GemStone IV Launch

Simutronics launched GemStone IV, which replaced GemStone III, in November 2003.

Gifts

Each account was granted one character-attuned item, based on their profession within the giftbox. The item appearance was somewhat randomized within each profession. Below is an incomplete list of such items:

Bard: + 5 to Aura Base, 5 to Influence Base, 5 to Max Health, 2 to Max Mana

• a sword and musical note brooch
• a happy sad mask brooch
• a comedy tragedy mask brooch

Cleric: +5 Wisdom Base, +5 Intuition Base, +2 Max Health, +4 Max Mana

• an elaborate [deity name] symbol.
• an elaborate knotwork symbol

Empath: +5 Wisdom Base, +5 Influence Base, +5 Max Heath, +4 Max Mana

• an acantha leaf talisman
• a aloeas stem talisman
• a sovyn clove talisman
• a woth flower talisman

Ranger: +5 Dexterity Base, +5 Intuition Base, +5 Max Health, +2 Max Mana.

• an embossed leather bracer
• a cracked leather bracer
• a faded leather bracer
• a tooled leather bracer

Rogue: +5 Dexterity Base, +5 Agility Base, +10 Max Health

• some shadowy black leather boots
• some supple black leather boots
• some padded grey leather boots
• some polished black leather boots

Sorcerer: +5 Aura Base, +5 Logic Base, +2 Max Heath, +4 Max Mana

• a decaying eyeball fetish
• rotting kobold ear fetish
• a gruesome squirrel skull fetish

Warrior: +5 Strength Base, +5 Constitution Base, +10 Max Health

• a cracked leather belt
• a scorched leather belt
• a simple leather belt
• a weathered leather belt

Wizard: +5 Aura Base, +5 Logic Base, + 2 Max Health, +4 Max Mana

• an enruned water elemental talisman
• an enruned air elemental talisman
• an enruned fire elemental talisman
• an enruned earth elemental talisman

Updates

Core Game Systems

The Most Massive Upgrade of GemStone So Far

The development of GemStone IV involved upgrading many fundamental systems in the game (the engine itself, the addition of Point & Click, and more), as well as improving a number of game systems (experience, level progression, combat, creatures, etc.) As a result, since development of GemStone IV began, over 10,000 scripts in the game have been modified (that's over 2/3rds of the game's code.) Over half of those were modified three or four times, for various conversions, upgrades and improvements.

New Features

In addition to the modifications to existing systems, many new features and system expansions required the creation of an additional 1,700 scripts.

Person	Contributions
SGM Warden	GemStone IV Game Systems Design; Combat; Weapons/Armor/Shields changes; Staves; Experience Changes
FGM Uska	Creature Conversions and Modifications
FGM Uliq	New Spells: Bone Shatter, Holy Receptacle, Spirit Dispel; Revised Spells: Spirit Protection I, Spirit Protection II, Wall of Force, Living Rune, Spell Shield, Blind, Resurrection, Elemental Dispel, Empathic Focus, Herb Production, Strength of Will, Intensity; Lore skill adjustments to: 110, 111, 120, 125, 203, 210, 211, 215, 219, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 311, 1101-1105, 1110-1115, and 1108; Commands: BLESS, CONVERT, MEDITATE
AGM Stealth	Combat Maneuvers development
AGM Dimigor	New Spell: Wall of Thorns; Combat Maneuvers development
FGM Cyr	Wall of Thorns; Resist Nature; Foraging Changes; Swimming Changes; general Ranger changes
AGM Thanthyl	Friend or Foe Design
FGM Nilven	Cloak of Shadows Retribution, Eye Spy Updates, Limb Disruption Bug Fixes, Spirit Servants, Minor Summoning, Empathic Link, Assorted Lore Updates
AGM Solli	Damage and Repair Development; Lore Skill Adjustments to: Vibration Chant, Song of Purification, Kai's Song, Sonic Shield, Sonic Weapon, Sonic Armor, Song of Depression, Song of Rage, Song of Disruption; New Spell: Song of Tonis
AGM Elnath	Combat Maneuvers Development; Teleportation Upgrade
AGM Coase	Combat Maneuver List, Combat Maneuver System, and Stamina; P&C script conversions.
AGM Remnick	Combat Maneuvers Development
AGM Nitid	New Spells: Hurl Boulder, Ice Patch, Immolation, Sandstorm, Stone Skin, Scroll Infusion; Lore Skill Adjustments to: Limb Disruption, Pain Infliction, Torment, Elemental Blade, Elemental Strike, Major Elemental Wave, Slow, Haste, Strength, Weapon Fire, Boil Earth; Updated: Corrupt Essence, Enchant; Added Messaging For: Thurfel's Ward, Prismatic Guard; New Commands: RUNE, ATTUNE; New System: Runestones
AGM Dirkay	Trainee; Climbing/Swimming Obstacle upgrades
AGM Imjee	Trainee; Climbing/Swimming Obstacle upgrades
AGM Kitrina	This GM was the one who decided we needed a BELCH command; Releases Liaison
FGM Despil	Updated the demeanor & befriend systems; updated a dozen commands to use demeanor: AGREE, CLUTCH, HOLD, HUM, KICK, KNOCK, MOCK, PROD, PUNCH, REST, SLAP, POKE; created new commands: MOCK, PRAISE, CLUTCH, REST, BELCH; implemented the five new races; enhanced the spell system to be more robust; consolidated all banks into one master system, including moving River's Rest to it's own bank system.
FGM Taelrand	Rewrote movement; created new movement verbs; revamped dragging system; rewrote core game verbs; guild redesign; enhancive item system; creature conversions and modifications; spell modifications; PROFILE system; new weapon types and enhancements; new stealing system; lock mastery, Red Rot disease design and implementation; skill checks for level compression; Assisted with: combat system redesign, combat maneuvers, room conversions, BNPC, and more.

P&C Quality Control and Histories:

Converting Elanthia to Point and Click

The process to convert all rooms in GemStone to the new Point & Click system was begun with a program which ran through each room in the game and performed an "auto-conversion" on any room it deemed suitable. When it was done, however, it reported over 10,000 rooms which would need to be manually converted by the GameMaster staff.

Once these adjustments were made, Alpha testers reported over 4,500 problems with Point & Click in room text. 1,656 of these reports were determined to be duplicates, leaving over 1,650 rooms that had to be adjusted.

Typos

In addition to the modifications to Point & Click, the QC team was reponsible for a couple thousand general typos. The tie for most reported typo: "sideburnshq" and incorrectly reported spell lists in the Character Manager.

Person	Contributions
SGM Lyredaen	Room Conversions, Typo Corrections, Bug Fixes; Aelotoi Guru: History, Bonuses, Features, Cultural Groups; Elven Documentation; Timeline Updates
FGM Ozias	Icemule Trace Guru; Room Conversions, Typo Corrections, Bug Fixes; Gnome Guru: History, Bonuses, Features, Cultural Groups; Clovertooth Hall, Phase I Expansion; Input on: Citizenship, Justice, Demon Summoning; World Expansion QC (Jails, Citizenship Offices, etc.), Staff Training (QC, P&C)
AGM Pandoreh	Room Conversions, Typo Corrections, Bug Fixes; Half-Krolvin Guru: History, Bonuses, Features, Cultural Groups
AGM Jacien	Room Conversions, Typo Corrections, Bug Fixes; Erithian Guru: History, Bonuses, Features, Cultural Groups
AGM Aiza	Trainee; Room Conversions, Typo Corrections, Bug Fixes
AGM Tolli	Room Conversions, Typo Corrections, Bug Fixes; Half-Krolvin Guru: History, Bonuses, Features, Cultural Groups
FGM Aelsidhe	Room Conversions, Typo Corrections, Bug Fixes; Erithian Guru: History, Bonuses, Features, Cultural Groups

Roleplaying and Town Systems

How Big Is a GemStone System?

The community service system (part of the Justice system) includes over 15,000 lines of code (before P&C additions were added.) Of those, the basic system mechanics are 1,700 lines of code, while the task-specific mechanics are 13,300 lines. The longest tasks (Icemule Penguin Cleaning and Solhaven Public Laundry) are 1,200 lines each. While the shortest tasks (Landing Garden Weeding and Kharam Dzu Statue Cleaning) are 350 lines each.

Shop and NPC Conversions

NPC and shop conversions, some of which are still ongoing, included nearly 200 shops, and nearly 500 NPCs.

Person	Contributions
SGM Mitra	Meeting Hall System; Food and Drink; Sprite Quests; Racial Foods for new characters; Racially-appropriate new character clothing items; Ta'Vaalor Locker Annex
SGM Brauden	Character Manager, Raging Thrak and New User Tour Exp Modifications, Host Tool Modifications
FGM Claw	Converted over 1100 NPCs manually to our new base NPC system. This conversion will allow for future NPC expansion.
FGM Sleken	Teras Isle Guru; Citizenship system; Created the new Base NPC system
AGM Alyias	New Justice System, assisted with Citizenship, adjustments to the SAY command.
AGM Valissan	Raging Thrak Updates, Shop Conversions; "ThunderMage" - the highlight converter from Wizard to StormFront
AGM Ildran	Justice - Community Service system; CHE improvements; Registrar Update; Sprite Quests; Inn Table improvements; Various command improvements (GLANCE, SHAKE, SWAP, and POINT), Ventriloquism, Imitation
AGM Bernt	Trainee; converted well over a hundred shops to the new shop system
AGM Tilmont	Trainee; Shop conversions; Sprite Quest assistance; Ta'Vaalor Locker Annex P&C Conversions

War of Nations

Person	Contributions
SGM Carraig	Roleplaying Events Manager; Manager "Red Rot" Theme
FGM Voraviel	Manager "Griffon Sword Saga" Event; Assistance "Baron Hochstib" Theme
FGM Bradach	River's Rest Guru; Manager "Krolvin Incursion" Theme
FGM Mikos	Sol Haven Guru; Manager "Baron Hochstib" Theme
AGM Lothwyn	Assistance "Troll Pathfinder" Theme; Assisted with Minor Summoning; Assistant: "Griffin Sword Saga" Event
AGM Jharra	Manager: "V'Reen Advent" Theme; Assistance "Troll Migration" Theme; War of Nations News Updates; wrote convert-based messaging for Blind (311); "Elven Crests and Heraldry" documents; River's Rest Alchemist updates; River's Rest Zelian Shrine; Assistant: "Griffin Sword Saga" Event
AGM Talairi	Assistance "Red Rot" Theme
AGM Vogue	Manager "Troll Pathfinder" Theme

Events and Referals

Since development of GemStone IV began in September, GMs reported running almost 2,000 events: from invasions, to merchant visits, to NPCs. Some were single events. Some were part of a greater event such as the War of Nations storylines. At the same time, GMs answered over 2,600 referals.

Items

During GemStone IV's development, GMs created over 10,000 items in GemStone IV ALONE. (We have not run this report on the items created in GSIV.) Some of these items may have been parts of areas, treasure, costumes, but many of them would have been items placed in ezshops for merchant sales. (Of course, items sold in ezshops would be copied repeatedly as they sold.)

GMs modified items 78,200+ times during this period. Many of these modifications would have been made to the same item, as GMs may modify an item over a dozen times before they are done with it. However, this does not include the 14,500+ times that GMs modified the "SHOW" of items, or the 2,000+ times GMs modified the "READ" of items.

Customer Service

Person	Contributions
SGM Isten	Hiring and Training Supervisor
SGM Mindra	Festivals and Events Manager
FGM Tigermist	Premium
AGM Kabosh	Premium
AGM Elowen	Premium, Trainee
FGM Khaladon	Platinum
AGM Hunterleigh	Platinum, Rewrote the Merchant Document
AGM Illusion	Platinum
AGM Talisker	Platinum
FGM Krash	Assistance "Red Rot" theme of War of Nations.
AGM Mahegh	Guild Events
FGM Andraste	Weddings
AGM Brennwyn	Weddings
FGM Modrian	Events and Training
AGM Soraya	PRO / CHE
FGM Kyalia	Player Run Events
AGM Roxia	Mentors, Trainee
FGM Kennesaw	Trainer
AGM Siani	Host Manager
AGM Elbrion	Host Instructor
AGM Zyllah	Host Instructor, Rewrote the New Player Document
AGM Faradeh	QC, Assisted with Minor Summoning
AGM Agro	QC, Assistant "Krolvin Incursion" Storyline
AGM Sirina	QC, Trainee
FGM Mignon	Forums Manager
AGM Ysbail	Contributed to Spirit Servant Messaging

In-House GemStone Team

David Whatley: President & CEO, StormFront Lead Design

Neil Harris: Executive Vice-President and Marketing

Melissa Meyer: GemStone IV Producer

Mike Paddock: Technical Producer

Bryan Files: Senior Client Programmer (StormFront)

Mike Anderson: Client Programmer (StormFront)

Greg Allen: Senior Game Engine Programmer

Johnny Waitt: Game Engine Programmer

Jeff Gatlin: Web-based Character Manager

Steph Shaver: Web Master

Elonka Dunin: General Community Management

Josh Bouscher: Developer

Chris Larsen: Developer

Matt Meyer: Developer

Aaron Standridge: Developer

Andy Finkenstadt: Oracle Developer and Database Administrator

Russ Whiteman: Billing Database Developer and Administrator

Jim Miller: Network Administrator

Liz Brown: Network Administrator

Tamma Speraneo: Office Manager

Chris Moore: Production Assistant, Database Programmer

Tracy Butler: Artist

Candy Palmer: Artist

Mike Bishop: Skin Artist

Chris Metzener: Customer Service Manager

Gary Roff: Billing Representative

Beth Paddock: Billing Supervisor

Michael Niemeyer: Billing Representative

Brian Arbuthnot: Billing Representative

Joe Lafata: Billing Representative

Moral Support: Thomas & Susan Zelinski, Eric Slick, Eric Latham

Special Thanks

Tsoran: ...for the support with his "Trainer," a spreadsheet created (and continually updated) to help users reallocate their GemStone III characters into GemStone IV.

Elfarran: Whom Tsoran credits with the original concept and creation of the Trainer.

Nilandia: For her helpful website: Nilandia's GemStone IV News Repository. Thanks as well to many other webmasters like her. While we may not know of them specifically, we realize many out there compile information for the use of others.

ALAE: For support by developing many new areas for GemStone IV.

The GemStone Hosts

For their countless hours of work and testing, for providing invaluable creative input, for doing their absolute best to stay up on the latest information so that they can answer dozens of questions a day about the GemStone IV changes ...

• Darqest
• Diogenes
• Eliryan
• Elowen
• Emeradan
• Faru
• Genorah
• Gervis
• Hadlir
• Indri
• Jobsen
• Kaeori
• Kedrik
• Khana
• Orleandra
• Quabu
• Rosalynn
• Roxia
• Sirath
• Strathspey
• Valeir
• Vincenzo
• Xintin
• Zilana

New User Usability Testers

• Sara Bowling
• Rebecca Brown-Gregory
• Denise Orr
• Jason Brown-Gregory
• Ann Larson

Alpha Testers

(Listed by Account)

• aeryus
• aquamarine
• armyjen
• ashby
• asmodea
• athdara
• baileydr1
• barefootng
• batesb
• bbrownell
• beaversr
• belzedar
• bigdog2178
• boyerbk
• brakian
• brandtjrt
• bsorensen
• bulrabye
• bushw1
• butrflynet
• carabele
• castellan
• castelr
• catalyst
• celgar
• celsit
• cepheus
• cheri
• cmcgee
• corruptedmind211
• creukir
• crabtreep
• dalamat
• dangd1
• darkmage
• dibianos
• dodesa1
• doggydaddi
• dracoblood
• dreamrain
• drizzt-12
• duguayk1
• dunaways
• dwgem
• economidesm
• elforiamoon
• encar
• etherin
• fenix825
• fhwsheep
• flooley
• framos
• furrowfoot
• fyre-elph
• gazeroth
• gdshyu1
• gespry
• goldstrohmk1
• grypes
• harman1
• hazyblue
• herpurpleness
• hewward
• hobo1
• insink
• insomnia
• irish16pride
• jaldaren
• jca18
• jezbelle
• jianne
• jodelkaj
• kandor
• karaina
• kerruishr
• khillian
• killz
• kilthal
• kinggem3
• l7xbass
• ladymystra
• lairdgeoff
• ldysowan
• lordroelet
• lordstrike
• lrdllorrin
• macgugank
• magicaljayson1
• magruderc1
• maloneya
• mara
• marshm1
• masterdtwin
• mazeikis
• mcshanem
• mersteel
• miloro
• minque
• mistavelly
• moongirl
• mythion
• narsyl
• neonseraph
• nephrenia
• neuberte
• niccolo
• niesem
• omega10
• opengang
• prestius
• qiuj
• quietpatrick
• qujo
• ranger97
• raxi
• rcetlin
• ren
• rhys
• roxana
• rwnmayfair
• schippj
• shylore
• sidake
• sidnny
• silverphoenix21
• siwas
• skywalker
• spaewife
• stoddardr
• stretch
• sybryna
• tartellb
• tedkpark
• teralioszen
• terrastar
• tigger
• torkosj5
• tr99
• tralkain
• tsoran
• tuckers
• tukka
• vagrant11
• valiria
• voodookitten
• wampas
• wannerr
• warrior3374
• whitec
• whitewolf027
• woodslass
• wyvoren
• yarxt

And to all of our loyal customers for their patience and for providing excellent feedback, with a special thanks to everyone who Beta Tested.

Resources

• GemStone IV Launch Credits