Welcome to the largest EQ tradeskills community on the internet!

June 13 , 2003 - Beta!
The cat saga is finally done, and I'm pleased to announce the beta launch of our database. Over the next couple of hours, I'll be wandering through the various forums, doing last-minute trivial updates to the main site, then dropping sticky topics into each appropriate forum for folks to post new trivial and stat updates. Posts will stay in that thread for the next month and NOT be updated on the main site, as I want the site to be stable while testers are cross-referencing what's on the current site with what's in the database. Updates will go into the database, of course, but folks are going to have to rely more heavily on the message boards until the database is launched to the public in a month or so.

As we start this final phase, let me do something that hearkens back to my days as a Project Manager ... "managing expectations".

When the database finally goes live, you WILL see:

• Over 6000 tradeskill recipes -- all general tradeskill recipes currently known, as well as some of the quest recipes
• Over 8000 items -- everything that we know is used in or produced by tradeskills
• Over 2500 mobs -- including all known tradeskill vendors and mobs with tradeskill drops
• Around 2000 sources -- tying the mobs, plus fish and forages to the appropriate items that they supply.
• Varying ways to search the above for recipes, sources, and more
• Hopefully speedier updates to the site, as it takes less time and effort to make updates to the site and it is easier for us to set up limited access rights to volunteer editors.

What you will NOT see:

• Those rassenfrassen advertisements that seem to be on almost every site you hit these days.
• The even more annoying (in my book) messages that say you must be a paying member to access certain content.

We continue to fund the site out of our own pockets, assisted by generous donations from the community. Fates willing, we can continue to work this way without it becoming too draining on our resources, though we'll definitely never make it rich off the site! ;) Here's to a successful beta! I truly hope you'll all be pleasantly impressed with the results of all this hard work, muss and fuss.

June 11 , 2003 - Wheeeee!
Today's front page update will hopefully make up for the fact that there's not been a front page update in almost a month.

The patch has several items of interest to tradeskillers. Below are some of the highlights (discussion and details can be found on the boards):

• They stack?! Valor crystals, ceramic lining, holgresh fur, casks. All of these may seem like minor things to non-tradeskillers, but there's a lot of rejoicing around here.
• Shared bank space! Two more bank slots have been made available that are shared across all characters on an account. (No no drop or no rent items, and watch those lore tags!) This will be a boon for those who need to mule tradeskill supplies around on a single account.
• The Kunark catfish croak sandwich quest is finally in working order. The reclusive sewer catfish are back in the waters of East and West Cabilis, and that ever-hungry Klok Foob will happily accept donations of two of his munch break favorites, those yummy catfish croak sandwiches. Once the servers are stabilized today, hopefully someone can provide us with information on the completion of this quest.
• Veksar. A new zone! So far, there's only a few forages, that are shared with other zones, and no zone specific fish, but one never knows what else might be in there.
• Tradeskill item tag. This one is viewed with mixed reactions around here, and may still need a few kinks ironed out. For now, our database will NOT be tracking this new flag, as it would delay our launch by quite a bit.

What's this about the database?! Only a true follower of Bristlebane would be excited about announcing a database beta launch for a Friday the 13th ... I don't know where that leaves me, as I'm alternately excited, and stressed to the tips of my toes about this one. We'll have more information about this later, and there will be a post on the message boards in the DenMother's Corner if we find a need for more testers. For now, the important information is: beta starting Friday, full launch of this in a month or so if all goes well, and site updates will be "locked" once Friday hits. (Once we're in beta, we'll have special sticky threads to track new trivials and stats and such, but we're going to stop with this time-consuming double and triple-editing of information and focus all our energy on getting the database updated.)

May 16 , 2003 - Oops!
Fixed a problem (Mum's memory lapse), that published yesterday's update to the database, but left the update for the current site only on her hard drive...

May 14 , 2003 - Patch Day
Today's patch contains a few items of interest to tradeskillers. My comments follow the patch items in bold italics:

• GM Baking Spoon - On Firiona Vie, the Grandmaster's Baking Spoon was not no-drop. This allowed players to give out an unlimited number of 100% weight reduction bags. This obviously was not the intention for that item, so we have made the Grandmaster's Baking Spoon no drop on Firiona Vie. - erm ... whoops?
• NPCs returning bags empty - NPCs that return items that they do not need were returning all containers empty, regardless of what was inside the container. NPCs that refuse unusable items will now also return bags with their contents intact. - some of us tend to get ahead of ourselves when questing, and hand the wrong item in to an NPC, or forget to hit the combine button on the container before giving it to the quest NPC. This should save us from some lost items.
• NPCs returning multiple items - If a character gave an NPC multiples of the same item, the NPC would only give back one of them if he did not want them. We have fixed this so that now those items will be returned. Such items will be stacked on your cursor. Just click the item that is on your cursor into your inventory and the next one will appear on your cursor. Keep clicking them into your inventory until you have them all back. BE WARNED that any of these items that you have not returned to your inventory will be lost if you zone or go linkdead before you get them back into your inventory. - this goes hand-in-hand with the line item above it. Sometimes we're in such a hurry to finish a frustrating tradeskill quest that we don't pay as much attention to this as we should. Re-read this one carefully to be sure you know how to get those multiple items back into your inventory!
• Giant Yellow Jackets - The chance to find a thorax on the corpses of these creatures seemed too low, so we have increased it. - used in newbie armor quests, this should lessen the frustration of those trying for this item
• Added Honey Mush Bread to Cabilis Vendors - This is an item needed for a quest that was unavailable. - We've been trying for years to figure out this recipe! It's lovely to hear that some lucky vendor has found a source for this bread. The quest writeup will be updated as details become available.
• Combining Stacks of items - Attempting to combine stacked items in a container will no longer work. The items must be separated first. This change will prevent items from being lost due to accidentally combining with them stacked. A dialogue will pop up, warning the player to separate the objects. - a partial fix for this went in a while back for some tradeskill containers. This seems to be a continuation of that fix. As usual, report on the boards if you find something still accepting stacks of items in a tradeskill combine.
  

Work on the database continues, thanks in no small part to the database volunteers who have put large chunks of their time and energy into the project. We're still not ready to give an ETA, as the more we get done, the more we find needs to be done, but we are making good progress.

May 1 , 2003 - At Last!
There are two items in the "at last" category today. Depending on what your tradeskill focus is, one, or both, may be of interest to you.

Some of the "old cultural" armor sets that had the same name for more than one collection of normal vs imbued/enchanted vs enchanted set have had unannounced name changes. It will take a bit before we've got the site (and the database) updated accordingly, but we're gathering information here on the new names. Note that sets that have multiple flavors of deity-specific imbues, such as imbued field plate and imbued steelsilk were NOT included in this name change.

I'm sure the skeptics among you had long given up on this following annoucement, but we're finally ready to announce that our database is ready for alpha testing. (Sometimes, even *I* wasn't sure we'd ever hit this point, as it has been a very overwhelming task, and real life has thrown us many curve balls since we started this project.) We are NOT looking for added volunteers at the moment, so please, don't join the folks who have already swamped me with private messages containing well-meaning offers of help. I've given up even attempting to respond to them all at this point, as they're eating up far too much time that I need to be spending on the current site and on the database. When we are ready to announce beta (we have no ETA), we will either have a post asking for volunteers, or we will be contacting folks directly.

I can't stress this enough. Don't swamp us with tells. Don't send us private messages offering to help. Don't make unsolicited posts offering to help. Please, such "help" will only add to our workload instead of helping us. (And it's very likely that we'll totally ignore you and that folks on the message board will start quoting this front page update at you, since we want folks helping us that are willing and able to follow instructions, and if you're bugging us after seeing this post, you're NOT going to be someone we'll choose to help relieve our workload, hm?)

I truly don't want to seem ungrateful, as without all you wonderful folks that have volunteered information and encouragement over the years, not to mention the dedicated moderators and database volunteers who have kept me from going totally insane, but I'm a very overwhelmed redhead right now, and until this thing is fully launched, I'm fighting a very strong urge to hide in some deep dark corner and tell the world to go away. Of course, if I did that, I'd never get the durn thing launched, despite all the hard work done by my husband and others to get all the technical requirements and searches sorted out.

April 22, 2003 - Quest Update
Thanks to some added quest text from VI, at long last the Planes of Power Aid Grimel quest has been completely solved. The quest writeup has been updated, and the party platter recipe has also been added to the database and to the PoP Baking Recipes page. My thanks to all who aided in deciphering this quest, and to Kronepsis in particular for maintaining an up-to-date quest summary that I could put on the site.

There is some weirdness going on with DNCs and disconnects lately, especially in high-lag areas such as the bazaar. The folks at VI are aware of the problem, and are working on resolving it. In the meantime, I'd recommend doing any important combines in quieter zones, and to do a quick camp and return after your most important skillups/successful combines so that you don't lose anything vital.

April 8, 2003 - Patch Day
I'm slowly recovering from the Fan Faire and a week-long visit from my in-laws that started almost as soon as I returned from Vegas and am trying to catch up on both my sleep and site updates. as long as I don't try to do updates in my sleep, we should be all set. ;)

Today's patch has a few items of specific interest to tradeskillers. In the "small but still important" category is the fact that saltwater seaweed, used for a human smithing temper, is finally stackable. This won't affect a ton of folks, but it's still very good news. Of more major note is the fact that how illusions affect faction has changed, and it has caused some unexpected problems when obtaining the enchanter mana vial series of spells. The powers that be have been alerted as to the specific issues with obtaining those spells, and will be looking into it. For now, your best bet if you need to acquire the spells is to use druid/ranger wolf form (enchanter illusion spirit wolf will NOT work).

March 28, 2003 - Vegas-Bound
No, you won't find me running around screaming "show me the money!" or anything silly like that, but those bound for the Fan Faire in Vegas this weekend might find a redhead wandering around that answers to Niami, Denmom and other such silliness. I hope to see some of you there! (No, the House Ogre can't make it this time - someone has to stick around to watch the store.)

While I'd hoped to be able to announce that our database was in alpha testing this weekend, events conspired against us (including a hardware failure of the database server, my own energy level, etc.). With my in-laws arriving a couple days after I get back from the Faire, I likely won't be making any such lovely announcement for a few more weeks.

March 13, 2003 - Patch Day
Today's patch contains a variety of things of interest to tradeskillers. I'll include the relevant parts of the patch message, with my added comments in italics. I'll also include a few things that are expected to have been in this patch, though they didn't end up in the patch message.

Spells

• Added the ability for any caster to research dropped priest spells using the research books found in Gunthak. The research notes for these spells can be found in the Plane of Knowledge. Wizards, Enchanter, Magician, and Necromancers are able to create any of the researchable priest spells. - recipes are on the site
• The recipe to create Familiar Enhancement will now actually create Familiar Enhancement instead of Firetree's Familiar Augment. - fixed on the INT caster Loy Research page
• Changed the recipe for Form of the Great Bear, both in text and in practice. Please read the appropriate research book for the new recipe. - new recipe NOT in place on the site. I'll get it up as soon as someone reports in the new recipe
• Shaman of Mithaniel Marr will now be able to scribe the Imbue: Diamond spell - I suspect that shaman of Innorruuk are now able to scribe imbue: sapphire now, as well.

Items

• Corrected an issue with foldable medicine bags and foldable bearskin potion bags. Items should now combine properly. - these items were not combining pre-LoY recipes, but should be happy now. Also, the 5-dose illusion potions and the 5-dose focus effect potions should now be working (they were DNC)
• Clockwork Observer legs and boots should now recharge - this is a happy thing
• Class 3 Wood Point Arrows now have a range of 5 instead of 0 - added range is good
• Changed Blessed Scout Arrows, Blessed Warrior Arrows, Mithril Scout Arrows, Mithril Warrior Arrows, Mithril Champion Arrows and Blessed Champion Arrows to be ammo instead of ranged. - yepyep, these really are ammo items ;)
• These pottery sketches are now stackable: Barbarian Template, Gnome Template, Troll Template and Animal Template. - this puts these cookie cutter sketches in line with other pottery sketches
• Added Shaman to all small patchwork and tattered pieces. - this is to allow the one and only small/med shaman race, froggies, to wear small as well as medium patchwork
• Fixed bugs in the text of Toharon's Memoirs. - the recipe for markar's discord should now be correct. I'm not sure what else got fixed
• Corrected the recipe for Tae Ew Chain Bracer to use a Bracer Sectional Mold instead of a Plate Bracer Mold. - for a while, we thought the bracer was a total DNC, until someone tried using the plate mold. Cazic-Thule recipe page has been updated.
• Smithed Silver Weapons will sell to merchants at a lower price. - we'll eventually collect buyback data using max CHA, but it's a low priority right now
• Changed the inventory icon for the Fier'Dal Fletching Kit and Knuckle Dusters. - not earth-shattering, but good to know if you're a wood elven fletcher.
• Swirling Shadows are no longer NO RENT. - Woooohoooo! This will let those using shadowscream armor as a skillup path have a bit easier time collecting supplies.
  

Zones

• Moved the Koada'Dal Forge so that it does not extend into the hallway on the second floor of the building. - I don't think it was moved far, just enough to get it fully in the room in which it belongs

As usual, it's likely that I'll add/edit this listing as the day goes on.

March 7 , 2003 - ... One More Thing!
If you are one of the many folks confuzzled about which of the new spell research drops should be saved for whom, you may want to keep the listing of drops for LoY spell research near at hand. (A huge thanks go out to Verdandi for whipping this new section into shape so quickly!!)

Addendum: All right, so I was wrong. It wasn't just "one" more thing today, but two. I'd like to add a quick reminder that pre-registration for the Fan Faire in Las Vegas ends on Monday, March 10th. After that time, you'll have to pay the higher rate of $100. Attendees must book their own travel and hotel reservations. SOE has made arrangements for EverQuest Fan Faire attendees with the Las Vegas Hilton, Alexis Park Hotel, Embassy Suites Convention Center, and Southwest Airlines for special rates. For more information, please visit the official EverQuest Fan Faire website. Hope to see some of you there!

March 5 , 2003 - Odds and Ends
For those of you, like me, that seem to be perpetually lost, the new LoY map feature is a godsend. However, if you're like me, pretty much all you were seeing were blank maps at first, even for zones folks were saying "look at the map!" Turn off the height filter and zoom out, and you'll likely find it much easier to, for example, find your way through the frozen sameness of Everfrost paths. ;)

With EQ having hit an all-time high of more than 118,000 simultaneous users recently, they've announced the launch of another new server, named Maelin Starpyre. For a limited time they will allow folks (for a fee) to movelog from other servers, complete with all their gear. Details can be found on EQLive.

February 27, 2003 - Spell Research
With the launch of LoY, spell research combines began to be used for other tradeskill combines (tailoring). While I had always resisted tracking spell research on the site, due in part to various caster sites already containing the information, and in part from way too much on my plate already, I've decided to bend a little on this one. I will be tracking new spell research combines that came out with the LoY expansion, and only those combines. For those of you doing the happy-dance over this news, make sure to stop by the boards and thank Earenhylle Erlkoenig for compiling a master-list of the new spell combines. ;)

February 26, 2003 - Patch update
Some new bugs were fixed today, more are slated for the next patch. The bazaar bug that was giving folks an error message when they tried to buy stacks of items from player-vendors appears to be fixed. I believe the cast time on the charged spirit shift potion has also been fixed. Scheduled for the next patch is the fix to the collapsible bearskin potion bag and the collapsible medicine bag, which currently are only working for the new LoY alchemy. Also in the works for the next patch is the fix so that the 5-dose version of some of the LoY potions works properly

We've made good progress on narrowing down trivials on the new recipes, and it's been a pretty productive week already. Now, if I could just beat my bank space into submission and magically juggle all the trade supplies onto 3 mules across the 2 accounts without having to character hop a gazillion times ...

February 24, 2003 - Oh, Happy Day!!
While others might wax enthusiastic about frogloks as a playable race, new things to see, new mobs to kill, I suspect that the majority of tradeskillers are most excited about the doubling of their bank space. (I swear, even my mules have mules right now!) Of course, that's not to say that we're not eagerly awaiting the other bells and whistles that are in this new expansion, but the bank space thing tends to overshadow the rest.

During their exodus to Neriak's Foreign Quarter, the trolls in charge of setting up their cultural forge apparently took the scenic route, but they finally arrived in Neriak and set up the troll forge in their new home last week. At that same time, it seems that they broke the flimsy loom found in Neriak's Foreign Quarter, and today's patch finds a newly-repaired (and hopefully sturdier) loom in place.

While it will take time to verify drops, confirm trivials, confirm exact item names, etc., I am pleased to announce that the LoY Recipes Page is in place, and I suspect that there will be the usual mix of dances for joy and complaints, based on the interests of the person in question. ;) (I, for one, am quite happy ...) Trade supplies listings for the Gulf of Gunthak are also in place, and will be cross-referenced with the by-skill supplies pages later today. Also keep an eye on the fishing and foraging pages for new additions as they're reported in.

For all those spamming serverwide.eqtraders asking about the armor dyes, the ingredients are only sold in Gulf of Gunthak, the nearest portal point is Stonebrunt, port spells are sold in the East Commons Tunnel, and the recipes are on the LoY Recipes Page.

In other news, work on the database progresses, and while this newest influx of recipes, mobs, ingredients, etc. will slow things down some, as it increases the volume of data entry needed, we are making good progress towards being ready for alpha testing. More details will be on the boards when we get a firmer ETA.

February 17, 2003 - Less than a week to go!
That's right, folks, less than a week until the Legacy of Ykesha expansion goes live. As usual, you can expect things to be crazed around here once the day hits, as folks are scrambling all over the place finding new recipes, new drops, and cackling gleefully over the expanded bank space. I'll definitely be joining in the cackling for glee, in between gibbering as I try to do 30 different things at once. I'll try to get things up here on the main site, with links from the front page to the new recipes, as quickly as possible so that folks don't feel the need to hit the boards every 2 minutes for updates. ;)

I'm also going to try to squeeze in some time, somehow this week, to get another chunk of the ever-growing database ready before I have to stop to put all my attention back into the boards and the main site for the flood of LoY information. Yes, we're still working on the database; yes, it's going to be very large and very comprehensive; no, we have no release date yet, but I hope to have it into beta before I go to the Fan Faire at the end of March ... I hope. {crosses fingers, toes and eyes}

February 7, 2003 - Evening Update
The trolls that were lugging along the cultural forge from Grobb to Neriak have finally arrived at their destination, complied with local fire codes, and set up the troll forge in Neriak's Foreign Quarter. Meanwhile, the frogs are settling in nicely, and have industriously replaced all the stationary tradeskill containers that were damaged during their claiming of Grobb with ones that are more suited to their more diminutive statures.

I suspect there will still be some changes to be seen, as both groups settle into their new homes, but this will hopefully settle down some of the more ... feisty ... tradeskillers a bit. ;) (translation: Primal Scream has gotten a bit overheated lately. Settle down in there and remember your manners! Just because you're having a bad week and are upset is no need to ignore the "no personal attacks" rule, and many of you seem to have forgotten that a) this is "just a game", and b) there are real people with real feelings and opinions behind those other personas. If you're THAT steamed about something, take several steps back AND self-censor yourselves before we get fed up enough to start doing more bannings, or temporarily close that forum until folks remember common courtesy.)

February 7, 2003 - Bad Froggies, Naughty Froggies!
It seems there is no end of troubles for the troll race right now. Not only have they been kicked out of Grobb, and been forced to go bother the dark elves, but along the way, they forgot to some very important items. (Trolls aren't known to be the smartest of creatures, after all!) Among the things forgotten is their cultural forge, which seems to have been uprooted from their old home, but which hasn't yet shown up anywhere else. I expect it's going to take time for the dust to settle, so, for now, things like the trade supplies listings for Grobb ... or Gukta ... or whatever it's called today, are NOT going to be up-to-date. I'll make some temporary pages as the weekend progresses, but I expect there will still be a lot of changes incoming before things finally settle down.

February 6, 2003 - Another Patch
This is another day with a variety of things of interest to tradeskillers. As usual, I'll add my commentary after each item:

- Many Planar Recipes can now be used in collapsible containers. Some Planar Tailoring can only be done in the Tanaan Loom as opposed to the Planar Sewing Kit. Nothing that was previously made in the Loom was added to the collapsible tailoring kit. Skills changed were Baking, Sewing, Jewel Craft, and Fletching. (Wheee! This is definitely a happy change for those packrats who have invested in collapsible containers. For those wondering, the only thing I can think of that specifically requires the PoK loom are parts for the planar armor quests
- Added gnome cultural recipe book to Ak'Anon. (Using clockwork armor as a base, these are tinkered armors with some brewing and imbuing required.)
- Changed the weights on Spiritstones to be more in line with Faithstones. (Spiritstones were changed from weight 20.0 to weight 0.1 to match the weights on the cleric faithstones. Additionally, ogre and troll shammies, please note that the Spiritstone of Innothule is now Spiritstone of the Banished, and it ports you to Nektulos, not Innothule. We expect to see the storyline explanation for this change "soon")
- Changed Collapsible Jeweler's Kit to 6 slots from 4. (The planar jeweller's kit has 6 slots, so this is just fixing it to match)

Additionally:

- Fixed a bug that caused merchants to charge a little extra or less (1 copper). (We've long known that vendors do creative rounding when you're buying multiples of items. I suspect that this might fix that.)

I'll likely have further updates to this later in the day, once I am more caffeinated.

February 4, 2003 - Woohoo (Updated)
Today's patch has many lovely little tidbits for tradeskillers, especially shaman alchemists. My comments are in italics after the various items:

- Added new potions for Vah Shir Shaman (and all other Shaman): Shadeweaver Portal. - recipe has been found, and is up on the site
- Renamed one of two items called Figwort. The Figwort sold in Shar Vahl has been renamed Ground Figwort to reduce confusion. - the Gulon's Impunity alchemy potion will now use ground figwort
- Renamed one of two items called Drachling Silk. The Drachling Silk that was once no drop is now tradable and named Drachnid Silk. - these are two Kunark forages that have been annoying due to having the same name. They're currently still only vendor-fodder, but at least they have unique names!
- Adventurers have learned new techniques for fighting Cyclopes. These great beasts are now much more likely to have their eye intact when killed. - this should allow shammies to now make the Assailing alchemy potion
- Fixed the recipe for the potion "Soul of Incorporeal" to use a "feather". - finally, a use for foraged feathers!!
- Fixed the recipe for the potion "Troll's Essence". - it's been broken forever, but this old alchemy potions should actually work!
- Fixed the cast time on any 5 and 10 dose potions that were inconsistent with their single dose versions - several of the potions listed as "Luclin potions" on our alchemy recipes page had a cast time of 30.0 for the charged versions, but lower cast times for the singles. The charged versions should now have the lesser cast times of their single-dose kin
- General Bragmur in Iceclad should now avoid ice flows that he was having a problem crossing in the past. - 8th shawl questers, rejoice! If the silly little General can remember his new route, he should no longer get stuck under the ice floes and lose his way!
- Terrorantula Silk, Feather, branch of sylvan oak, branch of planar oak, Drachnid Silk, and Drachling Silk are now stackable. - erudite tailors, wood elven fletchers, folks making blessed fishing poles and others should be happy with this. If folks can post verification of these, I'll update the database accordingly
- Silicorrosive Grease is now tradable and stackable. - tinkers rejoice! Since this little item is not only used in a quest, but in two other recipes, it's been impossible for younger gnomes to get access to this.
- Potions Aquatic Haunt and Serpents Drink no longer require reagents. - potions that don't use reagents are happy things!
- Grandmaster Alchemist will now have a way to prove their ability. - Grandmaster's Medicine Bag has been made! Many thanks to Frizznik for convincing Jolum to give up information that he's temporarily forgotten - Thursday's patch should see the hail text in place on the live servers, as well as the ammo slot added to the trophy itself.

With so many of these changes being related to alchemy, it would likely be good to dive into the old Letters of Jonas alchemy books, and see how they have been changed/updated to reflect this information. My many thanks to Verdandi for putting together a "laundry list" of things outright broken/bugged with alchemy, as it looks like it's helped pinpoint, and address, several outstanding problems. (My thanks also go to the folks who put in these fixes as it's a good step in the right direction at addressing several nigglies). /bounce!

January 24, 2003 - Feeling crabby!
I have good news and bad news, and it's a very crabby day.

On the good news front, those industrious tinkers over at Tinkering.org have found the recipe for a crab cracker, which is required for one of the currently-unsolved PoP baking recipes.

On the bad news front, the message boards are also feeling a bit crabby, and are NOT behaving, in the least. The fix that was put in place yesterday morning did not fix the problem, and we're still crossing our fingers that someone over at the phpBB support forums will have some insights into exactly what's going awry. I suspect I'll have several more grey hairs interspersed with the red before all this is sorted out, and I know it's frustrating for our very active message board community as well. The problems last week with the boards turned out to be due to some other site running on the same machine as our message boards, but this time it's something awry with our software or the message board databse. ... bleargh!!

January 16, 2003
I'd like to apologize for all the problems folks are seeing with the message boards recently. We're still trying to find out if it is a problem with the software (I doubt many have tested phpBB under the massive load we present it with), or if it's a problem with the server software or the new hardware. (The boards were very recently moved to yet another machine.) I'm more than ready to pull my hair out over it, and I'm sure some of you are as well. As we find out more, we'll keep you posted, and we're trying to work on getting some stable boards for folks to use.

January 9, 2003 - Patch Day
As usual, it will take a while to see how much impact this patch has on the tradeskill community.The only tradeskill-related item that was noted in this patch was a change in the effects on some of the quested planar armor pieces. I'll likely have more updates to this later today.

January 1, 2003 - Hoppy Gnu Ears!
Well, for some of you, New Year's Day is over, and for others of us, it's got another 3 hours to go before it is over and done. Regardless of where you are, best wishes from my household for a safe and Happy New Year! As a belated holiday gift, I offer up a new recipe page upon the site, thanks in large part to the recipe contributions from our community, and the compilation efforts of Tebyen Trueheart. We're pleased to introduce a real life recipes page, with some of our favorite meals, munchies, raiding supplies, and so forth. Bon appetit!

Addendum: Information on the Zek-bane weapon quest is now available!

December 25, 2002

Twas the night of Christmas, and all through the house,
many creatures were stirring, even the (catnip) mouse!
The database gnomes were taking a nap,
but a site elf seems to have stolen Mum's (thinking) cap!

... All right, so it doesn't scan well, but at least it is some acknowledgement that the holiday season is in full swing. Whether your main holiday was over days ago, or if that day of days is just finishing ... whether you celebrate New Year's in a week, or whether your new year follows a Chinese calendar, you're likely around a lot of folks that are celebrating something right now. So, I have to be properly mom-ish right now, and say a few things:

• May your holiday season be a safe and joyous one. Regardless of the stresses of everyday life, remember to take time now and then to savor the company of those around you.
• Remember there are real people behind those characters you run into in-game. Just because the game isn't "real life", don't forget that the people behind those players are very real, and your in-game actions have the chance to hurt, or help, other people.
• Remember that practicing real-life alcohol tolerance and driving don't mix. Remember that others may/will forget this fact, and be extra careful when traveling. Generally, those irresponsible in their partying seem more likely to hurt innocents than they are to hurt themselves.
• Remember, there is no "rez plz" in real life.
• Remember to take time out to just plain have fun now and then. It helps you keep perspective.
• Remember that random acts of kindness DO come back to surprise you now and then; so, whether in-game or out, surprising someone "just because" with a kind word, an ambush buffing, etc. really does make an impact, even if you don't see the direct result of it.
• Remember that compliments cost nothing, and that criticism can do more damage than expected. So when your group actually manages to survive when something goes badly wrong, throwing in comments about what was done right can help ease the blow of the inevitable commentary about what was done wrong. This, of course, applies to the real world as well, but after having someone in a pick up group last night actually making an effort to praise stellar crowd control, it rememinded me that too often we're silent when things go right, and very noisy when things go wrong.
• Remember to pamper yourself now and then. If you can't expend the effort to spoil yourself, why should you expect that anyone else will either?
• Remember that laughter cures much. Tickle those corpses back to life, don't just click 'em! ;)

December 19, 2002 - Patch Day

The only thing in the patch message that impacts the site is the change to quested PoP planar armor sets. As we're still working on getting the updated stats from the player-made smithed and tailored armor that was changed last week, I expect it will take time for us to be given the new information and get it onto the site as well.

There also seems to be a DNS problem right now for reaching the message boards. We just got home to find the problem, and we're still trying to figure out where the problem lies, since the boards themselves are up. For those of you who are true message board addicts, you can try using http://mboards.racknine.net/phpBB2/ in order to reach the message boards. However, be aware that your cookies may not work properly, and so you may not be able to properly login to post.

December 12, 2002 - Patch Day (updated)

As usual, it will take a bit before we're positive what impact the patch will have on tradeskillers. It is also going to take a while before it all makes it onto the site. So far, what's been confirmed:

• negative stats on some of the alchemy potions have been removed. More details should go up on the alchemy recipes page later today, after we can go through the list and double-check them
• gnomish fireworks have had their particle effects changed. The folks over at http://www.tinkering.org have screen shots
• the level restriction on anizok's gauze press has been removed
• the mana costs on the various enchanter-made mana vials have been cut in half. The FAQ on the boards has been changed to list the new mana costs
• At least a couple of the PoP tradeskill armor sets (smithed and tailored) have undergone a flipflop from INT to WIS and WIS to INT to better suit the classes that can wear the armor. It will take time to confirm that the changes were done across the board, as we hunt down folks that own pieces of these armor sets. As we receive updates, the PoP armor stats page will be updated.
• trivials on clockwork watchman armor changed. It will take a while before we're able to narrow down the new trivials, but the trivials have been lowered
• I've been told that trivials on some of the fishing lures have changed, but as yet, I have no details

Random updates to this list will continue throughout the day, as I hear back from various folks regarding stat changes, etc.

December 9, 2002 - More about the boards

Whee. It seems like the code tweak needed so that phpbb properly tracks what you've really read, and what you haven't read, was never stress tested with the sort of load that we see on a regular basis, nor for the sheer number of boards that we have. So, yes, things are beyond sludged right now, and I apologize for that. We have a couple options from this point, and we'll be looking at those alternatives carefully over the next day or two. One alternative would be to back out the tweak that uses the proper "read" indexing, and go back to it using your last visited timestamp to determine what you may/may not have read. I don't really like that alternative, personally, as I like to process posts from the boards in manageable chunks. The second alternative is to get rid of the Marketplace forums. This would more than halve the hits to the database as the main forum listing was generated, given the sheer number of servers there are these days. I really don't like that one, either, but it may be something we need to consider. Another alternative, which opens up issues with seeing if one registered user list can be shared between two separate message boards, is to make the Marketplace a separate message board.

We'll let you know what we manage to work out so that we're back to the very fast new boards once again.

December 6, 2002 - bleargh

Some days, I just can't win.I posted here this morning in between errands regarding the message boards spazzing out, and the moment I posted the message and left for another 4 hours of nearly-fruitless running errands, etc., they started working again. Anyway, nothing to see here, move along now.

December 5, 2002 - Mini Patch

Last night's patch fixed the issue with Froststone faction. Those who kill those foul snow orcs should now be properly rewarded with a more positive welcome from the Froststone dwarves in Crystal Caverns.

I'm also busy right now changing message board links all over the place to point to the new boards. (I'll drop a post in the new boards with the URL for the old boards, if you want to recover information from there, but I'm starting to turn off posting rights to the various old forums, as folks are still adding fresh posts in the Marketplace, etc.) Please DO let me know if you find message board links from the main site not working properly later today.

December 4, 2002 - Patch Day, and more about the boards

Today has been a "quiet" day with respect to tradeskills and the patch. There are a couple things to mention, however. A couple (or more, we're still waiting on reports regarding the others) of the PoP pottery items have had a recommended level flag added to them, as well as the addition of being range-wieldable (woohoo!) There also may be an issue with faction in Crystal Caverns. Those cantankerous dwarves in there can't seem to make up their minds, and while they REALLY dislike all those annoying orcs in "their" caverns, killing the orcs themselves now results in negative faction with the Froststone dwarves. I suspect this will be fixed relatively quickly.

We would like to thank everyone for your patience and tremendous support as we made the switch to the new message boards. It's still going to be a bit awkward until the dust settles some more and we can get past the glaring issues to fine tune the less critical settings (in between keeping up with the flow of new information for the site!) Your patience and continued cooperation are much appreciated! In the end, all the effort should be well worth being able to host the community far more economically.

That said, we would like to offer our thanks to the folks at EZBoards for their hosting of our message board community for close to three years. While the time has come for us to move on, EZBoards were the home where our community grew and thrived, up to this point. They still have much to offer communities that may not have the time, interest, or technical know-how to create and host their own boards. (As well as for those communities, such as my server's boards, where folks seem more willing to put up with popups than they are to contribute cash to support the boards.) We hope that the Everquest community does not see our change of venue as an indication that we are in any way dissatisfied with the quality of their services - we'd just rather spend more of our own time and effort, and less of our cash! Thank you and fond farewells, Vanchau and crew!

December 3, 2002 - Message Boards and More

With the chaos that has abounded IRL due to PoP launch, the Fan Faire, the grand opening of the House Ogre's comics and gaming shop (last Friday!), my strep throat and whiplash, I've delayed on this annoucement until the last minute, as I needed some breathing time before doing final tweaks to the [new message board]. You ask, 'What new message board?'

Many of you likely remember us mentioning our desire to explore other message board options, after we saw how much renewal for our EZBoard Gold membership was going to cost. We had a lot of folks approach us with different alternatives, including the folks at Mazevo, and the EZBoard folks also worked hard to come up with a more viable option for us. Fortunately, we had enough in the Community Chest to extend the board Gold status to cover the PoP launch chaos, but that extension is about to expire. After a lot of deliberation and price comparisons, and our very strong desire to keep the boards and site as ad free as possible, we've decided to host the boards with our site hosting provider, and run phpBB. While it does mean a lot of chaos for the next little while, as folks get their registrations set up, etc., if board traffic stays relatively stable, it will cost us about 25% of what our Gold renewal would cost. I suspect that the actual numbers may be closer to 50% if the current growth curve continues, but it's still a hefty amount of money.

I fully realize this means everyone needs to register for yet another message board, and re-do your preferences for sigs, etc. It will also mean that custom posting titles will be pretty much MIA for the time being, and that those of you who earned titles due to post count tallies may not be happy about having to re-earn titles all over again. Much as I am sorry for the extra chaos this causes for everyone, better that chaos than a) ads all over the place, or b) me deciding this is costing too much time and money and throwing in the towel. (Really, I don't want to do 'b'. I very much don't want to do that, and I've turned down some very blunt cash offers for the site ownership recently. I will not do that to this community ... but I am very burnt out IRL, and I'm very much dreading the hubub that's going to hit once I publish this front page update ...) Bleargh.

Anywayyyy ... I'm leaving the old boards up for now, but nudging you all to use the new boards. I'll leave the old links in place for a bit longer, so folks can copy over any needed information from server forums, etc. into the new ones. In another week (or less if it gets too crazed handling both sets of boards), I'll block posting to the old boards, but leave them up for reference purposes.

November 23, 2002 - Quick Clarification

Tuesday's patch announced the "Stacked items can't be combined in a container, they must be separated" fix. However, it seems to be checking on some items, and not on others. Please do still be careful about not stacking items in tradeskill containers. Further discussion can be found here.

November 20, 2002 - Small Update

Three new instrument quests requiring tradeskills were added to Skyshrine. You can find basic writeups for them on the site. Stats for the various PoP planar armor quests are slowly trickling in. There are still a lot of stats, etc. coming in on the new PoP recipes, so you'll want to check out the PoP recipes pages for the newest information. The backpack recipe from Cazic Thule has finally been confirmed, as has the leather boot recipe. With the amount of time being taken up by PoP and site maintenance, it's hard to find much time to put in on building the database, but, thanks in large part to several volunteers, and the coding efforts of the House Ogre, there is progress being made. Still no ETA on when we'll be ready to beta the DB, but we'll keep you posted.

November 19, 2002 - Patch Day

Today's patch contains many tradeskill-related items. I'll post the appropriate information here, and will update it with comments in italics during the day as we check things out.

• Changed the method of obtaining the Planes of Power 'imbue' spells. Speak with the fellow that gave them to you before for more information. - the lady that used to handle the tradeins now tells you how to make the imbue spells yourself. Recipes on the site
• Removed the level casting restriction from Necrotic Divining Device. - this is a happy thing
• Fixed the invisible forge in Felwithe - forge is now located inside Emerald Armor in North Felwithe
• Added Collapsing Fletching, and Collapsing Mortar and Pestle. Added recipe books for them. - recipes on site
• Added Vah Shir Spirit Stone recipe. Check existing recipe note for information. - recipe for essence and spiritstone on site
• Added a few forges to Crystal Caverns in Frostone. - locs on site
• Added the Ignore Trivial Loot flag to several temper components for the Firiona Vie server. - this was prompted by a comment at the Fan Faire regarding DE cultural smithing. It will take time to find out which temper items now ignore TLC on FV
• Removed the Lore tag from the crafted planar steins. - this is also a happy thing
• Added a level limit and recommended level to some Planes of Power jewel crafted items. - some pieces were inconsistent and all should have had level limits from the start. Updates will be made to the PoP jewelry page as folks report on the various items
• Saltwater Seaweed is now tradable. - it is still nonstacking and nonsellable, but at least you can trade it between characters now!
• Paladin and Shadowknight gnomes should now be able to gain skill above 200 in tinkering. - seems the newest classes for gnomes couldn't quite get the hang of advanced tinkering at first ...
• Attempting to create planar sheets of metal will no longer destroy the Tanaan Smithing Hammer. - our bank accounts thank you! Those hammers are pricey!
• Stacked items can't be combined in a container, they must be separated. - no more accidentally combining a stack of blue diamonds when a recipe calls for one?! Happy, happy, joy, joy!
• Characters no longer consume food or get the food and drink messages when in trader mode. - not directly tradeskill related, but tradeskillers who sell stat foods and drinks will no longer worry that their greedy vendor mules will eat all their stock!
  

And in the not announced, but in the patch category:

• changes to the trivial levels for ethereal brewing, smithing and tailoring. - they now trivial at skill <=220. Until you have either a raw skill of 220, or can achieve 220 modified skill with a +brewing item (i.e., 210+ skill and a +5% brewing geerlock), you cannot attempt combines on these items. This basically means that these were not meant to be used as a skillup path. While this is not a happy thing, I understand why they did it. Sorta. Kinda
• class 6 mana batteries are now sold in Plane of Knowledge - yep, you guessed it, another happy thing! ;)
• Stationary tradeskill containers were added to Skyshrine - locs are on the site
• Sirekoth Eshe has reopened his shop in the Plane of Knowledge

I'll add more comments once I'm done wading through all the posts, and check some things out in-game

November 17, 2002 - A Word on Imbues

Several folks have noticed that Noirin Khalen in Plane of Knowledge changed her hail response over the weekend. While she used to accept ethereal parchments in trade for a random planar imbue spell, she now returns the parchments and speaks of a way to make the spells using a planar jeweller's kit and various other items. Please note, however, that while she speaks of this new method of obtaining the imbues, this process will NOT work until the next patch (scheduled for Tuesday). Please hold on to your supplies and experimentation until that time.

November 10, 2002 - Must Sleeeeeeeep

The House Ogre and I have safely returned from the San Francisco Fan Faire. It was a fun, if tiring weekend. While the weather was not the greatest, we did manage to squeeze some time in at Muir Woods (yes, I hugged a redwood), and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (though we couldn't even see the top of the bridge through the fog). I also met various EQ community leaders, including Allakhazam, Baelish, Illia, and Vaslin; and various VI personalities I've interacted with electronically, including Absor, Axgoreth, Frizznik, and Lyndro. (I also, of course, spoke with Yakatizma, but we'd already been acquainted due to the San Diego Fan Faire a while back.) I met a lot of great folks from the EQTC boards, though I suspect that by the end of Saturday, I likely had a slightly glazed look in my eye from all the names and faces that flashed before me. At long last, I also finally got to make good on a long-ago promise to bring "Ester the Tester" chocolate. (After, of course, buying a second bar of the dark chocolate with rapsberries for myself, to assure it was worthy of eating!) While I had to start camping the line for the 6 pm Tradeskill panel at 5 pm due to the two earlier sessions being filled to capacity, I'm going to leave it to someone else to post some of the information from the panel that I attended (as well as the 2 earlier full ones). I need to go unsnarl my brain for a bit, spoil my frantic cats, and get some sleeeeeeeep.

November 5, 2002 - Patch Day

It's pretty quiet on the tradeskill front as we continue to work on verifying more of the PoP recipes. Just a couple quick notes before I start packing for the Fan Faire:

1) Reports of the continuations to the Planar Traveller's Manual quest being fixed may have been premature. Reports are in that there are still issues with it, so I'd recommend holding off on questing it right now. 2) Members report Anizok's gauze press is now happily summoning bandages again.

That's likely all the front page updates I'll have until next week, as we'll be out of town Thursday-Sunday, and any time I do spend dialed in will be spent handling the boards and updating the PoP recipes pages.

November 1, 2002

For those of you who have your Planar Travelers Manual, and are looking to continue the quest along the Planar Magic or Planar Stealth path, you might want to hold off on questing, unless you're one of those crazed tradeskillers working on both paths at the same time. While the appropriate items are now being returned when you hand in your planar stein or hobgoblin surprise, the next NPC in each step isstill a bit confused and wont respond unless you have obtained the opposite manual. (Personally, I think they filled up the steins with something extremely potent and went on a drinking binge before returning to their posts, but ...) When these have been fixed, the quests page will be updated accordingly. If what I just posted doesn't make any sense to you, just note the fact that the quests are still minorly glitched, and hold off on your questing until they can be fixed. ;)

It appears that the vendor buyback price for some compound bows was lowered in yesterday's patch, as well as the vendor selling price for ceramic vanes. Before folks go screaming into the fletching forum (again) about "nerfs", I want to say two things. 1) VI has stated in the past that you should not be able to make a profit vendor-selling tradeskill items, and it appears that at least the bow change was thanks to notes about folks making a profit making and vendoring these bows. 2) Civil rants, raves and whimpers belong in the Primal Scream forum, not the Fletching forum, or any of the other main tradeskill forums. Discuss things all you want, but if folks start foaming at the mouth, expect posts to be locked. Should it get too out of hand, we may ask certain reactionary elements to leave the boards, at least until they can get themselves under control. This community doesn't need to deal with that level of venom over changes made by VI, m'kay?

October 31, 2002 (revision of the revision)- Patch Day
As mentioned on the 29th, today's patch included: greasy diamond of innovation recipe has been fixed (and someone has already completed the resultant ceramic hammer of innovation). Anizok's Minimizing and Maximizing Devices should now be rechargeable with a mana battery - class six. Anizok's Gauze press was changed to a 20-charge item, and is rechargeable with a mana battery - class one. However, there's currently an issue with the proper spell being missing, so the press doesn't work. Hold onto your horses and your presses, as VI is aware of the problem. When I hear an ETA for a fix, I'll post something here. (C'mon folks, cut them a break. Mistakes happen when dealing with patches, and rampaging around screaming about the "nerf" won't help any.)

Other tradeskill changes not mentioned in the patch message: A new vendor has been added to Plane of Knowledge to carry the mana batteries for class one through class five. We should also see an increase in the drops of midnight stones with this patch.

Many PoP recipes continue to be verified in record time by a horde of eager adventurers. Unlike with past expansions, I'm not giving myself (more) grey hair by trying to personally verify a lot of these items, but rather am working on processing all the data posted by various folks, and beating the PoP drop information into shape for addition to the database. There are also several new quest writeups in place, including the newly-solved quest for PoP planar armor. I've also roamed over to the Safehouse and the Tinkering Compendium several times to make sure that we're all working with the same information on verified recipes, trivials, etc. Thankfully, this has made this expansion a lot easier on this exhausted halfling, though it's still been creative finding the time to do site updates, tackle more chunks of this ever-growing database (the sheer volume of information already in it ... and still to go ... is very boggling at times), and get in a little play-time before I go redhead with an oversized rolling pin IRL.

The House Ogre and I will be at the Fan Faire next weekend, though I'll not be bringing along a "laundry list" of things to tackle in the tradeskill discussions. (I promise, Yakatizma, I'll leave the rolling pin at home /grin) Not only am I sure that others there will be more than ready and able to ask thorny questions, but a) I play email tag with the tradeskill team frequently when there are issues to be addressed, and b) I need some "downtime". I know, I know, I'm not really escaping from EQ stuff, since I'll be at an EQ con, but I'll be away from the computers and away from the site for a couple days -- and that is a "good thing" for someone who maintains something this massive day-in and day-out. So, those of you who are going to be at the Fan Faire, feel free to say hello, but please understand if my eyes start to glaze over during your favorite tradeskill rant that I'm one very exhausted redhead right now and am likely to be sleepwalking half the weekend. ;) Of course, this likely holds true for half the VI team that will be there as well, given the amount of work they have put in during the last couple of months.

October 29, 2002 - Various Updates
It's been a week since the release of Planes of Power, and, at least from my perspective, it's been the smoothest expansion launch yet. Those of you grumbling in the corner, bear with me. Yes, there have been some crashes, and more downtime than players would like, but all in all, it's been a LOT more stable, we've been able to confirm that a lot more of the recipes are in, and working, and so on. While there has been the invariable trolling, and banning, on the boards, there's been a lot less of the ill-mannered chaos than we saw with the release of Luclin, even last Tuesday when we had over 100,000 page hits to just the message boards.

This isn't saying it's perfect, and I'm sure we're going to find nigglies as time goes on - things that need to be adjusted one direction or another in order to be "balanced". It's looking good, though.

Speaking of nigglies, and things that need to be adjusted, here's what we know so far:

• The drop rate on midnight stones (needed for jewelcraft, as well as for a brewed smithing temper) is being adjusted - expect to see more of them drop after the next time Plane of Nightmares is patched.
• After the next server patch, the tinkered shrink and grow devices (Anizok's Minimizing and Maximizing Devices) should be able to be recharged with a class 6 mana battery
• Anizok's Gauze Press (summon bandage item) will become a charged item after the next patch. Before folks go screaming onto the forums and in-game, this is still a very useful item. Basically, you can zap out 20 stacks of 20 summoned bandages for 10pp and change (recharges with a class 1 mana battery.) This is noticeably less than that many stacks of real bandages would cost, and takes up far less space in packs. I'll be definitely getting a second one of these made (the first is on my monk) for my beastlord, along with a collapsed toolbox for field recharging. Yes, those who have sold these for insane prices are going to see less profit, and yes, you may have some disgruntled customers. Such is the life of tradeskills around the time of an expansion or a large patch. (Such as, gee, what happened to prices after a week or two of the PoTC craze? ;D)

Anyway, given what my "laundry list" normally looks like a week after something large impacts tradeskills, things are looking pretty good from my end. That doesn't mean I'm not dead on my feet, but I'm definitely less frantic than is usually the case after something like this. Still, I'm very much looking forward to a "weekend offline" at the Fan Faire in a week and a half. ;)

October 23, 2002 - Several items of interest
Please bear with me, this will be a longer update than usual, as there are several things I wish to bring to the community's attention.

It looks like we have a majority of the PoP recipes (other than poisonmaking, which still remains a mystery), with tinkering leading the pack with regards to percentage of recipes already verified. (The gnomes are having much fun puttering around, from what I've seen, and I've even decided to join them with a little gnomelet.) I'll be continuing to update recipe pages several times a day for the next several days, in an attempt to help folks sort out recipes and PoP tradeskill drops.

Next, a few things regarding the message boards:

1. A new version of the EZBoard software has been released, and everyone who uses HTML in their signature files needs to be aware of how this will affect them. If you're an EZBoard community supporter, you will still be able to use HTML in your board sig files. If you have not signed up directly with EZBoards to be a community supporter, you will no longer be able to use HTML code in your sig files. This is why you're seeing a lot of ugly code in some people's posts instead of their old sig files. Read the release notes for more details, specifically the link about security changes. There is also information there about added EZCode functionality for those who need/want to convert their sig file into EZCode. (Also note that becoming an EZBoard community supporter means that ALL EZBoard Gold communities will no longer be charged for your visits to their boards, as well as making you ad-free when you visit non-Gold communities.)
2. Currently, EQTC is "playing it by ear" with regards to EZBoard Gold renewal. The folks at EZBoards were kind enough to give us a 1-month extension on our current subscription based on what was in the community chest (which is separate from the paypal donations that folks are sending donations to in order to help pay for site costs), so we didn't have to worry about either renewing, or moving to a new home for the boards in the middle of the PoP chaos. This will give us a bit of breathing space to see what EZBoards can/will offer us with regards to renewal, or prep for moving to php boards via our site host.
3. They are looking at the impact of EZBoards on EQ communities such as this one. As part of this effort, they're asking feedback from the EQ communities. You'll find a link at the top of the message boards entitled "IMPORTANT FEEDBACK: ezboard & Everquest". Please take a few moments to click that link and add your feedback.

Lastly, Woody from /gu comics has asked that I post the following community announcement:

1st Annual GU Costume Contest

That's right... Time to show me your sewing skills! I want to see your Halloween Costume!

The rules of the contest are simple enough:

1. Show me your halloween costume.

Simple huh? The winner will be the best >> EQ << related costume, but all submissions will be accepted.

You can send your pictures to woody@a5.com, make sure the subject reads "GU Costume Contest". By submitting your picture, you agree to let me post it on the GU Web Site.

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, November 3rd and the winner will be announced Monday, November 4th at GUComics.Com.

The Prize?
The Prize will be a signed, matted, and framed original GU Panel and the GU T-Shirt of your choice.

5 runner ups will receive a signed GU Coloring book.

October 21, 2002 (7:40 pm PST)- PoP!
Today marked the day when the Planes of Power expansion went live. While I didn't expect to be quite this late with my first update, I hope you'll agree that the time was well-spent.

When VI stated the following in their patch message, little did we know that this applied to tradeskills as well!

One of the new features included in the Planes of Power is a new way for NPCs deal with Player Characters. It allows NPCs to recognize certain actions taken by player characters. This may mean that an NPC will not be interested in talking to you until you've accomplished a certain task or until certain events have occurred. So some NPCs may not have much to say to you upon your first meeting, but might be more talkative later. This can also apply to events and locations that might react differently to a character that has accomplished a task than to one that has not.

Various folk have been running around hailing NPCs in Plane of Knowledge, and it seems that they've received different responses based on if they were a grandmaster (or near-grandmaster) in a specific tradeskill, or if they had no or low skill. So, after seeing what recipes were posted in the PoP Data forum, I broke out my horde of tradeskillers and tried to fill in the gaps.

With no further ado, you can find out what we know of the recipes here. You can find vendor information for Plane of Knowledge here, and vendor information for Plane of Tranquility here. There's still a lot of verification to be done, drops to be found, forages and fish to be cataloged, vendors to be cross-referenced, etc., but it's a pretty good start.

Please excuse me for a while. I need to go gibber in a corner ... or eat dinner or something.

This site is maintained by Niami DenMother, and is Racknine

The fine print: All text on this site is copyright by the respective authors. The game EverQuest is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.This site is not meant to represent official EQ policy, and we are not responsible for errors/omissions that occur due to changes in EverQuest trade skills.