New Areas on Northern Lights
Mood:  bright
<040731> * Added new lflags NoRandom, NoExits, NoSetStart. Also added new zone called "center", containing the center of the earth, explore it when all the quests have been completed in the same reset! Added new events that you can catch: on_enter_room, on_leave_room and mobile_killed. Another thing for zonewriters is the TO_ALL destination for messages to _everyone_, "mynum" included. Also a few small misc bugs fixed.

<040717> * The lair zone has now been turned into a fullfledged quest after some puzzle modification and minor rewrites. The quest is called "BillyGoats", read INFO BILLYGOATS to learn all about it! We hope you enjoy running the zone as much as we enjoyed writing it.

My OTHER hobby...
Mood:  irritated
New Midwest vs. the Sagnamon County Board

I have moved all the wrestling-related stuff to http://rap-sheet.tripod.com but I've not put up a seperate blog for that. Maybe someday I will put up a rap sheet blog, but hey, I haven't put up a lot in this blog so why bother? So I had to vent SOMEWHERE. It's not been a good couple weeks for the other hobby I have as detailed in that link.

I've never been in combat with the county board level of government, but who would had known the fear of being near a group of teenagers have driven certain people insane.

And I hate it when I have to pick up and move, especially if it ends up being for nothing.

New version of the Mudlist Client Server
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Announced by Ellyll
2004-04-25 -- Version 0.3 has been released. The only major change has been that the webpages it generates now are XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant. The website has also been completely converted to XHTML as well, and a few minor things added (like title attributes). If you have any suggestions for improvements or even if you're happily using the system please let me know, either via the comments page or via email. Thanks!

Check the MUDSTUFF page or enter the URL below to head on over there!
http://www.efylon.org/mudlist

Sick of Spyware
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: On your computer...
You know something, I'm sick of these people that create programs that I don't want being put on my computer and that of co-workers, cause I got to clean them up and they are INTERFERING with their work. It'd be nice if I could figure out a way to sue these guys and collect some big money for lost productivity and keeping me busy for several hours per machine trying to eradicate this crap! I'd also like to beat these guys to a bloody pulp too!

Ad Aware 6.0 -- http://www.lavasoftusa.com
Trend Micro -- http://www.trendmicro.com
HijackTHIS! -- http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

New Zone on Northern Lights
Mood:  a-ok
Northern Lights 12th anniversary celebrations proceeded well with cake, beer, champagne in tall glasses and much reminiscing. A brand new zone (lair) has been added to the mud. This zone is a joint effort of Vitastjern, Og, Snowmane, Tiberius and Blaze and was written and coded in record time! We hope that you'll enjoy it and that you'll report any comments to the authors as we plan on tweaking it a little in the coming week. This zone will educate you as to where mobile babies come from and can be found close to the village. There is a hint in the Warm Haven.

Phoenix MUD Adds a Werewolf Class

        /\     /\
        .-.   .-.
  /\   /   \ /   \  /\
  .-. |    ||    | .-.
 /   \ \  /  \  / /  \  Even a man who's pure of heart
 |   |  '`.-.`'  |   |  and says his prayers at night,
  \_.' .-`   `-. '._/   Can become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
    .-'         '-.     And the autumn moon is bright.
   /               \
   |               |
    \             /
     '.___...___.'

What are they?
Lycanthropy and the legends surrounding it are as old as mankind. The ancient legends agree on only two points: The werewolf is evil, and it has a taste for human flesh. Beyond this, all is speculation.
Do they fear silver? Do they need a full moon and/or a wolfskin to change? Must they be male or female? Although Werewolves of the Phoenician variety do share some of these relatively recently acquired traits, there is no ultimate authority. Scroll down for a bibliography.

Phoenician Werewolves
Phoenician werewolves spend most of their lives as normal, well-adjusted law-abiding Phoenicians, questing, story-telling, laughing, crying, cursing, singing, loving, killing and living heartily. During the evening and night hours, however, at the time of the full or gibbous moons, the change occurs. During their wolf cycles, Phoenician werewolves can kill other werewolves or any of the other PK classes.
Wolf Moon encompasses 3 of the 8 phases of the moon. The total time a shapeshifter will be in Wolf form comes to 9 Phoenician evenings and nights out of every Phoenician month.

Phoenician werewolves have twice the strength of regular Phoenicians of the same level, and do +20 the damage. During their wolf cycle, remorted werewolves enjoy substantial increases in their stats, which
are not bound by the limit of 10 over natural stats restricting regular Phoenician remorts. A remorted werewolf has 3 times its natural constitution, 3 times its natural power, and twice the intelligence and agility. Its charisma sinks to an unmodifiable -10 and its wisdom remains unaffected. During their wolf course they can move heavy objects without help and wreck doors like a Warrior.

Werewolves of Phoenix also have certain skills available to them. See HELP FRENZY, HELP HOWL and HELP POUNCE. In addition, their bite supplies them with some strength during combat and deals additional damage. They have certain spell/skill advantages as well. The jab of a Werewolf, for instance, does damage on a par with the stab of a non-wolf. Animate is less expensive for werewolves, and the animated corpses last longer under their thrall. In addition, Werewolves can feed off the flesh of the zombies that follow them and help them fight. (See HELP DEVOUR).

Their thick pelts offer all Werewolves some protection from the damage done by the hidden dagger of SecondStrike, unless the wielder is a Warrior, in which case only Rodanthians have protection against it. Depending on their particular sect, werewolves enjoy either partial or complete resistance to various forms of attack. For info on the various lycanthropic orders, see Info WolfOrders.

Weaknesses
Werewolves cannot carry, wield or wear anything. There are no exceptions. Besides the obvious inventory limitations, this restriction also limits some of the skills they are capable of performing, for instance stab, backstab and secondstrike, or any
ability, skill or spell requiring an object to be picked up or held. Familiars hate and fear werewolves, as do helper Natives - these cannot be accessed by morphed Phoenicians at any time during their wolf cycles. Grouping is also impossible for them during this time, as they are loners by nature, requiring only the companionship of the moon and stars.

Diet
Werewolves of Phoenix can eat only meat. This includes corpses, both the inert kind and the re-animated Zombies created via the animate spell. See HELP DEVOUR.

Miscellaneous
Werewolves can cross water without a boat, but they are not natural swimmers, and swimming is exhausting for them. They do have the ability to see in the dark, but their sensitive eyes require a short period of adjustment on moving from dark to light or light to dark.

How does one become a Werewolf?
How indeed? This information is shrouded in mystery, but is said to involve a garden accessible only by night, a plant treated with a rare and noxious substance, a wearable item, clear wits and a great deal of courage. Any candidate must be a minimum of level 35 or rlevel 1+. This is all the information available. Further disclosure WILL result in severe penalties!

Is there a cure?
We don't think so. Elliott O'Donnell, in his 1912 volume "Werwolves", passes along some possible folk-remedies, but adds "[A]s to the success or non-success of these various methods of exorcism I cannot make any positive statement.... As far as I know, once a werewolf always a werwolf is the inviolable rule."

Northern Lights 12th Anniversary Party in only EIGHT days!
Northern Lights, one of the longest running Abermuds in existance, will be holding it's 12th anniversary party on Sunday, June 6th 2004. Anyone who's played this mud at any point during the last 12 years is encouraged to attend. There will be balloons, cake, speeches, more speeches, surprises and competitions and more! Be there or be a small rectangular object!


Northern Lights Abermud
telnet://aber.ludd.ltu.se:6715
http://www.ludd.ltu.se/mud/aber

Wanna buy a mudlist website ?
Some interesting news that came in the mailbox...

MUDLISTS.COM is for sale. Unfortunately for me, I will be leaving the country for 6 - 12 months and I don't want to leave the domain unattended. If you have a love for the mud community and you like what we have done here, then I invite you to make an offer on the website.

The current offer is $500.00 USD. Payment will be made using PAYPAL, so you can charge to your credit card.

I would like to have the domain fully transfered to the new owner no later than June 15th.

Please send your inquiry to me at admin@mudlists.com, use MUDLISTS SALE as the subject line so that I don' t accidentally delete it ( I get over 300 pieces of spam email a day LOL, it really is quite funny!)

The Festival of MUDs
I decided to pass this bit of info along, it seems interesting...

---------------
Heya. In case you don't already know me, I'm Kris, owner of AethiaMUD and Event Manager for The Festival of MUD.

Well it's that time of year again! At first, I wasn't gonna hold an event this year due to time constraints. However, after receiving a barrage of emails from people in the past few weeks, I've decided to go ahead and do one after all. Apparently last year's Festival of MUD (FoM) was more successful than I thought....

In case this is the first you've heard of it, The Festival of MUD is an annual event (this being the 2nd annual) in which people from all around the mudding community get together on a single mud server. While there, you can meet new friends, attend various seminars on topics ranging from recruiting good builders to intermud communications networks, discuss and debate various issues of the day, or just strike up a bit of chat with some fellow mud owners, etc. The all-day event will be covered LIVE via AMR, my mud's internet radio station! There will also be an awards ceremony broadcast live over the radio stream, recognizing outstanding MU*s, resources, and individuals in the mudding community. Some of the awards this year will be: MUD of the Year, Admin of the Year, Player of the Year, Coder of the Year, a creativity award, etc. Winners receive shiny trophies to boast on their websites....

If last year is any indication, this will prove to be a very fun-filled day for all who attend! If nothing else, you'll at least get a chance to meet some new people, and tell people a bit about your MUD (just so long as you're not a spammer hehe)....

So, when is it? I'm glad you asked! The 2004 Festival of MUD will be held this month on Saturday, May 29th, 2004, and will start at: 3 PM Pacific (6 PM ET / 11 PM GMT) and will run all the way until midnight (pacific time)! Nobody's expected to stay for the whole thing, of course; many people will make an appearance whenever their schedules permit. Some of us will be there the whole time, though. And, of course, this event is open to all members of the MU* community (MUSH, MUCK, MOO, etc), not just MUDs. :)

If you're interested in attending, or just learning more, please feel free to visit our newly-redesigned website at http://www.aethia.org/fom. Although it isn't required, you are strongly encouraged to RSVP (there's a form for it on the site). That way, you can ensure that your desired screenname will be reserved for you, and we'll be able to have some idea as to how many attendees we should expect. When you RSVP, you're under no obligation to actually attend; we understand that your RSVP simply means that you plan to attend if you can, time-permitting.

Although it goes without saying, there is obviously no fee or anything involved in attending this event. Like most of you who run your own MUDs, I'm not in this for the money....

Also, word-of-mouth is very important as well, since I obviously can't send out emails to every MU* owner out there! I'm contacting MUD owners and admins in hopes that they'll tell their players about the event, and encourage them to attend as well, and to tell other people about it, and so-on. We're hoping to have a really big turnout this year! And again, people from MUSHes and the like are just as welcome! :)

Last year, there were over 150 attendees at the event! We had a few first-time glitches, including a few server crashes (maybe it's because I was dumb enough to use an experimental codebase under Windows). This year I'm leasing a more stable server using RedHat 9 on a T3 connection, and using a far more proven and stable codebase for the MUD. With those things in mind, and with the overwhelming success of last year's event in our wake, my goal for this year is to break the 300 mark for RSVP's! That would break the all-time record for such an event, set last year when we had a little over 150....

If you'd like more information, including the RSVP form and a list of who has RSVP'd thus far, please feel free to take a look at our website at: http://www.aethia.org/fom

If you have any questions/comments, please feel free to visit the "contact us" form on the website. Either that, or you can just reply to this email (fom@aethiamud.org), and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. *beeeep!*

Anyways, thanks for your time, and I hope to see you there on the big day! =)

--Kris Craig
Owner/Founder of AethiaMUD
Network Chairman, The ICE-MAN InterMUD Network
Event Manager, The Festival of MUD

New site: Text-Gaming Central
A new website opened up devoted to text-based gaming, one that hopes to buck some recent trends in the text-based community and improve its standing overall. The mission statement:

Text-Gaming Central

"I have long been frustrated with the organization of the text-based community as a whole out there. We have something that has so much potential to still be popular (despite the beautiful graphical games) but the unity and cooperation between games and codebase "cliques" out there is generally terrible. For this reason, Text-Gaming Central has arrived on the scene.

"I have no illusions of a fairy tell uniting of the many different groups out there, but I do figure a solid means of communication for players and administrators interested in text gaming out there would be a great thing to have. Having looked at the other sites that have done (or attempted this), I do believe there is room for improvement :)

"So here we are in the infancy of this site and I'm toiling away at trying to create something useful. If you have ideas that you'd like to submit, please email or private message me. I'm also available on ICQ via 45905171.

"Thanks for your interest in the site, and I hope you find it useful!"


Pay these guys a visit, I plan to submit info about this site and the two others I handle soon.