Okay for the folks who have been wondering what has been added in the last 3 updates that brought LORD v3.55 up to LORD v4.05p, here they are. And rather than trying to describe them in detail, I'll just list what is in each version's WhatsNew.txt file.

*** NEW STUFF IN 4.00a FROM 3.55 ***

  * New command line options added:

  NOEMS - Disabled EMS memory usage completely.
  NORIP - Disabled the RIP check.
  ANSI - Forces ANSI regardless of what the drop file tells us.

  Example of usage:

  CALL START 1 NOEMS ANSI

  NOTE: Always put your node # as the 1st parm!!!!

  * Fixed a local only repeating number that was happening when seth_wait()
  was called... I have NO clue how this got in the source, that writeln
  was NOT there when I tested it an hour before releasing.. (4.00a)

  * Turned range checking OFF, so roll-around #'s would be enabled again.
  Better than a runtime error it turns out... (4.00a)   (this was also
  in 3.55 but not in 4.00)

  * Can turn statbar completely off.   A unix guy asked for this feature, it
  only half worked before.   Edit the NODE?.DAT file and change STATUS ON
  to STATUS OFF to activate it. (do this for all nodes)

  * Took out some extra line feeds on some menus such as the town square. (it
  just looked ugly to me)

  * Changed the <MORE> prompt to be offset two, and be multicolored.

  * The opening menu screen now has a default of [E] to enter the realm.

  * Changes a few other cosmetic things to make it look more like my MBBS/WG
  version in the LORDTXT.DAT file.

  * Fixed problem with the fossil initted comport 1 unexpectedly.   This
  bug has been in my DDPLUS source forever, but I only recently fixed it
  for LORD2, so now it is fixed here too. (I just stole LORD2's comio.pas)

  * Took a REALLY nice BlackJack game that Shawn Teal made for his IGM
  Wizardstone (he has scrapped the IGM since) and made it a random event
  in LORD.   I recolored some stuff to make the color scheme fit and changed
  a few small things in it.

  * Took out the annoying "Play the new SCIFI game New World" ad.   Of course
  I replaced it with something else... ;>

  * LORDCFG will now create the 3rdparty.dat file if it doesn't exist.   (LORD
  already did this)

  * When returning from an IGM, it will check the armour, weapon and your
  name for illegal ` chars.   (this alone will stop a LOT of IGM cheating)

  * When a negetive value occurs in player gold, bank or exp it will be
  set to 0 instead of 2 billion, making IGM's that let you go negetive
  harmless. (fixed in another place also in 4.00a from 4.00)

  * Am not including the RIPICON pack.   No one needs it, if you really do
  get it from www.rtsoft.com's file section.

  * Didn't fix or change any RIP stuff, not enough people use RIP for this
  to matter too much.

  * If MAINT.BAT does not exist, it won't run it at 'newday'.   Before this
  caused a runtime error.

  * If a player who is in an account over 128 marrys Violet, the game will
  not magically runtime error forever after.   Don't ask me why I used a
  signed shortint for this before..

  * A little tip:   If you you want to make a CUSTOM Other Places menu, (for
  instance, you have like 90 IGM's and it's the only way to fit them all on
  one screen) create a file called 3RDALT.TXT in the LORD dir, this will be
  displayed instead of the one LORD dynamically creates on its own.

  That's about it.   Not really enough to deserve to be 4.0, but what the
  hell.

  -Seth A. Robinson.   (sethable@rtsoft.com)

---------------------------------

*** NEW STUFF IN 4.02 ***

In all honest truth, this release is a "cosmetic" release. ..

* updated all copyright notices, documentation, etc

* started work on optimizing the game.. when this is done, the game will
  run significantly faster.. Not to mention, it helps me learn the code..

* i know, i know.. not really enough "work" done to call for a new version.
  however, its been awhile since there was a release, and there needs to be
  one with the new owner's name, Metropolis, name on it.

- Michael Preslar

---------------------------------

Note: I try to log stuff step by step.. If anything, Ill at least know what
I spent all day doing.. ;> Ill also try to log which things were requested,
and by who first..

*** NEW STUFF IN 4.05 ***

* fixed the jenny bug (only in 4.02)..
* fixed a bug with the registration routines (only in 4.02)..
*** Completely rewrote Lordcfg!
* Lord will now work with comports 10 and higher (max 255) IF you have a
  fossil and your bbs software supports it.
* Added one jennie code, and took one out.. and no, im not telling! <g>
* optimized code:
  - main menu           - the trainer
  - jennie codes           - dark cloak tavern
  - abdul's armor           - the healers
  - king arthur's weapons
  - the bank
  Which means if you notice anything funny in these sections, let me know.
  Otherwise, everything else should work exactly the way it used to, since
  Ive not touched it..
* Up until this version, you could ALT-C (forced chat) several times, which
  would force you to ESC out of each of them. Not anymore.. Only one chat
  allowed now..
* some cosmetic work.. new menu screens and whatnot..
* new option: enable or disable the talkative NPCs in the inn (req. G. Pope)
* mail now has the date written on it
* added player descriptions (req by lots of people) .. look for the old
  man in the DCT..
* there's a use for fairy lore now - and no, im not telling. You'll
  figure it out soon enough.
* added resurrection limit (req from Gameport's message board)
* if you were on the entrance menu, and hit 'Q', it wouldnt exit until
  you hit enter.. fixed..
* Now, if you "twit" someone, Lord will knock them out of the game, AND
  add their name to LOCKOUT.DAT
* In turn, I added ALT-K .. "Kill User".. This just 'hangup' on the user..
* Divorcing someone now drops charm 50% instead of to 50.. This goes for
  Violet and the Bard as well..
* Which added a new mail code: `* .. `?<num> marries that player to <num>
  `* will divorce them and take away 50% of charm
* You can no longer divorce someone and then marry on the same day. This
  goes for Violet and the Bard too.. (req G. Pope)
* speaking of mail codes, the `V code has been killed. did the same thing
  as `E..
* Changed the "play blackjack game" key from 'A' to 'G'..
* If you have a horse, you won't stumble onto the DCT.. (Req. M. Lacey)
* You can no longer marry both Violet AND Seth.. (sorry George <g>)
* lots of other little things that were potential bugs

New stuff within Lady - quite a bit hasnt been logged.. soo..

commands
* added @choice
* added @case.. itll handle "response" (from @choice) and &N vars..
  - added ID numbers to case statements. will now safely run as many
    nested case's as you like :)
* added the prompts command
* added the promptn command
* added math functions +, -, *, / and !
* @displayfile was already there. now itll do regular .ans files, and
  sansi style databases..
* added @label and @goto
* added @set
* took some work, but got if/then/else's for &B's, &N's and &P's..
  - added nested if/thens.. you can haveup to 256 of them..
* added @runsub

vars/misc
* added 38 player variables!
* added &F and &L
* added &time
* added the string vars &S1 through &S40
* added the number vars &N1 through &N40
* added the boolean vars &B1 through &B40
* added `l
* added "smart" comments.. any text after a ; will be ignored
* added &nick
* added &ver
* added `k
* added &rnd<num>

---------------------------------

Okay, so there you go. Essentially, let me say that, as a player and a beta tester for LORD v4.02 and LORD v4.05p, that Lord has changed a lot since v3.55, and it's definately worth upgrading your game. I just hope that Michael Preslar keeps working on Lord and makes it as good as it can be. Of course, he is supposed to be working on Lord 2 and TEOS also in the future, and I can't wait to help him beta test those also. :)

Bobby Queen
Former host of the OFFICIAL Lord II IGM Archive, and Kiteria's Korner! sites.

What's New in LORD v4.06: (Added to web-page 11/12/2001.) The "Give the Hag a Gem" bug is fixed. Donald.

*** Fixed during public beta testing (March 16, 2000+) ***
* The Alt-I info screen.. since, oh, 3.55 the box around it hasnt fit the words.. Fixed.
* Alt-C ("chat with a higher being") no longer says "No.", and it wont work for local.
* lordcfg: moving from side to side on the main menu remembered what item you were on. I made this default to the first item.
* Forgot to change the copyright info in lordcfg.. oops.
** May 14th * the fairy garden doesnt exit to the main menu
* forgot to trim spaces off of a name after editing it in lordcfg. fixed.
* the fairy garden doesnt allow for funny ` codes anymore. just colors.
* some of the mail codes werent working (namely `e and `v) .. fixed.
* there were quite a few other things, but i cant remember them all.

LORD v4.07 Notations: Revised 07/05/06:

Following text is from LORD v4.07's whatsnew.txt file, and it has NOT been edited to fix spelling/grammar errors, etc. DGT. 07/05/06.

Note: I try to log stuff step by step.. If anything, Ill at least know what
I spent all day doing.. ;> Ill also try to log which things were requested,
and by who first.. The version numbers are followed by the date that that
version was released to the public.

*** 4.07 {Was released officially on Jun. 07, 2006}
-- In Lord
   * CPU usage is at an all-time low. 100% cpu usage is gone on most
     machines.. Dos/Win32/Desqview are great, win98 is good with my
     personal testing, am told that XP does good too. Note: For
     BEST performancem, go into your node*.dat files and change the
     line "STATUS ON" to "STATUS OFF" - NOTE! The status bar can now
     be turned off in LordCfg's NodeCfg.
   * There was a small memory leak.. You wouldn't notice it until
     the game had been played 50 or so times in the same dos window.. Fixed.
   * Made the monsters and dragon harder.. Everytime you beat the dragon,
     theyll get stronger and have more hitpoints..
   * the maint.bat bug is gone. that is.. lord would exit out to start.bat
     but after running maint.bat, it would exit back to the bbs. That
     is fixed now.
   * Moved the Bard's songs to events.ldy .. That's right, you can
     now change the songs, add more, whatever your heart desires..
   * "ask for a blessing" . .you get extra forest fights.. didnt
     check to see if you had "room" for them (added range checking here)
   * Locally, output is _tons_ faster. (this is the first thing that
     people notice)
   * the more prompt would go real slowly for people on slow connections..
     thats been changed..
   * updated the Dragons Lair ansi with "proper grammer" (thanks to
     Winston Smith..)
   * when gold was transfered in the bank, it printed the sansi codes,
     instead of the colors. fixed.
   * Although the bbs software shouldnt allow for multiple logins at one time,
     none the less, added some checking so that wont happen.
     This means that if a player is marked as "on now", they wont be
     let back in.
   * Added "walk up to the old man" in the dark tavern in 4.05, but
     forgot to include the update lordtxt.dat (wheres my memory at?)
   * when you reset the game, "last time the player editor was used"
     wasnt being reset. fixed.
   * if default FF's were set high, and you had a horse, you would end up
     with negative forest fights. fixed.
   * if you had a lot of ff's, and the fairies gave you a horse, youd end up
     with negative forest fights. fixed.
   * when a player was reset after killing the dragon, his player fights
     were automatically set to 3 instead of the configured amount.. Now,
     the forest fights get set to whatever the game is configured for.
   * "continue, stop, nonstop" added back to the daily news. (for anyone
     wondering, it was being handled by ddplus's displayfile().. now, its
     handled internally.. aka, messages and whatnot can be done there as well)
   * if killed in the forest, the player could hang up at the "youve been
     killed by " prompt.. this would add the kill to the daily log,
     but not save the player. thus they could come back and play more. fixed.
   * with the fairy garden.. If you added text, itd kick you back to the
     main menu.. Not any more..
   * Added "No fancy More prompts".. "Fancy More" prompts print 'more' to the
     screen and wait for a keypress, then delete 'more' from the screen. "No
     Fancy More" waits for keypress then goes to next line.
   * the bug in 4.06 that ate text from the left side on local screens
     is gone (strike #1 against global variables)
   * the bug that caused extra  prompts is gone (strike 2 against
     global variables)
   * for being such a good person and reading the whatsnew.txt,
     do a: lordcfg /g
   * Another one of those undocumented features: if the file hello.txt exists,
     it will be displayed before the intro ansi. hello.txt can contain ansi,
     sansi, or plain ol text.
   * If you had a horse and fought the dragon, there was a chance that
     the "Death Crystal" event would happen.. Your horse would get killed,
     and the dragon would get automatically killed by you. Dragon's are
     stronger than that.. And now, Lord reflects this.. (d.tidmore)
   * For Death Knights and Thieves, 4 skill points should be 1 use. It
     was set at 5 skill points for 1 use. This has been changed. Its
     at 4 skill points for 1 use now. (d.tidmore)
   * Blink codes, clear screen, and background colors can no longer be used
     in the flowers. This was changed to make the flowers uniform with the
     other chat boards. Besides. Its annoying when the flowers screw up the
     screen and prevent the conversation from being displayed.
   * Added the troll event
   * Whenever you go into the healers, it checks your current hit points,
     and max hit points. If either are below 0, theyre set to 1.
   * if the player had been kicked out the game with 0 hitpoints, but
     not marked as dead, they could come back into the game. Theres now
     a check when entering the game and when coming back from an IGM.
   * Quick cosmetic change.. fixed the background ansi for the blackjack game
   * speaking of blackjack cosmetics, the screen draws a lot faster now.
   * blackjack: max bet is level * 1000 now..
   * the blackjack game requires ansi (not for colors, but for moving the
     cursor around to the right places to draw the cards and whatnot).. A
     check has been added for that. If the person doesnt have ansi, a Lady
     event is ran instead.
   * redid the bard menu from the rdi
   * instead of just sending [2J to clear the screen and assuming the
     cursor i moved to 1x1, Lord now sends [2J[H.. This will make
     things look better for *nix users..
   * another cosmetic bit.. Edited @#DEMON in lordtxt.dat .. This ansi
     should display properly now. (does in my testing)
   * When getting a room at the inn, if charm > 100, the room is free.
     The game told the player it was free, but it really wasnt. Fixed.
   * When returning from an igm, lord didnt re-read in lord.dat, which
     means that registration codes, default forest fights, and the like
     were all default values. This has been fixed.
   *** MAJOR change to how weapons and armor are sold. That is.. You have
     to have a certain amount of strength to buy higher level weapons, and
     you have to have a certain about of defense to buy the higher level
     sets of armor. The value needed is based on what you would gain from
     beating the level master of that item. Say you are level 1, that means
     you have the starting 10 strength. So you can buy the first weapon.
     By default, you gain 5 strength when you beat Halder, the 1st trainer.
     Thatd give you a total of 15. So, youd need 15 to buy the second armor
     OR.. You could be level 1, and get enough gems to up your strength
     to the needed amount. Or an IGM could help you.
   * If you're lucky, and leaving the bank, a man may approach you
     about an Amulet of Accuracy
   * If you save the princess, an entry is added to the daily news. If
     you get the Hol instead, an entry is added to the daily news. If
     you kill most everyone in the castle trying to save the princess,
     an entry is added to the daily news. (Marty Blankenship)
   * Princess used to say "How can I ever replay you?". says "repay"
     now (Marty Blankenship)
   * Dark Cloak Tavern .. Gamble with the locals.. the guess the number
     game.. It was possible that the old man didnt guess your number, but
     it'd say that it did. Not anymore. (found this one while working on
     weblord)
   * When raising your Death Knight skills, theres a random event that
     involves Olivia. Seth had if (random(1)=1) then begin .. end ..
     Which would _never_ equal 1 (random(x) returns a number between
     0 and x-1).. I removed the if (random(1)=1) bit .. now the event will
     actually happen.
   *** Another Major change.. Weapons and Armors are now editable!
   * The id number of the player thats married to Violet is stored in
     marrage.dat .. if shes not married, that file will either not
     exist, or contain -1 .. That file is loaded whenever the player
     logs into the game. Imagine node 1 and node 2 both going into the
     game at the same time, and violet is not married. node 1 marrys her.
     Node 2 doesnt know this. Node 2 then marries her. Now marrage.dat
     holds node2's player id, but both node 1 and node 2 are marked as
     married to her. This bug has been fixed.
   * The Jennie code 'FAIR' is supposed to allow the player to write
     romantic mail again for the day. It wasnt. But it does now.
   * I added the bit where it takes a certain amount of strength to
     use a weapon, but never told the player what was needed. I do now.
   * Same for armor
   * Now the first 2 (armor/swords) require 0 (def/str) points to purchase
   * Reported by Firestarter .. You can transfer gold to yourself. Not
     anymore.
   * New Random event in the forest. When you die by the hand of a monster,
     15% of your gold on hand gets added to the "pot". Eventually, some
     lucky soul will run across a random event that lets them find the
     entire pot.f
   * big change to the Inn fights .. Say a level 5 player attacks, and kills,
     a level 7 character. That level 5 character will have the opportunity
     to trade weapons with the level 7 character. Mean, eh?
   * When buying a weapon/armor, not only does it tell you how many
     strength/defense points are needed, it tells you how many there
     are
   * Even though the innkeeper said the room was free (since youre so
     pretty) it wasnt. Now it really is.
   * And its 100 charm points or better, instead of 101 or better.

-- In Lady..
   * (Reported by Paul Falor) If a 1 character operand was thrown into
     an @if statement, then the @if would completely exit and not run.
   * &S vars were not being properly translated in @display and @write
   * Added string switches and &Pvar support to @case ..
     The following code now works..
     @case &S1 of
     this: @writeln this
     that: @writeln that
     @endcase
   * Added >= and <= to @if
   * rewrote the @set code.. You can now increment and decrement
     &Nvars and &Pvars..
   * Added the ability to set 'not' a value with &B vars with @set
   * Added &clean .. A readonly boolean to say clean mode or not.
   * & variables werent being translated in choice commands.. Fixed
   * fixed a bug where &variables followed by something other than a
     number were incorrectly translated.. example: "&N23`2" wouldnt work,
     but "&N23 `2" would.. This has been fixed..
   * Added the ability to read / write to files.. Check @openfile,
     @closefile, @write, @writeln, @read, @readln for details.
     This also added the boolean variable &file_created
   * Wow.. Never noticed that @if/then didnt have "not equal".
     <> has been added for you pascal people, and != for you C people.
   * &rnd should be more random now..
   * until now, @write, @writeln, and @display would only replace the
     first instance of any &var's.. Now it'll replace all of them..
   * added @endgame .. Want to kick the player out of the game?
     Heres how. Teamed up with "@set &Pdd to true", you could end the
     player's game for the day.
   * Aparently, I never added support for &Pvars to write/writeln/display
     Its there now.
   * Added @verreq
   * Added &lorddir
   * Added &Pfa .. boolean .. true=player has a fairy
   * When returning from an event, a check is done to see if the player
     has any hit points. If not, the player is marked as dead.
   * How come @writeln/@write never would print out &S vars? It does now.
   * Added @saveplayer
   * @case now has support for "response", "responce", and any numeric
     value. Any string that can be safely converted to a number (such as
     "1234") could be used as well.
   * Made @if allow for you to use "then" if you wanted. Its not documented,
     because I'd rather you use the syntax specified in lady.doc.. But, its
     there if you want it.
   * Added @delay
   * Anything after a case (while in an if/then) would be ignored.
     Thats been fixed. (G.Lewicky)
   * Added @changewep and @changearm
   * added &hero - the name of the last person to beat the dragon
   * added &rip - true if RIP is enabled
   * moved the bard's songs to lady events
   * added &play .. the player's number in player.dat
   * added &playedtoday .. returns either a 1 (true) or 0 (false)
     if the player has ran the current event that day
   * added @openfile, @closefile, @readline .. and changed @write to
     support files too
   * Added &filename .. This is the file name of the current event file
     This is useful for @runsub's in the event that the main event file
     gets renamed to something other than the scripter predicted.
     See lady.doc for more details.
   * Added @isbitset
   * Added @setbit
   * Added the &P var &Pam .. Does the player have an Amulet of Accuracy?
     1 = true, 0 = false .. This _can_ be set with a @set &Pam to 1
   * Added in a way for script writers to allow sysops an easy way to
     install and uninstall scripts. Check Lady.doc for more info (in
     specific, the sections on @#INSTALL, @#UNINSTALL, @#MAINT, etc)
   * Added the &P var &Ppl .. This is the player's record number in
     player.dat

-- in Lordcfg..
   * Ever want to change the trainer's stats? Now you can.. Matter of
     fact, the stuff that trainer's "say" can even have lady &Pvars
     in it so you can customize the saying to the player!
   * Want to edit the Dragon? Go for it :)
   * added a "new day for player" option in the player editor
   * fixed the hotkeys on the main menu (M was acting like an arrow key)
   * in the player editor.. added the ability to list by real name or nick
     (M. Everett was the first person to suggest this)
   * Dont know where it went, but "delete player" has been added back to
     the player editor.
   * Speaking of deleted players, the player editor shows "Deleted"
     now, instead of "X". (The actual data remains as 'X', its just
     displayed more user friendly)
   * Added numpad support for the arrow keys (should help people that use
     VNC) .. requested by nullvalue
   * lordcfg didnt delete last.dat when the game was reset. It does now.
   * This is mainly cosmetic: Sometimes text edit pop up boxes would look
     skewed, because the prompt text wasnt long enough. This has been fixed.
   * FINALLY! A way to install and uninstall Lady scripts! You'll find
     the Events editor under the Editors tab.
   * For you Win32/Door32 sysops: LordCfgD.exe is a _door_ version of
     LordCFG. Run it like you would run lord/32. Taht is:
     c:\path\to\lordcfgd.exe -Dc:\path\to\door32.sys
   * lordcfg now deletes several more files when you use the reset option
     (WAR*.DAT, FIGHT*.DAT, MESS*.DAT, ALE*, PEN* .. where * = 1 .. 150)
   * NodeCFG Changes
      * "Write Direct" removed since Seth didnt use it anyway
      * "Special Ansi Settings" removed since it wasnt used
      * "Change Status Bar Colors" added, and support added to Lord
        for this option
   * In the player editor.. Once youve picked a player, you can use
     the < and > keys to navigate through the players (Thanks xbit!)

Contact Michael Preslar at mpreslar (at) mailcity.com if you need help with LORD. His personal web-site is located at http://www.michaelpreslar.com/. The official LORD web-site is located at http://www.lordlegacy.com/. As of early July 2006, betas are not available for LORD for OS/2, LORD for Windows, or LORD for Linux, that I know of. Only LORD for Windows, of the 32-bit versions of LORD, is capable of running IGMs. And those have to be made using Virtual Pascal v2.10 Build #279 and the MannDoor Tool-kit. Ask Michael for further info about them if you need more data. Donald. 07/05/06.

Kiteria's Homepage