Release Notes for EmberMUD v0.9.46
----------------------------------
This is mostly a maintenance release with a handful of new stuff also
thrown in.  This is probably the most stable EmberMUD release we've
made to date, so hopefully everyone will upgrade! <grin>

EmberMUD v0.9.47 is already well underway as Dorzak has made a ton
of code additions for his MUD.  Once everything has been stabilized,
I'll try to put together another release so that everyone can start
playing with it as soon as possible.

The official EmberMUD homepage 
   http://www.embermud.org

The EmberMUD project page (CVS access information available here)
   http://sf.net/projects/embermud

The EmberMUD Team
   Zak      Kevin Williams      zak@embermud.org
   Zane     EJ Wilburn          zane@embermud.org
   Dorzak   Nathan Cookson      dorzak@earthlink.net

Release Notes for EmberMUD v0.9.45
----------------------------------
I'm not even going to attempt to count the number of new features,
changes, and bug fixes that are in v0.9.45 over v0.9.44...  Here 
is a list of the highlights (this is nowhere near a complete 
list - as usual, check the Changelog to see everything).

  Socials and Helps can now be edited using OLC.

  who format re-worked to compress the space used by AFK, PK, etc.

  Furniture is now sittable, sleepable, etc.

  Fixed several crash bugs in whois, switch, auctions, factions,
    jail, wizgrant, clan channel, spouse channel, and other places.

  Portal and Nexus code is in.

  TRACK_IS_SKILL actually works now.

  The OOC and GOSSIP channels can now be renamed.

  Added lots of new configuration options to config.h

  A new 'shell' command is available on Unix systems.  In the
    default config.h, it is only available at MAX_LEVEL. Please
    note that it's still considered somewhat unstable and may
    crash your MUD.

  Fix a bunch of bugs in resets.

... Just do yourself a favor and read through the Changelog. 8-)

PLEASE NOTE!!!!

  If you are upgrading from EmberMUD v0.9.44a, you will need to 
convert your area files to a new format.  The converter will be
made available for download from our SourceForge site or on
www.embermud.org.

Release Notes for EmberMUD v0.9.44
----------------------------------
Along with EmberMUD v0.9.44 comes a couple of big new features.

1) Factions
2) Wizgrant/Wizrevoke

I have written some detailed documenation on the new factions
system and placed it in the doc dir.  Check it out and if you have
any questions, feel free to e-mail an EmberMUD team member or better
yet, get on the ember-admins mailing list.

In order to get going with the new Wizgrant/Wizrevoke system, you
will need to copy/paste the following section into at least one of
your imms pfiles (in order to give them access to all of the imm
commands):

#IMM
mpstat wizrevoke wizgrant disable pload
punload at goto sockets wizhelp
askill divorce marry murder clan
advance award hotboot trust allow
ban permban cut deny disconnect
freeze reboot repop sinfo set
shutdown wizlock force load newlock
nochannels noemote noshout notell pecho
pardon purge restore slay teleport
transfer objcheck poofin poofout gecho
holylight log memory mwhere owhere
peace echo repeat return snoop
stat string switch wizinvis jail
vnum clone immtalk imotd beacon
chaos aexits aentrances edit asave
alist resets rlist splist sklist
lastimm hotboo mortslay End

Once someone has been set up in this way, they should be able to
use wizgrant to assign commands to anyone that needs them.  Also,
there is a 'wizgrant <name> all' option that allows you to give
someone else access to all of the same commands that you have
access to.

Release Notes for EmberMUD v0.9.43
----------------------------------
Lancelight has joined the EmberMUD team!  He brings with him several
new features (and a couple of bugfixes) for the MUD.  As always,
check the Changelog for the full story, but here are the highlights:

  * Custom marriage code
  * Banking system for gold
  * New imm commands 'askill', 'pload', and 'punload'
  * All new ban code (including perm ban)
  * Automated auction channel
  * Jail system (for imms to toss players in prison)
  * Rework of resets

If you're an experienced Merc / ROM / Ember builder, It's of pretty 
high importance that you understand the resets changes.  Please 
check the Changelog for the details and make sure all of the
builders on your MUD know what's going on.

Release Notes for EmberMUD v0.9.42
----------------------------------
A few bugfixes -- many more to come.  I just got a fresh list from the
boards on ShadowMyst...  If I can ever get out from under these bugs,
I've got some great new features planned. <grin>

Later,
-Zak

Release Notes for EmberMUD v0.9.41
----------------------------------
Lots of bugfixes, stability improvements, and performance increases.  The
heart of the MUDProg parsing code has been ripped out and replaced. This
is gonna require lots of testing, I'm afraid (although I have confidence
in Zane's abilities... <smile>).

As usual, the Changelog tells the tale in full detail.  The highlights
include:

  * Completely new MUDProg parser
  * Several new MUDProg commands
  * spec_procs NUKED and replaced with MUDProgs
  * String handling converted to SSM 2.2 with Erwin's hash code.
  * Created a config file (ember.cfg)

There's lots more, so check the Changelog!

Don't forget - you can join the EmberMUD mailing list by sending a message
to majordomo@weasle.jebc5.k12.mo.us with "subscribe ember-admins" in the
body.

The official EmberMUD homepage (not updated in a LONG time) can be found
at:  http://embermud.supernova.org/~embermud

The official EmberMUD code project page (updated all the time) can now
be found at:  http://www.embermud.cx

Zane and I can also be reached at new e-mail addresses (the old ones do
still work, tho):  zane@embermud.cx and zak@embermud.cx

Later,
-Zak

Release Notes for EmberMUD v0.9.40
----------------------------------
WHAT?!?!  A new version of EmberMUD?!?!

Yes, it's true.  The first new version since 1998.  Why after all this time?
Well, during a moment of boredom, I downloaded the code and compiled it under
Visual C++.  I immediately invited Zane to log in and re-live a bit of the
past.  Well, right away we started running into nasty bugs and - well, some
of them just HAD to be fixed.  I mean, the MUD was pretty much unusable in
the state I found it.

Now maybe it's true that no-one will ever use this code.  Go ahead, prove me
wrong! <grin>  If I receive enough feedback on this release, we might just
continue patching it up...

In any case, it's really difficult for us to even look at this code anymore...
Zane and I both are much better coders now than we were two years ago.  The
temptation to rewrite large chunks of code is hard to resist, but we both
know that the time requirements make that project completely unrealistic.

ANYHOW, here's v0.9.40.  We've fixed some annoying bugs and changed some
things we didn't like.  As usual, take a look at the Changelog for the
details.  Feel free to contact Zane or I with any questions, comments, or
suggestions!  Our current e-mail addresses are listed below as well as on 
the EmberMUD hompeage (which is now hosted primarily at 
http://members.tripod.com/~Zak0).

Lastly, I'd like to thank Kira for donating her area "Caedemon's Valley".
This, along with a pretty much full set of ROM 2.3-era areas, fulfills
one of the requests I see most often (include areas in the EmberMUD dist).
Kira's credits:  "tpb Kira, Jillian Bower, copyright 2000".  Her e-mail
address is: nermalkitten@aol.com

Oh, one more thing -- If you're compiling under Linux, you may or may not
need to remove -lcrypt from the Makefile...  If you're running glibc,
it's required.  If you're using an older Linux distribution that doesn't
have glibc, you'll have to get rid of the -lcrypt in order to compile
the MUD.