Welcome to Project Bob!

News: (08/28/07)

New command: findgshop. This works like findrandom only it searches GShop items.
Findrand and Findstat can both search storage now. Type: findrand storage all
Fixed the Encore perks to work.
Added Paramount Account Perks, including two new abilities: skyfire and resilience.
Guard has a new master skill. Type: data abil rally
Mind Magic has a new damage spell. Type: data abil synapsis. Mind stab is now a a deathblow. Both of these abilities work on a new formulas and need feedback.
Cure, heal, prayer, and permeate have been converted to a new healing system which gives equal worth to ability level and mystics. To differentiate heals, there is a Heal class from A to F. Higher class gives a boost to ability level. The goal of these new systems is to reach a level of consistency in how stats impact every ability. This also means we can better calculate abilities in the database. And better yet, it means making new abilities is much easier. This all needs testing.
Typing: heal pet at the healer will actually heal your pet now!
New research goals. After you get an enchant to 100%, you get additional experience for reaching 200% and 300%. The benefits of this just give your account a little more bonus experience. We might add other impacts later on.
Fixed the Forge (it wasn't working with spare tomes inside)

News: (08/17/07)

Hero Train system replaced with a point system. Each hero train is worth a growing amount of points. The higher you train a stat, the more the next point costs. This system gives players a chance to balance diversity versus specialization. You can get more stats if you spread out your trains, but specialization often leads to more power. To enable experimentation, you can freely train up and down. Type: hero train, for more info.

Base Attributes are *Gone*. This brings both good and bad news. The really good news is this is one less complication in the game. +1 str from training, perks, buffs or an item will give you the same benefit to stats and Skill Total. The bad news is to balance all the additional stats that will be impacting skill total, we have reduced the amount each attribute gives to any skill. In the long run this will benefit the player, but in the short run you might experience a dip in some of your skill levels. The Account perk Balance is now equally good to any other attribute bonus out there. Older equipment with random attributes has probably grown even more powerful. The max for +equipment bonuses has been lowered to 50 to make it tougher to gain from wearing a whole suit of those items. We may lower it further and require people with alot of +attribute gear invest more heavily +Max attribute perks to compensate.

Protect, Reflex and Warding are. . . *Gone*. This is another attempt to remove one of the complications from our game. Any enchants, bonuses or other things that offered these stats now give you +Defend instead. All related perks have been removed and their points refunded. Overall we expect players Defense value to jump. The benefit from defense has been lowered slightly to compensate but you should still experience more durability than before. All types of damage are reduced by your Defend stat.

Testing had shown that 4 defensive stats spread players too thin if they wanted to focus on survival. It also meant regen was vastly superior to any of the other stats. Regen likely still is the best choice, but defend will be more meaningful. This also makes equipment easier to identify and compare. This change might take a while to completely smooth out. But the end result is going to yield better gameplay.

Some might argue this removes an element of detail from the game that was valuable. And it's true, but we will be offering that element in an entirely new and much more meaningful manner in the not too distant future.

Enjoy your growth in defense. Enjoy simpler equipment comparing. Enjoy spending all your new hero points (you will be able to buy more than you could previously). These are some of the first major steps in the revamp, which we have decided to break into smaller, more managable chunks to give you guys time to digest each and to reduce the number of urgent and harrowing bug fixes haunting me at once.

Feedback is always welcome. :)

News: (08/17/07)

ToHit has been modified to help each path with damage slightly. For now the amount of this benefit is cryptic - haven't bothered to chart it out. But when you are out of other stats to add, you can safely turn to this for a modest boost, regardless of your path.
New ToHit perks in the combat perk line.
Account Master perks have been jumbled, altered and refunded. Rebuy them. Tech and spell level perks added to the Master Line as well.
New Grandmaster account perks! We stole some of Master plus new ones.
Account Lore Skill limit perks added to adept, expert and master lines.
New option: Opt Deep Scan. This must be set to scan two rooms at once.
Added room name/info to study.
Research display is accurate (pace towards next rank up)
When using Mana Merge option, both AP and MP regen are added together, but they are rolled over a random range: from 1/2 to full each round.
When you just type the name of a spell or tech, it will be cast or executed.
Reduced the requirement for forging Lore Orbs. It also shows your progress when you type forge out of ready status.
Arena mobs will be a bit tougher now, possibly drawing blood. Feel free to give feedback.
IDWear command can now target location (so you don't need to know the item name). Type: idwear
New option: Opt Group Prompt. This will add a second line of group hitpoints to your prompt (only while grouped).
Typing: Group default will set filters to reduce group spam. Useful to quickly help a newbie in a group.
Reduced the cost of craft modifying quite a bit (primarily at lower levels). Feedback needed.
Scholar Account perk will no longer 'forget' what was on those extra lore pages.
Glyphs now prevent curses to a specific type. So a Serpent (melee) Glyph will never draw negative attack or force.
Improved opt prompt reduce to show a prompt each step. Try it!
Skill Changes:

Fade changed from activatable to a short duration combat/lore buff. The intent of this was always to be used as a short but massive stealth buff to boost a backstab or circle (or any tech since stealth helps them all)
Sneak and Hide can now be activated. Their bonuses have been increased.
Stoneskin now gives hitpoints: type data abil stoneskin
Barricade hitpoint boost greatly increased.
Weapon Flag: Channeling gives + spell levels instead of being useless.
Guard Group is now based upon Str and Con.
Permeate won't refresh its wait state unless it is healing!
Tranquility's regen bonus was lowered. Mana buff changed to give +Mystics.
Giant strength gives HP instead of strength (may be a temporary change).
New Grandmaster Account abilities: Fortitude and Cloudburst. Use data abil cloud, etc.

News: (08/03/07)

Type: act to see which activated abilities you have on and at what cost.
Typing 'act <ability>' once again works, but the functionality of 'act jump' works as well.
Opt Prompt Reduce - Major Feature to cut down battle spam. This will only show a prompt once per round instead of everytime you see anything (tells, other group abilities, etc).
Opt Mana Merge - Combines your mana and ap into one. MP regen is not working yet but soon.
Study mode now saves when you log out. Scan's look has been updated.
Help stat, help rules now work instead of showing help category lists.
Task Prize will now work for episodes instead of spamming the buffer full. Also: data quest 5004 will show the prize for episode 4.
Ability new will show you all spells and techs that can be used in a lore page. Try it!
Skill Updates:
Slam (Brawler) is now a tech. The damage has been improved and a Defend debuff added.
Punch (Martial) is tech. Damage improved and it has been renamed to Uppercut. Type: review mart.
Salvo, Sweep and Thrash area attacks have had their damage boosted significantly.
Gash (Sword) uses a new buff system where the evisc bonus increases by level. Type: data sub gash
Fade (Stealth) has changed so the stealth rank has a lower base but increases by level.
Brawler, Martial and Stealth Groups have all gained skillaffects. Type: data sk <name>

News: (07/27/07)

New feature will offer certain quests at a specific level (once we add them).
Orbs and special loot are slightly more common. This will be tweaked further.
Bagset now can specify Random Bonus Worth! This means you could set your backpack to take randoms of 80% or greater. bagset <bag> worth 80
Deathblows that give that 'finishing message' are considered successfully timed and will give the mob an extra round of life's worth of experience.
Various skills have been tweaked. Notables (ones I remember):
Tangleweed (Treant) has a faster reuse and reasonable duration.
Pulse (Regen) has been weakened but can be activated for permanent benefits.
Furious Blow (Mace) is faster to use. A damage tweak is forthcoming.
Whirling Death (Axe) has been increased in damage. Other Area techs will follow later.
Renewal (Earth) is more heavily based on total skill and less on max hp.
Sword Techs have been reordered and their reuses adjusted so the best is earned last.
Unarmed damage techs have been sped up.
Sentinel (Guard) fixed to be a permanent rescue on one target.
Newbie Survival Feature! Position Guarded added to keep someone from dying.
Task Extend should be repeatable infinitely at 1250 kills a pop (high level areas).
Fixed a memory leak that really builds up over a week or two. Woo!
You may now bond your badge. No statistic benefit, just for dubbing.
New super feature: obj timer. This will list any timers and counters you have from advanced quests. The possibilities for this feature are vast. Builders will be able to create timed events for extra bonuses or events. They can give 'lives' for puzzles or use counters to make advanced mob spawn sequences. The timers are second based so they can be used to create smoother mob pauses than our current delay system offers. Beyond that, we'll have to see what people come up with.:)

News: (07/12/07)

New abilities:

Master Meditation - Piety: Aura level/mystics buff
Master Shield - Shelter: Hp/Regen buff, brief death protection

Cyclops Juggernaut skill gives more HP
Elven Grace now gains more from perks (similar overall chance)
Dwarven Tenacity now gives bigger heals while in Fury
Guard/Regen group skill affects for HP have been significantly increased.
Shield skill affect for HP added at master rank.
Group Quests will now give the quest to all group members.
Pandora boxes will be more likely to share with other group members (random chance)
Permeate can heal out of combat. Reuse timer increased, heal amount increased.
Triple combos should deal more damage now.
Group members and pets will transfer with you when starting a generic mission.
Paralysis spam fixed.
Item rewards from Conquer quests should be more likely to be Epic/Elite
When you gshop bid #, if you leave off the price, it will automatically bid 5% more than the current bid.
When you gshop sell <item>, if you don't specify a price, the game will auto price it for you (random loot and orbs only).
Melee Level has replaced +Damage (on things like of Carnage). It works the same but will be slightly clearer. Typing: 'weap attack' will show the bonus gained.
Melee Level, Aura Level, All Off and all Def have been added to score.
Fixed up 'score flag'. It was showing flags higher than they really were.
Increased the rate that longer fights produce bonus loot.
Deathblow damage increased
data sub <tech/spell> will give estimated damage. Not precise, but useful.

Builder Additions:

$a/$A work in progs to display the target's Race Name
$D is a prog variable to report the last damage taken. Useful for mob damage output.
New trigger type: Action. Responds to players doing things like action leap.
Room at and obj at commands work in progs.
CLedit->chance command added to set the odds of each class ability occuring

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