Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.11
1/2/94
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - In re-writing the TRAINING code to free some memory I discovered a
   bug in the leveling commands that would enable a player to keep
   leveling beyond level 30.  -- This is now fixed.
 - It seems that it was not possible to get to the Black Dragon or
   some of the Forest area.  That is now fixed.
 - You can no longer flee unless you're in combat.
 - Found a problem with the startup code to Shadow.  It seems that you
   could run out of file handles after several days of the program being
   run.  This is now fixed.
 - I am surprised no one has mentioned this one.. but the group command
   for removing a member of a group wasn't working at all.  We only
   discovered it in our play testing.  It is now fixed.
 - I found a problem with the way group experience was working.  It
   wasn't rewarding enough experience to players in one case, and in
   the other case it was awarding too much.
 - It appears that Sanctuary was broken and not working.  I must have
   broken it in v1.00.05.  It is fixed.
 - A bug was found in the sanctuary spell.  When a player cast sanctuary
   on another player, the target player lost the mana.. not the caster.
   Fixed.
 - You can no longer summon a player out of combat.

Changes:
 - I have re-looked at the combat routines.  We believe we have finally
   come up with monster damage that is fair, yet challenging.   This
   change should make it much less desirable to want to give weapons to
   beasts.
 - The "Up in the Air" area has been moved, it was too close to the
   temple causing a lot of newbie deaths.

Enhancements:
 - Some monsters now have the ability to cast five different spells!
   All of these spells are "Area of Effect" spells.  Meaning that
   _anyone_ in the room with the monster when it is casting might
   get hit by the spell.  So be warned.
 - Support for Potions & Scrolls to cast time-based spells, like
   sanctuary.
 - Reduced Memory Usage by 4k.


Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.10
12/29/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - The Doubleattack Skill would only work if the first skill the player
   had was Double Attack, otherwise it would not work.  This is fixed.
   It should be noted that there is only roughly a 30% chance of this
   working in a given round.

Changes:
 - In looking at the fighters abilities, I feel that the POUND commands
   needed adjustment.  I have not reduced their strength, but rather have
   adjusted the amount of movement points it takes to execute the command.
   The amount of points it takes is based on your character attributes.
   The higher the attributes, the less points it takes.  It definately
   will take more points than in previous versions.

Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.09
12/28/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - Plugged the Experience Point Leak.. Seems that the beta testers like to
   keep secrets from me. ;-)  Now you can only get a max of 250k per kill,
   and your experience will be divided among your classes as it was supposed
   to be.
 - AVATARs are no longer awarded the Armor Class Bonus.  This was overlooked
   in 1.00.08.
 - STARTUP:  It was possible for one caller to enter Shadow and then exit
   Shadow while another had left shadow and sat at the main menu of the game.
   When Shadow was unloaded from memory the 2nd person still in the menu
   could not launch a new Shadow.  This would leave the line suspended
   forcing the caller to log off.  This is now fixed.
 - HIDE command no longer complains of not being valid.
 - Experience message now indicates correct amount when you make a kill.

Changes:
 - Thieves seem to be a great source of income.  Now the Guildmaster demands
   that the thief give a major portion of his loot to the Guildmaster.  This
   means that the thief is allowed to keep only a small part of what he takes
   from the wonderful citizens of Kierkswold.
 - Monsters no longer when killed automatically get their things back.  The
   Demonblade Weapons facotry is now hereby closed.  (grin).  Now when
   monsters regenerate, they may or may not have their items.  This will
   fix it so that items have a much greater value than they do now.

Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.08
12/27/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - Minor bug introduced in last version with the training command and AVATARs.
   Fixed.
 - AVATARs were still getting free mana and hit point generation at the tick.
   This is now fixed.

Changes:
 - Leveling requirements have been adjusted by the request of some of the
   players.  Only the upper levels were affected.


Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.07
12/26/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - When a player teleports another player and the player is working the
   player with the job would keep the job despite the fact the player was
   no longer in front of the storekeeper.  Fixed.

Changes:
 - When a player is summoned the player is now shown the room that he has
   been summoned to.
 - AVATARs now are killable.  They no longer will just wander around without
   taking damage until they are granted IMMORTAL Status.
 - AVATARs and above no longer can use the GROUP or FOLLOW commands.  This
   will stop AVATARs from giving away experience points.
 - The GIVE command will no longer allow you to give an NPC a cheaper
   weapon to use.

Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.06
12/18/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - Level restriction on items being wielded was not implemented.  This
   allowed players to wield any item, regardless of the level restrictions
   on that item.  Fixed.

Changes
 - The Sacred Fountain is now a safe area.  Fidos will not attack you if
   you are there--nor can you cast _any_ spell there.  It is a no-magic
   area as well.
 - Those who had weapons with level restrictions and shouldn't have been
   able to use the weapons due to a lack of levels... watch out. :-)

Enhancements:
 - Implemented HIDE for thieves.  I didn't think I could do it--but a few
   squeezes here.. and little re-writing there and I got enough memory to
   do it.  If you have the HIDE skill, you simply type HIDE and as long as
   you do not cast a spell, move, quit the game & re-enter or hit someone
   you will not be seen when someone types LOOK.
   PS:  I didn't know that I had hide listed as a skill, and had not
   implemented it.  Sorry about that--I blame my beta testers.  ;-)


Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.05
12/10/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - Corrected a problem with the sanctuary spell.  It use to just last
   forever.  This is fixed.

Changes:
 - Added text changes to the VERSION command to indicate by account
   number who was the sysop selected as the creator.


Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.04
12/07/93
-------------------------------
Changes:
 - Single class characters have gotten a bad shake for long enough.
   Now, that is fixed.  If you take a second class (fighter, thief,
   etc.) your experience will be shared between those classes, whereas
   if you were a single class your experience would be all applied to
   that class.  Now experience is split if you are a fighter/mage or
   any type of dual class character.
 - Player killing unfortunately has already gotten out of hand.  The
   penalties for the killer flag evidently are not strict enough.
   Now if you kill a player and get a killer flag, you will lose upon
   your death a complete level--if you do not have at least half of
   the experience necessary to get the next level.  I was asked as to
   why I don't outlaw player killing.  It is simple--I want it to be
   a choice...but a choice with consequences.  Losing half your experience
   (which was the old way) if you have next to none is no big deal,
   thus this change.
 - Redefinition of character type:  AVATAR.  An AVATAR is now a player who
   has completed all of the game requirements to be an IMMORTAL (new character
   type).  The CREATOR may grant IMMORTAL status to an AVATAR.  Once that
   status is granted the IMMORTAL has all the powers of what used to be
   the AVATAR.   AVATAR's now are not killable, however they are not granted
   the powers to create objects or pardon killer flags.  To be an IMMORTAL
   the player must complete some sort of quest, or must be deemed suitable
   by the CREATOR.
 - New Character type:  IMMORTAL.  An immortal is a player that the CREATOR
   has selected to oversee the game when the CREATOR is not around.  The
   Immortal has the power of object creation, and the ability to forigve
   killer flags.
 - New Character type:  CREATOR.  The character of CREATOR is designed to put
   some sort of control into the game.  Right now, AVATARs/IMMORTALS are
   indestructable and therefore can create great havoc and basically ruin
   the game for other players.  AVATARs are supposed to keep the game
   interesting, not use thier powers for the destruction of the game.
   In keeping with that goal, I have decided to allow a Sysop to 'pick'
   an AVATAR that should be a member of the system's staff.  This person
   will control the game in a manner of speaking.  This person has the
   capability of three additional commands:
   -  SUSPEND <charactername>
      This command will enable the CREATOR character to suspend a player
      from the game.  The player will be told who suspended them and
      will be sent back to the menu not able to return until the
      suspension is removed.   Note this command will not stop a level
      0 character from re-entering since the level 0 character is not
      saved--the suspension would not be saved either.  Use Wizlock
      & suspend to do the trick.
   -  WIZLOCK
      This command will stop Shadow Realms from accepting any new
      level 0 players into the game.  Wizard lock is useful if you have
      someone who simply wants to cause trouble in the game.  If you
      have someone of that nature, simply wizard lock the game and then
      suspend the game.  They will not be able to enter the game
      again until the wizard lock is removed.  The wizard lock will
      only last until every player has left Shadow Realms...then the
      Wizard lock will be removed.
   -  GRANT <charactername>
      This command will grant an AVATAR IMMORTAL status.

New Features:
 - The character type (CREATOR) also has access to a new program called
   "CREATOR".  Check with your sysop for access information.   This program
   does many things.  It enables the CREATOR to remove a suspension flag,
   edit a characters attributes (though it will not allow the setting
   of skills), delete a character, and sets the default setting on Wizard
   Lock.  This program should be used with _extreme_ discretion.
 - Added security protection to the software.  Now the software will
   check for the registration files--and confirm the BBS version prior
   to running in the fullly enabled mode.

Bug fixes:
 - It was possible (as I assume most of you know) to get double experience
   points by using the group functions.   This is now fixed.  Sorry.

Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.03
12/01/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - If a person teleports out of combat, the combat flag is still set
   and the player can't move.  This is fixed.

Changes:
 - If a player casts teleport while in combat, there is a 50% chance
   of spell failure.  Be advised. :-)
 - Leveling changes have been modified a bit.  They have always needed
   adjustment.. I just forgot to get to it. :-)

Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.02
11/30/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - Casting Magic Missle, Color Spray, etc. on another player (including
   the caster) resulted in data corruption as I had a bad memory pointer.
   My beta testers did not catch this one. :-)  It is now fixed.  By the
   way, you can no longer cast these spells or attack yourself via the
   fighter skills anymore.
 - Found a minor problem with experience points distribution.  That is
   fixed.

Changes;
 - Sanctuary Spell now is only good for 2 ticks.
 - No kill will give you more than 250,000 experience points.
 - Experience is now spread in a group based on the levels of the players
   in the group.  If there is a level 10 in a group with a level 1.  The
   level 10 player will get 10x the experience than the level 1 player.
   This is to control those who would drag newbies around and get them
   several zillion experience points in just a few minutes.  It is still
   very advantageous to group with higher level characters as you will
   get decent experience, just not as much.  You get as big a piece as
   you are in the group.  It is not likely for example that a level 1
   player would be that helpful in a group with two 10th level players.
   Thus the 10th level players will get the most experience.
 - Recall has been changed.  Seems that many want to use the recall
   command to the gods as a form of transportation.  They would send
   a stream of /s in hopes that the god would finally hear the player.
   Well, now the player will be heard from!  If you have recalled and
   you ask to recall again the gods will banish you to the snake pit
   where you have a good opportunity to die.  You are warned.

Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.01
11/29/93
-------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - QUAFF no longer will poison a character when quaffing a non-potion item.
 - While in a group, if a member in the group begins combat and the group
   moves.. the person in combat will remain in combat and not move with the
   group.
 - Increased EXP requirements for AVATAR

New Command:
 - PARDON <playername>  This command allows the AVATAR to pardon a player
   from a killer flag.  This should be used with some descretion as the
   killer flag is there to protect those who would kill for the fun of it
   vs. those who kill by accident.  The AVATAR is the final decision maker
   on these issues.

Shadow Realms - Release 1.00.00
11/28/93
-------------------------------
New Stuff:
 - Updated Game documentation to include a section on healing, more
   information on AVATARs etc.
 - Commmand & Skill/Spell Table documentation has been updated.
 - The score display has been enhanced to include information about
   the job you currently have.  It will tell you that you are working
   and how many ticks before you finish.
 - The score display now breaks items up into two catagories.  The
   first is the number of items that are in your inventory that is not
   being worn, and the second is a summary of the items is being worn.
   This solves the problem of thinking you can pick up more when you are
   really out of inventory slots.
 - Healing has been enhanced a bit... it was possible to get too low
   a healing score.
 - Added text 'You do not have enough points to level' at the trainer
   instead of just a summary of the experience you have vs. what you need.
 - Jobs can now give you upto 600 gold pieces!  It is now worth taking a
   job at lower level.
 - Thieves now steal from players -- watch out!
 - Fidos & Odifs will attack sleeping players -- watch out!

Bug fixes:
 - Backstab would sometimes not display the result of an attack.  Fixed.
 - Janitors were not cleaning up the whole mud as they should have been.
   Fixed.
 - You can no longer avoid the tax when exiting by using the .logoff
   command.  :-)

Areas:
- New/Revised Objects & Revised Monsters

Changes:
- Fighter/thief attack skills like 'pound', etc.  Now cost movement points.
  When you run out of movement points, you will no longer perform the skill
  but you will still attack the opponent.  This is to control those who use
  macros to attack an opponent with.
- Object Regeneration.  It seems that some where using the object generation
  feature of the game to get rich.  They would pick up and object.. wait a
  tick and then pick up the object again.  This object generation routine was
  put in place to allow objects to always be available; especially in MUD
  school.  I had to make a comprimise.  Now the objects will only regenerate
  four times a day.  This means roughly every 8-12 minutes.  So objects
  will be available.. but not at the same frequency as before.
- Side benefit of the above change--ticks are nearly instant; except 4 times
  a day.  This improves the performance quite a bit.
- The junkman must be present in order to sell an object.
- Backstab now is very effective.
- When you sell an object, you only get 1/4 of its value.  Had to do this too,
  too many players were too rich for their own good. :-)
- People who are invisible now longer are visible when they follow someone.
- People who are invisible no longer reveal themselves if they use the
  noise commands like grin.. etc.
- People with magesee & clericsee can only see invisible people when they
  use the look command or enter a room.  When a player is invisible they
  can't be seen while they are moving, even if you use this spell.
- Spells/Skills in the level 1-10 range only cost 500 per level of the
  skill to train.

Beta 1.00.03 - 11/19/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
"This just keeps getting Beta Beta Beta!"

Bad News:
 - Shadow Realms now requires 240k.  Fixing the problems in the prior
   release used more memory than I had hoped.  Sigh.  You're depressed?
   No more than I.  I posted a message to Herb begging him for the 64k
   of memory he promised.

Enhancements:
 - Brad Settles begged me.. I did it.  I added the ability to identify
   lines that the game will not be allowed to run on.  Simply create a
   file in the directory where shadow.exe is called lines.cfg and enter
   each line on a line by itself that you want to disallow from playing
   Shadow Realms.  There is one caveat... you can not lock out line 0.
   You can lock out lines 1-31 however.  If your high speed modem is on
   line 0.. move it.  :-)  Startup will read this file and if it finds
   the user is playing the game while on this line it will politely
   remove them and suggest they contact the sysop if they think they
   got this message in error.  Ok Brad?
   Simply enter 4 and return in the the file lines.cfg and line 4 will
   not be allowed to play.  You can put as many lines in the file as
   you want.  Seperate each line by a carriage return.  (ENTER)

Changes:
 - You can no longer see objects in the rooms when it is dark.
 - The spell fireblast has been renamed to flamestrike.
 - The spell flamestrike has been modified to reduce its strength a bit.
 - Modification was done to the pound ability.. it was way too strong.
 - Hit Points for Fighters per level was adjusted downward.
 - Hit Points for Clerics per level was adjusted upward.
 - If a player does the ol' .logoff trick or +++ while in combat.  The
   player will be killed by the game when the player re-enters the game.
   All objects the player is wearing is lost.  Experience is reduced by 1/2.
   I know that sometimes this might happen while in combat without
   the player trying to cheat.  Unfortunately there is no way to tell the
   two scenerios apart.
 - Things just got a lot more expensive in Kierkswold.   I had to do this
   as too many players had too much gold 'lying' around.  Too much gold
   in the game destroys the value of the gold as the big players would
   just 'give away' the gold to others as they didn't need it.  I have
   now changed the game so skills/spells below level 10 will be 1000 per
   level of the spell/skill to train.  Between 10 and 19 the cost is
   7500 per level of spell/skill.  At leave 20 upward, the price is 20000
   per level of spell/skill.  This adds value to the money in the game.
   Don't bother complaining about this one folks.. it is there to stay. :-)
 - In another effort to reduce the amount of pocket change people seem
   to have at higher levels I have implemented a flat-rate tax when you
   exit the game.  It is a flat 15%.  So it will not hurt the little guy,
   and will keep the big guys in check.  It should also help control the
   problem of people going into the game.. killing a monter... exiting
   the game and doing something else while they wait for the monster to
   regenerate.

Bug fixes:
 - When you used a fighter skill.. skills that had durations were reduced
   by 1 turn every time the skill was used.   This is fixed.
 - When working for a shopkeeper while following somone you would get
   paid for the job anyway.  This is now fixed.
 - In calculating the special attributes of an object I was overwriting
   14 bytes of memory.  Could be the cause of some of the weird stuff
   that was going on with character corruption and not being able to
   drop things.
 - Found a problem with objects being defined of one type (for example:
   intelligence modifier) and it was modifying strength instead.  Fortunately
   this is 'ok' since all of the objects are being re-entered again.
   Poor Jean.  :-(
 - You would wear a ring and it would identify itself as a right hand
   ring but you would put it on your left hand.
 - Group experience calculations were not quite right.  Fixed.
 - Gold distribution to groups was not right at all.  Fixed.
 - Made corrections to the earthquake spell when cast on a player.  It
   worked before, but generated a send_wreath error.  This is fixed.

Beta 1.00.02 - 11/14/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
"Even Beta than before!"

-  Shadow Realms documentation first draft is completed.  It is in the
   file called SHADOW.DOC and is displayable by the startup program by
   typing a 7.

What makes an AVATAR?
 - An AVATAR is player that will have expanded roles in the future.  These
   players act as an overseer in the game.  They provide guidiance as they
   are all powerful.  They can not be killed.  Never need to eat.  Never
   use mana.  Never loose hit points.  They are immortal.  In the future,
   and as memory permits these characters will have the power to do more
   game altering tasks--like creating areas from limbo, etc.  Right now,
   you can for example create objects (those that are defined) and give
   them to players.  It should be rememberd that to an AVATAR game
   balance is everything!   Money is the only thing AVATARs can not
   create.  They may need to go on killing sprees, or ask for donations
   from their followers.  AVATARs still need to train in the skills of
   their class to get all that is available.  It is wise for an AVATAR
   to save practices for this day.. once an AVATAR a player may never
   earn experience again, and thus can not level to get more practices.

Startup Bug fixes:
 - No longer can you crash FALKEN BBS by entering the game, then exiting
   the game as a level 0 and then re-entering the game.
 - No longer can you create a character with no name.  I thought I had
   fixed this before.  Perhaps FALKEN has changed?
 - You can now enter a '/s' to get out of character description editor
 - Text has been changed so that it tells the user what it is looking for
   when you enter the description editor.

Shadow Realms fixes/enhancements:
 - Wield command now behaves correctly if there is more than one item
   of the same type wieled.
 - You can no longer EAT/DRINK while sleeping. :-)
 - Magic Missle nor color spray was working correctly.  Fixed.
 - Found out that fireball and fireblast was not implemented.  It is now.
 - Corrected a variety of memory hits in the missle routines.  I must have
   coded that section at 4am. :-)
 - Found that earthquake was not implemented.  It is now.  This spell is
   the only spell in the game that is an 'area of effect' spell.  It will
   affect _everyone_ in the room!  That means it is best cast by the Cleric
   who is alone in a room.  Meaning a party should wait outside while the
   spell is taking place.  If the Cleric casts this spell and kills another
   player with it (not damage another player, but kills them) the cleric
   will get a killer flag.  The only exception to this would be when
   the person who was killed already had a flag..or was flagged for
   stealing in the past and the flag had not yet been cleared.  I wanted
   to add many more spells.. alas, I am at 222k right now.  224k is
   the biggest I can make the game _today_.  Hopefully Herb will free
   up the promised 128k and I will be able to do a lot more with the
   game.
 - Re-checked the calculations on handling gold coins when a monster is
   killed.  Couldn't find a problem there.
 - Completed support for AVATARs.

Beta 1.00.01 - 11/06/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
New Area:
 - The Dark Forest... watch out for them wolves!
 - Up in the sky!

Bug fixes:
 - The fighter skills were not quite working right.  I intended to
   allow the jab, thrust, etc. commands to work throughout combat not
   just on the first round.  You can now use them all through combat.
 - Steal lock up bug fixed with player to player stealing.
 - Armor Class code may have had a problem in Beta 1.00.00, I know I
   found a problem with it -- but I am unsure as to whether the version
   with the bug was distributed or not.  Anyway, armor class calculations
   are now fixed in this version.
 - Disarm now will cause the beast to attack you whether you are
   successful or not.  Sorry, that was a major loophole.
 - Corrected curespell(s) mana requirements as requested by majick.
 - When players worked, no noise was generated for others to see.  Fixed.
 - When players sold something, no noise was generated for others to see.
   Fixed.
 - Startup program would show a (null) on the screen after playing with
   the menus a bit.  Fixed.


Beta 1.00.00 - 10/31/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
*
* Note:  This version marks the last version prior to release that will
*        get any further enhancements.  There will be bug fixes only
*        after this point.  I am right at the 224k limit.. (4k to spare)
*        If FALKEN BBS is re-done to allow for a larger area for doors
*        I will do a version 2.0 of the game, doing some of the things
*        I couldn't do in this one.  Please submit your bug reports
*        before Nov 15th so that a release version can be created.
*
*        There will be 3 more areas built for the 1.0 release.
*
* BE SURE THAT THE SUB-DIRECTORY 'MESSAGES' IS CREATED IN THE SHADOW
* DIRECTORY.  FAILURE TO DO SO WILL CAUSE SHADOW NOT TO RUN.
*
---------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - It was possible for those who could disarm to fix it so that the monster
   no longer carried the items that it was supposed too when the monster was
   regnerated.  This is fixed.
 - There was an error in the way armor class was calculated.  Your ACs should
   be lower than they were.  It is fixed.
 - The disarm bug continues to linger on.  This time I found another
   problem in that a wrong skill was being checked for and those who
   really had it--couldn't use it.  Those who had 'steal' could use it.
   Fixed.
 - The spell cureserious was broken, I had a typo in the code.  Fixed.
 - When you dropped an item, it would drop it from what you wearing instead
   of your inventory.  This is fixed.
 - Corrected maps in Pleasant Pointe Acres.
 - Monsters missing items, now have them.  It should be noted that some of
   the wino's were changed on purpose so that wine was not so abundant.

New Features:
 - Brand New Startup program.  New features include Character preview.
   With character preview, when you create a chracter you will see your
   character before you enter shadow.  You will be given the choice as to
   whether you wish to keep the character or not.  Further, the game will
   warn if you are picking a 'weak' character for a given character class.
   You can also now read the release notes, online documentation (when it
   is done), the command file, and a text introduction as to what a MUD is
   and what Shadow Realms is.
 - New command:  JOB.  In a shop, if this command is given the shopkeeper
   will offer you a job if he/she has one.  The job will require you to
   sit in the room for the time expressed in ticks.  A tick is roughly
   75 seconds.  So 2 ticks would be 150 seconds, or 2 minutes and 30
   seconds of real time.  If you don't want the job, just simply move
   on and don't respond to the offer.
 - New command:  WORK.  This command will 'take' the job offered by the
   shop keeper.
 - New Skills (fighters) PUNCH, JAB, KICK, BODYSLAM, HEADBUTT and POUND.
   If these skills are used, you should type:  PUNCH <playername> or <NPC>.
   These commands do a great deal of damage.
 - New Skills (thieves} THRUST, POKE, TRIP, BELT, PELT.  If these skills
   are used, you should type:  THRUST {playername} or {NPC}.  These commands
   do a great deal of damage.
 - New spell:  SANCTUARY (Cleric).  Once cast, the cleric will only take
   50% of the damage that they would regularly take from a non-magical
   attack.
 - New skill:  BACKSTAB (Thief).  This skills enables the thief to sneak
   up and attack an opponent and can do quite a bit of damage.
 - New Command:  VALUE {item}.  There is one place that will buy and
   evaluate your objects. This command will tell you what the shopkeeper
   will give for the object.
 - New Command:  SELL {item}.  There is one place that will buy and
   evaluate your objects.  This command will sell the item to the shop
   keeper.

Enhancements:
 - In prior versions, items that were not shields, etc. would not modify
   your character attributes as the identify spell would indicate.  Now
   they do.  Panties for example, will modify your charisma by 2 points.  :-)
 - Skill doubleattack now works.  If you are a fighter and have this skill
   it will be used in combat without you having to do anything.
 - When you enter a room, those who are working will be indicated.
 - Sewers are now dark.  :-)

Changes:
 - Monsters do not recall to their origins as often.  This in hopes that some
   of the beasts have a better chance of getting around.
 - When you attack someone with a HIT command, if you're invisible you will
   re-appear.
 - Shop keepers will not deal with those invisible.
 - Due to a complaint that was registered by one of the testers, some of
   the NPCs had their objects reduced.  It was said that getting wine, etc.
   was too easy.


Alpha 1.00.16a- 10/27/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - You can no longer steal from shop keepers.  This caused a problem in
   that shop keepers would no longer be able to sell an item once it was
   stolen.  It would cost too much memory to 'fix' this problem, so the
   solution is to not allow stealing there.
 - Game lock up problem was found when the steal skill was used on a
   NPC.

Alpha 1.00.16 - 10/26/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
**
* Old Characters are completely compatible with last version
**

New Features:
 - The Town Crier's Office is now open!  You can now post messages in the
   game!  The message area will hold a total of 20 messages.  When the 21st
   message is added, message 0 will be replaced by it.  It is circular so
   no maintenance is required.   I would love to make this mechanism more
   elaborate than it is, but alas, there is that memory limitation again.
   SYSOPS--PLEASE CREATE THE DIRECTORY 'MESSAGES' IN THE DIRECTORY WHERE
   YOU SPECIFIED THE GAME WOULD BE IN SHADOW.PTH.  This MUST be done for
   this to work.
 - New Command:  STUDY.  This command will allow you to study the bulletin
   board in the Town Crier's Office.  It will show you a list of messages
   and a subject.
 - New Command:  WRITE {subject}.  This command will allow you to go into
   the write message mode of the software.  The subject is the subject of
   the note.  When in the write mode, your prompt will change to a '>' and
   you may enter text on a line by line basis.  Pressing return is required
   at the end of each line.  To get out of the input mode, type an @.  This
   will save your message.
 - New Command: READ {msgnumber}.  This will allow you to read a particular
   message that interests you.
 - New Spell:  MAGESEE & CLERICSEE.  If the Mage or Cleric uses this
   spell they are able to see those who are invisible.
 - New Spell:  MAGEINVIS & CLERICINVIS.  You can now be invisible!
   To use:  CAST MAGEINVIS <caster>
 - Pleasant Pointe Acres is now populated!
 - New GodPower:  CREATE OBJECT <objectname> Allows a level 30th
   being to create an item and have it appear before the caster.
   Example:  CREATE OBJECT SWORD.  You must have the skill MAGEOBJECT,
   or CLERICOBJECT or FIGHTEROBJECT or THIEFOBJECT in order for this
   to work.
 - New Spell:  MAGESUMMON.  This spell will enable the caster to
   attempt to summon either a player or another beast.
 - New Spell:  CLERICSUMMON.  This spell will enable the caster to
   attempt to summon either a player or another beast.
 - New command:  QUAFF potion.  This will enable the player to drink
   a potion.  It should be noted that identify may not always indicate
   the truth about a given potion.  There are potions that are
   poisonous.

Improvements:
 - Improved PRACTICE Display.  Now indicates the minimum level needed
   for a particular spell/skill and the mana requirements when a spell
   is used.  The practice command now will only show the skills/spells
   that you are high enough to understand.
 - Janitors, Vagabonds, etc. will now pick up items more frequently.
   They may to decide to taunt you, or simply destroy the item they
   pick up.  They now really do clean up the MUD. :-)

Bug fixes:
 - You can only eat those items that you actually have, not items just
   lying about.
 - When you use the lantern, you will only use it once, not the total
   number of lamps that are in the inventory.
 - Class Restrictions on objects was restricting the object from all
   classes no matter what the class of the player was.  Fixed.

Alpha 1.00.15 - 10/16/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - You can no longer escape aggressive monsters by simply leaving the
   area.  You must use flee, or kill the beast, or recall.
 - Pointer problem was found when a player killed another player.  Seems
   that it attempted to give monsters gold to the player instead of the
   dead players gold.  The monster pointer was undefined.
 - Character Creator no longer takes a return or any special character
   as a player name.
 - If you attempt to disarm a shopkeeper, or an NPC (or player) it will
   only allow a disarm for a NCP/Player with a weapon.  Also shopkeeper's
   will retain their inventories if a disarm is successful.
 - You now actually have to give the guildmaster the amount of money he
   requests for training.
 - Monsters no longer pray for transportation if they are already home.
 - You no longer give items that you are wearing.  I thought I had fixed
   this before, and I did sorta, but now it is really fixed.  :-)
 - Disarm command no longer complains about players not being a fighter
   when they are.
 - Non-armor items are no longer counted in the armor class.  In the
   prior versions it was possible to wear a trash item like panties and
   get a wonderful armor class boost.  This is fixed.
 - Stopping Game message is now removed from the game.
 - Bank Balances are now deleted when a new character is created as
   well as the character descriptions.
 - Level 0 characters will lose their bank balance when they quit.
 - Character Descriptions will be deleted if level 0 when the game is
   quit.

Changes:
 - Combat routines have been modified again, now monsters bonus damage
   is calculated in.  A new set of monsters will be supplied in this version
   that incorporates the changes.

New Features;
 - New Spell:  TELEPORT.  The mage can use this to teleport himself or
   another player to another random location.  If the mage casts this
   on another player, the player is given a chance to save against the
   spell.  If the save is successful (the machine decides based on
   the characters attributes) the spell has no effect.  Otherwise the
   target player is teleported.  It should be noted that the mage
   casting this will lose 'killerflag' protection like the thief who
   steals.
 - You can now get poisoned!  There are creatures out there who can
   poison you.  A new skill has been added for cleric to allow them to
   cure poison.
 - New Spell:  CUREPOISON.  This spell will enable the cleric to
   cure another player of poison.
 - New Spell:  COLORSPRAY.  This spell will enable the mage to send a
   stream of bright color causing damage to his opponent.
 - New Spell:  MISSLE (was MagicMissle).  This spell will enable the player
   to fire a small flame at his/her opponent causing more damage the higher
   the level of the caster.  The format is :cast missle {npcname/playername}
 - New Command:  USE <item>.  Where the <item> is a light type of object.
   Example:  USE LANTERN
 - Rooms can now be lit or dark based on the interal room
   descriptions
 - New Skill:  CURESERIOUS (Clerics Only).  You now have a more
   powerful healing spell than curelight.
 - New Skill:  HEAL (Clerics Only).  This is the most powerful
   heal spell in the game.
 - New Skill:  RESCUE (Fighters Only).  This skill will enable the
   fighter to rescue another player from battle.  You need to be
   level 10 in Fighter to get this skill.
 - You now can wear shields.  This was not implemented in any of the
   earlier versions.
 - New Command:  DROP {amount of gold}.  Example:  Drop 100.
   This command will drop 100 gold pieces.  The gods, who never like to
   see gold lying about will thank you for your gift.
 - Level Restrictions are now in place on some objects.  Some objects can
   only be used by certain levels and higher.
 - Class Restrictions are now in in place on some objects.  Some objects
   can only be used by certain classes.
 - The game will autosave all characters roughly every 50 minutes.  It
   will of course not save those who are under 1st level.

Improvements:
 - The identify spell will provide more detailed information about a given
   object.  Though all functions it may report may not be implemented in
   this version.

Alpha 1.00.14c - 10/5/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - Bank is now in operation again.
 - Monster data is now being set to 'no-combat' status for every entry
   in the array whether it needs it or not.

Improvements:
 - Invalid Character message has been changed, and now can only be sent
   to players in the game (in fact all players).  This is in hopes of
   being able to track down what is causing this error.
 - You can no longer give coins to another player if you are level 0.
 - Gold now has weight.  I am being generous in that I am calculating
   1lb of weight for every 1000 gold pieces.  If you get stuck and can't
   move.. you must give your gold to another player or NPC.  Later you
   will be able to drop the gold, but it will disappear when you do.
   Gold is precious. :-)

Alpah 1.00.14b - 9/30/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
 - Leveling in the 2nd class no longer messes up your Mana settings.
 - Casting of Armor Spells no longer replaces entry in skill_array
 - The use of the skill 'sneak' no longer messes up the skill_array.
 - Combat is now harder again.
 - Debug code was removed from the practice command.

Alpha 1.00.14a - 9/27/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Enhancements:
 - It now costs half as much as it did to train in skills or spells.

Bug fixes:
 - Fighter Guild was broken, now it works.
 - Training in a second magical class w/o a first magical class now will
   set your starting mana to a better number than 4.
 - When you train for your second class and you do not have enough experience,
   it will tell you how much more you need to level.
 - When a character died, the attributes changed by spells were made
   permanent.  This is now fixed.
 - Higher level monsters hit way too hard.  Fixed.  Hopefully this time
   it is right.

Alpha 1.00.14 - 9/26/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
NOTE:  This is the last version that will require changes to the character
       files.  The key pieces are now done in the game.  The next version
       will add more skills/spells (not all are implemented in this version) and
       will add some of the stuff that is necessary to complete the game.
       I expect the next version to be the last before we go into Beta.

Enhancements:
 - SCAN can no longer see through doors.  You wanna know what is behind
   the door?  Simple.  Open it. :-)
 - Monsters no longer hit with non-weapon items like caps, etc.
 - Monsters no longer describe hitting players with their fists.
 - All old spells no longer work, you must learn each spell type and be
   of the proper level in order to use them.
 - Combat routines refined in the damage calculations.  Now monsters
   wielding weapons will actually use the damage settings of a weapon,
   plus any magical plus on the weapon, plus the natural skills of the
   monster.  I thought I had done this earlier, but only partially
   completed the work.
 - SCORE command now displays spells & skills effecting the player.
 - Startup program is _much_ smarter about character files.  It will
   recognize old character files and remove them as necessary if they
   are not compatible with the current version.  The player is told
   of their character's demise.  :-)

New Features:
 - New Area:  Pleasante Pointe Acres.  It is not populated yet,
   but will be soon.
 - Nicer looking startup using ANSI.  Game is also now colorized.
 - New Command:  UNLOCK DOOR {direction}
   If you have the proper key, this will allow the player to unlock and
   open the door.  The door will be locked again once it is closed.
 - New Skill:  "Disarm"  (Fighter Only)
   This allows the fighter to disarm another player or NPC.  It should
   be noted that this is considered to be an offesnive skill and combat
   is the result if successful.
 - New Skill:  "Sneak"  (Thief Only)
   This allows the thief to move silently in between rooms.  No
   announcement will be made to the other players when the thief using
   this skill leaves or enters a room.
 - Combat is now weighted in favor of fighters, just to make the class
   more worthwhile.
 - New Skill:  "Steal" (Thief Only)
   The skill allows the thief, assuming he/she has learned this ability,
   to steal from an NPC or another player.  The thief doesn't know what
   he will get, nor can he specify it.  If the thief fails in his attempt
   to steal (which is _VERY_ likely at low level) the person being stolen
   from will be notified.  There are a few problems with this ability
   that the thief should be aware of.  If a thief fails to steal
   an item from a NPC, the NPC will _attack_ the player.  If a thief
   _attempts_ to steal from a player, the 'player killing' rules are no longer
   in effect.  Meaning that if the other player wishes, he may kill the
   thief with no 'killer flag' penalty.  The only way a thief can drop
   the invisible flag to re-activate the player killer rules is for the
   thief to die.  This is put in place to control the stealing of items
   from player characters.  If a thief only attempts to steal from NPCs
   the killer flag protection rules are still in force.
 - New Spell:  "MageArmor"  (Mage Only)
   This spell enables the Magic User to increase his defensive armor class
   by a factor of 2 by casting this spell.  This spell has a duration of
   10 hours.   You must learn this spell in the Mage's Guild.
 - New Spell:  "ClericArmor"  (Cleric Only)
   This spell enables the Cleric to increase his defensive armor class
   by a factor of 2 by casting this spell.  This spell has a duration of
   10 hours.   You must learn this spell in the Cleric's Guild.
 - New Command:  PRACTICE.
   Practice on a line by itself will show you all of the available skills
   that you can learn from your Guildmaster when you are at the Guild.
   You must stand before your Guildmaster in order for this to work.
   An '*' will be displayed by the skills that you know.  To the right of
   the skill name is the mana requirement (if any).  Spells are considered
   skills.
 - New Command:  PRACTICE <skill>
   If you are in the proper guild and are of enough level and have
   enough practices you may learn a skill.  To do this type:
   PRACTICE <skillname> where the skillname is the name of the skill
   you wish to learn.  The guildmaster will then indicate the payment
   he expects for the training.  You must GIVE coins GUILDMASTER where
   coins is the amount requested and practice again to recieve the
   training.  More than one person can give to the Guildmaster to
   reach the total.
 - New Command:  SKILLS
   This will give you a listing of all of your known skills even though
   you are not in a guild.

Bug fixes:
 - Found a big problem with the fseeking code.  Seems that even though
   I specified the offset as a type long, that they were getting changed
   to integer.  This was causing invalid reads in the object file, the
   monster file, and the roomdetail file.  This is now fixed.
 - Monsters no longer can disarm unarmed players.  :-)
 - When you drop or give an object, it will not give or drop the object
   if it is being worn.  You will be told that you don't have that item.
 - Monsters are no longer the money makers they used to be.  They now
   will reset to the correct values upon their death.  :-)
 - When you deposited coins in the bank it would replace your balance
   with the amount specified in your deposit instead of adding it to the
   balance.  Fixed.
 - When magic spells are cast, sometimes the error messages that such and
   such was not here, etc. would be sent to the wrong line.  Fixed.
 - Bug Fix:  This one I didn't believe when reported, but I did find it!
   It seems that if you killed a 'killer' you ended up with a flag anyway.
   Not true now.  Killers beware.
 - Characters that were generated always had the same attributes.  I had
   neglected to call the initialization routine for the random functions.
   This is also fixed in the main program SHADOW.EXE.

Alpha 1.00.13  - 9/19/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Changes:
 - FLEE now requires that the player has movements
 - You don't get hungry and thirsty as often.
 - You can no longer drink from the fountain.

New Features:
 - The Mayor talks.
 - Janitors, Vagabonds & Wino's will do their part to keep the city clean.
   They now pick up objects!
 - New Command:  EAT <objectname>.  You can now eat things!
 - New Command:  DRINK <objectname>.  You can now drink things!
 - The bank is now open.  You have some new commands:
   DEPOSIT {# of coins}  - Deposits coins in the bank.
   BALANCE - Gives current bank balance.
   WITHDRAW {# of coins} - Withdraws coins specified in the bank.
 - New Spell:  CURELIGHT.  This spell will allow the cleric to cast a
   cure light wounds spell on player characters and monsters.  To use
   type:  CAST CURELIGHT <playername> or <npcmane>
 - Monsters now use the weapons they are wielding.  It will give them a
   bigger punch.
 - Monsters can now disarm a player.  Soon you will be able to disarm
   a monster, once skills are added to the game.
 - You will see what weapon a monster is wielding if he has one in use.
 - Weight is now incorporated into the SCORE command.  Bonuses are given
   to those who have a lot of strength who are fighters.
 - Hit Roll + Dam Roll Information will not be updated based on equipment
   and spells cast on a player.
 - New spell:  IDENTIFY.  This spell will allow Magic Users to identify the
   special attributes of an object.  Cost 12 mana.  To use:  type
   CAST IDENTIFY <objectname>

Bug fixes:
 - If a player was in a group and died in the group, the monster would not
   correctly figure out who to hit next.  Fixed.
 - Objects being given to another player would not tell the other player
   that the person giving them the object gave them the object.  However,
   everyone else in the room would be told.  Fixed.
 - Items worn on the neck, or object types > 6 could either report incorrect
   body parts, or would report (null).  Fixed.
 - A bug with remove would improperly identify an item when removed.  Fixed.
 - When grouping someone, the group debug information is no longer displayed.
 - When a player who is leader is killed, the group information was being
   dropped.  This is now fixed.
 - Monsters still get stuck in certain areas.  This time it is really fixed.
 - A bug with wearing items caused it to say such and such was already worn,
   when it wasn't so.  Fixed.
 - When coins are given to another player, third person text could be seen
   by that player.  Fixed.

Alpha 1.00.12b - 9/15/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Changes:
 - The Temple is NOW a complete safe area
 - When you kill something in a group, you will not keep hitting the
   dead corpse

Bug fix:
 - When a character levels, movement values go negative.  Fixed.

Alpha 1.00.12a - 9/14/93 - Shadow Realms
----------------------------------------
Bug fix:
 - Corrected minor memory hit with the LOOK command.

Alpha 1.00.12 - 9/11/93 - Shadow Realms
--------------------------------------
Changes:
 - If you are over 2nd level, you can no longer enter the Arena in
   MUD School.
 - When a character levels, they will now get more hit points than
   before.  This is to even things up with the combat system.  Monsters
   of higher level can kill too easy.  I doubt players will see much
   of a difference if they decide to attack a cityguard at level 3. :-)
 - Monsters no longer hit quite as hard.  We are trying to normalize the
   combat routines a bit.  This should help.
 - Monsters now will recall to their home locations so that monsters do
   not get stuck in one particular area.

New Features:
 - New command: FLEE
   Typing this command will allow you to flee during combat.  Note that
   this function may cause you to lose experience points in the future.
 - New Command:  GROUP
   This command typed by itself will show you the members in your group.
 - New Command:  GROUP <playername>
   This command will allow you to add a member to your group.  The person
   MUST follow you before you can add them to your group.  To remove
   someone from your group, simply type GROUP <playername> again.
 - You can now enter character descriptions when you create your
   character.  If another player looks at you, they will see the
   description you have entered.  You can enter your description
   at the menu that appears when you first enter Shadow.
 - New Command:  SAC  (Sacrifice).
   This command will give the player the ability to clear a room of
   objects.  The gods like a clean and tidy MUD so they award a single
   gold piece to anyone sacrificing an object.   To use type:
   SAC objectname
 - Updated Command:  GIVE.
   You can now type GIVE <amount> playername or monstername.  This
   will give the indicated target the amount of gold you specified.
   This is NOT the same as BUY!  You give and get nothing, but perhaps
   a friend.
 - New Command:  LIST.  While in the shopkeeper's area, you can type
   LIST.  This will show you the products the shop keeper has for sale
   and it's price.
 - New Command: BUY.  Example:  Buy guitar.  This will, if you have
   enough gold, allow you to purchase this item.
 - Improved 'SCORE' command display.
 - Removed hog() from tick, trying raising task priority to see
   if disk thrashing can be avoided this way isntead.  Let us hope.
 - Improved Online diagnostics for the programmer-unit. :-)

Bug fix:
 - Some lines were being processed even though they were not part
   of the game.  It was not effecting other users, simply wasting
   CPU time.
 - Evil ansi monster is now terminated.
 - Characters that were following someone didn't use any movement
   points.  This is now fixed.

Alpah 1.00.11 - 9/7/93 - Shadow Realms
--------------------------------------
This version was a pre-12 version that had a few minor changes.  It
was released to two beta sites to see if the some of the problems
reported on these sites were corrected.

Alpha 1.00.10b - 9/8/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug fix:
  - Biggie bug fix.  STARTUP.EXE had a memory hit that could cause
    system crashes or Halt invalid character messages.  Fixed.

Alpha 1.00.10a - 9/7/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug fix:
  - BIGGIE bug fix.  The mysterious random garbage monster has been
    killed.  I was pulling the wrong queue numbers assuming (or it
    seems) that the only door that anyone would want to run is Shadow. :-)
    I forgot about Warlords.  (grin, if you don't understand this, that
    is ok.)  Big bug fix here folks.

Alpha 1.00.10 - 9/5/93 - Shadow Realms
--------------------------------------
New Features:
  - Updated and resized NPCs.  Many were too powerful, but of course
    this was to be expected since they were done before the combat
    routines were ever written.
  - Monsters that are supposed to be aggressive, now are.  Be warned.
    It is no longer a friendly little city!
  - The Adept in MUD School now talks, and might even heal you!
  - Added new command LOOK objectname.  This will describe the object
    to the player.  Note:  Magic will be necessary to find out the
    special attributes of an object.
  - Added Object Description & code to support them.
  - Monsters & NPCs now have objects
  - Practices are now awarded when a level is gained.
  - Added the ability to FOLLOW character.  This is the prelude to
    being allowed to group.  To use type:  FOLLOW Werjun, where Werjun
    is the name of the character you want to follow.  To turn it off,
    just follow yourself.  If you are Cronis, type FOLLOW CRONIS.
  - Added a few more noises for the consider command.
  - Now if you type an invalid command, you get some sort of feedback
    that seems like garbage.  Tis only fair, you send the game garbage
    commands, the game responds with garbage. :-)

Bug fixes:
  - Nasty bug with player killing was fixed.  It seemed that the game
    would quit when a player would kill another player, and a game shutdown
    would occur if an NPC tried to kill the player.  This is definately
    what was killing the game on Terri's board.
  - Fixed Room 334.  It was missing text.
  - Fixed a potential lock up problem (not sure this problem I fixed was
    happening to anyone, but there was potential) in the scan line routines
    that might cause the main program to lose inq and outq.
  - Fixed a problem with the startup.exe launcher.  It would load two
    copies of the main game if timing was just right.  Perhaps this would
    explain some of the weird stuff that has been going on.

Alpha 1.00.09 - 8/30/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
New Features:
  - New Command:  CONSIDER Player or NPC.  Example:  Consider bloodworm.
    This command will give you an idea how powerful an opponent is.  It
    does NOT take into account your equipment, and it could lie.  After
    all, when you consider something that doesn't mean you are always
    right.  :-)
  - New & Improved Combat Routines.  These routines now take into
    account the weapon you are using, and the armor / clothes you are
    wearing.
  - Death Routines improved.  Now when you die, your objects remain
    where you last had a breath of life.  You had better hurry, or someone
    or something just *might* pick up an item!  (NPC's do not pick up
    items...yet)
  - New Command:  WIELLD weapon.  This command will allow you to wield
    various weapons found around the MUD.  This will improve your attack
    chances and the damage you do per attack.  Later the spell Identify
    will give full statistics on the item.
  - New Command:  LOOK Charactername.  This command will allow you to
    look at another player, see what he/she is wearing, etc.  This will
    get expanded later.
  - New Command:  REMOVE OBJECT.  This command will take off a garment,
    ring, helmet, etc. that you put on with the WEAR command.  This
    command will also remove an wielded weapon if asked too.
  - New Command:  WEAR OBJECT.  This command will wear proper objects
    on the proper places on the body.  The software is smart enough to
    know where they belong on the body.  Wearing clothes, armor, etc.
    will improve your armor class, and therefore improve your defenses.
  - Objects!  You have _NO IDEA_ the hell I went through adding objects
    to this game.  It was 4:30am last night, with the help of some of my
    expert C programmer friends that allowed me to get rid of a nasty bug
    that dogged me for hours.  Anyway, this version sports objects.  There
    will be more objects added in the next release, only a few test
    objects will exist in this version.
  - Objects can be set by the creators of the game (us!) to regenerate
    once they are picked up.  This was needed for MUD school so that
    everyone could get equiped.
  - You can now give objects to NPCs.  The command is:
    GIVE objectname NPCNAME.  Example:  GIVE SWORD BRUTUS
  - You can now give objects to players.  The command is:
    GIVE objectname PLAYERNAME.  Example:  GIVE SWORD WERJUN
  - You may now drop objects by typing DROP OBJECT
  - Doors!  Doors may be opened, and closed.  There can be locked doors
    as well, alas, of course you need to have the proper key, or a good
    thief.  (Picking locks not yet supported)
    To open a door:  OPEN DOOR E
    E = East is the direction.
  - Adult Area, this room is currently going to be distributed as unlocked.
    Later adults will be given a key.  This room is upstairs in the
    No Tell Motel.
  - There is a game room, suitable for online trivia games, etc.
    This room is located somewhere off the street called straight.
  - New Area:  Sewers
  - Completed City with the exception of installing doors, and objects.
  - MUD School now has objects.

Bug fixes:
  - Combat routine would send text that described the combat in a third
    person format to the person who was in the combat.  Fixed.

NOTES:
  - This version does something that many sysops will not be in love with,
    but there was no other way.  200k limit for doors is a limit that is
    tough to work with.  I had to implement a disk based object database,
    and in order for it to work, objects to be regenerated, etc.  Every
    'tick' the game will pause while doing disk activity.  This pause
    could be up to 5 seconds.  I do NOT hog the system during this time,
    so it shouldn't effect those who are not using the disk.  I really
    wish I could have avoided this.  Send all complaints to /dev/null,
    there is NOTHING I can do about it.  Push Herb to OS/2 ! :-)

Alpha 1.00.08 - 8/25/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
  - Major LOCKUP Bug fix.  The game would lock up if the user who
    launched shadow, decided to leave the game.  Now, the inq/outq
    is reset constantly to the last active player currently playing.
  - You can no longer QUIT in the middle of combat.
  - Combat Routines worked on, even more.  Solved the problem
    with multiple players hitting a single monster.
  - When you level, Hit Points will go up permanently, not just for
    a turn.  What was happening was you would get your HP bonus for
    going up a level, but you would lose it when a tick came along
    in the game.
  - Changed Combat speed, should happen quicker between rounds.

Alpha 1.00.07 - 8/25/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
New Features:
  - Finished Tower of Earth and the Tower of Wind
  - Installed Game Room
  - Installed Adult Room (Anyone can enter this version)
  - Created new NPCs
  - Created Mayor's Office
  - Created Jail
  - Created 4 Star Motel & NPCs.

Bug Fixes:
  - Combat routines again.  1.00.06a was really messed up.
  - Combat routines and combat routines.  :-)

Alpha 1.00.06a- 8/25/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
  - Scan no longer shows characters who have left the game.
  - Noise commands, like bow, smile, etc. no longer require you to
    stand up first if resting.
  - Cosmetic Text changes.
  - Trainer will now give some kind of feedback when you try for
    2nd class and you don't have the experience.
  - A few memory hits were found with the title command, fixed.
  - I have added the ability to drink from the fountain at the Sacred
    Fountain, for now, this will allow you to eat and drink.  It will
    be removed later.

Alpha 1.00.06 - 8/24/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
New Features:
  - First Spell has been added, Portal.  Now this spell will only be
    available to high level characters later in the development process,
    but it does need tested, so here it is.  The syntax is:
    cast portal 'playername', this will teleport you to the player's
    location.  It does cost 50 mana (later it will cost 75.)
  - Killer Flags are now implemented.  If you kill another player you
    will *NOT* be rewarded any experience points, further, any NPC will
    look at you and attack you on sight.  How do you know if you are a
    killer?  Simple.  Type 'score'.
  - Monsters can now become aggressive (See Above)
  - Temple Area (Sacred Fountain) is now a 'safe zone'.  NO one may
    attack another player in this area, even if they have a killer
    flag.  NPCs can initiate attacks in the Temple however.  Killers
    have no safe haven.
  - You can now level in any class at the Trainer, instead of just
    Mage.
  - MUD School is now complete and is now populated.
  - The Game has SEX now.  You will be asked the sex of your character
    when you create the character.  No more 'default' 'his' messages.

Bug fixes:
  - Combat Routines worked on.  Now monsters can NOT attack you
    unless you are in the same room as the monster or player.
  - Sometimes combat would not send all of the text to the right
    players, I believe this to be fixed now.
  - Combat between players was *completely* broken in the last
    release.  This release should fix this.

Alpha 1.00.05b- 8/23/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
  - Found a place where data was being sent to a line that was not
    configured.  Made some internal changes to startup.exe in hopes
    that Terri's Display on the console is not going to get trashed
    again.

Alpha 1.00.05a- 8/23/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug fixes:
  - When a player dies, the proper line is sent.  Should eliminate
    the problem with death and no notification.
  - Title Changed message was not being sent to the correct line.  Fixed.
  - HIT monster routine did not send noise to all of the other players
    in the room.  This is fixed.
  - Characters that were asleep could talk, emote, say, tell, gossip.
    Not no more.  Fixed.

Alpha 1.00.05 - 8/22/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
New Features:
  - Added MUD School, this is where new players and old players will
    train to gain levels of experience, and to increase the players
    attributes.  You can also find, if you are a newbie some monsters
    to practice on.  (New badies not implemented this version)
  - TRAIN Command has been added.   You can train the following:
    TRAIN STR  - Strength
    TRAIN INT  - Intelligence
    TRAIN WIS  - Wisdom
    TRAIN CON  - Constitution
    TRAIN DEX  - Dexterity
    TRAIN CHA  - Charisma
    Each Training session that raises an attribute will cost you
    5 practices.
    TRAIN MAGE  - If you have enough experience points, you can train
                  and get a new level.  You can use the word FIGHTER,
                  THIEF, CLERIC as well.  (Only Mage implemented now)
  - HIT command has been added.  You can now HIT <monstername> or
    HIT <playername).  The player stuff has not been tested.  If you
    die, you'll be put back in the temple, losing half of your experience
    points.  If you win, you get the experience points of the other
    player or monster.  (This may change).
  - Monsters & NPCs will regenerate now, so that once they are dead
    after a time, they will reappear in the MUD.
Bug fixes:
  - Corrected the SCAN command, it should work now.  Was sending text
    to the wrong lines.
  - Tell command now will send a prompt to the user who gets a private
    message
  - Tell command now will give you a message telling you that the message
    was indeed sent.  You couldn't tell before.

NOTE:  Since we are in Alpha, many things may change.  Characters *will*
       be deleted in the future.  Please advice your users.

Alpha 1.00.04c- 8/22/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug Fixes:
STARTUP.EXE
  - Corrected NASTY memory corruption bug that *may* have been in there
    for a long time, not sure though.
  - Removed my calloc() call from startup so that I would NOT get bit
    again by the miserable FALKEN support for Turbo C doors.  I am now
    pre-allocating my data structures just like SHADOW.EXE does.  No
    more nasties on Terri's board now.  Thanks again to Terri, a trooper
    she is, I ruined one whole evening of hers!


Alpha 1.00.04 - 8/21/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
New Features:
  - NPCs now have larger descriptions when they are in the room with you.
  - LOOK command has been expanded, now you can say LOOK <npcname> and
    a text description will be given.  Example:  LOOK THIEF
  - Added support for the TELL command.  The tell command will allow you
    to talk to another user in private.  Type 'tell <user> <text>' and
    if the user is playing, he will see the text.  Use the game player name,
    not the FALKEN Handle.
  - Added support for death.  :-)
  - You can now get hungry and thirsty.
  - If you don't eat or drink, you'll die.  Of course, eating and drinking
    is not possible yet.
  - Added support for EMOTE <text>.  You type EMOTE dances and everyone
    will see 'Cronis dances'.  This is a way to generate your own noises.
  - Added Movement costs.  Now movement will require movement points.
  - Added Movement Regeneration.  Standing little is generated, sitting
    and sleeping provides greater regeneration.
  - Added Hit Point Regeneration
  - Added Mana (Magic Power) Regeneration
  - Added SCAN command.  This command will tell you who is in the
    adjacent areas 1 square away.  Ideal for checking out an area *before*
    you enter it.
  - NPCs are now saved in current position when the game is exited, this
    will prevent those who might expect someone who normally roams around
    from being reset by the players.
  - Object Database memory has been allocated for
  - WHO command now shows the chosen class of each player

Bug fixes:
  - Various rooms maps were incorrect, these have been fixed.
  - Added check for u_stat to make sure that user is really in a door
    when the sweep is made to determine who is playing and who is not.

Alpha 1.00.03 - 8/15/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------
Bug fix:
  - Corrected problen with RECALL Command acting up.
  - Corrected the Noise commands so that proper characters get notified
    when things happen.  This did not always work.

Alpha 1.00.02 - 8/14/93 - Shadow Realms
---------------------------------------

New Features:
  - Brand New City added.
  - NPCs now exist.
  - NPCs move from room to room.
  - Added Kiss, Hug, bow, curtsey, point, grin commands
  - Expanded Help list and removed help from within program to an
    external file.

Changes:
  - Modified the say/gossip commands so that you can enter much longer
    text.  There still remains a problem with Herb's line wrapping code
    that we will have to just live with.  Basically, if the line of text
    is entered and the system forces a carriage return, use this to indicate
    when you should press return on a say or gossip.
  - Main game will shutdown much more reliably than before.

