March 18, 2003 Welcome to the Barren Realms MUD newsletter! Please visit us at telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000/ or our forums at http://www.barrenrealmsmud.com/ Congratulations LEILAND on making IMMORTAL LEVEL!!! Slart: fixes/update...and a plea I just booted in a couple of fixes relating to demons: - demons won't grow prayer heads anymore - heads that cast sizzle will cast it on the mob now File both of those under "duh..." Now for the real news. Most of you know about the manual restore script for demon avatars. I just added code to do the equipment and stats restoration automatically when you hit level 151. For the next day or so, if you avatar a demon, please note Kiri and me and let us know how it went, and if there are any problems with the restore. I've done my own testing with real pfiles and backups, but you can never test everything, so your help in this manner will be appreciated. Also note that if -- for whatever reason -- the mud crashes when you avatar, we have all kinds of backups for this, so don't panic about losing anything. Kiri: re: Tgames Tgamers have voted, and Tgames will end in August 2003. Any teams that finish during that time will be winners and will receive prizes. These characters need to log in in the next two weeks or email me for their password: Afterlife, Albrecht, Arliquin, Arowana, Barok, Bismark, Bonesaver, Breer, Caedras, Dingo, Dreadnought, Eldiablo, Gaidin, Gomba, Harazon, Hopper, How, Kalas, Kerin, Krackle, Lazer, Lebeau, Malthus, Mamoulian, Mocha, Muffy, Nayr, Odus, Riverrun, Salamander, Sirus, Skip, Skybird, Slippers, Snowt, Solitude, Sparky, stint, Swiftwing, Terrence, Warshark. IDEAS: (PLEASE FEEL FREE TO HIT REPLY!) Its: a demon limb that can heal Slab: allow 'help misc' for 'help miscellaneous' Slab: put gratz history in colour Gilvain: I heard a *rumor* that the max ac is -350, I suggest boosting it Demonizer: it seems strange that mobs can flee while being crushed Its: give demoms a limb that could perry an attack Slab: allow people to con players Dawne: perhaps starswords could be lighter so that you can dual wield them in the offhand with most weapons without wielding a mage masher or something first Moldfinger: judging by the message, if a wounded mob sees you trying to dive him and moves out of the way, wouldn't he be rather annoyed and attack? Slab: add a level argument to slist, like for the armorer... for example, 'slist 16 20' would list all new spells available between levels 16 and 20 Teach: mana gain for a dwarf with 18(19) wis and 18 int when they level should be more than 2 Avio: I hate chasing around blood trails from bleeding mobs! Mobs shouldn't be able to move/flee if they're in AWFUL condition! Erin: a safeguard on the remort command Cataclysm: being able to put groupmates current hp into prompt Polgara: How about avatars having to type remort TWICE, just like delete. It would prevent more...accidents. :) Polgara: How about a illithid skill called transport? It would let you teleport an item from one person to another. TO prevent unnecessary transports, have a config transport on/off Spite: if you have a mob in your tentacles the mob shouldn't be able to flee Beanis: have a demon guild instead of having it at recall? Polgara: How about one less eye spot for demons and a tail/waist spot instead? Anakin: A command that can set antisummon/antisocial to certain people only Anakin: A seperate room (like the RC's) where demon donated items go RadicalEd: have a way to find what someone's afk message is without sending them a tell, and figuring out what your current afk message is Kharn: make the 'alarm' command so that you can use it with the Mud time too Anakin: Attach the help file about damps in the help damage Anakin: Make it so that demons can name the damage of their limbs (i.e serpent arm licks an ant) Suicide: it should be impossible to summon a mob or player that's fighting Slab: glare or charm should allow you to use a mob's spells through the mob you have glared, if it can cast spells. Alicia: change the way mtell works such that you get 5 (N) storage slots for lists (mtell create tgames gillibipple, amarilla,arabandia,racet,pyrite,spite). then you can mtell and it tells all those people who are on. (mtell tgames howdy) Scratch: also about area list, it would be nice if you could type "area lag" for instance and see what levels a certain area is meant for Suicide: maybe the dragon muzzle could, if at high enough levels or once at avatar, confer all the types of breath for no mana cost, making it more useful and thus more used Suicide: new remort race-banshees. can possess mobs (beat it into submission, once "dead", banshee becomes that mob(gains spell casting and/or some function of hp/mana), probably lose hp and mana slowly at some fixed rate. Johan: make tan more powerful, based on level - the items are timed... Scratch: it would be interesting if samuel's winged sandals made you fly Wizzywig: in my opinion, it would make sense if dexterity affected your hitroll Slab: separate arena deaths from other deaths in the death count Slab: make a mob type that is agressive when looked at Slab: make all new spells on a level appear in a different colour (or in capitals or something) when typing 'practice' at the guildmaster Slab: flaming items make healing spells 10% more powerful too, also could increase time a spell affects you by 10% Zahri: when a newbie types help map, they see at the bottom that aod sells other maps.. however i think it would be nice if you mentioned that he wanders around, and thus cannot be listed. I accidently ran into the guy outside the druid guild, and realized Slab: have another state of being, 'hyper' from coffee - fast recharge of moves + increased hitroll but as a disvadantage have moves count double randomly (The caffeine spurs you on again!) increase AC slightly as another disadvantage. Slab: add pill spells to identify Polgara: how about a demon tongue or limb that drags (works like throw) a mob from another room into yours DwarfMan: Put item in container should work for the container in your inventory. I almost didn't notice that I was loading my HERO ITEMS in a container on the floor! DwarfMan: Firm Grasp & Multiattack for Dwarves before level 20. They can double their damage at level 11. Why shouldn't they get these WARRIOR skills before a wekling Elf!? DwarfMan: Alcohol should make Dwarves more violent! It should automatically put them in frenzy and berzerk. The strength of the spell would depend on the alcohol.....(Hail the almighty Firebreather!) :p DwarfMan: Make idea work exactly like Note. example "Idea +1 , Idea + 2 . That way i can explain ideas in more than 2-3 lines!!!!!!!! Scratch: it would be nice if the bank didnt allow mobs in, or at least stealing ones like vagabond. Polgara: how about raising the cost of death defeater slightly and adding fly to it? Slab: make an empty drink container you can fill with any liquid from a fountain Slab: put a history command on the yell channel Slab: swap kick for another combat manoeuvre for druids or make it available before level 25 - it's not much use as it is. Slab: allow spells to be renewed when cast on a player who is already affected by said spell. Slab: the weight of a drinks container should go down as you drink from it (as a percentage of the total weight minus 2 or 3 for the weight of the container) Polgara: How about some way to tell which of your multiple arms or limbs, of the same type, has a replacement? *for demons* Slab: make help newbiehelping available to all levels - we can all offer the basics to a newbie :) Slab: add another player flag (like AFK and busy) to indicate that you are willing to group Slab: make a different place for demons to go instead of recall, or stop the guardian from teaching spells Slab: infravision should let you see room names when typing 'exits' Grogar: deaths in a arena type room shouldn't be on the HEY!!! channel. way to much spam from people getting killed by guardians... Suicide: help donate should state that demons donating items makes the item go "poof" Kiri's WWW of URLS: From Scavenger - the Dialect Survey. http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/index.html You will hate me for this. http://www.liquidgeneration.com/sabotage/vision_sabotage.asp So whatever happened to the Ebay giant cheeto? http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/03/05/offbeat.big.cheeto/index.html Type in your mud name and see what happens http://www.googlism.com/ Replies by CORD: > Beanis: not have fleeing mobs be memory mobs? Cord: Well, you did attack the mob in the first place. But it is rather silly having a near-dead mob telling me to prepare to die. Perhaps if the memory mobs only aggro when their hitpoints are at least 80% of their max hp? > Moldfinger: a skill for avians whereby they fly from a fight (like > normal birds do) the avian flies high into the air out of reach of non > flying mobs and players, this ends the fight but doesn't leave the room Cord: I like it. I'd add that the skill should be coded such that it doesn't work when indoors. > Amarilla: that Clericus cast giant strength for those who need it to > get all corpse Cord: Maybe add giant strength to the death defeater potion? > Liubei: when a demon avatar tans a corpse the item should become > demonwearable Cord: That would make sense. Corny Jokes from Dove Two peanuts walk into a bar. One was a salted. --------------------------------------------------------------------- A jumper cable walks into a bar. The barman says "I'll serve you, but don't start anything." --------------------------------------------------------------------- A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says "Sorry, we don't serve food in here." --------------------------------------------------------------------- A dyslexic man walks into a bra... --------------------------------------------------------------------- A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says "A beer please, and one for the road." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Two aerials meet on a roof, fall in love and get married. The ceremony wasn't much but the reception was great. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other "Does this taste funny to you?" --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The green, green grass of home'." "That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome." "Is it common?" "It's not unusual." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," said Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" --------------------------------------------------------------------- Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says "I've lost my electron." The other says "Are you sure?" The first replies "Yes, I'm positive." --------------------------------------------------------------------- A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet and says "My dog's cross-eyed, Is there anything you can do for him?" "Well" says the vet "let's have a look at him." So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, checks his teeth,etc. Finally he says "I'm going to have to put him down." "What? Just because he's cross-eyed???" "No, because he's really, really heavy." ----------------------------------------------------- Apparently, one in five people in the world are Chinese. And there are five people in my family, so it must be one of them. It's either my mum, or my dad......or maybe my older brother Colin. Or my younger brother Ho-Chi-Choi. But I'm pretty sure it's Colin. ----------------------------------------------------- I went to the butchers the other day and I bet him fifty bucks that he couldn't reach the meat off the top shelf. He said "No, the steaks are too high." --------------------------------------------------------------------- My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. He was pulled in by a strong currant. --------------------------------------------------------------------- I went to a seafood disco rave last week.... and pulled a mussel. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank. This proves once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it too. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Two fish are in a tank. One says to the other "I'll man the cannon, you drive." --------------------------------------------------------------------- What do you call a fish with no eye? A fsh. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says "Dam!". Marc 26, 2003 Welcome to the Barren Realms MUD Newsletter! Visit at telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000/ News from the realms: I'd like to thank Erin and Divebomb for editing certain helps, among them help rehero, kiri, immortal, and avatar. They should be in now, as I plan to warmboot. (Some of these you can't see unless you are the proper level). Also, I've added Brodgar's immpage to the website. Stars wrote a very nice story that won a quest and got up there, so check it out. DevilsAngel: Quest prizes Sorry for the delay but the prizes for the St. Patricks Day quest are now ready. If you participated in the quest you have a prize. Please send me a tell when you see me. Thank you all who participated, and Congrats to Slab who came in first!!!! Again....everyone gets prizes that raced, so please look for me next time you are on. A special thank you to my anonymous sponser. Without whome there would have been no quest. Talk to you all soon, and Thanks again for playing!!!! Dev ------------------- IDEAS, please go ahead and respond to these: Slab: druid or elf spell, like armor, only affects save vs. spell by -20 instead Anakin: When you decided to "ignore someone" ignore all the messages that is happening to him and the ones that the person is saying. It is a good way to ignore the avatars doing some ava_eq runs Slab: modify the get command so you can take x items from a container (get x potion pack) Suicide: instead of "you can't buy anything here" the message should say "they have nothing for sale" Dio: have HR be a flee type recall like morts have for normal recall AMystery: a no_flee room flag, used rarely, but to keep certain fights from being ended by either party. there are certain fights you just have to see through Cord: the game perodically tells you "The sun rises in the east." I know the sun rises in the east, why are you telling me this? (Contrast with: "The sun slowly disappears in the west." - one is more an action, something witnessed; the other i Tom: sleeping to restore your health should have a time limit set, and you wake up fully healed, so that it doesn't take forever as you get higher to heal up. Polgara: put the weapon type (ie pierce, etc...) in the identify info Slab: add a 'help prime' command for each race that tells them their prime attribute help file Polgara: change the code, so that anything donated has a 0 gold value. This way no one can sell donated items. Stars: Let's add a chess game to barren realms! It might look similar to c4. Think of how much fun it would be. :) --------------- Responses to the newsletter: Scavenger: > AMystery: I'd like to see it so that there is one note pool per person, > not per character, with only personal notes and those directed at groups > going to individual characters. there's no reason for me to read the > same note on every char So what's wrong with the good, ol' NOTE CHANGE command? Here's how it works. On all your alternate characters, type the following command: NOTE CHANGE PERSONAL Now those characters will only see notes addresses specifically to them. Make sure that at least one of your characters is set to NOTE CHANGE GENERAL so that you see all messages at least once. ------------ Kiri's WWW of URLS: NASA releases images of crater believed to have caused death of the dinosaurs: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/5332471.htm Strong Bad Email, in case you live under a rock http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html Submit a review of BR: http://www.topmudsites.com/cgi-bin/reviews/robboard.cgi?action=review&subject=Barren+Realms+MUD Vote for us! http://www.topmudsites.com/cgi-bin/topmuds/rankem.cgi?id=brkiri --------------- Intelligence In The Wrong Hands These will make you feel much, much smarter * Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever." -- Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest * "Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." -- Mariah Carey * "I haven't commited a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law." -- David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes * "I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body. -- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward * "We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees." -- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks * "That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it." -- A congressional candidate in Texas * "I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. -- John Wayne * "Half this game is 90% mental." -- Philadelphia Phillies manager Danny Ozark * "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." -- Al Gore, former US Vice President * "If you let that sort of thing go on, your bread and butter will be cut right out from under your feet." -- Former British foreign minister, Ernest Bevin * "I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." -- Al Gore, former US Vice President * "It's no exaggeration to say that the undecided could go one way or the other." -- George Bush, former US President * "I have opinions of my own - strong opinions - but I don't always agree with them." -- George Bush, former US President * "We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?" -- Lee Iacocca * "I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version." -- Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony * "The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." -- Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst. * "We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people." -- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC instructor * "We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur." -- Al Gore, former US Vice President * "Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas." -- Keppel Enderbery * "The loss of life will be irreplaceable." -- Dan Quayle, former US Vice President * "I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have is that I didn't study my Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people." -- Dan Quayle, former US Vice President * "Hawaii is a unique state. It is a small state. It is a state that is by itself. It is different from the other 49 states. Well, all states are different, but it's got a particularly unique situation." -- Dan Quayle, former US Vice President * "Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances." -- Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina * "We apologize for the error in last week's paper in which we stated that Mr. Arnold Dogbody was a defective in the police force. We meant, of course, that Mr. Dogbody is a detective in the police farce." -- Correction notice in the Ely Standard, a British newspaper * "If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record." -- Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman