TMW turns 20 on April 11th!

[Ledmitz]

April 11th is fast approaching and we plan to hold an event the weekend right after the 11th of April (12th-14th). We have a few ideas in the works, but nothing is certain... not even a date and time... yet. We'll announce a date/time later in the week. At that time, we will know what's happening for sure. All I can say is that it's a big birthday, so expect fun and a few things that are out of the norm. Due to us not having had a St. Patrick's day celebration this year, we may get a special guest, depending on how the wind blows and what end of the rainbow we end up on. You never know if there'll be a pot of gold or just a nasty surprise. In fact, we may spread this out a bit over the weekend so be sure to check back for details. Hope to see you all there!

Sorry for the change in URL. I deleted the last post I made by mistake.

[Ledmitz]

We just have a few more things to add before a restart to prepare for the weekend. As I write this, I see x2 exp is currently on and other happenings will certainly occur before the weekend, but that's when the big celebration happens. New mobs, new items and hopefully a bit of a make-up for missing St. Paddy's day this year. You may not find a rainbow, but you'll see some rainbow effects as well as others. I hear a certain leprechaun was not happy about us missing St. Patrick's, so be on the lookout for him after our restart.... when we finally do.

[Reid]

Happy Birthday TMW!
20 years ago a bunch of people started what would become a hit game and we can't thank them enough for that!
There are not so many MMO that can brag to be alive 20years later, but we are one of them and we will do everything we can to keep it alive another 20years!

[Hello=)]

Happy Birthday TMW! And thanks to all admins, devs, GMs, players and everyone else who made it possible. MMO? Alive for 20 years? Its huge feat even for commercial proprietary products with paid team. For bunch of opensource volunteers its just wonder.

And a little update... we ARE up for some events. Just hit few annoying roadblocks on the way. However, most "immediate" problems I'm aware of that were preventing some fun were sorted out.

So... a little lore time. It looks like calm, quiet world. Or maybe its an illusion? In the quiet and dark, evil has awaken again...

Some sailors say stories about scary ship in distance. They weren't eager to find out who these uninvited guests could be. Possibly there're some pirates?!

On different part of world Reaper managed to accumulate enough powers to cross dimensions, coming back from world of dead. It took a lot - so Reaper is weak, confused, and unable to use most powers and wits. Confused, it stumbled on team of heroes which ovewhelmed Reaper in no time, and one who made Reaper to flee is known us as HoraK in this part of world. Reaper departed in shame, but over time it would recover, regain its strength and remember its wits and come back again. Stronger than ever.

Some gossips even mention something about fabled "Xakelbael". Gossips suggest he possibly managed to somewhat recover from glaring defeat players gave him eons ago - and could possibly seek for rematch. Could it possibly be true? Or its just stupid rumors?

And strangest of all? Someone said something about leprechauns. Have you ever seen one in TMW?! Or its just some fairy tale?

Some hint: if you see something unusual, and it apparently hostile, its not advised to engage alone. Bring friends and come together. Some beings are too powerful for single mortal. Also, stay sharp. Some unexpected events could happen - and if you don't dodge some surprises, it could bring regrettable consequences.

[Ledmitz]

Yes.... we sure had some setbacks getting things.... well we'll have to call it done. Some have been asking about when things will happen. There has been a very long running x2 exp until we were able to restart. There is no set date, but you are best to run into battles when they are announced. I must apologize if mobs are too tough, but it was that or nothing so make sure to fight your hardest. I also did say most would happen on the weekend and currently... my time is 2pm Saturday, so... stay logged in and fight to keep the Mana World free from these awful scourges.
20 years! Wooooooooo Hoooooo!

[Ledmitz]

Update: So far the Reaper has been on the loose many times over. The battles were long and glorious! His newly shown powers incite respect or just pure fear, and yet players managed to subdue that demon back into the domain he belonged a few times over.

After and during this undead, apocalyptic skirmish, another entity made himself known. He was Rick Lime, a leprechaun, and came to The Mana World to seek justice for TMW having missed our annual limerick competition this year for St. Patrick's day. With wild eyes and colorful attacks ... and even a few clover patches in his trail, he brought fury upon the western part of Argaes, near the wedding officiator. Players made short work of the rainbow loving leprechaun until his ability to clone himself made itself known. The Reaper again arrived and took vengeance upon any in his path, even including Rick Lime.

Meanwhile, 7 Rainerangs were apparently dropped to looting mobs all over the world. If rumors are true, then at least 5 of them were found at the time of this writing and Rick Lime seemed pleased and appeased with some of the spirit players shown when they embraced making limericks on the spot, sharing Irish whiskey and half in the bag himself, he announced that players whom partook in the action shall receive a choice of a prize, being any one of the following; Clover Top Hat, Leprechaun Hat, Leprechaun Head or the Rainerang, a low powered, one handed, ranged, muilti-colored boomerang that always reappears back to the caster. It was also stated that of those hats, any that have no luck bonus shall receive +1. Given his prankful nature, it's unlikely that the last of him has been seen yet.

But... what appears even more troubling is that a ship has been seen on the horizon from different places and its movement have been somewhat abstract. given that ships have raided The Mana World before, this has not gone unnoticed. Could it be Blanc again or is there more out there in the world that we all ought to fear. Login and be ready for action, since it seems there is no knowing when these atrocities may take place.

[Ledmitz]

Thank you to everyone who showed up and participated. I will recap this tomorrow, but prizes going to participants are one of the following; Clover Top Hat, Leprechaun Hat, Leprechaun Head or Rainerang. The Kill the GM winners are yet to receive their prizes also. Tomorrow I will make a list here of all the eligible that I knew of and strike out the ones that received their prize. I'll be on the lookout for those I haven't seen since and message me if you were at a battle. Thanks again!

[Hello=)]

Little follow up/lore:

Some leprechauns shown in game and even had little dust-up with Reaper. Players proven to be strong, showing naysayers its alive community that can gather and have fun together. So players managed to keep both at bay, not even nasty powers helped Reaper much, it faced glaring beatdown and had to hid in shadows to regain strength for next battles, while heroes celebrated glorious victory.

Xakelbael either got distracted or maybe didnt appreciated Reaper's fate. So he merely sent couple of weak projections in form of ZaxDeKagen instead of coming in person. Of course players got rid of them as well and were in their right to celebrate glorious victory and enjoy by rewards.

Next day, however, pirates landed near Tulimshar, wrecking chaos and death everywhere. Players were fast to come to defend city, getting rid of them. Yet it seems they were actually coming from TMW's past, where their fleet still been alive and well and Blanc's team is numerous. Players dispatched Blan'c team - and even managed to sink his fleet. It seems no Blanc's body ever been found so maybe sneaky pirate managed to flee this chaos. But he would need new fleet any day, what a shame for famous pirate.

Noise, death and blood attracted Reaper once again, so it came for fresh souls and bodies, even taking on few pirates in process. Unfortunately enraged players were on strike and gave Reaper another fight. Reaper unleashed all its powers, but its been of little use. Players were unbeatable. At some point abomination got idea there's no chance and unleashed its revenge! Reaper cast really terrible spell, opening portal to abyss and taking everyone around to the abyss!! Its been really terrible day for many. Interdimensional travel proven to be very rough experience. Unfortunately for Reaper it wasn't very sound plan - more like act of desperation. Badly burned and damaged by rough travel, Reaper faced defeat by heroes who refused to die even in abyss! Fortunately, ancients foreseen this to come - and left portal connecting abyss to normal dimension, so heroes were able to leave scary place. It is not really possible to kill what's already dead, but Reaper would surely need time to recover from such a rough experience to pose significant threat again.

The names of heroes who gave Reaper beatdown dealing final blow were: butters, ginosuper, HoraK (x4 total - really epic warrior!), kururu and cuoco. Since abomination been technically manned by GM, it dubs as rather unusual - but valid case of "kill GM" and heroes are eligible for their Murderer Crown reward (I believe I handed rewards to all heroes at this point).

Overall I got impression its been fun and unusual event, where about 3 different spin-offs blended together into chaos and fun. And technology created and tested for this kind of thing (bunch of boss "special actions", based on TMWA spells) could ideally allow more events featuring "hybrid" (human-controlled) bosses that are not exactly eager to die, want retribution, do unusual actions and determined to achieve objectives. Something TMW badly lacked. This particular idea took inspiration from Freeyorp's dev-controlled Xakelbael. I got curious how far I can get implementing something similar in spirit.

p.s. has anyone got screen/video of Reaper pulling ppl to abyss? Sorry I've been a bit too busy to make one - bunch of skilled, motivated monster exterminators on your tail isnt exactly easy lot

[Ledmitz]

Here is the list of recipients. Those that have already received are struck out (some names are changed to their main):

Wellvin, ginosuper, -LuH-, Dryt, The Yellow King, Kururu, hchy-Harry, butters, GnuLinux, Archangel Michael, Rill, HoraK, Hello=), ThinkSome, Raffe, seppejam, cuoco, Purple, Livio, mifritscher, Snover, Haldrik, Okurwieniec, Dromdan, Peston Aperta, Satangoss, Nanoman, Warp Mage, PiNG0, Jeemoh, Alexdyne, RazorWill, Nanoq, Cataleya and Bo(Missing tildes. IDK how to escape them).

Special prize for scoring the last hit on Rick Lime in PVP: Kururu (TMW Birthday Gift).

Any TMWT members not already mentioned are also eligible for a participation prize. You work on the game and it's all I have to offer.
If you partook and were not mentioned and of course can round up a few witnesses or you have more than one character listed here, please let me know in game or here. My alts are, mostly, all listed in my signature. I'm often on as Tipsy Skeleton.

[Ledmitz]

AND... to recap the event in conclusion, the ship seen was in fact one of Blanc's, but then disappeared on the horizon only to travel back to the past in order to land safely and undetected on Tonori's west coast. They infiltrated our current time via the time traveler and flooded the desert and the southern entrance to Tulimshar.
Citizens valiantly defended the onslaught and slowly pushed back the offenders until their ships became the final targets. All that was left was straggling pirates which became easy pickings for the defenders.
Once the desert, both past and present, were again secure, many mirrors/clones of Rick Lime appeared but this seemed almost playful, yet in a mischievous manner. The Reaper once again showed up and mahem again, ensued. There were many clones of our new leprechaun acquaintance scattered around and even Blanc and his minions made one last surprise ambush in Candor's cave.

It seems The Mana World is again safe......
For now.