-=[Age of Dragons News]=-

Jun/06/17 Updated devote command to only allow someone to devote to a deity the
same alignment as them. Anyone with an existing deity of different
alignment will have their deity removed upon login and will have to use
the devote command to choose a new, alignment appropriate deity.

Nov/28/16 Updated the Age of Dragons Web Site. http://classic.ageofdragons.com/

Oct/25/16 Added the "heal" command which is an alias of "bandage".
Added small experience gains when someone raises a skill through use.

Oct/24/16 Fixed a bug where bard presence would sometimes drop below zero.
Added the sneak attack skill for rogues. See the associated help file.

Oct/11/16 Added the following druid spells: group minor heal, polar midnight,
crushing rocks, storm of vengeance and winds of vengeance as well
as their associated help files.

Added HELP RETURNING PLAYERS which details the majority of the changes
made between 2013 and Summer 2016.

Added tactics skill for fighters and the accompanying help file.

Sep/04/15 Added additional cantrips that are unlocked for wizards as they rise
in level: acid splash, shocking bolt and fire bolt. Also reduced
cantrip lag to coincide with other level 1 spells.

Improved the martial arts ability to give a chance for a 2nd kick
as well as a chance to reduce lag after a successful kick.

Improved the identify spell to offer information as to who is able
to use the item.

Aug/28/15 Made it so if a charmie/summoned mob makes the killing blow in a
fight, that the kill credit will go to their master (as long as
they are in the same room). Thus the charmie's master (and their)
group will receive the exp for the kill instead of the charmie.
Also means there's no need to try and group charmies.

Aug/25/15 Fixed the trip, bash and bull rush skills so that the proper message
will show when they hit. This was showing as a miss some times
when the target had some kind of damage resistance that would
reduce the skill damage to zero (effecting in a 'miss' message).

Fixed some of the deity spells that would not work, when targetting
objects in general or people not in the same room as you.

Fixed it so that mobs will no longer critical hit, and the fighter
improved/advanced/epic critical feats will only have their ability
to proc a crit if the roll would have hit the target anyway. In
other words, only a natural 20 is an automatic hit, though if
the figher hits anyway, and they proc their improved crit abilities
it will crit. If they miss, it will never crit despite their advanced
crit abilities.

When a spell with a lasting affect (blur or bless for example) is
cast upon a person who is already under effect by that spell, instead
of the spell failing, it will now 'reset' the spell, removing the
existing effect and giving the person the spell effect again
with the base duration.

Aug/20/15 Added the following skills for fighters with help files: improved
critical hit, advanced critical hit, epic critical hit.

Added the following skills for rogues with help files: improved
impaling, advanced impaling, epic impaling.

Added ability for everyone to make critical hits (mobs included).
Added help file for 'critical hits' as well.

Modified strength bonuses so that strengths of moderate amount
(ie. between 8 and 15 or so) give a percente chance to get a
+1 to hitroll and/or damroll, with greater percent for higher
strength values. The hope is that people with moderate strength
can still benefit, instead of all or nothing.

Added racial benefits as follows:
KENDER: Dodge ac bonus & increased gold rewards from mob kills.
GOBLIN: Dodge ac bonus & improved combat initiative bonus.
HALF-ELF: Natural infravision & gains spells/skills 1 level sooner.
HUMAN: Increased skill/spell success chance and gets skill gains quicker.
DWARF: Natural infravision and reduces all incoming damage by 1.
ELF: Natural infravision and +1 to all weapon/unarmed attack rolls.
MINOTAUR: Chance to receive a free gore attack each combat round.
GNOME: Access to the tinker ability, to improve weapons & armor.
Help files updated for all races plus the tinker command.

Aug/19/15 Updated the BERSERK help file

Changed color of spell/skill combat effect messages to magenta

Added auto bash for paladins.

Updated the following zones: Temple of Chemosh, Thelgaard Keep, Temple
of Morgion, Lord Anias' Estate, Icewall Castle, Solace Training Pits,
Que Shu Village, Solanthus, Sanction Palace. For the most part, the
updates consist of re-added previously removed item loads.

Aug/18/15 Fixed the lag timers on bash. Level 24 and higher allows for less lag
when bashing, and more lag on the target when they are bashed.

The setcamp cooldown timer should properly expire now.

Added the spell 'ray of frost', which is a wizard cantrip, meaning they
can cast it without having to memorize it, unlimited times.

Fixed a bug with stone body and advanced shield defense, which would not
properly reduce damage in some situations.

Fixed the spell message for admonishing ray.

Silence and slow spells now properly indicate that the target has resisted
the spell instead of simply saying, no effect.

Improved paladin mem slots at high levels.

Added additional effect for divine bond at level 24, adding PvE damage
in addition to the existing subdual damage bonus.

Updated the deadly juggernaut help file to indicate that the spell only
procs its additional effect when making the killing blow on an enemy
that is either higher level than the killer, or no more than 4 levels
lower.

Aug/13/15 Increased the maximum length of a command and its parameters considerably

Added help files for: BANE, DIVINE POWER, INVISIBILITY PURGE, MINOR RESTORE
LIFE, RESTORE LIFE, MAJOR RESTORE LIFE

Aug/06/15 Added clan functionality to the MUD. See HELP CLANS and HELP CLAN COMMANDS
for more information.

Please contact an admin to be given a leadership position in one of the
existing clans, as well as the opportunity to create your own clan.

Aug/05/15 Added the 'finesse' skill for rogues. See the help file for more info.

Fixed a bug wherein the 'order' command would crash the MUD.

Fixed a bug withj deadly juggernaut spell that was leaving a penalty
to hitroll and damroll after wearing off.

Jul/29/15 Added a number of help files for spells and skills that were missing them

Added functionality to protection from evil and protection from good so that
those under the effect of the spell will receive a benefit to armor class
when fighting an opponent of the corresponding alignment.

Fixed a bug with the Thelgaard Keep carriage locale.

Enabled the ability for players using the autorest preference toggle to
be able to auto-stand, if resting, when using the 'cast' command. This
is to help accommodate those who are multiplaying with casting classes
in the 'slave' window.

Jul/27/15 Increased number of pracs for all classes by +1/level. Existing characters
please contact a staff member for retroactive gains.

Jul/24/15 Doubled the chance for most skills and spells to get a skill improvement, most
of which are based to some extent on your wisdom ability score.

Added appropriate levelup information for characters when they gain a level.
Sample output is as follows:

You rise a level!
You have gained 10 hit points!
You have gained 2 movement points!
You have gained 4 practice sessions.
You have gained access to the 'cure blind' spell.
You have gained access to the 'cause light injury' spell.
You have gained access to the 'know alignment' spell.


Jul/23/15 Added a number of new abilities: Improved Shield Defense, Heroic Defense,
Advanced Shield Defense, Epic Shield Defense, Disciplined Defense,
Stone Body, Shrug It Off, Great Weapon Fighting, Improved Great Weapon Fighting,
Advanced Great Weapon Fighting, Epic Great Weapon Fighting, Improved Berserk,
Advanced Berserk, Epic Berserk.

All have help files. Please see the help files in game for more info.
The new skills are for barbarians and knights. Many more to come for
other classes.

Removed the restriction for barbarians being unable to use 'magic' flagged
items.

Barbarians can now wield ALL two handed weapons, regardless of class, race
and alignment flags.

Re-arranged knight and barbarian abilities a bit. Removed dual wield for
barbarians and pushed double attack down to level 10.

Jul/22/15 Added the autobash ability, a toggle-able passive for level 14+ knights.
This ability allows the knight to automatically bash (and stand) every
3 combat rounds.

Also added the setcamp ability, for rangers, druids and barbarians. This
command creates a camp fire in the room that lasts 10 ticks, and increases
the amount of hit point and move point healing for everyone in the room
by an amount proportionate with the skill user's wisdom ability score.

Added passive abilities to the practice and abilities commands.

Attempted to fix bugs that prevented people from practicing the trip skill
(now renamed to trip opponent) as well as not being able to memorize the
defensive harmony spell.

Jul/21/15 Added the autorest command. This flag, when enabled, causes the person to
automatically rest 20 seconds after finishing a combat. If the group leader
moves, the person will auto stand prior to the group leader completing their
move.

Added additional carriage stops throughout the MUD.

Jul/17/15 Added Air ships and Carriages.

Airships allow one to travel between major cities (Solace, Palanthas, Sanction).
Command to use is 'airship' (only at airship towers).

Carriages allow one to travel between important locations in each region,
(Abanasinia, Solamnia, Taman Busuk). More carriage locations still to be
added. Command is 'carriage' (only at carriage stands).

Also changed the level 5 deity spell from word of recall to cure critic due
to the addition of the recall command.

Jul/13/15 Reimplemented old(er) deity system. Please see the devote and deity command.
Input on better spell lists for each deity is desired. Andrew Crawford's old
code is still present, just commented out until it can be completed.

Jun/29/15 Added the last command for imms to see who has logged on recently. Note: One
may still search for a specific player using the last command. If no name is
specified it will list the last 20 logins.

Sep/01/14 The rent system has been modified. We have added a free rent option using the
command 'frent'. This will allow you to rent indefinitely, saving all your items
as the old 'ltrent' command did, except for free.

The rent command now works as above, except you will gain 'rested exp' which
gives you an experience bonus for a time, depending on how long you were rented.
(Capped at 48 hours).

All characters also have the option of renting out in the wilderness, using the
'camp' command. This works the same as the frent command, except that it takes
30 seconds for you to complete the logout process. You must be in a wilderness
room (outside) to be able to use this command. Rogues have the ability to do
the same in inside and city rooms using the 'squat' command.

We've added a 'recall' command, usable only outside of combat, with a
cooldown, giving you a free recall to your last rent/camp/squat
location. The recall command, once used, will only take effect after remaining
in the same room, and not fighting, for 30 seconds. You can use the
'affects' command to see whether your recall cooldown has expired or not.

Aug/15/14 Added a new Ranger skill 'Precision Tracking' and its help file.
Added the 'players' command for immorts.
Updated HELP NEWBIE.
Added HELP DEVOTE and HELP DEITY.
Modified 'devote info' command to pull the diety's help file.


Aug/13/14 Added autoloot and autogold.
Added first aid skill.
Fixed a crash that occured when people would make a spelling
mistake or typo when casting a spell.

Aug/01/14 Fixed a bug with devote command, where devoting to certain
deities did not take effect.

Adjusted the level process so that hp and move gains are now
a static amount instead of a random amount.

Added the 'relevel' command so that people with existing
characters can benefit from the static hp and move amounts
when levelling.

Reduced cooldowns on all bard songs.