History of Loathing (2003)

These pages shall contain the history of the Kingdom of Loathing.

January 31, 2003

• As of today, there are no old announcements. Except for this one. And this one doesn't count.
• This is where announcements will go. Isn't that announc-e-rific?

February 10, 2003

• Okay, so The Kingdom of Loathing is now officially in beta. Welcome to all. Please post bugs and discussion in the forums.

February 14, 2003

• There are about 20 minutes worth of new features today -- check the post in the forums for details. Also, happy Valentine's Day. Everybody gets a free heart-shaped Moxie weed.
• You can now send messages by name, instead of just by playerid.
• You can no longer attack a player who has played an adventure in the past 5 minutes. This is to prevent problems arising from being attacked and losing items or whatever while you're logged on.

February 17, 2003

• Courtesy of Bjorn's mad haiku skillz and El Perezoso's diligence, The Haiku Dungeon is now open to reasonably advanced players (power >= 50) -- come get your goodies. COMING SOON: (probably tomorrow...) The Flea Market -- sell stuff to each other! Buy stuff from each other! A player economy is us!

February 19, 2003

• Some slight rearrangements of things, and some new graphics. Now I can add new zones without crowding up the main page so much. And new zones I will add, believe you me.

February 20, 2003

• Today we add The Meatsmith. (Der Fleischschmidt.) Buy stuff, craft stuff.
• The Flea Market is now complete. You can get there from town.

February 21, 2003

• Lots of new stuff today. Read the post about it in the forums.

From the Forum:

The Spooky Forest is now fully populated, with loads of adventures and a bunch of new items. The Hidden Temple now exists, though it requires some effort to get there. Search the Forest for clues. It is now possible to construct a Meat Golem, which, when installed at your campsite, will prevent other players from stealing your items (redirecting them to a dignity attack.) How to summon the Golem is left as an exercise to the player. Some other campsite furnishings can also be constructed from things found in the forest. There also now exist magical weapons, hats, and pants, which boost your stats when equipped. So far, only the Epic Weapons for each class are enchanted, but I'll be going through and adding some minor magic items to each zone before too long. I'm also going to beef up (so to speak) the Meatsmithing recipes, to allow you to craft your own magic items.

February 24, 2003

• Gaaaah. Just fixed a dumbass mistake in the campground code which made it so the bouquets of flowers, the scarecrow, and the Meat Golem didn't do anything. Sorry 'bout that.

February 27, 2003

• Sorry 'bout that, kids -- daily script didn't run last night because I forgot to set up the crontabs on the new server. I gave you a couple of days worth, by way of apology...

February 28, 2003

• And verily did Bjorn smite the wicked, the unjust, the legion of scofflaws and cheaters, and lo, were their campsites rent asunder, their bodies left powerless, and their sacks left empty. And Bjorn saw it, and it was good.
• Cheaters never prosper.

February 29, 2003

• The stuff that was happening last night was NOT due to Bjorn. It was at least partially due to a recently-introduced bug in the campground code, which was fixed (after Bjorn noticed it and called me to tell me about it) last night. I'm working on stuff today.
• Changes/fixes so far:
  • You can now change your password from the top menu.
  • I added the much-talked-about non-PvP item to everybody's campsite. Participation in PvP combat is, as of now, completely voluntary. This should slow down some of the griefing and feuding for a little while.
  • I created the Bugfinder Blade. This is, for now, the most powerful weapon in the game. It will be bestowed upon anyone who finds (and tells me about) a serious bug or exploit in the game. This includes, mainly, infinite-meat and infinite-adventures bugs, and item duplication bugs.
  • Okay, by popular request, there's now a primitive profanity filter for usernames, messages, and graffiti.

March 3, 2003

• Degrassi Knoll is now available for your adventuring pleasure in The Nearby Plains, if your power is greater than 100 (which almost everybody's is).

March 4, 2003

• Another Bugfinder Blade was awarded today to the finder of yet another infinite meat/stats bug.
• You can now attach items to messages. You can also delete unused player accounts.

March 6, 2003

• Another feature, another bug. The clover/sewer adventure is up, and the infinite adventures bug it introduced is band-aided up for now. I'll figure out something better to do when I get home from work.
• Epic Hat Quests are now implemented for each class. The Toot Oriole will start you down the path. Also, it looks like the Clockword Maid is finally fixed.

March 7, 2003

• New accounts now require e-mail activation, and new users are limited to one account per e-mail address. This should cut down on some of the recent exploits.

March 8, 2003

• Lots of new stuff today. Two new zones (power 400+) in the Lair, a new shop, and a new trade skill. Bunch of items, too, some of them not fully implemented yet. I can't stare at this screen anymore tonight, so there'll be more stuff tomorrow, too. Oh, there are now Item Sets. And by Sets, I mean Set. But someday it'll be Sets.

March 10, 2003

• Forgot to post yesterday that the Bat Hole is now in place, and with it the first stage of the Epic Pants quest. Enjoy.

March 12, 2003

• Quite a few small changes over the last day or two -- check the trivial updates page for details. This is where I'll continue to post most of the changes I make -- I'll only post new announcements when new zones open or really serious changes happen.

March 16, 2003

• Drunkenness now prevents you from adventuring (and drinking more.) The Arena is revamped, and has 10 progressively more difficult version of a single monster, for testing of the new and improved monster combat system.

March 20, 2003

• Okay, I finally found the typo in the code that made alcohol limits not function the way they're supposed to. Now you should never be able to exceed 17 drunkenness...

March 27, 2003

• Alrighty. New map area, new adventuring zone, 20 or so new items, some new effects, a bunch of new cooking and meat paste recipes, and quite a bit of whatnot. It all starts with The Hermit...

April 8, 2003

• New area, new stores, new tradeskill, new items, blah blah blah. Hit Points are now implemented, too.

April 12, 2003

• NOTICE: In a few days, I'm going to start autodeleting player accounts after 30 days of inactivity.

April 15, 2003

• There's a contest posted in the forums.

April 19, 2003

• There's a (smallish) new zone in the Forest. It's tougher than the cemetary, but easier than the hippy camp.

April 21, 2003

• You now have the option to disable inventory images -- I encourage you to do so, especially if you've been playing for a while. It'll make the inventory page load a little faster, and help to conserve bandwidth.

April 25, 2003

• Please note that there is now a listing fee of 100 Meat to sell an item on The Flea Market. This should cut down on some of the useless clutter.

April 30, 2003

• The Daily Dungeon is now in place. It's a randomly-generated zone that refreshes once a day.

May 4, 2003

• The Clan Hall and The Hall of Records have been revamped. Enjoy the wonderfulness.

May 13, 2003

• The "Forgot Password" link is now functional again -- forgotten passwords can be reset using your activation code.

May 14, 2003

• Cobb's Knob is deeper!

May 31, 2003

• As a result of the recent clan bug, I'm going to need to wipe all of the current clan records and start over. This will happen on Wednesday night. Please get everything that you want to keep out of your goodies hoard, and formulate plans for reforming old clans. I've restored peoples' clan memberships and status as well as my most recent backups will allow me to.

The clan reset caused many players to quit the game. This is discussed in this forum thread: http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/viewtopic.php?p=7275.

June 5, 2003

• Cobb's Knob is even deeper!
• The clan reset went (almost) as planned.

June 13, 2003

• Check out The Mall of Loathing in Seaside Town, for hot Player-owned store action. Now with eXtreme recycled graphics!

June 17, 2003

• The Kingdom of Loathing Store is now up and running. Buy groovy merchandise, and be the envy of all your friends. There are only a few items up for sale right now, but there will be more (including class-specific T-Shirts) in the coming days.

June 25, 2003

• My desktop machine is now officially dead, so updates for the next week or two will involve even more recycled graphics than usual.
• Also, I put the Voluntary Level-Reduction Booth in Seaside Town. Check my post in The Forums for more details.

June 27, 2003

From the Forum:
By popular request, the maximum turn limit has been raised from 120 (40 turns * 3 days) to 200 (50 turns * 4 days.) With the next batch of items I add, you'll be able to get a total of 50 turns per day not counting food and booze.

June 30, 2003

• A couple of new areas have been opened up in the Mountains. Oh, and the Detective Skull now does something. Not much, but something.

July 8, 2003

• The transition to the new host is nearly complete. The only thing missing is the messages, and I'm working on that...
• The clan logs are not there, but that's too much data to feasibly transfer across, so they'll just start over as of today. Sorry 'bout that.

July 18, 2003

• I'm changing the way some of the persistent stuff is stored in the database, so you might encounter some weirdness over the next few days whereby quest statuses (stati?) get reset. On the bright side, you'll probably get to fight the Boss Bat again soon. Whee!

July 24, 2003

• All weapons, pants, hats, and accessories now have level requirements associated with them. Anything you had equipped is now in your inventory, and needs to be re-equipped.

July 29, 2003

• Whenever you get an item or a quantity of Meat attached to a message, the message will now contain a picture. This should make it impossible to scam people the way some unsavory types have been doing. If anybody figures out a way to fake the new way, please tell me.

August 4, 2003

• Okay, lots of updates today...
• The much-requested contact list feature is finally implemented. People on your list now appear in a drop-down when sending messages, and their names are highlighted on the Active Players list on the chat pane.
• You can manage your contact list from the [account] menu.
• You can also now turn off the profanity filter in the chat pane. This is also done from the [account] menu. Profanity is still not allowed in player to player messages or clan postings.
• Last but not least, some of the Scrumptious Reagent recipes are now active.

August 5, 2003

• Pimonkey deletes the contents of the player inventory table.

August 6, 2003

• The inventory items that were lost yesterday, as it turns out, cannot be replaced. I've now fixed the code such that this will very likely never happen again.
• Everybody gets 60 turns a day for a while, to give you a chance to reacquire the stuff you lost. Turns also max out at 260 instead of 200.
• I also added 60 turns to everybody today, and 3000 Meat, so you can pick your hammers, ovens, and cocktail kits back up.
• Pimonkey is VERY, VERY sorry about this.

August 11, 2003

• More bugs, more fixes, and a slow trickle of new content.
• Oh yeah. And an updated login page.

August 18, 2003

• Familiars are back as of the last backup (6 days ago...) Sorry about any losses.
• Compact mode is now available for those with screen issues, and for those who want to help conserve bandwidth. Toggle it from the Account menu.

August 21, 2003

• The Mall is searchable. For now. Think of this as a real-time, practical analysis of the economic impact of the feature.

August 23, 2003

• Clan vs. Clan warfare has been added. I suppose it's in something like a testing stage right now.

This is where some more old announcements would be if my stupid ass hadn't accidentally deleted them. Ah well. This portion of KoL history will just have to be shrouded in mystery.

September 2, 2003

I found and fixed a problem today that I think was causing most of the lag we've been experiencing for the last few days.

Forum topics from before this date are locked, to preserve the history of the game.

September 12, 2003

From the Forum:

Alright, I've just made some changes to the way item enchantments work. Instead of giving a flat +X to str/mag/mox/all, items now give +X/level. This makes these items a lot less worthless. I've calculated the effects out (behold the wonders of Excel) and it has some interesting implications due to the exponential relationship between stats and level. Like, for instance, a +3 item on your primary stat is better than a +10% item up until about level 35. It also makes off-primary-stat boosting items a lot more valuable, since your primary stat determines your level. Items that were +10 are now +3, +15 are +5, and +20 are +7. In other news, items can also now be enchanted to give you an Intrinsic Effect, which is like an ordinary effect, but stays on your character as long as you've got the item equipped. This allows the effects of items to be arbitrarily complex, and allows some of the interesting stuff Mr Skullhead has been working on to be possible. Oh, and the enchantments are now displayed on the item description popup in blue. Pretty!

September 23, 2003

• The Voluntary Level-Reduction Booth was removed.

November 16, 2003

• The Evil Golden Arches are now implemented, and the Cave quest has been revamped.

November 18, 2003

• The Goblin King has undergone a minor rewrite. You can kill him again.

November 23, 2003

• Some new pictures, some new features, a new zone for level 1-5 players (on the Wrong Side of the Tracks.)
• In other news, Dry Noodle recipes are now implemented, along with some new complementary Scrumptious Reagent recipes.

November 27, 2003

• The new chat and the top menus should work correctly with Internet Explorer 5 now.
• Also, new skills for Disco Bandits, and a few more items are now usable in combat.

November 28, 2003

• New skills for Accordion Thieves.

December 2, 2003

• Anybody who was carrying a Metallic A will now find a replacement item in their inventory. Oh, and the Beanstalk went active last night, for anybody who didn't notice already.

December 6, 2003

• The Castle is now available to those who have gone through the airship. Some of the castle items still need to be implemented.

December 11, 2003

• There are some changes being made to the way your statistics work, and the way in which levels are calculated. See my post in the forums for details.

From the Forum:

Okay, I'm in the process of making some changes to the way levels are calculated. It's basically like this. You have three primary stats: Muscle, Mysticality, and Moxie. Your primary stat will eventually max out at 200. Your secondary stats will max out at either 150 or 100, depending on which sub-class you are. For instance: Seal Clubber maxes: 200 mus, 100 mag, 150 mox Turtle Tamer maxes: 200 mus, 150 mag, 100 mox In order to raise these stats, you earn what are basically the equivalent of experience points, but specific to each stat. These points are what you're used to earning from winning fights, using stat boosters, etc. (ie. Beefiness, Enchantedness, Chutzpah) You'll get a notification when you get enough of them to boost one of your main stats. The three primary stats are now equivalent to what used to be your level. The new thing called "Level" is still dependent on your primary stat, but it's much lower. Much much lower. With a base primary stat of 200, you will be at level 15. So 15 is the maximum level after the cap goes into place. There will be titles associated with each level, which will be cool.

December 19, 2003

• The server will go down for a few minutes today, around 3:00 Eastern Daylight Time, for a RAM upgrade. This upgrade, plus a number of optimizations I've been working on over the past few days, should make a dent in the occasional lag we've been experiencing lately.

December 22, 2003

• You can now set up secure trades (items for Meat) from the Messages menu. You can also now add and remove clan hoard items in quantity.

December 23, 2003

• The Daily Dungeon and the Barrel full of Barrels have changed, dramatically and slightly, respectively.

December 25, 2003

• Merry Crimbo!
• Crimbo Pressies for all! Check your inventory.

December 26, 2003

• Happy day after Crimbo! There has been a slight change to the way the "who's online" list works -- lurking in the chat now counts as being online.

December 30, 2003

• The Shore is revamped, and open for your vacationing pleasure. The reset did not occur last night, because of a mistake I made. It's now fixed.

See Also

• Kingdom of Loathing Calendar

External Links

• Trog Dor's History of Loathing
• KOL Old Announcements
• KOL Trivial Updates