I am starting to go through the list of patch notes to pull out the important updates that may effect EQEmu in one way or another. So far I have done all of 2012, but I still need to go back to the point where our UF client was released. I will add the rest of the notes later as I have time. Once all done, I will sort it out and then categorize it for easier reading. Then, I will add it to the features page in the wiki here so you can compare the new features from all clients.
I think one of the best parts of the patches I have read so far are all of the stability fixes and memory reductions. The client is looking more and more like it could blow away any of our previous clients once it is all done.
Patch Highlights from 2012:
- New hats have arrived in celebration of Frostfell! Adventurers with the Hero's Forge feature can now wear a variety of hat ornamentations that have a chance to drop from all mobs in non-raid zones.
- Fixed some issues related to memory handling. Crashing after zoning multiple times in a play session should be less frequent now.
- Fixed an issue with emitters that was causing unnecessary memory consumption.
- Optimized a processing and memory issue with the Pet Info window.
- Modified the Item Inspect window and the Marketplace window to support Player Studio items.
- Added the Aggro Meter to display your current aggro rating in comparison to the most hated on an NPC.
- You will now be able to purchase items from a bazaar trader directly from the Bazaar Search Window if you own Rain of Fear.
- You will now be able to barter using the Barter Search Window if you own Rain of Fear.
- You will now be able to open The Bazaar Search and Barter Search windows using key bindings, EQ button commands, and the slash commands from any zone.
- You can now enter Offline Mode when in buyer or trader mode using the slash command or the "Offline Mode" button in the UI. This will allow you to remain in this mode while EverQuest is not running.
- Additional Hero's Forge robes have arrived! They are now available for the Ebon, Viridian, Violet, Beryl, and Auburn armor sets.
- Fixed an issue where if you tried to go into full screen mode on a resolution that your monitor didn't support, it would previously crash the game.
- /log will now persist across logins.
- Made several changes to the way EverQuest is compiled. Please keep an eye out for any strange behavior. If you see any, please use /bug, or leave feedback in the update thread posted in the Developer Roundtable at
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq.
- The "/outputfile spellbook" command will now properly output all spells in your spell book.
- Reduced the timer from 45 minutes to 5 minutes for the LDON adventure success replay timer.
- Hid the display of alternate currencies that you don't own. Also made the alternate currency list sortable. To make currencies appear that you don't have, check the "Show currencies that you don't have." checkbox.
- Augments that do not have a solvent listed can now be removed only by using Perfected Augmentation Distillers.
- Added the ability to turn in stacks of items to NPCs.
- When wearing visible wrist armor, the right wrist is now the only wrist slot that affects appearance.
- Corrected an issue where pre-Luclin human and half elf helmets no longer had transparencies on their visors.
- Corrected an issue where a number of pre-Luclin character models were incorrectly displaying black textures or splotches of black on their otherwise working textures. This was most noticeable on dark elf and halfling breastplates, and on nearly every model's boots.
- Corrected an issue where the Eye of Zomm had been changed from white to black.
- New color variations for Hero's Forge plate, chain, and leather armor are now available. Some can be found on any level 10+ NPCs, and some only in hotzones. Cloth armor variants will be available in the same manner in an upcoming update.
- The Firepride Secret of Heroes has been discovered. Skilled crafters should seek out this new tome available from tradeskill vendors around the world. It contains recipes for creating another color variation of plate, chain, and leather armor. Cloth recipes will not function yet.
- Reduced the cost of all Augmentation Distillers.
- Several potions that grant a bonus to experience gain have had their effects changed to persist through death.
- Augments can now be directly swapped in a piece of armor by clicking on an inserted augment with another augment on your cursor. Distiller requirements will still apply.
- All augmentations can now be added to or removed from items directly from the item window now, without the use of an Augmentation Sealer. You will still need to have augmentation distillers or solvents in your inventory to remove those augments that require them.
--- To add an augment to a piece of equipment, pick up the augment on your cursor and click on the desired augment slot.
--- To remove an augment from a piece of equipment, left click on it. If the augment requires a solvent to remove, it will ask you for confirmation before removing it.
--- To destroy a non-removable augment that is in a piece of equipment, right click on the augment and select the Destroy option.
- Added code to prevent several apparent freezes when zoning or entering the game in Windows 7.
- Added the ability to set the visibility level of new armor in the Display Tab of the Options Window. You can choose to have it on for everyone (default), your raid, your group, yourself, or no one at all.
- Changed the "Return Home" time to 18 minutes since the last time you logged in. Previously you had to wait 6 hours to use this button. Now it's set to the same time as Origin without any use of the hastened AAs.
- Fixed several sources of client crashes.
- Fixed a graphics engine issue that potentially causes the alt-tab crashes.
- Reduced the overall memory consumption used when zoning by no longer pre-loading textures that aren't currently in use.
- Nearly all items that previously needed to be equipped in order to activate their spell effect should now be useable from your inventory if you are capable of equipping that item. These changes intentionally exclude a number of quest and bane items.
- Made it so that members that do not have access to prestige items will no longer be able to insert a prestige augmentation into an item.
- Modified the functionality of prestige items so that armor or weapons with prestige augments inserted do not become prestige.
--- The item slot now appears purple when an item has an augment that is prestige (but the item itself is still enabled).
--- When examining the item, the item name will appear purple, and any augments that are disabled as a result of being prestige appear red.
- Fixed two separate crashes that could occur when players opened certain merchant windows.
- Merchants will now "Show Only Items That I Can Use" by default. Also spells that the character already has scribed and lower rank spells of the same spell group are now filtered out with the "Show Only Items That I Can Use" option.
- Right-clicking on an item that you cannot use now gives the specific reason why you cannot use the item (whether it be level, race, class, deity, or membership level).
- Changed the default memory management mode to Balanced and removed original memory mode. This should prevent many of the crashes that were occurring in large zones.
- Increased the targeting range on PCs through /target from 70 to 200.
- The alarm window is no longer a pop-up. It is now accessible from the EQ menu button (EQ -> Actions -> Alarm) or the /alarm command.
- Made it so that the newbie character no longer shows when the player is at the character select screen and has no characters.
- Increased the number of buy lines in the Barter Buyer Window from 50 to 200.
- Origin is now auto-granted at level 5 to all players. The reuse time has been lowered to 18 minutes.
- Hastened Origin has been refunded, as it is no longer relevant.
- Changed the default window size for EQ on a fresh install to default to the current desktop resolution.
- Made a change to prevent out-of-memory crashes on 64-bit systems. On 64-bit operating systems, EverQuest will now use 4GB of address space instead of only 2GB.
- All classes now have a new group of Alternate Advancement abilities available in Veil of Alaris.
- The warning for having more AA points banked than allowed will now display properly when the limit is over 30.
- Players can now buy extra mercenary slots on the Marketplace and keep a roster of mercenaries that they can switch between. Mercenaries operate the way they used to, except that if you purchase another mercenary, it will become active and replace the mercenary you had active before (if any). Dismissing a mercenary will cause the first remaining mercenary in your roster to become the active mercenary (though suspended). Transferring a mercenary will cause the target player's active mercenary to be suspended and the newly transferred one to become active.
- To switch mercenaries in your roster, open the Mercenary Management UI.
- Added the "View Only" guild bank item setting (that does not allow for withdrawal). When you promote an item this is the default setting. To withdraw the item, the permission must be changed to a different item setting.
- Fixed an issue where in full screen mode a 3x4 hot bar would resize to a 2x6, and then 1x12, every time the UI was reloaded.
Here is the link to the page where I left off:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/news....html?1&page=8