29th April 2006 - Long Overdue Update   t has beed way too long since this old Greybeard updated this site and he is thinking of seriously berating himself for his tardiness later... Seriously, I appologise for the lack of updates, I have been not only very busy but a little "under-the-weather" as it were, what with one thing and another, the website has been dreadfully neglected. I hope to remedy that in the near future (and a bit right now). A lot has happened since the last time I updated, changes in the module, changes in staff and changes in our general approach. As changes go some were nice and some were unfortunate. Some time ago we lost both DM Aule, DM Elbereth, and more recently, DM Vaire and DM Araw. We were very sad to see them go, but they did what they felt they had to, we respect that. On a more positive note we have DM Gwaihir, DM Curumo and DM Tulkas to help us out both on and off line now, a hearty welcome to them. Hopefully DM Melkor will join us soon. I know everyone will encourage them in their efforts. And welcome back to Barking Mad as our lead scripter in the role he held in UTT1. We welcome also a plethora of new and old players who have graced us with their presence. We hope you enjoy the world and get to know us and if you are an old timer, coming back to us, we hope that you like the changes that have been made to the mod since your last visit.   Itemset changes have been made in the iterests of improving the regionalisation of the world and the minimisation of "overt" magic in it.   Miscellaneous Area Updates: The Greenway and East Road, have had a slight facelift, and the Fords of Bruinen and the way into Rivendell are now more in keeping with the way we feel the world aught to be. Areas of the Deep Dark have just got darker... *evil chuckle*. Minas Tirith has seen some small changes, as much atmospheric as anything else, but it now has its Knights Hall for the members of the Knight of Gondor. The Great Hall of Erebor now looks a lot more Dwarvish.   NPCs: Along with the area changes, a great many NPCs, great and small, fair and foul, have had a bit of a make-over. To list a few, the Dunedain Rangers, the Wild Hill Men, the Gondorian Soldiery and Nobility, the Dwarves of Erebor, and sundry denizens of the dark places...   Tharbad: Work continues on Tharbad and its surrounding areas of Swanfleet, Minhiriath and Enedwaith. This will be worth waiting for. Thanks go to all the dev team for their invaluable help, encouragement and vital contributions.   Bree: Work also continues on another update in a part of the world that we know well. Kev is adding new quests and content here as his time is now rather taken up with familial duties...   Shhh: I will say not a word about the *other* update that *deleted* is working on... OK then...   Code of Conduct: Pending feed-back and general approval, our proposed new Code of Conduct is on our forums... Not yet implemented. Overall, the mood has been MUCH better of late and I for one feel a whole lot more positive... Have fun... Olórin