Messages

31

Building Board / Re: Zedit

« on: March 01, 2014, 01:21:01 pm »

I most certainly agree.
Many of the oldest zones have a much too low maxload, and I increase those whenever I come acroos them, because objects not loading as they should is really annoying.
Nowadays I usually set a max of at least 500 on everything.

I'd like to add something about zedit, however.
If you reset something directly in a room, (i.e not on a mob or in a container), you need to remove the same vnum directly before. Otherwise more and more objects will collect in the room, until the max number is reached.  The same goes for a too high max number on a mob reset, although there is no way to limit mobs in a room in a room by removing them first.

Sometimes in the past this has  lead to the Port crashing, because the code cannot handle the spam that occurs when someone enters the room and looks at the mob pile up.

   

32

Roleplay / Re: Role Play Games/Mini-Session Ideas

« on: February 25, 2014, 02:13:43 am »

It would be nice if we could really get the theater running.

However, it seems to be dependant on Xeriuth, who is currently deployed in some outback place, that keeps him from connectioning here very often. Let's hope that he gets out of there and back to us soon - and let's remind him when he does.

As for the entrance to the theater, that's an easy fix. I agree with Turin that you shouldn't be dependant on a RP flag to be part of the audience. So let's attach it to the unicorn Inn instead, which is empty at present. Perhaps the scene and backstage should be confined to Roleplayers however, so that you need as RP flag to perform, but not to watch the performance?

33

Typo Change Announcements / Re: Typo Fixes

« on: February 24, 2014, 01:48:32 am »

Good job, Kvetch.

It is nice to know that the typos are fixed, since we are planning to enter a new zone very soon, and that usually fills it up fast.

34

General Discussions / Re: A general Hello and stuff

« on: February 01, 2014, 03:27:28 am »

Thanks for the nice words, Ramoth, I'm glad you like it here.

A fact is that 4D always has had a rather small playerbase. We never had the money to advertise, and even in the good old days, we rarely peaked above 30 players. Perhaps that is why we never really grew. Someone once told me that the magic number was 40 players on line simultaneaously. Then the word-to-mouth effect would be strong enough to get more new players into the mud than the ones that quit, and then the Mud would start to grow exponentially. Well, we never reached that magic number, so we stayed small.

On the flip side, our regular players tend to stay very long, and we've survived the general decline of Text Muds better than most. There are advantages about being small too. You get to know everyone, and it is easier to make an impact yourself.

Anyhow, we've been on line for almost 20 years now, and we don't plan to disappear any time soon.

By the way, that nice review on TMC, was that you? If so, it was much appreciated.

35

General Discussions / Re: What is a good way to start 4D?

« on: January 15, 2014, 06:45:18 pm »

Heh, good story, you can tell it to your grandchildren, if you stay on long enough to have any in 4D.

My condolences - you seem to have had more than your fair share of bad luck.

I'm particularly shocked by your encounter with an aggressive biting jellyfish. Not so much by the biting, since 4D is known to have snakes with arms and legs, but by the fact that is showed up in a low level zone like the Serf Village.

It had no business being on dry land at all, let alone being in the Medieval Dimension, since it belongs to the oceans in Prehistoric...
The only explanation I can think of is that one of our oldbies must have been fishing in the river Maine, caught the jellyfish by mistake, and failed to follow the general rule of fishing; "Kill what you catch".

I take it you never got to poor Hanna, which might have been just as well, The Serf Village may be a newbie zone, but helping her with her baby is not a newbie task, since it involves finding the father of her illegitimate child, who is one of King Arthur's gallant knights, and resides in Camelot, in the other end of the Medieval realms. And there are many dangers along the road to Camelot...

This is one of the drawbacks of having a seamless world - there is no obvious warning when you leave the newbie area to enter something more perilous.

A tip is to stay on the roads, they are relatively safe as long as you don't attack anything. Venture off the roads and you might land in all kinds of trouble.

Another tip is to consider everything  before attacking, that should give you a clue about your chances to survive the battle.

A third tip is of course to set your wimpy pretty high.  "He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day".

A fourth tip is the command WHERE, which will give you the name of the zone you are in. Combined with the command HELP <DIMENSION>, this can give you the levels of that zone, without having to run back to the Map Room all south of Recall.

Apart from that, the Map Room is one of the best tips I can give, because it not only gives the size and levels of the zones, but also a short background story, and usually some directions about how to get there.

Hopefully you haven't got too discouraged by your adventures.

36

General Discussions / Re: Advertising 4D

« on: January 02, 2014, 02:41:55 am »

LOL, Osiris, is that really you?

That's hilarious.

And are you really Gom on that new thread on TMC too?

By the way, you know that there is a portrait of Mistress Narcista on 4D, right?

37

Suggestions & Ideas / Re: Blind Players

« on: December 22, 2013, 03:15:55 am »

Thanks to Rynald, for mailing me speedwalks for all Oldwest zones, all Greek Islands from Kea, and most of the Medieval zones that Loria hadn't already provided.

Thanks to Rynald and Loria we now have more than enough to start working with the actual maps.

By now it would be easier to set up a list of what directions we DON'T have, so please confer with me, Loria or Rynald first, if you want to do some mapping of the remaining zones, so we don't do double work.

For instance we don't yet have any speedwaks for the Future, which is one giant grid, with several smaller grids for the planet systems. We need some directional maps there, for players that like to travel by spaceship or spacebike rather than shuttle.

There should be an overall map, starting fom The Future spaceport, with a safe route to the Centerpoing of all Planet systems. Then there should be a map for each Planet system, with directions to each planet there, starting with the Centerpoint.

The main priority would be the Alpha Centauri system, which doesn't even have a shuttle. But since all locations in Space have x,y,z-coordinates, moving around with brief mode on should be relatively easy, even if you are blind.

So, if you are used to space travel, here is something that we still need.
 
---------------
The first map is already in the game, a map over Old Carthage, sold by the Tourist guide at the Timewarp entrance. If any of our blind players would like to check it out, and make suggestions of improvements, that would be greatly appreciated.

We'll keep you posted each time a new bunch of maps is put in the game.

38

Suggestions & Ideas / Re: Blind Players

« on: December 17, 2013, 04:15:07 am »

Thanks to Loria, for mailing me a whole bunch of alias directions,
for Tournament Place, Camelot, Midlands, Elven Forest, Elven Metropolis, Robber Baron Castle, Enchanted Lands, Aussie, VE and Dry Gulch.

I could still use more, so if you have aliases or speedwalks for any more zones, please mail them to me, don't post them here, since we don't want secrets about hidden entrances and stuff revealed publically, (they won't be in the maps either).

These maps could be a great help for blind players and maybe help us getting more newbies as well, see this thread on TMC:
http://www.mudconnect.com/SMF/index.php?topic=78293.msg202142#new

39

Suggestions & Ideas / Blind Players and MAPS

« on: December 16, 2013, 11:05:50 am »

One of the things we could do for blind players is to add more readable maps and improve the existing ones.

As it is our maps and directions are a jumble between plain language directions, ascii art and the oldfashioned method (3n,5e,2n,2w). The reason why they are so different is mostly historic, it varies with the builder and age of the zone.

However, I am pretty convinced that the blind players prefer the oldfashioned 3n,7e,etc system.
And since the blind players already have a handicap by not being able to see graphical maps, it would probably be a great help for them to have access to maps of the other type.

This alone would make it worth the work to set up a full map system for all Dimensions, but it would also be helpful for other newbies.

Maps are usually most important for new players, the more experienced ones generally have set up aliases for speedwalk to all important locations.

One of our next projects will be to set up a map system for all Dimensions, where the maps are objects that would be sold in shops at the entrance of each Dimension.
This means a bit of OLC work, but that is not the most time consuming part. What really takes a bit of work is to map out the directions to each location. Unless you've already done it, of course.

And this is where you guys come in.
I am pretty certain that most of you oldbies have notes or speedwalks to all your favourite zones, set up like n n e e s s s  or 2n, 2e,3s. (The second would be preferable, but both are usable).
All put together, we'll hopefully be able to cover most of the Realms.

What I am asking for is that you share those notes, either in this thread, or by mailing them to me (molly.4d@tele2.se) if you don't want them to become public. (The latter is preferable, since all zones should not have exact directions, since their location is supposed to be a secret).

Below is and example of how I'd like the system set up:

MEDIEVAL DIMENSION, EASTERN REALMS
From where the Timewarp lands you in Yorke Square:
Eastern Crossroads:    <directions>
Tournament Place:       <directions>
Convent and Nunnery: <directions>
Robber Baron Castle:   <directions>
Sherwood Forest:        <directions>
Nottingham City:         <directions>
Pirate Bay:                  <directions>
Green Fen:                  <directions>
Fenizia:                       From Green Fen south through Lostlands
Dun Shivaar:               <directions>
Serf Village:                 <directions>

40

Building Board / Re: BuildPort Temporarily Down

« on: December 08, 2013, 03:17:22 am »

I actually suspect Toch's zone. There is a script in there, that has been erroring a lot in the buildport.
I think the script has been fixed on the gameport, since I haven't seen the same errors there. It's also time for the zone to be taken out of the Buildport, which is the normal procedure when a zone goes in 6000, so I'll do that now.

Hopefully that will fix things, unless we have another rogue script in 6002, causing errors.
By the way, isn't there a way to track bad scripts by viewing the syslogs?

41

General Discussions / Bloody Spambots!

« on: November 19, 2013, 05:05:26 pm »

It appears we got our first spambot since the new code today, some advert about concrete, with a link to the firm as signature.
I removed the post and banned the user,  mpowell8089

Apparently at least one of those cockroaches has been "intelligent" enough to bypass Once's cute spam-trap.

Maybe we need the password to be something less obvious?
Or maybe this wasn't a bot at all, but a manual spammer?

Guess we'll have to and see if any more manage to get through.

42

News & Announcements / Re: Forum Account

« on: November 19, 2013, 02:58:47 am »

Sine Once apparently quenched the spambots with the new Forum code, it should now be possible for anyone to create a new account, without having to contact the admin first.

I'm not sure if anyone has tested it yet however. His own account seems to be the latest so far.

43

News & Announcements / Re: Forum Updates

« on: November 19, 2013, 02:27:45 am »

There is a link, "Show unread posts" on top of the sidebar to the left, among other useful links.

44

News & Announcements / Re: Building Contest

« on: November 19, 2013, 02:21:57 am »

Just to clarify the rules:

Both Tocharaeh's zones and Utopia are technically two zones, but since they are so integrated that one hardly stands without the other, they will be counted as one in the Best New Zone of the Year Contest.

However there will be one gold token for each zone, just for finishing, meaning that Tocharaeh will get two gold, and Snowbird and Molly one each. (Molly will probably eat hers).

45

News & Announcements / Re: Forum Updates

« on: November 06, 2013, 12:40:58 pm »

Nice work, Once.

I particularly appreciate you dealing with the spambots, I really hated those, and they made it very hard for new players to join the Forum.

Let's just hope that your assessment of their intelligence is accurate, if so, it's really a funny way to trick them.