Changes made to Meridian 59 since 27 Nov 1996

To make changes to this document, check the file out in sourcesafe, and make your changes in whatever webpage-editing program you prefer (Netscape Gold has a reasonable one built in). Place all changes in chronological order, so that testers don't have to hunt to find new stuff. Only the development team should make changes to this document. Click here to know the easiest way to use this system.

Click here to see the changes made before 20 Jan 1997.

Server and server-related kod changes

20 Jan CKirmse The show account command now works with account names that start with a number. High confidence

Client Changes

20 Jan AKirmse Moved ad files to the "ads" subdirectory of the client. High confidence
22 Jan AKirmse Changed character creation dialog to use palette translations on faces. High confidence
22 Jan AKirmse Fixed up the text input box's selection stuff, so that when you click on the box, the text isn't selected. Mid confidence
22 Jan AKirmse Changed the way names match in tells. The new way is:

1) If the name exactly matches a player's name, tell to just that player.

2) If the name exactly matches a group name, send to that group.

3) If the name unambiguously matches a prefix of a single player's name, tell to that player.

4) If the name unambiguously matches a prefix of a single group's name, send to that group.

5) Otherwise, give an error.

 Low confidence
23 Jan AKirmse Added a control to the character creation dialog for changing hair color. High confidence
24 Jan AKirmse Changed the character creation dialog so that the "spells" and "skills" tabs don't appear if you log on as a guest. High confidence
24 Jan AKirmse Detect when you type your account name as "guest", and treat it as a guest login. Mid confidence
24 Jan AKirmse Set directional lighting in all outdoor rooms. Walls facing the sun should be brighter than walls facing away from the sun. High confidence
25 Jan AKirmse Patched up tells a bit more. You should no longer need quotes around two word player names. Mid confidence
25 Jan AKirmse Documented advertisement support and guest logins. Low confidence
27 Jan AKirmse Added new online help pages from Kevin O'Hara. High confidence
27 Jan EHalley Added profanity filter.
  • Switch in Preferences Dialog turns it on or off. It defaults to ON.
  • Profanity Options Dialog available by button in Preferences Dialog to configure it.
  • Profanity Options Dialog sets either "ignore whole messages" or "obscure with $#@!".
  • Profanity Options Dialog allows new words to be added or removed, but you can't see the list of all profane words (by design).
  • When active, all incoming messages are filtered, and all outgoing SAY, TELL, BROADCAST, YELL, EMOTE commands are subject to blocking.
  • An ignored line with profanity appears as "<profane message blocked>" in red.
  • An obscured line with profanity appears with offensive materials replaced with symbols.
  • When sending a message with profanity, a message box pops up suggesting you rethink your message.
  • No profanity is stopped in either direction if your Profanity Filter is off.
  • If your filter is off, you can send profanity. It is up to the receiver to filter their input.
    		•  Medium confidence
    27 Jan EHalley Added Command Aliases.
  • Options Menu has "Hotkey Aliases" and "Command Aliases"
  • The old Hotkey Alias dialog has a button to go to the new Command Alias dialog.
  • The new Command Alias dialog has a button to go to the old Hotkey Alias dialog.
  • The Command Alias dialog has Define and Remove buttons, and Word and Command fields.
  • Define will add or replace a definition to the list. The current contents of the Word and Command fields are cleared.
  • Remove will remove a definition from the list (either the Word entered, or the definition selected in the list).
  • Clicking on a definition in the list will fill the Word and Command fields to edit.
  • Clicking OK will save the definitions.
  • Typing any alias word defined will perform the associated command.
  • All user-level commands are given priority ('get' can't be an alias).
  • Error messages for invalid command in an alias, and ambiguous use of two similar aliases.
    		•  Medium confidence
    10 Feb EHalley Made minor modifications to Profanity Filter.
  • Dialog box has new option "search extra hard for profanity". The new option defaults to OFF.
  • If checked, profanity is found even if it's hiding really well, and also in unintended places.
  • If not checked, profanity is not found if it's buried in other words, or may be a part of regular speech.

    • For example, "WHO REmembers" or "is thiS HIT legal" are not found as profanity with the option OFF. The use of color codes or funny spacing should not confuse the filter.

    		Medium confidence
    10 Feb EHalley Made minor modifications to Command Aliases.
  • Hitting OK without hitting Define will now try to define any word and command in the edit boxes automatically.
  • Making commands with cmdalias laugh=emote laughs. command line form are saved automatically.
  • Bugs with re-defining or editing existing command aliases were fixed.
    		•  Medium confidence

    Gameplay Changes (new gameplay elements or bug fixes)

    20 Jan DSchubert Weapons with a low number of 'hit points' will no longer have the text message that says that they are worthless. Same with armor, shields, pants, helmets and gauntlets. High Confidence
    21 Jan CKirmse Added brown potion that performs illusionary form at 30% skill level upon the quaffer. Med Confidence
    21 Jan DSchubert Assassin no longer sends out so much junk mail. Instead, he 'tells' you when you log on during accept mode. Mid confidence.
    21 Jan DSchubert Fixed major bug with Faerie Forest. Faerie Forest can now go evil. Mid confidence
    21 Jan DSchubert Doors in Barloque now both teleport you to similiar coordinates, instead of being wierdly mismatched. Mid confidence
    21 Jan DSchubert Poison, Dementia and Enfeeblement now have icons. High confidence
    21 Jan DSchubert Poison, Dementia and Enfeeblement no longer give their 'fade' message when you die. High confidence
    21 Jan DSchubert Connections between Jasper and f8 (lake of Jala's Song) have been cleaned up. Connections between c4 and temple of shal'ille have been cleaned up. High confidence
    21 Jan DSchubert You can no longer spawn multiple ghosts in rid_throne1. Mid confidence
    22 Jan REllis Made the mana nodes translucent. High confidence
    27 Jan AKirmse All players (guests included) start the game with 2500 shillings, a mace, 20 herbs, and a pair of randomly colored pants, which should start worn by the player. High confidence
    27 Jan CKirmse Guest area--guest players start in RID_GUEST1 and a tutorial is presented to them by signs throughout the guest area. In the mausoleum (RID_GUEST4), there are two levers, which when hit nearly simultaneously by two different players, open the door in between them which contains several mummies and a shadow mummy. When all of these are killed, the column in the middle of the room lowers, with a mana node on it in the guest area, money in the newbie area. When the column lowers, the door closes, and then when players leave the monsters are recreated. Mid confidence
    27 Jan CKirmse Newbie area--new players start in RID_NEWB1, which is a copy of the guest area, with a couple sign differences, and a portal to their hometown in RID_NEWB2. When they go through this portal, they lose all of their material possessions, and get the old standard fare (700 shils if it's not a repeat suicide, mace, herbs, apple). Mid confidence
    27 Jan CKirmse Fairie forest--the tree objects are now faerie trees, which 90% of the time follow the texture forest, but 10% of the time are off by 1 karma level. Mid confidence
    27 Jan DSchubert Faerie Node in C2. Has three distinct properties:
    * Appears as either good or evil. If it appears good, then when it appears, everyone evil will have it's link to it severed. Vise versa is also true.
    * Attempting to link with this node when you are of the opposing karma will result in you taking 10 points of damage. This can be fatal.
    * Node provides those who link with twice as much mana as they normally get.
    Faerie node appears when you solve the faerie puzzle (i.e. by either making the forest all Very Good or all Very Bad). A DM can replicate this event with the DM forest good command.    		 Mid confidence
    27 Jan DSchubert Light spells are nearly ineffective in the sewers now. Torches and nightvision are unaffected. High confidence
    27 Jan DSchubert Added 'Standings' sign to the Assassin's Game. Sign lists the winner of the most recent game, as well as the player with the most kills. Should either of those properties point to no one (i.e. because the champ suicides), the sign omits that particular line. Sign also tells if a game is in session and, if so, how many combatants remain. High confidence
    27 Jan DSchubert Added Lupogg and elhai/dirhai to Rook's library. High Confidence
    27 Jan DSchubert Made a mini-speech library for the NPCs of Hazar/Raza. This speech is not shared by NPCs elsewhere in the world and is by and large aimed towards newbies. Keywords include buy, sell, quest, and help. One of these will lead into a hard-coded quest (entroot berries for the blacksmith). High confidence
    27 Jan DSchubert Added a text message when a signet ring disappears from your inventory because another one appeared elsewhere. High confidence
    27 Jan DSchubert Made Stamina more important for advancement of Health Points, particularly to get above the 25 HP line. Please have the testers test this hard. Mid confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert Signet Rings are no longer created in Raza (guest area). Mid confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert Skivlat (Tos Banker) is no longer a 'quest node', meaning that quests will not involve him at all. Low confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert Every room now has music. Mid confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert Rook now knows about mummies. High confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert The store in Jasper now sells torches. High confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert Made Seafarer's Peak and Ice Caves 'hard advance rooms', meaning that it is much harder to advance there than it is anywhere else in the world. Low confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert Ravi now buys gems. High confidence
    13 Feb DSchubert Changed behavior with earthquake and safeties. Formerly, if your safety was on, earthquake would not harm anyone, regardless of their outlaw/murderer status. This obviously is not inline with the rest of the safety flag design. Check this hard, especially wierd cases (like in the arena). Test this to death
    13 Feb DSchubert Removed connects from forest1 to the rest of the world, making it a safe place to test things with mortals. High confidence

    Kod architecture and infrastructure.

    20 Jan CKirmse Spells are now accessed by a hash table in system.kod Low confidence.
    20 Jan CKirmse Added SetSectorLight to room.kod, which allows turning on/off of sector light flickering. Used in Tos, Barloque for the lamps, and in I9 at midnight for the heart of Zjiria. Low confidence.
    23 Jan AKirmse TESTERS: IMPORTANT!!

    Added a function to convert all users' faces and hair colors to the new palette translated system. Right after installing the next update, in admin mode, do

    send object 0 UpdateFaceParts

    Players' skin colors and hair colors should be similar to what they were before--in particular, please check all skin colors and as many hair types as possible. It is important that this work correctly so that paying customers don't have their characters messed up at the update.

    		 Mid confidence
    23 Jan DSchubert Added a function called ComputeMaxMana to player, which will ask each node how much mana to give. This can be called, for example, after a node is stripped away from someone, or if a +Mysticism item is put on.

    To do this, we had to change the nature of the mana nodes which 'disappear' (Ukgoth, Underworld, Fey). Previously they were deleted, but now they need to stay in existence all the time. Should be a relatively straightforward change, but testers should hit the mana nodes hard, particularly the three disappearing ones.

    		 Low confidence
    10 Feb EHalley Made minor fixes to deal with DM ANONYMOUS
  • Name appears in WHO list properly, even if logged out then logged in while anonymous.
  • Can game mail to someone who is anonymous.


    • Note that there are still game messages that will look stupid if you're anonymous. Do not report game messages that look stupid with blank names as game bugs. The anonymity feature is not designed for heavy use.

    		Medium confidence

    To use this system with the Netscape Editor*

    --Outdated, unnecessary.--

    * I use the Netscape editor instead of Frontpage because (a) it's easier to get around in than Frontpage, (b) we all can get copies easily, and (c) it's far easier to work with tables in Netscape than in frontpage.