PowerMud

Releases 2006

Date : 12/22/2006, Apex

New Area - Check the main board for more information. (Post by Apex)

Date : 12/21/2006, Cyrgon, Viper

Webpage - The PK statistics has been fixed and updated. Check it out!
Spells - Before, if you failed to cast the Dispel Magic or Dispel Illusion spell on a target, the target attacked you. However the target did not attack you if the spell was successful. That way is backwards, so it has been switched.
Trainers - All skill trainers that are not associated with a particular Guild have been altered, concerning price of the skill to learn. Your Charisma is looked at when the price is determined. A higher Charisma means the price is lower, while a lower Charisma will cause the price to be higher. The Charisma taken into account is whatever your Charisma score is at that moment when trying to learn the skill. So EQ and Spells/Scrolls that boost your Charisma should be worn/used prior to learning an expensive skill. (This does not affect learning spells or Psionics)

Date : 12/20/2006, Blink

Combat - When in battle, the 'order' that certain skills/actions take have been altered somewhat. Now, one particular sequence would be: Full dodge, stoneskins, partial dodge. Prior to this, full and partial dodge were both after the stoneskins check. Now, a full dodge, if completed, will occur before any stoneskins are hit.

Date : 12/14/2006, Viper

Food - Cooked food now has a 'Food Quality' rating. That rating is dependant on the Cook's 'Cooking Skill'. Also, having the Chef profession will greatly boost this rating. The higher the rating, the more the food will heal a player when it is eaten. It could possibly (at the highest level) double the HPs healed when eaten.

Date : 12/07/2006, Viper

Spells - The 'Find Traps' spell has been fixed. A small bug had made it so the attribute added had a ceiling. That has been fixed so that now if the spell is lucky, you can get an added attribute that is very high, higher than normal.
Artifact - The Bracelet of Vision's 'Find Traps' attribute has been doubled.
Psionics - The Psionics that had the ':' in them have been altered. They now have a dash '-' instead, so it is easier to make an alias with them. Your 'psionics' command should list the new value. You may have to adjust existing aliases to reflect their new names. (These are the Energy and Body Control Psionics)

Date : 11/21/2006, Blink

Corpses - At this time, when a non-Player corpses disintegrates into nothing, anything on it's corpse will be destroyed if it is non-magical and worth under 500 drakaan. So a torch for instance would be destroyed and not moved to the room of the corpse. Again, this does not affect anything that is magical, worth over 500 drakaan, or drakaan itself. NOTE: This change only concerns itself when the corpse disintegrates on its own, not by bury or offer.
Carve - A new command 'carve' has been put in. Please see the 'help carve' help file for more information.
Cooking - A new recipe that uses raw meat has been added. Please check the 'cook list' to see the specifics on it.

Date : 11/17/2006, Viper

Arach- Tillith - All of the spells only learnable by a Priestess or higher have been upgraded. Also, the Level of the spells have been modified to fit the new Spell Level scheme. For Clerics, though, the Epic Faith skill is used to determine if they can learn the spell or not.
Spells - The Prismatic Spray spell has been upgraded. It now has two additional types of rays that can hit the target that do varying effects. Also, the general Damage done by the spell is increased.

Date : 11/16/2006, Viper

PK - You will now NOT get a regular death when you are PK'ed. That is, it will not add to your death count. Your PK stats of course will be affected. Everything else about dying is the same though, like possibly losing skill exp, etc.
PK Areas - The number of areas that are loaded to be PK each reboot has been increased. You will notice that all of the large cities will be loaded every time. The chance of all areas to load has also been increased.
Spells - There are now 10 levels of spells, it used to be 5. Any spell that is above 5 will take some skill level in the Epic school for that spell (Epic Abjuration for Siphon Weave for example).

Date : 10/31/2006, Viper

Sorcere - The 'Shockawe' spell has been put in. Note that it is only learnable and usable by a House Mage.

Date : 10/25/06 and 10/26/06, Viper

Effects - The 'Health Boost' effect from Intensification will now show up when using the 'effects' command.
Forge - The forge skill/cmd has been modified slightly in regards to dealing with enchanted items: 1) Resizing cannot be done on Enchanted items 2) Sharpen and Calibrate cannot be used on Enchanted items 3) Enhance cannot be done on Enchanted items 4) Repairing Enchanted items cost more than regular items, but not near as much as Magical items.
Smithy Repair - The NPC Smiths have been notified in their breaking of the Labor Code section 4.3.5 paragraph 7. Until now they have been charging the same price for repairing normal items and Enchanted items. The price has been raised to repair Enchanted items, although that price is still lower than for Magical items. Also, the NPC smiths will no longer resize armor that has been Enchanted.
Enchant - As of now, any equipment that has been Enchanted will have that Enchantment eventually wear off. The Enchantment will wear off after a certain number of times it gets damaged during combat. This number of times is determined at the time of casting the spell. The higher the skill of the caster, the longer the item will last. All those currently in the game will have a default value added to them. After the Enchantment wears off, the item will become exactly as it was before the Enchantment.

Date : 10/20/06, Viper

Spells - The Striking and Greater Striking spells have been upgraded. That is, a weapon with this effect will now do more damage than before this change. Also, you can tell if a weapon has the spell on it, and the level of the effectiveness, just by looking at it. See the help files for the spells in order to see what the levels are.

Date : 10/17/06, Viper

Clerical Guilds - The duration of most 'buff' type spells has been increased. The increase is based on the player's 'Epic Faith' skill. See 'help clerical_spell_update' for the list of spells that were affected.
Drow Artifact - The 'pet' statues have been removed from the prizes for the Drow Artifact quest. If you have already gotten one, you can turn it in and get another. Just contact Viper. The statues will be moved to a different place and will still be able to be gotten.

Date : 10/05/06, Viper

Most Guilds - Several Guilds have had their skill level maxes raised for certain fighting skills (slash, ranged, pierce, blunt, or unarmed). It could be for more than one. Those guilds are: Knights, Honor Guard, Militia, Melee-Magthere, Rangers, and Dunkrist Homeguard
Fighter Guilds - The Epic combat skills are now in. Please check your Guild trainer and/or help file to see if you get any. You have to have Perfect in the corresponding regular skill in order to learn the Epic one. For instance, you have to have Perfect 'Slash' skill in order to learn 'Epic Slash', if you are a Knight.
Profs - The Bladesman, Duelist, Archer, Sapper, and Brawler get a skill max bonus to their corresponding combat Epic. Please see their help file for more information. Note that the ability to learn the Epic skill depends on the Guild. If your Guild cannot learn Epic Slash for instance, then getting the Duelist Profession will not allow you to gain the skill.
Damage - There are 3 new damage messages at the top of the list. That is, 'MAMMOTH' damage was the highest you could get, at least as far as the message went. Some more have been added. This does not mean you are doing more damage now, it just means that the top side of the messages have been expanded. Before this, MAMMOTH encompassed _any_ amount of damage after a certain amount.

Date : 9/27/06, Viper

Spells - Dispel Magic no longer dispels non-magical affects on NPCs. It used to dispel natural (racial) affects that the creature had, but it will not any longer. The SP cost for the spell, also, has been reduced.

Date : 9/26/06, Viper

Non-Combat Skills/Cmds - The amount of regular experience awarded for a successful roundusing a non-combat command has been increased. For instance, when you successfully catch a fish, sometimes you get regular experience along with Fishing experience. Now you will get it more often when you succeed, and more of it. Professions give bonuses to this amount as well. Such as, you will get more experience as a Blacksmith when you successfully Forge an item, than if you were not a Blacksmith. Note that it is still possible to _not_ get any regular experience in these situations, but that chance is much lower now. Cmds/Skills affected: Mine, Fish, Forge, Woodwork, Roll-cigar, Glass Blowing/Making, Tailor, Start-fire, Skin, Cook, Chop, Pan (Some, like Skin and Pan, did not give any experience prior)
Rangers - The Ranger Guild now has the Claws and Biting Aversions skills.
Training - For biting/Claws Aversion, the cost per training point was not correctly put in when the skills were first put in. That has been fixed. You will notice the training costs to now be the same as the other Aversions.

Date : 9/22/06, Viper

Assassins - The Assassinate skill has been somewhat downgraded. The chance for an outright kill has been reduced slightly, as well as the max damage it can do. However, the Stun chance has been increased.
Combat - The bug that allowed those fagii to run in and out of rooms to attack multiple times has been fixed. Thanks Blink!

Date : 9/21/06, Viper, Blink

Spells - The Enhanced Charge Weapon spell has been added to the Bastion. It is learnable by the transmuter (an Officer) only. Also, the Charge Weapon spell has been set to a Level 4 spell and the SP cost has been significantly lowered.

Date : 9/15/06, Viper, Blink

Merchant - The shopkeepers around the realm that buy stone, gems, gold, and whatnot now will give mercantile skill experience.
Spells - The SP cost of Channel Weave has been lowered from 250 to 175.
Spells - The 'Charge Weapon' spell has been added to Sorcere and Bastion.

Date : 9/13/06, Viper

Spells/EQ - Protection from Evil/Good/Undead has again been modified, this time upgraded from the last release. At the last releases, on 9/1/06, the effect of this spell/eq was reduced in effectiveness by about 25% (on average). It has now been made to be about 16% on average. keep in mind that it is possible that the effect will be different every round, as now it is somewhat random (0-32% reduction).
Harvesting - It is now possible for a Herbalist to get more than one item when harvesting.

Date : 9/7/2006, Viper

Concoctions - An Alchemist, and only an Alchemist, can now use Concoctions in the Killing Fields.
Spells - The Poison Cloud spell has been fixed. Before it only added the poison infection to one target, now it adds to all in the room.
Dragons - The time that Dragonfear stays with you is now reduced by a few things. If you are a Dragon Hunter or Slayer, the time is reduced. Your DKR standing also reduces the time.
Top 10 - The Top 10 List (help top_ten_list) has been updated.
Aversion - The bug where you gained exp in Unarmed Aversion when fighting againsts something that uses Claws or Biting has been fixed.
Professions - The Claws Aversion and Biting Aversion skills have been added to the Animal Trainer Profession.
Professions - The Biting Aversion skill has been added to the Horseman Profession.
Professions - The Claws Aversion and Biting Aversion skills have been added to both the Dragon Hunter and Dragon Slayer Professions.
Magic EQ - Two new Rings of Lat have been added, one each for Claws and Biting Aversion bonuses. Where they are you will have to find out.

Date : 9/1/2006, Viper

Spells - The lasting duration of the Melee Invulnerability, Magic Invulnerability, and Invulnerability spells has been increased.
Spells/EQ - The effectiveness of Protection from Good/Evil/Undead has been decreased slightly.

Date : 8/23/2006, Viper

Conjuration - The Faerie Fire spell can now affect if the target's Blur fails. That is, a PC or NPC that has Faerie Fire cast upon them, and also has a Limited Blur or Blur spell upon them as well, will find that they will dodge an attack using their Blur benefit far less than normal. No message will appear stating that the Faerie Fire caused the miss, though.
Monks - You now get a bonus to the number of HPs you are given when you ruminate, if you are a Guild Officer.

Date : 5/11/2006, Viper

Northmen - Warcry and Berserk have been added to the 'effects' listing.
Professions - Duelists, Sappers, and Bladesmen now get a bonus for dual and triple, when wielding their preferred weapon type.

Date : 5/2/2006, Cyrgon

Login - The possibility to bypass the user mode when logging in has been added. Use '#character name' when you are asked for the user name and you will immediately be able to play with that character, given that it exists and is linked to a user. The password asked is for the user the character is linked to.

Date : 4/29/2006, Apex

Global emotes - A new channel has been added 'soul' which allows you to send pre-defined emotes across the mud. See 'help soul' to see how it is used.

Date : 4/23/2006, Cyrgon

Homepage - A releases archive located under 'main' has been added. It has information about code changes from 2004-2006.

Date : 4/21/2006, Cyrgon

Homepage - After almost five years without any real layout changes Powermud's homepage has gotten a new appearance, hopefully to the better. It now uses a css script and php. Check it out and give your opinion of it, what could be improved, what's not working, etc.

Date : 4/07/2006, Viper

Northmen - Northmen now get a SP regen when they are Berserked.
Magic EQ - The Red leather pants from Wyrmfather's stash have been significantly upgraded.
Login - The new login system is in. Ask a Dev if you have any questions about it.

Date : 3/17/2006, Viper

Blindness - The bug where you could not do anything (guild specials, cast) after being Blinded by something has been fixed. It only really happened if you spammed your guild commands a bunch of times.
Globe of Darkness - The target may get confused enough so they cannot move for a few rounds. That is, they could not run from the fight.

Date : 3/16/2006, Blink & Viper

NPC/Ranged - Any NPCs that wields a ranged weapon (Bow) can now possibly fire more than 1 arrow a round, just like Players can. This affects any existing NPC and those that have not been added yet.
Weapon - When wielding a weapon (either primary or secondary) that has a higher skill requirement than you already have will result in you NOT getting experience for the following: Evasion, Dodging, Spell Repulsion, Parrying, Natural Defense, and all Aversion skills It is certainly possible that the action will work, like dodging an attack, but you will not gain experience in that skill at all.
Acrobat/ Tumbler - If you have either or both of these Professions, you will now only receive the 'metal armor penalty to AC' for certain slots: Armor, Shield, Arms, Legs, Boots, Helmet, Cloak, Gloves, Misc
Bless - It is now possible to cast the Blessed and/or Bless spell on a target that already has the attribute via equipment.

Date : 3/13/2006, Blink

Bastion - Two new spells have been added to the Bastion of High Sorcery.

Date : 3/10/2006, Cyrgon

Boards - The boards has been changed slightly, or rather the polls. It is now possible start polls where you can change your vote and add an experience check.

Date : 3/01/2006, Viper

Raise Dead - The 'Raise Dead' spell has been modified slightly. If the target of the spell is a registered PKer, the target has to use the 'allow' command before the spell will work. This was put in to avoid a potential exploit.

Date : 2/23/2006, Viper & Blink

Grouping - There is now a 'groupchat' command, check out 'help groupchat'. Currently you cannot see a past log of conversations, but that should come soon.
Nova Flare - It is now possible to cast the spell when nobody is in the same room as you. (Put in to prevent unfair fighting techniques) You will lose SP and be delayed (by half), but still get some exp in the Abjuration skill. Also, the length of the Blindness towards Players has been reduced as well. The length of time was way higher than any other comparable spell. The damage that the spell does has been increased, though.
Psionic - The 'Expansion' Psionic has been altered a bit. It should now show up under the Psionic section using 'effects'.
Dragons - The Dragon Hunter and Dragon Slayer Professions now give a bonus to the UD and Surface 'syndromes' when using the 'cast' command. The bonus will occur when fighting the Dragon only. Also, the path to the Silver Dragon has re-opened.
Spy - The Spy Profession now gets a bonus to Stealing (Larceny), Backstab, and Assassinate. That is, if your Guild allows you to do those activities in the first place.

Date : 2/13/2006, Viper

Cult - The rewards when you turn in your 'Offerings' have been made to last significantly longer than they used to.

Date : 1/08/2006, Viper

Spell - The 'Cause Disease' spell has been upgraded. The damage done for the round attacks has been greatly upped, and is also more dependant on the caster's skill. See the help file for more information on the damage piece. The duration of the round attacks have also been dimished, so it will not last as long.

Date : 1/20/2006, Viper

Command - At long last the Haste and Enhanced Haste Spells have been fixed. The issue was that it was giving a very large penalty to the other NPC (or PC)'s TO HIT. It was not the AC Bonus that I thought it was. The Bug was that any NPC or PC you fought could hardly hit you, that is the part that is fixed. Thanks to Elaug for helping me find the bug!