Merchants only sell incorrect "Quill", Research combines fail

[Kutan]

The item "Quill", required by many Research-related recipes, is currently not being sold by vendors. Merchants that offer quills sell an item that resembles it, but it fails in combines. The "Quill" currently being sold is an item from Dragons of Norrath cultural armor, and is easily identifiable because of its size: medium, instead of tiny. I would like to, again, emphasize the fact that this breaks Research combines. All of the recipes for the Concordance of Research require both "Quill" (tiny size) and "A Piece of Parchment". Parchment can be found on merchants, but the correct quill is not offered anywhere.

From casual OOC conversation, players are aware of the problem, and there's no workaround-- you simply cannot use the Concordance of Research to practice your Research skill. If you're not using guildmaster trains, the majority of your Research gains should come from creating practice runes via the Concordance of Research, but this currently isn't an option. If you spent your trains on something else (say, another tradeskill), this causes serious difficulty for casters hoping to research all their spells.

I did a bit of merchant-checking today, and was able to find the medium-size quill on four vendors. I'm sure there's plenty more.

This is an issue that has been reported many times, but has never received an official response.
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=39
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=540
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1484

This last thread got a developer comment, but it was before it was pointed out that the issue was due to the wrong quill being in-game.
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=3953

The posts are nearly as old as the server's launch, but the problem still persists. So, I'd like to finally get an official response, or an acknowledgment at least. This isn't something that I want fixed tomorrow, and I'm not demanding anything of the devs-- I'd just like to have someone confirm that they're aware of the problem.

Thanks for taking the time to look this over. Here's a picture, just in case there's any doubt, and here's links to the Allakhazam entries for the medium-size quill (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=34081) and the proper, tiny quill (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3254).

http://i43.tinypic.com/kcgu3o.jpg

[Kutan]

Third page bump.

Again, I'm just looking for a dev response. Anything will do.

[Zordana]

"practising" research in classic? cant remember that.. if i remember correctly i needed to skill up by making spells

[Kutan]

"practising" research in classic? cant remember that.. if i remember correctly i needed to skill up by making spells
If that's the case, then the Concordance of Research quests need to be removed.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=374
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=303

However, if Allakhazam is any source to be trusted, they're from the "original" (classic) era.
Just because you don't remember it doesn't mean it wasn't there.

[Kutan]

People are still attempting practice research.

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/4373/inquiryw.jpg (http://img243.imageshack.us/i/inquiryw.jpg/)

[gprater]

i attempted this morning and couldnt get them to combine in the concordance....that led me to this thread.

Hopefully this will be looked at....thanks

[Jify]

Reported multiple times in/around November, I believe this is a known issue.

:(

[nilbog]

Did anyone ever provide evidence this was classic? Earliest source would still be useful.

[Chicka]

I don't have evidence but I can tell you it was classic, my necro poo poo'd the whole idea because it would take as long to collect the "practice" stuff as it would to get the damn words - I just spent cash on training mostly as a result. He did however, get the book and so on in order to be able to do it.

[Jify]

The existence of the concordance of research quest should be enough to verify the existence of practice runes.

One should not exist without the other. :)