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Welcome to my Shadowdale diary. Here I try to keep an account of all of my Shadowdale wanderings and the things that I do on my website. Quick links to the first entry from previous years follow. The most recent entry is at the top of the page. 1999 2000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Friday, 29th February 2008 I swapped Stibb's kit onto Asteroth and have started getting some basic kit and I'll then push on to getting mana-regen and decent bracelets and rings before trying for the good stuff again. Part of me isn't really sure that paying too much rent is worth it - I still don't anticipate playing oo much - but having better than basic kit seems like a goo idea.
Friday, 28th September 2007 Why? World of Warcraft. I've avoided it for a long time. After playing Ashron's Call back in 2002/3/4 I didn't want to get sucked back into another MMORPG and so I've stayed away from them all. In July I went on holiday with two good friends Paul and Tarik and ALL they talked about for the first week was WoW. So I thought, hey - lets give it a go. A couple of months later and I have two characters and I'm levelling them up. This doesn't mean I'm leaving SD - far from it. We've created a Shadowdale group on Facebook (for all you out there using it) and some long-term and old-school SD players have joined. I'm also keeping my characters alive and have a couple of maps to get up when I get the time. I'd also like to spend a little time mapping but I seem to have HARD zones left to do that - to be 100% honest - I'm not sure I can map on my own. I need to kill hard-as-nails mobs that have keys and Astaroth can't always do that (even with mushrooms, shield of nourishment, idol hearts and onyx shields). Anyway, I'm still here - web site is not going anywhere. If you're on facebook and you play - pop along to the group and join up. See y'all online soon.
Sunday, 27h May 2007 I've spent a fair amount of time working with Asheron and he's 9M xp away from being 50/50. I'll get him there in a few sessions in the Ruins of Yulash. I also tried to log on Stibbons and found that I'd managed to spend a whole month without logging him in... he was gone. After kicking myself A LOT I spent a couple of days on the Reroll! screen waiting until I got some good stats until I found "Your Strength is Amazing!", "You are very nimble and have a natural talent for acrobatics" and "Illness is a thing foreign to you!". I could have waited FOREVER to get maximum Dex as well, but I wanted to play. Stibbs is now 11 hours old and level 42... my quickest Adept to date, and his rent only comes to 43g a day ;-) I've also written up my map of The Mage Academy. It's a newbie zone with a few interesting items in it. Even so its another example of a newbie zone that A LONG way away from places newbies normally start. If you're a genuine newbie you're probably not going to find this zone. If you're an experienced Shadowdale played you're just not going to go there.
Saturday, 13th January 2007
Monday, 8th January 2007
Sunday, 7th January 2007 I've also been getting Asheron a little XP and he's close to level 45 in cleric and blade barrier. Stibbons and Astaroth are (obviously) still around and Shaniqua was good enough to help me turn Astaroth into an elf to extend his lifespan. Thanks Shani! Hopefully I'll get most of tomorrow to play SD too.
Sunday, 24th December 2006 Even so, I'm going to stay around. I still have plenty of zones to map. Perhaps, when the last zone is mapped, I'll finally run out of reasons to play but we're nowhere near that yet. Anyway, enough gibbering. I have two more zones online. Lopan and the Bugbear Academy are online. I mapped them both ages ago and I only now have the time to go over the maps, write up the notes and get them online. Christmas day is always a busy one but I'm hoping to get some more quality Shadowdale time to myself on Boxing day and the 27th. Catch you online soon!
Tuesday, 7th November 2006 Over the last week I've been planning Asheron, my new Warrior/Cleric that I'm planning on pushing all the way up to level 51. Chatting to a few people online it sounded like being a Dwarf was the way to go so I took a long time rerolling until I hit top Strength and Con and pretty good Dex. A few hours later I've pushed Asheron on to Expert. He has 18/89 base strength and 18 con! He only has 10 base dex though so I need a few more +Dex items but otherwise he's well on the way.
Thursday, 5th October 2006 Ever since I started mapping, some areas have been 'holy zones' for me. Zones that people seemed to know their way around but were too dangerous for me to map. I learn my way around by looking at maps, I remember how a zone looks and think myself around the rooms. Without a map I find it very difficult to get anywhere - hence my mapping I guess. In the last few months I've mapped the Darkspyre Keep (home of the Helm of Resistance) and now The Abyss, the firt part of the route to Tiamat's Hell and crystal earrings with a few decent items of its own. I know full well that some zones are tough and I need to be careful but these two zones have given me hope that one day, even on my own, I might be able to map the whole MUD. Now that's something worth working towards.
Monday, 2nd October 2006 I'm finding that I'm playing less than I had hoped. When you're levelling away madly, any half hour here or there is a useful half hour. Once you've made it up to 50/50/50 and you start mapping you realise that you need at least a couple of hours to map an area and you can't map high level areas that might be dangerous unless there are some people online who can get your body back when you die. So, I end up playing less than I was when we all had new characters and were racing to a high level. I will try to get at least one of the three maps online this week. Plus I'm hoping to finish up the map of the Abyss. We will see.
Monday, 4th September 2006 Also added the Ruins of Melkior into the list of zones for objects and added a few objects that Dusky sent me.
Sunday, 3rd September 2006 Anyway, today I sat down and decided to map the Crystal Lake. I've been there once before but I didn't really look around too much and didn't bother going into the tower. This time around I've had a good look about. There are one or two interesting items and a little xp to be had. If you're bored and you haven't been there why not go along and explore? There aren't any death traps and only two really tough mobs, most Adept level characters who can handle themselves should have no problems. I'll put up the items I found when I get chance in the week.
Monday, 14th August 2006
Monday, 7th August 2006
Monday, 7th August 2006 Shaniqua was on and was good enough to help me try and get my corpse back but on our first attempt we had to run away back to Shadowdale. Shaniqua had to deal with customers while I was walking us back to the zone and, unknown to us, Inhep was walking her way to find us... We ran into her, she killed Shani and I portalled back to SD where, moments later, she arrived and told me that I was to die. Luckily for me Stoal's is still a peace zone. While she was waiting for me, Shaniqua nipped back down to the zone and I talked him through it and he got my corpse and all my kit back. The next day Mael, Mathilwch and Kalan helped me take her out and finish up the zone. I'll write it up and get it posted when I can. in the meantime I've added items from the Fallen Star to the database.
Monday, 31st July 2006
Sunday, 30th July 2006
Saturday, 29th July 2006 I've also added a map of the Serpent Hills and a few items from there. I mapped the area last weekend but haven't really had the time to put it online since. Once again it seems there is a Newbie/Chump zone miles from anywhere that, to be honest, by the time you find it you'll be well beyond it and the equipment within. I've also fixed some links in the Astral Plane. Two of the links were broken and two links pointed to the wrong maps. They're now correct.
Sunday, 23rd July 2006
Monday, 17th July 2006 I decided to start with something easy and spent an hour or two mapping Under the Well and watching The Hulk on TV. When I get back to higher level areas I'll have to concentrate more on Shadowdale ;-) There are a few useful low-level items in the zone but most players will move on to better equipment once they start hunting in Chump zones. It's good to be mapping again.
Sunday, 16th July 2006
Sunday, 9th July 2006 Astaroth is now 46/49/48 and not too far off my immediate goal of 50/50/50 when I can stop worrying about xp and start mapping places again. I've learnt a lot over the past month, I've also started using haste more than I have before. I once had a character for a long time who got so old I couldn't really use him any more and I had to reroll him. Since then I've disliked haste as I don't want to have to make a character and watch him get old and useless. However, in the past year I've had to reroll characters over and over and getting to a high level isn't so much of a problem as it was, so why not use haste? Stibbons is level 43... I could level him up to 45 and will probably do so once I'm back into mapping again. I can't see the point at the moment, his job is done. Stibbs is there to get equipment when noone has any and get equipment for Astaroth before he's high enough to get it himself. Anyway, it's been a long day and I need a break. I hope to be mapping again before this week is out.
Thursday, 8th June 2006 This week I started a new job! No more long, lazy afternoons playing Shadowdale up at the uni for me. I've moved into a small technology company close to where I live and it's much busier and I'm a lot less bored. Obviously this means I'll be playing SD of an evening now instead of the day but I hope to still get some time in most days. A big thanks to Eddie and Sorsha for helping Stibbons up a few levels early on and especially for the odd bit of good kit that has come my way: CHEERS GUYS!
Saturday, 27th May 2006 I spent an hour rolling Stibbons up and he has top strength and dexterity but I'm beginning to suspect he only has 16 constitution and will end up with only 320hp at level 50. Who cares? His job is to get up to level 30ish and get good kit for the soon to be remade Astaroth... After an afternoon of levelling and looking for equipment and some help from Sorsha this morning Stibbs is now level 12 and has ok equipment. Next up I need a cloak and a good weapon. Boy it's good to be back in the game.
Tuesday, 31st January 2006 People have been nagging me to ad the directions to zones to the maps for a long time. I guess I've only not done it because I knew my way to smoe places and the maps were good enough to get to others. Even so, I know peolpe have been asking so they're now added. Check out the notes on the maps of the Lost City for an example of somewhere far away! I'd welcome feedback on this. If you know a better way to a given zone than the one listed don't hesitate to let me know ;-)
Monday, 30th January 2006 I've also just used Astaroth to map the Bandits' Campsite, a newbie area off Spiderhaunt Forest. I didn't know it was so close until recently and obviously must apologise for this terrible oversight... The zone has plenty of low level warriors for newbies to smack down and a few bits of kit including one or two nice bits! Mapping *sigh*... so relaxing.
Tuesday, 24th January 2006 I also considered levelling Astaroth up to be an immortal but decided against it. with 120 million xp needed, a tri actually has to get 360 million and that's a lot. Plus, I really want to use Astaroth for mapping stuff! I reasoned that a new, dual-class character would only need 400 million to level up to 51, so I've created Asheron, my new Warrior/Cleric character named for the game that took so many of my hours away ;-) Clerics have astral, heal, sanc, blade barrier and armor. I figure that and a good weapon will be enough to level him up once I get to 45. Before then it's pretty simple anyway ;-) He's now five hours old and level 17/15 already. I spent a little time today updating the old map of Orshingal and making sure that all of the items were in the database. I also made a minor modification to the map of Spiderhaunt - the road to the Bandit's Campsite was missing.
Wednesday, 4th January 2006 Happy New Year one and all. As Hob Gadling once said "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the Devil his due." Cheers!
Sunday, 25th December 2005 Tomorrow I fully intend to concentrate on Astaroth. The sooner I can push him up through Chump to Medium the better.
Wednesday, 21st December 2005 How did I get Stibbs to Expert? Well, I started with the donation of some random kit and levelled myself up a little, first in the Elven Forest, the Dankmoors. With the help of the item database I quickly managed to make a list of easy, newbie kit to get and pushed myself up. A few shield and armor spells, helped me to get some stuff from Quickling and before I knew it I was taking out enfans in Orshingal. With the help of the Opal sanc potions and some brown potions from the very large spider I went after a Ringmail vest (AC -30, AC apply 5), then a girth and some iron kit from the Ruins of Orolin. Killing many, many Lamia at 3k a pop helps... I levelled a bit more, collected heal and sanc potions and went after a Displacer cloak (AC -30) from Quicksilver Valley. A silvertone shield (AC -10, ACapp 6) from the Village of Quimperna, the leggings from the Great White Landshark and some Harper necklaces soon got me in a place where I could go after slightly tougher stuff and now I'm mostly kitted out. I still need a better helm and boots and should upgrade my shield as soon as possible but all in all I can now level quite quickly. I should have 460ish hitpoints when I hit 50.
Monday, 19th December 2005 See you in game!
Friday, 16th September 2005 Astaroth is levelling nicely too but I'm not going exploring until he's 50/50/50. There is just too much to lose before then. I hate no being able to dispel the naga's in Rocky Point reliably. All in all, things are looking rosey. I may well be mapping again soon and might even have a character on the way to immort... who'd have though it?
Monday, 5th September 2005 So, all is going well in SD land and I decided to kick off a new character, Leung the monk. I did have an Adept monk a while back but forgot to log in as him for a month or so and lost him. This time around I fully intend to keep him alive ;-) I spent a good couple of hours rerolling on aturday until I got the following: Amazing Strength!, Very Nimble, Average Int, Usually Sound Judgement, Illness is Foreign and Social Outcast. The Outcast thing isn't so great, but the rest of the stats were good. As it turns out Leung has 18/0 Str, 12 Int, 12 Wis, 16 Dex, 17 Con and 5 Chr. He's gaining quite a few hit points as I level but can't sell stuff in shops - I keep getting 0 coins! He's nearly a Medium level character and then he'll accelerate in levelling. Plans for the coming weeks are to keep Stibbs and Azrael alive, and get them both a little xp while concentrating on levelling Leung and Astaroth. Astaroth will be visiting Yulash on his own this week, I'll let you know how it turns out.
Friday, 4th August 2005 A couple more weeks of levelling should get me into a position where I can get back to my main mission: mapping! I'm also planning a new design for the web site in the not so far away future. Glad to be back ;-)
Monday, 27th June 2005 I've just come back from two weeks on holiday in the USA to find that the character database has been wiped with little or no notice. On any normal day that would be annoying enough but I also spent a long time getting the cash together so that As and Stibbs could survive the two weeks whilst I was away. I was looking forward to playing a bit at lunch times this week, and keeping poker to afternoons and evenings but now I can't be bothered. I'm going to have to start ALL OVER AGAIN, and we all know how hard tri-class chars are to bloody level *sigh*. Now sure when I will be on again right now. There are many, many godd online games out there and I've stuck to SD for a long time but this feels like a kick in the teeth. Grr. Not how I wanted to start my week.
Thursday, 2nd June 2005 This doesn't mean I'm leaving SD ;-) Kos and I went back to Mon Crewyll but I couldn't find what the key was for and the key shattered when we went to kill the fire beast one time. Frustrating. I will be trying to finish off this zone - or at least adding the maps I have to the site - when I get back from holiday in two weeks. I'm off to Las Vegas with friends, then Yellowstone, then San Fran. Should be AWESOME. This has meant I've needed to do even more money runs to build up As and Stibb's cash reserves so I don't lose my equipment while I'm away. Thankfully Talia and Criton came to the rescue with a donation in thanks for this site! THANKS GUYS! Who said this site wasn't useful after all ;-) I'll be back late on the 21st June and should be back online on the 22nd. See y'll then.
Wednesday, 27th April 2005 One downside is that Astaroth died to Drusilla, Queen of the Undead. I didn't notice at the time but I must have lost two more levels leaving As at 49/49/49 and needing 150M to get one back. It was strange because I've been getting xp lately and I didn't see any warning messages. Maybe I'm just unlucky. So, back on the xp treadmill again. At 8M a day I should be 50/50/50 again in three weeks... of course you all know I'll never keep that up, exploring is just too much fun.
Wednesday, 13th April 2005
Thursday, 24th March 2005 I spent about three hours today mapping Birch Island, an Expert level area. It has some nice monsters and lots of cash. Not much good equipment to be honest but I did pick up a lot of kit and ID it. Some was already in the database, some is new. I plan on logging on and actually getting more maps done a bit more regularly from now on. I've been really bored at work and, rather than log in and play, I've been forcing myself to get out of the office and escape the boredom and contsant interruptions that way instead.
Thursday, 23rd December 2004 Today I went to replace a scrapped bracelet from Ettersia and managed to convince Danee, Koschei and Meier to help me kill the Guardian Spirit in the Ruins of Caderra. I was hoping that the spirit would have a key, or was blocking the way down to another part of the area. As it was I can get to the place the spirit is guarding TWO other ways and still can't find what I was looking for. Grr. Still, a good day's work. Now I'm going to get some XP for Astaroth. I'm going to try and get him back up to 50/50/50 over the Xmas break. Plan is to kill off all of Yulash every morning when I get up... wish me luck.
Monday, 20th December 2004
Wednesday, 15th December 2004
Friday, 10th December 2004
Thursday, 9th December 2004 Whilst doing this I got rid of the map of Greypeak Mountains, it's now part of Quicksilver Gorge.
Wednesday, 8th December 2004 Astaroth died during the making of this map. Grr. I got breathed on (I don't seem to die any other way nowadays). Someone lent a helping hand and dropped my body in Shadowdale - not sure who but I was very grateful. My dreams to getting to level 50/50/50 again without some serious levelling are (once again) shattered. I'm planning on putting up my map of Shadows of the City this week, whether I can work out the last puzzle in it or not!
Friday, 19th November 2004 I've had a request to add a search for zones by level. I think what I'm actually going to do instead is list the 'Other Zones' on the map index page by whether they're for Newbies, Chumps, Medium, etc. It'll break up the (now) huge list into good logical groups too...
Friday, 12th November 2004 I've shuffled all the equipment around and Asmodel is just sitting there naked now, I don't really need him unless I find another Newbie zone I have to map. Azrael has my good shield - waiting until I can get hold of crystal earrings from the Black Dragon in Tiamat's Hell, and Astaroth is back to using a Crystal Shield because it keeps me invisble and lets me use my Pharoah's Mask! I'm planning on picking a tough area to map next week (when my minions return from holiday and I have more free time). Lastly we have 2122 items in the database (only 17 new ones since 15th Sept) and the number checked in SD is now 1430. That's 67% checked. I really need to target the zones that have lots of items that are there but haven't been checked over. It's boring to do that for zones I've already mapped though...
Monday, 8th November 2004
Tuesday, 26th October 2004 I hope to have enough time to check over my old map of the Newbie University. There's a lot missing from the map and I'd like to get it done while I have a newbie-level character lying around.
Monday, 18th October 2004
Wednesday, 22nd September 2004
Thursday, 16th September 2004
Wednesday, 15th September 2004 Also tidied up and added the map of the Mist of Nartok. It's a very tough zone, very very tough. I can't understand why people would rather go there to get a Smokey skull instead of popping along to the Lost City to get a Monkey idol heart! There are an awful lot of items in the zone, and probably more I didn't ID becaue I couldn't kill their keepers! A quick note on items. We have 2105 items in the database as of today and 1401 of those have been checked in SD - that's roughly 67%. That percentage is climbing slowly. On the down side there have only been 87 new items in the last month.
Friday, 10th September 2004 If you feel in a good mood and would like to help out I'd really like a crystal earring from the Black Dragon in Tiamat's Hell and a sparking bracelt from Yulash. A second Ring of Bravery would be useful - but I can get that myself with only a little help. Leave a message on the baord for me (don't forget to 'write board' to fix it) if you do. Have a good weekend all. See y'all on Monday.
Thursday, 26th August 2004 Also spent some time with Tigma and Cessian killing things in the Mists of Natrok (so we can ID some of the items there). Map is on the way...
Monday, 23rd August 2004
Friday, 20th August 2004
Thursday, 19th August 2004 I've also been spending a lot of time looking at Shadows of the City. There's one remaining puzzle to solve before I put the map up, the rest of it is done.
Friday, 13th August 2004
Thursday, 12th August 2004
Wednesday, 11th August 2004 I've also nearly finished my map of Kurtulmak's Caverns. I've already put all of the items into the database but I'm looking for a few hidden doors before I write it up. How do I know there are doors? Well, casting 'locate' for key shows me a key chain in a room I haven't found yet! One last note today. We're up to 2018 items, 1288 of which have been checked in SD3, that's roughly 64%. That's 67 new items in the last two weeks and a 5% climb in the percentage that have been checking in SD3. Still, lots of old items in there and lots more zones to map yet...
Thursday, 5th August 2004 For some time I've been annoyed that I called the Stonelands the Stonelands when, in fact, it is nothing of the sort. My maps of the Goblin Caves and the Stone Tower are actually the Stone lands. So, I'm fixing it. The Stonelands has become The Storm Horns. It's actually part of Connecting Area I but that's really too big to do a singl map of (at the moment). Final tidying of the day was merging the Goblin Caves and the STone Tower into the new Stonelands map. The map needs to be finished but is in a better state than it was.
Wednesday, 4th August 2004 Also spent half an hour changing the way the edit item page is generated so that an item's type is already correctly selected when you edit an item. I think I may have lost count of the number of times I've edited an item and missed off its type because of this bug. Should have fixed this years ago.
Monday, 2nd August 2004 Anyway, enough jabbering on. I spent my lunch hour tidying up the map of Moonsea (I'd missed a small keep and a death trap off) and then mapped The Changeling's Curse. It's a small, low-level zone just off the Plains to the east of Shadwodale. There were a few pieces of kit, some quite useful for a low-level player. I've also deleted the Goblin Village map. It was actually part of Spiderhaunt Forest so I've added it on there instead.
Friday, 30th July 2004 While there I took the time to check out the Jungle of Chult again. Lorimar pointed out that I'd missed the underground lizardman shrine so I mapped that and decided to see why I hadn't added my map of the Jungle Pyramid. Turns out I'd missed a couple of rooms and a hidden trapdoor. I've spent a little time adding all this to the map of the Jungle of Chult. I also spent some time at the start of the week mapping Myth Drannor. I like the zone a lot, it has a few tough mobs, a few good bits of kit and it's not too large (Reaching Woods anyone?). I've also added the map of Florin. There weren't that many items of interest but there are a few potions that aren't too tough to get. I hesitated to put up the map because there's a hidden door I can't open (south of the Grove of Trees, marked GT on the map). I'm fairly sure that the Albiono's wheelbarrow opens it but I can't find the right keyword. I've put it up anyway as i don't think many rooms are missing. Finally today I've spent a little time updating the map of Dankmoors and checking every item I found. I also spent ten minutes adding the Ravine to the map of the Plains of Shadowdale. That's it for me this week - catch you next week :-)
Wednesday, 28th July 2004 Even without those though I have a few done and today I finished up a map of The Ivory Kingdom. It's a nice, small zone with a few half-decent items in it. On a side note, even after all the items that have been added and updated recently there are only 1951 items in the database and it seems that only 1152 of those are 'SD3' items. More work is needed...
Friday, 23rd July 2004 I did manage to map Darkenwood and even managed to kill a really tough mob in there with help from Panic and friends (once again). There were an awful lot of items in the zone. Thanks also go to Panic and friends for an equipment upgrade. I picked up a replacement Frost Brand Sword, Adamantite Bracelet and plumed helm. YAY!
Thursday, 15th July 2004 I also added Ishtar Lake to the map of the Desertmouth Foothills next to Port Miramor and tweaked the surrouding maps. I may rearrange the three or four maps around there to make the zones actually fit what they are a part of. I've also been spending time adding new items into the database. I still have piles of items to add from the list Zann sent me.
Wednesday, 14th July 2004
Friday, 9th July 2004 I've also received a bunch of directions to zones, a walkthrough and a whole PILE of stats by email that I'll be going through, checking and adding to the database over the next few weeks.
Monday, 5th July 2004
Monday, 28th June 2004 I've also added some older items from Black Water Swamp that I had in a text file.
Sunday, 27th June 2004
Thursday, 24th June 2004 I spent my lunch our in the companf of Celia, as she helped me map Avonleigh. It's a tough zone with plenty of tough critters so I'd advise nothing short of a good group or LOTS of large, brown mushrooms... The area has two, excellent quests (which I hope I haven't spoiled for anyone) and some great equipment. Once again, thanks Celia - I couldn't have done it without you.
Tuesday, 22nd June 2004 So, I headed up to the Great Pyramid, north of the Anauroch Desert, and found that the Mask of the Pharoah had loaded but that noone knew the zone well enough to nip in and get it for me. Two hours later I had the mask and finished a map of the zone. It's a nice zone but be careful in there. Today I resumed mapping Heiraktazin and, much to my dismay, died again (twice) and I have to get a bunch of XP before I die again otherwise Astaroth will be 49/49/49 before I know it... Stibbs managed to nip in and get my corpse but I'd advise you all to think twice before taking on the mobs in the Summoing Chamber...
Friday, 18th June 2004 Unluckily for me Kharl spotted him and took Stibbs out before I had a chance to drink my potion. I had him down to awful again and with sanc would have handed him his ass. Now what? Well, I have another character that keeps a spare set of equipment for these sorts of situations so he dropped it all in and Stibbs went in one more time and, this time, killed Kharl and retrieved all of the items I needed. It took a while to sort out who should be wearing what but I got it all done and Astaroth spent an hour IDing things from Shattered Mirror. I also needed to find what the two keys I'd found were for. Fuse helped me with one room - I'd found where it was but couldn't work out the phrase to open it - but I was stuck with the second. I posted to the boards and Raeth and Kahil pointed me in the right direction and so I finished off the map and added it. I might log on to chill out today - not sure...
Wednesday, 16th June 2004
Tuesday, 15th June 2004
Monday, 14th June 2004 Also mapped the Wilds of the Underdark but have yet to write it up. Added four new items from there and updated 16 that were already in the item database. I love not having to pay for identify scrolls, have I mentioned that?
Tuesday, 8th June 2004 One nag I get quite often is that the maps 'aren't the real zones' or don't have the same names as a zone. No place is a better example of that than my maps of the SD Plains and the Northern Woods. The norther Woods are part of Connecting Area I whilst the SD Plains are, in fact, a zone called the Northern Woods! So, I've just eliminated the Wild Woods north of Shadowdale. They were part of the Clock Tower and I've rolled the two into one and moved the Small Pool onto the map of Shadowdale where it belongs. More of this will happen over the rest of the week. After another couple of hours work I've reworked the maps all around the east of Shadowdale. Say goodbye to the Eastern Shadowdale Forest and the Forest of Cormathor. Now we just have the Plains of Shadowdale, part of Connecting Area I, and the Northern Woods. I've had to change around 15 other maps to accomodate this! LOL I'll be changing a few other things when I get a chance soon.
Monday, 7th June 2004
Friday, 4th June 2004
Tuesday, 25th May 2004 In case you're interested I'm currently also playing City of Heroes. I've been a sucker for MMORPGs for a while. Asheron's Call really got me into graphical online games but a lot of my friends moved to different time zones, or started playing at different times of the day and so when a bunch of us moved over to AC2 it just didn't seem to work for me. I've seen Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest and Ultima Online but I'm really waiting for the next generation of games now. City of Heroes, on the other hand, is just a romp. Kind of like playing a Diku MUD but with super powers... what more could you want! Oh, I've also been updating a few of the items from Rhyiana and Merilon. I have another 20 or so items to update and I've removed some more duplicates. One day the item database might be fairly close to up to date!
Monday, 17th May 2004 The first benefits to this are a new map of Merilon, an Expert/Adept area with some good mobs, reasonable equipment and money for your time. It's quite big and I was mapping it in March but started logging on just for money. Hopefully I'll be back to mapping again now I have less of that to worry about.
Wednesday, 19th March 2004 Varda has helped my Psi level up to 26 and gathered a few good Psi items for him and Astaroth is now 47/50/49 with 5M to get to 48/50/50. To level cleric up to 51 I need 134M xp. That wouldn't be so hard if it wasn't tripled... hey ho, I'm a long way from Immort but, as Daniel Jackson would say, my jouney has begun.
Thursday, 18th March 2004
Wednesday, 17th March 2004
Monday, 15th March 2004
Friday, 12th March 2004 Also split up the catacombs into its correct zones, The Catacombs and The Sewers. In doing so I've merged three maps so we're back down to 99 maps!
Thursday, 11th March 2004
Wednesday, 3rd March 2004 Astaroth died yesterday mapping the lost Glories of Montserrat. Luckily Quess was online and with Stibbons we grabbed As, resurrected him and all he lost was a point of Con. I'm assured that as you get tougher, Con doesn't mean as much as it once did. I hope I've been informed correctly. Anyway, I finished the map today - nearly dying again - but it's done. I'd love someone to go in there with a tough Adept group and check it over but it's a risky place.
Saturday, 28th February 2004
Friday, 27th February 2004
Thursday, 26th February 2004 Along the way I've stopped to spend a little time mapping. A bunch of people have been helping me out a lot, especially getting equipment so I've added them all to the Credits page as my way of saying thanks. Varda and I spent a good deal of time in Quicksilver Gorge and added some missing parts to the map. You'll now find the Temple of Shadows and part of Hades mapped. We also, with a lot of help, took out the harder mobs beneath the Ruins of Yulash so I added the passages to the map. I think I'm still missing some rooms in the Hidden Passage, but we'll see. We didn't want to risk a Dracolich fifteen minutes before I was due to head home. Last, but by no means least, I've added a new twist to the item stats. For a long time it has been my policy to list any stats I get but not to list where an item has come from. I've decided - mainly due to my own failing memory - to start listing the zone and item can be found in. This means that you'll have an idea where items are, rather than none at all, but won't necessarily be able to find it without a little exploring. I'd welcome some feeback to see if this is popular, wrong, or maybe I shouldn't be doing this at all! I have no idea where many of the items come from anyway, so most of them won't get listed but those that I do know will get links - try searching for Golden Leaf for an example of one that's linked and Crystal Sword for one that lists where, but I haven't mapped it yet. New items will get their areas listed if I know them.
Monday, 23rd Feburary 2004 I spent a little time mapping the tunnels under the Ruins of Yulash and, when the right keys load, I'll finish mapping the zone and get it online. I also added 19 new stats to the database. If you want to send me stats, tell me of stats that aren't in SD any more or apply to be an Itemstat editor please do. I can't do this all on my own I really can't.
Friday, 20th February 2004 Stibbs nipped over to the Lost City, killed everything in sight and picked up As's corpse and took it back to SD but noone was on. No cleric and Azrael isn't high enough level to cast resurrection (something I will certainly now have to fix). I waited for a while but noone came so I logged Astaroth back in to get his equipment, just in case of a server crash (I've lost all my equip that way before). Astaroth has a 26M xp hole and remember he's a tri class so we're really looking at 78M xp. SEVENTY EIGHT MILLION! Looks like I'll be doing a lot more mapping and a lot less levelling...
Thursday, 19th February 2004
Tuesday, 17th February 2004
Monday, 16th February 2004 I spent a little time before I went home sorting out the maps around Golothaer. I altered the map to remove 'Cavenauth' altogether and distribute it between Golothaer, the North Forest and the newly created Svirfneblin Mining Camp. About half of the map was already done but it needed finishing.
Friday, 13th February 2004
Thursday, 12th February 2004
Wedneday, 11th February 2004 I decided to see how Astaroth would fair as a mapper and picked out one of the three unmapped home towns I have yet to do. Armored Like a Dragon with sanc and blade barrier seems to be a fairly safe way of mapping. The only damage I took was from a fireshielded mob who soon died when my own was in place. I therefore offer up the map of Denarma for your use. I particularly liked all the Magic: the Gathering references...
Friday, 6th February 2004 You'll notice that the Seas of Swords now links directly to Troll Moors. I had through that there was a large river area between them but it was much smaller than I imagined. I've also added the plateau and a link to the Great Pyramid on the Anauroch Desert map.
Thursday, 5th February 2004 The other important thing I've been doing this week has been to take a good, long look at the item database. There are over 1500 stats in there and an awful lot of them still haven't been checked since we moved to SD3. So, to try and lend a hand I've been picking up every item I can and IDing it. Today I deleted 10 duplicate items in the database, updated 30 items that were already in the database and added 20 brand new items! 50 ID scrolls don't come cheap...
Monday, 2nd February 2004 This lunch time I spent the time mapping Unicorn Run. I've mapped it before, a long time ago but (as with many maps I used to have) it wasn't this accurate and things have changed since then anyway! Fingers crossed I'll get a little more levelling in today on Astaroth and I might even work on some of Stibbons' 18M xp hole... I spent some time before I headed home to update around 20 items in the database, including deleting a couple of duplicate items. I have a bunch (19) of new items I want to add and I'll get round to that later tonight or tomorrow lunch time. If you have any up to date items that I don't please feel free to send them my way.
Friday, 30th January 2004 The next few days were spent levelling and mapping Elf Shadow. I initially thought it was merely a starter town but I didn't know about thr ruins of Treehome, an Expert and Adept level area including it's very own Dragon. Varda, once again, lent a hand and so a big thanks goes out to him once more. I'm hoping to get a few more maps done next week and I've also got a list of items to add and update as long as your arm.
Friday, 23rd January 2004 The city is huge by anyone's standards. Its aimed at Adepts and I had some scarey moments, especially mapping the Palace and the Pyramid. Leon, Varda and Raeth all came along and helped to kill serpent guys, Skeletal warriors and idols galore until I had all the keys and time I needed to finish the map. Making this map has taken most of my time over the last week with their help. I dread to think how long it would have taken without them. Oh, and the sewers haven't been done yet. Everything else yes - but not the sewers. I'll get right on it. Well, the Sewers are mapped in no time at all. I'm very happy I got it all done this week. Next week I'll move onto trickier things...
Tuesday, 20th January 2004 One final note today is that Astaroth is indeed better than Azrael. A lot better!
Monday, 5th January 2004 It was difficult to let go of Az but, as time went on, it would only be more and more difficult to throw away the time invested in him if I kept playing him. Better to start anew. If you see Astaroth around and are grateful for my maps and stats, I'd welcome a little help with xp and any equipment you can find.
Wednesday, 24th December 2003 Given that unescapable fact, I've spent the lst few days working on maps for you to explore over this holiday and, thanks to an equipment run yesterday, I decided that Lycanthropia and Trinity were well past their map by date. Lycanthropia was easy enough, as it's for Chumps and Medium characters. I was a lot more careful in the 40-50 level Trinity but got it all done. I hope to be on SD over Christmas at some point but, as with all things, it may just go pear shaped. I hope you all have a great holiday. See you in the New Year.
Tuesday, 23nd December 2003 I can get most of my own kit back these days but some things remain a tough trip and I still haven't got the Crystal kit on my own yet. One day... After such a total disaster much thanks go to Leon and Aldur for helping to kit me out again. With their help and a loan from Azrael, Stibbs is back on track.
Friday, 19th December 2003 Even so, I managed to map from the Sea of Swords down to the Jungles of Chult. From the Jungle it's only a short hop to the Lost City. Once I've got the jungle and the top level of the city mapped I'm going to head back to the Isles and see if I can spend enough time to map them. Anyway, enjoy the new map. I've also updated the map of the Astral Plane to add the links to zones that have been mapped since I added it.
Thursday, 18th December 2003 Today I mapped the High Road on the way to the Lost City and altered the maps of the Stonelands and the Sunset Mountains accordingly. I have to map the Reaching Woods next. Should be fun... Thanks to Leon for pointing the way. Started working my way towards the Lost City by mapping Reaching Woods. Turns out it connects three or four maps together and helps me on my merry way.
Tuesday, 16th December 2003 Even so Azrael is now on the border or being an Expert. Stibbs is happily mapping away as an Adept and, when I get time, I may have a few more maps for the site.
Friday, 5th December 2003
Thursday, 27th November 2003 Today I pushed him up further and he's now 21/24/23 and rocking along. I'm getting him four or five levels a day and I'm not really trying. I also went to the donation room and picked up everything that I didn't have in the inventory or wasn't marked down as 'SD3'. Eight new items and seven updated costs a lot when you're still buying identify scrolls but I won't be buying them for much longer anyway. I have no internet access at home at the moment thanks to the incompetant fools at Freeserve. I've cancelled my account and will take a little while to get a different supplier installed. That means I won't be back online until Monday. See you then.
Tuesday, 25th November 2003
Monday, 24th November 2003
Friday, 21st November 2003 I also managed to check out one of the two maps. It was spot on so you can have a look at Mistledale Sewers if you're interested. Finally spent some time IDing items with Azrael (why can't warriors learn to read magic anyway) and added five new items and updated 14 of the olders ones.
Wednesday, 19th November 2003
Tuesday, 11th November 2003
Monday, 10th November 2003
Friday, 7th November 2003
Wednesday, 2nd July 2003 I spent the last few days mapping. I started with the Neverwinter Woods but found them small and, frankly, boring. Quite close though were the Ravenclaw Woods and I knew that another map (the three rivers) also linked there so I started mapping. Three days later and this is the result. I'm not entirely happy that I haven't been able to work out a few things but, if you have time and can be bothered, have a look yourself - see if you can find your way into the Father's crypt and Aggie's Lair.
Friday, 27th June 2003
Monday, 23rd June 2003 Azrael is slowly working up to being an Adept tri-class, something I've never had before (call it a a lack of patience if you will) and so I've started to spend more time mapping again. This time I removed links to Tilver's Gap, as it represented only a small gap between the Tilvereton Mountains and Moonsea, as well as mapping the tiny part of the world known as Selgaunt. It doesn't really deserve it's own map but it wouldn't fit on any of the others! Started mapping the Red Fog graveyard. I've got all the maps (I thin) but they need writing up. I took all of the equipment I found and IDd it, and have updated it all in the item database. I'm going to add some more items this week as time allows. Should get the map up tomorrow I think. Well, managed to find a little more time than I had hoped and the map of the Red Fog Grayeyard is up. I enjoyed mapping it because of the un-knockable doors and the puzzles to be solved. Thanks to Ferne for popping along and providing inestimable advice and encouragement. Cheers Ferne!
Friday, 20th June 2003 I started a couple of maps (the Elevn starting zone for one) but haven't felt like mapping much. I've added in a few new stats people have sent me and I've updated some that were from SD2!
Wedneday, 11th June 2003
Tuesday, 10th June 2003 At lunchtime I spent a little time mapping again and made a map of the Jermlaine Tunnels. At the end of the day I started to map the Goblin Caves but, as I often do, blundered head first into a death trap. Goodbye gold, goodbye equipment, hello poverty, hello hours of finding equipment again. I wish I could make another character to wear a spare set of kit - but that would be expensive...
Monday, 9th June 2003 Starting on that track I finished a map of the Quicksilver Gorge, a tough place where the Displacer Beasts hang out. There are a whole bunch of tough, 80K plus mobs. Good xp but you need to stay on your guard. Also managed to link up the Marshes and the Auauroch desert - I thought there was a zone inbetween but they were only a few rooms apart. I also added in the map of the Greypeak Mountains, which is very small and I wouldn't bother going there if I was you.
Friday, 6th June 2003 I managed to grab a little more time and weld Westgate Town onto Cormyr Forest too, rather than add a second, small map. At the end of the day I stopped work to map the Overmoor Trail, which actually turned out to be the Sunset Mountains. Azrael died again but it was my mistake so I can't really do anything about it.
Tuesday, 3rd June 2003 Also spent a little time tweaking the sd-map-show.pl script that outputs all of the maps. I added a little space between the keys and the footer, removed the waste of space between the map and the keys and added a new feature - local links. If you check out Meadow Creek now you'll see that parts of maps on the same page will now link to each other. It didn't take long but it should make some maps a little easier to use.
Sunday, 1st June 2003 Az himself is still working his way out of an xp hole - he always seems to be. I guess I should use Stibbs rather than Az for difficult missions because it costs me three times as muxh xp every time Az dies. Hopefully I'll work it off and make some progress getting him to 40 and fireshield - my next big goal for him.
Thursday, 29th May 2003 Even so I managed to finish the map of the Frost Mountain and it's now available. Stibbs is nearly an Adept and I may spend some time maxing him out to level 45.
Tuesday, 27th May 2003 I'd also like to thank Razz for giving Az and Stibbs some really good kit: CHEERS RAZZ! They're both really well kitted out and my new Psi, is starting to look a little better too. Matrix Reloaded for me tonight, fingers crossed it'll be pretty good.
Friday, 23rd May 2003 Today's new map is The Thunderpeaks which now joins Lake Yeven, the Tilverton Mountains and the Moonsea Ride together.
Thursday, 22nd May 2003 I also managed to grab some time this lunchtime to finish off my map of the Vale of Frost. It's not that interesting for most players other that the route through to Frost Mountain, which I hjave yet to map.
Wednesday, 14th May 2003 Well the day is going well so far. I managed to find out what was wrong with the item scripts and I can add and edit items again. If you want to add items yourself you need to become an itemstats editor. Before I'll make anyone an editor I need you to send me some stats that you've collected. Once I have 10-20 off you I'll make you an editor temporarily and you'll be on probation. Every item you add will need to be checked over by me. Once you've passed that you can add as many as you like - when you like! Email me if you're interested.
Tuesday, 13th May 2003 I've also fixed the player database and, hopefully, will fix the item database shortly. If you fancy adding your details in give it a try and let me know if there are problems.
Thursday, 8th May 2003 This allowd me to finish off mapping Anauroch, the Great Desert. Now I want to get Orofin finished as I've mapped most of it anyway. Orofin would get me one step closer to Trol Moors, my current mapping destination. Once there there are a host of zones close to that I need to map. Managed to get some time in to finish mapping Orofin. Fingers crossed I'll be able to start a map of the Marshes to the north-west of Orofin today. WOOHOO! Managed to get the Marshes mapped. Only a step away from the Troll Moors now. I've also found Blackspire Tower and how to get to Meadow Creek too! That puts me at 60 maps! I reckon I'm on FIRE today. Just finished mapping the Troll Moors, where there are some higher level GMs (post Port Mir). I've even had time to put the map online.
Wednesday, 7th May 2003 Today I started to level Azrael up a bit more but had a little bad luck. Even with Sanctuary you can't do much if you miss a bash, and get dispelled underwater. You can't move out of the romo and soon die. After that, with a 9M xp hole staring me in the face, I decided to get a little mapping in and picked the Stonelands as my starting point. Unluckily for me I stepped straight into a death trap and lost all my equipment. Donations welcome. I used Stibbs to finish mapping the Stone Tower and I've now uploaded the map.
Friday, 2nd May 2003
Thursday, 1st May 2003 I've been playing Azrael a lot more than Stibbs recently, mainly because Az is in better shape as he can cast Mage and Cleric spells as well as swinging with a sword - even though Stibbs has twice the HPs! I've gotten them both killed a few times and, with a tri-class, the xp hole really hurts but, thanks to a few good friends, I've worked my way out of a couple and I'm getting close to levelling again. I eventually got around to adding the map of Quimperna Village. Enjoy.
Wednesday, 23rd April 2003 Khmer, without the castle, is a reasonable size, but the castle itself is huge so I spilt it into a serarate map to make life easier for myself. I finished Khmer not too long after that and have added a map. I'll get Quimperna Village and the Khmer Castle done as soon as I get time.
Thursday, 17th April 2003 However, mazes are a different story. An area that is meant to be a maze is a lot different from one that has just been put together badly. Take the Troglodyte Tunnels for example. Here's a map that has been made difficult to move around but it's a fun, if brief, puzzle to solve it. If items don't move, mobs don't pick items up and you have enough different ones mapping any area like this is just fun! I also mapped down to the Tunnels along the Ancient Road while I was at it.
Wednesday, 16th April 2003 I started out today to map out the Thunder Peaks which seemed to link Lake Yeven and the Desertmouth Mtns. I started at the Desertmouth side and found out that it was a small area on that side, so I've added it to the map rather than create it's own one. I also managed to find time to join up the Desertmouth Mnts and foothills, which I hadn't noticed were actually connected (DOH). Finally I managed to squeeze in time to map the Moonsea Ride which connects Stonelands to Tilverton. It's not very inspiring as it's another of the 'connecting areas' but at least as I get them done there's less to do next.
Tuesday, 15th April 2003
Wednesday, 9th April 2003 I managed to get myself into a heap of trouble thanks to unannounced traps. No amount of skill or thinking ahead can get you out of an area you had no warning about and is full of doors you can only open if you could only kill a monster that is much harder than you. Puzzles like that annoy the hell out of me. Thank goodness for high level clerics with summon. Anyway I went back today to finish the map of Stonelands and I can now get to Varen without thinking too hard. I'm planning on adding a new section to the site soon with articles about Shadowdale. My first will be 'Playing a Warrior'. If anyone has any they'd like to send in please do so. I finished the day by adding in a map of the Plains of Shadowdale and the Northern Woods. It took a couple of hours because it was so badly put together but, hell, at least I can get around it now!
Monday, 7th April 2003
Friday, 4th April 2003 These maps are down to shoddy design. When I was a kid, and started programming text adventures, I picked up a book "Adventure Games for the Electron" by A J Bradbury. He included a long section on making maps before you start to code and boy was he right. MUDs aren't the same in many ways I know, but when it comes to puzzle and map design Bradbury had it dead to rights.
Friday, 28th March 2003 Azrael is a Human, Cleric/Mage/Warrior that I've created. They're one of the most powerful classes at higher levels as they can use almost all the equipment in the game, have all the best spells and can hit really hard with almost any weapon. As you'll all know you soon run out of things to spen study sessions on with Warriors but with a tri- or dual-class character you just use them on the cleric or mage spells instead! Az is now up to over level 10 in all classes thanks to Vanashtha and Uvatha, an old friend of mine who's still playing.
Monday, 17th March 2003 I've also lost a bunch of old maps that I hadn't had a chance to update yet *sigh*. Never mind. Unfortunately I also lost my directions around the desert to the south of Port Miramor, the one with the DTs in it... guess I'll have to be careful. Created a new character today too. Azrael is a Human, Mage/Cleric/Warrior. It's a difficult class to level but powerful thanks to the cleric and mage self-buffs and the warrior's pure power. Last but not least I fixed the items today. There were some problems with the scripts being in an old version of Perl, but there were also problems with the item database. I've replaced it from a previous backup for now.
Friday, 7th March 2003 The maps all seem to be fixed but, as a few people have pointed out, the items still look broken. I haven't had much time to fix it because I've been working on another site (my Magic web-site) but I'm going to try and find out what's wrong next week.
Thursday, 16th January 2003
Wednesday, 15th January 2003 Since October I've been getting emails every once in a while asking me to look after the site. "Is it dead?", "Why is it broken?" and a heck of a lot of compliments about being the best SD site out there back in the old days. So, after spending a few years out of the loop, I've decided to start working on the site again. Over the last few years I haven't really had time for Shadowdale. When I last played I was in the twilight of my days at a company called Intracus, later to become Smartgroups. I was very unhappy there for the last six months and left, leaving over £100,000 pounds behind me - happiness really is much more important than money guys 'n gals. I was lucky enough to get the post as IT Manager for a small start up, and worked there for a while until I, along with the rest of the IT department, was made redundant. My luc |