Publish 16
The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 16 from July 12-22, 2002. Publish 16 was a very large publish which introduced many fundamental game changes and completely new systems.
New Systems and Fundamental Game Changes
- Pub 16 - Tailoring Bulk Order Deeds
- Pub 16 - Barding Changes
- Pub 16 - Taming Changes
- Pub 16 - Changes to Felucca
- Pub 16 - Housing Ownership Changes
- Pub 16 - Guaranteed Gain System
- Pub 16 - Justice Virtue
- Pub 16 - Siege Perilous Ruleset Changes
Resource and Crafting Changes
- Several new rewards have been added to the Blacksmith’s bulk order system.
- Prospector’s Tool.
- Powder of Temperament.
- Blacksmith Scrolls of Power
- Gargoyle’s Pickaxe.
- Blacksmith bulk order system changes include:
- The reward value for items with an exceptional requirement has been increased.
- Large bulk orders will now be received for sets of weapons.
- Grandmaster smiths will now have a greater chance of getting bulk order deeds with color requirements.
- Players will now be able to collect the following new stackable resource types.
- Spined, Horned, and Barbed leather
- Bones
- Players with an appropriate amount of tailoring skill will now be able to craft bone armor.
- Players on shards with Siege Perilous or IGR rulesets will now be able to receive bulk order deeds.
- Armor crafted with colored ore now yields better armor ratings the more rare the ore type.
Evil-in-a-Can Changes
- Champion status shrines to display progress in defeating champion spawns
- Addition of an undead creature group to defeat
- New, dynamic, Felucca spawn locations in dungeon and Lost Lands servers
- Ability to summon the "The Harrower" (super-champion monster)
- New paperdoll titles
- "Champions of Evil" boss monsters will carry Scrolls of Power (see Scrolls of Power below)
Changes to Combat
- Unarmed "to-be-hit" changes (chance to get hit while unarmed is now the better of either Wrestling skill, or an average of Anatomy & Evaluate Intelligence).
- Players will no longer be able to "run away" from arrows/bolts.
- The dexterity stat will no longer affect at what point in the swing animation a hit or miss occurs.
- Mace weapons will now do less damage to armor than before (but still more than other weapon types).
- Staff weapons will do the extra stamina damage that "true" maces do (they still do not get the extra armor damage that "true" maces get).
- The damage done by the earthquake spell has been increased.
- The 8th circle summoning spells will now have a normal spellcasting delay.
- Purple potions deal extra damage based upon the thrower's alchemy skill.
- Ethereal mounts will now have a 3-second "summoning" delay.
- Bolas will now deal damage when successfully dismounting their target.
- Bolas will no longer require the tactics skill to use.
- NPC archers will no longer be able to shoot from outside the normal range.
- Player "bones" will now follow the same rules as player corpses for being looted.
- Players will no longer be able to cut up the bodies of players' characters.
- Red characters will not be able to gain Virtue, or use any Virtue abilities.
- A character that joins a faction no longer receives a reprieve on his murder counts.
Changes to New-Player Quests
- A new “quest button” has been added to notify the questor of any quest status changes.
- All quest text has been refined, shortened, and updated with links to the Codex of Wisdom.
- Several quest steps have been improved and/or simplified.
- Quest monster AI has been improved.
- All quest gumps have been visually and functionally improved.
Miscellaneous Changes
- Furniture dye tubs will now be usable by appropriate players when locked down or when in that player’s backpack.
- “Young” characters will no longer be able to travel to Felucca. Young characters logging into Felucca will be sent to Trammel.
- Each skill that has its cap increased beyond 100 (which will be achievable with Skill Scrolls of Power) will display its new current maximum appropriately (i.e. using a +10 Provocation Scroll of Power will change that skill’s displayed maximum from 100 to 110).
- The bounty system will be removed.
- Vet Reward banners, Holiday trees, and Flaming Heads can no longer be locked down. These items do not need to be locked down to keep them from decaying.
Bug Fixes
- Sandstone houses will no longer have a “hole” in one of the wall segments.
- Items should no longer “fall” through the steps of a log cabin.
- All items that can be used for crafting will list their number of remaining charges.
- A bug that could result in players being alive on one subserver and dead on another has been fixed.
- Players will now receive a message when the archprotection spell fails to take effect on a target in range.
- Stablemasters will no longer spam the names of their inventory when the stablemaster is created.
- Bolas will now properly dismount players on Unicorns, Ki-rins, and Ethereal Mounts.
- Players will no longer be able to use items that are stored on stabled pack animals.
- Some misleading messages in the new-player tutorial area have been fixed.
- A bug that allowed players to enter houses they were banned from has been fixed.
- Players accepting a guild war invitation will now receive the correct message.
- Gypsies in Illshenar will no longer report incorrect inventory descriptions.
- Players will no longer be able to steal from Guards.
- A bug that could prevent locked-down forges from working correctly has been fixed.
- Thread will now work correctly when used on a loom.
- Players will no longer be able to use items of teleportation to gain unauthorized access to faction strongholds.
- Forges will now play the appropriate sound under all conditions.
- Some vague Bulk Order Deed text has been clarified.
- Players will no longer be able to use health potions unless they are damaged.
- Items that are un-equipped while the wearer is already at their item limit (125 items) will drop to the ground.
- Various erroneous system messages have been fixed.
- Players killed by guards will have their hit points set to zero under all circumstances.
- Players will no longer be able to gain the snooping skill by using the skill on barkeeps.
- Treasure chests will no longer appear below ground level or upon invalid terrain.
- Players with over 100.0 mining skill will be able to use mining specialization books.
- Various “rares” that were improperly renamed to seem like normal items will regain their proper “rare” names.