Difference between revisions of "Revisions Changelog"

<spherescript color="">---- 0.55a --------------------------------------------------------------------

UNICODESpeech=off will fix for english.

take over the guild stone and kick everyone out. Warring guilds tend to make mules and do this sort of thing.

The result is other waring guilds are now orange to you and  

you are blue to them. They can be half way in the guild two  

ways.  

18.1. Have the guildmaster never accept you fully in.  

18.2. after the guildmaster accepts you in, don't click the stone. You can actually end up half way in a guild with your guild tag on.  

and then join it to a guild thats either Chaos or Order.  

Then go attack greens, the player will auto attack back and  

easily kill the player with 10 str. Thusly giving them a kill

they get guard killed and a near by guildmate loots the corpse of the person that got attacked by the guy with 10 str. No criminal tags are incured on either the looter or the attacker due to the fact that the target was green.

"DELAY_HI",

"DELAY_LO",

"EFFECT_HI",

"EFFECT_LO",

X Taste Id doesnt work at all it doesnt give a message period.

the TAGS do not appear to working through the ON=@CREATE .

? CLIENT UPDATE BUG? - when u set an amount as a gm it doesnt set the whole stack-it leaves the original 1 and then gives u the diff in a different pile

-Setting colors of cchar objects is very strange, I would color my zorn, but no refeash commands would show me the color, when I mounted it, it turned the right color.

Should use Var.x = <eval rand(nnn)>  rand() only works bare if it's an 'if' or other known math function.

Healing - you get two messages about applying bandages when you heal yourself/anyonelse  unequip on heal  healrates totally screwed up 100 heal 100 anat = crazy healing

thus getting the npc's to attack them and making the npc grey and free to kill.

that says "You already have 5 characters".  -- Fixed AD 3/31/2001.

syntax error with " if ((<morey><0) || (<morey>>1000))"

       FONT_BOLD, // 0 - Bold Text = Large plain filled block letters.

       FONT_SHAD, // 1 - Text with shadow = small gray

       FONT_BOLD_SHAD, // 2 - Bold+Shadow = Large Gray block letters.

       FONT_NORMAL, // 3 - Normal (default) = Filled block letters.

       FONT_GOTH, // 4 - Gothic = Very large blue letters.

       FONT_ITAL, // 5 - Italic Script

       FONT_SM_DARK, // 6 - Small Dark Letters = small Blue

       FONT_COLOR, // 7 - Colorful Font (Buggy?) = small Gray (hazy)

       FONT_RUNE, // 8 - Rune font (Only use capital letters with this!)

       FONT_SM_LITE, // 9 - Small Light Letters = small roman gray font.

     OBJ = <UID>

     MEMORY <SRC.UID> 0200 // set memory  

       SRC.ACTDIFF = <SRC.ACT.SKILLMAKE.1.VAL>

     NEW.P = <TOPOBJ.P>

     dorigin 50 50 // sets the origin to x=50, y=50

   dtext  *200  -    5  2: // x orig = 200

   dtext  *200  -    5  3: // x orig = 400

     TERRAIN The terrain ID

     ISDIRT Checks the terrain ID to see if it's dirt.

     ISGRASS guess

     ISROCK dunno

     ISWATER guess again

     STATICS Number of statics in the position

     STATICS(n) ID of static Nth static ( eg: <SERV.MAP(200,300).STATICS(0)>. Shows no error in the console

if static isn't present, returning 0 - useful to test for a static w/o counting or looping.

     STATICS.n   same

     STATICS(n).key Get a key from the appropriate ITEMDEF. eg: <SERV.MAP(200,300).STATICS(0).NAME>

// do stuff, current iteration number in <LOCAL._WHILE>

     FOR 5 // loops from 0 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL._FOR

   or FOR 3 5 // loops from 3 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL._FOR

   or FOR K 5 // loops from 0 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL.K

   or FOR K 3 5 // loops from 3 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL.K

// do stuff

     SKF_SCRIPTED 01 // no hardcoded behaviour, only triggers are called.

[DEFNAME tile_flags] // by Shadowlord

tilef_background 01 // No idea. None whatsoever. Maybe it's the blackness.

tilef_weapon 02 // I smack thee with this here ... club?

tilef_transparent 04 // Yeah. So we can see through it?

tilef_translucent 08 // Okay...

tilef_wall 010 // Hey look, we can't walk through it!

tilef_damaging 020 // Lava, perhaps? Fires, hmm!

tilef_impassable 040 // Mountains and stuff, I'll wager.

tilef_wet 080 // Water? Or mud? Or a slick road in a rainstorm? Probably the first.

tilef_unknown 0100 // Uh...

tilef_surface 0200 // Tables or something?

tilef_bridge 0400 // I wonder why they'd have a flag for that.

tilef_stackable 0800

tilef_window 01000 // So we can see/shoot out?

tilef_noshoot 02000 // ? We can't shoot out or something? So, like a glass window maybe?

tilef_prefixA 04000 // A card

tilef_prefixAn 08000 // An apple

tilef_internal 010000 // hair, beards, etc

tilef_foliage 020000 // Probably bushes and tree leaves and stuff.

tilef_partialHue 040000 // semi-glowy?

tilef_unknown_1 080000 // Well, gee. I should see if it's used on anything...

tilef_map 0100000 // Sounds good to me.

tilef_container 0200000 // They flag these!?

tilef_wearable 0400000 // Omigod!

tilef_lightSource 0800000 // I'm getting tired of typing repetitive shiznit now.

tilef_animated 01000000 // Like fire again. And stuff. Those spinny propeller thingies!

tilef_noDiagonal 02000000 // !?!???!!?

tilef_unknown_2 04000000 // I really hope some of these unknowns are n/w/s/e facing flags.

tilef_armor 08000000 // Armor, okay, so does that count shields? Hmmm?

tilef_roof 010000000 // "Don't fall through me!" Or why isn't it just flagged surface or something?

tilef_door 020000000 // Okay...

tilef_stairBack 040000000 // Don't we have stairs that go forward or left too? This could cover both...

tilef_stairRight 080000000 // Well, whatever, you can climb them, so, hey... Good use for a  

NOTE : EF flags change from version to version, so make SURE you're using only the EF

flags you want, if any.

OptionFlags= // Flags for options that affect server behaviour but not compatibility

0001 // OF_Magic_IgnoreAR

0002 // OF_Magic_CanHarmSelf

0004 // OF_Magic_StackStats (Do NOT set this yet)

0008 // OF_Skill_DiffFirst

0010 // OF_Archery_CanMove

0020 // OF_Magic_PreCast

Experimental= // Flags for options that affect server behaviour and which might affect compatibility

0001 // EF_XCMD_Spy

0002 // EF_UNICODE

0004 // EF_CanSeeLOS

0008 // EF_ReturnString

Suggested value: EXPERIMENTAL=01

01-12-2003, Kell

- Changed @SkillItemMake so that "return 1" only deletes the item if it's container hasn't

  prior to using points.

- Removed all specific handling for SERV.xxx(y).zzz and made it generic. You can now use

   either syntax: SERV.xxx(y).zzz or SERV.xxx.y.zzz.

02-12-2003, Kell

- Fixed REAPAMOUNT / AMOUNT. It can now take multi-point values in a format similar to

   ADVANCE for skills.

- Added SPEECHSELF= to sphere.ini, to allow setting the name of the speech trigger that

   should be called to intercept player speech. Suggested: SPEECHSELF=spk_player

  "return 1" in said trigger stops the player from actually talking.

- Removed hard coded "home home home" - one can just use the default spk_player speech if

   that feature is desired (but mostly it's not)

- Added SPEECHPET= to sphere.ini, to allow setting the name of the speech trigger that

   is called when a pet listens to its master. "return 1" in said trigger stops the pet

  from listenning.

 

10-12-2003, Kell

- Added OptionFlags to sphere.ini, to set multiple options. These will be named OF_

- Added OF_Magic_IgnoreAR = 0001, so that AR doesn't count to stop damage spells.

- Added ACTDIFF to characters to obtain the current action difficulty.

   Suggestion: One can use ACTDIFF to modify difficulty within skill Start triggers.

- Added @Effect trigger to spells, triggered after @SpellEffect

- <TAG0.xxx> can now be used to assume "0" as the default value for a tag.

- TAG0.xxx = yyy can now be used, if yyy is 0, then no tag will be recorded (same as setting

   to a zero length string)

  Using TAG0, you can thus have tags that are only recorded if they are not 0. This is great

   for tags that are usually 0 and are often used (e.g. tags that must exist on all characters).

- Added VAR0 (same functionality as TAG0, but for VAR).

11-12-2003, Kell

- Added OF_Magic_CanHarmSelf = 0002, so that spells with SPELLFLAG_HARM will still affect the

   caster (useful for SPELLEFFECT in scripts)

- Changed rand(x) to allow a 2nd parameter rand(x,y) and return a random number between x and y,

   if y is present.

12-12-2003, Kell

- You can now use @color,font in SYSMESSAGE and MESSAGE. font ranges from 0 to 9, and I quote:

      FONT_BOLD, // 0 - Bold Text = Large plain filled block letters.

      FONT_SHAD, // 1 - Text with shadow = small gray

      FONT_BOLD_SHAD, // 2 - Bold+Shadow = Large Gray block letters.

      FONT_NORMAL, // 3 - Normal (default) = Filled block letters.

      FONT_GOTH, // 4 - Gothic = Very large blue letters.

      FONT_ITAL, // 5 - Italic Script

      FONT_COLOR, // 7 - Colorful Font (Buggy?) = small Gray (hazy)

      FONT_RUNE, // 8 - Rune font (Only use capital letters with this!)

      FONT_SM_LITE, // 9 - Small Light Letters = small roman gray font.

- Changed SKILLMAKE to allow getting an individual resource in the list. SKILLMAKE.1 gets the first,

   SKILLMAKE.1.VAL gets the value and SKILLMAKE.1.KEY gets the associated resource key.

13-12-2003, Kell

- Added "RELEASE" to character verbs, does the same as "release" when spoke to a pet.

- Added @NPCFollow trigger, called when an NPC is following someone.

14-12-2003, Kell

- Changed ATTACK to accept as parameter the UID of the character to attack.

- Changed TRY to make no plevel or touch/distance checks. Use TRYP if you want those checks

  (TRYP 0 only checks for touch/distance, not plevel).

- Added an useful keyword to scripts, that allows one to use "OBJ" as pointer to an item. It's

   similar to ACT but it can be used anywhere.  

   Example:

    OBJ = <UID>

    SAY You are <OBJ.NAME>, with uid <OBJ.UID>.

- Changed MEMORY to allow an UID as parameter, so you can now find the memory related to a specific

   UID. If no argument is used, it uses SRC's UID as usual. Also changed it to be read/write.

   Example:

    MEMORY <SRC.UID> 0200 // set memory

    SAY Memory flag regarding <UID> is <MEMORY.<SRC.UID>>.

15-12-2003, Kell

- Changed @UserSkills so that <argn1> is the number of the skill being updated, or -1 for the skill

   list. This allows one to stop sending of skill updates to the client.

- NPCs will not say "Yes Master" if SPEECHPET is set in sphere.ini (you can script it in the speech

   triggers if you want them to). If SPEECHPET isn't set, they still won't say anything unless they

   can see their master (which is great for GMs). Players will no longer respond "Sorry".

- Resource gathering was changed so that the SKILLMAKE of the resource item is checked. Resources

  which fail the canmake check are ignored and aren't part of the randomization process. If for some

   reason one wants to go back to the old style, just comment SKILLMAKE on the ore itemdefs.

- Added OF_Skill_DiffFirst = 0008. With this flag turned on, difficulty for a skill is calculated BEFORE

   calling @Start/@SkillStart. This has the advantage of allowing the difficulty for a skill to be changed

   via ACTDIFF within that trigger. Notice that for a skill to fail, ACTDIFF must be set above the current

   (modified) skill. Setting ACTDIFF to a negative value means that the skill will abort, that is, @Fail

   will not be called and no skill gain will be attempted. To always fail set ACTDIFF to a value above the

   possible skill (say, 1001).

  This has the sideffect of calling @SpellCast before @Start/@SkillStart. On the other hand, it is the

   ultimate tool for implementing your own skill difficulties.

  Here's an example of making the difficulty for arms lore AT LEAST the same value as for making the item

   (using the primary skill). Characters with skill above ACTDIFF will always succeed.

  ON = @Start

  if ( <SRC.ACTDIFF> < <SRC.ACT.SKILLMAKE.1.VAL> )

      SRC.ACTDIFF = <SRC.ACT.SKILLMAKE.1.VAL>

16-12-2003, Kell

- You can now use NEWITEM, NEWNPC and NEWDUPE in item scripts, the items will be created into "NEW". Using

   these commands on a character will create the items in both NEW and ACT. If you want to use these

   on a character without changing ACT, use SERV.NEWITEM, etc.

   Example:

    NEW.AMOUNT 100

    NEW.P = <TOPOBJ.P>

   You can also use NEW as a temporary handler, much like you can use OBJ (and to an extenct, ACT).

17-12-2003, Kell

- Functions can now receive "args" when being evaluated, as in <SRC.myfunction Say hello>

- Added RANGE=min,max or RANGE=max (min defaults to 0) for ITEMDEF and CHARDEF. Default weapon range

   is 1. Default character range is 1. Range is calculated as (character + weapon -1).  

   Example: Assuming all characters are RANGE=1 (which they are), putting RANGE=2 in an halberd

   means characters equipping it can hit 1 square further.

18-12-2003, Kell

- The main section for DIALOGs is now fully interpreted like other scripts, allowing you to add logic

  allowed right in the DIALOG section, and not within FUNCTIONs, but hei... it's better. :)

- Dialogs will no longer conflict with each other, this allows for permanent on-screen dialogs. INPDLG

   works too, seeing as there can be only one INPDLG window onscreen at all times.

- Added RESOURCES.n, RESOURCES.n.KEY and RESOURCES.n.VAL to items/characters.

 

19-12-2003, Kell

    dorigin 50 50 // sets the origin to x=50, y=50

  Using "*" near a coordinate makes it relative to the origin, and displaces the origin by some amount:

    dtext    *0    *10    0    the origin is now x=50 y=60, so is the last location

  Using "+" near a coordinate makes it relative to the last location w/o changing the origin.

    dtext    +10    -    0    adds 10 to X (y=150, o.y=100)

   As an example, imagine writing a list of text with 3 columns, each seperated via 200 x and 20 space

   between each row:

  // first row

   dtext    *0  -    5  1:

    dtext  +10  -    0   the text for row1, col1

  dtext   *200  -    5  2: // x orig = 200

    dtext  +10   -    0  the text for row1, col2

    dtext  +10  -   0  the text for row1, col2

  And now one only has to go down one row. and the text is quite similar. This isn't too easy to explain, it's

- Fixed the bug with FORCHARS/ITEMS/OBJS and keywords starting with "FOR" (like FORensics).

  is no longer mandatory, it becomes simply a matter of style/choice.

20-12-2003, Kell

- Equal PLEVEL should be able to see each other, so they are now.

- You can now open a dialog in a specific page, with DIALOG  d_dialog_name  pagenumber. This isn't actually

  possible with the UO client - what it does is recalculate the dialog page/button numbers so that the selected

- Added a new command - DTEXT - to gumps, which does the handling of text ids for you (d stands for dynamic):

  Text added with gumptext is actually added to the [DIALOG ... TEXT] section. If you're only using a given

  text string once, then it's actually faster using this than using "text" and adding it to the TEXT section

   of the dialog. Simmilar commands, DCROPPEDTEXT and DTEXTENTRY are also in, also taking text instead of an

  index. DHTMLGUMP is also in, but notice that the syntax is like HTMLGUMP, except that you ommit the ID and add

  that are commonly used throughout the dialog should you put in the [DIALOG ... TEXT] section.

  list of numbers, and allow you to shape and modify your dialog w/o bothering with text ids.

- You can now use FUNCTIONs that issue gump commands. So you actually make your own gump commands!!! Death to

21-12-2003, Kell

- Fixed a bug in that setting stats & skills via scripts wouldn't correctly parse things. For instance, numerical

  expressions.

- Started work on MANUAL.TXT, to detail the current state of things like triggers and their arguments, seeing as

  reading this changelog is probably a difficult task for a lot of people.

- Changed args in functions to be writeable. This is useful in scripts, but for triggers, the server will read

  back the values and use the new ones wherever it makes sense. For the time being, these triggers were

    @GetHit, ARGN1 is the damage being apllied, ARGN2 the damage type (as usual, but now writeable).  

    @Hit, ARGN1 is now the raw damage being applied, prior to armour (writeable). ARGO is the weapon (if any).

    @PersonalSpace, ARGN1 is the stamina required to move (writeable). "return 1" stops the movement, "return 0"

    allows the movement but shows none of the hard-coded messages. Plain "return" or no return, works as standard.

  @Hit, @HitTry and @HitMiss were also changed so that ARGO is the weapon being used (handy so you don't have to

  be looking at layers n stuff).

   I should add that ACTDIFF is also available, and it can be used to change the difficulty of a skill, even make

  a skill succedd that would otherwise fail (by setting it to 0). It can also be used in @HitTry now, and if

  set to any non-negative value, a missing hit will instead succeed.

- Added StrEat function, which removes a word up to the space, from a string (<streat("hello there friend")>

- Added <SERV.LOOKUPSKILL skill name> which returns the skill number for some text or -1 if not found.

- After some beta-testing, a few fixes to dialogs.

- LOCAL.xxx within functions for LOCAL . They're a bit more efficient on servers with lots of global

  vars due to faster lookups ). LOCAL variables always come up initially as "0".

- ARGN1, ARGN2 and ARGN3 are set for functions with numeric arguments. So whenever possible, use these instead

   of argv. Example: "myfunction  123 50 89" - these 3 values will be parsed into argn1, argn2 and argn3

22-12-2003, Kell

- Functions can now return strings using "return". Notice that this behaves like TAGs, in that if you do

   then "2+2" is returned, and not "4". You'll have to explicitly call "eval" on what you want

   to return:

    return <eval (2+2)>

   Returning strings causes no extra lag, seeing as the old method of returning a value relied on the same

  string which is returned (EVALed). So it is actually faster (although hardly noticeable).

   This might pose a problem problem if you have "return rand" or similar, instead of "return <eval rand..."

  seeing as multiple uses of the return value re-evaluate it, generating a new random number - again,

  similar to TAGs.

  MAKE SURE YOU HAVE "EVAL" on your "return" lines, wherever you want the result of a calculation to be

   returned. The next version will probably not have an EF_ReturnString flag.

- Modified the profiling function to keep track of average consumption over time. The average time is

   calculated each second as 90% of the previous average time plus 10% the current time. This poses some

   resistence to spikes.  

- Added a new keyword to @Create / @NPCRestock and template scripts: FULLINTERP. Set FULLINTERP=1 to allow the

   use of functions, ifs, etc. Example:

   ON = @NPCRestock

    ITEM=i_cape

        ITEM=i_robe

   You can use FULLINTERP 0 to disable the feature, after you've enabled it, but it's usually pointless, seeing as

  this FULLINTERP affects only the remainder of the current script. Bear in mind that the usual restrictions apply,

   seeing as the created NPC is not ingame yet.

23-12-2003, Kell

- Added access to TERRAIN and STATICS either via P.key, MOREP.key or SERV.MAP(x,y).key, with key being one of:

    ISDIRT Checks the terrain ID to see if it's dirt.

    STATICS Number of statics in the position

if static isn't present, returning 0 - useful to test for a static w/o counting or looping.

    STATICS.n   same

    STATICS(n).key Get a key from the appropriate ITEMDEF. eg: <SERV.MAP(200,300).STATICS(0).NAME>

- Added basic iterator construct, WHILE, with the following syntax:

     WHILE ( condition )

// do stuff, current iteration number in <LOCAL._WHILE>

 

   also added FOR, terminated with either END or ENDFOR, with the following syntax:

    FOR 5 // loops from 0 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL._FOR

  or FOR 3 5 // loops from 3 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL._FOR

  or FOR K 5 // loops from 0 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL.K

   or FOR K 3 5 // loops from 3 to 5, current iteration number in LOCAL.K

- Wrote a small assembly function to access the high resolution timer. Works for both windows and Linux,

   now being used in profiling. Profiling works on Linux now. It also looks a lot better in the console

  thanks to the monospaced font.

- Changed the console font under Windows to Courier, which is monospaced, so things come out aligned in

  the console. Under Linux, the console is naturally monospaced.

- You can now add new SKILL sections, up to 70. SERV.MAXSKILL tells you how many skills are loaded. Notice

  that they won't be sent to the client though, the client doesn't support them (hint: @UserSkills). There

    SKF_SCRIPTED 01 // no hardcoded behaviour, only triggers are called.

   This is heavily experimental, mess with it at your own risk.

- SKILLSELECT skill - force a button select event on the skill list

24-12-2003, Kell

- Fixed TYPEDEFS section in spherefs.scp loosing values when resynced.

- Added <CANMOVE dir>, takes a direction as argument (like WALK), returns the area ID we're moving to,

- Added <MOVE dir>, takes a direction as argument (like WALK), returns the TILE flags for that position.

- It's Xmas! So I'm off to eat some turkey for the next 48 hours. :) Does this count as an entry in the

27-12-2003, Kell

- Added support for color & render mode in EFFECT. If no color or render effect are specified, old

  and works with clients from 2.0.3 (should work on all 2.0.* series).

- Consolidated support for 3.0.* clients, they should work fine, up to LBR (they already worked, just

  spitted some error messages).

- Added modulus (%) operator in numerical expressions (eg: 12 % 3 == 0).

- Added SENDPACKET command for clients. To make it easier to send WORD(2 bytes) and DWORD(4 bytes) values,

  allowed for 'W' and 'D' prefix to values ('B' is also supported for byte but it's redundant). Here's an

  Notice also that each of the parameters is evaluated and truncated, and only then used. For instance,

  if you put 0fffffffe (which obviously isn't a byte) in place of a BYTE, what you'll get is effectively

   0fe. If you put (2+2) it'll be evaluated to "4" before being used.

28-12-2003, Kell

- Added OSTR, ODEX, OINT.

- Added MODSTR, MODDEX, MODINT - spells affect these.

- STR, DEX and INT are always equal to O + MOD (for the relevant stat). If you have OSTR=50, MODSTR=0 and

  *** CHANGED *** read the entry for 19-01-2004

- Added MAXHITS/MAXMANA/MAXSTAM. If set to 0, it defaults to the base max stat (eg, MAXSTR defaults to STR).

   MAX always contains MOD for the appropriate stat. That is to say that if you have MAXHITS=100 and MODSTR=10

  it coherent for stat spells, seeing as they not only change your stats but also max hits/stam/mana.

  in argn1 you can write more generic functions with little fuss.

29-12-2003, Kell

- Fixed some skills not getting currectly terminated when another skill was used before they finished. An

  example of this is Spells not fizzling when a skill was used before spell ended.

- For skills, @Fail is now only triggered when failure occured due to normal circumstances (eg, failed

- Started implementing propper behaviour for EF_CanSeeLOS. At the moment, it'll check the height of static

- The use of "SECTOR" to access keywords related to sector is now mandatory. So, to access "light" or

  advantages - people usually already use SECTOR anyway, so this makes for faster faster execution of

30-12-2003, Kell

- Fixed a small problem with KARMA/FAME that had the huge effect of blocking the client once it got different

   than 0.

- Added FEATURES= to sphere.ini, to define the features the server will enable on the clients upon connection:

  0001 - (T2A) enables chatbutton

  0002 - (LBR) enables LBR sound (plays MP3s instead of MIDI)

  0004 - (T2A) enables T2A update

  0008 - (LBR) enables LBR update (shows monsters)

   Standard .55i automatically enabled 0001 - but you could disable it.

- DIALOGCLOSE command. First argument is the dialog name, second argument is the button that should be

   triggered on the dialog - 0 if not specified. (eg: DIALOGCLOSE d_my_dialog).

  You can put this as one of the first commands in a DIALOG section, to ensure there is only one dialog of

   that type on the client.

02-01-2004, Kell

- Added connection control keywords to sphere.ini - a value of 0 disables

  * ConnectingMax=x, where x is the maximum number of clients that can coexist

      in non-game state (http, login, etc). Older clients that are not ingame

   * ConnectingMaxIP=x, as above, but per IP. Only a maximum of x simultaneous

      requests for instance, count as "not in game". Default: 8

   * ClientMaxIP=x, maximum number of connections per IP. This is intended to

      are MANY situations where connections can appear as comming from the same

      IP - a common one is people connecting from cybercaffes. Default: 0

   socket. This happened because sockets were made invalid so that they'd get

  closed on the next read cycle, therefore losing all information about the

  socket. Clients are now flagged for disconnection, and socket handling is

  done when clients are freed.

  This means that there should always be a "disconnected" message to pair

- You will see two numbers after the IP in connected/disconnected messages.

   The first is the number of connections from that IP which are not in-game,

  whereas the second is the total number of connections from that IP.

- In savefiles, OSTR and MODSTR are now saved instead of STR. If "STR" is found,

  it'll be interpreted as OSTR. This works fine to convert old worldfiles, even

  negative. This works for all stats obviously (simply using STR as an example).

- Changed it so that the first time you set a stat on an NPC, if the Ostat is 0,

  it'll update Ostat not MODstat. In other words, and as an example, if you do

  STR=20 in @Create, you'll end up with OSTR=20 and MODSTR=0. If you then do

  STR=30 on the same NPC, you'll end up with OSTR=20 and MODSTR=10.

  **** changed **** see the entry for 19-01-2003

  correctly.

03-01-2004, Kell

- Added unary operators "*=", "+=", "-=", "/=", "%=", "|=", "&=" and "!=". Internally,

- Added ".=" operator, to do string concatenation. Internally what it does is change a line

  This is intended to be used with things that can support strings (NAME, TITLE, VAR, LOCAL, etc)

- First attempt to implement propper LOS check counting with z. To have LOS, you must be

  able to walk in a straight line to the target (no news here) AND finish at a reasonable

  performance Enable this behaviour with EF_CanSeeLos (04).

- Diagonal walking (eg, NW) is allowed only if the character can move ortogonally in both

  walking through corners. Enable this behaviour with EF_DiagonalWalkCheck (010)

- For the effect of stepping on them, all items were considered to have a height of 3. If you

  if the item's height is above 3, that value is used, and not the hardcoded "3". This allows

- If no SRC is defined at the time of a @SpellEffect trigger, then the character subject to the

  triggers, as they will affect the CPU usage.

04-01-2004, Kell

- Added ISNEARTYPE, first argument is type, 2nd argument is max distance to search ( if not

   specified, 4 is the default ). Also added ISNEARTYPE.P, which returns "0" if false or the

- Changed DISTANCE to accept the UID of an object (item/char) to compare the distance, or a

   point. One can now write things like

    <DISTANCE <MOREP>>  <DISTANCE trinsic>  <DISTANCE <SRC.ACT.UID>>

   If no argument is supplied, then SRC.UID is used (as default). If the point/UID is invalid

   an error is printed to the console.

- Made TIMERD readable (its precision is 10x that of TIMER, same scale of SERV.TIME).

   activating an item via scripts w/o testing for touch, so it doesn't make sense to test

   if the item can be seen. DCLICK performs the usual tests though. The "USE" keyword already

   allowed one to do "USE 0" not to test for touch, but it also tested for visibility, and it

  won't anymore if used like "USE 0".

- Spawns gems now instantly update the display as soon as you set MORE1.

- Double clicking an already negated (more2=0) character spawn sets its timer to 1 so it

  respawns next turn.

- Added MOVENEAR keyword for objects(items/chars). 1st argument is the UID of item to move

  near to, 2nd argument is the distance to the item. If 3rd argument is present and "0",

   then the item will not send an Update. Example:

        MOVENEAR <SRC.UID> 5 // move to 5 steps away from SRC

   Notice that this movement respects walls & such (which is why it is useful).

- Set ARGN1=1 in @Login not to show MOTD scroll.

05-01-2004, Kell

- Fixed possible exploit with \n and textentry and inpdlg.

- AREA and ROOM sections in the following format

  The advantage of this format is that you can resync it w/o having conflicting regions.

Move [Teleporters] and [Moongates] to their own files (these can't be resynced).

  Note: You do NOT have to use the new format. It is, however, strongly suggested, as

it allows you to change an area without rebooting.

in the new format (or regions that have a DEFNAME).

- Added CALL instruction to invoke a function, but sharing the LOCAL variables with the called

  function. Quite useful when you want to break a function in small pieces that are logically

  yet not functionally seperate. In other words, if you invoke a function with CALL, all your

      // if myfunction2 changes LOCAL.VAL1 it will change here aswell.

   If you do not pass arguments to the called function, then args/argn/argv are also shared,

  function, then only LOCAL is shared, and the process is an infinitesimal amount slower. Not

  This can also be used as <CALL Function ...>, faster without arguments, slower with.

- Recently realized that ALL DEFNAMEs are put into VAR. That means that all itemdefs, chardefs,

  etc have an entry in VAR (try <VAR.i_dagger> ). Now, this is potentially confusing and source

    1) Whenever you're trying to access a VAR, you go through ALL the existing defnames.

    2) You can accidentally create a var that is also a defname... and oooooops!

  So to cope with this, changed it so that VAR/VAR0 only contains global variables that can be

   modified, whereas DEF/DEF0 contains item defnames and can only be read. The difference in speed

  thousand elements. Now each lookup searches only through the variables your scritps have created

  (which even on an extremely scripted shard shouldn't reach a hundred).

        highly uncommon, but if you decide you need this sort of behaviour just create the create

    2) You were accessing DEFNAMEs via VAR. No real reason to do it, seeing as DEFs / VARs can

  If not using DEF or VAR to access a variable, you'll get first the VAR if exists, and then the

- VARs are now saved to spheredata.scp. If that file isn't present at boottime the shard will print

  whole world to read in this stuff.

06-01-2004, Kell

- Added "S" flag to SENDPACKET, allows one to send strings of characters directly. String is not

   within quotes it stops at the first space. Example

    SENDPACKET 00 S"This is the string to send" 0

   If the string must be null terminated, simply put a 0 in there, as above. Otherwise, you'll probably

   need to specify length (strlen function) - depends on packet

- Added new walk limiting code, wildly based on the bit-bucket algorithm used in IP QoS DiffServ

   routers: there is a maximum speed at which you can walk (it's fixed, different walking or foot). If

   you walk faster than that speed, every tenth of second you walk faster than expected is a point you

   loose. Every 10th of second you take above the time expected is a point you win. The number of points

  you start with and the maximum is WALKBUFFER in sphere.ini, and I've tested it with values

  around 40 for good connections and 70 for laggy connections.

  If a player speedwalks, he'll soon drop below 0, and stop moving, then have to compensate with equally

   slow walking periods, like it happens when there's a burst of lag.

  WALKREGEN is the speed at which you regen walk points, in percentage.

   Default values: WALKBUFFER=50  WALKREGEN=25

   Hints:

WALKBUFFER lower for more strict control. However, setting it lower also increases the

  chance of limiting someone which is just experiencing lag. Raise this value

if you lower WALKREGEN.

WALKREGEN set lower for longer-lasting punishments. It makes sense to lower this value

if you raise WALKBUFFER.

- Removed some EF_ flags that are no longer necessary seeing as they proved to be harmless. Make sure

   you consult MANUAL.TXT.

- Changed trigger @DropOn_Item and @ItemDropOn_Item to be activated for container items too.

   Activated when item with the trigger is dropped on another item (dropped on something else).

- Added @DropOn_Self and @ItemDropOn_Self, activated when an item is dropped on the item with the

   trigger (something was dropped on self).

- Implemented trigger @DropOn_Char and @ItemDropOn_Char.

- If these triggers fail, will only bounce the item if it's still being dragged. That allows the

  scripts in the triggers to define a new place for item.

- Made sure clients can only drop stuff into the bankbox if they are standing in the place where it

   was opened. This could now be checked within scripts aswell.

- Fixed an Injection exploit regarding accessing the bank away from the place it was opened in.

- Added @SkillGain and @Gain triggers. Check MANUAL.TXT for more info.