Since only the five most recent game and website news/updates are shown on the MUD News page, this page exists to help us continue to remember when (and why) changes were written into Myrradel.

Jump to the Game News, Updates Archive area.
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Game News, Updates Archive

[Aug. 25, 2000]
The bug nullifying the effects of 'freedoms' (freedom from hunger and thirst) has been corrected.

[Aug. 22, 2000]
I'll just quote this one verbatim: "Oops! ocliw.com's hard drive was filled to capacity. As a result, massive corruption of any open files, including but not limited to the mud's pfiles and clan files resulted.

"If you feel you've got a problem, send me, wilco@ocliw.com, an email and I'll fix you up ASAP. I apologize for the inconvenience, and appreciate your understanding."

[Aug. 17, 2000]
Another rather small bug pertaining to the 'teleport' spell has been corrected.

[Aug. 11, 2000]
mist form bug fixed

The mortal-operated dueling arena is back online with significant upgrades - everything should be functional, but report any bugs you encounter to Midnight (midnight@ocliw.com).

The bug that disabled the 'detect invis' spell on items has been fixed.

[Aug. 10, 2000]
'Distracted' targets are easier to steal from, but people don't stay distracted for as long as before.

The Thief skill 'disguise' is implemented into the game. You know where to send bug reports.

A new command, 'forfeit', allows a player to exit the mortal-run arena.

[Aug. 9, 2000]
The call of the Druids is answered, with numerous implementations taking effect today:

The effectiveness of the spell mist form's defense now increases incrementally with the experience of the Druid casting it.

The Druid spell 'call woodland creature' now displays the duration of the charm affect on the creature in the affect list.

Druids can now group with their charmed followers and earn experience points from their kills.

The skills 'animal senses' and 'ambush' tweaked so that it includes invisible and hidden entities.

The mortal dueling arena has been disconnected from the realm while under revampment. Expect it back soon.

Congratulations to clans Divine Right and Shadow, who are moving on to round two of the clan tournament this Sunday at 6 pm system time!

[Jul. 30, 2000]
The evening of game day (July 29) is topped off with a series of arenas, quest mobiles, a trivia session and a team arena with prizes awarded to the victors. Please direct your polite and discreet inquiries about a sequel to your nearest implementor.

[July 16, 2000]
Some code that allowed players to use the 'teleport' spell to get into no-portal rooms and unlinked areas has been corrected.

With the last clan chaos completed on July 9th, the final clan chaos of the season is scheduled for July 21st, 19:00 system time. Standings and seeds for the tournament will be released following the battle.

[June 29, 2000]
The bug related to the 'cancel magic' spell has been corrected as well.

[June 15, 2000]
The persistent bug with the Sorcerer spell 'big bang' has been corrected.

[June 8, 2000]
Congratulations to clan Forsaken for winning the fourth clan battle of this season! The date and time of the next clan chaos is TBA.

[June 5, 2000]
Some of the dueling arena code has changed, so be careful in there. You should now be free of 'wanted' flags after a duel. Be sure to read the instructions in the room description.

[June 2, 2000]
Congratulations to clan SNG for winning the third clan battle of this season! The next battle is scheduled for June 7th, 20:00 system time.

[Mar. 31, 2000]
Heavy reconstruction of Druid class begins.

The experience-point bonus limit for having more than four players in a group has been lifted.

[Mar. 29, 2000]
The skills/spells mastery system has been redone. Look to be earning heightened proficiencies in all skills/spells you regularly use.

The level 40 Ranger skill 'entangle' has been fixed to stop interrupting combat.

[Mar. 28, 2000]
Saves have been readjusted.

Sorcerers with the 'spirit duality' spell in effect no longer see their damage lowered on shield spells.

The bug with the level 45 Knight and level 31 Paladin skill 'rescue' which was causing the MUD to crash has been fixed.

Heavy adjustment of Sorcerer, Necromancer, Illusionist and Avatar damage spells. All readjustments will probably need to be readjusted, so stay tuned and report back to us with your conclusions...

The duration of the Thief and Ranger skill 'snare' has been shortened.

It's now harder to cast 'blindness' on people.

It is no longer possible to cast spells while affected by a Ruiners' 'kneegroin'.

[Mar. 26, 2000]
Fixed some bugs with containers and weight.

Mobiles now get bonuses from wielding weapons in combat.

The code for the level 45 Knight and level 31 Paladin skill 'rescue' has been rewritten.

The bug with 'riposte' which caused smallish mobiles to do fairly heavy damage has been fixed.

[Mar. 24, 2000]
New socials from the online social form are in: smite, negative, smack, booya and chode.

Players are no longer told of their development towards the 'Supreme Mastery of War'. Rest assured, you're still on your way.

The 'holy ward' and 'unholy word' spell are rebalanced.

The Necromancer level 40 spell 'flesh decay' has been toned down.

The level 24 Cleric spell 'heal' now stays more consistent at higher levels.

Necromancers' level 44 spell 'wraith form' is slightly altered.

A large bug concerning mana regeneration has been fixed. High level player should notice a boost. Certain races also get an additional boost.

The mana costs for certain spells has been adjusted.

[Mar. 23, 2000]
Knights should now gain masteries in their level 60 'lance' skill.

The optional parameters for the 'who' command have been fixed.

[Mar. 19, 2000]
Being 'anonymous' now only hides your character's statistics (hit points, mana, moves)...not your level and class.

The new Quest Equipment is now posted here, on the Myrradel website.

The Ruiner skill 'kneegroin' has been redone.

Fixed a lot of little bugs having to do with containers and number of items.

Fixed bug where fighting continued even after having been killed by a spell.

Fixed another bug with number of items carried.

Mobiles that use the 'summon' spell go about it more smartly.

The Necromancer 'wraith form' has been altered.

The Sorcerer level 60 spell 'flaming shield' and Avatars' level 52 'electric shield' are now doing more appropriate damage.

The Sorcerer level 54 spell 'hellstream' spell buffed up, while the Necromancer's level 48 spell 'spirit rending' and 'unholy word' are toned down.

Necromancers no longer have the one spectre per 24 MUD hours limit. The spectres/zombies themselves have been adjusted, as have mana costs for the spells to call them.

The great debate on whether Avatars should recieve the 'electric shield' spell continues. It's been removed for now.

The Druid class is revisited - their level 60 spell 'cyclone' and level 59 spell 'creeping doom' have been redone.

[Mar. 17, 2000]
The Thief/Ruiner skill 'cripple' is now more effective.

Monks' 'ki-intensity' now goes off more often.

Knights can now reach a higher mastery of skills than before.

[Mar. 15, 2000]
There are now minimum costs for training at the Mystic Trainer.

Damage from the Sorcerer spell 'flaming shield' and the Avatar spell 'electric shield' have been increased.

Oh yeah, Avatars have the 'electric shield' spell again at level 52.

It is no longer possible to dispel non-spell affects like 'snare'.

Resting groupies will not 'retreat' or 'escape' with you.

Druids using the 'creeping doom' spell on a target in another room can no longer get hit from their distant position.

Duration on annoyance skills/spells 'snare', 'mute' and 'blindness' have been decreased.

The Sorcerer spell 'spirit duality' has been overhauled.

[Mar. 12, 2000]
The 'enhanced damage' skill for Berserkers and Knights, and proficiencies in your weapon now actually can lend you a hand in doing more damage.

The Knight skills 'riposte' and 'skewer' are now more worthwhile.

The frequency of attacks with your secondary weapon has been increased.

The Knight skill 'disembowel' has been pumped up.

[Mar. 7, 2000]
The Illusionist spell 'wall of fire' should now be completely fixed.

Ruiners have been deemed appropriate to recieve the spell 'infravision', set to level 22.

The Ruiner and Thief skill 'throwsand' now continues to affect the victim after the fight has ended for the remainder of its duration.

It should now be easier to dispel affects from certain mobs.

[Feb. 28, 2000]
Spell saves, redone the previous day, have been adjusted in accordance to player reports. They may still be subject to tweaking, so careful with the higher-level, rarely visited mobiles. Get back to us if something's amiss.

Pieces of very desirable good-aligned equipment have been added to the game. This equipment can be found on old mobs as well as new mobs in old areas. More are to come.

You can no longer be dispelled in the arena before it closes.

All level 60 players in Clan Innocents now receive enhanced regeneration. Talk to Donovan for more information.

Thieves can no longer use the 'hamstring' upon someone that is in a saferoom.

Devil's Canyon has been unearthed deep within the desert. Thanks, Bob!

White Sands adventurers note fierce gargoyles circling a phenomenon to the southwest.

[Feb. 26, 2000]
Another round of bug-zapping tonight.

Bugs in the Illusionist spells 'cone of cold', 'wall of fire' and 'dreams' have been corrected. In order, the caster can no longer be hit from another room by using the 'cone of cold' spell; 'wall of fire' has been re-enabled and does not crash the game when people walk into them; 'dreams' just works.

Usage of the Sorcerer spell 'spirit duality' no longer reduces damage caused by normal attacks.

Mage and Cleric (sub)classes can now use the spells 'cancel magic' and 'dispel magic' in safe rooms upon groupmates.

Berserkers can now keep wielding their weapons while using the 'toss' and 'pin' skills.

Knights and Assassins can no longer be hit after successfully using the skills 'retreat' and 'escape'. The Knight message for the 'disembowel' skill has been fixed.

[Feb. 19, 2000]
A Human-led expedition, thanks to a generous grant from the cities of Rosemont and Myrradel, have led to some preliminary information about the surroundings of the Elven city of Mesonairah. Chiefly, a report about the 'Legend of the Fire', pertaining to the Phoenix, is being widely circulated. This is a must-read for any so-called adventurer. (And a great gag gift, too!)

The gryphon master of Skyrysma reports that he has attained a new level of tameness over his creatures through selected cross-breeding. He invites travelers in the region to buy one and try them out.

[Jan. 24, 2000]
Raiden stopped by today and left some squashed bugs in his wake:

Items taken within a stolen container are now marked as 'stolen' along with the container itself.

The Sorcerer spell 'solar gate' should no longer allow mobiles a room away to land hits upon the caster.

The quirky bug with the Sorcerer spell 'spirit duality' which caused the MUD to crash has been corrected.

The code causing crashes with the Monk skill 'ki-intensity' has been fixed.

The crash bug in the Thief skill 'confuse' has been corrected.

[Jan. 18, 2000]
The Knight skill 'lance' can no longer be used in safe rooms, as is proper.

No more experience points rollover to negatives for our over-experienced level 60 players!

Scholars and educators in Myrradel and Rosemont have come to the conclusion in a joint project that people prone to dozing during the day are the most susceptible to mental control; evidence cited includes a short-term study of a group of island animals off the coast of the City of Myrradel.

[Jan. 14, 2000]
The Knight skill 'retreat' and the Assassin/Thief skill 'escape' now gain masteries through regular usage.

[Jan. 10, 2000]
The bug with the Ranger skill 'dazzle' that caused the MUD to crash has been corrected.

[Jan. 7, 2000]
Experience points earned from the Thief skill 'steal' is now based on a scale pertaining to the level of the victim, as opposed to the fixed exp amount of old. We reserve the right to tweak the experience gained as input comes in.

The Thief skill 'pretend' now gains masteries from continual usage. Ditto for 'throwsand'.

Finally, the Thief skill 'distract' has been fixed. All around, a decent day for Thieves.

[Jan. 3, 2000]
Happy New Year, everybody! With the MUD files still intact and the Y2K bug nowhere to be found, changes continue to take place in the world...

Experience points earned from the mobiles in the area 'Runaway Waters' have been raised slightly to bring the area better in line with existing areas.

Ditto for Skyrysma and its mobiles and experience points.

[Dec. 26, 1999]
Merry Christmas, all! Some Boxing Day changes of note:

The Knight skill 'lance' is now more dependent on the level of the mount. The skill's overall amount of damage caused has also been raised.

The Illusionist spell 'haze of delusions' gets some changes to the amount and severity it affects combat.

[Dec. 15, 1999]
Four new socials went into the game today: 'woohoo', 'pant', 'praise' and 'whimper'.

[Dec. 14, 1999]
Thieves can now pick locks with mobiles in the same room as the locked door. Catch-22 averted.

Mobiles no longer pick up spellbooks that are left lying on the ground.

An error in a room contained in the 'Runaway Waters' zone that stranded charmed mobiles from their masters has now been corrected. Charmed mobiles are now treated in that room exactly as players are (the wording of this update is specifically vague as to not give away the going-ons in that room).

In order to help out players who have been baffled at to the logistics behind a change in stealing during combat, I will reiterate a hint from a past update: "Thieves can no longer 'steal' from a victim who is in combat."

[Dec. 5, 1999]
The new Illusionist spell 'haze of delusions' no longer becomes a permanent room effect at the place it is casted. In related changes, multiple casts of 'haze of delusions' does not give the Illusionist multiple bonuses.

The durations of the Illusionist spells 'hex vision' and 'feeblemind' have been lowered to counter their new level of effectiveness.

Denmar Radio first hit the airwaves today in competition with Wilco Radio. More...alternative in nature, Denmar Radio establishes the fact that there truely is no MUD like Myrradel - what other MUD can boast three ShoutCast online radio stations springing from its playerbase?

[Dec. 4, 1999]
Shopkeepers, becoming more wary of being known as an easy mark for outlaws, now yell about the presence of thieves or wanted people, instead of shouting. The difference? 'Yell' carries the shopkeeper's voice throughout only that area, while 'shout' is heard all around the MUD.

The Illusionist spells 'hex vision' and 'feeblemind' have been tweaked and are now more effective than before.

The cost of casting the Illusionist spell 'mass invis' has been lowered from 20 to 10 mana.

The Mage spell 'shield' and Illusionist spell 'displacement' now get level-based bonuses on top of the base AC bonus they recieved before. The higher level the caster, the increased effect of the spell.

The Illusionist class recieves a new spell at level 39, 'haze of delusions'. Explaining 'haze of delusions' right away would be a disservice - ask your friendly neighbourhood Illusionist to illustrate its effects.

Using the Mage spell 'cancel magic' on fellow group members no longer causes you to recieve a 'wanted' flag.

Between the last news update (Dec. 3rd) and today's, I've had a chance to have a short interview with Wilco about Wilco Radio:

Aelwyft: Planning on making Wilco Radio a regular thing?
Roger Wilco: i dunno yet
Aelwyft: Related: Will we ever get to hear you DJ?
Roger Wilco: i have dj'd d=
Aelwyft: As in talked on the air? I wasn't listening the entire time - needed the bandwidth. :)
Roger Wilco: heh
Roger Wilco: i have spoken
Roger Wilco: you mustn't have heard me
Aelwyft: Ah, neato, I guess I have to change the news page then.

There you have it, folks - the master of suspense has cast his spell on us once again. Will we or won't we hear from Wilco Radio again? Only time will tell.

[Dec. 3, 1999]
Take a very deep breath, and try to say everthing in today's update in that one breath. As you can see, lots of changes went in tonight.

First, class balancing: Avatars lose the offensive/defensive 'electric shield' spell at level 58 and gain the offensive 'call lightning' spell at level 39. The Avatar spell list has been updated accordingly.

The Avatar spells 'protection from evil' and 'protection from good' have been lowered a level each so Avatars can get one spell per level from 35-40. Avatar spell list updated.

Class balancing continues with the lowering of the maximum amount of hit points Necromancers can regenerate in one heal. Necromancers are also now limited to calling one spectre per 24 hour MUD period.

The Necromancer spell 'vampiric shield' does not drain as much from opponents anymore as before. That bites (sorry, terrible pun).

Experience points awarded per successful steal for Thieves has been upped. In another closely related matter, the consequences of stealing from one victim repeatedly have been relaxed.

The lag that accompanies the Thief 'steal' command when stealing from non-player characters (mobiles) has been reduced.

All spell-casting classes can use the 'zap' command, which allows those classes to learn and use 'wands'.

The effects of the Thief and Ruiner skill 'cripple' has been lessened somewhat. Now, when cripple lands your opponent is not automatically reduced to one attack per round, but instead a random number of lessened attacks.

A new mass communication channel, 'dream', is in. As you might expect, you can only send and recieve chatter from the dream channel while you are asleep. So, everybody, start sleeping around.

The Innocents clan board has been fixed. Innocents clan members, enjoy your fully-functional clan hall.

The 'palm' skill has been restricted for use by Thieves alone, as was originally intended.

Ditto for the 'find path' skill and Rangers.

Thieves can no longer 'steal' from a victim who is in combat.

Wilco's first mass experiment with the ShoutCast MP3 streaming technology was generally well recieved by all on the MUD at the time. Wilco Radio plays at low fidelity in order to allow even modem users to listen in without skippage. Will Wilco Radio become a regular part of Myrradel life? Just what does Wilco sound like in real life, and will we ever get to hear him DJ? The answers to those questions are coming soon to this space.

[Nov. 30, 1999]
The bug that allowed silly people to recall out of the arena has been rectified. It's now a fight to the death, as was intended (of course, arenas provide for player deaths without loss).

[Nov. 28, 1999]
The good Wilco has implemented a new crash recovery script onto the server. Delays between uptime should now be much shortened.

The bug which allowed Avatars to use the 'dispel magic' spell to give their opponents a wanted flag has been fixed. As is proper, an Avatar casting this spell to initiate combat now recieves the flag themselves.

With the enablement of the online social editor, the socials board in Myrradel is back in business. Refer to it to see the proper format in which to submit new socials. Accordingly, the new socials 'hiccup', 'rape', 'pimp', 'whew', 'aol' and 'ratbastard' are in the game. The Socials page will get alphabetized once again after it has been HTML'ized.

[Ongoing]
In order to give some of Myrradel's less travelled areas exposure to adventurers, some locations are being moved around and edited. Our hopes are a more seamless, diverse and visually logical world will result from this process.


Web Page Updates Archive

[Jul. 30, 2000]
Caught up on updating the website tonight. Spells and skills that have been added/removed from
classes recently should be reflected in the spell/skill listings.

The latest trivia sessions, Trivia #7 and Trivia #8, have been written into the Myrradel Trivia section of this website.

Added the new clan, M.E.R.C., to the Clans page of this site.

[Jul. 30, 2000]
The trivia session held on this game day (July 29) has been HTML-ized for viewing on the Web. Play Trivia #6 or any previous trivia session in the Myrradel Trivia section.

[Jul. 16, 2000]
The latest trivia sessions' questions and answers have been uploaded into the Myrradel Trivia section. Test your knowledge in Trivia #5.

[Jul. 3, 2000]
Questions and answers from a trivia session completed earlier this evening are now online in the Myrradel Trivia section. So go and check out Trivia #4.

Added access to the trivia index under the Quests header in the website main menu. Though it's not an exact fit into the category, it will do the job nicely.

Updated the Avatar spells list with the 'word of god' and 'bolt of light' spells, primarily.

Updated the socials list with the 'hail', 'brainstorm' and 'shutup' socials.

[Apr. 9, 2000]
Added a new directory for Myrradel Trivia and added the questions and answers to Trivia #2 and Trivia #3 of the year 2000 to it. This will allow players and visitors to Myrradel to test their knowledge and see if they indeed would have done better than the actual victors.

The Clans page has been updated with the description of the Black Magic clan.

Made it a little easier to jump to the Game News, Updates or Web Page Updates areas of this news page.

Updated the Ranger skill list page to reflect the addition of the level 58 'animal senses' skill.

Update have gone into the site tree to reflect all of the above.

[Mar. 19, 2000]
The Quest Equipment list is online for player browsing. If you'd like to pick up one or more of these spiffy pieces of equipment, read up on the rest of the quest information.

[Mar. 14, 2000]
Added the updated Newbie Guide to the site. Veteran players are asked to look it over and offer suggestions about what else can be added as advice for new players.

[Mar. 7, 2000]
The 'infravision' skill has been added to the Ruiner skill/spell list at level 22.

[Feb. 27, 2000]
Added clan Black Magic to the Clans page.

The dates on this News page has been un-italicized and changed to a different colour to again increase readability. Let me know how it looks.

[Feb. 13, 2000]
Clan AuraForce has been replaced with clan Forsaken on both the MUD and now the game website. You may read clan Forsaken's newly-submitted description on the Clans page.

[Jan. 28, 2000]
Players may now use our Web-based Bug Report Form to submit information about bugs they may have come across in Myrradel. Of course, the site tree has been updated to include this new page.

[Jan. 22, 2000]
Wow, the first Myrradel website update in the new year! And we've got quite a few things to write about.

The Clans page has been updated to streamline the introductory paragraph on that page and to update some clan information, but most significantly with a clan description for clan Shadow.

Errors on my part on the Races page (which threw racial abilities and weaknesses under one heading) have been corrected. Each race now has its racial weaknesses listed for the purpose of informing new players in full about the races available for selection.

The CGI script to handle social submissions is ready for widespread use. Players of Myrradel and visitors to our site alike may now submit socials via the Submit a Social form. All submissions sent in from this form can be viewed on the Social Submissions page, which instantly updates itself with new information.

Lastly, the Submit a Social and Social Submissions links have been added to the site tree.

[Dec. 16, 1999]
Added the 'woohoo', 'pant', 'praise' and 'whimper' socials to the bottom of the Socials page.

[Dec. 14, 1999]
With the logic that much on this news page is far too witty to be lost forever as a driving factor, a News Archive page has been added to the site to store updates that are bumped off of this page. To reflect this, a new link has been added to the site tree.

Feeling that it was hard to ascertain where one news update ended and another began, all newsdate headers are now in italics.

The 'find an error we don't know about on the website and win' contest rages on until the end of December. Do your worst, players.

[Dec. 4, 1999]
The Illusionist spell list has been updated to include 'haze of delusions'.

Oops. Forgot to add the 'wands' handling skill to Paladins, Ruiners, Rangers and Druids. Nobody caught it, though, so nobody gets a prize.

[Dec. 3, 1999]
The Avatar page has been updated to reflect the changes in spells available to the class.

[Nov. 29, 1999]
Added the new socials to the bottom of the Socials page. These pages are soon to be re-written.

Some changes in the Races page to better reflect the abilities given to each race.

[Nov. 28, 1999]
The basic content upload for this site has now been completed, with the sole exceptions of the quest equipment list and the newbie guide. Check out the world board in Myrradel for website-related contests which will be held shortly after these pages become available online.

[Nov. 13, 1999]
The Myrradel newbie guide that was previously available from these pages has been taking offline for retooling. It was felt that in its current state it concentrated more on the commands than on the logic behind them - this will be remedied in the new version.


Current news can be viewed on the MUD News page.