

                      
                               
                                
                       

                           
                                 
                              
                            

                     NEW Rancho Nevada Features for 3.0:

 o Three new userlog fields.  Co-ordination governs the player's ability
   to use special items, and powerful items require lots.  Co-ordination
   is depleted (rather like libido) each time an item is used, so
   another field (MaxCoord) keeps track of the user's maximum
   co-ordination.  Talent is similar to Knowledge in that it determines
   how many co-ordination points you get when you're promoted a level.
   These new restrictions on item usage should put an end to the
   notorious VKR cheats.

 o Rancho now keeps track of the highest room a user's been in in the
   VKR.  Now, if a user has been to (say) room 400, s/he can later enter
   the VKR at that room instead of entering at 200 and
   hacking-and-slashing their way to 400, which was time-consuming and
   annoying.

 o Rancho now comes with a HUGE new optional "Maze" file.  The classic
   Rancho Nevada is still the default, but you now have the option of
   renaming RNCHPLEX.CTL to MAZE.CTL and giving your users a whole new
   adventure!

 o Rancho now supports up to 800 areas.  The "RanchoPlex" maze actually
   uses more than the former limit of 255 areas - it has over 300!

 o Rancho now supports up to 1000 users.  This will allow you to have
   more employees or more players, and should provide relief to sysops
   of larger systems where more than 255 people are interested in
   playing the game...

 o MANY cosmetic and logic buglets have been corrected.  There are
   just too many to even try to list, so I won't, but I think you and
   your users will be pleased with the new appearance and function.

 o Yes, I have put in some front-line protection to enforce multi-node
   licences.  I have put in many redundancies to make sure that Rancho
   never EVER falsely reports too many users playing, but if you have
   problems let me know...

 o You can now enter up to 24 lines in the message editor!  The old
   limit was 16.

 o I have found that, for various reasons, some systems can't reliably
   pass ANSI information in the door drop file.  If this problem applies
   to you, you can now opt to either ask the user if s/he wants ANSi ,or
   attempt to detect it automatically with a DSR command.

 o Employee performance is now totally unlimited - although employees
   are still prevented from winning the game, sufficiently powerful
   employees can easily climb to level 100 before your best players!
   Watch out!

 o Areas can now be "Safe" - no sex allowed, "Dark" - you can't see
   anyone, or "Free" - no turns are deducted when leaving this area.
   These new twists should add even more character to the game!

 o Sysops with existing 3-node keys can now run up to 4 copies of Rancho
   at a time!

 o STILL NOT CRIPPLED!  You have a fully functional 4-node Rancho Nevada
   package which needs no key, no separately-packed story files, and has
   no annoy-ware delays or beeps!



                     NEW Rancho Nevada Features for 2.0:

 o "VirginKillers Row" where users can pick up quick and easy money and
    experience!  1,440,000 different people to go after in 500 rooms!

 o "Jacuzzis" where low level players can (probably) gain minor advancement

 o 11 "Special" items which give strategic advantages!

 o Unattended "attack" modes!  Characters can run away, attack, or stay
   put while others are playing!

 o All-New User Editor -- *much* easier to read!

 o 154 Sex Toys!  Add your own!

 o 111 Defensive Items!  Add your own!

 o Improved "employee" performance!  Some of them can become truly dangerous!

 o Lots of new Cheri chat text!

 o Many new stories!

 o Improved user interface and crash resistance!

 o Now overlaid for better memory efficiency!  Runs in smaller task
   sizes!  Userlog all in RAM for better sharing violation resistance
   and vastly improved speed!

 o Slicker ANSi and menus!

 o More SysOp Definable Options!

 o Word-wrapping chat mode!  Every door should have this!

 o Still only one executable!  Why fuss with a whole system of different
   programs just to take care of ONE game?  Every door should be this
   easy to set up and run!

                   -------=========<>=========-------

   Best of all, Rancho Nevada costs less to register and is (as always)
   not crippled in any way!  All features are fully available in the
   shareware version.  If you believe in try-before-you-buy software as
   I do, send in your registration today!  See RANCHO.DOC for details...

                                                        -=( Tommy )=-

   Bug Fixes for 2.02:  In 2.00 (and previous versions) Rancho would
   sometimes exit with a runtime error if you had a very poor drinking
   contest record and attempted a drinking contest.  This is (hopefully)
   fixed.  2.00 also reported an incorrect drinking tolerance when you
   peeked at a user's stats in the computer terminal feature... also
   fixed.  Players can no longer go after others who are too low by
   using unattended behavior to get around the limits.

   Bug Fix for 2.03: Previously, Rancho would exit with a runtime on
   systems with little free memory when saving messages in the VMB
   feature.  Although I have not been able to duplicate the problem on
   my development system nor on my BBS, I *think* I have fixed this bug.
   BTW, you may want to let your users know that there's no points for
   sending mail to employees and such messages are not saved anyway (in
   order to conserve disk space...)

   New Feature for 2.03: If you are running Rancho under DesqView, you
   may find that it becomes very slow at times.  If this is the case for
   you, this version has a new config file option DVSLICE which may
   solve this problem. 2.03 is shipped with this option set to solve the
   problem (DVSLICE=No).

   2.06: I *think* I have finally solved the mystery mis-resets that
   leave some people unable to play their turns.  I have also beefed up
   the random employee names to 500 male and 500 female first names!
   With 1,100 last names that combines to 1.1 MILLION people!  I am also
   experimenting with new sorting methods for the rankings; this version
   seems a fair bit quicker than before...

   2.30: Lots of new stuff!  Firstly, those of you with slow computers
   and lots of employees will appreciate that I have changed to a binary
   sort method in the Player Rankings!  The old algorithm took 5 seconds
   to sort 240 users on my 486; now it appears instantaneous!  Secondly,
   I have added a new "special" item to the Sex Shoppe.  It's called
   Room Zoom, it's horribly expensive but it's also very useful.  What
   it does is fast-forward the player 20 rooms ahead in the VKR.  When
   you consider that players could conceivably buy their way to the
   "magical" sex toys using Room Zoom, you'll appreciate that I made it
   prohibitively expensive! Finally, the other new feature is option
   "O": Look.  You can now peek into another room in the maze, which
   allows the player to make the tactical decision whether or not to go
   there (as in, whether or not someone else the player may be looking
   for or avoiding is there).

   2.40: Since announcing Rancho in AdultLinks, I have received many
   file requests for Rancho and compliments on the same!  Thanks one and
   all who have responded!  NEW STUFF: Rancho Nevada now supports
   PCBOARD.SYS, CALLINFO.BBS, and DOOR.SYS!  These formats have so far
   only been tested with an ooooooold (1989) version of DoorMaster; if
   anyone has trouble running Rancho under PC-Board or WildCat!, let me
   know what the trouble is and I'll try and fix it right away!  In the
   meantime, if trouble persists, try using DoorMaster and running
   Rancho in DORINFO1.DEF mode - Just stick DoorMaster in your batch
   file before Rancho, with the apropos parameters for your BBS (consult
   DoorMaster's docs first)...  ALSO, you can now use Rancho with
   DORINFO files for nodes other than 1!  Just use the -F parameter with
   the node number you want, and RN will look for & use the appropriate
   dorinfo file (e.g. RANCHO -F5 will cause RN to use DORINFO5.DEF
   instead of DORINFO1.DEF).  Of course, your BBS must be able to write
   dorinfo files for the nodes you want, and it must also be able to
   pass this node number to the batch file as a paramter...

   2.50:
      - I have made some major improvements to Rancho's memory
        efficiency!  Where Rancho used to require 300k+ to run, now it
        will run with as little as 228k free!  This should allow more
        systems than ever to run Rancho in tight memory quarters!
      - Also: an ALL-NEW USER EDITOR!  If you hated the clunky old user
        editor (as everyone who's ever used it did, myself included)
        then you'll love the SLICK NEW ONE!  No more hitting Enter after
        every command!   Plus a new "search user" mode!
      - I have also cleaned up numerous minor bugs (e.g.: a bogus user
        created when the first player enters the game; this has been
        eliminated).
      - Also, the names files have been fattened!  There are now 600
        "Girl" names and 600 "Boy" names and 1200 last names; combined,
        they provide 1.44 MILLION different people!
      - An oversight on my part has been corrected; I had forgotten to
        include the command line switches for the new dropfile modes in
        RANCHO.DOC!  These switches are now properly documented (and
        extremely-well so in the registered version)...

   2.60:
      - A few more minor bugs have been fixed.  For example, Annie would
        sometimes tell you that you could afford n items, when
        in reality you only had money for n-1 items.
      - Some users have discovered that the default settings allow them
        to finish the game in just a couple of days by using the VKR.
        Obviously this causes a problem for users who want to play
        sportingly.  Rancho 3.0 will properly address this problem with
        an improved VKR, but for now I have added a config option which
        will let you turn the VKR off...
      - I have moved many of the game's features to the overlay, which
        should give considerably more memory elbow room.  Under a
        multitasker, launched from a BBS, every byte counts!
      - The official distribution archive is now ZIP.  It's not as tight
        as the formerly-used ARJ for executables, but too many sysops
        refuse to accept uploads in any other format.  Guys, wake up!
        Formats change as new technology becomes available.  This is the
        wrong industry to allow oneself to be mired in the past.

   3.00: See the press release at the top of this file.

   3.30:- The VKR has been modified; the virgins do not increase in
          power gradually with each room but exponentially every 10
          rooms!  This will definitely throw a wrench into the plans of
          those players who've been using the VKR to go from zero to
          winning in a matter of days.

        - Also affecting the VKR is the fact that the "co-ordination"
          consumption of special items such as Energy Pill, Super Stud
          Pill, etcetera has been SQUARED!  This means these items will
          not be much more difficult to use at lower levels but it will
          become nearly impossible to use more than a few of the most
          powerful items each turn at the higher levels!  Since constant
          use of Energy Pills and Super Stud Pills is the means by which
          certain low-rent users cruise through the VKR, the game should
          be a lot fairer to everyone now.

        - Equally annoying to sysops and users is the fact that until
          this version, a shifted backspace or ANSi cursor-left (used
          incorrectly by some neophytes as a backspace) would be echoed
          back but not recognized.  This had the effect of making the
          user think s/he'd deleted something when that was not the
          case.  Now, the shift-backspace (ASCII 127) is recognized
          equally with the BS (ASCII 8) and any ANSi cursor movements
          are met with a beep, displaying the erroneous code rather than
          echoing back a nonexistent movement.  The exception to this is
          that ANSi cursor movements are now properly handled at the
          main command prompt (see below).

        - Now, when a non-playing user or employee in berserk,
          conservative or coward mode makes a pass at you, you see the
          encounter from a defensive point of view - which makes sense;
          someone goes after you and you try NOT to be seduced, where
          before if someone made a pass at you, you would wind up trying
          to seduce them against their will - illogical.  It took a LOT
          of quasi-redundant code to straighten this out, which is why
          it didn't appear sooner.

        - I have moved another big block of code to the overlay, but I
          have also increased the overlay buffer size for better
          swapping performance and hopefully fewer mystery crashes...
          This operation results in about a 20k or so reduction in net
          resident code size!

        - NUMEROUS cosmetic and ANSi improvements!

        - I have done away with the complex multi-node licence fee
          structure.  Read QUICKDOX.DOC for details; if you run a big
          BBS, Rancho just got a ton less expensive!  Also, I have done
          away with the "extended docs" as a registered feature; ZEN.DOC
          is now included in the shareware archive to allow you to get
          the most out of Rancho even before you register it!  With all
          this, Rancho is far and away the best value in an adult door!

        - Users of full-spec ANSi terminals may now use the arrow keys
          to navigate the maze.  Up-arrow means North, Down-arrow means
          South, Left-arrow means West and Right-arrow means East.  You
          still need to press U or D to go up or down.  And yes, the
          arrow keys work both remotely and locally.

   3.31:- Exactly one bug is believed fixed with this maintenance
          release.  Until now, Rancho Nevada, NanoBBS and all other
          doors and online products by Gerald Albion would crash when
          just the wrong exotic combination of interrupt-driven drivers
          and programs tried to do something at once.  This problem is
          believed fixed with this release, and new releases of
          TommCHAT, Rancho, Qpid, BlueVote, Hi-Q and Purity are also now
          available which fix this problem.

   3.32:- Someone has pointed out a logic bug in the part of the game
          where you swap defenses with the person who you just repelled.
          This is fixed.  Also I have received a report of trouble
          getting Rancho to work under TriBBS.  I believe this is due to
          an invalid baud rate line written by TriBBS.  Either that or
          Maximus-CBCS, NanoBBS, RA and numerous other BBSes have been
          writing invalid DORINFO1.DEF files all these years.  Whatever
          the case, I have added code to address the TriBBS "flavour" of
          DORINFO1.DEF and it should now work in local mode from the
          doors menu in TriBBS.  I have also concurrently added code to
          force local mode play in all door drop file formats when
          either the baud rate or com port is zero (Com0).  This should
          make local mode play from most any BBS a ton friendlier.

   -==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-

   Whether you've registered or not, I want to hear your comments on the
   game! If you have a bug report or just an interesting story, leave
   feedback on the following BBS...

              ......
        ..m############m..            Looking for something to read?
      m"    """   "##   ###m
    m#m            "#"   ####m     Call the greatest Text File BBS in the
  .###.m###               #####.                  world!
  ##########.           .#######
 |###########           ########|         THC Freedom Online BBS
 ############m         |#########
|##############.   m## ##########|  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
|###############m  ##############|    1.8 Gigabytes Online - 2 Lines
|#################mm""   ""######|          16,000 Text Files
 ####################       "####
 |###################|       |##|   Free Access from your first call!
  ####################m     ####
  `####################   m####'     (604) 361-4549 [300-28800 V.FC]
    "##################  ####"       (604) 380-6467 [300-14400 V32b]
      "###############l ###"
         ""###########m""           "Reach For The Edges Of Your Mind"
              ~~~~~~
1:340/26     Fidonet                      email: ue075@freenet.victoria.bc.ca
69:3601/26   AdultLinks                   9:1900/1  NirvanaNet(tm)
