Both Servers

Monster changes:

- Dryads now have less armour.
 

Item changes:

- The Kiss of the North can now be equipped by Mages, if mostly for novelty, affects more monsters and has improved effectiveness against the monsters it already affects.

Multi-alt Server

Area changes:

- You will no longer drop items in the death traps in the Tomb of Shadows.

1-alt Server

Monster changes:

- The Water Fairy has had its drops fixed.

So I'm sure some of you have noticed by now that something is amiss in Nightmist's forests... a supernatural curse has afflicted the bears throughout the realm.  Not a single one has escaped its effects - the only cure is to set them free.  Can you help?  Gaea will be grateful.

The image links say "Access Denied" when I try to open them.

Some interesting ideas there.

Multi-alt Server
 

Monster changes:

- Honey Badger XP increased from 92 to 102.
- Tarantula XP increased from 85 to 97.
- Grotesque XP increased from 97 to 110.
- Roc Hatchling now has a new drop.

Both Servers

Monster changes:

- Maneaters now respawn every 10 minutes rather than every minute.

- The NPC Coppola will no longer reveal covert Thieves.

- You can now obtain Water from an Oasis NPC by giving it an Empty Flask or similar item.

Item changes:

- The Torch has had its description updated.

- The Machete has had its description updated and is now more effective against Maneaters (multi-alt only), Alligators, Crocodiles and Centipedes.

1-alt Server

Area changes:

- A new Mercenary Camp can be found on the Lost Trail.

- A number of new /examines can be found in areas near Blackthorn.

Unfortunately there isn't a place currently, but given how often players train in that area I can see the appeal and the risk of causing an excess of supply.  I'll ponder on creating a suitable location, but you and others are welcome to post suggestions for locations and prices.

I was the same... I liked the scenery that the text descriptions helped convey, but I liked to keep to myself, and 1-alt really didn't do much for me for a long time.  But it came to the point that you couldn't do anything by yourself... not even train because of the kill-to-pass monsters at the gates.

P.S. Foxie = Azure

I remember that voting thing, and I saw some prototype items, one of which said at least 90% of the playerbase must approve you levelling to 40.  I immediately thought "are you stupid?"  For one thing, trolls will always be a thing, saying "no" just because they want to see the world burn, and secondly, at the time, the playerbase was near-evenly split between two clans who absolutely hated each other, so there would be a guaranteed clique that would collectively vote "no" to anyone in the opposite clan wishing to level, or heck, anyone who wasn't with them.

I don't know which staff member wished to add things to 1-alt (female implies Azure, Amy or Elf).  I can only hope that it has at least changed for the better over the last decade.

When I was still on my mortals, I was constantly begging for staff to remove the Cobalt Staff of the Winds from 1-alt before someone bought one, because it was just so much more powerful than the boss drops and it would kill trips to bosses like the Time Knight (who only dropped the Blade of Time at the time).  Staff dragged their heels, and one was bought, and the rest was history.  When I become staff again, nerfing the Cobalt Staff of the Winds was a partial soltuion that was meant to test the water to see how the players would respond to it being removed... well, there was uproar when its vamparic rating was reduced from 0.3 to 0.2!  Still, with the training weapons and some new powerful crafts, I think it worked out okay in the end.

Not quite.  I had left staff before 1-alt's inception, mostly because I was at consistent loggerheads with Trevayne.  I had no input in how 1-alt was put together in the early days, otherwise I would have seriously voiced my opposition to the use of the Coliseum for levelling above 30, for example.  I returned to 1-alt upon Jase's invitation (one of the few good things he's done), mostly because of staff wanting nothing to do with 1-alt and development being stagnant.  I tried to stay out of Trevayne's way, but we quickly became enemies again when I pointed out a technical error on the staff forum relating to Scripto's Halloween Quest.  I had asked Scripto permission to participate as a player, and he accepted, but when I ran into the bug on my mortal (one of his NPCs wasn't trading properly), I explained how to fix it based on the information posted on the staff forum, and Trevayne kicked up a storm because he saw it as cheating (using information not privy to players, something I had gotten into hot water with before) and used very lawyer-like accusations on me.  It took a few days to resolve, which was Scripto posting to confirm he did give me permission to participate, and me pointing out that the information regarding the trading recipe wasn't private because it was spelt out in a recipe item in-game... long story short, everything about that quest was open knowledge from the start.  Trevayne left not long after that, although I'm not sure if it was because of that incident, but when he left, I also returned to multi-alt because the server was left without a developer.

Well, it was Trevayne who added the White Ring to Blackthorn and was the first ring that didn't require significant effort to get (in regards to battling through an area or going through a bit of hardship - true, it's easiest to use a Pacifist to collect a Ring of Astray, while the Ring of Fire requires getting to Tirantek, going through the Abandoned Mines, battling a Drow Rogue and a Drow Mage, the former of which is an assassin, and then finding your way out again.  And the craftable 4ac rings in the tower require killing bosses.

When mapped onto 1-alt, the 4ac rings generally require parties to acquire, so the same rule applies.  It also helps to not devalue the Crystal Ring too much, which otherwise takes patience and specific crits to kill (usually Rangers).

White Ring doesn't exist on the 1-alt server (you can confirm this with /library)

Heh, didn't expect you to show up again Jen.  Hello!

That comes off as rather lazy, you know, to just skip battling the Drow populace to grab the journal and leave.  Pacifists were never supposed to be checkers and examiners like that.

Quite a few players were unable to participate over Christmas due to family commitments, which is perfectly understandable.  To accommodate for this:

The quest will run until the 5th.

After which, the elves will remain until the 7th so any remaining crystals can still be traded, collected and transmuted.