Zeb Server - EQ Emulator

A little history lesson. Crushbone was the first zone I finished for Zebuxoruk and that was over two years ago. Since that point it has undergone a lot of face lifts and changes. This will be the 3rd time I’ve actually cleared the entire zone and started over which needs to happen when you have a mess of a zone after it’s been edited so many times.

The new setting is a little different. There is still a battle going on but now it’s between the Blacktongue and Blacktooth. The Blacktongue are the brute, orc, crush your face kinda’ guys and they still hang out around the fort. The Blacktooth are a nomadic, shamanistic dog-lookin’ clan that has decided the Blacktongues are not fit to live anymore.

Changes:
The loot tables - They have been deleted and redone. Crushbone had a lot of old unneeded items. The loot tables are a lot simpler now. The trash can drop plate, chain, leather, cloth, misc items, or weapons (depending on which trash). This should make the first real Zebuxoruk experience for new players less of a disaster.

The loot - Named appropriately and on the right mobs! Some loot removed, some new things added.

Named/Bosses - They have been redistributed throughout the zone and renamed and retooled accordingly. The Blacktooth and Blacktongue areas have equal opportunity for named/loot now.

Nothing but positive feedback from players old and new about the changes, hopefully I won’t have to tough Crushbone for a few more months.

The main changes in today’s patch revolve around the economy and experience. The economy changes have no real effect on players at this point so just hold tight for that coming in the future.

Dragon Necropolis Drebl’s have been tuned to be the main source for AA experience. This overrides a previous decision placing it in East ToV. It was moved for ToV lag reasons. XP gain 55+ is also a bit sluggish. Guk Basements XP rate was nerfed a long time ago before adjustments were made to it to keep it from being a 70 AE hotspot. The XP there was awful so I moved it back up into a reasonable range, 300% is misleading this way, its more-or-less just going back to normal. Kael was also a bit slow so I upped the XP rate there. Because I’m trying to keep the AA grinders out of Kael I moved Necropolis’ XP modifier up too (it’s higher than Kael). To keep AA Exp gain at it’s currently rate I dropped the AA XP modifier down a bit.

Is Necropolis now better XP than Kael 60-70?
No. If you didn’t know AA XP in EqEmu is broken and is calculated independent of NPC level. Regular XP takes NPC level into account. The higher level NPCs in Kael will give better regular XP (They also have loot, molds, and other goodies that Necropolis doesn’t)

Why is Necropolis better than Kael for AA XP now?
The NPCs are built for AA grindage if you want to do that. There are a lot more of them, in a smaller area, with faster respawns. The Drebl’s are a little different than the low level Kael mobs people usually kill on. Most of them are pretty basic. There are no more spell casting (blinding) guys in Necropolis. The two more powerful and rare types of Drebl can summon, one or two types are also uncharmable or unmezable. Mostly this is to add variety and strategy if you are taking on many at a time and generally should be a more fun experience.

Read the Rest of Today’s Changes
And be sure to leave a comment or two in the forum!

Focus tests are a new system of collecting information from players. Each week (could be more or less depending on the subject) I’ll be posting a focus item for people to look for in-game. A thread will be started in the It’s Broken forum for people to report back to me on that specific concern. Information on the focus will also be given in the MOTD. After the feedback is collected I’ll patch and put up a new focus.

This week’s focus is on “uncustom” content. I’m looking for items, NPCs, or anything else that I missed while customizing. Thanks for your support, if everyone concentrates on one area I feel we’ll be able to get things done a lot faster.

FOCUS 1: Uncustom Content

I’ve dropped the resist modifiers a bit more. You should have less of a chance of being resisted now. When you are resisted you will have more of a chance to land a partial hit instead of it being a full resist. This is the biggest change in today’s patch. Please provide feedback so I can continue to adjust the resist rates server wide and by zone.