Aardwolf MUD Blog

Six new goals in total in this update. Two in areas that have been replaced for copyright reasons, and 4 new goals in existing areas.

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New Area and Goal - House of Cards (replacing Courts of Chaos):

James, a traveling gambler, has been missing in action for quite some time now. Although there is no reason to fear for his safety, one wonders where he is and what he is up to.

Prepare yourself to enter a world where the gambler is king and the kings are cards. Where the games come to life and life is one big game. Have some fun in the house of cards.

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New Area and Goal - Winterlands (replacing Winterfell):

Winterlands lies in the frozen hills of Gelidus. It is a peaceful place with the usual lords, ladies, and occassional royalty stopping by for a visit. Life at the keep is never dull what with weddings being planned and the stories to be heard from its residents. There are secrets in Winterlands, secrets that become more obvious after wandering the halls of the keep. What are the relations between the people of Winterlands and the ever present direwolves?

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New Goal - The Misty Shores of Yarr:

There are whispers in darkened corners of taverns all around Aardwolf. From the Dragon Sea to the Western Ocean ships have been disappearing, leaving no trace of the cargo or passengers they were carrying. The kingdoms of Aardwolf claim there is no cause for alarm, but those who frequent the docks think otherwise. Warships laden with cannons have set sail from all the major ports. None of them have been seen returning either. The trade companies have tripled their prices to afford the heavily armed mercenaries they’ve hired to protect their cargo. Those who live by the sea now shutter their windows even on warm, calm evenings and none but the most brave and foolhardy sail the seas these days. There is one word common to all the tongues that whisper in those darkened corners…Pirates.

The pirates have created a contest between several of the pirate captains. The smuggler is betting on one to win and would like your help in winning his wager. Will you help him?

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New Goal - The Flying Citadel:

Since the beginning of time, the forces of light and dark have battled. Many years have passed and no one is quite sure why anymore. The light side blames the dark for their evil ways and uncaring attitudes. The dark side blames the light for their easy going, happy-go-lucky ways. Only one person can truly sort all this out. Malcrom has been trying to determine who is truly to blame for centuries. All he lacks are the stories from each side, but he is stuck in the clouds and cannot retrieve the stories from each. Once he gets both sides of the story, surely he will be able to figure out who started it all.

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New Goal - Deathtrap Dungeon:

The Overlord has imprisoned his people in a dungeon, and is obsessed with destroying the rangers. Once they are destroyed, he will turn to the next group and destroy them too. The other masters are turning a blind eye to this destruction because the Overlord is lining their pockets with gold. Outsiders have nicknamed the dungeon the Deathtrap Dungeon because no one is expected to escape alive. These people need a hero. Will you be that hero?

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New Goal - Eternal Autumn:

Far to the west, past the domain of men, a deep and permanent autumn has settled on the land. The trees stand half-dead and barren, hostage to the constant chill in the air. Streams and creeks flow slowly, their water-ways clogged with leaves. The inhabitants of the land wait, and hope, for a new beginning - a new summer. But year after year, this summer has not come. Though the landscape blazes with autumn red, orange, and gold, these vibrant colours betray the desolation within. Under the beauty is a sickness which threatens to bring the lands into ruin. There are whispers that the fallen lord Fetch, an ancient sorceror, is the source of the unholy blight, his corrupt magic choking the last vestiges of life from the earth.

After a couple of months absence caused by a perfect storm of real life issues, things are moving again. Sorry it has been so long since the last upgrade, but we’re past that now. The main change in this reboot was some behind the scenes code to allow area keywords to be changed without having to shut down the mud for 30 minutes to run update scripts. As a result of that, the following areas/goals are now live:

Conveted Area and Goal - Imperial Nation:

The Star Wars area has been replaced with Imperial Nation. As this is a conversion of an existing area for copyright reasons rather than a new area or an area replacement, you should notice the following:

• Your explored in the area remains the same.
• Any items you had in Starwars will convert to the equivalent items in Imperial Nation.
• Any portals you had to Starwars should now go to the equivalent room in Imperial Nation.
• If you quit in starwars, or have a cp mob in it, they should have become the equivalent rooms/mobs in imperial nation.

The information on the goal itself is:

The Imperial Nation is ruled by Emperor Paliste. He maintains his rule
with the help of the Seven and the creations of the Mad Scientist. Under
his tyranical rule, pain and suffering have become a way of life . Now
a rebellion has formed. Are you willing to help overthrow the Imperial
Nation, and bring peace back to the lands?

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New Goal - Curse of the Midnight Fens:

You stand before a great swamp, spreading out wide over the distance before
you. Carefully continuing onward you venture into the darkest, most
ominous section of the swamp. A sudden feeling of dread overcomes you,
and a deep coldness surrounds you. A loud voice booms, ‘You cannot break
the curse, these souls all belong to me!’ A heavy presence fills the air,
a noise behind you! No! There in front of you! Beside you! You whirl to
face the movement but nothing. ‘Muhahaha! You silly fool, you cannot
defeat me! I am the blackness, the shadows, and nothing at all. Beg me for
a quick death and join the other cursed beings in my domain!’ Drawing your
sword you shout a vow to make this fiend bleed before your death. Laughter
greets you, and two strange billowy forms confront you. One carries a
strange blade of shadow while the other clasps its hands together, long
claws showing. ‘Come, give in to your death and join us brother, the pain
will not last…’ Swinging wildly, your blade meets nothing, a sharp blow
caresses your head, and darkness comes swiftly.

Various creatures of the fens have spread their tokens out amongst the
others in the hopes of gathering help for their plight. Will you be the
one to break the curse?

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New Goal - Amazon Nation:

Long ago the Amazon nation was at war with the centaurs. The three
greatest Amazons stood side by side in the battle. Solari wielded the time
staff in combat at Queen Melosa’s side. By brandishing the artifact,
Solari was able to stop time for a moment. Then Jules focused the power of
the aqua mirror onto the attacking centaurs. The attack damaged the
creatures, and Queen Melosa used the time to throw the pearl of wisdom
high into the air. A searing white light filled the battlefield, and when
it subsided, their enemies were gone; but so were the Amazon’s greatest
artifacts. Years have passed and the artifacts remain missing. The Amazon
nation still searches for these items to help their nation grow in
strength. Will you help them recover their missing artifacts?

I recently did a Question and Answers session with Wes Platt (AKA Brody) for the MUDdy Hobo blog. For those of you that listened to Rezit’s radio interview, there is still some new stuff in here, but not quite as much:

Lasher / Aardwolf Interview at MUDdy Hobo

New Area and Goal - The Stuff of Shadows:

When death looms large; and light grows dim; when the chill air steals the last breaths from your lungs; and eternal night closes in — a shadow of death flickers into being. It is slight and fleeting, its stuff as insubstantial as shadows of light and dark, and soon it drifts apart like curls of smoke. And yet. There are rumors, as shifting and subtle as the shadows themselves, that there are those who can see and catch shadows of death, and collect, cut, and shape them. If so, their arcane techniques are closely guarded. Nobody knows who they are, or where they come from, or what they do with the shadows they catch. They are steeped in secrecy so deep it has become a virulent contagion: plots writhe within plots, ayers of concealment accrete upon layers. The twisted thread of rumor connects these deathly shadow masters with a prosperous bank in a major city. And as far as a name, there is only the “Umbrambuler” — one who walks in shadow.

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New Goal - Insanitaria:

Many years ago, an asylum was opened for all who were afflicted of mind or body. The Nispeung, together with a very famous wizard named Salin Sutrovld, forsook their nomadic lifestyle and settled in the wilderness to help those in need of their care.

No one was awake when the Order came… and few survived the night. Their leader, Seb Ligalt, wrought havoc and chaos to surpass the most terrifying tales of evil. They killed many, and the rest they imprisoned or enchanted to use in their pursuit of forbidden knowledge.

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New Goal - The Empire of Talsa:

Have you ever wanted a career in the airlines? Wanted to be a pilot, or a captain, maybe an admiral? Polaris Star Airlines is always looking for a few good people and there are plenty of opportunities for advancement. There is an airship doing business in the Empire of Talsa right now! Go on board, find out if you can rise to your greatest potential.

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New Soldier Ability - Flank:

With their advanced knowledge of combat tactics, soldiers have the ability to flank an exit. While a soldier has an exit flanked, it is very difficult for an opponent to flee or retreat through that exit. A soldier can only focus on one exit at a time, but multiple soldiers in a room can each flank a different exit.

The chances of an opponent being able to retreat through a flanked exit are determined by strength and dexterity. Because the soldier has the upper hand in a flanking situation, having higher stats then them does not ensure any level of success - it just makes it more likely.

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New Priest Ability - Haven:

Priests are able to use their holy abilities to create a temporary haven in a room, making it somewhat safer. The effect of this spell depends on the status of the room it is used in:

• If the room is entrapped, the trap is removed but the room itself does not get a haven effect.
• If the room is PK, the PK flag is temporarily removed but can still be put back via entrap.
• If the room is not PK, the room cannot be entrapped while the Haven effect is active.

While the Haven affect is active on a room that room is not considered a PK room. This does not mean no PK at all - usually rules apply. For example, you can still attack a (WANTED) player just as you would be able to in any other standard room.

The haven duration and recovery times are based on the caster’s wisdom and luck.

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New Priest Ability - Holy Shield:

Priests are able to summon the good in their holy power to protect other good aligned players within their party from the effects of Desecration.

When cast, this spell will add an affect that resists unholy influences to all good aligned players in the priests group. The main effect of this is that the holy shield spell causes desecration to be ignored. It also adds some resistance to shadow and negative damage.

Duration and Recovery time are determined by wisdom and luck. The duration is shorter than desecration and the recovery time is longer. If there is nobody in the group able to receive a holy shield, the recovery timer is not added.

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Other MUD changes this reboot - February 24th 2009:

• As announced on Jan 22nd (Announce note #842) the Keepall wish is now 7,000qps and adjustments costs on wishes have been lowered by anything from 20-40%. There will be no refunds for past purchases and there are no further reductions planned, so no need to worry about buying a wish now then it lowering later. Not to say that there won’t ever be any, but none are planned and if that changes, notice will be given.
• Output is now combined for sacrifice, works same as the other combined outputs except total gold is shown. Output is also combined for keep/unkeep.
• You will no longer ‘autoshare’ gold received from sacrificing. Necessary to be able to combine output.
• Ouput is now combined for ’sell all’. Note that haggle and clantax messages are also combined with just a total shown, so if you have the ‘quietsell’ config option set to reduce spam, you might want to turn it back off to see these messages. Sell is the most complex of these so far and ‘fence’ will be very similar, so will let sell get tested out before converting fence.
• It is no longer possible to wake other player’s pets using ‘wake’.
• Fixed the ‘You get You are carrying too many items…’ message when trying to take items out of a container on the floor.
• ‘Scan .’ now works again as an abbreviation for ’scan here’.
• Dual Wield will now improve a little quicker than it did. It *is* still a slow skill to improve.
• It is now possible to resonate keys, but they can’t get stats.
• Adding the ‘check’ option to spellup will show the spells that WOULD be cast rather than actually casting them.
• Changed the fail messages on protection good/evil when trying to cast the other spell.
• There is a new room flag that prevents items from being dropped in the room. It is currently set at Aylor recall and Aard Hotel. Builders please note, this was not added as a wake to make mazes impossible to navigate and shouldn’t be used for that. It is to help with spam in high traffic areas.
• Stats for ‘Holy Intervention’ is now Int+Con not Str+Con.
• There is a new object flag ‘restrung’ that will show in identify. From this point forward, when an imm strings an item that flag will be set. It cannot be set going back because many item descriptions change while the version of the item you have keeps its original description, particularly with clan items. So, we can’t just compare the item you have to the item in the editor.
• With this change in, it is now possible to restring clan items. Usual rules / costs apply.

Your thoughts are appreciated, as always.

New Goal - Canyon Memorial Hospital

A cold icy trail has been packed into the deep snow through the mountains. Passing through the deep mountains. On your way there you notice odd folk who seem to not belong in this cold frigid wasteland. Passing by the many on the path the conversations are not what you would expect. Many seem to be in pain or need a healer. The passing travelers speak of a place which has healers who care not from where you came or what is wrong. They speak of an icy emergency room for those badly wounded. Some of the talk speaks of needing gold or insurance, for like many things in this world, not much is without a price.

Canyon Memorial Hospital is looking for additional nurses to help out around the hospital. If you feel you have the skills and ability, perhaps you should apply.

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New Goal - Takeda’s Warcamp:

As Lord Takeda prepares for war, warriors and soldiers aren’t the only things preparing.

Plots and rumours have reared their heads. Prepare your swords and mind to help Lord Daimyo keep his throne.

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New Goal - Raganatittu:

The villagers of Raganatittu have prayed to their gods for help; help against disease, and help against the dangerous creatures that compete for their niche in the jungle between the Raganatittu River and the mountain ranges to the east. It appears that their prayers may be answered. Ganesha, the elephant god has arrived in the village. Will help arrive from an unlikely quarter?

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New Harmer Ability - Desecration:

Harmers are able to use a darker side of their holy magic to surround themselves with an aura of dread. The power of this aura is so great that it interferes with the protective value of a white aura of sanctuary. Any attack made by a harmer using desecration will significantly reduce the level of protection provided by sanctuary on the target. The amount of reduction is based on the wisdom of the harmer.

When fighting mobs, harmers with extremely high wisdom may find that sanctuary is ignored completely. When fighting other players, it is not quite completely ignored, but gets very close.

The recovery time when casting desecration reduces as the Harmers wisdom and luck increase.

Note: Mobs with sanctuary tend to have more exp because (A) they are killed less and (B) there is also a 10-15% base bonus for mobs that repop with sanctuary.

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New Guardian Ability - Safeguard:

Guardians have the ability to safeguard another character. If a character being safeguarded is attacked while their Guardian is in the room, the Guardian will automatically rescue them. If the character attacking the safeguarded character aims back to them, the Guardian will continue to automatically rescue them for as long as the Safeguard affect is up.

How quickly the Guardian rescues the target and the duration of the Safeguard affect are determined by the Guardians intellect and constitution.

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Other MUD changes this reboot - February 3rd 2009:

• The cleric changes to multicast are no longer affected by int, it is now wisdom only.
• The ranger spell ‘Summon Life’ is now level 14. However, your effective level (for tiers, level at which you can cast) has to be at least the same level as the minimum level of an area to summon life in it.
• There is a new syntax to ’scan’ - using ’scan [filter]‘ will show only mobs with that name. The directions and ‘here’ still override the filter.
• When you try to flee and a player with blockexit is in the way, you will find it harder to escape when their dex is significantly higher than yours. This may need tweaking further in either direction. Blockexit should not be 100%, but when there is a huge stat difference it should take a few rounds on average.
• It is no longer possible to flee from Terminate or Backstab damage.
• There is a change to drop, get and put so that when you move multiple copies of the same item, output will be combined.
  
  Inventory has worked this way for a while, but that is the most simple scenario - you are simply viewing a list of inventory, there is no echo to anyone else in the room, no secondary messages (such as ‘A flaky items crumbles to dust’) and we always know who the viewer is. Once this has been in use a while and is working ok I will expand it to cover give, sell, sacrifice, etc.

New Area and Goal - The Fire Swamp:

Through a deadly valley pass between two cliffs lies the even deadlier Fire Swamp. The swamp itself is home to amazing creatures as well as many perils. How the swamp got its name is not so surprising, but the everlasting war between the fire and water of the swamp continues on. Currently, the river holds sway over the land, but the fire lizards that call this place home want to turn it over to their namesake. If you wish to help the fire lizards, seek out the will-o’-the-wisp.

New Goal - The Fables City of Stone:

The fabled city of stone is under siege. You must choose if your destiny will be one of good or evil. Choose wisely which side you will aid in the coming battle. Spies run rampant, and turncoats are around every corner. So which will you choose.

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Spellup and Forgetskill Commands:


The code for the built in ’spellup’ command has been made a little smarter:

• Skills can be considered ’same as’, so it will only attempt to cast one of them (default order is by skill#). For example, on this port sanctuary and biofeedback are considered the same. I’m sure some spells that should be flagged were missed in this, so please post as necessary on bugs.
• Skills/spells can be flagged as setting an affect and will not be cast by ’spellup’ if you already have that affect. Sanctuary is a good example of this.
• It will now handle skills. I have to set the command name on those skills where the command does not exactly match the name, otherwise they should be good to go.

There is a new command calls ‘forgetskill’ (forgetspell) also works. You can use this to add/remove a list of up to 30 skills and spells that will be considered ‘forgotten’. A ‘forgotten’ skill:

• Will not be auto-cast by the spellup command.
• Will not appear in ‘practice’ - does still show in ‘learned’.
• Will not show in the ’skills’ and ’spells’ command unless ‘all’ option is used.
• When they DO show in skills/spells, will show in blue.

One way to use this, for example if you have protection good and evil and want your spellup command always to use prot good, simply put protection evil on the list. This isn’t necessary in reverse because they are already flagged mutually exclusive for ’spellup’ and it defaults to protection evil first.

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Other MUD changes this reboot - December 22nd 2008:

• The Tree of Life area has an extension that will be particularly interesting to Necromancers.
• The max trains you can get while gaining a level (ie, not a powerup) has been increased. On average, going from 1 to 201 will yield around 20% more trains.
• Land of the Fire Newts has been removed - it was a stock area.
• When testing for ’saves’ versus a spell, the affect of STR on the part of the caster and the affect of CON on the victim has been reduced. This will make int/wis more important in whether or not a spell is saved while Con (target) and Str (attacker) now have about the same affect as luck. Level difference also now counts for less which is either good or bad depending what you’re attacking.
• Whenever a spell is cast on you, there is a strength of the spell associated with it which factors into how hard it is to cancel/cure. Whenever you try to cure one of these spells and fail, the strength of the spell is reduced, so eventually you will succeed. This is just some background info. The change is that the amount of reduction on each failed cast has been doubled. Unlike the curative change, this one DOES apply to dispels - so each time someone fails to dispel you the amount the spells are weakened is higher. Overall effect is that this change has no affect on the first time you try to cancel/cure/dispel, but will make subsequent attempts increasingly easier.
• Casting curative spells on yourself such as dissolve will be harder to succeed while in combat. No change out of combat.
• Made a couple of changes to the ‘owned’ command:
  • If an item is in a container, and you are carrying it, owned will show the container rather than the area.
  • If an item you’re carrying is not in a container, nothing is shown you (hopefully) already know the area you’re in.
  • If an item is on the floor, the room name is shown in red.
• Note numbers will now wrap at 999,999 instead of 99,999. Not a big deal, more preparation for a bigger change. The number of lines in a note is now shown in note list as it used to be in V2.
• When an item has the magic flag, it cannot be created with major/minor creation. Sometimes items get into the game without the magic flag that should have it, and when the base item is fixed, existing copies of the item already in the game are not always caught. Major/Minor creation will now check if the base item as well as the instance of an item you are carrying has the magic flag.
• Reduced the lag on the ‘heal’ command a little.

Feedback always welcome, not sure if anyone is even still reading this.

Important MUD changes this reboot - December 30th 2008:

In addition to the changes listed below, an important player file update was made this reboot. Objects, rooms and skills are now stored in compressed format. This has been heavily reviewed on the test port but please let us know of any issues. Compressing files this way will allow us to store more pfile info in the future by lowering overall disk i/o - disk access is currently out largest bottleneck.

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New Necromancer Subclass Ability - Zombify:

The necromancer spell ‘zombify’ can be used to corrupt the soul of mobs, effectively turning them undead. Once a mob has been zombified, the necromancer bonuses from spells such as strike undead, blast undead and necrocide will work against those targets. This spell does not work against players, clan guards or mobs already undead. The save is based on shadow damage type, so mobs immune to shadow are also immune to zombify.

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New Priest Subclass Ability - Pray for Absolution:

There is a new priest spell called ‘pray for absolution’. For an appropriate tithe, a priest can cast this at any time and be forgiven for their sins. For a cost of 25 gold for each point of alignment shift, the priest’s alignment will be set to 2500.

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New Harmer Subclass Ability - Pray for Damnation:

There is a new harmer spell called ‘pray for damnation’. The harmers god demands payment in blood rather than gold. If the caster does not have enough health to sacrifice, their prayers are ignored. For a cost of 5 hit points per alignment shift, the harmer’s alignment will be set to -2500. This means that only larger players can move from 2500 to -2500 as it requires a 25,000 hp sacrifice.

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Other code changes this reboot

• Have modified the Psi skill ‘timeshifting’ so that it doesn’t block the Timeshift dodge, but approximately halves its success rate. Timeshifting is under-appreciated, the lowered lag on ALL commands (including attacks) really can make a difference over time.
• The Knight subclass no longer has any lag on a successful charge.
• After casting Eye of Warning or using Entrap, a character will have a 5 minute ‘noquit’ affect. When the game is rebooting or an ice-age is pending, these events override the ‘noquit’ affect and allow you to quit anyway.
• Clan guards have been changed a little:
  • Their stats are now even, wis/con and luck are no longer lower than other stats.
  • Their primary class is random, so is their subclass within their primary class.
  • Their actual stat amounts are no longer randomized (although it was only ever within a +/- 10% range. This is not apply to hp, mana or moves - they are still random within a range similar to the old ‘dice’ ranges.
• Increased the effectiveness of the ’sharp’ flag some.
• Tell triggers and speech triggers will now ignore the following characters: ! . ‘ ” ; , . This includes the speechexact and tellexact triggers. The exception is where a prog has an “all” trigger and then the builder is doing the speech compare within the prog itself. This means that, for example, if a trigger is ‘leave!’ then ‘leave’ or ‘leave.’ will also trigger it. The question mark was intentionally left out of this.
• Fixed a bug in spell fail tags - spells such as inertial barrier that can only be cast on self would report an {sfail} tag with the second parameter implying it had been cast on another.

This reboot brings in two completely new areas and accompanying goals, along with a handful of code changes. For players getting their Aardwolf news from the blog exclusively, please note that Santa has also made a visit and will be handing out gifts in Aylor for the next few days. There is also news further down on the merging of the test and building ports.

New Area and Goal - Realm of Deneria:

The small province of Deneria, was founded by settlers from the royal state of Fal’Shara. Many years ago, they left their previous home to avoid the invasion of the Artificiers. They finally found a nice place to settle, and the realm of Deneria was born. After some time had passed, many things popped up: The church of Miad’Bir, the druids to the south, and the secretive order of the Nuril. It was shortly after Ceol came into power that strange things started happening. People were dying, many violent creatures (such as kobolds, orcs and goblins) had invaded the forests, and an amythest dragon moving in. Things weren’t right, and suspicion was laid on Ceol.

New Area and Goal - Ketu Uplands:

Past the scarred autumn lands lies a place in turmoil. The nomadic Ketu people have wandered the cliffs and uplands for generation, making camp where they will, never staying for long. But the blight of the autumn lands has slowly begun to seep north eating at the trees, twisting and transforming it into something disgusting. Meanwhile, a great evil has migrated into the caverns, shaking the rock with its piercing cry. Its presence has brought others, lured in by its call and the prospect of blood.

The Ketu are becoming fewer in number. At first, they were safe in their uplands, free from the evil lurking below. But increasingly, the monsters become more and more brazen, staging attacks and raids on the Ketu encampments. As their people dwindle, they face a difficult decision: stay, and risk destruction; or leave, and allow their ancestral lands to fall to ruin.

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Other MUD changes this reboot - December 22nd 2008:

• There are some changes to setwanted, mostly related to non-pk players using it. If you setwanted someone and you are unclanned or in a non-pk clan, you will receive a new affect that allows others to use setwanted on you for a period of 24 hours. This does not apply when you use setwanted on someone you already have revenge on, or when you use setwanted on yourself.

You can see players who have this affect using ‘who setwanted’. It does not show regular clanned players who can always be setwanted.

• The first free superhero is now a ‘quiet’ superhero. If someone particularly wants to pay for it to trigger double exp they can still use ’superhero loud’. The banner for a first time superhero has changed slightly to reflect this.

Builder/immortal related changes:

• ‘Who builder’ now works.
• Mpdump now shows the program code with line numbers. To see the prog without numbers, append the argument ‘nolines’.
• The ‘mptriggers’ command now shows the new trigger types.

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News on combining builder and test ports:
We are finally ready to start combining the building and test ports. All edit commands on the builder’s port are about to be disabled. If you have an area on the builder’s port that you are actively working, please contact me to arrange for the area to be moved to the test port.

The builder’s port tends to get neglected and usually has fewer people around to ask for help with lua and general building. As there are more people around on the test port, and the test port gets lua/building fixes before anywhere else, hopefully this will make things a little easier for the builders.

It also makes it easier to bring areas live as there we will only have to be concerned with keeping things in sync between two ports, not 3. Then there’s the obvious benefit of running one less copy of the MUD on the server.

If you have an inactive area that you’re interested in picking up again if there are more people around to ask for help then drop us a note on personal.


As always, your feedback, comments and questions on this update are welcomed.

It’s been a while since our last reboot due to some “offline” issues consuming available time. Things are moving again now and 7 new goals came live today. There will also a few code changes, skip to the end of the post if you’re only interested in those:

The Old Cathedral:

The senior priest of the old cathedral, Aaron, is old and weak. He doesn’t
get around as well as he would wish. There are beings who would like to
takeover the cathedral for their own warped purposes. Although the reward
for a good deed done well may be a well done good deed…Aaron might be
able to reward the faithful who helps him.

Qong:

Qong! Is it country or creature? Or the sound of a gong? Perhaps you
have heard it in legend and song? If you find yourself lost on a sparkling
sea, and a gigantic shadow falls upon thee, well then look up and see.
Climb into the citadel, floating over the waves, and unravel the ruler from
rabble and slaves. Solve the riddle of Qong and welcome the day when all of
its wealth is a short wok away.

Who is the true big cheese in Qong? Is it Qong? Is it Jack? Take a spin
with a salesman through Qong, find the big cheese, and then return to him
again with a savory morsel of a similar substance to achieve your goal.

Lake Sen’narre:

The tritons of Sen’narre Lake are an old race. They understand the waters
like no one else. There is much to learn from them, and the elder is happy
to talk to visitors. In your quest for knowledge, you can put his teachings
to use as you explore the rest of the lake and surrounding land. But do not
neglect the other water-dwellers, for the simplest of creatures may
sometimes reveal ancient secrets, even without the aid of speech.

ShadowLands:

Beyond the vast wastelands that are the Shadowlands, the clans of Rokugan
gather in their camps, planning their next move against the evil army of
Fu-Leng.

Ye Ronins, warriors without daimyo, return to your home, and find a place
once again amongst your people.

Council of the Wyrm (1):

Ages ago, in a lost era, Aldanon, the death dragon and his minions ruled the
world through terror and fear while Abazel, the Great Demon unleashed his
creations upon the world. The creatures of good rose against the forces
of evil and sealed them in the Council of Wyrm. There to remain contained
until heroes could destroy them. All the heroes to date have failed. Do you
think you’re ready to become a hero?

Council of the Wyrm (2):

A good dragon is rumored to have been trapped within the Council of Wyrm.
After coming to Wyrm to help destroy the evil, and bring peace to the land,
the dragon was trapped. Help the dragon escape the evil of Wyrm if you choose.

But be warned, it won’t be quick or easy.

The Den of Thieves:

On one of your adventures into the town of Dortmund you hear some
nice gossip going around. They say the tunnel under the mountain is
finally finished and open for business. Not one to miss out, you
decide to go check it out for yourself. Upon arrival you see quite
a few toll workers, yet all signs read that the toll is optional.
You decide not to spare any change until you see what was built and
on that note you step inside. Within the cold walls are various
travelers and surprisingly, a large amount of thieves. Too many
for your taste as you can feel your gold grow lighter. You decide to
find out who runs this tunnel system and head for the office. When
you arrive you come face to face with the notorious thief, Jumpsteady.
Now realizing you stumbled on nothing less than the thief stronghold
you flee as fast as you can from this place

Do you dare to travel the tunnels the thieves claim. Face the
legend that is Jumpsteady and see how it all began. Watch the events
that unfolded years before the Killing Fields incident. The invasion,
the battle, the loss. Learn the true origins here, and the coming
of the Lotus Saga, if you dare…

Help Wanted

The Den Of Thieves, or as Aylor likes to call it, the Marsh and
Dragon Road Tunnel System is hosting a parade for the great Ivar. The
man who is organizing this event is shrouded in great mystery. He seeks
your help in making sure the thieves don’t spoil his grand celebration.

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Other MUD changes this reboot - December 6th 2008:

• Using ‘tell -h’ will no longer reset your ‘replay’ counter. This was causing problems because if you did ‘tell -h 2′ with 5 tells outstanding, the other three might never be seen.
• Have extended the amount of time that notes survive on most boards. Personal is now 28 days (was 14). Ideas/feedback went from 30 to 60. Some of the less ’serious’ boards went from 10 days to 30 days.
• You can no longer get a defender flag if you are in the clan that is being raided.
• You cannot take or use items owned by others when they are online, but you can if they are not in the game (to give friends a chance to rescue equipment etc). There was a bug in that if you made yourself unable to see the person online, the code acted as if they were offline allowing you to take/use the item. Now fixed.

Classchange command:
There is a new option to classchange. Adding ‘noskills’ anywhere in the command will do the following:

• Skills that you have in both classes will NOT be reset.
• You receive no practices.

This basically results in loss of practices put into skills in your current class that you will not have in your new class, but does remove the need to repractice everything in the new class. After chatting with a few people it seems this option / idea is more popular than I thought.

Imagine that playing Aardwolf is your job. Part of your performance review and salary is based on how well you interact with the other employees.

How would you treat people differently if that were true? Would you still act the way you do today with everyone you meet in Aardwolf? Could it still be fun if you had to give your “co-workers” a little common courtesy?

No? So how much could you change while still enjoying the game?

Give it a try, if enough people do, Aardwolf will be a better place. If everyone does, the internet will be a better place.

Don’t like this idea? Then d00d ur t3h sux!