News

Updated, Sat, Jan 12, 2008.

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

"From the on-MUD news file, as per player suggestion, the following modifications have been put in-game:
  • Dimensional travel has been altered.
    • All dimensions, with the exception of traveling to and from The Island, are now available without quest pre-requisites. Simply look at the Sentinels to be told how to trigger the portal.
    • Level and Remort checks have been removed from dimensional travel. However, warnings are given when entering high level/remort zones.
    • The file info dimension has been re-written to include directions to the portals, as well as the level assignment of the zone.
  • A 20% raise has been implemented across the board for all activities that gain a player experience.
  • Almost all spells that have durations have had them increased by between 10% and 25%, depending on the mathematics involved.
Thanks to Kedysh/Mavric for the suggestions!
" -Mouseglove

Monday, July 10thth, 2006

"AR:TR has joined MySpace! If you're part of MySpace, add "Aurealan Realms" as a friend and help spread the word about us! The MUD's page is at http://www.myspace.com/aurealanrealms." -Mouseglove

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

"Yes, it's back. All the old playerfiles that were in existence as of the last backup of AR are in place and have been reset so that they have the full duration before idle-deletion. Why? Simply put, I missed being Mouseglove. Kayleigh missed being Kayleigh. We figured that if we felt that way, others probably did too, so... here we are. For better or worse, this is how we'll be until we go offline." -Mouseglove

Friday, April 15th, 2005

"Thanks to the generosity of our new head honcho (Ryxore), we've moved to a brand-spanking-new machine, and a real server to boot (as opposed to a home computer masquerading as a server). If you're seeing this news, it means that your network already has the updated address, so you can use aurealanrealms.org to get here and to the MUDs themselves. Enjoy!" -Mouseglove

Sunday, September 12th, 2004

"The time has come to hang up my spurs and move along. AR has been a great thrill to me for the last seven years, and I will always think of it as home, but I have decided to call it quits. And, as Vall did before me, two things have occured:
  1. I have handed the MUD over to someone I trust, so it will continue. Ryxore (Jaime Breckenridge) is the new owner of AR, and the MUD has returned to its hybrid H&S/RP state as it was prior to June of 2004.
  2. I have chosen not to give up the concept of MUDding entirely, but have instead chosen to move on to a new project, with Vall. We will be making that announcement when we are ready to open it up (we've just begun to work on this, so it won't be anytime soon.)
The RP-only port of AR is, for the moment, running on port 5000 of the server. I'm waiting to see if a certain someone would like to take it over. If so, it will remain there. If not, it will be shut down and archived.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the last seven years successful (when they were) and a hearty "sod off!" to those of you who tried to torpedo it oh-so-many times. ;) I'll never forget any of you, but whether that's a good thing remains to be seen. For now, I'll just jump on my scooter and say 'Ciao'.
" -Mouseglove

Tuesday, June 8th, 2004

"For legal purposes, we've decided to post an official inclusivity disclaimer that reads as follows:

    Aurealan Realms consists of the MUD (Aurealan Realms: The Third Age), the
    Aurealan Realms: The Third Age website (http://www.aurealanrealms.org/),
    the Aurealan Realms discussion forums (http://www.aurealanrealms.org/forums/)
    and the aurealanrealms, ar-rp and roamud mailinglists.

    Any other sites (such as Yahoo groups, fansites, hint/cheat sites, etc.)
    are solely the responsibility of the individual(s) who author/maintain them.
    Aurealan Realms and its staff are in no way responsible, directly, inferred,
    or tangential, responsible for the content of any sites and mailing lists
    other than those listed in the first paragraph.

This is just to indemnify us against things that are said/done on sites we have no control over or officially participation in.
" -Atash

Thursday, May 28th, 2004

"Almost two months in, the Third Age seems to be a success. To say that things are radically different from the old MUD would be an oversimplification, but we're seeing more players, generally happier players, more participation on the web forums, and even a few off-MUD sites about the MUD (well, about its assembly recipes ;) as well. Today we release the 2nd edition of the AR Newsletter, a copy of which is on this website (http://www.aurealanrealms.org/newsletter.php). As our number of new assembly items grows towards its first 100, and the island becomes more and more populated, this is going to get fun, I think. Anyhow, enjoy the newsletter!" -Atash

Wednesday, March 31st, 2004

"To paraphrase Darth Vader, 'Our journey is now complete.' Today, Aurealan Realms: The Third Age is unveiled. AR:TTA is a full-RP environment, based in the world of Aurealis, some 500 years after the last date played. The world has been through cataclysmic upheaval in five centuries, only recently beginning to come back out of a truly dark period, a period of godless anarchy. While the Gods are still absent, and show no signs of returning, the Sages Guild has uncovered a new way to regain access to healing and other non-sorcerer magicks, and as such, civilization has once again begun to creep across the globe. A full listing of the events of the intervening centuries is available online by typing info timeline. Things are different from before. There have been massive changes in races, classes, the code of the MUD and the world at large, changes we hope are for the better. So let the Third Age begin, and we shall see what comes of it." -Atash

Saturday, January 17th, 2004

"So, the last couple weeks have been fraught with peril for the 'ol MUD. First there was the IP changeover at our hosting ISP, then there was a mistake on their part that put two machines on the network with our address, keeping us offline for days afterwards. Fortunately, this has now been taken care of (mostly due to my constant nagging them that it _was_ their fault and not something internal on our server) and things are now back to normal, more or less. Thanks for everyone's patience, we should be good to go for another bit now. :)" -Mouseglove

Wednesday, June 25th, 2003

"Quick update. I've added a new random character generator sequence into character creation, which is great for just getting new players into the realms. Since there is no limit to how many characters one player can have here, this is a great way to help usher newbies in where we can be social with them. Also, thanks go out to Emeraude. She wrote us up a Mentor Handbook (which I edited a bit) and it's now online and available for both reading and downloading at http://www.aurealanrealms.org/mentorhb.htm. Mentors new and old should check it out. That is all." -Zhalith

Monday, June 23rd, 2003

"Much has happened over the last month. Vall's retired, I've finished my coursework (no more classes for me!) and suddenly I'm... everything. Builder, Coder, Admin... it's a bit daunting. But we press on. I'm a novice coder, but I've managed to tweak a couple things, fix a few bugs, and add in a new spell. Not a bad start. And Darkenelf may re-surface as well, I just haven't seen him to talk to in a month and a half, so that's still a bit up in the air.

But also... it's summer, with all that usually brings, and thus it's a great time to attract some new player talent to AR! I've set up a page for promotions, but it requires some effort on the part of you, the player and/or staff member of AR. Check out the page and see if there isn't someplace in your area where you could print out a few flyers and put up, or print out some of the smaller adverts and lay on a counter in a friendly shoppe. Every bit of help will be appreciated, we've got a really good MUD, and the people here are good folk, we just need to expose more of the world to it, and this sort of grass roots-style approach fits into all of our budgets. ;) So print out those flyers and handbills, and put them where people will see them. Maybe we can get some new traffic, introduce some folk to MUDs who've never heard of them before, and attract the size playerbase this MUD deserves. And thanks, in advance, for your help in this. :)
" -Zhalith

Wednesday, May 14th, 2003

"As the result of some urging, I've created a PayPal account. While this is primarily for Vall to use to transfer me server payments now and then, I figure it's also worth it to link it to the bottom of the main page in case anyone else would like to donate money. Any money so-donated will be used to help pay for the server, and/or its maintenance (new parts when needed, etc.) only. This is not a donation to the MUD, nor will it entitle the person donating to any special treatment or privileges with regards to the MUD. The donation will be used for the server itself, of which the MUD is but one of several things operating on it. (Sorry for all the legalese, but it's important for the Diku & CircleMUD licenses that we make it clear we're not making money off the MUD.) So, if you want to donate, please do so. Any help will be greatly appreciated." -Zhalith

Friday, April 4th, 2003

"A couple of things to bring to people's attention, both on the webboard (which is at http://www.aurealanrealms.org/forums/ btw). First is the clan discussion going on right now, trying to figure out a clan revamp that will re-invigorate clans. It's on the "Characters and Clans" forum. The second is actually a new part of the webboard, called "Players' Design Input," which has one forum at the moment, called "The Museum of the Gods." There, Cyng has opened up a wide-ranging discussion on how to build the new Museum, which will be completely designed by the players of AR, and then build by the staff to their specifications. I encourage you to get involved with one or both of the discussions!" -Zhalith

Monday, January 27th, 2003

"As of today, I have handed administrative reign of the MUD over to Cyng and Faywhen. I'm still the owner of the MUD and the server, and I'll be around doing stuff still, and I retain veto rights on anything if I choose to exercise them, but otherwise, Cyng's your man now if you have problems or suggestions or whatever. Enjoy." -Zhalith

Saturday, November 9th, 2002

"Ok, I'm weird, I admit it. I revamped the menuing system for the web site and updated various files as a way to relax and not do homework. Regardless, things should be a little prettier, a bit easier to navigate (I love the tips that appear if you hold your mouse pointer over the specific menu items) and updated lots of info. Tomorrow, back to work. Don't forget the big Gods Endgame RP coming in December!" -Mouseglove

Wednesday, September 25th, 2002

"Vall comes through once again. We now have functioning web boards again! We're still getting things set up, of course, but they're up and running now. You can get to them at http://www.aurealanrealms.org/forums/ or from any of the menues on the various pages in the AR suite. Everyone cheer Vall, this is a very cool thing he set up for us." -Mouseglove

Thursday, May 30th, 2002

"My thanks to Tancerale, a poster on The MudConnector, for helping me track down a malfunctioning helpfile within the character creation, and for reminding me to finish what I started. :) I have just finished putting races and classes into the mythos section, which fully fleshes that section of the page out. Sometimes, all it takes it the right kind word and the right time, and since I needed a break from typing a paper, it was a match made in... well... cyber-heaven. ;) Do check them out, since they're finally there. Now, back to the paper... only one week left, and I'm fully 1/3 my way to becoming Dr. Mouseglove." -Mouseglove

Sunday, April 21st, 2002

"After much work, the webforms are back online and should (and I say that, knowing I said it the LAST time I tried to fix this as well) be working for everyone. This includes the mailinglist form as well as the three in-game related forms. Hopefully, this will make getting a house or a shoppe easier. Also, it's my pleasure to announce that we've drafted a new staff member into the ranks, Ryxore, who is being trained to take over Custom EQ duties, so we'll have that back online for you soon as well. In the meantime, enjoy AR as it is. Once Darkenelf gets done bringing the new code back to life again, things are gonna CHANGE... ;)" -Mouseglove

Monday, April 1st, 2002

"Wow, what a week. Last monday, we got hacked, we fought it out last tuesday with the hacker, had to shut down for two days, but came back, fixed things, secured ourselves and STILL had the umption to pull off one of the (I think) best April Fool's Day pranks ever! If you missed it, the webpages are archived here for your viewing edification. Thanks to everyone who knowinging, or unknowingly, participated. :)" -Mouseglove

Friday, October 24th, 2001

"Boy, are there some real assholes out there on the 'Net. Two days ago, on the 23rd (my mother's birthday, actually), our server was attacked and the script we use to process the web forms subverted to send out thousands and thousands of pornographic spam e-mails. I'm still trying to get the ISP this jerk came from to actually DO something about it, but in the meantime, the forms have been offline. Well... no more. Thanks go to Chaos, who found us an updated version of the script, WITH a fix that keeps this sort of thing from happening, and who put it in place. YAY CHAOS! Also, there are two news files in the news directory on the MUD that aren't in yet. Darkenelf has been coding offline, and doesn't have ready access to the server, so he's only on for a couple hours every week. He put in a MAJOR update, which didn't work out, so we reverted back. He got ready to put in yet another update (thus the latest news file) and that's pending but not actually in yet. Once it's in, we're going into a code-freeze until De's back online on a regular basis. We don't be coding in ANYTHING new, we'll just be focusing on tracking down bugs, new and old, and working on stability. Stay tunes, more always happens. :)" -Mouseglove

Tuesday, August 14th, 2001

"As you may have noticed, the web site has undergone a serious facelift. :) You'll find new pictures in the photos section, old clans & stories that had gotten lost amidst the clutter in their respective sections, and per a suggestion from Cyng, a new web-form that will allow you to subscribe to the various mailing lists on the aurealanrealms.org server. Do let me know if you find any typos or bad links (and thanks to Cyng and Miyende who've already helped quite a bit) and I'll get them fixed asap. :)" -Mouseglove

Sunday, August 12th, 2001

"Here is the State of the MUD message that was e-mailed to all on the aurealanrealms and ar-rp mailing lists on Friday. I thought it would be a good idea to post it here too for those who aren't on either list." - Mouseglove

Greetings one and all.

The last few weeks have seen a "crisis of faith" of sorts, one that, like all other types, had to be resolved in its own time. That time is now, as several of you have already heard.

I felt it appropriate to let you all know what was going on that caused this soul-searching, then fill you in on the decision and what comes next. I am, as some of you know, still going through school. In the last two years, I started and completed my Master's Degree in Broadcast & Cinematic Arts, and in two weeks, I move out of Michigan (for the first time in my life) to Athens, Ohio, to start my Ph.D. in Telecommunications. This is a very stressful time for me, as I try to save up the money to move and begin to contemplate what the next three years of my life will be like. The prospect of harder, more frequent and longer work than I've ever experienced before is very daunting, and it caused me to look at my "hobby" in a new light.

For the last six months or so, this mud has been bringing me less and less joy, due to a variety of factors. My wife and I discussed it, and we decided that, if it was no longer going to bring me happiness and relaxation (which hobbies are supposed to do), I wouldn't run it anymore. So, I told the other immortals (in somewhat heated language) that I'd gotten sick of the BS that was going on on the MUD (with ALL facets of the MUD, not just the players or the staff or whatever) and that I was going to take a break. I further told them that I didn't care who they told, and that I wouldn't be adminning for a while, and that if they had problems, to talk to Cyng.

So, I quit logging on, except for about 60 seconds a day, to check mudmail and the boards. In that time, I started on another project, read my e-mail, sent out a ton (mostly to Darkenelf, Cyng and Vall) and basically just relaxed. When all was said and done, I woke up one morning late last week and realized that I really missed the MUD. Not the game itself, but the people on it, the ones I call my friends, and that I would really miss talking to them if the MUD were no longer there. Additionally, some of the other problems I'd been having (such as the money to pay for the server) were worked out by other staff members and players, and it gradually penetrated my brain that yes, the MUD _could_ still be fun and relaxing, I just needed to do some things differently.

So, the MUD will remain up indefinitely. Aurealan Realms will continue.

Where we go from here? We continue to evolve the code and the MUD world, of course. We have ideas for new code that will help transition us more and more towards a full PK/RP world, which I hope will be our eventual destination. Now, before everyone goes "Auigh! Full PK? I'm leaving!", let me explain what full PK/RP means.

We've been trying for realism, but a "within the context of a game" type of realism. We've also been trying to make the game more challenging and design the game so that it _stays_ challenging longer. But part of that realism is the idea that, in a medieval and violent world, even your best friend could turn on you and attack you, given cause. So, we'll institute Full PK/RP. This will make such things possible, BUT... it will also mean that, in order to attack another player, there will have to be Role-Playing justification for the attack. Likewise, to further keep down the incidents of "I don't like you, you're a prick so I'm going to kill your character." fighting, we'll be putting in "non-lethal" combat, where you can just fight to unconsciousness instead of death. We feel that will give the mud its final needed level of realism. (I should also mention that, once this happens, we'll be flat-out deleting, on the spot, anyone we find Power-PKing w/out a RP basis, and will not hear excuses of "But I'm RP-ing a psychopath!")

But, this change (along with the others we're planning) won't be coming in the near future. This stuff is going to require a LOT of new code, and take some time to get coded, put in, debugged and playtested. So don't worry about it for now, it's weeks-to-months off, even the preliminaries. In the mean time, the building work will continue. Dzauron is -><- close to opening up his new zone, and I (and some of the other builders) will be working on cleaning up some of the left-over building projects that remain undone (such as re-setting mob bare-hand damage to the new chart which is in keeping with the new range of damages for weapons, re-adjusting weights on all the objects, and converting Allaria so that the pixie/nixie contingent once again has their homeland).

In closing, I want to say this: Things change. One thing I've had crammed down my throat repeated throughout my life is that nothing ever stays the same. Things grow and evolve, and the MUD is no different. But, behind all the change is a heartfelt and earnest desire to make AR the best it can be, for the builders, the staff, and above all, the players. Please know, when we make these changes, we do so in the hopes that, in the end, you'll enjoy the game more than you did, find new challenges, and feel more of a sense of accomplishment when you reach your goal, whatever it may be.

I thank you all for your trust, your faith and your fidelity. I urge you to keep logging on, and playing this game that so many have worked so hard and put so much love and talent into. It's going to be really amazing soon, and I hope you'll join me in romping around in it and having fun. :)

-Jeffrey S. Smith a.k.a. Mouseglove, Owner - Aurealan Realms MUD

Thursday, July 12th, 2001

"The time of the deital-immortals is drawing to a close. A static mythos is now in place, which will be the ONLY pantheon for the realms as of the end-rp this friday night at 7pm EST. To see the mythos, log on and type "info mythos". Each god or goddess (there are 35) covers one or more facets of the mud mythos, and will be the basis for any religion/church-based RP from that point on. It'll be much easier to maintain, since the great revolving-door-of-immortals keeps going, and we gain and lose people every year. It was exhausting to write up, but I think it'll be a great addition, and ties right in with some changes Darkenelf and I have planned for the future. That's all I'll say for now... that and, enjoy. :)" -Mouseglove

Monday, June 11th, 2001

"Slowly, things keep clipping along. Summer is always a slower time, both for players and for staff, what with the urge to go out and experience sunlight directly and all. Still, we've updated a few things since the last news. Wildmages are finished, and Inquisitors have their signature spell in now (called "Shroud"). Thieves got a couple new RP-based skills (tail and glance) as well as a new spell called "Word of Binding" that cements a player to a certain location permanently as far as where they load into the game, where they must quit from, and where they return if they die. On tap is a shift from a single currency system to a tiered currency system, which should shake things up a bit. :) Regardless, we're still here, we're still working, and things are still shaping up. The latest version of the server code is at v2.5.8 build #9 and we're still climbing towards the magic 3.0 number, at which time Darkenelf will release the code publically. Until then, just keep playing, keep reading, and keep the faith!" - Mouseglove

Sunday, April 8th, 2001

"I've just spend the last several hours updating the web page, tweaking things and adding a new structure. The menu was getting a bit long, and it was becoming harder and harder to add anything new, so I've added sub-menus to the main menu structure. Also, at the request of my RP Admins, I've added a place for RP logs to be posted after they've been received by Kayleigh or Faywhen. Do check out the page, though, there's an explanation section that explains how the RP logs should look when they get to Kay or Fay, and how they must look in order to qualify to be posted. Keep the faith, folks... the end approacheth for my (I'm done with Grad School in about four weeks) and I'll have all summer to build, encourage De to code, RP and all sorts of other things that have fallen by the wayside the last couple years due to this virus they call "higher eduaction". :)" - Mouseglove, back in his old skin once more.

Friday, March 16th, 2001

"What a month it's been. For those of you keeping score, this makes the game Admins: 2, Server: 0, but it wasn't for lack of trying that the server lost. The hard drive crashed, and the server was down for a week or so, from Sunday, February 26th to Thursday, March 1st. It was only due to the skill and expertise of Andy Hubbell at AIX/Len-Net that we were able to recover the mud from the wreckage of the old hard drive, and put it onto the new hard drive, purchased for us by Faywhen (a.k.a Kristina the savior). Vall, Darkenelf and I then spent several feverish days getting things up and running again (things still aren't perfect, many of you may have noticed the malfunctioning counters) and on Sunday, March 3rd, the mud came back on line fully and completely restored. Since then, we're slowly getting over the shock of almost losing it all and getting back to business. Tonight, I put the count-down timer for this years 'Fest up (at the suggestion of Pyre) and linked it back into the web site. Work is once again progressing on the mud itself on several building projects. We hope to have up to a dozen new zones open before the end of the year! Until then, enjoy the fact that we HAVE a mud still, and know that things are slowly getting back to normal. " - Zaulh'ghev

Tuesday, January 9th, 2001

"The !mage, !warrior and like flags on objects are HISTORY! In their place, each class has restrictions on materials for each spell/skill. The list has been turned into an HTML-ized spreadsheet for your information & edification, and is available here. Enjoy!" - Zaulh'ghev

Sunday, December 3rd, 2000

"The realms just got a whole lot weirder. The magical chaos that has been ravaging the land has settled now, slightly, and yet... it seems that it has coalesced in places, concentrated areas where the very fabric of magic has been torn and bent. No one knows how it will affect the realms, no one knows if it will be beneficial or hurtful, but it is known that it will affect almost all magic, even the magic of the gods, may be warped by these... wild magic areas. Beware them, for they will most certainly produce results that do not match the desire or intent of those casting magicks within them." -Zaulh'ghev

Wednesday, November 15th, 2000

"It's been a while, and a lot has been updated, but we've been letting the on-mud news handle most of it. However, there are a few things to bring up here. First, RoAClient v4.3 is now available from the RoAClient download page. You will find a link to that site on our 'Files' section. Secondly, minlevels are no longer restrictive, only the effect are. So a level 1 can wear a level 70 piece of eq, they just won't get any special benefits from it until they get closer to the minlevel of the eq. Thirdly and finally, I'm happy to announce that the Temple of the Sphinx zone has been re-opened with all new riddles. Excelsior!" -Zaulh'ghev

Friday, September 8th, 2000

"Well, the conversion is over. Details can be found in the link provided in the Sept. 3 message, but all zones except Allaria, Bleeding Mermaid Tavern and Allaria have been converted and re-opened. But the big news is: As of tomorrow morning, we're opening up applications for new builders! If you're interested in applying, go to the online application form and submit your application today! Be sure to read the rules on the form first, however, so you can be sure you qualify. Now the new RP can begin, since the "work" portion is done. I'm looking forward to it, I hope you are too." - Zaulh'ghev

Sunday, September 3rd, 2000

"The conversion that's been in progress since January of this year is finished. A seperate set of pages has been created to cover all the conversion issues, and can be found here. Much has changed, both in the code and in the mythos of the world, as the signature to this note should demonstrate. Check out the conversion site and read up on what's truly 'new' in the Aurealan Realms." -Zaulh'ghev

Tuesday, August 1st, 2000

"Should Multi-Playing continue to be allowed on Aurealan Realms?"
10%20% 30%40% 50%60% 70%80% 90%100% . . . Total
Yes
. .
47%
Neutral/Undecided
. .
22%
No
. .
31%

"The vote is over. The vote percentages show a distinct inclination for multi-playing. But the percentages aren't everything. The comments made will be kept confidential, as will the identities of who voted how, but a few things I will say. First, the arguments against multi-playing were much more persuasive than those for multi-playing. Without violating the anonymity of the respondants, I have created an FAQ in which I've addressed most of the pro-multi-playing comments and reasonings. The administrators and coders of Aurealan Realms voted unanimously in favor of keeping the one-character-per-player limit. We were looking for an overwhelming vote in favor of multi-playing in order to consider keeping it, and such did not occur. There were 59 votes total, 28 for multi-playing, 18 against, and 13 voters stated in their comments that they desired a neutral/undecided status. This makes only 47% for, and a total of 53% not-for, combining the neutral/undecided and the no votes. This is by no means an overwhelming vote, and thus... As of today, August 1st, 2000, Aurealan Realms is a single-character MUD. We are aware of the imbalances in classes, and that will be our first and foremost concern following the completion of the equipment conversion going on now, and due to be brought over from the workport the evening of September 1st, 2000. For those of you who feel this to be unsatisfactory, we understand and harbor no ill feelings if you decide to depart for greener pastures. For those who find they can still enjoy this mud through this change, we have great things in store for you, massive, world-shaking changes and the same innovative and challenging world you've had before, and as of the inception of the conversion, we will be once again working on new areas and preparing to open building applications.

In addition, as of this posting, we are announcing that we are terminating the allowability of storage characters as of the day we bring the conversion in. At that time, we will be sifting the player files and removing any characters that are obviously (and we can tell) storage characters. However, as a means of deferring any hardships brought on by this, we're lowering the price of houses on a semi-permanent basis. We reserve the right to raise them at some point in the future, but will not do so for an extended period of time.

I want to thank everyone who stuck around and participated in the testing period, it demonstrated what we hoped it would, and we firmly believe it will make the mud a better place to play. As always, feel free to send any questions/comments to Mouseglove, but be sure to read the FAQ first. Again, from my heart and on behalf of the rest of the immstaff, thank you for your help."

Thursday, July 29th, 2000

"We are in the process of manually converting over 6000 items and over 4000 monsters to bring the mud into the new age the online role-playing has been moving us towards for the last 8 months. We hope to be finished with this before the end of August (it's quite a daunting task). Due to this conversion, all building has stopped on AR for the time being, which means no new zones for a while, and a hold on opening up applications for new would-be builders. So, hold on tight, it's going to get interesting once these changes come in... it'll make the mud much more challenging, the overall gameplay much more balanced, and once again, put an emphasis on how special things magickal really are, be they spells or items. Until then, enjoy "No-Multi" July (we're testing out limiting players to one character online at a time) and stay tuned for more updates." -Mouseglove

Sunday, June 4th, 2000

"YES! I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to announce that, for the first time ever, we have full-motion (with sound) video of the latest 'Fest up on the web page for all to see & hear! Three cheers to Bally for his selfless time & effort in both shooting the video and pictures we have, as well as taking the time to prep them and get them to me for use on the web page. It's a fabulous new feature, and I'm thrilled to have it as part of the record of this year's 'Fest. When you see Bally online, everyone thank him profusely for this, it'll embarass the heck out of him, but he's earned it! Check it out on the AR 'Fest page, and enjoy!" -Mouseglove

Wednesday, March 8th, 2000

"The newest version of the RoAClient is out and in the Beta-Testing stage. The biggest & best version yet features assignable windows for trigger output, so you can route all your OOC's to one channel, all your incoming tells to one channel, etc. It has lots of other features, including an input history that you can click on and scroll through. Very handy, let me tell you. It's available in our files section for immediate download. Just remember to uninstall your old client before installing the new one, and don't delete those character profiles! Enjoy!"

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2000

"Plans continue towards a whole new world (of sorts) which should hit about the end of the first full week in March. Zhalith, the force of Undeath & Corruption in the world, is rapidly consuming the source of all magic in the world, and with each "meal", magic grows more and more unstable. What will happen? Can he be stopped? Every friday night at 9:00pm EST, live quests are run where the heroes of the realms attempt to thwart the plans of the evil Dracolich. Be a part of it! Log in for live quests every friday night and help shape the future of the realms!"

Thursday, November 18, 1999

"The newest update to the RoAClient is here and ready for download from the files page. Updated features include: speedwalk, simple tic timer, auto-Highlighting, auto-Nickname completion option, ignore local $cmd option, shortcut fixes, initial font fix and several bug fixes. See the client homepage for more details."

Thursday, October 28, 1999

"After much work by Rastor and myself, all three of our web forms are in! AR players can now request customized equipment, player houses and player-owned shoppes via the web page and have their requests sent on to the immortal in charge of such things for processing. This is an incredibly big step for us, and makes things much easier for everyone in getting shoppes & houses. This is also an appropriate time to say congrats to Rastor who succeeds Cyruss as head of Player Housing & Shoppes after Cyruss's retirement. With the additions of the web forms, I'd say he's already making a name for himself. Go Rastor!"

Saturday, October 2, 1999

"I've updated the policy page, the files page, the immortals page and the clans page. We're now at version 4.01 of the RoAClient, which has a few bug fixes and has added both the ability to put in multiple commands on one input line (using a customizable seperator character) and the ability to input the same command multiple times (using the $ character. Ex. $10 buy bread). That is all. :)

Sunday, August 15, 1999

"The new version of the RoA Client is here! This one is self-installing (no more messing about with unzipping it), has toggle-able wordwrap within the editing window, split-screen scrollback, inter-client communication support (local only, for use in multi-playing), and much more! The client's homepage has all the details and helpfiles online at http://www/rhoneware.com/RoAClient/, or you can go directly to the files section and download the client now! I'd heartily recommend getting this, it's the fastest, most stable, most feature-filled piece of windows software from Vall yet!

Sunday, July 25, 1999

"The web page has been given a facelift. It's been the way it was for a year, and I like to make periodic changes just to refresh the look. Also, keep your eyes peeled, the much anticipated next version of Vall's RoAClient is due out soon! You'll find it here as soon as it's ready. In the meantime, lots of little changes in the code of the mud, mostly bug fixes, but a few additions. Mages have been given a slightly expanded spell list, and a new class is hopefully coming by year's end. Until then, true believers, keep the faith and we'll be here. :) Excelsior! -Mouseglove"

Monday, June 7, 1999

"Turns out that SOMEONE doesn't understand that when you write a desc for your house, you have to hit enter at the end of every 75-80 characters, wrote a desc that was one long 512+ character line, and every time the mud tried to boot, it would attempt to read that in, barf, and go right back down. <grumble> Ah well, it's fixed now, and rest assured, the person who did it will be notified and have their little virtual hands smacked appropriately. ;) -Mouseglove"

Sunday, June 6, 1999

"The mud is down. It won't boot up for some reason. I've mailed Vall & Darkenelf, but since they're both either asleep or at work, we probably won't get anything done 'til tomorrow morning. Hang tight, and keep your eye here, I'll try to keep you as up-to-date as we know. -Mouseglove"

Monday, May 10, 1999

"We've started to use some of the other commands that Darkenelf has given us, namely the History and News commands. Typed by themselves, they produce a list of topics which can be read by typing 'news/history topicname', just like helpfiles. News is where we keep people up-to-date on the latest additions & changes coming into the mud, while History is where we put the mythos information for specific zones and immortals/monsters of note. Ever wonder why Kylngoth is the way it is? Type 'history kylngoth' and find out! More to come so stay tuned! -Mouseglove"

Sunday, April 11, 1999

"Wow, what a month. We've now got a whole new addition to the RoAMD code: Configurable colors! You can now choose (and set and save) what color different parts of the mud will appear to you in. For example, you can set your emotes to appear in bright blue, your OOC channel in bright yellow, and your tells in green, if you so choose. We also have a few "color schemes" that you can list & try, with more to come (surely). Also, we've revamped several commands, and placed them under one heading: toggle, clan, shop, mfinger, and others now support "switches", which are /command arguments that you put after the main command. For example, if you now want to go notell, you'd type: toggle/tell instead of notell. Lastly, the newest version of the RoAClient is available! New, from Vall: Multi-windowed display, board notification (so you'll know when someone posts somethign new), and an automapper that displays colors by terrain-type! Check out the downloads page to get it, or visit the RoAMUD Homepage to peek at it before you download it. That's it for now, but coming soon: COMBAT MESSAGE TOGGLE! Stay tuned. :) -Mouseglove"

Wednesday, March 4, 1999

"The quest for balance continues. We've just nailed a MAJOR crash bug in our new combat system, and with that gone, we can turn to improvements once again. Newbies will be the main priority of our focus for the next few weeks. Our new exp formula is working, but it makes levelling a bit too difficult for those new to the mud, so we've added a 2x experience factor for those levels 1-10, and we've modified the per-kill experience point cap so as to make it easier for people to get started. Coming soon: "Newbie Minlevels" - all "newbie items" will be usable by anyone levels 1-10, giving new players even more of a boost to get them started. Stay tuned, we'll keep working. :) -Mouseglove"

Sunday, January 31, 1999

"Last night, an error spammed to the syslog millions of times until it maxxed out the quota which then disallowed the account to write anything to disk INCLUDING anything the mud needed to write... the world looks ok, but the pfile has been utterly destroyed.

On the good news side, I did back up the mud on the 22nd of January, so we have that pfile to revert to, but this will erase the last week of play. We'll do our best to make sure this never happens again. -Mouseglove"

Monday, January 18, 1999

"Vall has done it again! The Beta-Test version of ARClient v3.0 is now available on the RoAMUD Homepage, and WHAT an update it is from version 2... wow. Not only is it a full, stand-alone client, featuring triggers, scrollback, autologin... many of the features you look for in a mud client, but it also gives users the ability to browse common mud information (like the who list, the complete list of available bulletin boards, inventory, etc), enter text via a standard "windows" text entry area (meaning full cursor movement, cut/paste ability, etc) and keep a record of any and all items that have been identified, one that you can go back through whenever you need to, so no spending valuable domars on scrolls to re-identify something you KNOW you've identified once before but just can't remember. All in all, it's fabulous, and Vall's already tweaking to make it even better still! You can download the client by going to the mudbase page, or click here and see just how much better the client can make your "mudding experience"! (Ok, I know that sounds pretentious but... hey, I'm excited about this, so forgive me for being a bit sensationalist about it. :) More as it happens soon! -Mouseglove"

Thursday, December 3, 1998

"We're prepping a nifty surprise for our Windows 95/98 users... a custom set of startup & shutdown screens for windows, reflecting a more... Realms-ian flair. Click here to see the preliminary shots. The startup screen we're real pleased with, and while the shutdown screen is good, it goes by too fast to really read, so we're looking for something slightly less verbose in its "pro-AR" message. :) Check it out, and if you have suggestions for alternate shutdown screens, be sure to subscribe to the AurealanRealms mailing list and submit your idea! -Mouseglove"

Tuesday, November 17, 1998

"LOTS of new things! Being a newbie has never been easier on Aurealan Realms. We've made lots of changes, from initial weapon proficiencies to easier initial levelling... it's all good. :) Next, we've brought back the grats channel, by popular demand. Finally, we now have a mailing list specifically for the mud! To subscribe, send mail to majordomo@csc.lni.net and in the body of the letter (not the title), type "subscribe aurealanrealms" (without the "s, of course) and you'll be sent a response e-mail asking you to confirm your subscription. Just send back the one-line it gives you in the body of an e-mail message, and you'll be on the list! We'll be using this list for announcements, votes, discussions, special events... tons of stuff. So don't miss out, get signed up now! -Mouseglove"

Friday, November 6, 1998

"It's been a busy couple of weeks on Aurealan Realms. We've added weapon proficiencies, as well as re-doing our combat procedures, complete with all-new combat messages, which, I might add, people are saying they really like, and that's always nice. Also, as of today, we've hired 9 new builders to expand the already huge realm we have for people to wander around in. Needless to say, we're expanding yet again, and we couldn't be happier to welcome our new immortals into the fold. We expect great things from these young talents, and our 'world' will be the better for it! -Mouseglove"

Thursday, October 22, 1998

"Vall has given us a new version of the ARClient for Win95. In the new version, you can read any/all of the boards (Announcement, Reading-Room, Role-Playing, Clans, etc) at the click of a screen button! In addition, he added support for when you identfy items! Any time you save an item, it sends a copy of the identify information to the client, which is stored for retrieval at any time! Just click on the appropriate box in the client, then click on the item you want to see, and... WHALAH! Check it out, it's available from our download page! -Mouseglove"

Thursday, October 15, 1998

"Well, the web site has been revamped. I've re-done the Menu bar, and re-located it to the left side, and redone the graphic elements a bit. I've also added this News page, and a Downloads page where people can get the sound client, the new Aurealan Realms active desktop background image (courtesy of our PR whiz, Diabolus), and where we'll put any and all downloadable offerings we have for the people.

In MUD news, we've just added a new method of displaying combat. It's meeting with rave reveiws as it's much less spammy. We're still working on our latest class (Templars), and that should be in soon. Be sure to visit all the other pages on this site, especially the Photos area, which is proof positive that beautiful people DO mud. :) -Mouseglove
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