Version 1.76 of AFKMud has been released.

Read the important notes at the end of this post! You will regret it if you don't!

This is a bugfix/feature enhancement release.
A patch file is attached to this post, and will only be available via this post.
You must use g++ to compile this release.

To apply: place the patch file in your afkmud directory and use the following:
patch -p1 < 176patch

This patch is intended for use on the original 1.75 package which was released on
May 25, 2005. If you have already applied any of the bugfixes in the forum post for 1.75 fixes
then the patch will likely fail. Proceed at your own risk.

Standard disclaimer type stuff: Changes in this version may or may not remain compatible with your
older support files, such as areas, commands, skills, socials, etc. If things break, you were warned.

Bugfixes this release:

Rewritten "commands" and "socials" commands have been left out [Xorith]
String hash statistics are calculated incorrectly [Remcon]
Corpses can lead to item duplication in some cases [Samson]
immune_casting checks wrong variable when missing a character [Zeno]
Hardcoded level value in do_flee [Samson]
add_ban has several problems [Remcon]
Rooms are not being linked to their areas when first created [Remcon/Samson/Moonwolf]
Namegen code crashes if no look description is set [Samson]
The STRFREE and DISPOSE macro fixes are not safe in C afterall [Samson]
Oasis OLC module missing Quit option for extra descriptions [Samson]
The skill table is being horribly borked up on bootup [Samson]
websvr.c fails to compile on FreeBSD [Moonwolf]
Overland music keeps playing if you look through an exit that leads to it [Samson]
Rdelete does not fix reverse exits. Rdelete does not unlink room from area. [Samson]
Object cloning in spell_obj_inv is not possible [Samson]
Experience ratios are not being calculated properly [Samson]
Spell dice forumlas return incorrect results when parsed. Damage caps do not work. [Remcon]
Random crashes during chargen and when RISA flags are changed on players [Samson]
A number of unreachable code conditions fixed [GCC/Samson]
Valgrind: Uninitialized variable warning in afk_crypt [Samson]
Valgrind: Uninitialized variable warning in imc_crypt [Samson]
Valgrind: Uninitialized variable warning in fread_pfile [Samson]

Non-Bugfix alterations:

Color code now supports specifying color themes. [Samson]
IMC code will attempt switching to standard authentication if MD5 fails 3 times. [Samson]
I3 code now disabled by default on compile. This code is now deprecated. [Samson]

IMPORTANT

The skill loading system in the 1.75 release was a pathetic mess that we are not proud of in the slightest. Due to a number of conversions being done several elements of the fread_skill function "Affect" section were neglected. Compounding this were the changes to the affect application to include a "NONE" case when no affects existed. This was done in an effort to prepare existing files for compatibility with the eventual release of the 2.0 C++ code ( no, don't even ask ).

The plan was, have fread_skill update the data that goes into skills.dat so it would work. The plan didn't go so well. If you have saved your skill file at any point since using the 1.75 code you have probably noticed the complete and utter corruption of any skill/spell/ability that uses locations 26, 27, 28, and 29. These are the APPLY_AFFECT locations and the RISA flag locations. Sadly, the damage done is irreversible. The patch cannot correct this. So if you have saved your skills
file since using 1.75, you will need to take care of that.

You have 2 options: Replace skills.dat with the fixed version now found in the 1.76 distro, or manually repair your skills.dat file if you know how and know what you're looking for.