Changes to MELEE for the 3.2 public release:

- A few more of the to-be-expected aesthetic improvements.
- Fixed the logic error that was indicating a character had no shield in
  the arena when he DID have one, and vice versa.
- Maintenance program now takes one optional command line parameter. If you
  use "Maint Q" then the maintenance program will not display anything,
  which will speed up its execution.
- Warriors can now again be imported and exported! Finally!
- Fixed the error problems with reading/writing messages if using the local
  (ascii) message base, rather than one of the other established ones.
- Increased the payoffs by a small margin...

============================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the official 3.13beta release:

- Fixed the problem that caused MELEE not to display remotely (what a giant
  gaff v3.11 was! Truly sorry about that, folks. And fixed the problem that
  was keeping MELEE from exiting gracefully on some systems without a lot
  of memory for running doors. MELEE now takes significantly less memory
  to run. Having lots of EMS memory will GREATLY speed game play.
- Fixed the problem that was causing Warriors to be prematurely deleted for
  inactivity.

===========================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the official 3.11gamma release:

- Fixed the login displays when logging into the game in local mode.
- Fixed non-displaying of constitution training percentage.
- Reduced the delay time in some of the training areas to speed play.
- Improved the login screen formatting which shows whether you have a loan
  due, and tells you you're getting your salary and benefits of medicine.

===========================================================================

Changes to MELEE for the 3.10gamma version (not officially released):

- Restructured the MELEE.CFG file to eliminate problems in key generation
  related to the reading of different dropfiles. You MUST use the new config
  file in order to run MELEE successfully. There is no more MELEE.INF file!
- MELEE now supports JAM, HMB, FidoNet, EzyCom, Squish, and plain Asciii
  message bases! This should fix the double-spaced FidoNet (*.msg) type
  bases, too! Wildcat support may come one of these days...<sigh>
- Alex's dissertation on how your gate receipts are calculated when you win
  is now available in the Dorm Library.
- Re-looked the missed-loan-payment-counter problem and corrected it so that
  missed load payments are only incremented once a day.
- You now must be 25 years old in order to purchase Dr. Blade's Fountain of
  Youth Juice. It's a health department thing (primarily needed because of
  the increasing number of 0-year-old addicts....). <grin>
- Reimplemented the matches-survived bonuses. You get a survival bonus at
  5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 matches survived.
- The still-necessary aesthetic/spelling/grammar corrections. <zheesh>
- Computer opponent now will always win _something_ when beating you; no
  more 0 payoffs for them, so they get the same as you would if the
  positions were reversed.
- Fixed a bug which was causing fame increases to be double what they
  should have been.
- Added a screen display so MELEE will show what it's reading into the
  SystemName and SysOpName fields, to make non-functioning keys easier
  to trouble shoot.
- Added to the combat screen the option to drop your shield; this is not yet
  implemented....
- Modified the effects of some training improvements.
- Fixed a bug that limited damagebonus to 25.
- Now you can only go to the bank a couple times a day.
- Fixed the payoff algorithm! Yeah! No more too-low payouts!
- Included the ability to use a file called "BadName.Txt" into which
  SysOps can put names/words they do not consider appropriate to play.
- You now get a display (in combat) of your weapon quality, to better help
  you judge when you need to swap your weapons to prevent breakage.
- The shield status display in combat now better reflects whether you're
  actually USING your shield, or just carrying its weight around.
- You can no longer challenge yourself to a Blood Match. Zheesh....
- You are now limited to the number of times you can visit the Street of
  Ghods. Going too often will reduce your training time.
- (Hopefully) fixed the blank-character occurance when someone who is killed,
  or who suicides immediately, attempts to re-enter the game.

=============================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the 3.01gamma special release (MEL3_OS2.ZIP update):

- Fixed the accessing-com1-problems when run under OS/2!!!
- Added info on use of the MELEE.INF file (for registered systems) to the
  SysOp.Doc file (zheesh, I thought it was in there all this time!).
- When you die, and have a clone, you "inhabit" your clone at the same age
  you died--you cannot use a clone as a way to extend your life! This also
  now is the case for the opponent you are fighting.
- The to-be-expected aesthetic improvements, of course.

===========================================================================
Changes to MELEE prior to the official 3.0gamma release:

- Warriors created during beta testing will work in this version, but will
  NOT be eligible for tournaments. All players who are shooting for the
  Labor Day championship _will_ start off on a level playing surface, from
  scratch, so that everyone has an equal chance in the First Annual MELEE
  Tournament of Champions, coming Labor Day, 1994.
- You are now only charged for missing a loan payment once per day, no
  matter how many times you log on.
- Fixed the DOS Error "File Not Assigned" bug when collections thugs
  "help" you get more money by pawning your stuff in the equipment shops;
  this also fixes the same bug which would have popped up in maintenance
  during a thievery action, if anyone had found it. <g> Don't feel bad,
  this bug only reared its ugly head if a particular shop didn't have ANY
  used equipment.
- You can no longer get a piece of equipment out of repair until the next
  day--fixed the bug which allowed you to get ANY item out, as long as ONE
  of them was ready (not the item you want has to be ready).
- Collections hits are now done on the way TO the arena from your dorm; you
  don't end up in combat without arms or equipment like you did; also a
  couple minor bugs with the collections routine were fixed (or exchanged
  for new bugs....<g>)
- Investments are now a _little_ more profitable over the long run.

=========================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the 3.13beta release [the LAST beta!]:

- As always, the usual spelling/grammar/aesthetic corrections....
- You no longer get an environment bonus if you fight a 0-level android.
- Dirty Tricks are now completely disabled; you can't raise your skill.
- You should not be able to give your character the same name as someone
  who was killed that day; this is so that then bank accounts and other
  shops can be cleaned out of the deceased estate items so a new character
  doesn't inherit anything from the old one of the same name.
- Fixed the negative-salary-for-warriors-with-too-much-fame bug.
- Fixed the 'L' parameter no-bbs local logon name check bug.
- When you get beat up by the collection agency leg-breakers for missing
  more than 3 payments, if your on-hand equipment and money isn't enough
  to pay off your loan, the helpful goons go steal all your equipment out
  of the various shops and pawn the stuff off for you, then give you the
  money so you can make your next payment... too bad they don't bargain
  a little harder when they sell your weapons....

=========================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the 3.12beta release:

[I'm not going to say MELEE's getting larger, but as of this release, I can]
[no longer compile it from within DESQview; I have to exit to DOS! <g>     ]

- Alex's new payoff algorithm is in place!
- The to-be-expected aesthetic and grammar improvements/corrections....
- Added a > 0 check so you can't roll your training time over from 0
  to 255 in the Western Quarter (leave it to someone who'd go to the
  western quarter to find that bug! <g>).
- Some more corrections to the gender-specific wording of messages....
- You now get a message if your clone has saved you from death in a
  Blood Match; and a reminder that you no longer have a viable one.
- Fixed gender-pronoun problems with wording when you win a Blood
  Match Challenge.
- Rewrote the combat AI enhancement so that computer controlled Warriors
  that are desperate (few wounds left, but not fatigued) can't hit you
  when you are out of range.
- You can now spy on androids of level 6-9 and Terminators.
- When playing the game in "L" (local) mode, character naming now must
  follow the same naming conventions used when playing from a BBS.
- Losers who are killed in a Blood Match Challenge are no longer auto-deleted
  from the database the next day. Now the loser must log in (so he can see
  what happened to him) and then "finish" himself off by suicide. If you
  suicide because you were trashed in a Blood Match Challenge, then you do
  NOT have to wait until the next day to create another character (of course
  if the loser never logs back in, then his character will be deleted for
  inactivity just like any normal character would).
- Spy costs were wrapping around due to integer overflow on Warriors with
  high fame. Fixed.
- Hopefully, I fixed the extra spacing found in the messages when using
  Fidonet (*.msg) format message bases, and solved the "orphan" flag
  problems. Messages SHOULD now be exported properly <fingers crossed>.
- Equipment, when stolen, now ends up being pawned (it can be found in the
  Used Equipment shops). Additionally, if you've had equipment stolen, you
  get a message telling you this, so you don't think it's a program bug when
  you KNOW you left something in a shop, but it's gone when you go back to
  get it! <evil grin>
- When you chicken out of a Blood Match where you are the higher-ranked
  Warrior, you are now stripped of ALL equipment, even if it was in a
  shop for enhancement or repair.... if you piss someone off and are ranked
  higher than they, you'd better be too dangerous to challenge!
- Missed loan payment counter now increases....

=========================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the 3.11b release:

- The usual obligatory asthetic, grammatical improvements....
- Fixed a logic problem in the Cryogenic Storage searching routines upon
  login, which might have been the culprit of the long-elusive storage bug.
- MELEE now checks to ensure you don't end up fighting yourself in a
  Blood Match challenge (if your opponent's name begins with the first
  five or so characters that yours does!).
- You can no longer escape the consequences of losing a Blood Match Challenge
  by dropping from fatigue; MELEE checks for this now!
- Fixed the top-ranked-warrior-sometimes-disappears bug! Finally!
- Warriors will now have correctly cascaded blocking, parrying, and
  countering skills upon generation.
- Slightly tougher combat AI (the end is that you shouldn't have to pick a
  Warrior with a ranking 15-20 points above yours in order to get a good
  fight....<wolfish grin>. But don't worry, they do NOT cheat.
- MELEE now checks to see if either you or your opponent are currently in
  combat in another arena (on a different node). If so, you must wait until
  that combat is finished, so if you or your opponent dies in THAT combat,
  than this one won't take place and possibly invalidate those results.
- MELEE now again lets you know who's been challenging you to normal combats.
- The challenge file bulletin is now automatically trimmed.
- Blood match challenge announcements and results now reflect who did the
  challenging and who was victorious.
- EUREKA! I finally found and fixed--in one fell swoop!--the long elusive
  Blood Match Challenge bugs! No more run-time error aborts, and no more
  failure to save the results of the battle to the losing Warrior's stats!
- It's no longer quite as profitable to kiss up to your ghod or ghoddess
  after you've already earned his or her favor....

============================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the 3.10a (limited-alpha) release (5/26/94):
- More aesthetic/spelling (and gender-related) corrections/improvements.
- MELEE in local mode will no longer give problems if <CR> is entered
  at the "Enter your name" prompt. Warrior names must have at least two
  letters in them.
- Alright, already! You no longer need to reserve training time to get
  to the Western Quarter. Buncha whiners....<g>
- You now can read, in the library, technical data on how your character
  will age (thanks, Alex).
- You can now read about updates to the game in the Library.
- Yea! Finally fixed the missed-loan-payment incrementation problem!
- Missing 3 loan payments is now even WORSE than it was before!

========================================================================
Changes to MELEE for the v3.09 alpha release:
[v3.08 was an update to v3.07, and nothing was changed except the problem]
[which was keeping Warriors who'd taken out a loan from fighting anyone. ]
- Blood match challenges and results are NOW correct!
- Browsing the retired-warriors room now gives you the info on various
  retired warriors, as opposed to info on you....
- Retiring now also scrubs your equipment from all the shops, so your
  follow-on namesakes can't "inherit" your stuff.
- made several of the normal aesthetic/spelling improvements/corrections...
- number of missed loan payments is now correctly displayed on login and
  correctly incremented when you exit the game.
- Fixed the bug that swapped YOUR Warrior's weapons when you fought an
  opponent that had a secondary weapon, but no primary one.
- In the stat-adjustment screen, choosing a skill now gives you a 5%
  increase, rather than just a 1% one.
- Warriors no longer get ANY weight penalty if they aren't carrying or
  wearing an item (minimum weight of any item up till now was 1, even if it
  didn't exist! (playing it safe with division by zero...<shrugs>))
- Non-BloodMatch challenges are no longer recorded as Blood Match challenges
  if the challenger of the battle loses and is killed.
- Now you get a display of your gold on hand when buying a piece of
  equipment.
- Dead Warriors now get correctly purged from the data base after a blood
  match (happens in nightly maintenance).

=============================================================================
Changes to MELEE for v3.07 Beta:
- Nothing but fixed the damn login bug which was keeping characters
  from updating their salary/gold and wounds/fatigue. Sorry, this was due
  to my not realizing what Bill did during his check for missed loan payments;
  it is NOT his fault, purely mine. Sorry, testers.
==============================================================================
Changes to MELEE for v3.06 Beta:
- Warrior starting gold has now been reset to its "standard" setting...
- Reduced the impact of intelligence on Initiative training; also slowed
  the rate at which you can gain initiative <muuuahahah>. It also takes
  longer to develop your Ki.
- Fixed the runtime errors associated with Investments and Maintenance runs.
- Dr. Blade now makes sure you get charged for using cryogenic storage (and
  the associated risks are now implemented).
- Fixed the misplaced cursor on the Used Weapons Selection screen, and the
  associated runtime error. <sigh>
- With the rising costs of health care, Doc Blade has had to imstitute a
  5000 minimum office visit fee for his healing services.....
- The inevitable spelling and screen format improvements.
- Fixed the runtime error associated with selling a secondary weapon.
- It doesn't ALWAYS take an hour out of your training time now to go and
  worship (and pay for favors from) your Ghod.
- A whole myriad of bug notes that Alex pointed out, and which I fixed
  without remembering to come to this document to log them as fixed...<g>
- Maintenance now deletes characters with blank file names (although I'm
  not sure how they'd get in there in the first place...) for Bill.

=============================================================================
Changes made prior to the MELEE v3.05 Beta release:
- You can now counter a counter again (and have YOUR counters countered
  in turn).
- The indexing problem in the used equipment shops has been fixed.
- Fixed the "file not found" error occurring in the used shield shop.
- Fixed the bug which kept you from seeing what you'd left in Shannon's Helms.
- Selecting '4' will now get you out of the thieves' guild, on that menu.
- The usual batch of aesthetic string/menu/screen improvements.
- You can now select Terminators for viewing with unshifted 't' key.
- Problems with being told one has an item of equipment when one doesn't
  have been fixed everywhere (I'm pretty sure <g>); this also fixed accounting
  problems manifested when one kept buying the same item over and over.
- MELEE will now read a dorinfo#.def file, where the # is the node number,
  up to 9, is the BBS node the game is being played from. For more than 9
  nodes, the com port information is taken from the digi-board fossil.
- Finally got rid of the damn "you're" <--> "your" idiocy. <g>
- Account balances in the Guild Bank (for savings and investment accounts) are
  now absorbed by the Guild when a Warrior is killed.
- Formatting problem during login news-updates has been greatly improved.
[at this point, MELEE v3.04alpha/interim was released to check the success]
[of the above bug fixes and the version was incremented to 3.05alpha]
- Character gold is now deducted after commissioning sabotage or thefts...
- One can now abort [space] from the android selection menus for combat.
- Blood match challenge problems should now be completely resolved. You cannot
  log in now if your character is being engaged in a Blood Match where you are
  the challenger, until the match is decided (in case you get killed!). Now,
  if the Blood Match challenger selects the (K)ill option, and fails, the
  loser is maimed, rather than escaping scott free, as he used to.
- Fixed the "mysterious weapon swap" bug.
- The ghods of MELEE (Myrmidia, Taal, Ulric and Khaine) are a bit more
  omniscient now. If you worship one, better stick to his/her requirements!
- Doctor Blade now gets his money, even if you fail to drink the Fountain-of-
  Youth Juice correctly, thus making the treatment a failure....<g>
- Fixed the cryogenic storage retrieval algorithm....
- The Special Environment Bonus is now always at least 1000 gold credits.
- The Special Environment Bonus now gets paid when it should, without regard
  to whether it's the winning character's chosen environment.
- You can no longer "edge around" someone else on the beam!
- You're now told if you've maxed a stat out BEFORE you train it.
- Re-fixed some of the used equipment retrieval algorithms...<sigh>
- Equipment was being deleted from the used-equipment shops much quicker than
  it should have been.... fixed.
- You can now get the "low down" on what the various weaponsmiths will do for
  you when you get your weapons enhanced....
