This official news post is copied verbatim from the WoTMUD website. It is copyrighted by wotmud.org.
“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose above the lands west of the Dragonwall. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.”
Starting now, you will begin seeing new rooms in various cities. These will house the new mastermob system. We're beginning with three types of generic mobs: a hired mercenary, a Seanchan conscript and a lanky trolloc.
Having a small amount of options to start with will allow us to take inventory on which mobol has to be added to all new mastermobs to be built, instead of going back and changing 30+ mobs after they've been built.
This is stage 1:
Barracks have been opened in Falme, Lugard, Rhahime and the Ruined Keep. These will issue these generic mobs. RK will only work for DS, the others will only work for LS.
Say "issue mob" to get one.
You are also able to say "return to base" and this will /purge the mob and send it off.
Note that these mobs will not cost you qps, but the system does record you taking one out. The usual mastermob rules apply: one mastermob per person.
These new mobs are weaker than the old mastermobs and have about 100 hps less. You can still equip them, but they will not be as versatile when it comes to fighting. For the rpers: they can still say, emote and use socials. For those using mobsit, this variety doesn't like getting up when sitting, but will work as previously when sleeping.
There's a few more quirks, most notably that they do not take kindly to having warding vs damage cast on them.
Stage 2 will be:
Opening these barracks in all cities which have a clan, still with generic mobs, and beginning with a Daes Dae'mar/ the Game of Houses component. The idea will be that clans enter treaties with another and then they can issue mobs in eachother's city. E.g. currently, *oL would likely not be able to issue mobs in Caemlyn, however, should relations be repaired in the future, that ability might be restored.
Stage 3 will be:
Getting feedback on which mobol needs adding to the clan mastermobs and implementing these.
Stage 4 will be:
Utilizing the War Offices and implementing a moboled war system in various cities, which will feature a patrol of equal strength in each War Office. Not quite as many problems with Emond's Field being weak as heck and Caemlyn being strong. This war system will be accompanied by certain Rules of Engagement, so as to ensure wars will not drag on forever, but will have a definite end date.
This will open a realm of possibilities, ranging from automated patrols loading for the winner of a conflict or the mob count of the loser going down in their city. We will see where this adventure will take us!
(Apr 15 2018)
New commands added:
SAY RALLY! In case the mob stops following you, you can make it re-follow.
SAY RETREAT To make it disengage, at which point you can lead it out of the room.
(Apr 15 2018)
City barracks have been opened in:
Amador
Caemlyn
Emond's Field
Fal Dara
Jehannah
Seandar, which doesn't have a War Office as for a side, the Seanchan will have a War Office in Falme.
Tar Valon, which as a note, will note have a War Office as Tar Valon does not wage wars with men.
These are still the standard, non-Daes Dae'mar variety. I'm doing it in chunks to preserve my sanity. Or what's left of it.
(Apr 16 2018)
Due to a recurring coding bug related to combat and the mastermobs breaking, they have been changed. We had gone with the optimal option, and will now try the other, not quite so optimal option. Meaning we will have to add mobol to make mob emotes work again and mob tick sitting/resting/sleeping doesn't work at all. Those were the two reasons we had gone with the first option, but alas, if the mobs break it's clearly not to be.
Eqing a weapon will also have to be done by sheathing it in a cloak and then eqing the mob with the cloak, allowing it to draw the weapon.
(Apr 16 2018)
Bandar Eban
Cairhien
Far Madding
Illian
Legion village
Maradon
Mayene
Tanchico
Tear
Tsochan
have all had their barracks added. DS cities will follow in the near future.
(Apr 17 2018)
Barracks added to:
Thakan'dar
Stronghold
Blodfest
(Apr 18 2018)
LS clans' masters and councillors can now:
SAY SUMMON REGISTRAR
and then when he has arrived:
SAY INSTRUCT ME to receive instructions.
SAY OFFICIAL DECLARATION to start the process.
SAY AFFIRM TREATY CLANNAME. E.g.: SAY AFFIRM TREATY ANDOR to affirm your treaty with Andor, meaning they can pick up mastermobs from your barracks when that part of the system goes live. NOTE!!! You have to affirm the treaty with your OWN clan too. E.g. an Andoran would also have to say AFFIRM TREATY ANDOR.
SAY ANNUL TREATY CLANNAME. E.g.: SAY AFFIRM TREATY SWORD AND HAND to annul the treaty with the Sword and Hand.
SAY DISMISS REGISTRAR to dismiss him.
this is a -lot- of mobol that went in, one full mob and one almost full mob, so hopefully all goes well. I'd suggest getting a councillor to affirm your own clan's treaty, so when the barracks keepers start issuing based on whether there's a treaty or not, you will still be able to issue. For that reason, that last change is a few days off.
(Apr 18 2018)
Note, wrt to the above, you can't initiate treaties with Forresters, Wisdoms, Gleemen, Illuminators or secret clans, due to the mobs being full. I will likely make it so that the non-secret clans can always issue, whether there is a treaty or not.
(Apr 20 2018)
You can now make these mobs emote again, with a workaround.
tell conscript/ hired/ lanky emote rubs his growling stomach.
It doesn't like punctuation or capital letters, unfortunately.
(Apr 28 2018)
The Daes Dae'mar/ treaty version of the mastermob issuing mobol has been implemented in cities.
This means that if you are neutral clan, such as Forresters, Gleemen, Illuminators, Legion or Wisdoms, you can still issue anywhere, treaty or not.
This means that if you are a Child/Hand, Civil Watch, Companion, Defender, Dragonsworn, Lion Warden, Red Eagle, Rising Sun, Saldaean Cavalry, Seanchan, Shienaran Lancer, Thiefbane, Wall Guard, White Tower or Winged Guard, you can only issue in the cities corresponding with (most of) these clans if they enabled you to, as per a treaty, agreement or out of plain friendship.
Secret clans are still a work in progress, due to annoying mobol space limitations, so those members can only issue at Lugard and Rhahime for now.
No matter your affiliation, you will always be able to bring a mob to any barracks and send it off.
EDIT:
These mastermobs now also do an emote every tick. It's slightly slower than coded mobstand, but should do the trick for knowing when one has regenned.
(May 9 2018)
A new mob has joined in the treaty affirmation/ anullment fun, a registrar's aide. This mob literally helps to provide more space to use.
The treaty/issuing mobol has been adjusted to allow the (nearly) full spectrum of clans the ability to issue their clan mobs in the various barracks, or deny them. This includes secret clans and clans like Legion and Forresters who could previously issue anywhere. The only clans automatically granted issuing rights in every city are Gleemen, Illuminators and Wisdoms.
While I don't think Andor would grant the Iron Fist the ability to issue mobs, who knows what might happen in the future. The key here is that everything is in the players' hands.
(June 28 2018)
We're in the process of making some changes to mastermobs.
- The clanned mobs' level will be raised. (done)
- We are discussing adding a qp cost added to them, although there is an issue with these mobs not returning after crash/boot.
- The barracks in Rhahime and Lugard will start issuing the generic mastermobs again, for free. However, these will be lower level than the clanned ones.(done)
Mastermobs have been on the chopping block in one way or another for years. They were frequently overused both by smobbers and pkers, replacing players or throwing smob and pk balance out of whack. Considering we are a multi-user dungeon and not a single player game, getting players to play together is the foundation of the game. We also feel that the social bonds between players play a huge part in player enjoyment and keeping players interested. While some setups are clearly aimed at the more reclusive, the overall aim is to bring people together. Changes such as removing outlier zones were made for similar reasons, so this change is in line with that.
However, there are also boons to mastermobs. Roleplayers frequently use mobs to play more than one character. People playing during off-peak hours can use the help and obviously that one mob can make the difference between a functioning smob group, or being able to put up a fight.
As with the weapon changes, the idea was to nerf them into the ground and then build up to a level that still augments masters' gameplay, without throwing things out of whack. The oldschool mastermobs were level 25, however, after this change the current variety puts them much closer to the level of a number of DS leadables that were upped approximately 8-10 years ago.
On a final note, please remember that many things are coded and we cannot change them. Usually when something is done a certain way, it is to make up for a lack of a coding fix: e.g. removing the ability to bash, making them cost qps in same zone. We tried two workarounds to remove bash, but alas. The one variety broke them all the time, the other lead to such gimped mobs they were a nightmare to work with. To compensate for retaining the ability to bash, their level has to be adjusted. Or as Vampa put it, make them more like CoL eagers rather than old mastermobs, both in terms of strength and availability.
Maybe further tweaks will be necessary, maybe not.
As a reminder, here are the available commands:
-say issue mob at a barracks keeper
-say issue generic mob or say issue clan mob at the Lugard/ Rhahime barracks (DS variety being worked on)
-say return to base at a barracks keeper
-say rally to make them refollow
-say retreat to make them disengage, allowing you to lead them out
(July 2 2018)
The warsystem mobs and banners are in, just the mobol isn't yet. Ergo, the mobs won't tally anything atm. War rules still have to be written and published, too. Progress, but not finished!
By the way, I opened the Lugard War Room too, in case certain Murandians want to get political. At least they have the choice, now.