Medievia News

Class Changes

2008-04-27T15:30:00.004-05:00

MASSIVE ONCE PER VERSION CLASS CHANGE PROJECT IS COMPLETED!

First a note and warning from Vryce:

Medievia is a deep game with many features. The developers listen to player feedback and add/change features constantly. The game is different literally every time it restarts! That being said, I do not allow changes to our four classes often. Changing classes is more complicated than changing any other feature and often triggers more animosity than any other change except CPK changes.

The reason is that warriors, mages, clerics, and thieves must be balanced in power and abilities, and yet somehow they must be UNIQUE and DEPENDENT UPON each other. If you change any one thing in one class, you upset the class balance, and class balance is THE key core dynamic of gameplay.

The other reason I do not allow class changes often is that certain players can be very vocal against changes, especially about class balance. If we add a single mage spell I get emails for weeks about how I am ignoring warriors, making clerics useless, making mages too powerful, and basically "ruining the game." It is the same if we change a warrior skill, tweak a cleric spell, change some class-specific equipment, etc.

Did we add new classes? Most other RPGs just add new classes instead of truly trying to balance their current ones. They end up with dozens of classes and races that are terribly unbalanced. In the end these games have players all playing the best three or four classes anyway, and the other classes are basically there to trip up new players who do not know which classes are the best to play.

So here we are, the BIG MEDIEVIA V CLASS CHANGES project. What is the warning?

WARNING: We do not allow global discussion of class changes unless you are capable of proper and respectful dialogue. We will instantly gag every player who says one word that a god takes to be disrespectful to the game, the gods, or the changes.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Medievia allows you to email the owner and any developer and actually expect a response.
- You can speak to the owner and developers in real time in the game, one-on-one or in groups.
- You can run for Governor and have the players elect you to represent their interests to the developers.

WHAT YOU CANNOT DO:
- Disrespect the game, the gods, the players, or these changes in any way to the public.
- Be overly sarcastic on global channels about these changes.
- Give your opinion in any way unless you can communicate respectfully and honorably.

Thanks and congratulations to Melquiades for managing this project, to Fayla for coding the changes, and to every other god and player who helped implement and test these tricky changes.

From Melquiades:

In the past twelve years, Medievia's classes have changed very little. To be sure, some changes have been made, such as the addition of powerful spells like Phantasmal Images, Manashield, and Malediction. The changes we are introducing today are much more comprehensive in scope and touch each of the four classes in a different way.

Our goals when we set out were simple: differentiate the classes by making them more specialized, give our players a new way to interact with each other and the game, and create significant change based on the vision of the players. The last goal is something that Medievia was founded on, and it has always been a valued tenet of this fine game we all love, but I can assure you that when the call went out to our players in October, the response was massive. Eighty percent of these changes were either direct player ideas or inspired by players. This is what we asked for, so thank you!

All the changes made are listed in HELP CLASSCHANGES. This will likely be the easiest way to get a high-level view of the changes. HELP SPELLS has been updated to reflect all the new additions, as have HELP THIEF and HELP WARRIOR. Each individual skill or spell that has changed also has an updated help file.

The class changes brought with them a need to tweak some equipment and also generated some new equipment types. Read HELP EQCHANGES to see a list of those changes.

We are in BETA MODE (read HELP BETA), so the things we absolutely need from players now are bug reporting and GOOD feedback on how to make things better. We understand things may not work just right, but some constructive feedback will go a lot further toward fixing things.

An example of good feedback might be, "I'm not sure rage is strong enough for the trade-off in lag, maybe you could tweak the damage or lag somewhat."

Making general statements of negativity doesn't really help us solve any problems. It is okay to disagree with how something works or think it's silly or dumb, but if you want to be heard you should include a suggestion as to where to go from here or include an actual argument as to why something is no good.

All feedback should be MUDMAILED to Melquiades. He will forward the emails to the appropriate parties. Please do not mail other gods directly, just MUDMAIL to Melquiades! Make sure your character's email address is up to date to ensure we can get back to you.

You can also use the WOM Bulletin Board to discuss things in a more public forum; the board is west from the first room of MedLink. It is YOUR responsibility to keep your posts civil and neat on that board. Remember that this board is a public forum for discussion, not bashing.

We started final debates about these class changes in October of 2007, we began coding in December, and now we can pass them on to you all.

A tremendous THANK YOU needs to go to Vryce, Seraphyr, Fayla, Melquiades, and Zathal. Without those five individuals these changes would absolutely not exist today. We also need to thank Kostia, Taethyst, Zuasha, and Damonius for tackling specific projects with some impressive results, as well as Lunavina, Calrog, and the rest of the god staff for their contributions and patience.

Too many people contributed to list them all, including you, the players. This was an amazing team effort, so enjoy!

-Medievia WOM Staff

Halloween Festivities Begin!

2007-10-21T11:21:00.000-05:00

As most of our players are all too aware, Halloween is one of Medievia's biggest holidays, and it signals the start of the holiday season! Even though those of us who live in the US are already seeing Christmas decorations in the stores, we have to get through Halloween first. So let's get going!

The Thirteen Days of Halloween holosection quest HAS STARTED.

This twist on the Twelve Days of Christmas rewards players who fly around the wilderness and locate the Crypt of Halloween. Each day, a new door will open and the game will award a prize to each player who enters. Players who pass through all thirteen doors, one each day, are awarded a special prize soon after Halloween night.

The crypt moves, and it can be found in any wilderness area. It will move after each time a room is entered, or if it goes a long time (a few hours) undisturbed. So pick up the pace, as you only have from midnight to midnight each day before the last door closes and the next one opens!

The quest will run for 13 days, meaning through the 31st, Halloween itself.

The night before Halloween, we will post another announcement with more celebratory news: costumes, a Halloween-themed quest, and other fun.

-Kostia

P.S. Do not ask a god for a costume before their availability is announced the night before Halloween. You will not get one, and if you are a pest you can be punished. Read HELP COSTUME so you're ready, but don't bother asking early.

Medievia in BETA Mode

2007-10-18T17:48:00.000-05:00

Medievia is temporarily in BETA mode. This means that we are in a phase of development where we understand that the game will not be complete, have balance issues with classes - gold - etc, and generally should not be judged 'as is'.

When developing a game as massive and as deep as Medievia there are many challenges. When doing this with a game that is also open with many players playing is even more challenging. For the most part we make very slow gradual changes and plan with great detail how to make changes without upsetting gameplay. We are now in a phase of the plan where that will no longer be possible.

This announcement exists to simply tell you to accept the fact that you are playing a game that is currently in BETA mode and to treat the game as a new game that has yet to open to the public. You are a BETA tester if you wish to play Medievia right now.

Medievia has been open 17 years. We cannot just close for upgrades, as Vryce would probably be assassinated. We will stay open. We will do our best not to totally ruin the price of gold, class balance, and the hundreds of features of the game world we all love. We are in BETA mode because we know from experience that when making this many changes 'our best' will not be good enough when it comes to keeping everything as balanced as our players have grown accustomed to.

Before you complain or get upset, please remember that you are playing a game in BETA mode that is not truly 'open' for the public. We are not marketing for new players and we have not for some time now. When all of the features of Medievia version V are in we will market and quickly grow the playerbase up to record levels.

Thanks for your continued support and for your ideas and vision. We all share the same vision for the future of Medievia, for it to be the best - most deep - most fun - most immersive multiplayer game world ever made. We hope all players ride through the changes and continue to play but we simply ask you not to complain too much or get upset as changes are made.

Why do we know 'our best' will not be good enough? There are simply many chicken and egg problems when making such massive changes. This means many features must depend on others, all of which are only partially done and awaiting another change on another feature. It will be messy, some weeks more so than others.

Player data will always be retained and remain stable and reliable, but that is it. One day you may find all deckhands to be new because we had to purge their data and upgrade it. One day you may find that you cannot buy any wagons or trade in the wilderness because the feature is temporarily turned off. The value of gold may swing back and forth and be a real problem as we add one feature that makes a lot of gold, then another that causes players to spend vast amounts, and back and forth. We may have to purge all clan businesses after you spent time setting them up, we may have to do this many times. Your bloodline may design an awesome abode, maybe a fort or a castle, just to have it purged and have to remake it. The pet you have been training for weeks may be suddenly gone as we had to rethink the plan or change the data. Nothing is guarenteed except that we ask you to understand that we are in BETA mode.
There will be many issues great and small. Just remember that you are a BETA TESTER until further notice.

We cannot make all players always happy with all changes. We do promise and guarantee that every player will like the changes overall. The world coming will be a vastly superior and much more fun game world to play in than the one you played before we entered BETA mode. The plans are amazing and all players will be blown away by it, that is also a promise.

BETA mode may last 6-12 months. The plan is basically to RUSH the changes in as fast as possible, much faster than players are used to by far. The reason for this is to get it done and also the fact that it is really the only way to go. The changes from here on out all rely on each other for full affect, so there is no real choice.

Kingdoms relies on the justice system which relies on workers which relies on clan businesses and it all relies on townland which relies on islands which needs new deckhands which need worker houses, etc. I could go on like that for many paragraphs. Just know that we have no choice to force all players to be BETA testers, complete with their understanding that the game will be a bit of a mess and not polished for a while.

We will also use this time to blow up and rebuild all spells and skills. There will be tons of new spells and skills. Class balance will be out the door for a time. We will not expect classes to be balanced for 3-6 months. Please be patient. Seraphyr will soon be making an announcement about class changes and what that means, what we need from players, and what to expect. We will change it all, get every good spell and skill idea implemented as fast as possible, and then go through the long process of feedback-tweak-feedback-tweak until the 4 classes are somewhat balanced again.

Please, again, just understand that you are a BETA tester. BETA testers know not to complain about a game partially complete. You cannot judge a thing until the thing is ready to be judged, it is just not fair. We will not allow it on public channels.

Thanks for understanding, for supporting the game, and for reading this long explanation of BETA mode!

-Vryce

Election and Clanrank

2007-07-31T08:25:00.000-05:00

Clanrank has been split into two, Chaos and Order:
SHOWCLAN R O shows order
SHOWCLAN R C shows chaos

The price to switch parties is just 10 million gold for a few weeks, and then it goes back to 100 million.

The next Medievia election process starts TODAY, August first.

This will be the first month where elected leaders will be able to set the clanranking equation. I expect a few worthy players to declare themselves for the election and I would hope the players will elect someone that they trust.

Should trading be more important than eggs? Should exp even be a part of chaos clanrank? All I can say is elect players that you trust to do what is best for your clan's style of play, goals, and strengths. They will be in direct control.

We will be drastically lowering the charge for clans to switch parties for a few weeks once the change is implemented.

-Vryce

Team CPK!

2007-07-22T07:24:00.000-05:00

Team CPK Duel is now open! This is an area where players can team up, and teams can challenge each other to a fight in a CPK arena. The arena is a copy of a real zone chosen by the DM based on the number of players in the duel, except that there are no mobs and it is entirely CPK. Read HELP TEAMCPK for more details.

You can find the entrance to Team CPK Duel in Medlink, across from the normal CPK Duel challenge room. We do not want newbies to wander into Team CPK Duel. To get in, you must be at least level 88 and know what you are doing. In particular, you need to obtain a special item, which is available for 60k in the Trellor pawn shop and at a discounted rate in several other shops around the world.

When challenging another team, it is possible to set several options, including restrictions on the use of elementals, potions, wands, and scrolls. The DM chooses a loot limit of 3-5 and a zone for the duel after both sides have accepted the challenge. Beware that once you have accepted a challenge, you must fight. You will not be able to back down or leave the arena until the 40-minute timer has expired, or until someone is killed. When a player is killed, their death creates a limited opportunity for escape as described in HELP TEAMCPK.

You can ask anyone to fight you, but do not lure players in by telling them that you won't kill them or that the rules do not apply. Do not harass players who do not want to duel, or demean anyone over Team CPK Duel or you will be banned from it. Make sure you have read HELP RESPECT.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Can we have more than two teams fight each other?

A: No, that is not allowed (except possibly by special arrangement). We do not want two teams to be able to collude against a third team, and the two-team limitation is the only way to enforce that.

Q: Are there any restrictions on the size of a team?

A: No. You can have one-on-one duels, or duels that are arbitrarily large. You are not required to have the same number of people on each side. Keep in mind that the DM tends to place larger duels in larger zones.

Q: Can I loot locked clanitems in Team CPK Duel?

A: No. The code prevents it.

Q: Can I CPK players in my own town in Team CPK Duel?

A: Yes, you can attack anyone on the opposite team, but do NOT conspire to get your own team killed.

Q: Why can't we set the loot limit?

A: We want players to actually fight in Team CPK Duel, rather than argue all day about the loot limit. A loot limit of 3-5 is intended to encourage activity and make it relatively easy for the losers to recover and come back to fight again.

Q: Why is the zone random? Why can't we duel in zone X?

A: Most zones cannot be used for duels because they have one-way exits, special rooms that players normally can't get to, or too many rooms. Assigning the zone randomly makes duels less predictable and more chaotic, since nobody can plan for a particular zone in advance. It also prevents situations where players never duel because they can't agree on a zone. We may allow limited options in the future.

Q: Who should I tell if I have some suggestions or if I find a bug?

A: Please send feedback to seraphyr@medievia.com. The plan is to give the current design a chance for at least several months without any significant changes. If there are bugs, we will of course fix them, but there will be NO REIMBURSEMENTS. Keep rule 7d in mind; finding a serious bug and failing to report it can get you in big trouble.

Q: How does the duel arena differ from the real zone it is a copy of?

A: All the rooms are CPK. There are no safe rooms, altars, no-flee rooms, or class/alignment/level restrictions. All the mobs, objects, barriers, and special procs are gone, and all the doors are open. Other features, such as NO_MAGIC rooms and fire rooms, continue to work as they did in the original zone.

Summer Holiday Festivities!

2007-07-02T13:57:00.000-05:00

In celebration of Canada Day, the Fourth of July, Bastille Day, and the general awesomeness of summer, the holiday staff have arranged for various fun hot-weather activities. The festivities all run through Thursday, July 5th at approximately 11 AM game time, except as otherwise noted.

~ TOKEN QUEST ~

Join the celebration by taking part in the holiday token quest, which started today! The corpses of the mobs you kill will contain tokens of various colors. Different-colored tokens are worth different amounts of points. The five players who earn the most token points will receive prizes and medals.

The prize for the top three token collectors will be the couleurs de la reine. Fourth and fifth place will receive prizes of monetary value. All top-five finishers will get medals.

~ JOUSTING ~

The festival tournament grounds have been set up two rooms east of recall, then north, in the City of Medievia. You can joust here! Read HELP JOUST for more details. You need to find 10 points' worth of holiday tokens in order to pay for each joust. Challenge your friends. Challenge the gods! No one has an advantage in jousting based on their level or equipment. There are no prizes for jousting, but it's super fun.

~ HOLOSECTIONS ~

The Summer Festival Picnic Grounds holosection and the Traveling Minstrel holosection have been placed in the wilderness. See HELP HOLOSECTION for details. Finding the Minstrel or the Elm Dryad will get you prizes and medals.

~ HOLIDAY AUTOQUESTS ~

Starting Tuesday, July 3rd at 10 PM game time, two special holiday AutoQuests will be available. One AutoQuest, designed for players levels 10-30 only, will be located two rooms west of the Portal to the Hall of the Gods, south of recall in the City of Medievia. If you get stuck, make sure you read both AQ and AQ REVIEW. There will be no scroll reimbursements, so please carefully read all the information given to you, including room descriptions and mobchatter.

A second AutoQuest -- the real Hero's Challenge -- will be available in the level 31 treehouse in Ashton Park, located in the warrior quarter of the City of Medievia. There will be a special prize for (at least) the first player to complete this AutoQuest, as well as the player with the fastest completion time. More details are forthcoming. A medal will be awarded to each player who completes the AutoQuest.

~ OTHER SUMMER FUN ~

As always, the card shop in the marketplace in the City of Medievia has Fourth of July and Canada Day cards for sale. As if all this weren't enough, the fountains in the cities and towns across the land are already filled with cool, delicious lemonade in true summer spirit. Enjoy!

-The Medievia staff

New Zone! Rasking's Valley

2007-05-20T16:33:00.000-05:00

-=ZONE OPENING=-

Raskin's Valley

Builder: Raschdar

In the southwestern portion of Medievia, much of the forested wilderness remains untamed. Periodically, settlers will split from the main villages and attempt to form their own colonies; sadly, many of these settlers are never heard from again.

It was through this unclaimed wilderness that Jaekin found himself running, with what had to be the devil on his tail. He had always considered himself an excellent woodsman, and though only seventeen he was fast becoming the greatest hunter of his village. Yet he had never encountered a creature likethe one chasing him through the maze of branches and vines.

He looked over his shoulder to see if he was gaining any ground, stumbled over a root that seemed to grab at him with malicious intent, and tumbled to the ground. When he regained himself he found himself in a clearing that lined the edge of a precipice. The view from the precipice was staggering.

A low snarl snapped Jaekin back into reality. With full knowledge of the horror he would see, Jaekin turned to face the creature that would bring him to his end. This was Jaekin's first chance to view the creature closely. It came closest to the shape and size of a large dog, but the resemblance ended there. Black- and green-striped scales covered its body, giving it a thick outer armor almost like plate mail. A red pug-nosed snout and bulging eyes made the face appear squashed and deformed. A lizard-like tail trailed behind the thing, and its scales clinked together softly as it moved.

The creature shifted its weight backward, and Jaekin prepared himself for the pounce. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain and looked down to see a four-inch stinger jutting out from just beneath the ribs on his right side. His fixation with the first creature had blinded him to the approach of a second from the forest edge!

Jaekin fell to his knees, and as consciousness began to escape him he heard a raspy voice from behind him say, "Oh, yes. He will do quite nicely."

Suggested Levels:

Solo: 26-31
Small Group: 24-28
Large Group: 18-24
Number of Rooms: 166
PK Types: NPK / CPK

Congratulations to Raschdar on opening his first totally new zone and doing a remarkable job! Raskin's Valley is designed as a mid- to high-level experience zone with some cool equipment as well. Thanks to Evelina and Kostia for editing the rooms, mobs, and objects, and thanks to Seraphyr for writing the procs. Once again, congratulations to Raschdar on doing a remarkable job!

--The WOMs

Tomb of Oblivion

2007-05-19T18:41:00.000-05:00

"No, I never did find the oasis," replied Tumenjin with a sigh. "Gods know I searched every dune in the desert these past twenty years, wandering from town to town, bartering my tales for food and water."

The Sharif looked upon the wrinkled old man intently. "Tell me more of your travels."
Tumenjin took another sip of nectar from the glass, then glanced around nervously. "I ought to hide my head in the sand rather than tell you this, but I recently visited the royal burial grounds, concealed deep within the desert."

"They exist?" A skeptical look crossed the Sharif's face.

"Something is amiss, I fear," continued the nomad. "An ancient power has been awakened and come into its own. Legends say that the rulers of the ancient desert civilizations had special powers, and the people believed them to be immortals. The most tyrannical, most terrible of these rulers were imprisoned in the tombs for all eternity."

The royal scribe scribbled frantically on a scroll as he transcribed the old man's story.

"At night, bone-chilling howls emanate from deep within the crypt. The local priests say that the ancient rulers have awakened and started to regain some of their old powers. There is no telling what might happen if the seal on the crypt is ever broken."

We have resurrected some procs for Tomb of Oblivion that were written seven years ago but never finished. We also added several new pieces of equipment and revised some of the existing items. All of the changes are for the silver and gold days. Please report back to us with any feedback you have, particularly with regards to mob difficulty. Happy exploring!

--The WOMs

Announcement from Vryce

2007-05-15T16:29:00.000-05:00

From Vryce, 3 things:

The 'nodet' spirit donation item is going on sale for a limited time from now until the end of May. This is the second time this item is up for sale. Normally the spirit donation item lasts a year and needs certificates to keep up. This older and more rare spirit is NO DETERIORATION, otherwise it has the same stats:

SPIRIT OF MEDIEVIA (Specify SPIRIT with your donation)
Seen as: the Spirit of Medievia
Worn Over Heart (special location for this item)
50 mana, 50 hitpoints, -1 Saving Spell
Lasts forever instead of 1 year like normal

Years ago we had this sale of the nodet spirit because we needed revenue to cover two expensive marketing campaigns. This time it is going on sale to get our cash reserves up. We need donations! We really need your support.

I urge all players who are thinking about donating to do so this month. Now is the best time to give back to the game that gives you so much. This 'nodet' spirit sale is our way of sparking donation interest in times of need. We are in a time of need. We need your support. Please donate to the game this month.
My email was down for a few days. I have stopped using outlook and I just want to make sure no emails were missed. As of this moment I am totally caught up in email so if you are awaiting a response from me please resend the email to vryce@medievia.com as I do not have it.
The rest of this announcement should probably be a 'Vryce Journal' but that's ok. Feel free to stop reading but please don't forget to donate!

I have been 100% focused on the next changes for some time. It has been a few months since many have seen me very active on my mortals or as a god on public channels. The problem with Medievia V is that it is a huge plan and I just cannot explain to everyone how deep the plan is as everyone will just think I am nuts. It is my life's mission to create a living breathing world and this version will be it. My problem as the guy who codes these new features is the AI code. It is some hard stuff to be honest. The workers we have all heard me bragging about are still not in, except for the simple deckhands and jobless types. There are still not 1,000 worker houses with families living in them dotting the world and the roads. There are still not any clan businesses, worker pirate ships, Khrait wars, pets, new dragons, kingdoms, justice system, etc. Why?

Why has it taken so long? The answer is not a lot fun or interesting ( to non-coders ) but it is the truth. The answer is that this is hard stuff to code. Actually that is a lie. The coding is actually easy. The software engineering is the hard part. The hard part is figuring out the best way to code the stuff. Once figured out, the actual coding is the easy part, then testing and bug fixing is the hard part again. For the past 3-4 months I have coded almost nothing as part of my plan to finally break through. I was surrounded by many chicken/egg problems. I would figure one thing out just to realize that A had to wait for B and B had to wait for A which also had to wait for C and hell C is not even planned until next version. I struggled for many months and then decided that I needed to stop coding the stuff and do a total software engineering job on the WHOLE PLAN, EVERY FEATURE, EVERY PHASE.

For the past few months all I have done is work on paper, mapping out every finite state system for the AI, every event trigger needed, every spec of data that needs to persist, and every new features gameplan. This has been a brutal time for me and also very stressful. It took me over a whole month just to figure out how to code the new pets module ( think the game 'Black and White' except multiplayer ). It took me a month to figure out how to have thousands of workers living in thousands of houses when the houses do not actually exist until a player enters one ( tricky memory coding there! ), same with bloodline abodes that must exist even when players are not online. I wish I could share my struggles with others as I live such a lonely life knee deep in coding and thinking. I could go on for hours explaining interesting coding stuff but I will not, even though I really want to! Anyways I have just spent many months doing nothing but figuring it all out.

I AM DONE.

There is bad news and there is good news. The bad news is that there is no real way to move forward without Kingdoms and the Justice System. These are features that were planned for the next version but now I realize it all has to come now. So the bad news is it means more work for me up front, the good news is that Kingdoms and the Justice System will come sooner rather than later, in fact really soon. I am pretty sure I have it all figured out on exactly how to code it all, PETS, MF DRAGONS, BLOODLINE ABODES, WORKERS, KINGDOMS, JUSTICE SYSTEM, WARS, etc. There is no part of our plan for what Medievia will be in the future that I do not have a full coding plan for. I wish there was a faster way to do this stuff but in the end I was spinning my wheels trying to code workers without a complete understanding of how to code every single new feature coming.

What does all of this mean? It means I am back to coding, and theoretically I should not have to stop coding again to figure out how to code something until all planned features are done! Knock on wood. It means many changes starting in 2 weeks and constant changes from then on out until everything planned is implemented. It means we finally fill our nearly empty wilderness and ocean with adventure at every turn!
What is the justice system? What is kingdoms? I will make some Vryce journals soon explaining in detail but the basics are this:

In Medievia V workers take over the world. These are the special mobs you see with first and last names. They are our 'citizens'. They will run your clans farms and mines and other businesses, live in their houses, marry other workers, become pirates, become kings, get drafted into kingdom armies, etc. Workers will do everything and be everywhere. Even if you enter a normal zone you may find some workers in a tavern relaxing after a hard days work.

Very soon now, out of no where, there will be hundreds of new house zones dotting the landscape, especially around clantowns and major zones. These are houses you can enter where you will find workers living their life. In one of my many chicken and egg problems, these initial workers will be born as adults of varying ages, after that all new workers will be born as worker babies and raised by their worker parents and grand parents. The initial workers will be created with a lot of gold so they can own houses and I can get that all tested and done. The problem there is the justice system.

I realized we just cannot have houses that players can enter and not have any ramifications for doing so. It just will not work. What is the justice system? Many games have 'renown' which is a positive or negative number for how you are known, hero to villain. We will also call this variable 'renown' and it is coming very soon. If you enter a worker house at night and startle a sleeping family, your renown will go down some as they yell about the intruder etc. If you save a worker your renown will go up, etc. If your renown gets very low you will find worker posses after you. Think 'Elder Scroll' games where the locals all have an opinion of you created by your actions nearby. The problem here is another chicken and egg problem. I did not want 'global renown' I wanted 'local renown', and that means kingdoms. Kingdoms must come sooner rather than later. I really wanted to finish pets, bloodline abodes, new dragons, Khrait wars, and all of the other version 5 features before kingdoms came. I wanted almost everything done before kingdoms came. It just cannot work that way. What is coming next is workers and clan businesses. That means we need the justice system, and that means we need kingdoms as you will have separate renown for each kingdom. At first we will have fake kingdoms which will just be faked out doing nothing but giving us kingdom borders. Expect that change any day. In the end Kingdoms will be one of the deepest things ever coded in a game, a totaly DM run simulation of medieval kingdoms which will give our landscape awesome detail and dynamic gaming adventure at every turn from invading kingdoms, taking kings hostage, sparking new kingdoms through player run revolts, jails, wars, player managed kingdom armies, etc.

Anyways I am done the engineering phase and we can all expect changes to come fast from here on out, assuming I did a good job with the engineering so that the coding phase goes smooth! I will be more available on public channels again and may even start playing my mortals again somewhat ( once I finish command and conquer 3! ). It is a happy time for me as I am now so completely confident about what is coming and how to pull it off programming and data wise. What is coming is my life's challenge and my life long dream, the deepest - most realistic - and most fun game ever created, truly like being in a living book adventuring with friends.

Can a text game be the most fun multi-player game ever made? Can Medievia get to thousands of players online? We have laid the world out and that took 10 years. Now we fill the world which is nearly empty as is. It has taken around 6 years now to figure out what the best game ever made would be like and how to code it. Now I am coding it. Now we find out. Now we show the world what a text game can do that no other game can hope to achieve! Next comes clan businesses, workers everywhere, ship trading, and islands being finished. Pets, bloodlines abodes, new dragons, etc will follow right away. Hopefully it will be non-stop new features every month. On the other side will be a new game, Medievia V, the most fun game ever made.

Please donate to the game, tell friends about Medievia and your adventures here, and please support the game now. Now is when we need your support. We cannot market the game as we are in between versions. We must rely on our current playerbase to sustain us until these changes are in. We are relying on you and your belief that Medievia will eventually become the best and most deep RPG ever created. Do you

-Vryce

Hiring Two Programmers!

2006-11-25T10:06:00.000-05:00

We are looking to hire two new programmers. Medievia is coded in C++, compiled with GCC, and debugged with GDB. It all happens on the Linux server, via SSH logins. Any applicant must be a very good C++ programmer,
ideally with on the job experience. Applicants must be familiar with Linux, know Medievia very well, and be trustworthy.

Any god here must be a team player, capable of representing Medievia well, and be trusted. Coders need this even more as the true rulers of this world or any world, is the coders behind it. When I give you access to Medievia code I am taking a major leap of faith. I do not do this unless I have complete trust in someone.

Do you have what it takes? Medievia is as of this moment 563,998 lines of pure C++ logic. Most of the coding is easy, some of it is about as hard as it can get but I usually deal with the hard stuff. Are you a Medievia player that wishes to change the game as a programmer? Do you know C++ very well? Do you know Linux?

All coders get a simple FBI check, get their address verified, and must sign a development agreement which gets notarized.

Programming for Medievia can be the most fun thing you may ever code. Why? Instant feedback and gratification! Normally coders are stuck in teams, projects, release dates, deal with testers, and have way too many bosses. Here you get an idea, I approve the concept and give you coding guidance, you code it and test it, restart, and get feedback from players instantly. This can be a thrill for coders that are not used to so much control and capability to make a product more fun so fast. Here you can change one line of code, restart, and change the game forever! Here when you change the product it truly is forever as Medievia will literally never shutdown. Do you want this? Do you have what it takes?

Applications must follow the format below. Please cut and paste it, answer all the questions and feel free to add whatever else you like at the end.

APPLICATION to be emailed to vryce@medievia.com with the subject of MEDIEVIA CODER:

List your player names in order of usage and include their hours played found in score:

Real Name:

Age:

Tell me about your situation, married, not married, in school, how many years on job, etc:

Tell me about your C++ experience, what you have done, what jobs you may have had and for how long etc.

Tell me about your Linux experience, what you have used, what you know, have you used GDB, etc:

Tell me your Medievia experience in a nutshell:

Tell me why you want to be a God for Medievia:

Tell me why you want to be a programmer for Medievia:

Tell me what you think you are capable of when it comes to programming:

Explain to me what you like about Medievia:

Explain to me what you do not like about Medievia:

Feel free to add anything else you may think will help. I love short and concise.

Good luck!
-Vryce

Annual Donation Sale

2006-11-02T19:10:00.000-05:00

It is time for our annual holiday prices for donation items. We will be doing the same thing we have done in the past: $50 items are $40, and $25 items are $20. This year, the $20 Certificate of Redemption will be $15.

Give the gift that keeps on giving! Not only does your friend receive a great gift that will help him or her in many battles, but the game receives a great gift to help us take this game into the future. You may also use this sale to buy yourself a Christmas present.

All sale prices are good through this year. All sale price donations must be placed on Paypal by midnight December 31st, or sent via mail postmarked before January 1st.

Please send payment via mail or use paypal.com (see HELP DONATIONS). Don't forget to state your playername, the recipient's playername, and what item(s) you are sending a donation for.

Happy Holidays to everyone in 2006!
-Vryce

P.S. Spread the word about Medievia. Tell a friend about the game! This helps the game as much or more than donating.

Making Magic, Autoquest Style

2006-10-23T16:43:00.000-05:00

Greetings, Medievians. Recently the Autoquest Department has had a bit of an overhaul, and with that we have some new staff, lots of new Autoquests, and a special surprise for heroes of all creeds and classes.

First, we'd like to introduce you to the new staff:

Casse is now Autoquest Manager, and brings with her the skills and experience of a Grand Master Autoquest Writer.
Celylia is now the Assistant Manager of the department, and will be helping to oversee the lovely and mysterious Hero Holiday AQs that you're all so eager to hear about.
Reuan is our new Autoquest Editor, and handles proofing and editing of all submitted autoquests. He'll also be conducting a review of the autoquests currently in the game in an effort to improve content and quality.
Ulrica is the department's Senior Autoquest Writer, and will continue
producing marvelous and intricate autoquests for all to enjoy.
Naima and Daeron are the department's two newest Autoquest Writers, and have
already contributed some wonderful AQs to the game. We're all looking
forward to more!

New code changes have also made it possible to improve gameplay. For instance, we now have the code to allow heroes to do holiday autoquests!

And soon, there will be hero-only autoquests (HAQs) as well. Reread ANNOUNCEMENT 681 for details. Were continuing to accept submissions of potential HAQs. If you have an idea, please submit it to Celylia@Medievia.com. If your idea ends up being used in the game, you'll receive a nifty medal for your efforts.

We're also looking for a couple of good players, filled with creativity, a knack for storytelling, and good knowledge of the game, to hire as Autoquest Writers. If you're interested, please read HELP AQ_APPLICATION to submit an application. Please be aware that our expectations for quality have gone up a lot, and we're no longer interested in the boring old one-two-three autoquests. Serious applications only, please.

A final note: We're aware that, with the advent of hero holiday AQs, we will be receiving a great deal of fanmail from many of you. We ask instead that you make a donation of your time to the New Adventurers Guild.

-Casse and the Autoquest Department

Halloween!

2006-10-19T16:46:00.000-05:00

Halloween Festivities Have Begun!

As longtime players know all too well, Halloween is the beginning of the true holiday season on Medievia. Many delightful amusements and horrifying frightenments await you--starting tonight!

The Thirteen Days of Halloween holosection quest starts today. This twist on the Twelve Days of Christmas rewards players who fly around the wilderness and locate the Crypt of Halloween. Each day, a new door will open and the game will award a prize to each player who enters. Players who pass through all thirteen doors, one each day, are awarded a special prize soon after Halloween night.

The crypt moves, and it can be found in any wilderness area. It will move after each time a room is entered, or if it goes a long time (a few hours) undisturbed. So pick up the pace, as you only have from midnight to midnight each day before the last door closes and the next one opens!

The quest will run until the 31st, Halloween itself. Those of you who remember Halloweens past can guess what kind of surprises await you then!

-Kostia

P.S. For those of you who do remember Halloweens past, and missed the subtleties of that last paragraph, costumes will be handed out ON Halloween, and not a day sooner. Please don't ask before then!

P.P.S. To prepare for costumes, which will be handed out only ON Halloween, Tuesday, October 31, read HELP COSTUME. Thanks.

Changes

2006-10-14T06:06:00.000-05:00

From Vryce:

This announcement is about:

Big town changes
Double Experience
The next changes coming

TOWN CHANGES:

We spent a long time trying larger towns and it has not worked well. We will now try smaller towns. We will keep trying many things in many features as we continue to implement Medievia V. The more of these changes we can do now at a playerbase lull the better. I apologize that Medievia seems like a big testing zone, but that is what it is while we change versions. We are like a new game figuring out what is the most fun way for features to work all over again.

The new limit is one sister clan per town.
The new rule is a clan does not have to be in a town but they will be forfeiting clanrank from towngames and townland. These clans will not be able to make any money from clan businesses. They would have a clanhall in Medievia City.

There is a 14 day period where we are waving sistering costs and other starting new town costs. We want strong big towns. Ideally each town will have 2 strong clans that get along well together. We will be changing the taxes on townzone rooms many times starting soon. They may become cheaper for a time and then as clan businesses come online they will go up a lot.

CPK HATERS:

I am cracking down on the hater club. The hater club are generally old and new players who do the following:

They tell non CPKers that they are some how beneath them.
When they lose in CPK they complain about how it went down every time.
They complain about any new change to anything.
They are the ones who never have anything good to say.

I am removing these players one by one by forcing them off the game. Please help me. When you see a hater spread hate, stand up and ask them to stop. The fact is that I would rather these people quit. It is my new job to force them to quit the game. Please help me in that end, but don't do it with hate filled comments. Instead, be positive and ask them to stop or show them a mirror and explain how they come across. These people have had free reign and that was my fault. I am sorry. These people are the worst aspects of this game. They CPK you and tell you how you will get it even worse if you enter CPK again, then when you don't they tell you how you are so far beneath them. The hate these types of players have for damn near anything that moves has dripped into every nook and cranny of the game. These people are no longer welcome here.

If you have not read the latest Vryce journal please do so via the VRYCE command. It is all about how I may remove CPK in 5 months unless things improve.

DOUBLE EXPERIENCE:

Double Experience will end for a time at the end of the month. We tried things with full time double experience and we will go back to regular experience and then we will decide what is best. I wanted to give warning so if you like double experience, get all you can before the end of the
month! It may return later, it may not.

FINALLY:

There are many changes coming quickly. We have new stuff coming online almost every day and we are changing old stuff as fast as we can during these next 5 months. We know this can be very hard but there is no way around it. In 1996 I promised never to purge the playerbase. We have to
stay open as we make the changes. It is like fixing an engine while it runs. It is not easy and we are doing the best we can. Medievia V is literally 5 years of constant changes and we are a good 4 years into it.

This final year will feature the biggest changes, especially soon. Prepare for a flood of changes these next 5 months. My hope is that workers will be totally done then, which will change the game drastically and prepare us for the justice system. After workers we start with the new dragons that know everyone, new dragonspires, new dragon lairs, many new dragon things, even where you imprint on a newly hatched egg and make a dragon friend for life. The Khrait war will also begin once there are enough workers for them to turn into zombies etc. So much work so little time!

The very next thing coming is islands and ship trading along with the first 2 clan businesses, farms and mines. Islands have a new dinosaur module and other cool things we will start testing next week.

-Vryce

To the haters: Go find another game to play!

Mudslinger Newspaper

2006-09-13T16:42:00.000-05:00

This purpose of this announcement is to publicize the Medievia MUDSlinger newspaper as well as provide information to you, the fair citizens of Medievia, about how you can contribute to Medievia’s own newspaper.

The Medievia MUDSlinger, often referred to as the 'Slinger' by its readers, is a publication written, for the most part, by the players. It's available at all good scribes within the game for just a few coins, so you can read it in the privacy of your clanhall in Medlink or anywhere else you wish. You can also view the complete MUDSlinger on Medievia’s website: http://www.medievia.com

The articles in the MUDSlinger are of a diverse nature, comprising factual help articles, poetry and fiction (both humorous and serious), and even the occasional competition. It also contains details of TRADING conditions. New print runs of the MUDSlinger are announced in CHANGES and on the Medievia News online.

In addition to the articles written by Medievia’s Reporters (HELP REPORTER), the Mudslinger accepts player submissions. The Mudslinger Staff is always looking for new articles, now more than ever! If you have Medievia expertise such as trading, serpent hunting, dragon fighting, pk’ing, etc., consider sharing your knowledge with other Medievia players. Have an inkling for writing fiction? Create a story set in the realm of Medievia full of adventure and peril. Maybe poetry is more your style – spin a tale of Medievia in verse. Whatever your writing skill or level, we are willing to work with you to have your article or story polished for publication.

Should you wish to submit an article, read Help MUDSLINGER_SUBMIT and the editorial sections of the in-game paper for more details. There are also submission guidelines available on the web as well as writer’s guides for different types of articles and stories. The god who deals with submissions is currently Excrucior (excrucior@medievia.com), and you should contact him with ideas and questions.

Articles that are accepted will be published in Medievia’s MUDSlinger and an award may be made to the author. Most articles will receive an award of the player's choice from the 25 dollar
range of donation items. Occasionally, an excellent article will be awarded the author's choice from the 50 dollar range of donation items. Short pieces and poetry are usually rewarded with a figurine worth 10, 5 or 1 million gold pieces. All published articles will earn their owner the much coveted Golden MUDSlinger Quill and the medal “A leather-bound book for being published in the MUDSlinger.”

So, it’s time to put your scribe’s robes on, get the inkpot out and get writing! Contact Excrucior today to discuss the possibility of YOUR article being published in the MUDSlinger! If you are interested in becoming a permanent member of the Mudslinger team, read HELP REPORTER and send in your application today.

Medievia Flyers

2006-08-29T16:16:00.000-05:00

Now is the time that many of our fair Medievians must head back to the hallowed halls of learning. Universities, colleges, high schools, and foreign countries await those who walk Medievian soil during the summer months. As it is such, wouldn't it be nice for a piece of Medievia to go with them?

We at Medievia are once again offering to send flyers to those who wish to help spread the word about Medievia. Soleil is offering to send 5flyers to anyone willing to post them around town on bulletin boards - in coffee shops, gaming stores, comic book stores, college campuses, libraries and so forth. In addition to the flyers, we will send some business cards for you to hand out or leave around. Medievia would not be what itis today without players like you spreading the word about our greatland.

The flyers are of high quality and are printed on heavy paper. The design is exactly like that of the advertisement that was placed in PCGamer and Dragon Magazine a few years ago. To see it go to www.medievia.com/pcgamer.html. Please be warned that it is a large file and may take awhile to open.

To get your flyers, email Soleil@medievia.com with your player name, realname, address and your university or school. As Medievia will be supporting the media costs and postage we ask that only people who are serious about posting the flyers and distrubuting the cards to request
them. It is not guaranteed that everyone who requests flyers will be sent them, but Soleil will notify anyone she sends them to.

In addition to the flyers mentioned above, there are flyers on the Website created by Solinari and Jathael that you can download and print. Check them out now by visiting www.medievia.com/flyers.html

Help spread the word about Medievia!

-Soleil

Ship Change- Scrapping

2006-08-02T06:31:00.000-05:00

Ships can now be scrapped for gold. Very soon ships will be charged per minute docked so clans will need a way to get rid of some older ships. The ships are worth 35,000 gold per ton plus 100,000 gold per gun. To scrap a ship you must be on the ship and be the leader or coleader of the clan that owns it. NOTE that the ship will be totally deleted with anything in its rooms, all of its stats, etc. It will be totally PURGED. SHIPADMIN SCRAP is the command.

Changes to Mage Class

2006-08-02T06:27:00.000-05:00

From governor Korius:

Malediction has been changed so that manashield can not be active at the same time as this spell. Similar to Phantasmal Images, Manashield will drop when a player casts malediction. Please note that this change is currently in testing, and player feedback should be sent through the political leaders.

Both Uribam and I felt that this change was necessary to help balance PK and the mage class. It is possible right now for a mage to 1-shot kill people from full hps with malediction, and not be in danger of dying due to mana kickback and manashield. While not every mage in the game has the stats for this scenario, it happens often enough that either the offensive or defensive power of mages needed to be examined. Some have argued that stabber classes can have the same potential damage output and survivability. However, due to backstab's rolls for multipliers and number of attacks vs malediction's more consistent damage, this happens much less frequently. Removal of manashield reintroduces the higher risk of dying (due to low hps) that was intended for malediction damage of this type.

Again please remember, this change and it's effects on PK are being tested and monitored, and feedback should be sent to the mayor or governor.

Power Outage

2006-07-19T22:52:00.000-05:00

Medievia has been down since about 7:15 pm EST on Tuesday, July 18th. Severe storms caused power outages and it has been estimated that it may take a few days to restore electricity to the area. Please be patient during this time and we look forward to seeing you all again when the power is restored. Soleil

Summer Holiday Festivities!

2006-07-03T06:08:00.000-05:00

In celebration of Canada Day, the Fourth of July, and the general wonderfulness of summer, the holiday staff have arranged for various fun hot-weather activities.

Join the celebration by taking part in the holiday token quest. It has started as of 9:30 Sunday night, July 2nd, and will end at midnight Tuesday night, July 4th. The corpses of the mobs you kill will contain tokens of various colors. Different-colored tokens are worth different amounts of points. The five players who earn the most token points will receive prizes and medals.

The prize for the top three token collectors will be the couleurs de la reine. Fourth and fifth place will receive prizes of monetary value. All top-five finishers will get medals.

The festival tournament grounds have been set up two rooms east of recall, then north, in the City of Medievia. Don't forget that you can joust here! Read HELP JOUST for more details. You need to find 10 points' worth of holiday tokens in order to pay for each joust. Challenge your friends. Challenge the gods! No one has an advantage in jousting based on their level or eq outside the arena. There are no prizes for jousting, but it's super fun.

The Summer Festival Picnic Grounds holosection and the Traveling Minstrel holosection have already been placed in the wilderness, and will remain out there until midnight Tuesday night, July 4th. Finding the Minstrel or the Elm Dryad will get you prizes and medals.

As always, the card shop in the marketplace in the City of Medievia has Fourth of July and Canada Day cards for sale.

As if all this weren't enough, the fountains in the cities and towns across the land are already filled with cool, delicious lemonade in true summer spirit. Enjoy!

-Kostia and the Medievia staff

Townland on the Livemap

2006-06-28T19:57:00.000-05:00

The WWW Livemap now shows townland. These are the circles you see on it. Clan businesses will soon make new circles around the mainland and on islands. We want every town to have its own unique color. We are allowing towns to have a god set their own colors. You will need to tell us the Red, Green, and Blue colors which need to be between 0 and 100. We do not allow over 100 as we do not want any bright colors on that map for townland. Every town should have their own color that is not terribly close to anothers. This may mean there is a lot of color changing for a while and that is fine. If you do not know what colors RGB settings will look like, go to http://www.drpeterjones.com/colorcalc/ and plug in some colors and it will change the color of the page so you can see. The livemap updates around every 10 minutes with live data. Only the town's leading clan's leader or coleader can ask for a change in color.

Medievia Marketing

2006-06-26T07:28:00.000-05:00

Hello all and happy summer! Once again we are making every effort to spread the word about Medievia. We have such a great world and game here, and the world doesn.t know about it! Below are several things that we are doing for Medievia marketing right now..

-Medievia Player Marketing Survey-
Want to help us determine the marketing strengths and needs of our current marketing scheme? Complete the following survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=63132297113 .
Only serious and sincere respondents please!

-Marketing Coordinator-
We are currently searching for a Medievia player who has knowledge of Marketing and Public Relations. We would like this person to:

Research and report on the options for Medievia marketing on websites around the Internet.
Research the option of getting articles published about text gaming.

If you have real life expertise in PR and Marketing and/or know a way to get articles published in print or online magazines, please contact Soleil@medievia.com. Include MEDIEVIA MC in the subjectline.

-Player Help!-
Since Medievia has always been a game by the players and for the players, we need your input, your suggestions, and your help. Soleil and the Medievia staff can only do so much. Luckily we have hundreds of players that log in and enjoy the realm of Medievia every day. If every player shared their experiences in Medievia and recruited one friend or family member to log in, we.d be at 600+ people online in no time! If each player voted every day, we would easily be #1 on all the ranking sites. If a few players wrote a review or promoted Medievia on a gaming website every oncein a while we would gain even more players.

How you can get involved and help:

Most importantly: tell everyone you know about Medievia and why you enjoy spending time here.
Continue voting every day at www.medievia.com/vote.html.
Write reviews for Medievia at various gaming websites listed in HELP REVIEW. Direct links to review forms are available at www.medievia.com/reviews.html
Promote Medievia by posting about your experiences on Medievia and why you like it here so much on the forums of the sites listed in HELP REVIEW and the sites listed on our Mud Resources page: http://www.medievia.com/resources.html
Add Medievia banners to your websites or inquire about getting them added to websites you frequently visit. All banners are available on www.medievia.com/banners.html.
Add links to Medievia in all of your sites, blogs, and space. The more sites link to Medievia the more weight the main Medievia site gets in all search portals.
Peruse the Player Recruitment area of the Medievia website for more ideas on how to spread the word: www.medievia.com/recruit.html .
Email Soleil@medievia.com with suggestions for places to advertise, marketing ideas, or if you are interested in helping out in any other way. Please include MEDIEVIA PR in the subjectline.

New Ship Command- Ship Activity

2006-06-23T12:45:00.000-05:00

The new ship command SHIP ACTIVITY shows the recent attacks vs the ship. The graph showing the power of the attack is a relative based average compared to the others. This new feature is so players can board a ship and see what has attacked in the past few hours. The real reason for this feature is not really for the players and this new SHIP ACTIVITY feature, it is for workers. It just seemed a shame to have all of this data collection and not show it. Workers will be here soon taking thier first jobs as deckhands. This new data allows workers to know what has been going on so they can talk about it. It is for the massive AICHATTER module. When your ship sinks, workers who hear about the sinking will know why it sunk or what attacked the ship recently. The amount of data the DM keeps track of is insane! This is just a small part.

New Programming loaded for Workers

2006-06-23T12:40:00.000-05:00

We will be entering a period of instability for the next few days. It could be rock solid or it could be pretty flakey, there is no real way to predict!

What is happening is many thousands of lines of code are being turned on under the hood. All of this new code has to do with the workers coming soon and the tons of data they keep track of about you, your clan, your town, your ships, etc.

For the next few days I will conduct many internal tests and have to change the data and process many times as I finish this new Medievia V mob chatter module. Workers will be the first use of this new module but many upcoming mobs and other modules will also use this data to further deepen your immersion in the game and allow some mobs to treat you very special like. It is all just a boat load of new code and data and I pretty much predict instability as I work through its kinks.

-Vryce

Townland

2006-06-03T05:54:00.000-05:00

Townland has been partially implemented. It is basically here but does not effect clan ratings yet. Towns automatically own land around their town of a radius of 10 + ( 10 * #clans ). Further land will be controlled by clans in the town having clan businesses, which are run by hired workers. Very soon farms, mines, orchards, and ten other types of businesses will start lining the landscape, expanding townland. Finally and perhaps the most important way to control more land is to own whole islands. More on that soon. That code is ready and will come in next week. For now you will get messages as you cross town land borders, via flying, walking, portals, and any other known way to move. For an initial map of townland check out:
http://www.medievia.com/images/livemaps/map.503.gif

There are 13 initial clan business types coming. You hire workers who build and run the business. The town's job is to protect them and keep them happy and productive. Each business creates trade items. For the complete list, see the CHANGES in the game.