Hello,

The guild has undergone some small changes regarding swords since lately it
has come to my attention that some current chaos swords compete very well
against some of the top-end swords in the game. While chaos swords are
meant to be useful, there may be disagreement over how good they should be in
comparison. As per guild design, it is known that chaos swords require souls
to upkeep them, but as was the case with the older lords of chaos back in the
days, this kind of theoretical cap is often reached over time, and Kharim has
been in the game since 2007.

The crafted swords have different designated maximums which are dependent
of the swordcrafting process. Over the years, the swordcrafting process has
evolved a bit from what it used to be originally. With the introduction of
shards (which were supposed to be cosmetic customizations originally) players
have also had the chance to guide crafting process. Also, with the
introduction of manuscripts as a guiding component, the blades have started to
become a bit more powerful than anticipated. Some chaos weapons have
eclipsed some very known pieces of equipment that are notoriously difficult to
get, and this has not been the intention.

Thus, sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings to someone, but here is roughly
the summary.

- Some over-the-top chaos blades received downtunes in damage. Some received
less, some received more. It very much depended on the base level.
- While manuscripts can still be used to guide forging proecess, their effect
is not as noticeable as before to ensure a more balanced crafting process.
+ Chances for evolutions were generally increased. The catalyst penalties were
lessened to make evolutions more likely. Most evolution bonuses affect
game balance less intensely.
+ In some very rare occasions, evolutions can provide weapons with specials
that you have not seen before. This feature at this point is experimental
and some supports have been built for future direction too.

It is also possible that my changes didn't quite do the trick, so I'm
expecting the monitoring to continue a bit, and I take the right to follow
with suitable adjustments if necessary. I apologize in advance, if you fall
a victim of any such a change which would make you feel like you are being
treated unfairly. It is not the intention, but something it can feel that way.

Also couple words about something else. As stated above, this guild has been
in the game from 2007, and is therefore already 19 years old. While there are
older guilds in BatMUD, it must be said that 19 years is already quite a
journey. Although the guild has stayed relatively relevant balancewise,
I know there are many people who have already accomplished pretty much what
can be accomplished in this guild. For some this may be the endgoal, but for
some this may mean that there is not too many new things to do. Of course,
there are other guilds in the game which may offer new experiences if this
may seem a bit dull to you. The goal is always to enjoy the game, and there
are many interesting choices which exist outside of this guild. However, in
the future, I hope to introduce something new to the guild which would give
older Kharim players new goals and experiences, while keeping the personality
of the guild intact. In the recent years, Kharim has required reasonably
little maintenance and has had very few changes to the inner workings of the
guild, apart from some small balance-related changes. At this stage, after
19 years, I personally feel that the guild could use some new "spark". Right
now I don't have any definite plans on how to expand, but I'm hoping to
find some time for planning, and see if someday we can get some kind of
expansion to the system and make the guild more interesting to play again.

--Darol