January 7, 2003 Welcome to the Barren Realms MUD Newsletter! Some of you may have noticed the website was down for a while. Our webserver was attacked with a virus and the server was handling some new security. We lost our bulletin board posts in the mess, but on the brighter side, we've installed a new one that's a whole lot more fun. Check it out at http://www.barrenrealmsmud.com/ Hope your holidays were great! Here's some news from the realms: Erin: A new year, a new quest! A new year, a new quest. Dress up your favorite t.v. or movie star with b.r equipment. E-mail me a list of the items (all slots must be filled), why you would dress him/her or it like that. The deadline is the 12th Jan 2003, my email addy is dreamkeeper_br@hotmail.com. Comatose is sponsoring and remember, having fun is not optional, it's mandatory. All Spells are allowed so go have fun!!!!!!! Please amke sure you state in the email your char's name as I dont mind read. Please rememeber this is a family orientated mud so that means no Porn stars ok. Also as we all life in different countries please give a decent amount of info on who the star is in r/l and who they play on what show or film. this quest is open to every single level. I was just thinking and decided, extra points will be awarded for those who also submit a pic of the person they choose. If thats a problem maybe a link to a website where we can see who your talking about would also gain points. Erin aka Dreamkeeper Ideas: Its: for demons sanc should be a black aura not a white one Xer: If The Guardian is the demon guildmaster, shouldn't he be of the race and have some unique appendage to hold over all demons? Aelskare: When you type 'aff', it would be a good idea to have physical condition on there, too (i.e. many nasty wounds). With hitpoints different for each level, it might be good for newbies to see what condition they are in before they start fighting. Podo: dirtkick can tickle but not while they have been blinded by it maybe allow it to still do some damage since the kender doesn't get many attacks anyways? Rorin: Make hunger/thirst affect your hit/dam, the more hungry/thirsty you are, the lower your hit/dam would go. Podo: stab as a command for kenders so we can keep stabbing during an attack Podo: it would cool to be able to change the colors in our titles :) RadicalEd: have body parts use their owners keywords, makes sorting my parts much easier =) Cord: create a command that allows you to toggle whether or not your last logged-in date is displayed under your profile or not (ie, so we can turn it back on after level 151) Ispep: dwarves making alcohol,dwarven brew should affect constitution [ Cord: ignoring somone shouldn't just repress the text of them talking, but also keep your prompt for updating each time they chat something Aelskare: Maybe when you type "aff", it could show your bodily condition (i.e. covered in blood, goner, etc.) along with hungry/thirsty, spells. Characters that need to log in this week or lose their characters: Abby, Anybody, Arodanos, Ascii, Auris, Babyface, Bellisima, Blu, Carick, Ciclope, Cutty, Darkone, Darkstar, Delta, Dionysus, Finalwaltz, Folk, Gannondorf, Gingus, Goradus, Griswold, Haile, Happy, Kirkegaard, Klic, Lavitz, Lectral, Mal, Marie, Morbidmonke, Odd, Oin, Pankurokku, Pendraco, Port, Pressure, Raistlin, Ramman, Rilyl, Rpgman, Sarah, Shadowlord, Tana, Tempeste, Tigress, Tupac, Whizper Responses by Divebomb: Liam: when writing an area, i wish i could set damps + dams for mobs *DB: you mean what the mob does to a person or what a player does to the mob? A mob doesn't even damp that often until you get high into the hero levels. And having to set what the damp is for a player against a particulary mob would be tedious and take away a feature of individualism for each player. Terminal: just asking..but why isn't hide in the affects list? - Terminal *DB: This was a topic of discussion recently, actually. It does not show up because you may THINK you're hiding, but if someone walks in the room and sees you, then you're not REALLY hiding at all. Consider the "hide" flag to mean that the person is attempting to hide, if someone has detect hidden they just see how pathetic that person's attemp is. The same could be true for sneak, but because it's used to CR yourself so much, it's player-friendly to alert you on the affect list. However, sometimes when you type sneak the echo will say it worked when it really didn't because you THINK it worked. AMystery: we have warn to know when people connect. we need a way to know if they are here when we arrive. assuming warn doesn't do that *DB: I agree (for those who don't know what he's talking about, it's an imm perk) Sinda: something as a affect, telling you that your drunk. -- Kiri : check affects *DB: When you get to be not-very-drunk, there is no notification that you are not drunk, which should be indicative that you are merely tipsy and might stumble around a bit, but not a lot. If you are wasted, then it does show up in the affects list. AMystery: enflame weapon should work on non magic weapons, but be like taint, it rather quickly destroys them *DB: Rather quickly? Seems like it would either do it not at all or immediately in almost all cases depending on what the weapon is made of. I like it better this way, it's not hard for people to stockpile the "regular" weapons in such a manner that they get the perk of flaming AND the best hit/dam weapon... Claxem: You should be able to eat red pills regardless if you're full. Who has ever been too full to take their pills? *DB: I agree. Pills should not have any hunger content. DwarfMan: You should be able to backstab with stab weapons. I don't even have to explain why for that one. *DB: I'd like to see you backstab with a razor... Stab doesn't necessarily mean the weapon can pierce through armor, it just refers to the motion of thrusting. Paladinkain: there really should be a 'help immortal' so the newbies know what imm's are and what they can and cannot do, so they know why they should listen to them *DB: Heros should also explain the hierarchy to people who haven't played muds before - what is a mortal, what is a hero, what is an avatar, what as an immortal, what is an imp. It should be a part of newbie-helping. Not that the help file is a bad idea, but it SHOULD be getting explained already. Anubis: a version of the newsletter readable from inside the relms on telnet *DB: Eh. Poor Kiri. Grogar: remove the ablity to trip from mobs underwater. if ya can't fly underwater anymore. it really makes the underwater areas not fun to go to anymore. and yes i used to go to the dark sea but i just don't want to be tripped and die all the time. *DB: I agree. You should not be able to trip mobs underwater and should not be able to be tripped. Whirly: for avians at early levels, if their dive attack misses, the wind up going through one of the exits in the room randomly, or hitting the ground and knocking themselves out. *DB: The blackout one has potential, but moving to a new room is unnecessarily complicated considering we don't have room designs that take size into account. What if the room is: "The field behind the farmer's house". You're going to dive into the farmer's house because you missed the dive way out in the middle of the field? *scratch* Anakin: Cast change sex when you accidentally missed a spell and casts "Ala-peanutbutter-sandwiches" just for the fun of it *smirk* *DB: Silly, silly boy. Firebreath: make: put all coins or put all.coins work *DB: "Put all coins " DOES work. Try it. It puts all the coins you are currently carrying into the container. Get all.coins works to get them back. AMystery: plook should show the same empty slots that look shows *DB: Look doesn't show empty slots, therefore plook does show the same empty slots. If you think plook should show the same as "Equip" but on another player, then i'm not sure i agree since plook can be used on mobs and players. I don't need to plook a mob to see that it's only got one slot filled... Grond: How about a toggle -- call it MERCY or something -- that allows you to stop fighting if your opponent is stunned or bleeding to death or otherwise helpless. It could affect your alignment, too. *DB: Wow, talk about the biggest exploit in the game ever. High level player goes around "MERCY" killing everything then his alt or his friend who is 30 levels below him comes in and casts "Cause light" on the mob, getting all the xp with no work. Ashes: how about being able to "note forward (player)", so that in alternate characters pfiles we could have all the notes forwarded to one character? *DB: I really like this idea so long as it only pertains to personal notes. I don't want to receive the notes to all 5 times because I forward them. (Removing duplicates like that based on the way the note system is setup would be close to impossible i think). Dawne: how about with a higher percentage in roundhouse, you become able to get up more quickly after falling? *DB: Anything that makes the lag on a failed roundhouse better would be welcome. That skill's power just does not merit the penalty for using it, yet humans don't have much option unless they want to blow through all their mana using laughing buddha. ===== Response by Baltar: > Paladinkain: force feeding potions, it sounds funny and i know it = > wouldn't > work out well, but still it'd be funny and occasionally useful > > DAEHDER: > I don't know what you mean. You can quaff as much potions as you want. I believe Paladinkain means the ability to force someone else to quaff a potion. Shove that poison down the mob's throat! Frankly, sounds just about impossible to do, particularly if you're in combat, so not really very realistic...Maybe characters who can 'throw' could also be able to throw potions, with a very small chance of having the potion take effect if it hits? (If you really *want* a way to use potions on others...) Baltar Kiri's WWW of URLs: From Divebomb: http://www.azoz.com/music/sponsor.html From Eviene: http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail51.html One more reason why Jennifer Lopez is a moron: http://www.intelligentx.com/newsletters/entertainment/articles/story_ent4_010703.cfm Lord of the Peeps. I have nothing more to add. http://www.lordofthepeeps.com/ The Feline Butterology Theory This question was posed to the Usenet Oracle: If you drop a buttered piece of bread, it will fall on the floor butter-side down. If a cat is dropped from a window or other high and towering place, it will land on its feet. But what if you attach a buttered piece of bread, butter-side up to a cat's back and toss them both out the window? Will the cat land on its feet? Or will the butter splat on the ground? And in response, thus spoke the Oracle: Even if you are too lazy to do the experiment yourself you should be able to deduce the obvious result. The laws of butterology demand that the butter must hit the ground, and the equally strict laws of feline aerodynamics demand that the cat can not smash its furry back. If the combined construct were to land, nature would have no way to resolve this paradox. Therefore it simply does not fall. That's right, you clever mortal (well, as clever as a mortal can get), you have discovered the secret of antigravity! A buttered cat will, when released, quickly move to a height where the forces of cat-twisting and butter repulsion are in equilibrium. This equilibrium point can be modified by scraping off some of the butter, providing lift, or removing some of the cat's limbs, allowing descent. Most of the civilized species of the Universe already use this principle to drive their ships while within a planetary system. The loud humming heard by most sighters of UFOs is, in fact, the purring of several hundred tabbies. The one obvious danger is, of course, if the cats manage to eat the bread off their backs they will instantly plummet. Of course the cats will land on their feet, but this usually doesn't do them much good, since right after they make their graceful landing several tons of red-hot starship and cheesed-off aliens crash on top of them. January 17, 2003 News From the Realms: Come visit BR at telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000/ Disaster: devilishly hard quest (but more than worth it, i promise) Realmers, I need your help!! I've just intercepted a treasure map from a mob messenger, bearing directions to a lost treasure of great power You must help me decode the message, and follow the directions to get the treasure. Amystery is sponsoring me in this quest. Hurry, before it's to late (there MIGHT be prizes for finishing, but no promises for second fastest) The code is a random permutation of the 26 letters of the alphabet, used consistently for the whole message (eg. if A-->B then all the "A"s will be "B"s) and all spaces and punctuation have been removed EXNKX FVINU NXANK RJEJO XAXAK JORAX ALAJU WRKJZ LNVCY NEXRJ UCBJJ VXJXA LEAJY JTULP FLGAL KLALG FUUYK LYNKL WJOTJ KXALD OLEXK LXOKV XJINU NXANK NVCEL LHXAL IJUJE ENUXK LLXJX ALGLE XXJTF VCNAF CCLVE LNEAL UUSJN XXALV YNEEN RNFVX AKJOR AINUN XANKJ VXALG NWXJT KLLYJ KXXAL VTKJB EJOXA YJFVX RJLFR AXKFR AXKJJ BEVJK XANVC XALVJ VLULE EXANV XAKLL KJJBE LNEXN VCCJG VFVXJ NVXAN KFNRJ XJXAL VJKXA LNEXY JKXFJ VJTXA LIFXW NVCTF VCXAL QJJRN XLXJR LXXAL XKLNE OKLTK JBXAL SJPIN UULCO ZGPWQ please note that the length of the lines doesn't matter at all, nor does the size of the letter groupings. as a starting hint, the word which appears the most often in the text is the word "the" also, please copy and paste this thing somewhere, because i REALLY don't want to have to retype it if it gets lost somehow have fun, and enjoy!! it'll be worth it, i promise by the way, since the prize is for mortals, please only take it if you're a mortal. if a hero can decode this, and prove it to me, well i'm sure something can be arranged -disaster Players that need to log in: Abby, Akira, Anthonylc, Auris, Baal, Babyface, Cogline, Corwise, Cutty, Daimos, Daisy, Dionysus, Furunkel, Gail, Gingus, Haile, Happy, Kael, Kandris, Klic, Kronus, Lavitz, Lectral, Lokincarnate, Marie, Merci, Octomous, Oin, Pepsir, Pikachu, Pressure, Ramman, Rhotor, Shadoow, Sox, Striko. Replies from Zerochocobo: Its: a light on the ground should light up a dark room just the same as a light that someone in the room is holding -I agree, it just makes sense that if there's a light in a room, it will lit up. Radicaled: as a demon allow yourself to know what level each of your limbs are, as to not replace the wrong level -This is very useful for demon_reheroes who wish to see the level of their appendages that will get replaced. Radicaled: make it so when traveling/trackgin u don't get spammed and disconnected -It doesn't disconnect you if you are tracking. You just get spammed and disconnected if you have a trigger :P Amarilla: a command called glance, where instead of LOOK showing all the characters eq you could "glance" at them and just see their condition to know if you need to heal them -I'm gonna like this if implemented. I don't like going through those messy inventories Divebomb: Add a one-way connection from somewhere in Calathar to the Arena so that people can walk in as well as use the command (this is in light of the recents notes complaining about random squishing of morts by heros) -Some mortals just wouldn't learn their lesson and they are the ones who actually attacks us first. Heroes fighting mortals should be in the hero etiquette, they know they will win, what's the point of fighting a mortal? Anakin: more games (i.e. C4). I mean more kinds of games. -Just to add, I meant like chess games and what not. (2 or more player games) Liubei: a shopkeeper that can change the personalization flag to you for 100k -I agree, 110% Grond: Fireproof spell. 'Nuff said. -I really don't get this, is this like a spell to raise save vs breath? Cowculator: we need a joke channel -There's already tons of jesters in BR that I consider all the channels a joke. Abaddon: A way for demons to see at what level they got their appendage. Perhaps using examine would work. I dont know how feasable this is, but it would be nice. -Yeah, what I said above. Geko: i think it would be neat to be able to put color in you title, you could personalize more -One of the reasons I took the gratz channel off is because of this colors, please stop annoying me. I'm about to blow up. Sej: be able to eat mob corpses like body parts when you are hungry -No thanks, eating a corpse of a giant is not a great task. Shiloh: tellh should unscramble drunk like chath -I don't see why not. :) Sej: be able to use things by feel when blind so the cure blindness potion in my inventory is usefull -Stuff like these are always confusing, they are basically useless. I saw a wand that has summon and one that has teleport in it. How can you use that wand if you can only summon or teleport on a mob on the same room you are in? Disaster: damp1, damp2, damp3 to represent increasing amounts of damage -Is this another one of your tricks to show people that my damp suck? ;P Liubei: heroes should automatically always have autosac on so they cant turn it off -I don't think this is necessary. :smirk: I still like carrying corpses for corpse runs Cord: how about making it not-possible to summon a fighting mob? -It's absurd to summon a dying mob from a trying-to-level newbie, isn't it? Kiri's WWW of URLs: From Amystery: http://icanstilltellyourwifebill.com/ A very convincing Ad: http://www.abrupt.org/CJ/damage.jpg I LOVE this cat (and so will you) http://www.broenink-art.nl/maukie.swf Some really good mocks of old ads (From Oakley) http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html BIOS: I'm starting a new bio section that I ask anyone who wants to participate to go ahead and do so. The purpose of this new bio section is to provide real life information in order to promote networking for jobs, ways to make nearby friendships or even find love. Basically I'm going to ask you guys to fill in as little or as much as you'd like to, reply to this, and I will include it in future newsletters. If someone wants to contact you, they will via the mud or an email you might provide. NAME ON BR: BR RACE/LEVEL: YOUR REAL AGE: YOUR REAL LOCATION (State/province & Country): YOUR OCCUPATION: YOUR GOALS FOR THE FUTURE: WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING TO DO BY POSTING HERE? PUT AN X NEXT TO ONE OR ALL: NETWORKING FRIENDSHIP FIND LOVE WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A MAN/WOMAN? WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A FRIEND? WHAT KIND OF JOB ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? IF YOU GO TO COLLEGE, WHICH ONE? HOW TO CONTACT YOU - ON BR VIA NOTE OR EMAIL? IF EMAIL, PUT IT HERE: SAMPLE BIO BY KIRI: NAME ON BR: Kiri BR RACE/LEVEL: Druid 155 YOUR REAL AGE: 25 YOUR REAL LOCATION (State/province & Country): California, US YOUR OCCUPATION: Law Student YOUR GOALS FOR THE FUTURE: To eventually become a full time mediator WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING TO DO BY POSTING HERE? PUT AN X NEXT TO ONE OR ALL: NETWORKING X FRIENDSHIP FIND LOVE WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A MAN/WOMAN? N/A WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A FRIEND? N/A WHAT KIND OF JOB ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? Something legal that pays. IF YOU GO TO COLLEGE, WHICH ONE? Loyola Law School, Los Angeles HOW TO CONTACT YOU - ON BR VIA NOTE OR EMAIL? Either IF EMAIL, PUT IT HERE: kiri_2@hotmail.com THis is a joke, hopefully no one is offended: The League of United Nations Top 10 Reasons For Being French 1. When speaking fast you can make yourself sound gay. 2. Experience the joy of winning the world cup for the first time. 3. You get to eat insect food like snails and frog's legs. 4. If there's a war you can surrender really early. 5. You don't have to read the subtitles on those late night films on Channel 4. 6. You can test your own nuclear weapons in other people's countries. 7. You can be ugly and still become a famous film star. 8. Allow Germans to march up and down your most famous street humiliating your sense of national pride. 9. You don't have to bother with toilets, just shit in the street. 10. People think you're a great lover even when you're not. Top 10 Reasons For Being American 1. You can have a woman president without electing her. 2. You can spell colour wrong and get away with it. 3. You can call Budweiser beer. 4. You can be a crook and still be president. 5. If you've got enough money you can get elected to do anything. 6. If you can breathe you can get a gun. 7. You get to be really obese. 8. You can play golf in the most hideous clothes ever made and nobody seems to care. 9. You get to call everyone you've never met "buddy" 10. You can think you're the greatest nation on earth. Top 10 Reasons For Being English 1. Two World Wars and One World Cup doo-dah doo-dah. 2. Proper beer. 3. You get to confuse everyone with the rules of cricket. 4. You get to accept defeat graciously in major sporting events 5. Union jack underpants. 6. Water shortages guaranteed every single summer. 7. You can live in the past and imagine you are still a world power. 8. Bathing once a week-whether you need to or not. 9. Ditto changing underwear 10. Beats being Welsh. 10a. Or Scottish Top 10 Reasons For Being Italian 1. In-depth knowledge of bizarre pasta shapes. 2. Unembarrassed to wear fur. 3. No need to worry about tax returns. 4. Glorious military history prior to 400 a.d. 5. Can wear sunglasses inside. 6. Political stability. 7. Flexible working hours. 8. Live near the Pope. 9. Can spend hours braiding girlfriend's armpit hair. 10. Country run by Sicilian murderers Top 10 Reasons For Being Spanish 1. Glorious history of killing South American tribes. 2. The rest of Europe thinks Africa begins at the Pyrenees. 3. You get your beaches invaded by Germans, Danes, Brits etc. 4. The rest of your country is already invaded by Moroccans. 5. Everybody else makes crap paella and claims it's the real thing. 6. Honesty 7. Only sure way of bedding a woman is to dress up in stupid, tight clothes and risk your life in front of bulls 8. You get to eat bulls' testicles. 9. Gibraltar. 10. Supported Argentina in Falklands War. Top 10 Reasons For Being Indian 1. Chicken Madras 2. Lamb Passanda 3. Onion Bhaji 4. Bombay Potato 5. Chicken Tikka Masala 6. Rogan Josh 7. Popadoms 8. Chicken Dopiaza 9. Meat Boona 10. Kingfisher lager Top 10 Reasons For Being Welsh 1. You've got to be having a laugh, haven't you? Top 10 Reasons For Being Irish 1. Guinness. 2. 18 children because you can't use contraceptives. 3. You can get into a fight just by marching down someone's road. 4. Pubs never close. 5. Can use Papal edicts on contraception passed in the second Vatican Council of 1968 to persuade your girlfriend that you can't have sex with a condom on. 6. No one can ever remember the night before. 7. Kill people you don't agree with. 8. Stew. 9. More Guinness. 10. Eating stew and drinking Guinness in an Irish pub at 3 in the morning after a bout of sectarian violence. Top 10 Reasons For Being Canadian 1. It beats being an American. 2. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground. 3. You can play hockey 12 months a year, outdoors. 4. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground. 5. Where else can you travel 1000 miles over fresh water in a canoe? 6. A political leader can admit to smoking pot and his/her popularity ratings will rise. 7. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground. 8. Kill Grizzly bears with huge fuckoff shotguns and cover your house in their skins. 9. Own-an-Eskimo scheme. 10. Only country to successfully invade the US and burn its capital to the ground. Top 10 Reasons For Being Australian 1. Know your great-grand-dad was a murdering bastard that no civilised nation on earth wanted. 2. Fosters Lager 3. Dispossess Aborigines who have lived in your country for 40,000 years because you think it belongs to you. 4. Cricket captain not afraid to cry live on TV. 5. Tact and sensitivity. 6. Bondi Beach. 7. Other beaches. 8. Liberated attitude to homosexuals. 9. Drinking cold lager on the beach 10. Having a bit of a swim and then drink some cold lager on the beach. Top 10 Reasons For Being Dutch 1. having the best football team every four years and never win the world cup 2. make lousy beer, but still manage to sell it to the entire world 3. if you can breathe you can get marijuana 4. get to collect the best recipe's from all over the world, cause you can't cook yourself 5. beat the English at the sports they invented 6. you can hate the Germans all your life, collaborate with them for five years and go back to hating them again 7. pretend water is your best friend in the summer and fight it all winter. 8. have all kinds of foreigners over and welcome them in their native language so they never learn Dutch 9. live in the less densely populated area of the world in July, cause everyone is in France 10. practice a sport no one else does and act happy when winning five gold medals at the Olympics Top 10 Reasons For Being Scottish 1. Haggis 2. Never having to worry about buying a ticket to watch their nation in the World Cup after the qualifying rounds 3. If you can breathe you can talk gibberish 4. Hate the English (especially after watching Braveheart) 5. Billy Connally 6. Drink whisky better than the English 7. Never have to worry about understanding cricket 8. Trainspotting (the film) 9. Wear a kilt with pride ... not just for fashion 10. Wear anything with pride ... even though it isn't fashion 11. You have so much naturally beautiful water in supply, that your neighbours steal it and sell it back to you at premium price. 12. You have so much oil in supply, that your neighbours steal it and sell it back to you at premium price. 13. A brilliant ability to count from a very young age.