  /<_____________________________________________________________________>\
  \________  __________   ______   ___________   _____   _____________  __/
   |      /  ;\_    __/   .|    \_/   \_     |    \_    ____/_|_     /  ;\
   |.   -/     \    \_     |.    |    .|.    |    .|.    |    ./   -/     \
  _|!   /       \    |    .|!    |     |!    |     |!    |     |   /       \
  \________   _//____|   _;|_____|   _;|_____|   _;|_____|   _;|_______  _//
->- -----|_____/-----|_____|-----|_____|-----|_____|-----|_____|----|_____/ -<-
<  .     .     .     .     .      d A M N E d      .     .     .     .     .  >
->- - -- --- ---- ----- ------ ----------------- ------ ----- ---- -mG(CiA) -<-

darkness v1.00b3

--

little editorial type thing...

FIRST, a note... it has been almost a year since the first build of darkness
beta 2.  where the hell have I been?  between working and going to college
full time I didn't have much time to devote to what can sometimes be a big,
cumbersome, headache from hell giving job like working on darkness.  I've
gone through girlfriends, I've graduated college, and now I'm looking for a
job! I have kept up with updates to demonic.net and occasion releases aswell
as keeping my echonet, zer0net running full ahead... I'm also in the early
stages of 2 new door games, both fairly sure to be huge hits if I ever
finish them.  also in this time LORD and the rest of Seth Able's games have
been picked up and are being developed once again... many of you will
remember that LORD's old state was a big part of my inspiration for doing
darkness, and although I'm not amazingly confident in the direction it's
development is going, it is now at least being developed.  that said, I have
been getting loads of requests to fix the existing major bugs in darkness as
well as port it to door32.sys (mostly thanks to the win32 version of mystic.)
sooo, I've decided to go ahead and fix it, and add to it a bit... if I do
abandon it I want to abandon it in good working condition! :)

--

what this doesn't have:

- a whole lot of features i will add, but decided not to add until 1.00 is
  completed.
- a whole lot of testing under it's belt (most of my major testing boards
  are closed or now run door32 only based systems...)

what this does have:

- darkness v1.00 in a pretty much complete stage
- darkness dev kit/source/example igms
- probably a lot of bugs, typos, and other errors that have yet to be reported
or resolved.

this is where you come in: since this is a wide beta release there is no
way i can keep track of everyone and force you all to report back to me,
however it would appreciate it if anyone who wishes to help improve this
door would report to me with bugs, typos, cosmetic errors, and suggestions.
please mail these to darkness@demonic.net.

once again, this is a WIDE BETA version which means it can be distributed
publically without problems.

depending on the amount of problems reported and changes made there will
most likely be several releases/revisions of beta 3 and possibly another full
beta version before the final public release.

IMPORTANT, like i said... please send feedback directly concerning
darkness to darkness@demonic.net. my email address is jp@demonic.net if
you need to contact me for any other reason.

-jp (6/15/01)


UPDATE FOR BETA 3 (FOR PREVIOUS BETA TESTERS)

to upgrade from a previous beta version simply overwrite all files... if
problems are encountered be sure to reset the game.

stuff since beta 2 build 071900

! player listers now pause every 15 players... (requested)
! fixed bug in "sex" e-mail event of players being replaced and/or duped.
! modified batch file generation to leave out trailing back slashes in
  directories - didn't work in some versions of dos.
! modified internal directory changing to leave out trailing back slashes in
  directories - didn't work in some versions of dos, caused crashes when
  returning from igms.
! added directory changing after random event igms.
! fixed some cosmetic errors in help.ans.
! fixed cosmetic errors in gang editor (darkcfg)
! fixed several bugs in the gangs menu - of note, the kick a member gang
  leader option sometimes didn't work correctly and sometimes would let the
  gang leader kick himself out. 
% there have been reports in the past of gang files being overwritten and/
  or duplicated. the above bugfix may have cured this issue, but more testing
  is needed. if you run this version of darkness and come across this error
  please let me know and get as much other info (what option seemed to cause
  the problem, etc) as you can.
! darkcfg now checks for igmevent.dat which could have caused problems (rtes)
  in the game before if it was missing.
+ added door32.sys support
  + dropfile type now selectable from darkcfg
  + distros will now include dark32.exe, compiled for win32/door32.sys use.
  + start32.bat will be used to run dark32.exe
  + start32.bat is now checked for and generated by darkcfg
  % igms not compiled with a door32 compatible version of xdoor will give
    an error, others should work properly.
! players participating in online fights are no longer available for
  additional fights... really a bugfix since this, although not a big deal
  generally speaking, could cause some major problems.
+ above change adds variable ponfight : shortint (0 no, 5 yes) to players.dat
  records. 
! updated darkdev kit to contain newer xdoor versions/door32.sys support and
  record changes.

see whatsnew.txt for complete revision history...
