Miscellaneous: Norrathian Newspapers

Passenger · #1 11-29-2024, 08:00 PM

GM events had been a means of developing the world and lore of Norrath through 1999 and 2000. During that time, however, it appears there had been growing frustration among some players...

- https://groups.google.com/g/alt.game...m/p95NrfglQg0J

Quote:

James
May 10, 2001, 7:08:21 PM
...
Absor had commented several times on the boards about player complaints that unless
you were PART of a GM event, you really had to work to find out what
happened. And given that some of these events are important parts of what
little evolving storyline EQ has, many players wanted a method of learning
IN GAME about it. Absor said they had something in the works to better
communicate the storyline and history to players. I'd say this was part of
that, and a very welcome part, too.

-----

New NPCs were introduced in late spring of 2001 to sell newspapers containing the news of the day, quest hints, and the occasional recipe.

NPCs, Locations, and Paper Names:
- https://web.archive.org/web/20020716...per&file=index

* Teelie Meegles - Rivervale - The Rivervale Voice
* Marsha Stonepenner - North Kaladim - The Mining Journal
* Lynsalai T`Nyal - Neriak Commons - The Neriak Signal
* Klob Pulp - The Feerrott - Da Swamp News
* Lindie Rains - North Freeport - The Freeport Observer
* Sparlus Penfold - Erudin Palace - The Odus Chronicle
* Laernian Caelael - Felwithe - The Royal Herald
* Ren Pinemyer - South Qeynos - The Antonican Times
* Henly Nictropus - Paineel - The Dark Truth
* Zenrel Ottonoggin - Ak'Anon - Tinker's News and World Report

Cities without papers:
- https://web.archive.org/web/20020202...:80/papers.htm
* Halas
* Kelethin
* Grobb
* Cabilis

- https://web.archive.org/web/20030516...opicID=2.topic

Quote:

Garlaen
(8/16/01 11:07:52 am)
Re: Questions, Comments, Suggestions and More

Those cities listed as having no papers are due to the fact that we can not locate any specific merchant that would sell a paper nor have we heard any reports of papers in those cities.

Generally, the merchants are found in the same zone as the bank and close to it. A few exceptions to that rule exist such as the ogre paper. It is sold on a merchant outside the city in Feerott.

I believe all paper merchants are actually new npc's added to the game.

-----

8 volumes were released in total. This tokyo2001 capture documents the timeline.

* Vol. 1 - May 2001 - Very likely the May 8, 2001 patch , though nothing mentioned specifically

- https://groups.google.com/g/alt.game...m/p95NrfglQg0J

Quote:

Halfpole
May 9, 2001, 4:04:24 AM

Just stopped by the bank in Erudin tonight, and found a new NPC standing
outside the bank door....
His name is Sparlus Penfold, and he sells but one item...the latest edition
of the Odus Chronicle. Cost my Erudite Paladin 2sp, 8cp. It is No Rent.

Inside were some good summaries of what's been going on lately with the
Plaguebringers, the plague in the Karanas Plains, and rumors about the
latest actions of Innoruk's daughter.

Kudos to Verant for finding a way to provide info in-game on what's been
going on lately.

* Vol. 2 - May 30, 2001 - The tokyo2001 timeline above notes two releases in June, but it appears Vol. 2 was added with the May 30, 2001 patch which updated Runnyeye and cleared corpses for the Live event in Greater Faydark. A round-up of several Vol. 2 papers followed shortly after. This news post corroborates the timing.

The release dates of subsequent volumes are much easier to identify:
* Vol. 3 - Jun 27, 2001 - http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20010627.html "Boisterous shouts..."
* Vol. 4 - Jul 24, 2001 - http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20010724.html "Boisterous shouts..."
* Vol. 5 - Aug 15, 2001 - http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20010815.html "Boisterous shouts..."
* Vol. 6 - Sep 11, 2001 - http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20010911a.html "Boisterous shouts..."
* Vol. 7 - Oct 08, 2001 - http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20011008.html "Boisterous shouts..."
* Vol. 7-2 - Nov 07, 2001 - http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20011107.html "Boisterous shouts..."

It seems Vol. 7-2 text replaced Vol. 7 text. This screenshot shows updated Issue II text with the same Volume 7 item name. There was no Vol. 7: Issue II item. Vol. 8 came much later as part of a GoD-era reboot of the newspapers.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020116...icID=877.topic

Quote:

Ndayeni Dorranwen
(11/9/01 10:15:57 am)
Re: Newspapers, Nov. 7

I was going to buy the paper in Freeport last night, but when I clicked on it to buy it, it said it was Vol. 7 of the Freeport Observer...so I ended up not getting it because I'm fairly sure the last one(s) that came out were Vol. 7. Did they just neglect to update the name on the object?

Quote:

Cantatus
(11/10/01 1:03:05 am)
Re: Newspapers, Nov. 7

Yeah.. don't know why they didn't change the names, but someone of them said Vol. 7 Sec.2 or something like that when you opened them.

Quote:

Morgrist
(11/10/01 1:05:06 am)
Paper error,yep there it is.

Neriak still lists as Vol. 7,but the info inside is new.

Check those papers you thought weren't new,people. They likely are.

-Morgrist

-----

Each volume replaced the previous one on the vendor. The papers were also deliberately NO RENT.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20010609...ML/000177.html

Quote:

I LOVE the new newspapers, excellent idea. One thing thoug, sadly I missed the first edition, does that mean I lost it for all time? Could they be posted on the web after a given amount of time? and no rent? is this EQ's version of recycling lol? these are things I would like to be able to hold onto and reread at a later date, if possiable make them permanent or sell back issues somewhere

Gamwise
Rodcet nife

Absor responds:

Quote:

I'll see what we can do about getting them onto the website. They're no rent because we dont want them all over the place. I pass mine on to the nearest person when I'm done reading it. Back issues is an interesting idea

-----

Volume 7 and Volume 7-2 (that is, the Volume 7 item with updated Issue II text) could drop from bandit NPCs as well. A comment below notes the papers had been dropping "since Halloween." It looks as if the bandits could drop any of the city newspapers. The mob dropped variants were also NO RENT.

In era evidence:

- https://web.archive.org/web/20030715...opicID=8.topic

Quote:

GorkinGrube
(9/29/01 1:49 pm)
Reply Killin' Banditos I've seen about everyone of these papers. . .by killin' Butcherblock Bandits. Somehow they get their hand on it, maybe before. . .well, if you want lot's of Dwarf meat and GOOD Kaladim Rogue faction. . .and maybe early editions, SHARPEN yer Sword or MEMORIZE yer Spells.

I wish ye much succes.
Gorkin Grube

- https://web.archive.org/web/20031229...opicID=5.topic

Quote:

CloudKraken
(10/17/01 7:56 pm)
Re: Missing Papers

I usually hack all the Karana bandits for the random paper they drop. They are relatively low level, so a lvl 55+ can eat through all of them in minutes.

Never know, you might find your missing paper on them.

Improve Qeynos Thief Guild faction.

Cloudkraken Gladespirit
...

Bandits in GFay could drop newspapers
- https://web.archive.org/web/20020105...e=35&id=515511

Quote:

The dark truth
Paladins Rule | 11/4/2001 6:56:41 PM

Ok, I looted "The Dark truth vol. 7" off a Bandit. Now, I have camped the bandit camp with many characters and some of my friends have camp it to. Neither of us have never looted an item like this. My friend says its for a quest but I dont think so, I think its for research or somethin but I may be wrong so does anyone know what I should do with "The dark truth vol. 7"? Please no rude comments.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020309...h.shtml?id=364

Quote:

News Paper
By: Anonymous
Posted @ Tue, Sep 18th 12:30 PM 2001
These are now dropping NO Rent Newspapers from all over the land.

Quote:

Mining Journal
By: LoganSkt

Posted @ Tue, Nov 20th 9:08 PM 2001
Killed a couple of bandits in WK and they dropped a NO RENT "Mining Journal Volume 7" Anyone with any clue as to what these are?

Oakwyse
15 Druid
Drinal

Quote:

RE: Mining Journal
By: tracksii
Posted @ Wed, Dec 5th 5:31 PM 2001

For some reason, all the bandits of Norrath seem to have a chance of dropping a newspaper... perhaps as a way to keep players interested in upcoming GM events? The one you picked up is actually the newspaper for Kaladim, I believe.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020116...icID=877.topic

Quote:

Cleric Taven
(11/26/01 9:17:12 pm)
Newspaper Drops

While camping the Derv's in North Ro, several of the editions were dropping as loot. I guess they like to keep in touch too.

A whole variety from the Grobb to Halas editions.
...

There are a couple comments that predate Vol. 7 suggesting that newspapers starting dropping with Vol. 6, however, I didn't see mention of Vol.6 dropping off mobs specifically. The one commenter does make mention of "early editions." It could be that Vol. 7 started dropping a couple weeks before being added to vendors.

Out of era evidence:

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020214...html?zstrat=60

Quote:

By: riotgirl
Posted @ Fri, Dec 21st 8:49 PM 2001
...
Whatever the motivation, it was impossible to deny the tangible benefits that arose from hunting the Nybright Sisters: rocking exp, good, solid loot - the occasional bronze weapon, backpack, precious gem, minor coinage, and bonus! a newspaper to get all wired on the latest Norrath news - with *minimal* danger.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020215...cID=3692.topic

Quote:

Tsalikr
(1/3/02 1:49:44 pm)
Re: Lifeguide - Lore regarding Lifeguide & ToFS

These kind of "papers" have been dropping since Halloween, I think. I know I saw one on the WK bandits yesterday and another for sale by Guido Toxxcougher.

Also saw something similar last week on the sro dervs.

Quote:

Kakanek
(1/3/02 5:15:54 pm)
Re: Lifeguide - Lore regarding Lifeguide & ToFS

i killed a sergant(sp) in nek woods and got a paper, the dark truth or something like that Volume 7

it explain that Venril Sathir took the lifeguide, etc and then the text stopped

maybe the DE gaurds hold the secrets of the lifeguide ;\

Quote:

Rorne
(1/3/02 6:13:52 pm)
Re: Lifeguide - Lore regarding Lifeguide & ToFS

Actually, Bandits/dervs/ and other assorted mobs (City Guards) drop newspapers now, it's nice because sometimes you can get newspapers from citys far away.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020522...h.shtml?id=220

Quote:

Zekul
By: Anonymous
Posted @ Sat, Mar 2nd 5:03 PM 2002

Signus Spawns in 2 places, near chess board. then i zone back to BB rings put her on track and she is in another hut, kill her there and go back to chess board and she pops in like 2 minute. I have been doing this for 2 days, i am a 43 lvl druid on rodcet knife server.

also what is the drop she has: The Odus Chronicle Vol. 7 for please

- https://web.archive.org/web/20030715...opicID=8.topic

Quote:

Dewshine Doomsinger
(3/16/02 10:26 am)
Re: Killin' Banditos

You can also findthem on the raiders in south karana. i go there a lot faction hunting for qeynos.

- https://groups.google.com/g/alt.game...m/Fz7UDy56130J

Quote:

Peter L
May 10, 2002, 4:54:08 PM

HI i have found in west karana killing Bundits these items :
Da swamp news Vol7
The Neriak Signal Vol7
The Rivervale Voice Vol7
The Odus Chronicle Vol7
The Mining Journal Vol7

Are these items part of a quest ?

ICMS lvl 20 DRUID
THANX

The out-of-era comments show that Vol. 7-II was the last one and that it continued to drop into Luclin.

-----

Currently on P99 Green, Teelie Meegles is the only newspaper vendor present. If memory serves, she is flagged for May 2001 with the Runnyeye revamp. She sells a permanent copy of The Rivervale Voice Volume 1.

Passenger · #2 11-29-2024, 08:02 PM

Passenger · #3 11-29-2024, 08:04 PM

Passenger · #4 11-29-2024, 08:39 PM

The Royal Herald
Vol. 7-II - https://web.archive.org/web/20020210...e+Royal+Herald

Balimon · #5 01-01-2025, 06:02 PM

Doing Brad's work here, thanks!

**nilbog** · #6 01-12-2025, 12:13 PM

This is really good research!

I worked on it a bit and have a basic system in place to generate the book content. Since the items/text do not already exist, they all need to be created.

The way this works in our environment is that a book (item) references a sql table (books) in the db, and reads from a field to populate content. This is not a fun process, because lines are separated with backticks `, one for single line spacing, two for 2 lines, and so on with no strict guidelines for line or page length. There is also an issue with proportional font, e.g. iiiii consumes less space than LLLLL.

Since this will need to be done roughly 80 times, here is my first pass at a book content generator (Perl):

Code:

use strict;
use warnings;

my $max_line_length = 28;       # characters per line (hack guess)
my $lines_per_column = 12;      #  lines per column

sub format_text {
    my ($text) = @_;
    my @words = split(/\s+/, $text);
    my @lines;
    my $line = '';

    #wrap
    foreach my $word (@words) {
        if (length($line) + length($word) + 1 <= $max_line_length) {
            $line .= ($line ? " " : "") . $word;
        } else {
            push @lines, $line;
            $line = $word;
        }
    }
    push @lines, $line if $line;

    # basic handling
    foreach my $i (reverse 0 .. $#lines) {
        if ($lines[$i] =~ /----+/) {  
            splice(@lines, $i + 1, 0, '');  #blank line insert
        }
    }

    # more formatting
    foreach my $i (reverse 0 .. $#lines) {
        if ($lines[$i] =~ /^Ingredients:/) {
            splice(@lines, $i, 0, '');       #blank line before "Ingredients:"
            splice(@lines, $i + 2, 0, '');  #blank line after "Ingredients:"
        }
    }

    #grouping
    my @columns;
    my @current_column;
    foreach my $line (@lines) {
        if (scalar(@current_column) < $lines_per_column) {
            push @current_column, $line;
        } else {
            push @columns, [@current_column];
            @current_column = ($line);
        }
    }
    push @columns, [@current_column] if @current_column;

    #padding
    foreach my $col_num (0 .. $#columns) {
        while (scalar(@{$columns[$col_num]}) < $lines_per_column) {
            push @{$columns[$col_num]}, '';
        }
scalar(@{$columns[$col_num]}) . " lines\n";
    }

    #sql output
    my $formatted_text = join("``", map { join("`", @$_) } @columns);

    #escape
    $formatted_text =~ s/'/''/g;

    return $formatted_text;
}

#file I/O
my $input_file = 'raw_text.txt';           #input
my $output_file = 'formatted_output.sql';  #output
my $book_name = 'NewBookName';             #variable


#read raw_text
open my $in_fh, '<', $input_file or die "Could not open '$input_file': $!";
my $raw_text = do { local $/; <$in_fh> };  
close $in_fh;

#format
my $formatted_text = format_text($raw_text);

#write to output
 open my $out_fh, '>', $output_file or die "Could not open '$output_file': $!";
print $out_fh "INSERT INTO `books` (`name`, `txtfile`) VALUES ('$book_name', '$formatted_text');\n";
close $out_fh;

While this works "ok", there are cases where it could be a lot better. The following is an example of output from ingested Volume 7 (1st edition) text:

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm not aware of a publicly available book content generator for eqemu, so I'm opening this up for anyone who is interested in either helping to fine-tune this, or use it for your own purposes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Rivervale Voice (all 8 copies) implemented with vendor working on ruled system per months. Please note, some text may appear poorly structured due to above.

Adding drops to npcs: Could use opinions of what all should be encompassed. From Passenger's research, it seems any type of race that could be a bandit? What about ogres, erudites, orcs, etc.

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