Seems there is a new patch which includes some new quests, which means we need you guys and gals to hop on and find out the info for us. Also looks like theres been some class changes as well. Read below for more. May 22, 2003, Please take the time to read this in full. This is a large update with many changes, including the first class balancing changes (more to come). Client Update: Targeting system: Pressing and holding either L1 or R1, you toggle to a first person perspective that allows target selection with a set of crosshairs. Auto Follow: (Re)Enabled Side stepping whil auto-following. Guild List: Enabled fast scrolling. Pet Dismiss : Removes charm from a charmed monster under an enchanter's control. Warrior Changes : -Bellow ability line: Increased duration. -Elemental Toughness: Higher Wisdows affects resists. Paladin Changes : -Disciple's Aura spell line: Increased Duration, reduced recast time and altered the heal portion to a HP increasing stamina buff. -Cleansing Ward Spell Line: Higher Charisma affects damage. -Divine Favor spell line: Reduced recast timer and increased power cost. -Lay On Hands: Increase amount healed between lvl 41 and 50 and included a modification for Charisma. Shadowknight changes: -Hand of spite Spell line: Increased duration, reduced cast time, and changed Heal portion to a HP increasing Stamina buff. -Darkstrike Spell Line: Higher Intelligence affects damage and drain. -Harmtouch: Increase amount of damage done and drain between lvl 41 and 50 and included a modification for Intelligence. -Ability Names: Updated Ability names to remove confusion conventions. Cleric Changes: -Endure Disease/Poison Resist line: Higher Wisdom affects resists. -Weaken Death Undead debuff line: Higher wisdom affects the amount debuffed. -Holy Word: Changed Lvl 39 Cleric Spell holy Word to fit the intended progression of damage. Shaman Changes: -Malady debuff line: Changed the spells to be more effective. -Self Only Bear Form line:Increased the effect of the strength buff and HP buff aspect. -Decaying wind specialization AOE debuff line: Altered and improved to be more effective. Shamans should see to cast these debuffs before the NPC takes any damage for best results. Druid Changes: -Woodskin buff line: AC buff increased. Druid skin buffs now offer the highest AC buffs of all priest classes. Added a small HP aspect. -Self only Wolf Form Line: Strength and Agility buff aspect increased. Added large Hit Point Buff aspect. To balance increases, mana cost has been significantly increased. -Elemental Shell Fire/Cold resist buff line: Higher wisdom affects resists. -Snare movement debuff line: Increased movement debuff aspect and added damage component. Cast time reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second. Quests: New Quests for those Level 27 and above have been added. Something new and very dangerous makes its presence known in the deserts of Norrath Corrected the Lvl 49 Wizard Quest for Dark Elven Wizards and Lvl 49 Magician Quest for Erudite Magicians to allow them to obtain their spells. Adjusted the exp rewards for level 43 sidequests. Increased the availability of items necessary to enter the mysterious Jaeger Mansion.

Sony posted up its next EQOA producer's letter. Here is what they had to say: ------------------- A Word from the Producer Hello again, This is the next installment of our monthly EverQuest Online Adventures Producer's Letter. Each month, we post a Producer's Letter to highlight some of the important events in the world of Norrath. In this letter, we'll shed some light on coming cool new features and the Second Edition of the game, EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers. Within this week, we will launch our third client update. This update will include a useful refinement of our targeting system. The targeting system is being enhanced to improve performance during multiple-group encounters when it can be tough to get a fix on the perfect target. By pressing and holding either of the targeting buttons, you will be able to toggle to a first person perspective that allows you to select targets with a set of crosshairs. We've had a lot of fun playing with it and we think that you will too. The fruits of our work on balancing class performance are just coming to bear. Refinements for the Tank and Priest class archetypes are included in this week's update, with Caster and Melee adjustments to follow. Work also continues apace to bring you new and engaging content, including this update's new "something" crawling through the Eternal Desert and the upcoming discovery of the Isle of Dread. Additionally, the design team is working hard to complete our next game update, Trade Skills. The Trade Skill system is a free update for all EverQuest Online Adventures players and it is scheduled for release early this summer. All you have to do is log into the game and you'll have access to five trade skills, including Jewel Crafting, Armor Crafting, Weapon Crafting, Tailoring, and Carpentry. Three of the Trade Skills will launch together and the remaining two will follow shortly thereafter. We are very proud of the system and think craftsmen will really enjoy the discovery aspect of experimenting with components to discover secret recipes. You can create useful items for your friends or you can sell them for profit. With the launch of Frontiers this winter, we will release an additional Tradeskill, Alchemy, which can be used exclusively by the Alchemist class. We are also hard at work on the exciting Auction system. The Auction system will also be included in a free update for all EverQuest Online Adventures players. You should expect to get your hands on the Auction system around the middle of the Summer. The Auction system is the perfect complement to the Trade Skill system. It will have all of the features of your favorite auction websites, except you access it while you are playing the game. Players can compete against each other to buy the most valuable items in the game. Item and Tunar exchanges are automatically facilitated throughout the Auction system so you don't have to worry about running around to buy the stuff you want. EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers is rapidly evolving as we continue to create new content and enhancements for the game. We showed Frontiers at E3 this year and the reaction from gamers and press was awesome. You can view screenshots of the enhanced player character models on this website, but that is just the beginning. Frontiers will allow players to visit places that were previously undiscovered in the EverQuest universe. We're also creating a new player character class, the Alchemist and open up new hulking brute experiences with the new playable race, the Ogre. Also, with new CD quality music throughout the game, the Second Edition of EQOA looks and sounds awesome. EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers will be available this coming winter. When you purchase the second edition of EQOA all of your current player characters will be able to access both the old world and the new Frontiers of Norrath. You will be able to advance your characters further in Frontiers by using the Class Mastery system and by having the opportunity to level your character to 60. The great thing about Frontiers is that experienced players can enhance their existing characters or create all new ones. At the same time, Frontiers is a great opportunity for new players to join a huge online world that is already alive with heroes, villains, monsters and adventures. We're just beginning to scratch the surface of what you will find in EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers. Stay tuned for news about the EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers public beta next month. Beta players will have the chance to preview EQOA: Frontiers and help test out the exciting new Frontiers of Norrath. We'll post details on the website as soon as they are complete. Thanks for another great month of gaming. We are very excited about the updates that we have planned for this summer! Sincerely, Ben Bell Producer Sony Online Entertainment You can read the original at this link.

I sat down with several EQOA developers while at E3 and discussed both the new Frontiers version of EQOA and other upcoming changes to the game. Sony likes to call this new edition of their MMORPG for the PS2 a second edition rather than an expansion. The reason is that the disk will contain everything that was contained in the original version of EQOA, with quite a few new and enhanced features. Players who have the original version will still be able to play with those who get the new version, but they will be excluded from the new zones and from playing the new race, and will of course not get the other new features packaged on the new disk. From the looks of it, this will be a nice addition to what is already a very good game. So what can you expect to be added with this new addition? Well, before I get to that, I’ll cover what is getting patched in before the new addition. The Sony producers were very eager to point out that many of the most anticipated enhancements are getting patched in over the summer before this disk even gets released. These include new trade skills such as jewelry crafting, armor crafting, weapon crafting, tailoring, and carpentry, a new high level raid zone and new items and quests. The new zone, called the Isle of Dread, is expected to be available in June and will be a high level, multi-group, raid zone the likes of which EQOA has not yet seen. Also being added over the summer is a built in auction feature where players will be able to place items they find or create up for an e-bay style auction. So what is going to be on the actual Frontiers disk? The first thing will be a complete revamp of the graphics engine. The new zones will have more detail in them than the existing ones. What they were showing at E3 looked very good. It doesn’t bring EQOA up to the level of EQ or other PC games, but it gets it a step closer. Plus, it is not just the new zones that will be affected. All of the existing zones will be populated with new flora, to give them a fuller, more realistic feel. The other major graphics change is the revamp of the characters. The new disk will give you far more customization of the look of your character than is now available in EQOA. Moreover, they intend to introduce this in much the same way Luclin was introduced in EQ, letting existing characters get a face change option to change their current appearance to the new models. All in all, everything should look much better with the new engine in place. Two other major changes with the new addition affect the level cap and the skill slots. The current cap of 50 will be raised to level 60 in the new edition. Unlike when they did this in Everquest, the game was designed right from the start with the idea that they would eventually be raising the cap. Thus, the classes and zones were supposedly pre-balanced to take the new cap into consideration. So if you have reached level 50, don’t despair. You will soon be able to go higher. The other major change is the addition of 5 more spell/skill slots. Right now you can only memorize 5 spells or skills, and choosing between what you actually have and what you can quickly use on demand can be very difficult and annoying. Frontiers is going to double this and give everyone 10 slots for memorizing their spells and skills. Personally, I’m almost as excited about that addition as all the other ones put together. As with any expansion – err, second edition – there are going to be lots of new zones, new items, new spells and a brand new race (the Ogre) and class (Alchemist) to play. Alchemist is going to be a class that creates a variety of potions and uses them in much the same manner as the spells of the casting classes. There will also be a new soundtrack. The music will apply to the old zones as well as the new ones. There will be music for battles and situations and also just for ambience as you walk through certain areas. The new zones are geared around two areas. The first set of zones are located around the new race, the Ogres. The lore is that the Ogres feel comfortable enough to venture forth into the world and thus the lands once closed off by them will now become open. Ogres, of course, are an evil race of mostly warrior types, and can generally be described as a large, powerful and not too bright. Players who buy Frontiers will be able to roll up and play new Ogre characters. Expect the city of Oggok to make its first appearance in the world. The other new zones will revolve around the voluntary exodus of the Erudites to their new home in the continent of Odus. For those who know the lore of EQ, this is before the Vah Shir were exiled to the moon Luclin, so there should be plenty of cats to deal with on Odus. I am told that Highbourne will still remain even after the majority of Erudites leave, so those who are playing an Erudite and don’t get Frontiers will still be able to do the current sets of quests. Over the course of the summer, expect there to be events leading up to the Erudite migration. I am told they have a number of things planned. There are also some new zones separate from those two events. There will be at least one Plane that you can enter. The one I was told about was the Plane of Sky, realm of the god Veeshan. This is going to be laid out similar to how the Plane of Sky is in the PC version of Everquest, though I am told that there are going to be some significant differences as well. Basically, it is a string of Islands, each of which requires you to accomplish something in order to move further into the zone. I also expect that the dragon, Lord Nagafen, Everquest’s original master nemesis, will make his appearance in this new version. All in all, there will be a significant amount of high end content added with this addition. If you currently play EQOA, this looks like a nice set of additional features that will really enhance the playing experience. The new graphics look very nice and the new features, especially the level cap and extra spell slots, are well worth the additional costs. Plus, everyone likes new zones, classes, races, quests, items, and so on. More is always better. If you haven’t tried out EQOA yet and are a fan of role playing games, this is definitely something you should consider. Once you have experienced the interactive aspects of multiplayer gaming, those single player games will never feel quite good enough, and on the PS2, you really can’t do any better than EQOA.

Ok, I finally got through all my back log, and the amount of new material shows it. Keep on submitting items and quests, and remember, it doesn't matter how mundane an item seems, we want it, this includer any common drops from mobs also. In case you forgot, my email is haggan@allakhazam.com. Also, for those who are interested, Allakhazam did a preview of Everquest 2 at this link. New Items: Harmony's Hammer ;  Staff of Fury ;  Peacekeeper's Blade ;  Brown Scale Earring ;  Bloodfur Robe ;  Embersilk Tunic ;  Opalescent Earring ;  Ethereal Dagger ;  Winds of Ro Cowl ;  Worn Fur Boots ;  Fine Silk Boots ;  Bone Choker ;  Grimsplitter ;  Weighted Bauble ;  Willowrune Staff ;  Amber Bracelet ;  Ivory Hoop ;  Silvery Sabre ;  Niteshade Gloves ;  Calamitous Poleaxe ;  Swiftwinds Right ;  Red Fox Bracers ;  Offsetting Earring ;  Tenacious Sash of Life ;  Scalebound Tomb ;  Goblin Spiritbone Earring ;  Ice Shard Hatchet ;  Gloves of Manaweaving ;  Strongfang Gutwrencher ;  Deathfist Tunic ;  Pslignium Robe of Fire ;  Basher of Fate ;  Nitedread Leggings ;  Foamy Greaves ;  Fluted Ring ;  Spiritual Loop ;  Stitched Monogram Gloves ;  Shimmering Topaz Ring ;  Baton of Enforcement ;  Gaping Icon ;  Jet Amulet ;  Raven Dusted Shield ;  Incandescent Earrings ;  Stonefyre Shield ;  Blessed Plate Bracers ; 

New Quests: Oasis Lvl 37 Quest - Rigo Darter ;  Gnome Magician Lvl 15 ;  Dark Elf Rogue Lvl 40 ;  Erudite Paladin Lvl 20 ;  Dark Elf Wizard Lvl 20 ;  Elf Bard Lvl 10 ;  Dark Elf Wizard Lvl 40 ; 

Allakhazam is back from E3 now, wrote up a report. You can look at it here. Here is a little taste of his review of EQOA: Frontiers:

"The biggest thing going for this is an upgrade of the graphics engine. The new look of the game is great. It also features new zones, a new race (Ogres), new quests and items and musical themes for both the new and existing zones."

Here are the updates for today. If you find any more items or quests, or you want to help out by submitting where you got an item, please submit the information to me by sending me and email at haggan@allakhazam.com. New Items: Fine Rope Belt ;  Blue Steel Ring ;  Sandstorm Greaves ;  Coral Trident ;  Bog Hunter Tunic ;  Bloodmoor Hatchet ;  Bloodiron Tunic ;  Toprope SHiner ;  Deepforest Robe ;  GOblin Oracle Crook ;  Meadows Jinx ;  Goblin Marauder Axe ;  Leggings of Insight ;  Dustscale Boots ;  Vinesorrow Leggings ;  Deadiron Medalion ;  Granite Greatclub ;  Lightfire Greaves ;  Polar Bear Hide Gloves ;  Aviak Bracers ; 

A few updates today. Remember that Allakhazam is at E3, so anything you want submitted to should be sent to me, Haggan, as I will not get it until he gets back. New Items: Wizard's Leggings ;  Oaken Belt Buvkle ;  Enlightened Tunic ;  Bear Hide War Bracers ;  Coral Helm ;  Ring of Thorns ;  Loklink Gloves ;  Drybone Earring ;  Defender's Blade ;  Chapels Leggings ;  Warvell Leggings ;  Rugged Gloves ;  Pinegrove Bracers ;  Sunblasted Ring ;  Frozen Fist Tunic ;  Spectral Turban ;  Bone Carved Ring ;  Mithron Banded Helm ;  Noble Combine RIng ; 

New Quests: Oasis Lvl 37 Quest - Min Gyrind ;  Human Qeynos Wizard Lvl 15 ; 

Hey all! Got some new items, and some new quests for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy! And as a side note, Allakhazam will be out of town for a week due to him going to E3, so any e-mail you send to him concerning item or quests will not be given to me until he gets home. So why don't you send them to me, Haggan instead? New Items: Hatesplint Jerkin ;  Tourmaline Ring ;  Virtous Raider ;  Obsidian Amulet ;  Rock Hard Bracer ;  Etched War Axe ;  Troll Skin Band ;  Spiritfury Boots ;  Ice Sabre ;  Fleshy Belt ;  Frosty Gloves ;  Boreal Ring ;  Dancing Bear Liegestaff ;  Sash of the Cosmos ;  Forgetful Club ;  Scorpion Band ;  Opalescent Necklace ;  Tigereye Robe ;  Goldlight Coif ;  Goldlight Boots ;  Goldlight Shield ;  Mithron Plated Belt ;  Ruby Stud ;  Nitemorrow Amulet ;  Deathfist Arch Magus' Staff ;  Hard Water Clymore ;  Bloodmyre Pants ;  Sliding Trousers ;  Dog Breath Scarf ;  Drifter Footwraps ;  Hillman Cap ;  Azurite Ring ;  Forest Stalker's Leggings ;  Jet Spear ;  Dread Chopper ; 

New Quests: Highpass Hold Lvl 35 Quest - Fender Crow ;  Halfling Cleric Lvl 13 ;  Fort Seriak Lvl 30 Quest ; 

I hope everyone is spending time honoring the people who brought them into this world instead of playing. My heart goes out to all the Mother's out there, we do really appreciate what you do for your children. Ok, now for the updates. New Items: White Mullet ;  Stripped Madtom ;  Botters Bonefish ;  Hanging Shad ;  Frozen Hoop ;  Red Stained Tunic ;  Indigo Sabre ;  Heartwood Shield ;  Adamant Girdle ;  Loam Covered Helm ;  Rowen'Dal Deathknight's Gloves ;  Raging Band ;  Black Boots of Spite ;  Black Breastplate of Spite ;  Black Bracers of Spite ;  Great Axe of Spite ;  Black Legplates of Spite ;  Hard Water Belt ;  Hard Water Helm ;  Sandclaw Bauble ;  Strategist Emblem ;  Earthen Shield ;  Centaur Shotel ;  Polar Bracers ; 

New Quests: Freeport Level 30 Side Quest ;  Hodstock Lvl 23 Side Quest ;  Barbarian Shaman Lvl 15 ;  Elf Magician Lvl 20 ; 

We're adding a new feature. From now on, we will be running regular drawings for our premium members and giving away free stuff. Our first contest is for a free copy of Everquest Online Adventures. We will be giving away one copy of EQOA to each of six winners. If you are interested in entering to win the EQOA game, and you are a premium member, you can click on this link. The contest will stay open until noon on May 30th and then we will randomly draw six winners from the entries.