hulkling of The Tribunal.
• 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.
• 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.
• Hot Zone Tasks: In addition to reminding players about the current Hot Zones, Franklin Teek in Plane of Knowledge now offers tasks for the most recent Hot Zones.
• TSS Flag Requirements Removed: Removed the flag requirements for The Serpent Spine (TSS) expansion raids to enter the raid zones as long as you are level 74 or higher. The person requesting the raids will still be required to have the proper flags to request the raid.
• SoF Crystal Drops Increased: Increased the number of Oil Stained Crystals that are dropped at the conclusion of the final event in Meldrath’s Mansion from six to twelve. 
• Lesson of the Devoted Improved: The Veteran AA Lesson of the Devoted will no longer be removed by death.
• Bard Type 3 Augments: Added Bard type 3 augments to SoF and SoD faction vendors.
• Weapon Ratio Changes: Some of the Seeds of Destruction (SoD) group weapons had their ratios further tweaked. This is a completion of some previous changes that didn’t quite make last Update.
• 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).
• Physical Resist Changes:  Made tuning adjustments (downward) on many NPCs that had higher-than-expected resistances to Physical Attacks (Such as the Monk Eye Gouge attack). These attacks should be much more reliable now.

*** Items ***

• Added Bard type 3 augments to SoF and SoD faction vendors.
• Some of the SoD group weapons had their ratios further tweaked. This is a completion of some previous changes that didn’t quite make last Update.
• 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).
• The Master Artisan Satchel should no longer display haste effect information when a haste item is placed inside it.

*** Spells ***

• Made more tradeskill-created spells tradable on Firiona Vie.
• Swapped the Earthen Embrace and Serpent Vines spells back to their proper items.
• The effect from the Aura of Rodcet will now pulse every 6 seconds instead of being a persistent effect, allowing its effect to stack with Lich and Clarity lines.
• The mana boost from the Aura of Rodcet now mimics the effect of Cantata / Chorus of Rodcet.
• Puratus, Fulkitcher Weave, and Cantata of Courage spells should now work properly.
• Bards will no longer have their mana drained by the spell Mana Ignite, though they should still take damage from the spell.

*** NPCs ***

• Added some of the special resistances, like mez and stun, on the rare/named NPCs in Korafax, Field of Scale and Old Bloodfield.
• Fixed an issue that was causing some mobs in Old Bloodfield to despawn unexpectedly.
• Physical Resist Changes: Made tuning adjustments (downward) on many NPCs that had higher-than-expected resistances to Physical Attacks (Such as the Monk Eye Gouge attack). These attacks should be much more reliable now.
• Rathework Guardians are now a good deal faster than they were before.

*** Quests ***

• Implemented the Fan Faire quest "Kicking Tail." See Scribe Choone in Dragonscale Hills to find out more.
• The Fan Faire quest Gyrospire Relocation has been implemented. Find Researcher Stripcog in Mechanotus for more information.
• In addition to reminding players about the current Hot Zones, Franklin Teek in Plane of Knowledge is pleased to once again offer tasks that take place in these zones.
• The Old Bloodfields quest called "Deliver the Message" is now a shared task. We also fixed issues that could cause it to fail to update.
• Slowed down the respawn rate in the Permafrost Frostfell mission.

*** Raids ***

• Increased the number of Oil Stained Crystals that are dropped at the conclusion of the final event in Meldrath’s Mansion from six to twelve. 
• Removed the flag requirements for TSS raids to enter the raid zones as long as you are level 74 or higher. The person requesting the raids will still be required to have the proper flags to request the raid.
• The Stasis room raid reset should no longer get stuck in a loop.
• The Kaesora raid will now reset after 15 minutes or if all council members are idle.
• The Ritualists in the second phase of the Kithicor raid will no longer damage the storyline NPCs while they are idle.  It should still be necessary to engage the correct group of ritualists shortly after the message: “A dark energy begins to build to the *direction* of the combatants.”  However, it should no longer be necessary to engage all of them simultaneously.
• The area near the entrance doorway will no longer be a safe spot during the Mindblight raid.

*** AA ***

• The Veteran AA Lesson of the Devoted will no longer be removed by death.
• The Enchanter AA Self Stasis should be more reliable at removing players from combat as they enter stasis.

*** Mercenaries ***

• 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).
• Unshrouding should no longer require an upgrade cost in cases where you have not gained a level.
• Fixed an issue that caused a healer mercenary not to heal you if you temporarily interrupted the incoming damage (say, with weapon shield). 

*** Miscellaneous ***

• 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.
• Corrected an issue that prevented further purchases after opening a Consigned Armor Bundle in the marketplace.
• Corrected an error message if an account does not have a credit card on file for the marketplace.
• Modifications have been made to messaging in order to remove the redundancy of messages popping up for funding the wallet.

*** UI ***

• 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.

- Changed -

EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_GroupWindow.xml
EQUI_MusicPlayerWnd.xml
EQUI_PlayerWindow.xml
EQUI_TargetOfTargetWindow.xml

~ The EverQuest Team