The final missing patch message

Dolalin · #1 10-17-2019, 03:38 PM

So thanks to the Japanese EQ Island website, I was able to extract all the patch messages from early EQ, and even back into Phase 4 and Phase 3 beta.

But there's one missing.

There was a patch on June 15, 1999 and beyond a very short pre-update statement about it from the 13th, I can't find any patch message for it. The EQIsland archives were not archived for that half of the month.

This is an invitation to the community to try to help us find this last patch message. I can't really offer you much of a reward other than eternal fame amongst your peers, so I hope that will suffice to motivate you.

Please fill in the blank:

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

Jibartik · #2 10-17-2019, 03:42 PM

Finding patch notes like:

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

loramin · #3 10-17-2019, 04:24 PM

Just saw your wiki history (I assume you are "Fatter"?) Whoever Fatter is, he made almost 50k lines worth of addition to the page!

And those weren't the easy ones either. I started the page with the "low-hanging fruit", but he found a ton that I didn't.

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

Best of luck in finding that one, but I have no clue where to find it.

soronil · #4 10-17-2019, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dolalin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There was a patch on June 15, 1999 and beyond a very short pre-update statement about it from the 13th, I can't find any patch message for it. The EQIsland archives were not archived for that half of the month.

It's quite possible that this is the extent of the patch:

Quote:

EverQuest server PDT will be down for client-side update from Tuesday morning at 7:00 am This patch fixes specializations in the guild trainer. It will be displayed in the chat window if you click on a specialization skill. Down time is about 1 hour.

If you look, there had just been a patch 8 days prior that "extended and activiated specialization skills" (note you list it as June8, but it seems like the June8 notes belong to the June7 patch.. mostly just extra explanation)

Presumably the functionality added June7-8 was bugged and they wanted to fix it so made a small client patch June 15

The patch notes for the large patches before and after include the patch notes in the pre-announcement that the server will be coming down (you get the patch notes before the path). The June 15 patch is consistent with that.... "Servers will be down later.... The patch does this....".

I am pretty sure this was just a small patch and you've already captured the notes that were released for it.

cd288 · #5 10-17-2019, 04:48 PM

Why include patch notes from Luclin and on?

soronil · #6 10-17-2019, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why include patch notes from Luclin and on?

Useful if someone thinks "I remember behavior <x> happening! It definitely should be in P99!"
You can just search this 1 page for that behavior, and may find the post p99 patch note that added it.

Or the opposite...

For instance, I just learned that /stand should technically not be in P99. it was added on December 4, 2001

It definitely doesn't hurt, and there is a switch to turn it off. Although that switch right now is broken =) I took a look but not sure how to fix it.

loramin · #7 10-17-2019, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soronil [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It definitely doesn't hurt, and there is a switch to turn it off. Although that switch right now is broken =) I took a look but not sure how to fix it.

The switch is less broken and more confusing. The original idea was that these patch notes are filled with junk about "we fixed a certain sound card" or "we have this party coming up". I figured it'd be nice if we could just see the game-affecting stuff, without having to wade through all that.

So I came up with the {{Relevant}} and {{End}} templates that people could use to mark the relevant sections (vs. the sound card stuff). The idea of the toggle was to only show those sections. Personally though I haven't found time to use them much, so there's only a few "relevant" sections.

I could add a separate toggle to hide "unclassic" patch notes ... but I mean, they're down at the bottom with a red background, all anyone has to do is not scroll ... I'm not sure a checkbox is needed.

heazels · #8 10-17-2019, 05:49 PM

The funny thing is that people seem to forget is there were hundreds of stealth patches and changes that were never documented. EQ is where the term "stealth nerf" originated.
You have to realize if you have been a programmer basically anywhere the developers tend to be terrible at documentation unless they are forced.

Jibartik · #9 10-17-2019, 06:05 PM

Yeah its a tough project, but by no means should there not be someone working on it. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Imagine if we had no archeologists!

We havent forgtten this stuff, they just spend a lot of time sifting through all kinds of info.

One day we're going to find a chunk of emails from Daybreak.

Its hard, they know it more than you do, trust me. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The players here will do it. We will accomplish this mountain of data collection, even if it takes us until 2080.

whitebandit · #10 10-17-2019, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah its a tough project, but by no means should there not be someone working on it. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Imagine if we had no archeologists!

We havent forgtten this stuff, they just spend a lot of time sifting through all kinds of info.

One day we're going to find a chunk of emails from Daybreak.

Its hard, they know it more than you do, trust me. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The players here will do it. We will accomplish this mountain of data collection, even if it takes us until 2080.

not sure Daybreak emails would do us any good, but maybe the old internal Verant emails :-D -- "Russia if you are listening"

EDIT: since i can still edit, ill just add this instead of doubleposting especially because its a dumb one as im sure you are all much more savvy at finding this information than I am

You are certain it was a 1999 patch and not June 15 2000? https://web.archive.org/web/20010722...p?Article=1733