Changes for 2008

May 12, 2008
- Spells that cause inate affects can no longer be spammed.
- Holy word has a proper wear off message, now.
- Weaken and Faerie fire send messages to the caster, now.
- Stone skin cannot be stacked anymore.

May 13, 2008
- Specialized  versions of cure poison, cure blindness and
  cure disease cannot be stacked anymore.
- NPCs cannot crash the game by using portal commands anymore.
- Infuse health, Infuse energy and Infuse stamina will  add
  more than 0 on success, now.

May 14, 2008
- Another fix for Weaken and Faerie fire.
- A wear off message has been added to Remove curse.
- Iron vulnerability will make you drop items now - for real!
- Worn-out steel wool will now be announced to weaponsmiths.

July 15, 2008
- Shiny new flags for the staff members have been added.

July 15, 2008
- Healers will cast a mana restoration spell on newbies, now.

July 20, 2008
- Trees regrow now.
- The healing touch mantra has better messages now.
- The cancel spell has been fixed.
- The afrem command (staff-only) has been fixed.

July 26, 2008
- New name for Staff members on channels.
- Cure blindness and remove curse should work again.
- Cure disease, too

July 30, 2008
- Cure poison fixed

August 19, 2008
- Circle skill fixed

August 21, 2008
- Cure blindness improved.
- Two new areas, The Four Seasons and Travellers' Rest have been added.
  Have fun exploring them!

September 30, 2008
- The pledge command has been tweaked.
- Notes can be send to "Staff" now

October 2, 2008
- Players level 3 and under may now use tells and yell.
- Clans now appear on the who list again.

October 3, 2008
- Cure disease fixed
- Cure blindness fixed

October 4, 2008
- The damage bonus occasionally granted by the gods no longer affects mobs.
- The experience penalty for having killed the same mob in the last 25 kills
  has been removed.
- Silver and wood vulnerabilities, resistances and immunities have been added.
- Clan hall invasions are reported now by the guards
- The introduce command has been added.

October 5, 2008
- The 'score' command has been updated to display more information.
- The gold/silver penalty for having killed the same mob in the last 25 kills
  has been removed.

October 6, 2008
- New players now start with 50 gold.
- A message is displayed during character creation recommending 3k-6k experience/lvl
  for players new to AU.
- The minimum number of CP for new characters has been raised to 70. (This was done to
  help new players who may not know about hero levels)
- The default class groups (I.e. mage default) have had skills added to bring them up
  to 70 CP. Selecting not to customize will now also produce a good long term character.

October 7, 2008
- New players now have OOC on by default.
- Players under level 3 now have access to all public channels.

October 8, 2008
- Mob affects for phase and critical strike have been fixed.

October 9, 2008
- Phase can be dispelled now.

October 10, 2008
- A bug has been fixed that caused newbies to lose their corpse after dying
  outside a fight.
- Banks are shown in the automap now.
- Sheathing and drawing a bow will be visible now.

October 11, 2008
- The effect of dexterity has been tweaked for fights.
- Longer prompts are supported now.
- Prompt options %u and %U have been added.

October 12, 2008
- PK has been changed significantly. See the announcement of the Staff.
- A bug with tradeguild rank has been fixed.
- Spell specced refresh should now affected tiredness when move maxed.
- Hidden items are now slightly easier to find.
- The chances of wiping fire breath have been made easier and more consistent.
- Pound and shape have been made to match hammer (slightly easier).

October 15, 2008
- A bug has been fixed with enchant weapon/armor that caused them to never destroy
  the item being enchanted.

October 17, 2008
- Spellcasting classes other than mages may now gain small portions of instillation
  and infusion as follows:
      cleric - mana, wisdom, movement
      paladin - hitpoints, constitution, movement
      myrmidon - damroll, intelligence, movement
      charlatan - hitroll, dexterity, movement
      antipaladin - hitpoints, strength, movement
  Mages are still the masters of everything, but now the production of crafted
  items will be a little more attainable to other players. Although warriors and
  thieves still cannot add enchant, making them available to the other classes should
  make it easier for them as well.
- Thieves can now gain sharpen at level 50, and can razor-sharpen at level 75.

October 18, 2008
- The maximum number of ticks for God bonuses has been increased to make Fun
  Sunday easier :D

October 28, 2008
- Spirits cannot pick up items anymore.

October 29, 2008
- Experience has been adjusted for certain categories of players, as follows:
  1. Evil aligned chars now get slightly more experience (+8%) so that they
     are the same as good aligned chars.
  2. Characters in the level range between 70-99 no longer have their experience
     penalized, I.e. as they approach hero there should be no noticable difference.
  3. Hero experience is now based on hero levels instead of a flat penalty.
     New heros will get the same experience they were getting at 99 and as their hero
     levels increase their experience will slowly lower to what it used to be.
  For everyone not in these categories experience should be pretty much the same. If
  anyone experiences strange results or something they do not think is right please let
  us know. The amounts will likely be tweaked in the following days to get them perfect.
- Holytouch now correctly causes PK flags.

October 30, 2008
- The quest point rewards for defile and conquer have been adjusted. They are now close
  to the expected qp production of questing, and less random.
- The devotion point rewards for conquer have been adjusted. They are now level based
  and reasonably comparable to what could be gained through gold running for that time
  instead.
- Saves now show in score, below armor ratings.

Nov. 1, 2008
- The quest point and devotion rewards for defile and conquer have been refined again based on
  further testing (slightly higher, again).
- The issues with the formatting of Saves should be fixed now.
- The number of starting members required to form a new clan has been changed to 4 instead of 6.

Nov. 2, 2008
- Elemental runes and poisons now spawn randomly on mobs again, and are no longer limited.
- Starting characters now have their chosen weapon skill start at 75 instead of 40.
- A bug with the upkeep calculation for clans has been fixed. This will likely only affect
  the upkeep of clans with multiple halls.
- Several bugs with overthrow have been fixed, but a few still exist so it remains disabled.

Nov. 5, 2008
- The mana cost for order has been removed.
- The '+' for limited items is no longer dependent on lore or noid.
- The banker in newbie school now works correctly.
- Players can now quest even when maxed out on experience.
- Cleanse is still available but no longer costs quest points.
- Movement draining rooms will no longer lower characters to 0 movement or below.
- The areas Four Seasons & Travellers' Rest are now conquerable.
  
Nov. 6, 2008
- The bank tax has been removed.
- The upkeep for clans has been removed, but the profit from territories remains. We
  will be switching to a different model for detecting inactive clans and will provide
  more details at a later time.
- Pet whistles are no longer a quest item, but can be purchased from the general store in
  Naerlan for 50 gold.
  
Nov. 11, 2008
- Pets have been removed from PK.
- A PK flag bug with rescue has been fixed.
- A PK flag bug with holytouch has been fixed.
- Temple guards should no longer attack characters with PK flags.

Nov. 16, 2008
- Invasion notes to the clans have been fixed.
- The DoR jackpot has been updated to reflect the prizes from yesterday's heat.
- A bug with possession that prevented an item from appearing in some cases has been fixed.
- Incorrect notices about the old PKjoin level limits have been fixed.
- Search success chances for thieves and charalatans have been decreased slightly
  (They got too high with the general increase search got recently).
- Idols may now be pushed out of temples, manors, and safe rooms and just not into them.

Nov. 17, 2008
- A new area has been added.
     Name:    Wildlife Refuge
     Builder: Anja
     Levels:  70 to 80

  Thanks to all of the editors who worked on this area. Please give a big thanks to Anja
  for contributing this great area to Tharel. It is her second area and they are both
  greatly appreciated by us all. Thanks!

Dec. 5, 2008
- Dodge, parry, shield block and phase work against monks now.
- Nerve'ing someone else than your fight opponent will cause another fight now.
- Flaws in the charge skill have been removed.
- Light resistance/immunity/vulnerability have been fixed.
- Dream code fixed.