*********************************************************************** ****9th April, 2000**** Hello once again ! Im Erling Ellingsen, and I have now worked my sorry behind too much, to get the BETA PHASE 2 done by now. It took time and some delays, but I got there, and I hope you are all grateful. Here is a list over the fixes and additions I have done to Era Online since last patch. Alot have changed, such as the ownership of Era Online. I have sold the ownership so I no longer own it, but i still have the same position, which is developing the game. My company, which the game is made under, has changed name and it's now called "Fantasia Studios". WARNING: We have caught alot of bug exploiters. Know that the game is totally logged. If you find a bug that will help you proccess, others proccess or alike, report it and leave it. Exploit the bug, and you will be PERMANENTLY BANNED from Era Online. REMEMBER, REPORT A BUG BY TYPING /BUG 'bug description' ! * THE BLACK SCREEN BUG IS FIXED ! If you get a black screen when entering the game, type /GFX to fix it ! This command didn't work earlier, it does now. The reason for this isn't really a bug, but a lag problem. The code that draws the map to the client, isn't getting to the client, but by typinh /GFX the code is re-sent to the client. * New feature ! You can now erase your character(s) by selecting to do so, after clicking ENTER MENATH in the main menu. After erasing the character, you can start a new character with that name if you wish to. * Sometimes, when you equip weaopons, they won't show inhand on character, unless you equip it twice. If this becomes too common for you, please report it. * When dying, you loose your criminal status. * NPC's should fight back better now. * Various patching problems should be fixed. * The body bugs have been fixed. * You no longer get experience when trading. * Password bugs fixed. * When you die, you will or will not lose a random unequipped item. * Weapons and shields are not unequipped when you die. * You will no longer get experience when failing in pickpocketing. * You can longer re-hide to get experience. * Each race has only one starting city. This is to make players more "packed" and not so spread around the world. Much more fun for a newbie to start some place where other players are. * You can no longer EARN moiney by trading. Even if your over 70 in merchant skill, you will still get a lower price than you bought the item for. We had to do this, because it was getting abused. * Prices on several items has gone down for various reasons. Many clothing items, are now much cheaper. I suggest a visit to the tailor ! * Prices on raw materials (cloth, ore, wood) has gone up for various reasons. If you are going to make items now, the best way to get raw materials would be to GET THEM YOURSELVES instead of buying them in store. * Raw materials to make certain items, has gone UP. Friendly, Erling Ellingsen www.eraonline.net www.fantasiastudios.com ***5th FEBRUARY, 2000*** * LEVEL SYSTEM IS GONE. You still get experience from killing things, but you wont gain levels. The new system is simple and should discourage power gaming. Once you get so and so much experience, you get 5 training points and your stats go up. Stats: Hit power, health, stamina, mana etc. So you still got to gain experience to get better. * There is a caption on the main view that shows how much experience you have, and how much left before you get upgraded. That is raise stats, given training points etc. * Game Master abilities have improven GREATLY. Game Masters can for example, now alter NPC`s hailing messages and names. They can also morph into other creatures etc. Game Masters can now create much more, and more entertaining quests ! * Monsters will no longer attack players which is too experienced for them. This is to prevent the common scenario of 5 spiderlings running after a powerful warrior. * Experience can now be gained in other ways than killing ! You will gain experience from making things (tailoring, carpenting, cooking etc.) and using all other skills as well. We hope this will REALLY discouraging power gaming and players dont have to fight to get good anymore, so that will make the game less hack n` slash. * Some races can no longer be certain classes/occupations. This is to create greater balance between the races people play. For example, Dark Elves cannot play clerics or animal tamers, and Haakis cannot play pirates or fishermen. Humans are the most flexible race to play. Also, CastleFall is the most popular startup city, and you should select this city to start in if you are of the human race. There is always people there to meet. * You won't always get loot from creatures you killed. The more difficult the monster is, the less chance of finding loot. * When you are being attacked or others are being attacked, you hear a screaming male or female voice depending on your character gender. * SCHOOLS OF MAGIC ! The classes which can cast magic is now: -Druids (NATURE) -Wizards (DESTRUCTION) -Enchanters (ENCHANTING) -Paladins (ENCHANTING) -Clerics (NATURE) -Healers (NATURE) Spells are catagorized in these schools of magic. Your class must be a member of the school of magic the spell is a member of to cast it. * Added some new spells: -The Ghosty Pain Wind -Necromantic Ressurection -Summon Tiny Pain -Hellfire * Severe change to skill system. When creating a character, you must select three specialized skills. Only these can go over 50 skill points ! Also, lets say your tailoring skill is the highest skill you have, your class will change to tailor, and if lumberjacking is the highest skill you have, your class will change to woodworker. This goes for almost ALL the skills. You will just ahve to figure out yourself what skill will make you what. This system make players able to change their class in the game (they can pursue careers by working on skills). This is very good, since equipment is class oriented too now ! * The game will not tell you directly how much experience you gain when killing/performing a skill but you will see the caption on your main view change so you know how much experience you gained. * BIG HOUSE OWNERSHIP UPDATE ! You can now lock your houses ! To buy a house, locate an architect and buy a house deed of your choice. Read the deed by USING it. It will tell you to mail us so we can place the house for you and stuff like that. Now, when the house is placed, you will get one lock so you can lock your house. Stand in the door and type /LOCK to lock it. Now you are the only person that can move on this position. Type /UNLOCK to unlock the position again. This update was really needed. Now players can furniture their homes, store goods there, keep animals there and so on, without having to worry about people going inside and stealing ! * SIGNS IMPLENTED. You can now buy signs at any wood worker. When you drop a sign, you cannot pick it up again, so be sure where you want the sign to be, before dropping it. Once dropped, click on it to change its text. The sign will stay there forever, and everyone who click on the sign will see what you typed. This is great for guild signs, and signs outside your home etc. * Big animal taming update ! Animals you have tamed will now reappear with you when you log in again. You will be greeted by this message: "Your tamed animal looks happy to see you !". In closed beta, you would loose your animal when logging off, this is no longer the case ! We will also soon make a feature, so your animals can attack the targets you want it to attack. For now, animals cannot help you fight. * Hiding skill fixed. The skill will make you TOTALLY invisible. There was a problem in closed beta, which made the user`s body visible but not the head. * You can now hail NPC`s. By targeting any NPC and typing /HAIL the npc will greet you back. If the NPC turns out to be just another common NPC, the NPC will greet you with nothing special. However, if the NPC turns out to have a quest or any other form special tips or information, the NPC will tell you so. Always use the /HAIL command when encountering a new NPC. You won`t belive what you may find. Gamemasters are able to change the hailing messages for NPC`s, so if you have greeted one NPC before, greet the NPC again, cause the NPC may suddenly have something you really want ! * There is a timer on your criminal flag now. Whenever you break the law (pickpocket and get cought, attacking players etc.) some minutes will be added to the timer. Like attacking a player will add 45 minutes to the timer, and it will take 45 minutes before you are being unflagged as a criminal. If you commit another crime before the time runs out, the new time will be added to the current time. If you log out, and log back in, the timer will be reset and you will have to "serve" the time from the start again. We need to punish those who brake laws! * How much experience you get from using skills and making stuff is still to be tested. We can tweak it until everyone is satisfied with it. You will earn more experience by doing some things, and less doing some other things. * No more tombstones when dying ! The new system works like this: When a player die, a random item from the players backpack is selected and dropped to the ground where the player died instead of a tombstone. So now the player will have to find the item again before anyone else finds it. * No more level restrictions on equipment. BUT there is Health (strength) restrictions. Some weapons, shields and armor need a certain amount of Health to wear ! However, all clothing is free for everyone to use. * When praying to priests, the gods and goddesses still grant a steady amount of stuff. However, after you reach a certain rate in experience, gold and health they will not grant you anymore. * Major Merchant Skill/Trading update ! If you have over 70 in merchant skill (remember, only three specialized skills can go over 50 !), you will start EARNING money when selling stuff to NPC`s. That means, you will get more money that the item is worth. Also, you will get items cheaper than what its worth when buying items. This encourage players to be merchants. Buy low and sell high ! * Two new special objects added ! Small Merchant Booth and Grand Merchant Booth. These can be seen in Castlefall centre, and now you can buy one yourself. There is nothing special with these items, but they look cool if you are a merchant. You can drop it, stand behind it and act like a real merchant ! These two new objects can be found at a woodworker. * Im working on getting the economy system much better. I want to create a demand and supply system as soon as possible so there is a points in travelling around selling stuff for merchant players. * All equipment are now class oriented ! That means that some equipment can not be used by some classes. The system is pretty self explanatory. Clerics cannot use heavy armor, warriors can not wear paladin suits, paladins cannot wear drity clothing, mages cannot use heavy swords, thieves cannot use heavy shields etc. * Titles and names has been abit re-arranged. When clicking on another player the name, title and class will appear like this for example: "Jack The Fameous Woodworker". * Snow is now implented. There is still a little silly thing, it actually rain and snow in the desert, but lets just say that Menath is a very unstable world ! It will rain in the summer, and snow in the winther. * Attacking guards will make you a criminal instantly. * BAN SYSTEM. We needed it badly really. Players can now be banned by GameMasters. When you are banned, you cannot enter the game with an old character or a new character when banned. GameMasters will only ban players directly breaking the code of conduct. If you wish to complain on a ban, mail support@eraonline.net * New credits screen implented. Now much more better looking. Take a look, maybe you are under SPECIAL THANKS TO :) * Dropping 0 gold coins no longer works. * Grape Juice, Cyclop Blood Ale and Snake Wine now works. * Creatures will now give MUCH MUCH more experience. For instance, a grown up cyclop will give you 1200 experience points ! * You will not know how much experience you gain for killing and doing stuff. You will just have to hope that you get much experience from killing so and so. Ask around to find out what you should kill. Sooner or later, your stats will go up. * Defence bugs are fixed. Equipping shields, armor etc. and unequipping them now works totally fine. * Dead players logging back on will have ghost head as well as ghost body. There was a bug that made players have their original heads and ghost body when logging in. * Dead players will not loose health or stamina in rain. * Players under level 5 cannot cast destructive spells on players over level 5 and vice versa. * Hit power of warrior sword has been turned severely down. * Rusty Paladin Sword, Paladin Sword and Fancy Paladin Sword has now proper hit points. * Meditation speed should be improved. * Weapons, shields and clothing displays properly in the character sheet. Even when logging back in. * The /WHO command is back due to demand. Type /WHO to see names of all players online. * When clicking on a criminal player, their name will appear in red. * Skills will not naturally raise themselves until they are 10 or over. This is to make players work more and invest skill points in what they want to really work with. * Guards are now called Guards instead of Militas. * Guards will no longer kill non-criminals. This was a big bug, but it is totally fixed now. * Dark Elf guards are chaotic. They will attack Humans and Wood Elves. Dark Elves guards will also kill criminals of all races just as the human, wood elf and haaki guards. * Swordmanship and Tactics are now very valuable. The better swordmanship skill you have, better is the chance you will hit your foe (no matter what kind of weapon you use). And the better Tactics skill you have, the lesser chance your foe has to hit you. * Bandages implented. They can be bought from healers. By targeting someone, yourself you want to, and then USING the bandage, you will heal the target abit. The better healing skill you have, the faster laying the bandages goes. * Evaluating weapons, shields and armor will also tell you how much hit/defence the item gives you. * You can now roast fish just as meat. *12 NOVEMBER, 1999* HUGE client side and server side fixes performed ! Here are the fixes: * Welcome to the new patch server ! This one is much more stable and much more faster. * Finally guards should be properly fix ! They will no longer attack innocents ! * This will probably make alot of people happy. Now when you are trading with a NPC, the level needed to use the item you have selected is shown in trading window. So now when you buy items, you know which level needed to use it before buying it. * Food and drink gives you different amounts of it. Drinking water flask add 1 to your drink. Drinking Snake Wine gives you 7 drink. Eating bread gives you 2 food and eating roasted meat gives you 5 food and so on. * You will now regain stamina as well as health when sitting by a camp fire. * Stamina now heals properly and at a very fast rate actually when drinking, eating or sitting by camp fire. * Players attacking another player unrightfully (it was not a duel or the victim wasn`t criminal) will be marked as a criminal instantly, not when victim dies. This enables the victim to fight back and kill his attacker without being marked as a criminal first. * Level requierments on some equipment has gone down. * A new object has been added and its called "Crusade Shield". You must be level 15 to use it and its value is about 11 000 gold. * There are now animations (you will see it in hand on character) for Devil Sword, Ebony Sword and Staff as well now. There is also animations for the new Crusade Shield ! * Three new drinks added. Snake Wine which gives you 7 drink, Cyclop Blood Ale which gives you 4 drink and Grape Juice which gives you 2 drink. The more drink it gives, the higher the price. These new drinks can be found at any barkeeper. * New criminal system ! You will not be un-flagged as a criminal when dying anymore ! You will continue to be a criminal when dying if you have killed anyone or in any other way been marked as a criminal. However, your criminal status will be removed half an hour after you become a criminal. You will need to be logged on for 30 minutes to be un-flagged as a criminal, or else the 30 minutes will start counting over again when logging in again. This is the best way and most other games also uses this system. * Added a new option to the menu on client. When you press ESC you can now also choose if you want music on or off ! * No more EXIT signs around the world. * GHOST BODY ! Players are no longer invisible when dead, they are ghosts. * There should be no more blackness around certian images. * The red line in the head slot in character sheet is gone. * No more experience caps on creatures. You get experience from creatures no matter what level you are. * Players should die when dropping bellow 0 in health in player vs player battles. * Ok loosing skill was nonsence. You do no longer loose skill points when dying no matter what level you are. * When evaluating items, it will not say how much a shopkeeper would give for it since it will say so in trading window. * No more negative defence, health and hit values ! * No more max stats ! Players can now gain as much health, hit and defence as they can ! * Game should not crash when not typing in anything in the boxes when depositing or withdrawing gold. * When logging in to an existing character, the weapon and shield you used when logging off will appear on character. Also in the slots in your character sheet. * Images will no longer overlap eachother in trade window and character sheet. * When dying, your mana, health and stamina is fully restored. * When going to a healer and type /HEAL, the amount the healer will charge is based on your level: Level 1 = 50 gold Level 2 = 60 gold Level 3 = 70 gold Level 4 = 80 gold All the way until level 30. From 30 and up the price is steady at 350 gold for full heal. * No more meditation auras lying around. You cannot quit the game without exiting the meditation first. * Harder reputation punishment when killing players. * Furniture players have put on ground can no longer be picked up. So for players furnituring their home, be sure to place the furniture where you want it, because your cannot pick it up again ! * Militas (guards) now have weapons and shields equipped. * Praying to priests or priestesses (not priest of life) will maybe get you some miracles granted by its god depending on your religion skill. It will say "You start to pray..." if you target a priest or priestess, but if it dosnt say that you have ben granted a miracle, you were not successful. Friendly, Erling Ellingsen Spotlight Studios Administrator Era Online Project Leader *********************************************************************** *5 NOVEMBER, 1999* Here are the leatest fixes and additions ! * NPC attacking system changed. They should now properly fight back. Again, time will tell. * Some problems with the rain fixed. Sometimes it said "The Rain Stop..." without it raining. * When leveling up, you gain 15 mana points raise. * Lets say you have 5 meat equipped and cook it, it will make 5 roasted meat instead of just one and the other ones deleted. * Monsters and animals loot won`t be placed where players cant get them (upon walls, water etc.). * The "you hit x on the legs,head,chest,arms" has been removed because it looked stupid when it said "You hit a snake on the legs." * You only loose 1/6 of your experience when dying. Please keep reporting bugs on the board. They are ALL read. And almost every single bug thats reported there, has been fixed now. Remember, YOU make a difference. Report bugs ! Friendly, Erling Ellingsen Era Online Development Team *********************************************************************** *3 NOVEMBER, 1999* Server fixes and additions made today ! Here is a list over all the noticeable changes: * IF YOU CANNOT SEEM TO HIT YOUR FOE DO THIS: Hold in SHIFT and press right or left, you will then turn a direction. Now turn back and face the foe and you should hit it. * Less raining. * When training in MAGERY SKILL, you will get 3 mana points for every skill point you gain in magery. This ONLY works when training at a professional trainer. Mana still also raises when leveling up. * When leveling up, these attribute changes take effect: -You get 7 more mana points -You get 2 more hit points -You get 2 more health points -You get 2 more stamina points Ofcourse the attribute caps are still there and are: MAX LEVEL = 50 MAX HEALTH = 200 MAX STAMINA = 200 MAX MANA = 2000 MAX HIT = 50 MAX DEFENCE = 20 * NPC`s should now properly fight back. * NPC`s arnt that fast to follow players anymore. * Players over level 5 can now be attacked by other players over level 5 ! It used to be level 10 but we thought it was to high. For now this is just a test, if it dosn`t work we put it back to level 5. * There were a bug which let people under level 5 attack players over level 5, but not the other way around. It is now fixed. Players under cannot attack players over level 5. * Guards may still attack innocent players. We dont know why so far. But follow our advice for now, dont go near them. Walk around them and not right beside them. * Bandits no longer drop exit signs. * A new spell has been added ! The "Ressurection Spell". It can be bought at all wizards and mages. 300 mana requiered to cast the spell. * Spell scrolls no longer have spider leg graphics. There is now a spell scroll graphic. * Consider (targeting something and pressing TAB) now works. * Spell descriptions in spell book, now also tells you how much mana needed to cast it. * You cannot cast destructive spells when dead. This is to avoid players killing creatures or players as ghosts. I know there are some map problems on the elven continent, and they will all be corrected by the end of the week. Friendly, Erling Ellingsen Era Online Development Team *********************************************************************** *31 OCTOBER, 1999* * Dropping gold now WORKS. When dropping any amount of gold, it will be the amount the other one pickup. * Removed the STEEL SKIN spell cause everyone was abusing it. I met a level 2 player with 200 health ! * Mana drain spell is fixed. It will now DRAIN 20 mana instead of GIVING 20 mana. * NPC`s can and will now die of spells casted on them. Casting spells on guards, will make you a criminal and they will hunt you down and kill you. * Shopkeepers will sell to anyone, regardless their reputation. * Guards won`t follow players will low reputation. This became too frustrating. * Dying is less painful. You will now only loose 1/5 of the experience you have when dying. * Only players over level 6 will loose skill points when dying. * Fixed the bug where some spells didn`t substract mana. * Destructive spells cannot be casted on players under level 10. * Clerics begin with a healing spell now. * Leveling up is a bit easier. * House prices have gone severely down. * Level requierments for some items has gone down. * All classes start with 5 breads, 5 water flasks, a piece of clothing, a rusty dagger and a priest of life letter. But some classes will get some extra items too. Like blacksmiths will start with some ore, drawings, and a hammer. * All classes start with 100 gold. * Bugs in some heads should be fixed. * Value on some loot has gone up. * The chance of the rain starting to fall in the game now, is 1 to 200 every minute. Rain should be less frequent. *********************************************************************** *October 28th, 1999* * The WIZARD class is added ! Nothing special about it, but it has some war skills and is a good spell caster. The one that starts with most mana. * NPC`s stats are properly reset when they die. * NPC`s arnt broke anymore. That was a complicated bug but I managed to fix it. However, NPC`s only have limited amount of money (they start with about 10 000) and they will gain money when they sell and lose money when the buy. So they can still get broke, but if people keep selling to them, they will start getting money again. Good economy system :) * NPC`s will say what they will give or take for the item when you are trading with them (no need to use evaluate to find out). * Paladins will start with two spells in their spell book. * Depositing and withdrawing gold from banks is easier now. You now longer have to click the + button 100 times to deposit 100 gold for instance. Its now just a field where you can type in how much gold you want to deposit or withdraw. This also goes for dropping gold and donating. * Dropping gold should be fixed. * Empty spell book bug is fixed. * Some spell fixes has been done. * Players will still loose 1 skill point on each skill when they die, but only for players over level 5. * We went back to the old player positioning in the world system, and players will NOT appear exactly where the quitted when they log in, they will just a appear on the same map. So please check if it is the same map you logged out on before reporting any warping bugs :) To check type /STATS * Reputation is more balanced. It will take alot of more work to achive any of the different reputation ranks, either positive or negative. * NPC`s will not trade with you, if your reputation is too low. * The "The Unknown" reputation rank dosn`t exist anymore. I took it away because it looked stupid. Players that dosn`t have either positive or negative reputation alignment will not have "The Unknown" infront of their names anymore. * When you have a target, and pressing TAB, the game will tell you how much health the target has left, and also its hit points. * Some minor trade skill fixes. * Pickpocketing works better now. Victims get a "you have been stolen from" message when someone steals from them. Also, equipped items cannot be pickpocketed.