Aardwolf MUD Blog

New Goal - Northstar:

The city of Northstar has an underground network of terrorists within it. They have plans to take over Northstar. To save the Queen, the terrorists plans must be figured out and stopped!

---

New Area and Goal - Realm of the Sacred Flame:

The Realm of the Sacred Flame is a land ruled under by Trythan, the Master of Fire. This realm seeks to expand the power of the Sacred Flame. Their people are zealots and extremely aggressive. This realm is constantly at war with others as they seek to give enlightenment and belief to the unbelievers. As they are constantly at war, the military gets the majority of the items, leaving little for the average citizen. Therefore the majority of the realm is poor, and there is little choice but to join the military.

Will you join the Realm’s military or will you seek to combat the injustice they represent?

---

Other changes in this update

• This one only affects clan leaders - ‘mwhere’ without an argument no long has a visibility check. Mwhere never did.
• A failed enrage no longer costs mana. It still costs the usual amount of moves.
• Create sound and Ventriloquate gave no output to caster when used on self. When used on others, they gave messages to caster in third person. Both fixed.
• Added ‘train convertall’ which converts all practices to training sessions and ‘train reconvertall’ which converts all training sessions to practices. ‘Train allpracs’ also works for this last option.

PKOff command:

There is a new command called ‘pkoff’. You can use this to turn on and off your own ability to PK other players. It does NOT stop other players from attacking you. It does NOT remove you from the PK system. The only two scenarios that ignore this flag are combat maze fights and warfare.

Why would you want to do this? Ask anyone who has ever charged into a lurking player with the wanted flag.

Because of this change, the requirement to use ‘all’ for area spells in PK has been removed.

Other updates made in today’s reboot:

• Not sure if the ‘worn’ option to identify was ever announced as the display of the wear location was kind of messed up. This is now fixed and for those who didn’t already know, you can use, for example:

  identify earring worn

  To only search worn items for the target object.

• Fixed a minor channel bug - players lose newbie at 200 hours online but didn’t gain gossip until > 200 (201) hours online. They now correctly get the channel at 200 hours.
• The weather conditions considered ’stormy’ for the call lightning spell now also includes blizzards and hail storms.
• Fixed a couple of issues with autoflee. The first one is quite obscure/hard to trap so please let me know if there are any issues with it:

  1. Fleeing between mobs that attack on entry could mean you fled multiple times instantly with no chance to attempt other commands in between.
  2. Sometimes you could get the flee/run away message and exp loss after already dying. This should not happen anymore.

• Fixed a bug with Gaias Focus being cancelled when entering warfare even though it is a self only spell.
• There is a new item flag called ‘noshare’ that will be set on items such as tier / builder / donation pins that are not intended to be shared even by spouses. Only the owned named on the item can use something with this flag.
• Made 2 changes to the ‘train’ command:

  When you train to max it will no longer show you the cost of a next train you can’t actually do.

  When you type ‘train’ by itself, you will now see lines even if they are maxxed. A ‘*’ at the end of the column means you have trained that stat to max. You can see the same information just looking at the two columns - trained and max.

• You can no longer donate containers that have other items inside them. This was a bug and may be the cause of some object ‘weirdness’ we’ve had recently.
• Fixed a bug with summon showing ‘You have to be a primary class … to enter that room’ when trying to someone out of a guld room.
• Updated ‘raceinfo’ so that the stat costs are also shown in green and red. The green/red are reversed in stat costs (compared to resists) because negative is good.
• Reduced the chances of balor completely misfiring on you and lowered the lag when it does. Also lowered the effect of the level check and, to be consistent with other skills, gave it a small chance to always fail / succeed no matter what the stat differenec. Other than that, it was already set such that if 2 characters with 600 in all stats were to fight each other, balor would pretty much always land. If you’re failing to land balor too much in pvp, the stat gap is simply too wide.

New Goal - Dark Elf Stronghold:

The Dark Elf Stronghold is the legendary headquarters of the dark elves. For centuries, the location of this wicked place remained a complete mystery. After all, what fool hunts out the stronghold of the most vile night creature in all the land? What could possibly motivate someone to seek out certain death from the flesh-eating, blood-drinking drow?

The dark elves recently invaded the Dwarven Kingdom after their spies found a secret entrance inside the mines. With overwhelming numbers, they poured into the kingdom… slaughtering men, women and children. Luckily, the dwarven elite guard were able to rally the troops to beat back the drow and close off the entrance they came through.

---

New Goal - The Great City of Knossos:

A loud roar suddenly rips apart the dark and cold night air. You awake from your make shift bunker just in time to watch a young villager come running up to you with fear in his eyes. ‘HE FED MY BROTHER TO THE MINOTAUR!! HE HAS GONE MAD!’ is what the man screams at the top of his lungs at you. You ask calmly ‘Who has gone mad and what is a minotaur?’ The man eyes you suspiciously and suddenly stands up and tries to run away, but you are to fast for him. You grab him by the ankle and wrestle him down. Threatening him, you whisper ‘Tell me now! Or else’

The man only says 4 words, ‘Do not Trust Anyone’.

The man finally breaks lose from you, and after hours of pondering to yourself, you finally pass out.

---

New Goal - Cradlebrook:

Cradled in the forested nooks and valleys of the northern mountains lies the Village of Cradlebrook. Far removed from the worries of the outside world, the village was a haven of tranquility and peace until it recently came under attack by bandits and brigands.

The town is split physically by Last Mountain Creek, a fast-flowing waterway that provides the village-folk with fish and drink. Inside, the villagers practice their craft as they always have: Telsa the Weaver provides clothing; Martu the Baker provides unleavened bread and fresh pastries; and Ison provides the weapons and armour in the rare event of war. Quiet for thousands of years, the village has been rediscovered by trackers and wood-folk. Previously hidden by the thick yew-trees of the forest valleys, thin trails have been cut into the land, and the way to the village is open.

Lasertag Overhaul:

With this reboot, lasertag has had a fairly significant overhaul. The most important change is the lasertag area itself. It is now a random maze and different each game. By maze I mean a “real” maze that maps logically, not the type of random maze we have in other areas.

The area is actually a 15*15 ‘perfect’ maze with 25 additional random walls knocked down to make the area easier to navigate. The green and red base rooms will still always be in the center of the maze to the left and right respectively. If you want to see a few examples of the random mazes converted to images, check out:

Lasertag Maze Images


Other Lasertag Changes:

• You will no longer see other players or decoys on the automap.
• If less than two people join a lasertag game, it will be automatically cancelled once the prepare timer is up.
• It is impossible to ‘win’ the lasertag game with a negative or zero total score. If nobody scores over zero, nobody gets the top prize or the ‘top scorer’ increase on their laser stats.
• The sorting of who wins if two people have the same score is:

  - highest number of hits for. If they are equal:
  - lowest number of times hit. If they are equal:
  - lowest number of decoys used. If they are equal:
  - random.

• It is also not possible to get 5qp for being on the winning team unless your score is positive. A negative score is no contribution to the team, so no reward.
• The cost of a miss (not a misfire) is now -1 score, not -2. This will make it easier to finish the game with a positive score as long as you are actually trying to play the game. The cost to move is now 1 charge instead of 2.
• You cannot shoot while you are in the lasertag penalty box.
• When players join lasertag, they will be put into a ‘holding room’. Teams will only be assigned when the game actually starts.
• There is a ‘laser status’ option that shows the current lasertag status. To be consistent with warfare, the command ‘laserstatus’ is a global alias to it.
• When the top scorer has a score higher than 50, they will have a small (roughly 20%) chance to also win a trivia point.
• When someone joins the lasertag game, it will now show on the laserinfo channel.

In the beginning - before the elements coalesced, before the land had protruded from the seas - the core of our very world was in turmoil. Creatures of magic battled for control of the infant world, causing wars across the realms. Eventually, two factions rose up against each other, splitting the warriors nearly in two; while most of the names have been lost over the ages, it is known that those few who refused to fight were called the Burakumin. In the ensuing civil war, the dominant faction eventually managed to destroy key enchantments placed by the opposition, weakening them enough to enslave them. After several years, now well in command of the new planet, the now omnificent leaders of the new empire took prisoner all of those who failed to fight for either side.

After hundreds of years, magical experimenting and mutagenesis had changed the Burakumin into monstrosities, bound to their masters’ pishogue. Forced to commit generations of their offspring to torture and suffering, the Burakumin had became strong over the course of their struggle. Over time, the oppressors became lax in their ways, while the Burakumin they enslaved grew stronger. As myth would have it, events eventually reached a head; the masters’ apathy grew just as the Burakumin planned a revolt. Blood was soon shed - the enslavers quickly decided the Burakumin were too much of a threat to survive.

Reinforced by the magic flowing through their veins, the overlords created a prison on a different plane of existence. Using the diablerie embedded in the Burakumin, the once great masters forced all of the surviving slaves into a supposed tomb, sacrificing most of their own population in the process.

Now a shattered and fragmented race, these lost souls commissioned the task of continuing the new world to their old foes. Setting themselves as jailers for their continued captives, they have sealed the new plane off from this world. Before they left, they left only the name of the new plane with their ancient enemies. Translated today, it is known simply as “the Inferno.”

Millennia passed, and the first weak enemies of the overlords soon grew and diversified. The people merged together and grew apart; the races of Aardwolf today are the descendants of those demi-gods.

Passed down over the years, the legend of the Inferno and it’s two inhabitants have been diluted over many tellings. Even the belief in the Inferno has waned with time. However, fresh stories have recently emerged - strong adventurers have been missing after claiming to have found an entrance to the Inferno.

---

Primary Stat Changes - Psionicist and Paladin:

The Psi primary stat was changed because, for a single class psi trying to use their spells, int makes the most sense. That was the perspective in mind when the change was made. If someone on the test port had pointed out the affect on 7* remorts balancing out their stats (hint hint), it might not have come in at all, but it did.

Anyway, the primary stat on Psi is back to Luck. However, primary class psi only also gets +5 int.

While we’re at it, primary class paladin also gets +5 CON in addition to their int. This won’t make anyones overall max higher, just help a little on the way up.

---

Unique Object Ids now fully implemented:

Each item in Aardwolf has a unique id number that is shown in identify. The id number is also shown in the ‘invdetails’ command.

Every object manipulation command in Aardwolf can use this id instead of the object name. For example, once you have the object id you can use ‘get ‘ or ‘put ‘.

This id number exists to help identify items and manipulate them via client based plugins. Combined with the invdetails, invdata and invmon commands, elaborate inventory management systems can be written.

For example, using the id number to know you are targeting a specific instance of an item, drag and drop inventory plug-ins are quite possible. Capturing inventory data with invdetails and client side parsing of the ‘invmon’ tags means you client can know at all times the state of your inventory without having to constantly capture it.

These ID numbers will become quite large over time and are really not intended for manual use, but you are welcome to also use them to make aliases based on your favorite portal or whatever else you find them useful for.

Limitations:

• Each ID number is one of a kind, therefore any kind of syntax such as ‘get all.123456′ or ‘drop 2.123456′ will not work.
• These IDs cannot be abbreviated. A specific ID references a specific item, this is not going to change.

---

Other Changes this reboot:

• There was a bug in pacify - the wisdom check was basically reversed making it so that it got harder to pacify the more your wisdom went up. This also meant that using pacify with 200 wis was extremely easy and you could pacify almost anything. So, people with higher wisdom will find it easier to pacify now. People with lower wisdom will find it harder.

  Remember that how hard pacify is to land is based on the number of mobs in the room - lower number of mobs should be easier. Someone with 150-200 wis will have a hard time pacifying a full room of 7 or 8 TOL mobs, but should have a much easier time with 2 or 3 mobs. Undead mobs cannot be pacified, neither can mobs immune to magic or mental damage - this has always been the case.

• The max value of ‘train cost ‘ has been increased from 5000 to 10000.
• Pass without trace was not giving fail tags if you were already sneaking. Only someone using ’spellup’ tags would be affected by this. Same fix was also made to heighten senses.
• You can now send tells to yourself. Some of the checks are a little weird as all I’ve done is remove the code blocking it, so you’ll be talking to yourself in third person etc. This was done so people can send themselves messages they want to see in history without having to spam their group tell. The other advantage to this is that any unseen tells are posted to you in a personal note if the mud reboots or you time out.
• Fixed a number of issues with ‘explored’ that should resolve issues with players having > 100% explored on continents after area moves.
• Users connected from mxit should now be counted under ‘South Africa’ when using the ‘domains’ command.
• Fixed a number of places where telopts was incorrect when using MUD telnet negotiation to drive client plugins. For example, if you did sleep, then AFK, then came out of AFK, it would tell the client you were active and standing but you’re not because you’re still sleeping. Same issue with paging, note mode, logging or reconnecting while asleep, etc. There might be more, just report them as they come up if necessary.

New Area and Goal - Warrior’s Training Camp:

Warrior: One who lives for combat and the thrill of battle.

Warriors! You are cordially invited to become students of the Warrior’s Training Camp (WTC). Registration is required. The camp offers classes in every type of weapon used by an accomplished warrior. Come hone your fighting skills. Instructors and sparring partners are available 24/7. Upon completion of all classes, you will be eligible to participate in a truly moving graduation ceremony. The Grandmaster wants YOU!!!

New Goal and Area Replacement - The Broken Halls of Horath:

Long ago, dwarves mined deep into Mount Horath, exploring its caverns and drilling persistently for rubies, emeralds and sapphires. The Halls of Horath were to become known as the wealthiest of dwarven mines, and the most beautiful. But the Horathian dwarves disappeared suddenly and mysteriously, leaving only their equipment and the occasional disgruntled ghost behind. In time, as dust gathered, scavenging kobolds claimed Mount Horath as their home. Meanwhile, the mystery remains. What drove the dwarves away from their magnificent mountain hall, and by what arrangement have the kobolds taken foothold?

---

PK / PVP Changes:

Several important changes to PK were made in this update.

PK Counter:
There is now a simple PK won/loss counter in your whois. The ‘pkstats’ command provides additional information on different types of PK:

                  PK Wins  PK Deaths
                  -------  ---------
     Raiding            2          1
     Defending          0          0
     Wanted             0          1
     Revenge            1          1

     Total              5         11

     Note: Total is ALL PKs, so will not match the
           sum of the 4 specific PK types.

PK Below level 200:

Damage in PK involving levels 1-199 has been reduced for *all* types of damage. This is mostly due to PK being over too quickly in those level ranges, making it all about who can get the first big attack in.

The amount of the reduction can be modified online without a reboot and can also be just turned off if necessary. There may be some experimenting to find the right amount that makes sense.

Dodge Skill Changes:

Some time ago, dodges were made less effective when defending from characters other than the one you are in direct combat with (aimed at). The effect of this changed has been halved for all dodges, meaning you should now dodge more often when fighting multiple targets. Note this is all ‘dodge skills’, not just dodge itself.

---

Tier items carried capacity:

Made a change to item weight capacity at lower levels for tiers. The lowest your number of items can be is ‘base + tiers * 25′. Base is determined by whether or not you have pockets 1 and pockets 2 wish. The maximum number of items you can carry has not changed. Without getting into the math the effect of this is that you can carry more items as a low level higher tier, but it will take longer until your tats start to actually increase the amount because the minimum number is artificially inflated.

---

Other Changes this Update:

• Fixed a bug in finger that made it case sensitive. This will also fix an annoying bug at login where it says the character doesn’t exist if you accidentially enter the name in caps etc. Same in pcheck.
• If someone gets ‘banned’ from Aardwolf they will automatically be removed from the rankings, lottery and rosters. Imms also now have a command to manually remove any older banned players still in the rankings - please post them to ‘imm’ on personal board.
• ‘Remort check’ wasn’t showing worn items too high level to save with - now fixed.
• New character creation no longer has a ‘roll stats’ option. It’s confusing for new players and everyone is the same by level 25 anyway. The fixed stats are higher than 90% of stat rolls would have been so nobody is losing out (Charneus). Also removed the select Bright or ormal colors from character creation and removed references to ‘ANSI’ color - it just asks if you can see/want color.
• There is a new ‘Email address’ section in character creation. It is completely option, but does also explain why we’d ask for the email address in the first place. Email addresses entered during creation default to private.
• The ‘nosell’ object flag will now work correctly if assigned to regular game equipment.
• Modified the ‘list’ command to use item keywords instead of item description. This resolves the issue where a player can ‘list ‘ and see it, but not be able to ‘buy ‘ because list and buy use different fields. List should have never used description, it also gets messed up by colors etc — keywords exist for a reason.
• Changed ’skipnext’ so that even if you can’t see the corpse the skipnext is still removed. This fits better with ’skipnext’ being intended when you want avoid looting only the next mob you kill.
• When a spouse invites you into a manor, you will now see the correct owner name in the “You leave to enter ’s private manor” message. Before this fix, the code was assuming that the inviter was the manor owner.
• Nothing you can actually use, but just so you know we’re looking at it, imms/builders now have a command to list objects with words in their name that are not in the keywords. Common words and colors etc are ignored. Once this is working fully we’ll do the same for mobs. See ‘help okeys’ if you want more info on how this works.

---

Silentspell changes:
Made changes to a lot of things affected by silentspell. Silentspell was originally intended to cut down on spam from other people spelling up in popular rooms such as recall, the Aardwolf Hotel, clan rooms, etc. During the V3 conversion it got applied to a lot of things it shouldn’t have - mostly combat related spells. The main changs are:

• If you are fighting (aimed at) someone in a silentspell room, or they are aimed at you, silentspell will not apply - you will see their spells as if it were a normal room.
• Area spells now show in silentspell rooms. Now they are correctly categorized as damage, you will no longer see things like ‘Lasher calls down rains of fire!’ if you have battlespam off.
• Enrage is now seen by others in a silentspell room.
• Dissolve is now seen by others in a silentspell room (Alessandrew) Web and other maladictions will also be seen in a silentspell room.
• Dispel magic didn’t show which spells you removed from someone in a silentspell room, now fixed.
• Silentspell blocked the retreat message and shouldn’t have.
• May still be some things blocked by silentspell that shouldn’t be, or things now showing through silentspell that shouldn’t. Just post them as they come up - easy enough to fix them.

New Area and Goal - Guardian’s Spyre of Knowledge:

With thoughts of the Academy still fresh in your mind, you wonder what kind of challenges and adventures await. After rounding a bend in the road, a large field opens up. Rising out of the ground and climbing up through the clouds themselves, a grand edifice of stone unlike anything you’ve seen before greets you. Although it has no defined shape, several distinct layers seem to make up this strange place. Deciding not to put off any longer this grand adventure, you cautiously move forward. Trying to remember everything you’ve learned so far, you can only hope that it’s enough.

A new adventure for the young at heart. Great rewards to be had. Come join the quest for fame and glory and vanquish the Guardian if you can find him.

---

New Goal - Cloud City of Gnomalin:

Stories are told of an ancient race of short, stumpy little people who stole children and left gifts. The legend says that they were always about, but hidden from ordinary sight. Over the centuries their population diminished until most thought gnomes were the stuff of fantasy or the imaginary playmates of children. Recently, however, evidence of the existence of gnomes has appeared in the southern reaches of Mesolar. An airship, bourne upon wings of grace decends upon the earth. Board the airship and see for yourself.

Times are not the greatest though, as one of the gnomes’ idols has gone from sight. The God of Calm has taken a leave of abscence, and with him all that is left is turmoil and corruption.

Will you be the one to take on the challenge? And find the calm in the storm of peril?

---

New Goal - The Goblin Fortress:

Up ahead you hear some hammering and see the city’s official employment advisor busy hanging a new poster. Noticing the lint in your pockets you rush up to see what’s available.

Here ye, Here ye!

Any able bodied adventurer looking for a job is hereby commissioned to take part in the following two part job. Rewards include service to your faithful mayor of Aylor and the protection of our fair city. Your city.

Recently goblin raids have increased greatly upon the southern gates of our fair city! To make matters worse the captain of the guard and the mayor’s very own son have gone missing while examining the southern walls.

Job duties include in part or all of the following. Find out where all of the goblins are coming from and who is sending them. Stop them if possible. Locate and rescue, if possible, the Captain of the guard and the Mayor’s son.

Serve your Mayor faithfully and you shall go down in the books of history, forever remembered a hero! Not to mention hero’s are often attacked by hawt chixors and/or studly barbarians clad in scanty loin cloths. So go forth and be a Hero!

(Disclaimer: Not all hero’s are stalked by sexy worshipers.)

Four new goals again in this update:

---

New Goal in Dungeon of Doom:

A tremor shakes the ground, revealing a cavern below you. As you descend into the darkness, you realize that you have found it, the fabled Dungeon of Doom… the location of an ancient golem army. The ancient wizard used them to destroy all who opposed him. He had gone mad with grief after his beloved wife died. In his attempts to bring her back to life, he created countless undead creatures and, finally, an army of golems. Going insane, he sent the golems out to destroy everyone.

As you explore the Dungeon of Doom, you find a fellow adventurer. His eyes light up as he sees you and he challenges you. Will you take up the challenge or slink away in the darkness?

---

New Goal in the Goblin Path:
Along the trail stands the temple of Siswa. The priest there is preparing to summon hordes of evil unto the inhabitants. The Goblin Path is in grave danger. Will you find a way to save the path or will you leave the inhabitants to their fate?

---

New Goal in the Land of Oz:

A storm is on its way and Dorothy is trying to get home before it hits. She runs for the shelter, but it is already locked. In an effort to find safety, she runs inside, searching for her relatives and is knocked unconscious. When she wakes up, she finds herself in her own house, but in a strange land. She needs help to get back home. On your path, you will meet strange creatures and interesting individuals. Before the storm hits, try talking to the fortune teller. He might be able to help you.

---

New Goal / Replacement Area for - The Keep of Kearvek replaces Cthos Mishrak:

Deep in the wilderness, on the top of a hill, there is a Keep. A powerful Keep, home to a powerful Vampire, the Dark God, Kearvek. Within his stone structure many innocent elves, humans and eldars are sacrificed in his name and in his quest for power. Many minions, Lords and Guardians are protecting him, but a few brave souls have infiltrated the Keep and are in dire need of help. The leader of this group is Coran, a mysterious being who may be of some help should you mention Kearvek to her.