Update Notes – December 2000 – The Child of Daralat
Sir Alayne looked up at the solid stone of Ithaenc. So this was the place that begat the end of the world. Interesting. The tremors had finally subsided, and the foolish adventurers had fled before the dark onslaught. Except for the glistening red waterfall pouring its fury into the sea of blood, things were quiet and peaceful. At least, as much as they could be.
The hand of Bael’Zharon caressed Dereth, and the world shuddered in response. The rivers and the mountains were not the extent of it. The sky itself acknowledged its new lord. And troubling reports involving the Hopeslayer himself had come from many of his explorers out in Dereth. Too many.
Everywhere, people were asking, “What should be done?” Lesser and weaker men squabbled and squawked while their world fell apart. Sir Alayne had no time for discussion, no time for indecision. Now was the moment to act. He had already begun to extend his hand to the new arrivals on Dereth, preparing for the future if the world held.
If the world held. . . . He had done all he could on that front. Even if what he had done would damn him.
But what point to think of that? It had begun. He could not alter the tide of events even if he wished to do so.
Bael’Zharon walked the earth, and every living thing felt incipient doom in those footsteps. Anything done to defeat the Shadows was justifiable. Anything.
The water continued falling to the sea, red mingling with red in a bloody froth. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a cluster of verdalim plants succumbing to the increasing cold. . . .
Enough. It was foolish to put this off any longer.
“Shurov Thiloi.” Ithaenc dissolved into a field of blue. Alayne tried not to think of who would be greeting him when he stepped out of the portal.
- Peas are no longer jewelry.
- When bought, “History of the Vesayen Isles” now appears in the inventory. Also, fixed the book’s burden and mass.
- “History of the Vesayen Isles” talked about the wrong cousin before; we’ve got the family tree figured out now.
- “History of Kryst” now has the correct title and a fixed typo.
- Adjusted the maximum buy rates of the Freehold shopkeeper and barkeep.
- Corpse decay for players is now a minimum of sixty minutes.
- Players can now wield an orb, wand, or staff, and use trade skills at the same time. (Now if we could just add bubblegum. . .)
- Added new options for sharing experience points within a fellowship. For example, fellowships can now be “Non-XP Sharing.”
- The allegiance panel does a better job of staying in sync with the server.
- Cateril the Arwic Armorer now sells small round shields as expected.
- Carsith the Arwic Weaponsmith now sells small and large round shields as he’s expected.
- The Kryst Healer now sells healing items all the time.
- The Arwic Tailor has been updated to say: “Davis the tailor.”
- The space after Claude the Archmage’s name has been removed.
- Claude the Archmage’s icon now appears.
- The Freehold Archmage now sells mana stones in the correct order.
- The Dryreach quest NPC, Yu Vou-Ki, is now visible on radar.
- Deleted the landscape spawn near the Ivory Collector in Kryst.
- With the wonders of modern technology, Kamira is now a woman!
- The Zone’s “The Story So Far” pieces are now available for free in the heritage group libraries at Zaikhal, Hebian-to, and Cragstone. Look for the white bookshelf.
- Kayna bint Isawas now talks a bit about the speed vs. damage choice in SoCS armoredillo spines.
- Certain types of cooking items (such as sides of beef) will now appear in shop panels with a default of one instead of fifty.
- Fixed the syntax of the failure string when mixing milk into the pumpkin base.
- Fixed Adja’s Chest to now cast its spell.
- Adja’s Chest now respawns at its intended one-minute interval.
- The inscriptions on Adja’s Well and Adja’s Memorial now appear correctly.
- Using Adja’s Memorial no longer leaves PKs with an hourglass cursor if they’ve been killed within the last 3 hours.
- Quest flags on the key to Adja’s Chest and the Staff of the Nomads have been increased from one week to three weeks.
- The Healer’s Heart Orb now casts its spell on other players.
- Examining Aerfalle’s Staff now lists the allegiance rank requirement.
- Placed another exit portal in the Slithis Pit dungeon, on the south branch of the dungeon.
- Players no longer lose looting rights to a corpse by walking to it.
- Attempting to open a chest or corpse that is already in use, then going into combat/magic mode, no longer forces players to walk toward said container.
- When enchanting an attribute, any skill based on that attribute will now appear in green text.
- The text messages displayed when you spend points to raise a skill, attribute, or secondary attribute have been changed.
- Altered the in-game map.
- Played with the wind and wolves in cold areas.
- Removed the Shard of the Herald dungeon.
- Hotspots located near the waterfall on Ithaenc are invisible — take care where you step!
- Fixed @chat on and @chat off, so that they now function as intended.
- Fixed the @help information for squelch.
- Fixed random problems with @filter.
- Changed festival stone inscriptions.
- Updated the character UI panel to accommodate all buttons.
- Fixed the Island Armoredillos and Slithis Tentacle dual damage bug.
- Idols now inflict the correct type of damage.
- Changed the stats on idols and Dread Idols.
- All quest Drudges now use the newer Drudge art.
- Fixed a spelling error in the short and long descriptions of the Small Crystal Shard.
- Fixed a small typo in the short and long descriptions of the Tiny Crystal Shard.
- Players can no longer tie to portals they could not go through due to PK-restrictions.
- Players are no longer allowed to summon portals that are just “home position” based. They must have either tied to, or run through, a tie-able portal in order to summon one.
- Fixed the lifestone save location exploit. (No more trying to trick the lifestone into thinking you are someplace you aren’t.)
- Added the ability to flag landblocks as invalid portal storm destinations. This should resolve the “portal storm plummet of doom” near Tethana. This flag has also been applied to the west coat of Eastham Island and the south coast of Aerlinthe, so please don’t try to reach these areas through intentional portal storms. Thanks.