Volume Two Issue Twenty-Four

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..../                /_/..\______/./_____/./__/.../__/./_______/ MUD
.../________________/       running on sylvester.cc.utexas.edu 9999
                                                 128.83.108.29 9999
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           anonymous ftp: nebula.sover.net, /pub/users/legend
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VOLUME TWO, ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR                             May 7th, 1995
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                       ...:/:[ CONTENTS ]:\:...
                       
                              AREA STUFF

                   - Beowulf updated and debugged -
                   -          Hell updated        -
                   -    Breton gone to Scotland   -
                   -  Ptah and Kaige's new email  -

                               ARTICLES

                        - Forrest on Auctions -

                           FUND DRIVE STATUS

                             SOCIAL EVENTS
                             
                  -         Eretz on The Mess      -
                  - Moira and No and the Dark Lord -
                  -            No's side           -
                  -    Kendrik and Lark engaged    -
                  -   Psychotic and Keiko married  -
                  -       Tempus and Ecstasy       -
                  -        Caesar permadead        -
                  -       Get well, Dominic!       -

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                            BEOWULF UPDATES

A large quantity of small fixes were made to Beowulf. Here's a list of the
ones I can remember and that don't give too much away.

- All the various bad exits problems were fixed, I hope
- The lava pools now LOOK like deathtraps even though they aren't really,
  just 'cause so many of you walked into them
- Killing Grendel's mother no longer crashes the mud
- Asking Modthryth about wargness now gives different answers based on if
  you are one or not
- Wiglaf isn't in nearly such a hurry anymore
- The feather trick should work when you're with Beowulf
- The whole Saxon landing quest now seems to work fine
- Wulfgar's heralding should be working correctly now, and his gender is
  correct now
- Grendel should raid now if you've done the quest properly
- The smithy should keep hours correctly now
- The dwarf should make swords at the proper rate now
- Fighting Grendel's mother and the dragon should work correctly now--BUT!
  It will still be spammy if you use multiple attacks on them
- The various shapes should be giving all the right affects now, except the
  fishshape and sustained breath, which requires more coding
- You can use fly as effectively as balance in those treacherous rooms
- The chickens are no longer vorpal
- Wargs should now get urges and such correctly, and non-wargs not. Those who
  wear the wolfshape and are NOT wargs may very well end up becoming them
  however.
  
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                             HELL UPDATES  
  
Hell has been updated. In particular, look for the tunic to change wear
positions to  from , and also check out the revised weapons--
just about every single one has been altered.

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                          BRETON IN SCOTLAND
  
  
Breton will be gone to Scotland shortly after this issue of the LT comes
out. He does plan to get the (greatly) revised Casablanca/North Africa
area in sometime soon. Breton will be gone for the whole summer, so let's
all wish him luck and hope that he has lots of fun in searching for his
ancestral roots. :)

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         PTAH, KAIGE, AND THE LEGENDARY TIMES GET A NEW ADDRESS

All of the above should now be contacted at the following address, which
you may notice is the address from which this issue of the LT came:

                            [email protected]

The old ua1ix and ua1vm addresses will be valid for another three weeks,
but you should all get in the habit of using this new address, which will
be good until they move to Texas later this summer. Use this address for
all Legendary Times correspondence as well.

Because of the pay-by-the-hour nature of this address, you should also
expect Ptah and Kaige to be on less in the next three months. :( It
does however offer them the chance to do coding and debugging much more
easily, hopefully leading to code additions and fixes coming at a faster
pace.

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                       .'                       '.
                     .:          FEATURE          :.
                      '.        ARTICLES!        .'
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[Ed's note: This week's article came unsolicited from a player, and it

happens to be about the auction system. We strongly encourage players
who want to write articles to do so--this newsletter is not and SHOULD not
be written entirely by the immortals. Please do submit useful stuff like
this!]

                 FORREST ON THE AUCTION SYSTEM

The Legend auction feature is a wonderful feature that generally
works very well, as can be seen be the number of people consigning
items and bidding on items.  However, there are a few actions that
make the auctions less enjoyable for everyone.  These usually are not
a big problem, but have caused some hard feelings, so I thought I'd
list the ones I know about so people can at least try to avoid them.

1) "The Tease"  A few people have used the auction in order to find
out how much items rent for.  This spams everyone, and is very
frustrating to anyone who has been trying to get that item.

2) "Micro-bids"  If the bidding has reached 10,000 don't bid 10,001.
As a general rule, try to increase the bid by at least 10%.  If all
you have in the world is 10,001 and you really want the item, go
ahead, but your chances of success are about nil.

3) "Last-minute Bids"  You do not need to wait until the tick to
place a bid (some people really do believe this, honest!).
Especially when ticks are slow, bidding only after a tick makes the
process take forever.  It also increases your chance of placing a
stealth bid (see next item).

4) "Stealth Bids"  If you place a bid right after the second tick
since the item was consigned, and the consigner also accepts right
after the second tick (which often happens, especially if only one
person has bid on the item) the consigner may accept after your bid
is registered, but before they or the other bidders see your bid.
This means you get the item without competition, you make an enemy or
two, and you look like a jerk.  People have done this accidentally
and on purpose, and the effect is the same.  If you're a bidder,
don't wait until the last minute to bid.  If you can't bid (in
combat, or whatever) at least express interest over the auction
channel.  If you're a seller, it's a good idea to pause briefly after
the second tick before accepting.  There's probably no way to
entirely avoid this, but if everyone is aware of it, maybe we can
keep it to a very low level.

One final comment.  If you're interested in 'big ticket' items
(earrings, cloaks of midnight, etc) stash some money in the bank now
so you'll be ready.  Once you're over level 5 or so there are lots
of ways to make money on Legend, so with a little work in advance,
you should be able to hold your own in any auction.

Once again, the auction is great!  These are just some little things
that I (and others) have found annoying at times.

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                            FUND DRIVE STATUS
                            
A player at Legend who desires to see the mud continue has made a very
generous offer. In order to spur donations, this player has offered to MATCH
ANY DONATIONS from now on, up to the sum of $200. The only exception is to
be donations made by immortals, as the donor wishes to encourage players to
feel that it is they who have made the effort to keep the mud alive by
providing a home for it.

So remember, any donations made from now on will be ANONYMOUSLY matched by
another citizen of Legend! There will be weekly updates on the progress of
this renewed effort in the fund drive. If you can send a dollar, it will
count as $2! If you can only send $25, it'll count as $50! Please make this
generous person's gift worthwhile by doubling our chances of getting a new
site for LegendMUD.

Current status:
TOTAL CASH IN HAND:    $885			unchanged
TOTAL DONORS:           12			unchanged
ROUGH TOTAL PLEDGED:   $1150
TOTAL PLEDGES:          21			unchanged

RECENT DONATIONS       MATCHABLE FUNDS      TOTAL MATCHED FUNDS SO FAR
$0                     $0                   $50

Items donated: a 200mb hard drive
               a monitor
               a keyboard

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
                     University Station
                     PO Box 1114
                     Tuscaloosa AL 35486-1114
                     USA

If you are an overseas donor who cannot write a check in US Dollars, please
email us at the LT address given at the end of this newsletter.

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                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
The articles on what we called "The Mess" in the last issue provoked some
response from those involved and those not, leading to a lot of people
taking sides. Here's an official statement from the Order of the Scroll
regarding the issue...

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
"I was surprised to see a series of articles in the latest LT--about what
was called the "mess" and to find that my view had not been requested. I
cannot understand why I was not asked to explain the Order of the Scroll
position even though it would have been easy to do so.

"Briefly, Kiera says several things which seem inaccurate to me, perhaps
out of genuine misunderstanding. Maybe this indicates that the matter can
be settled peacefully.

"We decided along with the Knights that the frequent invasion of clan
halls required a policy of killing each invader once to discourage this
practice. The decision was made to pkill Kiera one time to make this
point. She then began attacking all members of our clan--having heard
perhaps some partly inaccurate information on this plan--who had not
attacked her and people who had been explicitly excluded from any
obligation because they said she was their friend.

"Her statement about my position is not accurate. I did not demand she
return everything but simply a) give up our tokens which she had; and b)
to stop attacking our members. In exchange we would not attack her. Any
further incursions into our hall would lead to her being attacked. But I
explicitly told her that given her profession there would be no conflict
if she stole items. (Though I suggested she give the owners a chance to
reclaim them on reasonable terms.)

"Most shocking of all, Kiera has threatened people with permadeath. This
is no light matter and will be dealt with us appropriately if any serious
attempt is made to do this.

"If anyone wishes to mediate negotiations I would be happy to cooperate.
Our agreement with the knights also obligates us to help them if their
hall is invaded.

"Again, the goal is not to persecute Kiera or to wipe her out but merely
to defend our own members and to discourage invasions of halls.

"Incidentally, the leaders of the Hermetics, Knights, and Order of the
Scroll have sent a petition to the immorts requesting changes in the
handling of tokens and clan communications. I would be happy to discuss
this situation at greater length.

"I regret that my view was not solicited on this matter earlier.

"Eretz, GM, Order of the Scroll"

[Editor's note: often the time constraints on the mailing of the LT and
the various updates which people need immediate notification of mean that
not everyone can be reached for comment. Last issue we ran comments by
a directly involved member of the Order of the Scroll as well as three
other individuals; be sure to mail us your contribution and reaction if
you want to be heard!]

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
And it really looks like the old thing about romances in the spring is
true! Lots of weddings and engagements going on--sheesh, are we getting
MUSHy or what? :) In any case, the most dramatic romance has got to be
the bloody one between Moira and No, which has been vastly complicated
by the recent killing spree that Terminator has been, er, enjoying. Here
are comments from the two principals...

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
             Moira and the awful, horrible, no good, bad week

"It all began when it suddenly occured to me that I was engaged to an
Anti-Paladin. Lots of people, including my clan sister Keiko, tell me
that i should have noticed that before, but somehow I never did. I dunno.
Anyway, in one of my very best, if I don't say so myself, ever praises
for No, I remarked on the absolute splendidness of No's lack of a lord.
And No got kinda upset; he started going on about how he had sworn fealty
to the Dark Lord. I was kinda surprised to hear that, to tell the truth...
like i said, it hadn't quite occured to me before.

"Anyway, I guess i should not have used the word "guppy" in my next sentence,
because that made No kinda mad...in fact, we ended up having this noisy,
messy, and very public fight on chat. I ended up saying that I couldn't deal
with the idea of marrying someone sworn to the Dark Lord...and i ended up
giving back the ring...and No got pretty hysterical. He charged off to Africa
and challenged Caesar to a duel..which resulted in him getting blinded,
which made everything on chat even more confusing....and then he DTed.
I was getting pretty hysterical myself. I've never broken an engagement
before...heck, I've never even gotten engaged before period. A few ales
later at the OOC, I decided that since this love business was working out
so very badly (and the Dark Lord was probably after me for making No
hysterical) that death was a Good Thing. So I went forth and drowned myself.
My sister Keiko, feeling my woe, decided to do so also (her drowning didn't
go
nearly so smoothly as mine because all these silly males decided that it was
their duty to save her from herself). To celebrate our succesful Deaths
by Water, we went out for drinks...and I must have had quite a few...because
I honestly don't remember anything else from that night....

"I woke up the next morning to discover, much to my amazement that i was pk
enabled...*faint* Having never really done the clan thing before, I tried
out the clan channel...and ended up announcing to all the nice people on
the WHO list that I was clanned as a rogue. Which makes it not too surprising
that later that day, while grouped with Keiko and some of her friends,
that I suddenly felt this katar in my back. For reasons that I still
don't really understand, Terminator, that vaguely Nordic looking fellow,
had decided to PK me. Oh joy. We tried to evade him for some time, but he
got me eventually...five times. Nice first day as a pk-enabled character,
I must say. I think he would have gone after me more, only Kiera showed
up and started going after him long enough for me to rent out. I later
got some revenge on Terminator, but that's another story...

"I don't really remember what the point of all this was really...oh..right:
1) avoid breaking engagements *sniff*
2) don't call the Dark Lord a "guppy" (particularly if your ex is an Anti)
3) don't drink and clan

                     --Moira, who really wishes this had all never happened

"P.S. No cornered me today and made me promise to stop drinking. He seems to
think that drinking had something to do with the mess I got myself into
(despite me dumping him in public, he still seems to be concerned about me
*sniff* *sigh*). As the above account indicates, I really wasn't in a
position to argue.So far, it's been hell. I honestly have no idea how you all
can bear to be sober for any length of time."

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
    "I suppose you have all heard about the horrible mess my relationship
with Moira turned has become.  It's all quite confusing.  This is my take on
what happened to keep the rumours to a minimum.

    "Moira realized I was an antipaladin, and that I served the Dark Lord.
She became terrified and broke off the engagement.  Some things were said
about devouring souls that I didn't quite follow.  I got mad at Keiko for
saying stuff about the Dark Lord on chat (yes, this was displaced anger) and
went to pkill Caesar because he said I could kill him as proxy for Keiko. 
Caesar blinded me after the first backstab, so I couldn't follow ANYTHING
that was going on on chat.

    "When I could finally see Moira wouldn't talk to me, so I cried a lot
and rented.

    "A few days later I logged on and Moira wants to talk to me.  It seems
she had been pkilled several times by Terminator and realized how much she
loved me. She wanted me to forgive her.  Well, Moira had developed a drinking
problem that I believe was the source of our break up.  If she had been sober
she might not have freaked out about the Dark Lord, or realized t hat I
followed him when she accepted my proposal.  So, I asked her to stop
drinking.  She did, so I forgave her.

    "Right now we are trying to figure out where we stand.  Maybe we'll
be a couple again some day.  But we've a lot to work out first.

    "Oh, yeah.  I'm still Moira's champion, so please level Terminator to
level 30 for me.
                                                                -No
                                                                
"P.S. This might not be too accurate.  I was pretty much reduced to a
blubbering pathetic mass of tears when she gave me the engagement ring back."

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
Well, and Terminator DID indeed get his comeuppance; he was assassinated for
a fee rumored to be well above half a million gold coins. Don't expect to
see the last of this anytime soon, though--Terminator seems determined to
keep killing (in particular, he's killed Moira twice more since the events
reported above) and also to go out by permadeath, murdering with his last
breath. Maybe one of these days we'll actually find out WHY...

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/

A stack of other romantic news, so much of it that it has to come in capsule
form, I suppose. Here it all is... the first Weddings & Engagements column
in the LT ever...

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                                                    
Apparently Keiko and Psychotic have tied the knot! They did it privately
but perhaps they will have a ceremony for the rest of us to attend sometime
soon.

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
  Tempus tells us:
  
  "Ecstasy and I are back together and we are taking everything one step at
a time. I thank all my friends who were there to support me in my moment
of need. Thanks ALL:)"

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
Kendrik of Eire and Lark of Agrabah would like to announce their engagement,
with wedding date to be determined. Best of luck to the happy couple!

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
In sadder news, a well-known figure on Legend has passed away into permadeath.
Caesar was permakilled by his own request, but his soul lives on in other
forms, so don't worry--the player is not lost to us.

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/
                          
However, Sir Dominic, GM-elect of the Knights of Legend, needs to take better
care of his player! Everyone please wish him a speedy recovery from his recent
car accident.

                          \|/  \|/  \\||//  \!/

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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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 The LegendMUD anonymous ftp site has all back issues of the Legendary
 Times available for anonymous ftp. Its address is given in the banner
  at the top of this message. Once connected, cd pub/users/legend/lt,
  and you will find directories containing volumes one and two, broken
 in sets of ten issues. The anonymous ftp site also houses other files
      that may be of interest to you. Visit our Web page too!
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