(Vultus, 2010-1-16) We've finally decided to upgrade the forums, the old one was slow and just a pain to use. It's been upgraded to SMF powered forums from phpBB so now there shouldn't be any issues with logins/captcha. The content from the old forum has not be transfered, so if you have a good idea or suggestion. Please, repost it in the proper area. Also, if you are looking to use your guild's sub-forum please PM Vultus on the new forums to request access. Please be sure to add your in-character name so I know who you are. Let's get some ideas flowing and see what new and different things we can do in 2010.
(Vultus, 2009-12-27) Well, seems like we haven't done an update in awhile. So I guess I'll fill you in! Darkover is still up, we're still moving along. First new zone in quite awhile has been placed in. We're moving away from a single class being able to solo the mud, necromancers are going towards a group role! But this is where we need YOU, we need you to come on down and play, we can make as many changes as we want, but if you don't help us out. We can't do everything we want to. It's a great mud, and a great place to be. So come, stay awhile and find out why we all still love it.
(Landis, 2007-11-28) There is a new forum for Darkover. It will be the new place to discuss Darkover and the new Darkover 3. We will be posting all announcements to this forum. Any ideas for Darkover or Darkover 3 should be posted on the new boards in the appropriate place so they can be discussed and perhaps even included in the new release. Any ideas mailed to me or any immortals will be ignored. You can find the new boards here. Please register and join in the discussions! Everyone's opinion matters.
(Shalla, 2003-07-11) I made a bunch of corrections to my article on RGB values. The Green values being a tiny bit different was due to Windows, and me having my desktop in High Color mode, not the fancy explanation I came up with. Also added some things about different choices you might make, and alternatives, to both articles.
(Shalla, 2003-07-06) Some people have always complained that muds with full colorization, like Darkover, can be hard to read. I never had this problem way back when I used a DOS client to play, but as soon as I started using Windows clients like zMUD, I knew what people were talking about. Some colors, especially blue and red, are just hard to read!
Another problem I'd heard of, but never seen for myself until recently, was that "out of the box", the free version of zMUD did a nasty job of displaying Darkover's colors... all charcoal text, including 95% of the title screen, is just plain invisible!
Two new articles offer solutions to these problems. The first article, on RGB color values, is partly a matter of taste. I think most people will like the new values in the article, after giving them a chance, especially if they used to use DOS clients. Your mileage may vary. The article on zMUD 3.62a is basically some tech support for zMUD 3.62a users, to help them get started without problems. It's probably not too interesting to other people, but it does have some nice screenshots!
(Shalla, 2003-03-15) The Playing a Cleric article has been updated with some advice from Lomax and Saaraha. Check this out, if you haven't already.
(Shalla, 2003-03-09) Not enough people are playing Clerics... People keep getting pissed off at me when I am too busy to log on my Cleric and heal for them. :P So I have written an article on how to play a Cleric. Do it right, and you too can have hordes of people begging you to log your Cleric on!
The article is available on the new 'Articles' menu on the left side of the page.
(Anaiya, 2003-02-09) Shalla told me to write something about the new Darkover page, so I probably should.
So, why the new web page?
Simple. The old one was full of nested tables, and while that is a common practice, it makes maintaining the page more trouble than it really needs to be. With that in mind, I moved all of the layout and style handling to one, central stylesheet. Using CSS not only cleans up the code, making it easier to read & maintain, but makes the page easier to modify in the future. In most cases the individual page files won't have to be modified, only the stylesheet.
This site should be compatible with most commonly-used web browsers. It has been tested and works in IE 5/6 and Netscape 7. The page is readable as (nicely formatted and ordered) text in Netscape 4 and Lynx. Granted, that's only a small handful of browsers, and on only two operating systems (WinME & Win2k), so there are bound to be compatibility issues that I'm not going to see. If you should happen to run into any problems viewing this page feel free to drop me a line and I'll look into it when I have a second.
On another note, anyone who was familiar with the old Darkover page has probably noticed that a fair amount of content is gone. Once the "core" content (everything listed in the menu on the left) is up and running, we'll take a closer look at the remaining content, and see what should go up next. If there is anything in particular that is not here, and that you feel should be, let me know and we can take that into consideration.
Oh, and if you are reading this update, the fix for aforementioned Netscape 7 display issues has been implemented, which should be good news for the .30 or so of you who use that as your primary web browser.
(Shalla, 2003-02-09) If we did this right, it should be small news that the mud has moved, and you should hardly notice. Just change "darkover.alpha1.net 5000" to "darkover.isilm.com 5000" in your client, and you should be playing within 10 seconds. I am in a mood to brag about how cool it is that we moved the site, but my horoscope for today says,
Astrological Forecast by Eugenia Last
Saturday, February 8, 2003
SCORPIO (Oct.23-Nov.21) The people around you will be enthusiastic, but not necessarily concerning the same things that you're interested in. Do your own thing and don't push your wants onto others.
I take it this means you all care more that moving the mud got you a free reboot than anything else! After all, the horoscope in your local newspaper is never wrong. But if I'm advised against bragging, I can still thank Landis for all the help getting the site, and getting a machine for it, and setting it up. At least I hope I can... I heard you get bad karma if you disobey the horoscope lady.
If you have any links to Darkover's page anywhere, please update them to the new one. More links help us appear higher on Google, which helps old players find us when they come back. They always come back...
(Danar, 2002-07-14) As of today, I am no longer in charge of anything in-game here on Darkover. In recent times I've grown further and further out of the loop due to real life, etc. Given that and that I'm a firm believer in 'stand up or get out of the way', I'm 'getting out of the way' and leaving the decisions to Llwyst and Shalla. I will be around when I can and will probably remain as the physical contact for the machine since I'm local to it, but please address anything you need to them from now on.
It's been a decent run since 1998 when I started playing and imm-ing here, and I've been through the good times and the bad. I've gone from total immersion, to 'normal' playing, to almost losing my wife (Hi, my name is Danar, and I'm an addict..). Anyway, as with so many others, I have moved to a point my life where I have overwhelming priorities that outweigh Darkover. I know that Darkover will live on under Llwyst and Shalla's leadership, defying the nay-sayers of DAoC and Everquest. Perhaps I can return, in whatever capacity someday, who knows. Until then, into the darkness I go...