Patch Notes from 1997-09-02 number 1

Patch Notes from 1997-09-02 number 1


  • A general weakening of creature difficulty.
  • Slowing down of creature movement.
  • Fixes to animations when riding horses.
  • Another pass on starting equipment.
  • The magic system moved to difficulty based as well. Using low level spells when at a moderate skill level will not enhance your skill, and using a high level spell that is a challenge for you will confer a greater reward in terms of learning.
  • A fix to reagent taking in spells, so that they take the right amount of reagents for a spell. There is still some randomness involved.
  • Failure to smelt consumes some of the ore.
  • Smelting a useless piece of ore will no longer check your skill.
  • You won't be able to repair items already in perfect condition.
  • The amount of raw materials required for making items has been put on a curve, so that the nicer items require substantially more raw materials than before.
  • Reagents will be lighter.
  • Magic item variety should be greatly increased.
  • Fixed some clicking problems where double-clicks registered as only single-clicks.
  • Pets will only take single word names with no punctuation.
  • New character windows with more room for the titles and name.
  • Creatures will now have a shorter "alertness" range before they can spot you and decide to attack (on-screen only).
  • Tamed creatures and hirelings will no longer freeze when released or they quit.
  • Smelting ore is now based on mining skill, not blacksmithing.
  • Moongates will be guarded regions.
  • Spellbooks are no longer stealable.
  • Animal taming will now require some time spent convincing the animal.
  • Many spells were fixed.
  • A new skills window is in place, with a smaller font, and buttons you can single-click for the skills usable from the skills window.
  • You can no longer use items that belong to other people.
  • Alchemy should be working again.
  • The protection spell should work again.
  • The Armor Rating statistic shown in your status window now displays the AR weighted by equipment slots. This is purely a change in display, not in the internal mechanics of the way armor works.
  • The interface to blacksmithing changed slightly. Using a blacksmithing tool now brings up a selection window. The anvil in the selection window represents repairing an item rather than making one.
  • Blacksmithing now searches your inventory for metal rather than making you target it.
  • You can now chop up carpentry-made items with an axe. Only the owner of a house can chop up items in his house.