Topics

16

News & Announcements / Knight of the Month Tournament

« on: August 10, 2012, 12:58:24 am »

Stile has asked for a KOTM, and since Prom is away presently, I'm gonna need some input from you players about how to best organise it.
So what would you prefer?
All against all or a knockout competition?
Or a hybrid between the two?
We have also discussed the possiblilties of a Team or Clan competition, where teams of 2 or 3 players battle each other.
Anyhow, I guess this is all dependant on how many competitors we get, so let's wait and see.
 

17

Suggestions & Ideas / Throttle and Garotte, Shadowmask and Shadowcloak

« on: June 25, 2012, 01:01:01 am »

While you are going through the skills and spells, why not revive the old thief skills throttle and garotte? They were subskills, not skills, and it took a long and hard quest to get them. Throttle required that instead of your normal weapon you had to wield a garotte, which could only be bought in the Fenizia weapon shop if you'd done the quest.

For some reason they were disabled. Most likely garotte was overpowered, but why not balance them instead of disabling them totally? We want 4D to be unique, so why not use the things that are unique and directly integrated in the zones?

These subskills could be changed into normal skills, which of course means that the questscript would have to be changed a bit in the appropriate places, but the quest itself would have some meaning again.

Two other thief skills were planned but never implemented, shadowmask and shadowcloak.
Shadowmask would mask the identity of the player in the room, so that the long and short desc would say 'a masked figure' instead of the player name.
Shadowcloak would do the same with the who-list, so that it would display 'a cloaked figure' instead of the name. It would also not display the player's equipment when looked upon.

There were some issues with those two skills, since they could potentially be abused, but personally I thought they were cool and perfect for PK.

18

News & Announcements / Artifacts and artisave rooms

« on: May 17, 2012, 01:59:27 am »

I've already posted a note about this in the gameport, but will post it hear too, for questions and further references.:

New artifacts and new code
20 new artifacts will be added to the game, and some of the old ones will be relocated.
Possibly the stats on some of the old ones will also be changed.
Thanks to Jaros for helping with the work.

The new artifact code is currently tested in Once's port. I assume he'll want some help from the players, when it comes to the timers and the artifact detectors.

Timers and Clan Artisave rooms
All artifacts have a timer and this will remain. Part of the concept is that the timer will stop counting down, as long as the item is kept in certain rooms, which have the new flag ARTISAVE.

Each Clan will be allowed one such room, to encourage sharing of the artifacts between clannies.
The Clans can choose which room to flag, and they will also get one undisplayed container to put the artis in.
Since this will be part of the defences when Clan Halls eventually will be opened, you are adviced to choose the location well.
How secret it remains depends on the loyalty and silence of your Clan members, and how well you conceal the container.
(See below for rules).

Mail or note your choice of room, and details about the container to Molly. (If the chosen room doesn't have a unique name, you'll have to ask an imm to tell you the vnum first).
The sooner you respond, the sooner you'll get your Artisave room.
There is also a deadline for the choice. If I don't hear from you before June 30th, I'll choose the location myself, and then you'll have to figure out yourselves where I put it.

Cost for artisave room and hidden container
The Flag and container will be free of charge the first time.
If you want to move the flag to another room later, or change the alias of the container, each of these changes will cost one silver.
The chosen room can NOT be a crashproof house. Nor can it be a no-exit room that is not accessable for no-clannies. (Examples:The Sicilian Executer's room, The Saints' Pleasure Pit and the Dark Jedi Prison cell)

Rules for concealing the container
According to our building rules, there must be a hint in any of the room descs, mentioning the alias of the concealed object. The hint can be made in one or several steps.
You are free to use behind/above/under descs, as long as they too are related to an existing noun in the main descs.
(For instance, if the room desc mentions a safe, you can put the hint in the 'look behind/above/under safe' desc).

Example1:
Sentence somewhere in the Room desc: A large safe stands against the west wall.
The safe is an undisplayed container, which doesn't show up as an object on the room.

Example2:
Sentence somewhere in the Room desc: A large safe stands against the west wall.
Look behind safe: A small compartment is concealed in the wall behind the safe.
The compartment is an undisplayed container, which doesn't show up as an object on the room.

Example3:
Sentence somewhere in the Room desc: The floors are covered by thick, expensive carpets.
Look under carpet: A small cache is concealed under the carpet.
The cache is an undisplayed container, which doesn't show up as an object on the room.

19

News & Announcements / The maps have been fixed!

« on: May 08, 2012, 02:39:45 am »

A big Hooray for Thotter, who has fixed the bug with the in-game maps that has irritated me for ever!

And while I'm at it; thanks to KaVir, who provided us with the Client maps in the first place.

You guys rock!

20

General Discussions / New Promotion page on TMC

« on: April 28, 2012, 02:32:26 am »

Here is another piece of great news.

TMC are designing a new page to help get new players into their first mud.
They are going to put a big button right at the top to get them started, with an easy to follow set of instructions/explanation and then a link that gets them connected via their fmud client.

I am seriously flattered to learn that 4D is on that shortlist of muds chosen for that page.
The criteria are; well established, good population, newbie friendly, engrossing content.
Iccy told me we were "an obvious choice", hehe.

So far there are only 12 Muds on the list. They are probably going to add some more games, but it's still an honour to be among the first chosen.

Here's a link to the page:
http://www.mudconnect.com/mud_for_new_players.html

It will probably go live tomorrow, and hopefully we'll see some new inflow from it.
Hopefully you guys will also take good care of any new recruits. :-)

 

21

General Discussions / Free banners on TMC

« on: April 19, 2012, 03:15:54 pm »

From April 20th onwards TMC will be offering free banner ads throughout the website on a rotation basis.
More info in this thread:
http://www.mudconnect.com/discuss/discuss.cgi?mode=MSG&area=general&message=25204#25204

Immediate question that arises; Do we have a banner that we can use?
If not, could someone perhaps design one for us?

Sounds like a too good opportunity to pass.

22

General Discussions / Spam members

« on: April 12, 2012, 03:21:27 am »

It's getting pretty irritating with the gazillion of spammers that try to get in every day.

I'm no good with fixing stuff like this myself, but perhaps someone else of the site admin is?
I've noticed that several other Discussion Forums have a sort of capture, where you have to retype a word that is a bit hard to read, before you get accepted.

Isn't this something we could do here too?
Or at least set it up it so we can delete a full pagelength, without having to mark the boxes on each?

23

Suggestions & Ideas / Little things that annoy me

« on: December 02, 2011, 04:36:47 am »

I've probably complained about this earlier, but here I go again:
I know that the various room messages were meant to add some diversity to the game.
But some of the room messages just look silly and  are generally irritating to me.
Below are two examples:

1. Snakes with arms and legs?
Gratefully the move messages seem to have been fixed, so that animals no longer hike or trudge.
But one annoying thing remains with bodyparts.
The fight code mentions different bodyparts that you hit when fighting a mob. (Like arms, legs, shoulders etc.)
This would be fine if you actually DID hit that particular bodypart.
And even better if the armor on that bodypart played a role in how hard the damage was.
But as it is, the messages seem to be mostly cosmetic.
And that would be OK too, as long as the mob you are fighting is humanoid.
But it just looks silly when the mob is an animal.
EXAMPLE: You penetrate the snake and abuse its right leg with your slash.


2. Priests and bears that fly?
It seems that all mobs that are 'imm level', i.e. above 51, habitually fly.
It looks extremely silly, when a dignified priest or a huge bear suddenly starts to levitate.
EXAMPLE: The Apollo Priest flaps his wings and lifts himself a little higher.

24

Suggestions & Ideas / Priorities

« on: November 17, 2011, 08:42:15 am »

Like I already said in a previous thread, I think we need a place to list the best of all the ideas that have popped up during the last year and also earlier. Not all ideas are feasible for various reasons, and some may need a too big coding or building effort for someone to handle all that work.
But if we can agree about where we'd ideally want the mud to be going on the long term, it should also be possible to discuss more modest changer and additions that would improve the gameplay without affecting the end goal negatively. Some of the smaller changes  could even be stepping stones to an end goal, making the big changes that we'd admittedly need a bit easier.

Many of the ideas hang more or less intimately together, so I've divided them in 7 different groups.

Below is a list of ideas that I personally like and would support. Others may have different priorities, so feel free to add to and comment on my list. I'm going to comment on the different parts myself in a later post, mostly to explain why I think they would be good.

1. MORE NEWBIE FRIENDLY GAME
* Fixes to Mud School and Quest Academy (partly done)      
* Fixes to the Newbie zones (hopefully Kvetch will deal with this)
* KaVir's client app   (finish, put download package on website and advertise)        
* Fix the buggy maps  (The code seems to be fixed now, so I'll continue work on the zones)        
* More Newbie equip quests  (another assignment for Kvetch)?  
* Quest journal and personal notepad   (a prototype is ready for testing)
* Exp points for exploring          

2. CLASSES AND A MORE INTERESTING FIGHT SYSTEM
* Balance the current classes, (reshuffle existing skills, remove GM?)  
* New skills/spells system  (skilltrees)    
* Elemental weaknesses and strengths  (could make fighting a lot more interesting)
* Add stamina/action points (Once is apparently working on this)              

3. VEHICLES, PIRACY AND SPACE BATTLES
* New vehicle system  (Horus has something almost ready)
* Long-range and/or room damage weapons for vehicles (promotes spacebattles and piracy)
* Coordinate based navigation system in space  (enables hyperspace jumps)      
* Make some vehicles crashproof   (promotes piracy and spacebattles)

4. RACES
* Remove current attributes? (not sure if I like this though)
* Cybernetics (a chance to customise your character)                

5. ARTIFACT SYSTEM
* counter removed or reworked  (is being worked on)            
* Artifact detector (almost done, under testing, pricing needs to be decided)         
* Fix existing artifacts  (relocate some, possibly change stats)    
* New artifacts (sitting in buildport)            

6. PETS, MOUNTS AND GOLEMS
* Trainable pets (an old dream of mine)
* Golems work only partly (script driven, might be better coded?)
* Herd animals (would be a cool feature for Oldwest)

7. IMPROVED AND EXPANDED CRAFT SYSTEM
* new pricing on lumberjack  (remove decreasing reward)  
* Farming and gardening (once per zone reset, new pricing)
* add cooking/catering  (makes farming and gardening more useful)      
* add advanced brewing (base on existing herbs, encourages exploring)
* full system (gives farming, lumberjacking, mining etc. a purpose)

8. DEVELOP THE CLAN SYSTEM
Clans are important, both to PK and to social interaction.
Eventually Clan HQs should be open to raiding by other Clans, to improve the challenges.
There are a lot of measures to be taken before this end goal can safely be achieved though.
The details are discussed in another thread, I forgot which one, so need input on that.
However we should not forget the ultimate goal for the clans.

25

News & Announcements / New semi-graphical client app

« on: September 25, 2011, 10:14:40 am »

KaVir has generously offered us the use of a graphical interface that he's been developing, in the form of a  custom plugin. He has also helped us install it, which meant a lot of work, since our code is so tangled.

The plugin works for both  MUSHclient and Mudlet.

Among other things the plugin offers energy bars, icons for spell affects, with a countdown function to show how much time is left, and pretty nice graphical maps in a side window. The maps are a bit buggy at present, but we're working on that. (The bug is with our own code, not the client).

The basis for the plugin is already installed,  and now we need people to both test it and if possible develop it. For instance; by using tabs the extra windows could be made to alternately show things like equipment, inventory, score or channel history. It should also be possible to have different icons for the most common spells. By sharing the scripts with the rest of the players we could hopefully offer new players a more complete download package.

The following is what you have to do to download the client app:

Step 1: Download and install MUSHclient
Click and run the following file, it's a self-extracting zip:
MUSHclient 4.72
It is recommended that you install this in C:\MUSHclient - some players have reported problems when running in C:\Program Files\MUSHclient, particularly with Windows 7.

Step 2: Download and unzip the plugin
Save and extract this zip file into your MUSHclient folder:
http://www.godwars2.org/download/mushclient/4D_GUI.zip
It has side windows and energy bars, and a Map function, adapted to 4D's Wilderness code.

Step 3: Add 4Dimensions to MUSHclient
Start up MUSHclient and add a new world for 4Dimensions:
Select "File"->"New World"
Fill in the details for the mud, then click "OK"

Step 4: Add the plugin
Connect to the mud, log on, and add the plugin:
Select "File"->"Plugins..."
Click "Add..." and open the plugin.
Once you've added the plugin, click "Close"

Step 5: Restart MUSHclient
You will need to close the world then restart:
Select "File"->"Close World" and confirm
Select "File"->"Open World"
Open the Plugin folder
Open the 4Dimensions world file and start playing

You can get more info and some screenshots on KaVir's own website:
http://www.godwars2.org/plugins.php

If you are testing this client, please share your opinions, problems and developments on this thread.

26

Suggestions & Ideas / Making it easier for new players how to advance

« on: August 28, 2011, 04:38:01 am »

Apparently there is a stage, (somewhere between when new players leave MudSchool, and when they get fully self-sufficient after a couple of remorts), where totally new players find it too hard, or too slow, to advance. Many of them give up at that stage, especially if there is no helper available at the time to answer questions.

Already established players, who start a new alt, don't seem to have the same problem, since they all seem to advance pretty quickly. I'm not sure whether that is because it's easier for them to find a friend to powerlevel them, or because they already know where to go to find the best levelling zones and equipment,

Anyhow, since quite a few newbies give up on the way, and we really need the playerbase to grow, we've been discussing ways to help them along, preferably so that they can do it on their own.
Once already came up with the following suggestions:
'Heals and knowing where the right mobs are are a pretty consistent problem for newbies.  I think one step is to give them heals every couple of levels (along with hints about their clan HQ).  I know they get money, but I don't think that's enough and I don't think the path of getting heals is clear to them.  I also think we should look at giving them a couple "maps".  One at level 5 another at level 10, and another at level 25 which have directions to the best regarded leveling zones.
We may cut out a little bit of the early exploration by pointing out the good zones but I think we'll make the entire process a lot easier for them this way.'

I'm not against giving out maps or directions to some zones and equipment myself, it's actually a step better than just giving them the stuff and powerlevelling them, because they'd have to do some little effort themselves. Cuddling them too much initially tends to make them lazy and less inclined to venture out on their own.

Still I'd like to get some more input from our active players:
- Which zones are generally considered to be best for levelling at different stages?
- Which non-restricted armor/weapons would be best to lead them to? (Ideally they should be able to get it on their own, so it shouldn't require a hard kill).
And above all:
- Are there other factors that could make the game more fun and rewarding for low-medium level players?

Any good suggestions would likely lead to fast implementation, since this thing has high priority.
You can respond either directly on this thread, or via mudmail, note or e-mail (molly.4d@tele2.se).

27

News & Announcements / Forum Account

« on: June 03, 2011, 05:05:32 am »

Regrettably this Forum seems to have been invaded by a swarm of cockroaches, in the form of spambots, posting adverts for whatever kind of useless merchandise they are promoting.

At present we are dealing with this vermin by stopping them as soon as they apply for membership, insted of waiting for them to post their crap. The crunching sound while stepping on them is very satisfying.

However, this also means that all new members, even legitimate ones, now need to be approved by the Admin, before being allowed to create the account. Using your Mud name when creating an account will make it easier for us to identify valied posters. But in case we still mistake any of our esteemed members for cockroaches and deny you the access, you need to contact the Mud Administration in game, or over note, e-mail or mudmail to be able to post.

28

Suggestions & Ideas / Some thoughts about Clans in 4D

« on: May 30, 2011, 12:29:34 am »

Clans are an important part of the fun in any mud. They form the basis for alliances and enemies, and provide social relations and opportunities for basic RP even to those that aren't really into roleplaying. They also offer various options for competition and rivalry, which is usually good for the gameplay.
We are currently planning some changes for the Clans that will hopefully enhance the fun. But with all changes you must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so I think it would be good if we discuss the 4D Clan system from a more general standpoint first.

Let me start by sharing some of my own thoughts about what the Clans in 4D should represent. This will be a bit long-winded, so I'll divide it into several posts. Feel free to disagree with my opinions, but first heed my words, because much of it is part of the 4D History.

Some say that we have too many Clans for our current player base, and while there is some truth in this, I still am not prepared to close down any of them, partly because it would mess up the code, but mostly because historically things can change very quickly in a Mud. Just look at how even the most prestigious Clans sometimes decline, due to lack of interest from the leaders. I'd rather recommend the natural solution - 'survival of the fittest'. Just let the inactive Clans die in peace.
If someone at a later time would like to have a go at resurrecting a 'dead' Clan, there could be a procedure for this, similar to staking the claim for a mine. (Perhaps this could even be coded). If nobody disputes the claim within a given time, the new leadership goes to the occupant. If two or more persons have claims on the same empty Clan, they'll have to fight it out between them, with whatever followers they can muster.

I think variety and freedom of choice are important things, and for this it's important that we keep and - even enhance - the differences between the Clans. As it is, some of them seem to try to copy the policies of some other Clan, possibly in the hope of also copying their 'success'. But all they achieve by this is to water out their own profile, which in the long run will make themselves less attractive. You also have to keep in mind that the definition of 'success' varies with the individual view. While to some people 'success' would be defined as the most members, the largest treasury or the strongest players, to others things like a close-knit community, good roleplay or quality above quantity might be more important aspects.

I think all the current Clans have a place to fill in 4D. Every player has different preferences during different times of their Mud career, and by catering to those needs, all the Clans should be able to recruit enough members to survive the ups and downs, at least if we allow alts in Clans. But for this to work, the Clans really need to define their profile, and work on how to make it more distinctive. If you don't like the image of your current Clan, maybe you should think of joining another, rather than changing what might be the heart and soul of the one you are in. Returning to the roots, might be a better choice than trying to shape a clan into something it never was – and never was meant to be.

Historically, the Clans were all made for a purpose, and in a later post I'll try to explain what each of the individual Clans once stood for.
But first let me rant a bit about Clan rules and policies.

29

Suggestions & Ideas / Future Clan Contests

« on: May 09, 2011, 01:32:52 am »

I'm splitting this out from the thread about zoneflags, to start a discussion about possible Clan Contests for the future.

Yeah, I'm cool with the idea now, and like I said with there going to be another batch starting one day, it's not like it's not achievable anymore.

Aside from that..Viri had an idea before about Zone deeds. Essentially, if you are levelling in a zone, any mob within that zone has a small chance to drop a deed. you can then claim that deed for you clan. When claimed your clan gets some sort of benefit, like an interest rate, or something positive. Once a deed is claimed it would then be able to be gotten by another clan after so many hours has passed. What this does is gets clans competing against one another on a continuous basis, since it's an on going competition. Also promotes exploring and going out and getting far away zones deeds. Could make it percentage based or number based, after 10 deeds are claimed clan gets increased clan bank interest, if 20 deeds are reached then clan gets 10% more exp a kill, if 30 deeds reached 10% more gold...90 deeds 1 dambonus max deeds, get clan name added to plaque or trophy for it for in clanhall. And all deeds are reset. So it could be a competition to have all the deeds claimed before all other clans, but everytime another clan claims the zone you lose it, so it could very well take a very long time to win. I know the post is cluttered, but what do you think?

Zone deeds sounds like a good idea, but I need some clarifications.

Let's see if I got it right:
1. Every zone in the game gets a Zone deed.
2. A couple of the mobs in the zone gets a 5% chance of dropping that deed when killed.
3. After one Clan claimed the deed, other Clans will be able to get it too after a delay, but all Clans will keep the deeds they already claimed.
4. Each time a Clan has collected 10 deeds a list of those is exposed in the Clan Hall, and all the Clan members get some kind of reward or advantage from it.
5. The reward increases with the number of deeds collected.
6. The first Clan to collect 100 deeds gets a bigger reward.

Comments to some of the points:
1. Should we launch all the deeds at the same time, or divide them in batches of 10 and announce a list of the deeds available? (Personally I'd prefer batches of 10, to keep the interest up).

2. I'd prefer it if just a couple of the mobs in the zone would get the chance to drop the deed, mostly because it means an insane amount of work to set the drop scripts on every 8486 prototype mob in the game. Unless of course it can be coded. But if so, the deeds might be a bit too easy to get, and we'd have to lower the percentage.

3. I think the only feasible delay would be when the zone resets (coupled with the small percentage chance). At least  I don't know of a way to script the delay. Unless that too can be coded.

4. The Clan leaders would be responsible for keeping track of the deeds and turning the batches of 10 in to an imm. Possibly we should also display the name of the Clan member who got the deed on the list.
So there would be no extra bonus for the first Clan to claim the deed? It can of course be done, but it would be pretty hard to keep track of. The only feasible way would be for the Clan to post on the board when they claim a deed for the first time, and we'd probably have to set up a special board for it in the Clan Office. Only the first post for a zone would count of course.

5. The rewards definitely have to be well thought out and approved by the staff. They cannot be big enough to cause permanent inbalance, and all Clan members need to  benefit from them.

30

General Discussions / Helpfiles

« on: March 04, 2011, 06:16:01 am »

Not all of those who have access to the hedit command for writing Helpfiles have shell access.
At present it is possible to edit existing helpfiles directly, as long as you have hedit access.

But for new ones, a command has to be typed in the shell, to make the new helpfile visible after it has been written.
(And, just to jog my own bad memory, this command is ./fix_help).
It's an easy operation, but to carry it out, we need to know about the new files being created.

So, after you have created a new helpfile on any subject, please send a note about it to imm.
You don't have to notify us, if you just updated an existing file however.

There is also a large number of existing helpfiles named 'UNDEFINED'.
So a way around this bug would be to start the new helpfile with the command 'hedit undefined', and then just change the file name.
Then you'll be editing an existing file.