What's New in the Terradome
What's New in the TerradomeTerradome Dorset WeekendFemnaziWeb Links |
Chuck Norris/HobbitWhy Ask Why?True StoriesComputer News
|
What's New in the Terradome
The biggest change to occur with the Terradome was its move to Duroc in Denmark. The site at Brookes College, Oxford had to be abandoned when access to the server was withdrawn from Boogie. Fortunately, Duroc was already being used as our Web site and more substantially was being prepared as a replacment for the Brookes site. The plan had been to move to Duroc around September and so when the problems occured at Brookes, only a few weeks of play were lost. One unfortunate result was that the player files were out of date by 2 weeks when Duroc finally went live. However, it was decided that players would have their score compensated if they notified a member of the court.
After some considerable work on the Code Team's part we are now proud to declare that The Terradome is now STABLE!!! Oh yes, o ye of little faith. The game has not crashed in over a month now :)
Some old zones have disappeared only to be replaced with newer ones. Gobozz with its Painting quest is no more so gone is the chance for all those lazy players [like me, Ed.] to get armed up with the stuff in the house in the forest. Introduced in its place are the Citadel (moderate) quest and Beilefeld (average) quest. Both are worth checking out and it's nice to see those pesky dwarves conspiring to prevent players working out the clues! The large Hamelin zone was brought in at the beginning of the Summer and 3 new quests located around it will be available soon. Nibelung has been fixed so I expect lots of players to start tackling that as soon as possible. You will all also be pleased that Abyss is now possible to be completed by a mortal, a few lating bugs there have been fixed.
Player levels used to be based on credits banked. This has now been changed to what experience they have. 5,000 quest points is now equivalent to level 12 so for all those players previously on level 11 with just 100 quest points, well, they're gonna have to get over the shock of being back on level 2. Ah well, never mind! Note that to move to level 12 also needs 250,000 credits! This change was made in an effort to make our game unique in ABER sytle muds and also reflect our continueing effort to offer a stimulating challenge to players. Credits will now be important to get you through the game by buying, selling and repairing armour at the stores (see below).
We realise that at the moment there may not be enough available quests to satisfy everyone, but we are in a stage of drastic enlargment of The Terradome. We have stock piled a number of GOOD, QUALITY zones and quests that will be introduced in the coming months.
Gohl has taken over as Emporer over the Summer and this will continue to last for the foreseeable future. Working enthusiastically with Boogie and Luckyspin, who is now Overlord, they have managed to make the Terradome more stable than it has ever been. New zones, code and scoring system have been slickly introduced making the Terradome even more unique.
Gly, Astar, Vardick and Lukie have all been busy with their 'real' work and so will be working more behind the scenes but hope to call in as often as possible. Vert, meanwhile, is back and gearing up to fully update the Web Site with Luckyspin, while also joining the Coding Team. Lucas is now Master, taking over the role of editor of Freewheeling from Luckyspin.
Finally Breezer and Babygirl have made it to Counsel while Hydran and Azrael are now Apprentices. Congratulations!
The old scoring system is now based on credits banked. Killing a mobile results in a credit appearing which the player collects. All collected credits combine into one large credit which can be pitted or deposited at the banks which are based at the Village, Beilefeld and Hamelin. With these credits a player can now buy items from the three shops, also based in Hamelin, Beilefeld and the Village.
Well I suppose the first question you are asking is that why is breezer the eternal apprentice writing the report for the 'Infamous' (it was to those who went) STUDLAND WEEKENDER .......
For two reasons really, one because anyone can write for the freewheelin' magazine (remember that) and two me old mate O-Lord Luckyspin, as he likes to be known has set it as part of my clave quest!
(At this stage I will make it clear that I will be using character names and not real names so that ppl reading this article who do not personally know the Terrdome Clave and Court personally can still make some sense of it all!!)
I will begin this report by giving a brief breakdown of what was SUPPOSED to happen over that weekend...
FRIDAY EVENINGMeet in Oxford, at Chez Astar for a Terradome 'No Geek Meet', this would basically take the form of a bar-b-que and piss up with a general sort of reunion type feel to it, as it was supposed to be a weekend for the High Clave/ Court and their nearest and dearest to relax and hopefully get away from it all for a bit (PC's with mobile phones and modem's strictly prohibited!)
The next interesting question is that how did breezer (at the time at level11 mortal) get on to this meet in the first place? Well to cut a long story short the night b4 the the departure, i was crusing the net because the Terradome had crashed (what crashed again?! surely not!) I was playing PURGATORY when I met up with the one and only Dave McGhee (sounds like a chat show host.) alias BOOGIE, and thats basically how i got on the trip.
A list of ppl that were there.
FRIDAY NIGHTIt turned out to be a festival of idle banter and gerenal merriment with everyone trying to avoid the TD word in order to protect the innocent by standers (the girlies) from total and utter boredem.
As you can probably imagine trying to avoid a subject with is really the only common denominator is somewhat difficult, in any case back to the story it got to about dunno 11ish I think and the plans were beginning to take shape.......
(SUBLIMINALLEARNING:FROBBREEZERCOUNCILFROBBREEZERCOUNCIL)
The next 4 hours were mainly made up of v. high speeds down the M4 and very silly driving games like the hiding in layby gag, hazard lights, wrong indication and the Boogie favourite GETTING TOTALLY LOST! In an attempt to lose the Lucky Car (for he gave us the impression that he knew where we were supposed to be going) it wasnb't until we were totally up sh*t creek with no canoe never mind a paddle that the eternal words were.....
"Who fancies the Dorcester Road?, no or maybe Poole?, no or maybe Ringwood?"
It was at this stage that I realised that I was stuck in a small car with a mad internet technician, a navigating stalwart (with no map), somewhere in between London and Exeter!
Well, it was at this stage where i did i must admit, begin to lose all hope of ever getting there never mind within the few hours....... but then through the doom and glooom of the dorset country lanes came civilization! well a petrol station which the afore mentioned creator got out, asked for directions (which were duely given) and we proceed 5mins down the road to a small village which actually turned out to be where we were staying (amazing) and this outstanding achievement was only overshadowed by the fact that when we eventually found the 'caravan' in which we were staying THE LUCKYSPIN CAR HAD BEATEN US THERE!!!
(SUBLIMINALLEARNING:FROBBREEZERCOUNCILFROBBREEZERCOUNCIL)
Well after all the trials and tribulations of the day and night it was time to hit the sack.
SATURDAYThis was to be are only full day at this luxury holiday appartment so we decided to make the most it. A bright sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, temperature reaching the 80f, so what else is there to do on a day like today but to go DOWN TO THE BEACH!!
As you can imagine it was a horrific mixture of white scottish legs with a greek after taste (private joke).
The proceedings started by who would be the first into the water the betting was as follows
| Boogie | 5/2 | favourite |
| Luckyspin | 7/4 | |
| Breezer | 8/1 | |
| Vert | 21/2 | |
| Jo | 25/1 | |
| Clare | 50/1 | |
| Isabel | 200/1 | Outsider |
As soon as the favourite had made his move gradually one by one they all followed, ah, but did they? a certain stalwart was lingering by the shoreline with no real conviction. I blame the Vert himself for the frakkar than resulted. Honey was flatly refusing to enter the water above ankle height so LORD VERT took him upon himself (and some help from his friends) to introduce the afore mentioned lady the realms of the deep ( a by 'eck she's a wriggler!! well dave would know all about that wouldnt you!!!! - all questions MudMailed to Boogie)
You can imagine it, ball games, swimming, sun barsking, all the usual stuff but then the boogster and the breeze lad became restless and agreed that a small walk maybe the order of the day, unaware of what was awaiting them just 5mins up the beach..........
We (Boogie and I) started walking along the beach just chatting about the things that you do, how do you kill chicken licken, has any1 ever done the Glacier quest?, why is vardick such a moody ar*e. When we saw it.
I looked at Boogie, and he look at me, do we turn back and of course ruin a perfectly good walk or do we as true winners should, press on regardless. Well there is no guesses what one of the two were approved.
To begin with, it was somewhat tame a few 60 yrs olds here and there but as we progressed deeper in the 'field' (still fully trunks up) we began to receive the type of stares a bacon sandwich would get at a bar mitzvah! (no religous pun indended) I could feel the daggers getting worse and worse and by the time Mr Mcghee (Boogie) had said "i think i need a new pair of swimming scats" for the ones he was wearing were becoming somewhat snug (it was rumoured that this was in fact due to a certain pair of fine young ladies partaking in the spirit of nudity) but he maintained that his trunks were quite old and in need of replacement...... *HMM* We'll leave you to make the conclusions from that one.
It was at this stage that the pressure to either DROP 'EM or return to homebase became too much, relutantly we retraced our rather worn steps at quite a brisk pace (unsuprisingly) removing daggers from back as we went! (hehe). This small episode in the in weekend prompted us into coding a quite a nice little piece of pan handleing which I am sure you will bump in to on the beach?!
That evening, we decided that the best way to end a generally good trip to the dorset undergrowth was to partake in a BarBQ. Never, in the field of human decency have so many innocent chicken wings, spare ribs and cold beers, fallen for so little..........
FemnaziHere is the latest list of useful courses offered to men of all marital statuses through the Femnazi Institute. Please note that the names of some classes have been changed. Attendance in at least ten of the following courses is mandatory . . . so, don't delay! Register today!
[Well, I've put myself down for FN37...Maybe then I'll stop using the word chicks, Ed.]
| Spy Camera voyeurism | Declassified! | Yucky! |
| Tackiest place in America | Weird & Weirder! | The Confessional |
| 1000 by 2000 | X-Files FBI Site | Snowball Fight! |
| Fluxus | Travel with a Twist | The Hub |
| Private Eye | Liquorice Allsorts | Natural History Museum |
| Casino in Cyberspace | Hypermedia E-Zine | Heaven for Bass Players |
| WWW Yellow Pages | Internet Presence | Fax Server |
| Tools for Windows | Techno Junkies | The Internet Group |
| Silicon Graphics | Cyberca fes | FutureNet |
IN A WORLD WHICH HAS BOMBED ITSELF
BACK INTO THE MIDDLE AGES,
THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO STOP A DRAGON...
CHUCK NORRIS
is
TTTTTT HH HH EEEEEE
TT HH HH EE
TT HHHHHHH EEEEEE
TT HH HH EE
TT HH HH EEEEEE
HH HH OOOOOOO BBBBBBB BBBBBBBB IIII TTTTTT
HH HH OO OO BB BB BB BB II TT
HHHHHHH OO OO BBBBBB BBBBBB II TT
HH HH OO OO BB BB BB BB II TT
HH HH OOOOOOO BBBBBBB BBBBBBBB IIII TT
Inspired by the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien
IT IS THE THIRTIETH CENTURY... A thousand years have passed since
the Great War of Fire, when the world bombed itself back into the
Middle Ages. Civilisation has vanished, perhaps forever. In its
place, Orcs - vicious gangs of mutants on motorcycles - terrorise
the decent folk of the world ... mutant dragons guard fabulous
hoards of the old technology ... In this savage world, there's
only one certainty - only the biggest, the baddest and the
meanest will survive...
[Err, that's enough of this...getting too silly...far too silly, Ed.]
A major (un-named) American Airline, in an effort to curb the threat of terrorism hired two psychiatrists to act as security gaurds patrolling airport terminals for signs of suspicious behaviour. Within minutes of them going on duty, one of the psychiatrists arrested the other.
A Dutch veterinarian was fined 600 guilders (about $240) for causing a fire that destroyed a farm in Lichten Vourde, the Netherlands. The vet had been trying to convince a farmer that his cow was passing flatulent gas; to demonstrate, the vet ignited the gas, but the cow became a "four legged flame thrower" and ran wild setting fire to bales of hay. Damage to the farm was estimated at $80,000. The cow was unharmed.
"Make no mistake", a spokesman for the Bangladesh Secondary School examination board told shock reporters at a press conference in Dhaka "we are determined to stamp out cheating during examinations, and these isolated incidents will only strengthen our resolve". During questioning, however, the spokesman admitted that during the first 10 days, just over 4,000 students had been expelled for cheating, or for physical attacks on monitors. 24 invigalators have been hospitalised and a further 47 suspended for illegally helping students. He also admitted that some exams had to be abandoned due to bombs found in the halls and because one teacher was hacked to death because he found a student cheating. Asked who was responsible the spokesman blamed the parents. "They insist on sitting in with their children and helping them with the answers. And, being bigger and stronger, they usually commit the most violent atrocities on the monitors. The ones sitting geography papers are the worst. They're vicious!"
Interesting NewsRumours of troubles at Apple have the PR folk at the company making glorious press statements of how rosy everything is. However, poor sales (turnover down 1.6%) and a serious shortage of PowerPC chips (there is a $1 billion backlog of orders to fill) are making senior management fear for their jobs. Word is out that it's not just a matter of if, but rather when IBM take over. Some analysts say it could be within weeks but the main sticking problem of large management pay-offs could set the take-over date back to 1996. Also, expect OS/2 to be dumped by IBM in favour of son of System 7.
Just when you thought you felt secure with your anti-virus software think again. The latest viruses, first identified as macros attached to Microsoft Word documents, are getting the computer industry in a real fix. The first virus, known as Prank by Microsoft, was harmless and a detection program is available at http://www.microsoft.com. But with the virus undetectable from normal anti-virus programs, which search program files and the boot sector of disks, rumours of more malignant macros are focusing everyones attention to the possible dangers of downloading information from the internet. So it seems that if you use Microsoft Word, watch out! Get the free detection software and keep up to date with the latest happenings.
Netscape have released version 1.22 of Netscape Navigator but before people have time to download it, they announce the release of Netscape Navigator 2. Taking a leaf from the Microsoft book of how to stay ahead of the competition and maintain a virtual monopoly, N2 introduces features such as built-in Web authoring and editing tools, client-side image mapping, and support for the Progressive JPEG file format which loads images up to three times faster than GIF files. Support for Java ap-lets and in-line plug-ins that support Adobe Acrobat and QuickTime Video means that all those people who said that Netscape could not maintain their 80% share of the market may have to eat their words.