Somehow the scientists hired by the Travel Agency have managed to put a stop to the disturbance that has been threatening the Time-Space continuum. We no longer need to fear a total cataclysm that would have wiped out large parts of the world as we know it. However, the scientists could not get rid of the timetraps that have been appearing for these last months, so the Time Travelers themselves still have to be cautious when they enter those strange appearing rifts.

Or, to put it OOCly:

Anubis, who was doing the coding for the new fighting code, has terminated the project and deleted the code he has worked on for these last several months. He also resigned as coder and deleted his imm.

During his stay with us, Anubis has not just been working on the big codechange, he's also made considerable improvements to our main code, and this of course will not be affected.

What he has decided to remove is the major change that he was working on in another Port; the new skills/spells system and the rewrite of the fight code. As much as I personally regret his decision, this new code belongs exclusively to him, and he had every right to withdraw it. For the improvements and bug-fixes that he's added to our main code we owe him gratitude and credit.

This is a great disappointment to me, and probably also to many players who have been looking forward to the new challenges. But on the flip side, since the announced codechange is off, consequently the pwipe will not happen either. Meaning that you get to keep whatever levels, equipment, tokens, houses etc. that you have gained during your stay in 4D - including the period between the announcement of the pwipe and now.

It also means that 4D's code will stay as it is, and that the remaining coders will still try to fix bugs as they appear. So don't hesitate to let them know about things that are broken or malfunctioning, using the bug-command or notes.

For over 600 years the Realms of the 4 Dimensions have been relatively stable, but lately there are some ominous signs of a severe disturbance in the Time-Space continuum. New Time traps suddenly appear in places where there have been none before, and unlike the old ones they don’t always lead to the same places. More worrying, it has been reported that several travelers that have entered these new traps seem to have disappeared totally. Whether this means that they got stuck in another Dimension, or that they got swallowed by a Black hole has not yet been determined.

However, the Travel Agency has done some research around these new Time traps, and the info we have collected so far has been displayed in a room downstairs from the Map Room, south of Recall Point.  Travelers are warned to enter the new Time traps at their own risk.

We are hoping that this is only a temporary instability, and that things will soon return to normal. But there is always the chance that this is just the first sign of a much bigger and more severe disruption. In that case the world, as we know it, might come to a sudden end.  But let’s keep our hopes up.  Man is a very adaptable creature, who has managed to survive many nature catastrophes in the past, not to mention three World Wars. They say that only rats and cockroaches are more resilient species.

So no doubt Man will find a way to handle this new threat, and to survive and face a new future, however uncertain and different it may be.  

The Builder of the Year Award for 2009 goes to Diandra, in recognition for her endless work on improving our game.
Diandra is not your average type of Builder, in the sense that she didn't start her Imm career in 4D by building a zone. In fact her main zone, Killer Klowns, which she took over after the tragically deceased Alabastor, is still unfinished in the Buildport. I am confident that it will be completed one day, but Diandra is not only a perfectionist, she also gets constantly diverted by other tasks, which I keep piling on her.
Diandra is different from other Builders in another sense too; she is a constant and diligent worker. Too many builders slip into inactivity or oblivion after having completed a zone, with the main goal of getting an imm. But Diandra never stops working.

She's taken part in updating several of the older zones to our present standards, and she has also been a major part in RP events and global quests that needed extensive building support.
She has designed several quests, and is one of our best and dependable scriptors. In fact, when I screw up one of my own scripts, it's usually Diandra I turn to for help, and she usually fixes it.
She has been the main responsible for the perzonalised equipment for many years, and is probably the only one who has a full grip of all those items.
She runs our website, and when it got lost in the server crash, Diandra was the one that hunted down and retrieved most of the pages that we thought were lost for ever.
She wrote many of the helpfiles and maintains them.
And above all, she is the one who does most of the boring everyday work that I have come to hate myself. She corrects typos, fixes buggy scripts, hunts down bad resets - in short, most of her time on line is spent fixing mistakes made by other Builders. I don't know what I'd do without her.

Probably not many players realise how much work Diandra is doing for the Mud. This BOTY Award will hopefully make it a bit clearer.

The winner of our Halloween Story contest is Darvus, his story can now be found on the website using the following link Stories.
Seeing there were no other competitors, all prizes go to him.
 
If there are other people who have written short stories and want to share them, send them by email to Diandra and they'll get added to the same page.
 
Also as last reminder, the Halloween Zone will close this weekend, so if you still want a feel of the special atmosphere in the Del'Vante house, be sure to visit it now before the hungry ghosts and other strange creatures take over the area.

 The ancient dwelling of one Solorn Del'Vante has suddenly appeard just beyond the 4 Dimensions park.  What was once a quiet, restful place is now full of screams, moans and evil laughing.  It is said that the dead haunt us because they need something from us.  Perhaps that is true of this place.  Or perhaps all it wants it to add more people to the undead army that lives inside it.  One will never know unless you go inside and check it out for yourself.  Hopefully you'll come out in one piece.  Or if not, at least come out alive. 
Are you brave enough, adventurer, to enter the Haunted Halls of the Del'Vante mansion and discover its many secrets or will you turn your back to the many discoveries that lie within. 
Whichever you choose - will someone please turn off that damn light in the northern turret?
 
 
 

Since Halloween or Hallow's Eve as some call it, is coming near we are writing out a small competition.

So those of you who have ever wanted to write a ghost or Halloween story (or maybe you have already?) now is the time. Each submitted story will be judged and the prizes are:

First: 1 silver token and an imm prize
Second : 1 silver token
Third: 3 bronze
Other eligible stories: 1 bronze

Now what are eligible stories? The judges (Kvetch, Diandra and maybe some other victim) will decide :)

Stories can be submitted by email to: Diandra.4d@gmail.com before Wednesday the 28 of October. This will give the judges some time to pick out the best. The winners will be announced around Halloween.

Also the best stories will be published on our website/forum and the facebookthing.

It has come to our attention (thanks to Sarias for letting us know) that the 'click to play'-option on the website is no longer working.

Until this is fixed, and those who don't have the ability to load a client to log in, can still connect to the game through the client that Mudgamers provide.

Just click on the following link: http://mudgamers.com/2008/12/31/4dimensions/

and then click on the blue button that mentions PLAY NOW!

A number of the old zones have been updated lately by me and Diandra to fit our current standards, (i.e. Listen/Smell/Taste/Feel descs, look Behind/Above/Under descs, undisplayed portals and containers, etc.)

The zones we have been working on are:
- The Robber Baron Castle
- The Viking Ship
- The Pirate Galley Ship
- Lostlands
- Fenizia

Several Quests has been added to these zones during the update.
In connection with the Fenizian Lore, I've also added one Quest each to The High Mountains and the Citadel of Thandar.
In addition there is a very large Quest involving most of the Future Dimension, 'The Quest for the Best of the Best'.

The Questcards have been updated as well, so the cards from 87 onwards are new.
We have now reached the magic number of 100 Questcards.
(The number of actual quests of course is a lot higher).

There has been some complaints about the Trainers being too hard to find for new players. So to remedy that, we've done a few changes today:
*
1. From now on all the Class Guildmasters teach all the Tier 1 skills and spells for their respective Class.
2. These Guildhalls are now only open to players of the right Class.
3. The Opas and the Potion of Seeing that are sold in the Esper Guild can now also be purchased at Palpatine's Bar in the Spaceport.
*
Nothing else has been changed. All the other Trainers still teach the skills and spells that they used to teach. You still need to seek out those to train the skills and spells from Tier 2 upwards.

The info on the website will be changed presently to reflect this change. The helpfiles are also updated now.