So, I have been spending my free time (that is, time away from work and Madeline) writing the special effects code for Eternal Lands. It required a couple rewrites, as I was not originally happy with how I implemented it. Anyhow, I think it is in pretty good shape. Some people have already started making their own effects for inclusion, which is a good thing since I only have a little SFX experience. I commit changes to CVS pretty frequently, so check out the new code and effects.

On another EL note, I have noticed something peculiar about the people who download my Macintosh client for the game. Here is a quote from my chatlog:
[PM from richest: who are you your are in my readme]
First, ignoring the grammar and punctuation errors....amazingly someone actually read the README_osx.txt file that I distribute with the game! Secondly, I wonder if someone has linked to my downloadable file. I mean, is it too hard to figure out that my signature in the readme, 0ctane, is related to my player name in EL, 0ctane, and is somehow related to the game obtained from www.0ctane.net? A few months ago there was a particularly rude player, Hae, who did not make this connection. Another game developer and I were trying to fix an endian-related problem with the Mac client:
[22:02:43] [PM to Hae: are you running windows, linux, or macintosh OS X?]
[22:03:07] [PM from Hae: Mac]
[22:03:31] [PM to Hae: okay, which version of the client are you using?]
[22:03:42] [PM from Hae: oops,I mean,Linux]
[22:04:02] [PM from Hae: 2,000,000,000,now stop bothering me]
[22:04:51] [PM to Hae: okay, that helps. I am a developer and we are trying to trace a problem in the client. Play nice.]
[22:05:12] [PM to Learner: Hae said he is running Linux...not the most polite person.]
[22:05:48] [PM from Learner: strange]
...more conversation with Learner here...
[22:11:32] [PM to Hae: are you using Intel or Mac hardware?]
[22:11:49] [PM from Hae: I said don't bother me!]
[22:12:01] [PM from Hae: One more time and I'm reporting you!]
...more conversation with Learner...we determine that he thinks I am a hacker...
This is a free game people. Have you donated any money to my development efforts? No. If you want to be able to use it on a Mac for free, I request a little respect.