attention warriors!

we just ran across something really WEIRD today. apparently there's a special flag some skills can be stuck with called 'secretskill' ...secret skills don't show up on your pr list, and ar not listed on your slist. how many secret skills there are is unknown, we've only found one. that one is for warriors at level 50, and is called hitall.

i intend to remove the secret flag from hitall later, but for now, warriors can run out and practice it. hitall is like backstab in that you can only do it to start a fight.
but what it does is hit every enemy in the room.

pretty saucy, eh?

RP prompt is on hold for now because i've got something up my sleeve for the tavern. nothing amazingly special, but the RP prompt is based on it, so it needs to be in place first.

hey folks, long time no tweak!

sorry about the crash on the 27th- it was our host. they had an emergency situation and needed to do a split-second upgrade, so stopped all running games on our server and did so. SO! let's get down to tweaking, cause thanks to our beloved codelizard, we have lots to report with! skills, soupings to spy, commands and tweaks.

tweaks/edits:
- the garden shop now sells daisies
- the 'power up vendor' in the myche town has now become the 'spy shop' and sells flashpowder and poison powder.
-call familiar FINALLY works. REGUTTING THE CODE HORRAY.
-mysterious appearing PR will no longer be an issue. if you have an item that gives you a skill you don't ordinarily get, you won't get magical appearing practice sessions for them.
-spy was souped up. spies now get the skills: farsight, infravision, possess and flashbang.
-detect traps was removed from all classes, as SMAUG's traps are hopelessly broken anyway.
-upsy daisy and daisy daisy should once again be working. lol smaug D:

new skills
- for spies, you now have a teleportation spell called 'flashbang' which requires flash powder.
- for pooka you also have a teleportation spell called 'pbbth'

new commands
-CLOAK! ever been in an RP and just wanted to be that mysterious figure in the corner? wanted to puppet a random NPC but didn't want to create fifty alts? ever just wanted to lurk in the RP, not being forced to interact, maybe just logging? tried to do this with invis, only to find everyone immediately casting detect invis? then cloak is the command for you! by typing cloak you appear to the room as "a cloaked figure." you can uncloak by simply typing cloak again.

immortals can see through cloak, and cloak has NO battle application (cloaking won't stop monsters from hitting you/seeing you/hating you).

...and for those of you awaiting the release of pooka with twitchy little hands, it's not very far away at all now. ye olde list here says there are 3 pooka spells yet to be coded, and once they are, it will be released.

so be sure to thank khtall! none of this would have been possible without her!

if anybody wants to be a huge help and make a list of new commands/skills that don't have helpfiles, it'd be reeeeeally handy too.

nothing really major! this post is mostly for pooka beta testers.

pooka's XP gain rate has been nerfed (it is now the same as augurers) after discussing it with brass.
also, the level at which pooka recieves trance was bumped up to the 30s. ALSO you got a...

new skill
LACKADAISY - it lowers your target's HR significantly for a short burst of time.

tweaked skills
weaken - lowers the target's DR slightly for a short burst (in addition to weakening)
poison- lowers the target's HR slightly for a short burst (in addition to poisoning)

these were tweaked due to the unanimous agreement that outside of PVP, the skills were prettymuch useless.

it's deffinitly tweak-season though, so hang onto your hats. vrrrrooom!
-----------
EDIT

few more tweaks tonight! everyone thank the nice codelizard!

-you can now follow regardless of levels. level 3 can follow level 50...who cares!
-flints have been added to things you can buy in the chuian tree, so go go rangers!
-running up without fly no longer crashes sabrous in a giant fireball.
-cure serious and cure crit for rangers have been inverted to more LOGICAL levels. ie, you get the weaker one *first*...
-time played on your score actually reveals the *gasp* time played!
-the explorer's order shopkeep actually has MONEY to be a pawn shop now.

we had a visit from the codelizard tonight!

so you know what THAT MEANS :D THANK KHTALL AND ENJOY THE BOUNTY.

tweaks!
- portal has been changed so it WORKS. previously if you were not both peaceful/deadly and not within 15 levels of one another, it would fail. now it works. HA!
- polymorph reverting will not leave you with negative HP
- drain now gives the caster some of the mana drained from the target
- when more than one hidden object (or exit) is in a room, search now runs a chance of turning up more than one at once.

glory mobs!
- the oublie cathedral guardians now give glory if you are under level 30
- the fat lady and diablo now give glory if you are under level 20

pooka spells!
- MOONSHINE : that cherry screw wasting time in your inv? that lemonade just molding away? wait til cover of darkness and cast moonshine for a random different drink!
- SUPERFLAT : although no more powerful than earthquake, and working in essentially an identical way, superflat naturally involves multicoloured daisies and gets your target a little...loopy.

also, there was as i mentioned an art update to the site!
artists updated include: art (new guy!), moi (icarus), tavanaka (bogsherry), amred, phil, greenbear (tcarah), maniacTHP (roren), chukotto, anthonius (jemli), cilaw (new guy!), cypress, ruck, golaro, brassu, fax, makr (new guy!) and naturally the pchat folder.

and who gets featured artist? weeeeell...
( *drumroll* )

and, as mentioned in the comments for the last post, Mad's new map of the Queen Anne's Revenge can be found in the maps folder.

ha, i told you i'd start doing stuff once i got home! ...now to keep from dying of jetlag if i can. we got a bunch of stuff.

new skills for pooka:
upsy daisy. invokes some daisies :D we're working on fixing the next pooka skill right now.
possess. not actually a new spell, just discarded and nonfunctional. use a daisy + charm to possess an NPC.
daisy daisy. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A GIANT MOBILE SENTIENT DAISY? NOW YOU CAN CREATE ONE.
pooka pinch gets you ready for a fight by buffing your hitroll and damroll...and giving you an aetherial dose of LIQUID COURAAAAAAAAGE that'll last the duration of the spell too. DRUNKEN BAR BRAWLING ANYONE? (the level for this isn't set yet, still waiting for feedback)

skill modifications to:
helical flow - now takes less mana (about 60)
cook - you now learn from failures
poison weapon - poisoned weapons don't disappear over time

area modifications to:
the valburg mayor's office - the mayor now invokes guards that DO NOT ask for your badge while battling.
the razordemon tower - the teacher now has a name (Isk) and can be used for teleporting.

general tweaks are:
statreport is now availble from level 15 up.
the server reset messages were modified to be a bit more sabrousian.
the server clock now reflects its actual time (mountain something time)
sabrecats, cythid and muti are FINALLY required to be GOOD ALIGNED.
polymorphed characters do not get the (MORPHED) flag to mortals. you'll just see the polymorph's desc.
avatars pkilling avatars will not set off the alarm bells immortals see. if this becomes an issue (i HIGHLY doubt it will) we'll put it back but since all pkilling has been consentual for as long as i can recall, this seems fine to me.

aaaaaaand there's still lots of other stuff to get through, but i'm braindead exhausted. so let's just stop there for now :D

ENJOY THIS MASSIVE POST THAT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING!

sorry for the radio silence guys. i've been psychoticly busy lately and even if i have been doing things, i haven't had a chance to come back and tell you about it :B

new maps:
the wastelands, the thieves' forest, the mayor's office (this is my building map, it's NOT clean), the lizardman port, crateria and the cloud sea!
HUGE thanks to nical, keech, rachella and roren for their infinate patience and care in all these maps. be sure to thank and compliment them when you see them!

new art is up by me, brass, chukotto, hatz, cypress, kilo, maniac/roren, tarendol, tcarah/greenbear, amred and TAV :D

glory for the catacombs quest has been awarded! some people did not get glory but MOST did. if you really, really want glory but you weren't awarded any  just come talk to me and we'll see if we can work something out.

new skill:
-call familiar finally works for druids! rock.

bug fixes:
-the scholars once again speak all languages. ayep.

tweaks:
-the pooka morph strider is completed.

once again, if you have a roleplaying journal put the username for it here! the list of currently known journals is here and if you're not on it, tell me here so i can add you! if you could also be so kind, when posting in sabrous_rp add the names of the participants as tags. ie, if the RP included phil and velesti, add the tags 'phil, velesti' to the entry. just for quickref for us immortards. i've fallen so behind on the RP community that basicly, i'm just going to start asking tarendol who should get PR XD sorry. what i mean to say is practices for RP journals has been awarded. other PRs have not been awarded YET, i'm counting on kentrin to give me a list of people who need it. 8D

WELL. THAT WAS A LONG WAIT FOR NOTHIN HUH. oh you're still here for a featured artist?
( this time around i honestly could not decide who to pick )

awriiiiiiight here's part 2 of this weekend's tweakfest.

tweaks
-(UNCLANNED) flag removed from deadlies not in clans. this isn't a pkill game so :B
-fixed (again) the falling object damage calculation. behurhurhururrrrr

new skill
-pacify has been given to clerics, paladins and monks (in descending order of highest adept/earliest recieved). if successful, the fight stops. (this is one of my frankenstein babies, IM PROUD OF IT SHUSH :<)
-call familiar for druids...ohgdotired summons an npc to fight for you (due to crashybugs disabled til we can fix it)

new command
-roleplay flags you as [RP] on the who list. this lets everyone know who's RPing or looking to RP. turn it on or off just by typing roleplay.

for immortals
-set players who are being recockulously bad in the RP (annoying others, god moding, generally jerking it up) with the SUNFISH flag. it's just a kind of a warning to others that THIS PLAYER CAN'T RP VERY WELL 8D

aaaaaaas usual everyone bow down for the CODEWARRIOR lizard khtall, because seriously without her i'd just be exploding things left and right (not that i don't anyway...). khtall's minisabrous has been instrumental in testing sheit out. :> there's another skill for druids that should be done sometime in the next few days, and we're working on a general ability everyone will get (primarily for RP purposes) and a few silly abilities for pookas. uuuuh huh.

not QUITE the regular tweak update...not nearly as coherant but man it's 2am and i been building since i got home from work.

there is a new skill coming for clerics, monks and paladins this weekend. prep yourselves :O it's just. being proof'd by the codelizard since it's one of my frankenstein creations and all crawling with bugs and undeclared variables |D

tweaks
-the damage calculated by falls/dropping items now relates more to WEIGHT than ...the moon or whatever. <- thank khtall cause i can't even THINK of this math
-the max damage cap (2400 dmg) was removed. now superboss mobs hit as hard as they ought to/want to.
-pookas had their hp per level gain adjusted to be more like mages.
-monks had dual weild moved up several levels.
-druids got meditate
-items worn on faces, ankles, backs or missile weapons now take damage in battle
-spinkick, leap, etc etc all those moves now have miss messages.
-a very tiny tweak to the Earth temple.

new skills!!
-FUU for pookas (basic attack ability, but very pookarific...if you don't get it, just watch this)
-hippocrates serpents (heals for a ton of hp. requires a special item.)

and!
NEW AREA! the valburg mayor offices are now open for beez nees. if you head south from the valburg noteboard (where the training arena used to be) you'll find a level 30ish area. this area's not real big but is FILLED with items. EVERYTHING can be examined (even things mentioned in room descs like windows or doors). there's item trading quests to get all the way around. nothing is agro, so you can wander in as a level 5 to explore and you'll be safe...even if you can't use anything. i had a ton of fun doing this area so i hope you'll enjoy it 8D

WAIT
SUDDENLY IT'S 8.30 AM AND I STILL HAVENT SLEPT
WHAT JUST HAPPENED

just one lone, new skill to update you guys with. :B

the block skill is now available to classes that don't get dual weild, or don't get it until after level 35.

BLOCK is much like dodge or parry in that it just adds another layer of WOOPS CANT HIT ME LOL to your defense. the catch is that to use block, you must be wearing a shield. no shield, no block :B

(note: i am proud of block cause it's the first skill i did all by myself like a big kid without a snippet or excessive hand holding |3 i learns)

i've got my list of tweaks here and there are some fun looking ones on there (for you. not for me.) and i SHOULD be getting back into the swing of things in terms of tweaking and building this week. still a little off on my timing though so we'll see for sure . i have currently a whole slew of kazza emails that i will also be getting around to ASAP for glory.

on another note, we were considering doing a sabrous voicechat and reading of the Princess Bride at some point. a couple players have never heard the story and i have the book and would be more than glad to impersonate goldman's father. does this sound like something others would be interested in? if so i'll start looking for a voicechat with more support than skype (only 9 people at once? PISHAW!)