I was thinking. There are always people buzzing in and getting surprised by DC changes. So what if we try to keep track of the changes in this thread? My starting contribution is a longwinded answer to Siegfried in the Salamanders Tavern. Here we go: This is supposed to cover the main changes as long back as I remember
Lots of changes.
Fred changed all weapons and monsterstats along with lvl requirements and enchanting.
You gain lvl's a bit faster now.
Enchant: You can only enchant an item up to a limit where it start to "turn purple" and anymore enchants are wasted. The limit can be calculated as 3*att+2*def+skill where all stats are the basestats that you see if you click info on the weapon. The new enchanting method will also increase attack and defense for every 10 enchants. If you have items from before this particular update, you might sit on some really potent weapons. The transition from the old (unlimited enchanting, only skill increase) to the new enchanting method locked all old enchantments into the new basestats, which combined with the new enchanting method, makes deadly weaponry: Example:
1,0,1000 knife (pre update, enchanted)--> 1,0,1000 (post update, unenchanted) --> 101,100,2003 (post update, enchanted)
Weapon from before this update are called antiques, and are traded for massive amounts of .. everything.
Rust: If you played through one of the periods with rust; -it's back. Each new day, there is a risk that some of your junk dissappear or some of your weapon stats detoriate. To avoid that, you can oil your gear or get a great blessing from the queen, worth 500k marks. The blessing will protect everything, including junk, in your backpack, and what you equip. Not what you have in storage. Oils can be found on monsters or from the great fish oil project (see Dragon Guard) and are used in a simular fashion to enchant scrolls up to a maximum of 5.
Monsters The stats of monsters have increased, so there will be no more "fighting without gear," atleast not before you have a *crazy* char. This change happened along with an increase in weapon basestats and the introduction of the new enchanting method.
Some monsters will now steal your gear during combat; worms in the mounds, anacondas in Azteca(new area) and the Sea Serpant at "go fish." They will only take stuff wich glows or have flames, but basicly, just avoid those critters.
Area There is a new area you can reach from the docks. It's called Azteca and you can fight anacondaes, priest, azteca warriors and jaguars. The docks works differently than before. Now you have to pay 50k to get there, but then you don't have to scout around for monsters. No more "all you found was seaweed" or something like that. You still need rutters to get to Hie Brasil, Shangala and now Azteca. The old "Ocean" which you reached without rutters is now called "Go fish"
The city area has changed a bit. And now storage is at Silvers storage, while you still sleep at the tavern.
Gear Apart fromt the new enchanting routine, all gear stats have changed dramaticly, and is now much higher.
There are also silver and crystal gear from a number of monsters. They are very rare items, but often they are very powerful. The most important are "silver amini club" from the Azteca Warrior (the best righthand weap. that drops in the game - the normal Amini Club is not bad either), silver sea slippers(feet, mermaid, Go fish), crystal jaguar fangs (lefthanded, jaguar, azteca), crystal gauntlets (lefthanded, Golem, Hie Brasil), crystal nunchaku(lefthanded,ninja's, shangala), crystal swift boots (feet, one of the new Dragon Guard quests)
But it is definately possible to find a normal counterparts to these items that are just as powerful or even better. It's all about luck. There are no longer a "best version" of a particular type of gear.
A new thing is level requirements on gear.
fighter skill + char lvl >= {0,6,11,16,21,26,31}
where each value corresponds to an area. Azteca is 31, Shangala 26 etc. Most heroes get far beyond 31, so don't worry unless you have to start from scratch
Dragon Guard It's a place where you can complete variuos small quests, mostly go fetch quests. One important is the queens folly that gives entrance to the queen without beeing noble. (Noble is nolonger an option for new heroes). Other important ones are the great oil project, where you hand in fish and money and get oils. And one where you turn dragon scales and marks into dragon scale suits. These are not as high as koetsues, but are made much more frequent than koutsues are dropped, so you can get some nice ones at TP or from continous clicking and wasting lots of marks and scales. The last is the quest for Swift Boots, which sometimes nets you a crystal counterpart.
Ranks Regent is no longer the highest rank, there are 4 new ranks, and the highest is now seneschal
Guild skills You can now have double as many skills as before: 2*lvl. And there is a new skill called sage, that will prevent any skill action from the monsters; ietsu, backstab, berzerk and mesmerize. However you won't get any stat benefits from sage, so don't get too excited. It is mostly for new heroes that want to fight beyond their level
Wheel of Fortune: Is bot blocking event that pops up everyday and offers you a guess on 5 different things from the game. Choose one and hope that you get it right.
The wheel will no longer offer Silvers
Quests: Mandrake roots and cookies will no longer replenish your quests! In fact, there are now no way to replenish your quests, and cookies doens't even exist anymore. Mandrakes now cause you to go berzerk during battle, and temporarily loose 3 wits, which are restored on reset. On the other hand you can get an inverted "waking up late" event in the morning, that gives you extra quests for that day.