What Was New In 2013

12/11/2013 v837
Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into, the mind. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

• No reportable news to report.
• We are considering dropping support for Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” in the Mac client, because it’s getting ever harder to maintain the elderly development systems required to build that version. Also on the horizon — though not yet imminent — is the day when we have to stop building for PowerPC-based machines. We have no set schedule for these changes: our in-house mystics are not so good at that kind of detailed prognostication. But we did want to provide fair warning.

11/20/2013 v834
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC–43 BC)

• We’re gratified to report that there’s always more to discover.

10/30/2013 v831
Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain. — Jack Kerouac (1922–1969)

• I’m not allowed to say what’s new in the world this update. Loose lips sink ships, or make mountains out of molehills, or something.

10/9/2013 v828
An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. — Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

• Nothing notably new in the world this update.
• ... however, reliable sources tell me that behind-the-scenes work is continuing on several projects. Courage!
• Since v825, we’ve been gradually adding a bunch of really old cases to the Puddleby Court archives. Alas, the pesky backup gerbils haven’t coughed up the official transcripts from PY’540–573 yet. (Is it true that they were trained by Storoenna?)
• The prospect of rodentiary nonfeasance — aka “Gerbil Gridlock” — couldn’t deter us from adding a crude and preliminary Election Results Tracker, as a complement to the Court archive.

9/18/2013 v825
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. — William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

• Work continues on several projects.
• The Puddleby Court archives have a new, official home. There you will find complete transcripts going back to Year 574, although records from earlier years are currently patchy at best. We’ll be adding more historical cases as they turn up.

8/28/2013 v822
I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results. — Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833–1896)

• All changes this version are secret.

8/6/2013 v819 — The “We Bet You Didn’t See That One Coming” Update
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?
— Five Man Electric Band, “Signs” (1970)

• Watch your back!

7/17/2013 v816
False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine but leaving us when we cross into the shade. — Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904)

• No notably visible (or visibly notable?) changes this update.

6/26/2013 v813
People’s hearts are like wild animals. They attach their selves to those that love and train them. — Ali ibn Abi Talib (600–661)

• No notable changes this time.

6/5/2013 v810
I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. — Mark Twain (1835–1910)

• No notable changes to report.

5/15/2013 v807
Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost. — James Thurber (1894–1961)

• A couple of touch-ups to a couple of areas.
• The splash screen has a lot of SPLASH! (But possibly a paucity of puddles.) Thanks to everyone for participating in a fun event.
• A regrettable bug in the Mac client’s movie code, dating back to v795, has been fixed. It caused player, monster, and NPC nametags to be mangled.
  

  Unfortunately, any movies recorded by the erroneous clients — namely, Mac v795 through v804 — were also affected by this bug, and are (technically) internally corrupt. The v807 and later Mac clients do know how to work around this corruption, and will therefore play back both “broken” and “correct” movies equally well. But if you try to play a “broken” movie on a Windows client, the damage will reveal itself. Sorry about that.

4/24/2013 v804
It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die — “As Time Goes By”, by Herman Hupfeld (1894–1951)

• No notable changes this version.

4/3/2013 v801
Celebrate what you want to see more of. — Thomas J. Peters (b. 1942)

• Well, so much for that record. We crashed twice on March 24th, both times due to the same cause. The repair was deployed via a controlled restart early on the 26th.
• You’ll have to explore to find this Chaos Storm’s changes.

3/13/2013 v798
I assure you that a learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant fool. — Molière (1622–1673)

• You’ll have to explore to find this Chaos Storm’s changes.

2/20/2013 v795
We’re our own dragons as well as our own heros, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves. — Tom Robbins (b. 1936)

• Pets unleashed for healers! Over 50 pets to find, and more coming every update. Note: this feature is still very early in development, and there will likely be many bug fixes and balance tweaks in the future. Remember to /BUG anything you think might be a bug.

1/30/2013 v792
Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things. — George Carlin (1937–2008)

• Chased away the “phantom white line” in the player window.
• Acid Cobras are quieter.

1/11/2013 v789
Delay is preferable to error. — Thomas Jefferson (1762–1826)

• No notable world changes this version.