We will be posting some of the changes for comments and suggestions, we are mostly concerned with reasons why this and that will work or not.
Note that until the final release nothing is fixed.

PLAYER FUNCTIONS
1- potion functions (keyboard shortcuts)
2- weapon and shield functions (keyboard shortcuts)
3- seeglory - shows players glory and power

NAMES
The name features represent a considerable change in the game environment. They have deep consequences on roleplaying and on player versus player combat and general player relations.
(Note: I made certain that npcs were not unduly troubled by this, as they are dumb enough as it is. So having no name won't matter to them, npcs are equal opportunities killers)

Names are now defined as headname, name and realname.
Headname is what shows up above your head on clicking.
Name is the name by which you are recognized when people click on you.It says "You recognize xxx"
Realname is your true name, and is only different from "name" when you are disguised.

Allnames & recognition
The distance at which you can click on someone and see his headname (headname is what shows up above your head on clicking) is now dependent on the target's class and whether you have a line of sight to him. This will usually only show you his race. To see his name you must be far closer, and click- then you'll receive a message saying what his name is.
Note that this makes hiding behind trees or buildings more effective - allnames will not reveal you.

1- racename - makes headname appear as being equal to race. now you can only be personally recognized by single clicking at short distance
2- showname - if you have enough glory, you can make your headname equal to your realname so all will know you at once. (note- disguise kit doesn't work here as the fame is YOURS personally)
3- realname - makes your name equal to your realname, erases "name" (and only name) effect of disguise kit, and makes headname equal to race
4- silentwalk - if you are a scout or ranger with enough power or the silentwalk training, you can make your head name null, thus it doesn't show at all on allnames and makes you harder to target and identify. Note that a null name makes hiding behind trees or buildings a very effective way to hide from other players and allows for a great measure of surprise.

SENATE
The senate system is intended to give players true control over their towns, plus politics and all the animation, corruption, bloodshed and power games that always follow. This is the next step from the existing "councils" but with automation and a proper performance and prestige accounting system.
As it is planned it will be something entirely new; we know of no other online game of any type that has this kind of features and player control.

PLANTATIONS
A new all-singing all-dancing production for the merry farmer.

CRAFTING SYSTEM
The big change. A complete new system to replace UO's boring repetitive-click system.

Admin Lettow

It is with great joy that we present to the people of Darklands, what we feel will be of great importance in history!
The events are here! For the fighters, for the mages, for the amusement of the crowd, for the people!

This events will hopefully endure even more the Roleplay between the players, create a ambience of fun and teamplay, as help the building of his own character, and get to be knowned in the comunity.
We will start a pilot with the Humans and the Half-Orcs during the next two weekends.

Humans events will be on the 4 & 5 of May, and Half-Orcs events will be on the 11 & 12 of May and if all goes well it will be spreaded to all races shortly enough.
Read the Events page in the right banner above the Players Area to know detailed information, prices and prizes of all events.

Hyperion

As you might have seen the site was changed in many ways. We hope that the players can enjoy it.
Important news ingame and non ingame will be posted at the news with regularity.

If you feel you have a important news that you wish to share contact me at entity@netcabo.pt
For any type of screenshots, we now have the screenshot area, that is not supposed to be from the GM's view but also from the player side view, and again if you have a picture that you find interesting and wish to share it, send it to me.

The classes are all updated for all races, but as most know, non public races (D'akor'warv, Eluweri and Kilidiri) are only accessed via roleplaying, meaning that if you should prove worthy, and show ingame interest on a particular race, you will be approached by a GM with means of evaluation.

The webpage is still under development and in need of some info that i hope to have soon enough.
Some new things have been added, like the info page, the news index (see end of this page), a screenshot area, and much more yet unknown goodies *grins* .



Turning a bit to the BIG dilema of pages, i hereby come to ask the players to be a bit more attentive when paging, being the most explicit as possible in the page. Some pages are just about lack of information that can be found in the webpage.
Nonsence pages or "GM come here" are currently being disregarded and deleted.

For a fast answer in the players questions, ideas or comments, the staff recommends the use of mIRC in the irc.stratics.com server in the channel we have created for that purpose: #Darklands

A tip for the newcomers would be to check our boards, because it is there that the most information lies when a GM is not available.



Once again we hope the players enjoy the "new" layout of the webpage and in my name and by the whole staff we wish you a happy adventuring on Darklands !

Thank you ...

Hyperion

While searching for a way to keep the players happy, we've found a way of comunication used by many and thus, went right on a started to establish a better way of keeping contact with our players.

mIRC as many may know is a rather feeble tool for "real time" multi chating but still not one of the worse, so we have chosen the server at irc.stratics.com for the home of darklands channel. #Darklands

Come join us now for a quick chat or to know the incoming news and many sneak previews *hint hint* or even if your having a problem ingame and there is no GM online to solve it, just leave us a message.

Modus Operandis :

- Download mIRC @ www.mirc.com
- Install & configure with your info
- On the status window type /server irc.stratics.com or choose it from the server menu list
- When connected type /j #Darklands or /join #Darklands
- Talk to us ...

Hyperion

A report by D'actius Vanius, Scholar

After hearing some of the tales arriving from the deep dark woods outside our walls, I remembered old tales... old dangers.

Immediately I made it my task to hit the long dusty shelves in search of answers for this mystery.

Here is what I have found out. May it help us. May it save us."Tales of the Undead"Chapter 27, The Wampyrs are a specific order of spirits taken from their natural plane and forced into a human body by fell magic. The undead lords do this in order to have powerful servants, and to create predators to rid the lands they want to conquer from the "vermin". These spirits are bound with chains of sorcery that are tailored to be defective; (...) they continuously allow the spirit's life force to drain away, and the host body to decay. To prevent this the spirit must feed in the magic and blood and flesh of other creatures, and he finds that the blood and magic of sentient beings sustains them much better.Wampyrs are made so that the magic that allows them to drain their prey
also opens a way for other spirits to be sucked into that body, and the Wampyr's own sorcerous chains are duplicated in the new Wampyr. This happens slowly. On the first attack the Wampyr drains just a little, and sets his mark on his prey by taking a token of flesh from his still living victim. Through that the Wampyr can continue to suck magic at any distance.

After a few days of this treatment the victim is so weakened that the Wampyr can suck his entire life force in one blow and kill him
finally; (...) this is when the Wampyr gets the most profit from his victim, and the reason why they try to get the final kill.A Wampyr is always subservient to his maker, who made his particular chains, and all Wampyrs he creates by contamination are also subservient to the same maker, since their chains are equal. Wampyrs can sometimes break free if they accumulate enough life force.Wampyrs are composed of a spirit attached to a body. Its first body is the "original", the soul that once lived in it the base for the Wampyr spirit.
This spirit sees itself as having the shape and features of its original body, and tries to retain them as much as possible. In a way it is still trying to live. If the body is destroyed but the spirit has energy left, it flies to a dead body and takes possession. In a short time the new body is changed to the shape of the original.Wampyrs or similar creatures have existed for a long time, the first of them lich-like undeads of different make. These did not contaminate, they merely created undead servants when they wish it.

The new Wampyrs we see these days are of a far different order. They do not come into it by their will and their own power, but nstead they are unwilling tortured tools built for a specific purpose. It requires powerful magic to change them, and therefore they are far less powerful because their power comes from outside, not from the inside. They are close to mortals in power, and grow only slowly. Yet grow they do.There have been cases of humans who make themselves out as vampires. Most gain the notion that by drinking blood they can take upon themselves the powers of their victims. This is possible, of course, but requires the knowledge of Blood Magic, and is not acted that way. These killers can be troublesome, as they tend to be fearless.We have discovered that Wampyrs can be easily and permanently killed if they lose all their mana, as then their spirit loses cohesion and vanishes.
There are two ways to do this, by starving them or by the use of spells to drain mana.

The first method works well- stick them to a wall with nails, with a big large stake on their stomach- be carefull not to cause too much damage, or the spirit will find refuge in another hidden body. Make sure it can not destroy its current body by nailing its limbs to the ground or one another followed by the big stake, and then burying it. The other way is to use spells to drain their mana. These have never been practical before, but our Grand Wizard Orell took it upon himself to research them and has lately managed to create two of them. One simply destroys mana, the other actually transfers it from the victim to the caster.
These spells are almost useless against experienced casters, but deadly against Wampyrs. The spell that created them has no defence against this attack, and the Wampyrs are doomed. At least until their makers find a way to protect them against this.

A Wampyr can and will try his best to turn its victims into one of his own kind; this is done by removing a piece of the victim's flesh as a link of power.
Once the Wampyr has such a link, the victim will start to become weaker because of this draining. Time will be against the victim as she becomes weak and feeble.Wampyrs are very strong, and when fighting will bite off pieces of flesh from their victims. They do that with the ease with which a human chomps a chicken's leg. They are very cunning as well as fast. Most of them know
some magic, and are considered the most dangerous. Yet it is not necessary for a Wampyr to be a magic user.Those assailed by a Wampyr will show signs of paleness and cold, as their lifeforce is drained away. Finally the victim goes into a coma, and it is
then the final spell is cast.

Some of these scoundrels are impostors, it is also said that in some cases the potion will not work on a person, for that person will react violently to it and be very sick.There is no knowned cure after the victim becomes an undead.

"After the big battle in the undead world, and the mysterious disappearance even of Xodan all seemed quiet. All thus is stayed, for a year not counting the petty mortal conflicts with the mortals and their pesky wars for territories. Even the ones that think that are wiser got theirselfs into hard dilemas.

So let us just watch closely without interfering for now, as many interesting things are to happen."

The Book of "The Tales of Horror"
Armenicus, Minor Drake



*Clash, Clash*

Two hard bolts crashed from the sky into the deep woods near Varonia. The black smoke leaving the forest, soon joined the menacing storm above it.
The storm grew thick and wider, soon covering the summer sun. Cold chils came to the backs of those who walked in the streets as the wind started blowing with more intensity. Soon, all the sky was covered in a pitch black darkness that stretched the land until the eye could see.
A menacing and metal like voice came rushing with the West wind, it bore a message of fear and forthcomed death.

"You mortals ... that have dared to oppose against my will, shall perish and feel my wrath as the one that led you to me ... "


Black birds raised from inside the woods and suddently there were screams outside.

*ZACK, ZACK*

A arrow hit one more of the scouts that stood in the cities towers, making him fall ouside, soon the others would see him be engulfed into the florest by dark arms.

The war had broken out. Arrows flew all around, as the humans seemed to be winning the war, the titans arrived, and the table turned into the worse. Even the Half-breeds had not much luck, as they were also attacked. Many fell, but the will to carry on perdued. Fear was amongst the citizens. The attack didn't seem to be over as more and more devils arrived in both the humans and the half-breed cities. After much struggling the last of the titans were falling down, or returning into the deep woods .. and waiting ... wanting ... for something ... someone ... far more powerful.

The black pitched sky had no intentions of going away, and the only lights were the soft ones made by a few torches or street lamps that withstood the harsh weather.

These, were the perfect conditions for what the undead Lord had hidden for long. The Wampyrs, dreaded night killers, that did nothing but to collect victims like as if cattle it was, mere additions to the undead Lord ever increasing army. These strong, cunning creatures, that had once been humans, were gifted with great witchcraft, but had a great flaw. Their need to keep feeding from the living's magic was imperative, and so, they could not stop their need ... to hunt ... to feed ... to hope to be released one day ...

Hyperion & Lettow

Due to the great amount of news recieved on the last few days, we´ve decided that the news section should be only to inform players of he upcoming changes on the server, info about quests and so on.

The RPG boards should be used for the players news.

You can use the RPG boards to post your news, you can insert pictures in the board as well.

Rakird

During the last few days we had a few patches to correct some problems and fix bugs, and add a few important features.
Everybody read this:

1-The inability to deliver heads has finally been fixed. You can now get the bounty on the head of an enemy citizen (that is, from an enemy city!)

2-It is now possible for the militia leaders to exile or outright ban someone without their being present. This was made necessary due to recent developments.

3-We have received scattered reports of objects missing. Understand that now the situation is recognized we can not nor will replace items, because we have no way of distinguishing good claims from false claims. Only absolutely irrefutable claims (such as a unit book gone missing *shudders*) will be considered.
We require reports- in "bug report forum", subject "vanishing items"- so we can pinpoint it.
Please take care and help us work in fixing this.

4-We found out an error in the spells section:
a-harm was set at considerably higher value than fireball, close to lightning. Corrected.
b-duration of protection and reactive armor increased- at least it should be. Wish report on this.
c-did a little tweak to high-level attack spells, to make them more attractive.
d-found that area spells were about as strong as the single-target spells, which is obviously incorrect.

5-There have been cases of members of one race opening up doors to the members of the other. This is of course acceptable in a roleplay scenario, but what I've been seeing doesn't look like it at all. It smacks of fake accounts at worse, nonexistent roleplay at best. Why are your characters doing that? Betrayal is a very harsh step, something that is repellent to almost everybody and with dire consequences to those caught doing it.

6-We have implemented shackles of detention, and shackles of imprisonment. To define terms:
Exile- means being cast out from town, temporarily. Can't use stuff in town, bank, registers or gates. Can use remote lever to get out of town.
Banished- means removed citizenship. Simply that.
Prisioner- can use anything in town except gates and remote levers.
Detention- basically prisioner AND fixed to the ground. ONLY USED FOR ROLEPLAY PURPOSES, such as questioning and such.
All these penalties can only be done by the militia/fanged shields captain or one of his lieutenants.

GM Lettow

Me nub too shur what dis means.. but dis dark lookin humie appeared at da
Dakeria gates.. along wit some magik bone tings..

Trolls started ta speek, squeekies started ta talk to me.. dere was even sum
funny cow ting dat showed up at da city!

*scratches head and walks off*

Grizz [Half-Orc]

News Archive : ~ 2002
~ 2001
~ 2000