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# LOD Newsletter file # # This file will be updated to contain all LOD newsletter issues. Please # Don't delete it - it is used by LOD itself when users request a newsletter # to be displayed. NUMITEMS 3 LODNEWS1 Volume 1, Issue 1: Premier Issue! LODNEWS2 Volume 1, Issue 2: LODNews Continues! LODNEWS3 Volume 1, Issue 3: Yet Another LodNews! @@LODNEWS1 Land Of Devastation News Volume 1 Number 1 Editor: Scott M. Baker Contents 1) Welcome To the Premier Issue!.......Scott Baker 2) Planned LOD Updates.................Scott Baker 3) LOD's Graphics: How it works........Scott Baker 4) User Submissions....................Scott Baker 5) LOD Thoughts from Nick..............Nick (David Doyle) 6) Xenon's Jounral Entry...............Xenon (Jonas Saunders) Welcome to the Premier Issue! By Scott M. Baker Welcome to the premier issue of the LOD newsletter. A few users have requested that we start up a newsletter, so here it is! (Now, if those same users would just submit something!) First of all, let me talk a little bit about my current work on LOD. As I write this issue, I am taking a break from the deisgn of LOD 3.00. Origanally, version 3.00 was going to be a simple bug fix release, but the demand for new features is so strong, I have decided to do what I can while I have the time. For those of you who have complained that LOD is not finished, version 3.00 is getting very close to what I am going to consider "completion". The Puritron routines are finally installed and fully functional. This means that the users can finally win and restart the game. Also, if we we can figure out the best way to do it, I'm going to try to throw in some player-vs-player games and some player-vs-player combat. I've also been working on a set of new weapons for the power hungry players out there. Already added are a few exotic items such as the Pulse Bazooka and Xenon's Surprise. To power these weapons, we have a nice Vortex Cell which can hold an immense amount of power. Medical lining is also having some addition - there are two new classes available which are quite handy out in the wasteland. The price for these items? Well, let's just say you'd better have played for a while before trying to buy one! For those of you who have completed all of the special quests, I'm going to throw in a few more that you can work on. Perhaps the first person to complete them in each game will get a special award. ------------ Planned LOD Updates Scott M. Baker Currently, here is a list of what updates I plan on making in the future. These aren't listed in any particular order, just whats on my mind: 1) Finish player-vs-player combat! We all know you players out there want to kill each other, so let me see if I can get an option for it. 2) Multi-level support. Not similar to the previous multilevel support where the landscape was duplicated, but actual inner maps for buildings and such. (i.e. You enter Xeboc's lair and there is a sub-map for it) 3) More monsters. We need the 4th, 5th, and 6th levels populated. I threw in a few, but I could really use some suggestions for a few more. (hint, hint) 4) Player-vs-Player games. One of the major complaints about LOD is that there isn't enough player-vs-player interaction. I'd like to throw in some games to use that game account and let the users interact a bit. That's whats on my mind for the next versions. If anyone out there has any suggestions of other important things to be added, or any ideas on the above, then let me know! ------------ LOD's graphics: How it works. By Scott M. Baker The most often design question I get asked is about LOD's (and GTERM's) graphics - how are they implemented? Well, there's quite a long story to the actual process. Let's begin by talking about where they came from. Shane Chambers has drawn up the bulk of the images. From my understanding of the process, they start out on a clean white piece of paper. Shane sketches them out freehand with a pencil. Then he scans them in with a 2-color (monochrome) scanner. The pictures are then converted and edited with Dr. Halo and Dr. Halo DPE, colorized, and exported in a .GIF which Shane sends to me. We chose the GIF format because it was something that is somewhat popular and something that both Shane can write to and I can read them. When the image arrives to me, I load it into a little utility that I wrote which converts it to a turbo pascal format. For the final step in organizing the images, they are packed together into the various RESOURCE.xxx files. Some people are under the impression that these files are in some kind of proprietary format. They really aren't in any actual format at all. They are simply all of the images stuck end to end one right after the other. Small images (such as inventory and map items) get thrown in one file and large images (such as monster and town pictures) get thrown in another. The way I read these pictures in is really a complex matter involving memory buffering and caching, EMS support, etc, but the concept is really pretty simple - you "blockread" them in to memory, and then display them onto the screen. It's as simple as that. If you want to get fancy, you can RLE or LZW compress your images to save space; You can buffer the images in memory to increase speed, etc. The final thing that remains to be discussed is how does LOD tell GTERM what pictures to display? This is accomplished by a miniature error-correcting protocol that is operating mostly in the background. LOD sends "packets" of data to GTERM. GTERM interprets the contents of these packets and acts accordingly. If you haven't already, then reading a good discussion of XMODEM will help you understand the operation of error correcting protocols. While xmodem is not very highly regarded for it's efficiency or security, it's basic foundation is the key to understanding how a door may communicate with remote terminal. Well, there you have it, a very basic discussion of how the graphics routines in LOD and GTERM work. ------------- User Submissions by Scott M. Baker This newsletter is open to submissions by anyone - if you have something to submit, then just upload it to my bbs. If I decide it belongs in the newsletter, then it'll show up in the next issue. Here's a few things that I would like to see submitted if some people out there have the time: - Newuser tips, playing strategies, etc. At times, LOD can be a very comlex game. Sometimes, these complexities are a bit hard for new users to pick up. So, those of you experienced LOD maniacs out there, please send in some tips, your winning strategies, etc. - Historical Text If you like to do SF writing, then a few "background" stories about the nuclear history in LOD would be nice. In my own discussion of LOD's history have left some details out. If for example, you would like to document the fall of society to nuclear holocaust in 2005, then go for it! After all, LOD really is just an interactive multiplayer story! - Monster Designs Although they probably won't appear in the newsletter, I am always looking for more monsters. Particularly ones to populate the outer zones. If you like, write me up some and I'll see if I can throw them in. Note: Please try to fit them into the existing LOD framework and plot. Monsters that have unknown weapons and origins sometimes just don't fit. - Combat description text Are combat descriptions sometimes seem a bit limited. Sometimes I myself can get real tired of hearing "You slash into the Rad Hound with your sword." If you have a talent for writing up good descriptions, I wouldn't mind seeing some of these either. The newsletter will be published as often as enough material accumulates to make it a decent size. ------------- LOD thoughts from Nick... I never thought I'd become an adventurer: I'm really not the type for blasting mutant creatures, executioner robots and such with gizmos I can't even pronounce, much less understand. But then again, I never thought the civilized world would come to an end either. You have to do you best with what you have to work with though, and so, with the world the way it is, I guess I'm real fortunate to have had the sense to enlist. And you know what? I found out I'm not half bad at it either! Now most people don't do things quite the way I do -- and nobody can tell you what you ought to -- a body's gotta decide such things himself and live with it. But I noticed some things I thought might make it easier on those that take up where I leave off. Maybe what I tell might help. Then again, maybe not. First off: Money. Figure out what's worth collecting depending on your net worth and level. At first, a real quick trip out to pick up anything you can find will get you that extra 100 to buy a razorlance. Also, suppose you hop out of base in your shorts and not so much as a butter knife on you (don't waste your money on equipment [more on this in a minute]) I wouldn't be afraid to run away from a scavenger or insane soldier -- they might shoot at you, but you can just heal it. Later on in the game, don't waste your inventory carrying cheap stuff -- some of the armor is worth a lot. Also, keep some cash in the bank ... compound interest is the 8th wonder of the new world! Second: Use the technology. Some say we're better off back in the caves wearing skins and fighting with rocks 'cause "technology" got us into this mess. But its what people did with it that caused the devastation and besides, when a death warrior comes after you, energy armor and a neutron rifle sure keeps you alive better. Also, its our only hope ... we have to get the puritron on-line or we're stuck! Oh yeah, I was talking about using the devices: The stealth buckles are great! You can use several at a time to cover some dangerous ground, and scavenge some good equipment up. Also the computer store has some handy stuff -- the DIET program sure saves you hassle and food bill. (Nobody enjoys eating now anyway) Third: Pay attention to where you are. If you find yourself in a new area, remember what you did to get there and what it looks like. If you can't close your eyes and still see the scenery, you're not concentrating on what's around you enough. You should have a sense for how far away from things you are, too: the dist/zone monitor helps you develop a feel for this. Fourth: Cooperate. Use the mail, talk to the others out there. And remember, we're all trying to save the world -- there's enough opponents out in the wasteland without us killing each other off. ---------- Xenon Journal Entry - Date ???? Today as I set out from Sacre Base, in search for the missing puritron devices, I had an uneasy feeling. This wasn't going to be a easy journey. Xenon Ok, guys, so you wanna be an adventurer? Here's some hints from the greatest adventurer ever, Xenon (aka Jonas Saunders). Getting killed by monsters too quickly? Buy a stealth device. Activate the stealth's Quiet Mode. Go as far as you can, in, say zone 3 or 4. Find some better weapons. (There's bound to be some laying around if the game has been running for a while) If you happen to encounter a monster, RUN. If you get hit, use your medkit. Don't attack until you have better weapon and armor. When you do find some, go back to Zone 1 and start attacking monsters. ALWAYS surrender if your HP go below 10. Or take risks. Starving to death? Buy the laptop and the DIET program. Get the GSRZ/50 rations. You'll last about 1 month. (Real-time, not game-wise) Dying and starting over? Buy the laptop and find the EM-Warp ROM. Find some Warper/5's. You'll save some precious time and won't have to start over so much. Collecting items the monster drop off the wasteland and selling them is the BEST way to earn money. As soon as you have about 2 million credits (About 20 minutes worth of work/play time) BUY the Neutron Sabre and Neutron Rifle. Those weapons will help. Getting a Pylon key will really help you later on the game. Find the EEEE Center and the Clone Center AS EARLY IN THE GAME AS YOU can. The EEEE Center has a nifty weapon, called Xenon's Surprise. This weapon will blow the monsters away with ease. Get one of the Vortex Cells also. You can add unlimited amounts of power to it and don't have to worry about going back to one of the base to buy more power. Get Stizli Medline and you'll regain 1 HP each 2 move. This may help out in tight situations where you're out of Medkits. Build a Fortress in each Zone. (Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Give all fortresses Teleporters. This will help you teleport back to Sacre Base to resupply. Then you can go back to Zone 1 base and teleport to whatever zone you were in last. This strategy has helped me greatly. Use the Pylons to find TASDU - the machine may have some useful information. Use the Pylons to find Xeboc too. He has one Puritron Device. Use the Pylons to find the Nuclear Silo. There is a Puritron Device there. Talking to monsters may yield some interesting answers and solutions for the Quests. Some monsters might have the Tetris ROM, buy it. (or destroy the monster and risk the Tetris ROM being dissolved) I think this should be good enough to get you guys started. Xenon Out. ---------- You can download copies of this newsletter, upload submissions, or whatever from the following bulletin board system: The Not-Yet-Named bbs Node #1: (602) 577-3650 (V.32) Node #2: (602) 577-3419 (USR DUAL) @@LODNEWS2 Land Of Devastation News Volume 1 Number 2 Editor: Scott M. Baker Contents 1) Welcome to Issue Number Two!......Scott Baker 2) Version 3.30: Team Support........Scott Baker 3) Some Tips for Advanced Players....Art Rainy 4) Special Questing..................Gurlock The Almighty 5) Crippleware/Bonusware/Delayware...Scott Baker 6) The Death of Nuke Man.............Pit Bull (James Cox) 7) Salvation of the Puritron I.......Pit Bull (James Cox) 8) People I wish to thank............Scott Baker 9) Letters to the Editor.............n/a Welcome to Issue Number Two! By Scott M. Baker Welcome to the second issue of LODNEWS. If everything goes as planned, then this issue will be released on the same date as Land of Devastation version 3.30 which has some nice new features. (See the section about version 3.30 below) We're still running a bit low on user submissions. I know there are many of you out there playing Land Of Devastation, so how about sharing your knowledge and strategies with the rest of us? Or why not personalize your character by sending in a short story describing his history? We'd really like to hear from you! ------------ Version 3.30: Team Support! By Scott M. Baker I'm very excited about version 3.30 and I hope some of you are too. This is the first version of LOD that has team support built in! You can now band together with your comrades! For you lower players out there, teaming up will allow you to make some progress against those higher above you. So what can a team of lower players do to fight someone immensely larger than them? How about laying siege to your enemy's fortresses? Although a fortress's defenses may be great and powerful, a band of determined players can exhaust the fortress's energy supply, effectively neutralizing it's defenses. Then you just walk in and take inventory of your new home! Or perhaps you sell out it's defenses and self destruct the fortress! That ought to get your adversary more than just slightly upset. A prime advantage for team play is a pooling of resources. Sharing fortresses can be a great advantage. For example, you may have more Warper/5's then you know what to do with, but your friends may be in desperate need for a warper. So, leave it in your fortress and your teammate [assuming he has your fortress's password] can pick it up when he needs it. Those are all things that you could previously do on your own. So, what does the new built in team support grant you? First of all, if you buy a smart mine and set it somewhere, it is smart enough not only to spare your life if you re-enter the area, but your teammates as well. The nice thing about mines is that an adventurer never knows how many are there. This element of uncertainty can allow you to build up a decent defense around an important area (such as your favorite fortress!) Secondly, your teammates can view the location of your fortresses (with the fortlist ROM and with the fortress teleporter command) and teleport to/from them for free. This allows you to set up a "transportation network". One of you could build and maintain a fortress by Sacre Base, another by Freedom City, and another by the Death Warrior camp. Instantly, you have the capability to travel between three of the main cities! ------------ Some Tips for Advanced LOD Players By Art Rainy Warpers--The EM-Warp program always uses the highest numbered warper in your inventory. Free up inventory slots by always placing your lowest numbered warper highest in your inventory. That should eliminate the problem of two or three warpers with only one warp left on them. [Editors note: Making the EM-Warp program a bit smarter about which Warper is used is on my list of things to do, so the above may or may not be valid at the time you read this] Stealth fields and Inviroblurs--These units operate cumulatively. The use of multiple units can double your chances of increasing those valuable experience points or of surviving as you sneak away from dangerous territory. Kill Objects--Most players quickly learn the advantage of leaving items where they fall if they need neither its cash value or its advantage in conflict. Thus they exchange items of value and bypass Sacre Base. However, when most players have advanced into levels two and higher, no player is interested in picking up daggers and cloth armor. It is to your advantage to kill those useless objects and benefit from the janitorial fee. Sysops might consider raising that fee to more than $5 per unit to further temp players to clean up the board. Map the Board--LOD's intrepid designer has included editing capabilities that allow sysop's to modify the design of the map. Just because the Clone Center was at a certain location in the last game does not imply that it will remain there after a reset. To avoid confusion about locations prepare a 125 by 125 grid and map the locations of obstructions as well as those of cities and camps. You can eliminate trips into cul-de-sacs and excessive danger zones -------------- Special Questing By Gurlock The Almighty [Editors note: The following gives information on solving 2 of LOD's special quests. Players who don't want the secret "given away" may wish to skip this secion] Ok now, the best way that a starting player can get going quickly is to use the quests. Land Of Devastation has many special quests. There's hard ones and there's easy ones. I'll describe an easy one or two for you new guys out there! The first thing that you should do is perform the steaks special quest. Do this when you are like level 2 or 3 (other wise you might get wasted). Ok - here's what you do: Follow the road that leaves sacre base and keep going east. If you come to any "T" intersections, then choose the upper path. At some point you'll enter zone #2, so start running from all of monsters (otherwise they'll waste you). Eventually, you'll come to another city. This city is freedom camp. Now, follow the mountains south of Freedom Camp. You'll first see a pylon (ignore it) and the as you continue, you'll run into the horticulture center (HS). Enter the HS, talk to the manager, and pick up Troy's Steaks. Then go back the way you came - back to sacre base. When you will return, you will have won the first special quest!!!!!!!! The next quest is also pretty easy. First you'll need to buy a pylonkey. Do this at either Sacre Base or Freedom City. Remember that pylon you passed in the above quest? Well, go back there. Now, try all the code combinations at the pylon. Write down where you end up with one. Important-- if you run into Xeboc, RUN FROM HIM! or he'll waste you!!! Eventually, you'll find the T.A.D.S.U. When you find it, you've won another special quest!!!! (Now, you just gots to remember the right pylon code [You wrote them down, right?] to get back to where you cam from!] If I remember, you got like 5,000 experience for each of those quests! Wow! For a beginner, that's a level or two!!! Plus you also get to talk to the tadsu and learn a bunch of information! And theres more! Once you buy a laptop, you can go to the computer store and pickup Troy's Rom and get a whole lot of info!!! ------------ Crippleware/Bonusware/Delayware By Scott M. Baker As most of you notice, LOD is distributed in a manner similar to shareware. The fully functional working version is distributed to everyone. Those who like the program, use it a lot, etc are supposed to send in a registration fee (aka donation) to support it. Once a donation is received, I enter their information into the Reglook door on my bbs where they can call and pick up a code. The code then enables the message "This copy is registered to xxxx. Please thank your sysop for registering." I have had several sysops who have told me that this is not enough incentive for them to register. They say they would only register if they receive something above the current version. They want their registered copy to be something better than John Doe's unregistered copy across town. They want users to appreciate the fact that they have registered. Before I continue, let me explain a few terms: Crippleware: In this method, the game is distributed to the public with many of it's features disabled. Limits on the number of players are imposed, etc. When the sysop sends in the donation, he receives a "key" which enables the full features. Bonusware: Very similar to crippleware, but the philosophy is slightly different. The full version is distributed, but sending in a donation will get the sysop some sort of "bonus". Something like an external player editor. The problem is, there is a fine line between bonusware and crippleware. Is removing the editor considered "crippling" a program or is the editor a "bonus" for registered users? Delayware: This is where you put a delay in the unregistered version. Something similar to "This copy is unregistered. Please wait 10 seconds." Annoyware: Here we find other ways to annoy the sysop into registering. We could throw up a long message on the screen every time a user enters the door. We could put in a message attacking the sysop for not registering, etc. As I said before, I don't currently use any of the above methods. You get the full version whether you register or not. Sysops who send in registrations simply have the piece of mind of knowing they have paid for the software, and of course, a message saying "Please thank your sysop for registering." As more and more people keep telling me they think I should do something more, I am starting to consider it. After all, LOD is no small project - it does require a lot of my time and I wouldn't mind an increase in donations. So what I would like is comments, what would people think? Here is what I would do under each of the above ideas: Crippleware: (Out of the question - I hate crippled programs) Bonusware: Only give registered sysops the editor package (LODxxxE.ARJ) Delayware: Add in a 5 or 10 second delay after the "encourage your sysop to register" message. Annoyware: Make the user read a screen at the end of the game (i.e. when the user quits or camps out) about how his sysop should register, how important registering shareware is, etc. My question is, if I was to instate one of the above policies, which one would people prefer? Right now, I like the delay idea. 5 seconds isn't too long to turn people off and it is long enough to make the "please register" message stick in peoples' minds. If you have a response, you can send it to me at the bbs number listed at the end of this document. ------------ The Death of Nuke Man By Pit Bull I woke up to an alarming situation. I was no longer within the safe confines of my fortress - I was laying on the bare wasteland. It is pure luck that I am alive. A single Biomutant could have done me in while I slept unprotected. But what had happened to my fortress? My protection against this hellish land? I could just see it's smoldering ruins a few meters to the east. The cause was clear: Another warrior, one who should have been my companion in this struggle for freedom, had ruthlessly desecrated my base. He must pay. I bootup up my laptop which had luckily been spared from the attack. I typed in the commands to retrieve the previous few days log. And I waited.... waited... for the name of the one who had done this. The name of the person who would suffer my vengeance. And then it appeared: Nuke Man. Why had he done this to me? Perhaps I shall never know. I had never met Nuke Man personally. From the rankings posted in the troop quarters, I could tell that he was nearly as good as myself. Perhaps he was in need of some quick cash and my glorious fortress caught his eye. Or perhaps he wanted the glory of capturing the puritron parts himself. Something else caught my eye in the log. Those two words would burn in my mind for the next two days: "Fortress Constructed". After Nuke Man had destroyed my own home, he had constructed himself a fortress. This would be my vengeance. I will find his fortress and show him that what goes around comes around. For two days I searched. Across the plains surrounding Sacre Base, within the mountains around Freedom City. Even as far as the EEEE center and then I found it. Hidden around the bend amongst some impassable mountains. I leveled my phaser-3 at the base's defense field and fired. Electric fire shot up when the two energy fields met. By now, Nuke Man would be panicking with the sounds of sirens and alarms. I entered the moat surrounding his fortress and I saw it - the alligator ... It was approaching fast. I tried to swim faster, but it was no use - MY right leg was nearly town apart by it's jaws. Luckily I managed to reach the bank of the moat with my life still intact. I slashed several times with my electrolance, burning into Nuke Man's defense fields. I took a few slugs from his robopistol. But I was more powerful then his measly defense. The fortress's defense field fell. Then it was just me and Nuke Man. He had an electroblade. He must have thought that he would be able to handle me in my weakened condition - but he was wrong for my dexterity and agility were much greater than his. He lunged forward, hoping to stab me with his electroblade. One quick swing with my electrolance and the electroblade, along with the majority of Nuke Man's hand and lower arm was now lying across the room. He cried in pain and begged for his life. I was not without mercy. I let him live. After all, I had gained a new fortress - and I would not self destruct this one as the foolish Nuke Man did when he conquered mine. I figured that would be the last of Nuke Man - that he had learned his lesson. But sadly, it was not so. The very next day the log showed an attempted attack on my new fortress - by none other than Nuke Man. The log simply said that he had perished. But I knew what had happened. That alligator in the moat - the one that Nuke Man had bought - had a very full belly that day. I hope this sad tale will convince those out there that I, Pit Bull, am not to be toyed with. I have shown mercy and let one evil one live, only to have him attack my fortress the very next day. The next time someone attacks one of my fortresses I may not show any mercy. After all, the alligators do need to eat. ------------ Salvation of The Puritron Part I by Pit Bull It was a lonely day in the wastelands. When I awoke, I had no special feeling of greatness - no idea of the glory that would come later in the afternoon. No idea that I would earn my place in the great plaque of the puritron room. I set out to do my usual exploring. First on my list was the pylons. I had already mapped out two of the locations and I was going to find the rest. These pylons are of a powerful nature. Able to teleport matter all around the wasteland. I wondered where the codes I would try today would lead me. The first one took me out into Zone four somewhere. Not a very pleasant place. I was nearly killed by a Black Widow before I was able to escape back into the pylon and get back to Zone two. The next one took me into some computer. The feeling of disorientation was incredible. I think that I was actually inside of the computer itself. The information and insight I gained was incredible. Knowledge that would help the fight for peace and the salvation of the wasteland was in my grasp. I had also completed one of the special quests. This day was shaping up tp be pretty good. Then I tried another pylon code. This one brought me to a strange room. The walls were made of a metal that I had never seen before - something from beyond this world. I walked ahead. A lone humanoid stood before me. I yelled "I am Pit Bull ... Of Sacre Base ... I come in search of the lost Puritron Parts". The response I received was not very pleasant. "I am Xeboc the almighty... Xeboc the all powerful... I will destroy you!". I raised my weapons in preparation for a fight. I sighted him in with my Comp Blaster. A stream of electric death shot forward from my weapon... and right into the wall next to Xeboc. Damn! I had missed. We clashed into hand to hand combat. I hit and he hit. Then I missed. He missed. I hit and I hit again. Finally he fell. I had succeeded! Or at least I thought. I was tricked. The image before me vanished. I was fighting a hologram. Xebocs voice came across the speaker, mocking me. I would have to search elsewhere for this villain. I prepared to leave. But something caught my eye - it was one of the puritron parts. I reached for it. I ran all the way back to Sacre Base with my treasure. Defs Sacre and Troy Hadley were waiting for me. They eagerly installed the part into the puritron room. "Well, Pit Bull, you only have four more left to find" Defs Sacre grinned. And then I rested, knowing that I had accomplished something great that day.... and preparing for what would lie ahead. I was sure I would have to face Xeboc again. And it would not be a pleasant experience. ------------ People I Wish to Thank Scott M. Baker In this section, I'm going to start listing a little about the people who help me support LOD, who submit information that isn't presented here. Anthony Malone: Anthony wrote up the nice history text file that is used in the HISTORY ROM / special quest in LOD. His story fit nicely into the game and is much appreciated. Joseph Johnson: Joseph submitted me a very extensive listing of combat strings for use in LOD. His board [place bbs name here] at 212-893-2318 [Note: This is a correction from the original LODNEWS2 where the incorrect area code was specified], is running a highly customized copy of LOD. I haven't seen it myself, but I hear it's quite a thing to see. Jonas Saunders: The infamous Xenon in my LOD game here on the bbs. He's as skilled a bug-finder and playtested as he is a LOD warrior! Jonas also happens to be the very first winner of a LOD game! ------------ Letters to the Editor Well, every newsletter/magazine has a letters to the editor section, right? So here is ours! I've posted a few messages out of my comments area on the bbs and a few of the national echos to get things started, but in the future, anyone who wants to, just mark that you would like your letter to appear here and I'll post it up! Scott, Let me start off by saying that I don't usually post messages, or write letters. Today I Installed LOD321 (from Wildcats(MSI) BBS). I have never been a fan of Role playing games at all. But, somehow your is different, you dont get sucked into it (although i played for 12 hours, thats besides the point), anyway I am thoroughly impressed, I have never seen such graphics/details (Pixels and or ansi) in a door game, not to mention the plot of the game. At any rate keep you the EXCELLENT work. You can rest-assured that come pay day you will get whatever it takes (I believe $20 or so) to get the game registered. Craig Salmond SYSOP of Craig's DATA Exchange (904) 483-2498 14.4k FREE! PS, You need to hold a conference on how you got you modem to answer flawlessly at 14.4k with a non-usr modem. Most people I connect to I get a measly 9600, but not on your BBS. keep on BBSing -=- Thanks for the kind words, Craig. I try my best to keep LOD at the leading edge of technology and from the comments I get, I see that I am being successful! As for the modem, I don't know of anything particular that I've done, but I'm glad it works! Scott Baker -=====- Hey Scott, I really like LOD, and am grateful that you got my registration up so quickly... I run a bbs here, and want to get Galactic Warzone for it as well. Also I want to be a Registered user on your BBS, so if ya could validate me, I would Appreciate it. And thanks for the great game... Wish I was able to Write games myself... Thanks.... Wayne Gay -=- I'm glad to hear you like LOD, Wayne. With my current registration system, I usually get registrations up on the bbs either the same day they arrive or shortly later. As for Galwars, I have sold the rights to Jim Kiersey who will be continuing support for it. Expect a new release from him very soon! Scott Baker -=====- [From Joel Boutros to Jeff Hanson in Area Ooii. Subject: L.O.D.] JH -=>writing a door yourself. Ah, but is it the next best thing to copying a door? Or Copying 5 or 6 doors? Let's see...OOII, TW1000, Never got SZModem working and when I mailed the wanna-be he never replied, MechWars never worked right... Gee, Jeff, you seem to be a brown-noser to this guy...What else did he make that wasn't worth 30 seconds to download? Oh, tell the little bag of toejam that I _still_ can't get SZ working after 1 year and a half. --- GEcho/beta * Origin: Cosmix Station (913) 422-7345 (1:280/2) -=- Joel, I'm sad to see that you feel this way about me and my software. Such negative comments are the mark of an immature mind and an eyesore to the entire bbs community. Let's start at the top. LOD is not a copy of OOII. Galactic Warzone was written with Al Davenport's (author of TW1000) support and encouragement. I'm sorry you couldn't get SZModem to work - you might wish to try the latest version which has new Async routines. I don't recall ever receiving a letter from you. MechWars is written by Shane Chambers, not myself, and it seems to work fine on my system and many more across the country. In addition to LOD, GW, and SZMODEM, I have written NEWGAL (GWII), Door Driver, CMENU, CDRDoor, Locread, and the initial Echodor mail reader. (All of which have an established registered user base) Jeff Hanson is a friend that I had mind the system for a week while I was gone. And I must admit, he did a good job here, possibly even better than when I'm operating the bbs myself. You seem to be quite full of criticism. Tell me, where is some of the software that YOU have written that I may download and evaluate? I'll be sure to send my comments your way. Scott Baker ------------ You can download copies of this newsletter, upload submissions, or whatever from the following bulletin board system: The Not-Yet-Named bbs Node #1: (602) 577-3650 (v.32) FIDO: 1:300/9 Node #2: (602) 577-3419 (USR Dual) FIDO: 1:300/29 @@LODNEWS3 Land Of Devastation News Volume 1 Number 3 Editor: Scott M. Baker Contents 1) Welcome to our third issue!........Scott Baker 2) The Player Who Has Everything......Steve Lamb 3) Foxx's Hunters, Law of the.........Steve Lamb 4) Nuke Mania.........................Pit Bull 5) Lod Story..........................}{ighlander 6) Lod Suggestions....................}{ighlander 7) Delayware..........................Scott Baker 8) People I wish to thank.............Scott Baker Welcome to our third issue! By Scott M. Baker The time has come for the third issue of LODNEWS. This issue isn't as large as I had hoped for, but I decided to rush it out with LOD 3.40 because I had a few users submissions that I wanted to take care of. I wish to thank those who sent me in submissions - your work has helped to make LODNEWS a success! Scott Baker ---------- Subject: For the player who has everything A.K.A "The SysOp" OK, so, you're a SysOp of a BBS running LoD and you play that game. However, you find that you dominate the game because you are the SysOp or the other players think you dominate because you are SysOp. Here's a suggestion on what to do and still play: Play "Guardian." You know, they support guy who never does the heroic deeds himself, but helps the hero (in this case, the players), indirectly? Like the kindly old man in the swords and sorcery genre of movies who tells the hero to complete a quest which he, the old man, cannot accompany, BUT can give you this to "help you finish your quest." In other words, since you are SysOp and can dominate that if you so choose, dominate the game! But don't play to win, play to help YOUR callers complete the quest for the Puritron. However, in no way do I mean whip out the player editor and give yourself god-like powers! On my BBS, where a game of LoD just started, I play LoD quite a bit, more than the time limits of all my callers (what can I say, I like LoD). I'm currently in the process of setting up fortresses in Zones 1,2 & 3. These fortresses (which I call holds) offer low cost teleportation, low cost medical & power, and weapons at reduced price (but above the resell value). The whole purpose of playing the game locally is to keep these fortresses well stocked and defended. LoD, unlike other "wasteland" doors, is difficult to learn and master. Newbie's to the wasteland scenerio as well as "pros" at the other wasteland scenerios can easily get discouraged. The idea of the "public" fortresses is to give them easy access to the nessecities, but at a price... Not to make a profit, but to let them learn the limits of *THIS* game w/o the discouragement of dying. Unlike other games, if you die in LoD w/o a clone, it is *VERY* difficult to return to combat. Death does take it's toll in LoD. On the other hand... If one of the callers nukes a "public" fortress, the owner/keeper does have the right to extract payment in the form of one life. :) ---------- [Date] : Oct 25th, 2022 [Time] : 00:00:00.00 [Subject]: Foxx's Hunters, Law of the Ever since Defs Sacre, leading the Sacre Hawks, was attacked and lost the puritron device there has been a need for an elite group of warriors to retrieve the five parts of the device. Let it be known that on October 25th of the 2022 year of the old calander makrs the birth of the Foxx's Hunters. Following are the x laws of the Foxx's Hunters. Any who wish to apply must follow these laws completely. 01: All information/weapons/armor/misc items are property of the Foxx's Hunters. At the end of the day the following procedures must be taken: a: All credits must be deposited into FXHold. 01: Major Foxx can and will authorize personal funds to be deposited into the Game Account for the sole purpose of gaining interest for the Foxx's Hunters b: All powerpacks/belts must be discharged into FXHold. c: All medical supplies must be discharged into FXHold. d: All items minus personal computers must be dropped into the FXHold storage facility. e: All Puritron device parts must be dropped into the FXHold storage facility. 02: The sole purpose of the Foxx's Hunters is to retrieve the five lost components of the Puritron device. To this end the following procedures must be followed: a: NO other recruits/fortresses are to be attacked or harmed in any way unless ordered by Major Foxx. 01: Major Foxx will order retalitory attacks as described under section 04. b: NO threats will be made by any member of the Foxx's Hunters towards any other recruit or thier property. c: NO assistance is to be rendered to any other recruit in the form of credits/armor/weapons/information or misc items unless otherwise authorized by Major Foxx. 03: Loyalty to the Foxx's Hunters must be absolute. To this end the following procedures will be followed: a: NO fighting between members of the Foxx's Hunters. b: NO individual, unauthorized strikes. c: NO willful destructiong of Foxx's Hunter property. d: NO disclosing the existence of the Foxx's Hunters to anyone other than fellow Foxx's Hunters recruits. e: NO willful inaction on an offensive strike as ordered by Major Foxx. 04: Offensive action will be taken, as ordered by Major Foxx, under the following offenses: a: Attack on or willful distruction of Foxx's Hunters property. b: Attack on Foxx's Hunters personell. c: Violation of Foxx's Hunters law sections: 01.b, 01.d, 01.e, 02.a, 02.c, 03.d, 03.e. In a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen, you join the Foxx's Hunters and you gain something and you loose something. What you gain is a guarenteed safe place to sleep other than Sacre Base and Freedom City. You gain all knowledge and information that all other members of the Foxx's Hunters have. You gain the weapons and armor collected by the entire group. You gain the added benefit of safety in numbers, in other words, if another Sacre base attacks you, you know that the entire Foxx's Hunters will not rest until they have paid equal to the injustice done to you. What you loose is the personal freedom to do what you want when you want. The freedom to keep personal weapons, to act in an offensive strike on your own, and to gain personal wealth. But it is for the common good. The Earth will be a better place. For it is easier to overcome greater challenges from inside a group. Secrecy of the Foxx's Hunters is paramount. The less the other recuits know, the better off we are. Information is power, and if they do not know that there is a tangable force out there, nor it's name, they are not inclined to attack the "all powerful" group. If anyone wants out, leave the room now. However, you are hereby warned, anyone disclosing this meetings events will face the Foxx's Hunters. And a dead recruit cannot identify it's killer... ------------ Nuke Mania Pit Bull I knew he would be back. I had fought him once before and defeated him. And when I let him live without punishment, he had double crossed me by attempting to take over my fortress. When I found his chewed up body floating in my moat surrounding my fortress the next morning, I assumed I had heard the last of the infamous Nuke Man. I carried his body back to sacre base with burial. But, to my surprise, the sacre base medics managed to bring life back to his body. And nuke man lived again. I didn't say much. I figured after his failure, he would leave me alone. Not to mention that he was not in the best of health to be fighting. I don't know how he managed to do it, but Nuke Man managed to befriend one of the larger player named Sneezoid. Sneezoid, who had accumulated quite a bit of wealth from scavenging the wasteland, gave Nuke Man a pulse bazooka and a neutron sabre. Of course, the first thing nuke man did was head for my base. It took him ten attacks, but he wasted the defenses and ravaged my supplies. When he was finished, he self destructed my fortress. I should have know he would do it. Lucky for me, I had built a second fortress across some mountains to the east. And nuke man didn't know about it. Thank God, I had relocated there when he destroyed the first fortress. At least I was safe in my second "backup". I hailed Sneezoid, I explained my plight. Sneezoid realized that he had bestowed his money into the hands of a dishonerable worrier. And he realized that he should compensate me for my trouble with Nuke Man. So he gave me a whopping ONE MILLION dollars. I equipped my second fortress with enough firepower to defend against Nuke Man. Then I challenged Nuke Man to come after me again. And of course, he took me up on the offer. That night Nuke Man returned to my fortress. Not realizing the strength of my defenses, he attacked. All that remained of Nuke Man was a charred corpse on the ground outside my fort. The body was so badly burned and decimated that I knew he could not be revived. I took his weapons and armed myself with them. Now, nobody would fool with me! Then next day I would set forth to seek out another puritron piece to save the land. When I was leaving though, something happened that nearly gave me a heart attack. I noticed a discarded receipt laying in the vicinity of nuke mans remains. It said "Clone Center, Inc."! ------------ Lod Story }{ighlander aka Cory Doss The sun was beating overhead hotter than usual, but there was no way it could ever heat me from my cold sweat. I had finally seen the phaser cache, and I knew that I had to make an attempt to get into it. Only a seemingly endless trip across wasteland and radiation hell was stopping me from getting to it, and the Black Widow's of the area weren't to thrilled about me being there either. I was no match for the local monsters, so what was I thinking when I headed for the obviously guarded cache? As I neared, I noticed signs of life which made me twitch with a nervous energy. I finally reached the cache, and examined it closer. I made my way inside, and when I did I found myself standing face to face with the star of pre-holocaust video entertainment, Captain James Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. Seeing his reassuring face relieved me, but the relief was short lived when the, obviously delirious, captain started babbling about how I was going to steal his phasers! I was shocked as he readied himself for combat. I had a split-second to decide which long-range weapon I would use, the sure fire grenade, or my newly aqcuired Pulse Rifle. I found myself answering my own question as I fired my rifle in his direction, it was the first time I had fired that weapon, and the results startled me. He was knocked back at least ten feet, and was stunned momentarily. His pitiful shot was no match for my Energy Vest, and we locked together in a fierce battle and hand-to-hand. He wore me down, as my fire sabre was having difficulty piercing his armor, but finally I broke through his armor, bringing us both down to exhaustion. I knew that whoever took the next fall would be the victim of the wasteland, but used that thought to power me for my last and most powerful swing. I thought my life was over until I heard his assuring cry, letting me know that victory was mine. After that, everything is a blur. All I know now is that I somehow brought a piece of the puritron device back, and I am a local hero. This all just goes to show that in a world like this, heroes aren't born, they just get really lucky for their entire lives. ------------ LOD Suggestions }{ighlander aka Cory Doss Ideas for enemy types.... A new military group calling themselves the Warheads have sprung up in the southwest central desert region. Apparantly an arms dealer back in 2003 had been stockpiling his arms here, and passed on without letting anyone know about them. Now a group of radicals have came across the weapons, and are using the shelter as their home base. They are led by a deranged military leader, who was a pre-war general in the U.S. Army. They are also after the puritron device parts, but for alternate reasons. They want the pieces because they also are needed for a specific biological warhead the group is working on building. They feel that if it is created, the remaining humanoids would submit to them out of fear. The types of soldiers in the army and there leader are below.......... Warhead Soldier... Str: 24 Dex: 24 Agl: 24 Health: 34 Short Range Weapon: RazorLance Long Range Weapon: M-16 * New Weapon * (Powerful Uzi,Weak Phas) Armor: Kevlar Equipment: Ammo For Gun, Rations (5). Level:2 Exp:1000-1250 Money:1100-1500 Warhead Lieutenant... Str: 36 Dex: 36 Agl: 36 Health: 52 Short Range Weapon: ElectroSword Long Range Weapon: Phaser-3 Armor: PlasmaVest Equipment: PowerBelt, Rations (5), Communicator. Level:3 Exp:5000-7500 Money:3500-6000 Warhead Colonel... Str: 50 Dex: 50 Agl: 50 Health: 75 Short Range Weapon: GravSword Long Range Weapon: GravBlaster Armor: EnergyVest Equipment: GravPack, Medkit/50, Grenades(25), AccuraGoggles* Level:4 Exp:10000-12500 Money:8000-12500 The Leader... Str: ?? Dex: ?? Agl: ?? Health: ?? Short Range Weapon: Nuetron Sabre Long Range Weapon: Pulse Rifle Armor: Energy Vest Equipment: ?? Level:5? Exp:??? Money:??? New Items..... M-16, this would be a little more powerful than the Uzi, little less powerful than Phaser-1. AccuraGoggles, these help the chance of hitting with a long range weapon by 5,10, or 15 percent depending on class 1,2,3. I hope you have enjoyed my submissions and there should be more to come...... ------------ Delayware Scott M. Baker Well, from the responses I got from the last newsletter, I have made a decision. LOD now has a seven second delay on loading and exiting of unregistered copies. I chose the delay of seven second because it is short enough not to turn off the users and sysops out there and it is long enough to make the unregistered message stick in their minds. I've seen doors with rediculous 30 second delays and such which sysops have outright refused to run. I didn't want LOD to become one of those! The delay was necessary for several reasons. The most obvious being that I could use a few extra $$ in registrations. LOD is a project that takes a lot of time to maintain and I need to take some money in from it to cover it's expenses and my time. Another reason was that registered sysops wanted something above and beyond the other unregistered copies out there. They wanted users to notice that they had sent in money to support the game. I hope this takes care of that. ------------ People I Wish to Thank Scott M. Baker Doug Merha: Doug sent me a very nice submission of monsters and a nice picture of a cyclops for the game. You should notice several new monsters have appeared in the outer zones.... Robby Eckert: Robby also sent in a plentiful amount of monsters. Although I don't think you players will be thanking him when one of his creations leads to your demise!