Aardwolf MUD Update – Feb 24th 2009

New Area and Goal – The Stuff of Shadows:

When death looms large; and light grows dim; when the chill air steals the last breaths from your lungs; and eternal night closes in — a shadow of death flickers into being. It is slight and fleeting, its stuff as insubstantial as shadows of light and dark, and soon it drifts apart like curls of smoke. And yet. There are rumors, as shifting and subtle as the shadows themselves, that there are those who can see and catch shadows of death, and collect, cut, and shape them. If so, their arcane techniques are closely guarded. Nobody knows who they are, or where they come from, or what they do with the shadows they catch. They are steeped in secrecy so deep it has become a virulent contagion: plots writhe within plots, ayers of concealment accrete upon layers. The twisted thread of rumor connects these deathly shadow masters with a prosperous bank in a major city. And as far as a name, there is only the “Umbrambuler” — one who walks in shadow.

New Goal – Insanitaria:

Many years ago, an asylum was opened for all who were afflicted of mind or body. The Nispeung, together with a very famous wizard named Salin Sutrovld, forsook their nomadic lifestyle and settled in the wilderness to help those in need of their care.

No one was awake when the Order came… and few survived the night. Their leader, Seb Ligalt, wrought havoc and chaos to surpass the most terrifying tales of evil. They killed many, and the rest they imprisoned or enchanted to use in their pursuit of forbidden knowledge.

New Goal – The Empire of Talsa:

Have you ever wanted a career in the airlines? Wanted to be a pilot, or a captain, maybe an admiral? Polaris Star Airlines is always looking for a few good people and there are plenty of opportunities for advancement. There is an airship doing business in the Empire of Talsa right now! Go on board, find out if you can rise to your greatest potential.

New Soldier Ability – Flank:

With their advanced knowledge of combat tactics, soldiers have the ability to flank an exit. While a soldier has an exit flanked, it is very difficult for an opponent to flee or retreat through that exit. A soldier can only focus on one exit at a time, but multiple soldiers in a room can each flank a different exit.

The chances of an opponent being able to retreat through a flanked exit are determined by strength and dexterity. Because the soldier has the upper hand in a flanking situation, having higher stats then them does not ensure any level of success – it just makes it more likely.

New Priest Ability – Haven:

Priests are able to use their holy abilities to create a temporary haven in a room, making it somewhat safer. The effect of this spell depends on the status of the room it is used in:

• If the room is entrapped, the trap is removed but the room itself does not get a haven effect.
• If the room is PK, the PK flag is temporarily removed but can still be put back via entrap.
• If the room is not PK, the room cannot be entrapped while the Haven effect is active.

While the Haven affect is active on a room that room is not considered a PK room. This does not mean no PK at all – usually rules apply. For example, you can still attack a (WANTED) player just as you would be able to in any other standard room.

The haven duration and recovery times are based on the caster’s wisdom and luck.

New Priest Ability – Holy Shield:

Priests are able to summon the good in their holy power to protect other good aligned players within their party from the effects of Desecration.

When cast, this spell will add an affect that resists unholy influences to all good aligned players in the priests group. The main effect of this is that the holy shield spell causes desecration to be ignored. It also adds some resistance to shadow and negative damage.

Duration and Recovery time are determined by wisdom and luck. The duration is shorter than desecration and the recovery time is longer. If there is nobody in the group able to receive a holy shield, the recovery timer is not added.

Other MUD changes this reboot – February 24th 2009:

• As announced on Jan 22nd (Announce note #842) the Keepall wish is now 7,000qps and adjustments costs on wishes have been lowered by anything from 20-40%. There will be no refunds for past purchases and there are no further reductions planned, so no need to worry about buying a wish now then it lowering later. Not to say that there won’t ever be any, but none are planned and if that changes, notice will be given.
• Output is now combined for sacrifice, works same as the other combined outputs except total gold is shown. Output is also combined for keep/unkeep.
• You will no longer ‘autoshare’ gold received from sacrificing. Necessary to be able to combine output.
• Ouput is now combined for ‘sell all’. Note that haggle and clantax messages are also combined with just a total shown, so if you have the ‘quietsell’ config option set to reduce spam, you might want to turn it back off to see these messages. Sell is the most complex of these so far and ‘fence’ will be very similar, so will let sell get tested out before converting fence.
• It is no longer possible to wake other player’s pets using ‘wake’.
• Fixed the ‘You get You are carrying too many items…’ message when trying to take items out of a container on the floor.
• ‘Scan .’ now works again as an abbreviation for ‘scan here’.
• Dual Wield will now improve a little quicker than it did. It *is* still a slow skill to improve.
• It is now possible to resonate keys, but they can’t get stats.
• Adding the ‘check’ option to spellup will show the spells that WOULD be cast rather than actually casting them.
• Changed the fail messages on protection good/evil when trying to cast the other spell.
• There is a new room flag that prevents items from being dropped in the room. It is currently set at Aylor recall and Aard Hotel. Builders please note, this was not added as a wake to make mazes impossible to navigate and shouldn’t be used for that. It is to help with spam in high traffic areas.
• Stats for ‘Holy Intervention’ is now Int+Con not Str+Con.
• There is a new object flag ‘restrung’ that will show in identify. From this point forward, when an imm strings an item that flag will be set. It cannot be set going back because many item descriptions change while the version of the item you have keeps its original description, particularly with clan items. So, we can’t just compare the item you have to the item in the editor.
• With this change in, it is now possible to restring clan items. Usual rules / costs apply.

Your thoughts are appreciated, as always.