Recent Code Changes

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:45 pm

I recently noted a change to the accounts system. I was not able to find a post about it and was curious about it. Below my list of characters is months with hours listed... Will this display how many hours I played in previous months? Please do tell.

Oghma · Post by **Oghma** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:13 pm

I think it will only measure from this month and ignore previous ones, it keeps track of how long you play in each month.

Maybel · Post by **Maybel** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:27 pm

I was not able to find the change. Where is it?

Oghma · Post by **Oghma** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:29 pm

The change is in your account section. If you type account it should show up. It tracks how long you player per month.

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 6:10 pm

I thought I would post to inform of some recent bug fixes:

Stop
Originally this was disabled temporarily and is now available to be used again. Stop will allow you to cease a prayer or spell before you cast it.

Vampiric Touch
Now transfers hps to the caster as it should.

Buried Items
Will no longer be picked up with the fill command. So no more burid items in your packs. If you have a current pack that does simply empty and fill it again and it should be fixed.

Language Echos
Originally with sayto you would not get a language echo. This is now not the case and when a character is speaking a different language it will echo for both commands.

Thanks to Mask for his dedicated work.

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 12:18 pm

Just want to emphasize to everyone that most of these bugs were reported on the forums by players, after they did a little research on their own to make sure that they were reproducible and under what conditions. Then Japcil picked them up, tested what caused them to occur and what did not (in effect, verified and characterized them), and put them into our Bugzilla system with a complete explanation of the problem, the circumstances needed to reproduce it, and what should be happening instead. This makes Mask's difficult job much easier! So, just a reminder that squishing bugs is a group effort, and we can all do our part to help...but also that it takes time for the system to work.

So...thanks to Japcil for shepherding these bugs through the system, and to everyone who took the time to report them in the first place! Thank you also for being patient once they were reported. ...and if you find something you think is a bug, or a game admin asks you to post something to the forums, please do post about it! Ideally, be as clear as possible about:
1) What's actually happening
2) What's supposed to happen
3) Under what circumstances the wrong thing happens

If the problem occurs in only one specific area, and answering these questions requires giving away any IC information (even the name of a specific location), chances are that the bug is in area code, not hard code, and in that case you should NOT post it to the forums, but instead email the details to fkbuilders@lists.skynet.ie. If you think the problem is hard code (built into the game mechanics themselves) please report it in the Bug Reporting Forum. If you are unsure if the bug is hard or soft code, please use the Bug Reporting Forum if you can describe it without giving away any IC information, and use dalvyn@gmail.com and prefix the subject with BUILDERS: if you can only describe it by giving away some in-game secrets...and remember, this is just an expansion on one of the helpful HOWTO's in the Game Policies and HOWTO's Forum!

Thanks everyone, for helping to make FK better! Please remember to vote for FK and make your Amazon purchases through the links here, as well!

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 1:35 am

Other recent additions by Mask and his code team:

Re: Help Files The "-" that allows you to navigate back to the previous help file has been given another use. If you type a command that takes you out of the help system, ie look, eat or anything else you can go back to the last viewed help by typing "-"

Ex.

Code: Select all

Adventurer's Guide
==================
Type the letter of the topic and hit enter.

 (A) Areas                               (B) Classes                            
 (C) Combat                              (D) Communication                      
 (E) Deities                             (F) Game Interface                     
 (G) Information Commands                (H) Movement                           
 (I) Object Commands                     (J) Organisations                      
 (K) Policies                            (L) Races                              
 (M) Roleplaying                         (N) Skills, Spells and Trades          
 (O) Summary of Commands                 (P) Useful Commands                    
The sun slowly disappears in the west.
The lightning has stopped.
A citizen walks in from the east.
You say ''Finally some peace and quiet''
***(Use of "-")***
Adventurer's Guide
==================
Type the letter of the topic and hit enter.

 (A) Areas                               (B) Classes                            
 (C) Combat                              (D) Communication                      
 (E) Deities                             (F) Game Interface                     
 (G) Information Commands                (H) Movement                           
 (I) Object Commands                     (J) Organisations                      
 (K) Policies                            (L) Races                              
 (M) Roleplaying                         (N) Skills, Spells and Trades          
 (O) Summary of Commands                 (P) Useful Commands

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:50 pm

Another new edition: The command help <topic> will now spell check your query. If no helpfile is found under the name of your query, similar help files with that string will be displayed for you to select from.

Ex.

Code: Select all

Help files related to 'hel'
===========================
The help you were searching for does not exist, however some of these links
may help you find what you are looking for:

 (A) Adsartha Firemane, Bard of Helm     (B) Antimagic Shell                    
 (C) Builder Helps TODO                  (D) Everwatch Knights - Helm           
 (E) Game Help                           (F) Game Help - IC Info Commands       
 (G) Game Help - Mechanics Commands      (H) Game Help - OOC Info Commands      
 (I) Getting help in a pkill             (J) Heleyn Featherhand, bard of Mystra 
 (K) Helm                                (L) Helm's Watch                       
 (M) Help                                (N) Helping Out                        
 (O) House Aleanrahel                    (P) Immortal Help                      
 (Q) Jarus Altens, Senior Steeleye of Lord Helm
 (R) keyword will create a new help      (S) Laws and Roleplay Help             
 (T) Newhelp                             (U) old gnome guild help               
 (V) Ready House, Temple to Helm         (W) Sade Sevowa, Steeleye of Helm      
 (X) Sir Andreas, High Knight of Helm    (Y) The Disciples of Phelthong         
 (Z) Training Help                       (1) Vigilant Eyes of the God - Helm    
 (2) VT help                             (3) Watchers over the Fallen - Helm

Selveem · Post by **Selveem** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:32 am

OMG I love you guys.

Keep the very nice code-changes coming. This is a feature I have not heard of on any other MUD and I would consider it just as newbie-friendly as long-term player-friendly!

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:56 pm

Also you will note:

Who class/race was removed from non-deities, originally this was intended for deities to narrow the who list down from RPs etc.

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:12 pm

Two updates to report to you all today, both are recent but you may have noticed sooner than my post about them.

1st is that if your help query doesn't find a related file, even after spell check, it will display the central main help file you get when you normally type help.

2nd is that your alias list is now color coded and shows how it would look if you use {} with any emote, smote etc.

Meekir · Post by **Meekir** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:46 am

omg I love you guys too.

the dedicated staff keeps me coming back for more.

Mask · Post by **Mask** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:04 am

As of yesterday (after some teething problems!), your size and body shape will affect your carry weight. Our four legged friends will be able to carry alot more than previously, and your size will also affect your carry weight - the bigger you are, the more you can carry. Conversely, the smaller you are, the less you can carry.

The other addition is the 'Load' stat in your score sheet. A medium or heavy load may cause you to incur a penalty on your dexterity bonus.

There will be additional changes in this area in the future, and the details will be made available here.

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:32 am

Just a tip to any fellow packrat pipsqueaks trapped with too much weight: you can probably drop and the DRAG your over-weight pack to wherever you need to in order to offload that extra junk!

Selveem · Post by **Selveem** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:04 pm

Not a good idea Raona. Being subject to crashes and likely not being refunded isn't a good solution. I would suggest anyone trapped with too much weight employ the help of other characters or, if necessary, use ask for assistance.

Nysan · Post by **Nysan** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:35 pm

Mask wrote:As of yesterday (after some teething problems!), your size and body shape will affect your carry weight. Our four legged friends will be able to carry alot more than previously, and your size will also affect your carry weight - the bigger you are, the more you can carry. Conversely, the smaller you are, the less you can carry.

The other addition is the 'Load' stat in your score sheet. A medium or heavy load may cause you to incur a penalty on your dexterity bonus.

There will be additional changes in this area in the future, and the details will be made available here.

Wow, that cut my dwarf's weight limits quite a bit. Understandable change, granted...but, wow. Must...get...to...forge.

Oghma · Post by **Oghma** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:10 pm

If you don't feel secure dragging your belonging there are some precautions:

1. Take a look at what you are carrying and make a log to follow.
2. If there is a crash, please report it as soon as possible
3. I cannot make any promises so I will not. But if you lose your items in an ooc manner and not ic after being judged by the admins depending on the situation, items lost or missing, you can apply to get them replaced.

I will not go into the details because it depends on the situation. I will not confirm policy on it either.

Otherwise I would use an ic situation before asking. Remember though that being subject to crashes does not mean that you will not neccesarily be compensated, it depends on the situation and circumstance.

Nysan · Post by **Nysan** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:15 pm

My dwarf lost roughly 100 lbs worth of carrying weight. I got to a forge easily, but I can imagine problems elsewhere.

Liandria · Post by **Liandria** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:16 pm

Gonna see a lot more carts rolling around I guess!

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:44 pm

Modification to Spell Power

Up to now, spell power was based only on skill level. That means for example that, if you were Inept at Magic missile, you would create only one missile. If you were Expert, you would create 3 or 4 missiles. If you were Grandmaster, you would create 5 missiles. And the amount of missiles you would create was not influenced by anything else than your skill level.

For other spells, "spell power" determines not how many arrows the spell creates, but the spell damage, or its duration, or a combination of all those.

We revised this part of the system to include your character level into the calculation. Now, the spell power depends on both your skill level and your character level.

What does it mean at low level ?

Nothing. At low (character) level, you will not notice any modification. At low (character) level, your level is barely taken into consideration in the formula; only your skill level matters. That means that you will still create 1 magic missile at Inept, 3 or 4 at Expert, and 5 at Grandmaster.

What does it change then?

The higher level you are though, the more your character level will matter and contribute to increase your spell power. That means that, for example, at level 30, your magic missile spell would create 2 arrows at Inept, 3 or 4 at Expert, and 5 at Grandmaster. Later, at level 50, your magic missile spell might create 3 arrows at Inept, 4 at Expert, and 5 at Grandmaster.

So ... is it all gain?

Yes, it is all gain. We used a formula that would cause an increase in spell power in all cases, and never a reduction in spell power. In other words, your spell power is at least equal to your skill level. It might be higher (if you are higher level), but it will never get lower.

Why do that?

The base reason why we made this modification was to reduce the gap at higher level between characters who spent a lot of time practising their spells (and thus gaining high skill level) and those who spent their time on other (inter)actions. Now, the difference in power between a level 50 Grandmaster and a level 50 Adept will be reduced (though the GM will always be better than the adept).