Game Mechanics: Magician pets should not cast spells until May 1999 patch era

[Dolalin]

While crawling through the EQ_spell_research Yahoo/Onelist mailing list, I located a lost patch message from late May, 1999.

https://groups.yahoo.com/api/v1/grou...h/messages/424

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Message ID: 424
Date: Mon May 24 05:02:32 BST 1999
Author: Weeze
Subject: (no subject)


I am sure you all have seen the list of spells. But I really wanted to make so comments.
This is an enchanters take on the changes.

- Players will no longer crash when an extremely long group message is received.

Preventing the from crashing is always a good thing.

- Added the ability to pull one item "charge" from a stack by holding down the "Control" key when left-clicking on the stack.

For anyone who has ever tried to advance in a trade skill this is a welcomed change.

- After casting a spell at an NPC, if the target were lost before the spell made contact, the caster would crash.

This is a declaritive statement. Did they fix it or are they just acknowleding it?

- The "/ignore" command will now ignore emotes also.
- The chat command "/e" will trigger "/emote" instead of exiting to the character selection screen.

Can't argue with change for the better.

- We have added new sound tracks to the Planes, Crushbone, Guk, Mistmoore, Steamfont, and the Estate of Un

I would rather have the bug worked on over the soundtracks but that is just my own opinion.

- We have reduced the amount of experience lost when dying by 50%.

This would have helped me 2 weeks ago when I hit level 14, 13 different times. Probably my favorite of the non enchanter changes.

- A number of new quests have been added to various zones.

But the question is do they actually work?

- Magician pets (elemental) will now cast minor spells (to make up for their lack of kick)
- New Magician spells on vendors and some Magician spells have moved to different vendors
- New Magician weapons for Summon Fang & Spear of Warding & Dagger of Symbols

I don't play an enchanter but I am sure that they will like this.

- New enchanter whirl spell (check the vendors)

Does anyone know what level this is for?

- Whirl now works on MOBS better than it did on the last patch.
- The saving throw against Memory Blur and Atone was reduced (harder to save against) from the last patch.

THEY LISTENED! I am suprised. Although they didn't put it back to where it was, I am happy. Really it could be a sham, the change could be only one percentage point of resist and it would still be true. BUT they did listen to us and made an attempt to apiece us.

- AC added to the Rune Series (Enchanter)

Don't have it yet but at least it isn't a downgrade.

- Alliance series works better (Enchanter)
- Enchanter Attack Speed spells now have longer durations (Quickness, Alacrity, etc.)
- Tashan (the entire Enchanter series) is now quicker to cast, costs less mana, and is harder to save against.

What took so long? These should not have been patches after the game was released. Tashan has always been pretty useless along with Alliance. And I told that the speed spells weren't worth the mana for what you got.

- New bard songs have been added to the vendors
- Paladins lose the spell Bravery, and gain the spell Valor
- ShadowKnights and Necromancers gain the Word of Spirit spell (replacing Word of Shadow for the ShadowKnight)
- ShadowKnights lose Haunting Corpse and gain Summon Dead
- Necromancers and ShadowKnights get a new spell - Shadow Vortex.
- ShadowKnights lose Intensify Death (replaced by Shadow Vortex)
- Rangers lose Shield of Barbs and gain Shield of Brambles

Good for them.... =)

- Shorter stun effects will no longer remove longer stun effects (Bash won't get rid of whirl, for example)

Another example of Feedback in action.

- Spell components are now stackable

Again what took so long. Why were they ever created not stackable?

Don't let this stop any of your feedback or petitions. Tonight send a feedback giving thanks for the improvements, but also tell them what needs to be improved.
------
When the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever. -- The Crow

There are many timeline issues here that are worth parsing through but the one for this bug thread is the following:

- Magician pets (elemental) will now cast minor spells (to make up for their lack of kick)

Mage pets should not cast spells prior to this era, as had been rumored for some time. I finally found some hard proof. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I have a repo here with the mailing lists dumped and an export-html.sh script to export the JSONs into human readable format if anyone else is interested in helping mine these. This was from the EQ_spell_research mailing list.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi.../mailing-lists

[Dolalin]

Another post from the mailing list confirming mage pets were not casting spells:

https://groups.yahoo.com/api/v1/grou...h/messages/434

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Message ID: 434
Date: Tue May 25 21:12:31 BST 1999
Author: Rick
Subject: Re: (no subject)


>I am sure you all have seen the list of spells. But I really wanted to
make so comments.
>This is an enchanters take on the changes.

I've got some good news and some bad news ...

>- Magician pets (elemental) will now cast minor spells (to make up for
their lack of kick)
>- New Magician spells on vendors and some Magician spells have moved to
different vendors
>- New Magician weapons for Summon Fang & Spear of Warding & Dagger of
Symbols

>I don't play an enchanter but I am sure that they will like this.

Grouped with magician friend today. He was level 19, made 20. durring that
time his pet never once cast a spell

>- New enchanter whirl spell (check the vendors)

>Does anyone know what level this is for?

The big problem for Enchanters came about when a level 45 Enchanter and a
cleric (not sure of cleric level, but probably around 40ish also) got
together and was taking on stuff they shouldnt have been able to take from
usng whirl, a pet, and heal. The enchanter was able to cast whirl about 60
times (at his level the mana use was extremely negligable) one a creature
that had over 1600 hp and could take it out. The cleric just kept healing
the pet and or enchanter. Verrant moved to put a stop to this buy nerfing
the whirl so that they could not do this. If i am correct, whirl till you
hurl does NOT effect monsters over level 30, and the new whirl is needed
(which is a level 29 spell).

>- AC added to the Rune Series (Enchanter)

>Don't have it yet but at least it isn't a downgrade.

Great, but unfortunatly bugged. You cannot cast the rune spell if you have
another ac bearing spell in place (like mist or clerical holy armor)
although casting rune will still result in the loss of the Cat's Eye Agate.
suprised they missed this obvious bug, but look for it to be corrected.

And one last thing that was NOT mentioned and i think many of you will find
very nice. A new spell has been added to the Enchanter spell line. It is
level 29 spell that increases GROUP mana regeneration by 50%. This
information was found on the Words Of Enchantment message site at
http://www.sitepowerup.com/mb/view.a...BoardID=102010

Sorry this was a bit off topic, but felt that it could be information useful
to all.

[bwe]

Are we going to have unnerfed whirl as well? It's classic for a while according to those notes

[Dolalin]

More corroboration from a newsgroup thread:

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....s/pNYOLQ1x5R4J

6/24/99

At 17 I can't see how you think magicians are far weaker than necros. At
that level their DD spell is almost as damaging as a wizard's, and their
pets have made a big leap in strength. If the magician was level 12-15 I can
understand it. Those are "lag levels" for magician's DD spells - they don't
get a new one. Also, since the magician's pets got spells I think they
actually have a slight edge over necro pets. The spells all seem to do
slight damage, and they cast them constantly in addition to their normal
attacks. Throw on a fire shield (or a burnout, depending on the
circumstance) and the magician's pets are great.

Regardless, he did say that the problem was after level 30. Since you
presumably don't group with 30+'s at your level, I'm not sure how you can
comment on his complaints. Not saying he's right, but we'd need another 30+
necromancer to really get some good feedback.

Jeff K.
Nystramo on Cazic-Thule

[Dolalin]

I found the full patch in a mailing list (everquest) in my archive.

https://groups.yahoo.com/api/v1/grou...t/messages/335

May 24th, 6:00pm
----------------

The servers will be coming down as scheduled tonight at Midnight
PDT. The following changes/bug fixes have been made.

- Players will no longer crash when an extremely long group message
is received.
- Added the ability to pull one item "charge" from a stack by
holding down the "Control" key when left-clicking on the stack.
- After casting a spell at an NPC, if the target were lost before
the spell made contact, the caster would crash.
- The "/ignore" command will now ignore emotes also.
- The chat command "/e" will trigger "/emote" instead of exiting to
the character selection screen.
- We have added new sound tracks to the Planes, Crushbone, Guk,
Mistmoore, Steamfont, and the Estate of Unrest.
- We have reduced the amount of experience lost when dying by 50%.
- A number of new quests have been added to various zones.
- Magician pets (elemental) will now cast minor spells (to make up
for their lack of kick)
- New Magician spells on vendors and some Magician spells have moved
to different vendors
- New Magician weapons for Summon Fang & Spear of Warding & Dagger
of Symbols
- New enchanter whirl spell (check the vendors)
- Whirl now works on MOBS better than it did on the last patch.
- The saving throw against Memory Blur and Atone was reduced (harder
to save against) from the last patch.
- AC added to the Rune Series (Enchanter)
- Alliance series works better (Enchanter)
- Enchanter Attack Speed spells now have longer durations
(Quickness, Alacrity, etc.)
- Tashan (the entire Enchanter series) is now quicker to cast, costs
less mana, and is harder to save against.
- New bard songs have been added to the vendors
- Paladins lose the spell Bravery, and gain the spell Valor
- ShadowKnights and Necromancers gain the Word of Spirit spell
(replacing Word of Shadow for the ShadowKnight)
- ShadowKnights lose Haunting Corpse and gain Summon Dead
- Necromancers and ShadowKnights get a new spell - Shadow Vortex.
- ShadowKnights lose Intensify Death (replaced by Shadow Vortex)
- Rangers lose Shield of Barbs and gain Shield of Brambles
- Shorter stun effects will no longer remove longer stun effects
(Bash won't get rid of whirl, for example)
- Spell components are now stackable

- The EverQuest Team

[DMN]

It seems that at least the fire pet maintained its fire shield before the "pets get spells" patch.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....w/XeKGvPgXNZoJ

So far, I have only tried the fire elemental, and the earth elemental.
At low levels the attacks of these two beasts were similar, with the
exception being that the fire elemental had VERY little heath to
spare, and thus never lasted long in any battle I fought in. I can
see an advantage to a fires shield in a battle with multiple mobs, but
it simply died too quickly in battle. At levels 8 and 12, the earth
elemental was all that I could afford.

[Wallicker]

Double exp loss from deaths until this patch hahaha hardmode but if it’s classic!

[Dolalin]

You're right DMN.

It looks like the ElementalAttack spells are the ones that they shouldn't be casting yet.

https://www.diffchecker.com/ZZG68Oo9

[Dolalin]

I have found evidence that the original spell the Earth Elementals started casting in May was not the usual root spell, but an earthquake DD/stun spell.

Full thread here: https://groups.google.com/d/topic/al...G8I/discussion

Excerpts:

6/14/99

Just seen after the patch that my Earth Elemental cast some kind of a
earthquake spell. I was wondering what are the spell that the other
elementals have (Fire, Water and Air)?
And any comments on their effect will be appreciated.

- Manshoon of Ak'kanon.

Nicolas Thomassin wrote in message
- hide quoted text -

>Just seen after the patch that my Earth Elemental cast some kind of a
>earthquake spell. I was wondering what are the spell that the other
>elementals have (Fire, Water and Air)?
>
>And any comments on their effect will be appreciated.

Water casts some kind of ice spell that does an unspecified amount of
damage. I suspect it's not a lot. The earthquake spell seems to stun the
opponent rather than do damage. I don't know what fire and air do.

Mark Asher

Mark Asher <ma...@cdmnet.com> wrote in message
news:37651e18.0@news.primary.net...

>
> Nicolas Thomassin wrote in message
> >Just seen after the patch that my Earth Elemental cast some kind of a
> >earthquake spell. I was wondering what are the spell that the other
> >elementals have (Fire, Water and Air)?
> >
> >And any comments on their effect will be appreciated.
>
>
> Water casts some kind of ice spell that does an unspecified amount of
> damage. I suspect it's not a lot. The earthquake spell seems to stun the
> opponent rather than do damage. I don't know what fire and air do.
>

The earthquake spell that the earth elemental casts does do some damage,
maybe not as much as the ice/flame spells that the water and fire elementals
do, but I have seen my earth elementals finish off a creature with the spell
so it has to do some damage.

-Renesco
magician Rodcet Nife.

Sabeo wrote:
>
> I appologize I have been out of town for the last week. I have a Lvl 12
> Water Elem. and have never seen him cast a thing. If this is a new patch do
> all Elem. pets have this ability or does your pet need to be a certain lvl?

After the last patch my Mage's Earth pet (level 12) started casting a
spell that shakes the ground underneath enemies. He never did that
before the patch.

I would guess that your Water pet will begin using its attack spell the
next time you play.

-- Dolm

They have their own spells. In the spell list in code, it's 'Earth
Elemental Spell', for instance.

Dan Harmon <deha...@email.com> wrote in message
news:7k3s58$289$1@fir.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> Before a couple patches ago, I've never seen my elemental cast a spell
(lvl
> 10 mage, air elems all the way so far).
>
> Air APPEARS to cast a whirlwind spell. At least, it sorta looks my my
druid
> friend's WW spell, and I get the same message, I think.


>
> Bishop[AGQ2] <snorc...@northlink.net> wrote in message
> news:7Bd93.103$jK5.33896@typ11.nn.bcandid.com...
> > They have always done that.
> >
> > >Nicolas Thomassin wrote:
> > >
> > >> Just seen after the patch that my Earth Elemental cast some kind of a
> > >> earthquake spell. I was wondering what are the spell that the other
> > >> elementals have (Fire, Water and Air)?
>
>
>
>

Magician pets do not get root until the October 28th 1999 patch:

11/8/99

In article
<2375C0C50C1BBCEF.0A0A738B4F3252F9.F1C33C6A91ADB0F 8@lp.airnews.net>,

brian@knology.net.spamtrapper wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I noticed when I played the other night that it seems the Magician's
> earth pet "root bug" has been fixed. Has anyone else noticed? I only
> ask because there was nothing in the patch message (go figure, a
> change to the game not in the patch message <grin>)
>
> Brian
>
I've seen this same bug with my necromancer when I root a creature while
its fighting my pet. I'll get whacked a couple times by the rooted MoB
when I'm damned far away.

I think it occurs because the client and server get out of sync
regarding the MoB's position. Your client thinks the MoB is next to
your pet, the server thinks it is next to you.

Usually I back up a bit and the beating stops. A few hard slaps don't
bother a necromancer as much as they would a magician, of course.
I think magicians have just started to see this because their earth pet
just got Root. A big problem is that the pet casts root instead of you,
adding another uncertainty to when the spell goes off.


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....0/0wRiP6B_JfEJ

Patch note mentioning mage pet spell adjustment is here:

https://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_N...Enhancements_2

[Valion]

Cool I started EQ right after the patch that gave them casting ability, never knew it was otherwise. I do remember the change to root had to stop using earth pets in groups that had a snarer since they did not stack at the time. Not to mention getting whacked by the rooted mobs from afar was no fun until it was finally fixed.