Volume Two Issue Thirty-Two

From The Legendary Times
Jump to navigation Jump to search
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
.............._______
............./      /            THE LEGENDARY TIMES
............/      /
.........../      /.....______.._____.....______.._____.......____
........../      /...../     /./     \.../     /./     \...../    \
........./      /...../  ___/./  ____/../  ___/./  __.  \.../  /\  \
......../      /...../  /_.../  /....../  /_.../  /..\   >./  /./  /
......./      /...../  __/../  /____../  __/../  /.../  /./  /./  /
....../      /_____/__/__../  \_\  /./  /__../  /.../  /./  /_/  /
...../                / /./       /./     /./  /.../  /./       /
..../                /_/..\______/./_____/./__/.../__/./_______/ MUD
.../________________/       running on         mud.aus.sig.net 9999
                                                 199.1.78.16   9999
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/People/johnmil/legend/legend.html
    http://alcuin.plymouth.edu/~ed/legend.html
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
VOLUME TWO, ISSUE THIRTY-TWO                         September 12, 1995
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

                     *****************************

                       ...:/:[ CONTENTS ]:\:...

                           **LEGEND MOVES**

                          *MEET THE NEW IMM's*

                            *CODE UPDATES*

                            -Egypt Arrives-

                           -Auction Changes-

                             -OOC Changes-

                         -Other Misc. Updates-

                            *ANNOUNCEMENTS*

                           -Call for Spells-

                          -Call for Articles-

                          -Fund Drive Update-

                            *SOCIAL EVENTS*

                            -Clan Updates-

                         -Some Legendary Poems-

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Please send your responses to articles to the Legendary Times address
at [email protected]. Letters to the editor are welcomed.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

                          ***NEW SITE***

Yes, we are now open at out new site at mud.aus.sig.net 9999 (or,
199.1.78.16 9999). The notes and boards arn't up yet because we're still
working on a new note indexing system. However, everything is going very
well...much more space for new areas and so forth :)

Our site is sponsored by sig.net, located in Austin, Texas. @sig.net was
created by Signet Partners to appeal to software developers, professionals
working from home, satellite or branch office facilities, traveling
salespeople, research and educational professionals, firms needing to
communicate with customers and suppliers in other cities or countries and
companies interest in tapping into a low cost marketing channel for their
products and customer support. Available through @sig.net is a gopher
server, FTP server, ClubSig personal pages, and links to online games and
to web search engines. Their web page provides information about the
types and pricing of accounts offered. Please note that the mud's
connection is courtesy of a special agreement between the implementors
and sig.net, and the rate we pay is not part of their usual
fee scheduling.  For more information: http://www.sig.net

                     *\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*

                       MEET THE NEW IMMS

Shortly after we arrived at our new site, Legend gained four new
immortals (technically they are "HER's," but we can never agree on
whether that means "hero/heroine" or "herald"). Three of these
gained their spots by submitting proposals for areas which were approved
by the Imps, and the other is an imm who has been reinstated :)

Zandy, a former Hermetic GM, is building the Anasazi (to be set in Ancient
North America). Birdy, who is a former acting GM for the Knights, is
working on Minoan Crete (to be set off of the Ancient Seas area). Rufus,
that Arabian poolshark who founded the Gamblers roleplaying clan, is
building an area set in Ancient India. Chocorua, who returns to us after a
lengthy absence, will be maintaining our web site, adding all the helpfiles
to it once they're updated, and doing most of the file work on the pyramid
that he and Charity are designing. You can reach his web site at:
http://alcuin.plymouth.edu/~ed/legend.html

                     ********************

                       EGYPT ARRIVES!!

The first installment of Egypt is now in. The area is set during the
reign of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten, who banned the worship of the old
gods in favor of his new sun god, Aten. Akhenaten's attempt was ultimately
fruitless, and he was called a "criminal" by his successors. While in Egypt,
you can visit the Necropolis, Aziyeh (a village), and Hikuptah, the City of
the Living. Mages should note that there is something of interest for them
there. The area also includes various quests to solve and market stalls
where you can buy mid-eastern wares. Those who are eager to go tomb robbing
should note that there is a trick involved in getting into the Pyramid....
Charity and Chocorua are currently working on the second area installment,
which will be an extension of the pyramid's interior. Those who would like
to visit Egypt should head down the Nile river (west of Arabia and south
of the Ancient Sea area). However, beware.

                         ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

                            AUCTION CHANGES

The automated auction system has been removed for the forseeable future.
The creator, Kaige, intended it to be a genuine auction system, where you
find buyers for merchandise that you have to sell, or buy things that
others offer up for sale. It was not meant to be a means of transferring
money from one player to another, or finding the value of an item without
having to go to an innkeeper to offer, or selling 'privately' when the
buyer and seller have a pre-arranged agreement. Obviously, the automated
auction had loopholes which allowed people to do all those things. A
recent update which tried to fix some of those things resulted in players
dropping link in order to conclude auctions without having to pay a
reclamation fee. In short, it would take a lot of time and attention to
fix the system to the point that it could be used only as it was intended
to be, with no loopholes. Kaige doesn't have that time right now, nor
does anyone else with the skill to fix what's wrong. Rather than living
with the auction channel as an armed camp in which players do things
because they can, and gods try to stop them because they shouldn't be
doing it, and having resentments build up in both directions, the system
has been removed.
Someday, if Kaige or another god with the time, talent, and inclination to
do so revamps the system, it may reappear. In the meantime, the auction
channel exists for you to arrange for sales in the old fashioned way.
Charge extra for delivery of items if you want, or stipulate where you'll
be and that the buyer has to come to you. Help your clan-mates or friends
by buying two recalls and walking to them to bail them out. Unless the bulk
of players object, feel free to hold concurrent auctions (though bidders
need to be sure they say what item they're bidding on). After awhile you'll
get used to it, and I suspect we'll all be happier that we don't have to
snipe back and forth about it.

                    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

                            OOC CHANGES

Sadist recently modified the ooc code so that clanned players may only go
to the ooc if they are standing at an innkeeper. This should remove the
'flee to the ooc' tactic of avoiding pkill (after all, why go ooc when you
can just rent instead), but will still allow clanned players to use the
ooc as it was intended to be used, for social purposes, conversations,
meetings, etc. We realize that it is somewhat of an inconvenience to have
to walk to an innkeeper when you want to use the ooc, but think that that
inconvenience is a reasonable price to pay for ensuring that your
in-character pkill attempts aren't frustrated by players going
out-of-character to avoid them. This was intended to be a temporary fix,
as a response to increasing complaints from players and godly annoyance at
the ooc being used in what should be in-game circumstances. However, since
it's been installed several players have voiced their approval and
indicated that they'd like to see it stay. If you don't like the way it
now works, and can offer a suggestion on how to eliminate the flee-to-ooc
tactic while making the ooc more accessable to clanned players while NOT
involved in pk, please feel free to give those suggestions to a god or
the LDL.

                   **************************

                       MISC. CODE UPDATES

* Thanks to having a machine of our own now, the ideas, bug, and typo files
will be permanently saved and sorted through periodically. Please feel free
to send in ideas or report bugs or typos through those commands. Typos tend
to take a long time to fix since they're cosmetic rather than essential, and
as always we reserve the right to not implement silly ideas, but we'll be
happy to go through and read what everyone suggests.

* The sustained breath spell now works (you won't drown if you fight
underwater).

* The invisibility spell which herbalists can use now works.

* Warcry's "paralyze" now actually does.

* You can no longer use the decay spell to make timed items permanent.

* Paul is fixed (he won't spam you with annoying messages about why you
can't go IC).

* Various socials have stopped working, in anticipation of the commands
getting taken over by skills. Among them are tackle and sing.

* Emote will now do possessives: if you emote something starting with an
apostrophe, emote will eliminate the space. In other words, you can now do
this:

        emote 's getting a new car for her birthday!

and you and others will see

        Muffy's getting a new car for her birthday!

* The bugs in whisper and talk are now fixed, so that you should no longer
be getting any garbled says.

* There's a moon with full phases in, thanks to Kaige.

* Newbies now start with one of three different newbie items, based on
which fighting stat they set higher: a club, a small sword, or the old
small dagger.

* Firing a technological gun now requires the GUNPLAY skill.

* There are now three levels of proficiency for using non technological
missile weapons (like bows): bowman, archer, and deadeye. These each have
helpfiles for those who qualify for the skills.

* There are now three levels of proficiency for firing guns: marksman,
sharpshooter, and sniper. These each have helpfiles as well.

* The freezing bug should now be fixed! We think we found the problem and
have it resolved...

* The lag should be considerably less--there was a problem with the way one
of the host routines worked that created 75 second delays whenever someone
first connected to the mud; we're now doing without that routine and it
already seems much improved.

* Mobs should now wake up at the proper times and rooms should be
performing their time-specific acts as well. If you see odd behavior from
sleeping mobs, please let us know.

                       -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

                            CALL FOR SPELLS

Please feel free to suggest to the gods new ideas for spells which would
use currently unused word combinations. In case you haven't figured out
how words are combined, here are the basic options:
  verb ex (all of these that make sense have been done already)
  verb 2nd ex (ditto)
  verb 2nd 2nd ex
  verb 2nd 3rd ex
  verb 3rd 3rd ex
A third circle word before a second circle word is not a valid option.
There are probably valid combinations that we haven't thought of yet,
though, so if you feel like rummaging around in your spellbook and
suggesting ways to fill in the gaps, please do. We'd be especially
interested in ways to make little-used words more useful. Please keep in
mind that an idea for a neat spell doesn't do any good unless there is a
currently-vacant spell word combination that could be used to make the new
idea work. The best way to submit ideas is with the IDEA command, now
that we have the disk space to keep those files without them getting
erased.  This is an open invitation to give us ideas - we make no promises
to implement all of the spells suggested, since we have to consider game
balance as well as just filling new slots. Also, there are many little
code fixes, the note indexing system, and skill trees that are all in line
to be done before new spells would be - but giving us neat ideas to keep
in the file means that those ideas are then part of the queue of coding to
be done.

                         */*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*\*/*

                           CALL FOR ARTICLES

As we move into fall, the LT production schedule will be picking up
substantially (expect shorter issues more often). Thus, I need articles!
My going rate is one string per publishable article. I do reserve the right
to ask you to edit your articles and/or edit them myself before
publication. Also, please note that if you'd like various events such as
pk battles or weddings reported, you need to e-mail me the details (or
catch me on-line). If a given account seems biased (say in p-kill), I'll
interview the opposing side(s) as well. Clan leaders should also note
that now is an ideal time to submit ads to attract all those new players
to your clans :)
-Rusalka
                          -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

                           FUND DRIVE UPDATE

It turns out that RAM prices were more expensive than we expected them to
be. Between that the site fees for the first six months, plus what we
already owed Sadist, we still lack about $450. $300 of that is the site fees
that the imms originally planned to cover, but that still leaves a good
chunk. Yes, we are now open on the new site, but we do still need pledges and
donations :) (Many thanks to the players who have already made a sizable
dent in our "debt"!!!)

We suggest that those who have the money burning a hole in their pocket
go ahead and send the checks directly to the following address and we
will get the letters out to them as soon as we can, perhaps even crossing
in the mail.

This is the address to send donations to:

           (make checks payable to Raphael and Kristen Koster)

                     Raph and Kristen Koster
                     12603 Rhea Ct.
                     Austin, TX 78727

If you are an overseas donor who cannot write a check in US Dollars,
please email them at [email protected].

***********************************************************************
             ________________________
            /                        \
        o O | Wonder what folks are   |
  `\|||/    | doing over at LegendMud?|
   (o o)    \________________________/
ooO_(_)_Ooo_____________________________________________________________
_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|
__|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|___
_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____

                          CLAN NEWS

As the last of the summer peeters out, most clans have been fairly
quiet....However, there has been a series of fights reportedly involving
members of the Coven, the Secretives, and Kiera. Depending on how clan
alliances run, it looks like a major war could be brewing as brisker
temperatures (and tempers?) set in.

The Hermetics recently elected Satsu as GM to replace Zandy, who recently
ascended unto the Immortal Lounge....


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=PAID ADVERTISEMENT-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Mercenary available for immediate hire:

        - Equipment acquisition: Scepter of Minos? Wormtooth Dagger?
          Not a problem.
        - Pest control: I accept commissions from clanned players.
        - Protection. Dependable service to watch your back, or as an
          escort into those dangerous places: hell, Sidhe territory.
        - Other tasks as appropriate: delivery, information, etc.

=== 'Tell Mercenary' for more information. ===

Mercenary army now forming.
        Need an entire clan put in its place? Want an area wiped clean? Our
army could be just what you're looking for.

(Some openings for mercenaries - contact Mercenary for more information)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The following letter arrived at the LT offices:

A short missive to Tenchi Kittredge--

        Some time ago, I offered to cover your bet on Mercenary when the
latter and Greyscot fought a duel.  Since then, due to horrific problems
reaching Legend, I have been unable to pay my debt. The sum I owe, 500gp,
is small, and I'm sure you don't miss it, but my honor is stained if I
don't manage to find you and pay you the money.
        I realize that the LT is not a good way to reach someone directly
for said purpose of handing over coins, but know at least that I
have not forgotten.

                                              --Elanor *******

                   /*\*/*\*/*\*/*\*/*\

Limerick seems to be living up to his name these days! He recently
submitted the following poems for Legend's reading pleasure:

       There once was a knight known as Crowe
       Who thought he could pkill like No,
       But the wormy of Auggie
       Made his vision so foggy,
       He could only strike glancing blows.

       There was a war babe named Kiera.
       I noticed that she liked to wear a
       Much nicer dress
       When she tries to impress
       Dermot, her lover, in Tara.

       To Mercenary, I am a patron,
       But I must admit some frustration.
       The price on your things
       Must have grown wings
       Because MAN! You're into inflation!

(Author's note:  these light hearted poems are not meant to be taken
personally by any overzealous pkillers who may read them and decide to
avenge themselves in the game *smile*)
[Editor's note:  Well, you can always hope.....]

One in an occasional series...

I am willing to answer the requests of anyone who wants a poem about them
or another character. I warn that it may take some time, but i'll figure
something out eventually.  Just ask me in the world.

Fare thee well,
Limerick

               *()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*()*

Shelby and her champion, Zair finally tied the knot this week. Parrilyn
performed the ceremony. Fellow bards Greyscot and Eretz served as
witnesses and Leila came to watch. Shelby and Zair haven't told their son
Arturus about their nuptials yet........

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Legendary Times is put out by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all
 replies/additions to Please send items and your responses to articles
and to our address at [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 Rusalka online or through EMail
 and see if she did indeed receive it in the first place.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=