Several new goals added this reboot:

The Storm Ships of Dem-Lagor:
Long ago, a series of volcanic eruptions created a tiny group of islands in the sea of Lem-Dagor. In time, these islands became rich and fertile, and finally, home to a race of sailing folk. In response to the frequent raids and pillaging attacks of Wave runners and pirates, the island states formed a co-operative known as the Federated Islands of Lem-Dagor (F.I.L.). Protecting their land and interests are the storm cruisers, massive ships powered by the sea wind itself.

The most famous of storm cruisers is The Tempest, commanded by Captain Rory Prosper, an adept sea shaman capable of commanding his ship, the winds and the waves upon which it rides.

Now, The Tempest is facing unprecedented danger from all sides. A concerted attack has taken place, and the ship is overrun with spies, Wave runners and pirates. Worst of all, the sea witch Sycorax, apparently in collusion with the attackers, has sent a pack of possessed dogs and hounds to kill Prosper. Should you find yourself aboard the ship, no doubt you will want to face the challenge of ridding the ship of the intruders and save Captain Prosper and his crew from the enemies they face.

Level Range         : 60 - 100
Goal Difficulty     : Easy
Goal Recommended at : Level 85
Goal Converter      : Phraeaxes
Area Author         : Lumina (original concept by Maerchyng)

This area replaces ST:TNG.

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Prosper’s Island - New Goal:

The ship of the witch Sycorax, brimming full of hapless people enslaved by her evil spells, has cast anchor near Prosper’s Island. Plans are underfoot to invade the island, for who knows what purpose? And yet, there is one aboard the evil witch’s ship, who has emerged from the witch’s control, and seeks help to vanquish her. His name is Humbert, and he needs your help.

Level Range         : 100-125
Goal Difficulty     : Easy
Goal Recommended at : Level 100
Goal Converter      : Phraeaxes and Lumina
Area Author         : Lumina (original by Maerchyng)

This area replaces New Vertigo.

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The Three Pillars of Diatz - New Goal:

Nestled on a plateau in the grassy plains of Mesolar, the magical Pillars of Diatz were once home to a thriving populace. But over the years something dark crept into the heart of their once-kind Lord Diatz, and now the citizenry lives in constant fear. His looming shadow stretches long and dark over their misery, for none have had the courage or fortitude to dare and face his terrible might.

Level Range         : 60 to 80
Goal Difficulty     : Difficult
Goal Recommended at : Level 80
Goal Max Level      : Level 80
Goal Converter      : Paramore
Area Authors        : Dirtworm

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The Tournament Camps - New Goal:

An old warrior sulks in the corner, and, as if in reply to your questioning stare, he says: “Why aren’t you at the preparation grounds? Haven’t you heard of the coming tournament? Why, a messenger from the southern lands arrived just yesterday! They set up the preparation grounds. Where, you ask? I wish I was a little younger, my memory fails me once too often lately… He talked of a castle built on a small piece of land, surrounded by a river from all sides…”

He opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, he turns transparent, and disappears. If only you knew where he was taken, or why talks about the Tournament are prohibited…

Level Range         : 1 to 10
Goal Difficulty     : Medium
Goal Recommended at : Level 10
Goal Converter      : Myrkul & Rumour

Area added Mar 14, 2004.

Syntax     : xterm              - Turn 256 color mode on/off.
             color 256          - See a table of the colors.
             color raw256       - See table of colors with no mud parsing.

Aardwolf now supports Xterm 256 color mode. Whether or not you can see Xterm 256 color depends on your client. See the bottom of this helpfile for a brief list of clients known to work with 256 colors. A sample of the colors is below:

Every xterm color has a corresponding “closest match” in ANSI so that players without xterm support are not affected.

To use xterm colors use @x[color] where [color] is any number 0 - 255. The first 16 colors corresponding to their ANSI equivalents and colors 232 to 255 are varying levels of gray. An online chart of all 256 colors can be found at:

Wikipedia 256 color chart

It is possible to use either @x020 or @x20 but the 3 character version is recommended to avoid conflicts with color codes followed by numbers that are part of the actual message.

All codes from 0 to 255 can be used with @x but some colors considered too dark to display on the average screen will be automatically brightened. To see this, compare ‘color 256′ to ‘color raw256′ noting the difference (for example) in colors 0, 52, 53 and 232.

Clients:

Clients known to work with 256 color include Mushclient, Mudlet, CMud 3.x, Tintin++, Tinyfugue, Atlantis and the Blowtorch Android clients. Note that Zmud does not work with Xterm 256 colors. To see if you have 256 color support, type ‘xterm’, if you see Orange then you have it.

Known Issues:

• Kind of obscure, but if you have GMCP rawcolor mode on but do NOT have xterm, the GMCP data is still going to show @x123. There is an overhead involved in fixing this that may make it not worth it. If you’re using rawcolors via GMCP then you have a means to process color locally even if you can’t actually display 256 colors.
• Whoname cannot currently use 256 color mode.
• You can use these colors in strings in the editor (object names etc) but not in editor fields specifically requiring a color name such as the default map color for an area or in sector editing.

Instinct - Enhanced Training Levels in Skills/Spells:

Several new features added in this latest update, the main feature being ‘instinct’. The short version is that instinct allows you to invest gold and trains into an ability to improve it beyond the normal 100% practiced. The full help file is at the end of this post. This is a very high level feature not really intended for (and not good value for) lower levels.

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MUD damage tracker:

The damage tracker previewed on here a couple of weeks ago is now live. You can use this to report your hit accuracy and average damage per hit broken out by primary/secondary weapon. You can also see a more detailed breakdown of hits, damage from special attacks and monitor damage from a specific skill or spell. A sample screenshot is below. For more screen shots see the earlier damage tracker preview post.

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Multi-command aliases:

We now have support for multiple commands in aliases separate by a semi-colon. There are a couple of restrictions when an alias has multiple commands:

• Each command within the alias will be executed only as a MUD command, you cannot have an alias with multiple commands calling other aliases.
• Any arguments after the alias when it used will be ignored.

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Instinct helpfile:

Highly experienced veterans of Aardwolf can train a skill or spell so intensively that it becomes more like an instinct than an acquired skill. The knowledge is so ingrained that it is remembered across mortal incarnations and can enhance the power of an ability beyond that usually available to a fully trained character.

Instinct is a fairly complex feature, please make sure that you have read and understood the notes below before using it. Refunds will not be given. Ask on the Question channel if you need help.

The basic premise is that you ‘buy’ instinct in a skill that has had instinct enabled. Any instinct you buy is permanently remembered. Important points to note are:

• Instinct is only useful in a skill (or spell) that you can actually use, it is not a way to have access to skills usually unavailable. If you lose access to a skill because you tiered or changed class, your instinct amount is still remembered and will become active whenever you have that spell available again.
• The max instinct you can gain in a single ability is 200.
• Instinct is remembered across tiers and remorts; you only ever have to buy it once.
• If you have less than 100% in a skill but have instinct in it, your instinct points are used first. For example, if you have 75% in a skill and 25 points of instinct, the game will act as if you have 100% in the skill but no instinct.
• Instinct in a skill that you already have at 100% will add some bonus. In almost all cases, the bonus is not a direct percentage. It is also on a curve with diminishing returns. For example, 100 points of instinct might add a 20% bonus to a skill while 200 points adds 30% total.
• Instinct is not used on spells cast from objects - only when cast naturally.
• Not all trains can be spent on instinct - only new trains gained after your last rebuild. For a full explanation of this see, ‘help instinct-trains’.
• When a spell that sets an affect has instinct, other spells or equipment that sets the same affect will benefit from instinct. For example, if you are wearing the Aardwolf Boots of Speed or cast ‘Accelerate’, both of these will benefit from instinct in ‘Haste’ as they both set the Haste affect. The same applies to sanctuary, dual wield (Aard gloves) and protection good/evil.

WARNING: This is a very very expensive ’sink’ for high-level tiers. It is not recommended to invest your trains and/or gold into instinct unless your stats are maxxed and you have plenty to spare.

Instinct Syntax:

instinct              : Show skills you have in which it is possible to gain instinct.
instinct learned      : Show skills in which you have already gained some instinct.
instinct buy [skill]  : Buy a point of instinct in the specified skill/spell.
instinct deposit      : Deposit trains for later use on instinct. See 'help
                        instinct-trains' for an explanation of why you would want to.
instinct costs        : Display a table of instinct costs.
allspells instinct all: Shows the full list of skills/spells that can be used with
                        instinct.

Three new goals and a completely new area were added in this update. Details below:

The Palace of Song - New Area and Goal:

In an ancient grove in Mesolar, a set of ruins exists. Explorers who have accidentally stumbled across these ruins claim that if one is perfectly still and silent, the faint traces of trained voices, grand orchestrations, and even applause can be heard echoing through the area.

Odder yet, a few passersby have seen men, women, dwarves, eldar, and other creatures enter this grove in full evening wear, sometimes even with children in tow. These observers have sworn that one minute you see these individuals, and the next they are gone.

These stories coincide with unearthed scrolls which tell stories of a Palace of Song, severed from land and time for the pure purpose of the enjoyment of song. These stories tell of the ruler of the Palace, a mirthful and elegant Queen who welcomes all who can join their song in harmony with the resonant melody of the ages.

Level Range         : 60 to 85
Goal Difficulty     : Easy
Goal Recommended at : Level 75
Goal Converter      : Dreamfyre
Area Author         : Dreamfyre

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Temple of Shal’indrael - New Goal:

In between the glorious vaults of heaven and the difficulty-wrought paths of the earth the goddess Mercy placed the Temple of Shal’indrael. She and her consort, Grace, created a purification ground for those who wished to find fulfillment in all things. Seekers of balance are ever after its cloudy portal, but few can master the secrets within.

Area Level Range    : 180 to 201
Goal Difficulty     : Medium
Goal Recommended at : 201
Goal Minimum Level  : 160
Goal Converter      : Paramore
Area Author         : Dominian

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The Silver Volcano - New Goal:

Long ago, an ancient evil was sealed deep with the volcano. but that has all changed. The Balrog has been released from his ancient slumber, and woe be to any who cross his path. But with his reawakening, also comes opportunity.

Now there is a chance for you to claim his power for your own. Will you be able to brave the heat of the volcano, and claim this power? Or will you burn like all before. But be warned, those who seek the Balrog’s power with evil in their hearts shall never succeed.

Level range         : 30 to 100
Goal Difficulty     : Medium
Goal Recommended at : Level 85
Goal Converter      : Raistlin
Area Author         : Gack

A new release of the Aardwolf Mushclient package has been uploaded to the website. Major changes in this release are:

• Xterm 256 color support.
• Players can now reliably replace movement between connected rooms (like opening doors) with custom exits in the gmcp mapper.
• Cleaned up gmcp mapper help.
• Added some new commands to the gmcp mapper.
• Mapper purgezone shouldn’t require quitting and restarting mushclient anymore.
• Mapper pathfinding status message now indicates the progress of the search better.
• Added the ability to not capture mob speech to the channel capture window.
• Added tick marks at good/neutral/evil alignment boundaries in the health bars plugin.
• You can now select arbitrary text inside the channel capture window and then copy with the right-click menu, instead of clicking on whole individual messages.
• Purging all custom exits and portal exits from the gmcp mapper now requires confirmation.
• Fixed a bug in channel capture that missed lines with hidden garbage or fake color codes.
• Fixed a bug in the gmcp mapper preventing finding rooms with oddly colored names.
• Fixed a bug in the gmcp mapper that blocked sending two identical custom
  exit commands in a row.
• Fixed an error on saving rooms when using the gmcp mapper without a pre-initialized database.
• Added manual mapper database backup command with zip compressed rotating backup storage.
• Added rolling automatic backups of the gmcp mapper database files. If left
  on and running forever, the rollover schedule approximately follows the
  pattern: today, yesterday, last week, last month, 3 months ago.
• Various other bug fixes and changes.

The entire list of changes is available on the Aardwolf Mushclient Code Page.

Here’s a preview of a new ‘damage tracker’ feature we have been working on. It is currently on the Aardwolf test port:

The basic feature will show rounds of combat, hits, misses, damage and relevant averages:

If you are wielding two weapons, the stats are broken down by primary and secondary weapon:

Test of Faith and Gaias Revenge hits are counted as ’special’ hits. You can also designate a specific spell to track damage for. In the example below, dtrack was set to monitor immolate:

Finally, using ‘dtrack hits’ you can see a more detailed breakdown of each hit type:

Three new quests (goals) where added to Aardwolf this evening:

New Goal - Cougarian Queendom:

The Cougarian Queendom, tucked in the depths of the Jungle of Verume, has prospered for hundreds of years undiscovered by the outside world. Now that has all changed as the Bengaleen Empire threatens from the North.

Cowlina, Cougarian Queen must juggle the threats of the Bengaleen while trying to keep the magic-barren pridelands at peace as well. Outsiders have threatened the resolve of her ban on the use of magic.

Can magic find its place in Cougaria once again? It may be the only thing that will save it.

Level Range         : 140 to 160
Goal Difficulty     : Medium
Goal Recommended at : Level 160
Goal Converter      : Whitdjinn
Area Author         : Whitdjinn

Please Note: New visitors to Cougaria are not trusted enough to gain the needed access to save the land. The queen’s trust must first be gained.

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New Goal - The Infestation:

To the north of Aylor lies a small, quaint section of land teeming with wildlife. Many travelers make their way through this small, peaceful area; enjoying their brief time, always making a mental note to come back when they have some spare time to relax. So long as you don’t mind the large insects that have decided to call this little section their home. The ants and the wasps dislike one another with a passion, but they’ve yet to declare war on one another. An amicable agreement, unspoken, resides between the two: Stay away from us, and we’ll stay away from you.

However, not all is that peaceful here, for there is an infestation growing in strength that, if left unchecked, could bring about the ruin of such a peaceful plot of land. To one, there are pests overtaking the area, making it their own and killing the populace off. Find the one who needs help and take care of the infestation before it’s too late.

Level Range         : 5 to 35
Goal Difficulty     : Easy
Goal Recommended at : Level 25
Goal Converters     : Escobar & Paramore
Area Authors        : Rundvelt

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New Goal - The Tournament of Illoria:

The sun rises over the quiet west.
The beginning and start of a brand new day,
The crowds come to here from all around,
for the Tournament of Illoria is underway.

Oh, what sights to see and to behold!
The battling of knights so strong and brave,
is sure to be a spectacle indeed,
So, who’s a champion and who is a knave?

And yet, not all is happy and merry,
For there are rumors one may hear,
The notion of some knights going bad
and making mischief has reached my ear.

But fret not child, ’tis not to worry,
Don’t think on it, don’t look down!
Surely nothing bad will happen…
For you see, they hired troll guards from a nearby town.

So, venture you forth to the grandest of fairs,
Watch the knights battle for all the glory!
In my heart of hearts, I hope to see you there.
Come, play your part in this story.

Level Range         : 70 to 90
Goal Difficulty     : Difficult
Goal Recommended at : Level 90
Goal Min Level      : Level 60
Goal Converter      : Elvendar
Area Author         : Rayna

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Other changes in this reboot:

A few other changes did make it in this reboot:

• Translocate now has a message when you use it, displayed just before the room name. (Macbeth). So does Prob Travel/Teleport.
• You can now use autoassist in warfare. I reserve the right to change it back if I ever remember a good reason for having the restriction in the first place.
• If a venomist uses spiral on a target that is immune to the damtype, but not immune to poison, the damage done will be substituted for poison. I know this is pretty low impact, I just like it for effect.
• If you have ‘nospellupspam’ set, you will no longer see other people cancelling their spells unless you are in combat with them.
• The bug with GMCP and ‘$’ on the trivia channel is now fixed - this should no longer mess up GMCP.
• Alias keywords can no longer be more than 20 characters long. This only applies to mud-side aliases of course.
• Fixed a buggy message from cell adjustment when affected by a type of poison it cannot cure.

List of changes made to Aardwolf MUD on Feb 20th 2011:

Game Enhancements:

• Shield Punch with 1000 weight shield would always daze the target regardless of stats. This has been changed and chances of a shield dazing is now partly based on victim con. The max effective weight that will count towards daze is 4000.
• ‘Quit Check’ will now show items in containers along with the container id:

     [  9] (Nosave)   - Aylorian Sword (inside Vladia's Shopping Bag/639441811)
     [  1] (Nosave)   - Aylorian Sword (Worn)

• The resist bars on ’score’ have been redone. They are no longer linear and they now max out just under 2500.

• Light now a damage type that can be set on weapons.
• Changed the format of ‘wangrp’ channel slightly - align is now shown rather than the text, and compressed the other info.
• There is a new ’sports’ channel, should be pretty obvious what it’s for. Cursing is allowed on sports channel, other rules still apply.
• There is a new channel called ‘mxit’. The intent is that you can use ‘txt speak’ on this channel without being told “use full sentences!” etc. IF u dnt lk ths sentnce u shld nt trn it on!?!!!!!11111!!11. As ‘mxit’ is also a command for imms, the ‘txt’ command is an alias for it.

Bug Fixes in this reboot:

• Using ‘pick lock’ when you don’t have the skill will now give a message saying so rather than just ‘you failed’.
• Failed Bodycheck could sometimes give an invalid ‘… is immume’ messsage, now fixed.
• Quit check will now show both worn and carried items at the same time. It would previously only show one or the other.
• Quest actions such as qreset, complete, fail, etc should now flag a group as needing GMCP update.
• The ‘rainbow will only work outside’ message will now only show once even if, behind the scenes, rainbow multicasts.
• Casting cure disease on someone else in a silent spell room did not show a success message, now fixed.
• Fixed a bug with GMCP group causing additional prompts to be sent during combat.
• Roster 10 will now sort by total level rather than just by tier and classes. Redos are not included in this, that part is intentional.
• Mobs names with a quote in them were causing problems in GMCP says. They are now correctly escaped.
• Seeing the experience other group members gain will now be based on your own ‘exprate’ setting rather than theirs.
• The ‘xxx feels abandoned and leaves’ pet message will only echo to the room when a player quits if the pet is in the same room.
• If a player in a group renames, the group leader name, group member name or from/to side of a group invite should now rename correctly.
• Party Harmoney, Party Shield and Party Sanctuary will now return an already affected spellup tag when the affect is not added to anyone.
• Suicide was leaving mana/moves unchanged if the clan had a custom suicide message. Now fixed.

New Area and Goal - Wildwood:

Long ago and far away in the outer reaches of Gelidus a nation of centaurs settled within the cold forest of Koloma. Hidden within a dense forest, the noble creatures strive to maintain their customs and traditions behind a wall of secrecy and illusion. Although serene temperaments prevail, within each citizen lies the heart of the warrior. Trained from an early age, the centaurs guard their home jealously, particularly from Human intruders. Elves, sprites, dryads and others of mythic origins are always welcome, however Humans have ever been the enemy, bringing death and destruction to the forest. Trolls and giants might be tolerated, but proof of peaceful intent will probably be demanded.

Note: This area replaces Antharia.

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New Area - Adventures in Sendhia:

A nexus created by the three moons of Andolor opens a gate upon a world you have never before visited. Upon entering, your adventure begins with a mysterious shipwreck in the Sendhian Sea. From there, you island hop and meet with a variety of strange characters and creatures. You will need to use all your wiles in order to escape the perils you face in Sendhia!

Level Range         : 5 to 50
Area Author         : Lumina

Note: This area replaces Ultima and currently has no goal.

We released a newer version of the Aardwolf custom Mushclient today. The main differences between this release (R336) and the original release (R226) are:

• Group monitor plugin using GMCP group info.
• Multiple mapper enhancements including the ability to store custom exits/portals and a command to find all exits leading to unexplored rooms. Check ‘mapper help’ with the client loaded for full info.
  - Client is updated to Mushclient version 4.72
• The Aardwolf MUD Client Download Page has a new section to help you figure out what files to copy over if you are using an older version of the client.

Click the image for a larger screenshot

Check out the Aardwolf Mushclient History page for full release notes. Thanks to everyone who has helped with contributing code and suggestions to the client. Special thanks to Spartacus for many of the mapper updates and other fixes and, of course, to Fiendish for starting and maintaining the whole thing.