Arelith Updates!

[DM Starfish]

From Kroatius

• Weapon textures should be back to normal now

[Twohand]

From Twohand

CORDOR

• Minor visual update for the city guard and the exterior of the palace. The descriptions of regular guards and elite guards were written by Eira!

PLANE OF SHADOWS

• Moved the Temple of Mask's quarter sign inside the actual quarter.

GYLDENHEIM

• Destruction, Forge, and Knowledge domain clerics can no longer hijack the huge, unfinished Adamantine Golem with Turn Undead.

[DM Starfish]

From Starfish

Fishing Changes

• Default Fish can no longer be caught and gutting them will only give guts and bones
• Every instance of the default fish has been replaced with one of the following ten specimens, which are new:
  • Pibblewhack
  • Juvenile Hetfish
  • Deep Cardinal
  • Mudfish
  • Sunset Whiskerfish
  • Greechslug
  • Igloo Whelk
  • Frost Puffer
  • Northern Frogfish
  • Isaac's Shading
• Fishing now has sound effects, feedback is appreciated

From Starfish

Gonne Changes

• Firing a gonne now has sound effects, feedback is appreciated

From Twohand

FIXES

• The Sibayad Desert Fort now counts as an actual guildhouse. Includes a few interior visual tweaks.
• Updated Snetchum, the henchman in the Underdark Silver Mines, to use the new Hobgoblin model.
• Recall Rods should work again in the new Deep Wells areas, like the Silent Frontier.
• Restored the animation of scarves and pelt cloaks.

[DM Starfish]

• The garlic and salt fixtures are now live, finally.
• There is an issue with the garlic curve using the wrong model and I will submit a fix for that soon.

[Hoodoo]

Next Reset:

New players can now craft wands and utilize essences.

Added new alias for /focus_bar: /fb

[Twohand]

From Twohand

GEMS

• After the next server reset, many crafting recipes will start using the new rare gems. The wiki will take some time to be updated, but in the meantime, refer to the Astrolabe's Crafting Compendium.

[Hoodoo]

From Hoodoo (Scripting), Starfish (ModelWork)
Special thanks to ShadGuy (https://www.dreunoctem.com/) and WilliamDraco for advice and assistance!

Additional thanks to all the players/staff members that gave feedback.

Two Week Trial
Typing Indicators (Quackers)

Currently live on PGCC, live on servers next reset.

Typing indicators, or quackers, are pretty straightforward. You have a small bubble above your head indicating whether or not you are typing.

If you wish to opt-out entirely, please use the command "/quack both off"

Along with this comes a new command for user prefences:
-quack (-qu) [self|all|both|status] [on|off]
Each parameter is aliased as well, please use /quack ? in-game for a more detailed explanation, for an overview, however:

/quack self - Allows you to control the visibility of your typing indicator to others. If you do not wish to let other players know you're typing simply run "/quack self on"

/quack all - Allows you to control the visibility of typing indicators AT ALL. If you disable this, you will not see typing indicators on yourself or ANYONE else.
Note: It may take a while to update if you're in the same area. A quick workaround is to take a transition/reconnect and it will stay removed until you decide to enable it again.

This is on a limited 2 week trial run, after which we will evaluate all feedback, positive AND negative, and act appropriately. There are features that can be implemented to improve it, some of it is set in stone, but all of it depends on your feedback. Thank you.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46025

[Hoodoo]

From Hoodoo

Live next reset, live currently on PGCC

/quackstyle

Allows you to customize the size/animation of your quacker. Note: You can only use this if you have the "all" flag on.
4 options for size:
Very Small
Small (Default)
Medium
Large (What it was previously)

Two options to control animation:
static: No animation
dynamic: Animated

Small quackers are now the default.
Screenshots are Very Small -> Large

See /quackstyle ? for some extra info.

Bugfix: Fixed sticky quackers (I hope, report if they continue)

Also important note: Preferences are being reset because for the aforementioned bugfix. You may have to disable it again if you had done so already previously.

Thank you for the feedback so far, it's being read and looked at by me and others. Please continue letting us know what worries you have, what problems you encounter, what you think is bad and what is good etc.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46025

[Hoodoo]

Live Next Reset

Fixed an edge case of new players not being allowed to cast hostile spells at themselves.
Fixed PGCC causing NPR to hit.

[Hoodoo]

Live now
Trial Update

---

Typing indicators should not appear when sending tells.
This does not include manually typing /t... but includes all go-to methods people use to converse in tells.

Don't forget to leave feedback
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46025

[Hoodoo]

From Hoodoo
Quacker Trial

Live next reset

• New /quack parameter [on|off|toggle]
  [toggle]: Toggles your specified choice.

e.g.

/quack self toggle : Toggles from on if you had it off, and vice versa.

• /quack status has been updated to show your style/delay/timelimit preferences too

• New /quackstyle parameters [delay|timelimit] [#]
  e.g.
  /quackstyle delay 5 : When you first start typing, there will be no quacker... but will appear after 5 seconds of continuous chatbar focus.

e.g.
/quackstyle timelimit 10: There will be a quacker when you first start typing, but if you take 10 seconds or longer to type, it will dissapear.

These can be used in conjunction (Not sure if there's a use-case but it's there)
e.g.
/quackstyle delay 2
/quackstyle timelimit 4

Start typing, no quacker for 2 seconds, quacker appears for 2 seconds, then it goes away.

• Added Quacker functionality.

/associate command support, familiar possession support.

Whisper/DM channels will not enable the quacker anymore, with a caveat.
Since there's no active way to actually detect what a player is typing, I implemented a method that I think works for people who use the whisper channel for extended conversations.

When you first send a message to the whisper channel, it'll apply a lock to your quacker, assuming that you want to continue talking in there. From then on, you will not have your quacker appear for the duration of whisper channel chatter. When you want to bring it back, you talk in any normal channel again. It won't appear for one message, but will appear normally right after the first one. Same as the DM channel

Don't forget to leave feedback on the above.
I plan on adding a preference to the whisper functionality, but for now it's enabled for those who use quackers.
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46025

[Hoodoo]

Reminder RE: Quacker/Typing Indicator Update

This entire trial was designed to be opt-in/opt-out out of respect for players preferences. While it has not been a particularly problematic issue (From what we can see), I thought that I would address this before it goes on any further as we have received a few reports about people asking others to turn their quackers on.

Do NOT do this!

Respect their decision to keep it disabled. Do not guilt-trip, do not say "Try it for the trial", do not think you know better than them. If you genuinely enjoy it, that's good. Leave your feedback in the thread and discuss it with others that also have feedback. But remember that a majority of the players here are adults that know what they want and putting them in the uncomfortable position of having you ask them to turn on an OOC mechanic that could potentially be problematic for them is simply unacceptable.
This is a reportable offence, if this has happened to you, please inform DMs/Active Admins on the forums or via e-mail.

[DM Starfish]

From Starfish, next reset

Bulk Kaeth Beans

We already had a bulk recipe!

Other recipe changes

• Eggs to Blood alchemy recipe is being removed
• Removing the worst of the two Sweetberry to Sugar recipes (7/4 variant)

[backlands]

From backlands and the team

Reports and Requests to the DM Team

We've completed development of a dedicated interface for players to submit reports and requests to the DM team. This means that going forward all player reporting and requests to the DM's are made via the Astrolabe, not the forums. This can be found under the "Help" section of the Astrolabe, with new submissions through the "New Request / Report" button.

https://astrolabe.nwnarelith.com/help

The options for the type of report or request are fully categorized, feel free to let us know if you find something that doesn't fit any of the existing categories.

The Server Rules

As part of the new system the rules for the server are now also included in the Astrolabe at the following link. This page will become our defacto source going forward for reference by players.

https://astrolabe.nwnarelith.com/rules

Forum Private Messages

Note that reports for exploits as well as requests directly to the server Admin's should continue to be made via the Forums or arelith.server@gmail.com as usual. In the future this may change but for now this update only affects the DM process.

[backlands]

On Duplicate Reports in the Astrolabe

If you have submitted an incident report on the forums, please do not submit another report on the Astrolabe report system. Your previous incident report would have already been processed for review by a DM.

[Twohand]

From Twohand

SHIPS

• Added two new rental ships to Sencliff:
  • The Montalban, a cog for a crew of two sailors.
  • Red Tail, a trawler that can be sailed by a single character.
• Removed the renaming restriction from the Spelunker and the Blue Drake.

[DM Starfish]

From Alhooness

• Model clipping on female legs has been fixed across a number of appearance options

From Party In The Forest

• The Sale Wagon fixture has been given a visual update

[Twohand]

From Twohand, KenC, Ice, and sk

MISC

• The Focus of the Shukenja wakizashi now provides a discount to the base focus cost of spells when equipped by Invokers.
• Avernus Rebuttal is now craftable only by Blackguards, Warlocks, and Loremasters with the Secret of the Artisan.
• Added a source portal to the Upper Shyr Farmstead.
• In the Underdark, moved the signs of the Silver Mines and Red Tower shops inside their respective guildhouses.
• Added tavern mechanics to the Leisure Tent in Sibayad.
• Fixed Favored Soul characters spawning without runic sequencers and class gear.

[Hoodoo]

Quacker Trial Period Update

The quacker trial period has ended! Thank you all for participating and giving feedback, we will be reviewing all feedback in the thread. If you still have any thoughts about your experiences with quackers (Whether it's changed over the course of having them available) please do note said feelings in the feedback thread!

We will be discussing internally and come to a decision based on the statistics and feedback gathered. Based on our findings we may have another trial run, a permanent solution with quackers, or a permanent solution without quackers. Feedback from both sides is very
important, thank you again.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46025

[Twohand]

From Twohand

DEITIES

• Added several new deities:
  • Soneillon, a demon lord.
  • The dragon gods Kereska, Sardior, Zorquan, and the Outer Planes aspects of Hlal and Null: Aasterinian, Chronepsis, and Falazure, with the latter granting access to the Shadow Weave.

[DM Starfish]

From Aellowyn

Another head facelift! A handful of female elf heads have been given various touch ups, enhanced facial profiles and improved textures.
#s 17-28, 34-37

[DM Starfish]

From Kroatius

New Backpack option:

• Gonne

[Twohand]

From Twohand

UNDERDARK

• The Boneyard Keepers of the Sluice Gate now sell a number of items that provide no mechanical effects, but necromancers might find them useful for roleplay.
  • It should be noted that these items' availability changes every reset.
• Visual update for the Devil's Table.
  • Includes a bank with five small vault quarters.
  • Adds two temporary and two permanent shops to the market.
  • Kudos to haaksi for writing many new descriptions for this update.

[DM Starfish]

From Starfish:
It has come to my attention that there are rumours going around that each of the new off hand items has some sort of hidden effect or boon. This is incorrect. The only off hand holdable with an effect is the Angler's Lantern, which boosts fishing speed.

[ActionReplay]

From ActionReplay & Fallen Dabus

New Ship System update:

First off, big thanks to Fallen Dabus for creating the new map grid and graphics as well as working out this new update together with me.

The sea grid has been replaced with a new, larger, version of the grid. There are now more quadrant / tiles to move across but ships will move faster between tiles (Duration may be tweaked). There are also regions with their own climates and challenge rating spread throughout the map. Which means the old "edgewater" is not really a thing anymore, instead a higher difficulty spans over a whole region of the map.

• Localwater / Origin sailing has been removed and now instead behaves like open sea mechanics instead. This is uniform throughout the map.
• Arelith waters are not "safe" waters either, ships can engage eachother here.
• Most, but not all, random land encounters has found a new home as a static position on the new grid.
• The few random encounters that still do exist (Sandbanks, Shipwrecks, Trading Ship, Ice Floes, Atolls, Ghostships) can be found in different regions at random based by the region.
• Spyglass feature to instantly spot random encounters has been removed; this is because it serves little purpose now with less random land encounters. But, also, we want to change how these encounters are occuring in a near-update with some new land encounters added to the list.
• Weather is changing based on region and each region can spawn a storm, so be careful as there can be a lot more active storms on the map
• Some regions have their own unique climate, such as the Ashen Shores (Red Dragon Isle) is a very warm region that will inflict fire damage. There may be more work put into this in an near update.
• Travelling to Skal or Sibayad can only be done from the northern and southern edge of the map. A new option will appear on the ship helm. This will set the ship into a so called external journey state. During this state no other ships can engage them and the ship cant engage any random events.
  Returning from these external docks back to Arelith will have the ship return at the center of the map at either edge.
• NPC Ship encounter chance is variable based on region, some regions have less traffic than others.
• Arelith waters and the to the east of Arelith, the Nelanther Westerlies, are considered low CR and a good spot for new sailors to explore
• Anything else besides that, especially Ashen Shores, are more dangerous waters.
• UI scaling should work just fine now with the new map / grid.

The speed to sail through tiles is subject to change as we try to find the sweetspot that works best for the new grid.

Technically this is a big change, the grid code was completely rewritten working more as a proper 2D grid system and has the added benefit of easier updating / adding content to the map. It also supports multi-maps so in the future you may see more grid maps ships can travel between.

There are also shallow and deep water tiles, seen from the color of the tile on the map. This will be more important in a future update where we will go over and rework ship mechanics, so keep an eye out for that.

As with any big update, there are likely bugs too. If you spot anything that seems amiss, please report it.

Also, if you have an assembled treasure map from before this update, please contact me or a DM. This map needs replacing (You need 6 new map pieces from a DM or myself) to generate a new valid tile position.

And lastly, the fishing out at sea has not been updated to f it these new regions, but I'm sure Starfish will get on that.