June 11, 2003

[kiri]

Welcome to the Barren Realms MUD Newsletter!

Telnet to Barren by clicking this link: Telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000/

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News from the realms:

Ghaleon: Grad Quest: Part II
Sun Jun 8 17:49:20 2003
To: all
After the exam last June 8, 2003, I'm sure you all are exhausted. Well
good news, I'm glad to announce that all of you are qualified for graduating.
All you have to do now is to gather clothes for the upcoming graduation party!
The participants may group if they want. It can be a male and female group
or male and male since we don't have much female players. But anyway,
the graduation party is more like a masquerade ball and the pairs will be
judged by how they match eachother.

The quest in two weeks (June 28) so you and your partner have some time to
do their hair, nails, and whatever you feel like changing before the day of
the party.

Here are the results of the quest in order with their points:
Desire (24), Disaster (20), Gauche (15.5), Melissa (14), Cord (11), Gwion (8), Aluminum (2)
The scoring depended on how hard the question was and so forth...
Everyone got a prezzy, just have to wait till they are done.
I hope you enjoyed the quest, and next time, pay more attention to the help files.
>>Annie

Kharn: Scattergorys Quest over
Sun Jun 8 19:45:34 2003
To: all
Finally, I am done judging the Scattergorys Quest.
Please excuse the delay, some evil real life prevented me from being as fast as I wanted
If anyone is intersted, I uploaded the quest results to
http://deepthought.mine.nu/fal40k/scatt ... sults.html

Khalad, Fia and Desire shall see me for their prices!
-- Kharn

Sozz: Limerick Quest - RESULTS!
Mon Jun 9 01:53:08 2003
To: all
Well, the time has FINALLY come!
The entries are in, the decisions have been made...and the prizes are ready!
Everyone who entered is receiving prizes, much thanks to Everybody for sponsoring!
And now...the placings!
In first place, in a three-way tie, is Erin, Disaster, and Stars! (In no particular order)
In second place, in a two-way tie, is Cord and Xorex! (Again, no particular order)
And in third came Victor and Solomnius! (No particular order, again! Sheesh! )
Other participants were Doom and Nyteshade.
*clears throat* I'd like to thank Everybody, for sponsoring.
I'd like to thank everyone who participated, especially Erin, who went limerick-crazy!
I'll be posting some of the limericks I received on the quest board in the forums, so make sure you check them out!

Disaster: a new quest!
Tue Jun 10 16:21:43 2003
To: all
there will be a quest involving role playing wed june 18th, 6pm system time
leiland will be sponsoring. additional notes will be posted at a later date, but make sure you can be thre on the 18th!
mortals only will be able to play. i had originally posted this note saying all levels, but after further consideration, i changed my mind
you wouldn't want a hero to play anyways, prizes can be so much niftier for mortals
if you can, let me know if you're planning to participate. since this is a roleplaying quest, it'll work better if i know approx. how many people to expect
-dis

These characters must be logged on or will be lost:

Apan, Blairo, Chance, Cracker, Darth, DrDeath, Dreadnaught, Elfman, Flint, Gossard, Grunt, Hack, Infinity, Jinx, Maze, Merc, Pez, Ranquadelis, Ravager, Saki, Silentbob, Smashin, Solid, Useless, Vegetaman, Wingnut, Yunix

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IDEAS

AMystery: help files for each area. explaining the theme behind the area, the level range, any hints or surprises people want to add. so help alandra

Leiland: allow illithid spells to work in no-magic rooms. they're psionicists, not mages, it's not -really- magic. trivial, though

AMystery: birdseye should let you see into private rooms, since you aren't entering the room, just looking

Wizzywig: we should have a social for poop. it should be "Wizzywig poops. OOPS!"

Cataclysm: the level of items that are in shopkeepers inventories for sale should be chosen randomly each time that item is bought, not just when the mud is rebooted/crashes

Ghaleon: Heroes should ALWAYS get their weapons back when they get disarmed

Cord: modify one of the existing demon eyeballs to also grant the person the ability to scan thru the rain

Ankou: the rings of the 36 chambers should re reset to level 51 like they used to be, and made personalized, to reward any mortal who is actually able to beet the 36 chamber mobs alone

Cataclysm: the level of drunkeness should affect stat recovery, not just whether or not someone is drunk. maybe recovery as normal when under the influence but not "drunk" in affects, 1.25* for "drunk", 1.5* for "very drunk"

Ankou: the costs for mortal heal mana should be a bit less extreme. 1 tick=100 mana, but 10000gold=40 mana...it seems a bit much

NyteShade: not to make firm grasp a spell but an ability like vision

Disaster: there should be some sort of notification when the dark tower obelisk appears in the room you're sitting in. that's just something you'd be bound to notice

Azeroth: Kick should actually get good.

RadicalEd: make it so you can change your afk back to nothing after setting it

FEEL FREE TO HIT REPLY AND RESPOND!
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Replies by Kamikaze:

Suicide: allow the sacrificing of mob turds, but have a message saying that the gods punish you for your impudence,
and have the player randomly teleported

this wouldn't work because of our newbies if they sacrificed and was teleported to an aggro then there would be a cr needed. Sometimes we don't have avatars or high lvl morts to help this newbie (considering the newbie is 1-10) so this might need some thinking (might)

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Kiri's WWW of URLs:

From Amystery, Ask Dr. Wombat. Good advice for the net freak.

http://www.grumblemagazine.com/articles ... e0399.html

Rate My Kitten, from Scavenger.

http://www.ratemykitten.com/ratemy/kitten

The 25 Lamest Superheroes Ever

http://www.maximonline.com/stupid_fun/a ... _5286.html

From Scavenger, the Minimizer!

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini/index.html

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Humorous Sayings

* I intend to live forever - so far, so good.
* OK, so what's the speed of dark?
* A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
* I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
* Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.
* Half the people you know are below average.
* 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
* A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
* All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.
* Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
* I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
* How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
* If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
* Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
* When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
* Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
* Everyone has a photographic memory, some just do't have film.
* If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
* Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
* 24 hours in a day... 24 beers in a case... coincidence?
* What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
* I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.
* Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
* If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
* A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
* Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
* The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
* The severity of the itch is proportional to the reach.
* To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
* The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

[Stars]

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

This is a question that has no value.
Dark cannot have speed because it does not exist.
Darkness is merely the absence of light.
What is the absence of something, but nothing?
If light has a value of 1, then...
1 - 1 = Dark
Dark = 0

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm

I don't get it.

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

You will continue to live.
If life has a value of 1, then...
1 * 1/2 = 1/2 life
When you are scared half to death again...
1/2 * 1/2 = 1/4 life

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

I don't get it.

Suicide: allow the sacrificing of mob turds, but have a message saying that the gods punish you for your impudence,
and have the player randomly teleported

this wouldn't work because of our newbies if they sacrificed and was teleported to an aggro then there would be a cr needed. Sometimes we don't have avatars or high lvl morts to help this newbie (considering the newbie is 1-10) so this might need some thinking (might)

Hey, I love the idea of penalizing players for sacrificing icky things. I think it is cute. Random teleport is a little too much, but removing 1 or 2 hp, gold, mv, mana etc would be neat.

RadicalEd: make it so you can change your afk back to nothing after setting it

I think it should automatically be reset when you return from being afk.

Azeroth: Kick should actually get good.

Kick is already good...for humans. It is VERY useful in the early levels. It is not as good out of guild, but hey, doesn't that make sense?

NyteShade: not to make firm grasp a spell but an ability like vision

I've always wondered why this cost mana. I agree with you NyteShade.

Ankou: the costs for mortal heal mana should be a bit less extreme. 1 tick=100 mana, but 10000gold=40 mana...it seems a bit much

I agree, Ankou. I think the reasoning behind making mana so expensive was to prevent abuse. A player could heal mana cheap and then heal hp with their mana as well. It would cost less money and you get hp, plus some extra mana. Also, poor Clericus would be swarmed and newbies would be dumbfounded. Regardless, I think healing mana at a rate closer to hp is ok in my opinion. It would help to lessen our dependence on alcohol. Even a lower cost would be detriment enough for mortals(assuming we put a stop to all the gold abuses--get rid of the piles, and don't allow demons to exchange gold with other mortals). We can always have more healers in other places to keep low levels from freaking out.

Cataclysm: the level of drunkeness should affect stat recovery, not just whether or not someone is drunk. maybe recovery as normal when under the influence but not "drunk" in affects, 1.25* for "drunk", 1.5* for "very drunk"

I know you guys are sick of me saying this, but stat recovery should be lowered when drunk, maybe even taking damage when very drunk. The way alcohol works now is one of the silliest things I have ever seen in a game.

Ankou: the rings of the 36 chambers should re reset to level 51 like they used to be, and made personalized, to reward any mortal who is actually able to beet the 36 chamber mobs alone

I'm all for mortal challenges with appropriate awards.

Cord: modify one of the existing demon eyeballs to also grant the person the ability to scan thru the rain

This is unecessary. Demons already have unbelievable abilities.

Ghaleon: Heroes should ALWAYS get their weapons back when they get disarmed

I partly agree. It would save everyone a lot of trouble, especially if one were accidentally disarmed in a mortal accessable area. It would also prevent heroes from exchanging tainted weapons.

Cataclysm: the level of items that are in shopkeepers inventories for sale should be chosen randomly each time that item is bought, not just when the mud is rebooted/crashes

I think there is a limited randomness in level when mobs and objects repop. Because a shopkeeper object is never actually gone (shopkeepers have unlimited stock, apparently), it never repops. This is only a guess because I don't really know what I am talking about. I agree, Cataclysm, but how difficult would it be to code your idea? Maybe if the objects were actually removed from the shopkeeper inventory until a repop, then it would make more sense.

Wizzywig: we should have a social for poop. it should be "Wizzywig poops. OOPS!"

If you have a social idea then check out "help writesocial".

AMystery: birdseye should let you see into private rooms, since you aren't entering the room, just looking

Wow, I had no idea it wouldn't work for private rooms, but yeah, I agree.

Leiland: allow illithid spells to work in no-magic rooms. they're psionicists, not mages, it's not -really- magic. trivial, though

Maybe it is magic, just used in a different way. A mage uses spells from study of energy manipulation. An illithid is naturally attuned to this energy and can manipulate it directly with their minds. It is still magic (just my way of looking at it).

AMystery: help files for each area. explaining the theme behind the area, the level range, any hints or surprises people want to add. so help alandra

The builders should have thought of this when they wrote each area. I completely agree with you, AMystery. Let's get some people together and write some help files for the areas that do not have them. I volunteer!

[Slart]

Ghaleon: Heroes should ALWAYS get their weapons back when they get disarmed

I partly agree. It would save everyone a lot of trouble, especially if one were accidentally disarmed in a mortal accessable area. It would also prevent heroes from exchanging tainted weapons.

Being disarmed is an important element of gameplay, especially against more difficult mobs. I'm not inclined to change it to suit people too lazy to keep track of their own weapons. We have bent over backwards to accommodate people with alignment zaps and other things, but disarming is different.

All I have to say about heroes exchanging tainted weapons is that my attitude toward certain kinds of behavior that have seemingly become prevalent in the realms of late has grown increasingly dark. I will be speaking with Kiri at the next opportunity to determine BR's official disposition toward this and other workarounds that have recently come to light, as well as planning to prevent further such abuses down the road. This is not a very good use of her time or mine, but it has become apparent that I am going to have to put aside my current project and spend at least a week -- maybe three -- closing cheat loopholes in the very near future. This is not the first time that has happened, and I am sick and tired of having to clean up after a few people's self-indulgent stupidity instead of spending my time improving the mud for everyone. I would estimate that I have spent at least one third of my coding time here making things impossible that were previously merely against the rules because people WOULDN'T STOP DOING THEM. I am very, very unhappy about this.

I know that some people think I don't care about or don't pay attention to cheating because I don't believe in getting all Big Brother on people to get them to comply with the rules. I listen to all the bickering and whispering about cheating, but when I ask for details on the alleged exploits, nobody will explain them so that they can be fixed. This tells me one of two things. Either these exploits are bogus, or people don't WANT them to be fixed. I'm going to find out one way or the other. This crap is the last straw. I am incredibly sick of hearing snide backhanded references to cheating, like I'm supposed to know about it all even though NOBODY TELLS ME ANYTHING. Consider yourselves all warned now, because if I get the chance I probably won't bother warning you later. This has got to stop.

[Lairian]

Making the big BIG assumption that psions and mages use power of the same sort, the classical difference between psionics and magics is that magics pull energy to fuel their powers from an outside source, whereas psions find the energy within themselves.

Which means, whether it would work in a nomagic room would entirely depend on why the room is nomagic.

Not that I agree with this; in my mind trying to link psionics with magic, other than the fact that both are extrodinary, is like trying to say that diamonds and ponies are really the same thing. Sure, both may be carbon based, but really, folks...

[Stars]

It would also prevent heroes from exchanging tainted weapons.

This crap is the last straw. I am incredibly sick of hearing snide backhanded references to cheating, like I'm supposed to know about it all even though NOBODY TELLS ME ANYTHING.

I have reported the tainted weapon thing, as well as anything I come across. Are you mad at me for not harping about things I have already reported in the past? If I recall correctly, someone told me that it was being looked into--or something to that effect--and that I could let it go.

As for the psion thingie, I was just giving you an alternate view that might explain why it doesn't work in a nomagic room. Certainly, diamonds and ponies are a poor comparison. Perhaps horses and ponies would have been better.

I have now seen your other post, Slart. I guess that answers my question.

[Slart]

Yes, I'm sorry about all that. Like I said in my other post, I'm not mad at you at all.

[Comatose]

I am going out on a limb here, and I hope that I don't step on any toes. *looks at Slart*

I think what he was saying is it isn't any one bug that is bothering him. It is the continual use of bugs that is bothering him. Instead of being able to have time to make the mud better he has to spend time trying to stop players from finding and abusing bugs. I understand his frustration, because I do something very similar at work. If everyone would just play they game and quite trying to find ways to so lazily then it would benefit everyone.

[Slart]

Yes, that's it exactly. These kinds of things have been building up lately, and it's been eating at me.