News/2009

2009

May

• May 30th - Quizzing Graal Kingdoms

On Saturday, May 30th, Drakeero will be hosting a special quiz for Graal Kingdoms. This is a pattern guessing quiz and everyone gets a chance to win. If you're good, you can even win more then once. The patterns will start off easy and then get more difficult as the day progresses. At the end there will be a grand prize for whoever can guess the hardest pattern of them all.

• May 27st - Picture Perfect on Graal Kingdoms

Over the weekend players were busy posing for the picture perfect moment! The event consisted of several teams of players taking pictures of every day activities on Graal Kingdoms. The team with the best picture won some diamonds and other prizes.

Make sure you're on this weekend to be a part of the action!

• May 24th - Black and White Graals

Classic is pleased to announce the release of the Black and White Graals. Long thought to just be a folk legend passed down from player to player, these mysterious artefacts are steeped in magical power. The Black Graal grants its owner an unlimited supply of ammo; the white Graal blesses it's owner with the ability to heal any wounds, bypassing any healing restrictions. Be warned though that there is only one of each Graal available; if you want them, you'll have to hunt down and kill the existing owners.

Happy hunting.

• May 21st - Mr Guess Visits Graal Kingdoms

A mystical wizard named Mr Guess is visiting Graal Kingdoms for a few days to play his favourite game. He can be found on the main islands including the start and Hotaru islands waiting for brave adventurers to track him down. Once found Mr Guess will give you 3 chances to guess his number between 1 and 200 before he inconveniently teleports to a new location. Those lucky enough to guess successfully will receive a reward and be entered into a special event for the chance to win a rare item after Mr Guess has departed from Graal Kingdoms.

Good Luck!

• May 17th - Recent Updates on Maloria

Recent Updates:

• Main Island has gotten a huge facelift, and it's not long until the entire island will have gotten a whole new look while sticking to the original layout of it.
• A lot of graphics have been improved, and there's more to come of it!
• Rain, Snow and Thunder effects have all been fixed up and had their lag issues fixed. (apparently it's not a good idea to constantly stack emitter modifiers!)
• Wind has existed in the background a long time, but it has now gotten a visual effect to increase the effect of weather.
• Weather in general has had a revamp to behave more realisticly.
• Torches and leaves are affected by wind. Torches are also affected by rain.
• Player data storage have been converted from .arc files to SQLite database.
• Skill system has been completed, players can now properly add skill points upon level up.
• Boats are finished, you can currently rent them south of main house. Two players can use the same boat at once.
• Respawn system have been added, you now spawn at the nearest respawn point instead of spawning at the main house.
• Crafting have been somewhat completed, yet to be implemented though.

We would be able to produce a lot more gameplay content, but we're in desperate need of someone capable of creating quality ganis, as we currently have no one on the team who feel capable of doing them.

We could also very much use another level creater, but it's not as vital for our progress.

• May 16th - Graal Kingdoms Event

On Sunday around 2:00 EST a big sparring event called the Triple Bash will be held.

The triple bash tournament has been popular in the past and challenges the combatants to exceed in the three areas of melee, magic, and ranged.

This event is obviously more fun with alot of people so make sure you at least come by to check it out.

If enough people show up, it will be a tournament with ladder like progression and mini-prizes for each round you advance through until the prizes for each event.

• May 12th - Graal Ghetto Returns

The modern themed server known as Graal Ghetto is making a gracious return, bringing back its old popular elements and a few new ones too! With its businesses, player houses, gang warfare, and huge selection of guns and melee weapons, there is a lot of engaging content for you to explore. Being a private server however it is still heavily under development, but there's already a budding community so come by and check it out for yourself!

If you're interested in helping develop the server, contact Shadow the Manager or any of the administrators for further information.

• May 10th - Zone Updates

In addition to new hairs and bodies added to the outfit terminals, new events team commands were added which allow for new types of events.

An example of one of the new types of events is when the first person to achieve 25 kills on Iricia wins a prize. Bigtime008 was the winner of the first of many of these events.

On top of all of that, a new part of the news system was created and added today! The news system now displays who has gotten the most kills within the last hour.

• May 5th - Something Fishy At Seaport

This Saturday (May 9th), @ 6:30 PM (EST), Unholy Nation will be releasing the first of Seaport's brand new content. Stop by to pick up your fishing rod to try your angling luck at the brand new job system. Also, check out the Aquarium while you're in town! All will be located in Seaport, and information will be given on the NPC-Server message.

Be sure to get your fish donated to the Aquarium if you like it enough! Leave your mark on the server!

• May 5th - Zone News System Updates

A new feature to the Zone news system was added this week. The new feature lists upcoming events and the new system will be updated each week with the new events.

As can be seen in the screenshot, there is a snowrace event occuring on Zone. The event started on April 30th and will continue, as of May 5th, for the next 16 days. The snowrace events that are used for this event are the ones hosted by Jkool666 only. The prizes available will be the winner's choice of redpistole and additional prizes, bluepistole and additional prizes, or pipebombs and money.

• May 3rd - Kingdoms: Challenge of the Lights

To celebrate the start of May and its burst of spring color, the symbolic Challenge of the Lights was introduced.

Amidst brightly colored flames, teams assembled to carry a pair of lit torches through waves of monsters.

Each team consisted of two torch bearers and two bodyguards. One torch was blue, and one torch was red. As the teams fought their way through the monsters and completed [or failed] one by one the server became lit blue and red.

At the very end, came the epic victory of two torch-holders who struck down a wave of demons and cyclopes even after their body guards had fallen.

April

• April 29th - Era Battle of the Bands

Log on Era now and see "Chedda Cheez", the Comic Club rock star, to sign your Era band up for Battle of the Bands, which will take place on Sunday, May 3rd at approximately 3 PM EST. For more information [Click here].

• April 28th - Zone Updates

Zone has released many new hair styles, as well as new bodies. Each day one or two new styles will be released, including new clothing, hairs and faces. You can expect plenty more from Zone in the next few weeks! Keep playing Graal Zone!

• April 20th - N-Pulse Website

N-Pulse has released a Website and Forums ! These forums are constantly being improved so be sure to register and keep up to date.

News and released information regarding N-Pulse Rebirth will be posted here, along with Development and non-development staff positions. If you'd like to apply, you must first register!

http://www.npulse-rebirth.com

-N-Pulse Staff Team

• April 19th - Graal Kingdoms Final Easter Attack!

On Saturday and Sunday Graal Kingdoms was attacked by Sack Rabbits! They dropped an assortment of candies and other immaculate confections with which you could trade in for a grand prize. Events administrators will be spawning the sack rabbits around Graal Kingdoms until Wednesday. If you collect and trade ten different colored chocolate rabbits to the events administrators, you will receive a special prize.

• April 15th - Classic Card Game Released

Now you can explore a whole new dimension to the world of Graal Classic, with its latest Trading Card Game release! Having over 100 unique cards to collect, it is a game that requires the use of all of your strategic skills; from engaging in a duel with other players, to creating individual decks of cards collected from Booster Packs.

Players who visit the Card House located to the left of Graal Castle will receive a basic deck, a card album, and a game manual. From then on you've got the tools necessary to fight against other players, and the additional table rooms are provided for you to challenge each other. Be sure to check it out!

For additional information visit [click here.]

• April 12th - Graal Kingdoms Easter!

Today Santa, disguised as the Easter Bunny, visited Graal Kingdoms. He is dropping egg-shaped gifts all around the main map. Some of the gifts he is dropping are very rare gifts that will only be around for a limited time, and also some other smaller surprises. The Easter Dungeon has returned by popular demand, but with a face lift, including new tiles, new light effects and aesthetics, as well as rebalanced monsters.

Come try your luck with the giant Easter eggs or just try to catch the Easter Bunny and get your prize today!

Happy Easter!

• April 11th - Zone Easter 2009

Zone wishes everybody a happy easter with the return of the easter bunnies to Iricia. These can be killed with melee weapons to obtain special eggs with gifts inside, but beware the bunnies will fight back. If you plan on hunting rabbit it's best to fight in groups. The carrot dagger and easter eggs are now available from the zone traders that can be purchased with zone money.

• April 11th - N-Pulse Easter 2009

4pm est - Easter Costume Contest! Create your best outfit that captures the theme and celebration of Easter! In order to win your outfit must be original and be easily recognized as an Easter themed outfit. Three players will win wonderful prizes! 1st Place - Rare Ribbon (choice of any Rare NPC) 2nd Place - Prize Ticket (choice of any ET Prize) 3rd Place - 50 Event Coins

6pm est - Easter Egg Hunt! N-Pulse Management will hide Easter eggs all over the OW and it is your job to find and collect the eggs! Each egg will either contain a certain amount of gralat, event coins, or even an NPC! You don't want to miss out on this exciting event..and who knows..? You might just end up obtaining a rare NPC from one of the eggs! Note: eggs will not be located within inside levels, only outside on the overworld.

8pm est - Easter Event Marathon! Flamerus, the N-Pulse Event Chief, will be hosting a marathon of events. If a player wins three events in a row, they will win either a Rare Ribbon or a Prize Ticket based on the number of players participating in the event marathon. 10 players or less = Prize Ticket 11 players or more = Rare Ribbon

Hope you can join us for Easter fun!

• April 6th - Easter on Classic

Easter is just around the corner, and with that comes the Annual Egg Hunt on Classic! Every five minutes an egg is dropped somewhere on the overworld and your task is to bundle up as many as you can. The person that collects the most eggs will win special prizes, such as a rare Easter card for the up and coming card game, and a shiny Golden Egg Trophy!

The Deadline of this event will be next Monday, April 13 at 12am EST. To view the current progress on the hunt, type /egghunt in game.

Good Luck and happy hunting!

• April 4th - Graal Kingdoms Quarter 2 Updates

Graal Kingdoms Quarter 2 kicked off with a bang on April 1st with a prank on the players, seemingly resetting the server. Several updates have come once a day and updates will continue to be made up until Easter.

One of the most notable updates to Graal Kingdoms is the fact that Observer Mode has been removed. There is a level cap instead now.

Several other improvements have been made to the system and we have prepared Graal Kingdoms for some nice future updates.

To find out more information about Quarter 2 updates, [click here.]

• April 1st - April fools kicked off on Graal Online

Surely you'd think server staff won't play jokes will they?

The best and scariest joke of the day was played on Graal Kingdoms. Characters appeared to be reset with all items, statistics and levels gone. Needless to say the joke shocked most of the Graal Kingdoms players.

Another not so scary but more fun joke was played. Era turned into a classic themed server complete with the classic style sword system enabled for the whole day.

Until next year the jokes are over.

March

• March 29th - Bringing music to the city

Bring music to the city with the introduction of 21 new muscial instruments! The instruments can be purchased with event coins at the new music store.

To celebrate the release of the instruments a concert will be held on Sunday the 29th at 3PM Eastern Time. Take a break from mindless violence and joy-riding. Listen to a variety of different songs played by a selection of skilled musicians.

• March 28th - Maloria, A glimpse through the keyhole

Many may remember Maloria as the dominant classic RPG server before it was closed for redevelopment. Maloria has improved many of its systems and game content for the users to enjoy.

The overworld is being revamped to improve the detail and quality of the levels while keeping the same geographical layout of islands that were all used from the good old days. But that's not all; plans for new islands to be implemented into the expanding overworld is one of many big changes to expect. It's safe to say that you will not be disappointed with the final result.

The shopping interfaces have been improved to be user friendly with clear and simple GUI. The interface has five easy to use tabs to direct you to the inventory for that respected tab. Each weapon, piece of armour and potion displays an informative range of statistics to aid you in buying the perfect item for whatever you need.

The events system is automated to host regular events that are usually hosted by events staff, with a wide range of prizes to be won. It will provide players with a chance to practice for when the dedicated events staff host their frequent events.

The mining system has been improved for a richer experience. Materials can be obtained by using a pick axe to break open rocks and then using the pan in the water in the usual fashion. There is now an additional option to refine these materials using a furnace.

Dungeon bosses such as the giant turtle use deadly melee and magic attacks to deal great damage to foes. The addition of these new monsters will promote group hunting. The idea of bringing down large creatures with your party of fellow adventurers has got to be interesting.

Various different spells have been revisited and freshened up with exciting new graphics and ganis to make the spells look better than ever.

A new quest system has been implemented with a clear list of active quests and descriptions of the quest objectives.

Nation warfare has been developed with the addition of siege equipment to improve player vs player combat with destructible nation castles.

• March 21st - CastleWars on N-Pulse

N-Pulse is currently having a weekly Castle War event. The Castle Wars events are similiar to a guild war, and the goal is to determine the best guild.

The Castle War event will be held weekly on Wednesdays between 7-8 PM EST (12-1AM GMT, and 0:00-1:00 server time). The Castle War events will also be hosted randomly during the week, so guilds be prepared! Prizes are also awarded.

• March 14th - Zone News Window

Zone Staff added the news window to allow for players to keep track of what happens on Zone! The news window opens on login and the news window also opens when clicking on News in the upper right corner of the stat display. Currently the news window logs event messages, race results, deathmatch winners, kills, purchases and medals. You can either watch the important or all messages, it will display the 25 most recent news. Ideas to extend this feature are welcome!

• March 14th - Kart Race Tournament

After 2 hours and 30 minutes, we finally had the winners from the Graal Kingdoms Kart Race Tournament!

Winners:

1) Jcs1919 won the Elven Boots and 5 event coins

2) Alex51 won 3 event coins

3) CriticalError won 1 event coin

Jcs1919 also did the best run with 48.46 seconds!

• March 10th - N-Pulse Rebirth

N-Pulse is continuing in it's development of N-Pulse Rebirth.

What is Rebirth? To be exact, N-Pulse Rebirth is going to be an RPG-themed server, and we actually mean that. You will have to complete tasks in order to advance through the world, instead of just s-key mashing (in other words, hitting your attack-button constantly). It may require thinking, or it may require fighting. You also don't pick a class, but rather you can choose in which areas you'd like to level up in. We have our own staff-team specific for the Rebirth development, called "Operations".

We, the Operations Team, are in need of the following:

• Concept Design - you need to be able to write stories and the concept to the game.
• Graphics Design - you will need to be able to create items, icons, weapons, etc.
• Levels Design - you must be able to work with our custom tiles and know how to work with GMaps, inside and outside levels, and a bit of level-scripting.
• Programming Design - you must be able to create systems, fix bugs in previous scripts, and works with an MUD.
• Special Effects - you must either be able to make Ganis of swords/items/monsters interacting and/or make sounds of things you'd see in an RPG (swords clashing, swinging, etc.)

If you'd like to help with the Rebirth project and join the Operations team, feel free to log on N-Pulse and speak with a Chief of Operations or one of the Operation's Branch Captains.

For more info, please see the official GraalOnline hiring thread.

February

• February 28th - Unholy Nation: CS

Unholy Nation is in the middle of a long-term developmental projects. We're going to be releasing some small term activities for the players to interact with while it's being worked on. Come on and check them out:

• We'll be hosting a level competition that will go hand-in-hand with the "re-stock" of the hat shop. Come around to get details.

• "CS" - CS is an old gun game customized to UN is brought back with new levels, arenas and style of game play. Check it out north of Town Center in the Auction house's old building

• Swear filter is now toggle-able. It was a controversial subject, and if you don't mind seeing the swears you can toggle it on or off accordingly.

• Seaport is the long term dev project that was never finished. We plan on finishing it soon for release, it will incorporate a new quest for you all to play though. We're going to take a different approach, however.

• February 16th - Maloria Valentine Special

We on Maloria will be releasing yet another very limited, and permanent, item in the shape of the Cupid's Bow! Along with it, you'll also receive 500x Cupid's Arrow. How to get it!? Just log on player! This offer is limited to February 22th.

During the next couple of days, the events system should be up and running, which means we'll try it out and possible give out some other misc. novelty items that will never be given out again.

We are also getting closer and closer to applying for a Classic inspection, however, the remaining work isn't some of the funniest things to work at. We're at a complete halt until we're able to find two/three dedicated and talented LAT's, that would be interested in tiling the sewer dungeon with our custom tiles.

So, if you're interested, please get in contact with Nate (bioboi) or Ziro (xXziroXx).

• February 14th - Ardeo is Hiring!

Ardeo is in need of a few staff members to get us towards the next step in development! Do you want to be part of a close-knit team of inspired workers, and do you have an ambition to complete a server?

Ardeo will eventually have a multitude of things to do, including: -Jobs -Sailing & Piracy -Trading with a real economy -Wars & conquerors. -Two different fighting systems -Dungeons And a lot of diverse areas and races to choose from.

So contact Pimmeh over the forums, or email him at [email protected] http://forums.graal2001.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84177

January

• January 29th - Classic Update

Over the last few months work has been made towards subtle updates to improve playability of the server in the long run.

The first main example of this is the new Hit Detection, which is Clientside, as opposed to the Serverside Hit Detection which had been used since after Classic got an NPCserver. The difference is that the previous HD caused players from the opposite side of the Atlantic to where the Server is hosted or from other locations around the world to be at a disadvantage, supposedly being able to be hit from a long distance away, whereas the new HD ensures attackers must be close to you on your own screen in order for you to be hit, to put it simply. There is also the option of being able to spar/pk within special rooms that use the default Graal movement + HD.

The second main example would be the new Map System. This is aimed to help players that are new to Graal or the server to find their way around more easily. If you've ever attempted to quest on the server but have been confused as to where to go next, icons will be marked at locations depending on your quest progress. Locations containing obtainable items of interest are also marked on the Map regardless of progress. Any future releases can be added to this easily.

Our plan has always been to salvage the best content from Graal the Adventure and to build new content around it with the original Graal feel while keeping newbie-friendly, although we realise it is just as important for there to be recyclable content that can be played constantly around the clock. In order to accomplish both of these goals we feel the Dev Team requires a shake-up and so we'd like to invite anyone interested in working for the server to apply with our new application, which can be found at - http://classicgraal.net/applications/development/

Good luck to all of those that apply.

• January 22nd - AEON Comming to an end!

So the long expected wait of AEON's re-release of the modern world is almost here but we are in desperate need of staff to finish. Also Elan is almost complete aswell and once Opan is finished we will then re-apply for the classic tab.

So listed below are the developer positions that are open and needed. Everything is open except for NAT at the moment:

• LATs (Both Classic and Modern LATs[[1]]
• GATs[[2]]
• Gani Team[[3]]
• SFXs, Talk to HL or SwedishKing.

If you have any questions please PM SwedishKing or Hatred/HL on AEON. You can also find us on GraalForums, or on our forum: [4]

• January 10th - Classic's Monthly Spar Tournament

A new year brings a fresh start--the first monthly spar tournament of 2009! Laura (xnervNATx) takes home the champion belt this time around, beating Shiden Kotetzu in the last round. Let's hope his New Year's resolution wasn't to win.

Don't forget to stop by on February 14th for what is bound to be our most romantic monthly spar tournament yet!

• January 10th - Azure Skies underway!

Azure Skies! (Formerly called Silence)

Sailing the skies, pillaging enemies, advancing through the ranks in your crew/flag and taking control over whole islands! Cool, eh?

• We're under way with absolutely everything that needs doing, including bar levels and SFX.
  • Think you can level/sfx? Then hop on to Azure Skies and see if it's the place for you!

• We're also in need of some extra GATs to push along creation of certain aspects, such as swords and boats (both large and small).
  • If you feel up to the challenge, by all means come give us a look.

• Even if you don't have any development skills, come along and see the server thrive. We're adding new things for players to do while you wait for the grand opening, so why not hop on board (Geddit?) and check us out for yourself!

-Jamie (Co Manager)

• January 6th - New Year for Unholy Nation

• Unholy Nation is currently under going a lot of changes. Our new manager Streety is offering a more interactive experience for Graalians. A lot of our staff members have been hard at work, creating some hot new features to make your gameplay more fashionable.

• Ronnie, our Guild Admin, has put together a spectacular local guild engine to make your guild gameplay experience convenient and fun. By joining local guilds, you'll get the benefit of using a chat-system to communicate leisurely with your guild mates. It's got a pretty user-friendly interface and is definitely worth a passing glance.

• Unholy Nation now offers server-wide PKing. Anything goes when the PKing on the overworld.

• Unholy Radio is under a new radio server, with a new Head DJ (Thanks Wreckage!). Time slots and hirings for DJs are still underway, if you're interested. Head over to the server, and keep your eyes peeled.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM our friendly staff. They'd be more than delighted to help you. U.N.