Volume Two Issue One
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............./ / THE LEGENDARY TIMES
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..../ /_/..\______/./_____/./__/.../__/./_______/ MUD
.../________________/ running on bashful.cc.utexas.edu 9999
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VOLUME TWO, ISSUE ONE Jan. 2nd, 1995
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THE LONG AWAITED CODE UPDATE IS IN! See below for details. But first...
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A LITTLE HOLIDAY TALE
Once upon a time there was an adventurer we'll call Bill. Bill had
recently hit a deathtrap and had lost all of his equipment. But when
Bill logged on on New Year's Eve, he found that he had been completely
outfitted in new equipment which he had never seen before, all
personalized and customized. A lot of it seemed to be better than any
equipment he could have ever gotten before.
So Bill went on a little spree, and gained a lot of levels really fast.
To his delight he found that he was also able to make use of 3rd circle
magic spells which he wasn't able to before, and that he was virtually
flying through the levels. He figured, "Ah, some kind immortal must want
me to level fast and join them in immortality, so they gave me this
stuff." He didn't know who his benefactor was, but figured he'd give
them a hug next time he saw them.
Then one cold day in early January, a few Implementors on high noticed
that Bill had odd stats. They checked up on the file and found that Bill
had enjoyed altered stats since mid-November, and that he'd been re-
equipped with items after his DT death with items that cannot exist
within the guidelines of the game. Bill's password was changed, and an
investigation began. The immorts sat down and waited for him to log on.
However, someone deleted Bill and the evidence in his file before the
investigation was complete. When Bill came on, he was bewildered and no
doubt feeling a little persecuted. After it was explained to him that
the person who did him the "favor" actually got his whole character
wiped along with his skills, the levels he'd known the spells for, and
all the rest, he decided that a hug was probably not what he'd give the
person if he ever found out who it was.
Bill was restored to the levels he had gained, and his stats were set
somewhere in the realm of mortality. As far as his spell levels, well,
they're history. The immorts who investigated talked to him and to
others and concluded that he didn't know who did this to him, but also
that he had been more than a little negligent in not telling someone
that he was getting "favors."
So what's the moral of the tale?
Well... the password to the account the mud runs on (and where the
playerfiles are kept) has been changed, and is remaining in the hands of
only specific immorts. This will not present a problem with people
saving as we have not had that problem since we moved from tramp.
A program has been written which scans playerfiles for evidence of
tampering. Only a few minor cases were found, and said cases are being
dealt with.
Whoever hacked Bill's playerfile is due to get deleted, regardless of
rank.
And a restatement of policies is in order. First, here's HELP CHEAT as a
general reminder.
"LegendMUD does NOT allow multiplaying.
"You can have more than one character, but _only one may be online at a
time_. Trading equipment between characters is cheating. Quitting
several newbies merely to acquire gold and/or equipment is also
considered cheating. As is trading equipment between your own
characters, by dropping equipment from one and picking it up with the
other.
"Giving away excessive amounts of equipment to characters who cannot
rent what they are holding is also considered a violation. It's more a
violation of the unsuspecting character who is put at risk of losing any
equipment, experience or gold that they may have earned on their own
before they were 'helped out.' In the event of a crash where ALL of
their equipment will vanish and no successful saves will have been made
for them in the meantime.
"We also would appreciate it if only one player plays a given character.
They may be permanently given away, but sharing a single character
between two or more players is also considered cheating.
"Asking gods to fix, tell, or change your stats or even skills is
considered cheating, as is getting them to load items or mobs for you.
"Any players caught cheating will be dealt with on a individual basis.
But the basic violations listed above are all call for character
deletion.
"Punitive actions can include any and all of the following:
removal of equipment, alteration of stats, denied access to mud
commands, denied access for a character, deletion of character, demotion
of level status, banning of a site if repeated violations occur with
multiple characters."
Some additional info for all to ponder:
* Immortals aren't allowed to alter their own character's stats either.
* Or give away items to players.
* Or use spells or skills on players.
* Or otherwise do anything that would help or hinder the player in their
playing of the game.
* And players are considered to be multiplaying even if they drop link
on one of the characters while they play the other.
You see, while it may seem like a victimless crime to 'nudge' another
character along to help them out, what it does is reduce the overall
difficulty of the game. Bill is nudged, he groups with Susan, she gains
a little faster, and soon everyone is doing better than usual. And soon
after, they all start complaining the mud is too boring, and leave. Or,
the mud gets made a bit harder to match Bill and Susan's abilities, and
everyone who starts a character after them is screwed.
Directly, of course, it screwed over Bill, who may have regained his
levels once we ascertained he was not at fault, but who is certainly
going to have to get used to having a character who is not only not as
powerful as he used to be, but not even as powerful as he would have
been had he played up without assistance.
It also of course screws over the person who 'nudged' Bill who is now in
very hot water with the immortals.
Here's a New Year's Resolution from the immorts: to both refrain from
the above and to keep a closer eye out for the above. And here's one for
players, if the choose to take it up: if you notice anything that seems
inconsistent with normal game practice, something unusual that doesn't
happen elsewhere on the mud, something that may be a bug or a case of
supernatural assistance (or harm), report it.
And Bill's resolution? Well, when he was getting reimbursed, he asked if
he could have a new weapon... a pike with the head of his 'helper' on
it.
-Ptah
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NEW AREAS:
* Arkenstone's Vikings area is open to the public. You can find it off
the eastern coast of Medieval England. This is the first section of
a larger planned area. Please report all bugs, problems, suggestions,
and so on to Arkenstone via mudmail, or post on the local board. The
sugegsted level range for the area is mid-twenties, but there are lower
and higher level mobs as well. There is a place to rent in the area--
look for the Gestahaus.
* You may find Medieval England to be rather unfamiliar when you walk
around it! This is because of extensive revamping. For one, Nottingham
and Lincoln are now in their correct geographical locations (switched
from where they were). Also, there is now a sizable addition to the
castle in Nottingham, including a few new little puzzles for players.
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GENERAL UPDATES:
* The auction house is a thing of the past. See the "New commands" section
for information on the new auctioning system.
* Shopkeepers in London and Bengal now eat their inventory like those in
other areas. However, we fixed the problem with their also eating their
gold.
* Groupboats now have holds in them. You may treat them like containers
that cannot be opened or closed.
* Drowning is now possible. Boats and groupboats may begin to take on
water and proceed to sink over the course of a few ticks (groupboats
tend to last longer). Flying or water walk affects prevent you from
drowning when you are stuck in the water without a boat. Swim skill also
keeps you from drowning. Different boats have different chances of
sinking.
* You can no longer rent or get an offer while fighting.
* The root and meditate skills can no longer both affect you at once.
* The bug with buying from multiple shopkeepers when they are closed has
been fixed. They now stay closed as they are supposed to.
* You are now told who it is that has reconnected from link-death in your
room. "Someone has reconnected" is a thing of the past!
* Murky rooms will now tell you that you cannot see the items in them even
when you are in brief.
* You now get a message when someone tries to give you something and your
hands are full. This should help solve problems people have had with
doing quests and not getting the reward.
* The wary/agg system is now in. When you enter the game you will have a
wary/agg setting of 'normal'--which is to say, exactly as things always
used to be. However, for each notch below normal that you set your wary
at, your opponent suffers a -1 to hit, and you suffer a -1 to hit. For
each point you are aggressive, your opponent gains a +1 to hit on you--
but you also gain a +1 to hit on them. Certain actions, such as
sleeping, set your wary/agg back to normal. So does renting. See the New
Commands section for info on how to change the setting. You can also see
your wary/agg in score.
* Player description registration is now in. To get your character a
unique description, ask an immortal. You will need to specify a long
description and a short description, and we are asking that said
descriptions not be misleading, but rather fit well with the character
and with the historical background, particularly of your hometown. Once
you have your description, you will look that way to others who see you.
You can turn the description on and off with the NAME command--see New
Commands. Note that whatever you pick, you're pretty much stuck with, it
is the way the character LOOKS and we will not alter it unless the event
that caused the change is noteworthy enough to appear in the social
column of this newsletter. You can however ask an immortal to remove
descriptions from you altogether and return you to just having a name.
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NEW COMMANDS:
* New command: WARY
Syntax: WARY
This sets your wariness up a notch, or reduces your aggressivity in
combat.
* New command: AGGRESSIVE
Syntax: AGGRESSIVE
This increases your aggressivity during combat, or reduces your wariness
a notch.
* New command: QUERY
Syntax: query
This will give a quick one-sentence summary of whether you know, can
learn, or can use, a given skill.
* New command: CONSIGN
Syntax: consign or consign
This command puts an item up for auction. You can only auction one item
at a time in the whole mud; therefore auctions have a time limit set on
them. You may not auction NO_SELL items, NO_AUCTION items, or containers
with something in them (empty ones are fine). This includes groupboats
(see general changes). The minimum bid is assumed to be the rent value
of the item unless specified; it cannot go lower than 1/2 the rent value
of the item. Consignments will be announced over the Auction channel.
* New command: RECLAIM
Syntax: reclaim
This only works if you are the auction owner. It removes a consigned
item from open auction and announces this fact on the Auction channel.
* New command: BID
Syntax: bid
This command announces a bid on the Auction channel if the bid is higher
than the current bid and you have enough money in hand AND/OR in the
bank to cover the bid, and can rent the item. If you get the item, then
your bank account and money in hand will automatically be deducted for
the amount, money in hand first.
* New command: CANCEL
Syntax: cancel
This withdraws your current bid from the auction if it is the current
highest bid. The auction continues without you.
* New command: ACCEPT
Syntax: accept
If you are the person auctioning off an item, this accepts whatever the
current highest bid is. The money is automatically transferred to your
bank account. The item magically vanishes from your inventory and
appears in the inventory of the highest bidder. If the person is no
longer able to pay for the item, you keep the item and the auction
continues. You may not accept a bid for a full tick to allow for open
auctions.
* New command: NAME
Syntax: name
This toggles the setting for your registered short and long
descriptions. A long description is the one that says "So and so is
standing here." A short desc is the one that appears when you do
something, like "So and so bounces around." If you do not have a
description or if you turn them off with this command, your character's
name will be used there. If you leave it on, then others will not see
your name, but just the registered descriptions. Note that immortals can
see through descriptions.
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ALTERED COMMANDS:
* Altered command: SKILLS
Syntax: SKILLS
Skills marked with a minus sign (-) to the left of the skill name (in
other words, as it should be, not like it was in the test code) are
skills which you have learned but cannot currently use because you do
not qualify for them.
* Altered command: ALLSKILLS
Syntax: ALLSKILLS
Skills marked with a plus sign (+) to the left of the skill name are
skills which you have already learned. Allskills shows every skill that
you qualify to learn and use.
* Altered command: WORDS
Syntax: WORDS
Words marked with a minus sign to the left of the word are ones that
you do not currently qualify to use in constructing a spell.
* Altered command: WIMPY
Syntax: WIMPY
You can no longer alter your wimpy level to higher than your current hp.
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NEW SPELLS:
* Some of the spells that weren't working should work now.
* The magic repair spell is in. It's called TRUE FORM. It works just like
the repair skill, but only on magic items. Including scrapping items on
failures.
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SPELL CHANGES:
* PRESERVE no longer preserves items past ten mud days (480 ticks). Also,
you can't accidentally destroy perm items by preserving them. Decaying
them does still work however. :)
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SKILL UPDATES:
* BACKSTAB now has a higher chance of hitting, and also has a chance of
paralyzing your victim.
* FENCING is now in. It currently gives a +1 to hit and a +1 to damage
if you are using a piercing or stabbing weapon. It does not apply during
backstab.
* SWORDSMANSHIP is now in. It gives +1 +1 when using slashing and related
weapons.
* ARMS TRAINING is in. It also gies +1 +1, when using bludgeoning and
crushing weapons like staves and maces.
* ENTRANCE now has a chance of failure, and no longer works on deafened
people. Fleeing from the room where the music is will free you from the
enchantment.
* PICK LOCK allows you now to lock doors even if you do not have the key.
* JUDGE has had various cosmetic problems with the messages fixed.
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NEW SKILLS:
We're working on adding teachers for these new skills all over the mud,
but it may take a while.
* POISONING
Syntax: poison
Poisons a weapon with a slow-acting poison. Poisons food or drink with
an instantly fatal one. Requires a poisonous herb or drug.
* ANATOMY:
Syntax: ASSESS
Describes their current physical state: strength, dexterity,
constitution, hit points.
* FIRST AID
Syntax: AID
Administers basic first aid to a patient. Requires a bandage and the
bandage skill.
* PHARMACOLOGY
Syntax: RX
Looks up a drug in the helpfiles. Note that currently there are no drugs
and therefore no database for them.
* FIELD SURGERY
Syntax: OPERATE
Offers major healing to a patient. Requires a scalpel and knowledge of
first aid and dress wounds (unimplemented skill).
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________________________
/ \
o O | Wonder what folks are |
`\|||/ | doing over at LegendMud? |
(o o) \________________________/
ooO_(_)_Ooo_____________________________________________________________
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\|/ \|/ \\||// \!/
It happened in the wee hours of the morning of the 17th of December.
It is my sad duty to notify Legend of the end of Taro. By his wish,
I assisted my fellow Knight in passing on into the next plane of
existance by pkilling Taro to the point of permadeath. He extends
his greetings to all who knew him, and says that he will be on, from
time to time, to say hi and socialize with his friends and acquaintences.
With finals over, and looking towards finishing his thesis and getting
a job, Taro decided that he just didn't have the time to spare to keep
to the pace of Legend, with all the changes.
It was a moment of extreme emotion. I am not ashamed to say that I spent
quite some time actually crying, and am still worked up about it as I
write this obituary notice.
Yours in mourning,
Dominic Elhalyn Hastur, Recruiter for the Knights of Legend
\|/ \|/ \\||// \!/
Also gone from Legend: Gronf, who extends greetings to all his friends and
reports that he no longer has the time to play muds.
\|/ \\||// \|/ \!/
On the other hand, welcome to a lot of newbies who have found us recently.
Apparently we popped up again on one of the mudlists and we've had a lot
of visitors. Some were old friends--say hi to Ohara, who was here when we
first opened, if you see him.
\|/ \|/ \!/ \\||//
The following showed up delivered anonymously to the Legendary Times
on old, cracked brown paper. The handwriting was exotic and it took us
a month to find someone who could translate the odd old language... It
was interesting enough that we thought we'd pass it on. Unfortunately,
the person who delivered it was found dead in an alley yesterday.
A Story from Hakiem, the Tale-spinner
His family was different. Skin whiter than ours, hair of golden
sunlight and surrounded by a warm glow of kindness which one does not
see too often. He was just a boy then, going by the name Emrys.
Often he would come and listen to me talk, his ebony eyes sparkling
with excitement and curiousity. Ah yes, he was exceptional, always
the leader of the other children and getting them into mischief.
However, as with all good things, this came to an end quite abruptly.
His father, the governor of our town, was accused of treason. He was
publicly executed in front of his family including young Emrys.
They were all taken away then, possibly to be sold into slavery. I
remember I felt a certain kind of bleakness on that day. I remember
shivering not from the cold wind that howled through the valley, but
from the thought of what faced Emrys and his family.
When I next saw him, 10 years had passed. He had changed and I would
not have recognized him if not for his eyes. It happened while I was
at the bazaar, sitting in my usual spot while spinning a tale for the
children, when a shadow fell over me. I looked up and found myself
staring into a pair of familiar dark eyes. They shone with the same
intensity as when he was a boy, but now, they did not shine with
innocence and kindness, but with hatred and pain. I opened my mouth
to speak, a thousand questions tripping over my tongue. But he merely
tossed a few coins my way and strode away.
I can only guess at what must have happened in those 10 years. In
future years as I travelled from one city to another, I always
made it a point to find out what I could about Emrys.
From little bits of stories that I pieced together, I learnt that
Emrys was sold as a slave to a powerful magician, named Darlok.
I will not describe in detail what was said about Darlok, but suffice
it to say that young Emrys must have found himself in hell. It was
later said that Emrys secretly studied the arts of magic and one
night when Darlok slept, cast a death spell on him. Others murmur
that Emrys had made a pact with the devil himself and it was the
devil that cast Darlok down to the bowels of hell. But whatever
happened, Emrys was free and was next seen in Tara.
He had made a fortune for himself and was decked in fine jewelry.
It was said that he fell hopelessly in love with a princess of the dun
and was going to marry her. However, on the day of the wedding, it
was discovered that Emrys' father was a traitor and thus the people
stoned Emrys and ran him out of Tara into the nearby forest to
be eaten by wild animals. Out of shame, the Ard-righ of the
dun killed his own daughter, the princess. The fishermen in the
village nearby attest that they will never forget the howl of sorrow
that they heard echoing through the forest on that day.
I do not know what happened thereafter but after our encounter
at the bazaar I heard quiet murmurings about the black eyed
devil. It seems that he is now called Revenant, a name given
to him because of the harsh and brutal way with which he exacts
revenge from the people who cross him. Many people fear him and
keep far away from his path. There are others however who look upon
him with respect, awe and admiration.
\\||// \|/ \!/ \|/
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Legendary Times is put out by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all
replies/additions to [email protected] for inclusion in the next
edition. We, however, reserve the right to moderate this discussion,
and may object to some submissions. If you feel we have wrongly omitted
one of your messages, please talk to either Kaige or Ptah online or
through EMail and see if we did indeed receive it in the first place.
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