Secrets of The Hearth

[jorb]

We've been developing tonight, and here's what's new.

Wilderness spawning
In our ongoing quest to remove the accursed Ring of Brodgar from the game, we've implemented wilderness spawning. New characters who chose the ladder exit from the character creation room now start the game somewhere. Quite simply.

But wait, there's more!

Not being the ones to shaft the little man, we've also implemented another little system. The Hearth Secret. Any character can, in his kinlist screen, enter a Hearth Secret. Tell this secret to someone with whom you wish to play, and it can be used to open a secret pathway in the character creation room (Speak to Mr. Holmes in the corner). If a new character exits through this secret pathway, he will find himself hearthed in the general vicinity of the person whose secret they told to Mr. Holmes.

But wait, there's more!

The Hearth Secret can also be used by already existing characters as a means to remotely add another person to one's kinlist. You should be able to figure it out.

This means that it is no longer possible to spawn by the RoB. In order to avoid excessive -- RAEG! -- we have been kind enough to leave the RoB travel option in, for now.

Please note the following changes that accompany this change.
Boars and foxes do not attack players. Bears still do.
You always have a hearth fire.
Hearth fires are indestructible.
You can now lift and carry hearth fires.
If you lift someone else's hearthfire, you leave a theft scent.
Reincarnated characters start the game hearthed where their ancestor had his, if they exit via the ladder.

Also, we've added a spindly taproot. An easily discovered herb that counts as string. Dream catchers can now be built with string.

Hopefully, this will do the trick. Enjoy.

[sabinati]

this goes a long way toward helping new players, well done.

[Lothaudus]

Oh wow, this is awesome. Seriously. Saves us a lot of trips.

Thanks!

[Neruz]

An excellent step in the right direction, great work.

--EDIT--

Oh god, you can pick hearth fires up, but you can't put them down XD

[Rhiannon]

Seems reasonable. However, using the rob as a directional point of refference to have access to a universal area/meeting place to find a marketplace still exists as long as the universal "Trvael to Brodgar" remains. I hope you do not remove it as having a universal metting place available to all is a nice thing to have.

[Alamarian]

If you lift and carry a hearth fire, will you still move at a crawl? Because I could see relocating your hearthfire being a major PITA if that is the case.

How far out will new players spawn? Possibly at the edge of the furthest supergrid? Some new players might enjoy that, others would be disappointed at being so far from everyone.

Other than that, awesome.

[Neruz]

On the upside, although i can't put my hearthfire down, i can use it as an infinite light source to explore this cave.

[jorb]

New players, I might add, will always start in deep Mordor. Also, you can still *build* a new hearthfire.

[Neruz]

So i'm going to guess i'm the only one who's lost all ability to do anything that requires a right click?

--EDIT--

Aha, custom client, of course.

[Kahim]

This will help the newbies but possibly hurt them