Ledah

Every now and then, when i look back and see what happend in MD development in the last long period, i decide to declare it the end of one stage and the beginning of an other.
A summary of what happend in Stage 16:
- A25 stopped being just an admin panel and turned into a much more complete questmaking and realm-shaping interface. Realm search, activation simulators, TESTMODE, decorations, focused scene editing, clickables libraries, depositables groundwork and a massively expanded npctalk system made it possible to build much more complex and interactive content. - The npctalk/dialogue branch alone exploded: labels, public vars, profile vars, imports/exports, random starts, rephrasing, mobile editing, item selection, text command activation, data formulas and other tools that give questmakers a way to build large branched stories without waiting for artworks. - Upgradeables, building upkeep, treasuries, land resources, regeneration controls, heavy resources, depositables and coin minting pushed the resource layer closer to something that can support real player projects and lasting communal structures. - Combat and ritual mechanics moved too: shard abilities became editable, collectable and species based; more creatures became able to fight; rituals became easier to create on mobile and later in huge batches; teleport blocking and no-teleport rules were added; and killing/revival item reuse got rebalanced in ways that permanently affect land security and ritual planning. - Items advanced a lot toward actual functionality. Items can grant spells, present public choices in chat, carry placed actions and texts, follow complexity levels for future mixing logic, feed the bestiary/NFT branch, and now even start to host minigames. This is one of the most important unfinished branches in MD right now. - Chat and interface updates where massive. MD became much more usable on mobile, the map/inbox/ritual creator and many other pages were reworked, chat commands multiplied, travel via chat and arrow keys appeared, PM history improved, and several sections of MD can now read themselves out loud. - AI entered MD in many forms. Darvin was retired and Eggdar entered play, announcements and help answers became queryable from chat, AI drawing tools started generating scenes, avatars, items and stories for A25, and interactive advisors such as the MD advisor, the Mur clone and the interactive Questmaster's Backpack started to augment how both players and questmakers interact with the realm. - The clearest form of this new AI direction is Eggdar, a true in-world questmaker and storyteller. Eggy evolved from experiment to character: able to remember, guide, describe, talk, build unique plots, run item-aware and team-friendly quests, let you pick rewards, issue future-value quest items and generally show what AI-native gameplay inside MD could look like. Eggy is using the full power of my outer-realm business Lumnar Creations, that powers it. - To support all this, huge infrastructure work happened behind the curtain. Server migrations, firewall work, http2, forum upgrades and relocations, php8 modernization, core refactors, and finally the new MagicDuel API, all changed how MD can be extended from now on. - This new API and the AI work around it deserve special mention. MD now has the kind of infrastructure that allows natural language control over a growing set of realm actions and tools, and even further AI support for future development. This does NOT mean that the AI should define MD. The concepts, ideas, balance and meaning of this realm remain human things, governed by player creativity and ingenuity. The AI is here to extend the playground, not replace the players. - Tags, streaks, spelldocs and research clues started to converge into a more coherent role ecosystem. New tag dispatchers, streak logic, spelldoc migration, clue improvements and unlocking methods are all groundwork for roles that actually unlock tools, places and branches of play. - Consecutive days changed from a prestige number into a real gameplay axis. It now shapes rewards, access, prison escape, deeper lands, boosters and other parts of the realm. - Politically and in the world itself, Stage 16 mattered too. Alliance leadership became more stable, Aia was crowned Queen of Loreroot, Sunfire took over Guardians of the Root, the Player Community Council was formed, important creators were honored in the Creative Creatives hall, Aksel entered SotIS, and an entire new land with nearly 30 scenes opened on MD's 20th birthday. - Minigames! I am not sure how much this will evolve in the future, but its a nice way to give items functionality and resuscitate the silver economy. Minigames can be used to gain silver coins but also consume them. - AI created scenes..while not something i am proud of, and i would still prefer human artworks when possible, AI created content is still an useful way to continue to expand the realm and make it so vast that none of its inhabitants can say they traveled it all - Last but not least, internal tools to develop MD changed dramatically, and are one step ahead of their times. Just few months ago was i able to put to good use plans designed for AI use, so that machine can understand they way i designed stuff in all these 20+ years, and lots of inner workings. I am still waiting for some more, and while looking ancient and living in a game world that is nearly extinct in this niche (compared to other game evolution), MD will remain a mix of vintage and cutting edge tech, as long as i will live. Overall this stage was a very explosive one. Rather than polishing just one branch till perfection, Stage 16 opened many branches at once: AI, tags, item functionality, dialogue systems, resource/building systems, interface modernization, and much more. Some of these branches already bear fruit, others are only now reaching the point where they can start to matter to everyday gameplay.
The upcomming stage should focus less on exploding the toolbox even further, and more on putting these tools in the hands of everyday players, so that an unprecedented level of !!CHAOS!! can happen in the realm. More freedom should return to the players, more true world-changing power should become reachable through role and effort, and several long due evolutionary branches should finally be completed properly: functional items, the role tags ecosystem, depositables, heavy resources, clue and spelldoc chains, deeper land mechanics, and a lot more.
This stage was about exploding the feature set with novel ways to express creativity, and lots of new and feature rich tools. The next one should be more about making these tools reachable, dangerous :D, and useful in the hands of regular players.
I would also like to thank all those that kept supporting MD financially, technically, artistically, through questmaking, debugging, documenting and simply by still being around in such desolated times. Without you, none of the above would mean much, because tools without people to use them are just abandoned machinery.
All these being said, i welcome all of you in Stage 17, a stage that should take all this accumulated potential and turn it into living disorder, player agency and a further EVOLUTION of MagicDuel realm.
signed: Mur, Chewett, Eggdar :D, and the humans crazy enough to put all these tools to good use.
-- enjoy

This has been resolved

This .."case" , was posted after i already decided on this matter, a day earlier. I see no names where used, so i assume its because of waiting for Aia's call on this.
Announced or not, i believe justice has been served.
I did not see him as a tyrant of any sort, i guess he changed dramatically since i las updated my view on the subject.. indeed my mistake.
 

Perhaps we should discuss a settlement.

A couple days ago... give it a few more years for the 1,000,000!

It is that time of year again. It has apparently been a very long 2 years.

@Mallos but look where Handy P. Is now. No more kitty cat... maybe actual active vets

It sounds like a cool idea.
Could also be used to grant access to certain locations or mechanics, such as heat veins.

I personally like the idea and think it could help boost some activity , an optional extra thing for people to do that requires you to take care of the pet. They could grow with age. Personally I'd like a cat or a parrot. Or maybe these should be unique MD pets not found in RL.

I had an idea sort of similar to this one but I  think it's different enough to make a separate post. Mounts. For example a horse or a dragon that you also need to take care of, feed, water it. It would have it's own set of AP (either not much or a decent amount with longer cooldown. Maybe enough to just get through one side of a land to another) that is spent when you are mounted instead of your personal AP. Would require rest and food and water to regenerate it.
It should maybe require a quest to earn one, a ritual or building one. Shouldn't be very easy to get. Maybe an icon next to playername or avy to show you are mounted or a automated text in chat like
"*playername mounts mountname*"
I would personally use it mostly for RP purposes and wonder if anyone else thinks this is a cool idea.

A25 members currently online and using the tools... or have them open.
https://magicduel.com/page/Announcement/view/4947
Guessing Ungod, Mur, Chew, Syrian there.

I've held onto these Avatars long enough, and it's time to share them! If anyone wants one (for free), send me a message.
I don’t want these to gather dust in someone else’s vault, as they did in mine. The art deserves to be appreciated and displayed. So, one per person, ideally for someone who will use it. I understand our community is smaller now, so this may not be possible, but I hope to find them good homes.
Dragon gone

(Part 5)
The lightning crashed, the wind howled, the sand flew around.
And as rapidly as it started, all of it.. ended.
The knator survived the storm, mostly unhurt. Maybe a new one would come soon. But this one passed, and he was still alive.
The knator lifted his head up. For the first time in a while, he could actually see around himself.
A field of grass was around him and the tree, with a single dirt road. A couple of small boulders were lying in the grass. Nearby, a single scarecrow stood, undisturbed as if the storm was unable to touch it. Similarly, a statue atop a pile of boulders stood near the dirt road.
As if the fate was making fun of knator, he even spotted a cave entrance in a hill not so far from where he was. It would make a very good place to hide.
Looking up at the tree, he wondered why the birds did not go there to hide from the storm. Well, a single bird, now.
It was looking around, its eyes dim, not focusing on anything, just searching. It did not find what it was looking for.
“Kaw.”
And from behind the bird, from a place which it protected with its whole body, a young voice resounded.
“Caw?”

And the last gathering was a great success!
Thanks for participation, Chew, Invie and Ledah!
Points (half points for breaking MD):
Chew - 1
Invie - 1.5
Ledah - 2.5
jakubhi - 0.5

It is that time of year again. It has apparently been a very long 2 years.

Oh, nice, lets see the stat.. Damn you! Not agaaaain. 

Evening all,
I like to keep an eye on things in the game, especially now that some better players than me unfortunately don't have the time to play MD as actively as me. In the past I've raised concerns about alt abuse, for example what was dubbed "triangle trading" - where you use an intermediary to either transfer items to your alts or otherwise using alts to benefit your main - think using them to win a quest for someone else and have the winner transfer a cut/fee to your main.
I usually raise these privately but I've decided to raise this one publicly as I feel there are a few people skirting a bit too close to the margins for my liking - and they keep doing it, despite the consequences I have personally tried to heap on them over the last few years.
I believe Aamon is an alt of a player involved in this series of trades, with the spellstones (screenshots attached). Therefore, I am asking for a GM to run an altcheck - I hope I am wrong and I look like an absolute plum, but I have a gut feeling on this one.
Most importantly, I feel that Confused Santa is not giving us presents becuase there are naughty players around. I saw this and this looks very naughty. If we punish this maybe we will get our presents.

Surely if we all agree to come together as a community, in one place, one time, with one desire... surely a Christmas miracle will happen!
I am sure if we can arrange such a meeting we will get a competent elf this time... but can we do it?

The elves of Confused Santa, who claims he is most definitely not confused, are waiting til the end of the year to unlock the final presents, maybe they work on another time zone?

Inside the Loreroot library, a new book has appeared! But to get to it, you need to complete a quest first.
To start the quest, simply "search" the stone in the lower left part of Gazebo of Equilibrium scene.
Have fun!

I would definitely tweak the creatures that are given out from it - removing most of the current B&W ones (except the Drach and Scout) - maybe improving the odds of premium crits and adding buildable or generally rarer B&W crits to the pool.
Crit slots are tidy, even if just a few every year.
Some common RP items, limited to a pool of "usable" ones, so ones needed for the toy chest etc.
PS: It should give out an achievement, like the Anni ones we had before - or maybe a collectible coin/ornament etc. instead.

Hello,
My name is Aamon and I am experiencing an issue with the combiner on the island. The specific location in question is the " experimental grotto" . I used 3 items that were needed to make paper as I am trying to repair the balloon. I first made "thin wood sheets" as the combiner said I will need them to make the paper.
I then put the rest of the ingredients I needed into the combiner and processed them and the combiner said I successfully made 2 sheets of paper. (See my screenshot attached )
When I exited the combiner it also showed in the chat that I made these sheets of paper. However when I search my inventory no paper can be found.
Did the paper disappear? Did it get stuck in the combiner perhaps? 
I am unsure of what to do in this situation and I would like to be able to fix this balloon here. I'll appreciate any help I am able to get on this matter. Thank you 😀
Also if needed I am sure I can recreate this issue.

A couple days ago... give it a few more years for the 1,000,000!