TorilMUD Adds Nine New Zones

Just because an online game was already about six years old when EverQuest, which drew much of its inspiration from this game, hit the store shelves doesn’t mean that it is winding down.  It may not be in danger of exceeding its maximum connection limit any more, but TorilMUD is still alive and evolving.

The new login art

A little over 18 years since I started playing, they are still adding new zones.  From the TorilMUD dev blog:

Nine new zones from the former Homeland MUD have been converted and added to the mud. Look for them in the credits, and here’s a taste of what’s in store:

• King Horgar Steelshadow the Fourth has closed the city of Gracklstugh to outsiders, but has finally, after being pressured by merchant guilds for the better part of a year, agreed to allow passage around the city walls to the  wild tunnels of the Underdark that lie due west of the city gates. With the trade routes open, the fiendish minotaurs that roam the Labyrinth once again have a steady supply of food.
• Denizens of the Underdark have reported many sightings of extra-planar beings, native to the Plane of Fire deep underground.
• Rumors spread throughout the Northdark about a temple dedicated to the Elder Eye, and the riches contained within, unfortunately for adventurers, those rumors usually finish with ‘… and they were never heard from again.’, but there is always an exception, isn’t there?
• Patrolmen from Phlan have reported increased activity ranging from ogres to dragons, all hailing from the mountains to the north.
• Strange travelers have been seen in the astral plane, whether they mean good or bad tidings for the casual travelers remains to be seen.

And while these are not new zones, made exclusively for TorilMUD, they do represent a further  expansion of the already enormous world of the game.

My traditional method for finding new places, because the devs never tell you exactly where they are, is to wander around watching my map and looking for new room exits.  Maybe some day, if I have time, I’ll add some of these new places to my already large map database.

EverQuest II Live and Extended, Merged and Down Together Now

The great merger of the two halves of EverQuest II, the Live side and the Extended side, appears to be off for the moment.

The new patcher seemed to load up and download fine.

New Patcher Updating

The game launched with the great big Freeport Reborn splash screen.

I'll bet money the Qeynos update won't get a splash screen

And then, well… everything was locked.

Locked across the board...

And while it is too early to panic, you can color me concerned that the original versions of characters I copied over to Freeport appear to be missing from the list… and that despite all promises, and the fact that I deleted a few characters just to be sure, I am showing up with not enough character slots.

Oh, and the launcher keeps running even after the game comes us.  Is it supposed to be like that?

Anyway, there was an update on Facebook… because the EQII site appears to be down with the game…

We have just evaluated the status of the current update and have come to the conclusion that we can either unlock servers and risk broken content, or ensure that we provide the best experience possible and delay the update to tomorrow morning.

We have to do it RIGHT. For all of you and for all of us.

So please, bear with us, relax overnight, and let us sortie into the new day together. Community will be in office at 7:00am PST and will immediately review status and give you all an update. We are aiming for morning and working as hard as we possibly can.

Yer faithful Dwarf,
Brasse

So better luck tomorrow night I hope.  Have to remember to check the server status page first next time.

Addendum: The CTO at SOE, Rich Lawrence, has some details about what went awry.