View source for Volume Five Issue Two

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VOLUME FIVE, ISSUE TWO                                           August 8, 1997
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                              TABLE OF CONTENTS:


                              The Editor's Note.
                               -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                  Petal's wrap up of the fortnight that was.

                                From the Imps.
                                -=-=-=-=-=-=-
            In which our esteemed implementors discuss their weeks.

                       Departmental News and Updates.
                       -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
      A report which aims to keep YOU up to date on the work done in the
                            various departments.

                               News and Reports.
                               -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
         Strap on your swimsuit and snorkle and dive into this report 
                        on Charity's new underwater area!
            Also, keep up to date on the latest results/standings
                      of the legendMUD trivia competition.

                                  Legendites.
                                  -=-=-=-=-=-
         Sir Crowe of the knights relates the strange dreams which 
               have been plaguing him, and a note from Simara 
                        recounting a horrible ordeal!

                               From the War Zone.
                               -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                 Stella of the OtS proposes that all Pkillers
                    attend a meeting to reform the council.
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/__|                           EDITORS NOTE                           |__\
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Well, by far and away the biggest news of the week has been Rufus'
decision to step down from the role of 'head of the building department'.
Rufus has overseen the implementation of many areas. He has been an
excellent leader, and we are all glad to hear the news that he will be 
staying active in the building and coding departments. Speculation abounds
about who will take the reigns of the building department, but one thing
is certain s/he has very large shoes to fill!

Included in this issue of the LT is an article from Charity which outlines some 
of the cool things she is working on in relation to her underwater area. These 
are included here in the hope that you players will help her out with feedback 
on some of the proposed changes. To do this you can simply mudmail her.

Well thats about all I have to say this week, don't forget to get your articles
and submissions in for the next issue of the Legendary Times (email them to
lt@mud.aus.sig.net), and until I see you next fortnight, happy mudding.
-Petal

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/__|                          FROM THE IMPS                           |__\
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Spent most of the weekend and a bit of last week beating mobcheck and
act_synt into submission. These should be more informative and
hopefully a little easier to read.

Also cleaned out the bugs.txt file, and need to finish with the area
bugs since I fixed the code ones and forgot to put the area ones in
the right file.

Other than that, did some talking to people and read lots of email.

-Kaige

Ptah was online this week to show a reporter from PC Games (I assume
that is 'Personal Computing gamer' not 'Politically Correct' gamer) around
the mud. LegendMUD was the first mud chosen for a review... I guess our
reputation preceeds us!

[Note: in the original edition the reporter was identified incorrectly as
 being from PC Gamer, we apologize for any confusion.]
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/__|                   DEPARTMENTAL NEWS AND UPDATES                  |__\
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                             ADMINISTRATION
                             -=-=-=-=-=-=-

Kept their collective eyes and ears well tuned to the channels and the
boards in their ever-vigilant role as mud administrators.

                           PLAYER RELATIONS
                            -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This week, Kheldar researched stories for the ooc library board. He ran 
a recall tag and did the normal strings, clan settings, answering 
questions, etc.

Leila ran trivia on Saturday while Croaker was away which went for a 
whopping 5 hours. She also ran a few other games. She made a few minor 
changes to the pr.area, and started a dialogue with Sandra about OOC
foodstuff. Leila, Spencer, Zandy and Petal also ran a RP tinyplot.

Speaking of tinyplots, ParticleMan struggled away from his sick bed on
Saturday to run a tinyplot. (Hope you get better soon P-Man)

Croaker returned from his vacation. Welcome back Croaker! He wasted no
time and leapt back into his regular Friday night trivia and a flag hunt

This week Rusalka drew up a list of the big picture the PR department
and started a discussion concerning that.

As for me, I completed the first issue of the LT which will be coming 
out every second Friday from now on, so get submitting!

                               BUILDING
                              -=-=-=-=-
Since the last LT, builders have made progress on new areas and updated
old areas significantly. Leila added rooms, mobs, and objects for 
another quest in London. Kheldar playtested extensively and wrote new 
mobs for his Sinbad area. Lady Ace continued work on The Crusades, 
progress this week included a number of mobs and objects. Zandy worked 
on making his mobs more interactive and Croaker has the Ithaca sub-area 
almost done. He says he still needs ideas for his bard (see the welcome 
board post "Call for Submissions" for details). Rufus wrote the first 
portion of a file of generic fight procedures (see the related 
discussion board post, "mob cheating" and "cheezy fight specials"). 
Charity held a player forum (see related article in this LT) and wrote 
some of the area-wide procedures for her underwater reef area.

Some critical fixes in the past two weeks: Sherwood wells and the rivet
are no longer decayable; the Alhambra's poison dart trap is fixed; the
tortise shell cat can't be scavenged by mobs; the Viking trout is more 
forgiving of blundered attempts to catch him; and the physician now 
teaches anatomy properly. Also, Charity added a vial and some herbs to 
the perfumer in Egypt.

Minor bugs and typos in many areas have been fixed - thank you's go to
all the players who submitted reports to those channels. There have been
minor additions to Egypt, item changes and bug/typo fixes in Romania,
item and mob changes in Ireland, and mob changes in India (consult the
welcome board or local area boards for more info on these). Mobs in
Casablanca are no longer immortal, but 'attackable' does not necessarily
mean 'killable', so beware. The addition of fight AI procedures to mobs
in the Savanna, prompted by the aforementioned discussion board posts on
intelligent mob fight strategies, has been put on hold for now (see the
related discussion board post, "Mobs", and subsequent follow-ups).

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/__|                          NEWS AND REPORTS                        |__\
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            Charity's summary of the Underwater Player Forum:
            -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I'd like to say thanks again to everyone who showed up and contributed
ideas! A log of the forum should be available on Legend's website soon.
In the meantime, here is a quick summary of the things we discussed and
the tentative conclusions we reached. I'd like to also thank Tad for
being there to keep our wild ideas within the realm of the codeable. =)

+ Everyone was very concerned about fire spells underwater. Most of
  these are already disabled, and the rest will be disabled before
  underwater areas are ready to install.

+ Everyone wanted to be sure that Londoners would have access to the
  area even though they can't learn sustained breath. Scuba gear will
  definitely be provided in my French Polynesia area, and other
  suggestions (a sustained-breath potion, a snorkelling skill, or
  changes to the current swimming skill) are under consideration. IMHO
  some of these ideas would fit better with stuff planned for later
  in skill trees, so you may not see them soon. But the scuba gear
  will be there for sure.

+ Resting while underwater will subject you to a sinking or bobbing
  effect, depending on how heavy you are. The details of this have yet
  to be finalised, but as it would only apply while resting, it should
  be a neat feature that won't harm your ability to move around or
  fight.

+ I proposed that say, talk, and yell be disabled underwater, and that
  sleeping likewise be disabled. Some people thought this would harm
  playability, others thought it would make underwater feel different
  if you had to emote or tell to people who aren't grouped with you.
  Yell (and probably warcry as well) will appear to players the same
  way deaf players currently see messages. It would be inadvisable to
  sleep because scuba gear takes attention to use properly, and if 
  you're using sustained breath or waterbreath, it would be very bad to 
  miss seeing the wear-off warning messages. There's no final decision
  on these yet.

+ Thanks to a suggestion, I'll be adding "the bends" to the areas...
  whether this is based on duration underwater or time spent at certain
  depths I haven't decided. Details about this will be posted when the
  area goes in, so no one will be taken by surprise.

+ Contrary to what I told folks during our discussion, it seems that
  both tech guns and bows are already disabled underwater. Rufus has
  said that we can put in a special item (sorta like the scalpel is now)
  to provide a speargun that can be used underwater.

+ In general, we're leaving melee combat and spell casting alone, 
  because to do otherwise would mean way too much coding work. Skills 
  and spells (aside from agni spells) are still under discussion. Throw 
  will likely result in the object sinking before reaching its target, 
  and warcry will probably be disabled. I will be testing the underwater
  areas thoroughly, and then other imms will do the same, to make sure
  that whatever skill/spell changes are made don't overpower one type
  of fighter or spellcaster.

As I'm just starting the area files for these reef areas, there's plenty
of time for us to work out all the little details and give the coders
time to work on changes in between more important things like the
fight system. We will let you know of actual implemented changes when
the code and the areas are near completion. If you have questions,
comments, or suggestions in the meantime, feel free to mail me.

                                \|/ \|/ \|/

                             The Trivia Report
                            -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Leila ran a five and a half hour trivia contest a couple of weeks ago. The 
role of honour for that meeting were: Ishtar, Joachim, Jen-Creature, 
Anacrusis, Buffalmacco, Shiva, Gil-galad, Paribus, Frodo, Shane and Kahlan!
(long trivia means lots of winners)

Croaker is now back from vacation, and he's now doing what he does best...
running trivia. His next game of trivia is scheduled for Sunday 8/10 at 1800
hrs system time. To get you in the mood for his next big event, try these:

1) Give the English translation for the Latin phrase:
Balaenae nobie conservandae sunt.
Creado Elvem ipsum etian vivere.

2) Currnet Events:  A Malaysian man finished a 21 day stay in a cramped
cage with 6000 of these creatures, sustaining 99 poisonous bites/stings
during his record-setting trial.

Answers:
1) Save the whales, I believe that Elvis is still alive.
2) Scorpions - he broke the previous record of 15 days with 4000
scorpions)


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/__|    LEGENDITES: Information Regarding the People of Our World     |__\
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                                  Dreams
                                -=-=-=-=-
                              -by Sir Crowe.

Not one of the patrons at the Royal Stag noticed the dark figure
of the Knight who had entered until he had spoken. 'Has anyone seen
Abigail today?' The Knight did not need to raise his voice much to be
heard throughout the quiet of the inn, nor did the responses to his
question require much effort: 'She was just here a few moments
ago.'

'Why do you seek her, Sir Crowe?' This voice was that of a younger
Knight, seated at a table in the center of the common room. As the
elder walked to the table he exchanged salutes with the young knight
Sundance. Crowe said, as he sat down at the table, 'A dream I've
been havi...' he cut himself off as he turned his head and noticed
that the others in the room were listening, but realising that today
there was nowhere in the room where their conversation wouldn't be
overheard.

'A dream I've been having for the past few nights has me kind of
concerned.' The other inngoers had begun to move closer to their
table, but the Crowe went on. 'In it, I'm in Klein, entering the
Phoenix. Everything there is the same, except that behind the
counter where Erich usually is, there's a woman. She has red hair
and dark clothing, and as I approach her, she holds a key out to me
and says, "Your room is ready, Sir." I take the key from her and
go upstairs, only the hallway is totally different. It's round, and
there are hundreds of doors going off into the distance.'

'Weird,' shuddered Sundance, a sentiment echoed by the newly gathered
crowd around their table. Crowe nodded as he continued his story.
'So I walk down the hall, past dozens of doors, and as I do, I start
hearing a noise in my head, first quiet, then growing very loud. It is
voices, but not yelling ones. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of
voices, but it is as though only one person is speaking with them. They
are so jumbled I can't make sense of them even as they boom in my ears
with ever-growing intensity. Anyway, somehow I know which door is
opened by my key, so I find and approach it. The voices, I can now tell,
are coming from the room beyond, and as I turn the key I feel
increasingly apprehensive. I turn the knob and let the door drift
open, and am nearly deafened by the sound. Nonetheless, I enter,
and look frantically for the source of the noise. The room is
empty, and even still, the voices grew louder, louder. At last, the
voices seem to find their rhythm, and as they fall away, I finally
made out these words: '...watch out for my sister!'  I spun around,
and standing in front of the door blocking my way out was Isobel.'

'That's when I always wake. Crowe finished, and allowed his words
time to sink into the large crowd who were standing around him.

Sundance seemed a little confused. 'Who's Isobel?' 
The elder Knight smiled faintly. 'She was Abigail's sister, with whom I
had a brief affair almost two years ago.'

'That's right, didn't she die or something?' 
This from a child, standing on a chair to see better. Crowe nodded.
'Yes. Isobel and were involved just before I became lost in time, and
she thought I had betrayed her. She formed the Coven, and later on was
killed on a contract. Abigail blames me for her sister's death, and has
sought my blood ever since.'

'Now, I am having dreams in which Isobel seems to be telling me my
death is at hand.'  A murmur went through the inngoers, and Sundance
tried to be reassuring: 'Don't pay any attention to it...I'm sure
it's nothing.'

'You must beg Allah for the wisdom and the strength to face your
dreams, and to face death.'  This from a dark-skinned mage standing a
few feet away.

Crowe replied, 'Perhaps, Terrizano, but for right now I think caution
is called for...and some thought.'

Sundance turned and spat, 'Terrizano, keep your religious nonsense to
yourself.'

'Infidel!  You will be struck down for your blasphemy!' The
assembled crowd excitedly turned its focus onto the arguing duo, but
Crowe paid no attention. He was lost in thought, about his dream and
about older times. More than anything, he gazed back at a young
warrior girl named Isobel. The old knight believed that something
was going to happen, soon. To what end, he knew not.

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

I found this letter near the druidic circle and thought it might be of
interest to someone. I only wish I had some information to give that
might help Simara find her attacker. Perhaps if you publish this letter,
someone will step forward to help her.
-An Interested Observer

Sisters,

I have just escaped from a horrifying imprisonment in the mines of Hell.
Nine months ago, while on the way to see Rhia to get some bandages (I
always seem to be running low for some reason) I was struck in the back
of the head by an unknown assailant! When I awoke, I was chained to a
strange group of people. Sometimes my companions in misery seemed no
more than wisps of vapour, and I wondered if the blow to my head had 
caused permanent damage. I knew it had at least caused the loss of my 
memory.

We toiled under unspeakable conditions; little sleep, hardly any
food, and constant beatings were all I allow myself to remember. Far 
worse things happened, but blessedly I cannot remember them. Slowly, 
bits of my memory returned, and I realised that the people working with 
me were souls of the dead... and likely I would join them before too 
long. I know not why I was kept alive, perhaps to torture me even more, 
or perhaps there was some even darker purpose.

As more of my memories returned to me (A blessing from the Goddess
in my time of need, I am sure) I began to regain some of my magical 
arts. I was able to use my magic to escape from my captors, but even so 
I was almost killed by Cerberus, who hunted me to the very gates of 
Hell. My friend Abigail found me and helped heal me, though the wounds 
to my soul may never go away.

Now, I seek the attacker who maliciously tried to send me to the
afterlife before my time! I beg of my sisters, assist me in my search 
for the perpetrator.  I live for vengeance now!

Simara, The Searcher

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

Lethargio, who we have all come to know and love as 'a member of the 
American red cross', has finally had his fighting skills recognised by 
that institution. Now when you look at him, you will see 'a red cross
combat medic'.
                               -=-=-=-=-=-=- 

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/__|       FROM THE WAR ZONE: Information From the PK Front           |__\
   '------------------------------------------------------------------'

I recently asked on the war board whether or not the pkill council still
exists.
It turned out that it doesn't, so now I am proposing to start it up
again. There were many favourable replies on the war board, and, I 
would just  like to remind you all that I am calling a meeting for all 
interested, on Saturday, the 9th of august, 8 PM system time. I think it 
would be worth trying to start the council up once more, and judging 
from the responses, a lot of people agree with me.

Some of the things that needs to be discussed there are :

Who should lead the council?
        A lot of names have been proposed. 
        Should it be a rogue? An imm?

Who should be in the council?
        Should rogues be represented? They are pkillers too, and the 
        decisions made by the council affect them too.

What power should the council hold?
        Are the decisions made by the council irreversible?
        Should the clans choose one member from thier clan to be a
        representative in meetings, or does everyone have a vote? 

If you have an opinion on any of these matters, please attend the OOC 
lecture room at 8pm system time on Saturday the 9th of August.

-Stella

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Legendary Times is published by the gods of LegendMUD. Please send all
replies/additions to our address at lt@mud.aus.sig.net for inclusion in the
next edition. We, however, reserve the right to moderate this discussion, and
may object to some submissions.
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