The April update is here! We missed a post for update 20 but you can read the changelog here: https://openmeridian.org/forums/index.php/topic,480.0.html and also about hotfixes to update 19 here: https://openmeridian.org/forums/index.php/topic,454.msg2674.html#msg2674.

 

Although this update is mostly infrastructure changes, there are still a few inclusions for players to get excited about. We’ve added some improvements that have been on many players’ wish lists for the last 20 years, and also started work towards bringing some major content from the 90s back to the game.

 

General Changes

  • Assassin’s Game now requires players to be online for 1 hour a day instead of 3 while game is in session to avoid being booted.
  • Added a black minimap dot for masks dropped in survival arena.
  • Attempting to buy more of a reagent than you can carry from a NPC will now cause you to buy as many as you can carry (i.e. if you can hold only 5 herbs and you try to buy 500, you will receive 5).
  • Converted player “honor strings” (e.g. newbie tag) to a list system so players can have more than one string here (e.g. if they get sent to OoG or have some reward string for winning a tournament).
  • Changed mouselook toggle and tab client commands to work instantly 100% of the time, instead of being subject to delays on repeat actions. Holding down either key will not cause repeat toggling (however tab will repeat until graphics window has focus).
  • Enfeeble removed from daemon skeletons. Chance for them to cast Dement lowered from 1 in 10 to 1 in 20, and spellpower lowered from 50 to 15.

Inventory Sorting

  • Players can now drag and drop items within their inventory to reorder them! Items can still be dropped to the ground by dragging to the main graphics area.
  • Players can now create a list of items to use to sort their inventory by item type – more details here:

New Rods

Two new types of rod have been added to the game: rods of shielding and rods of power.

  • Rods of shielding have a 6% drop chance from groundworm queens, and rods of power have a 3% drop chance from black spiders.
  • Rods of shielding can hold 5 charges and consume all 5 when used. The rod will envelop the user in a shield for 5 seconds which reduces all incoming attacks to 1 damage.
  • Rods of power can hold 3 charges and consume all 3 when used. The rod will enable the user to do 35% more damage with their attacks (this is calculated after all other attack modifiers).
  • The rods also recharge when entering a safe zone, and as before players can only carry 5 rods total.

 

Room Updates

This update contains a large number of rooms to download, but shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes via the patcher.

  • Nearly all rooms have been rebuilt after some bug fixes were made to the room editor, and should provide a performance increase to all clients (but especially Ogre client).
  • North and South Barloque have been slightly updated – there is now space between some buildings and the city walls.

 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed thrust resist displaying as bludgeon resist in user stats.
  • Removed brazier from behind newsglobe in CN inn.
  • Removed a stray barrel that was behind the city wall in Streets of Tos.
  • Fix error when user is full and tries to eat an easter egg.
  • Fixed faction soldier NPCs not doing the correct damage type.
  • Fixed mana not renegerating correctly if a user phases out and back in.
  • Fixed multiple bugs with Assassin’s Game that were causing errors each time the game runs (errors weren’t affecting gameplay).
  • Fixed heal rod description not resetting to unbroken after recharging.
  • Performance improvements to distance checking and several other areas of player-related code.
  • Fixed a bug with string comparisons occasionally matching strings if the second string is blank.
  • Fixed a bug preventing players with any honor string from dropping items when they die.
  • Fixed the deliverance spell setting a player’s honor string to a blank string (contributing to the above mentioned bug).
  • Removed part of the wireframe drawing for room rendering in hardware mode – this was causing sky-textured lines to be drawn on some walls/floors.

 

Future Content

  • Necromancer Scenario (Ao3s, SotHs, Lich) code has been formatted and numerous bugs were fixed. First step towards reusing this content or reactivating the scenario.

  • New soldier shields created for Necromancer troops, complete with Amulet of Three emblem.
  • Added a real-time event scheduler and infrastructure for easily writing events and monster invasions. Added a rat invasion to test the system.

 

Server Infrastructure (for developers)

  • Send and Post can now call messages by string name (TAG_STRING) in addition to message ID (TAG_MESSAGE).
  • SetString will now create its own strings if passed NULL – no CreateString call required. It will also create valid strings if passed a debug string (“text”) or a message (@Message, string will be the message name).
  • New C functions for list handling and string checking – more details in pull requests and soon on the wiki.

Enjoy!