This page generally only reports changes to the client, and not additions to the world. You'll have to explore to find the additions to the world. Latest What's New 12/30/05 v422 - Frivolous Friday Happy New Year! Armor is not supposed to spontaneously repair itself. Nor is armor supposed to make mystic boosts last forever. Both these problems are being investigated. Movies now play back at 4.3 fps, to match the server's normal daytime frame rate. Plans are also underway to encode the server's current frame rate within movies, so that playback time always matches recording time. Movies also have a new speed, "Turbo", which plays them back as fast as it can. Red healing salves have been adjusted slightly, to make their effectiveness a bit more even for different players. Sewing kits and blacksmithing kits will list their contents in their names, as kudzu bags do. Progress is being made on bloodblades and bloodmages. They're still a little ways off, but things are looking good! 12/15/05 v420 - In Stereo The problem that made sounds only come from the right speaker has been fixed. Wear rates and repair costs of armor have been adjusted. Snow can fall in any season, in Puddleby. 11/30/05 v418 - Save the Grog! Are you going to let Rotbeard get away with his vainglorious boasts? Want to keep others away in the badlands? Skipping deodorant might not work, but perhaps something else will. The ethercles have been asked not to litter. 11/16/05 v416 - Rhyme and Reason A turning page, a filling cup: Days twenty-seven we've been up. Fighter knocks, armor rocs. Shroom doom abloom. Circle five stays alive with work they bring to sylphstone ring. What else has changed? A few things more. To find them all, go forth! Explore! 11/2/05 v414 - Thin Ice Has OS 10.4.3 fixed the automatic download problems for dial-up users? There's an anouncement thread on the Sentinel that often lists more detailed news than this one, or at least describes it differently. You can now acquire a ticket while in a waiting room and be put aboard the next ship. You no longer need to have the ticket in hand when you enter the room. The ship waiting rooms now give experience like free libraries. Explorers can now take certain pieces of the sea home with them. Eldon is getting awfully smug about undiscovered areas on GI. Are you going to let him get away with that? 10/19/05 v412 - A Moveable Feast We've tracked down the auto-update failures some people have been experiencing to a bug in OSX 10.4. Until it is fixed, auto-updates may continue to fail for some Tiger users, especially on slower connections. However, if your download does succeed it should unpack and update properly now. /drop no longer unequips what you dropped unless it was the only one you had. Jayne Dougal and the Nimbletoes siblings have been fixed. Judder and tremolite are now somewhat more common, at least for a while, although they're undoubtedly not as exciting as all the hype has led people to believe. Some significant changes have been made to Rangers. See the Sentinel for details. Dramamine sold separately. 10/5/05 v410 - 10-2, Good Buddy Try the new /status command, and see the results on Rieger's Clan Lord Informer page. We're told that the Widget and other status apps will be switching to this new data feed shortly. Ah, tourism pamphlets. Such fun to browse through, aren't they -- especially when you're planning a trip. Three months, and nobody's figured out what tremolite or judder are for yet? Am I going to have to just come right out and tell you?! :) 9/21/05 v408 - The Gerbil Has Excellent Hearing We crashed three times on September 11-12. First time in 132 days. The record is 708 days. A gerbil heard a noise it didn't like and quit in protest. It's been fitted with tiny earplugs and is now much happier. What is that peeking above the western horizon? It is now somewhat easier to obtain a speedy charm. 9/7/05 v406 - Back to School Special Bloodmages are coming along. There's still a lot of work to do, but they're looking very cool. 8/24/05 v404 - Update Not Found The Puddleby University campus is awaiting a few final touches and should be open soon. Listen... I want to know what to do with tremolite. 8/10/05 v402 - Dog Days Progress on several new areas, some large, some small, is going well. Are those rugs new? 7/21/05 v399 - A Moving Experience Replaced the old random number generator with the diabolical Mersenne Twister. Bwahaha. The cubes tables shouldn't have an unusually high payout rate anymore. What, didn't you know? Judder? What's judder? Probably nothing you want. Tremolite, either. Ann just moved. Her Internet installation went as smoothly as these things ever do. Thanks for asking. Ann will be on vacation for two weeks starting July 27, so there will be no v401 update. We'll skip to v402 instead. Incidentally, Ann does not recommend moving and getting a house ready for sale immediately before going on vacation. 7/6/05 v397 The rank requirements for some ranger abilities have changed. It is now even easier to become a champion. You could practically wave your hands and become one now. Okay, maybe not, but it is easier. Tremolite? What's tremolite? 6/22/05 v395 More improvements to phantasms. No more invisible armor. Or is that the "Emperor's New Armor"? 6/7/05 v393 The test Java client should work again in v393. For more information or to download the client, please read Ann's announcement on the Sentinel. Significant changes have been made to phantasm pages. Some kinds of refining and blacksmithing are somewhat easier now. The next big new area has a lot of work to go, but it's progressing well. 5/25/05 v391 Tiger users:The newly released v391.1 client fixes image and sound download problems in Tiger. Your v391 or earlier client will be automatically updated to v391.1 the next time you connect, and v391.1 will download the update files as usual. You can also download v391.1 by hand. The magic protecting shieldstones from breaking has been made stronger. Rangers receiving bonuses against creatures whose movements they have studied will now use less balance and energy when they don't need, or can't use, the full bonuses. Refining ore and crafting armor have been fixed. Automatic file downloads should be faster now -- at least for those with OS X 10.2 or later. If you have 10.3 or 10.4, it may even be dramatically faster. But you do have to suffer through one last slow download, as your current v389 client fetches its v391 replacement. 5/11/05 v389 Sfoft's Peak and the flying cloud each received some improvements. Several new builders are working on construction projects around town. Some problems with housing furniture and mannequins have been fixed. Please continue to report any oddities you encounter. 4/27/05 v387 We crashed once on April 24. First time in 24 days. The record is 708 days. An invisible gerbil upset all the others with its squeaks. The invisible one has been asked to keep quieter. Something significant has been added, but I really don't want to spoil the surprise of discovery. So how am I supposed to write a news item about it? (Not that nothing significant will ever be added without a news item, of course. We like to keep you on your toes.) Several problems with ranger abilities have been fixed. Most players' information has been updated too, but not all. Rangers who missed the meeting with Tinker and would like to be fixed (no, not like a pet) can email him at admin.clanlord.com. Boosts have also been fixed. We are looking into any remaining issues with them. A few small problems with bard trios and hunting challenges have been remedied. 4/13/05 v385 We are pleased to announce that the Java client for Windows, Linux, and other platforms that was previously released only for Arindal is now being openly (alpha) tested for Clan Lord as well. Our thanks to the Arindal team, who are still actively working on this client. For more information or to download the client, please read Ann's announcement on the Sentinel. Amgine has obtained a supply of sea wheat cloth. Mystic boosts have been given a few improvements. 4/3/05 v383 We crashed on March 31, but only because of April Fool's. Oh well, at least we weren't working on any kind of record. First time in 7 days. The record is 708 days. April Fool's! We had no update problems, no loss of data, and very few escaped gerbils. The world that ran as v382 was a close approximation of v34, from July 22, 1998. If you downloaded the old images to use in v382, remember to go back to your v381 files before trying to update to v383. For help, see the old image instruction page. Everyone will have a 7-rank bonus when they first join the game in v383 or later, as a celebration of how far we've come in 7 years! The v383 OSX client shouldn't crash when it launches in OS 10.1. However, a bug in some Rage 128 video cards will cause crashes if you turn on "allow old hardware". If you find that the game is too slow or is crashing, especially if you're using an older computer or OS, first try turning off OpenGL in the advanced preferences. Fighters now advance much more quickly along the path to becoming a Champion. Training in using a Fell Blade now also teaches a Champion some of the Channel Master's knowledge about using Earthstones. This is retroactive: past Fell Blade training has been updated too. 3/31/05 v382 We crashed twice on March 24. The gerbils responsible have been re-educated. First time in 169 days. The record is 708 days. Unfortunately, today's Chaos Storm encountered serious problems, including significant loss of world and player information. We have recovered what we could, and we are still working on the problem. Thank you for your patience and understanding. 3/16/05 v381 If you are using OS 10.1, please download the non-OpenGL version of the game. We expect to have an OpenGL version that will work in 10.1 ready for v383. We apologize for the inconvenience. Rangers are still in! There've been a few tweaks. Among other things, the fighting messages are now less spammy. Just what are those orgas up to? There's a new /pref bardvolume command to control the volume of bard music by typing or using macros. The Players window no longer mistakenly displays the bard badge for people who aren't bards, and the game window no longer shows garbage if you say a non-breaking space in Open GL. Has Storoenna seen an otologist? Fifth- and higher-circle healers have a few new things to enjoy. 3/2/05 v379 Welcome back to all our old players! The average number of people Clanning has increased by 30%. Great! The standard OSX game application now supports OpenGL for much nicer night and special effects, thanks to Jeff Ray. You can enable OpenGL in the Advanced Prefs of your game Preferences. If you find that your game becomes too slow, disable OpenGL again. If it's still too slow, especially on older machines, set your Maximum Night Level to None. Also, please note that OpenGL does not work properly with every combination of graphics card, computer, and OS version, due to problems in the OpenGL drivers. If you experience crashes, simply disable OpenGL again in your preferences. Please /bug any problems. For serious problems that prevent you from playing the game, even with OpenGL and night both disabled, please send email to Ann or Joe for a faster response. It is now possible to become a Ranger. Remember to eat and sleep -- becoming a Ranger is not something we expect anyone to manage in a single sitting. Also, various tuning and other changes may continue for some time, so don't expect things to stay just as they are. Armor has been improved. Among other changes, knowing how to maintain your tools now helps you maintain your armor too. More advanced healer tests are nearing completion, and may be opened for testing this week. Have fun with them, but please remember that we might reset everybody to 4th circle if problems show up in testing. The Lyfelidae are dropping claws once more. Jade Arachnoids have been changed slightly. Names will turn blue with enough good karma now. The unjustly imprisoned have hope. 2/16/05 v377 You'll gain more experience from hunting now. The increase is bigger for creatures you find harder, smaller for ones you overpower. (You should be getting more vanquishes and kills in challenging areas, but not many more dispatches in easy ones.) This may change again in future weeks. The frame rate (fps) at times other than prime time has been increased slightly. We're now running at 4 fps during prime time (18:00-21:00 Pacific US time), 4.6 fps during off hours (0:00-9:00), and 4.3 fps the rest of the time. If the faster play causes you problems due to computer speed or network lag, please let us know. Sfoft is interested in meeting the Puddleby Skydiving Association. The blacksmith has rethought his chain manufacturing process, and the refiner will no longer allow completely untrained exiles to use his furnace. The University of Puddleby campus is under construction, pending donation of building materials. Names will turn red with fewer bad karma now. Certain green Arachnoids don't get lost the way they once did. Unoccupied areas no longer fall completely asleep. Rangers have moved up from "soon" to "pretty soon". Progress is being made on a multiplatform Java client for Clan Lord. Stay tuned. 2/2/05 v375 The prime-time fps slowdown has been eliminated. This is an experiment. It may change back, or we may speed up other times of day too, depending on how things go. Some confusion about the correct Puddleby time should now be fixed. Many belated thanks to the volunteer artist who provided our new splash screen! 1/19/05 v373 Lots of big things are in progress, but none of them are done yet. Development cycles often work that way. 1/5/05 v371 Happy new year! There are now separate volume controls for bard music and other sounds.