Arelith Updates!

[Irongron]

- A new set of Lowland Swamp areas (including a small taste of things to come).

- A number of new spawns.

- Various bug fixes.

- And last but not least a new (hidden) dungeon for the Cordor Server, courtesy of a contributor (also new).

[Mithreas]

Next reset:

Ship navigators (other then the ship owner) will now require the faction power located under shop and quarters titled "captain" to be able to navigate a ship.

The faction will also need to be assigned through the quarter menu of the ship.

Another new power (Keyless Entry/Create Key) allows individuals to do as the name suggest; enter quarters (or ships) without a key and to create keys for the quarter.

Factions will also now update their timestamps whenever someone goes to withdrawal gold from the shared account.

Quarter keys are now tagged with their creator so that they can be renamed through the basin without first having to be enchanted.

Edit: Ship/Quarter powers use the same check as shops do. This means a someone that's a member of a nation's faction and has the power to captain or keyless entry can also access a nations sub-factions quarters/ship.

[Mithreas]

I've made a change to Banishment and Dismissal. Effective next reset, in addition to their other effects, they will prevent all summoning spells from working in their area for 60s and 30s respectively.

[Mithreas]

I've applied a bunch of summon changes, including the first draft of the long-trailed undead summons changes. I expect there will be some bugs, so let me know

Also:

Some changes to the Slavery system will be active next time a DM resets the servers:

- Characters get "(Slave)" behind their names, like with "(Disguise)" when they have a Slave clamp (both prisoner and 'full' slaves), so you don't need to do a *looks* to recognise a PC as a slave.
- A slave character performing a -disguise will end up being either a "(Disguised Slave)" or "(Disguised)" depending on their skill to be able to disguise the Slave clamp around their necks. The skillrank needed is FOIG.
- Added an option in the NPC Slavemasters dialog for PC Slavemasters to report missing slaves. This will clean-up their slavery papers, removing old slaves that are no longer active. PC Slavemasters can manually choose which slaves they want removed from their list and get a small some of money for them.
- When a Slave character logs in for the first time in 14 real-life days, the ownership of that slave will be automatically transfered to the NPC Slavemaster.
- Added an option in the NPC Slavemasters dialog for PC Slaves. If their PC Slavemaster hasn't been active for at least 7 real-life days and the Slave PC talks to the NPC Slavemaster, he will claim back the Slave as his own. This to prevent slaves getting stuck with inactive masters.


Let me know if any bugs turn up regarding the above.


There is more coming for slaves, but this is it for now.

[Mithreas]

I've been making incremental changes to undead summons over the last few days.

I've also tweaked the polymorph code so that soft bonuses on your creature hide will stack with bonuses from gear when it all merges (but gear bonuses won't stack with each other). Applied to ability score bonuses only for now (as the most impactful) but let me know of any other property types that are in sore need of this treatment.

[Mithreas]

And a last update for me for the weekend... effective next reset on all servers (including FL).

Anyone who has 75% or more of their levels in Ranger, when they use Animal Empathy, will convert the dominated animal into a henchman. This means it won't time out, can rest etc with the ranger, and you can have two of them.

Empathy continues to work as normal for everyone else.

(This was remarkably hard to do, even after I'd thought of a clever way to bypass Empathy's hardcoding. You're all meant to be impressed at this point...)

[Irongron]

A lot of small things going in today, as I clear my plate after the holidays (and so I can concentrate on bigger things)

A lot of these relate to player requests, suggestions and ongoing role-play.

I won't list everything, but it includes...

- Adding in a number of player books, not to the matrix, but as 'fixed' object in various locations throughout the isle. Do keep these coming as they do wonder for making the libraries of Arelith less generic.

- Removed the quarter door from Brogendenstein Mines, replacing it with a guard that opens the private Mine for all Brogendenstein citizens.

- Added in a Thane's Chamber to Brogendenstein, tied into ownership of the Vault

- Changed the Greyhammer House to a guild (As per player request)

- A construction site springs up beyond the Rothe Fields of Andunor - due to high player activity on a project.

- Andunor Map Room relocated to the basement of the Hub.

- 2 new small quarters in the Upper Hub area of Andunor

- Fixed some areas imported from FL with the wrong PVP settings, or spawning overpowered loot

- Various creature fixes and rebalances.

I hope I got to anything that was pending, a few suggestions I rejected, but generally most were pretty sound.

[Irongron]

- 1st Update of Shadow Cordor - We're going one district at a time as this is a large project, and part of a larger scheme in involving the entire Shadow Plane

- 6 New areas.
Including ew pic dungeon for Cordor. (Thanks to the players that volunteered to help test this)

Also put a fix in that should stop the time fluctuating between the servers. This may (Hopefully...) lead ot crafting points being refreshed later in the day, and may also improve some performance issues.

[Irongron]

Some major changes today.

As is the case with these there will be some bugs that I intend to address as the day progresses.

DEATH

So after over a decade of sharing his bad news with our characters, we say goodbye to the Soul Guardian...

- New Death area

This is strictly an in-character area, and one which your characters are perflectly entitled to remember.

- Respawn changes.

Respawn XP loss largely removed, with only 10% of the previous value remaining. In addition to this the PC will suffer temporary stat loss to their characters, which will fade over time, generally less than 1 real time hour, but sometimes longer for epic level characters.

The 24 rule on PvP still applies.

Bugs - It is reported that PCs are currently able to remove these effects, and that in some cases raise dead is not working on corpses. This will be fixed soon.

This one really is a major change, not only to how we make the game, but also how it is played.

CRAFTING

All characters, irrespective of levels will receive 50 crafting points per day. Crafting skills will still function in the same way, with new skill points being earned at every level.

GOLD DROPS

Epic level monsters have had their maximum gold drop reduced. This will not effect low or mid level dungeons.

[Mithreas]

We've done some messing about with subraces.

Effective next reset:
- Dragons and Rakshasa will no longer be available - and as of immediately, we won't be approving any custom race requests on major awards (keep reading...)
- Forest Gnomes are now available as a Gnome subrace for people spending a Normal award. Forest Gnomes are just like Rock Gnomes, except that they speak Animal, don't leave tracks, can -track, and have Bard as a favoured class.
- Aasimar and Tieflings are back, requiring a Major award.

We know there will be a lot of strong feelings about this one, so a note on reasoning. Essentially, there are too many weird characters around right now (especially dragons), so we need to do some population control. We're thinking a lot about how we want to handle this going forwards, but one of the leading ideas is to regularly change the list of special races that are available.

Short term, we have a couple of other changes planned which I'll get done when I have time, so watch this space...

[Irongron]

The next big update is here, as the bulk of the new shadow plane is ready to go live, along with various other additions that were ready this week.

- 14 New Areas. with a number of new hidden routes accessing the Plane of Shadow.

- 'Nightmare' mounts available in some areas to PCs with the Gift of Riding.

- About a dozen new creatures.

- Many new items added throughout the loot matrix.

Once again a lot of work when into this one, but the deck is largely cleared to move forward with the next project on the 'list',

[Mithreas]

I've been messing with respawn timers recently, as many of you have noticed.

I've just released a rework of this which will take effect as the servers reset. I'm deliberately not releasing details of the algorithm, but I would like to know whether this resolves the issues with the last iteration. So please do post continued feedback.

[Irongron]

Moving onto the next project here, and laying the groundwork for the upcoming castle brokerage on the surface.

- Added a number of new and replacement areas between Cordor & Bendir.

- A great many new random encounters. The chances for these are low, but should throw up some interesting opportunities and interactions from time to time.

- a handful of new creatures.

I will also be adding a significant resource for Underdark Slaves in the next few days, along with new areas. I'll announce it now as I won't then.

[Irongron]

-After making a deal with Amn, a ferry now connects Guldorand with Brogendenstein, in addition to a number of other changes resulting from the clearance of much of the hardwood from around the mountain settlement.

- Added a guard to Laurik in the Crow's Nest, and increased his ability to fend of attackers to his jetty.

[Mithreas]

Tweaked Barbarian Rage a bit. Effects now:

Code: Select all

	- The standard Rage is replaced by an effect that:
      - gives you a -2 penalty to AC
	  - increases your movement rate by 50%
	  - gives you a damage shield effect, hurting anyone who hits you.  Damage
	    is 3x your rage level + your con bonus
	  - applies damage to your main hand weapon based on your rage level (wielding
	    a two handed weapon or nothing in your offhand raises your bonus level by 3).
	  - boosts your will save by your rage level + your con bonus
	  - Gives temp HP = 50% of maximum HP, scaled by barb levels / hit dice
	  Duration is changed to 2d4 + con mod rounds.

So Vamp Regen becomes a damage boost that increases when you're wielding just a single weapon (2H or 1H), the HP bonus scales with your -barbarian- levels, and the biteback scales up a lot more with increasing barbarian levels (rage level).

Meanwhile, in the shadows, there is movement... but you'll need to wait a few days to find out about that

[Irongron]

Meanwhile, in the shadows, there is movement... but you'll need to wait a few days to find out about that

Quite rapid movement as it turns out...

- ASSASSIN GUILD FINALLY GOES LIVE!

Sorry for the caps, but after over 2 years since the signs of it first appeared in game, I am thrilled to see this added. The exact function of it should be found in game, but should provide a massive boon for the Assassin class, and give characters all the fun of placing contracts on their enemies.

- Andunor finishes work on its new gate.

Just what they wanted and had role-played towards, but something that is also throwing up some problems for the city...

[Irongron]

Been some lightning progress recently...

- Harper Enclave Added

Along with the full range of Harper Classes.

Here are the the details in case you missed them elsewhere on the forums.

http://wiki.arelith.com/Harper_scout

[Irongron]

Been a quiet month for updates, not due to inactivity, but rather because I've been working on a huge project that will hopefully be ready within the next 3 weeks or so...

In the meantime...


- Due to their draconic nature, kobolds can now gain access to the RDD class. This is done in-game via a semi-secret NPC that I don't want to reveal on the forums. Currently this requires an RPR of 30 (May be subject to change)

- More good news for small creatures. From the next reset spears will be a single handed weapon (2 handed for 'small' creatures) with the damage reduced to 1D6 and a 20(x3) Critical. They can only be equipped in the mainhand, and can only be combined with a shield (No duel wielding).

- In response to the recent thread about the 'anti-circle-grind' script, I've removed its function from many wilderness areas that one must repeat during explorations, and from some dungeon areas that PCS are required to 'backtrack' through, while with some others I've added exit portals so as to avoid the need to repeat such areas. I'm sure I haven't covered all yet, this time I concentrated on the Dark Spires, Skull Crags, and Minmir.

- Tridents now do 2D6 Damage (remain large weapons, and with the same crit range)

- From the next reset after this one, PCS will incur a 1 combat round penalty if they change their weapons mid-fight (though equipping shields will function normally)

[Dunshine]

Updates live after the current reset:

- A super secret guild for slave players, goodluck finding it!
- Some more container items, similar to the keyring and headbag, also available on some regular merchants now.
- Bugfix for the keyring

(this involved quite a couple of files, so I hope I didn't miss/break anything)

[Liareth]

We have now introduced a new Associate Control system. This means that familiars, summons, and henchman can now be controlled using the Player Tool 1 feat which is granted to your character when you summon an associate and removed when you dismiss one. This system allows for fine-grained control over associates and -- hopefully -- a departure from radial menu associate control forever! A huge thanks to Peppermint who devised this system and created the bulk of the nwscript-side logic.

Instructions (which will be available in game in the near future): viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5832#p47762

[Liareth]

This update offers stealthers some RP love. We've added two new chat commands, -reveal and -revealparty.

-reveal allows the stealther to selectively reveal themselves to the named character (-reveal Jimmy Bob). It can also work through tells. Note that you will only be visible to that character until you break line of sight again. It should be used sparingly and in cases where RP would benefit.

-revealparty allows the stealther to reveal themselves to their party. It persists through resets (e.g, if you toggle it on, it'll stay on until you toggle it off again).

Just a quick note on the use of these commands: please don't abuse them. If you're in a situation where you've revealed yourself to only one character and you're having an otherwise open conversation with them, you're probably being dumb. Nobody likes dumb, least of all the DM team. These commands can be used as a great RP tool. We don't want to take them away, so please use them sensibly.

[Liareth]

Shadowdancers now unlock Hide In Plain Sight at level 5. The feat has a twelve second cooldown that kicks into action upon exiting stealth. After you exit stealth, you can't use Hide In Plain Sight for the following twelve seconds, though you can enter stealth again as you would normally. Thanks to Peppermint for their help with this update.

If you currently play a shadowdancer at or above level five, and want the feat, you just need to level up again. Feel free to poke a DM within the next few days to retake one level if you really want that HiPS right away!

More stealther love to come in the near future . . .

[Liareth]

This isn't the announcement of a fancy new feature or anything, but I'd like to point out that over the last week or two we've been working on backend changes (NWNX code) to improve performance. The first of such changes was rolled out last week, which brought us some decent performance gains. We've rolled out another change tonight which should increase server performance quite significantly -- in the realm of a 40% improvement. This should mean much more responsive play during peak hours. Do let us know if you notice any odd behaviour that wasn't there before.

[Irongron]

- Added in 3 new contributor areas this week, special event stuff for those fortunate enough to experience them!

- Taverns and Meetings Halls will no longer trigger drops to rest, hunger and thirst. So no more having to break conversation to run off and sleep, or people passing out during council meetings (or at least their character not passing out, I can't speak for the players behind them). This has been added to most taverns on the server, but NOT Cordor itself, as it has a large pending update.

More update details to come from Scholar Midnight shortly.

[Liareth]

Following Irongron's announcement, I have a few more changes that will be going live this reset:

- Speedy messengers can no longer be sent to players who are -disguised.

- The grind script has been disabled. We discovered a flaw in its implementation that resulted in unexpected behaviour. Rather than resolving the issue, and therefore turning the script on properly for the first time, given the community reaction to the script we decided the best option would be to disable it.

- More backend changes. Even less lag. Woo! We're now reaching the limits of what we can do before tearing out the pathing system and rewriting it . . . but it seems to be working, based on the metrics we've captured. Compared to the non-cloud days, the server is performing 4.5x faster.

http://i.imgur.com/Ztzhd6s.png

Where the red line is the old performance at start-up and the orange line is the old performance at 20 players, and higher is better. As you can see, we are doing -much- better now. The change rolled out last night doubled server performance. Server lag will soon be a thing of the past.

On a non module-related note, I wanted to post that we've now open-sourced all of our NWNX code.

We believe that one of the best ways to help our community thrive is to share what we have. This is an extension of a policy of sharing that Mithreas had established; he was always keen to extend a helping hand to other servers and often offered large systems to them for nothing in return.

Our NWNX code can be found at https://github.com/ScholarMidnight/nwnx ... t-objcache.