Quest Issue: Stumpwatch and Cabinwatch '99

[Dildy]

What is stumpwatch and Cabinwatch 99? Cleric Sol Ro quests were initially so poorly designed that there was a line of people just sitting around watching a stump and cabin in kithicor forest for a quest item to respawn. The respawn timer on these items were 7 hours. Currently on blue, they are 35seconds.

Here are links with more information:

http://kmrcs.com/eqcleric/editorials/StumpWatch99.htm

"Clerics discovered that two of the items they needed for their quests appeared every seven hours on a tree stump and in a burned down cabin in the now dangerous Kithicor Forest (These two camps were aptly named StumpWatch '99 and CabinWatch '99)."

- http://www.hyperhighway.com/bilgehun...hive.htm#rules

Upon release of the sol ro patch, these should be 7 hour ground spawns until the December 1999 patch:

Gordon "Abashi" Wrinn, Verant's Internet Relations Manager, made a few posts recently on the official EQ forums on two different subjects. Here's the first bit on class specific armor:

" We are aware of some disparities regarding the difficulty of obtaining some of the class specific armor. You should start to see improvement with the next patch." -12/10/1999

Artelius Longwood
50 Ranger

[Dolalin]

Sol Ro quests were absolutely much more annoying-as-fuck on release. I had trouble tracking down details on the Cleric one. Good job.

[Dolalin]

11/16/99


>Not to mention Stump-watching and Bilge-Hunting are the EPITOME of all
>that is wrong and saddening about EQ.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....E/6piKk0obyL8J

10/26/99

Clerics have to camp the same bear for our shield, but at least the
rest of your armour (bar the grizzleknot breastplate) isn't too hard
to get, 90% of our quests are either spectacularly tedious (kithicor
stump watch '99) or spectacularly rare mob (someone APPARENTLY saw
Zahal the Vile ONCE) or camped to hell by other classes (Bilge in
Dagnor's Cauldron not only drops the cleric armour icon - for a
spectacularly worthless breastplate - but also drops a +5 wis belt AND
a +18 wis totem, good god, what were the thinking ? oh wait they
weren't that's right)

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....k/TybOYTWYDZ8J

[Dolalin]

More testimony of pain:

10/18/99

Ugh, don't call them "hard", that makes it easy to defend by saying "did you
expect to have it handed to you?", blah blah, etc. They aren't HARD at all.
Staring at a stump is not hard. Handing a drink to a guy is not hard,
killing a level 26 Aviak is not hard (well, depending upon what level you
are), etc.

The only thing that makes the quests "hard" is that fact that everything is
on a ridiculously slow or rare spawn. Any dip can pick up a bag in Kithicor,
but it takes a really bored dip to sit and watch a stump for 7 hours waiting
for a bag to appear. These quests are just flat out horrible. They should
have been more like the Ranger and Warrior class specific armours quest, but
it's too late to totally revamp them now. The only way to "fix" them is to
make the spawns faster. But the fact is, they will most likely be left just
as they are, much like the paw of Opalla Quest. What the hell kind of quest
is that? Kill High Priestess Mitty 30 times in a row and get a reward? It
just plain wasn't very well thought out, and the new Cleric Armor quests
are the same. Go stare at a stump in Kithicor. Go kill green Aviaks in the
middle of OOT until Gull spawns. Wander High Keep for hours looking for
Jovan the Fervent. Stare at a water pillar in Guk for 7 hours. Clear a
static spawn point in Befallen once every 7 hours. They are all the same -
time consuming, and boring as hell. In the long run they will take longer to
complete than Ranger, Bard, or Warrior quests, but will yield much boredom
and no experience and/or fun.

And don't respond with "XXX class has it worse", maybe some class does,
maybe it doesn't, the point is that the Cleric Quests are horrid, and I felt
like bitching. Thank you for your time.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....g/s-QfeAqVtu4J

Stumpwatch and Cabinwatch probably continued until this patch in Feb 2000 (also when Dwigus Lowater was added):

Class-Specific armor quests, especially those belonging to Clerics, Paladins, and Shadowknights, have been reduced in terms of how long it will take the average person to acquire the armor. These classes, and others that found particular pieces of their armor exceedingly difficult to obtain should find it much easier now.

https://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_N...c_Armor_Quests

[Dolalin]

Note: From the above post:

Stare at a water pillar in Guk for 7 hours.

That would indicate the Upper Guk ground spawn should also be on the same 7 hour timer for this period:

https://wiki.project1999.com/Ingot_of_the_Penitent

[Dildy]

Thanks Dolalin for the additional research [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Dolalin]

No problem, we're here to Classicquest right?

More confirmation for the long-ass UGuk ground spawn:

10/26/99

You haven't seen the cleric quests then, 8 hours waiting for a bag to
appear on the floor of a cabin, on a tree stump, in a waterfall and
underwater.

Want to know the real kicker ?

Clerics have to kill your glacier bear ASWELL (he drops both your
quest item, and a quest item WE need)

You got it easy compared to us (with the possible exception of
Grizzleknot)

G.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....M/CD_Flge3thYJ

That second bolded bit means that I think the Everfrost icon ground spawn was actually originally a drop from the Glacier Bear. I will dig a bit more on that one.

Edit: Bingo

On Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:02:57 GMT, gor...@climax.co.uk (Gordon Chapman)
wrote:
>I just found something out...
>
>The neverspawn bear the shamans need for their armour is the same
>neverspawn bear we clerics need for our shield (and it doesn't drop
>BOTH items, one or the other, there's a cleric running around with the
>shaman pelt).
>
>How do you feel about that ? sounds like fun to me.
>
>G.

Actually the bear dropped the glacier bear pelt and an icon last night
for me. At least the shaman armor is not no-drop.


McTyne - 40th lvl Shaman
Cazic-Thule

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....U/NYA6bLNwTPYJ

Lastly, it looks like Cleric armor was no-drop for a month or so after temple of sol ro release. I'll leave it to devs to decide whether or not that's worth an era rule.

[Dildy]

Bump, any plans to change these upon sol to release?