Legendary Times vol.4 no.11
Previous Issue Main Index Next Issue =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- .............._______ ............./ / THE LEGENDARY TIMES ............/ / .........../ /.....______.._____.....______.._____.......____ ........../ /...../ /./ \.../ /./ \...../ \ ........./ /...../ ___/./ ____/../ ___/./ __. \.../ /\ \ ......../ /...../ /_.../ /....../ /_.../ /..\>./ /./ / ......./ /...../ __/../ /____../ __/../ /.../ /./ /./ / ....../ /_____/__/__../ \_\ /./ /__../ /.../ /./ /_/ / ...../ / /./ /./ /./ /.../ /./ / ..../ /_/..\______/./_____/./__/.../__/./_______/ MUD .../________________/ running on mud.aus.sig.net 9999 199.1.78.16 9999 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= http://mud.aus.sig.net/ ftp://mud.aus.sig.net/pub =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VOLUME FOUR, ISSUE ELEVEN May 11, 1997 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= FROM THE IMPS DEPARTMENTAL NEWS AND UPDATES NEWS AND REPORTS Ghosts, Goblins, and Vampires? Oh My... Legend Recommended by CNET PLAYER FORUM Just Say No To Evil! LEGENDITES Who is the Dark Lord? "Who's This?" Cloning Ulric's Furry Tongue FROM THE WAR ZONE News from Shotokai =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please send your responses to articles to the Legendary Times address at lt@mud.aus.sig.net. Letters to the editor and submissions are welcomed. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ___ ___ \ |----------------------------------------------------------------------| / /__| FROM THE IMPS |__\ '----------------------------------------------------------------------' Imps Weekly Reports: This week Kaige worked on the proposal for automating clans and had a few discussions with various people on varying topics. Ptah worked on a spec for makables, going through Gail and Tad's doc on it, went through Gail's Gradual Skilltree Implementation Plan, and worked a little with Kaige on a proposal for clan redesign. He also thought a lot about methods of implementing cooler mob variety (randomly assigned names on a by-area basis), a magic artifact generation system, and of course his pet project of virtual rooms. However, he hasn't put anything on paper for these yet. ___ ___ \ |----------------------------------------------------------------------| / /__| DEPARTMENTAL NEWS AND UPDATES |__\ '----------------------------------------------------------------------' CODING This week, in lieu of a Coding Report, we have a message from Gail: Ok, there have been some rumors floating around about skilltrees. Let me try and get a few things on record. Skilltrees as a whole, are not done yet. However, we have started to work on installing features that can be installed relatively easily. Most of these features are coded, but some work still has to be done to port them over, and some bits of code need to be finished, so they aren't going in tomorrow. The features currently being worked on are: a) ownership of objects (basically, people can't take "your" stuff, and it saves over crashes/reboots) b) a whole bunch of combat system fixes c) a whole bunch of new skills d) a new exp scale Probably you won't see any of these for at least 2 weeks. You'll definitely receive 1-2 weeks warning before the combat system fixes go in, and pfiles will be backed up, in case we make any boo-boos with them. Probably, you can expect to see -something- go in within 4 weeks. More details will be made available here, on the Welcome Board, and on the Discussion Board as relevant, and as the details are fixed. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= BUILDING Rufus installed updates to Ireland, Shadowlands, and India, and added 40 or more rooms to his new area, the Navaho Creation Myth. The pool shark also wrote out a master task list for those of us in Building (groan!). Zandy's area, Anasazi, is in the Beta Test Stage (this means other builders are going through his area looking for errors, typos, making sure everything is balanced etc, before it is installed on the mud. Expect to see it in the near future!) Flagg was occupied updating Hell and the Hall of Legends, a duty he shared with Kheldar. He also wrote a new quest, and is working on the 6th circle of Hell and Maebolgae. Although she was out of town most of the week, Sandra managed to get the Viking area update finished, and worked on objects for her Pittsburgh area. Sandra also spent time customizing the weather for Salem. Leila worked on her London update. Kheldar reviewed Hell and Hall of Legends, especially Mob special acts. He also helped Leila fix her new PR area, and updated Romania for the new Generic Animals mobs written by Wraith. Sabella worked on the Kleinstadt update, as well as Builder Skilltrees, especially the new skills. Alhazred figured out the Legendmud editing system on the Mud Machine, and spent a lot of time working on getting the Testmud to run. Also, some congratulations are in order, for Alhazred, after many hours of painful labor, spawned his first mob this week! Both father and newborn are fine, and are resting at home. (Editor's Note: For those not familiar with the Legendmud Builder Immorts, a word must be said about the creation of Life on the Mud. One would assume that all Mobs are created equal, or at least, equally. This, however prosaic and comforting to believe, is simply not the case. Each Immort has his or her own unique way of creating mobiles. For example, for Mobiles created by the Imps such a Kaige, they spring unbidden, perfect, directly from the immort's head. Ptah, as Imp of Chaos, simply creates Mobs by spontaneous generation. From an Immort of slightly lesser power, like Kheldar, the Mobile is crafted lovingly over time on a golden drafting board, each piece checked and inspected carefully before it ever hits production. In the case of Newbie Builders, such as myself, it takes only a little bit of work to create said Mobile, but it can take up to nine months to actually make it to it's birth.) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= PLAYER RELATIONS This week we did descs/strings/games/questions/all-that-jazz. In addition, Croaker held trivia, plus ran a TinyPlot which involved Sharri's kidnapping by (and subsequent rescue from) Clan S. Kheldar got some needed info for the OOC library, while Particleman added some links for the character web pages. Petal is working on a RP plot with the Templars, Leila's working on the finishing touches for her pr area, Sabella put out an LT (and has another one pretty much done and waiting), and listened to many player problems. Flagg compiled Expies, held the ceremony (and shaved off an hour from last year's time :), and Rusalka did admin stuff, plus started expanding the expies WHOIS files so that they'll include stuff like the particular year of a given expie and imm expies. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ADMINISTRATION As a department, Admin continued work on help files and projects, dealt with the Knight issue (GM'ship transferred to Arsene), and discovered/decided to do something about Flamestrike's lack of clan check, as well as their normal chores: monitoring chat, answering questions, (un)archiving/(un)purging characters, password questions, clansets, harassment complaints etc. Aermid got info on help file update procedures so will be making changes soon. Baca checked the boards. Chocorua was dealing with his first week at a new job, real-life, so is still organizing his time on the mud. Govan worked on the Rune project. Sandra was away for a good part of the week, but still got description requests out. Solomon began working on a method to interpret spellword bitfields. Wraith checked boards removing older posts and several posts containing profanity (which sparked some controversy), and unclanned Jade, a level 4 character (from April Fool's Day?). Flagg helped an unclanned who died to a clanned's Flamestrike, spoke to Gail about changing Firestorm to check clan status, and moved the GM flag from Stephen to Arsene ___ ___ \ |----------------------------------------------------------------------| / /__| NEWS AND REPORTS |__\ '----------------------------------------------------------------------' Ghosts, Goblins, and Vampires? Oh My..... Did you ever long for the dark nights to remain dark? Do you like sneaking on people from behind? Have you a thirst for blood? If the answer is yes to any or all of these questions. Mostly all, then you may have a place within a new group that is being formed for the purposes of Roleplaying. Yep, that's right, Vampires all over are being resurrected. If you are interested in being part of this group, please mudmail Lirra..... Are you tired of those vampires going after you all the time? Staying in your rooms and cowering during the night until the sun rises again, never sure when you will be attacked next? If so, you may want to get together and form a group to stop those Vampires from coming after you, all in the name of roleplaying. If you are interested in becoming an active Vampire Hunter, please mudmail Lirra. Both groups will find events scheduled to RP. Pkill is not a factor in either situations, as it is devoted solely to roleplaying out different situations and meant to be a fun experience for all. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Legend Recommended by CNET CNET recently listed LegendMUD among it's recommended MU8's to try out. The following snippet can be found at: http://www.cnet.com/Content/Features/Events/ss03a.html "Know what you're getting into when you choose a MU*, and be prepared to involve yourself, whether by living out your elfin fantasies, zooming around like Speed Racer, or building and exploring. If role-playing is what your alter ego has been craving, check out AnimeMUSH, which celebrates Japanese-style animation, or LegendMUD, a realistic history-based game with famously helpful players." So let's prove them right! ___ ___ \ |----------------------------------------------------------------------| / /__| PLAYER FORUM |__\ '----------------------------------------------------------------------' Just Say No To Evil! A summary of some thoughts that have been passing through Kae's confused mind lately. Lately - particularly with the rise of the new Cult of S, obviously - there has been some attraction to playing an evil character. Evil in this sense not meaning someone with an alignment below -350, but evil as in an impolite, secretive, scheming, and generally backstabbing personality. This has had its advantages - we've seen more roleplay, for one - and its disadvantages - we've also seen some roleplay that had bad endings. Without intending to lecture all of you on how to play your characters, I'd like to take the chance to offer my views, on the advantages and disadvantages of playing an evil character - or a good one. The main problem rising when someone decides his new character should be 'evil' is the definition of evil itself. Evil is not charming, seductive, or in any other fashion attractive, though it may certainly pretend to be. A truly evil person sees no further than his own nose, is completely disinterested in helping others except when there's something to gain from it, and has nothing but contempt for those whose acquaintance does not benefit him in any way. That may be fun for a while - but the long and short of it is that when someone behaves like a jerk, however much in character, that someone eventually winds up pretty much alone. Which isn't very much fun at all. Some of the best players of evil characters I have seen also happen to be the players of the most unpopular characters on the mud. I'll refrain from commenting upon whether these players are indeed in character, roleplaying evil people, or are like that in real life, too - that's not the point. What is the point is that they are unpopular, called selfish, impolite, rude, and not worth grouping with by others. This is a very good reason to warn new players off from playing evil in the true sense of the word. But fortunately we don't all want to be tree huggers - to pun a bit on some of the mud's self-styled goodies. Evil has its advantages, too, if you deviate a bit from the textbook definition. I dare assume that when someone decides to create an evil character, it is not in order to make LegendMud a less pleasant and entertaining place to spend your free hours, but to create a fullfledged personality whom it will be fun to roleplay - or hack and slash with, whatever is your preference. Evil comes best into play if combined with these acts that you intend your new character to have, the traits of personality and background that you are thinking of anyway in the creation process. Evil is also a very individual term to define: What exactly is evil to a 4th century pagan and to a 19th century gentleman? Certainly not the same... It may be wise to create a character with a background that allows him or her to be 'evil' in the eyes of SOME other people, but not ALL other people. This opens up for roleplay acts between characters of different orientations, but still allows you to retain allies and friends. Similarly, you can choose to play it good for a while to a member of an opposing faction, through deciding to set a good example to him, in the hope eventually to convert him or her to your character's definitions of right and wrong. It's interesting in this aspect to look at the occasionally quite heated debates that have been going on lately - some of them are quite good examples. Take the war between the Knights of Legend and the Coven - while I'm certain there is more to it than that, it is ALSO a splendid example of chivalry/males versus magic/females. Both sides would certainly insist that the other part is the evil part! Or the druids versus the Templars. Or the Cult versus the McDougans - though in the latter case I admit that it can at times be difficult to find out what the Cult of S's true intentions are, as dictated by their secretive nature... I look forward to seeing more of this new trend of evil versus good that in my view has been set lately! Because, as the hardcore roleplayer I am, I am absolutely delighted at any chance offered to shout insults at someone else, then go out of character and laugh myself silly for half an hour with that self-same person, both of us being keenly aware that all the hatred, the disagreements, and the namecalling happened between two fictional people in a fictional world, not between ourselves. ________________________ / \ o O | Wonder what folks are | `\|||/ | doing over at LegendMud?| (o o) \________________________/ ooO_(_)_Ooo_____________________________________________________________________ _____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|__ __|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____| ___ ___ \ |----------------------------------------------------------------------| / /__| LEGENDITES: Information Regarding the People of Our World |__\ '----------------------------------------------------------------------' "Who's this?" by CLeo of The Circle of Angels Welcome to this edition of "Who's this?". I have picked Asilidae for this interview. I hope that you will like what he had to say :). Happy reading! [* Please remember that you are welcomed to submit suggestions for questions you would like me to ask my "victims" ;-) ] CLeo - 'Tell me about a blooper that happened to you.' Asilidae - 'I accidentally calmed a fight where I had almost killed the victim and he got away -- that made me very upset.' CLeo - 'If you could build your own home, what would it be like?' Asilidae - 'Like the one I got now -- big and beautiful, with a big garden.' CLeo - 'Please tell us a joke.' Asilidae - 'What does a blond girl call her zebra?' 'Spot *rofl* ( Previous Issue Main Index Next Issue
