The 'official rules' are:

1.) new text causes window to scroll

2.) until you use the scroll bar to read some old text, then the autoscroll turns off

3.) if you drag the scroll bar all the way t the bottom, the autoscroll turns back on.

4.) If you do nothing (no scrolling) for awhile (a pretty long time), then the next incoming chat will autoscroll again.

====

But if you leave the game running a long time (long enough to accumulate a lot of chat), I have seen it screw up. I think it has to do with clipping the old chat (I only keep the last 64K or so of chat around, so you don't run out of memory when you play a long time). However it happens (and if you can make it happen on demand, please let me know), once you get in this state (which seems to fix itself eventually) the autoscroll either works not at all, or "is goofy"

NOTE: WINDOWS BUG

If your chat *never* scrolls automatically, you might be using one of the broken DLLs Microsoft shipped about the time they released Windows 2000. This DLL is further re-installed when you install some other software packages released around that time.

At present, the Internet Explorer 5.5 service pack is one known way of getting a working DLL back.

I'm afraid I can't provide the DLL name or version to watch out for, but I suspect it is COMCTRL32.DLL which has most of the windows common controls in it.

CAN YOU CHANGE YOUR PK (PlayerKiller) DECISION AFTER STARTING A NEW CHARACTER?

---------

No, you must live with your decision for the life of your character.

HOwever, as of A41, world designers can now tag individual maps with "map flags" which enable such things as PK fights whether you are PK or not, and total safety from PKing, whether you are PK or not. One can only hope this power will be used responsibly.

Also, MIX server admins can apply 'rules' to their servers to further restrict/enable PK activity:

noPK - no PKing except in Arena Maps
allPK - no safe maps in the world.

In general, the life of a PKer is a miserable, squalid existence, and you are more likely to encounter snerty (jerky) people who will prey upon you and make your life even more miserable than it already was. If this is likely to hurt your feelings (or cause you to hurt your computer) you are advised to not use a PK character.

Note to Jerky Snerts: This is NOT a license to behave poorly. Killing someone repeatedly to the point where they simply cannot enjoy the game is not consistent with the sort of family-friendly atmosphere I want WoS to exude. So shape up!

----

If you NEVER get skins, check the setting of the option "Ask for new skins" in your FILE menu.

If you look in your WoS\SKINS folder, sort it by date you will see what skins you have gotten. If they all end with ".tmp" it means something went wrong before you completely received the skin (they left, you left, there was excessive UDP packet loss)

Here is how skin transfers work (as of A43):

1.) You enter a server
2.) You see a skin you don't have, if you have the "ASK" option turned on, you ask for it. (By you, I mean your copy of the game). Usually I put an asterisk after one of these skin names in the map list.
3.) If the other guy has the "SEND" option turned on, he starts sending it (unless the server is too busy - currently that means 28 people). Only when he starts sending it do you see that "receiving skin" message.
4.) It is accumulated in the file WoS\skins\skinName.bmp.tmp which gets longer with every packet
5.) If something interrupts the transfer like you leave, he leaves, or you drop some packets somewhere over the internet, the transfer stops and you are left with a partial ".bmp.tmp" file
5.) The next time you encounter the guy, the process repeats, only this time it picks up where it left off (unless he has edited the skin in the mean time).

Over time and repeated encounters, you should eventually get the skin. (and only then do you get the "got skin" message).

If there is a particular skin you really want right away, you can transfer it by any means you like. However it gets into the WoS\skins folder is ok, as far as the game is concerned.

---

OTHER REASONS FOR NO SKINS RECEIVED:

* huge skins won't get transferred by the game. A reasonable skin size is 20K bytes or so.

* The folder "WoS\Skins" (or the filename in question) has been marked "read-only" This is most commonly reported by people who use CD-R to move skins back and forth between computers.

* You are behind a firewall which is blocking UDP traffic. As of version A52 you can specify a specific range of port numbers to be used in UDP transfers. Your firewall administrator may be able to work with you on this.

* You are behind a proxy (another computer which has the REAL Internet connection on it, which handles all requests on your behalf). This can lead to your computer not knowing its own address, making it difficult to tell other player's computers where to send stuff (and even if they knew, the proxy will probably reject their attempts to send it on to you).

Be sure to notice the message above the empty list to see if:

1.) It is trying to get the master server address.

2.) It is trying to get the list of servers from the master server

3.) It is pinging the various servers.

The most likely sources of failure at each of these points are:

1.) For some reason you can't reach www.synthetic-reality.com (try visiting it with your browser just to check). I don't see any service interruptions there today, so unless your ISP was messed up, this probably wasn't the problem. Of course, if you are 'behind a proxy' your browser might know how to reach the web site, while WoS remains in the dark.

2.) You have some sort of UDP firewall in place (since it was working for you before, this is unlikely unless your system or your ISP made a change)... or you got added to the master server banishment list. During today's peak usage I manually banished a couple of IP addresses with 'unusual activity' which might be what happened. If your IP shows up repeatedly with unusual activity, we'll have to figure out why that is.

3.) In this case, you would probably get some, but not all, of the servers to show up. So it is probably not your problem either. There have been 5 servers up for most of the day.

----
Here: http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosCheats.htm

Go to the WoS home page and look for 'cheat codes' in the list of links on the left side of the page.

This lists all slash commands, only some of which are actually cheats.

Remember that using an actual cheat command marks your character permanently as a cheater, and prevents it from fully interacting with other players. (and will eventually reduce the max level you can achieve)

Q: WHEN THE BLEEP WILL THE EVERGREEN QUESTS BE DONE AND LET ME FIGHT THE BLEEPING BLACK WRATH? (or words to that effect)

--------

In general, I should take people's impatience as a compliment, though I rarely do. Synthetic Reality is all about my getting to do what I feel like doing. To the degree that I feel like making free games which more or less grow along a path the players suggest, this is good.

But for you (the impatient player who likes to swear a lot, I mean) it can be frustrating since attempts to boss me around or make me commit to specific dates are a waste of your time.

Hopefully none of my actions cause physical pain, loss of money, or deprivation to the individual players.

Having said that, I next ask that you separate Well of Souls the game engine, from Evergreen the world.

Because I hope to leverage the creativity of the players themselves to widen the world base, I feel it is incumbent upon me to give first priority to getting the engine to a state where it empowers them to create excellent content. They will all agree I have not yet attained this lofty goal.

While I enjoy working on Evergreen the world, it is more of a closed object which, when 'done' will be cast aside in the relentless pursuit of novelty. My hours of hard work reduced to one player's spoiler page. (boo hoo, pity me )

My dream is that the engine itself would enable any world to have infinite replay value, even though the scripted elements will always be most interesting the first time through.

As was pointed out by LGH, much of evergreen is intended to be an example of how to achieve certain effects, to later be done more elegantly in another world.

And, of course, it helps other world designers if Evergreen doesn't compete too brilliantly against their creations (that is, of course, just a rationalization, put here for your amusement )

In fact, as any world designer will tell you, it is not trivial to make a good world. Without naming names, I think we've all seen examples of poorly thought out worlds, showing a minimum investment of time and energy. Such worlds depend heavily on the game engine bringing replayability to the party.

It's much easier to brag about how great your world will be, than to actually deliver. Which is why we really need to give the good designers their due (I can't name them here without pointing out the others, and I can't afford to alienate ANY designers :-)

A designer easily spends an hour developing something which entertains you for less than a minute. So hopefully there are more than sixty of you for every one of him/her, or the universe will experience premature heat death.

I don't always have a lot of energy when I get to the part of the day where I 'should' be working on quests and that's the real explanation for why there are not always 3 new quests in every release (which I wish there were). When the muse is there, I generate scenes. When it isn't, I go where the muse is calling and work on something else.

And that's what Synthetic Reality Co. is all about.. doing what I feel like doing at the time I feel like doing it - and encouraging others to do the same.

Follow your bliss, as trivial as that advice may sound.

Basically, you 'train' in the use of magical elements and physical 'hand' attacks (16 training categories total).

Training occurs whenever you use the skill in question, but can also be achieved by 'spending' PP (participation points) on one of the training screens.

As you train, you increase your level in that skill. This is done in a non-linear fashion which gives you a diminishing return. For example, it is harder to train from level 2 to level 3, than it was to train from level 1 to level 2.

And, it would require an infinite amount of PP to train from level 9 to level 10 (hence you can NEVER REACH level 10) For all practical purposes you can't really train any higher than 9.99 or so.

Now, what good is training anyway? First off, many spells and weapons require a minimum training level to be used. So, for example, to cast a level 3 water spell, you must have trained to at least level 3 in the water element skill.

The other advantage of training comes from "excess training" That is to say, training in excess of the minimum required for a particular weapon or spell.

This excess training makes your attack somewhat stronger. Although the actual amount may vary from one version release to the next, in A43 the effect is about 19 percent for each full excess level.

Hence a level 3 water spell would be about 19 percent more effective if you were trained to level 4 in the water skill (1 excess level).

With 2 excess levels, a spell would be improved by about 42% (you don't add the percentages, you multiply them.. so three excess levels would be 1.19 * 1.19 * 1.19 which would give about 68 percent, etc.)

The actual math is done with a base raised to a power, so it works with any excess training amount.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF THOSE CHARGE METERS?
------------------------

Careful examination of the HP and MP meters in the lower left will show a simple qhite bar beneath each.

This is the charge bar for physical attacks (HP) and magical attacks (MP). It discharges whenever you attack, and then slowly recharges back to maximum.

In general, if you wait for it to recharge before attacking again, your attack will be stronger as a result.

The actual means by which this is achieved ties in somewhat with the 'excess training' discussion above.

But the important thing to remember is that this effect is more impressive when you have LOW training to begin with. For example, if you are only trained to level 1 in water, and cast a level 1 water spell, it will be considerably improved by waiting for a recharge.

However, once you achieve level 9 or more training, you will be hard pressed to see the charge meter making much of a difference.

--------
Samsyn Says:

It's a long an torturous path to make a quality world. (but making a crummy one is only mildly irritating )

To get started, look here:
http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosDev0.htm

WHEN WILL VERSION X BE RELEASED?

-------------

GuppyMan says: Samsyn has always(well as far back as I can remember) posted the estimated release date on all of the "WoS Development Notes."

Samsyn Adds: I try to be as accurate as I can in the one-liner at the top of the dev-notes. I also try to clearly describe exactly what has made it into each release, so as not to tease you too badly.

So, please read the dev notes before deciding how eager you are for the next version, and then try to be patient (or hope for a world-shattering bug in the current version which prompts an emergency release. )

WHAT COOL WOS MECHANDISE CAN I BUY?

----

Samsyn Responds:

I encourage everyone to visit www.synthetic-reality.com/donate.htm and send me as much money as they possibly can (do I sound desperate).

unfortunately, although there are now many different styles of shirts, mugs, and mousepads, there are still no hats.

I too, would like a hat, but that appears to be beyond the manufacturer's capabilities

And I *know* Sue McIlroy would buy a hat! Good old Sue! THANK YOU, Sue!

-s]

As of March 2001, the manufacturer has implied that hats will (eventually) be available.

As of June 2001, they say the hats are coming soon.

And in Aug 2001, hats arrive! Now buy one

HOW HIGH DOES A PLAYER'S 'RATING' GO?

--------
Samsyn Replies:

In theory, it goes to infinity. In practice, something less. It gets harder to gain rating if you don't have people more powerful than yourself to fight.

At least that's the theory. In practice I expect it to stay under 10 thousand. If not, I may tweak the math.

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR STARTING A GUILD?

---

Full details can be found here: www.synthetic-reality.com/wosGuildInfo.htm

You need to meet the minimum age (time played) requirement both for your Soul ID (what shows on the MAP player list) and your actual character (what shows in the Soul Diary).

It used to be that you could just leave the game running in solo mode, and walk away, to accumulate massive amounts of 'AFK Hours' (Away From Keyboard).

But as of A55, only your soul ID gets AFK hours credited to it (so you can see as many ads as possible!) Your character ages only as you actively play.

WHY ARE MY CHARACTERS MARKED AS MODDERS?

-------

First we must distinguish between a 'mod' (a different version of the quest file for a given world than the one you are using) and a 'modder' (a character which has played in an 'unofficial' mod).

World designers periodically release updates to their worlds. They have the opportunity of marking these worlds as "official" (giving them formal version numbers). If you play your character only in an "official" world, it is not considered to be a "modder" even though it might in the long run play in 20 different mods of that world.

When you look in the MAPS list in the game (and scroll over to the "version" column), you can see which version of the game *and world* each player is using. If you see the word "mod" in this column, it just means they are using a different mod than you are. (could be they are just running the previous official version - or you are).

When you join a scene with someone else in the game, only the quest script of the 'host' of that scene is used. Hence two players with different mods will use the mod of the 'host' in such a case. Normally you want to avoid playing "mixed mods" like this, since it might not make sense for your character (the definition of a world token or item might have changed between mods, for example). The FILE menu gives you an option to "avoid modified quest files"

This simply prevents you from accidentally entering into a modified scene.

If you disable this protection, your character will be marked a "modder" the next time it shares a scene with someone running a different mod from your own.

Being marked a "modder" is no great sin, but it is similar to being marked a "cheater" in that your interactions with other players are limited. (you can't give them things, nor can you initiate fights with them). This is mainly to avoid the situation where a player modifies their world to provide powerful items at low cost and then use those items against players who are using the official mod (which is harder, for example).

Most recently, the use of the "modder" tag was extended to any incarnated soul which was moved from one computer to another. This was an unfortunate situation brought about by a rash of hacked hero and pet files being shared amongst the lazier players.

The downside for you, the honest player, is that you can no longer move a character between several PCs so as to level the same character every time you play. Since levelling is not intrinsically difficult, you might actually find it more fun to maintain separate characters on each computer anyway.

What you *won't* enjoy is having all your characters be perceived as modders just because you bought a new PC, or you had to reformat the disk on your old PC.

As of version A50, simply reinstalling windows should not cause a problem, so long as you keep your installation of WoS throughout the upgrade.

Likewise, if you backup your WoS installation and move it to a new PC, you should be fine. Where you will get into trouble is if you download and install a fresh copy of WoS on the new PC *before* copying your backup from the old PC. In that case, the new PC will have a new soul ID and your characters will be perceived to have moved. (and hence will be marked as modders)

I'll bet that's more than you ever wanted to know about modders.

Oh, please note that as a world developer, you have no choice but to use modder characters to get any work done, since by definition you are modding your world all day long.

So don't be mean to modders. They're probably good people, just like you!

If you really need to move to another machine and can't manage to backup and restore your complete copy of the WoS folder. Or you have already installed WoS on that other machine but want to have the same soul ID you had before.

Then... you might want to donate $25 and get a GOLDEN SOUL ID which you can install on any PC you like. Details are at http://www.synthetic-reality.com/donate.htm

WHAT'S UP WITH PK ATTACK?

---------

PK (Player Killer) Attack is a relatively new feature which you invoke by right-clicking on a player (either on the map or in the MAP list). Only a PKer character can use this to attack another PKer character (that is to say, it won't work if either player is a yellow happy face on the MAP list - unless the map itself is "dangerous")

PK Attack is a more formal challenge than just a regular bit of in-scene carnage. In general, while in a PK Attack battle, neither party can exit the scene until they have spent at least 30 seconds not fighting. (nor healing). Which gives your opponent at least 30 more seconds to bash on you before you can run away.

While the attacker is *always* trapped in the scene for at least thirty seconds, the victim can generally flee immediately if they don't do anything belligerent first. (leaving the attacker stuck for 30 seconds, reducing the frequency of nuisance attacks)

A victim loses this instant-flee option if they ever initiate a PK attack on their own (or if they kill someone in a PK Attack scene in general). They will get the option back sometime later, if they stay PK free for that long. (In A51, this cool-down period is 24 hours, real-time... um, I think. Hours, in any case)

The description applies to version A51 and later.

Hey, what about those MIX SERVER RULES I keep hearing about? How do I run my own MIX SERVER and control it the way I like?

--------

Samsyn says:

Check out this URL for more information!
http://www.synthetic-reality.com/mixRules.htm

-----

Samsyn Says:

Your soul ID is your key to a world of entertainment and joy. It is also how you are tracked through the universe so that I don't hassle you repeatedly for donations, and people can dress you in the buddy hat of their choice.

To re-experience Evergreen, just start a new character. (or visit the temple of forgetfulness to have an existing character forget individual quests.)

But please leave your soul ID alone, I appreciate it, thanks!

HOW DO I COPY WOS TO ANOTHER MACHINE, OR RESTORE IT AFTER A REFORMAT, WITHOUT MY CHARACTERS GETTING MARKED AS MODDERS?

---------

If you are running the current version of WoS then all you need to do is be sure to backup the ENTIRE WOS DIRECTORY from the old machine and copy it to the new machine.

If you install and run a new copy of WoS on the new machine, it will get a new soul ID. And your old characters will appear to have been moved, and get marked (though new characters will be fine.)

Of course, if there is any chance you want to keep playing WoS on the old machine, you might want to go ahead and get a new soul number anyway (two machines with the same soul number can't play together)

At the risk of repeating this excessively. One solution for the mobi-centric player, is to donate $25 and get a GOLDEN SOUL ID. Then you can take your identity to new machines as needed. Details at http://www.synthetic-reality.com/donate.htm

Also be sure to read the specific instructions at http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosSuperFAQ.htm

AM I MUTED? AM I GAGGED? HOW CAN I TELL?

--------

There are several reasons why people might not see your chat, so let's go over the terms first.

1.) They are not EAVESDROPPING. In which case, they will only hear you when you are nearby. (You control this by the right-click popup menu in the chat window).

2.) They have MUTED you (by right-clicking on your name and selecting MUTE <your name> ). They don't want to hear you any more. Give up. It's their choice. Mute them back if you feel vindictive. A mute only affects the listener, and other people can still hear you.

3.) You have set of the SPAM LIMITER. If you type too much, too quickly, you lose the power of chat until you shut completely up for a minute or two. The more you spam, the longer you have to be silent. You get no feedback when you are spam limited.

4.) You have triggered the noBleep server gag. if you swear on a server with the "noBleep" rule set, you will see a little message like "You EAT with that mouth?" and thereafter nothing you say will be transmitted to other players until after you shut down WoS and restart it.

4.) You have been GAGGED by the Snert Detector. This causes you to completely lose the power of chat on all servers for some period of time.

Getting gagged is a pretty serious thing in WoS and doesn't happen lightly. Hence, once you get gagged the game intentionally doesn't make that fact obvious to you, in order to keep you so in the dark that you really stay gagged for awhile.

Gags wear off at a rate inversely proportional to the nature of the crime, as it were.

Creative mis-spellings of the F word generally receive a one week gag (on a noBleep server, I mean. Defeating the bleeper is strongly discouraged).

Minor homophobic remarks generally a day.

Hard core hate crime or racism can get you a month or worse.

But the game is set up to train you not to mis-spell your way through the bleeper, and this is the consequence which induces the training. The bleeper is there so that you can have your freedom while other people have their freedom, too. When you spell your way past it, you are breaking a social contract.

You may find ALL the questions here:
http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosFAQ.htm

And you are advised to look there as well, if you are truly trying to find an answer as quickly as possible :-)

If you just want to ramble on without checking first (and then have your question deleted without an answer), then by all means, go ahead and post a question without reading first

WHAT IS A SNERT? WHAT IS A NEWBIE?

---

I can't believe this wasn't already in the FAQ (I didn't see it just now as I was pruning, but perhaps it was buried in another question.)

In short, in WoS, a 'snert' is a 'jerk'

In poetry, a snert is someone who only gets pleasure from preventing other players from having fun.

As defined by a google search on the web, it's someone who makes unpleasant sexual remarks in chat. That's certainly part of the WoS definition, but not the whole thing.

The term was brought to WoS by Lady Gryphon Hawkeye, from her years of experience in RPGing.

The term is proffered as an alternative to "newbie" which was commonly being mis-used. In WoS, a "newbie" is just a new player who does not yet know the game intimately.

We all start off as newbies, but we do NOT all start off as snerts.

And if YOU'RE a snert, it's not too late to change your ways and set a positive example instead.

Thanks!

---------------

And to make the description more multimedia, I present:

THE HUNTING OF THE SNERT - by Uncle Dan (with apologies to Lewis Carroll)

"now listen my men,
as I tell you again
the five unmistakable works,
By which you shall know
wheresoever you go
these genuine warranted snerts."

"The first is their language,
so crude and perverse,
with spell' errors never erased.
Their tendency major
towards l337-ish behaviour,
so frequently typed UPPERCASED!"

"The second great sin
of these low-brow young men
is they seldom will leave you alone.
Whether cheating or hacking,
decorum is lacking,
while PK Attacking your bones."

"Did I mention their whining,
incessant two-timing?
(Their monster kills often are poached.)
Why level prepared?
XP can be shared!
GP for ten seeds, can be mooched!"

"Their ears seem quite lax,
perhaps filled with wax,
as seldom they hear what you say.
You answer their question
five times, they'll not listen.
So soon you will mute them away."

"But last for attack
is their hideous lack
of values or morals or brain!
They'll sap you of joy,
and break your new toy,
as their pleasure derives from your pain"

"So learn well my men,
lest you meet them again,
these horrible slavering snerts.
Their weak-kneed excuses,
and frequent abuses,
label them simply as 'jerks'."

Q: What's the highest level your character can reach, and does the World Developer have any control over that?

--------

Presently, the highest level is 100, and no world can set it higher. (monsters can have higher levels, but not players.)

Level 100 is a bit different from the other levels in that, if you get killed, your level will actually DROP (to 99).

You may also wonder of what value is your hunting skill? Well, the higher your hunting skill...

* The more likely you are to start a fight every time you hunt.

* The less likely you are to be attacked while simply walking the map

* The more information will be available to you on the Monster Radar.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 07-05-2001).]

This is not about wos but how do u become a member of the bb's if your a junior member?

---------
The bulletin board dubs you a "member" after you have posted more than a certain number of times.

There are no advantages to having this title.

The Temple of Fog allows you to forget quests you have already played through, so that you can experience them again from the beginning. You could also do this with a new character, but then you'd have all that levelling to do as well...

-------

character names are used in many places. In some of those places commas are used to separate values and it is simply inconvenient to allow commas within the character name. Not impossible, just inconvenient (for me!) Supporting spaces in all those places was bad enough.

HOW ARE EXPERIENCE POINTS SHARED?

---------

When a monster battle completes, the total XP earned from all monsters destroyed is split between the remaining, living, human players.

But players do not get equal shares.

If your level 10 character fights alongside a level 100 player, you will get only 10% as much experience as s/he will for the same number of attacks.

The math is:

1.) Each time a human player, or pet, hits or casts a spell, a certain number of share points are created, equal to their level. For example, as a level 76er, I create 76 share points each time I attack (and this includes healing). Only the hitting of monsters generates share points.

2.) A common pool is maintained of all share points so far in this scene.

3.) At the end of the scene, the XP is distributed to the human players based on their own total share points divided by the total share points in the pool.

4.) Pets earn XP by the 'old rules' but their share points *do* dilute the reward for the human players.

WHAT'S A GOLDEN SOUL, AND WHAT SPECIAL THINGS CAN THEY DO?

-------------

Basically a Golden Soul is my 'reward' to those people who donate $25 to keep Synthetic-Reality.com alive. You can donate here: --> http://www.synthetic-reality.com/donate.htm

If you donate via the Golden Soul link, then you will receive an 'activation code' by email. Upon entering that code into your copy of WoS, you will have a Golden Soul Number.

The actual advantages to you are not all that great, but I hope you'll crave one anyway.

For the latest list, read HERE --> http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosGolden.htm

----

First and foremost, your name appears in Golden Text on the player list (instead of ho hum green or white). But also:

1.) Having a golden soul lets you move characters between PCs without being marked a modder (coz YOU control the soul ID). (You can move any character to a golden name machine, and the soul # will be updated without marking you as a modder).

Of course, you'll want to buy a golden name for ALL your PCs (if you want to move a character back, for example)

2.) For the snerts in the audience who are looking for a way to get a brand new identity, here's your chance! Buy a new golden soul ID and be a brand NEW snert that no one knows about yet!

3.) Go ahead and reformat that hard drive! Reinstall WoS from scratch! Just enter your Golden Soul activation code in again!

4.) And, should WoS ever stop being free (say, after 100 hours use?) you'll already be set!

5.) And maybe there will be Golden Soul FEATURES! Maybe. Perhaps. Someday. (there now are some, read about them HERE: http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosGolden.htm

6.) Note: upgrading to a golden soul WILL mess up all your guild memberships. This is most inconvenient if you are the only member of your guild (since you have no one to petition to to re-join). Otherwise, it isn't too much of a pain to re-petition. I don't see any way around this though...

7.) Golden souls get unlimited use of the "monster radar" (seen while hunting), while non-GSes only see this for a brief demonstration period (based on total hours spent playing game). (ok ok, it's for ONE THOUSAND HOURS which isn't very brief, but I'm just too kindly.)

8.) Golden Souls can 'rate' MIX servers on the public server list (just puts an icon next to them to help you locate them later). Only works with the new version of MIX.

9.) As of A60, Golden souls are spared the ads in the Well. Other people see the "Guilt Page" after every 20 hours of gameplay.

=======
Please remember, when you 'buy a golden soul' you are actually 'voluntarily donating $25' and I don't mean to positively guarantee that you will get this incredibly cool set of features in return.

I mean, if server ratings turn out to be buggy, I don't want you looking for a refund or something. Please don't donate until you're sure the game has already given you enough gratification. Thanks!

CAN I PASSWORD PROTECT MY CHARACTERS SO MY LITTLE BROTHER/SISTER DOESN'T MESS THEM UP?

--------------

OK, lots of people asked for this, and I said "no" but hey, you guys haven't yelled at me NEARLY as much as I expected over A55, so here's a little present.

*As of A56, you can optionally password protect your heroes.*

Now, of course, they are still saved in files which your little brother or sister could delete, but other than that you will need the password to use or purge them (via the in-game purge button).

And if you FORGET your password, don't come begging to me, coz I will have no idea.

----
HOW TO SET/CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD:

After incarnating, type /password to set a new password. (you'll have to know the old one if there already is one set).

You will have to enter the new password twice (two edit boxes) and spell it the same way each time.

CASE IS IMPORTANT. So you idiots who like to "tYpE IN CrAzy TaLK" are doomed to forget your passwords! Did I say 'idiots'? I'm sorry. A slip of the tongue. Pay attention to your caps lock key when entering passwords...there's no 'upper case asterisk' to remind you :-)

Thereafter, you will be prompted for that password each time you attempt to incarnate as that character. Or if you use the 'purge' button on that character.

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HOW DO I REMOVE A PASSWORD?

Use /password again, enter the current password when prompted, then leave the two new password boxes empty. setting your password to a blank password removes your existing password. Make sense?

---
WHAT IF I FORGET MY PASSWORD?

You're screwed!

So.. wouldn't it be HILARIOUS if your little brother or sister SET YOUR PASSWORD TO SOMETHING YOU DIDN'T KNOW?

Face it, there is nothing WoS can do to protect you from a renegade brother, sister, or friend. You'd best seek other solutions to that problem :-) Otherwise, they're bound to figure out how to reformat your hard drive eventually.

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P.S.
Don't run out and password protect your favorite characters as soon as you get A56. Give the password feature a good tryout on a character you don't need first. or make backups. or something.

CAN I ORGANIZE MY SKIN FILES SOMEHOW?

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SKIN CATEGORIES: The Done Deal

A56 provides skin categories in the Book of Skins.

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DOES THIS AFFECT MY EXISTING SKIN FILES?

Not really. All the skin .BMP files you own are still in the WoS\SKINS folder and there are NO SUB-FOLDERS. That is to say, same as before, business as usual

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WHAT CATEGORIES DO I START OFF WITH?

Well, none, they're entirely up to you. For my own machine, I have opted for "Josh", "Cam", "DBZ", "Video Game", "Nintendo", "Cool" and "Crap"

(Where Nintendo and Videogame are mostly cactrot's creations (i.e. the high resolution perfect scans) as opposed to the blurry DBZ crap :-))

But again, to each their own, and YOUR categories are totally separate from anyone elses. There is no universal categorization scheme (a la Arcadia http://www.synthetic-reality.com/arcadia.htm)

And categories are only one level deep. I suggest using categories to suit your mood more than anything else, though you are free to try to organize them any way you like. Maybe you want archers, wizards, etc. But I think that leads to too many categories which is a pain in itself.

There is a permanent category called "All Skins" for seeing your complete list.

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HOW DO I MAKE A NEW CATEGORY?

Right-click in the category window and you'll see a couple commands.

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WHAT THE HECK IS THAT 'UNCATEGORIZED' THING?

Well, remember, I have 4000 skins. No way am I going to be able to drag them all to the 'crap' category in one session. And every time I click on "All Skins" I see the full list and don't know where I left off.

So that wacky popup command loads the full list and then removes every skin which I have already put in a category, leaving behind the ones I probably want to categorize still.

And yes, on my supercomputer, it still takes forever and a day (30 seconds?) to build that list given my large skin set.

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HOW DARE YOU REMOVE [=] FROM SKIN NAMES!

I've been whining about goofy characters in skin names for literally years. As it turns out, the categories won't support those three characters in skin names (can you say .INI file?)

Anyway, of my 4000+ skins, I have relatively few like this:

[lzh]skinname[lzh] <-- goofy AND redundant

And quite a few like this:

-= skinname =-

Those are the major offenders. You can actually continue to use one of these skins if it is already selected, but you won't be able to switch to one of them later. "All you have to do" (famous last words) is go into your SKINs folder and rename them. Or you could just massively delete the suckers, which is what I suspect I will do since their mostly redundant pictures of Gotenks anyway.

Anyway, much as I hate skin names like:

~~!!!<<=== MY SKIN - DON'T USE IT ///)****

I am only restricting the characters that I absolutely HAVE to restrict to make the program work.

I hope skin artists can use common sense to prevent additional hassles in the future.

WHAT ARE DECI-LEVELS?

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Decilevels are new, as of version A57...

WHAT IS A DECI_LEVEL?

There are 10 deciLevels (or "dot levels") between each "whole" level. You character starts at level 1, which is now shown as "1.0" on the STATS screen. Only you know your decilevel. Other players see only your whole level (1, in this case).

WHY DECI_LEVELS?

Basically, they exist for two reasons:

1.) To break up the monotony when making a large whole level transition. You get a cheerful mini-level up every 20 minutes instead of every 3 days.

2.) To lessen your exposure to frustration when you die, since you never lose more than that last 20 minutes of effort, instead of those 3 days of work.

HUH, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

Instead of losing half the XP towards your next whole level, you simply are reset to the start of your current deci-level. And contrary to anything posted before today, deci-levels are "SAFE" in the sense that, with one exception, you cannot be knocked down to a lower deciLevel. Just back to the 'start' of your current decilevel

SO, UM, IS DEATH MORE OR LESS PAINFUL THAN BEFORE?

Death is now less painful, being limited to the last 20 minutes (and I wave my hand there. If you are a XP beaver-achiever, it might only be 1 minute. If you are a laconic leveller (like me) it might be 4 hours.) Rez-kills (a separate issue) cannot knock you below your current deci-level.

BUT YOU SAID DECI-LEVELS WERE *NOT* SAFE!

And I was right, but now I am right again. Today is Wednesday. And I'll be right again tomorrow, even if I change it again :-) In fact, my original intention was for deciLevels to be safe (that was largely the whole point, in fact). But a small math difficulty sabotaged that intention.

Anyway, I came to grips with that and now my deciLevel computations are mathematically perfect, so I can safely guarantee them. (I think).

BUT WHAT ABOUT DROPPING DOWN IF YOU DIE WHILE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL? YOU SAID THAT TOO!

Yes I did, and not only WAS it true (because of the math problem) it still IS true (because now I do it on purpose. A good example of a feature being born from a bug).

WHAT!!!? SO MY LEVEL 99.0 IS NOT SAFE?

No, your level 99.0 is still safe. Once you achieve 99.0, no amount of killing will drop you to 98.9

WHAT??? BUT YOU SAID!!

No, I said "the highest level" which is now, of course, 100.

WHAT?????? LEVEL 100 !!!????

Yes, the day has come. You can now reach level 100.0 (which also means you have decilevels 99.1 - 99.9, and which furthermore means that WoS now has a thousand levels, so there! Mua ha ha!

I reserve the right to someday only allow golden souls to get level 100, by the way.

WOO HOO LEVEL 100!! WHAT FAB STUFF CAN I DO AT THAT LEVEL?

Um, nothing really. And world designers who work with the character class tables will probably realize the corner I painted myself into, explaining why level 100 cannot have its own rank name, so for all practical purposes, level 99 is still the top meaningful level.

WHAT? LEVEL 100 GETS *NOTHING*?

No... not exactly. World developers can have level 100 items if they like (I don't plan any for Evergreen... at least not yet), ane it's a real level in the sense of improving your attack, defense, etc.

SO WHAT'S THE POINT OF LEVEL 100?

Well, the real point is that I love the idea of the top level not being safe. But I felt bad having 99 not be safe since so many wimpy players were so freaked out about it and perceived that as something being taken away from them.

So rather than listen to any more of that whining, I created level 100 which is the meta-game level. The new cool thing not to be confused with level 99. Level 99ers are just simple scum who have played the game and levelled their characters.

While a level 100er... um.. a centurian? Lives life on the edge, since if you die at level 100, you drop to level 99.9 instantly. Bang. You're dead, you're 99.9

Now, 99.9 is a 'safe' level so you can NOT be driven all the way down to 99.0 (though I admit that appeals to me, and who knows what I might do about that in the future!)

DOES THIS CHANGE AFFECT MY EXISTING CHARACTERS?

Actually it does a little. World designers will be familiar with the commands which automatically distribute maxHP and maxMP over the 100 player levels. I use them in Evergreen and since I am not boosting the top numbers, it sort of shoves all the other levels down a bit. So your level 88 character will have a teensy bit less maxHP and maxMP. (Your level 100 character will have the same maxMP and maxHP that your level 99 character used to have... within the limits of the autofunction, which is notoriously capricious already. Anyway, don't freak if you mp/hp drops a little. It shouldn't be by much.. 1% I would estimate as a max.

IS THAT THE *ONLY* AFFECT ON MY OLD CHARACTERS?

Well... I am still toying with the idea of boosting the amount of XP needed to level in the first place. And if I do that, you would expect all your old characters to drop in level. (previously earned excess XP would help minimize that effect).

But I have *not* done that yet, except by the trivial addition of 10XP per level.

---------
So, what did I miss? What questions remain?

To recap:

* all decilevels are 'safe' and you cannot be driven down below your current decilevel.

* except level 100.0 which is driven exactly down to 99.9 when you die.

TELL ME ABOUT THE MONSTER RADAR!

------------

Normally, when walking the map you have no idea where the monsters are. But when you press your HUNT button, you turn on your monster radar.

Until your hunt skill reaches a certain level, you really don't see anything. But as your hunting skills get sharpened, you find that you can begin to sense nearby monsters.

At first, you can't completely pin-point their position, but as your skill increases further, you eventually see the center of their hunting ground.

Additional information is shown if you have fought the monster in question before. Otherwise all you know is that a monster is nearby.

By the time you reach hunting level ... 9 (I believe), you pretty much get what you had before (I mean the equivalent of "/monster") only you only see the information during the hunt itself.

So, the levels of hunting skill (without telling you the explicit numbers, since they might change), are:

- see nothing
- see a question mark
- see just the monster picture
- see the monster picture and name
- see the monster picture, name, and level
- see all that and the range circle.

The "/monster" command itself, in A57, is a cheat (marks your character as a cheater) unless you have a Golden Soul.

The monster, in addition to snapping its jaws from time to time, now slowly orbits its true position, with greater uncertainty if your hunt skill level is low.

The higher your hunt level, the further away you can detect monsters.

Also, there is an option in the book of options to let you disable monster radar.

You might be a purist, or it might lag your computer, or A57 might have a huge bug :-) So it seems prudent to let you turn it off.

---------
The Bad News:

The monster radar is a "demo feature" which means you get to use it until you have a certain number of *player hours* (not character hours) and then it stops working unless you have a Golden Soul.

Right now the demo hour limit is set to an insanely high value, so as to let current players have a 'taste' of it. But to be a meaningful sales tool, I will need to cut that down to a more realistic value in future releases.

I hope you will understand the reasons behind my making this choice. I'm not really evil, just hungry. And this is a 'plush' feature, not something you cannot live without.

WHAT ARE COLOR TABLES?

-------------

A57 supports color table settings for ACTORS and for MONSTERS (but not for HEROES)

A color table is a 'translation' of the native palette of a skin file to a new ordering of those colors. Without changing the skin file itself, a 'bluish' monster can become a 'reddish' one (and many other effects, list shown below).

The intention is to let you make a greater variety of monsters without swelling the download too much.

You Can Do Things like:

Swap Blue and Red.

Which takes the RGB components of each color of the standard palette, swaps the B and R components, then tries to find the closest palette color to match that one.

Hence "shades of blue" become "shades of red" and vice versa.

It actually works, oddly enough.. The bluish Blind Sage becomes the reddish Blind Sage, but keeps all his white and black (gray in general) bits and all his shading looks nice.

You use argument 3 of the MONSTER table to set a monsters color table (it's optional, of course). And the ACTOR command gets a new argument to set an actor's color table.

The quality of the conversion needs be judged by the world designer, but the early results look pretty promising! The RED/GREEN swap makes 'humans' looks 'ghoulish' (pinks to ghastly greens) so most of Josh's pirates, for example, become pretty cool "undead pirates" :-)

Obviously not all swaps will look equally good on all originals.

Here are the conversions I have right now:

0: no change. (standard palette order)

These next ones swap two pigments of the RGB triplet.

1: R-G swap
2: R-B Swap
3: G-B swap

The following overright one pigment with another (so that 2 of the 3 are then the same) My color description is 'what happens to a pinkish human skin tone'

4: G<-R 'yellow-greens'
5: B<-R 'purples'
6: R<-G 'khakis'
7: B<-G 'reddens'
8: R<-B 'green-hulks'
9: G<-B 'pinkens'

In the following, I reduce the intensity of one of the pigments.

10: cut red slightly
11: cut green slightly
12: cut blue slightly

In the following, I dim all three pigments the same amount, the image gets darker, but is still colored.

13: dim little <-- good for 'low light'
14: dim medium
15: dim high

Same deal here, only I brighten, pretty much to incandescence :-)

16: brighten little
17: brighten medium
18: brighten lots
19: brighten even more
20: brighten super much

The following remove all color and turn image to grayscale, then dim or brighten it.

21: gray out colors and dim it lots
22: gray out colors and dim it a litte
23: gray out colors but keep intensity
24: gray out colors and brighten
25: gray out colors and brighten more

The next ones are the psychedelic ones and definitely mess up the purity of the artistic vision. But they have a sort of x-ray look which might be useful somewhere

26: invert red
27: invert green
28: invert blue
29: invert red and green
30: invert red and blue
31: invert blue and green
32: invert all

And I have room for lots more of these :-)

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In fact the conversions are only computed the first time the game runs, and then are saved in a .BMP file (256x256 where the top row are the standard palette colors and each row below is a 'table' conversion from the top row to that table... umm.. anyway, my point is that in addition to algorithmic swaps, it would be possible to create hand-crafted swaps. though it would be nightmarishly tedious to do so!)

And again, the actual 256 colors are unchanged, this just scrambles them around, semi-pleasantly.

=========
Another cool thing to use these for is to cycle an ACTOR through several colorations in a row to indicate:

* becoming nauseous
* becoming a white beam of light
* etc.

For best appearance, I do NOT fudge the 'transparent' color or the color black. (shadows and outlines remain visible)

Q: HOW DOES THIS BULLETIN BOARD WORK? WHAT ARE THE RULES?

--------

The only hard-core rules are about language and respect. Please avoid nasty language, and please try not to shut down other people just because they disagree with you.

But here are some GUIDELINES:

1.) While there are no stupid questions, you might first read a little to see if yours has already been answered.

2.) There are people who like to see people argue and flame, and they may attempt to incite you to lose your cool. Try not to rise to their bait.

3.) The bulletin board is organized into FORUMs. Try to pick the right one for your post. I try to move topics around if I think they fit better in a different forum than where they were originally posted.

4.) Don't get miffed if your post gets deleted. Unless it was jerky, I probably only deleted it because it "had been finished" (the definition of this is complex, and I just use my own judgement.) I can't keep ALL posts forever because storage costs money. My web site is only free from YOUR perspective

5.) If you have a point to make, be sure to make it while obeying "The Rule" (no swearing, and try to respect others).

Otherwise, your valid point (the baby) will get thrown out (deleted) along with the bath water (your rude and/or disrespectful remarks)

6.) Sometimes it is hard to perceive an author's message in the absence of voice inflection (or punctuation!) So, try to give the writer the benefit of the doubt, and don't leap to every possible negative conclusion. It might have been a joke. Or irony. Or just bad writing. Use smileys if you're nervous you might be misunderstood.

But don't expect a "no offense, but" to excuse something really foul you say immediately afterward

can u answer these questions cause i dont know what the answers r

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Samsyn Replies:

A fine assortment of beginner's questions, so, as a beginner you are heartily encouraged to press the F1 key in the game and read the built-in help manual, if only the "QuickStart Instructions"

However...

** AFK = "Away From Keyboard."

It is an indication to other players that you can't or won't reply to anything they might say.

You can set yourself AFK on purpose, by typing "/afk"

You will be marked AFK automatically if you stop typing and mousing for a minute or two.

While AFK your pets do not age (and you cannot care for them).

When you 'return' just type something in the chat window to remove your AFK status.

--

** TNL = "To Next Level"

This tells you how many more experience points you need before you reach the next "whole level."

--

Individual Spells can be learned when you train high enough in their element. The rate at which character classes earn magic points (MP) varies with the particular world.

--

Please consult the Pokegatchi Training Manual for information about pets. The training manual is accessed via a button on the "Train Pet" dialog on the EQUIP screen.

Or you can just press F1 and read away.

--

All the myriad forms of chat are described in the Help File. Again, press F1. Or, right-click in the chat window and look for help there.

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Samsyn Adds:

Since there are 4 or 5 reasons a character can be "modderized," you have the unpleasant task of getting him to actually read the entire error message :-)

Only then can the next step be taken, but I have enumerated a few of the conditions in http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosSuperFAQ.htm

As to having created the character in A60, well A60 had a bug that made it impossible to create a new character WITHOUT it being a modder (all A60-created characters were modders.)

This is, in fact, why A61 followed son closely on the heels of A60

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Samsyn Says:

Your primary source of information is your Pokegatchi Trainer's Manual, which you can access via a button on the Pet Training Center.

But no, death doesn't affect a pet's abilities. In fact, they're only sleeping :-)

They recharge their HP and MP when they are sleeping.

----

Tossing equipment to your pet does, in fact, boost the pet's Attack and Defense points. I guess the idea is that a bit of extra metal in the tummy makes them tougher and pokier...

-------

Samsyn Says:

It would appear that your Windows Common Controls might be broken.

If it isn't something which cures itself with a re-boot, you might check out the "Windows Update" option on the START menu.

Getting a service pack update for Internet Explorer will probably fix it.

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Samsyn says:

well, the error message should be:

"Something went horribly wrong fetching your uniforms..."

So if you are seeing it complain about fetching your SKINs, then there is no help coming.

---

But if something went horribly wrong while fetching your UNIFORMS, well, I think the error message pretty much sums it up.

Fetching your uniforms is a web fetch so anything which could mess up a web fetch should be able to mess upi a uniform fetch:

* Behind a firewall/gateway/proxy server (what happens when you "check on line for new worlds" which uses a similar fetch.

* How many uniforms do you think you might have? It's possible that an excessively long list might lead to problems.

* Do you have any files marked read-only in your WoS folder(s)? (good luck finding them, if you do).

* Have you, in fact, lost your Guild Privileges? (though generally you get a message to that effect, in that case.)