Updates Summary (4/22-5/5/07)

New Spell Modifiers - Aelius
One more spell modifier today:

Chaos: Imagine Vexmir casting your spell for you. This modifier will
decrease, increase, or not change at all any or all of: spell power,
duration, mana cost, or concentration lag. NOTE: In true Vexmir spirit,
only undeclared players may use this modifier.

Remember - the format is "cast +mod spell name target". Don't forget the
plus sign (+)!


Legends Channel - Aelius
Legends, you now have your own channel, aptly called "legend" (and
"legendlog"). Only legends and staff members have access to this channel.


The Wilderness - Muirdach
As you may have noticed, there have been some changes to mobs in the
Wilderness. This is part of an ongoing attempt to make the Wilderness more
interesting and enjoyable, rather than just being a whole bunch of random
NPCs that stand there to be killed.

Some general themes:

- more NPCs will be region-specific rather than all over the world
- more interaction, some mini-quests and errands
- generally more variety
- more reason to choose what you attack (and don't attack)

Overall, things should be more logical rather than just a slaughterfest.

I hope that you enjoy it.


Mana and Magic - Aelius
- You should find now that, when casting a spell, your mana (or
hitpoints, if using the lich modifier) will only be drained if the spell
effect is successful. So this means that, for example, if you cast beacon
and find that you're not within range of your targetted beacon point, the
spell will not deduct mana. Or, as another example, if you cast warpstone
mistakingly on a non-gem object, the spell will not deduct mana. And so
on...

NOTE: this was a fairly extensive change code-wise, so if you notice any
abnormalities please let me know.


Spell Scribing; Staff Beacon Change - Aelius
On the player side, a change to spell scribing:
- You can now scribe spells at over 360 degrees/points, so long as the extra
degrees come from style bonuses and not equipment or spell effects.

In other words, if you have 360 degree elemental damage and another 90
degrees in that elemental damage because of Dragon Soul, you'll be able to
scribe a 450 degree spell. But if you have another 15 degrees of that
elemental damage because of, say, your magical boots, those will not be able
to push your limit up.

For staff:
- You should once again be able to see the beacon lists of players by using
the "beacon " syntax.


Hiscore Tables Reset for May - Fern
Just like it sounds. The tables on hiscore that are marked (M) have been
reset. And, just like every month, things will be a tad strange for a few
days while people show back up on those monthly-reset lists.


Forum Link - Fern
By popular demand, Forum has its own top level link button now. Look for
it next to Features in the top line of buttons.


Styles and Affects List
If you see 'strange stuff' in your affects list, change style, and then
change back to the style you want to use. The strange stuff should be
corrected.

If it is not corrected, bugreport it, with a copy of your affects list in
the bugreport via copy/paste.


Demeanor No More - Aelius
Just a quick update to tell everyone that "demeanor", AKA facial
appearance, is gone from the stock descriptions generated upon character
creation.