Quest Issue: PoS items upgrade timeline

[meathook]

Hi.

A search shows that there's been some debate on these forums about when PoS items were upgraded to their final form (for example, Wu's Tranquil Fist gets upgraded to Wu's Fist of Mastery).

In the original timeline, the upgrade of PoS items happened on July 19, 2000, as per the patch notes on that day:

"Increased stats on many Plane of Sky items."
Source: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000719.html

To put that in perspective, that is a few weeks before the non-Trakanon dragons (Severilous, Talendor, Gorenaire, etc.) were introduced in Kunark, as per the following patch notes dated August 9, 2020:

"Rumor has it that some new dragons have been spotted in Kunark."
Source: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20000809.html

In terms of the Green timeline, that would mean that PoS items should see an upgrade on the first Friday of February 2021. Additional Kunark dragons should be introduced on the first Friday of March 2021.

I am bringing this up now because I don't know if these issues require a patch, and patches presumably take a while to implement.

Thank you for your attention.

[YendorLootmonkey]

I thought we came up with March 2001, a few months into Velious when the other planes got re-vamped when we did this exercise 7 years ago:

https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=114093

[meathook]

I am quoting directly from the patch notes. The OP from the thread from 7 years ago admits he does not have that and is relying on secondary sources. Given the complexity of Sky back in 99, I assume the vast majority of guilds did not clear it consistently (if at all) until well after Kunark, and any secondary source information would likely reflect the delay in knowledge.

I leave it up to the devs to decide what source is more compelling.

[Kirdan]

I'm not sure what the timeline actually is on green, but if it's based on the allakhazam comments linked in https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=114093 then I think it's worth revisiting. As meathook points out, sky was not something that many guilds raided often, let alone cleared completely.

From that thread, they try to use stuff like this as evidence:

May 2, 2001

Here ya go. I have a lot of new equipment for you today.

New Equipment: Truvinan ; Neordla's Talisman ; Atpaev's Talisman ; Scaled Knight's Helm ; Skin of the Garou ; Blue Flower of Functionality ; Robe of Distraction ; Bracelet of the Twisted Mind ; Mushroom Bracelet ; Shimmering Wristguard ; Antlered Mask ; Crafted Velium Battle Axe ; Shining Velium Battlehammer ; Folded Velium Warsword ; Cloak of the Falling Stars ; Blood Lord's Greaves ; Iceflame ; Plague Bearer's Sleeves ; Necromancer Kael Sleeves ; Amulet of the Sphinx Eye ; Hate Crystal ;
Updated Quests: Paladin Test of Compassion ; Paladin Skyshrine Helm ; Deck of Spontaneous Generation ; Bvellos' Bounty ; Shadowknight Skyshrine Leggings ; Necromancer Kael Sleeves ; Shadowknight Test of Bash ;

April 4, 2001

....

New Equipment: Windstriker ; Light Velium Battlehammer ; Wristguard of Harmony ; Chestplate of Vindication ; Heavy Dragonwing Mantle ; Forged Velium Battle Axe ; Wand of the Black Dragon Eye ; Woven Grass Greaves ; Frozen Shard ; Shadow Boots ; Crustacean Shell Gauntlets ; Cold Iron Boots ; Cold Iron Gauntlets ; Cold Iron Greaves ; Cold Iron Pauldron ; Illusionist's Robe ;
Updated Quests: Ranger Test of Ranged Attack ; Druid Skyshrine Leggings ; Rogue Skyshrine Boots ; Enchanter Skyshrine Robe ;

April 3, 2001

If you have looked at the forums today, you will notice that I added forums for Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot and Shadowbane. Since these games are getting (relatively) closer to release, I figured people here might want a place to discuss them. Also, they are in anticipation of sites we intend to launch dedicated to these games. As other games get closer to launch, I will add them as well.

New Equipment: Sage's Sleeves ; Imbued Field Plate Bracers (Karana) ; Imbued Field Plate Vambraces (Karana) ; Cloak of the Assassin ; Prestidigitator's Gloves ; Prestidigitator's Headband ; Prestidigitator's Trousers ; Matchless Dragonskull Helm ; Shadow Bracer ; Akkirus' Gauntlets of the Risen ; Breastplate of the Myrmidon ; Stonemelder's Band ; Noble's Robes ; Cold Iron Helm ; Light Velium Brawl Stick ; Velium War Lance ; Garduk; Bile Etched Obsidian Choker ; Brain of Cazic Thule ; Cloak of the Fearsome ; Plague Bearer's Circlet ; Ice Silk Amice ; Velium Hound Fur Cap ;
Updated Quests: Wizard's Velium Sleeves ; Magician Skyshrine Gloves ; Magician Skyshrine Cap ; Magician Skyshrine Leggings ; Rogue Skyshrine Bracers ; Cleric Skyshrine Gauntlets ; Warrior Skyshrine Breastplate ; Shaman Test of Shrink ; Necromancer Kael Cap ;

But Truvinan, Windstriker, and Garduk are not even upgraded items, and Amulet of the Sphinx Eye is an upgraded item. The fact that these were being added to allakhazam's database concurrently suggests that they only began adding most of these sky quest rewards around April 2001 on the timeline. It doesn't support the notion that the sky rewards were themselves upgraded around April 2001 on the timeline.

I couldn't find any mention of sky items being changed in April 2001, but as meathook mentioned, they were explicitly mentioned as having their stats upgraded in the July 2000 patch.

[Allizewsaur]

>Supposedly, the sky items were buffed a couple patches back, and I am
>pretty sure they are now about the best haste items in the game.
There is a difference between belts dropped off mobs and belts obtained
by completing quests. The dropped belts were not changed. All sky
items were not enhanced, just some.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?old...st/1jVXbJlpdI8

From 7/31/00 referencing the patch meathook posted, so at least some things were upgraded.

[YendorLootmonkey]

The original quest reward for the Monk Test of Fists is Wu's Tranquil Fist. According to this post on Oct 18 2000, well after the alleged Jul 19 2000 patch mentioned above, a GM on Drinal awarded the Wu's Tranquil Fist to Brokenarra LifeFist as part of a GM reimbursement for quest turn-in items that were eaten. If the Sky quests upgrades had gone in on Jul 19 2000, the GM would have awarded the upgraded item, the Wu's Fist of Mastery.

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...97190902021684

A post from Jun 12 2001 (which supports the March/April 2001 upgrade date) then mentions that the fists were updated:

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...99236379585306

The patch notes from March 27, 2001 have this tidbit at the end which further supports they included the "new" Sky quests in this patch:

*Quest*

Several new quests have been added as well, so don't be afraid to talk
to the folks of Norrath, they might have new information for you.

I believe the Jul 19 2000 patch notes are just some one-off stat adjustments (perhaps haste on quest belts) that did not involve brand new quest rewards, which happened in the later Mar 27 2001 patch based on the GM reimbursement evidence I posted above.

[Dolalin]

I don't have a ton to add on this at the moment, but I did stumble across this great zone guide to Sky mentioned in the newsgroups as of June 2001, captured on August 2001. It may be a fair bit older than that.

Has a lot of info so you could use it to establish 'things must have been this way as of August 2001 at least'.

http://web.archive.org/web/200108141...rdhong/sky.htm

It does not have the upgraded monk fist. But that probably just means it was never updated - none of the later captures years later have it either.