Quest Issue: Darkforge Armor NPCs should spawn in Najena and Mistmoore from Oct1999 to Feb2000

[Dolalin]

When the Temple of Solusek Ro opens and the class armor quests go live, the two Undead Knight quest giver NPCs do not spawn in Temple of Solusek Ro at first, but rather in Najena and Mistmoore. They remain spawning there until Feburary 2000:

After the February 18th patch, the undead knight of Najena and Mistmoore as well have been moved. I think they are going to the temple of Solusek Ro as they are on the test server but Ive yet to see them there so ...=)

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...2084&p=2#m2085

Mistmoore:

Loc: -36, +366, -265.
Source: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=2084

Mistmoore castle: Under the little moseleum with the single coffin in it (beside the coffin there is a false floor you can drop through) there is a UNDEAD KNIGHT that spawns. He was indifferent to me a Troll Shadow Knight. Hail him then say " What Shadow Knight Armor" He will then tell you of his stolen armor. Repeat his key words for the armor and he will tell you that he can make you Darkforge Armor (sounds cool) if you bring him some items.

From the Lizardman Crusader you will need to fine Decayed Armor peices. You can find him in Cazic thule. Seems to be a random spawn and he doesnt always drop the armor pieces. Wouldnt want to make it easy like the warriors quests.

Decayed Helm and Visor + 2 FreePort militia Helms = Darkforge Helm

Decayed BreastPlate + Decayed Mail + 2 enchanted Platinum Bars = Darkforge BreastPlate

Decayed Vambraces + Queynos KiteSheild = Darkforge Vambraces

Decayed Bracer (there is a right and a left) + Mino Shackles = Darkforge Bracer

http://web.archive.org/web/200112240...=29860&mode=35

Najena:

Loc: no exact loc found, description below is good though.

You can find an undead knight in the same room where Drelzna spawns. He spawns by a necromancer to the left of you when you enter the room. He looks like a regular skeleton. He cons blue to me at level 28. Indifferent to my Dark Elf Shadow Knight.

undead knight says 'I was torn apart by my master and my bones were given as toys to my masters associates!! I am now only half Grandyf the Vile. My hands, feet and legs were sent here and assembled with spare bones of other unfortunates. Since this is the case, I can only [create Darkforge Armor] in the form of Boots, Greaves and Gauntlets. My other bones were sent to the land of Mayong!!'

http://web.archive.org/web/200104180...de=35&id=31625

Some NPC text changes are necessary to the Najena skeleton during this time, as per the above quote. Probably similar tweaks to the Mistmoore one, but I can't find an exact quote.

[Telin]

I think I commented somewhere about this before, but for the Mistmoore knight can you find out when it was added back to Mistmoore after February 2000. Because it exists on live at the moment and it was captured as spawning during the Kunark era around October 2000. That’s why I currently have it in on blue.

[Dolalin]

Interesting, I'll have a look.

[Dolalin]

Nothing concrete, but my coder sensibilities tell me this patch note from April 2000 looks suspicious:

General Changes/Fixes

- Some spawn-time problems in Mistmoore have been repaired.

https://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_N...nges.2FFixes_2

I bet one dev reinserted the undead knight from a stale local copy of the zone data after another had removed it.

I'll keep looking of course.

[Dolalin]

This site contains a ShowEQ zone/mob/loc/hp/class/race dump for most of classic EQ, I believe it's from mid to late 2000:

http://nkeq.tripod.com/html/spawn.htm

It has the Mistmoore undead knight but not the Najena one.

Lots of really good stuff here actually, you might find it useful for other things too Telin.

[Dolalin]

It's from 2001 but I thought I'd let you know I've found another ShowEQ mob dump Telin. Seems similar to the previous one so might have the same provenance.

http://web.archive.org/web/200104240...cticiousname9/

It also, of course, still has the Mistmoore undead knight.

[Dolalin]

Just came across another EQSpawns.txt dump from no later than August 2001, various zones.

http://web.archive.org/web/200112151...9/EQSpawns.txt

[Dolalin]

Back on topic, there were several bits to Darkforge quests that changed over time. They are mentioned in the Knight Watch guide:

But didn't they used to.....

Mistmoore/Najena: Previously the 2 quest giving Undead Knights lived in Mistmoore and Najena - they have since been moved to the Temple of Sol Ro.

Minotaur Hero: Previously the Additional Component for a Darkforge Bracer was a Minotaur hero shackle also used in the Hero Bracer quest. It was changed due to heavy competion from Hero Bracer farmers.

Gorillas: For one historic week the Gorillas in Cazic Thule dropped Decayed - they haven't done since.

AC/Weight: The stats for Darkforge have been changed, the AC increased and the weight decreased.

Decayed Drops Rates: Previously Crusaders drop one or none decayed. They now seem to drop one or two pieces. Crusaders have also been made much more common

Nodrop: The armor was originally nodrop, but this was changed when the AC was increased. The decayed pieces remain nodrop.

http://web.archive.org/web/200106091.../Darkforge.htm

On that last point, the Cleric armor was no drop too until this same patch (November 3rd 1999). So that lines up. I don't know what its pre-buff stats were though:

https://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_Notes#Items

I have a bug open already for when the weight should change (May 2000):

https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=341514

Mino Hero bracer change probably happened when they finally fixed the Stumpwatch 99 stuff (Feb 17th, 2000):

Class-Specific Armor Quests

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]

Regarding the AC change, this post says Paladin armor was 1ac less than Ranger armor until the November 3rd patch, so I imagine the change was similar:

On Wed, 3 Nov 1999 13:56:06 -0000, "FRED BRIEDEN JR"
<f.a.b...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>Part of the new patch message
>
>Item Enhancements*
>The entire set of the Armor or Ro (Paladin class specific armor) and
>Darkforge (ShadowKnight class armor) has received an increase in AC.

Which probably brings it up to par with the ranger armor. Not only
are the paladin armor quests harder than the ranger's, but the paladin
armor pieces I saw were 1 AC point lower than the equivalent ranger
items (pre-patch).

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....E/L_IIgXjGQsAJ

Edit: I think I found the pre-buff AC stats of Darkforge:

Darkforge Armor Boots AC 11, STA +3
Darkforge Armor Breastplate AC 18, STA +10, Sv Magic +3
Darkforge Armor Bracers AC 9, DEX +3
Darkforge Armor Boots AC 8, DEX +3
Darkforge Armor Gauntlets AC 9, DEX +2, Sv Magic +5
Darkforge Armor Greaves AC 11, STA +9, Sv Magic +3
Darkforge Armor Helm AC 13, INT +5, All Resistances +5
Darkforge Armor Vambracers AC 11, STR +4

http://web.archive.org/web/200011100...ht/combat.html