News: (09/01/06)

• The Event system has been modified to quickly create encounters and write Arena events. These will slowly be showing up when players use 'arena enter'.
• Account perk pools now work like the help file says. This means players are going to experience a noticable jump in account perks available to spend. The important part is that there is a bonus for going beyond 10k perks on a character.
• Pet Handling stat gives Regen and some bonus damage to any pet you use. It increases by leveling pets. Higher level pets help more.
• Gems can be Forged. Place five of the same gem in the forge and get the same gem back, now 60 levels higher (2 ranks). Place 5 different gems in the forge and get 2 random gems back of the same average level.
• Bagset now lets you control Grade (instead of rating). Any bags set with rating should be reset.
• Experience changes: There is a larger penalty for one-round kills. There is a greater Bonus for longer fights. I want to tweak this until tough fights feel rewarding versus easy work.
• New holiday: Gold Rush. This will increase the gold you get from search gold results.
• Increased the amount of gold received from binning items a bit.
• Balance factor on speed and energy: There is a fatigue factor on speed. -5% per 1000 total speed.
• Dex and Agility give 1 speed per attribute. Dis/Wis/Psy/Int give 1/2 energy per.
• New perks: Speed Burst, Energy Burst. Found in PL novice, bad placement by me.:)
• Data event - lists events, rarity and descriptions.
• New personal artifacts are about to be introduced. These are generally powerful items that last a short time (hours or days). You can wear one or two at a time.
• Gave backstab some base damage from Finesse and Tech Level. Will increase soon.
• Vampire's lifetap can now critical hit. Also has some base lifesteal (not from melee).
• Shocking grasp spell will now occasionally use crackling weapon flags.
• Explosion weapon flag's damage boosted.
• Malevolent flag improved.
• Earthquake spell can sometimes execute the rumbling weapon flag.

You can find housing plots a little East and South of Midgaard. I forget where the exit in Migaard is, but I know there's one on the East side of New Thalos (just after you leave the gate). Then you'd run about 40 steps west to find the housing south of the road.

Go to a an empty plot (shown as \__/) and it will tell you how to buy it. It won't be cheap. But it's yours to keep. I will allow you to later relocate your home once 'rarer' plot locations are added.

There may be plenty of testing to be done before we get it all hashed out so let me know if anything doesn't seem right.

News: (08/03/06)

• New event editor for imms. Event system launches based on travelling the wilderness. Other types of events (mission, area, arena) will be added later using the same code.
• A number of new mob, obj and room prog features added to improve play.
• The area around Drkshtyre Woods has been landscaped with a wilderness entrance that is hard to miss. Feel free to explore. You will find a few mini-areas nearby that will have quests in the immediate future
• New commands: Run and Mount. Run makes you cover twice as much ground in the wilderness while draining stamina. Mount works if you have a pet present. You cover 3 times the ground with less stamina use. For now, I was lazy and allowed all pets to be ridden. Also each pet travels the same speed. I'd like to make them move faster and more efficiently based on pet tiers, but this has to wait until later.
• New Command: Study. Scans after each step you take.
• Type 'color' for various wilderness/ascii display controls.
• Type 'map set #' to set the size of the wilderness map. (use 1-5)
• The blind or symbol-annoyed can type color ascii to turn off any wilderness maps. Then type 'study' to see what's around each step.
• Kick should be perkable. Dirtkick made into one word to avoid conflicts.
• Pets should regen from lifespring, rejuv, etc.
• Lazy filter command: filter default. Sets you for lowest spam.
• Equipment will again drop above level 255 on hard mobs.
• New Grade controls on looting. Epic grade armor should always have at least one [+] enchant. Common never should. Grade is going to become more meaningful to loot of all types.
• Deathblow damage increased 10%
• Aura of light duration boosted.
• New creation class added courtesy of Venga: try help blood-mage
• Quests can now be given by objects and room, they will auto update so now mob is necessary for reporting.
• Made the new event editor work in the Arena - stay tuned.
• New command in for testing: Empower charge <loc> I may need to reset empower levels and refund all QP again after this is properly tested. I'm not certain yet. But read help empower for a fresh take.
• Cleaned up alot of display clutter on auto-loot compare and others.
• New command in craft modify: artifact. This rolls an artifact much like infuse, but charges QP. I'm not sure this is a final solution
  but I wanted something in place.
• Social command sorted alphabetically - yay!
• Typing: worth line will show a one line worth. Easier on screen readers.

Some recently added prompt variables you may not be aware of include:
%L, %l - Display your hp as a percentage. L makes it change color as it drops.
%P, %p - Display your pet's hp as a percentage. P does color as above.
%C, %B, %b - C is your current charge total (at 5 your next ability is focused)
B shows a bar of charge progress and b shows a percentage.
%E, %F - E shows your mana and F shows your stamina as percentages.
%W - Shows the percentage of your level remaining to be earned. At 0, you level.

News: (07/18/06)

The most important change is the introduction of the tattoo idea that some predicted would take 6 months to appear after my initial note describing the concept.

You will acquire designs (tattoos, glyphs, art, etc) that can be inscribed in eight different locations on your body. After that, you can enchant the design in a similar manner to craft enchanting.

All designs will have special properties. The total of this bonus grows as the power of the design grows which happens randomly during enchanting. While you may fade the bonuses and curses on a design, the properties always remain intact (replacing the artifact roll).

Many designs will also have tendencies such as an IronFist tattoo being more likely to receive melee bonuses and magic curses. None will ensure a specific result, just shift the odds in favor of something. Identify will tell you how.

All your questpoints have been refunded for any items you craft enchanted. You can now spend these on empower enchanting. Of course all bonuses and curses have been faded from items. The goal is that items will be easier to compare and change without those bonuses.

Artifacts have not been removed from your items. There is no way to currently acquire new artifacts, but I plan to offer something later this summer. I just haven't concluded the optimal way. It is likely there will be an orb that does it as an upgrade to your infusion. But I am also interested in tying in some research-based method. Suggestions are welcome.

Other major game changes are also present in this code. First we've converted to C++, this won't mean much to players, other than any hiccups we missed on the testport. It should make pieces of the code more efficient in the future.

Next the item system has been heftily revamped. This too shouldn't impact you, but I hope it addresses the item vanishing we've experienced as well as numerous crashes. It may not, but there is more bug logging in place as well that should lead me to tracking it down if the ghost remains. Let me know of any problems.

Logain finished Room and Object programs. Like mob progs, these can accomplish all kinds of detailed behaviors to interact with players. This won't affect you... Yet. But over time I hope to get skilled builders making use of them to give the mud more life.

The Wilderness is also in. For now, it's just a vast and nearly empty space of rolling plains and blue seas. But we're going to be landscaping the wilderness to represent the world as we have planned it for some time. Over the next few weeks, you will find areas being linked to the wilderness, along with quests and more detailed terrain.

Additional features are pending. Eventually 75% of our areas will be walkable by exploring the wilderness along with random and fixed events, special mobs and whatever else we can imagine.

Other Code Additions:

• Hopefully fixed a major bug in pet order.
• There are 20 levels to each weapon and armor flag for more growth room. This will eventually lead to many ways to acquire flags on your character.
• A number of flags have been tweaked, some of which I forgot: Gained: shimmering, rumbling, blazing, malevolent, holy, bulwark, padded Lowered: crackling, vampiric, crushing, siphon, blink (Slightly).
• When you try to research a [+] enchant, it will target the base version once it has been set by hand (This might take some time). Armor only...
• You will not be able to imbue [+] enchants even if you finish one. I am open to suggestions on implementing a very limited research method as a form of major accomplishment, but [+] are primarily for looting joy.
• Two new quest goals: Material payment and find item with X enchant.
• Epic drop rate lowered a little. I'm going to be ensuring their greatness per load but first I need to be sure they aren't too easy to get.
• Soul leech spell improved.
• Attunement bonus multipliers lowered. Attunement also gives more base
• Attack for weapon experience and more +damage for spell usage.
• Very important new damage filter. Type filter overall. This will join all four damage types into a one line summary. You may need to toggle other filters to get optimal results. Newbies default to a nice setup.
• Everything else Logain and I did is a blur. Let me know of any troubles you experience. I'm doing a full backup and will revert back to old code if we find some kind of bug that consumes all the donuts.
• Auto Auction doesn't report an item unless it's epic. It still sells lesser items, but doesn't spam you with them.
• Spell combo damage (help combo) boosted by 25%.
• Lowered the difficulty on mission mobs before mob level 150.
• The 'tech' command says something better than You execute a Sword on Joe!
• You can dub designs by their location. dub face <name>

News: (06/25/06)

• Fixed some potential crash bugs.
• Made the padded flag give +Stealth. Bulwark Flag gives +Protect.
• Lowered the occurence rate of Blink.
• Adjusted the Vampiric Flag. Damage (boosted) and lifesteal are separate.
• Fixed an obscure pet bug that prevented a pet from becoming Loyal.
• Lore Flags will execute instantly when you use a lore page.
• Adept, Expert, Master Lore Flag perks should give you a random flag.
• Added additional wilderness terrain for builders to use.
• Halved the pet death cooldown period, Raised the cost per minute, but overall savings.
• The Attack command now works based on your best offensive stat. So your highest stat between: Attack, Affinity, Finesse and MagicAt will determine the damage you deal. All-Offense is added in as well. The higher in level you are there is additional chance for more attacks, up to 3. The 'pause' for using attack is randomly between a half and a full round of combat. Damage is not balanced yet. This command builds up a little extra 'charge' when used. It takes up a percentage of max AP (currently 5% but subject to change) in addition to a flat cost by level.

News: (06/22/06)

• Raiding improved. Defenders will spawn every 5 minutes for an hour with a boss spawning at the end. Hopefully fixed the claimed/ownership bugs that have made raiding and claiming fail. You no longer need 100% of the mobs to complete the raid.
• Basic Focus Charging system added. It's very simple to begin with. Read 'help charge' for details, but it is automated.
• A number of mob and quest editor improvements for builders.
• Major modification to the way items are handled in game should make them more efficient and stable. But first we have to watch to ensure this change is not flawed. Let me know immediately if any of your items vanish mysteriously.
• Pet reset <path> <name> will erase progress in one path. Use with care to free up exercising you didn't want to do. Pet exercise cap adjusted.
• Pets will regen noticably if you rest while they are in the same room.
• New Perk is in TESTING - Lore Flags. This will eventually be a major game system. Help 'lore flag' for info. Prices are subject to change, use at your own risk, etc.

Logain's Additions:

• Basic Wilderness added. You'll have to wait a while for us to tie this into the game.
• Shoulder equipment is now a major item.
• Minor items are limited to Normal grade and won't be slottable. This is part of a new system where we will be generating simpler random items and players will gradually replace those with new quest items.
• Added buffers to obj area and obj all so it won't spam you out.
• Wrote a new compare function that evaluates an item based on grade, enchant rank and overall quality.
• Finished the mob class system for builders to make more customizable mob skill sets.

News: (06/08/06)

• Various bug/crash fixes.
• Fixed a number of issues with the ROM converted areas.
• Made Episodes require you have the Oracle quest to take them.
• Treasure items will go in your Supply pouch with put all.
• Fixed various display commands like claninfo.
• Crystal feast changed to be used by typing feast.
• Note posts will tell people what number to read.
• New command: Raid. Clan members can type raid <territory> to declare a raid next clan cycle. At that point a large number of swarm-like mobs will spawn in the area. The raiders have one clan cycle to kill them. If they do, they successfully raid and take control of the area. A clan can currently only have up to 4 areas controlled this way (counting their two free claims). Eventually the number of raids will be limited per day per clan. You may only raid areas that are claimed by other clans. This is in testing, so give feedback.

Logain's Additions:

• Bash moved to Shield Group. Perks auto refunded.
• Dirtkick moved to Dodge, also improved.
• Fixed it so portals are cheap to cast but cost 20% to enter. Mainly a bot hinderance.
• Major pet stat fix. Some exercise was giving too few stats. Pets will adjust correctly.
• Exercise cap based on level. This was important to prevent camping your pet at a low level for mass feeding of cheap items. Very bad. The cap is lifted at max level.
• Cooking code entering first test phase. More info to follow.

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