As reported by the DragonRealms NEWS command
Cleric Guild Meeting TONIGHT (7/8)There will be a Cleric Guild meeting TONIGHT (7/8) at 9:00 pm Eastern in the Crossing Amphitheater. All clerics are urged to attend.
Keep checking here for the latest info on changes to combat.
NEW Announcements:
CRITTERs THAT RUN AWAY: The code that determines if a creature sticks around or runs away terrified of you has been re-written. This was in response to some creatures that were proving to be too skittish. Creatures are more nervous about more characters being in the room with it, much more nervous about players who are engaged to it and especially nervous if the player/s are more skilled that it. Creatures also have an intelligence rating that additionally alters how well it perceives the threat so that a rat doesn't much understand that the player it's fighting is twice as skilled as it, but the adan'f mage is quite aware of this. Consequently, the mage will be less likely to stick around when the odds are against it. This new code is being watched closely and any comments should be directed to the combat topic on the message boards.
UPDATE (8/10): A fix/tweak went in that involved how creatures evaluation opponents that now prevents creatures from getting "stuck" in combat when the creature actually wants to flee.
NEW MULTI OPPONENT LOGIC IS LIVE (7/30): The new logic that controls how combat handles fighting more than one opponent is now live. This includes a new method for calculating exp gains.
If you used the TEST command you already know what to expect. Otherwise you can expect that you will not be able to fight as many creatures at one time than you were before. In fact, it will be either more dangerous or extremely dangerous compared to what you were used to. IOW, be very cautious when engaging more than one opponent until you are certain how this change affects your character.
NEW MULTI OPPONNENT TEST (7/23): You can test the upcomming new multi ops logic before it goes live on July 30th. Type TEST for more information.
DOH! (7/19): The current GM test code for the new Multi Ops was mistakenly allowed to go live on 7/17. It's not been returned to the older code. This explains why you were having more trouble from fighting multiple critters this weekend.
MULTI OPS Exp (7/17): Has been down tweaked by half temporarily until the combat multi-ops bug is fixed. The multi-ops bug currently makes fighting with more than 100 in multi-op skill grant a bonus to defending against rear and flanking opponents. A full explanation of the bug and the fix will be posted here when it's ready to be made live.
RETREAT Updated (07/15): Retreat is using some new logic. It now checks for stunned and webbed, etc. creatures properly when determining retreat success. Retreating in rooms that don't allow fighting is now automatic. This alteration also allows retreating while hidden. It also uses a different method to determine retreat success. You should not normally see a difference in being able to retreat except from multiple creatures. New options for retreat are in the works, including an option to try and flee or break through when normal retreat doesn't work.
NOTE: until 6pm CDT 7/15, Retreat was mistakenly using the old code to calculate player ability to retreat, thus making it very hard to retreat. The correct code is now live.
DRAW Attack: Has been tweaked to better reflect the true nature of this attack type. This attack is meant to cause extra slice damage by drawing the weapon across the body of your foe. It is a very poor way to cause puncture damage or impact damage.
SHIELD Block messaging: A fix went in that corrects certain combat message problems involving shields. The specific message that is fixed involves either a failure to message a shield and messaging it as a full block when it wasn't.
PARRY Balance and Rountime penalties tweaked! Balance and rountime penalties have been reduced slightly for partial and relatively poor parries. This will marginally improve the benefits of favoring parrying over evasion.
SHIELD bonus to facing/flanking tweaked! Pole range now applies a percentage bonus to blocking for facing and flanking attacks. This bonus is to stance. The higher your shield stance the the higher the bonus.
BOWs/CROSSBOWS: A small amount of fatigue will now be applied to firing weapons. This applies to creatures equally.
MISSed attack penalties reduced: When you attack and miss, the penalty for missing has been reduced slightly. Your balance will be affected less and your roundtime will not be as hard hit. This applies equally to creatures.
CROSSBOWS (06-26-98)
Stowing, Putting, Dropping or Wearing Crossbows will now end aiming.
During the next two weeks, SKINNING will be undergoing a variety of changes. As always, we will be monitoring these modifications closely and will adjust when necessary. Please direct your comments to the DragonRealms message board. If you don't have access to the message board, please use the BUG command to get your comments to the GM monitoring the system changes. Please do NOT use REPORT or ASSIST to discuss general observations about the modifications.
The changes you can expect to see implemented over the next couple weeks are:
GM Alnilam will hold a Cleric Guild meeting on July 24th at 9:00 pm Eastern time in the Crossing Amphitheater. Clerics interested in helping shape the future of the guild are urged to attend. The meeting will focus on your suggestions and ideas for future development.
Come with you ideas and suggestions -- storylines, spells, abilities -- if you can dream it, we'll consider it!
GM Caymus will be holding a general meeting for Moon Mages on Sunday, August 16th, at 7:00 pm Eastern in the Crossing Amphitheater. Everyone is welcome to attend, however, only Moon Mages will be able to ask questions during the Q&A portion of the meeting.
All Moon Mages are urged to attend since there will be an important announcement made during the meeting.
You no longer need need to give an item to another person to appraise it, or drop it on the ground and GUARD it. APPRAISE has been improved to allow one person to SHOW their item to another person, and the second person APPRAISE [first person] [item]. For example:
"Nifty troll thwapper, you got there Zlatch! Can I appraise it?"
"Sure, Eywanet!"
Zlatch types: SHOW MY THWAPPER TO EYWANET
Eywanet types: APPRAISE ZLATCH THWAPPER
A recent investigation by local authorities uncovered a major scandal involving certain members of the Trader Guild hierarchy when they were found selling inferior quality raw materials to the weapon and armor craftsmen throughout the five provinces.
"This is an isolated incident and we are making sure that this can never happen again," said Imaar. "The perpetrators have been apprehended and now the suppliers are being targeted. The situation is under control. We are implementing a strict set of procedures that will guarantee that all future shipments will be up to our previous high standards."
In related news, sources state that the alleged Thieves Guild may have been involved though the unnamed sources refused to give full details. It seems at least a few high-ranking thieves were involved with a money skimming scam. Our sources have been unable to ascertain their whereabouts and say they've been missing since the scandal broke.
GM Brigdha has rented out the Crossing Amphitheatre from 1 to 4 PM EST on Oct. 25th. She has a couple of questions to ask the guild members and then will take questions from the floor (as usual, no guarantees that she answer them!).
What is Vegas Con? A gathering of some of the greatest people you'll ever meet -- our players! There will be a get together in Las Vegas the weekend of February 5th, 6th, and 7th (1999!) at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas. We hope this will be the first of a yearly event. We're working to keep costs low ($25 per attendee), and have blocked a set of rooms at a discounted rate at the Excalibur. For complete details, check out:
Parents -- don't be shy about bringing your kids! We expect a number of folks bringing their children already, and there is great deal of family entertainment available!
Please note that while the organizer of the gathering is a DragonRealms GM, this is not an event sponsored by Simutronics.
Wear has been corrected so that people can only wear 30 items that are worn "generally" on the body. These items typically don't message where on the body you are putting them. There was never an intent for people to be able to wear an unlimited number of this type of item, and we apologize for the inconvenience that this correction will cause some of you.
Example of a "generally" worn item:
Zlatch puts on a nifty multi-colored dragon scale newbie nicker harness.
Example of a "non-generally" worn item:
Zlatch drapes a ratty burlap cloak from his shoulders.
Please note -- If you are currently wearing 30+ items, then you will not be able to wear ANYTHING, whether generally worn or non-generally worn, until you are under the limit for generally worn items. What that means for practical use is that if you're going to be taking things on and off, you should be wearing no more than 29 generally worn items (even though you CAN wear 30), so that you have "swap room" for moving items around.
S'Kra characters are invited to take a moment to type TAIL to see the syntax for using their new language verb. Please use the BUG command to report any problems you may find!
A bug in swimming which was making you more fatigued the higher your swimming skill, instead of making you more fatigued if you weren't a skilled swimmer has been corrected. What this means for you is that if your character isn't a skilled swimmer, you will find you may be getting stuck in places you could formerly swim through.
As with all changes and tweaks, we are monitoring the situation and will adjust as we find necessary. If you find a problem with with the change, please use the BUG command to report it.
"May I have this dance?"
AVOID can now be used with DANCE to prevent you from being swept off your feet. A side effect to this new protection for the romantically unadventurous is that people will no longer be able to force you into a group when they dance with you. Please let us know about any problems with the change via BUG.
July 8: The Y'ntrel Sechra spell (Warrior Mages) is now released to all players.
July 19: The following fixes and changes have been made:
July 20: More minor changes:
July 20:
July 23: Moon Gate has always drained the caster's harness while it's open. Now, it also drains anyone in the caster's group who is sharing mana.
July 25:
July 25:
July 26:
July 26: Divine Radiance has been updated to allow a new cast to replace a previous cast.
July 27: There is a rumor that Divine Armor adds hindrance to shields, without also increasing the protection. This is untrue -- shields are completely unaffected. Also, it should be mentioned that the spell only affects armor you're WEARING at the time you cast -- not anything held in your hands or stored in a backpack or other container.
July 27: On Monday (8/3/98), messaging for Power Perception will change to more accurately reflect the possible range of mana. This will NOT affect how much mana is available to you, only the messages you see when you PERCEIVE (or, for Moon Mages, when you PERCEIVE spellbook).
July 30: We've finally caught and killed a bug with cambrinth items. (Items that had leaked away all their mana were often showing in FOCUS as fully charged.)
July 30: The prep time modifier to casting is now linear rather than curved. Most people probably won't notice the difference, but if you're casting spells on the edge of your ability, you may have to wait a couple more seconds.
This change is to support spells that have a different length of time for full preparation than the default.
August 3: Power Perception messaging has been updated. Again, this only affects the messaging you see when you PERCEIVE (or, for Moon Mages, when you PERCEIVE
August 9: The elusive Targetted Magic "missing message" bug has been exterminated at last. These happened when the target completely stopped an attack with a shield, Ethereal Shield or Barbarian resistance.
If you continue to experience missing TM messages, please let us know -- but we're pretty confident that you won't.
August 10:
August 15:
August 17:
August 18: Phelim's Sanction will no longer award experience for casting unless there is an undead or evil creature in the room. However, it will also award more experience, rather than the small amount it previously awarded.
August 20: Lightning Bolt has always boosted (if necessary) its minimum damage amount so that it always causes bleeding. Unfortunately, the method it was using meant that tougher creatures would take MORE vitality damage than weaker ones when hit with this spell.
The method has been changed so that vitality damage is not increased along with the injury. Lightning Bolt is still a powerful attack spell but you can no longer rely on it to always cause an instant kill at minimum mana.
This also applies to Chain Lightning.
August 22: Primary Magic experience from casting is now using a different, more reasonable formula. There is much more potential for learning than before, although in some ranges of skill and spell difficulty, you may earn a bit less experience than before. If that's the case, either try using more mana or just tough it out and console yourself with the fact that once you get through it, you'll be earning more experience than was possible before.
August 27: The formula which estimates the distance between a planet and the sun has been corrected. While the maximum and minimum are unchanged, the average distance is somewhat smaller now, which should result in more planetary mana when averaged over each planet's year.
October 5: The "Spell vs. Agility" formula, which applies to certain resisted spells (such as Ice Patch and Harawep's Bonds), now includes creatures' evasion skill and takes into account whether the creature is stunned. In addition, the target's balance has more effect.
October 26: The mana difficulty rating for Harawep's Bonds has been reduced, to balance this spell in light of the change to the SVA formula.
October 29: A smoldering ash cloud is now visible in the area when the Fire Rain spell is in effect.
November 1:
November 5: The mysterious and elusive Swarm Bug has been fixed. Huzzah!
November 7: A new version of the Aesrela Everild spell will soon replace the current version. The new version is a held-mana spell which fires at the target every few seconds, taking 4-5 mana from what you're holding. It continues until you run out of or release your held mana or the target dies. Unlike the current version, each "shot" awards normal Targetted Magic experience.
November 8: The new version of the Aesrela Everild spell mentioned above is now live. Enjoy!
November 14:
The complete DragonRealms Spell List, including planned spells, can be found at http://shalnhh.home.ml.org.