Shattered Kingdoms

Overall system enhancements:
- New improved random number generator
- Four miscellaneous crash bugs fixed
- Game memory optimizations

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed bugs in magical resize and release
- Charmed PCs will not fade away on release
- Range weapons and ammo can be compared
- Dead spirits won't swim when underwater
- Mounts will stop fighting after fleeing
- Won't make footsteps while swimming
- NPC Charmies won't hunt your enemies
- Display of shop open hours is now accurate
- No requesting while asleep or following
- Remember flag now works for healers/trainers
- Must be awake during your execution
- Dead criminals can't serve time
- Accurate polymorph equipment removal
- Bards won't be affected by own countersong
- Gtell was not affected by greet
- Long prompts were outputting garbage text
- Attacks no longer deflected from unarmored slots
- Name targetting fixed when using disguise
- Earthquake was causing flying members to attack
- Bash will not lag target when an image breaks
- Wind won't blow flyers through doors
- Flying mounts don't get blown away from rider
- Can no longer mount while party is fighting
- Will start swimming if bucked over water
- Mirror image was stopping NPCs from attacking
- Chain lightning was crossing ethereal boundary
- No longer complete casting if affected by sleep
- Having a pet shoot didn't set off NPC hunting
- Stone skin no longer protects from falls

Speed system package:
The minor update enhances the speed command, mostly
for in-character purposes.  If you are flying, you
can set speed to soar (slow), flit (medium), or dart
(fast).  If you are a quadruped (centaurs/griffons),
you can set speed to walk (slow), trot (medium), or
gallop (fast).  These speeds will echo as you move
from room to room so that everyone knows how fast
you are currently moving.  As always, fleeing will
cause your speed to move to the fastest setting.  In
an effort to aid newbies, we've added an feature to
automatically set you back to your old speed on the
next tick after fleeing.  Having both legs mangled
still makes it impossible to flee, but even with only
one leg mangled, your chance of success now drops to
50%.  Damaged legs will no longer affect your chance
to flee if you are currently flying.

Falling system package:
This minor update creates situations where you will
take damage (or worse) from falling that doesn't
involve climbing.  The two primary situations are
if you dismount from a flying creature or if your
flight magic is dispelled.  Both will result in your
taking damage and possibly falling to a lower room
if you are currently in an air sector.  Releasing
the spell will normally allow you to float to nearby
ground, but you will fall if you are in an air sector.
If you are a significant distance above the ground
(flying above cities) or there is no ground (beyond
the edge of the continent) falling will result in
death and the destruction of your corpse.

Miscellaneous changes:
- Recharge will work more often
- Weight now uses fractions of a pound
- Maledictions are no longer release spells
- Undead will forget attackers once controlled
- Energy drain now also drains movement
- Taunt now makes it impossible to flee
- Song of silence prevents taunting
- Charmed characters have 'glazed over' eyes
- Charmed leaders can't use cabal commands
- Hunters won't pursue where they can't breathe
- All newbies start with the dagger skill
- Range modifiers for distance, cover and wind
- Wind speed recalibrated to represent knots
- Mood command clarified and enhanced
- Mirror images only break after concentration
- Sanctuary only tests after concentration
- Can't pay for healing spells while fighting
- Healer will not sell spells while fighting
- Metallic skins must be tailored at the blacksmith
- Unrepairable material skins cannot be tailored
- Not able to rest or sit while snared
- Cannot hide while wearing glowing items
- Cannot sleep while adrenaline is gushing
- No color codes in emote, pemote and cb

Recall system package:
This update further tweaks the recall system
which was changed several months ago.  The XP
penalty for recall has been dropped by 80%, so
you will have to recall five times in order to
lose a full tick of experience.  However, use
of recall now requires that 50% of your PE is
available and that full 50% will be used up in
transport.  Furthermore, recall now transports
you to the portal stones instead of the city
center.  The Ayamao and Taslamar portal stones
have been moved slightly closer to the cities
and all locations have been marked on the map.
Cabal and tribunal members will also by default
recall to the portal stones, but they have an
optional 'cabal recall' (or 'tribunal recall')
command that they can use to transport to their
HQ or their city center.  All normal penalties
for recall apply to the group recall commands.


Inn system package:
Starting cities are a place to interact with
other players and it is important that they be
used so that new players can learn the ropes.
To entice people to head back to town between
adventures, we have designated several inns
and/or taverns across the realms as enhanced
regeneration locations.  They are as follows:

Exile: The Heart and Rose
Menegroth: The Sword and Axe
Teron: The Crossroads Inn
Krychire: The Krychire Inn
Sith'a'niel: Sith'a'niel Commons
Nerina: TBD

While sleeping or resting in these locations
(whether in the bedrooms or the common rooms),
you will regenerate health, mana and move at a
signficantly enhanced rate.  The inn message
will alert you that the system is working.

Combat package:
Probably the hardest of the packages to describe,
this change began with two facts.  1. NPC hitpoints
far exceeded PC hitpoints at high levels.  2. PvP
combat was over so quickly that few tactics could
be used once battle had started.  To solve both of
these problems, some sweeping changes had to take
place to both the code and the area database.

- 95% of the NPCs in the game have had their health
brought into line with PCs of the same class/level.
In the process, this makes last year's pet wimping
changes mostly obsolete.  The only NPCs that remain
at pre-change stats are certain races that you expect
to be supernaturally powerful.  For example, two of
the uber races are dragons and daemons.  You earn
double XP now for killing these "boss" creatures.

- PC hitpoints have not changed at all.  Instead the
damage that weapons and spells dish out has been
recalibrated.  Spell damage has been reduced by a
common percentage across the board.  Weapon damage
is more complicated.  It has not been reduced so much
as flattened.  In the same way that armor materials
reduce damage regardless of the armor's level, so it
is with weapons.  A GM level longsword does the same
base damage as a practice longsword.  What makes a
weapon prized by GMs is what you might expect: its
material type, whether it deals special kinds of
damage (such as flaming) and its enchantments.

Testing shows that these changes have accelerated the
ability to gain experience.  At lower levels weapons
are more powerful and at higher levels NPCs have less
hitpoints.  If we'd stopped there, we might have
fulfilled the goals listed above but there's more.

- Only having the dozen weapon types for which there
are skills (sword, dagger, etc) would make this new
flat weapon system pretty boring for fighters.  So
we've delivered a new system of weapon subtypes.  If
you know the sword skill, there are twenty different
kinds of swords, ranging from epee to no-dachi to the
landsknecht.  Each weapon type has at least a half
dozen subtypes and each subtype has not only its own
damage but also its own speed and accuracy ratings
as well as a number of miscellaneous attributes.

- Weapon accuracy affects chance to hit, parry and
disarm while weapon speed affects chance to achieve
multiple attacks per round as well as lag when wielding.
Only certain weapons are capable of performing certain
skills: even though both a dagger and a spiked mace
are piercing weapons, you'll only be able to backstab
with the dagger. Some types of weapons, like all
flails, are impossible to be parried normally.  You
can throw a hatchet or a bola, and there are weapons,
like the spiked chain, that are not polearms but still
count as reach weapons.  There are even weapons, like
brass knuckles, that you can wear in your hand slot to
improve your bare-handed fighting damage.

- Ranged combat has had to change a lot to mesh with
the new system as well.  Ranged weapons use second,
third and fourth attack just like melee weapons and
are similarly limited by both their weapon and ammo
accuracy and speed.  The scout dual shot skill is
changed to rapid shot, to reflect their specialized
ability with bow combat, and fletching will produce
an assortment of both arrow and bolt types.  There
are many more types of ammo to fit specific weapon
types: a dart goes in a hand crossbow and spears can
be thrown with an atlatl.  Skirmish had to be recoded
almost from scratch and many targetting bugs from the
previous version have been fixed.

Miscellaneous new features:
- Magical vestment spell for priests (see help)
- Hamstring skill for rogues (see help)
- Plant skill for bards and rogues (see help)
- Perfect skills are now 'mastered' instead
- Comparison of weapons include speed and accuracy

- Camo has same limitations as hide
- Hamstring now working like circle stab
- Initial attack was bypassing formation
- Reduced mana costs on damaging spells
- Sticking magma hinders health regeneration
- Shooting message bug fix

- Examine displays weapon subtype
- Coifs can now be created at the tailor
- Scale is now a repairable material
- Tweaks for 2-handed weapons
- Tweaks related to dual wielding
- Tweaks to armor system

Tweaks:
- Random number system
- Disguise
- Confusion
- Summon
- Dual backstab
- Ambush
- Faerie fire
- Shoot/Throw