Well it has been too long since I posted a news update so here is what is going on.

Velius and Golbez, two people who played the original game with me in the 90's, have been godded to help out.  They are going to help with the huge task of trying to improve the balance on the server.  We are already trying lots of new changes now.

One thing I wanted to mention is that some people have been freaking out about the changes.  I've even heard cases of people quitting (really?) because of changes in damage!  So I just want to say, everybody relax!  When we are making changes this big, it requires ALOT of tweaking and time to determine whether something is working or not.  If some of the changes we make turn out to suck, don't worry, we can change them back really easily.  What we are trying to do is find a working formula for the game, and it takes some time.  I really appreciate everybody who has been posting in the forums.  120 posts in Fank's discussion about game balance is tremendous feedback.  We are all reading it and we are making changes based on it, so thanks alot and keep them coming!

It has been several years since we have had to have an item wipe, but unfortunately a bunch of players discovered the market giving them unlimited money and completely destroy the economy.  Thus, we have been left with no choice but to do a complete item wipe.

Ultra credits will continue until March 16th, but they can't be applied to house stuff.  Ultra credit will go to player and items only.  This is because items are wiped anyways and I decided to do this instead of just expire all ultra credit.

If you find any unlimited gold exploits, stupid items or stuff that shouldn't exist, let us know so we can restore this game to good condition.  These kind of wipes hurt everyone but when the economy is completely destroyed there is no other choice.  Report all odd things and we will take care of them.

Well, I guess some said it was inevitable after the Ultra Wardos was removed years ago.  These ultras cause a tremendous amount of problems.  People lose them and expect me to dig through thousands of accounts to find them, they are way overpowered, and they were a bad idea to put in.  When I put them in, I really didn't expect anybody to buy them at all, but alas, people did.

So if you had an ultra, do you get hosed?  The answer is maybe.  All ultra owners (WITH A RECEIPT* have until March 16th to get store credit to spend on other things.  If you missed this cutoff, then there is nothing we will be able to do for you.

The store policies are very clear on the fact that sometimes store items may be adversely affected or deleted.  This is one of those times.  If you miss the cutoff, I can promise you there is nothing we will do for you.  Also, the store policies state that store credit is NON-TRANSFERABLE.  Don't bother trying to find people who have quit to get their credit, because the credit can not be transferred, and it can not be spent on other players. Why you ask?  Because when we have allowed that in the past, people are hunting down other players and harassing them trying to get their credit.  I don't want people who have spent money and left the game getting harassed.  Therefore, this credit cannot be transferred and must be spent by the original players.

This is a change that is very welcome by nearly all players, including many of them who owned an ultra.  The ultras gave people a huge advantage over other players that harmed the overall PK.  This is one of my first steps to turning around this server, which has a tremendous amount of problems with item clutter and balance issues.  We're going to keep working extremely hard to get the game back to where it deserves to be.