[trevius]

Dreadspire is now open to players!

It took over 3 months to get this zone ready for players. There has been much player anticipation for the release of this zone. I think everyone will see what has been taking so long when they see how new, dynamic and challenging the entire zone is. Dreadspire has been made completely custom from the ground up. Since the zone was completely empty when I started on it (there weren't even any doors), it will not be similar to Live in any way. I didn't play in Dreadspire/Demi-Plane of Blood on live at all, so I made everything up on my own. The only mob that exists in the Storm Haven Dreadspire that was also on EQLive is Mayong Mistmoore. And, the only thing that isn't 100% fully custom created is the actual loot in the loot tables. Most of the loot was pre-existing in the database and was just edited where needed.

Some of the key features of Dreadspire:

- Melee class trash mobs have disciplines that can make them considerably harder
- All caster class mobs have custom spell lists for their class using level 71+ player spells
- All trash mobs have a chance to trigger one of 3 types of special mini events
- All trash mobs have a chance to spawn 1 of 3 named when they die
- The remaining named all spawn in static places but have placeholders
- 11 Total Named mobs which have each been built as custom encounters to all be different
- 8 Total mini bosses all with 100% custom and extremely detailed original events so each requires completely different strategies
- 1 Boss, which is Mayong Mistmoore himself
- Over 220+ Loot and Quest items in the zone with more to come!
- Progression based content that requires defeating certain encounters and completing quests to access other areas
- Completely original and new scripted events that will create more interesting encounters than ever and add more excitement
- Considerably challenging content that will require more variety in classes, strategy and skill
- Quests for upgrades from the Veteran Charms
- Quests for Immaculate items, which are epic 2.0 quality items that are meant to compliment the epic 2.0 in other slots.
- Multiple branches from the zone in to help divide up the zone to allow multiple separate groups to use the zone at once
- Mini-Boss and Boss status checker to find out which bosses are up directly from the zone in
- Probably one of the best overall zone looks and layout in the entire game.
- More attention to detail for things like weapon models on mobs, pathing, mob names, etc to give a certain feel to the zone
- Custom Random attack and death messages and emotes on all trash mobs


This zone will definitely require further tuning and there are even more features planned for it in the near future as well. Dreadspire is designed to be the top tier zone on the server for a long time. There is alot to do there and the content is hard and slow, but hopefully still lots of fun. It will be extremely hard before poeple start earning much gear from the zone to help them handle it better. As people gear up, the trash mobs and even named will probably be boxable, but I doubt any of the mini-bosses+ will be boxable due to their advanced scripting events and challenge levels.

Once the final tweaks and additional features are added into the zone, we will start work on more new content which should continue to give more interesting things for players to do whether they are solo, grouped or raiding. We have plenty of very interesting ideas that should make Storm Haven even more unique than it already is.

Special thanks to Vanco for helping create many of the encounters. His scripting ability and creative mind has really helped to make Dreadspire what I think will be a huge success. If you ask me, I might even say that the Storm Haven Dreadspire is probably better done than almost all EQLive zones. Or, it will be when it is fully finalized.

Also note that since the last post was made in this thread, the following major changes/additions have been made:

May 2008 Changes:
- Server: the server is now running on Debian Linux. This is on a temporary PC until I get the real server built onto Linux as well
- Server-wide: disabled all zone resetters since there are reports that player ghosts do not occur on Linux servers. Will enable them again if they are needed
- Server-wide: lowered the exp bonus for the server down to 1.5 to help in further server balance
- Quest: reduced the drop rate on Radiant Scrolls from Phara`Dar and Spirit of Mithaniel Mar from 6 down to 1 per kill to reduce access rates for Solrotower
- Armor: added worn effect: Faerune to all PoTimeB and Solrotower armor set helms
- Solrotower: removed a possible exploit in the Solusek Ro event
- Pets: upgraded the highest level pets that level a 70 mage, necro, beastlord, shadowknight and enchanter can get and added new pets for 70+. More pet changes to come
- Pets: completed updating high level pets and the 70+ pets. They may still get further tuning, but they have all been upgraded and customized
- Code: added the anti-MQ detection source code from TZ/VZ server. This should remove most cheats from the server
- Tools: added the PEQ character mover tool. Information on this tool can be found in the General and Bugs sections of the forums in stickied posts
- Discipline: reduced the amount of avoidance given by Evasive Discipline. This discipline was much too overpowered
- Spells: corrected the range setting for certain mid level cleric, druid, and shaman healing spells that were not working properly
- Bards: corrected a bug that was causing bards to crash zones everytime they logged in if they had trained the Sionachie's Crescendo AA.
- Bards: adjusted the level 71 song Jonthan's Mightful Caretaker to reduce the proc rate increase it gives as it was much to overpowering
- Bugs: resolved a long running bug with the quests to level above 70 and de-leveling

June 2008 Changes:
- Server-wide: updated the emulator code to version 0.7.0-1110
- Server-wide: temporarily disabled NPC fleeing until there are less bugs in the code for it
- Pets: increased the dps and some other stats of end-game pets by a considerable amount
- Veeshan: lowered all resists accept for magic resist considerably on all NPCs
- Nexus: added an automatic random illusion generating NPC that spawns occasionally
- Nexus: made a minor adjustment to the de-level quests to remove a possible exploit
- Veeshan: upgraded the loot on all dragons accept for Phara`Dar to be in line with the rest of the zone
- Quests: increased the number of Radiant Scroll drops in Veeshan and Hohonorb. The other dragons now have a rare chance to drop the scrolls as well

July 2008 Changes:
- Server-wide: updated the emulator code to a modified version of 0.7.0-1118
- Server-wide: added code to resolve the "Lag Bug"
- Server-wide: added code to stop lore augments from being looted after the same aug had been inserted into an item.
- Dreadspire: the access quest for Dreadspire has been started and the first part is attainable
- Dreadspire: the zone is fully spawned and pathing and doors are completed. Quests and loot needs to be added to finalize the zone
- Server-wide: players can now contribute to the server. The contributor zone Guild Hall has been completed and an item upgrade quest has been added
- Solrotower: cleaned up some old stuff in the Solusek Ro encounter to hopefully reduce lag issues during the fight
- Server-wide: added some new code that I wrote into the server to allow Call of the Hero to be disabled on a Per Zone basis
- Nexus: added a new NPC to toggle PVP flags off or on at any time
- Server-wide: added code to help HPs to be displayed properly and for Chaotic Potential AA to work
- Server-wide: added code for Pet HPs to update out of combat now
- Server-wide: added new hack detection and prevention to stop the hack that allows items to be equiped by classes that cannot use them so they can use the click effect from them
- Server-wide: added the opcode for Charmed Pets, so they now use the pet window and can be controlled
- Server-wide: added disciplines to level 75 Necro and Mage pets
- Server-wide: enabled IP Limiting to limit the max number of simultaneous accounts per household to 3
- Server-wide: added code to allow Pet buffs to show up in the pet window. Pet classes rejoice
- Delveb: the dragon encounter, Tirranum, is now complete with loot and a Dreadspire access flag
- Server-wide: updated the emulator code to version 0.7.0-1125
- Server-wide: added code to fix the issue with level 71+ spells being removed from the spellbook when zoning
- Server-wide: removed access to the #scribespells command for normal players
- Corathusa: new zone opened and all quests complete accept for the Dreadspire access portion from there
- Server-wide: updated the emulator code to version 0.7.0-1128

September 2008 Changes:
- Server-wide: created a new quest command that allows disciplines to be trained at the spell scriber
- Server-wide: removed the #traindisc command access since the spell scriber can now train them
- Server-wide: increased the max level of disciplines to level 75
- Dreadspire: this new zone is finally open to players after 4 months of hard work! Enjoy

If you haven't played on Storm Haven yet, feel free to come check us out anytime. And, if you have played on Storm Haven before, feel free to come back and check out the best zone on the server yet!