Darkemud News

NEWS FROM THE DARKESIDE

Save system in apperntly in need of some love. Until I can run the maintance, going to do it tonite, do NOT quit in a save room before a reboot :)

Posted by Madoc Sat Mar 6 08:01:57 2010.

finished the OS update everything looks good. just need to fix my 'tf' program because it requires some older libraries. oh well. ttyl

Posted by Mactorg Tue Feb 23 13:10:30 2010.

After this morning reboot of the mud I am going to upgrade the systems Operating system. this will take about 30 minutes. I will bring up the mud after that is completed. Thanks

Posted by Mactorg Tue Feb 23 10:25:55 2010.

Updated the 'help areas'

Posted by Mactorg Sat Jan 30 14:05:13 2010.

Fixed a bug in delay where the 'cant delay this spell' wasnt working for targetted spells. No more delayed fop. Bad hannibal.

Posted by Madoc Wed Jan 27 11:22:01 2010.

Ok, Din's area is ready to go! it is at 458,113,0 have fun!!!

Posted by Mactorg Tue Jan 26 12:35:08 2010.

For test staff, new command about about justaboutanything it will go find the source file for whatever you specify and more it for you supports a bunch of args like about knife 3 on snotling 2 See help file on test for details

Posted by Madoc Sat Dec 12 18:19:30 2009.

At reboot, the 'your weapon is close to screwed!' message will now show you in brackets how many 'hits' till it wears.

Posted by Madoc Sat Dec 12 17:55:35 2009.

Few changes to the body system: - If a mob has a limb severed but is set to not leave a corpse, his limbs will poof on sever instead of leaving them behind. - If you sever something that's already severed, no more spammy messages or 10 heads of snotling.

Posted by Madoc Sat Dec 12 16:10:56 2009.

Oh and I cut Okef's prices in half, that ones not nearly as exciting.

Posted by Madoc Sat Dec 12 15:03:10 2009.

I've installed an old project I finished but never installed. 2 'new' cleric spells Summon draugr Thats actually old, I just put it back in Summon seraphim lord That ones new, mwahhaa :)

Posted by Madoc Sat Dec 12 15:02:08 2009.

Experiment: I'm experimenting with a 4 day cycle for reboots. Technically, we don't need them at all anymore but when we tried 2 weeks or something silly like that, there were problems. So heres the deal, I canceled the reboot that was supposed to happen today Next one will occur at normal time in 2 days. I want you to mail me ANYTHING wierd. Lag, delays with certain commands, corruption of text. Dogs and cats, living together, mass histeria!

Posted by Madoc Wed Dec 9 22:00:42 2009.

Oh I forgot I made that feature imc lines toggle That will shut them ALL off if you want

Posted by Madoc Mon Dec 7 18:27:51 2009.

IMC2 network is back online, the IMC hub/network we were using seems to have completly disapeared. If your trying to remember how to block it: imc linename ie to block igame imc igame All the commands are the same as normal mud lines exept you need to type imc first

Posted by Madoc Mon Dec 7 18:19:49 2009.

- Mailer isn't broken on live, tested with my work email and hotmail, works fine if someone is not recieveing the emails, check your spam filter. - Test site is back! - Mailer on test is fixed, was sending blank emails, and genpass wasnt working - Transport rune fumble is fixed, won't leave you stranded in wierd parts of the sky anymore.

Posted by Madoc Sun Dec 6 20:29:17 2009.

I need to bring down the server and do some work so I can get test site back up and going when test is back up then I can do equipment requests that are in my mail box. the system will be down for about 2 hours as I migrate the data. so in about 2 hours I will bring the system down for about two hours then I will bring it back up thanks for your support and I hope this will be the last move for a while. mactorg.

Posted by Mactorg Thu Oct 1 13:35:20 2009.

*******************8 *******************8 we are running on 24GB ram.

Posted by Mactorg Sat Aug 1 12:27:05 2009.

I will be brining the system down to do updates. but waiting for the vmserver to finish its check of the backup snapshots.

Posted by Mactorg Sat Aug 1 09:20:56 2009.

I had to add another 8GB of ram to the virtual server so we have 24GB of ram and two 4 core processors. so we have lots of power to work from. I will be bringing up another virtual server that is the same specs so we can have a fail over system.

Posted by Mactorg Sat Aug 1 09:14:42 2009.

Fellow wizards if you had an ftp account with password please mudmail me your wizard name and password you used. I will recreate the login. thanks.

Posted by Mactorg Thu Jul 30 20:08:59 2009.

Might have some lag because I am doing some heavy hard drive archive and unarchiving.

Posted by Mactorg Thu Jul 30 15:18:06 2009.

Welcome to the new virtual server for darkemud. it is on the newest version of fedora as well. I will be doing some more tests. to make sure things are running. but if you have issues connecting to www.darkemud.com try out www.darkesouls.com as well.

Posted by Mactorg Thu Jul 30 15:17:16 2009.

Cyric (admin on test), fixed the monk training issue with two handed staves.

Posted by Nevin Thu Jul 23 22:07:44 2009.

Hello fellow mudders, I am in the process of converting this mud from the old server to a new server. I will be doing an update of the OS as well at the same time. The version of OS for the box is old and needs to get some security updates. With this change I will be adjusting the IP address so I can control things better. The old IP address is 206.212.239.65. the new ip address is 96.225.244.22. the names www.darkemud.com live.darkemud.com and others will be pointing to that IP address. it might take 24 hours for those DNS changes to go into effect. This will be happening Saturday the 25th of July. I will get in contact with the admins to make sure they have the new information. Thanks MacTORG

Posted by Mactorg Thu Jul 23 10:07:33 2009.

We had a major crash this evening. Some players lost all of their eq. I will work on this tomorrow evening. It will likely require a rollback of the game to the last save point. Nevin

Posted by Nevin Wed Jul 22 03:05:52 2009.

EQ bug findings: 1. I've been testing eq + reboots + various parameters to create eq loss (on the test mud). I've done 50+ reboot tests so far. 2. So far, I have found that the save code does a fairly good job at saving your eq. 3. Things to watch out for (where I have lost items): - When wielding two weapons--if you log back in, the auto wield/wear code does not work for two weapons of identical type (i.e., two daggers). So, if you quit without re-wielding completely, you can drop one of the items (I've verified this over numerous tests). - If you allow the game to auto-boot you (i.e.., you do not use the 'quit' command), you can have item loss. I have verified this issue over 10 reboot tests. 4. So, general guidelines to ensure that you have all of your eq on you when you log back in: - Always use the 'quit' command--do not just idle and let the game autoboot you. When the game does into shutdown mode, it just stops the process--chars and objects may not be gracefully saved. This is based on testing and not a complete dig-down into the code. - Be aware of when reboots take place so that you are not idle during one. Example: log in, go make dinner, watch some Jon & Kate + 8, come back to find yourself booted from the game, log back in and have something missing. 5. Now, I acknowledge that the above two guidelines may not cover every single possibility/permutation to cause an item bug. 6. If you have any issues, please submit a bug report AND send an email to arch with the following info: - Char name (if it is not the emailing char) - Item lost (the more descriptive the better) - Location of save (save room? castle?) - Did you use the 'quit' command? - Any other parameters/info you feel is relevant. Note that the above reboot tests included both new & old chars--I found no difference between them. 7. No reimbs will be given. But if enough data can be collected about a specific failure mode, it will help track down the specific bug. Thanks & have fun. Nevin (semi-retired as always)

Posted by Nevin Fri Jul 17 17:16:27 2009.

Let me know if you lost anything in today's reboot. If so, please send me info on the conditions of loss (char name, save location, items lost, was it a held item or worn, etc.) I will not issue any reimbs--I am collecting info on the parameters around the apparent issue. Nevin

Posted by Nevin Wed Jul 15 23:28:43 2009.

There are reports of items going missing over reboots. For now, please store your items in chests and save rooms to ensure that nothing disappears. Use the command: nextreboot to figure out when to store your items. Nevin

Posted by Nevin Tue Jul 14 01:02:21 2009.

Until further notice, I don't recommend logging out in treasurys if your not going to be back before reboot, there seems to be some kind of issue there and I prob wont have a chance to have a close look at it till the weekend

Posted by Madoc Thu Jun 11 17:25:26 2009.

ok, looks like a worldmap room had to many mobs. mudmail me if you lost equipment

Posted by Mactorg Tue Apr 28 14:31:21 2009.

The system had a problem. I am still trying to track it down. not sure if it was a harddrive error or a memory error. I will keep you posted.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Apr 17 11:07:45 2009.

I lowered the cost to 100 mcgrail. These mobs use a library I coded for 'service mobs', I've been testing and expanding it, these are the first live examples. If any of their phraseing etc seems strange, or any suggestions, please mudmail me or use the idea cmd.

Posted by Madoc Mon Apr 13 01:11:46 2009.

As I promised awhile ago there is a no way to get between the main cities. Each major city now has a transport mob, I'll leave it to you to find them (vo's hasnt been installed yet) Transport mobs will transport you from their office, to any other transport office (which are located in vo, akkad, kuril and saakran) Their spell has a 30s casting time, and it dosnt say when they start casting. Thats a display thing only, I'll fix it later. Upsides over runes: Cannot be dispelled or destroyed or upkeep not paid etc. Downsides: Costs 400 mcgrail (360 for arch-mages) Downsides: 30 second casting time, its not near as quick Downsides: Can only transport you, not pets etc. I think this works out balanced. Tommorow I'll install vo's and probably lower the cost to 100mc, now that I say it, 400mc sounds a bit insane

Posted by Madoc Mon Apr 13 01:06:30 2009.

New Password Mailer 3.0 is online New password emails should be near instant instead of the 10min delay.

Posted by Madoc Sun Apr 12 14:27:32 2009.

Debugged and installed a mail server I coded for darke on a lark awhile ago. What's in it for you? setenv MAILFORWARD on This will forward mudmails you recieve to your email, only applies to newly recieved mudmails. See help setenv for details, or chfn to change your email address

Posted by Madoc Sun Apr 12 12:49:54 2009.

- Fixed the logfile, dates were wrong - It now gives date of destruction when you pay upkeep. - *Mudmail is sent to castle owner when upkeep is paid, or if there is less then a week till it destructs. * won't work till reboot

Posted by Madoc Sun Apr 12 01:42:57 2009.

CL guilds exits were messed up I relayed it out to fix that and make it mappable instead of the cheating 'down' exit, bad Cyric. But I kinda whiped their treasury, I replaced the rune, if anyone had anything in there their worried about tell me and ill dig the room outa the backup

Posted by Madoc Sat Apr 11 23:47:44 2009.

Fixed a very old and abuseable bug! The code that tempers armour/weapon blanks to make them harder had no check to make sure it was a blank it was tempering, so you could temper weapons to make them wear slower! Add to that the fact that the code to make sure you can't temper more then once only works on blanks, and you could increase the hardness of your weapon infinatly, so makeing it effectivly never wear! Or at least have a billion times less wear then before. Fixed! :)

Posted by Madoc Sat Apr 11 22:14:18 2009.

Fixed a bug in the mapper display code that would show you doors on hidden exits, sort of giving away the exit

Posted by Madoc Tue Apr 7 23:27:32 2009.

Whoops forgot to mention, mapping of vo is completed!

Posted by Madoc Tue Apr 7 23:19:30 2009.

From the messing-with-your-speedwalks department: Zalrags moved to south instead of east north street in vo named warriors way it had no consistant name extended warriors way 1 room flipped old pally guild upside down to make it fit Moved inn further east, you can find it :)

Posted by Madoc Tue Apr 7 23:18:44 2009.

Thanks to the work of Cyric, Kuril has been mapped

Posted by Madoc Tue Apr 7 10:20:17 2009.

We're working on getting the other cities mapped, there have been minor adjustments to kuril noone will notice, its not quite ready yet, Cyric's working on that one. I did some more work on Vo tonite Moved the sm guild 1n, moved the house I had to remove to make that work removed the two houses on dock street (just south of wp guild) causing overlaps. the north gate had its guardpost moved to the other side. The previous 2 changes allowed the WP guild to be mapped without moveing or modification. Zalrag store room moved to down. Another house bites the dust. And those 2 changes still required Fighter guild layout to be revamped a bit, it goes south and west instead of north and east Theres still the old pally guild and the inn that overlap like crazy, not sure what im going to do about them yet.

Posted by Madoc Tue Apr 7 01:32:33 2009.

Working on mapping Vo, basic outline map is there, but I took a shortcut and temp removed some exits so I could get an outline and 'see' vo so I could try to alter it as little as possible. So far: dagget moved to south exit, from north pub moved to south exit, from north removed an unimplemented PC shop (shop 6 specifically) changed drobleks storeroom to down moved house4 to northeast from north moved house5 to southeast from south unhid exit for house6 and house3 Identified a bug that shows hidden exits with doors if your standing beside them, ie you detect the door even if you dont know the exits there, havnt fixed it yet because its actually helpful identifying some of the wierd exits in vo Fighter guildhall, sm guildhall, wp guildhall, old pally guild and the inn have to move just havnt decided how yet :)

Posted by Madoc Thu Apr 2 22:31:07 2009.

Save system maintance completed. Safe now, thing is I need to reboot the mud really dosnt like running with every single save room loaded :)

Posted by Madoc Sat Mar 28 07:40:44 2009.

Going to be lag for a bit, I just loaded the entire save system, doing the maintance.

Posted by Madoc Sat Mar 28 07:32:22 2009.

ok, I found an issue with someones equipment and fixed it. but they did not enter the arena. so the arena is open again.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 13:17:54 2009.

Just fyi. Please do not fight in the arena. we are having issues with saved equipment bugging out. We will notify you when it is open again. jeff

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

Parties will now be informed when a member dies.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

Dragon engines will now be noticably different depending on the metal they are made with. Please remember to keep '%^BOLD%^bug%^RESET%^' reporting anything that doesn't work as expected, even if it's been broken for over 10 years.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

Successful use of the 'control demon' skill with the 'own' option will force the demon to cease attacking its new owner now. Please report any problems with this behavior via the '%^BOLD%^bug%^RESET%^' command.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

The '%^BOLD%^spells time%^RESET%^' command should no longer display long term spells by default. If you wish to see your long term spells show up (with their usual ** amount of time since last cast) you may use the command '%^BOLD%^setenv LTStime on%^RESET%^'. Thank you for using the 'idea' command.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

May have finally tracked down and fixed the bug with castle rooms, upkeep, etc. If your castle behaves strangely after buying rooms FROM THIS POINT FORWARD please bug report it and talk to Cerberus.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

Fixed a bug with transport rune fumbles that could allow users to be caught in the sky over the open ocean.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

Please take note of whether monsters are still instantly standing up when knocked down during combat. Sometimes some mobs should hesitate for a round or two.

Posted by Mactorg Fri Mar 27 12:08:00 2009.

Hello Mudders! Well sorry for being out of touch with the mud, but for the last few months I have been busy with work and travelling to the east coast setting up medical sites. And for the last month I have been busy in China on vacation and visiting new family! I was married during the chinese New Year and we now have one big family! I have a new step son that just turned 16. And my two boys are very happy to have a new brother and a new mom. So I was away for some good reasons, and I hope to be online a little bit more because I do not have to travel out of town till April. My wife is from Nanning, in south china. She is a great woman and a wonderful mother. Thanks for playing here and making this place a place to come and chat and have fun. MacTORG.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

When submitting bug and idea reports, please include information that might be useful in fixing or creating the content in question. For instance, if the 'disarm' skill no longer works entering your skill level as well as the opponent the skill was tested against would be useful. An entry that says "Make inertia lore actually do something" is unlikely to be investigated, but one that says "When casting body of elements with inertia lore there is no spell completetion message" will be investigated. Thanks for playing and please continue submitting comments/questions/bugs/ideas/concerns! You can find our forums at www.darkemud.com/forum

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

Fixed two bugs with the disarm skill. Two handed weapons were being penalized and thus easier to disarm than single-hand weapons, and weapon short descriptions will now be properly displayed. Thanks for using the 'bug' command - the log is read every week day at minimum!

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

Some users have complained about being added to the Catacombs Lich enemy list without having interacted with him. In order to track this potential bug down logging has been added. From 04 Jan 09 forward, if you feel you have been added to the Lich's enemy list in error please '%^BOLD%^mail cerberus@darkemudtest%^RESET%^' with your concern.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

Players joining a guild will now be announced on the guild line. The intent is to foster a better guild community by having a record available of exactly when new members joined.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

Okef has been updated to be able to repair leather weapons. Please use the "bug" command ('help bug' for an explanation) if any behavior is strange or unexpected.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

The fumble effect for the Sword-Mage spell Chimeric Blade has been lowered. No longer does it have any chance of completely destroying the item.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

New leather weapon types are available: bullwhip cat-o-nine-tails blackjack If you have any comments, questions, concerns, etc please post them on the forum. Bugs and ideas should use the respective commands. '%^BOLD%^help weapons%^RESET%^' now properly lists the skills used in creation of leather weapons.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

'%^BOLD%^help race %^RESET%^' may contain information on experience gain rates at some point after races are reviewed, but will not for now. Thank you for the '%^BOLD%^idea%^RESET%^' reports to this effect! Feedback is much appreciated.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

New '%^BOLD%^help race %^RESET%^' output. If you've got an opinion on the new format, please share it!

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

Problem with hiatused characters losing castles whose upkeep is paid for is fixed. Characters who have lost the bonds with their castles should regain them if their upkeep is current.

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

Few new changes straight from the idea logs. Please continue letting us know what's interesting and/or important, or just a thought that might be neat through the '%^BOLD%^idea%^RESET%^' command. '%^BOLD%^help idea%^RESET%^' will describe how to do so. 1) Demon Lord Sword spell fumble has been brought in line with other level 25+ weapon spell fumbles 2) Offhand Training and Dual Attack skills now have an effective hardcap listed in their respective help files 3) Transport Runes no longer show the room you arrive in twice if you fail to resist them

Posted by Mactorg Mon Feb 16 14:10:15 2009.

Well I am doing a reincarn for those of the fighter guild because of some MA issues and adjustments. only those fighters that were created before Nov 07 will be affected. just mudmail me and I will check your player file and then allow you to do a reinc. same race same guild.

Posted by Mactorg Wed Oct 29 10:39:23 2008.

Hello and Welcome to Darkemud I have cleaned up alot of the old news posts and I am setting a new one to start a new archive of news. We are a Mud that is growing in different ways. we are lacking in some skills and time in some areas but have it covered in others. I am using the http://www.darkemud.com forum site to list issues and or additions to things. So please keep up with the forum and register your self on that system. I will have all updates and or questions on the forums so I can keep track of things and give others a chance to put in a word. I have had my ups and downs and now I think I finially found my way out of things at this point. So the mud is going to get alot of my time so that I can help getting things going. I am not that good of a coder when it comes to new things, but I try to debug things. but with time and focus I think I will find my place in this mud. So please make sure you have a profile registered at darkethoughts and it can be any name. it is a totally different registeration than the mud registeration. Thanks for playing here, and I hope to make this place a place to have fun and die and live and find friends and enemies alike. MacTORG your site admin and true immortal player.

Posted by Mactorg Tue Sep 30 14:31:36 2008.