New Ferry:
- For those of you who did not hear IG, there is a new ferry that runs between Monlon and Rock Valley. The commands to use it are: to enter "go ferry", to exit "leave", to pull a wagon on board "pull wagon ferry", and to pull a wagon out "pull wagon out". The "wait for ferry" and "wait for dock" commands work as usual.

Black and Grey Ichor:
- Characters that consume ichor to raise their attributes as an alternative to the training courses are no longer penalized for drinking it instead of sipping it. Formerly, drinking the ichor would only give you the benefit of one sip, but would consume a full drink's worth. One can now drink or guzzle ichor and obtain the full benefits of the quantity consumed.

Character Attributes and Veteran Character Generation Updates

With the half off Veteran Character packages promotion ongoing, I decided to give the system a scrub to help players making new characters start off on the right foot.

First, there is the new @attributes command. It is available only to premium subscribers and is usable from the welcome area. This command will help you manage your character by displaying a neat table showing your character's attributes, in-character word descriptions, numerical values before and after trait bonuses/penalties, as well as your character's potential in that attribute. Also, the menu links to Role Point and Story Point attribute increase menus for convenience. For advanced players, it includes an option to delete potential in an attribute so that it can be further raised via Story Points. For newer players, there is an option that explains what the table columns mean and provides some general facts about raising attributes.

Note that raising attributes via the Story Point menu will not automatically delete potential. The rationale here is to prevent players who may not be very familiar with the system from inadvertently deleting attribute potential that could otherwise be used. When an attribute is raised to the point that the Story Point menu will not allow you to continue raising it, players may check for potential in that attribute with the @attributes menu and deleted it if desired.

Some players of very old characters may receive a red notice with their @attributes table. Years ago, some traits when combined with the old system would allow players to raise their character's attributes to absurd levels. This was eventually rectified circa 2017 when the modified attribute value cap of 250 was put in place, and later, the base attribute value cap of 200. Currently, characters with base attribute values over the current cap of 200 are considered grandfathered, and will be allowed to keep their attributes for as long as they wish. However, if you choose to retrait the character, the system will automatically set any base attribute values that are over the cap to 200.

Next, a few bugs related to raising attributes have been fixed. The most player-noticeable one being the one that would delete your potential in some rare circumstances. Players utilizing @attributes to keep an eye on their character's progress will be able to assist in tracking down similar bugs that may emerge in the future.

Additionally, the Veteran Character Attribute Store works a little differently now. Previously, there was a chance that the character's potential wouldn't be properly calculated. This should be solved now. Be aware that spending attribute points at the Veteran Character Attribute Store has the ability to overwrite your potential when raising an attribute. For example, if your character has a base value of 190 in Speed, and 10 potential in Speed, raising Speed by 1 point would leave the character with a base value of 191, and 9 potential.

The word level displayed by the Veteran Character Attribute Store is the value of the attribute after trait bonuses and penalties are applied. Although players can't use the Story Point menu to raise the attributes of characters that are still being outfitted in the Veteran Character Lobby, you can use the @attributes command to view the character's attribute values and potential and make credit expenditures accordingly.

P.S. Veteran Characters may now use the "credits" command while in the Veteran Character Lobby to view their remaining VC credits and attribute points.

1. You should no longer be able to inadvertently purchase Empathy, Appearance, or Charisma with role points.
2. You will still be able to purchase Empathy, Appearance, or Charisma with story points.
3. We have also removed the ability to purchase Empathy, Appearance, and Charisma from the Vet Lobby.
4. We will be looking at ways to improve how stat potential can be increased outside of the usual training course.
5. Natural increases and ichor will also be explored. This will be for stats that can be purchased with role points.
6. If you happen to have purchased Empathy with role points and have more than 10 potential, please put in an @report and we will put that potential into another role-point-purchasable stat. You must have MORE than 10 potential in it, though.

Short Whip stances will no longer last for only 1 attack. Formerly, until the whipper was rank 90 in the stance associated with the attack, the whipper would need to re-enter stance before each attack, even if assuming the stance automatically due to being at rank 80 or higher in the stance. Short Whip stances should now act similarly to other combat skillset stances where you remain in the chosen stance until you choose to switch stances, exit the stance, or are otherwise interrupted in combat.

SP gained via unlearning will no longer be added to your @sp-count totals. I was under the impression that this was fixed when the new SP gain system was implemented. Kudos to the player who reported it. Due to how unreliable @sp-count totals are at being an accurate record of a character's skill progress, I am looking in to changing how that piece is factored into SP gain. Stay tuned for an update in that area in the near future.

Message 4231 ($mail_message_410031) on *news:
From: Pranzor
To: *news
When: 1:30 pm, Thursday, January 04, 2024
Subject: Changes to Teaching and Self-Taught
---
In other news, we have disabled the ability to teach above 1150 ranks. In addition to that,
self-taught is no longer beneficial past that rank, and may end get exponentially more
expensive the higher you go. The last part is not implemented yet. The journey beyond that
is a solo one. While it is a more difficult path, we do believe in the long-term progression
in the game. This is a compromise, for now, to not have to alter the rank bonus system. More
to come on this as we explore mechanisms to maintain game balance with pursuit of greatness.

Expanding on the above post. When self-training using the self-taught trait, normally the multiplier is 1.5 times the cost of the move you are training. Without the self-taught trait, the multiplier would be 2 times the cost of the move you are training. With the new changes, I have outlined the new multipliers below. This only affects levels trained over 2000 ranks in a single skill.

With Self-Taught

1000-2000 = 1.5
2001-3000 = 3.5
3001-4000 = 5.5
4001-5000 = 7.5
5001-7000 = 9.5
7001 and greater = 11.5

Without Self-Taught

 
1000-2000 = 2
2001-3000 = 4
3001-4000 = 6
4001-5000 = 8
5001-7000 = 10
7001 and greater = 12

In addition to this, users can no longer teach another user above the rank of 1150 in any skill or action. This should open up the opportunity for higher-ranked trainers, as well as provide some balance in both the PvE and PvP realms. Users will also still have the opportunity to place a priority on working on sub-skills as opposed to just cranking basics. This change stems from the old issue of folks just taking their basic ranks to exorbitant levels (5-10k ranks) as an easy button to have a significant advantage over others.

Hello TEC community!

For as long as I can remember, it has been an ordeal for characters to dress themselves. Trying to recall what should be worn first, middle, last, it can be a chore, especially for less experienced characters. Although we have had the "undress" command for quite some time, it has had no counterpart to actually put the clothes ON you. Today that changes!

Command: wear all
- This will attempt to wear all pieces of clothing/armor/etc. in the room with you.

Command: wear all <container>
- This will attempt to wear everything that is inside a sack, wagon etc.

The system will do it's best to wear things in an appropriate order, such as wearing sacks under a sagum or paenula, or wearing a bow on the outer layer so that it can be drawn, but it is not perfect. Players who have a particular preference can remove and wear things normally to make fine adjustments. Testing has shown the command to work very reliably, but not all TEC items play by the rules, and I expect there to be some exceptions. Give it a whirl and enjoy!