                   Pawn Shop LORD IGM v3.10 -- What's New Notes.
                           ** December 30, 2003 **

              Prepared by Donald Tidmore, for Chris MacPherson.
=========================================

Welcome to the Pawn Shop.  Stick around and buy some great stuff.
In version 2.01 - 2.90 beta update work, the following changes
were made to the IGM.  {v3.01-v3.10 notes are at END of this file.}

Notations:
----------------
1) IGMDrive material was removed from IGM by Charlie Wardick and
   reworked using his personal BBS code library routines and
   the A.N.G.E.L. Toolkit. in late December 2002 and early January
   2003 programming update work. That got rid of the RTE200 problem.
   Some tweaking was required in early January 2003 to deal with IGM
   stability problems, which were permanently removed.

2) IGM tested by myself, Charlie Wardick, Chris MacPherson, Joe Kinjin,
   Paul Koukos, and evaluated by other beta testers, using MS Windows
   98, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows ME, and MS Windows XP operating
   systems.  IGM testing was done using LORD v3.55, v4.00, v4.00a
   -- patched for RTE200 -- without any usage problems.  Tested using
   LORD 4.02, 4.05pb, 4.06, and 4.07 beta with no IGM-usage problems
   found.

3) The shop owner may now Deposit or Withdraw Gems in this version.
   Provided that the Vault is above 250,000 Gems, withdrawal of Gems
   is permitted.  Gold Deposits are permitted until Vault Gold balance
   reaches 2 Billion.  Note: Gold withdrawal is allowed only when
   Shop has over 1,000,000 Gold.

3-B) Spousal benefits: The shop owner's spouse is allowed to enter IGM
   at any time, sleep in shop Office, deposit/withdraw gold/gems, view
   IGM stats.  They are allowed to rob shop if they want to do so.
   Spouse is NOT granted protection from mercenary attack like owner is.

3-C) Spousal Responsibility:  If current shop owner's spouse attacks
   the owner IN the IGM, it triggers an automatic divorce.  Marital
   couples do NOT go around killing each other in this IGM without
   there being a price to pay.

4) Shop owner may receive one free healing from Wendy, in Ask Blessing
   option, per day.  In current coding, option may be usable more than
   once each day, depending on circumstances.  Note: Owner's spouse does
   not get free healing from Wendy. Also, whether you are the owner or
   not, you only get ONE free healing per day from Wendy.

5) Short status summary is provided for shop owner player following
   each gems/Gold withdrawal.  No summary is given for Deposits.
   Summary is shown to owner's spouse in same fashion.

6) Player Stats screen was redesigned, and now displays info on
   Lays and Games Won.  The Spy Stats screen was also revised to
   include those two LORD stats of the targeted player.

7) Title screen updated, along with IGM documentation files.
   Spelling/grammar fixes made throughout IGM update process.

8) In purchasing mercenary services from Blackey, the purchase
   costs now include commas.  To kill another player's horse, user
   may type either DEATH CRYSTAL or VAPORIZE.

   Player may inquire of Blackey as to how much Wendy's protection
   service will cost, and may purchase info on the shop Vault's
   content.  Hints are given in random statements to some new
   Blackey codes.  Cost is 1.2 Million * Level, up to 25% of Total Gold.

9) Weapons/Armour purchase menus, and other IGM menu screens
   revised using new Color Codes.  Includes spelling fixes.
   Once player sells a Weapon, they may go straight from Sell Weapon
   menu to Buy Weapon menu, the next logical destination.  Same for
   Armour sale/purchase.

10) When trading Gems for Elixirs, player may now exchange Gems for
    Charm Points, in addition to Max Hitpoints, Strength, and Defense
    Points.  All 4 fields obey LORD's 32,000 points maximum limit.

11) Various other changes are visible on-screen while playing
   the IGM, or when using the Setup/Configure/Maintenance
   functions of the Setup program.

12) If player attempts to rob shop office, and is caught, they
   were previously allowed to stay in the IGM.  Now they are
   immediately ejected out of the IGM and returned to LORD.

13) Player may trade Experience Points for Max Hitpoints, Strength,
   Defense, or Charm.  Provided that (a) they have at least 1,000
   Exp. points, and (b) that they are NOT on the shop's HATE list.
   IGM will NOT allow Experience to go negative, or exceed LORD's
   2 Billion points limit.

14) IGM does the best it can to protect player's Gold in Bank amount.
   During normal shop purchases, their Bank value is tracked.  If
   something happens to make Bank Gold go negative, the IGM will reset
   the Bank Balance to the amount you entered the IGM with. (v2.86+)

   Similarly, if something happens in the IGM that causes Experience
   Points to go negative, they will be restored to the amount
   recorded at IGM-entry.  If you entered the IGM with negative Exp.,
   the IGM will reset you to amount near to what your Game level
   entitles you to have.  E.g.. you are at Level 8. You will be reset
   to 500,000 Experience Points (v2.86+).

15) Now a player may resurrect a dead player provided that (a) they
   can afford the price, (b) they are entitled to talk to Wendy,
   (c) the requested player is dead, and (d) has not been revived
   previously that day by the IGM.  Limit of one resurrection per
   LORD player.  Resurrect Player uses is limited by its high cost:
   10% of your Experience, drop to 1 usable Hitpoint, you pay
   amount in Gold equal to 10% of your Experience points, and you
   lose 2% Max Hitpoints.

16) Each day the IGM limits how many potions you can get from Gems
   Trades, Experience Trades, or Gold purchases.  The current limit
   is 3200 potions or 20% of your Experience.  Once either limit is
   reached, you can't use potions Trade features until the next day.
   Actual limit is determined by sysop/end-user during IGM configuration
   or Installation.

   IGM will continue to allow purchase of potions, as long as you can
   pay for them.  Player's potions trading activity is tracked in
   binary database file EXPTRADE.DAT.  The shop owner or their spouse
   is able to monitor some of the database info using "List Potions
   Traders" menu option in the shop office.

17) Sysop/end-user may select values for the potions trading limits.
   IGM is hard-coded to not allow more than 50% of player's experience
   to be used each day in Experience Trade, and uses a default setting
   of 20%.  Default setting of 3,200 potions received via purchase
   or trading is in use.  IGM uses whatever value is in first line of
   PSLIMITS.CFG file to determine what to use for the Potions Limit.

18) Shop Vault robbery, if successful, is now limited to 25% of shop's
   Total Gold in Vault value, or to max limit of 500 million Gold,
   using whichever value is the lesser amount.  v2.60+ beta.

19) Auto-claim of shop when player attempts Take Over of Office and
    they find current owner lying dead inside.  Basically, the current
    player becomes the new owner automatically.  You are only entitled
    though to a portion of the old owner's shop investment.

    Owner Gold is reset to either 25% of the old value or to 25 Million,
    whichever is lower.  Owner Gems is reset to either 25% of existing
    value or to 100,000, whichever is lower.  If new owner is injured,
    or have new Max HitPoints, they are granted Free Healing.

20) v2.60+ beta. When purchasing new weapon, IGM now displays how
    many Strength points you receive. Amount is slightly higher than
    what LORD's Weapons Shop grants.  When purchasing new armour, IGM
    displays how many Defense points you receive.  Which is also
    slightly higher amounts than LORD's Armoury shop grants you.

21) Bankruptcy Event.  Changed IGM to reset Vault Gold balance to
    1 Million, instead of zero.  Vault Gems balance is reset to
    100,000 if amount is sub-zero or over 100,000.  v2.61+.

22) Elixir Potions sale. Spartan, Shredder, and Love Potion are now
    capped at maximum cost of 1 Million gold per drink.  Love Potion
    will give up to 24/20 Charm points, depending on player sex.
    Spartan will give 20 Defense, take away 10 Strength points.
    Shredder will give 20 Strength, take away 10 Charm points.

    Price caps:  Love Potion price is capped at 450,000 Gold.  Spartan
    Warrior is capped at 550,000 gold - its higher value reflects its
    ability to heal all wounds you have.  Shredder is capped at 500,000
    Gold.  Both Topsy-Turvy and Ultra Ale are capped at 500,000 Gold.

23) Vault Gold/Gems Max Limits:

       Total Vault Gold    - Limited to 2.10 Billion.
       Total Invested Gold - Limited to 2.00 Billion.

       Total Vault Gems    - Limited to 400 Million. {06/04/03}
       Total Invested Gems - Limited to 375 Million. {06/04/03}

24) Vault robbery amounts allowed to successful thief are higher
    as of May 21, 2003.

25) Daily Maintenance revision.  Salary paid to Wendy/Blackey will
    be between 300,000 and 500,000 Gold.  Salary paid to Guards
    will be between 150,000 and 250,000. Shop owner salary is
    limited to maximum of 42 Million Gold.  Salary amounts are
    now displayed in Daily Maint screen.

26) So that IGM is more fair to low-funds/low-level players, as of
    May 26, 2003, they can purchase Wendy's protection spell for
    equivalent of 25% of their combined Gold.  If that amount is
    lower than the normally charged Protection fee, the lower amount
    is what the player is told the service costs.  E.g.  If you only
    have 10 million combined gold, and are Level 10, your normal fee
    would be 12 million to get protection.  But with Wendy's special
    service fee, you'll only have to pay 2.5 Million. (as of v2.82+)

27) v2.73+. During Daily Maintenance, following processing of Bad
    Investment, if randomly selected, and payment of salary amounts
    to Wendy and Blackey, shop guards, and shop owner, utility will
    verify Config.Gold balance.  If zero or below zero, Psetup /m
    process will automatically run the Bankruptcy event.

    v2.77+: Reduced maximum limit for Bad Investment loss during
    Daily Maintenance from 500 Million to 400 Million.

28) v2.76+.  Player can trade 20 Gems for a Horse, in Trade Menu.
             Player can trade 40 Gems for a Fairy, in Trade Menu.

29) v2.77+.  Gems for Fairy Trade limit established. Configurable
    by sysop.  Default value of 2. Maximum limit of 4 trades/day.

30) v2.78+.  If shop owner player enters IGM, with either Invested Gold
    or Invested Gems values that are negative, when they use View Vault
    Stats in the Office, the IGM will automatically reset the negative
    values.  In accordance with how IGM handles auto-claim of Office
    when prior owner is found dead, the Invested Gold is reset to 25
    Million, and Invested Gems is reset to 100,000.  10/13/03.

31) v2.78+. The Potions Info Report now tracks daily IGM uses, number
    of Gems Trades for a Horse or Fairy.  The Gems for Fairy trades
    are limited to a maximum of 4 Fairies per day, which is sysop
    configurable value in Pslimits.cfg file.

32) v2.80+.  Players are now shown their Number of IGM Visits in the
    game's Stats Screen.  The pawn-use.txt disk file report shows
    the same info given in the Potions Info Report screen for sysops
    to help them track player's daily uses of the IGM.  File is
    automatically over-written with each new IGM use.

33) v2.82+. Shop owner will only see the Shop Vault Limits message
    on their first visit to the Pawn Shop each day.

34) v2.86+: 11/27/03: Changed IGM to show Beta Notice, then Vault Limits
    Message to the shop owner player once per day, on their first visit
    to IGM.  Regular, non-owner, players will no longer see either screen.

35) v2.86+: After shop owner player defeats the Red Dragon, the first
    time they revisit the Pawn Shop, they meet the Tax Collector. He
    takes 50% of the shop's Gold and Gems.  Done several months, but
    it now does proper processing of the Gems tax portion.

36) v2.90+: The price of Gems sold by the Shop, and the value of Gems
    the Shop buys from the player, are based on math formulas.  They are
    based upon Experience Points and Game Level.  It is set up to ensure
    that player can't make a profit selling and re-buying gems.
=========================================================================


    Pawn Shop v3.10 Changes Summary:  {12/11/2003}
    ================================
1) Pascal-based programs, at least those built with Turbo/Borland Pascal
   compilers, can not handle any binary Integer data that exceeds this
   amount: 2,147,483,647.  If such values are encountered, the IGM resets
   them to Zero.  When this happens to Config.Gold value, if Psetup /M
   is run before the next IGM usage, the old owner is classified as
   Bankrupt, and Banished from LORD for one day.  The Pawn Shop returns
   to being without an owner.

2) If Config.Gold is Zero when the current owner is inside the IGM's
   Office, the IGm is now configured to reset Total Vault Gold to the
   1 Million Gold allowed for a new shop owner.  The Config.PGold, if
   it also is Zero, is then reset to 50% of Config.Gold, or 500,000.

3) To avoid the MaxLongInt issues with Vault Gems, the IGM only allows
   Total Vault Gems to go up to 500 Million.  If it goes above that
   amount, it gets reset automatically.  The Total Owner Gems field
   likewise is limited to 475 Million.  And also while developing the
   Pawn Shop for the past year, I decided no one realistically in
   real BBS play would be able to accumulate anywhere close to either
   amount before a new owner took over, causing the normal IGM Reset
   functions to occur.

Otherwise, all operations of Pawn Shop v3.10 work identically to how
Pawn Shop v3.00 was designed to operate.

4) Fixed problems with Banish Players and Poison Players where they
  sometimes did not work properly, when executed by Daily Maintenance
  process.  Revised handling of Negative Total Vault Gold problem.

5) v3.05: Flirt with Wendy works now, but only for Male players.  Any
   female player - including shop owner, who tries to Flirt with her
   will lose valuable Charm points - and get fussed at for bad behavior.

6) v3.05: Increased amount of Gems player can get if they successfully
   rob the Vault in the Office.

7) v3.06: Psetup /Report. Provided you have exptrade.dat file, which
   is required, the pawn-use.txt will be created/updated.  The IGM
   will now automatically display the report on-screen after a short
   8-second delay.  Pawnrept.bat has been modified to the new format.
======================================================================

WHATSNEW.TXT file created by Donald Tidmore, for Chris MacPherson,
on Jan. 22, 2003.

This file is named PS-Whats.txt to preclude whatsnew.txt
files used by many other BBS/non-BBS programs from overwriting it.

Copyright (C) 2002-2003 by Donald Tidmore and Chris MacPherson.

Current update:  December 30, 2003 at 02:38 pm.

