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12/02/24
Abilities
- Several abilities and associated trainers have been added around Shadgard and Corvus Outpost, including some exclusive class abilities. Please note that these are still considered in testing and major updates or changes may yet be made to the abilities and/or their availability.
Apparel
- Underpants are now worn in the "leggings" slot and so actually provide warmth to the legs.
- Items worn in the "leggings" slot can now be worn under the "pants" slot rather than conflicting with it.
Combat
- Attacks that strike multiple times (multithrow, cleave, flurry, multi-strike weapons, etc.) will now only grant skillgains on the initial strike.
Crafting
- Crafting recipe info no longer displays erroneous quality estimations.
Death
- Fixed a bug that made it possible to immediately depart after dying if one had been offered the depart option during a previous death but not taken the offer.
- When souls are successfully returned to their body via a Soul Beacon or Soul Retrieval, there will now be an indication on the Stygian ESP channel.
Food
- Most store-bought sit-down food is now served warm and provides a little positive morale, so long as it is eaten before it cools down too much.
- If the holder of warm sit-down food remains in the same place the food was purchased from, the food will not cool down. Additionally, when removed from the place it was purchased from, warm sit-down food will now stay warm a little longer.
Leatherworking
- Trainers of leatherworking abilities can now be found in the tanneries of Shadgard and Corvus Outpost.
Metalworking
- New metalworking recipe: metal armor splints
Ranger
- Adjust Gear: Travel now applies to a few more item types, including dusters, overcoats, and some variations on previously-included item types. Additionally, several legacy items (including many backpacks, rucksacks, packs, pouches, and satchels) were updated to be on their correct item templates which will, among other things, allow this ability to affect them.
- Adjust Gear: Travel will now automatically re-calculate the target's carry weight and encumbrance when applied.
Rook Parlour
- Shadow familiars will now flit out of view when their master is hiding.
- The energy cost for Familiar Merge and Familiar Detach has been reduced.
Tasks
- If a character has the Shovel Snow task but there is no longer any snow to shovel in the assigned area, the TASK CHECKIN command can now be used at the task hub to clear the task.
- When a character has the Shovel Snow task, a room's look output will now indicate if the room has snow that can be shoveled for the task.
11/25/24
Apparel
- Many existing clothing items that were missing item type templates have had their templates assigned. This will cause the items to be automatically updated when some aspects of the templates are updated, and will standardize some of their properties, such as weight and default description. If an item appears to have been set to the wrong item type, please report it with the BUG command and keep the item in the character's inventory or locker. Item types that were updated: shoes, moccasins, boots, sandals, socks, stockings, pants, trousers, breeches, leggings, skirt, dress, sundress, gown, underpants, shirt, tunic, blouse, scarf, cloak, greatcloak, mantle, cape, coat, frock, greatcoat, longcoat, trenchcoat, raincoat, tabard, surcoat, hat, cap, fedora, tricorn
Areas
- The resen appears to have come up with a means of better surviving the cold season in some areas.
Combat
- Fixed a bug that was preventing Armor Hindrance from working.
Documentation
- Updated helpfile: Lost Lands
Helpfiles
- The ancient and inaccurate "symbiant" helpfile has been deleted, as it alluded to many things that were never implemented and gave some false impressions of player character possibilities.
Legacy Item Fixes
- Legacy crafted items made of "scales" have been updated to now be made of "animal-scale", allowing them to be repaired by NPC animal-scale repair facilities.
Wilderness
- It is no longer possible to bypass Brackenridge Pass via directional wilderness movement.
11/18/24
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that allowed foraging into a container to bypass the container's storage capacity limits.
11/11/24
General
- NPC healers will now treat frostbite with a slow-acting unguent.
Corvus
- A stableyard has been added to the Corvus Outpost where mounts can be purchased and empty carts can be stored.
Documentation
Elemancer
- It is once again possible to LIGHT burnable objects with conjured flame while channeling pyromancy.
Inventory
- Garments worn in the "cloak" slot now provide exposure coverage for the chest and abdomen in addition to the back.
Mounts
- There is now a limit to how many mounts a character can purchase (2 at this time). This limit may potentially be raised via special abilities.
- Receiving Riding training from an NPC trainer will now immediately grant 1 point of the skill if the character did not already have any Riding skill.
Shadgard
- Mounts can now be purchased at the Shadgard stableyard.
Tse Gaiyan
- The barracks in the Tse Gaiyan Chapterhouse now houses actual public bunk beds which will provide a lesser rested morale bonus when characters are logged out there for at least six hours.
Weather
- Environmental cold damage such as from cold weather will no longer cause flesh wounds, only frostbite. (Cold-based attacks will still cause flesh wounds.)
11/04/24
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that was causing underclothes to be visible when wearing a costume. Teehee.
- Fixed a bug that was allowing some conflicting apparel types to be worn at the same time if put on in a specific order.
Inventory
- When attempting to wear an item that is in conflict with multiple items a character is already wearing, the messaging will now indicate all conflicting worn items instead of just the first.
Weapons
- Various legacy weapons have had their hilt/haft material and stylization (if any, such as wire- or leather-wrapped hilts, etchings, inset gems, etc.) determined and actually coded into the item to be more compatible with newer systems.
- Legacy weapons with less-practical handle materials (gold, silver, tin, pewter, etc.) will now show as having a hilt/haft inlaid with that material rather than reading as if the handle is made solely from that material.
Wilderness
- Leaving an area via the "out" direction will no longer cause traveltime when the destination is the wilderness.
10/21/24
Account
- Shelved characters will no longer show by default on the account screen, but can be seen by typing ACCOUNT SHELVED or ACCOUNT ALL. When shelved characters are hidden, there will be a message stating the number of shelved characters that are hidden and how to view them.
Documentation
- Updated helpfile/wiki article: Thaumaturgy
10/14/24
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that was causing foraging for onions to spawn "a thing" instead of the actual onion item.
Legacy Item Fixes
- Legacy bows (all types), crossbows, and guns (all types) should now all be functional. Revolvers will function identical to single-shot pistols for the time being. If a legacy weapon of these types is still not working, first try to EXAMINE it to see if that fixes it, and if not, report it with the BUG command.
Skinning
- Skinning knives (any knife that EXAMINEs as being designed specifically to skin animals) will now grant a partial reroll bonus to skinning attempts.
Weapons
- Legacy carbines should once again be functional. If one is still not working, the EXAMINE can be used to try and auto-update it.
09/30/24
Areas
- It is now required to pass through a portion of the ruins of Valeria in order to cross the river it straddles, rather than inexplicably crossing the river without passing through the ruins at all. The wilderness immediately surrounding Valeria has been altered slightly as a result.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that was causing legacy characters to have a bunch of broken empty outfits set.
Commands
- The new FEEL command can now used as a sort of non-spoken-language-flow version of THINK, to express how a character feels rather than what they are actively thinking. (Like think, there is no third-person messaging output seen by others when used.)
Mobs
- Mobs will no longer immediately freeze when an area is empty of PCs, instead continuing to do their thing for a short while after the area has become considered empty.
Monk/Templar
- The living cells provided to Monks and Templar will now grant a small sleep morale bonus (half that provided by inn rooms) for characters who are logged out in them for at least 6 hours.
Mounts
- Dragging a PC's corpse while mounted will now have significantly less traveltime added than dragging a PC's corpse while traveling on foot. (Presumaby the dragger has heaved the corpse onto their mount's back to move it this way.)
Weapons
- Falxes should function as weapons once again.
Wilderness
- Rivers now take up a tile in the wilderness rather than being barriers between tiles. A small handful of points of interest were moved one tile over so they didn't end up in rivers as a result.
09/23/24
General
- A new "gathering spot" room flag has been added. Positive morale will not gradually decrease over time for characters in these rooms.
- Changing rooms (such as in the bathhouse) are now indicated as such next to the room name.
Armor
- Wearing enough of certain armor types will once again cause some flavor text about the noise when the character walks from room to room.
Documentation
- New helpfile: Morale
- New helpfile: Reroll
- New helpfile: Nutrition
- New helpfile: Sanity
- New helpfile: Quality
- New helpfile: Armor Hindrance
- New helpfile: Roundtime
- New helpfile: Reach
Monk
- Monks who have for whatever reason lost their abilities can now ASK Dimmes about abilities to re-learn the basic healing tiers and Soul Beacon spell.
Outposts
- Wounded NPCs will now occasionally spawn in infirmaries. PCs are welcome to volunteer assistance with their treatment, but will not be paid for it.
Races
- The lore on Khaldeans (sometimes colloquially referred to as "Grummers") has been updated. See the helpfiles "Khaldean" and "Khaldea".
Shadgard
- Elric's Attire now sells customizable hats in the Outerwear section.
Thaumaturgy
- The Halo effect is once again an automatic result of channeling thaumaturgy rather than a manually-cast spell.
09/16/24
Combat
- When a character intercepts an attack on someone else they are GUARDing, the intercepting guard's Dodge defense will once again be ignored.
- An attack being intercepted by a guard will no longer change the attacker's set target to the guard instead of the intended target being guarded.
Map
- The glyphs used to represent the edges of the wilderness map are now asterisks rather than the default mountain glyph, hopefully dispelling the mistaken notion that the wilderness is surrounded by a rectangle of mountains.
- Much of the empty barrens on the southwest edge of the map are now impassible mountains, and the forests of the Abneridge Foothills have expanded out a bit, at points into the Stirling Expanse.
- The path leading to Dwaedn Vil has been significantly expanded.
Mobs
- Mobs that have been wounded or are unable to regenerate missing energy will now eventually despawn or be restored to full health/energy (depending on various circumstances) when left alone.
Outposts
- When an invasion strikes an outpost, any NPCs within the outpost who are set up as invasion responders (and awake) will now automatically move to the outpost's defensive positions according to their preferred combat type (melee or ranged).
09/02/24
Bugxifex
- Attempting to PULL a previously-concealed necklace-slot item while not wearing any garment to conceal it under no longer results in an error, but instead toggles whether the item will be concealed the next time a potential necklace-concealing garment in worn.
Combat
- Defense against standard combat attacks will once again roll all relevant forms of defense (Dodge, Block, and Parry), rather than only whichever had the highest number of die sides.
- Shield reroll bonuses have been adjusted to grant partial rerolls: Standard/Round/Heater shields: 0.2, Kite/Tower shields: 0.4. (Bucklers have no inherent reroll bonus.)
- When defending against ranged attacks, shields with an inherent block bonus will now have twice their inherent bonus and an additional +1 reroll.
Death
- Being revived after a death now causes the revived character to suffer a temporary Death Sickness effect that limits energy regeneration, as well as the Lethargy effect which increases any roundtime experienced.
Skills
- Character skills will no longer sometimes practice up slightly above the skill cap. Any that had done so in the past have been reduced to the flat skill cap number (removing any decimal places).
- If a character practices a skill up to the skill cap and the skill still had some training practice remaining, the training will now automatically be removed instead of needing to be manually abandoned.
Website
- The changelog can now be found on the game's website at: https://clok.contrarium.net/changelog/
08/26/24
Corvus
- Corvites may now access the west wall battlements via the Southwest Tower near the barracks.
Mobs
- Some critters will now seek shelter indoors and refuse to go outside during bad weather.
Mounts
- If a mount's owner dies and the mount is not already stabled somewhere, the mount will now automatically go to either the last stables it was stabled at, or a fallback friendly stables if the last stables the mount was at has become unfriendly to the owner for some reason.
Shadgard
- Three new trainers have arrived at the Shadgard Militia Barracks to offer training in various combat skills. (Aelwyn is no longer raising eyebrows by providing combat training in a chapel.)
- The mountain man Stian has been spending more time in the Lost Ranger lately, and may be convinced to pass on some of the skills he's honed while mountaineering.
Skills
- RPAs (Roleplay Awards, all types) will now grant bonuses to skillgains rather than the obsolete experience system. This bonus stacks with training skillgain bonuses.
- Skillgain bonuses will now be applied after the skillgain-per-action cap is applied, rather than before. This means that skillgain bonuses such as those from receiving skill training or an RPA can now cause the amount of skillgain for performing an action to be higher than the standard skillgain-per-action cap rather than be nullified by it.
Weather
- When a character is out in the rain and wearing a waterproof garment in the cloak/robe/coat slot, if the garment is not hooded or coweled then an additional check will be made to see whether a waterproof garment (or protective headgear) is worn on the head.
08/12/24
General
- Attackable barriers (such as town gates) will now show their current durability state in their short description and output of the EXAMINE command just like other items with durability. Once completely broken open, these barriers will also display as "inoperable" and will not be able to be closed by any means until they have been restored to 100% durability via repairs.
- Damaged barriers (such as town gates) can now be REPAIRed by characters with at least 100 Construction skill (or 100 Carpentry skill for legacy characters that have it). Higher skill yields higher chances of greater progress per repetition.
Characters
- It is no longer possible to log in as a character on an account that has active characters with access to both Shadgard and Corvus. The shelve command can be used to temporarily shelve a character so they don't get considered for this restriction.
Corvus
- There is now a post board in the Corvus market.
- Fixed a bug with a ladder leading to an outdated version of the crypt.
Inn Rooms
- It is once again possible to specify a number when renting an inn room to request multiple days. For example, to rent a room for 5 days, one would type: RENT ROOM 5. If the total requested (plus any current days already rented) is greater than the maximum number of days allowed, the requested number of days will be lowered to an amount that would equal the maximum.
Mobs
- Hidden foxes have calmed down a bit and will no longer reveal their own position by barking at themselves.
Morale
- SPLASHing (without a target) in shallow or deep water, DIVE-ing into or under deep water, or SWIMming around idly (without a target/destination) in deep water will now grant a little morale boost when done outdoors in weather that is "warm" or hotter. (The different activities do not stack.)
Spam Reduction
- Besieged barriers will now only output messaging on the other side of the barrier every 15 seconds or when the barrier's durability has been reduced past specified thresholds.
07/29/24
General
- The GM (or GMS) command can now also be used to list current GameMasters on staff and a summary of their roles. (Alias for the GURU command.)
Corvus Outpost
- Combat trainers can now be found in the training room west of the Corvus Barracks entry.
Inventory
- Items worn in the "thigh" slot will now be concealed by items worn in the "robe" or "skirt" slots.
Mobs
- Minions will no longer count toward an area's maximum number of spawned mobs.
- Mobs that were previously made into minions of another character but have since regained their autonomy will now despawn after a time.
07/22/24
General
- The TELL command now requires the target's full account or character name to be provided, no longer working on partial matches.
- The AFK command will now also send a message to any group members not in the same room.
- Shelved characters will now log in to a special OOC room called The Shelf so their players can look over their various gear and stats and such, and can even interact with others who may also be in said OOC area.
- Characters will no longer get hungry from regenerating energy in OOC areas.
Abilities
- Legacy abilities that are not currently implemented have been removed from player characters. Characters will have the opportunity to learn them again when the abilities are re-implemented.
Elemancers
- The obsolete warmth-emitting occult diagrams scattered about the University of Elemancy have been replaced with more lore-appropriate pyrosphere cages.
Metalworking
- New metal bladed weapon component recipe: sabre blade
Metaprefixes
- New metaprefix option: defeat. When on, the text ::DEFEAT:: will precede the messaging when a character in the room is defeated/killed.
Mining
- The noise from cave-ins can now be heard from adjacent rooms.
- Rooms that are about to experience a cave-in will now have some messaging indicative of such in the room look.
Mobs
- Red and azure drakes now have a stunning roar, reminiscent of their old roar attack.
Policy
- Game policies can now be viewed in-game via the POLICY (or HELP POLICY) command, or via the "Policy" document on the game wiki.
- The game's privacy policy can now be viewed in-game via HELP PRIVACY POLICY or via the "Privacy Policy" document on the game wiki.
Skills
- It is no longer possible to get skillgains in OOC areas.
07/15/24
General
- It is now possible to specify a tone in whispers with the # symbol. Example: whisper bob #excitedly I got it! (Note: Others in the room will also see the tone of the whisper.)
Mining
- Making progress while mining now involves a slight skill challenge, providing more consistent skillgain opportunities at low skill levels.
Weapons
- Bows and crossbows with a stave made of hickory now enjoy a slight material-based damage and durability bonus (and are no longer bugged).
07/08/24
General
- LOOKing at soap will now show how many uses the soap has left.
- If an account is not yet logged in as a character and attempts to chat one of that account's character names, the chat will not go through and the player will be encouraged to use the LOGIN command.
Combat
- Weight encumbrance now affects defense rerolls rather than defense die sides.
- Weapons that have been reduced to 0% durability (broken) will no longer function as weapons at all until repaired.
Skills
- The SKILL ABANDON command will now list which skills are currently being trained/practiced if no skill is specified.
07/01/24
General
- Broken portals will now show as "broken open" instead of just "open".
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that made it impossible for the NOMINATE command to target characters by their coded name if they hadn't also been added to the nominator's personal names list.
Combat
- Attacks that can have multiple strikes now only cause a single instance of skillgain and energy loss for the entire attack, and the messaging for the additional strikes is now less verbose.
- Attacks that can have multiple strikes no longer have extra strike opportunities if the initial strike is dodged, blocked, or parried.
- Additional strikes from multi-strike attacks now enjoy some bonus rerolls to hit after a successful initial strike, and no longer suffer any damage reduction from being additional strikes.
Crafting
- Legacy crafting marks have been updated to display properly with the newer crafting mark system. Some have been adjusted slightly in order to fit with the standard "The item is branded with" beginning text.
Death
- The crystal ball items that can be found within Twilight Eye Services offices can now be peered at in order to scry the locations of any corpses whose souls have recently triggered the Deathknell.
Elemancer
- The Acid Jet elemental channel combination is functional once again.
Esp
- Fixed a bug that was causing characters set to ignore the Gray channel to still see Gray channel activity. (Output of the TUNE command will note if a character is ignoring the Gray channel.)
Mysterious
- A certain trophy alcove has been restored to a certain guild rumored to possibly exist.
Options
- The new PCShortDescs option (off by default) can now be toggled on to see the short description of player characters after their name in room occupant listings.
Rook Parlour
- Rooks with the Soul Retrieval ability will now have an additional familiar subcommand, FAMILIAR DEATHKNELL. This can be used to have the familiar sense the locations of corpses whose souls have recently triggered the Deathknell.
Skills
- It is now possible to use the SKILL ABANDON command to abandon the training of a particular skill.
- It is now possible to use the SKILL TRAINING (or SKILL STUDYING) command to see which skills a character is currently training.
06/17/24
General
- The MAIL DIRECTORY (or MAIL DIR) command can now be used in post offices to toggle whether one's name and mailbox are listed in the public mailbox directory, or to view or search the directory. Character mailboxes are unlisted by default.
- Morale rerolls are now displayed by simply being added to the total rerolls in messaging rather than being displayed separately in square brackets. (Enable the ShowProcs option to see indicators of when morale is affecting your rolls.)
Combat
- While a target is already under attack, additional attacks on the target will contribute to the Flanking effect which pushes down defense rerolls. Take care when fighting multiple foes!
Corvus Outpost
- Private rooms can now be rented at the Corvus Barracks and Murky's Pub.
Elemancer
- Channeling pyromancy will now automatically apply an effect that provides a slight amount of light due to the sparks around the channeler's hands. The effect will drop automatically when pyromancy is no longer being channeled.
Factions
- Fixed a bug that was allowing new characters to be able to enter the Corvus Outpost unhindered.
Magic
- The legacy channel preparation text has been restored for Pyromancy, Hydromancy, Aeromancy, Geomancy, Cryomancy, and Druidry.
- Magical channels with visual indicators will now also display a message when the channel is no longer active and the conjurations around the hands disappear.
Mail
- It is now possible to specify a name from the public mailbox directory with the MAIL command in order to send mail to that name's associated mailbox number. For example, if a character named Pat had opted in to the public mailbox directory, then anyone could simply type MAIL PAT from a post office instead of needing to provide Pat's specific mailbox number.
Mobs
- Fixed a bug that was causing fleeing mobs to not have their loot potential reduced when their attackers were considerably higher-skilled.
- Fixed a bug that was causing various mobs to not have any skill specific to the weapons they were wielding.
- Basilisks have regained their piercing gaze ability.
- Various mobs have regained their venomous attacks.
Mounts
- When using their hoof kick attack, horses that are wearing horseshoes will now enjoy any material-based properties of their horseshoes as part of the attack.
Rook Parlour
Storage
- Fixed a bug that was causing party members to immediately get kicked out of the locker area when following the group leader.
Templar
- Templar can once again stable their mounts free of charge at the Shadgard stables.
- Templar with the Serafina's Blessing ability can once again heal minor wounds instead of just slight wounds.
- Templar with the Sacred Chants ability, Serafina's Blessing ability, and at least 200 Thaumaturgy skill can can once again use the Lightbearer chant to briefly increase their Thaumaturgy skill and heal moderate wounds during the duration.
06/10/24
General
- NPC repairs should now be able to handle any item made of a material that the facility handles (metal at a smithy, cloth at a weaver, etc.) and will use a fallback cost if the item type is not a standard recognized type.
Abilities
- The effectiveness of the Tumble ability is once again based on the Dodge skill, and the TUMBLE command once again gets bad results for characters who do not know the ability.
- The artifice-based PLANT and PALM commands once again require knowledge of their respective abilities to perform.
- The Feint move once again requires knowledge of the associated ability, has its effectiveness based entirely on the Melee skill, and causes the attacker to be flanking the target upon success rather than reducing balance.
Areas
- Fixed a bug that was causing the Tarueka Environs area to sometimes be left empty of mobs.
- The old clearing on the south side of the Stone Canyon river has been replaced by a trail leading into the Leyndarmal Hills for a little more explorable area in the region.
Combat
- The CIRCLE command is disabled, pending a potential rework of its functionality.
Materials
- Moonsilver now has durability comparable to steel while being slightly sharper and lighter.
- Fleece now has the same material properties as wool.
- Items made of nethrium are once again impossible to pick up by characters that do not meet the material's requirements, and weapons made of nethrium once again have a chance for their special flares on striking.
Mobs
- Fixed a bug that was preventing some mobs from spitting acid.
- Mobs with powerful wings can once again stir up blasts of wind to knock down their foes.
Skills
- Fixed a bug that prevented legacy characters from having their Woodworking skill ranks.
Thaumaturgy
- Thaumaturgy raw casts are working once again, and can treat frostbite and fractures as well as flesh wounds. They now require a specific target rather than auto-targeting (defaulting to self if no target specified) and will auto-repeat until there is no treatable ailment or lack of energy remaining on the target.
06/03/24
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that was causing base skill ranks to be rounded down on certain events.
- Legacy-era bows, crossbow, and slings should now all function as ranged weapons.
Elemancer
- The Compression, Hydro-Freeze, and Hydro-Vibration patterns are once again functional.
Skills
- Asking NPCs about a skill will now prioritize asking for training in that skill if available from that NPC, rather than the NPC sharing their dialogue on a matching subject. (Be more specific to get their dialogue instead. For example, ask Ralston about "mining company" instead of just "mining" to get his dialogue rather than skill training.)
- Fixed a bug that caused asking for skill training to result in an error if the character didn't already have any knowledge of the specified skill.
05/20/24
General
- The FRIENDS command is now functional. (Legacy characters have retained their old friend lists.)
Combat
- Cold damage once again causes flesh wounds isntead of frostbite only.
Corvus
- The Corvus Outpost now has a Twilight Eye office offering aura services and item registration, south of the bank within the Citadel.
Death
- Bringing a player character corpse to any room marked with the "crypt" or "crypt conveyance" tag will automatically send the corpse to be interred in a crypt location that is accepting of that character, even if that is somewhere other than the room the corpse was taken to. Once a corpse is interred in a crypt, NPCs will automatically attempt to bring the character back to life by either Soul Beacon or Soul Retrieval, based on ritual type availability at that location and suitability of the corpse's soul. (NPCs will only attempt to revive a corpse if the player character is currently logged in.)
Mobs
- Writhing nether-morphs have been restored to their original (higher) skill levels. Beware!
Monk
- The Soul Beacon spell is once again functional, able to bring dead player characters back to life.
Rook Parlour
- The Soul Retrieval spell is once again functional, able to bring dead player characters back to life. It has received a slight lore update and no longer requires unguents. It can no longer be denied by the target.