News/2006

Administration Services — Protection.
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December 25

Unofficial Notes

Helicopters were once again seen dropping crates over the city.

December 18

Game News: As the city's survivors settle in for another winter in the quarantine zone, a number of them have been spotted dragging freshly-cut fir trees through the rubbled streets, and looting long-ignored plastic trees and decorative lights from the hardware stores of ruined shopping malls...

Unofficial Notes

Item 'dead fir tree' can be found in parks if you have an axe. You can only carry one a time. Finding another gives the message "You find a small fir tree, but are already carrying one."
Item 'plastic christmas tree' can be found in Mall hardware stores. You can only carry one at a time, as above.
Item 'christmas lights' can be found in Mall hardware stores in red, green or white colours. (All the different colours can be added to a tree, or just set up on their own.)
A count of christmas trees has been added to the game's stats page.

December 6

Game News: The Urban Dead server will be offline for maintenance, from 5:30am GMT (five and a half hours from the time of this message). It should be back up within half an hour.

December 3

Unofficial Notes

If a target moves away or dies as you attack them, you will be told that they moved away and AP will not be spent. However, if you are infected you will still lose HP.

November 23

Friends and foes on your contacts list are now highlighted in room descriptions and dialogue, and can be colour-coded to any of nine shades. There's also an option to ignore specific users, which will stop you from hearing any speech or radio broadcasts from them.

November 20

For purposes beyond the clearance of anyone currently stationed in Malton, the city's two military bases have been retaken and rebuilt. Transport helicopters from outside the quarantine cordon have helped to repair the breaches in the forts' external walls, and the internal buildings that were locked down or derelict are now back in use.

Unofficial Notes

It is not possible to:
- enter any of the fort buildings from a non-fort building using Free Running.
- enter a non-fort building from a fort building using Free Running.
- enter any fort square whilst outside (and outside the perimeter of the fort), except for the Gatehouse.
- Free Run into the Armoury from any of the fort buildings.
- Free Run out of the Gatehouse.
Once inside a fort building, it is possible to Free Run to other fort buildings (except as noted above).

November 4

Unofficial Notes

When you create a new character, it allows you to check to see if that name is currently available.

November 1

Weather warning Lifted. All fog is cleared and it is safe to travel again.

October 31

Weather warning. Malton has awoken to a thick and freezing fog this morning, reducing visibility to zero across the city. It will have cleared away by the morning - citizens are advised to stay indoors, and to ignore any strange knocking sounds they might hear on their safehouse doors today.
The fog hides a number of minor updates: powered buildings in adjacent blocks are now highlighted, billboards have been scattered through the city, bodies can now only be dumped from buildings one at a time, and a few aesthetic changes have been made.

Unofficial Notes

If you try to use binoculars you get "The fog is too thick for binoculars to be of any use."
Zombies now have the option to thump, and survivors have the option to knock on the doors of a building that is barricaded or has secured doors. This option will not be present after this event is over. This is simply a parody of trick or treating for Halloween.
It costs 10AP to graffiti on a billboard and uses up a whole Spray Can.
The Kitchen Knife has been renamed to Knife in the inventory and Pocket Knife upon finding them. The stats remain unaltered.

September 15

Unofficial Notes

The flavour text for when you hit a generator (but don't destroy it) has changed. It now reads: "You smash at the generator, damaging it."

September 10

Unofficial Notes

Seems Kevan took the liberty of adding this for first time dead survivors.

When you first die with a new character:

You rise unsteadily on stiff limbs, taking a moment to find your balance.

(Your character is now a zombie - although you can no longer use your equipment and will take 2AP to walk from block to block, a new skill tree is now available to you. You can earn experience points by attacking survivors - follow the feeding groans of other zombies to find broken safehouses.

Undeath isn't permanent - NecroTech scientists have the means to revivify zombies into living, breathing survivors again, and many NT groups have set up 'revivification points' throughout the city.)

The option to use a Revivification Syringe, DNA Extractor or weapon on yourself has been removed.

September 7

Unofficial Notes

When you search the street it now says "You search the rubble of the street, but find nothing." As a side note it is now possible to find items like Crowbars on any block of Malton.

August 28

As the temperatures begin to fall, the undead's ability to scent death sharpens, increasing in radius and allowing them to distinguish the dead from the undead. Clearer messages, it appears, from 2 or more blocks away.
The air is now clear enough for binoculars to be used from tall buildings, to scan distant streets for growing hordes or lost survivors. They're available from all good sports equipment stores and military facilities. Allows you to look one of 8 directions in a 3x3 square, however no suvivor names
The older zombies have been observed communicating and coordinating using crude flailing gestures, gesturing other zombies towards particular buildings or survivors.
Knives are now more effective as weapons, particularly in the hands of the city's less experienced inhabitants. Increased knives skill by 10% for all humans, including advanced players.

Unofficial Notes

When you heal a survivor, you now get the addendum "...bringing them to X Hp."

And it looks like there is an error in the code, as I got this: Dubov is already at full health., taking them to 60. (But did not use the FAK up.)

Fixed by Kevan on Aug 31st.

August 15

Unofficial Notes

Any swear words broadcast over the radio now come up as ....*static*... hopefully this will mean the radio chatter in the game will be cleaner.

July 30

Unofficial Notes

A random number has been added to the URL produced when barricading.

July 22

Memo to NecroTech staff: Specimen data has now been declassified for the benefit of street personnel - DNA extractions now permit a full readout of specimen information in the form of a profile link. This real-time access means that scanned specimens can now be revived immediately if necessary, rather than being lost in the crowd.

Unofficial Notes

NecroTech buildings now appear on the map as the building name with [NT] underneath them.
Also, the description of the building now says the name of the building, but notes it is owned by NecroTech.

July 20

The Urban Dead server was experiencing DNS propagation issues overnight, although they should be resolving correctly now. (If you're still having any difficulties, you can access the server directly at http://217.112.87.10/)

July 3

Urban Dead is one year old today. Supply crates have been airdropped into the streets for the survivors - zombies can earn experience points if they reach and smash them first.

June 16

Some of the stronger zombies have been reported to be dragging critically-wounded survivors out of their safehouses and into the streets, either to feed the waiting hordes or to finish their own meal undisturbed. Any survivor with 12HP or less is at risk.
Scent Fear now echoes this by displaying vulnerable survivors as "dying", and the skill has been moved back to the base of the Scent tree.
Ransacked buildings must now be cleared before they can be barricaded.

Unofficial Notes

When a portable generator is found, the message "Searching the building, you find a portable generator. This can be set up in any building to provide lighting and power." is added with it.

June 10

Unofficial Notes

Whenever you shoot or bite at a barricade instead of this notice: You Bite/Shoot at the barricade this notice comes up instead: You Bite/Shoot at the barricade to no effect

June 6

As temperatures rise across the city, the undead begin to detect and follow the rotting scent of distant zombie hordes and piled bodies. (The 'Scent' tree has been rearranged to accomodate this new skill.)
Broadcasting from a transmitter in an occupied building will now be noticed by any other people in that building.

Unofficial Notes

Zombies keep previously obtained scent skills. Scent skills that were not yet purchased but available for purchase before this change are now unavailable until the new root scent skill is obtained.

June 3

Perhaps to prevent interference with their own communications, the military have altered their radio jamming in such a way that only experienced radio operators can broadcast in the 26.00-28.00 MHz band. The 28.01-29.00 MHz range has been opened up for free public use.

Unofficial Notes

When you sign up for the game, you now start inside a building.

June 1

The military have stopped jamming short-wave radio frequencies across the quarantine area. Handheld radio receivers previously discarded as useless will now be able to pick up broadcasts from transmitters installed in buildings, across a range of frequencies.

May 30

Unofficial Notes

Message timestamps are now displayed in an "X hours and X minutes ago" format, rather than a raw time format.

May 9

Unofficial Notes

Previously, when veiwing your contact list, it would show the players Name, Class, Level XP and chosen website. It now shows their current group instead of their website.

April 29

As the looting continues, survivors are beginning to find that powering a building makes it slightly easier to find equipment and supplies in its previously darkened rooms.
The more advanced zombies are starting to ransack abandoned buildings, making looting them more difficult until survivors are able to clear the zombies out and repair the damage.

April 16

Unofficial Notes

Helicopters have been heard over the city of Malton
All helicopters heard and seen (for those outside) were apparently one helicopter heard at 7:10 system time. It was seen by those it passed over as "a military helicopter".
Several Crates can still be found around the city

April 1

Unofficial Notes

Kevan (briefly) introduces Werewolves to the city of Malton.
Vampires are also added and link to the same place as werewolves.

March 31

Memo to NecroTech staff: Your handheld DNA-extractor software has been automatically upgraded to analyse tissue samples for telltale signs of cortex damage, which we can now match to our databases, and the increased difficulty of field operations is being rewarded appropriately. We'll continue to monitor NecroNet data and aerial shots of the city, as the situation progresses.

March 28

Memo to NecroTech staff: The subjects are developing a resistance to our current antigens - syringe barrels must now be fully emptied to guarantee successful revivification, even if this takes longer and puts support staff at risk.
As a result of revivification becoming a lengthier process, the brain-rotten dead are now able to pick up the scent trail of those who attempt to revive them.
There was a glitch updating the database today, and all game events have lost their timestamp - this means that you'll see everything in a random order today, and might also get some old stuff from the past week. Everything will be there somewhere, it'll just all have the same, incorrect timestamp. It's a one-off thing and later events will be fine, but apologies for any inconvenience or confusion this causes.

Unofficial Notes

All syringes seem to take 10 AP to use now, instead of 1 AP as before.

March 17

Unofficial Notes

A link to the Urban Dead shop and a picture of a new T-shirt has been added to the frontpage, which has also been divided into more sections than the 9th March redesign.
Players with no description now have a link button to 'Set your description' when they view their profile.

March 9

As the feeding groans echo around the malls, the undead are beginning to distinguish the sounds of their horde from those of ferals and others. Groans from other members of a zombie's group will be heard as "familiar"

Unofficial Notes

The main page for the site has received a design change. It now has a screenshot of the game, an extended game story, and a 'latest news' feature.

February 9

The stats page now list corpses that are in the middle of the revivification process.

February 7

Unofficial Notes

Newspapers are now dated with the month of the last year.

It's dated from last June. The main story is about bird flu. You skim it and throw it away.
It's a copy of the local paper from May last year. The main story is about MRSA in local hospitals. You skim it and throw it away.

February 6

Unofficial Notes

More description has been added to attacks and mutiple attacks against you by one attacker/multiple groans from one square are timestamped and compressed.

Kryten attacked you for 5 damage. (02-06 6:51 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:51 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:51 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:51 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:51 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:51 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:52 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:52 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:52 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 6:52 GMT)

You heard a loud and distant groaning 2 blocks to the south. (02-06 06:50 GMT) ...and again. (02-06 06:53 GMT)

February 3

The older zombies are learning to grab onto their victims to increase the accuracy of their attacks - watch your loose clothing, and keep long hair tied back.
As looter raids and sabotage attacks continue, the city's survivors are beginning to camp out in the larger, shared rooms of their safehouses, and even the zombie mobs seem to be lurching in tighter formation - kills and generator destruction will now be noticed by other players in the area.

February 2

A shift in the air, or the blood, and the fresh dead flex their stiffening fingers. 5% of the Death Grip bonus has been shifted back to apply to all zombies by default, including recently-deceased survivors.

Unofficial Notes

It seems that you now get told when generators are low on fuel.

A portable generator has been set up here. It is running low on fuel.

January 19

Memo to NecroTech staff: In response to the spreading epidemic, some staff are now being given access to NecroNet terminals within company buildings. These will allow employees to review the DNA-scan data for the surrounding area, manufacture fresh Mk II syringes, and use lab equipment to treat specimens with corrupted brain stems.