View Full Version : Module updates and upcoming updates
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Just a small error that has eluded us for some time. Also a change to spells.
- Error in Harry's conversation fixed.
- Timelock is now 20 seconds.
Coming soon:
- Many Shire quests, dialouges and things to do!
- A few new quests for good and evil
- Max level cap will be increased.
- Modifications to spells for NPCs only
In the latest version of the game:
- Player Manual available for download. See announcements.
- Start area updated.
- Banning system added and functional.
- Magic system changes:
* NPCs ignore timelocks
* Harm is timelocked
* Trueseeing duration halved
* Bigbies range duration halved
Now online:
- Shire quest from Frodo Baggins (New characters audience)
- New good faction quest from Gloin in Erebor (Hard)
- Level cap increased to 19
Coming soon:
New tough evil quest!
Now online:
- Safe resting. You can now rest in most buildings which are classed as safe without the resting restriction. (E.g. you dont have to eat/setup camp)
- More opportunities for grapple use to find hidden objects
- Campfires have no damage reduction and now have 1 hit point
- Gloin's quest now works properly
- More Ithilien Rangers
In the next update (within 24 hours)
- New Evil quest "Burn the Witch!" from Mordor's newest boss! Seek him in Minas Morgul
- New Good quest "Into the flames" from the steward
- New quest format; Rescue!
- Vomiting Zombies!
- Several new areas
- General fixes and tweaks
The following will be active when the server goes online in a few minutes:
- The missing ramp in the ephel duath has been placed.
- Minas Tirith Magic shop is open.
- Ents have been adjusted and tougher versions made for higher level PC's.
- New Evil quest, "Blight in the Bight". The Witch King requires a hand of sauron and his company to act quickly!
- Improvements to the terrain range!
- Grapple now available to all classes.
- Fortifications and barricade kit prices bug fixed.
The following came online last night:
- Ulundi Psionic attacks weakened
- Tharbad updated following recent events. A new mayor is in town!
- Grapple script adjusted to allow all clases who meet the skill requirement to use it.
- A few bug fixes
The following will be online in a few minutes time:
- Two new good faction quests. In 'Hallowed Ground' Gimli has a task for friends of Erebor, whilst in 'A Test Of Character' Denethor has information on where work may be found.
- New checks added to grapple
The following is now online;
- 13 excellent new Dwarf NPCS
- Gate spell now summons a Devil. The caster of this spell also recieves 5 evil points. Casting protection from evil is still a requirement to stop the spawn being hostile to the caster. Spell has the same duration as before.
- New DM wand - Follow wand. Makes NPCs follow other NPCs or PCs
- 'Greeting' voice emote removed from Emote wands
Coming soon:
- New Evil quest from Khamul. The dwarves of Erebor require your 'aid'.
- New Good quest 'Prisoner Hunt'. When some dangerous prisoners of war escape the jails of the White City, a company of heroes are called upon to hunt them down to the fartest ends of the earth!
The following will be online as of next reset:
- New evil quest "Sweet Revenge" from Khamul in Dol Guldur for those of highest rank in the evil faction.
- Finalised Gate Spell. Summons devil which will follow your commands. Will be hostile if caster does not cast protection from evil on his/herself. Devil has been toughened up. Characters who cast gate will gain 5 evil points, including party members.
- Summoned Warg will now follow its summoner and follow other commands.
- 2 new areas
Much has been done recently to precede the launch of a vast amount of new content. Some measures to tighten the economy further and water down a few areas being mined. Some revised npcs, new npcs and the usual bug fixes and of course, new content!
The following updates are now online:
- Minas Tirith Armour/outfitting revised.
- New Minas Tirith Infantry! Upping the challenge for the hardened followers of Sauron!
- Some alterations to the 'sweet revenge' quest.
- The Moria Orcs now have less powerful weapons.
- The base of Near Harad is complete. It is currently closed, but parties of Evil PC's will be allowed in to wander around and enjoy its atmosphere. Please ask a DM to move you in/out. Parties only please.
- Untold Tales II now uses the DMFI tools. These enhance the roleplaying and allow DMs to apply more detail to their events.
- The bleeding/dying system is now working
- We have a new respawn penalty system which scales up as you gain levels instead of the old set penalty. Very new player friendly!
- Economy tightened. Some loot drops reduced, max container gold reduced for high and medium treasure. Instances of Diamonds and emeralds in containers reduced. Max possible number of items in containers reduced.
- Trista's cookies!
- 3 New guilds launching!
- PC Skill Checks will no longer be public due to rp based exploitation issues. Results will be sent to DM who will act accordingly.
- Weekly Market props added.
- The Haradrim have been sighted making incursions into the north! Just a few serving the desert kingdom are dual scimitar wielding weapon masters, expert marksmen and the enormous black men of far harad, often compared to the power of the Olog Hai.
- The Black Numenoreans have reacted to the rallied free peoples and have sent even more powerful troops out to stop them and spread terror to the west. Clad in terrifying horned helms of the hand of Sauron and wielding brutal hand-and-a-half blades, they will not be defeated easily.
- The famous Blaede Of The Sands has been immortalised, as an NPC shopkeeper in Harad. Just as before, he willrip you off..unless he likes the look of you!
Some massive updates to come next week. Including our new website!
Enjoy the game :)
The following will come into effect within the hour.
- Adjustments to help with economy work; NPC merchants will no longer identify items for players. A Player merchant or loremaster needs to be consulted to identify your unknown items. They can ask for a payment for this.
- Housing is in on a trial basis in Tharbad. See the writ of Tharbad for details (outside town hall).
- +3 weapons are no longer avaialble from NPC merchants. +3 weapons can be crafted at an anvil.
- NPC merchants will offer less gold for the very valuable items to encourage trade amongst player characters
- Valauable gem and heavy excess gold capping will be in effect for a few days to get players on the right scale for the economy adjustments.
- Gemstone golems no longer drop gems.
- Black Numenorean Sorcerers no longer drop items.
- More instances of crafting items added to treasure 2da's.
A few updates here. Some more work on Tharbad. The city is developing nicely, so I am taking a lot of interest in developing it into something very special since it is so often visited by players.
- 2 New Evil boss characters (created by us, not from books).
- Fishing! (Still under trial, but going well so far). Fishing is just what it is in real life; a game of luck! Your character can follow this as a living if they want, or just do it as a hobby. There is a wide range of catches available, all worth different amounts if sold. Fishing profits are generally small, so dont expect to become made of money. Fishing can go either way - you make a profit over your bait expenses by catching good, big fish, or you make a loss, catching rubbish and very small fish. You require a fishing rod and fishing bait. For a good session of fishing, buy plenty of bait. Equip your fishing rod and use the fishing bait. Then stand still and your character will perform a number of actions and say various speakstrings. Only one area currently has a fishing spot. Using bait will only work if you are in a fishing area.
- A fishing and seafaring merchant has opened shop in Tharbad Docks. He sells fishing tackle and buys catches from fishermen. He can also suggest good fishing spots to you.
- Experimenting with guard dog in Tharbad.
In a few minutes, server will reset with an updated module. Mostly small bugfixes this time, but it's things that have been eluding us for a while, so I'm glad we got them off the list.
Among other things, the following should now be fixed:
Tharbad mayor and town clerk behaviour -- they will now remain at their desks and not invade citizens' privacy.
Fixed small issues in player-owned accommodation.
Standard ammunition should be more easily available to buy.
Various issues with existing quests (Mordor witch quest, Helka's quest and some othersr).
Updated the notices in the halls of waiting.
It is no longer possible to take the second Edoras quest independently of the first.
Mordor Snarga will no longer ignore Hand status of PCs that are advanced even higher in the ranks of Mordor.
I'm sure I've forgotten some -- those who frequent our IRC channel probably remember more than me, as I generally commennt on my progress there.
More content's lined up for inclusion. We're looking into the reported Bree lagginess issues and are hopeful we can resolve these within a few days. Building new areas (for both good and evil) is going at full speed, and, as some of you know, there has been an increased DM presence on the server. :)
As usual, if you spot anything wrong with the module, mention it in the Bug reports section of the forums or on IRC, and I'll get on it straight away.
Latest reset was largely our attempt to fix people's lagginess issues with Bree. DM Olorin has streamlined it and tried to cut down on compuationally heavy placeables, the area is also slightly more compact. Please let us know if this improves matters -- if it is still too laggy for people, we will consider splitting it up.
A few other fixes, as usual. I have disabled the Bree/Tharbad guard weapon scripts for now, after some players were inadvertantly killed after "not seeing" the warnings -- we're discussing how we should adapt them.
As usual, tell us of any problems and enjoy the game. :)
OK, another small-ish update. Cosmetic changes to bree, its characters and areas. All Bree quests (Nob, Podo, Mathas) should now work again, and Vallan has been introduced with shiny new rags. Several appearance fixes for NPCs, several high level monsters tweaked, several added in preparation for the inclusion of new areas (they're tough buggers!).
Also, fixed a slight anachronism in Strider's conversation. All of these courtesy by DM Olorin.
I'll start working my way down my own list now. I've got something special lined up that should be ready within a few days -- I think it'll prove quite popular. In particular Argon should enjoy it.. :P
News with the current module update:
- More Bree bugfixes -- NPC dialogs updated to reflect the changed geography.
- More NPCs -- there's a new set of Rivendell elves (By DM Kev) that may appear, so look out -- they are smarter than average.
- Various bugfixes (Helka's quest, most notably -- perhaps this is the last time we fix it ;) Some more, those who are in IRC will probably remember me mentioning something).
- Performance improvements -- some optimisations to the database subsystem in preparation for the next 'big' thing -- stay tuned :)
The following is now online:
- Minas Tirith has been redone in the Cobblestone tileset. The previous layout has been generally maintained.
- The greenway south, tharbad road and the great east road sections have been redone in cobblestone tile set.
- Dol Guldur has had a good make over. Lighting has been improved to make a more darker feel. Quest xp rewards have been increased so that characters leave dol guldur with at least another level.
- New NPC Thrall Master Arfansor added to Dol Guldur. This fellow is our 'new player friendly' quest giver, though he is just as good for those who have roamed dol guldur before. He becomes your friend over time and aswell as giving out three quests, you can also talk to him about all manner of things like you've never been able to before. He has two obvious quests by asking the right questions, but the third is hidden in the dialouge with him and you need to pick it up by taking an interest in what he is saying.
You spawn in Dol Guldur right next to him and he is recommended as your first port of call when starting a new evil character, before beginning the more demanding quests.
- A few bug fixes.
This is a big, big, big update announcement.
The extended and developed Shire by DM Olorin is about to go online! It includes;
- Twelve new quests! Each one created with new players in mind. Mostly non - combat, they give a nice relaxing welcome to new and existing players.
- The extension brings the Shire to nearly 40 beautifully made areas!
- Another great thing about the Shire is its sheer amount of written content. The Shire adds nearly 30,000 conversation words to the modules current 50,000! All conversations are brilliantly written and some are very amusing!
- The Shire has great potential as an area for all characters. Theres so many places experienced characters can visit and interect with our new players to make them feel more welcome.
- Lots of NPCs are about; Elves, Dwarves and of course, Hobbits. They all have something to talk about. Some are interesting, some are downright derranged!
- The environment sounds and effects are outstanding! You really have to see/hear for yourselves! So crank up the volume and become immersed!
We hope you enjoy the Shire. To me, it encapsulates what this project is all about. My thanks to Olorin for a superhuman effort :) Feel free to comment on the Shire in other/new threads.
Another big round of updates.
- Esgaroth has been revamped by DM Kev and is looking pretty.
- New quest by DM Kev which I like to refer to as the best MERP UK dungeon crawl ever, because..erm..it is :P This takes place in Esgaroth, replacing the old quest you could recieve from Bard. It is suitable for a huge range of chracters from level 11 onwards, though you have to be level 14 to be given the quest. It contains a number of new systems we have developed and provides hours of fun for those seeking rp, non combat sections and some good old monster bashing! A well prepared party is absoloutely essential.
- New look and themed isengard by Avalyn with small additions by DM Kev. Isengard is now friendly to all (on the surface anyhow!). Saruman is also friendly to good/neutral characters. Evil chars can interect with him as usual and can access their merchants and other npcs underground, the entrance to which you will have to find.
- Bereval's company have aquired lands somewhere in the region of Tharbad.
- We now use a special script to create large battles where selected enemies can respawn till an objective is met. This will be used a lot on certain quests which involve a large battle sequence or for those quests which need the effect of many opponents.
- In an attempt to create less "swing and miss" combat, I have reduced the ac's of a number of npcs a little so the lower ab classes can actually hit their enemies :P
- A few bug fixes, including making the Ithilien Rangers hostile to evil PCs again.
Enjoy the game
- Moria redone in dwarven halls tileset by DM Olorin. He has gone the whole hog and built all of Moria as given in the text. This looks spectacular. Moria is now many times larger than it is now and just as dangerous. Detail is greatly incresed and the size gurarantees a lot of parties will get lost in there. Moria includes "copies" of the existing areas and at least 40 new areas.
- New-look moria orcs and goblins by DM Kev. These look so much better and the orcs now have an extra sorcerer so their encounters are more varied in terms of sorcerers and the spell sequences they use.
- Dol Guldur troops have been created by DM Kev, again, a great variety here. There will be encounters of these about Mirkwood in close proximity to woodelves so a punch up on occasion will ensue between these factions
- New Quest available in Esgaroth. "Entanglement" by DM Kev is a new search/rescue/escort type quest which should provide some good fun for a party in the levels 5-12 range.
- New Mirkwood area and improvements to all Mirkwood areas by DM Kev. Fog and tree canopies have been added.
- Tolkienising/regionising of weapons and armour. We are now starting to phase in our new system to be eventually rid of the default + system for items. We have also begun to regionalise weapons and armour so a character can feel more personalised by using weapons from a certain region. This also means that certain items are not available in particular regions.
- Umbar by special guest player builder Luthianna - We are keeping a bigger lid on this because it's just fantastic! But fear not, I have tested this several times already and you won't be disapointed!
- Lothlorien by DM Lorien. He's really gone to town on this region. Much of the region is in place and some quests are ready, however some of it will remain in progress when we update, though this shouldn't prove a hindrance to players. Completion of Elrond's final quest is required to enter Lothlorien.
- Rivendell by special guest player builder Ptolomy - Everything about the new Rivendell is amazing, especially the exterior. The cobblestone Kingdom tileset has been put to good use here. All Elf players will be delighted with this.
- New Edoras and interiors by DM Kev. Quite a dramatic difference here.
- Massive bug/error catchup. Thankyou for all your assistance in finding the problems.
- A large collection of new/altered/improved/corrected scripts by DM Aule
NEW HAKS:
Yes, you will need 2 new tileset haks. ( I did mention at some point we'd add more. These are the LAST 2)
As usual, download and place in your hak folder.
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?vie...ail&id=4392
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?vie...tail&id=783
Enjoy the game
Not necessarily much in the way of shiny new content, but a whole host of fixes and changes. This list includes the adjustments we have made since the Gold Update and some which are new for the next reset.
- Placed a start point in Edoras
- Locked some currently unavailable rivendell building doors
- Relocated and enlarged the Rivendell to Misty Foothills transition
- Fixed the incomplete Minas Morgul Map Pin
- Corrected the NPC factions in Umbar so the guards no longer kill the civilians!
- Evil characters of level 3+ can start in Umbar if they wish.
- Fixed missing conversations in moria, including the holin gate.
- Added missing moria area and fixed its transitions
- Umbar North docks map pin corrected.
- There is now a ship from Minhiriath to Umbar. The ship will only transport characters of Evil alignment.
- Emyrn of Rohans store dialouge has been corrected to stop the store opening and immediately closing
- XP rewards for PC's accompanied by familliars/summons has been changed.
- XP rewards have been slightly adjusted
- Some small changes to Umbar
- Claret should now be removed as a henchman and destroyed at the successful conclusion of the "Entanglement" quest.
The following comes into effect as of next reset:
- 3 new Rivendell interiors and stores by Ptolomy with regionalisation modifications by DM Kev.
- A series of bug fixes by DM Aule
- Some Lothlorien quest related fixes by DM Lorien
- The first signs of Regionalisation in Bree.
- A few fixes following reports.
The following comes into effect as of next server reset:
- Widespread changes to the item system to improve the quality of gaming and to futher our customisation of the itemset. See the UTT2 forum area for a full description of changes. Due to the nature of some of the changes, DMs will be adjusting player inventories as appropriate.
- A number of important fixes.
Enjoy the game.
As expected, not every instance of old items was found. Following reports recieved, they have been sorted out. Also in this update a few new areas.
- The Ford Of Bruinen area by Ptolomy with extra bits by DM Kev.
- Rivendell interiors by Ptolomy including the Forge, Guesthouse and Mill.
- Fixed stores in areas missed in the previous update. The Minas Tirith market has not been fixed as this was only brought to my attention when this update was being uploaded. It will be fixed today and an update made as soon as possible.
Enjoy the game.
It's here at last, the next installment of more significant updates. Sorry for any delay in the process, this update includes a lot of urgent changes which had to be made to complement the item system changes. Despite the number of changes, I'm sure that a lot of them will be very popular with players.
The final tweaks are being made to the updates - they will be online within the next 48 hours of this post. More updates may be added to the list once I determine their completion status.
It's not all change though, we have a brand new quest for the good faction in Rohan which I believe betters the Mind of a Madman quest from Esgaroth! (in my opinion as the designer anyway).
Updates List
- "Deadly Surroundings" by DM Kev. A search for a missing Soldier turns into a daring rescue mission which will put you face to face with terrifying opponents and some of the enemies finest. You discover the true evil intent of a faction of the enemy and you will need brains aswell as brawn to beat them. Traps wait, ambushes are set and assassins lurk in the shadows. Battle your way through this compelling story, all the way to your Epic confrontation at the end.
This quest is our first attempt at fully immersing a henchman in the quest. With the henchman's owner leading from the front, he will drop one liners and ask to speak with you to offer his input. The henchman is not to be sniffed at. Some of his lines are useful to know. You can arm him with new items and give him orders.
This quest is suitable for a decent sized party (4-6 chars) of higher level good characters. You must have completed the final Rohan quest to attempt this quest.
- The vast majority of NPCs have had AC reductions. Particularly NPCs of higher level. The changes are quite significant so I hope they even out things, particularly at the higher level end of things. In testing I noted a considerably more balanced solution to melee characters.
- Magic System Changes:
This I mentioned happening a while ago and is something I wish we had done from the very begining of UTT2. These changes compliment the item changes and have been fully tested. A factor in changes to damage reducing spells was to ensure that they offered protection no matter what weapon was used against them, but to reduce the overall amount of damage they soaked up.
Other magic changes are here to reflect Middle Earth better - e.g - the invisibility changes. Some changes are here to benefit rogues and light melee characters, e.g - true seeing change.
The magic system changes by Avalyn and DM Kev are as follows:
- The following spells have been removed for a variety of reasons - Middle Earth Theme/Balancing/Low Magic itemset/Our interpretation of classes in Middle Earth:
Invisibility
Improved Invisibility
Invisibility Sphere
True Seeing
Bigbys Range of Spells
Magic Vestment
Magic Weapon
Greater Magic Weapon
Continual Flame
Keen Edge
Word of Faith
Timestop
Implosion
Black Blade of Disaster
Earthquake (Clerics)
Firestorm (Clerics)
The durations of the following spells have been limited to 10 rounds to improve gameplay and reduce some ridiculous waiting times:
Fear
Confusion
Hold Person
Hold Monster
Dominate Person
Dominate Monster
Power Word Stun
Other Spell Changes - Another thing we've wanted to do to play down references to magic is cut the number of 'christmas tree lights' glowing off characters and make them look more...well...themselves! This list includes a number of spells with effect and property changes:
Barkskin - No VFX. Characters of level 6 and under gain + 1 AC, 12 and under +2 AC, Other levels +3 AC
Energy Buffer - No VFX, resist caps reduced to 30.
Ethereal Visage - Changed reduction to +5 /15
Stoneskin - No VFX, +5 /5
Greater Stoneskin - No VFX, +5 /10
Elemental Shield - D6 damage + caster level when shield hit has been increased to d10 + caster level
Premonition - No VFX, +5 /20
Shadow Shield - +5 /10
- The numerous changes and fixes made by DM Lorien and the player Liasion team have been compiled into this update.
- New food items have been created. They will soon be available in Inns, loot drops and in the wild as applicable.
Enjoy the game :)
The above update will be taking place in a few hours time. A DM event has been scheduled on the calender in light of this update time.
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