Version 0.9.0 is out, and it’s the biggest update yet. The world grows south to Springport, the capital, along the King’s Road from Hadrian’s Crossing. Pipes and drinks now leave you with small effects, there’s new fishing gear and new fish, and Trouble at the Crossing finally has its ending. Get it from the download page, or play it in your browser, which is always up to date.

The King’s Road

The road leaves Hadrian’s Crossing heading south, and it’s a long walk: about twice as far as Morningside to the crossing. It’s paved all the way, with a watch post and its road wardens every hundred tiles or so, and nothing hostile stands within sight of it. Off the road is another matter.

The King's Road running north to south through the Greenwood, thick dark-green woods on both sides, the player at the door of a small watch post beside it. The log shows a talk with Sergeant Livia about the wood, Redhill Mine and the footbridge.
The King’s Road through the Greenwood
  • The Greenwood, thick woods either side of the road. Wolves hunt in the hollow west of it and deep in the trees. They leave anyone past level 20 alone.
  • Redhill Mine, up a track to the east: copper, tin and iron round the rim of the pit. Dario at the shed sells pickaxes.
  • The far bank, over a plank footbridge: wild woods down to the estuary, and bears.
  • The Sunward Crags, where a broken trail leads to the sol altar among standing stones. Sol runes are bound there from Runecrafting 20.
  • The farm belt near the city: fields, vineyards, olive groves and three farmhouses. Tullio sells bread, cheese and meat from his stand.

The woods are drawn darker now, so a tree you can chop stands out from the ones you can’t.

Once you’ve met Rocco at the stables outside the King’s Gate, you can ride. All three stablemasters (Morningside, Hadrian’s Crossing and Springport) now take you to either of the others.

Springport

The cobbled King's Road leading south to the King's Gate: two gatehouse towers in Springport's wall, the road passing between them into the city.
The King’s Gate, at the road’s end

The capital is a walled port on the cape where the river meets the sea, built like a wheel: the King’s palace on an island in a moat at the middle, and a district in each spoke, all of them safe. Open the map (m) and zoom in to see their names.

The map window over Springport: the round walled city on the coast, the palace on its island in the moat at the middle, and the districts named around it: Guild Quarter, Market District, Vintners' Row, the Waterfront, the Palace, University District, Old Town, Garrison District and the Arboretum, with the Skydock to the south and the Prydwen out at sea.
Springport on the map, district by district
District
The PalaceKing Selwyn’s throne room, his court and his guard
Market DistrictThe Exchange, the bank, the post office, a general store and a provisioner, just inside the King’s Gate
The WaterfrontThe quay and its piers, the fishmongers, a chandlery, the lighthouse, and the Duskway Inn
The Guild QuarterA smithy, the weavers’ loom, a tailor, a tannery and a fletcher, each selling their trade’s tools
The GarrisonThe barracks, the armoury, and the Bent Lance, where the knights drink
Vintners’ RowWine, cheese, an olive press, a bakery and a cookhouse
The UniversityThe College, its library and the observatory
The ArboretumGardens, ponds, the Temple of Sol, and the Arbour, a garden bar
Old TownHouses older than the walls, and the well the city is named for

Everyone has something to say about the city and the people in it, and many of them have days of their own: the crier does his round of the Exchange, the watch walks the ring road, the cooks work their ranges, and the Duskway fills up with sailors.

Inside the Duskway Inn: tables of sailors and regulars, the long bar with Rosalba behind it, the player in front of it with a beer and Heavy-handed 2 showing. The log has the drinkers sipping red wine.
The Duskway, full of sailors

New food and drink comes with it: wine by the cup or the bottle, two cheeses, olives, bread, honey cake and grilled sardines.

The end of Trouble at the Crossing

Trouble at the Crossing no longer stops where it did. If you’re partway through, carry on as before: the rest of the story takes you further than the crossing, and the King’s Road is part of it.

A dialogue with King Selwyn over the palace’s throne room, with options to ask what a king does all day, about Springport, or say goodbye.
King Selwyn, in his throne room

If you finished the quest before this update, it stays finished, and you keep everything it gave you.

Floors

Upstairs now feels like upstairs. From an upper floor you see the ground below beyond its edge, dimmed, with the buildings around you as their roofs. The first place built for it is the Skydock’s mooring deck, up the stair in the Skydock office south of the city. The top of the tower at Hadrian’s Crossing and the castle’s upper floor have the same view.

The Skydock's mooring deck, planks inside a rail with the player on them, drawn in full colour. Around it, dimmed, the ground below: the city's south wall, the shore and the bay.
Up on the Skydock’s deck, with the south wall below

The map window changed with it:

  • It opens close up, centred on you. Zoom out (-) for the bigger picture.
  • Place names change as you zoom: a town’s name from far out, its districts closer in. n turns them on and off (it was l).
  • Upstairs or in a cellar, l switches between the floor you’re on and the land around it, with you marked on both.

Counters

You can talk to and trade with someone across a counter, from the tile facing them. Marta now stands behind a proper bar at the Morningside Inn, and in Springport Rosalba serves across the Duskway’s, and Perla across the Arbour’s.

The Morningside Inn's hall, with the new bar in its south-east corner: Marta behind the counter, the player facing her across it. The log has her greeting and the patrons outside complaining they can't smoke indoors.
Marta, served across her new bar

Fishing

FishWhereNeeds
PerchThe river, upstream of MorningsideA rod, Fishing 1
CatfishThe estuary, north of Springport’s wallA rod, Fishing 1
TroutThe river below the far bank’s footbridgeA rod, Fishing 15
SardinesAlong Springport’s quayA fishing net, Fishing 1
TunaOff the ends of the piersA harpoon, Fishing 25
LobsterIn the rocks of the harbour moleA lobster pot, Fishing 35

Marisa’s chandlery on the Waterfront sells nets, lobster pots, harpoons and rope. You can make a net yourself (Crafting 5, from string, with a needle) and a lobster pot (Fletching 20, from balsa logs and a rope, with a knife). Every catch cooks at a range.

The player at the end of a long pier on open sea, beside a fishing spot. The log reads: You start fishing... You wait patiently... You receive 1 Raw tuna.
Harpooning tuna off a pier

Catfish have moved to the estuary: the river at Morningside holds perch now.

Pipes, blends and drinks

Pipes and drinks used to be for show. Now they leave small effects, and what a blend does depends on the pipe you smoke it in.

PipeSmokesEffects last
Clay pipe (it was just “Pipe”)Dry: the blend as it is10 minutes
Reed pipe (the frogmen’s)Wet: gentler, and never costs you15 minutes
Iron pipe (new: smith it from an iron bar, Smithing 16)Hot: stronger, and always costs you something5 minutes

Blends are made with a knife (Crafting): Honeyleaf (with honey, which Bram now sells), Marsh blend, Dark twist (it needs toad slime, which isn’t junk any more) and Emberleaf, tobacco cured at a range, which only an iron pipe can hold. Each blend’s description hints at the pipe that suits it.

Choose Smoke on a pipe and you’re asked what to smoke. The effect lands after ten seconds of smoking without a break, and the blend is only used up then: move first and it costs nothing. Smoke socially keeps the pipe going afterwards, for the company.

A small window titled Smoke what? over Springport's shore, listing Emberleaf, Honeyleaf and Marsh blend, with [ENTER] choose and [ESC] cancel.
Smoke what? Choosing a blend for the iron pipe

Drinks work the same way: a beer leaves you Heavy-handed, reed wine Numbed, and a drink is no longer refused at full health.

EffectDoes
SteadyMore accuracy
Warm-chestedMore maximum HP
Short of breathLess defence
Heavy-handedMore melee damage, a little less accuracy
NumbedMore defence, a little less accuracy

You hold one pipe effect and one drink effect at a time, and a second of the same kind replaces the first rather than stacking. They show in your status effects (S) and in your equipment totals (e), and they keep counting down only while you play.

The Status effects window listing Steady 3, Warm-chested 2 and Short of breath 2 from the pipe, and Heavy-handed 2 from the beer, each with its time left. The log has the smoke steadying, warming and leaving the player short of breath, then the beer.
Emberleaf in the iron pipe, and a beer

Help, and the rest

  • New characters see the help window the first time they enter the world.
  • The help window is for keys. /help answers in the log again, with every command you can use, grouped by what it’s for.
Morningside outside the inn, with the log below showing /help's answer: general, chat and social commands, each listed by name.
/help, in the log
  • The hiscores are on the site. Every character’s levels, XP and rank in each skill, at moonlapse.net/hiscores. Guests and staff aren’t on them. To take your character off, type /hiscores off; /hiscores on puts it back.
  • Every window looks the same way: frames, titles, the keys along the bottom, lists and buttons. Scrolling marks are the same everywhere too.
  • Recall now needs Magic 18, the same as Mark, so you can always go back to a mark you can set.
  • The terms of use can be accepted without scrolling to the end.

Fixes

  • In the browser, an expired sign-in now asks you to sign in again, instead of failing every time you chose “Continue as”.
  • The report window keeps its message (an error, or “No answer from the server”) until you press a key, instead of losing it at once.
  • The inspect window’s skills no longer overlap.

Updating

Version 0.8.0 no longer connects, and the game will ask you to update. Download 0.9.0 from the download page and replace your old folder, copying across guest.toml if you play as a guest. The browser version is already up to date.

If you logged out in the Morningside Inn’s cellar or at the top of the tower at Hadrian’s Crossing, you’ll wake up at the chapel: both were rebuilt for this update.

Thanks for playing. Come and say hello on Discord.