Visit us at: telnet://barren.barrenrealmsmud.com:8000/
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News from the Realms:
As a part of our continuing efforts to revitalize the community that makes BR what it is, we're taking a cue from Milton-Bradley and designating a Mud Night. Beginning this Monday (8/21/09) and weekly thereafter, we urge all players to make an effort to be on for an hour or two around 8 PM mud time (CDT). To assist in this goal, immortals will be staging at least one quest during each Mud Night, so be sure to grab your prizes.
We hope to see each of you soon!
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Did you know that you can MUD from your phone?! That’s right, folks who have the iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and similar smart devices can play BR right from their phone!
There are many apps out there that offer telnet services for various smart phone devices, but here’s what we found:
For the iPhone and iPod Touch: http://mochasoft.dk/iphone_telnet.htm
For the Blackberry: http://www.xk72.com/midpssh/
Thanks to Hondaone for being the Blackberry guinea pig. He now plays BR on a regular basis from his phone, and has given us directions on how to get that above app working on a Blackberry which are now posted on the forums. (http://www.barrenrealmsmud.com/forum/vi ... 2161#22161)
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Future Quests:
It’s official, Brodgar and Bluestar will be holding a brand new T-Games quest over in December for winter break. Anyone who is interested, please login to the Quest Headquarters on the forums (http://www.barrenrealmsmud.com/forum/vi ... php?t=1564 ) and leave a post expressing your interest
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Player Submissions:
DAYS OF OUR LICHES, ETC.
-briefs from our BR correspondent Ducci
When Calathar guardsmen were called to the VIP suite at Casino de Flamberge last night, they thought they were responding to a routine noise complaint. They couldn't know that they'd be breaking the biggest scandal of the year, walking in on Ciquala and Lord Gith locked in an amorous and totally gross embrace. As the officers entered the blood-drenched room, three were blinded and another choked and gagged to death. According to unofficial reports, the pair--dressed in erotic leather and surrounded by the corpses of small, furry animals--were in a position that was "unnatural even for liches." The normally prim Ciquala allegedly had a "firm grasp" on "something unspeakable." Sources in the githyanki palace say the news comes as little surprise; suspicions had already been raised by Gith's huge scuba bills and sudden interest in robotics. So far the githyanki queen has made no comment on the scandal, but she seems to be taking it hard: asked about the possibility of a divorce, she responded by divorcing the reporter from most of his limbs.
Rumors about a new remort race were confirmed yesterday by a press release from the Immortal Offices. Players who reach level 151 will soon be able to remort to Papa Smurf, the notoriously weak mobile from Smurf Village. According to a leaked help file, Papa Smurf is a special race with no skills, spells, or equipment slots and a max hp that decreases with level. One of the Imms behind the project has indicated that Xor will continuously cast maledictions on Papa Smurf players "as a sort of racial modifier." This was also done "in the interest of canonicity" since "everyone knows Xor hates Smurfs." Papa Smurfs that manage to avatar will face the final challenge of having their character deleted.
Calathar was left temporarily defenseless last week when the Guardian's axe "crumbled into a million pieces." Witnesses claimed that the axe had been polished until it was paper-thin. In a press conference Wednesday, the Guardian took full responsibility for the mishap, tearfully describing it as "a low point...in my lifelong struggle against obsessive-compulsive disorder." He went on to warn schoolchildren about the health risks associated with sucking up strange trails of blood.
The 12th annual Joyman Awards for Excellence in Area Design were handed out this month, with Troll Den taking first place for the seventh year in a row. The Awards rate areas based on style, depth, creativity, and originality. Siberfels and Yamanoha Fortress received honorable mention.
In a report made public on Tuesday, building inspectors recommended that familiar Realms' landmark High Tower of Sorcery be condemned. The report cited the High Tower for being "dumb" and having "a really stupid maze in front of it." Dragon and Wyvern's Tower wouldn't be spared, either: the report calls for demolishing the entire complex and building a modern development with a smaller carbon footprint. According to the drafters of the report, the new area would "benefit from an up-to-date, edgier writing style--think Coven but with more sex."
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Ideas:
AMystery: Give AMystery god like power and a list of people
deserving of smiting
Brodgar: Granted. First on your list is... AMystery, get smiting!
Peel: give demons the avian blast skill since they have wings too?
Brodgar: Not all demon wings would be strong enough for blast, you just might
blow a giant hole in your thin leathery wings.
Sting: Get rid of the code that makes Demon-sold items disappear.
It makes cash gathering insanely easy and upsets the balance.
Brodgar: High gold in the economy of BR doesn't do much other than make enhancing easier.
While I'm all for balance, everytime we've tried to do something about it
(like limit how many hundreds of hours a character can remain at lvl 50 powerlvling
alts) people get upset about it. Sometimes for balance we don't have much choice, but
for a couple hundred thousand gold, I say enjoy the perk of having gotten a character
to 151!
Foy: a prompt feature that will (relatively) show how much health is
left in the mob you're attacking
Brodgar: Actually, this is exactly what, scratches, few wounds, nasty wounds, pretty hurt, and awful messages
during combat are there for.
Its: protected mobs should not steal gold
Brodgar: This is now moved to our bugs queue.
Matthew: I know this would be a lot of work but I think it would be
pretty interesting if the older players and imms had their own help
files for their descs or char stories for those who don’t want to check the forums
Brodgar: Actually, there are some imm help files. Go forth and discover!
Relo: When identifying a piece of eq, it should have the "wear
slot" included
Brodgar: I agree this would be nice for some of our more strangely named pieces of equipment.
Rhyme: When you drop things on the ground in front of a guardsman
at recall, he gets pissed and attacks you for littering.
Brodgar: So, don't drop things there. Until this was put in, recall was full of junk. Now it's not
Rhyme: does anybody read these ideas anymore?
Brodgar: Yes, but we've outsourced to Chinese gold farmers. Takes awhile to get it translated into
and back out of Mandarin.
* Replies to ideas can be submitted by replying to bluestar@barrenrealmsmud.com *
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BUGs That Aren’t BUGs:
Please keep submitting bugs, we have a good list of things we're prioritizing to fix. In the interest of keeping the bug file
clean, this is a segment we like to call BUGs That Aren't BUGs.
Kitsune: I dont know if it has been fixed, but runner beast steak
Brodgar: Runnerbeast is the name of the creature, so it's not a typo. There is something else mildly interesting about RB steak, but it's working as intended.
Oversoul: When you look (in this room in Siberfels), players aren't separate from the room description
Brodgar: Must be something special about that room then
AMystery: when using scry it goes by the mud wide list of mobs, so for example, c scry citizen tries for the first one in the
mud, instead of one in the area
Brodgar: This is working as designed, just like track, summon, and astral. The extra requirement that you must be in the area
doesn't offset the other regular skill/spell requirements.
AMystery: throw doesn't seem to be working in 36 chambers with two mobs in a room and the door open. Get the message that you can't seem to find what you are throwing at
Brodgar: We get this one a lot. This is working as intended, throw does not work through one way exits to prevent
abuse of the throw command.
Nightwing: The immune from food and hunger setting doesn't last forever as a 1st level character. I was walking around in the
newbie area readings signs when I started to lose health because of hunger and thirst.
Brodgar: To prevent people from creating throwaway characters to socialize and abuse immunity from
hunger and thirst, level 1 characters do experience hunger and thirst. If your newbie is
still going through the signs section, and experiencing hunger problems, give them a newbie cookie.
Sting: when you scan in this room (in Gondolin), it says there are no open exits
Brodgar: Yes, welcome to the joys of Gondolin. This room links only to itself, which is why scan doesn't work.
Gondolin is the black jelly bean of our areas list. Love it or hate it, you have to admit it's unique.
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Submissions and ideas can be emailed to: bluestar@barrenrealmsmud.com