Feathers/Books Bug is back since 11/02 update

[squidexplosion]

<p>The bug which existed a few weeks ago has returned. Feather/Books icons for at level NPC quest givers do not show in game again. (They do show on EQ2 map and low level feathers do appear in game). I have not checked yet but assume collection pages and some mobs (ie red skulls in Anathema) are also invisible now.</p><p>I did file a bug report. Hopefully since this situation was corrected before it won't take as long to fix it this time.</p>

[sweetbooty1120]

<p>This is also happening to me today.  Worked fine last night and today, no feathers/books, only on mini map do they show up.  Very frustrating <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>Can anyone else confirm this?  I just logged into the game and I am still able to see the quest icons. </p><p>I would definitely submit a /bug report so that we can try to recreate the error on our end.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Yes, I also am not seeing the NPC Quest icons---Again..(Feathers & Books).</p>

[sweetbooty1120]

<p>I submitted 2 bug reports on this issue <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Jazzsinger]

<p>when logged out of EQ2  for today's "Brief update" it seemed everything was working as normal!</p><p>30 mins later i logged back in and there were  No Quest feather Icons again <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>SOE only fixed this issue about 3 weeks ago and that was after about 12 days of lots of people complaining and  debating why it affected some people and not others</p><p>This issue is included in the Top known issues which hasnt been updated since 22 October</p><p>Is anybody else having this problem or has  found some resolution to it somehow? because my memory is good but if i cant see quest icons - then i cant take them or return them so it affects my gameplay</p><p>If the problem was fixed then SOE surely it can be fixed again (and maybe work out why it was a problem to start with to prevent further issues arising)</p>

[Brigeye]

<p>Yes this is happening again... I had this issues before but then it got fixed.  And now it seams to be back since the update today.</p>

[Mysstie]

Initially around Noon or so the first time I played after the update, everything was working fine. Didn't play the rest of the day until I saw this thread around 2:00am. The Quest Feather/Book problem is back for me as well. Only the out-leveled ones will show above NPCs if I enable that option. A first level alt I made also does not see the Quest Feathers/Books. Like before, they still appear on the Map. I'll go back in game and file a /bug report.

[Mysstie]

Well, it appears this is something slightly different than before for me. When I went back in game to do the /bug report I noticed that I could see the quest feathers (in Moors). I camped to character select to look at my alt in Gfay.. no quest feathers. Camped to character select to look at myself again in Moors and NO quest feathers. Quit the game completely and logged back in. I can see quest feathers once more. I then port myself back to the druid ring within Moors and the quest feathers all disappeared above the NPCs. Okay, so this time I quit the game, restart, and choose "Character Select" from the drop-down and then pick myself to play. No Quest feathers. The *only* way I can see Quest feathers my level is to choose Mysstie from the drop-down to bypass the "character select" zone; however, if I zone, do any kind of porting, or camp to character select then I no longer see quest feathers with any of my toons. Before, I wouldn't even see feathers in the zone I initially started in. So, this isn't the exact same problem as before but very similar. Hopefully that helps.

[Jazzsinger]

<p>OK Well What Mysstie says is correct, that in order for her (and me) to get quest feather icons is to log in directly to the character from the launch screen and bypass the character selection screen -</p><p>If you have to zone for any reason then they will disappear and you will have to start all over again</p><p>This interim "Fix" is far from ideal however so SOE would you please correct the issue asap </p><p>Everquest? or Neverquest?</p>

[Torzi]

<p>Just another confirmation of same problem (worked, then didn't, then fixed, now not working again)</p><p>/bug report sent</p>

[Levatino]

<p>same problem here. have made a new alt on the island just to check and yes no feathers. play on runnyeye and before patch everything was ok. looks like same problem as before</p>

[Rakna]

<p>I also can't see any quest feathers, on both my main and alt, nor book pages for quests.  Was doing Rime with a friend, he stood right in front of where the page was, which he saw, and I couldn't see it.  I had also experienced this a couple weeks back.  It was fixed, then broken again. =(</p>

[BDoodle]

<p>I dont normally have this issue, BUT I can reproduce it by lowering hardware acceleration.</p><p>Please check your hardware acceleration is set to Full.</p><p>To access hardware acceleration:</p><p>Right-click the desktop and select Properties from the drop down menu;</p><p>Goto the Settings tab and click on the Advanced button;</p><p>Now goto the Troubleshoot tab, you should see a slide bar labeled <span style="text-decoration: underline;">H</span>ardware acceleration;</p><p>Make sure the slider is at Full and click the OK button at the bottom of the window;</p><p>You may need to restart your system if any changes were made.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>BDoodle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I dont normally have this issue, BUT I can reproduce it by lowering hardware acceleration.</p><p>Please check your hardware acceleration is set to Full.</p><p>To access hardware acceleration:</p><p>Right-click the desktop and select Properties from the drop down menu;</p><p>Goto the Settings tab and click on the Advanced button;</p><p>Now goto the Troubleshoot tab, you should see a slide bar labeled <span style="text-decoration: underline;">H</span>ardware acceleration;</p><p>Make sure the slider is at Full and click the OK button at the bottom of the window;</p><p>You may need to restart your system if any changes were made.</p></blockquote><p>That's interesting since I can't imagine many people running without hardware acceleration set to the maximum.  Was anyone experiencing this issue able to resolve it with these steps?</p>

[Mysstie]

Full Hardware Acceleration has never not been set on. There's something that the game is failing to do properly after the first zoning of any kind (in my case) that causes it to fail. This issue may be somewhat hardware or system dependent as not *everyone* has this problem; however, it's too widespread to be a client only setting. Worked before the update, and quit working afterwards. Only change was the update itself. Weird.

[Debordes2980]

<p>I am also having this issue as of yesterday. Sometimes they will be there, sometimes they wont. They will show on EQ2map, just not over the NPCs heads.</p>

[Rothgar]

<p>This probably has something to do with the shader palette changes we've been working on to reduce memory consumption.  We haven't done anything specific to those quest icons, but it must not like some other change we made.  We just have to determine what change caused them to go away and how to fix it without undoing the memory optimizations.</p>

[sweetbooty1120]

<p>deleted.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Having the same problem as Mysstie. Don't know if it was like this, the last time Quest Icons were gone, as I didn't check it this way. (log in, see feathers, zone> feathers gone). Please someone fix this.</p>

[PsiberDaemon]

<p>I was having this problem before on my work machine, but not my home computer.  I haven't had a chance to play from the work machine since the update, but I am going in today so I will give it a try and see what we get.</p><p>My home machine does not have this issue...  2Gb RAM, WinXP Pro (patched), NVidia 256MB PCI card (latest drivers), onboard sound...  Nothing flashy, but it gets the job done.  No issues with quest feathers/books.</p><p>When I get to work I'll sign in and just look around, see if my Quest Feathers are missing on that machine.</p><p>[Update] Unfortunately, I am experiencing this issue on my work machine (no quest feathers/books)</p><p>1GB RAM, WinXP Pro (patched), ATI 256mb PCI card (latest drivers), no sound, settings at Max Performance</p>

[Poacher69]

<p>Any news on this yet?</p>

[Levatino]

<p>with poacher here, any news yet?</p>

[BDoodle]

<p>I have noticed changes with object drawing and art in game, sometimes the feathers/books are there, somtimes not. So it looks like they're playing with the settings server side trying to figure out what is causing this issue.</p>

[Levatino]

<p>I noticed yesterday morning when I logged in and played in CL feathers were there. I was relieved then had to zone to Nek Forest and feathers were gone.</p><p>Today I wanted to test it and logged in again in CL, feathers were back also bixie on a string was! Zoned to South Freeport and bixie was gone. Went to ship in SF for a quest and indeed no feathers.</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Unfortunately the bug is still in effect after the 11/11 game update</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>I too am still experiencing this problem.  Feathers and books do not show over the heads of NPCs.  Additionally (and this may have already been mentioned), this seems to affect ground spawns such as book pages, etc.  I was unable to see or retrieve the book pages for the Sathirian or Froak language quests in the Fens of Nathsar.  Meanwhile, on my girlfriend's computer, we can see that I am standing directly in front of the page and she can pick it up with no problems.</p>

[Mysstie]

Just wanted to mention that the bug still seems to be there after this morning's (11/11/09) update; although, I have no idea if this update was meant to correct it or not.

[Alenna]

<p><cite>Mysstie@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Just wanted to mention that the bug still seems to be there after this morning's (11/11/09) update; although, I have no idea if this update was meant to correct it or not. </blockquote><p>actually I started to see feathers again just now as I was on with a friend hope that means they are getting a handle on the problem</p><p>but yes until today i was havin gthe same troulbe everyone else was</p>

[gelbot]

<p>I am experiencing this problem on my desktop but not on my laptop. I had this problem years ago on my desktop and it went away or was repaired. Very annoying that it is back : (</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Just doesn't make sense! I start the game, appear in Guild Hall, can see tradeskill NPC "Feathers"; zone out to NQ, come back, and cant see "Feathers", what the %$#^@# !!</p>

[Levatino]

<p>I still have this problem, luckily enough I am busy with my new low alt so have a picture where to go and which npc to ask but hopefully it's fixed soon.</p><p>and yes, it can be that when i login feathers are there until I zone or log to another char then they're gone again</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Is it going to be fixed?? When??????</p>

[Poacher69]

<p>Im still having thiss issue as well they go away after i zone or log to a different toon</p>

[Levatino]

<p>same here</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Well 11/18 update did not fix the bug. If I recall it was 4 or 5 updates last time before it got corrected <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I sure hope this gets done soon or at least before the Expansion. Right now its annoying but since its lots of old content you can manage to do things. Having an Expansion where you don't see any of the NPC's quest icons would be pretty pointless to spend $40-$70 on.</p><p>What seems improbable is SoE should have records of how the program was written prior to and after the bug occurred. Why a fix should take weeks/months to do is a mystery.</p>

[Poacher69]

<p>Ya fail yet again still no feathers after the last update today = (</p>

[Torzi]

<p>This is a bit rediculous.... this problem was previously fixed. Why not just re-apply whatever it is that was ripped out of the 11/02 update?</p><p>Still not seeing them with today's update.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" />Over 2 weeks (18 days), still not fixed !!!!!!!!!!Whats the hold up???<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Levatino]

<p>still not fixed. I logged in they are there but if I zone they dissappear again.</p>

[Donilla]

<p>I've been self mentoring one of my 30ish toons, clicked on the option to see out-leveled feathers, and.....nothing. I have the feathers on the map, but not on the NPCs. So not fixed.</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Well as expected the update today (11/24) did not correct the bug. Since this problem seems to be limited to a small percentage of players maybe SoE can send all those people a variety of computers til we get one that works with their code.</p><p>Or perhaps fix the problem?</p>

[Debordes2980]

<p>Just figured I would re-add my name to the list of people still having this issue. Actually my wife and I still both have this issue. If I log directly into a certain character I can see the quest feathers and books, but as soon as I zone, forget it. They are gone for good until I exit out of EQ2 and log back in again. So basically it's either don't change zones, or enjoy looking at the map to see where quests are as that's the only place that they seem to be constant on. Some word on this would be appreciated as it is really getting annoying forgetting and missing certain quests because I can't see the feathers. Everything was fine before 11/2 I think it was.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>I wanted to thank everyone for their patience with this issue and assure you that I will post any updates I receive as soon as I get them.  If I find any ways to work around the issue short of 'please do not zone', then I will definitely post them.  Sadly, I think this is an issue that will need to be corrected with a patch.</p>

[Levatino]

<p>thanks Daniel for this post. I hope you only have to post once, saying fixed in next patch.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Still no fix. getting annoying! So, instead of a fix, "They" make a new World event; "The heroes' festival just something to cause more lag.....how much longer???????</p>

[Poacher69]

<p>so any news? still dont have them.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Almost a Month, and still no fix. <span style="font-size: medium;">!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</span></p>

[Poacher69]

<p>Fix please or let us know your working on it thanks</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>While we certainly understand that these issues can take awhile to resolve, an update on the situation would be greatly appreciated.  Especially as this issue appears to affect certain ground spawns as well (such as the book pages for the Sathirian language quest in the Fens of Nathsar), then this issue is certainly game-breaking in certain ways.</p><p>I am fortunate enough to have access to an alternate computer that does not experience this issue.  However, for many that do not have this advantage, much of the game content is broken until the issue is resolved.</p>

[BDoodle]

<p><cite>Braxxus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I am fortunate enough to have access to an alternate computer that does not experience this issue.  However, for many that do not have this advantage, much of the game content is broken until the issue is resolved.</p></blockquote><p>Hi Braxxus,</p><p>   What is the difference between your two computers? Maybe if we can work out what the difference is that is causing the issue for some people we can fix it.</p><p>Thanks,</p><p>BD</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>There's quite a bit of difference between the two machines.  The newer machine does not experience the problem.  Here's a small rundown of some hardware/OS differences:</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Operating System</span></p><p>Problem machine:  Windows XP Home</p><p>Problem-free machine:  Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Graphics Card</span></p><p>Problem machine:  Nvidia GeForce 6200 (AGP)</p><p>Problem-free machine:  Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ (PCI-E)</p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Processor</span></p><p>Problem machine:  Intel Pentium 4 2.80 GHz</p><p>Problem-free machine:  Intel Core 2 Extreme  X6800 @ 2.93 GHz</p><p>If there are any other hardware differences you would like me to report, I'd be more than happy to.  This is definitely a situation that began for me after the 11/02 update.  Prior to this update, all quest feathers and ground drops were appearing appropriately for me on both machines.</p>

[Mysstie]

FYI, I still have the problem where the feathers only show in the zone I initially start the game in. My system: Windows XP Home, EVGA NVidia GeForce 6800GT (AGP), 1 Gig Ram, P4-2.4GHz

[Levatino]

<p>me too no problem if I log into game, feather are there. If I zone however or switch to another toon, feathers are gone.</p><p>If I restart completely however, feathers are back again. So knowing this a short term solution for the groundspawns could be to go to Fens, restart completely to log in in this zone and see if you then can see the groundspawns (maybe someone can test?, my toons aren't high enough to do this safely <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />)</p><p>But I concur, I would appreciate if I can normally zone and log to still see feathers instead of completely shutdown eq2 and restart.</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>While I don't mean to complicate matters, I don't even have quest icons or visible ground drops (for certain ground drops only, as I do see the collection item question marks) when I first log in.  I can log in, stay in the same zone the entire time, and I never see the quest icons.</p><p>Even stranger, as a level 75 character, if I gate back to Qeynos I actually do see the out-leveled quest icons.  (Yes, I have confirmed that I have quest icons turned on for both regular and out-leveled quests).  So, for some reason I can see the icons for out-leveled quests, but quests appropriate for my level do not show up.</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Just my standard weekly report--as off 12/2 update bug is not fixed. One entire month in effect so far.</p>

[Linu]

<p>+1, (on trial) holding off on buying/subscribing until this is fixed</p><p>tnx</p>

[Rothgar]

<p>I don't think we have a repro case for this problem on our daily build so its possible that the problem has been fixed but that code has not made it to live servers yet.  I would be interested to hear if any of you with the problem also experience it on the Test server. </p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Over a month, still no fix.. I'll limit my "play-time" till it's fixed. This is nonsense!!</p>

[Levatino]

<p>unfortunately I don't play on the test server so can't answer your question Rothgar. but maybe others are?</p>

[BDoodle]

<p><cite>Rothgar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>...</p><p>I would be interested to hear if any of you with the problem also experience it on the Test server. </p></blockquote><p>I played on the Test Server today and found that after zoning that this issue is still occuring.</p><p>Just to verify the issue: books/feathers <span style="text-decoration: underline;">do</span> appear over npc heads offering quests when first logging on, but after zoning the books/feathers <span style="text-decoration: underline;">do not</span> appear over npc heads, but do appear on the mini map.</p><p>For those who have heard that you have to download the entire game again if you wish to use the test server, this is not true. Following the instructions in the knowledge base you can copy most of your game files to the test server directory, and then the update time is very short.   Please try the test server so that we can get a result sooner on this.</p><p>Thanks,</p><p>BD</p>

[Szuszpancz]

<p>I cannot see overhead icons regardless if I just load the game or zoning.</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>Previously, I had reported that I never saw quest icons or page ground drops (while others reported that they saw them when first logging in, but ceased seeing them upon zoning).</p><p>I discovered that I never saw them because I was first logging into the Character Select screen, and then entering the game after choosing my character.  If I choose the character directly from the launcher and log directly into the game, I see the icons and ground drops.  However, once I zone, I no longer see the icons or drops.  Therefore, I believe my experience matches that reported by others in this thread.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Over a month, still no fix !!!! Totally unacceptable !!!! See "they're" going to add new content; how about fixing the bugs first?!</p>

[Levatino]

<p>still have the bug but what I found strange is that when I " die"  and pop somewhere in the zone feathers are not gone, although I zone to the same zone..</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>It appears that this same type of issue was originally fixed on October 7th, 2009 (before being re-introduced in November).</p><p>Should we assume that the cause of the current behavior is unrelated to the similar issue that was repaired in October?  Or can the developers infer a cause of the current situation by examining the fix from October?</p><p>I realize that duplicating the behavior and providing a fix can take some time, and I'm happy to be patient.  Re-logging after zoning seems to be a temporary solution for now (although not a very appetizing one).  However, any updates that can be provided go a long way toward soothing the masses.</p>

[Jordy]

<p>Have only had game for 3 days.  Very new.  So needless to say this bug kills me because I have no idea who is a quest giver and who isnt.  Thats 20 bucks wasted.  Plus I will bad mouth game to all I know.  Sorry to be bitter but from a major MMO this is unacceptable.</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>Jordy95, I understand your frustration.  I'm affected by this issue as well.  However, I would recommend patience regarding this issue, as I'm sure they are trying to determine the cause.  It seems to only affect a small number of users, and that will surely make it more difficult for them to isolate.  In the meantime, I believe the in-game map should show quest icons which make it easier to locate the quest-givers if you are not inclined to restart the game after zoning.</p><p>You may wish to list the relevant hardware you are using (such as video card) in case this helps them determine the cause.  I did the same in an earlier post in this thread.  If there's a commonality between the video cards we are using that may be related to the issue, this may assist them.  I'm sure they appreciate this sort of information, and it likely goes a lot further toward helping find a solution than do threats.</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Well lots of bugs corrected today (12/09), but not this one. Oh well--maybe next week</p>

[Cleg]

<p>I've had the same problem since returning to EQ2 a month ago.  With today's patch, I too thought it wasn't fixed.  However, this is what I did, and it stated working again.  It may be worth it to mention that I tried this prior to today's patch, and no dice.  However, when I did it today, the icons came back, and I even zoned a few times and the icons were still there :</p><p>From inside the game, go into "options", and then to "user interface"</p><p>Expand "Name and chat bubble"</p><p>Scroll down to "NPC Overhead Quest Icons".  Mine was checked.  Uncheck it.</p><p>Scroll down to "NPC Overhead Quest Icons for outleveled quests".  Mine wasn't checked.  Check it.</p><p>Click "Accept".</p><p>Go back into options, user interface, name and chat bubble, and RECHECK "NPC Overhead Quest Icons", and UNCHECK "NPC Overhead Quest Icons for outleveled quests".  Click "Accept"</p><p>That fixed my issue.  Hope it works for you all as well.</p>

[Debordes2980]

<p>Just wanted to give an update on my situation after this patch. Now I guess you could say the problem is half fixed. I can see books for turn ins even after zoning, now I just cannot see quest feathers only.</p><p>Wanted to update again. I tried the suggestion Cleg put out there and I wanted to say thank you, because it worked for me. I can now see feathers and books, even after zoning.</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>I am now experiencing the same behavior reported by Debordes2980.  I see the books for quest turn-ins... however, still no feathers above the quest NPCs for new quests.</p><p>I did attempt the suggestion from Cleg about unchecking "NPC Overhead Quest Icons" and hitting Accept... followed by rechecking "NPC Overhead Quest Icons" and hitting Accept again.  However, this did not appear to have any effect for me.</p>

[Debordes2980]

<p>Braxxus did you make sure that you also UNCHECKED Show overhead quest icons for outleveled quests? I only ask because I've notice that unless that box is also unchecked, it will not work. I did as suggested and then checked to show icons, and unchecked to show outleveled quests, and suddenly all the icons showed up. I exited out of the game, and logged back in, and zoned, and zoned back and they were all still there.</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>Ah, thank you for the suggestion.  No, I did not remember to also uncheck the quest icons for outleveled quests, and that may be the reason it did not work for me.  I will test this later today and report the results.</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>I tried the suggested fix and it did work briefly. I logged into CL and as usual the feathers/ books where showing. I zoned into CoA--did a shard quest and zoned back to CL. Feathers/Books were still working. Then I zoned into NEC and did another quest. Back to CL and the bug was back in force. No Icons. I redid the whole check --uncheck procedure again but Icons did not reappear. I logged to another toon in LS and no icons there either.</p>

[Cleg]

<p>I concur, squidexplosion - this ended up happening to me last night as well.  Shortly thereafter, the EQ2 client bombed on me.  I rebooted, reloaded the game, and sure enough, the icons had come back.  Not sure what's going on, but something definitely needs to be addressed.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Still no quest icons. Only see when I first enter game. check & uncheck & check didn't work. Also PVP writ "stopping the spread of evil"; number to kill icons don't show now, only says "Kill 4 players???</p>

[Debordes2980]

<p>Well just to update again. Like some others, the fix did work, briefly. I was zoning all night last night and feathers and books were showing. Then I switched characters and it stopped working. So I tried the check and uncheck procedure again, and now it seems as if sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. And when it does work now, it usually does not stay that way very long. Books however now I can see all the time, regardless. Just not feathers.</p><p>Also one thing to note, before the last update I have to log in skipping the char select screen in order to see any feathers or books when I first log in. Now I can log in from the char select screen and still see them. Nothing really major, but who knows, it might be a piece of information that helps.</p><p>An response would be appreciated if possible on if there is any progress being made on this bug. I understand it is only affecting a small portion of the playerbase, but it is very irritating for those who do have it. Yes, you can just look at the map and see feathers, but this is sort of a major feature of any mmo with questing involved, being able to see the icons over the NPCs. So I would think even though it isnt affecting everyone, it would still be something worth looking into and hurrying to try to fix it. Thank you.</p><p>here is what seems to be going on now, on my end at least. If I log in from the character select screen after using the check and uncheck method, I can only see feathers until I zone and then they are gone. If I log in from the launcher, skipping the char select screen the feathers persist even after zoning. This is all after using the check and uncheck method.</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Ok just a brief update--since the last patch it feathers/books icon problem is still basically the same though every once in awhile they will appear. Seems books icon does more often than the feathers. As far as I can tell this totally random.</p><p>Ground pages and the the one mob that had gone invis does seem to be fixed now. At least they have shown up all the time so far</p>

[Levatino]

<p>yes feathers do appear more but not always. With the new Tyran quests I saw the feather/book over the dark elf in WFP but not on other npc's after zoning</p><p>When I returned for second update those feather/book did disappear again.</p><p>Logged of completely and after an hour logged in with sell alt, feathers where there. Switched char and to my surprise feathers where still there. But after zoning twice feathers where gone again.</p>

[Rakna]

<p>The check/uncheck had no effect for me.  It doesn't sound like I'm seeing books/feathers as frequently as others- I see one a day, if I'm lucky, and it's mostly a book.  This has been going on for months and is extremely annoying.  Update notes touted a huge number of bug fixes- but this remained unaddressed.</p>

[Mysstie]

I am now experiencing a similar occurrence. The feathers/books will stay around through more zonings but will eventually disappear. Sometimes they will magically reappear in the same session but that's rare. Even less of a discernible pattern now which makes troubleshooting all that more problematic. On a positive note, I do like the 40-slot backpacks I can now make <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Gretcheen]

<p>Sometimes I see the "Books", sometimes not? Arrgh !</p>

[BDoodle]

<p>I am finding this also:</p><p>   Starting zone(A), bks/fthrs are there;</p><p>   Zone to a new area(B), the bks/fthrs are there;</p><p>   Zone elsewhere then back to either A or B and bks/fthrs are missing again;</p><p>   But then zone somewhere else again and bks/fthrs are there.</p><p>I hope this is not too confusing. It seems there is a partial fix, I hope the Devs can work out which part. If I can provide any further feedback, just ask.</p><p>BD</p>

[Xrool]

<p>Everything works fine on my computer but my wife's computer has no quest feathers/books.  We use the same UI on both machines.  Our computers are different but everthing EQ2 related is the same on both machines.  I have an ATI card and she has Nvidia.  As of today she still has no quest icons for the new world event or Frostfell.  We've tried everthing in this thread but nothing seems to make her quest feathers/books appear.</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Just my weekly update--bug appears to be just as before after 12/15 patch.</p>

[Cat]

<p>I'm out next update if its not even spoke of in the topics</p><p>that are chatting about it.</p><p>I'll bring with me my wife and few friends.</p><p>Its not much but still</p><p>It yanks me to see Santa stuff over problems we are having</p>

[WastedChances]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>Adding myself to the list of people with issues. Oddly, it only happens on my Mystic, not my Paladin or Shadowknight.So far I'm still in the starter zones so I can't give any feedback for other areas.</p><p>Edit:</p><p>Just updating that this is now happening on all my characters, in all zones. It seems random though. Example:</p><p>Finneus (?) in Beggar's Court had a feather when I first zoned in. On my SK, I took his quest to kill Brine Sifters and went off to do it. I came back and he had no book to indicate completion.I then logged in a Warden and he didn't have a feather indicating he had a quest however when I completed ithe had the book to indicate it was complete.</p><p>Both characters conned blue to the quest level (8, I think) and both were rolled as Evil (ie: No betraying). I'm running XP SP3 but this issue was not present back in February (when I last played) and I was running the same system.</p><p>For both these characters, none of the NPCs in Sunken City had any icons at all.</p>

[Alenna]

<p>add me to the list also it is happening on all my toons icons come and go. it has been that way for over a month.</p>

[Levatino]

<p>any news on a possible fix?</p>

[Missbee]

<p>Add me to that list also. Two accounts - 2 totally different computers same problem on both. Login in got feathers - zone or switch toons no got feathers. Books seem to be there most of the time but that too is random. Worst was trying to do the tradeskill writ from Village of Shin where you have to pick up a page to get the recipe. Could not see the page. That was almost a game breaker. Had to log off and finish it the next day. Same results - one toon could see the page and one could not. At least I could finish the quest that day.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Still not fixed !! can see "books" sometimes. Have problem almost 2 Months now..<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Yep 12/23 hotfix had no effect. Still getting random feathers and books after the first zone and/or toon switch. At least ground pages and the missing mob problem does appeared solved now. Been ok for the last few updates</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>I too continue to experience this issue as of 12/28/2009.  The ground spawns do appear for me now, and I often do see the quest books during a quest turn-in.  However, the books do not appear reliably and I also do not see the quest feathers.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Does SOE care? appears not. Instead of adding new content, they should fix whats wrong first.</p>

[Cat]

<p>When are the SOE employies comming back from <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">Thanksgiving</span> er I mean xmas vacation?</p><p>When do we get updates-feedback on this problem?</p>

[Braxxus]

<p>As of January 4th, 2010, I am too still experiencing this issue.  If I log into a zone directly upon login, I see quest feathers and books.  However, if I zone, I no longer see feathers.  I may still see books, but this seems to be erratic.  Sometimes the books appear after zoning, sometimes they do not.</p><p>An update from support staff would be greatly appreciated.  If it would be helpful for us to start posting particular information (video card, driver version, etc.), then please post the information you would like us to provide.  I'm sure everyone that is experiencing this issue would be more than happy to provide system-specific information that may be helpful in isolating the issue.  However, with neither requests for information nor support updates in quite awhile, it can be quite frustrating when this issue seems to be ignored.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Same as Braxxus::: Over two months, still no fix !!! Whats the Hold up ??</p><p>Seems like "They" would know what "They" did on 11-02-09, and fix the problem.</p>

[Gretcheen]

<p>Please fix the missing NPC quest icons. Please, please.</p><p><img src="http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3069/rondacav.jpg" width="379" height="231" /></p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Haven't bothered posting lately as it nevr seems to change, but just for the record as of 1/17 the bug is still there.</p>

[DustOfF]

<p>I have this problem too. Funny thing is it -was- working for me 2 days ago when I started playing but now all of a sudden it just stopped showing the feather and books after I zone once.</p><p>Now that I think about it this started happening to me after the hotfix yesterday...They "hotfixed" it alright >.<</p><p>I spent $20.00 on a broken game >.<</p><p>Oh well, they'll fix it soon right?</p><p>...I hope...</p>

[Russer]

<p>I'm unable to test this at the moment, but here are a few things I'd suggest you try:</p><p>When you are standing in front of an NPC that you know should have a feather above their head (and they don't), press <F10> three times to cycle your interface mode.</p><p>If that does not bring the feather back, try the earlier suggestion of going into the options window, turning OFF the quest icons, and accepting the change, then re-opening the options window and turning the quest icons back ON.</p><p>If this does not work, you can try different combinations of toggling the normal quest icons and the outleveled icons.</p><p>If THIS does not work, you can try switching to windowed mode and back to fullscreen (or vice versa).</p><p>If none of this works, we will at least know a little bit more about the nature of this problem, and there are other things we can try.</p><p><cite>DustOfFae wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I spent $20.00 on a broken game >.<</p></blockquote><p>I'm sorry to be the one to break the news, but there has never been a piece of commercial software with absolutely no bugs since personal computers became mainstream.  A piece of software is far too complex for every situation to be foreseen or explored.</p><p>To give you a vague notion of the scale the developers are dealing with here, know that Mozilla's XUL library (the software module that reads text files and turns them into a graphical interface that you can use) contains about 134,911 decisions (conditional jumps).  Each of those decisions affects which decisions are to be decided next, and every decision can be decided up to an infinite amount of times.  Not only that, but they aren't decided in a linear fashion; a decision could depend on any number of combinations of previous decisions.  This library is contained in xul.dll in your main EverQuest2 directory and it is one of many libaries that EverQuest2.exe uses.  The EXE itself is more than twice as big as xul.dll, but is comprised in the same structure.</p><p>You may have heard of Chaos Theory; modern software is large enough that it suffers from <em>entropy</em>.  That is, every event that occurs during a program's execution is the product of an exponentially increasing amount of prior events that have been snowballing since the program started (and often before then).  While some bugs are as simple as "oops, I forgot to set this variable before I read from it," the larger and more complex the piece of software is, the more there is a tendency for bugs to be caused by things nobody would have suspected, but snowballed to cause odd behaviour further down the line.</p><p>DustOfFae, this part of the post was not directed at you specifically, but rather the attitude of this thread in general.  It's easy to get frustrated when we see other people having their problems fixed before us, but not all problems are equally difficult; shouldn't we have patience, cope any way we can, and enjoy what the rest of the team is accomplishing while the unlucky developers assigned to fix this problem try to trace each of the infinite possibilites for its cause?</p>

[DustOfF]

<p>I didn't mean to sound like a b*tch X.X</p><p>I did find a way to play without the icons - I'm using EQ2Maps. It works kinda like a pseudo-quest icon with the pathway thingie ^-^</p><p>I've tried everything you said and everything everyone else has suggested too with no difference. It still appears "normally" when I first login...until I zone once then they disappear and don't come back unless I camp to desktop and re-login. Then they only appear until I zone again xD</p><p>Oh well, it's not game breaking but is rather annoying. I can live with it because it isn't game breaking for me. ^-^ It just makes it more like a console RPG in my opinion - you need to look for the NPCs like in console games xD More of a challenge I guess~!</p>

[Russer]

<p>Well there goes my idea that forcing a reset of the interface would resync it <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /> (I guess it was a bit foolish for me to think nobody had thought of that before)....</p><p>Back to the drawing board, I guess.</p>

[Russer]

<p>I forgot to mention that I'm glad you found an alternative that you don't mind (the day has apparently taken a toll on my brain!)</p><p>I apologize if I sounded somewhat... <em>intense</em> earlier.  As a software engineer, reading a thread like this can sometimes raise the blood pressure a bit. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Mysstie]

I don't even know if the Devs have a machine they've been able to reproduce it on. Unless they have a system that it repeatedly happens on, it's tough for them to test if any of their ideas actually work to correct it. It's weird.. I've seen books and feathers disappear/reappear without having zoned. Had 1 NPC last night that did not show a book that should have and after handing the quest in, a feather appeared over his head for the next quest LOL. But generally after I zone or port within the same zone, they go poof. Sometimes it takes 2 zonings for it to happen. However, the game has been crashing on me MUCH LESS than it used to when this feather problem first started (DirectX Out of Memory and 3D Renderer Not Found errors).

[Russer]

<p>From what I've read and seen, it seems like the issue is that the client holds onto the quest giver state for each NPC when they are first loaded, but somehow that state gets overwritten or lost for certain NPCs at some point.  When you return to the scene and the client puts the NPC models and so forth into the environment, it doesn't re-check for actual available quests, since that wouldn't have changed between its first check and when you saw them next (as you couldn't have accepted their quest without seeing them). The only time it updates this state would be when the NPCs quests actually change (i.e., you DID something to make a quest "pop" or go away), so your observation of a questgiver suddenly showing a feather again after you completed a quest makes sense with this reasoning.</p><p>If anyone has any ideas on ways players could try to force a re-check of the quest states, I would appreciate it.  When next I encounter the issue, I will try to see if there is a way to take advantage of the "no quest markers for low-level quests" setting, but (un)fortunately, I have only been affected by this bug a handful of times so far.</p>

[Mysstie]

Yeah, and the whole chronomancer thing where you can change your level at a whim probably throws a monkey wrench in there somewhere as well.

[Russer]

<p><cite>Mysstie@Befallen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Yeah, and the whole chronomancer thing where you can change your level at a whim probably throws a monkey wrench in there somewhere as well.</blockquote><p>Now there's an interesting point I had not considered.  I wonder whether a player afflicted with the Feathers Bug would see the missing feathers again for the zone if they used chronomagic to change their level.  Of course, that would not be a practical solution by any measure, but simply experimenting with it could tell us whether level-change effectively "resets" the bugged state for that zone (although this might only be effective if low-level quest icons are disabled and the level change outlevels the quest(s) in question or brings it within non-trivial level range ("re-levels"??), since those are more likely to be events that "pop" (or "unpop") the questgiver status).</p>

[squidexplosion]

<p>Just the standard post that after that last couple of hotfixes the bug is still working the same way. Feathers/books work fine if you don't leave a zone or switch toons. If you do leave then they randomly appear--though mostly in my case it seems the feather book combo turn in icon shows the most. Ground pages/ missing mobs is be Ok for several weeks so(knock on wood) that part was corrected.</p><p>I have not attempted to figure out any work arounds since the first month of the problem as it doesn't really look like there is. Hopefully when the expansion is out somehow this annoying problem will fixed. If not I guess the only work arounds for the new zones is log in there and find every quest giver you can before doing anything else. The big potential problem I see is where you have any quests that require several npc's to update progress.</p>