User talk:DRSircha

Ranik's Maps Updates

Howdy! I noticed that you've started to make updates to a few of Ranik's maps, which is great as they can always use updating. I also noticed that while the changes themselves so far look correct, you're not quite following the convention nor matching the quality of the current maps. For example, in your update to the Therenborough map, the connecting line to the extra room you added bleeds over the edge of the room you added. Also, directional labels are normally in bold type and not italicized not the unbolded, italicized one that you included. These issues are consistent across all the maps you have edited so far. I'm not trying to dissuade you from making updates to these maps as needed, but I encourage you to make them with the same level of quality and attention to detail that was originally invested in them since these maps are a true gem of the community. I thought I'd just pop in with this note sooner rather than later before you have to back through too many maps adjusting the little details. Happy editing!--Evran 19:23, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

I just noticed too that on RanikMap5, the room in Arnack's Tavern is a poorly drawn version of the normal rooms as another example of lesser quality. Cutting and pasting would go a long way to keeping the high visual quality of the maps intact.--Evran 19:29, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Will fix them next time I go fishing.

DRSircha Poorly drawn? How so? It's a square, and there's not too many ways you can mess that up. The curtain leads to an extra room I presume a place where barbarians can do more than pick their teeth, and perhaps buy things. Sorry program I use has no cut/paste function, however It does much more than MS Paint ever will. Made a new mountain icon, and working on a new tree icon or two, and perhaps a river space, bushes, icon too. Will see. Going to see about bolding all that text.--DRSircha 04:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

"Hi! It's great that you are updating the maps. :)

May I ask what program you are using to edit the existing maps? Most image editing application I've come across has Copy & Paste as a standard feature. It seems quite odd that your application does not have it. Regarding Evran's reference to the poorly drawn remark is that the general gray room square looks odd in comparison to the other gray room squares because the inside square is tinier. It looks out of place. Copying an existing square and pasting it for the new room is a simple and super quick way to make sure everything matches. Also it's less trouble for you because you don't have to spend time creating the square and you can edit other maps faster. :)

Also, my suggestion for your future edits, the edit to the Theren map, for the Registrar's office has a line cutting into the green square. My suggestion for future edits is to zoom in the image to make it larger. That way it's easier to see if the line stops correctly. Just a QC thing, but it makes the map visually pleasing and consistent with all the existing maps"

Oops, I put my comments on top, but it's supposed to go at the bottom. I'm new to the whole wiki concept as well, and I'm still learning the ropes. Hopefully I can also make some decent contributions later on. --Pamdemonium 03:00, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

I am using Adobe Illustrator, and no it has no cut and paste function for bitmapped pixels. On the plus side only have to draw a box or icon once and then I can paste it to any map. Without needing to recut again.--DRSircha 04:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

On the downside, your box is poorly drawn so every time you paste it into a map you will be pasting that poorly drawn box over and over. In addition to Pamdemonium's note about the inner box being smaller, the result of the size difference is that the x in the middle looks scrunched and is asymmetrical because the inner box is not even square. Never having used illustrator I can only guess at a recommendation for a solution, but perhaps try using paint to cut and paste copies of the artwork that you want to use so you can import it into illustrator as your artwork templates. Or zoom in to pixel view and draw it out pixel by pixel to match exactly if that's possible.

I'll be more precise next time.

As for your note that you made a new mountain and tree icon, I hope you mean to say you duplicated the icons that are currently there exactly and have it easily set up to paste in as needed. What I hope it doesn't mean is that you created your own drawings for them.

Oh come on now, that mountain I drew looks really nice! I copied Ranik's shape and made it better!--DRSircha 04:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

I also just noted that the font you used is some form of sans serif, whereas all the other fonts have serifs (the little ticks at the ends of letters). And the size of the font is slightly larger. There's a list of the fonts used at Talk:Ranik_Maps#Fonts used.

Yes I know what a serif is, I just didn't recognize the font.--DRSircha 04:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

I know details like these may seem picky, but the consistent visual quality of these maps is one of their selling points.

Okay no sweet-looking rocky mountains for you!--DRSircha 04:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

One final unrelated tip: to make these talk pages easier to read, include one additional colon(:) at the beginning of each of your paragraphs in order to indent it further. Each colon equates to one 'tab' worth of indent, so if the previous person used a single indent, you would use two for example. And to keep clear who is saying what, include your signature at the end of what you're typing by using two hyphens(--) followed by four tildes(~). Sig example can be seen here.--Evran 18:13, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

DragonRealms 2008 Patch Notes

For people who missed the year 2008, and because patch notes are now deleted every 2 years. (much to my personal annoyance, I can't find things that were promised/written down 3,4, and six years ago. Therefore this log is very necessary. If there's stubs pertaining to new abilities detailed here they should be linked-in directly.

Each category includes information for those the changes particularly relate to.

• Designations* To use these hastily thrown together patch notes, CTRL+F and then type in All Players, or system such as Stealth, Music, or Guild such as Ranger, you can also search by releaseing GM name if that's the way your blood runs.

10/24/2008

RPA's

All players They will now actually add bonus experience to what you would normally accrue. This should mean your pools drain at the same speed as they did previously, but your ranks go up faster. As before, the bigger the RPA, the more marked the effect. ~~DR-LOHKRIAN

Shops Fixed up

all players, Thieves After much finagling, catalog shops will once again provide you items commensurate in value to what you paid. Also, items that previously had special properties dependent on material (most notably: ironwood shields) will once again have those properties.

After an entirely DIFFERENT SET of finagling, this change will also affect items stolen from said shops. This will increase the difficulty of those items whose values increase, but they will, of course, teach better and sell for more. ~~DR-LOHKRIAN

10/25/2008

Urbanity and You

Thieves, Rangers I have released utilities that have split the previous definition of whether an area is wilderness or urban into two separate scales. This means that areas can be beneficial to both Thieves and Rangers at the same time.

While most areas of the game will go unchanged, I have made a few alterations to go along with this initial release and we will be reviewing areas as we see fit. Here's what changed.

1) Langenfirth: This area is now friendly to Thieves as well as Rangers. Langenfirth was set at wilder than it should have been so it will be slightly less Ranger friendly than it was.

2) Leth Deriel: This area is now friendly to Rangers as well as Thieves.

3) Crossing Shipyard (rats): This area is now friendly to Rangers as well as Thieves.

4) Middens (louts): This area is now friendly to Rangers as well as Thieves.

5) Temple in Gate of Souls: This area is now friendly to Thieves as well as Rangers.

NOTE: Since Beseeches are in a state of being assessed and rewritten, they do not work with these new mechanics and may not catch all changes. All other guild abilities and verbs should pick up the split fine. ~DR-Zeyuren

10/27/2008 Stealth, Rangers, Thieves ==Appraising armor== will now provide information about Stealth Hindrance. Compare will not include this feature.~GM Lohkrian

10/29/2008 All Players, Scripting

New Scripting Policy

For DragonRealms Prime, effective December 1, 2008:

POLICY 16

~Simu-Solomon

10/29/2008 All Players, Rangers

Climbing 3.0

NOTE: These changes apply only to things that used the default CLIMB verb. A few special scripted climbs (the Aesry stairs or the cliff on Hara'jaal, for example) use custom mechanics and are not affected by these updates at this time. These are rare, but be aware they exist.

I'll be monitoring this release for the next week or two. Experience rates, roundtimes, and timers are all subject to change based on observation and feedback.

There's some good news and some bad news involved in this overhaul, so let's get down to the details:

--- Climbing Aids ---

• You now have the option to CLIMB <obstacle> WITH <tool>. If you have an appropriate tool (currently the coiled ropes like those sold at the Crossing General Store are the only ones supported) you will gain a bonus to your climb attempt. However, this comes at the cost of a reduction in experience gained.

• You may appraise a climb before you attempt it, and will receive a bonus based on your success in appraising. This is not new, but the benefit from this additional step has been increased. No cost other than the added roundtime for the appraisal.

• Rangers will gain a bonus based on their scouting skill when attempting to lead groups over climbs. This is also not new, but the bonus involved is now more consistently applied, although not as substantial as it was before.

• If a group leader succeeds in a climb, everyone in their group will get a bonus based on the success of the leader. The downside is that those who wouldn't have made it without the leader bonus will received reduced experience from the climb as a result.

• The role of stats in climbing has been increased. Both agility and strength will aid in climbing.

--- Climbing Penalties ---

• The fatigue cost for climbing has gone up in most cases. Climbing while fatigued will also reduce your chances. The more difficult the climb, the greater the fatigue cost. The better your success (where applicable) the lower the cost.

• The impact of wounds on climbing have gone down in most cases. However, climbs more difficult than stairs/steps will now also check all limb wounds, not just legs like before. While wounds are less significant overall, they can still make a difference.

• You may now attempt climbs with items in your hands (any type), but there will be a penalty involved based on the size of the item, and an additional penalty if both hands are filled. Note: climbing tools (see above) are exempt and will not incur a penalty in and of themselves, although the penalty for having both hands filled will be applied if you have something in the other hand as well.

• Failed attempts now incur a roundtime to prevent spamming and learning more from failures than successes.

--- Practice Mode ---

• Two other new options are now available:

CLIMB PRACTICE <obstacle>
STOP CLIMB

Use of this option will put you in practice mode. Assuming the climb is reasonably challenging (but not too much so), you will learn climbing experience until the practice session ends or you use STOP CLIMB. The experience award will slowly build until the end of the session or it is stopped, but while practicing climbing you will be extremely limited in other activities. Note that practicing will not actually move you, nor will it invoke the experience timers.

--- MISC ---

• The experience for a successful climb has been increased. The experience timer still exists, and is now consistently applied. In short, going from one place to another will teach better than it used to, but climbing back and forth will not teach well in most cases. The best way to learn is to try climbing back and forth once, then run a practice session if it seems to teach well.

• A new difficulty tracking system has been added. The game will now track the most difficult climb in the game, and if the climb you are attempting is close to that climb in difficulty, it will make sure you always gain experience if you fully succeed, even if you have far more skill than required. This will insure that it will always be possible to learn climbing, even if you severely outclass the most difficult climbs in the game.

• Spells and abilities that benefit climbing should still be completely compatible. Those that bonus/hex the stats involved in climbing should now be more potent than before.

The difficulty in dragging over climbs has been reduced. The effectiveness of Glyph of Ease in dragging over climbs has been increased. ~~Dartenian

10/31/2008 GM hopefuls, all players

GM Applications

While we are on the topic of hiring and training, I wanted to make a quick reminder to any of you who have recently used the online application system. There are additional written questions beyond the main application that should become available to you once you submit it. Applications will not be considered for the next step in the hiring process if left incomplete. This goes for any area of applications: GameHosts, GameMasters, Forums Moderators, Mentors, ALAE, etc.

Also, once you apply, you are able to go back and modify or add to your existing application. There is also a section where you can see any notes we have left you as we go through your application. If for some reason you have trouble with any of these features drop me an email and we'll see what we can do.

Thank you and good luck!

11/6/2008 All players, totems

Totems

Fragments are returned to the sky by holding a totem and a glowing fragment in your hands and using the RAISE verb. This increments your totem's "fragment count" by 1.

The totem reaches its first bonus level at four fragments and becomes "active". After that point, the totem will then become "dirty" after one week of real time. Once it has been activated, the totem is capable of providing multiple types of bonuses that drain charges from it. These charges can only be restored by CLEANing a dirty totem and, as only dirty totems can be cleaned, the totems have an effective recharge rate of 10 charges each week.

By the way, to CLEAN the totems, you're going to need items for your totem that match what you sacrifice to the appropriate altars in the Alternate Favor System.

Here is a list of the abilities and associated costs:

Level 1 (Unlocked at 4 Frags) Light PUSHing the totem allows it to act as a light source. Costs 1 charge Level 2 (Unlocked at 10 Frags) Bless This is activated by the WAVE verb and will add 10-30 blessed strikes to a weapon in the hand of the target (either another player or yourself). Costs 2 charges Level 3 (Unlocked at 18 Frags) Stat/Attribute Boost This is activated by the POINT verb and will boost at single stat by 6-10 points for the target. The stat chosen will depend on the deity of the totem. Each has 3 possible. Not going to break down which each has at this time. Costs 3 charges Level 4 (Unlocked at 28 Frags) Skill Boost This is activated by the SHAKE verb and will apply skill boosters to the totem-wielder. The stat boost is slanted based on the chosen deity's "flavor" being dark, light, or neutral; a bit toward the offensive for dark, defensive for light, and more balanced for neutral. Costs 5 charges Level 5 (Unlocked at 40 Frags) Favor This is activated by the KISS verb and will bestow a favor upon the wielder. The ability will bring the favor count up to 15, but no higher. If the PC's count drops below 15, it will work again. Costs 10 charges Jackpot (Capped Totem) RPA This is activated by the RAISE verb and has a 20% chance to bestow a Level 1 RPA on the wielder. Takes all remaining charges

So, as I said, once your totem is capped, you do not need to worry about more fragments. Any additional fragments you DO find have a chance to provide the jackpot bonus, but the basic functionality of the totems themselves is permanent and you cannot "break them" or "run them out", again, as I said.

There will be fragments in the treasure system to allow for the occasional jackpot or to allow those who need more to cap out their totems to cap them out. There's no deadline on capping them out.

So, aside from a very small number of typo issues, the totems were not "buggy", they were not working improperly, and they were working 100% as intended. Wythor and Lohkrian did an absolutely amazing job on them.

As we said, they're fairly complicated, but it was felt that they needed to be more than simple props, given their benefits.

If you have a billion fragments squirreled away, you might as well help someone cap out their totem, since most of them will die in a week or so. Any newly generated fragments currently have a lifespan of 1 week, but after the festival that will drop dramatically, so your best bet after the festival will be to use them, give them to someone, or sell them quickly. I'm going to ask Armifer to drop the lifespan on newly generated fragments significantly over the weekend (down to maybe an hour or so) and we'll re-add ways for people who need them to get them in order cap out their totems more quickly, but again, if you're holding a bunch of them, they're not going to do you any good, so help out your friends.

For those of you who are wanting to exchange your totem because you messed up and got the wrong one and are holding fragments now, this shouldn't affect those fragments you already have.

Also, something that many people declined to investigate or participate in:

Fragments could be (can still be) given to certain NPCs and exchanged for "tricks" or "treats", which can be stored in special bags and can summarily be given to your friends or used yourself with various effects.

Which leads to the other announcement, which will be explained in more IC detail tomorrow:

For many years, a large number of players (and GMs) have wanted (or created) more recognition and/or celebration of Real World holidays. In addition, we've always had the ever-present question of "When's the next festival?".

My take on the holiday issue (which I've gone over before) is that this was not acceptable unless we could come up with a way to justify it and make it suitably fit into the culture and history of the game. Despite that feeling and despite my repeated "banning" of OOC invasions and Holiday Recognition in Prime, we'd still get rabid reindeer and mistletoads, rampaging turkeys, pumpkin carving systems that conveniently got released on Halloween, and other references that some people loved, some people hated, but only resulted in reports, complaints, and OOC comments on the gweth, which resulted in more reports and complaints.

Being a big fan of WoW's "in-genre-fication" of holidays, with good storylines and events that tied them in, I sat down last year with several staff members and we discussed ways to bring this to life in DR, starting with Chris' Mass, which will be a regularly occurring event with a theme of giving and sharing, tied to The Mass's appearance in the sky.

Following suit, the Events Team, Cleric Team, Moon Mage Team, and I, laid out the groundwork and storyline for what will become an annual, large-scale, themed festival designed around the Huldah's mischevious antics which caused turmoil in the heavens and resulted in the disappearance of the stars and totally empty skies, giving us our first ever Hollow Eve.

Many NPCs, Merchants, Alterers, and I believe even a few Greeters mentioned "Hollow Eve" to large numbers of players, but it was either overlooked or no one made the (obvious, we thought) connection.

This event and festival will occur every (RL) year, allowing you to plan your plat hoarding accordingly. The festival's theme will obviously lean toward the godly and generally contain inventory, games, and events that focus on darker aspects, deities, and playstyles. The idea is that most (if not all) shops at the fest each year will return, either with the same or refreshed/restyled inventory, along with new shops that will be added, which means it will continue to grow each year. I already have shops in mind that I'll be building and I know I've heard several other GMs say the same thing.

In addition to the auction, there are going to be a couple of other new system/feature releases, hopefully tomorrow. Simu-Solomon

More Fragment/Totem Related Information

As we go along, some of you are going to notice that your fragments are going to decay.

This is normal.

Fragments have a lifespan, so folks are going to start pulling fragments out of their sacks that have stopped glowing.

Depending on when that particular fragment was found, this is expected and working as intended.

Those folks who chose the wrong totem and were waiting to use your fragments, please realize that the occasional dead fragment will show up. This is not something we're going to fix. Yes, you were advised to wait and hold on to them, but you're in better shape than those who ignored the advice, because they were given fresh totems, too, even if their original wrong totem had 40, 80, or even 120 fragments used. The difference is, if you listened to the advice, you will still have a bag with mostly good fragments in it to use, while they may not.

Some of the fragments in various parts of the treasure system had different lifespans, some of which were very short. The lifespans of the fragments over the course of the events will also vary, so again, dead fragments are going to start showing up. Nothing is broken. ~~Simu-Solomon

Storing Items

All Players, Storage Announcing: the STORE verb · on 11/12/2008 2:33:14 PM 2620

The STORE verb is now live in Prime for all to use. It will go live in TF on Sunday if nothing explodes.

As an unfortunate side effect of this update, all of your old STOW containers have been reset.

In essence, STORE allows you to choose which container items go to when you use the STOW verb. There are three major pieces of functionality for this verb that I will detail below. If you don't want to read it all, just type STORE HELP in-game.

STORE [option] in [container]

The options you can specify are things like "ammunition", "lockpicks", etc. This will let you choose a container to store those kinds of items in. Example:

>STORE AMMO IN QUIVER

Now, when I type STOW ARROW, the arrow will end up in my quiver.

STORE CUSTOM "[phrase]" in [container]

Any items with a TAP containing this phrase will be placed into the specified container. The phrase can be 32 characters long, and is case-sensitive. There is just one slot for custom phrases. For example:

>STORE CUSTOM "tinctu" in apron

Now, when I try to stow a tincture (or "a painting a drunk empath surrounded by empty tincture bottles"), it will automatically try to go into my apron.

For Stormfront Users Only:

STORE WINDOW

This brings up a window that allows you to manage your STORE settings in a graphical fashion. With the large number of options, this window is extremely helpful.

Note that in all cases, if an item wouldn't normally fit in a container, it will also not fit through the STORE verb.

Also: There is currently an issue with gems such that 70 do not fit into a gem pouch when you use PUT or STOW. This is a known issue, and has existed as long as gem pouches themselves. You will need to use FILL to fit the full 70 gems into the pouch.

NOTE This verb will NOT work inside of a stable, where you would normally STORE your horse. You will have to leave the stable for this verb to work correctly. ~~DR-SOCHARIS

New Prayer Beads

Cleric 11/16/2008

It is now possible to carve prayer beads dedicated to the Prydaen, Rakash and Gnome deities -- without primers. The new symbols are: triquetra, crow, badger, butterfly, beaver, gremlin, rabbit. The Rakash festival totems should accept beads as proper sacrifice, and the Prydaen ones will very soon. ~~GM Grejuva

A new Cleric spell has been released.

Sanctify Pattern is a second tier skill booster, increasing the subject's Primary Magic and Harness Ability for the duration of the spell. It is a very easy spell, amendable to being picked up early in a Cleric's career.

A few additional notes:

1: Under some circumstances, the Cleric can receive a bonus to the spell's power when casting SAP on other PCs. You'll figure this one out pretty quickly.

2: While SAP's duration is conveniently replaceable, the spell's skill bonus will not change unless you allow it to expire first.

Profile Verb

All Players 11/17/2008

READ NEWS 5 31! There is very important information in there regarding PvP and Quote settings

After you have done that, you can type PROFILE or PROFILE HELP to get started

- If you are on Stormfront you can edit your profile in a separate window. You can also view profiles in a separate window. The default behavior is to view profiles in the STORY window. Type PROFILE HELP for info on how to change your default

- PVP settings can only be changed once every 48 hours.

- If you switch from a PVP OPEN stance to another stance, you'll have to wait about an hour before your new setting will kick in. You'll also have to stay alive during this one hour time period for it to take effect. If you die, you'll have to set your PVP stance again.

- RP settings can only be changed once every hour.

- Quotes need to be kept clean. If we find that you have an inappropriate quote we can lock your quote and you will not be able to set it again until a GM unlocks it.

- We track when PVP and RP settings are changed, this will aid GMs in PvP situations.

- RP and PVP settings can not be toggled on and off, they are always on.

Remember the PROFILE verb is an OOC (Out Of Character) verb and is a way to get information about another player, if they choose to share that information.

If any problems arise, please ASSIST and we'll get to it as soon as possible. Also, post any problems/questions you may have. ~~GM Turmis

In order to deal with an issue that seems to be becoming more and more prevalent now that some of our Policy Dance Children are making an effort to "game the system", the following Policy change is going into effect immediately:

If your PVP Stance is set to OPEN in your Profile, this means that you welcome any and all comers for unrestricted PVP without question.

Therefore, since you're openly asking for it, Spouses of PVP OPEN players will NOT gain Auto-Consent on these conflicts.

The "brilliant idea" that some of these troublemakers seem to have come up with is that they'll bond their character to a much higher level character and set their own Stance to OPEN, therefore inviting PVP from all-comers. Their spouse will then be able to wade in and "take up for" them when they get attacked, in some sort of "Surprise!" scenario.

Unfortunately, this doesn't make you clever, it just points out that you're only interested in manipulating the rules in order to cause problems and then try to hide behind the system.

Shocking as it may seem (feigned innocence or not), this puts you in the same category as the folks who run their mouths and then REPORT and hide behind the GMs coattails. ~~Simu-Solomon

Critter Gen Rate Updates

All Players 11/19/2008

• All areas will now maintain a minimum population based on the size of the area IF there is at least one player in the area. Exception: Any critters deliberately set to be rare spawn (ie only 1 or 2 out at a time) should remain rare. This should be particularly helpful in the larger hunting areas where a spawn of 3 can be hard to find in 50 rooms.

• Unless specifically set otherwise, all critter generators will skew the odds slightly towards spawning in an occupied room. These odds can be tweaked on an individual basis, but there is now an overall base chance unless overridden.

• In areas where the gen rate is based on the number of players in the area, it will now round any fractions up instead of down when only one player is in the area. This should help slightly in underhunted areas. - GM Dartenian

Critter Gen Rate Update Deux

11/22/2008

A couple of days ago I added another experimental tweak to the critter generators and have been watching to see what the general reaction would be, assuming anyone even noticed. So far the feedback on the updates has been positive overall, so here's the scoop on the latest tweak:

• If the spawn for an area is set for x critters per player, the generator will attempt to avoid spawning in rooms that already have x critters per player in them. Areas set to just spawn a static number of critters will try to limit it to three per player in any given room.

What this means is that if you are in an area set to spawn 3 critters per player, it will count the number of players and critters in a room before spawning. If there is already 3 for each player in that room, it'll try (keyword: try) to find another room.

The purpose of this change is to make it far more difficult for one player (or one group of players) to lock down all the spawn. Note that this applies only to the critter being generated -- additional critters may still wander in from adjacent rooms with no restrictions.

Aesry Sea Cave Revisions

11/21/2008 GM Dartenian All Players

The Darvagers have long been confined to a small portion of the sea caves. Not long ago they managed to get a solid foothold in the upper reaches of the caverns, but found themselves trapped up there by the nightstalker unyns.

Determined to expand their turf, they began using a combination of magic and engineering skill to create a tunnel bypassing the nightstalkers. They finally succeeded, but the final explosion triggered an earthquake. No one is quite sure what happened next, other than the earthquake increased the temperatures in the northern and eastern portions of the oshu caverns. Agitated and engraged, the oshu lashed out into the surrounding caverns, and even out in to the open, pushing unyns and darvagers out ahead of them.

Things have finally calmed down, but the meddling of the darvagers has left permanent changes on the sea caves.

• The darvagers have increased the size of their area slightly, and should be more active. They have also tunneled down into the nightreaver area, meaning it's now possible to get to darvagers without having to climb through the nightstalker area.

• The nipoh oshu have undergone a few changes.

- The steam attack now has a room-based re-use timer, and will now take the fire protection/resistance
 of armor into account.
- The small fire opals are no longer gigantic in spite of their name. In other words, they are now 
the same size as most other gems.
- The oshu area is now divided into three sections. From the first room, the western tunnels are the 
easiest (old oshu), the eastern tunnels more difficult (about 7-9 levels higher), and the 
northern tunnels the most difficult of all (another 7-9 levels higher still).

• The escaping experience from unyn web attacks has been slightly increased.

Lun'shele Hunters

All Players 11/28/2008 The Lun'shele hunters should be carrying boxes again. ~~GM Dartenian

Hunt Verb

All Players 11/29/2008 The HUNT verb has been released.

This is a tool meant to facilitate hunting, allowing you to spot nearby creatures/players in a numbered list with the HUNT verb itself then using the HUNT # command to travel to them, where # is the number of the creature/player you would like to go to.

This system is usable by everyone, but the higher you are in the survival tier hierarchy, the better you can eventually be at it. Rangers are the absolute best.

You can learn stalking (some), perception (good), scouting (lots, if a Ranger) from using this verb. You also learn again when traveling to your prey. However, there is a timer for how often you can learn via this ability. Using it more frequently than the timer does not reset the timer, you just won't learn more until the timer is up.

Sample: > hunt You take note of all the tracks in the area, so that you can hunt anything nearby down.

To the east:

 1)   a bobcat

To the east, south:

 2)   a blood wolf

To the east, south, south:

 3)   a bobcat

To the west, north, northwest:

 4)   a bobcat

Roundtime: 8 sec.

Mental Blast Policy

All Players 1/19/2009 DR-BURSAAL News 5 32

Due to the increase in the amount of damage that it does, the Mental Blast spell (MB) is now classified as a damaging spell for purposes of consent and policy. This means that if the spell is cast on somebody without consent, the policies surrounding an unconsented attack will apply.

Thank you for understanding.

DragonRealms 2009 Patch Notes

For people who missed the year 2009, and because patch notes are now deleted every 2 years. (much to my personal annoyance, I can't find things that were promised/written down 3,4, and six years ago. Therefore this log is very necessary. If there's stubs pertaining to new abilities detailed here they should be linked-in directly.

Each category includes information for those the changes particularly relate to.

• Designations* To use these hastily thrown together patch notes, CTRL+F and then type in All Players, or system such as Stealth, Music, or Guild such as Ranger, you can also search by releasing GM name if that's the way your blood runs.

Treasure & Loot System Release Update

All Players 1/9/2009 DR-SOCHARIS

-SEARCH no longer loots equipment off of creatures. There's no reason to clutter up the room with a hooded cloak, target shield, and short sword every time somebody gets the loot from a goblin, so now it is just treasure.

-Your selection of gems has VASTLY improved. They should work perfectly with all old gem systems EXCEPT the gem display cases. We are actively working on a fix for this, but currently new gems will not display in the gem cases. As a note, this is why it is merciful to give TF a few days to adjust - There are a LOT more gems, so your scripts are no longer accurate.

-Some drop rates of items have changed, and some have not. Specifically, cards are dropping at a rate that is determined in a completely different fashion.

-Over the next few weeks, the items that found in the treasure system will be changing dramatically as we review the necessity of dispensing dead mice and slender red peppers.

-In addition to the gem changes, the rate of gems being dropped has changed as well. There is a good chance that most creatures will drop gems, but they will not drop more than two at this time. This is to reduce the item count all around, and give you guys more valuable things to play with.

Paired with the new treasure system, the LOOT verb is designed to help you customize what you're looking for on creatures. Here are a few details:

-Type LOOT HELP for a full description of your options

-If you do not specify a creature, LOOT will find the first unlooted dead creature in the room. For instance, LOOT BOXES will find the first creature in the room that hasn't been looted, and will attempt to loot it for boxes.

-Treasure items (such as runestones) are generated at the same times that coins/gems/bars are generated. You will not generate treasure items if you loot for EQUIPMENT.

-You can loot a creature multiple times for different things. For instance, you can LOOT GOBLIN BOXES, then LOOT GOBLIN TREASURE, then LOOT GOBLIN EQUIPMENT. This will have the same effect as LOOT GOBLIN ALL.

-If you find a box, you cannot loot for treasure. If you find a box by using LOOT BOXES, you will not be able to LOOT TREASURE on that same creature. Your chances to get a box are not improved by LOOT BOXES and then LOOT TREASURE.

-If you do not specify an option, LOOT GOODS will be used. This searches for boxes and treasure, but not equipment.

-Lodged items will always be searched out, and will never decay with the creature.

-The SEARCH verb is still usable, and defaults to the 'GOODS' option. You cannot specify a LOOT option with SEARCH.

Clarify Gem, Piercing Gaze and Gems

Moon Mage, All Players 1/10/2009 Clarify Gem and Piercing Gaze have been updated to work on the new gems. There are a few things to note, all of which only apply to the new gems (The effect on old gems is unchanged):

-Messaging has changed on Piercing Gaze. It tells you the general quality of the gem. Gems can now range in quality from 'very poor' to 'perfect'.

-Trying to clarify a 'perfect' gem WILL result in its subsequent explosion.

-Clarifying a gem will increase its value as well as its quality. This imposes a limit on the degree to which gems can be clarified.

Box Values: The Facts

All Players 1/8/2009 GM-Dartenian

With the permission of Solomon, I'm posting a random sample of sequential box values as they are generated in the game, both before and after the base box bonuses. I did a sequential sample so it's unbiased in terms of good or bad bonus. This is simply the way the values cranked out. This does NOT include bonuses for additional locks & traps or from jackpots, which I'll discuss after.

The basic box bonus is determined based on the odds of getting a box. The more likely the critter is to generate a box, the lower the box bonus. The less the chance of a box, the better the bonus. This is why some boxes only have around +50% value, while some are double or even triple the base value.

Chest -- Base value: 171 Bonus value: 427. Chest -- Base value: 156 Bonus value: 249. Chest -- Base value: 756 Bonus value: 1209. Chest -- Base value: 436 Bonus value: 654. Chest -- Base value: 299 Bonus value: 1046. Chest -- Base value: 1182 Bonus value: 3900. Chest -- Base value: 33 Bonus value: 52. Chest -- Base value: 436 Bonus value: 654. Chest -- Base value: 282 Bonus value: 564. Chest -- Base value: 948 Bonus value: 1516. Chest -- Base value: 551 Bonus value: 1818. Chest -- Base value: 994 Bonus value: 3479. Chest -- Base value: 1078 Bonus value: 1617. Chest -- Base value: 630 Bonus value: 1008. Chest -- Base value: 134 Bonus value: 214. Chest -- Base value: 454 Bonus value: 908. Chest -- Base value: 1005 Bonus value: 1608. Chest -- Base value: 230 Bonus value: 805. Chest -- Base value: 655 Bonus value: 1048. Chest -- Base value: 792 Bonus value: 1267. Chest -- Base value: 331 Bonus value: 1158. Chest -- Base value: 391 Bonus value: 782.

The above values can potentially be bonused again.

Once the above bonus values are determined, the total number of locks and traps are counted, and that number is increased yet again. This is also before any chance of jackpots is included. About 1 box in every 10 will receive one of three jackpot bonuses based on a progressive pool for each.

- GM Dartenian

Antler's Call Spell Release Warmies

Warrior Mages 1/10/2008 GM-Wythor "The spell titled Anther's Call was created by Imperial mages during the time of the Seven-Star Empire. They named the spell in honor of the famed Earth mage Anther to bridge the ideological rift between members of the Imperial College of Magic and those clan-structured Warrior Mages who remained loyal to the Grovekeepers. This spell calls forth a number of grasping hands fashioned from the earth or stone beneath the victim's feet which attempt to hold the target fast and immobile. It was widely used by Imperial mages to capture dissidents without inflicting physical harm."

Anther's Call requires knowledge of Tremor and Fist of Stone, as well as a circle 10 requirement. While these requirements are waived during the preview period, keep them in mind that they are a measure of how powerful you must be before you can expect to get a minimum success.

After a week on preview it will be released to the general public and you will be required to learn it from a guildleader to continue to cast it.

- GM Wythor

Crossing West Gate Hunting Areas changed

All Players 1/10/2009 GM-Dartenian

(1) The goblins have vacated the orchards and the main trade route. There are still goblins in the farmlands near the ruined barn. The goblin foragers are easier than the old goblins, the scavengers about the same.

(2) The grassland maze in the hunting preserve is now based on skill checks instead of pure randoms. You may even learn a bit from exploring at low levels.

(3) The farmhouse and the orchards south of the road are now inhabited by giant insects. Again, you may find yourself learning a skill or two just from exploring the farmhouse at low levels.

(4) There was always supposed to be a puzzle to entering the hunting preserve manor. That puzzle has been fixed, and now works. The manor itself holds a few secrets and a new danger or two.

(5) There are tougher goblins camped in the Hunting Preserve region as well.

(6) There are two new types of undead available. One is slightly tougher than the musk hogs, the other about as tough as madmen.

Stealth System Tweaks

Thief, Ranger DR-ZEYURN 1/12/2009

Several updates:

1) Stunned creatures / players will no longer grant stealth experience. Stunning them still grants the obscene decrement to their perception though, if you need to use it for tactical reasons.

2) When judging whether to award experience, this is now solely done on base ranks vs base ranks. In some cases, this will extend teaching ranges, in others it will decrease it. In theory this should stop people from learning stealth to really really high ranks by artificially making the contest difficult.

3) Stealth experience from hunting went down slightly across the board.

Stow/Store Expansions

All Players DR-Socharis 1/13/2009 STOW has been expanded to work with the following options:

STOW GEMS - Will stow the first gem in the room. STOW BOXES - Will stow the first box in the room.

This will not collect multiple gems/boxes, and will direct the items using your STORE containers as per usual.

This is live in all instances.

I am looking into adding BOXES to the list of STORE options, but there are a few roadblocks to work around there.

There is now a BOXES option for STORE containers.

Targetted Magic messaging 2.0 and Ice patch

Mage, Cleric, Ranger DR-Wynthor 1/16/2009

A major overhaul to the targeted magic messaging system will be rolled into Prime in a few minutes. During the transition, which should only take a minute or so, you may notice strange damage messaging -- or none at all. The overhaul specifically applies to the following spells: Aether Lance, Aether Lash, Crystal Spike, Devitalize, Dinazen Olkar, Divine Radiance, Eagle's Cry, Fire Ball, Fire Shard, Fist of Faenella, Fist of Stone, Frost Scythe, Gar Zeng, Harm Evil, Unicorn's Horn, Hand of Tenemlor, Ice Patch, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Mark of Arhat, Partial Displacement, Starlight Sphere, and Strange Arrow.

The vast majority of this is a behind-the-scenes change to how damage messaging is stored and used, and will allow for greater flexibility as well as ease the writing burden. Even so, nearly every spell had longstanding typos and grammar issues that were fixed during this update, so you're bound to notice a few differences.

In addition, the TARGET verb has been updated significantly. You can now target custom critter body parts using those custom names, and a bug in targeting injured areas was fixed. The improvement you are most likely to notice, however, is that you can now target hidden enemies if you have the spot effect on them.

Perceptive players may also notice the Ice Patch spell in the list. This has been converted from a SvA disabling spell into a direct-damage TM spell (2nd tier) for the Water book, with its own damage messaging.

Although the release has gone smoothly in Platinum for the past week, I doubt that every message from every spell listed above has been examined. If any of the messaging for those spells seems odd or off, please bring it to my attention by using BUG.

Everyone on the GM team deserves credit for this update -- from the SGMs who approved my crazy idea to rewrite each spell's messaging to those who actually QCd the massive number of entries. Many other GMs also contributed to the project in huge ways. It has been a long road, but a worthwhile one.

Starting the New Year Off Right

Traders 1/20/2009 DR-Adera

Greetings,

As of this morning the latest addition to our stable of Hirelings is live in Prime and Plat. This one is messenger, which is pretty self-explanatory. The Locate Hireling is now live in TF and we'll be rolling messenger in there at the end of the week if everything goes ok.

Messenger: This hireling can be used to deliver a message to another player. You can ASK <hireling> ABOUT HELP to see a list of commands.

The hireling can remember a message of about 512 characters. Be sure to have the hireling repeat the message to you before sending it. You can also 'redo' your message if you make a mistake.

The hireling will give you about 5 minutes to give him/her a person and message. If you haven't done so in that time, the hireling will leave and you won't be able to use the messaging hirelings again for a bit since you've wasted their time. However, you have the option of dismissing a hireling if you've changed your mind.

This hireling has 3 levels.

At the first level, you can message someone in the same town. At the second level, you can message someone in the same province. At the third level, you can message someone within the 5 provinces.

The messenger will not be able to deliver a message if the person is hidden, invisible or in an area the usually prevents locating.

The messenger will return and let you know if the message was delivered, however you will not get a refund if your target isn't available. Of course, if the target isn't paying attention or is AFK, it's also possible for them to miss the message.

Faldesu Crocs

1/21/2009 DR-Alvy

The crocs in the Faldesu River near Throne City were misbehaving. After beating them into submission, they should now be genning properly.

Raven's Court -- A New Era!

1/21/2009 DR-Tiesse

Greetings, Elanthians!

I am pleased to announce that the Raven's Court has completed its current expansion projects! The proprietors invite members and guests alike to partake in the new amenities. The new additions are currently live in Prime and will be opened in TF in the next day or two. Plat will get the full experience with an event of their own, no worries. :)

For those who are unfamiliar, the Raven's Court is located on the western side of the Crossing in close proximity to the Traders' Guild and the Guard House. The main building is entirely open to the public. There are several gardens and rooms for people to relax in, as well as a dining room that serves a limited menu, among other things. The main feature of the Court is an exclusive VIP area, available only to people who pay a membership fee at the desk one west of the main foyer. The VIP building is located behind the main building and is accessible through a separate entrance once you've paid your fee.

So, what's new?

~ The second floor of the Raven's Court is now home to a brand new art gallery. Everyone may access this area at their leisure to study the works. All but a few of the pieces were written by players, to whom I'd like to give a hearty thanks and congratulations! If you submitted a design and don't see it in the gallery proper, check around the rest of the Court. I couldn't fit everything upstairs, so your entry might be located elsewhere. There were a very few that unfortunately did not make it live in game due to content and feasibility issues, so I do apologize to those people!

~ The VIP area has been greatly expanded to offer new amenities to the Court's distinguished patrons. I won't be going into what is new here, but you're welcome to ask around or buy a membership if you want to find out. ;)

~ Trader-only housing has now been made available on the second floor, just through the arch off the gallery. There is also an exclusive lounge just for Traders in the same area with a few goodies for sale.

~ There is also a selection of VIP housing in the members-only area. Please see the Estate Holder forums for an elaboration on the policy regarding living in this area before purchasing one of these homes (which I'll be posting in a little bit).

Because I know people have had some questions, I'll answer a few common ones here:

Q: Why are there different membership rates for different people? A: It is only natural for the Court to offer discounts for members of the community who are more distinguished than others in order to lure in other clientele of the same stature.

Q: Okay, I bought a membership, but I can't get in the darn place. What gives? A: Make sure you are knocking on the knocker, not the door.

Q: Will the Raven's Court ever offer food in the dining room? Seems kind of odd for there not to be food served in a dining room. A: Yes, hopefully. Some day!

Q: What's up with that heavy red satin curtain in the VIP area, and why can't I go through it? A: Unfortunately, this part of the release didn't make it in time. It will be opened ASAP, so don't fret too much.

Again, the Raven's Court wishes you the best in exploring its new features! Have fun!

Fine Art Appraisal

1/21/2009 DR-Tiesse

With the advent of the new gallery in the Raven's Court, adventurers now have the ability to analyze one-of-a-kind stationary artifacts and receive more details than just your standard LOOK. Currently, the Raven's Court is the only place with this type of appraisal available, but it is my fond hope that other areas in the game will incorporate this system to enrich game lore and history.

A few notes...

~ One must STUDY a piece in order to learn.

~ STUDYing will teach appraisal and scholarship.

~ There are a few levels of success. Everyone should be able to learn no matter what information they see. Naturally, with the highest level of success, the most information will be displayed.

~ Bards and Traders have a bonus, so they should effectively be able to learn better and see more information earlier on.