The Dikumud Herald
The following items of news, in reverse chronological order, may be viewed within the game by typing "help news". For your convenience, a number of jumps into the news, by date, are provided here.
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THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, May 1 1994
Deep Moria, by Axolotl and Njal, is open.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Apr 15 1994
Houses, Inn Rooms and Apartments have been deleted.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Apr 11 1994
The inital conservatory changes have been made; the underworld is a bit
smaller. Midgaard has been changed slightly. I doubt many of you will
notice. Midgaard is experimenting with expanded punitive venues, and
has made agreements with other governments to punish escaped outlaws.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Feb 21 1994
The Underworld and the Negative Material Plane have been overhauled. I
will leave it to ShadowDemon and Stenor, who did the work on the Uworld,
to discuss the magnitude of the changes on the board. Some changes have
also been made to The Past, and Kalos. These will also be on the board.
Satan has cut a new deal with some of the Demon Princes, which might
make spoiling his visits to the realms of mortals a bit more difficult.
Changes/updates have been made to several of the hlep files, with the
notable addition of the DESIGN file.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Dec 05 1993
The 'temple convenience store' in Carioca is now open all night, selling
a few items profitably to tide people over until business hours resume. The
guild bartenders have a new contract, and their strike is over.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Nov 29 1993
Thieves can no longer hide during combat.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, Nov 17 1993
Some monsters can pass through closed doors. Stoneskin can only be
cast onto oneself. Senior wizards can now reset your home if your
recall is broken, but the recall spell will reset it to the temple in
any case. This should only inconvenience players who have houses that
are their recall targets. The 'lawman' referred to in the 5.12.93 news
is finally active. A bug in the battlefield of The Past has been fixed,
making the area slightly more difficult. Some bugs have been fixed in
the sewers, and a number of the CHAOS rooms have been removed. Shops are
once again open and closed at various times.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Oct 7 1993
Hoss' new section, "The Hall of the Mountain King" is now open. The help file on DODGE should really exist now, please check it out.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Sept 16 1993
Dodge is in. There are new help files for DODGE, POLICY, and IMMORTALITY. The help files for CRASH, SAVE and REIMBURSE have been modified as well.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, Sept 1 1993
The goblin village in Saltmarsh is now open.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Jun 6 1993
There is now an Inn to the east of Midgaard which rents rooms. Its still
experimental so feedback would be appreciated. Access to the Archives has
been altered slightly, due to hoarding.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, May 12 1993
Some things should be resetting now, although they won't reset everytime.
There is a rumor in Sakkara that the Monarchs will be returning to the
palace soon. To prepare for their return, the Law has begun cracking down
in that desert city, and Midgaard is following the trend. There's a new
lawman in town...
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Apr 4 1993
Kalos, the long awaited section by Dutche, is now open. Janix will post
some information about it on the bulletin board. The Mayor is a bit
more street-savvy now.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Mar 21 1993
Burr's section, the Judge's Manor, is open. Bulletin boards can now
hold up to 100 messages; please don't abuse this. I've changed the way
that player/player spell attacks are checked. I've tried to keep the
same behaviour, but if you notice that the playerkiller code is no
longer restricting kills, *please* report it.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, Feb 17 1993
The bag problem is finally fixed -- you should be able to have
crash-saved bags have their proper capacity. Cursed objects can't be
removed or sold. The Dark Knight's key works as it should.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Feb 09 1993
After two months of fiddling around with the code, I think I've
*finally* found the problem. There was a bug in the .shp file, the one
file that doesn't get run through syntax_check. And the problem wasn't
sufficiently bad to crash the game as it booted up the shops; it took
time. The problem is still in the .shp file, but the game thankfully
works around it now, and around all other mistakes of that kind.
I'd like to thank you all for your patience, and welcome you back.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, Dec 23 1992
I've been going through the game, trying to track down the problems.
I've made a lot of cosmetic changes (that players can't see), and I've
run the game through lint. "Remove curse" has been changed -- cast on
an (uncursed) person, it'll remove the curse from one of his equipped
objects.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Nov 30 1992
Immortals: new zone command "K", works just like "R", but on mobiles
instead of objects. Janix' new section is open.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Nov 23 1992
The geography of the river has changed. Some guards in Midgaard and
Sakkara will call for help if attacked, even if they start it. The
fountain has been fixed -- no more tea. Immortals: "where" can take
more than one argument, and it now only shows objects or creatures that
match *all* of the words given (example: "where blue potion").
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Nov 17 1992
Some rooms can't have "mark" cast in them.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Nov 12 1992
"Detect magic" spell has been changed; you now get to see a list of all
the spells on a person. "Forget" spell has been changed -- cast on a
monster that's mad at you, it makes him forget about you! The inns
have become a little more particular about who they'll rent a room to.
"Teleport" spell is now considered an attack, so it can only be cast
pk/pk.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Nov 9 1992
The game is completely saved every 25 minutes now -- this means:
monsters continue to remember people; stuff is left where it's dropped;
all that good stuff. If the game crashes, when it comes back up,
everything (except the players) will be as it had been at most 25
minutes before. Just another innovation from MP labs. Object limits
have been changed, some of the stuff you used to be able to get may not
be as available any more. The "channel" system has been changed yet
again; do "help channel" to see the extent of it. The zone reset
system is no longer quite so deterministic: if you go to your favorite
section, and the stuff you usually find there isn't there, it might
show up on a later reset. Wizards, you might want the new docs on
this: it's a very simple change to the .zon file.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Nov 3 1992
"Who" now shows you who's logged onto the game, even if they're
invisible and you can't see them. You still can't "tell" them, or hit
them, or anything; this change only affects "who".
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Oct 23 1992
I've changed the way that death occurs; the changes from this should be
almost invisible to players except for fewer crashes and the occasional
"(name) is already dead!" message when in combat. The Demonic
Hordes(tm) have been made *slightly* harder (actually just a bug fix to
the last implementation -- they use mana for their tricks, and due to a
miscalulation they *all* use *all* their mana for a single "gate").
"Help reimburse" has been added -- read it.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Oct 13 1992
Satan has been made easier. Not easy, but easier. After one and a
half years, I've finally had to put in site-lock code. Wonderful.
"Playerkiller" command has to be followed by the name of the player.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Oct 8 1992
Satan has been toned down. New command, "assist". Messages for damage
have changed somewhat; after "massacre" comes "obliterate" followed by
"annihilate". Channel now has "all" and "none".
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Sep 28 1992
Mount Olympus (Hermes) is now open. New command, "channel"; alters the behaviour of "shout". Satan has been toughened up. Some rooms don't
allow player/player attacks at all, not even between playerkillers.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Sep 10 1992
To get to level 21, you have to be promoted from above. This is due to
rampant abuse of immortal powers by several of the more recent
inductees. I apologise for the necessity of this. The spell "heroism"
now works.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Aug 20 1992
The board now shows the time the message was written at.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sat, Aug 1 1992
"whois" keeps up to date now.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Jul 26 1992
Wimpy things don't flee if they damage themselves (by falling, poison,
etc). If you type "follow" with no arguments, you'll stop following.
Mount Olympus (Ares) is now open!
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Jul 24 1992
I'm finally back after my surgery. Immortals, the behaviour of the "E"
and "G" commands in zones has changed, please email me if you want new
docs (basically, they work in a nice way now). Mortals, the zones
should be resetting faster; the "zone" command showed that they were
really bunching up badly, and I've fixed that.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Jul 14 1992
The drones have been changed. If you don't know what that means, count
yourself lucky. Immortals, there's a new command "zone" that is fairly
self-documenting. Give it a whirl. And I think I've *finally* gotten
the hp/str stuff to all work at once. New (non-castable) spell: "total
recall". Always works.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Jun 15 1992
There is now a card catalog in the library -- read up on those
dangerous sections before you visit and are torn limb from limb!
Knowledge is power, and ignorance is death. The waterways in the game
have been rationalized somewhat; those of you who've memorized the
route to the Island Seaways will have to discover it all over again.
Hint: it's further west.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Jun 14 1992
The shops now know about charges in wands and staves; an empty one is
worth 1/20 of a full one. You can now see glowing items in the dark.
Cursed items have been fixed. "Remove all" has been added. New commands: "gtell", "gcondition", and "split". Your password no longer echos when you're changing it.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Jun 4 1992
Things wimpy-fleeing into air rooms and falling were causing the game
to crash (like twice a day instead of every other day, the MP baseline
crash rate :-); this is now fixed. Summoning PC's to anywhere outside
of Midgaard is considered an attack, so the only extra-Midgaardian
summoning is playerkiller-to-playerkiller. This means that you can
rescue players, but you can't bring them into a hot spot.
Crypto-playerkillers beware.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Jun 2 1992
The "stoneskin" spell has been added.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, May 28 1992
There is a new shop in town which deals in nautical supplies.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, May 26 1992
Movement points used are now a function of weight carried as well as
terrain travelled in. Travel light, and you'll use even less than
before. There are three new spells to help you move in difficult
territory -- "water walking" that allows you to travel on the surface
of water, "water breathing" that allows you to travel *under* water,
and "flying" that allows you to travel through the air. "Levitate"
makes dropped objects not fall.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, May 24 1992
Your regain rate (for mana, hp and movement) is based on your position
(resting/sleeping/etc) status *during* the entire game hour preceding,
not what it is at the end of the hour. Most commands (for which it's
reasonable) now handle "N coins" where N is a number in a nicer way.
You can put some coins in a bag now if you like. Wizards: there are
several new room types that you should know about.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, May 12 1992
Lights now tell you a little more when you hold them (like whether
they're working or not). "Prompt" now has two new parts. There are
two new "toggle"s. New command "pagesize".
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, May 07 1992
Alfonse has given the green light to opening up MP to the general
public, so let's give him a big round of applause, then go round up all
the old players you remember!
Wands and staves need not be held to be used, but they must be
equipped. Wizards, note that you can now make, say, a "Funny Hat of
Lightning Bolts". Don't go nuts with this -- players have only one
HOLD position, but many equipment positions.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Feb 11 1992
I have deleted all players that have been idle more than 200 days,
all players with less than ten minutes logged, and all first level
players with less than 30 minutes logged. Also, I've deleted the
object save file, so you are coming back naked.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Jan 24 1992
Pestilence's extention to Darkendale -- the residential quarter --
is now open. Teleport can be cast on other beings now, but they
get a saving throw. Sense life can be cast on others. "Critical
hits" and "multiple attacks" are now thief and warrior practicible
skills. You have to learn them before you can use them. You can
now only cast certain spells (most notably "word of recall") on
yourself. New spells: "fear" (make people run away) and "heroism"
(resist "fear" spell).
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Jan 22 1992
Aphrodite's section on Mount Olympus is now open.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Jan 17 1992
New commands "commands" and "socials". Shows you all the verbs
available to mortals. New toggle, "noshout". You can neither
shout nor hear shouts when this is on. New command "spells", shows
you all the castable spells in the game. New command "whois".
"Vampire touch" spell is working (immortals take note -- this would
make a cool staff).
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Jan 14 1992
New spells "dispel good" and "protection from good". "Detect evil"
has been replaced by "detect alignment". New restrictions (sigh)
on "shout" and "tell" to keep assholes off of our backs. The
fortune teller has a new skill. Darkendale by Pestilence is now
open.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Jan 13 1992
Persons connected to the game who don't enter it are booted off
after three minutes. I *think* this should be time enough to type
in a description, but if it isn't, please let me know and I'll
extend the time. "Tell" only works on PC's now.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Jan 12 1992
"Detect magic" has been changed. It now tells you all the spells
or spell-like effects that are on a being.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sat, Jan 11 1992
The way spells sound to non-spellcasters is different now. No big
deal, but don't be surprised. The fortune teller has a new service.
Spell-casting monsters now have mana limits, just like you and me.
Go get that orc shaman; he'll run out of "cure light" eventually.
The costs in the healing room have been adjusted again. The dump
has been adjusted; you get 1/10 of the value of anything you drop
there, up to maximum of 1000. First and second level characters
get it in experience points; others get it in gold.
New toggle "vicious". You now lose experience points for leaving
a battle, whether you do it with flee, recall, teleport or whatever.
To make up for this, you now *can* cast word of recall in battle.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Jan 10 1992
Due to player demand, "magic light" is back on the spell lists.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Jan 9 1992
Pets have been changed. They will assist you if you're attacked,
but they can't be ordered. Charmed monsters can still be ordered.
Helpers you get through "animate dead", "call/capture elemental",
and "charm person" are charmed; helpers from pet shop and "monster
summon" are not.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, Jan 8 1992
New command "gamesize". Cheap ripoff of SillyMud's "world". New
command for immortals: "spell_list"; shows how much spells are
being used.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Jan 7 1992
Significant rework of spells. "Ventriloquate", "clone", and "magic
light" have been removed from the spell lists, and "haste" and
"slow" have been removed from the clerical spell list. If you have
practiced any of the now-cancelled spells, your practice sessions
have been refunded to you. "Cure serious", new cleric spell.
"Haste" can now be cast on other people. "Monster Summon", new
magic user spell. "Call" and "Capture Elemental" have been moved
to 12th and 8th level for magic users, respectively. "Strength"
can now be cast on others. "Paralysis", new spell. "Infravision",
new spell. "Resist Cold/Fire/Electricity", new cleric spell.
"Create Scroll", new magic user spell.
Coming soon: Stoneskin and Vampire Touch (magic user spells).
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Jan 3 1992
Welcome back. Mount Olympus section has (finally) opened up. Many
monsters that were supposed to cast spells before and didn't (due
to a bug) now do. Watch yourself. Also, some monsters are smart
enough to pick up and use stuff they find. Don't drop coins;
there's a new species of monster called a "hyper-janitor" that
exists to clean up dropped stuff. When you want to divvy up the
swag, use "give" not "drop".
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, Dec 18 1991
There is a free rent room. Don't go into it unless you intend to
leave until Jan 2. I'll be out of the country from Dec 23 to Jan
1, so if the game goes down during that time, I can't reboot it.
I'd advise you all to free-rent on December 22 or sooner.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Dec 17 1991
Magic-users' damage spells are considerably improved. Warriors
get multiple attacks starting right at the first level (but not
too frequently).
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Dec 16 1991
DrWhat's section is now open. Spells basically max out now -- you
can cast "armor" on yourself without waiting for the old spell to
expire. Class limitations on stuff has been put in.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Dec 9 1991
New shop in town, to sell your precious gems at. There are also
a few new tougher elites, to make sure that everything is above
board. New socials: "tap" and "cheer".
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sat, Dec 7 1991
The elemental spells (finally!) work, as does "slow".
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Dec 6 1991
Shopkeepers have changed slightly -- some can be attacked. All of
your toggles are saved now, including selfecho and staymortal.
Carioca's temple has changed slightly, too.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Dec 2 1991
New command "fill". You needn't be holding an object to drink from
it. Hoss' section is now open. "Wear all" works. You can take
down your own notices from the bulletin board; if you want someone
else to be able to take them down, put their name in parens in the
title.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Nov 26 1991
Tom's section is now open. There are some other fixes, but I can't
remember them.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Nov 22 1991
OK, levels have been changed again. Plus, stuff that is dropped
into death rooms by players has a chance of appearing elsewhere in
the game.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Nov 21 1991
"Kill" spell has been changed; "forget" spell has been added; the
player toggles are all reached through the "toggle" command. The
experience points required for different levels have changed quite
a bit too, especially at the high end.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Nov 14 1991
Pets have changed (zombies and charmed followers count as "pets"
in this context). Don't abuse them, or they'll get angry.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Oct 27 1991
New command "selfecho". RTFM.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Oct 22 1991
New command: "condition". Like "look at" but only tells you how
badly the critter is hurting. If you're fighting, it tells you
the condition of your opponent if you have no argument.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Oct 20 1991
Dying now makes all the people who are mad at you forget you.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Oct 18 1991
There's a new shop in town. TEAMING UP WITH PEOPLE OF MUCH HIGHER LEVEL THAN YOURSELF WILL DRASTICALLY SLOW YOUR EXPERIENCE GAIN. You can gain a lot more experience with people at or near your own
level.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Oct 17 1991
Several new sections are available, plus the "kill" spell.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Oct 13 1991
Some spells cast on monsters make then angry. Backstab delays you,
like bash and kick. Helpfile now has "sections" to show what areas
are in Mudde Pathetique.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Oct 10 1991
Passwords no longer echo (but you saw that already), and there's
a casino underneath the Grunting Boar bar.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sat, Oct 05 1991
I've implemented some of the new spells: deafness, haste, mark, path
and blink.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Wed, Oct 02 1991
You can now save up to 50 items when you rent.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Fri, Sep 27 1991
There is now a long-term rent area (read the sign there) and a
healing room near the temple.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Sep 23 1991
Cure insanity now works too. Plus, Batman's "Underworld" has
finally been opened up. I don't know what character level it's
really suited for -- perhaps BatMan himself would be good enough
to post something...?
Also, some mobiles now remember who attacks them. So you can't
just flee and go back later. Some mobiles in town will even cry
out for help, and have guards respond to them.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sun, Sep 22 1991
New command: title. "Where" now shows all players in the same zone
as you. Another new command: rtime. This tells you what time it
is (here, anyway). I've also put in a few new social actions:
stomp, roll (your eyes), tantrum, grimace, jump and pinch.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Sep 20 1991
Magic light finally works. Please read the help file before using it.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Sat, Sep 14 1991
Shatter and insanity now work. Also, the "prompt" command has been
installed, as per players' (often quite forceful) requests. :-)
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Jun 26 1991
Here are the new spells: animate dead, dispel magic, suggest,
shatter, insanity, forget, obscure exit, phantom exit, mask, mirror
image, penetrate illusion, cure insanity, call elemental, capture
elemental, corrupt, deafness, kill, magic light, slow, haste, mark,
path, blink.
So far only animate dead, dispel magic and suggest are implemented.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, May 21 1991
All of the social commands (except "tackle") are now supported (I
think). Please let me know if they work properly.
Read the docs for PLAYERKILLER. This is very important.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, May 20 1991
There's a bank in town. IMPORTANT: pretty soon, I'm going to make
it so that quitting will drop all your gold as well as your gear.
If you quit rather than rent, get into the habit of going to the
bank.
New social command: blink. For blinking in astonishment.
For those of you who've been to ShadowDemon's Negative Material
Plane and found it too tough (or at least too time-consuming waiting
for the evil denizens' spells to wear off), they've been toned
down. Slightly.
"look" now shows you a room description even if you are in brief
mode.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, May 02 1991
New command: wimpy.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Thu, Apr 25 1991
Your objects are saved with "save". No more reimbursements. After
a crash, your stuff is safe for one day only.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Tue, Apr 23 1991
Some monsters now have infravision, meaning they can see in the
dark. Especially subterranean type monsters.
Some monsters do other stuff too, but I'm sure you'll soon learn
about *that*.
THE DIKUMUD HERALD - Mon, Apr 15 1991
You enter this game as "the Man" or "the Woman" as appropriate.
To become a first level character, contact me, and I'll start you
up.
New command: hp. Just gives the status line from "score".
"score" now tells you if you're hungry or thirsty.
"identify" cast on a character tells that character's stats.
The graveyard has been expanded again. Please let me know what you
think.
New section: Wizard's Tower. Just east of town.
New section: Drow City. Thanks Rorschach.
Copyright 1994-1995 The Mudde Pathetique
25 March 1995 - - - stenor@zeemud.org