Cryosphere

2013-09-23

Version 2.7

Another update with more technical changes than content improvements, but it isn't all bad.

• We've a new Basic Combat Simulation, by Decroix.
• Commbadges are now considered emergency equipment, so you can get them for free from every hospital.
• We've upgraded our scripting language to Lua 5.2.2.
• We now have a whole new memory management system that might just make the game engine a little more reliable, but I guess time will tell...

Decroix has been granted the rank of Captain (Retired), in return for his work on the new training sim but doesn't get a full Captain rank given his long absense :-(

And that's your lot (there are more interesting changes if you're an admin or developer, honest!)
Hopefully we'll have some more new game content before Spring!

This version of the Cryosphere brought to you by the letters R and C and the number 189.

2013-05-11

Version 2.6.2

An update in under 3 months? Who'd have thought it? Again, lots of work on the codebase that you might not appreciate now, but there are a handful of shiny new things:

• The Backwards mission is back! A simulator repair job with a twist...
• We now have civilian jobs that you can do for credits but no mission points. If you're stranded on a foreign planet and can't afford the ticket back, these'll help.
• Cargo flights have resumed to Livingstone, New Southampton, Eden and New Lyon. Those starports have also been significantly expanded to handle the new traffic.
• You can now drag some items that are too heavy to carry... corpses, motorbikes, large ladders and so on.
• The Basic and Intermediate Combat simulations are now free for everyone, not just cadets.
• Warrant Officers and above can now access a new message board in the Officer's Club. Keep an eye on it for lucrative testing opportunities!
• We now support blindfolds, earplugs and gags, if you're in to that sort of thing.
• If you've been turned into a duck by a senior officer, be careful flying over water because when you turn back, you might not be able to swim...
• You can no longer sit, stand or mount people who are sitting, standing or mounted on you.
• A few actions have been retired because no-one used them, and a few common myacts have been promoted to real actions useable by all players. Say goodbye to the likes of asmile and tm, and hello to such delights as jig, stab and yank.
• The matcher now prioritises unworn and unwielded equipment. So if you're carrying a uniform and wearing a uniform and you type throw uniform, you'll throw the unworn one.
• Next time you're at the beach, why not go for a paddle?
• ...and plenty more bugfixes, tweaks, improvements and minor features!

The Combat system is long overdue for an update, so we've started improving that, too. You can now wield two weapons at once if you wanted, though there's no benefit to doing so yet! You can also now hold shields instead of wearing them, letting you use shields even with bulky clothing like spacesuits and the like. On the downside, you can't wield things you are wearing anymore (sorry) and it is now a rather harder to raise your combat score to superhuman levels.

The justice system has been given a bit of a tweak, too. Military staff will take a dim view of you being naked and on duty, and gendarmes in New Lyon can have you deported if you're caught in the city without suitable paperwork!

2013-02-21

Version 2.6.1

By our previous standards, an almost immediate update to 2.6! This is largely a maintenance release with various bugfixes and performance tweaks, but there are a few new features for you all. Amongst other things we have:

• The Combat 3 simulation is now worth a single mission point to better reflect its level of challenge. Everyone who has completed the simulation already will have been given the mission point automatically.
• Better equipment handling in simulations. You can now feel free to use any food, drink or medical gear you bring into a sim, and it will be restored to you when you end the program.
• Tracking of deaths and kills in . The command is more detailed too.
• Spacesuits now have openable visors. Vacuum exposure is now significantly more dangerous, so don't try throwing yourself out of an airlock! You'll also find that in space, no-one can hear you scream. Or yell, or sing, or whatever.
• If you had a spacesuit in your inventory before the update, it is now probably broken. Take it to an admin for a refund or repair.
• You can no longer quit from hazardous locations like deserts, arctic ice caps, vacuum, infernos and so on... you'll be warned if you try, but if you use quit really you'll die and leave the game. Also, if you quit from a small spacecraft, you'll log back in at the spaceport you departed from.
• Transmogrification now affects and too. Mobiles have also stopped being able to understand the speech of gagged or transmogrified players.
• The and commands are now much more user friendly. If you have a non-UK timezone, you'll be warned if you're logging in when all us Brits are asleep and unable to chat or help.
• You can now change the meaning of single character command shortcuts like and by using the command, if you wanted.

And that's mostly all, folks. Hopefully we'll have some more missions for you next time

2012-04-01

Version 2.6

• Well, development has slowed up of late since we all grew up and got jobs, but it didn't stop completely thanks largely to the efforts of Serriað and Gareth. Version 2.6 is one of the biggest sets of changes since the Cryosphere was first released! Many of the changes are behind-the-scenes, but there's plenty of stuff for players to appreciate too. Many bugs have been squashed, mobiles respond to more things, many places have been decorated and expanded.
• All of our missions have had their points values rebalanced (rewards have mostly gone up) and the mission points requirements for ranks Warrant Officer 1st Class and above have changed. This may affect your rank slightly, but most people will remain at the same level. We hope the new award levels better reflect the difficulty (or ease!) of completing our missions. We now also give you some idea of the complexity, extent and danger associated with a mission in its minfo page. Explanations of the difficulty ratings can be found in info difficulty.
• The Medical mission has been given a little bit of an overhaul, and is now worth 3 mission points. If you've already done the mission, you'll be credited with the extra point (which may mean a promotion!) and no-one will have to redo the mission unless they really want to. Feel free to ask! Remember the reward for completing it is now ¢600.
• We are slowly rewriting various minimissions to make them available in various locations, so far Gareth has extended Bulb to Skinner and several parts of Eden, but many more rewrites are planned.
• Simulations generally don't strip you naked anymore... appropriate clothing/equipment will be simulated for you. Which is nice.
• The habitat on Eden has now been extensively redesigned and rebuilt. The city of New Lyon has also undergone a bit of re-engineering, and the activities of the New Southampton Mining Company are now much more obvious on Skinner. The Barane skyfarm complex has been closed to public access, however.
• There's a new commline for Warrant Officer and above, officer. Furthermore, commissioned officers of Midshipman rank and above get access to a new set of high quality equipment. Our Commanders also get a whole load of new privileges, but you'll need to complete all our missions before you find out what they are!
• We now keep track of many more things in our logs. Records of mission completion times (best and worst), deaths whilst attempting missions and number of successful completions are all visible in the output of minfo. You can also get a statement from the bank telling you where all your money went. There's also a record of you progress to tell you how quickly you've been moving towards Commander rank.
• Spacesuits are now a little more sophisticated... but only a little. The safety systems won't let you strip in a vacuum, for example. More soon!
• Fleeing from combat is no longer risk free... your opponent can stab you in the back as you escape! be extra careful. On the other hand, insurance now does a better job of compensating you for death by environmental conditions such as vacuum or fire. The compare command is a little more versatile too, letting you compare bits of armour.
• Hopefully we'll have a more frequent update cycle in the future! Much planning and work has already been done on new features and we hope to bring you things like: The return of the Backwards mission in a new and improved form, an improved version of Ionstorm, Cybernetic Implants for players, along with several new types of minimission and a more detailed and expanded universe to explore.
• This version of the Cryosphere brought to you by the number 5 and the letter L. Many, many thanks to our testers Bingo, Charli, Ellyll, Sunblaze, Picayune, Decroix, Navarre, Arianna and anyone else we may have forgotten. Read the credits and info boards.
• Passwords can now be reset by admins for players who are not logged in.
• The Canister mission is now more puzzling.
• As a follow-up to the last release's unification of commlines, you can now use 'smilies' and targetted says on commlines just as you can in says.
• You can now use minfo on minis as well as full missions to find out basic info about any mission before you accept it. e.g. 'minfo cargo'
• Your character will now be auto-saved every hour.
• If you're not sure which mission to try next, let the mud suggest one for you...
• The newspaper is now under new management. Buy a copy of the new issue from the Newsagent on the Cryosphere while stocks last!
• There have also been countless bug and typo fixes, as well as lots of work behind the scenes which although is not visible within the game, it is crucial for future progress and new features. So a big thanks to all who have contributed over the last few months.

2004-04-05

Version 2.3

• New mission: Hijack
• New minimission: Cargo
• New simulator game: Zoo
• Most of the training simulator programs have been updated
• Many fixes and changes to the actions system. Being drunk, or mogged affects the actions output better
• Mobiles have many more tell responses
• Lots of bugs fixed behind the scenes and various new/updated features
• Picayune has been promoted to Captain

2003-09-29

We've moved

Version 2.2

• There is now a personal actions system, called MyAct. It allows all players to create their own actions, assuming you can follow the instructions in info myact.
• Alpha Centauri now has a wilderness and the Old Town has been linked into it, as has the new Hangar mission. This is the first mission offered by a government other than the British.
• There is a new type of minimission - Bulb.
• More mortal ranks have been added. This means Commander is now grade 23, not grade 18. This stops the gaps between ranks being quite so ridicously large as they were getting.
• Client updates: The Connect 4 and Othello games will now appear in a subwindow in ZMUD. MXP clients like mushclient and ZMUD now operate in 256-colour mode.
  With mushclient, unnecessary prompts will no longer be displayed on screen.
• Who/users etc are much nicer, and there's a new multiwho command that lets you pick and choose what columns you want.
• Emergency tickets off Eden and New Lyon are now available from the British Embassy and the Canadian Consulate.
• 'Sit chair' will now sit upon the first vacant chair it finds, if there are any.
• We can turn you into a pumpkin.

2003-04-08

MusicMUD release

2003-03-24

IPv6

2003-03-23

Version 2.1

• We have a new bug tracker written by Plett.
• The Wilderness code has been generalised, so we will be able to offer in future wildernesses on other planets than Livingstone.
• You can smuggle! But we won't tell you how!
• Experimental support for telnet MULTIPLEX option (currently only supported by crystal), to allow game boards to be overlaid on the output and update in-place.
• All scripting has been converted to Lua. Mudcode is dead.
• There's an 'ignore' command.
• The mailer and boards now remember what you've read.
• Tip of the day system!
• Left luggage offices.
• Timezone support.
• Qinv (quick inventory) command.
• Durians!

2003-02-20

Server Upgrade

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