Hello adventurers! We've got a bunch of fixes and improvements for you today. This patch touches on everything from Jala and arena updates to client and performance issues. Most notably though, it features the addition of labels and colors to help you more easily spot uncommon items, like cursed amulets or unique weapons, in the dialog boxes used for looting and trading. Read on for the details.
Item Changes
Added labels and colors in dialog boxes for unidentified, cursed, uncommon, rare, and legendary items to help players more easily spot and evaluate items
Added Bronze Key for room renters that can be dropped or traded by the owner but not by recipients, except back to the owner or innkeeper
Shrouded items now correctly display a description indicating they are cloaked in magic
Scrolls now display the correct school insignia
Helms now provide defense against bludgeoning weapons instead of a disadvantage
Wands and scrolls now correctly require specific karma levels to use (e.g. -40 karma for a hold wand)
Bug Fixes
Fixed issue with removing shillings from chests and boxes
Fixed crash at very large resolutions
Fixed issue where players using Shadow Form were unreadable in the Who list
Fixed persistent Jala song music causing client crashes
Fixed awkward rendering of players and faction soldiers against world objects
Fixed multiple server errors and potential crash causes
Fixed server error caused by punching a target with Gaze of the Basilisk
Gameplay Changes
Bonksticks adjusted for suitability as player awards
Removed outdated skill improvement penalty in Origin of the Kriipa
Fixed issue preventing spell casting in Goad’s Grinder
Reflection, Evil Twin, and Apparition Riija spells are now usable in the Arena
Can now equip most items (weapons, armor, etc) without breaking Jala song trance if using a Jala Necklace
Distill potion power now based on the casters base maximum health and unaffected by items like circlets that alter the caster’s maximum health
Distill potions no longer expire
Torches now display appropriate durability text
“Reroll” is now the primary command and terminology for rerolling a character
Arena battles no longer affect player karma
Solomon now buys additional uncommon items
Mugs, goblets, and bowls restored to previous appearances
Bankers now communicate in private for balance checks, withdrawals, and deposits
Minor adjustment made to Colhorr-marked weapons
Consuming a mana crystal now breaks the caster’s trance
Exit Crystallize Mana if the caster cannot hold the mana crystal
Increased weapon attack damage against Ants
Amulets of Shadows now appear unidentified until equipped, identified, or revealed
Audio Updates
Added unique sounds to Foresight and Illusionary Firewall
Updated Morph with sounds based on the player’s gender
Client Updates
Added option to disable Performance Mode for better performance on low-spec PCs
Dialog boxes now open on the same monitor as the game window
Dialogs triggered by Reveal and Identify are centered correctly on the game window
World Changes
Updated The Spider Nest with enhanced thematic and ambient lighting
Updated Clearing of the Trading Post’s geometry and texture alignment
Minor updates to East Merchant Way through Ilerian Woods
Minor updates to Marion’s southern exit path
Adjusted entry point into Pietro’s Wicked Brews
Developer Changes
Added “no horizontal tile” flag to clamp textures along the U axis
Added a Powershell script for real-time monitoring and copying of .roo file changes
Easy Compile Script updated for the new `contrib/` folder structure
Client now skips remote account verification checks when not in retail mode
Makefile output standardized to include command in all directories
Miscellaneous Updates
Improved bad mail cleanup
Fixed disposal of monsters spawned via Animate
Fixed animation speed for invisibility and drunkenness
Updated signup dialog copy
Fixed failed checks in greeny.roo
Cleaned up Goad and necro arena code
Fixed server-side error caused by Crystalize Mana
Hidden admins are no longer greeted by the Watcher or Goad
Fixed a potential cause of server crashes
Fixed issue to allow a player’s hometown to be set to Ko’catan
Fixed room key disposal issue
Fixed robe descriptions to remove extra whitespace
Contributions in this patch come from: Aesica, Gar, Hektic, Reborn Hero, Si, Thorbenn, Todasj, Toko, and Zaphod. Additional playtest support was provided by FrylockOG.
In the Sewers of Barloque, Roq the Dark Blade waits...upon entering a shadowy corner, the home of the Assassin's Circle, you'll be greeted by a sign:
Are you a true assassin, able to use guile, stealth and deception over brute force? Do you have the stomach to stick a dagger between the shoulder blades of a friend, a guild mate, or a lover? Be warned, this game is only for the elite, and if you are not paranoid now, you will be.
Further... If you join the proceedings, you will be given a dagger. Eventually, a name will appear on this dagger. Your goal is to attack and kill this person, but only with this dagger.
+ Someone will also have your name on his dagger. Once you learn who he is (most likely when he attacks you), slay him with your blade (and only with your blade). Do not attack anyone else with your dagger.
+A winner is declared when there is only one combatant left in the Assassin's Circle.
+ The black blades do not do their damage to the body, but rather to your target's soul. In the hilt of the dagger, there are four gems set. For each hit that you take from a would-be assassin, one gem extinguishes itself, showing the damage done. When all four go out, you die, and are expelled from the game. These gems heal back at a rate of one every five minutes.
+ The paltry teachings of the weapon masters have no effects on your ability to wield the black dagger. All are equal in this contest, and have equal proficiency with the daggers.
+ I laugh at Shal'ille's protective magics. While wielding a black dagger, you may attack your targets nearly anywhere. Be warned, though, for it also means that you, as well, are vulnerable.
+ True assassins are also above the law. While wielding the dagger, you will find that you are not troubled by such nuisances as safeties or outlaw/murderer flags. Be warned, though, that should you use any weapon other than the dark blade, even to defend yourself, you have to take normal consequences for your actions. Spells also have the same consequences, whether you wield a blade or not. Keep your safety on if you wish to avoid accidents.
+ Assassins should have honor. Many wannabes do not, so the blades will divert their attacks from those that are incapacitated by spells. Also, magical means of stealth will be stripped from you after you successfully strike your victim.
+ Note that killing your target with means other than a black dagger will not expel him from the game.
The same magic that makes a black dagger so deadly to whoever's name is inscribed upon it also makes it very fragile should it hit anyone else, whether they are in the game or not. There is a chance that your blade could shatter, should you hit someone who is not your proper target, and if this happens, I will expel you from the game. There is one exception: you can (and should) use the black blade to defeat and kill whoever's blade bears your name.
+ Worry not about death by blade. I have a compact with Qor, and therefore the cost of death is lessened should you die by dark blade.
...
The next several active rounds of the Assassin's Circle will feature a prize to the winner ranging from the following:
* Shillings - the darker the blade, the better!
* Masks - to hide your visage...
* Extra Durable Weapons & Armor
* Bloodstained Weapons & Armor -
* Heartstones - needed to decorate private rooms, add storage chests and cast high level spells like *Shadow Rift* (a portal for evil mages) and *Bond*, a multi-caster chanting spell that permanently bonds an item to someone so they can never lose it
* Rare Bottles of Dye to redeem for a piece of gear or your hair
To enter:
~ Go to the City of Barloque and enter the Sewers ~ Go northeast and travel through a narrow tunnel until you reach a ledge ~ Jump across the ledge by running: there'll be a small wooden door in the ceiling to the left of you ~ Open it and find the shadowy corner and Roq, read the signs, tell him "advertise" and "blade" if you wish to join and get notifications! ~ Happy Hunting and Have Fun : )
The Tournament of Kraanan
Hail Warriors, Wizards and Fighters of all Kinds!
An Official Tournament of Kraanan is in the works, with a special prize given to the Champion, final Challenger, and Semi-Finalists.
The combat will be Traditional: One Versus One, in a single-elimination ladder style tournament leading to our final round.
Once enough (8) challengers have entered, we'll begin with our First Round, posted with some notice, then move onward to Quarter and Semi which will go more quickly, and then lead to a Final Duel.
This post will be updated with match times and results!
To sign up, reply to this post by sending mail (in-game) to THE WATCHER with your combat availability - we'll begin setting up the ladder once the challengers have been settled.
Prizes include:
A deadly, extra-durable Gold Sword that will spin enemies around with a unique special enchantment allowing it to be used in combat outside of the Arena!
A colored Diamond Pendant that enhances your Intellect stat by +5.
A golden, personally bonded and extra durable short sword with extra damage.
A Gold and Grey Skull Mask that have defensive capabilities (less than 10 of these types of Mask exist)
A golden, extra durable Herald Shield.
A specially made 'Stat' Change item to be used on any character of your choice allowing you to swap/move around (5) statistic points of your Might, Agility, or Aim (changing stats after character creation is normally impossible)!
Current Challengers:
RAND al' THOR
Greasy Thug
Marvin
BlackPanther
Captain Pr0n
Images of some of the prizes are on a thread inside the Meridian 59 discord in the Server 101 Channel, this post will soon be updated with the prizes. To get a sneak peek, check out https://discord.gg/meridian59 in the Server 101 Channel.
Note: The Tournament will be taking place on Server 101 only at this time; future tournaments may also include Server 102.
Have fun and may you suddenly feel a little tougher!
Weekend Pop Up Building Bonus
Weekend 'Pop Up' Event: Building Bonus: "Golden Experience"
Details:
+ 100% chance to advance spells + 100% chance to advance skills + 25% money from loot * Negative - 50% Death Penalties ### Very High Monster Activity
Have fun, be kind & may you suddenly feel a little tougher.
Ends Sunday, March 3rd at 9:00 PM PST / 12 Midnight EST
Golden XPerience
Communal Building Bonus Event
Time to build, work together with your friends or guild or build up your own personal nest egg, experiment with new builds or push ones 'almost finished' a little closer to your max!
The Golden Experience Building Bonus in Meridian 59 includes the following boosts:
+ 100% chance to advance all spells!
+ 100% chance to advance all skills!
+ 25% money from loot!
+ Greater Chance to find magic and rare items!
Special Skill Bonus
+ Additional 10% learning to Axe Wielding & Fire (bow)!
Other Event Details:
Less harsh Death Penalties!
Monster Activity heightened!
What else is going on in Meridian?
- A new Justicar, a newly returned veteran of Meridian, was elected recently on 101 to bring justice and efficient pardoning of errant outlaws and other criminals...
- An ancient evil has been unfortunately awakened in the sleepy town of Marion...and with it, its source of power...but for how long will the people be able to fight back...?
- The fearsome Xeo'chciatl continue to guard the Mana Nodes, but have been found to only been drawn by larger groups of citizenry, currently rumoured to be the presence of a little under two dozen souls...
- The Necropolis, the city of Brax, has had its entrance re-excavated with an exciting new discovery for those eager to explore its grounds...venture to An Ancient Place, Its Origin Forgotten, and read the tomes scattered through the land, such as in the Royal Library and the Old Schoolhouse in Jasper...
- The Factions continue to battle amongst each other, with new citizens arming themselves as Soldiers with power-enhancing Faction Shields for Duke Akardius, Jonas D'Accor's Rebel Militia, and Princess Kateriina. Newer combat-ready soldiers are eagerly learning about Territory Tacticia, taking control of the cities and raising their Faction flags. Land power has been found to be a valuable alternative and supplement to the boost given by the mysterious Tokens, which still hold the interest of the Meridian Counsel.
Have fun, be kind & may you suddenly feel a little tougher.
October '23 Update
Hail!
A fairly large patch was recently applied to Meridian, the 3rd one in the span of a year.
The contributors, many new, worked hard to put this together. I'm excited to share these notes to help shed light on what was updated.
Thank you all for being a part of Meridian 59, your passionate support and continued interest has helped keep it alive for 25+ years now!
This marks the first time since the 90's that we've had this number of active contributors (4+ programmers!) help and work together to further develop our beloved M59. __
October 2023 Update: Release Notes
**Client Updates and Quality of Life improvements**
* There's now a VOLUME SLIDER FOR AMBIENT SOUNDS in the preferences menu - this allows players to independently adjust the volume of the various ambient sounds in the game. In particular, this should make building outside the guard house on the island less noisy.
* CHESTS and storage boxes are hidden throughout Meridian and many guild halls have huge storage chests. Players can now withdraw a SELECTED AMOUNT of any item from these chests while leaving the rest for later use.
In addition, a SHELF was added to the chests for food and reagents in order to encourage a well organized collection of items!
Now when you look inside your storage boxes you will notice the food and reagents appear at the top of the list of items while armor and weapons appear in the depths below.
* Pants, shirts, and skirts no longer break through normal use. They should last as long as the wearer desires the outfit. This was done to encourage players to customize their appearance as much as possible and removes the need to repair or rebuy articles of clothing every few weeks.
*SOLOMON, who operates Solomon's Edibles in Cor Noth, will now buy reagents and foodstuffs from adventurers.
* After SYSTEM SAVES the player's most recently used stat group is restored - if you were using your inventory prior to the system save the inventory should now be active after the system save (before, it defaulted to your spell tab)
* FONT COLORS; Dark green, orange, and pink text can now be used by players in their text communications with each other.
* The LATENCY WINDOW now updates a player's current latency in real time with updates occuring once per second. There is also now an option to turn on the old-style spinning latency cube in the preferences menu.
* The system MESSAGE to a player accidentally trying to attack themself has been changed from: "You can't see your selected target." to "You can't attack yourself.”
* Piles of dropped LOOT are now correctly rendered by the client: each item is given an apparent depth away from the player - this resolves items flickering and disappearing from view when fighting numerous monsters in a single room.
* Edges of objects in the game used to automatically blend towards the background of a room - this resulted in the appearance of a white outline around objects, particularly noticeable in areas with a lot of trees. Now, the apparent outline is removed, enhancing the appearance of the art with the world around it.
* Meridian's MOON now goes through PHASES of WAXING and WANING. The passage of time in a meridian year can now also be marked by changing sunspot activity on the SOLSTICEs.
Updates to rentable rooms:
* Added a new command, "change lock", which allows you to destroy all existing copies of your room key - no matter where the keys are stored or in whose possession.
* Added additional information to the room key descriptions, allowing you to check the remaining time and how many copies of your room key (if any) are in circulation.
* Innkeepers will no longer daily spam your mailbox with updates on the time you have paid out towards rent. Instead, they'll send a tell when you log in to remind you when your room rental is close to expiring.
Spell/Skill/Item Changes:
* Jala's spell Restorate has been reworked to have more of an effect on players with high vigor. Previously, Restorate had no effect on players with vigor above 160. Restorate now increases your rate of hit point regeneration at all vigor values. The size of the effect and the slope of the effect relative to the singer's spell power has been adjusted to maintain a healthy balance.
* The Chalice of the Rain shows how many sips remain in its description. It'll also give new message feedback to the user when dropped in a room where it can be refilled.
* Spell wands and magic rings track durability in their description similar to weapons and armor.
* Freshly dropped disciple robes will appear in a color signifying their dedicated school, instead of all of them dropping and appearing as blue. These robes return to this default color when unequipped. This improves identification of robes in piles of loot and in storage boxes.
* Riija's Blink spell has a new success message after the completion of the intensive focus required to cast the spell.
* The appearance of some food items have been adjusted to differentiate the various edibles that have similar appearances.
Bug Fixes and Improvements:
* Node Attacks: Xeo'chicatl invasions have been fixed: specifically the bug in their timer that was allowing for multiple back-to-back attacks. With their controls working as intended, expect to see more invasions from the Xeos to challenge everyone and steal your mana nodes - and more chances to get valuable heartstones.
* Removed graphic resource distortion - the large, distracting black boxes - that appeared when a user had two or more clients open.
* Arrows fired from bows (in the hardware rendered graphics, on by default) now appear correctly and will project from the center of the bow, instead of from the players head (this affects 1st and 3rd person view)
* PvPers take note: Fixed an incorrectly applied spellpower modifier that was intended to vary spellpower and casting when using all long-range weapons. (All equip-able items have a spellpower modifier - weapons and armor generally reduce spellpower...) This fix affects each bow in their own specific way: common Practice Bow, Battle Bow and Long Bow; rare Nerudite & Magic Bows.
* Fixed a bug with disarm that allowed players to disarm and knock to the ground an opponent's bonded weapon, or to disarm an event character or DM (you don't drop a bonded item on death, and a bonded weapon is supposed to only be droppable manually owner). The disarm skill will still stun and cause the weapon to unequip from an opponents grasp.
* Fixed the bug causing brand new weapons (mace and short sword specifically) to appear to have been repaired before.
* Numerous potions and wand bugs resolved:
- Purify potions no longer erroneously fail.
- Removed unintentional Karma Checks on non-distilled potions, reducing the number of times Remove Curse, Cure Poison, and Cure Disease flasks sold by Lady Aftyn fail to have the desired effect.
- Players can no longer consume a spell item when a condition prevents the item from having any effect (example: you can't drink a remove curse potion if you're not cursed), saving accidental item waste. This also helps players who drink unidentified potions (dropped by monsters) from wasting stomach space.
* Creating and placing decorative items, art and ornamental objects has been improved for Administrators, as well as the the potent ability to create new custom descriptions. This allows for creative and efficient custom additions to environments, lore, better storytelling and communication with players.
* The F10 keyboard button can now be used as a hotkey when the inventory is active - previously this hotkey only worked when the gameplay area was the active element of the game.
* Fixed a long-standing and major visual bug when recovering from the blind effect, which often resulted in significant display and lighting artifacts that hindered gameplay in intense PvP combat scenarios.
* Closing the client will now immediately end the game music - removing the delay where the music would continue playing after exiting the game.
* Frogmen are now smaller in size.
* Dark Angels were made larger - along with their new audio effects and loot table, they're now 'complete'.
* The Chess Boards were updated to show the side you're playing as facing the direction you're in (patched by Zaphod himself!)
Behind the scenes game improvements:
* Numerous improvements made to the game engine and hardware rendering for its graphics - though subtle or invisible to players, they'll improve overall game maintenance.
* Code cleaned up with the removal of a chunk of unnecessary duplicated entries.
* Numerous typos fixed in the dialogue and descriptions of the Brax Arena Watcher, Goad.
"In addition to Zaphod’s hard work and Mayhem’s ongoing support, this release included contributions from Si, Aesica, Reborn Hero, Toko, Hektic, Grok, Essun and Gar."
------
Thank you to everyone who worked on this most recent patch and the previous two this year!
I'm personally enjoying feeling out all the improvements, especially the polished gameplay, graphics and QoL updates for players and those of us maintaining servers or creating content.
A special thanks to Zaphod for his steady guidance, time, patience and for creating Meridian 59 in the first place, then releasing its code to allow for all of these great updates from fans.
A lot was learned. The work has already begun for the next patch...
We hope you all continue to have fun playing here and calling Meridian your home.
May you suddenly feel a little tougher ~
Labor Day Bonus Popup Event!
Enjoy a 50% bonus to advancement in spells and skills all weekend long!
Kick back and relax with some skeleton bashing in the Tos Graveyard, collect some rare artifacts, hang out in Familiars over a pint of brew and some chess, work some spells in your custom room on the Island, or or find a new way to somewhere unknown uncharted by others - have fun in Meridian 59! It's been heating up and more active than ever!
May you suddenly feel a little tougher.
Golden Experience
The Popular Golden Experience Bonus Returns!
+ 59% (x2) Improvement Chance in All Magic Spells & Weaponcraft Skills + 25% Money Earnings + 15% SpellPower Bonuses - 20% Death Penalties + 33% Monster Activity
Golden Experience
Golden Experience
”You have improved in the art of…everything."
Hail Meridianites!
Starting 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST
* +59% Chance to Improve in all of your spells and skills!
Affects all schools of Magic as well as Weaponcraft!
(HitPoints are x2 since the Dec.2022 Patch!)
* Monsters will be more pervasive and appear more frequently...
Teamwork is encouraged - take advantage of cooperative building during this time for more experience!
* + 25% to the shilling economy!
Adventurers slaying monsters, returning lost Signet Rings, completing $ reward quests or even sweeping up messy rooms for NPC’s will also profit from + 25% increa$ed shillings!
* Death, 1/2 Off Special!Death penalties lowered by 50%
Don’t let death keep you down - reveal the Corpsenode and portal of life back if you want to avoid the worst of it!
Tip: To save your gear, throw it in the Vault in the Ports of Barloque. For rare or treasured items, see about getting an item 'bonded' by an advanced mage, or work towards becoming one yourself!
Have fun, happy hunting, Be Kind &
May you suddenly feel a little tougher.
Join our discord! https://discord.gg/meridian59
God's Days:
A lengthy Meridian 59 celebration blessed by Lord Faren, god of nature & catastrophe; Shal’ille’s twin brother & one of the Martyrs of the Cataclysm.
* + 50% Improvment: 🧙♂️Spells & Skills 🤹♂️ * + 35% Faren Spellpower 🫨🔥⚡️❄️🌵 * Shali’lle’s Rain: Death Loss reduced 50% 🌨️ * Faren’s Pain: More Monster activity ☠️😈👹🐜🐸🍄🐤 * A story event 📖🔮🗡️
Gods Days (background):
Holiday celebrations to storied Meridian martyrs who saved the world when the Nexus snapped long ago.
The previous Gods Day, the first in a long time, took place on April 1st - celebrating Lord Fool Riija.
Riija Day featured the Tournament of Fools, with a grand finale at the Temple of Riiija; won by Black Panther.
