This page is an archive of newsposts in the "raji" newsgroup because the ingame news archive only reaches a few months back. It might not always be up to date, but newsposts should be copied over here before they fall out of the archive in the mud itself.
From: Evanescent
Subject: untitled
Date: Mon Dec 7 17:35:10 2009
Reply-Code: 376a
Lines: 33
A merchant guard has appeared before the council's representatives on
Raji with news of a terrible tragedy. It seems this cowardly guard was one
of many escorting a trade caravan across the sands of Sh'ara when they were
set upon by an enormous force of brigands. The guard panicked upon seeing
such hopeless odds and fled from his comrades as they were pushed into a
small desert valley while fighting for their lives.
The guard swears that he knows at least one of the caravaners has
survived and found safety, though trapped within the valley, but he refuses
to divulge further details while he is being detained under threat of
punishment for breach of contract with the merchant council.
Elsewhere on Raji, a rumor has surfaced that has been going around for
weeks prior to the attack about a powerful item of great value and arcane
interest being discreetly circulated amongst the trade routes on Sh'ara. It
is said that if its secrets can be unlocked, an entirely new and powerful
system of magic could be developed from the knowledge contained therein.
These rumors purportedly attracted the attention of a young brigand
leader who recently rose to
power while backed by a mysterious and
influential agent. With seemingly endless resources, this charismatic
leader has gathered the greatest force of brigands Raji has ever seen, and
hired countless entire mercenary companies to strike at the caravan which
was said to be carrying the item of interest.
As far as rumors go, most of these things are confirmed, but there are
many questions remaining. The merchant guard who fled from the caravan
attack has little else to say on the matter except that the brigands who
ambushed them must have numbered in at least the tens of thousands, and
that as he made his escape he witnessed the entire valley being enveloped
in an unnatural green light...
From: Elthan
Subject: untitled
Date: Wed Dec 30 19:47:29 2009
Reply-Code: 377a
Lines: 8
The Suthnian mansion (full of spatial singularities) on Raji has been
updated.
The party follow bug has been resolved, and a hint as to the whereabouts of
the area quest-giver has been placed in the mansion's lot.
Oh, and the singularities are a -bit- less spammy now. ;)
From: Epikto
Subject: untitled
Date: Sat Jan 2 20:30:37 2010
Reply-Code: 378a
Lines: 5
The carnival and construction area sites have been updated and a added
bonus has been added.
Cheers!
From: Faeryll
Subject: Portrait studio
Date: Fri Jan 22 09:50:30 2010
Reply-Code: 379a
Lines: 4
A very talented artist has taken up residence in Numbus and opened a
portrait studio in the Bazaar. For a modest commission, he will paint your
portrait so it can be preserved for the future.
From: Faeryll
Subject: Haunted Wedding
Date: Tue Mar 23 13:45:05 2010
Reply-Code: 380a
Lines: 86
Long ago, before the written history of the Retroverse lived the ancient
races, the ones who came before. Recently these races have been seen again,
rising from the ashes of history's flame to again walk the Retroverse.
However, at one time these races were locked in a bitter struggle, a war
that was threatening to destroy all of the races, down to even the infants.
From the tides of this war stepped one whose own inner conflict raged
alike that of the other races. He could see what this battle would cost, he could
see the end. He began to speak to the leaders of the warring factions,
begging them to find a new course, to live in peace with one another.
Through his efforts he became known as the Priest of Peace, later just to
be known as the Priest or Father.
Late in the war the Priest thought of a way to try and end the fighting,
to finally bring peace to the races. He found two beings that loved one
another even though their families were on either side of the conflict.
The Priest hoped that if he could hold a very public and honorable wedding
between these two lovers, that the war would end and the races would be
saved.
However, on the day of the wedding, disaster struck the church where the
couple was about to exchange their vows. An extremely powerful fire ripped through
the church, killing everyone involved except the Father. Somehow he was
spared, though crippled and injured nearly mortally. The hope of peace, however,
died within that fire and the war raged on. Eventually, forcing the races into
hiding to recooperate and rebuild their societies. It was during this time that
the new races of human and elves, dwarves and minotaur, dragons and dragonians
were born and took over as the dominant species of the Retroverse.
The Priest waited for a millenia to try and reclaim the peace that he
struggled so greatly for. And one day he was given the opportunity to do so. A Demon
Lord of the dead, Baal-Moloch, made the Priest a bargain. He would help the
priest find the souls of the wedding party and bring them back to life in order to
fullfil their destiny and go through with the marriage.
The Priest vowed that he would do all he could to make this happen and in
his haste and over-zealousness created more than just a resurrection of the
wedding, but succeeded in opening a tear in the Retroverse that lead to the realm
where Moloch resided. This tear, this rift, opened above the cemetery of Suthnas
where the wedding was to be held. The once peaceful burial ground became a home
to a multitude of undead creatures and the chaos that they brought with it.
Moloch knew this would happen and cackled with insane glee as he watched the
horror on the Priest's face as he and the wedding party escaped inside the Church.
Determined to continue with his ultimate goal, the Priest kept on with the
wedding plans, leaving the cemetery in the hands of the undead and Moloch.
Four crystal pillars were erected to magnify and regenerate the unearthly
energies. Each pillar is guarded by three priests, representing the three
forms of Moloch's domain.
When the Mayor of Suthnas received word that this had taken place in his
beautiful and serene funerary grounds he was furious. He sent out a missive
to Sultan Odie who responded back that it was the Mayor's problem, that he
should simply hire mercenaries from his own coffers if he wantedthis to
end. Furious, but none-the-less determined to end this reign Moloch had over his
cemetery, he sent out word to all adventurers, offering a reward to any
that could rid him and his city of this Demon Lord and the undead abominations,
then remove the Priest and his party so this can never happen again.
The mysterious stair quest has you perform some actions.
There should now be less syntax quest involved.
As of boot or sooner as always.
Wxyz
Mercy was coded as a super powerful staff in part to compensate for the
fact that it was, after all, only a staff. This makes it very difficult to
adjust staff balance in general, since making staves in general more useful
could then make mercy absurdly overpowered.
(It was also coded to get a massive spike in stats several seconds after
being wielded, in order to keep the MUD from giving a BAD_ITEM report when
its total stats were slightly too high for any mob in existence and some
similar things)
Fortunately, a lot of its stats were in areas that weren't particularly
central to the item's core value. I've brought the stats down a bit,
tweaked some of the math, but hopefully not in the areas you care about
most. Every special thing the staff did before, it still does.
-Kereth Midknight
Rods of animation should now keep all normal information over boot that
would be expected for other items of that general type, including labels.
-Kereth Midknight
Several rooms in or near the Kittlerumpit farm were missing terrain
settings. This has now been corrected.
-Kereth Midknight
The outerworld rooms in front of the Sylvan Forest and Warhawk Arena should
now have valid terrain settings. These are probably not the only rooms in
Suthnas outerworld with this issue. If you notice any others, please report
them accordingly.
-Kereth Midknight
Three natural cavern rooms in the Firestorm Mountain area should no longer
be missing terrain type settings.
-Kereth Midknight
There exists a room which, when left, returns shrunken players to their
normal size. This return to normal size could be avoided through a number
of clever means involving arranging to leave the room without personally
entering the command to depart. This didn't apply to party members
following a leader, but it could be exploited in other ways, such as having
a contingency leader driving the party, which would allow the leader to
bypass the check.
This has now been corrected. Little people should once again become big
people at the times they're supposed to do that.
-Kereth #nospoilers Midknight
One of Mercy's special attacks was dealing damage but not showing damage
numbers or affecting the wielder's dpr. This has now been corrected.
-Kereth Midknight
The ratio of special attacks of each kind performed by the blackthorn
shillelagh has been updated to yield a power level more akin to what was
intended for the weapon.*
-Kereth Midknight
*That's a slight buff, in case you're wondering.
Looking at various things in a certain room in the Stygian Caverns should
no longer result in sensitive mind errors.
-Kereth Midknight
Artemis Fortescue's Academy Of Prestidigitation and
Performance Arts has noticed that some of its trainees
are struggling with training items being too large, or
too small!
Artemis Fortescue's Academy Of Prestidigitation and
Performance Arts will not let this stand!
Artemis Fortescue's Academy Of Prestidigitation and
Performance Arts will now offer trainees dagger darts
of various sizes to add variety and pizzazz to their
amazing performances!
Prices Vary!
For an unlimited time only!
Maps purchased from the Nimbus Cartographer were targettable only by "map",
the name of the area it was a map of with appropriate capitalization, or
the same with the plural "maps" at the end. For example a "Island of Sh'ara
map" would be targettable only as "map" "Island of Sh'ara" or "Island of
Sh'ara maps" and not such things as "Island of Sh'ara map" or even "island
of sh'ara" or "island of sh'ara map".
This should be corrected for future maps.
-Kereth Midknight
A certain point in the "Sky around the Thundercloud" was accidentally given
two north exits, the latter of which overrode the prior. Worse, the latter
was supposed to be the east exit, which led to some navigational problems
to people who would go north. For example, one could go north and be unable
to go south then go west and be unable to go east, because you were back
where you started, and that room had no east exit.
This has been fixed.
-Kereth Midknight
The cooldown message for the ring of elemental command should now specify
the remaining time until the cooldown ends, listed in seconds. This should
be effective at next load of the item.
-Kereth Midknight
