Publish 13

The following is a list of changes deployed as Publish 13 on August 19, 2001.

Treasure Map Changes

Several updates and changes will occur for treasure maps. The specifics are listed below:

• “Level 0” treasure maps are being made available for young characters while they are in the Haven area. The details on these new level 0 maps are:
  • It will produce fewer monsters, and weaker monsters;
  • It will produce less treasure (typically including another level 0 map);
  • The treasure chests are not locked or trapped;
  • The treasure chest will not open until all three guardian monsters are dead;
  • Once the map owner is no longer a young player, the map transforms into a level 1 map the next time the owner uses it.
• If a treasure chest is empty, another map for that same location can be used to remove the empty chest.
• A label will identify the level of the treasure map.
  • a youthful treasure map – level 0
  • a plainly drawn treasure map – level 1
  • an expertly drawn treasure map – level 2
  • an adeptly drawn treasure map – level 3
  • a cleverly drawn treasure map – level 4
  • a deviously drawn treasure map – level 5
  • an undecoded treasure map will still have the addition of “tattered”—plus one of the above notations—until being decoded.
• A treasure map will be able to be used by those who do not own it, providing that they have enough cartography to decode it.
• It will now be possible for players to reach 99.5 in cartography through creating world maps as well as through decoding treasure maps (previously, a player could only reach a skill of 98.5 through creating world maps).

Tutorial & Haven Changes

Several updates and changes will occur for new players, young characters, the tutorial area, and the city of Haven. The specifics are listed below.

• Young characters that die while taking the tutorial will be removed from the tutorial and sent to Haven.
• The ability to buy unlimited amounts of bread during the tutorial is being corrected.
• The armorer in Haven will now sell the proper items.
• Floor tiles underneath practice dummies within the tutorial will highlight.
• Young players can insta-log anywhere including the tutorial.
• NPC guards in Haven will be “upgraded” to be more in line with NPC guards in veteran areas.
• An issue involving spinning wheels within the tutorial area becoming “stuck” is being corrected.
• The Paperdoll and Status Bar interfaces are automatically closed in the tutorial before the method for opening them is introduced.
• An issue disallowing the ability to bake pies in ovens in the tutorial area is being corrected.
• Players will no longer be required to type “Hello” before advancing into the tutorial.
• The degree to which NPC shopkeepers wander in Haven will be reduced, to better allow new players to interact with them.
• Reagents, especially those used for Fireball and Magic Arrow, will now spawn in Haven.
• Shopkeepers will always have a stock of each item they normally sell, in a quantity at least 10, for young players.
• Wandering Healers are being placed outside the city of Haven.
• A forge will be placed inside the mine entrance to help new players produce ingots more efficiently. This is especially important due to the low level of the character’s strength, and the fact that pack horses are not a viable option.
• The following starting equipment has been modified for specific skills:
  • Blacksmithing
    • 1 smith hammer
    • 2 pickaxes
    • 50 iron ingots
    • 1 apron
  • Healing
    • 50 bandages
    • 1 pair of scissors
  • Lockpicking
    • 20 lockpicks
  • Magery
    • 30 of each reagent
    • Spellbook with Heal, Magic Arrow, Night Sight, Cure, Harm, Strength, Fireball, Poison, Teleport, Fire Field, Greater Heal, Lightning
    • Random scroll that is one of the following: Reactive Armor, Clumsy, Create Food, Feeblemind, or Weaken
    • Random scroll that is one of the following: Agility, Cunning, Magic Trap, Magic Untrap, or Protection
    • Random scroll that is one of the following: Bless, Magic Lock, Unlock, Telekenisis, or Wall of Stone
  • Tactics
    • Katana
  • Snooping
    • 20 lockpicks
  • Stealing
    • 20 lockpicks
  • Tinkering
    • Tinker tools

Combat Damage Changes

Changes to combat damage and how it is calculated.

Hit Point Calculation

The following change will be made to the manner in which hit points are calculated for players.

Hit Points = (str/2) + 50

Note: Any spells or effects that modify strength will also modify the target’s maximum hit points equally. For example, under the new formula, a player with 80 strength will have 90 hit points. However, if they drink a greater strength potion, their strength will be 80+20 (100) and their maximum hit points will be 90+20 (110).

Anatomy Damage Bonus

A bug causing the anatomy damage bonus to be doubled against players will be fixed. However, the maximum damage bonus for anatomy will be increased to 30% upon reaching 100.0 skill (the damage bonus will still be 20% for players with less then 100.0 anatomy skill.

This change will have the following consequences…

Under the current system, a player with an anatomy skill of 100.0 can receive a 20% damage bonus against monsters, and a 20% damage bonus against players. Under the new system, a player with an anatomy skill of 100.0 will receive a 30% damage bonus against both monsters and players.

Similarly, a player under the current system with a skill of 80.0 can receive a 16% damage bonus against monsters, and a 32% damage bonus against players. Under the new system, this player will receive a 16% damage bonus against both monsters and players.

Lumberjack Damage Bonus

The lumberjack skill will now add a damage bonus to axe weapons using the same formula as described for the anatomy damage bonus.

The bonus is 20% of the lumberjack skill until 99.9 skill and 30% for 100 skill.

Spellbooks

Players will no longer be required to equip their spellbooks while casting. They may continue to do so if they so choose (holding a spellbook will not prevent you from casting a spell).

Players will be able to gain wrestling and/or tactics skill while holding a spellbook if the appropriate skill is marked to go “up”.

Spell Changes

Several spells will have their power increased, particularly low-circle spells. Spells such as Magic Arrow, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt will do noticably more damage than before. The energy bolt, explosion, chain lightning, meteor swarm, and flamestrike spells will be given a small damage increase.

In addition, some spells will have lower reagent costs (note: until players receive a client patch these changes will not be visible in the spellbook).

• Magic Arrow: 1 Sulfurous Ash
• Fireball: 1 Black Pearl
• Lightning: 1 Mandrake Root, 1 Sulfurous Ash
• Explosion: 1 Bloodmoss, 1 Mandrake Root

The Harm Spell
The “Harm” spell will have its damage scaled based upon the caster’s distance to the target. The closer the caster is to the target, the more damage it deals.

Special Hits

• Special hits now work on monsters as well as players.
• NPCs can now do special hits if they have the anatomy skill and a two-handed melee weapon equipped.
• All special hits done with 2-handed weapons now base their chance to go off on the attacker’s anatomy. The percentage chance to do a special hit is: Anatomy / 4. This would create the following chances:
  • 0.0 Anatomy skill yields a 0% chance
  • 40.0 Anatomy skill yields a 10% chance
  • 100.0 Anatomy skill yields a 25% chance

Pre-Casting

“Pre-casting” has been re-enabled as follows:

• You cannot equip anything while you are casting.
• After you cast a spell, it will “time out” after 30 seconds and can no longer target anything. During those 30 seconds, you can now equip a weapon, attack with it without ruining your stored spell. When you release the spell, you will automatically unwield your weapon.

Negative Acts In City Regions

You can no longer perform negative acts on players and NPCs in Trammel city and justice regions. Because there was no viable way to “get away” with performing negative acts in Trammel where guards would instantly kill you (with the exception of exploits), we felt there was no need to present the option.

Updates

Update 1

On September 10, 2001, the following was published:

• Connectivity fix for the Veteran Rewards System
• Reparations for delays in the activation of the Veteran Rewards System in the form of an extra reward choice

Power Hour Changes

The first hour that each character is played on a given day, known as the “Power Hour”, allows that character a possibility of bonus skill point advancements.

The Previous Standard
In the past, the power hour time frame on each shard was reset at midnight local time, meaning that players could always get a new power hour after midnight, regardless of when they last played.

Recent Changes
Recently, we began working to implement new software to monitor the shards’ performance, which requires that the shards’ times be consistent with each other. To accomodate this, all shards were set to run on GMT time, which does not undergo Daylight Savings Time. Due to this change, power hour no longer reset itself at midnight local time, but reset at the same time across all shards, which caused the power hours to reset at inconvenient times for many players.

The Solution
To resolve this issue, power hour will now be calculated based on the players’ play time, rather than the shards’ local time.

Players will experience a power hour for the first hour of play per character within a 24 hour period, which means that technically, the power hour will be refreshed 23 hours after the previous power hour has ended. To help players know when their power hour is in effect, a sound will now be played when a player’s power hour begins. If a player does not log in for over 24 hours, their power hour will begin as soon as they log in, and last for the full hour.

As an example, a player who logs in at 8:00 PM local time will experience a power hour that will last until 9:00 PM. They will not be able to experience another power hour during that 24 hour period, so they will not receive another power hour until at least 8:00 PM the following day. If they do not log in again until 10:00 PM, they will experience their full power hour, beginning at 10:00 PM and lasting until 11:00 PM. The following day, they will not be able to experience a power hour until at least 10:00 PM local time.

The power hour will also not be able to be broken up into smaller periods of time. Once the power hour has started, it will only extend for the next hour, and will be refreshed 24 hours after the last one begun.

In other words, if a player logs in at 5:00 PM local time and plays for only half an hour, their power hour will still last until 6:00 PM, and will still be refreshed the next day at 5:00 PM. So if that person logs in at 5:00, plays for half an hour, then logs back in again at 8:00, they will not receive another half hour of power hour skill gain, since their power hour would have ended at 6:00 PM (an hour after it began).

Update 2

On September 12, 2001, the following was published:

• Players wearing savage paint will now be trackable using the tracking skill.
• The orc brute will have its loot increased and will have a chance to carry (and use) a magic war mace.

Update 3

On September 13, 2001, the following was published:

Player Owned Barkeeps

Players will now be able to purchase and own a barkeep, that can be placed in the player’s house. A new item called “a barkeep contract” can be purchased from either a new barkeep “shopkeeper” (which can be found in non-player character taverns) or an innkeeper (which can be found in NPC inns).

The “prime” owner of a house (but not a co-owner), who is in his or her house, will be able to double-click a barkeep contract so as to place a barkeep. The house must be “public” in order to place a barkeep.

The barkeeps will serve as a method for players to support and announce their own events and quests. The barkeeps will have the following properties:

• Saying “news” to a barkeep will give a scenario hint, just like a town crier.
• The “tip rumor” will be optional and customizeable by the player owner. Amounts of gold under 50 gold will cause the Barkeep to speak this rumor. Amounts over 50 gold will be returned.
• In addition to the one tip rumor, players can put 3 “oracle style” rumors with keywords on the Barkeep. (oracle style rumors are spoken once certain keywords are said by the player. The rumor and linking keyword are added to the Barkeep by the player owner).
• There will be no limitations on what style of housing the Barkeeps can be placed within (provided that the house is set to be “public” and not “private”).
• Barkeeps will be customizeable like a player vendor, with clothing/dress options.
• The Barkeep owner can make the Barkeep male or female.
• The Barkeep owner can choose another title for the Barkeep other than “Barkeep”, from a list of between 30-50 different job titles.
• Up to two Barkeeps will be allowed per home.

Barkeeps will be in the various taverns throughout the cities, to support the scenarios as well, with the scenario rumors. However, players will not be able to add rumors to these barkeeps.

The titles for the “Bartender” can be chosen from the following list:

• alchemist
• animal tamer
• apothecary
• artist
• baker
• bard
• barkeep
• beggar
• blacksmith
• bounty hunter
• brigand
• butler
• carpenter
• chef
• commander
• curator
• drunkard
• farmer
• fisherman
• gambler
• gypsy
• herald
• herbalist
• hermit
• innkeeper
• jailor
• jester
• librarian
• mage
• mercenary
• merchant
• messenger
• miner
• monk
• noble
• paladin
• peasant
• pirate
• prisoner
• prophet
• ranger
• sage
• sailor
• scholar
• scribe
• sentry
• servant
• shepherd
• soothsayer
• stoic
• storyteller
• tailor
• thief
• tinker
• town crier
• treasure hunter
• waiter
• warrior
• watchman
• No Title