This official news post is copied verbatim from the WoTMUD website. It is copyrighted by wotmud.org.
It's been quite a bit since our last major update, and in truth this one has been ready to go, but on hold only due to a lack of time to get them installed. So without any further adieu, the following changes are now in effect thanks to Dyvim and yours truely.
Major Enhancements
- Seanchan Homelands
- There are now six (6) available Seanchan homelands, including; Seanchan, Kirendad, Shon Kifar, Rampore, Tzura and Noren M'Shar. There are slight variations in the rolling of stats from each of the homelands, including adjustments made to the base Seanchan homeland.
- Upon your first login to the updated system, you will be required to make a selection of your homeland. While this will not have an effect on your existing stats, it can and will have an effect on your stats when/if you hit your 200th birthday with us.
- Trolloc Animal Stocks
- There are now five (5) available base animal stocks, including; Beaked, Bearish, Boarish, Ramshorned and Wolfish. Like the Seanchan homelands, these do offer variations off the base trolloc stats.
- Again, like the Seanchan homelands, trollocs will be required to choose a new animal stock upon their first login to the updated system. They can and will have an effect on your stats when/if you hit your 200th birthday.
- Now, before anyone asks, no the staff will not discuss the attributes of each of the new homelands for Seanchan/Trolloc. If you would like to make an informed decision prior to logging in your characters, I would suggest that you create a few new characters and stat to see how things turn out. I can tell you there are some interesting rolls available.
Other Enhancements
- Notice vs. Hide
- There have been tweaks made since the testing that took place over the last several months, but yes, the changes promised are going to be included in this update. We will be keeping a keen eye on the situation to assess the changes to balance. I can tell you it will be more difficult than before to see a hidden opponent. This does not equate to an increase in stab percentage.
- Also bear in mind that the ability to search by race has been fixed. It was previously reported that trollocs could search for human but that humans could not search for trolloc in return. This has been fixed across the board for all races.
- New Weaves and adjustments to older weaves
- Two new weaves have been added to the game in this update, hailstorm and slice. The hailstorm weave we will let you figure out on your own, but I feel the slice weave requires some explanation. The ability to slice another channelers weaves was and is very prevalent in the book series and was something that was missing from this game. This allows you to interrupt another channelers weaves before they can be completed.
- Other weaves have been modified in their effective cost, level of damage, speed of casting or all the above. These weaves include (but due to the late hour, are not limited to); elemental staff, flamestrike, hammer of air and sword of flame. The hammer of air requires a slight bit of explanation as it now also allows for a percentage chance of leaving the victim in a bashed state.
- Northern PK Adjustments
- For lack of a better title, there are a number of adjustments which deal directly with those who enjoy player-killing in the northern arena known as the Borderlands and the Blight.
- For the Chosen, most of you have already tested potential changes during the testing phase, those changes will be effect with some slight modifications. For the Chosen Myrddraal, bear in mind that your new found skills are tied directly to the Great Lord, wander too far south and you will temporarily lose your extra abilities.
- For the stout members of the Borderguards, who though they may not realize this, protect the southern nations from the Hordes of the Dark One; The deep depths of the Blight are no place to wander aimlessly. You have built up some resistance to the Blight's effects, but do not push yourselves too far north.
- Also bear in mind that members of both Borderguard clans will find their abilities equal henceforth. No longer will those that patrol the western reaches gain their abilities earlier than those who patrol the east.
One last note, I now understand why the additional races were put on the TO-DO list for so long. These updates were quite the chore to do, considering we volunteer our time. So, please, if you run into any issues over the next few weeks, post them up in the bugs forum. While we tried to do our best to make sure that these updates were fully tested, some bugs are just never found until you put them into effect.
Thanks for hanging in with us and Dyvim and I hope that you enjoy the updates!