-= MajorMUD NEWS =-



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Moderated by:                                       Published by:
Shannon Stewart & Jeff Hinds                       METROPOLIS Inc.
mailto:[email protected]                          www.majormud.com

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June 1, 2001                                       Issue # IV
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Recommend a friend & be entered to WIN $10,000 and a Sony DVD Player!
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=855441
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= C O N T E N T S =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

-=The Real Realm
	-=New Game Designer Coming
 	-=New Message Forum Format
 	-=MajorMUD Survey
 	-=War on Piracy

-=Latest Version Updates
 	-=Mod9 Developer Interview
 	-=Mod9 Teaser
 	-=Mod Sale 50% OFF

-=WorldGroup Sysop News Update
 	-=The Rose: Council of Guardians

-------------------------- SPONSOR MESSAGE ---------------------------


Reach for the stars! Join our family on Galaxy BBS. Friendly people who
are willing to help you get started and help get levels with exp runs
with the big guys! We have coffee every Friday night, whether its a
cookout or at restraunts. Come see for yourself. The first month is
free. If you decide this is the place for you then it is $5 a month per
char or you can pay by the year for $36 and save!!!  Our telnet
address is telnet://24.183.129.128 We offer trivia and trade wars also...



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= New Game Designer =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



CONGRATULATIONS! Shannon & Isaac on Baby #2
The new game designer will be due sometime in February. :)



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= New Message Forum Format =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


The new message forum is now LIVE and provides a lot of the features 
people have been asking for, as well as some better administrative 
tools for our side of things.

http://www.metropolis.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi

One of the features I'd like to point out in this forum is the button
at the top left that says + Expand Threads. If you click on that,
it will redisplay the forum in the same format this one has, with
the whole tree listing for messages. Additionally, each message
individually, when you go into it, has an tree listing of responses,
like messages do in this forum.

One of the things that's different is that this forum will require
you to create a "profile". That means names will be registered,
so no one can imitate you. You can view posts without having to
create a profile, but to post you have to make one.

If you have any questions about the new forum format, please feel
free to e-mail me mailto:[email protected]



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= MajorMUD SURVEY =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Please take our 1-Minute Survey.

http://www.majormud.com/cgi-bin/survey/survey1.cgi


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= War On Piracy =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

At Metropolis, we're concerned about pirated software, and here is 
why you should be too. Legit BBS Sysops invest too much time and money 
into their systems to watch pirates steal customers away from them by 
offering free rates and all the latest mods which are not paid for.

The abuse from pirates has taken its toll. The MajorMUD community 
pays the price for the crimes of pirates through higher BBS prices 
and more expensive modules. This eventually drives sysops out of 
business and players are limited to the choices of boards to play on.

Many pirated BBS�s are fly by night, unstable and can disappear 
without warning. Therefore, the customer loses out by playing on such 
unstable and unreliable systems.

The campaign to fight piracy has been a direct result of casualties 
from cracked, hexed, edited and pirated bulletin board systems. 
Victim's stories range from the hijacking of player�s characters, 
misuse of Sysop powers to corrupt mudops killing new characters. 
Sysops and players have joined together in the War against Pirates.

Hopefully these reasons will diminish the temptation for players to 
play pirated boards.

Protect yourself and the MajorMUD community by making others aware 
of our War Against Pirates campaign.

Learn how you can help ->
http://www.majormud.com/piracy.html


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Latest Version Updates =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


	-=Mod9 Developer Interview


Long ago in a forgotten land, there was a Dwarf Paladin, who aspired to
become godlike. Were he pious enough he would realized his foolishness,
but he was stubborn, and blind to the ways of divinity.

His journey began in the town of Silvermere where he was befriended by a
Dark-elven Bard, and a Dwarf Paladin like himself, who believed he had
the power of a god already, but that is another story.

Joined into the House of Lords did our hero do, and on many adventures 
did he go. On a particular adventure the House determined to ransack the 
dark cave of the goblins, drawing straws it was determined that our hero 
would be the pack mule, and so he has forced to bear the weight of hordes 
of copper and silver thereafter. So great was the weight upon his 
shoulders be likened himself to a mighty bull, carrying anything upon his 
broad shoulders. However the strain was so much that it weighed upon his 
brain as well.

On one such excursion he was struck with delirium, and soon began to Moo 
to all he saw, and went into a berserking rage, slaying all the goblins 
they encountered, who were in fits of confusion by this Mooing madman.

So enraged was he that a nearby torch set fire to him, and he did not
notice it, so insane had he become. Through some form of luck he and his
companions made it out alive, carrying out easily two thousand gold a 
piece from their raid.

As they shared drinks at the Homely Hearth his friends determined from 
that point onward he would be known as the Flaming Cow God of DOOM. For 
he carried a bull's share, had lived through flame, and brought doom 
upon all he saw.

This pleased him for he believed this proved he was destined for divinity,
he would find out how mortal he was, but that is another story....

Isaac Stewart, the aforementioned Dwarf Paladin, and MajorMUD Game
Designer, born in Spokane, Washington, was introduced to MajorMUD by 
a school friend in the late 90's. Stewart began designing MajorMUD 
in 1999 before Metro purchased the game from West Coast Creations (WCC).

Isaac contracts with Metro part time while programming full time with a
Kansas City public health company. He's designed areas for various 
DIKUs that he played intermittently and Dungeon Mastered for a few 
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.

Isaac's screen name IZaK, is basically his real life name with
capitalization just for some extra pinnache. The labyrinth is his 
favorite place because "it has puzzles, teleporters, and a handful of 
boss monsters."

Isaac has worked on the development of MajorMUD since modules seven and
eight and says, "patience and dedication are most important in being a 
game developer." His wife, Shannon a.k.a. Rhune, Metropolis Sysop, Customer 
Service and Co-Developer describes him, "As a developer, he's constantly 
striving to bring more depth and quality to majormud, and I think people 
will see that especially in this next mod."

Mod 9 is most similar to Module's 2 "The Cursed Ruins" and 4 "Terror From
Below". Isaac continues, "The concept for Module 9 started with an area
not to common in MUD currently."

Isaac explains that Mod 9 will bring all the things people look for in a
mod: "excitement, death, exploration, death, challenges, death. The main
alignment quest, a few class based, and a few more for the hell of it."

"After Module 9 is released, we plan on reworking a lot of the code that's
causing harm to the game and players. There's issue's involving combat in
general that need some serious time devoted so I expect the last chapter of
the Dark Mage's prophecy won't be completed until most of those issues are
addressed. This doesn't mean there will be another long drought of
releases, much like 1.11f and 1.11g there will be updates that carry extra 
additions to existing area's that will give the players something new 
between Modules. I hope everyone enjoys Module 9 as much as I enjoyed 
making it. Part of the reason Mod 9 is taking more time to develop is 
it's the second largest module ever, behind Module 4. Isaac jokes, "it 
will be out before Christmas."

In response to us asking what he thought of his wife Shannon's role with
Metropolis, Stewart says, "She has more patience towards BBS users and
Sysops than any I know could ever have, and she's been devoted to the
success of Metropolis and MajorMUD since I've known her."

IZaK met Rhune playing MajorMUD and he recalls, "This foul mouthed
miscreant was talking poorly to the fair Shannon, so like any good
Missionary I layth the smacketh down."

Shannon says about IZaK, "As a player he was a skilled pvper but not
a bully - as you can see we met cause someone was picking on me and he
leaped to my defense, and promptly killed them."

Stewart says the biggest prank he's played on the BBS's is, "I killed
someone near the minotaur champion and stashed all his eq in the chest
room, he had no idea the door could be picked so he waited awhile to get
all his goodies back."

Off topic we asked what one of the funnier episodes in his life was and
he replied humorously with A Night's Tale: "I was at a party and decided
to try dying my hair. I was going for dark blue but it ended up smurf blue.
It was practically impossible to wash out so I went to some 24 mart and got
dark red dye instead, that turned out ok, so I hung around until dawn,
came home, and crashed. My dad woke up getting ready for work when he
checked on me and only saw my dark red hair sticking out from the blankets.
He called me later asking who the red head I brought home was, and didn't
believe that it was me with my dyed hair until he got back from work."

Isaac says he enjoys a good deathmatch, watching TV, reading books. "I
don't really focus on one band or music genre, here's the last few CDs I've
listened to: Lateralus by Tool, II by Led Zep, Insomniac by Green Day,
Disintegration by The Cure, Zydeco by Various Artists."

"The last movie I saw in the theatre was Blow and The Mummy Returns. Other
movies include Grosse Point Blank, Star Wars, Star Trek, Lock, Stock and
Two smoking barrels, and Princess Bride" said Isaac.

"Other games I've recently played" Stewart continues, "are Playstation -
NBA Live 2k, Driver, Castlevania, SotN PC - Shogun: Total War, Sacrifice
and Baldur's Gate 2."


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= TTTEEEEeeeaaasssseeerrr =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


	-=Mod9 Teaser

There I was, wandering the graveyard, obeying the power that summoned me.
Suddenly out of the blue...
Cyan walks into the room from the west.
Cyan moves to attack you!
Cyan slice and dices you for 39 damage!
Purification burns you with divine power for 15 damage!
Cyan critically slice and dices you for 142 damage!
Purification burns you with divine power for 25 damage!
Cyan slice and dices you for 37 damage!
Purification burns you with divine power for 13 damage!
Cyan slice and dices you for 33 damage!
Purification burns you with divine power for 14 damage!
Cyan swings at you with his Darkbane, but you dodge the attack!
a cyan
*Combat Engaged*
You smack Cyan for 3 damage
You absorb the energy from Cyan for 8 damage!
You lash at Cyan, but he dodges out of the way!
You smack Cyan for 7 damage!
You absorb the energy from Cyan for 15 damage!
You lash at Cyan, but he dodges out of the way!
You smack Cyan for 7 damage!
You absorb the energy from Cyan for 12 damage!
You lash at Cyan with your tendril!
You smack Cyan for 5 damage!
You absorb the energy from Cyan for 8 damage!
Cyan critically slice and dices you for 107 damage!
Purification burns you with divine power for 12 damage!
Cyan critically slice and dices you for 114 damage!
Purification burns you with divine power for 17 damage!
You let out a howl before withering into oblivion

The master will be most displeased that someone has discovered Darkbane...

The townsman looks at you grimly, "Indeed this town was once one of the
larger fishing and farming towns in the area, and then horrors fell upon us.
People you helped bury just days a go arose, hungry for your flesh." He
shudders violently, "Friends you've known for years acting strangely, eating 
strange things." He gets a wild look in his eyes envisioning his tale. "Some
say we're all being punished for something, some curse placed upon us, I know
not, only that we will most likely die before the next winter."
He gives a slight chuckle, obviously committed to his dark fate.



-------------------------- SPONSOR MESSAGE ---------------------------

SHOP & SAVE on the Hottest Console Games!
http://www.gameport.com/consolegames/

   -Nintendo
   -Game Boy
   -PlayStation
   -Sega Dreamcast



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= MajorMUD MOD SALE =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

50% OFF Selected MajorMUD Modules begins Monday, June 4, 2001
Check web site Monday for link and details.

http://www.MajorMUD.com


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= WORLDGROUP NEWS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

-=SYSOPS    The Rose: Council of Guardians

The development team that has been working on The Rose for us, have
set up a forum for Rose specific discussion and questions. This forum
is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RoseCoG.  Steven Clementi has a
new post that he's hoping you sysops who currently run The Rose or
were ever considering running The Rose, to come in and look at and
respond to.  There's also an open invite to come and see the new
version they are working on.  We are considering this a re-release of
the game, since it will be drastically different than before.


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GET EXPOSED!!!

Interested in Advertising in the MajorMUD Newsletter or on Metropolis
web sites.

E-mail mailto:[email protected] for an automatic response for more
info.

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Metropolis Inc. 8650 College Blvd. Overland Park, KS 66210