| 1: [Mar 09 1999] Pest Control (Arryn) |
| A few bug updates: 1. Many riding bugs have been fixed including when your mount dies, riding indoors and mounting something indoors, riding bugs related to pets and the bug when you are being lead in a party. 2. You can no longer give yourself to items, this only applies to yourself, otherwise it's considered a feature. 3. Scabbards and Baldrics will no longer bug if you try to retire something that isn't a weapon. 4. If your fishing pole breaks you are no longer considered fishing still. We're still working on another bugs and please make full use of the bug board, we are in the process of cleaning it up now. Arryn |
| 2: [Mar 25 1999] Autoload Object Bug (Raven) |
| Progress! I found and fixed at least one thing that would cause you to lose all or most of your autoloading items. Bug messages and logging should now be more thorough, also, so please continue to report anything you see. R. |
| 3: [Apr 10 1999] Storerooms and Ingredients Repopping (Raven) |
| I think I've killed the bug in which ingredients repop in storerooms where crafting had taken place at the next reboot. It'll probably take a couple reboots for everything to settle out, but if you continue to notice repopping ingredients after, say, a week from now, please drop me a line. Thanks, R. |
| 4: [Apr 13 1999] Backpacks (Raven) |
| Backpacks should be working better now. Suggest you trash any you have in storage and get new. oops. -Raven |
| 5: [Apr 14 1999] Stacking Objects (Raven) |
| The bug with taking half the pile of a stack of objects out of a backpack is hopefully fixed. Lemme know if it's not, or if anything else misbehaves. R. |
| 6: [Apr 18 1999] Teaching (Raven) |
| You may now select specific skills *not* to teach. Use: teach all except (skill) or stop teaching (skill) R. |
| 7: [Apr 19 1999] Castle Storerooms (Raven) |
| See "help motd" for an update on castle storerooms. |
| 8: [Apr 26 1999] missing storeroom objects (Raven) |
| Apparently a bunch of chests, etc, got lost from storerooms in the last couple reboots... apparently these object files got overwritten because the code decided it wanted to start over and number things from 0 instead of from 10,000,000 like it was supposed to. We'll see what number it starts with at the next boot... I can't see any way that this is related to the size limited storerooms. |
| 9: [May 02 1999] Hooded clothing (Arryn) |
| Hooded clothing should function properly during hiding after the next reboot. Mail me any problems, Arryn |
| 10: [May 04 1999] Hide and Leather (Ogma) |
| Certain creatures, namely those with exoskeletons (insects) are no longer skinnable. Bees, ants, spiders, scorpions, tyhr-kreen and spyders do not have a skin that is reasonably tannable into leather. However, leather is now dyable and bleach has been added to allow the crafting of white leather and cloth. There are plenty of mammals and reptiles around yet to fulfill your leatherworking needs. Also, suede is now craftable from normal leather. You can now fulfill your burning need for that pair of blue suede shoes. |
| 11: [May 06 1999] Rowboats (Celetar) |
| Rowboats will now work in water rooms, like the pool at Randall's. Not that there are many stretches of water to use them on, but I thought I'd mention it. |
| 12: [May 11 1999] Cheaters deleted (Desla) |
| Sneakabout has been permanently bansihed from creatordom for attempting to help Kuma complete the vampire quest. Kuma has been deleted as well, for receiving inappropriate creator assistance. Silverarm, Goku, and any other characters we may later uncover as belonging to either one of the individuals will be summarily deleted as well. Yes, we take creator cheating seriously. Desla |
| 13: [May 11 1999] modified show command (Arryn) |
| The show skills command has been modified to allow you to read one page a time if you want to. Example: 'show skills -p' Also a new command has been added 'show quick skills'. This will also work with the -p option and both still use the old options. Arryn |
| 14: [May 13 1999] Player/Creator Relations (Arryn) |
| After some recent events and having spent some time as a player, I will be assuming the role of a mediator to player/creator issues. What this means is if you feel there are instances of cheating, unfair aspects of the game, or problems you don't know who to talk to about, you can come talk to me. I will try to provide you with an answer in a timely fashion and if necessary can hold a meeting to discuss issues. One of the reasons I'm doing this is because many times players feel like we the creators aren't listening and don't care what goes on. That is not true, however having seen this from both perspectives I would like to help clear the problem. Also, I find that many times people will talk to their friends about what they believe is a problem but it never reaches the ears of a creator, or if it does the story has been changed so much it's hard to discern any truth from it. Talking to your fellow players about things like that can't help you, they are in the same position as you are. But if you bring it up to the creators we can review it. Also, don't think I'm the only one you can talk to, any creator you see will respond if they have time. There is also a complaints board which we do look at and respond to. Arryn |
| 15: [May 17 1999] Security Improvements (Desla) |
| The following security changes have been made, in an attempt to upgrade our security here: * 16 idle creators, including six idle senior creators, have been locked out. These folks arewelcome back anytime, but I've disabled their accounts until such time as they want to use them again. * Logging is now broken down into two levels, where previously only one log repository had been kept. Now, events that may be sensitive in nature are logged where only Senior Creators and above can see the data. Desla |
| 16: [May 18 1999] Swimming (Raven) |
| Water rooms (like the pond and swimming pools) should be less deadly after the next reboot than they have been for the past couple weeks. |
| 17: [May 20 1999] Player/Creator Relations (Lilith) |
| Just FYI, I'm always happy to chat with players about issues or problems. I may not be able to help directly, but I can certainly find someone who can. And I will not rip your arms out of their sockets just for pestering me. Honest. Even if you just feel like venting, be my guest. I can also give some ancient old hugely decrepit perspective, if anyone cares. ;) --Lilith |
| 18: [Jun 01 1999] re: Stats adjustments (Desla) |
| Fergus' strength stat was adjusted to be more in line with reality. Rather than being singled out because of any PC war--which I hear is happening--we just did a little poking around: Name Race Stat Value rb %rb a***** std/races/troll.race resilience 312 250 125% a** std/races/ogre.race strength 307 250 123% a**** std/races/ogre.race strength 343 250 137% a**** std/races/troll.race resilience 315 250 126% a**** std/races/braman.race strength 362 330 110% b**** std/races/braman.race strength 341 330 103% b**** std/races/braman.race strength 364 330 110% c******** std/races/ogre.race strength 323 250 129% c***** std/races/braman.race strength 335 330 102% c***** std/races/elf.race night_vision 335 150 223% c****** std/races/ogre.race strength 311 250 124% d******* std/races/troll.race resilience 324 250 130% d**** std/races/ogre.race strength 324 250 130% d**** std/races/ogre.race strength 307 250 123% e***** std/races/braman.race strength 337 330 102% f**** std/races/ogre.race strength 323 250 129% g*** std/races/troll.race resilience 319 250 128% g****** std/races/braman.race strength 436 330 132% g******* std/races/ogre.race strength 320 250 128% g***** std/races/braman.race strength 350 330 106% g***** std/races/ogre.race strength 347 250 139% h**** std/races/troll.race resilience 320 250 128% i*** std/races/braman.race strength 349 330 106% j**** std/races/gnome.race constitution 304 150 203% j**** std/races/troll.race resilience 310 250 124% k****** std/races/braman.race hearing 307 250 123% k******* std/races/ogre.race strength 303 250 121% k***** std/races/braman.race strength 339 330 103% k****** std/races/sasquatch. hearing 302 200 151% l*** std/races/ogre.race strength 309 250 124% l****** std/races/ogre.race strength 310 250 124% l***** std/races/ogre.race strength 302 250 121% m*** std/races/catfolk.race agility 332 175 190% m******* std/races/troll.race resilience 306 250 122% m***** std/races/braman.race strength 316 330 96% m***** std/races/braman.race strength 317 330 96% m***** std/races/braman.race hearing 308 200 154% m***** std/races/orc.race smell 331 200 166% m****** std/races/braman.race strength 334 330 101% m********* std/races/braman.race strength 341 330 103% n**** std/races/braman.race strength 330 330 100% o******** std/races/ogre.race strength 323 250 129% p***** std/races/catfolk.race hearing 318 140 227% p**** std/races/ogre.race strength 301 250 120% q**** std/races/troll.race resilience 346 250 138% r****** std/races/troll.race resilience 313 250 125% r*** std/races/ogre.race strength 316 250 126% r*** std/races/ogre.race constitution 303 180 168% r***** std/races/braman.race strength 334 330 101% r**** std/races/troll.race resilience 302 250 121% s********* std/races/braman.race strength 338 330 102% s********** std/races/braman.race strength 334 330 101% s***** std/races/ogre.race strength 308 250 123% s**** std/races/braman.race strength 337 330 102% s****** std/races/ogre.race strength 301 250 120% s******* std/races/troll.race resilience 333 250 133% s**** std/races/ogre.race strength 310 250 124% s***** std/races/ogre.race strength 309 250 124% s***** std/races/ogre.race strength 307 250 123% z******* std/races/braman.race strength 342 330 104% fergus(before) std/races/orc.race strength 464 150 309% fergus(after) std/races/orc.race strength 264 150 176% Statistically, I believe that's called an "outlier"--not only was Fergus' stat dropped, but the code is in test right now that will prevent the occasional "super orc" from happening again. We may go through and adjust other players who ended up with stats more than 200% of the race base stat, but in such case, we won't just look at those who have 300+ stats. \ Desla |
| 19: [Jun 01 1999] Re: Stats adjustments (Raven) |
| Just to put that list in perspective: Out of the roughly 1600 player files, those were the only ones other than creators and creator test chars with stats over 300. There were two players with a stat over 400, Fergus and G*****. G*****'s stat constituted 132% of the racial base for braman. Fergus' was 309% of the racial base. After it was adjusted, it was still 176% of the racial base, which is still a better roll than all but 4 of those players listed above got. There were two other orcs on the list of players with high stats - in both cases the high stat is smell. |
| 20: [Jun 02 1999] Lock Picking (Raven) |
| Chests now use the same code as doors for purposes of lock picking. R. |
| 21: [Jun 11 1999] Fighter Alignment (Raven) |
| Fighters should find that their alignment will adjust itself to their bloodthirsty ideations. Let me know if it's too out of whack. -R. |
| 22: [Jun 24 1999] candles, tapers and torches (Ogma) |
| I've revamped candles, tapers and torches recently. Unburned ones are now combinable, so you can have a stack of 20 tallow candles, then light them one by one. They also now show how much they are burned down when you look at them and will vanish when they are burned out. Only newly made candles will be able to have these advantages, so I suggest you get rid of all your old lighting materials. Also mining helmets now take this new type of candle. Ogma |
| 23: [Jun 25 1999] Why chests are bad and racks and bins are good (Raven) |
| So everybody knows: The reason bins and racks will reduce lag, is because when items are stowed in them, the items are removed from memory, and thus do not contribute to the hourly lag which we know and love. Items in chests, even in storerooms, do make lag. |
| 24: [Jul 04 1999] More Babysitting (Raven) |
| Okay, so now we're keeping a log of who witnesses player killings, so nobody can claim they were hiding in the room or any other garbage like that. |
| 25: [Jul 15 1999] disabled bodyparts (Raven) |
| The bug with disabled bodyparts appearing as very near death should be fixed. |
| 26: [Jul 21 1999] The bank has been fixed... sort of. (Desla) |
| All, As of the last reboot, the Bank of Eristan apparently lost a number of accounts, resulting in people having no balance aside from their most recent deposits. Those accounts which were lost have been re-added to the bank from a file 10 days old. Sorry about the loss of your hard work, but that's about the only "fair" way I know to get some money back to the people who lost theirs. Near as we can guess, someone tried to make a deposit while the mud was actually shutting down, resulting in the bank's "database" file being truncated on write. There exists the possibility that some other, not before seen bug was responsible for the data loss, and we'll keep our eyes open for it. Please make sure to report NEW bank account loss on the bug board. Desla |
| 27: [Jul 30 1999] Underdark and Mines (Raven) |
| Permanent objects (like amulets) should now save properly in the underdark and mines, even more so than they previously had been... |
| 28: [Aug 05 1999] Lag Reduction (Raven) |
| I'm thinking that weapons and armor which are not on racks may not be saved in storerooms at some point in the not too distant future. Just a little economic stimulation... <---complaint-board-one-west---- Raven |
| 29: [Aug 07 1999] Castle Keys (Raven) |
| The castle key shop is now open for business. It may take a while to get some of the kinks out of the system, so we'll be keeping an eye on it. Wouldn't be a bad idea to mail creators when you're going to rekey a castle to make sure all goes smoothly. Thanks in advance for your patience. R. |
| 30: [Aug 16 1999] Marissa (Raven) |
| Marissa should now be selling clothes which actually (gasp) fit the person buying them. Have fun. |
| 31: [Aug 25 1999] Tourists (Raven) |
Ogma and I have cobbled up a system whereby spirits can leave purgatory and wander around Eristan and look at stuff. They're limited to a minimal set of commands, and cannot speak. Be nice to them: tourists today are fodder tomorrow. I hope that this will "hook" the newbies who might never register a character to see what we have to offer, based on being stuck in Purgatory. This system is _not_ to be used (or abused) by players with registered characters. Don't mess with it, or your characters will be deleted. Make my day. See the new "tourist" helpfile. R. |
| 32: [Nov 12 1999] Skill Weirdness??? (Raven) |
There have been a few unconfirmed and one confirmed report of people experiencing reduced effectiveness of certain skills. Please post on the bug board if you notice anything unusual, so we can try to track this down. Thanks, -Raven |
| 33: [Nov 17 1999] Racks and Chausse and Hauberk Layering (Raven) |
| To ensure that your chausse and hauberk get stowed properly on your armor rack, you must pick them up and wear them in order. That is, you must pick up the chausse, wear it, then the hauberk, and wear that. Then your rack should handle them properly. If you pick up the hauberk, then the chausse, then wear the chausse, then wear the hauberk, they may not be stored properly. |
| 34: [Nov 23 1999] Deathtells (Raven) |
| Having an isolated mind will now provide some protection against receiving deathtells. |
| 35: [Nov 25 1999] Lumbering (Ogma) |
| Within the next few days, lumbering v2 will be installed. It has several advantages over the old lumbering and is slightly different. Hopefully, this won't cause too much panic. Differences: * Lumbering will produce trees instead of board and dowel. * Trees will need to be milled using the 'mill' command to make board. This will still use the lumbering skill. * There will be over 30 different types of trees added to the standard pine, ash, maple, oak and ironwood. * Some types of trees will only be found in southern climes, i.e. Tirachi (the Gilmore continent) and some will only be found in northern climes. * Bigger trees will produce more board from milling. A skilled lumberer will be able to get more board faster than before. * As a corallary to the above, most lumber will not be worth as much. Quality and species of tree will determine the value of board. (In general, the more difficult a tree is to fell and mill, the more valuable it will be.) * There will only be three different qualities instead of the five we have now. This will help in stacking wood. Also, a lumberer will more consistently produce the same quality of tree. The qualities are poor, knotty and clear, more in line with the way actual wood is graded in the real world. This change will not be immediate, and the syntax to chop down a tree is not significantly changed. A new lumber help file will be installed once V2 is activated. Ogma |
| 36: [Nov 29 1999] Lumbering Installed (Ogma) |
| The new lumbering system is installed and online. Two new commands have been added 'mill' and 'stop milling'. Appropriate helpfiles have been updated. Any problems, post on the bug board. Ogma |
| 37: [Dec 03 1999] Fishing (Ogma) |
| Within the next day or so, fishing is going to be changed. Thanks to Cronel's work, we have new and improved fishing code. Some of the main differences: * You will be able to fish in the river, lake, or ocean from the shore next to it. * There will be different fish in freshwater and saltwater and different fish between northern waters and southern waters. * Most of the fish are familiar RL fish and butchering a sturgeon might give you a surprise. * When you catch a fish, you get a live fish, which then proceeds to flop around and die, making a standard corpse which you can then butcher. No, we are not making ice gatherable in the mountains (which should melt by the time you get it down to the plains) or ice chests. Having the fish be the standard butcherable corpses though, should help with the problem of rapidly rotting fish and make it no more onerous than hunting for regular meat. Recipes that call for raw fish will be changed to use fish meat and the object that required a brith fish will use brith fish meat. Ogma |
| 38: [Dec 03 1999] Fishing (Ogma) |
| Fishing is now changed. You might have to make a new pole to make it wor. Ogma |
| 39: [Dec 03 1999] Notice and Fair Warning (Raven) |
1. Permanent deaths which are caused by any means other than: a. Destroying an occupied amulet except as the obvious intended result of a quest (It'd say so.) or b. Exploiting an actual bug. are legitimate and shall stand. 2. There's a new paragraph in the "death rules" helpfile. - Raven, by concensus of all active senior creators |
| 40: [Dec 13 1999] Pol and Tells (Pol) |
| Pol is usually on the who list, with his isolate turned off. This is not because he loves people and small talk. This is because Pol is available as an emergency response creator. If you are in lifethreatening danger because of a bug, tell pol. He will show up and look into the situation. If you are _not_ in life threatening danger, and you tell pol, you will be in life threatening danger. Pol logs in these days to actually write new code. He is easily distractible. If you distract him, he doesn't write code. If you just want to chat with pol, or mention something that won't make you a dead person real quick, send him mail. That is safe. If haven't had a trip to the bottom of the volcano recently, tell pol about the weird colors on your display, or how your pet has the sniffles. Pol, Exploding Head Person, or Evil High Priest |
| 41: [Dec 14 1999] preserve_corpse should be finite (Pol) |
| As was originally the intent, preserve corpse should now expire completely unless periodically restored. Pol |
| 42: [Dec 15 1999] Bug reports about apartments and inn rooms. (Raven) |
| If you post a bug report, it would help us greatly if you could specify what room you're talking about when you say "my room". There are a lot of different lodging options these days, and most of us don't keep track of who lives where. |
| 43: [Dec 19 1999] Climbing changes (Pol) |
| I am working on some updates to climbing. Check in on the board at the Eristan University Gym. Comments and ideas (on that topic) appreciated. Pol |
| 44: [Dec 26 1999] An actual change to Split Defense (Raven) |
| For the record, I tweaked split defense today, hopefully so that it will be more effective. |
| 45: [Jan 02 2000] Tails and Nicknames (Raven) |
| Don't nickname "Tailchaser" as "tail", or else your tail will quit working properly (where applicable). Same thing goes for other bodyparts, but I've seen this one happen twice now. |
| 46: [Jan 15 2000] music and lutes (Pol) |
| lutes and arachnichords are fixed. If you have a broken on, send me mail and I will see about getting you a working one. Pol |
| 47: [Jan 15 2000] climbing (Pol) |
| I moved my changes to climbing into the default climbing. Free hands and weight carried are now factored into the equation more directly. More actions (dancing) may be difficult while climbing. As always, climb comments belong on Randall or on his bulletin board. Pol |
| 48: [Jan 16 2000] music problems... (Jedra) |
| As pol has fixed his instruments, could those of you who have Arlas's please email me if they are broken as well? |
| 49: [Jan 17 2000] Bank (Raven) |
| Bank was restored to the pre-crash backup. Mail me if this annoys you. |
| 50: [Jan 23 2000] Plaques, the saga continues (Raven) |
| Okay, after the next boot, plaques should work properly on storage bins, too. Blah. |
| 51: [Jan 28 2000] Crafting Changes (Ogma) |
| As part of a bit of clean up of the files on our disk, I removed the <color> cloth and <color> leather items. (such as red cloth or yellow leather) If you want to craft colored cloth or colored leather, use: craft dyed cloth or craft dyed leather. It will make it the color of the first dye in the room. Also, if you are crafting plain cloth from cotton, linen, wool or silk, just use craft cloth..it will make it from the first fiber it finds in the room. Ogma |
| 52: [Jan 29 2000] Second Char Abuse (Raven) |
Fair warning: We are just about sick of second character abuse. The first way that you can limit the attention that we pay to your second character would be to move them out of the castle that your primary lives in. Doing this within the next couple weeks would be wise. Deletions and privelege revocations may occur without warning if your characters are not being played as two separate individuals. I'm not going to list the other stuff that you shouldn't be doing. Reread the rules helpfiles if you need a refresher course. Raven, on behalf of the general staff. |
| 53: [Jan 31 2000] Mail (Raven) |
| If you die and rename, your saved mail will be transferred to the new name. If you don't want your new character to have to think about your old character's mail, well, delete it. |
| 54: [Feb 05 2000] Tanning/skinning changes and enhancements (Ogma) |
| released The changes to skinning and tanning have been installed. You will now be able to get fur and feathers. Certain creatures will produce 'skin' which will work exactly like leather. Fur will be able to be used in many things that take leather, so try it out. Any problems, report on the bug board. Ogma |
| 55: [Feb 11 2000] slice (Ogma) |
| Slice was changed a bit. The thing you'll notice most is that more things are sliceable, like sandwiches and cheese. If there are any more foods you'd like to see sliceable, mud-mail me. Ogma |
| 56: [Feb 24 2000] Dire threats (Pol) |
| This random attacking of people sucks. It isn't fun. We do have a policy of non- interference here, so us Creator types have been sticking out of it. I am getting impatient, though. Clean up the situation, or I may be forced to take steps. Nothing too bad, mind you. Maybe a skill wipe. Or something. Get with the program and have fun. The creator stick is the biggest. Pol, with aliases to the plague server and random damage |
| 57: [Feb 24 2000] re: Dire threats (Desla) |
| FWIW, Pol isn't the only one getting sick of things. He speaks for me, too. Desla |
| 58: [Mar 01 2000] New privacy policy (Desla) |
| See 'help privacy'--This has been the de facto privacy policy for a while now, but I thought we ought to be up front and crystal clear on it, so we don't have any misaligned expectations. Desla |
| 59: [Mar 05 2000] Bond (Raven) |
| Bond was deleted for blatant second char abuse, after a month or so in my jail cell. Who wants to be next? |
| 60: [Mar 07 2000] Finger (Raven) |
| Finger now displays the date on which a character was generated, to allow you to differentiate between different incarnations of people with the same name. Characters rolled prior to somewhere around 6 months ago don't have a roll date. If they permadie and reroll, they will. |
| 61: [Mar 07 2000] Combat Misses (Raven) |
| New command: set misses to [on/off] will automatically toggle combat misses, without having to mess with the clunky detail command. |
| 62: [Mar 29 2000] Quit Delays (Raven) |
| There is now a much longer quit delay after aggressive acts. Plan your gameplay accordingly. |
| 63: [Apr 02 2000] New Sewing Options (Ogma) |
| Tailors and seamstresses can now embroider clothing with thread or trim clothing with leather, fur or cloth. See 'help embroider' for more details and syntax stuff. If there is an embroidery pattern you'd like to see added, MUDmail Ogma, or post it on the ideas board. Do NOT send him a tell. Secret patterns will be available in the future, but I am not adding any at this time. For even more details, see Norgon's board at the University. Ogma |
| 64: [Apr 07 2000] Spell Research (Raven) |
| There will be no spell research until further notice. This is because: a. It breeds accusations of favoritism. b. It usually doesn't work very well, as creators go on hiatus and leave the researchers hanging. If you have an idea for a spell, post it or mail it in. |
| 65: [Apr 07 2000] A reminder (Ogma) |
| It is the creators policy not to replace items lost in a crash or reboot. Don't ask. Chalk up your losses as sunk cost and move on. There are a couple reasons for this: a) We would be constantly replacing items. This leaves us less time to code and take care of bugs. The administration duties we already have do this enough. b) We have no way of knowing that you actually had any said item or if it was lost to the crash or because some clever thief stole it from you. Just remember, Dartmud comes to you AS IS: There are no warranties as to merchantability, useability or to your continued breathing. Warning: Excessive Mudding can lead to the loss of your education career, and relationships. |
| 66: [Apr 10 2000] Botting, Re-Post (Raven) |
Note 77: [Jan 27 2000] Re: Botting (Raven) Stay awake, watch your screen, or step away from whatever practicing you may be doing if you need to idle. Failure to react promptly will often prove fatal, whether it's one of your fellow players, a creator, or a horde of barbarians. If you're clever, you can use your triggers to gag all the practice spam, color code or bell any stimuli that you need to react to, etc. It worked for me. If you walk away from your computer and continue to practice, you should count yourself lucky if you find yourself alive and free when you return. -Raven *** DONE READING NOTE 77 *** |
| 67: [Apr 15 2000] More Quit Delays (Raven) |
| Ambushes and fire bolts directed at players now have a longer quit delay associated with them. Plan your gameplay accordingly. |
| 68: [Apr 22 2000] amulets and the who list (Raven) |
| Being in an amulet will once again cause you to show up on the who list, at least until we come up with something that sucks less. |
| 69: [Apr 28 2000] New OOC Board (Raven) |
| There is a new board, OOC Confidential, all the way south and west. Use it for second character requests, reporting suspected rules violations, or anything else you want creators only to be able to read. |
| 70: [May 02 2000] Plaques, take 3. (Raven) |
| If plaques didn't work on bins before, they should now. |
| 71: [May 10 2000] Forges! (Ogma) |
| I will be installing new forges in all smithies during the next few days and old forges will vanish. These new forges burn coal and must be lit to function. They also must be used either outdoors, or in a room with a chimney. (All rooms specifically set up to be a smithy will have a chimney installed free of charge). Use indoors without a chimney can be hazardous to your health. These new forges add the 'scrap' command. Any craftable item made with ingots can be melted down with these forges. If you have a crucible and are good enough, you may recover some of the metal used to make these items. NPC junk equipment is too low in quality to yield any metal as are such small things as vials, darts or fishhooks. A competent smith may construct a forge from a set of bellows and some rocks. These forges will stay where they are built until you 'dismantle' them. I believe that the added utility of these forges far offsets the minor inconvenience of having to fuel them. Happy smithing! Ogma |
| 72: [May 13 2000] Crafting Bugs Fixed(?) (Raven) |
| The too-long-eval bugs when crafting stuff like kilts should be fixed now, I hope, or will be at the next reboot. |
| 73: [May 14 2000] Weapon tweaks (Ogma) |
| Some weapons have been tweaked. Longswords should be competitive with katanas now, and broadswords somewhat better weapons than they used to be. You can also now craft a longsword instead of just crafting a size 125 spadroon. . |
| 74: [May 23 2000] new command (Flandor) |
| show <object> to <person> -Flandor |
| 75: [May 24 2000] Kennel (Raven) |
| You don't need to physically take your pet to Tauber for him to be able to fix it. Many times he will be able to magically fix them wherever they may be, so please give him a try before posting a bug note. |
| 76: [May 28 2000] wagons and carts (Ogma) |
| Wagons and horse carts are now permanent objects. They will save (but not their contents) where ever you put them. Try not to make a bunch of them or we'll have to change them back. Ogma |
| 77: [May 29 2000] Need security? (Ogma) |
| Galron now sells locksets that can be installed in newly crafted chests. He sells 5 levels of locks from relatively easy to maximum security. Just remember you get what you pay for! Buy a lockset, then install lock in chest and you'll get the shiny new key. Also, after next reboot, most bins, tool cabinets and wardrobes will be able to have a lockset installed in them. With these new locksets and plaques, you can now have the functionality of the old castle chests. Ogma |
| 78: [Jun 27 2000] FYI, falling tweak (Raven) |
| I tweaked falling (from high places) such that it now uses the same code as combat for selecting which parts of your body get hit. So if you have a relatively small head in comparison to your body, you may be less likely to hit it. Previously it was purely random. People are still dying from falling since I made this change, so don't expect it to change the world - just a little "fairer". |
| 79: [Jul 03 2000] Ghanima Posted (Raven) |
| for botting. Surprise. At least 5 minutes idle time while sparring Nort and Thalia, while we threw fireworks at her, set her clothes on fire, and provided various other stimuli. Log available for the doubters. |
| 80: [Jul 06 2000] Reroll/Rename Delay (Raven) |
| The delay in Purgatory for returning spirits should now be an _absolute_ 10 minutes from the time of death, as opposed to having to sit there for 10 minutes. Feel free to sit there if you so desire, though. |
| 81: [Jul 07 2000] Obsidian Daggers and Bloody Thigh Bones (Raven) |
| May be missing from storerooms, as they've been tweaked recently. |
| 82: [Jul 09 2000] Teachers (Raven) |
| If you find any teachers who aren't working properly: 1. Check to see if they have a moneybag - your money is probably in there. 2. Post about it. Seems that the automatic set moneybags messed 'em up. |
| 83: [Jul 17 2000] Is that buzzing you hear? (Ogma) |
| You can now practice apiculture to your heart's content. Check out the beekeeping help file. Hint: pay attention to the first sentence. - O - |
| 84: [Jul 17 2000] Castle Construction (Raven) |
1. We (Ogma mostly) are addressing construction requests which were previously posted, in an effort to clear the backlog. 2. No new requests are being accepted at this time except for those which will be necessary to install the new thrones. 3. The plan is that we will open the request board on a quarterly or biannual basis, accept a number of requests, close the board, and complete the requests in a timely manner. This should reduce the tendency for requests to go unanswered for long periods of time. -Raven |
| 85: [Jul 25 2000] Kitchens (Ogma) |
| Some public kitchens have been converted to using fireplaces which take firewood and need to be lit. Eventually all kitchens will be converted to these. The fireplace takes the place of a stove, oven and grill. The University and Farmtown kitchens have servants that periodically check the fireplaces and put wood in them. |
| 86: [Jul 26 2000] Infinity Posted (Raven) |
| For second char abuse. |
| 87: [Jul 27 2000] Josie Deleted (Raven) |
| for multicharing |
| 88: [Jul 28 2000] Farms and Gathering (Ogma) |
| Climate zone now makes a difference in farming and gathering. Certain plants will only grow well in the correct climate, or will be much more difficult to gather. Some new plants have been added that grow only in the tropics, most notably sugarcane. If your crops are not growing or ripening and weeds are taking over like crazy, you probably have planted something that grows best in tropical climates. -O- |
| 89: [Jul 30 2000] Machine upgrade (Teehmar) |
| I just completed moving Dart onto a new machine at a new location. If you can read this, congratulations, you've found it. It'll take a little bit before the "dartmud.com" name makes it around the net with the new IP address. Hopefully it'll sort itself out in a few hours. This new machine should be much faster. Let's see how it runs. Teehmar |
| 90: [Aug 04 2000] A note about sending tells to creators. (Ogma) |
| If a creator is not on the who list, it is inadvisable to send him or her a tell unless the situation you are in is caused by a bug and is life threatening, or you are trapped in a room with no exits. Other bugs should be reported *in full detail* on the bug board. This means reporting not only the error message, but also what you were doing at the time and what commands you issued to recieve that bug. If you have a question about rules, send mudmail. Read 'help telling' for possible repurcussions to violating these rules. Ogma |
| 91: [Aug 08 2000] PK and Permadeath (Raven) |
Permadeath is an integral part of DartMUD. Having an amulet is no guarantee against it. We will *not* nerf every possible way to permakill someone. Some people sorely need to be permakilled, and if someone is sufficiently clever to accomplish it, good for them. |
| 92: [Aug 09 2000] The Economy and Shopkeepers (Raven) |
We're experimenting with a dynamically adjusting economy. Unfortunately there are a few things we need to get done first. In the meantime, your best bet is diversity. If the stores already have 150,000 apples, they probably don't really need any more. Instead, make apple pie, or baked apples, or whatever the store doesn't have any of. R. |
| 93: [Aug 09 2000] Amulets (Flandor) |
| As of the next reboot, you'll be able to use the listen command while in an amulet. Maybe this will help some of you figure out where you've been stashed. :) -Flandor |
| 94: [Aug 10 2000] Show skills (Ogma) |
| There is now a new option to show skills. 'show skills (skill name) <>' will now show that skill, plus the two skills immediately lower in level and the 2 skills immediately higher in level sorted from lowest to highest, so you can see the relative skill level of a specific skill. The skill name must match exactly a skill you have or it will not work. Also, if you append '-p' to any show skills command, it will show it a page at a time, as with help files. Ogma |
| 95: [Aug 20 2000] Starfox (Raven) |
| Deleted for tourist abuse. |
| 96: [Aug 21 2000] Quests (Raven) |
| A number of quests which previously had the same "prize" each time, now have random prizes for your exploring enjoyment. |
| 97: [Aug 24 2000] Second Char Requests (Raven) |
| Second character requests may now be made in the Hall of Mortals, directly east of the OOC entry. |
| 98: [Sep 03 2000] Argent currency (Ogma) |
| The administration of Argent has started to mint new currency. They are copper bits, bronze groats, silver marks, gold beards and platinum dragons. Moneybags will automagically convert the old beards into the new minting. |
| 99: [Sep 05 2000] Property Taxes (Raven) |
Castle taxes will now be adjusted by the amount of junk in your castle. The cleaner the castle, the lower the taxes. Junk piled to the ceiling? Pay through the nose. |
| 100: [Sep 06 2000] Second Char Abuse (Raven) |
A plea: Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Just because "those other guys" are getting away with it, doesn't mean you should do the same. We, the creators, have basically two options: we can start deleting seconds literally by the dozens, or we can let it slide most of the time, and verbally counsel people who blatantly need it. If you want us to start deleting seconds wholesale, take a moment and draw up a list of people in your own clique who may fall into the same category. If you still want us to, cast your vote on the confidential board. |
| 101: [Sep 06 2000] Re: Second Char Abuse (Raven) |
If there are 25 "yea" votes, we'll do the wholesale deletion. |
| 102: [Sep 08 2000] Blocking and Grappling (Raven) |
| Blocking got tweaked, and should be somewhat more effective. I'm logging data on grappling - if you are bored, try grappling each other and attempting to escape a couple times to give me some data to work with. Thanks, R. |
| 103: [Sep 21 2000] Hoods (Raven) |
| Hooded robes and cloaks should now handle sneaking differently, so you may see "A robed figure furtively...". |
| 104: [Oct 11 2000] old bugs (Flandor) |
| We have quite a few very old bugs here on Dartmud. It appears that some of these are so commonplace that no one bothers to post them. I guess the thinking is that everyone knows about them so someone else must have posted them already. Examples: 1) You can't look in the direction that leads out to the hexes. 2) You get goofy messages when you see someone come from an area out to the hexes (like "so-and-so springs up from the ground in a very startling manner"). Well, I would like you all to forget these assumptions, and post any and every bug that you notice. (Aside from the two I just mentioned.) It doesn't matter if you or someone else already posted it. As a matter of fact, a second post might help us find and correct it that much quicker. If you're too lazy or too forgetful to come to the OOC bug board, feel free to use the bug command. Thanks, Flandor |
| 105: [Oct 17 2000] Rune (Ogma) |
| Rune tried to catch an anvil on his skull while botting at Thad after repeated warnings. The Mgmt |
| 106: [Oct 22 2000] Duke (Raven) |
| Deleted because of the Golem reinc, to be fair to Shzerinar. |
| 107: [Nov 02 2000] Showing skills by group! (Ogma) |
| You can now use 'show skills fighter', 'show skills mage' or 'show skills thief' to only list skills in those particular groups. The mage group does not include spells. Other groups are probably forthcoming. Enjoy! Ogma |
| 108: [Nov 02 2000] Show spells! (Ogma) |
| The show spells command has been changed to work more like show skills. You can specify a string to match, sort them by skill level, and show only certain groups of spells (the only groups at the moment are healing and offensive). Check out 'help show' for more information. You might notice, that instead of index numbers, show spells now shows an abbreviation for the spell. That's right! You can now cast spells using the abbreviated name show in the show spells listing. Sometime soon, I will add this ability to scroll and spellbook writing as well. Enjoy! Ogma |
| 109: [Nov 03 2000] More stupid show spells tricks. (Ogma) |
| You can use a sort flag of <a or >a to sort your spells list by aura cost Ogma |
| 110: [Nov 03 2000] Scrolls and spellbooks (Ogma) |
| Now allow you to refer to the spells written on them by abbreviation. As an added bonus, you can now refer to a blank spellbook as 'blank book' or 'blank spellbook'. Ogma Note: This only applies to newly crafted scrolls and spellbooks until our next reboot, after which time, previously created items will be updated. |
| 111: [Nov 04 2000] I'm back. (Slinky) |
| I'm back for the most part, part-time. I've been doing the rl thing a lot lately, but I've given up on that for now. =) . |
| 112: [Nov 04 2000] Scrolls (Ogma) |
| You will find that newly purchased or made scrolls are stackable, and a little bit nicer. Blank scrolls will stack together as well as inscribed scrolls of the same spell and quality. The old scrolls you might have lying around will still work, but I suggest you use them up and get the new improved versions. Ogma |
| 113: [Nov 06 2000] Communications (Ogma) |
| Various forms of communications, such as shouts, death tells, the tell and skyrdin's_zephyr spells and tells from creators have had color added to help in distinguishing them from normal says. This is, of course, if you have 'set term to ansi' and have ansi colors enabled in your client. Enjoy Ogma |
| 114: [Nov 16 2000] Feathers! (Ogma) |
| You'll find that birds produce fewer feathers, depending on their size. You can now trim garments with feathers! Most garments take several feathers, but hats take only one feather. There are also two new garments you can make. A feather cloak and a feather hooded cloak. These take hundreds of feathers. Ogma |
| 115: [Nov 17 2000] Tragic (Flandor) |
| Tragic's right to post notes has been taken away. |
| 116: [Nov 28 2000] Bakuretsu (Raven) |
| Permadied due to an apparent bug. Bug fixed, I hope, and Bakuretsu restored to his prior condition. |
| 117: [Nov 29 2000] Tragic permakilled and banished for botting (Ogma) |
| A hint...there are creators on even in the wee hours of the morning. And triggers to pick up tallow won't save you. |
| 118: [Dec 01 2000] War and Kimar Deleted (Raven) |
| Kimar died. It came to our attention that information about his death had been distributed by OOC means, when there had been no witnesses to the event. I then moved Kimar's amulet from its location into a dark room with a pet with a unique name. The next time Kimar logged in, War was found scrying the unique name less than an hour thereafter. Both characters have been deleted. Those who knew Kimar will recall how vociferously anti- cheating he proclaimed himself to be. Ironic. |
| 119: [Dec 03 2000] Castle Construction Now Open (Raven) |
| You may now post your castle construction requests on the bulletin board in Narg's Construction Shop. I strongly suggest you consolidate your requests into one post, and make sure it is as clear as possible. This is only for castles. Requests for any other player-owned properties will be ignored. |
| 120: [Dec 12 2000] New command: empty (Flandor) |
| See 'help empty' for more info. -Flandor |
| 121: [Dec 16 2000] Time Zone and Date (Flandor) |
| To our non-US players: You can now set your time zone to anywhere in the world and have the 'date' command display the proper time. See 'help set tzone'. -Flandor |
| 122: [Dec 16 2000] Word Wrap (Flandor) |
| You may now turn off the mud's word wrap feature and let your telnet/mud client handle the word wrapping. The command to do this is 'set word wrap to off'. To switch it back, 'set word wrap to on'. Those of you with your term set to vt100 or ansi may have noticed problems with word wrapping. Namely, lines with colored or bold text often wrap too short. Setting word wrap to off fixes this problem. -Flandor |
| 123: [Dec 20 2000] Spyder armors (Ogma) |
| Up until now, Spyder armor has been wearable by non-arachnids, and was layerable over regular plate armor and chain armor as well. Many people have abused this irregularity so I fixed it. Spyder armor is no longer wearable by non-arachnids. It is not a bug if you can't wear it and you are not a bug. Ogma |
| 124: [Jan 09 2001] New command: yell (Flandor) |
| Yell is like a short-range shout. Only people in adjacent rooms can hear you, but it's not so hard on your throat. -Flandor |
| 125: [Jan 14 2001] Swords and Bladed Weapons (Ogma) |
| There is now a difference in the way swords and most bladed weapons are crafted. This includes, longswords, daggers, katanas, skinning knives, etc, (but not throwing knives). Hilts are now crafted separately, allowing you to use decorative metals, hides, woods and, for katanas, cloth to make a weapon of distinction. The materials you use will show in the long of the weapons so now you too can have that steel rapier with a gold cup guard and ivory grip. The types of hilt used depend on the type of the weapon you are making and the type of materials you want to use to construct it. Rapier (estoc, foil, stiletto etc): cup hilt, wooden cup hilt Katana (wakizashi, nodachi, tanto): katana hilt, leather katana hilt All others: hilt, wooden hilt Enjoy! Ogma |
| 126: [Jan 25 2001] Message Editor (Flandor) |
| I've added a feature to our message editor (the interface used to write mail and post notes). You can now actually edit the message. :) The ~d command will delete the last line of the message. You now have no excuse for posting notes with conc in them. (As if you did before.) Also, you can now send a regular game command while in the editor. Simply precede the command with a ':'. See the editor's help page (~h) for more info. -Flandor |
| 127: [Jan 29 2001] Pets (Ogma) |
| If a pet has no owner or if the owner has not logged in for 6 months, I will eliminate said pet. Pets are permanent objects and place a strain on our resources, not to mention, they cause untold problems with other permanent objects loading. If you have more than 2 pets, you have too many. Fair warning. Ogma |
| 128: [Feb 17 2001] New Mail System (Flandor) |
| We have implemented a new, cooler and more realistic mail system in which you mail letters and packages (yes, packages!) to specific locations. This mail system costs a little money and takes some time for delivery. Letters must be written on parchment with quill and ink. The letters can be sealed with sealing wax, and you can put an impression in your seal with a signet ring. You can address your letters if you want, though that isn't necessary; the clerk will take care of that when you mail it. The letters and packages get postmarked so you can tell where they came from, and when. One of the major advantages of the new system is that it allows you to mail packages. These must be packed in boxes which are available at the post offices. Parchment is also available at the post offices. You can find parchment, ink, inkwells, ink bottles and sealing wax at shops. Quills can be crafted from feathers. You can craft parchment from sheepskin, tannic acid, and a knife. You can craft red, black and blue inks with a bottle, the appropriate dye, a pot and a stove. Signet rings are available with custom intaglios at the jewelry shop. The commands at the post office are as follows: check mail mail <what> to <whom> at <which office> buy <what> Here's a list of offices: Blackhold Dismal Keep Eristan Farmtown Gilmore Segliz Soriktos The Hole Tobermore Westmore The new post offices are in the same locations as the old ones. One of the old style has been moved to the OOC area. Please use the OOC post office for OOC communication only, and keep IC communication in the new mail system. Enjoy. -Flandor |
| 129: [Feb 24 2001] Construction (Ogma) |
| Construction will be closed on March 1, 2001. Get your construction requests in while the it's open! More than likely, construction will be closed for 3-6 months while we complete the requests. Ogma |
| 130: [Mar 04 2001] Banishment (Ogma) |
| Alucard, Natasha, Belaron and Angelus have been deleted and sitebanned for multiple false registrations, multiplaying, violations of seconds rules, gross stupidity and trying to lie to me when I caught him dead to rights. Ogma |
| 131: [Mar 10 2001] New embroidery technique! (Ogma) |
| You can now use 'embroider name on <item> with <thread>' to put your name on clothing and such. It won't show up in the short of the item, but will show up when you look at it. The most useful aspect of this is the fact that satchels and packs can be embroidered in this manner. Perhaps other cloth and leather goods will allow this in the future. Ogma |
| 132: [Mar 15 2001] Seeds and such. (Flandor) |
| You will be pleased to know that seeds, pies, and other stackable items can no longer be referred to by their type. In other words, when you go to 'buy apples' you won't get apple seeds or apple pies accidentally. I fixed seeds, pies, breads, sandwiches, leather/skin/fur, flours, and several others, but I'm sure I forgot some. If you come across something that I forgot, please use the bug command to report it and it will be promptly fixed. -Flandor |
| 133: [Mar 16 2001] Seeds and such - Addendum (Ogma) |
| This means that seeds and such can't be refered to *solely* by type. You can still 'get apple seeds' or 'buy cherry pie'. You also won't stupidly try to attack the pile of rat pelt instead of the rat sitting right there if you 'attack rat'. Ogma - who has mistakenly eaten too many apple seeds instead of apples. Yuck! |
| 134: [Mar 17 2001] Bins with many different items. (Ogma) |
| Bins that contain an unreasonable number of different items will cause much pain and numerous bugs. This usually happens with bins that contain furs/hides/pelt/cloth/dyes. If the contents of a bin take up a screenful of text or more, IT IS TOO FULL! The cause is people keeping 3 square feet of pink linen brocade and 4 square feet of rat pelt and so on. My suggestion is that if it's less than 10 units, TRASH IT! You can always make more and you generally do. I personally have seen bins where the contents list go on for multiple screensful. Bins like this have been known to crash the mud. If you don't police yourselves, I will put a hard limit on the number of different items that can be placed in a bin and/or a minimum size of a pile that can put in them. Don't keep stupid scraps of stuff! Ogma |
| 135: [Mar 20 2001] Prodigal caught an anvil on his head. (Ogma) |
| Botting is bad, people. Making triggers for a few responses such as people saying hellow, bowing or entering the room is simply *proof* that you are botting. Too bad you can't make a trigger for an anvil falling on your head and killing you. Ogma |
| 136: [Apr 13 2001] Spell System Changes (Raven) |
We've recently expanded the capabilities of the magic system. Normal operation should be unchanged, but you may occasionally experience spell behavior which differs from what you are accustomed to. You may find some of this behaviour helpful, while other situations may challenge you. R. |
| 137: [Apr 15 2001] OOC Abuse (Raven) |
Welcome to Zero Tolerance month! This month, if there's even the faintest hint that a player is using OOC communications about IC matters, everyone concerned wins a free month in jail! Larger prizes available. One lucky player will be the recipient of a siteban! Zero Tolerance month started tonight, with two lucky winners. Who will be next? We're serious, and we're sick of this. We're seriously sick of it. Just tempt us. You only think I'm joking. See "communications" "death rules" and "seconds rules" helpfiles for details. Purchase of ICQ software does not increase odds of winning. No purchase necessary. Prohibited in the void. |
| 138: [Apr 15 2001] bor's_doom (Raven) |
The spell bor's_doom now works regardless of aliases, as it should. Plan accordingly. |
| 139: [Apr 16 2001] Griffith and Raistlin (Raven) |
The characters Griffith and Raistlin have been deleted for OOC communications which have benefitted and harmed various characters. Both players are restricted to one character until further notice. |
| 140: [Apr 16 2001] Who list, tells, and searching for amulets. (Raven) |
There now exists a method other than the who list for communicating with amuletted souls. The use of the tell spell will still be your best bet to elicit a response. The method of receiving the reply, is yours to discern. As of now, the who list may not accurately reflect the idle status of an amulet's occupant. Reincers should check carefully with the soul to be sure they are ready for reinc. We strongly encourage you to discover and use this new method in lieu of the who list, lest ye be whacked with a clue-by-four, or worse. R. |
| 141: [Apr 17 2001] Scrollcases (Ogma) |
| Scroll cases can now hold parchment and letters. |
| 142: [Apr 18 2001] Lobster! (Ogma) |
| A new fishing method is now available. See help lobster fishing. Ogma |
| 143: [Apr 20 2001] More Fishing! (Ogma) |
Fishing nets are now available. See 'help net fishing'. Also, lobster pots and fishing poles now take string instead of thread. String is crafted similar to thread. With the new fishing methods, I've made a few more recipes and posted them on the recipe board in the University Kitchen. Ogma |
| 144: [Apr 30 2001] Mines (Raven) |
| Mines are inherently unstable, here as in real life. If you make your home in one, or store your valuables there, don't be surprised when it collapses. We'll recover occupied amulets, but that's about all we can do. |
| 145: [May 19 2001] Wagons and horse carts (Ogma) |
| Wagons and horse carts are permanent objects so you can leave them in a stables or other area over reboot and find them there when you return. However, it has come to our attention, that this unintentionally made them storage objects in their own right. They are meant to transport goods, not act as an extra storeroom. This situation has been remedied. Wagons and horse carts will no longer store their contents unless they are in a storeroom. The Mgmt |
| 146: [May 20 2001] Herding (Ogma) |
| Herding is released! Help herding has the details of the system. You might have to log out and back in to make the commands work for you. Stock can be purchased from the stockyard, which you might try finding. Happy Herding! Ogma |
| 147: [May 21 2001] Barns (Ogma) |
| Barns are the only place that herds will save over a reboot. There is a public barn at the stockyard that you may use to keep your animals. Although castle construction is closed, for a short time, Narg will accept orders for barns and *minimal* construction associated with them. |
| 148: [May 21 2001] Cannibalism (Ogma) |
| You might find shopkeepers reluctant to purchase things made from the meat or skin of sentient races (the player races in general). |
| 149: [May 29 2001] Butchering expanded (Ogma) |
| You can now extract organs from corpses. See help extract. Currently, the only extractable organs are heart, stomach and intestines. |
| 150: [Jun 05 2001] Membership Drive - Unregs! (Raven) |
In the hopes of increasing our numbers of players, we have added the ability for new players to enter the game before submitting registration by e-mail. These unregistered characters ("unregs") will operate under certain restrictions, which we hope will prevent most of the possible abuse. The new helpfile "membership" details these restrictions. Players with registered characters are expected not to use unregs, and all rules still apply in full force. If you believe that an unreg is being abused, please bring it to our attention. If the game fills up with twinks, or more twinks than we are accustomed to, we can easily turn this feature back off. Additionally, the chargen routine has been fixed so that you may read helpfiles, etc., while in the vortex tunnel. R. |
| 151: [Jun 06 2001] Security Issue (Raven) |
Greetings, By now you may have heard that we believe that some of the code (computer programs) of the mud has been disclosed to players, presumably by a probationary creator. A disclosure of this sort is significantly worse than your average botting/multiplaying situation. Because it directly affects the economic value of the mud and our contract with the corporation on whose system we operate, this breach may also be considered a violation of the relevant federal wire fraud laws. If you have any information pertaining to disclosures of this sort, we would appreciate your help. If you have ever seen or been offered what you believe to be DartMUD code, (and you were not a creator at the time) or if you have any other information you think may be pertinent, please contact me, or any creator. This does not apply to bug messages you may have encountered in the course of the game - what we're interested in are complete files which appear to contain computer programs or data. Those coming forward willingly with information will of course fare better when we determine how to fix whatever damage may have been done. Thank you, -Raven |
| 152: [Jun 13 2001] Yves deleted. (Raven) |
| Yves has been deleted in connection with the security investigation noted above. |
| 153: [Jun 28 2001] Mail (Flandor) |
| Forwarding has been implemented in the IC mail system. See 'help mail' for more info. -Flandor |
| 154: [Jul 24 2001] IP Address Changed finished (Teehmar) |
| 64.64.109.142 has been disconnected. The new number is 216.43.55.190. Mail me and let me know if you're having any problems reaching Dart. Also, let me know if this new T1 is faster/slower than the old one. Thanks, Teehmar |
| 155: [Jul 28 2001] Bins (Raven) |
| "Compressed" bins should no longer be movable, as of the next reboot. R. |
| 156: [Aug 12 2001] Beasts o' Burden (Raven) |
Tauber's retraining service should work, or work better, for horses, donkeys, and mules now. Remaining pitfall: if your pet's name is not a unique name, the service may not work. R. |
| 157: [Aug 28 2001] Tourney Racks (Ogma) |
| For your added enjoyment of the Sport of Nobles, tourney racks are now craftable. These combine the previous lance rack and shield rack (and hold more shields than lances.) |
| 158: [Sep 03 2001] Stealth Mods (Raven) |
1. Consider this a work in progress. If everyone hates it, we can tweak it further, or tweak it less. 2. Please, please, refrain from killing one another until we get this sorted out. I wish I had a better way to test it than to turn the player population at large loose on it, but you guys are a lot better at finding the bugs than we are. 3. The practice of using cantrips to search a room will no longer be effective. 4. The guard command is not yet ready for prime-time, but is in the process of being coded. Thank you for your patience, R. |
| 159: [Sep 21 2001] Lock Picking Loophole (Raven) |
The loophole in lock picking has, I believe, been fixed. Kindly inform me if you find that this is not the case. If you don't know what the loophole was, so much the better. And for those of you who may be bitching, I got my old mortals to 1k lp without benefit of guild locks, castle locks, or loopholes. R. |
| 160: [Sep 28 2001] Wagons (Ogma) |
| Wagons can no longer be picked up and carried. You'll have to have a horse or other draft animal pull them around. Also, wagons now have an empty or dump command. You can 'empty wagon' or 'empty wagon into bin'. Ogma |
| 161: [Sep 28 2001] Ingested Poisons (Raven) |
| Ingested poisons are now fixed. It was an easy fix, once somebody told me it was broken. |
| 162: [Sep 30 2001] Liquids (Ogma) |
| A new system of liquids and thirst is approaching completion. New liquids have been in use for a few things already, most notably ink with inkwells and the ink bottles being examples of the new form of liquid containers. Note that old liquids and containers (such as draaf and the booze sold by Skull) are not compatible and will give you strange results if you try to use them together. They will eventually all be converted, but it is a work in progress. You might have noticed that several towns now have water sources, wells and fountains etc. In some cases, I took existing features in the description of the room and made them into new style liquid sources. They still won't show up in the contents of the room. I've also made several of the liquid containers craftable, most notably waterskins. You won't get thirsty yet, but the code is in place to allow it. We've added the water sources and containers for you to get accustomed to the process. I will probably turn thirst on within a week. The rate of thirst is similar to the rate of hunger and a waterskin full will last for a couple hours of play. We've no intention of making this an undue burden. Ogma |
| 163: [Oct 06 2001] New command (Ogma) |
| I've added a new command: 'define'. Usage is 'define <word>'. This will give you a definition of a word from the Dartmud Dictionary if there is one. If there isn't one, it will tell you so and log the request so we might be moved to add one. Ogma |
| 164: [Oct 07 2001] Re: usr/panther/serv/rand_monst bug (Raven) |
We believe this bug was caused by a certain player getting lost at sea and filling several thousand ocean hexes with bread crumbs. Should be gone now. |
| 165: [Oct 07 2001] Which reminds me, (Raven) |
| If people persist in wearing so many scabbards and baldrics that it causes their inventory to bug out, we will eventually have to fix it... and the last time we tried that, it made everyone very unhappy. Pass the word. |
| 166: [Oct 08 2001] Define revisited: The Dartmud Dictionary. (Ogma) |
| If you haven't already looked, try typing 'help define'. It is evident by some of the failed attempts that people have not done so. A note about the Dartmud Dictionary. Its main purpose is to define unfamiliar words, such as mazer, amphora, barbute or tirachi. It is not used for things like allocs or ambush or such common words as day or player or baron. Ogma |
| 167: [Oct 13 2001] Dead Pets Society (Raven) |
| Mail me if your pet dropped dead subsequent to being ressed during this reboot. R. |
| 168: [Oct 14 2001] Construction (Ogma) |
| Narg and crew are now open for business. Get your construction requests into him while you can. Priority is being given at the moment to requests for wells. |
| 169: [Oct 17 2001] New command: guard (Flandor) |
We have implemented a new command: guard. You are now able to guard people, things, and exits. With this command you can keep a close watch on suspicious characters, protect your stuff, secure a room, ensure your privacy, and otherwise indulge your paranoia. The syntax is 'guard <what> [how]', where <what> can either be a person (or other living creature), an object, or an exit. [how] is optional, and can be either 'aggressively' or 'very aggressively'. If not specified, you will guard non-aggressively. When guarding a person you are watching him in order to prevent him from hiding or leaving the room. When guarding an object you are watching it to make sure no one tries to take it or mess with it in any way. Guarding an exit is the opposite of blocking; you watch the exit looking for anyone who might come in. If you are guarding aggressively you will attack anyone who challenges your authority. If you guard very aggressively you will have a lower tolerance for challengers. The level of aggressiveness has different behaviors depending on what you are guarding. For example, when guarding an exit aggressively you will attack anyone who tries to sneak into the room; when guarding an exit very aggressively you will attack anyone who tries to enter, whether sneaking or not. In some situations there is no difference between aggressive and very aggressive guarding. Of course, you have to be paying attention in order to catch the offending person. Action in the room can distract you and cause you to lose focus on the task at hand. Your own actions may also distract you. You will also tire from constantly staring at the thing you are guarding, so you will need to take periodic breaks. As with any new feature, there may be a period of adjustment while we get things fine-tuned. Comments, bug reports, complaints, praise, and other feedback are encouraged. Have fun. Flandor |
| 170: [Oct 27 2001] Amulet Changes (Raven) |
We've done a bit of tweaking on amulets, including but not necessarily limited to the following: Only one amulet per character will autoload, all others will be dropped on quit. You may want to seriously consider stashing your spare amulets somewhere rather than wearing them, in order to prevent loss. Note that amulets are (and have been) immune to reboots and so can be left anywhere you like. Characters in amulets will now be able to use the OOC command and a number of noise-related socials. (laugh, etc.) R. |
| 171: [Nov 06 2001] Want venison but can't find a deer? (Ogma) |
| Try hunting! |
| 172: [Dec 16 2001] Toril (Raven) |
| The permadeath of Toril was ruled a bug. Because there was a backup available, he or she was restored. Any questions, mail me. |
| 173: [Dec 16 2001] OOC Cheating Accusations (Raven) |
| The next time I see any reference to OOC cheating of any type on an IC board, I'm zotting the person who posted it. Take it to a creator, take it onto an OOC board, or take it to my web board, but keep it out of the game. I feel that you would do well to keep it out of IC conversations as well, but I'm not going to go zotting people for that just yet. New helpfile: rules -> accusations. R. |
| 174: [Dec 29 2001] Haplo (Ogma) |
| Haplo was eviscerated for botting, and his head piked as a reminder. |
| 175: [Jan 17 2002] The New Improved Who Customization Machine (Ogma) |
| This machine has been reworked and adjectives and nouns are much easier to add. Feel free to make suggestions, they're more likely to get put in now. |
| 176: [Jan 20 2002] Raesh banished (Ogma) |
| Ordinarily we wouldn't post about this, but this is a serious offense and this should be taken as an example. Raesh was player-killed, without an amulet and without a chance to send a deathtell. She rerolled after ten minutes, ran from Barrot's to the swamp and commited suicide by toad. She then used this rerolled newbie character to send a deathtell to someone telling them who killed her. This violates several of our rules and is absolutely blatant cheating. Fortunately, it was caught before the OOC information could spread and the person to whom the deathtell was sent won't reveal the information. When confrontined in purgatory, Raesh said 'Pardon me, but that's a load...this place is full of 8th's and 9th's.' Implying of course that since 'everyone else' is cheating, it excuses her blatant offenses. This begs the point that she thought everyone else was cheating since she did it. Because of her weak grasp on morality Raesh has been permanently banned. |
| 177: [Jan 25 2002] Pathos Deleted (Ogma) |
| Pathos has been deleted for posting completely inappropriate information on an OOC forum and revealing IC information in violation of a number of rules. It should also be noted that he *knew* it was inappropriate and stated in the post that he expected to be deleted. |
| 178: [Feb 25 2002] Cass Deleted (Ogma) |
| Apparently Cass the braman died while wearing an amulet in the wilderness. Some time later, Kakkt the spyder was in town yelling that Cass he had gotten a deathtell from Cass and giving (faulty) directions to find her amulet. I heard about this and dumped them both in my jail along with a nice little note. It was pretty obvious that there was OOC cheating here, but it turns out that it was all done by Cass. She apparently knew Kakkt IRL and had seen him type in his password. I did some backtracking and indeed, Kakkt logged on briefly from her IP address. She evidently not only told people OOC information, but stole his account. She has been deleted and sitebanned |
| 179: [Mar 31 2002] Burke Deleted (Raven) |
Burke has been deleted, and a few other characters are taking a nice little time-out in the wake of some OOC communications issues. |
| 180: [Apr 14 2002] cloaks, robes and helms, oh my! (Ogma) |
| You'll find that (new) cloaks and robes work a little differently. They should be somewhat less buggy. Also, certain types of helmets might conceal your identity, and some have visors which you can raise and lower. |
| 181: [May 02 2002] show skills (Ogma) |
| You may now 'show skills movement' or 'show skills move' to see your skills dealing with movement: travel, hiking, swimming, climbing, acrobatics, riding, sailing, navigation and spelunking. |
| 182: [May 08 2002] Overlords (Raven) |
| You can't be an overlord and a vassal at the same time. However, if you were a vassal, and then became an overlord, you could end up as both until you had to reswear. That has been fixed, so don't be surprised. Also there was some reshuffling done when it was fixed, so some folks may need to reswear to get it all sorted out. |
| 183: [Jun 09 2002] Docswift Deleted (Raven) |
| Suspected multiplayer, reg'd from an aol/hotmail/yahoo address = deleted. |
| 184: [Jun 11 2002] Yowzaine Banned (Raven) |
| Multicharing, registered to yahoo.com = banished. |
| 185: [Jun 15 2002] Omnicron killed (Flandor) |
| Omnicron was found botting "examine plants". He was killed and his corpse was left to rot. Just because it's not obvious doesn't mean you can get away with it. -Flandor |
| 186: [Jul 18 2002] Hex animals (Cronel) |
| Some of you may have noticed that the number of animals in the hexes has decreased dramatically over time. We have finally come around to fixing the cause of this. However, the decrease is to the point that it will not just fix itself; we need to wipe the slate clean. So when I install the new code, the old counters will be deleted. This will cause all hexes to be full of animals, thus more dangerous, until they adjust themselves. Even after that, they will be more dangerous than they are now, like they should. This will happen in a few days. You have been warned. |
| 187: [Aug 01 2002] OOC Boards (Raven) |
| Some of the OOC boards and the "idea" command now require you to have a significant accumulation of skill improves before you may post notes or submit ideas. And yes, the limit is really high. Deal with it. |
| 188: [Oct 09 2002] Kerghis sitebanned (Raven) |
| for lame newbie killing and bogus registration info. |
| 189: [Oct 11 2002] New Driver (Teehmar) |
| We've upgraded drivers. This driver is about 4 years newer, and gives us more features for the creators, and more stability for the players. Short term, there'll be a few bugs, but let us know, and we'll get them fixed. Teehmar |
| 190: [Oct 30 2002] Dropping Link (Raven) |
If you habitually drop link rather than using the 'quit' command, we will not be restoring / reimbursing for any unexpected deaths, lost skill points, or lost equipment. The command exists for a reason. Use it. |
| 191: [Nov 04 2002] Economy (Raven) |
Try not to freak out too badly about the economy right now. I'm playing with it and letting it run a bit wild to try to get some baseline numbers, and will be adjusting it. R. |
| 192: [Dec 13 2002] Who descs (Ogma) |
| I cleaned out the suggestions log for the who description machine and added several adjectives and nouns that have been suggested since april. Ogma |
| 193: [Jan 31 2003] hp (Flandor) |
| The hp command has been improved. You can now get a description of the overall health of someone or something other than yourself. See 'help hp'. -Flandor |
| 194: [Feb 08 2003] jewelry shop improvements (Flandor) |
| I've made some improvements to the jewelry shop in Sorkitos. I fixed the bug with the buy command where the shopkeep would take your money but not give you the item. I fixed a bug that prevented non-wearable items (charms and pendants, for example) from showing up in the list of items. I also improved the list command to make the list more readable. My apologies to anyone who lost money due to the buy bug, but we have a no refund policy. Remember, if you would like to see a greater variety of items offered at the jewelry shop, post on the ideas board or use the idea command. And before you ask, yes, I will be adding a jewelry resizing service to the shop some day soon. Flandor |
| 195: [May 06 2003] Vulder/Ronan/Runic/Gatlin (Ogma) |
| Deleted and sitebanned for being a lying little piece of filth and multicharing. |
| 196: [May 10 2003] Arawyn Sitebanned (Ogma) |
| For violating death rules and OOC rules. Just say no to OOC information. |
| 197: [May 12 2003] jewelry resizing (Flandor) |
| Jewelry resizing service is now available at the jewelry shop in Soriktos. -Flandor |
| 198: [Jun 07 2003] Wagons and carts (Ogma) |
| Wagons and carts can now have plaques affixed to them. You might need to make a new plaque or run it through a bin to make it work. Ogma |
| 199: [Jul 10 2003] tinder boxes (Jiles) |
| Due to popular demand they are now listed in shops as "tinder boxes" instead of "tinderboxes". If you see a shop that I missed, send me a mudmail. Jiles |
| 200: [Jul 21 2003] Botting (Jiles) |
| I'd rather not have to go about enforcing the rules, as it takes time away from being able to add improvements to DM. I have, however, been finding a rather large number of botters lately, and it's beginning to get rather irritating. Remember: Just say no to botting. Thanks, Jiles |
| 201: [Aug 02 2003] Donations (Jiles) |
| In order to determine whether or not it would be feasible to attempt to organize a method of donation collection (e.g., form a nonprofit corpotation or ask a small hardware vendor to collect payment from various sources) we would appreciate it if all players who are willing and able to donate funds for, in order of precedence, a new server, colocation/dedicated internet connection, and advertising to please post an estimate of the amount of money they are willing to donate to the OOC confidential board. Thank you for your time, Jiles |
| 202: [Aug 11 2003] Arrows and other combinables (Ogma) |
| I fixed combinables so that crafted arrows should stack correctly now. You can cycle old ones through a bin to get them to stack, but be very careful how many piles you put into a bin. If you notice any weirdness in combinables, let me know. Ogma |
| 203: [Aug 16 2003] Power (Teehmar) |
| Ok, the power's back on. Teehmar |
| 204: [Aug 16 2003] Lanterns, lamps and nut oil (Ogma) |
| Lanterns have been changed to use liquid oil. You'll have to craft a new one. The stackable nut oil won't work in them, in fact nut oil is no longer craftable in that manner. You will need to craft lantern nut oil. It uses the same tools to craft it, but you'll need a bucket to hold it. Also, olive oil is now craftable and lanterns will burn that as well. If you have a large stockpile of the old nut oil, I might see fit to trade it for a jug or barrel of the liquid lantern nut oil, send me mail to arrange an appointment. Ogma |
| 205: [Aug 19 2003] More downtime (Teehmar) |
| If you didn't see the motd: ******* MORE DOWNTIME AHEAD ******* We'll be shutting back down around 5:30 EDT tonight, so they can attempt to finish the repairs to the building power. If they finish by 11, it'll should be back up tonight, otherwise it'll be tommorow morning. Sorry for the downtime.... ******* MORE DOWNTIME AHEAD ******* Hopefully after this, we'll be good for a while. Teehmar |
| 206: [Aug 20 2003] Shouting for Creators (Ogma) |
| Do not shout for a creator unless it is an emergency which needs to be handled right away and is the result of a bug. If I arrive and find out that you could have sent me mudmail or posted on a board about a problem, you will have far more problems than you did before my arrival. Ogma |
| 207: [Aug 21 2003] New Calendar (Ogma) |
| A new calendar for the Common Reckoning has been released. It now has a six day week, and days of the month are expressed in numbers. Look at a calendar somewhere to check it out. One advantage to this system is that one common week is equal to one real life day. This system will also allow the additions of holidays. There are currently only two holidays in the common year (and one in the Thorpian year), but more can be added easily. If you have a suggestion for a holiday, discuss it on the player discussion board. Ogma |
| 208: [Aug 22 2003] Kitiara, Musumu, Shax and Tyr (Ogma) |
| Kitiara, Musumu, Shax and Tyr have been deleted and banished from the lands of Ferdarchi. It has come to our attention that they have systematically violated the rules regarding death, OOC communication and second characters to the detriment of several people. |
| 209: [Aug 25 2003] Wagons (Ogma) |
| You will no longer be able to coax a horse that is hitched to a wagon or cart into the water. On a happier note, zealous hunters have made the seamonsters inhabiting the southwestern waters near Ferdarchi and Tirachi disinclined to attack ships. |
| 210: [Aug 26 2003] Passwords, Registrations (Raven) |
New commands: forgot my password - sends a new password to your e-mail of record forgot my registration code - sends you your reg code forgot my name - if you can't remember what you renamed to... sends you your names change my email - update your e-mail of record - please use a real e-mail account Post bugs on the bug board. Abuse at your peril. R. |
| 211: [Aug 27 2003] Lianna deleted + sitebanned. (Raven) |
| Found to be player returning after repeated cheating and prior siteban. |
| 212: [Aug 27 2003] Ramik deleted + sitebanned. (Raven) |
| Lying to creators in connection with cheating investigations, OOC cheating via ICQ and other means, facilitating other cheaters in their activities. |
| 213: [Aug 29 2003] Characters deleted/sitebanned. (Raven) |
| The following characters have been deleted and sitebanned in connection with the ongoing cheating investigation. Arius Auryn Cristos Dax Dracula Hraithe Kuriethan Lacan Light Louie Moogle Moontear Mosiah Sshaithis Sui Tharizdum Vahnatai Vex |
| 214: [Sep 02 2003] Characters deleted/sitebanned (Raven) |
| In connection with the ongoing investigation: Orchid/Nazrac |
| 215: [Sep 03 2003] Registrations (Ogma) |
| If you think that your registration might be in error, for instance your email is incorrect or you supplied us with a false name, now is the time to confess and have a certain amount of immunity from deletion and sitebanning. This grace period will not last for very long, so don't miss this opportunity to put your conscience at rest. |
| 216: [Sep 08 2003] Castles (Jiles) |
| Even if you manage to cobble together enough funds to pay off the listed taxes, destroyed castles will not be rebuilt at present or at any time in the forseeable future. Jiles |
| 217: [Sep 13 2003] Farming (Ogma) |
| Farming has been nearly impossible with the dust and ash from the comet still hanging in the air. Once it is possible to farm again, you will notice a few adjustments to the ridiculous oversupply of farmable goods. Plants that once bore fruit in less than 2 hours will now take approximately twenty-four hours to bear fruit. Trees and the like, which matured in 24 hours and bore fruit every 2 hours or so will take approximately 4 days to begin producing fruit and will produce every 24 hours after that. Weed growth has also been similarly slowed, and the window of time you have to get your harvest in has been expanded. Crop yields have remained the same, but that may be adjusted in the future, depending on what works out. |
| 218: [Sep 15 2003] Keys (Ogma) |
| The lockshops have been modified to use a new kind of key. Current castle and guild keys should convert themselves automagically. If you have a key for a castle or a guild and the locksmith refuses to recognize it (as might happen if it was on a keyring), wearing the key and relogging should fix the problem. As an added bonus, guild officers with rekey permissions can now use the lockshops to get new keys and rekey their locks (if they have any still in existence). |
| 219: [Sep 21 2003] Mortika/Liona Deleted (Ogma) |
| Multiple false registrations, multiplaying, general immaturity. |
| 220: [Oct 12 2003] New Castle (Yoru) |
| The time has come for the construction of a new castle. However, we are currently at a loss for what to call the new addition, and so we're opening the stage for all of you folks to submit suggestions. We'll pick the one we like best, and it will be assigned to this new keep. The winner receives the gratification of seeing the name he/she suggested used in daily life. The castle in question has been placed on the southern shore of Ferdarchi, in the forests near Argent. If you're interested in submitting a name, or eventually owning the castle, I suggest poking around there and examining it. Once a name has been selected, a throne will be installed in the castle. In order to be considered 'founder' of the keep, a lord must maintain sovereignty over the castle for one (1) common year (30 days Real Life Time). Any interruptions in control, whether by abdication, loss of fealty, or usurpation by a competitor, will reset our count, and the process will start over again. Whomever manages to fulfill this condition will be granted founder's rights, and may then begin proper construction, Due to the circumstances under which this castle is being introduced, the initial construction fee will be waived. All additional construction will be priced as normal. All players are invited to take part in the naming contest. However, no member of a Guild will be allowed to take the title of founder, and any person accepting fealty from a guild member will be disqualified. Suggestions for castle names, or questions regarding this process, should be mudmailed to both myself and Ogma. - Yoru |
| 221: [Oct 12 2003] Some notes about naming castles. (Ogma) |
| In the past, our castles have been named after the keep itself: Dismal Keep, Forest Keep, The Hole etc. However, the castle itself isn't the important bit of a noble title, it's the demesne and the patent of nobility that goes with it. Medieval nobles held titles over stretches of land, not just a castle. When thinking of names for the new castle, I suggest you try bearing this in mind. For example, this new castle is in the Argent Forest, so might bear the name Bois D'Argent or Silverwood. |
| 222: [Oct 12 2003] Dartmud Moving (Ogma) |
| Dartmud has lost our home at Teehmar's place of work and will be moving to a new home sometime this afternoon or early evening. We will be shutdown for between 30 minutes to an hour while the current mud is archived up and transfered to our new site. After that, we will come up at the new location. The name entry for dartmud.com may take about an hour or so to propagate, and if you have the IP address hard coded into your client you will have to change it. A temporary DNS entry of new.dartmud.com already points to the new server and should be valid for a few days. The new IP address is 69.55.226.66. The transition should be smooth and relatively transparent to most people. This is a temporary home until we get a new, dedicated server box setup, probably around the first of November. Ogma |
| 223: [Oct 13 2003] New Castle (update) (Yoru) |
| The naming contest has ended, and I would like to extend my thanks to all the competitors for the overwhelming response. The name chosen is 'Silverwood Reach', which came about after compiling and comparing what we liked about several names. Now, let the games begin. -Y |
| 224: [Nov 11 2003] Silverwood Reach: Taken (Yoru) |
| The competition for the foundership of Silverwood Reach has now ended, congratulations to the winner. -Y |
| 225: [Nov 30 2003] Recent Pet killings (Desla) |
| Review help lameness, please. Senek and his second have been deleted for rampant pet killing. Desla |
| 226: [Dec 04 2003] Vigilante Justice (Desla) |
| It's come to our attention that players are killing other players for OOC reasons, such as suspecting them of being former cheating players. Cut it out. If you suspect OOC rules violations, report them to a creator, via OOC mail if there's a detailed accusation or log, and let us handle it. When in doubt, let things be and let the creators handle it. We've added the capability to restore players from backups, so if any of The Banned really do come back and start killing people, we'll make it right. Also, feel free to report suspected botting, rather than NOT reporting mild instances and killing for major ones. Since the creators have the ability to see who used to be who, we can track persistent abusers through their different lifetimes here for more severe sanctions, if appropriate. Desla, for The Management |
| 227: [Dec 04 2003] BAI fixed (Desla) |
| Buzz *animal* invisibility has been fixed to work as advertized. No longer will it work other than on animals. The exact limits of the spell should be determined carefully by casters relying on it. You have been warned. Desla |
| 228: [Dec 04 2003] Changes (Jiles) |
| We will most likely be making many more modifications to the game mechanics that may or may not have a material impact on your character's performance. Check this board often for updates. You have been warned. Jiles |
| 229: [Dec 10 2003] Uptime (Desla) |
| For what it's worth, after nearly three weeks of uptime, Dartmud is running at 9.3% of available memory, and the sustained load average rarely creeps higher than 0.20--even though the host is used for several other things (X workstations, firewall, webserver, etc.) I don't know about the chances for absurdly long uptimes are, and going into the winter season in Washington State, I suspect power outages will be our biggest problem. Yes, I have a UPS, and it does great against protecting us from periodic <1 second outages, but won't run the system forever. Thanks again to all who have donated and made this a much less financially painful decision. Desla |
| 230: [Dec 10 2003] Butchering (Jiles) |
| Butchering has been changed to be more consistent. Jiles (please don't shoot the messenger :D) |
| 231: [Dec 13 2003] Recall (Jiles) |
| Has undergone 1 minor change in behavior. Jiles |
| 232: [Dec 17 2003] Requesting Feedback (Jiles) |
| Please post feedback regarding the new command, {c:fg_cyan:bold:testinv}, which is being considered as a replacement for the current inventory command, on the ideas board. Thanks, Jiles |
| 233: [Jan 01 2004] Pets (Desla) |
| Pets will no longer respond at all to "come here" commands, either via shout or by whistle. Their attempts to find their masters are my #1 suspect for recent CPU lag, and, as such, have been commented out for the duration. Desla |
| 234: [Jan 14 2004] OSS nerfed (Desla) |
| Just kidding. We did fix an abusable bug, though. If you know what it is, it's gone. If you don't, you may now learn about it in an historical context. Desla |
| 235: [Jan 22 2004] Player misconduct (Desla) |
| Per Jeraim's Souk note, those who were toying with/ganging up on/ torturing Rinn have been reprimanded for their conduct. I expect stupidity to be punished by a quick and painless death, not shameful abuse--even if the player spouting the abuse, and Rinn was, seemingly deserves it. Rinn registered from a new account, and has not returned. Good riddance. I saw him bring out the worst in a number of normaly helpful PC's--in a way that made me ashamed to provide for such a negative environment. The insults given--and returned--were not consistent with role playing at all. Our "don't kill newbies" guidance does not extend to ex-DIKU morons who are actively ruining the game. After a suitable attempt at educating them, just kill 'em. Certain PC's have the reeducation of newbie-thief-wannabe's down to a near science. There is some indication Rinn may have been affiliated with a bannee or himself be a bannee. Don't let such unknown folks ruin your enjoyment of the game. That may be their goal. Desla |
| 236: [Jan 28 2004] Upgrades (Desla) |
| Read 'help motd' for more info Desla |
| 237: [Jan 31 2004] lesser_portal and sz (Jiles) |
| Have been changed. It is highly unlikely that the change will affect you. Just a minor bugfix revision. Jiles |
| 238: [Mar 10 2004] Dov sitebanned and removed (Desla) |
| Lesson to all: 1) Do not let friends who are jerks play from your computer. You will be held responsible for their actions. 2) Do not make up stories about "my friend..." when your character logged on one minute after your "friend" logged off. Desla |
| 239: [May 30 2004] The Great Reminting (Ogma) |
| The currency changes that have been discussed will go into effect as of the next reboot (tentatively scheduled for later this week) At that time, Argent and Segliz will convert over to the new all Ferdarchian currency (based off of the Eristan currency). Money in the bank at Segliz will be converted to the equivalent in the new currency. Any old Argent and Segliz coins you have lying around can be converted either at the Eris Queen or the Foreign Exchange in Soriktos. The names of the coins for both the Ferdarchian currency and the Tirachian currency will be changing. Old coins of these that you have lying around can be depositied in a bank or put in a moneybag and will be converted at your next logoff/logon. New helpfiles will be in place at that time to hopefully avoid confusion. |
| 240: [Jun 05 2004] Gathering (Yoru) |
| Some tweaks have been made to gathering. Behavior should be mostly similar to what was previously observed. Please report any bugs you find to me. -Y |
| 241: [Jun 29 2004] Ceramics has been released (Yoru) |
| After a long delay, the ceramics system has been released. Please post on the bug board, or ooc-mail me, for any bugs you find. Should guilds or castles wish to have a pottery installed, ooc-mail me directly and we'll get it settled in short order. -Y |
| 242: [Jul 17 2004] DPD (Jiles) |
| DPD has been changed in several ways that will become immediately obvious upon experimentation. Jiles |
| 243: [Jul 21 2004] Spellbook creation update (Desla) |
| The minimum skill needed to create a spellbook of a particular spell has been increased substantially. This shouldn't pose a problem for any serious mage, but will keep an unskilled mage from writing a spell. |
| 244: [Aug 21 2004] Inks (Ogma) |
| The formulation of inks has changed. See the crafts board at the smithy in Soriktos. |
| 245: [Aug 27 2004] Death rules (Desla) |
| Everyone who's been permed in an ongoing war, PLEASE remember to read "help death rules." Once you've been killed, you (as the player) are OUT of the story line for as long as it lasts. That means, if you're in HH and someone's having a discussion about your death, LEAVE. Don't contribute comments about the situation, even if you believe those comments are common knowledge. Desla |
| 246: [Sep 26 2004] External posting of game information (Desla) |
| It has come to our attention that several recently banned characters have been intentionally posting detailed information regarding skills, quests, and characters, as well as session logs of game events, with the intent of damaging this game. We object to their use of copyrighted material in this manner, and believe it is a legally actionable violation of our intellectual property rights. However, at the same time, it is only appropriate to recognize that the aforementioned banned cheaters are late teens and early 20's losers who have no life, low-paying jobs, and really aren't worth suing. Given these realities, here is a brief outline of the courses of action that the creators will be taking to mitigate the damage they desired to inflict: SKILLS: Stealth skill learning may be altered. This may take the form of decreased access to teachers, alterations and permutations in the skill progressions, or other similar changes. AREAS: Quests that have been known or suspected to be disclosed in OOC manners may be updated. Certain previously necessary actions may prove useless, or even fatal (in extreme cases). CHARACTERS: Any players attempting, in the view of the creators, to exploit inappropriately posted information about current characters may face disciplinary action. LOGS: Any participant of a conversation logged by another person and posted inappropriately may privately pursue a copyright action against the infringing posting of such logs. Email Desla if you are seriously interested in doing this. The creators will neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of any posted information, nor validate the accuracy of any posted log. In general, however, the postings consist of some accurate information, some incomplete information, some incorrect information, and some information that has already been rendered obsolete through rather superficial changes to the game code. Thank you for your patience during this time. We will make every effort to speedily alter that game content which CAN be altered in a manner to foster the continued enjoyment of our substantial base of non-cheating players. Those most recently banned cheaters, like many before them, claim that the mud is ONLY populated by cheaters like themselves. While we reject that characterization of you, our users, as a pack of cheaters, we realize that we have not--and cannot-- ban ALL such cheaters without making the game so restrictive that it is impossible to play for fun. While we will be carefully monitoring new and recent registrations for fraudulent activity, the best way we can keep such activities from happening in the future is for you, the players, to report suspicious activities that you spot. It's your game, and you have a right to invest your effort into keeping it fair and legitimate. Desla |
| 247: [Dec 07 2004] The Crystal Ball (Ogma) |
| The crystal ball has been broken for a little while when scrying hexes. It's been fixed. |
| 248: [Mar 26 2005] Pets (Desla) |
| Pets may no longer be named the same thing as NPCs or other pets. Desla |
| 249: [Apr 10 2005] Thrown (Ogma) |
| Thrown now requires a teacher for the first improve, just like any of the rest of the combat skills. |
| 250: [Sep 05 2005] See Player Discussion Board (Desla) |
| New discussion re: Spell/Skill Trading. |
| 251: [Sep 22 2005] Web Forum Registration (Raven) |
| E-mail registration for the web forum should now be unbroken. My hosting provider apparently upgraded software, causing the board's old crufty software to break. Fortunately I am an expert at debugging old crufty software; I learned it working here. |
| 252: [Feb 27 2006] Donations for CPU? (Desla) |
| As part of my normal systems expenditures, I improved my personal gaming system from a 3.4 GHz P4 to a 3.6 GHz P4 (which also has 2MB L2 and supports EM64T) Tonight, I am taking the Mud down to install the 3.4 GHz chip in our existing system. We'll also be running a new Linux kernel, but the 3.4 GHz system should give us about 10% CPU speed headroom as well. I haven't made any sort of appeal for donations lately, but I could have resold this processor. New copies are going for $160 on eBay, so this represents another $80-100 of my own cash I'm putting into the Mud, in addition to the monthly connection charges. If you're interested in donating a buck or a few to help defray the costs of this upgrade and ongoing Mud connection fees, please feel free to Paypal me at jclemens@jclemens.org Desla |
| 253: [Mar 16 2006] A reminder (Ogma) |
| If you die, you may not communicate how you died to anyone except via sanctioned IC methods. You can't call them up on the phone, send e-mail, IM them, talk to them in person, send smoke signals, post it on a board or post it in your fricken' blog! If you were PK'd this goes double. When you reroll, you need to act like a different character and not get in the same conflicts with the same people as your last character. If something touches on your old character or his/her life, keep your nose out of it. If you receive OOC communications from someone about how they were killed, and do not report it to a creator, you are an accessory after the fact. If I find out about it, you will receive the same punishment as the person who did it. Ogma |
| 254: [Jun 27 2006] Metals (Ogma) |
| You may notice that some weapons, armor and tools are no longer craftable from zinc, lead, tin, pewter, white brass, silver, gold and platinum. This is intentional. I am in the process of changing the definitions of various metallic objects, and it may take a little time. You can still make such things out of copper, bronzes, brasses (except white brass), iron, steel, black steel and dragon metal. I will probably eventually start trashing old items that are made of the softer metals whether you are carrying or wearing them or not. - Ogma |
| 255: [Jun 27 2006] A few changes as of next reboot (Ogma) |
| A few changes coming over the next reboot (probably around the July 1-2). Innrooms will be completely cleaned out when rent expires. Any extra bins, racks or other storage items will be removed except for the cupboard and armoire usually supplied by the inn. Pets will be sent to the kennel in Soriktos. Also, dealing with innrooms, players who awaken in an innroom and do not have a current key for the room will be evicted to the lobby of the inn. If you have roommates, make sure they have a key. Armoires will no longer remove the embroidery on embroidered war fans. Bins, cabinets and armoires will now automatically close 4-5 minutes after the last player has left the room, instead of while people are in the same room. -Ogma |
| 256: [Jul 15 2006] New Inventory Mode (Ogma) |
| The option to view your inventory in a new manner has been added. To turn it on, type 'i sorted', to go back to the old way you can type 'i unsorted'. Essentially, this sorts your inventory list into four categories, HELD, WPNS, ARMR and WORN. Held is what you are holding, and will show what hands you are holding things in. WPNS are any weapons you might be carrying in scabbards or baldrics etc. This will show even concealed weapons with (concealed) after them. Armr is armor and Worn is everything else you are wearing. The (worn) tags are surpressed in this mode. If you have this mode on, people you look at are also displayed in this manner. Examine is a little different in that it will show the inventory in this manner and display armor and only armor on each limb. (Note that this might not apply to all NPCs until next reboot). Even if you don't use this option, there has been one slight change to inventory in that your concealed weapons (boot sheaths, etc) will be shown in your inventory list. Ogma |
| 257: [Jul 19 2006] Important Announcment For Guilds! (Ogma) |
| As of the next reboot (happening most likely at the end of the first week of August ), guilds will be charged taxes. Guild treasurers may pay taxes to Muhsi at the tax office in Soriktos when it is open. They will be notified by zephyr on when the tax office opens in the same way that castle lords and castellans are notified. Taxes are calculated every common week (24 hours RL) and interest is calculated monthly (2.5 RL days) on owed taxes at a 10% APR, (as is the case with castles as well). The guilds have been untaxed for years, and tax rates may be adjusted in the future. Castles should find that their taxes are lower once the guilds start paying. |
| 258: [Aug 06 2006] Changes going in this reboot (Desla) |
| 1) Guild Taxes, as Ogma indicated above. 2) Pets have been tweaked. They may attack you if you're mean to them. They may also have some other altered reactions. Please provide feedback via the OOC board on these changes. 3) Blocking has been modified. Brawling skill and a few other relevant traits will help a character block more effectively, or evade someone else's block. 4) Various other changes have been made which may not be obvious at this time, but are not likely to be lethal or obvious to players. Some of these can be discovered by adventurous players. Others are simply setups for advanced creator mischief, on which you may feel free to speculate. And no, we didn't put vamps back in the game.... yet. Desla |
| 259: [Aug 07 2006] Pets (Desla) |
| If you have a dog, cat, falcon, or ferret, and notice typos or oddities in their activities, you may retrain them at the pet store, or wait until next reboot. Desla |
| 260: [Aug 30 2006] Prizes (Desla) |
| New help file: 'help prizes' |
| 261: [Sep 04 2006] Reboot Duration (Desla) |
| This time, I'm going to be re-doing the UPS arrangement and power setup in my office/server room, so Dartmud will be offline for a while. It's already on its own UPS, so I'm not sure if I'll be rebooting the server itself or not, but I WILL be adding another UPS, and that will mean taking down the comms gear, and juggling it all around. The new UPS will also include surge protection for the cable itself, so if my neighborhood cable gets nuked, odds are the mud might survive. Desla |
| 262: [Sep 05 2006] Changes this reboot (Desla) |
| - Several long-standing and popularly-abused bugs have been fixed. If this impairs your play style, be glad we're not punishing folks who took advantage of them. - A number of additional pet changes are being implemented, the most significant one of which is PET AGING. Beginning the subsequent reboot, pets will die of old age. If your pet is worth unaging, you know what to do. You have been warned. - The shrink and enlarge spells have been rewritten and now work. - A couple of new trinkets have been coded. - Hex animals have received a pretty substantial makeover. Additionally, I'm going to be adding another NIC to the mud machine, in case I do get QWest DSL for when Comcast cable fails. If you want to help with this endeaour, paypal donations to jclemens@jclemens.org are always appreciated. Desla |
| 263: [Sep 07 2006] Dice (Desla) |
| Dice will apparently have to be trashed and re-crafted to work. |
| 264: [Sep 19 2006] Permanent Items Fix (Yoru) |
| We've located the issue that's been causing the random vaporization of permanent/savable items. It should be fixed in the next reboot. - Y |
| 265: [Sep 19 2006] Next reboot (Desla) |
| Next reboot will involve a transition to Yoru's new permanent items scheme, as well as a host system power-down for a minor correction to last month's electrical work. As a reminder, reboots are scheduled every 30 days. |
| 266: [Sep 20 2006] Clothing/Armor Changes (Desla) |
| As of next reboot, several sorts of clothing and armour will be adjusted to be more anatomically correct, especially with regard to Spyder and Braman players. We encourage all players to remove and store or trash clothing over the reboot. |
| 267: [Sep 24 2006] Packs and Satchels (Desla) |
| 1) Pack capacity (both weight and bulk) has been substantially increased. 2) Packs and satchels now take substantially more ingredients. 3) small packs and large packs have been removed. 4) Packs must now MUCH more closely match the size of the wearer. Old packs are unaffected. Newly bought or crafted packs will have these characteristics. You can experiment, but I believe you will find the new packs more realistic and useful Desla |
| 268: [Sep 27 2006] More on packs and satchels (Ogma) |
| You can now craft a cloth pack for your further accessorizing enjoyment. Cloth satchels have been craftable for some time now. Ogma |
| 269: [Sep 28 2006] One week until reboot... (Desla) |
| In addition to the changes noted above, we have a plethora of small improvements going in. - Two new spells are being added. - Amulets will be able to use the 'date' command. ... and a couple more cool new features are still being reviewed. Additionally, several bug fixes have been coded, including fixes to cursed items, shrink/enlarge, shrinkfruit, and some typos. Desla |
| 270: [Sep 30 2006] Sasquatches are no longer a PC race (Desla) |
| As of next reboot, Sasquatches will no longer be selectable as a player character race. Existing sasquatches will be unafected, and players may continue to be reincarnated into sasquatch corpses as they would have been before. After years of essentially static race selections, the creators have been working on improving the racial selection and diversity of player character races. We are taking steps to balance existing races and provide new opportunities, and among the more noticeable actions we're taking initially is paring down underused races for which we lack a compelling revitalization vision. Not all changes will be announced, explained, or obvious. It is up to you to discover how certain other underused races have been enhanced. |
| 271: [Sep 30 2006] The Fountain of Youth (Ogma) |
| You can now bathe your aging pets in the fountain of youth to restore them to their previous vigor. However, the fountain should not be used lightly or frivolously, people who are showing no signs of aging would be better off avoiding it. The waters now effect creatures based on their normal lifespan, so it should prove more effective for longer lived races. Ogma |
| 272: [Sep 30 2006] Bins and armoires (Ogma) |
| After this reboot, they will close if you quit in the room with them. Note you will still have to close bins etc. that are in wagons. |
| 273: [Sep 30 2006] Climbing (Desla) |
| We are in the process of rewriting climbing. At least some of the projected changes will go into effect next reboot: - Restrictions on climbing are being standardized. - Difficulty adjustments (e.g., for weight) are being standardized as well. - Pets that can climb (e.g., ferrets, raccoons) will actually be able to climb. - Creatures, including player races, where mass is highly disproportionate with limb strength, will be unable to climb at all. Falling is unchanged and remains moderately deadly. You have been warned. Desla |
| 274: [Oct 05 2006] Quit Hook! (Desla) |
| If you see that when quitting, ignore it. It will go away next reboot. |
| 275: [Oct 06 2006] Old items may not work... (Desla) |
| Certain items of clothing, armor, tack, or barding may need to be re-made. If you encounter an issue with something that used to fit, but no longer does, try re-making the item in question. If the item is anything that is rigged on a horse (except for saddle bags), you should be able to fix it by leaving it in a closed tool cabinet for a couple of minutes. Of course, if the item should never have fit to begin with (e.g., Ogre wearing a cataphract) the change was intentional, and re-making the item will not change anything. When in doubt, feel free to tell to me or any other creator visible on 'who' Desla |
| 276: [Oct 14 2006] letters (Ogma) |
| You can now 'sign letter' to affix your signature to a piece of parchment or papyrus. You will need ink and a quill or brush, of course. |
| 277: [Oct 26 2006] Innrooms (Ogma) |
| You may now check out of your inn rooms. Tell the innkeeper that you want to check out, then confirm when he or she asks. You will receive a refund of half of the rent for your remaining days. |
| 278: [Oct 31 2006] Changes this reboot (Desla) |
| We have a lot of bugfixes going in this time, but some other cool new stuff wasn't ready for the moved-up reboot. Oh well. |
| 279: [Nov 02 2006] Objects restored... sorta (Desla) |
| Since the object storage space issue happened over a month of uptime, we've taken a phased approach. READ THIS ENTIRE POST before asking a question of a creator or posting a bug board note. 1) Most items have been restored from the 10/8 mud backup. This was one week into the duplicate saving. As such, YOU MAY SEE "BAD LOAD" ERROR MESSAGES when duplicate items try to load. Do not report them. Likewise, any objects acquired since 10/8 are GONE. This is not a bug, this is a conscious decision to stick to the 10/8 restore point. Sorry if you got something cool since then, you're not getting it back. Go find another. 2) Amulets were restored from the 10/29 backup. If you found an amulet between 10/8 and 10/29, you're in luck--you get it back. If you were in an amulet before 10/29 and your soul was destroyed, you SHOULD wake up back in the amulet in the same place you were. If this doesn't happen, please tell Desla or Ogma. 3) If you were put into an amulet after 10/29 AND your soul was destroyed, you will wake up in jail. Tell to Ogma or Desla and we'll give you an amulet, kill you, and put the new amulet back where you belong. 4) PETS have been restored from the 10/29 backup. If you are missing a pet, tell to Desla Overall, the only two things I expect to hear from players about are 1) missing pets, and 2) being dead when you shouldn't be. Anything less than those level of error is just not on our radar. Desla |
| 280: [Nov 02 2006] Overfull Bins (Desla) |
| If your bins end up with more stuff in them after the restore, feel free to use the extra items or trash them. They will be taxed as usual, of course. |
| 281: [Nov 03 2006] Scabbards (Ogma) |
| Scabbards have been altered a little bit. The normal scabbard object now requires wood. A scabbard made from just leather is called a sheath. You can now also make a wooden scabbard that uses no leather and will show the wood used. |
| 282: [Nov 08 2006] OS upgrade (Desla) |
| At next reboot, I will be upgrading us from our current OS to a substantially more current version of Linux. This should require us to be down for, at most, an hour or two. Desla |
| 283: [Nov 11 2006] Changed and New socials (feelings) (Ogma) |
| You might notice that 'help feelings' displays a significantly longer list at this time. This is not an illusion. There are several new commands. Also, some of the old ones have been changed to accept a target. Some of these socials are also race specific. Experiment! |
| 284: [Nov 14 2006] Shrink bug fixed (Desla) |
| One of the issues that was causing worn items to drop when players shrunk or enlarged should have been fixed. If you can get your amulet to fall off by shrink or enlarge, it's still broken. Feel free to try it, and mail me if you find bugs. Desla |
| 285: [Nov 14 2006] Stop herding (Ogma) |
| Stop herding will now also make individual animals that you got to follow you to stop following. |
| 286: [Nov 14 2006] Notice to Braman and Centaurs (Ogma) |
| As you might have noticed, our four-legged player races can no longer climb or ride animals. However, this is not without its benefits, centaurs and braman can now be ridden! Rides are on an invitation basis only. The centaur or braman must first 'offer ride to <whom>' in order for that person to mount them. The mount can drop their rider off at any time using the 'unseat rider' or 'buck' commands. Riding a centaur or braman is not like riding a horse. The intelligent mount is in control, not the rider, unless they are in the same party, at which point, the rider may 'lead'. Also, intelligent mounts are somewhat easier to ride than a horse or mule of the same size, since they can actively cooperate. Some riding skill is still necessary. Centaurs and braman may also now wear harnesses and pull carts or wagons. Newly made carts and wagons cannot be hitched to or unhitched from a player except by that player. They also use a slightly different syntax for hitching and unhitching. You will probably want to make new wagons or carts. CAVEAT: Fighting while hauling a cart around is very difficult and not recommended. See 'help mount', 'help riding' and 'help wagon' (with a wagon present). |
| 287: [Nov 18 2006] Emoting (Ogma) |
| The character limit on emotes has been substantially increased from the previous limit of 80 characters. Also, it will do possessive emotes correctly, i.e. if you do something like ":'s nose twitches.", it will come out as "Foo's nose twitches." instead of "Foo 's nose twitches." Part of the change I made to allow this was to make emotes (and socials) stand out from other text by making it bold/bright. As a side effect, this prevents spoofing of other things like handing something to you, or depositing coins in the box. It takes some time to get used to seeing the bolded emotes. Before you immediately complain about it, spend some time getting used to it. I will eviscerate anyone who whines about the color in the first 24 hours. Ogma |
| 288: [Dec 02 2006] re: OS upgrade (Desla) |
| Due to delays in my other personal upgrades, I haven't had a chance to run our driver on a new version of Linux, so our upgrade will be delayed until NEXT reboot. Desla |
| 289: [Dec 02 2006] Scheduled Reboots (Desla) |
| Due to installing new hardware in my server rack, upgrading the OS on our Dartmud machine, and a few other tweaks that I plan on before the end of the year, our reboot schedule may be a bit weird. When in doubt, stow all your stuff like you were expecting a reboot, especially if you're going to be on vacation or otherwise not checking the motd regularly. Desla |
| 290: [Dec 23 2006] Network/OS Upgrades (Desla) |
The network upgrade last night didn't happen. Had some trouble reconfiguring my rack, so the network is configured like before, but with the new server physically in place. The only real effect of this change on players that next scheduled reboot will also be a little bit longer than normal as I complete the work. Likewise, the OS upgrade will not happen until at least the following scheduled reboot, when I've verified that our test instance will work fine on the new OS, and have had time to tweak and tune it so that if something went wrong, we could run Dartmud on the new server. Desla |
| 291: [Dec 23 2006] Potions and vials (Ogma) |
| The remaining potions have finally been converted to actual liquids and vials are now liquid containers that hold 1 fluid ounce of liquid. In addition, glass vials have been added for those who have decent ceramics skill. A few changes were made in potions. Caution should be used when imbibing. Since you can now produce large quantities, certain negative effects for imbibing too much (over a handful of doses) have been added. A dose of most potions is considred to be 1 dram. Creatures signifcantly larger or smaller than size 100 may want to specify drink 1 dram of foo instead of sip foo, as this now uses the normal liquid commands. Some potions can be poured onto things to get the effects that other commands might have had before. The ingredients for potions that used corpses or meat have been changed to require body parts instead. Experiment with your butchering skill to figure it out. It's not hard. |
| 292: [Jan 14 2007] Next Reboot and Items (Ogma) |
| The next reboot will occur on the weekend of Jan 20/21. At this time the problem we've been having with permanent objects should be fixed. You can expect the following: 1) Permanent items such as bins, arming racks, wardrobes, armoires, tool cabinets and their contents will revert back to our mid-September backup (Before the item duplication started happening). 2) Pets will revert back to the last reboot. 3) All permanent items and pets bought/crafted/acquired since the last reboot WILL NOT SAVE. 4) Your skills, money in the bank, stuff you're wearing, time you've paid at the inn will not change. This is the best compromise we could come up with. Some people will *still* end up losing a lot of stuff. We are aware of this and whining will not help. |
| 293: [Jan 20 2007] REBOOT AND DOWNTIME (Ogma) |
| Dartmud will be going down today at 17:00 PST (5PM) and will be down for approximately six hours. At this time, Desla will be doing some major hardware work. He has acquired an industrial strength UPS and will be adding a second server for our test instance of the mud. This will require a certain amount of rewiring. Also at this time, we will be fixing the items problems. See my previous note for details on that. -- Ogma 20-JAN-2007 |
| 294: [Jan 26 2007] Parchment and Vellum (Ogma) |
| There has been a change to the way parchment has been made and vellum has been added. Parchment is made from the split skins of any animal, but usually from sheep or goat skin. What distinguishes parchment from leather is that parchment isn't tanned, but soaked in a lime solution (quicklime). Vellum is a type of fine parchment made from calfskin. |
| 295: [Jan 27 2007] Donation Drive 2007 (Desla) |
| It's that time again! I've invested more into Dartmud's infrastructure, and I'd like your help to defray some of the costs: * New Server. As described above, we now have a second server for all sorts of possible purposes. At the very least, it will allow for upgrades, redundancy, and separation of our test and live environments. Cost to me, $800, but it's also going to be serving as my music and backup fileserver for my personal use. * UPS. I bought a Liebert GXT2-2000RT UPS with a second battery pack which was retired from a defunct company a friend of mine used to work for. Cost to me, $1000. It replaces the prior UPSs, and gives us somewhere around two hours of useful life with the server and required network gear on battery. Additionally, I've purchased a replacement KVM switch and cables, which has allowed me to eliminate a CRT from my office, and a couple of second-hand unmanaged Ethernet switches, for a total of about $2000 new investment in the Dartmud infrastructure. I will post pictures of the equipment and the new rack configuration at dartmud.xnet.org in a day or so, so you can see for yourselves what I've done. Sometime this year, I may be able to add DSL to my house, which would provide a redundant path into the system. I'm still researching this, but it would cost about $40 a month to do this, and probably some set-up costs since my current phone configuration is pretty spaghetti-ish. Thanks for your patience during the items downtime; I expect that we'll be able to provide a stable and enjoyable platform for your gaming in 2007! Desla (Donations via PayPal may be sent to jclemens@jclemens.org; for thoe without PayPal access, contact me for alternatives) |
| 296: [Feb 23 2007] Weapons (Ogma) |
| We've tweaked weapons a little bit. Certain weapons have been made to parry better, so a shield isn't the *only* option. The stiletto has been removed from the rapier sequence and replaced with the poinarde. The stiletto is now it's own kind of weapon. The main gauche has been removed from the longsword sequence and replaced with the cinquedea which should be familiar to some of our older players. The main gauche is now a weapon in its own right, and more true to what the name of the weapon implies. Rapiers and main gauches use swept hilts (or wooden swept hilts) instead of cup hilts. |
| 297: [Mar 07 2007] Staves, Polearms and staff cases (Ogma) |
| As of next reboot, polearms (glaives, halberds, naginatas, tridents, and spears) and staves will no longer fit in baldrics. There is a new item that can hold them called a staff case. Note that the smaller weapons in the staff family (single stick, truncheon and baton) will still go in baldrics, but no longer will id to staff. Staff cases won't be stowed in lockers or on racks until next reboot. |
| 298: [Mar 13 2007] Embroidery (Ogma) |
| You can now embroider an arbitrary label on an item, say a sack, and refer to it by the label and name of the item: e.g. 'amulets sack'. |
| 299: [Mar 20 2007] Metallurgic mayhem - Phase II (Ogma) |
| It's been a little while since the first phase of the metallurgical changes and things seem to have gone smoothly, so it's time for the second phase, taking place as of the next reboot. Rather than tool metals, this phase deals with precious metals: silver, gold, platinum and electrum. When crafted, these metals will now produce ounces of metal instead of one pound ingots. All ingots of precious metal in bins as of the next reboot will be converted into an equal number of ounces automagically. Yes, this effectively reduces your supplies of these metals by a factor of 16. Those are the breaks. This produces a more realistic scarcity of these metals without making it impossible to get. Several items have been changed to use ounces instead of ingots of metal. Hilts, scabbard mountings, keyrings, lockpicks, mirrors to name just a few. There will be a new command 'convert' which will convert a pile of ingots into a pile of ounces and visa versa. It is recommended that you place all metals in bins and close them for the next reboot. Metal left out of bins will not be able to be converted (so don't even think of tossing some precious metal into an armoire, then converting it after reboot to increase your wealth. It won't work.) Ogma |
| 300: [Mar 24 2007] Catgut (Ogma) |
| The formulation for catgut has been changed. See the smithy board in Soriktos for further details. |
| 301: [Mar 25 2007] Transfering Items between Characters (Ogma) |
| It is FORBIDDEN to transfer items between any characters played by the same player. This includes between seconds AND between lifetimes, i.e. if you die and reroll, you may NOT go and 'find' the possessions of your former character, leave the possessions somewhere, suicide and go get them, give them to another player to hold and get them back as after rerolling or any other combination of methods. |
| 302: [Apr 01 2007] Pet brains (Ogma) |
| Some minor modifications to petbrains have been made. You can either retrain your pets or wait until next reboot for them to take effect. |
| 303: [Apr 03 2007] Character Cleanup (Desla) |
| It's time for some spring cleaning! I'm feeling like improving the integrity of our registration database, so I will be doing most/all of the following over the next several weeks: 1) Removing registrations from bannees, so names they used can be reassigned. 2) Deleting old characters who haven't been updated in a year or two. 3) Contacting characters whose ISPs no longer meet our 'no freemailers' rule. If you're currently registered from a freemailer, I encourage you to use the 'change my e-mail' command from the hall of mortals. It will help you avoid waking up in jail, and having to wait there until one of us can update you manually. 4) Removing registrations which don't meet our current standards, if no associated character exists after steps 1-3. 5) Removing characters who've been in jail for more than a month. At the end of all of this, it looks like we'll have a thousand or more inactive names purged, allowing you to be less original in your name selection in the future. Desla |
| 304: [Apr 08 2007] Pet horses (Ogma) |
| Pet horses have been given a little bit of a facelift for the first time since they were released. There are a number of different colors available now, in an almost bewildering variety. The short and long descriptions have been made better, and use somewhat more traditional terminology to describe the horses. If you get confused over the variety of colors, look at the poster on the wall at Hiram or Abdul. They'll also tell you about the various breeds and classes of horse from coursers to palfreys. Ponies and mules have also been given a greater variety of colors, though not quite as much as horses. |
| 305: [Apr 20 2007] Spellbooks and Scrolls (Ogma) |
| As of next reboot the way scrolls and spellbooks are made is being changed to allow for more customized items. Instead of using raw hide and tannic acid they'll use any one of the four papers that we now have for writing notes: parchment, vellum, papyrus or washi. Spellbooks will use 20 sheets of paper, thread and glue for the spine and leather and board for the cover. It will take a bit of sewing skill, a brush, scissors and a needle to assemble them. Scrolls take four sheets of paper and some glue, and a brush and scissors to assemble. There's really no skill involved to make them (except for the skill to make the paper and the glue in the first place). Note that scrolls and spellbooks no longer use tanning skill to make, but you'll find that parchment and vellum take their place in the progression quite nicely. (Also, note again that parchment and vellum use quicklime, not tannic acid to preserve them). |
| 306: [Apr 26 2007] Face paint (Ogma) |
| Planning a war party but have nothing to wear? Well, you too can now paint your face like the Celtic warriors of old! The Celts used blue paint made from woad, but others have used paints made from clay, chalk, plants and other natural materials. The colors available are red, yellow, black, white, green, brown and blue. Once you have some paint, all you need to do is mix it with a little grease (such as tallow) and apply it to your face using the 'paint' command. Once you've slaughtered your enemies, you can 'wash' it off with a bit of water. See 'help paint' and 'help wash' for more details. |
| 307: [May 01 2007] Crashes and Upgrades (Desla) |
| Ogma and I have been unable to determine the causes behind the recent mud crashes. As such, we're going to be taking appropriate actions to try and improve the stability of the game. After a review of the system log files, we have determined that a number of hacking attempts are being launched against Dartmud. We have no reason to believe that any of these are being launched by disgruntled banned players, but that is always a possibility. In light of this, and due to the age of the underlying Fedora Linux operating system, I will be upgrading the system's OS to a current version. I will be working with Teehmar to upgrade the Dartmud.com address records, but if at any point dartmud.com:2525 stops working, feel free to try jclemens.org:2525. We may very well be shifting the mud to the backup host while I reconfigure the existing system. Desla |
| 308: [May 03 2007] Moving the mud... transparently. (Desla) |
| In order to make the mud upgrade as smooth as possible, I will be taking the following steps. 1) Reconfiguring my network so that our new server becomes my primary server and firewall, replacing the Linksys WAP that I'm currently using for this purpose. 2) Moving DartMUD from this current host onto the new server. This will require me to shut us down, copy all files, bring us up on the new host, and set up port forwarding so that it will all work until we get the DNS changed. 3) Gradually moving all other services, almost none of which concern you, onto the new host. 4) Shutting down the old host, which is going to Ogma as a disaster recovery site. As you may remember, the new server is a Core 2 Duo, which is rock-solid stable even with a wee bit of overclocking. You probably won't notice any increase in performance, but it will allow me to use the machine to do more with. Reconfiguring my network in this manner also opens up the possibility of getting a QWest DSL line in as a second interface, so we'll be less subject to ComCast hiccups. Desla |
| 309: [Sep 30 2007] Honey (Ogma) |
| Honey will be changing into an actual liquid as of next reboot. Honeycombs gathered from hives will be liquid containers full of liquid honey, which you may then pour into another container. The empty honeycombs may then be crafted into beeswax ten at a time instead of one at a time. Old 'solid' honey that you might have around will stay that way and will still be usable, however, any old honeycombs you have around will change to empty honeycombs after reboot, so it is recommended that you process any honeycombs before the next reboot. I will be happy to trade large quantities of solid honey for liquid honey, if you bring me amounts in excess of 500 ounces. |
| 310: [Sep 30 2007] Liquid Measures (Ogma) |
| Liquid measures will no longer be expressed in drams. You may still use drams to specify an amount of liquid for pouring and drinking, but tools to measure liquids will not use it. Note that a 'dose' of a potion is usually specified as 1/8th of an ounce or 1 dram. Two new measures have been added. The tablespoon, which is equal to approximately half an ounce (15 drops) and the teaspon which is one third of a tablespoon (5 drops, slightly over a dram). |
| 311: [Oct 13 2007] Spices (Ogma) |
| Generic 'spices' will no longer be sold. For some time, the merchants that sold spices have also sold 'poudre douce' and 'poudre fort', otherwise known as 'sweet powder' and 'strong powder'. Poudre douce is used in dishes that are sweet and poudre fort is used in dishes that are savory. Sting's most recent cookbook lists which of these medieval spice blends any specific recipe uses. Any generic spices that you still have in your bins will work for either, but once it's gone, it's gone. |
| 312: [Oct 17 2007] Rowboats (Ogma) |
| Rowboats now give the occupants of the rowboat a look at the new location whenever the rowboat moves, doing a survey, look or glance in the room that contains the rowboat, as appropriate for the type of room (hex vs. non-hex) and each individual's brief setting. The 'peer' command in rowboats now also obeys your brief setting. This modification has not been put into the dhow yet, but should be as of next erboot. Also, this applies only to newly made rowboats. The boats that were stolen from Westmore and Tobermore probably don't have this modification in them. |
| 313: [Nov 12 2007] Lanterns and cabinets (Ogma) |
| Lanterns have been modified to not spill their contents when placed in a tool cabinet. Also, any lightable such as a lantern, smokepot, candle lantern, or mining helmet will not lose its fuel when placed in a cabinet. The ingredients for lanterns and candle lanterns have been changed. Lanterns require wick, metal and horn. Candle lanterns require metal and horn. |
| 314: [Nov 27 2007] Herding (Ogma) |
| A new command, 'breed', has been added to herding. This command lets you set a target size for the herd after which the males and females will be separated so the herd doesn't grow in size. See 'help breed' Note: You might have to log out and back in for this to work. |
| 315: [Jan 01 2008] Happy New Year (Ogma) |
| The new year brings a new set of skill descriptions, so don't have a heart attack if it seems you might have lost skills. This is a very simple modification to revert, so it may last for a single reboot, or it may last longer. Give it a shot. New Skill Levels (Old skill level) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Unskilled Tyro A Novice A Beginner Poor Not Very Good Below Average Average Above Average Able Fair Proficient Good Adroit Very Good Excellent An Expert Superb A Master Eminent (One of the Best) An Adept Renowned (One of the Very Best) A High Master A Champion (Second to None) A Virtuoso A Grandmaster (Legendary) Legendary (As Good As Anyone Who Ever Lived) |
| 316: [Mar 14 2008] Metallurgical Mayhem - Phase III (Ogma) |
| Coming this reboot is the third and final phase of the metallurgical changes that are being implemented. This change actually makes changes to the metallurgy learning progression and eliminates some alloys and metals in favor of more actual pre-Industrial technology. The following changes will occur: - Alum will require a mortar and pestle, a forge and a crucible, instead of a mill, as alum is produced by calcination (heating to drive off water). - Metallic zinc will be eliminated. Lead already takes its place in the learning progression. - Copper is no longer a tool metal, it is too ductile, but was the only metal below iron that was even halfway suitable. - Tin bronze is being replaced by an alloy called potin, a bronze alloy containing lead which melts at a lower temperature than bronze, so is easier to cast. - Bronze and potin will now come before iron in metalurgical difficulty and iron will be a bit more difficult to craft. Bronze will be the least difficult tool metal. - The brasses will be made using zinc ore instead of metallic zinc in the process actually used before the Industrial Age known as calamine brass. - Brown brass has been eliminated and yellow brass is now just brass, to eliminate the redundant name. - Titan bronze, which was an alloy of copper, tin and zinc, is replaced by latten, a similar alloy used historically for plate, plaques, and certain pieces of armor. It's classed as a brass and is the most difficult of the brasses. - Platinum is gone. Its position in the learning progression is already provided by cast iron. - Steel can now only be produced using charcoal instead of either coal or charcoal as before. - The formula for dragon metal was changed before, but now you need to use the name dragon metal to craft it, instead of just dragon. - silver, sterling silver, shakudo and shibuichi remain largely unchanged. - Gold now requires 20 chunks to produce 5 ounces instead of 10 chunks, making it even more appropriately rare. Note that existing stocks of metallic zinc and platinum will remain. Zinc will not be usable for brass, but you could make vials out of it. Platinum ore will be absolute garbage after the reboot, so use it or lose it. Ogma |
| 317: [Apr 08 2008] Draft Oxen (Ogma) |
| You may notice draft oxen hanging around in certain places around the world. These animals are trained to help you haul loads. You will need a wooden ox yoke to rig them with so a wagon can be hitched to them. They have been trained to respond to the commands "git" to join your party and "whoa" to leave your party. Draft oxen are not to be confusd with wild oxen. Draft oxen are domesticated bulls that have been castrated and trained. A wild ox is a member of either sex of the ancestral species to domesticated cattle. They tend to be rather ornery. |
| 318: [Jul 05 2008] Rayst (Ogma) |
| Rayst has been banned, after *numerous* botting offenses over several characters and after receiving many complaints from other players. Other, lesser punishments have not changed his behavior, including a few months in a cell. He's worn out his chances. |
| 319: [Jul 17 2008] notake and pouring (Ogma) |
| Pouring liquids into someone else's cup should now obey the notake exceptions lists. (see help set notake). |
| 320: [Aug 17 2008] Mato, Calikura, Consanguine (Ogma) |
| Mato, Calikura and COnsanguine have been deleted and banned for multiple violations of OOC communications and multiplaying rules. |
| 321: [Aug 20 2008] Contacting Ogma via email (Ogma) |
| I can be contacted via email at ogma@dartmud.com, however, I get in excess of 200 pieces of spam per day. If you do send me email be sure to include the word 'Dartmud' in the subject so I don't just send it to the trash. |
| 322: [Sep 07 2008] Contacting Ogma. (Ogma) |
| Due to Comcast being complete putzes, we can no longer receive email sent to the dartmud.com domain. It seems they claim we were sending out spam so they blocked *incoming* email. In any event, the best way to contact me now is either mudmail or through a private message on the forums at dartmud.xnet.org. Ogma |
| 323: [Jun 30 2009] cord and leather thongs (Ogma) |
| Cord can now be crafted from string and leather thong can be crafted from leather. These items are now used for crafting certain things such as talismans, whistles and threshers. Cords and leather thongs are interchangeable. |
| 324: [Jul 01 2009] Changes in Inks and Sealing Wax (Ogma) |
| See the Soriktos smithy board for details. |
| 325: [Jul 02 2009] Dyes and Textiles (Ogma) |
| We have done a major revision to dyes. Firstly, all dyes now produce 6 ounces of dye instead of 1 or 2 ounces. Ingredients consumed have been increased by a commensurate amount. Secondly, many dyes have been reformulated and new plantstuffs have been made gatherable and or farmable. Thirdly, we have added several new shades such as cream, teal, mauve and coral. The book "Dying for Dyes" has been fully updated with all formulas, so look for it on your local library shelf. Textiles have undergone a minor change. All types now produce 5 square feet of cloth, the size of a dye batch. Certain types now use 2 bushels of fiber, but they should all produce batches that are more easily dyed. |
| 326: [Sep 22 2010] Accusations, Rumors and Gossip (Ogma) |
| If you suspect someone of violating the rules of Dartmud, unless it is botting (which can be handled quite directly), you should report your suspicions and any evidence you might have to a creator. We will investigate and handle it. After you have reported it, you should forget about it and play like it didn't happen. Do not go around spreading rumors or gossip about this person either IC or OOC. Spreading unsubstantiated allegations of cheating about a person or persons is as much metagaming as any behavior you might suspect them of. Just don't do it. Gossip is poisonous, OOC gossip even more so. Ogma |
| 327: [Mar 07 2011] Forges (Ogma) |
| As of next reboot forges will be somewhat different. When first lit, they will be at low temperature and you will have to pump them up to operating temperature (about 3 pumps). This will be good for about one crafting at minimum operating temperature. At full temperature (about 5 pumps), it will be good for about 20 craftings before you need to pump it up more. |
| 328: [Mar 26 2011] Dartmud Changing Hosts (Ogma) |
| Desla has come to a point in his life that he feels that he cannot efffectively host Dartmud on his home connection. We have made arrangeents to host Dartmud at another location, but since Dartmud is running on one of Desla's computers, we will have to get a new dedicated system. We will have to install LInux on the system, and load up a copy of the mud. This part should be transparent to the users of Dartmud. After we've tested it for some period of time, we will have to shut down the mud on Desla's server, transfer the most current data, bring it back up on the new server and change the dartmud.com NSL to point to the right system. This may take a few hours. I expect this shutdown and transfer to happen sometime in early May. Fortunately, because of Moore's law, we should be able to get an off the shelf system from Costco for about $4-500 dollars that will run the mud easily. While this is affordable, I'd appreciate it if this amount wasn't completely out of pocket for the creators. Donations can always be made via PayPal to jclemens@jclemens.org -- Ogma |
| 329: [Aug 14 2011] Characters deleted/sitebanned (Cypher) |
| Characters deleted/sitebanned The following characters have been deleted and sitebanned for violations of Dartmud rules: Mika Relfis Heinrich |