4Dimensions is trying to improve itself and is asking for the help of all current players.  We want to improve the structure of how to play so 4Dimensions will be THE mud to play on for the next decade or more.  To get all the valuable insights from the players we can, we've created the following threads on the forum.
The first is Once's guide on how YOU can help.  Find it here: http://4dimensions.org/forum/index.php/topic,760.0.html
Bane took Once's suggestion and ran with it, creating two disctictive Macros for help.
Macro: Alignment: http://4dimensions.org/forum/index.php/topic,762.0.html
Macro: Newbie: http://4dimensions.org/forum/index.php/topic,765.0.html
We are sure there are more areas that players think need improving so we ask that you create your own topics following the ideas above.  Think of the way combat is, quests, PVP and all other aspects of the game.  Create a Macro for that idea, ask for input from other players as well.
We're all in this game together so we may as well create something we all love to play even more than we love playing 4D now.

Solorn Del'Vante was a mad man - in quite a few senses of the word.  His family was once the piller of society around the large 3 story mansion they owned and it seems the stress of living up to his family name was quite astounding as it drove him insane.  At least, hopefully he was insane as no sane person should do what it is the villagers accused him of doing - killing many, perhaps even hundreds, of people in his quest to find out what made them tick.  No one found their bodies for proof, but proof was not needed to carry out justice.  It is said they hung him from the wrought-iron sign that lead from the mansion to the small family cemetery.  When they came back to pull him down, his body was already gone.  Who took it and what they did with it was never know.
Changes to the Halloween zone this year are:
1) The mansion is 3 stories tall instead of 2.
2) There is the small family cemetery, but there is also a larger graveyard.
3) There are a couple of buildings outside the house - a couple of which you can get to without even entering the house.
There is still apple bobbing that can be found which gets you points to use to buy a few items.  Any suggestions to more items would be appreciated.
 

So, what is the purpose of Zone Deeds?
Zone deeds mean prestigious bragging rights, but they also give certain benefits to the Clan that is holding them.
Once a Clan has claimed a deed, by putting it in the Deed box in their Clan hall, every Clan member will get an experience bonus when fighting in that zone. On top of that, a small percentage of all gold transactions made in that zone will go to the Treasury of the Clan that holds the deed.
Only one Clan can own the rights to a zone at the same time, so if another Clan manages to collect a deed that is already claimed, the ownership goes over to the new Clan.
At present the members of the Chaos Clan have been most successful in collecting deeds, with Table Round and Saints sharing second place. But this can change very quickly, once a dedicated deed hunter gets working.
The secrets to attain these deeds are a mystery but at the very least, one needs to spend some time in the zone.

Originally Avalon was just meant to be a part of the Druid Quest, so I first planned it to be one single rom, a place to hide the Sacred Sickle in. But I easily get carried away, so pretty soon it started to expand, and when I first released the new zone, it had grown to 65 rooms.

However, a couple of the playtesters complained that there wasn't enough content in Avalon, considering the extreme hassle of even getting there, and I had to admit they were right. A new zone deserves at least a couple of smaller Quests and some problems to solve.

So here it is: Another 35 rooms and three new Quests, all separate, but also tied together in a way to the original purpose of the zone. I might expand it even more in the future, since there's so much lore around Avalon. But for now, this will do. More details in Questcard 105. Enjoy!

Three of our oldest zones have been updated to our current building standards, (which means our special trademarks; listen, taste and smell descs, the option to look above , under and behind objects in the room, and also undisplayed portals and containers, all useful things for Quests). The three zones involved are:

• West Trade Road and Camelot
• The Elven Forest
• The Elven Metropolis

As usual when older zones get updated, we also added a number of new Quests. All the new Quests are very epic and complex. And one of them, the Druids and the Moon, also introduces a brand new zone – Avalon.
 
Avalon is the mythical land of the Fairies, and both the Fairies and the Pixies that populate it can be both entertaining and annoying. But you'll only be able to enter these new realms if you carry out the instruction of the Druid Ghost in the Cairn, southwest of Durmandle.
 
With this update we also introduce our newest features – Seasons and Moon phases.
This means that we now have fruit trees that blossom in spring and bear fruit in the fall.
And certain potion ingredients may have more strength if collected at the right moon phase, and the Druids are very picky about that. Also moon phases means the potential for vampires and werewolves – but we are not there yet.
 
You'll find more details about the Quests in the Questor's Office or on our Website, where the Questcards also have been updated. The new card numbers are:
70. Adventures in Punt
91. The Elven Bards
101. The Cardinal's sin
102. The Holy Grail
103. Rebellion against King Arthur!
104. The Druids and the Moon
 

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?

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.