Thorns of the Hopeslayer

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Material retrieved from original Zone caches available at http://web.archive.org.

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ashenewsthorns2.asp

The Thorns of the Hopeslayer

April 4, 2000

The Shadows, thought by the foolish to be in retreat, reveal that they are merely gathering for a final assault upon Dereth. Reports from spies have been incoherent, as if horror has rendered them senseless. Arm now! Attack may come at any time from any quarter, at first far from civilization, but in danger of stretching nearer to home. Asaina al-Arqis and other scholars have surmised that the goal of the Shadows is not merely victory but the spread of terror and despair. Do not be lulled by early success nor disheartened by the reappearance of the enemy as their tactics change. When the battle is joined, take the fight to their captains, wherever they may lurk, and punish them. All adventurers of all skill levels will be needed, and many can hope to their names written into the annals!

This month's major event, "The Thorns of the Hopeslayer," is upon us. In this pivotal conflict with darkness, the actions of the players will alter the course of events on a scale never before seen in an online game. Players who make special efforts to turn the tide will have their name broadcast for all to admire. This battle is not just for those of high level - some stages will require the participation of less advanced players. Join the defense!

Original Link (now dead) - http://www.zone.com/asheronscall/news/ashenewsapril4build.asp

Asheron's Call Build Notes, April 4

Here are all the tiny little details of the game update that was made on April 4, 2000. This list is culled from "check-in" notes submitted by the game developers themselves. Things of greatest note are listed first.

Some changes are not in these build notes, because that would spoil the fun of finding all that has been added or changed! Some changes include major new things players can do to drive our evolving story forward, which we won't entirely reveal here. As usual, the Town Criers, Barkeeps, and Scribes may know the latest news! Also, the trades of crafting and selling are always in flux, so changes to prices and abilities of items are not always detailed here.

Detailed Notes for builds 2311-2318:

The stage is set for an unparalleled battle! Travelers, beware of Shadows, and look for heroes among you who can determine the fate of the lands of Dereth.
"Detached characters" (which recently caused some characters to temporarily appear missing) should now be a thing of the past. All characters that were not truly deleted will now appear in your character list. Some long-past characters may show up in this way. In some rare cases, you may have more characters than can show up in your character list. If your character slots are filled and you still think a character is missing, delete an unwanted character and wait for the "temporarily unavailable" label to vanish. This will allow one "overflow" character to show up. If you still feel a character is missing, read the "State of the Code" article.
"Infused" pyreal ingots (used for Atlan weapons) can no longer be given to others! Before, there was a loophole where a player with a high weapon skill could use a glyph to stamp (or "infuse") the ingot to yield higher quality, then give it to a not-so-skilled player, who could get a superior weapon. We had to tolerate this until we fixed a bug. Now, you can NOT give the infused ingot to anyone else -- the future owner of the Atlan weapon will have to use the glyph on it him- or herself. Note that you can still have a skilled Alchemist form the ingot to begin with, and give the ingot away. In other words, non-infused pyreal ingots still can be traded among players freely.
Experience point distribution within fellowships is generally more fair and logical. Before, which member of the fellowship made the kill affected how much XP was generated. If the kill was made by a fellow who was much higher level than the victim, the whole group's XP was reduced. Now, just the XP for the higher-level members is reduced. However, the flipside is also true: if a low-level fellow makes the kill on a victim of equal level, that fellow will get a non-reduced share of XP, but fellows that are higher level will get reduced XP. In most fellowship adventuring, less XP will be lost than was lost with the old system.
Fixed was a recently discovered (by us) bug that justified cries of "kill stealing." We didn't understand these protests before, since the system was designed to give loot rights to whoever did the most damage, and XP division was proportional to the amount of damage done. However, we recently realized that damage above and beyond the victim's remaining hit points were being fully counted! Therefore, player A could fight a monster with 100 hit points, gradually do 60 points of damage, then have player B swoop in, kill the monster with one 70-point blow, and find that player B got loot rights and the majority of the XP. But player B didn't really do 70 points of damage; the monster only had 40 ht points to lose. This is now fixed, and in this scenario, player B will get credit for just the 40 points of damage, while player A will get credit for 60 points, and therefore get loot rights and the majority of the XP. This is not done as a balancing measure: we honestly thought it was working this way all along. It was designed this way, therefore this is a bug that needed to be fixed.
Due to a bug fix, Crystal creatures are now more likely to attack by using bludgeoning damage. Therefore, during melee combat, Crystal creatures may be a bit more damaging than before if you are not well protected against bludgeoning.
New technology enables players to affect worldwide properties as part of major events. You thought events were good before? That was nothin' compared to this stuff. And this is just the beginning.
New technology to enable announcement and log-recording of players who accomplish major tasks in worldwide event quests.
Exitless room in Ancient Lighthouse dungeon -- added a lever to this room!
Door facing wrong way in Mountain Fortress dungeon -- fixed.
NPCs now will give items to you, even if your option is set not to take items from other players.
There are rumors of a bloody assassination of a well-known master of his art . . . Surely this is not the end of this drama.
PK players can't heal monsters with healkits anymore. This was an annoying loophole that allowed PKs to harass NPK players.
Pyreal Motes, Slivers, Nuggets, Bars and Ingots now look like they should on the ground and in their icons. They didn't used to. They all looked like Twinkies. Now they all look different.
Fixed the bug where locks always appraise as "trivial."
Spring long past sprung; Bunnies not so busy.
Night ambience is now brighter, by around 12%.
Mana Stones now have icons that better reflect their power levels. This applies mostly to charged stones you buy from vendors. Instead of looking the same in their icons, making it harder to tell them apart in a bag of stones, they now have icons that reflect the power levels.
Sho & Gharu'ndim bowyers buy fletching items. The bowyers in Al-Jalima, Stonehold, and Yaraq sold lockpicks as well as bowyer stuff. They will also buy lockpicks along with bowyer/fletching stuff.
Now only you hear noise when you sell something to a vendor. You won't hear the sales of others.
Rope bridge supports are no longer see-through in dungeons.
Magma Golem light is brightened towards red more.
Most Atlan Staff weapons were being held incorrectly. Too far towards the base. Fixed.
Shoushi Grotto -- Reduced lighting in several rooms and most hallways. This dungeon was too bright.
The undead Baron of Colier no longer leaves his Electric Long Sword on his corpse.
Added missing acid pool to a pit in the Incunabula dungeon.
Special vats, fonts, pools, fountains, and wells now cast their old spells on players when used. When a flask is used on these objects you will get a flask of water. Double the usage, double the fun!
Casting portal recall spells now make you play some purple bubbly physics scripts for about two seconds before blipping you away.
Target drudges in festival grounds don't give old cheese for loot now. Oops. Yes, the days of free cheese are sadly at an end. Blame the Shadows.
Amullian coat no longer has humpback.
Flowers have been thinned out Dereth-wide.