Thanks to a suggestion of Nightflyer0ne I'm going to start a thread now where people can post the descriptions of their costumes for the ball. I was very impressed by many of the costumes and it would be a waste if they just get lost now, so lets collect those nice descriptions here.

Thanks to a hint from a well known dev with and affection for Klyros it seems it's possible to improve the performance of the graphics of PlaneShift slightly. After getting some positive feedback about this I thought it's maybe worth sharing.

Open your planeshift.cfg file in a text editor (The file is in the config directory of PlaneShift: Linux: "~/.PlaneShift", MacOSX: "~/Library/Application Data/PlaneShift", Windows: "%AppData%\PlaneShift")
Then add a
PlaneShift.Loading.ForceCuller = default
line to the end of it. This should enable hardware culling in PS. It might lead to some small graphic artifacts but seems to give a noticeable performance boost to some people. Try it out. To get rid of it again just delete that line again.

Okay 0.5.8 is out...so a few notes on the changed spellchecker.

The installing instructions for the dictionary didn't change:

First you will need a dictionary. You can use the openOffice.org dicts for that. Either get one here or just use the en_US one. Now go in your PlaneShift installation directory to the "data" directory and create a new "dict" folder. In that new folder unzip the dictionary (spellchecker looks for planeshift/data/dict/<dict>.dic and planeshift/data/dict/<dict>.aff).

No need anymore to edit any config files as the spellchecker got a config gui in game now.

The real important change (for users) is that it now works for every "pawsEditTextBox" and "pawsMultilineEditTextBox". But by default it's turned off for any of those. In the default skin spellchecking is only done for the chat window input box and for books (title and text). But it's really no problem to have char description, quest notes, private and public notes in guild and a lot more spellchecked as well. Giving an example for the char description here...but works the same for almost everything else (And this is for the default elves skin...for other skins you have to edit the files contained in that skin):

First you need to find the xml file that defines the gui for the char description. That's not that hard...just go to "<planeshift-install-dir>/data/gui". In that folder is a file called "chardescwindow.xml". Open that file in your preferred text editor:
vim chardescwindow.xml

Now you have to find the part that defines the Edit box for editing the char description. Again not very hard as there is only one EditBox in this file...just search for "pawsMultilineEditTextBox". You should find a part looking like this:
...
        <pawsMultilineEditTextBox name="Description">
            <frame x="25" y="30" width="270" height="185" border="no" />
            <attachpoints>
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_RIGHT" />
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_TOP" />
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_LEFT" />
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_BOTTOM" />
            </attachpoints>
        </pawsMultilineEditTextBox>
...

Now all you have to do is add a "<spellChecker enable="true" r="255" g="0" b="0"/>" line to that "pawsMultilineEditTextBox" so it looks like this (position doesn't matter...could as well be put as the first line under <pawsMultilineEditTextBox>:
...
        <pawsMultilineEditTextBox name="Description">
            <frame x="25" y="30" width="270" height="185" border="no" />
            <attachpoints>
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_RIGHT" />
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_TOP" />
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_LEFT" />
                <attach point="PROPORTIONAL_BOTTOM" />
            </attachpoints>
            <spellChecker enable="true" r="255" g="0" b="0"/>
        </pawsMultilineEditTextBox>
...

The "enable" in that line turns on the spellchecker. In case you only want to turn it off but keep that line for easier changing it later again just set it to "false". The "r", "g," and "b" values define the color of the typos (range 0-255). In the example I simply use red (Use http://www.colorpicker.com/ to figuring out what values you want). That's about it.

Oh..and of course the spellchecker is only used in case it's available. It's no problem to turn it on in the xml files even on the windows client which doesn't have it...it just doesn't change anything then. Same if no dictionary could be found...the widget will just act as if the spellchecker is turned off.

A last notice on the gui.xml files. The pawsEditTextBox and pawsMultilineEditTextBox come in two versions there: "<pawsMultilineEditTextBox name="Description">" as in the example or "<widget name="body" factory="pawsMultilineEditTextBox" style="textinput">" (example for that in "bookwriting.xml"). For the spellchecker that makes no difference. Just add the one line and fine.

Further infos in http://bugs.hydlaaplaza.com/flyspray/index.php?task_id=4922.

Great...I created a new character who is needed for a RP. No problem so far, quick option "Knight" gave me a char with more than 100 STR so I can even follow the plan to have him wear a chain mail shirt (At least I think so...will see if the STR requirements were changed). No stupid "char creation"  content in my description...looks all fine for a new RP char.

So...here I am with a empty inventory and zero tria, right next to Harnquist. Five minutes for copying the pre-written description in game...everything is ready to start.

Task: Getting leather pants, leather boots, a chain mail torso and a longsword to have the char fit the description at least a bit.

All no problem, should be easy to get in a short time. Lets start with getting a few tria. Can't be arsed to get into the PS combat...especially not if a new char needs 5 minutes to kill a rat so lets go for some quests.

Apples for Harnquist - Balance 120 tria
Healing salve - Cost 100 tria, reward 750 tria, balance: 670 tria
Incompetent guards loosing gauntlets and forgetting to pack launch themselves: Reward: 630 tria, Balance: 1300 tria

Hey...that really looks good so far. Only one or two more and I have enough tria for the basic items I need for this char..and even some pocket-money left for one or two evenings in Kada El's. Lets get to the next quest...Didn't Allelia always wanted opinions about her new drinks. *sigh* Obviously not anymore...seems I need to do some other unknown quest before that. No problem, there are plenty of other easy quests in Hydlaa that don't even need me to leave the town. Let's see if Lucky is still an unlucky bastard...what...the NPC has again nothing to offer. Okay...but I'm sure the Kran on the plaza still wants his book. Oh...he is also quiet? Ah...finally...a quest in the temple. Yeah sure...I run to the ruins now just to figure out I will be send to a sister in BD afterwards...forget it, there must be other easy quest in Hydlaa for starters. If I had enough PPs by now I could get some mining training and do the Harnquist quests now...but first this would waste some of my hard earned money again, second mining is dead boring and third I don't have enough PPs for even the first level of mining yet. So lets continue to look for easy quests. Twenty minutes later: Okay...guess I have to run to Oja for some Falka. Next shock in Ojaveda...3200 tria for a longsword??? Hey...the chain mail torse, leather pants and boots together are not even half as expensive as one longsword. Fine, lets forget the longsword, I won't use it anyway. It's just for the atmosphere. As I probably will never equip it others won't ever see it. So, buying some falka for 200 tria and back to Hydlaa....to get 250 tria as reward!!! 50 tria for a trip to Ojaveda?...Falka my ass.

Fazit:
Screw it...I just login Aiwendil, hide behind a wall and kill monsters with magic then transfer the money to my other char. That's as OOC as questing and will take far less time. Quests always used to be pretty pointless...but with the new prerequisite for almost every quest they aren't even useful for some easy money for RP chars anymore. Do a quest, then check out all NPCs again to see if they have a new one available..and please keep on doing that for the next years. This sounds like real fun. Seriously, at this point it appears to me getting rid of the quest system completely and starting from scratch is a better option than keeping it. Quests were always just used as a poor excuse for being unable to make settings public or as limiting factor for items but now they lost the last right to exist.



But this whole debacle allowed me to see a bit more of Yliakum than just Hydlaa...so a few more impressions:

• The new grass texture in Hydlaa is pretty nice...it hurts my eyes and will probably take weeks to get used to but from an objective point of view it's a great improvement.
• Same for bumpmapping in Ojaveda..needs time to get used to but enhances the gfx for sure. Oh...and good work with the new Dsar Akkaido...really doesn't look bad ;):
• Most of the gfx errors I'm used to are still around...but it seems a lot new ones were added..like transparent floor on maps with fog, Block-trees (missing transparency of the leaves texture) when seen from some distance or the size changing monsters.
• A lot of the quest items got new 2d icons...though all I tried till now have no 3d model. But still it makes them a lot more useful for RP now.
• The portal signpost are still there...but so far I had no problems with changing maps.
• A lot of very useful new options. I really like that I can tag the different sources for the logfiles...makes log-filtering with grep a lot easier. And "Always deny marriage proposals" is great....ability to remove "alliance" and "channels" chat tabs also.
• I think I asked that already once before and never got an answer. What does "Graphics Quality" in "General" options of the launcher do? Does this one overwrite whatever settings I made in "Graphics" if not set to "Custom"?
• Also the ability to turn off weather is great.
• The loading times increased a lot...maybe I should try setting "background Loading" to something other than "off" at some point...but I'm sooo scared of that option.
• The new char creation looks less messy...but haven't seen all of it yet as I used the quick option.
• The sound has some serious problems. I used to have everything turned off except interface sounds in the past (liked the feedback if I clicked something)...but that doesn't seem possible anymore as I probably would run amok at some point just to get the "click" sound stopped again.
• A lot more monsters around...guess that's an advantage for most  people except me.
• Why? How could you? The Gazebo used to be such a romantic place. Now i imagine it like this: "xxx leans against the railing, unfolds the parchment and starts reading his prepared love poem." - "yyy couldn't take her eyes off xxx while listening" - "zzz runs past, greeting the two. "Hope I didn't disturb you two...just on my way to the pterosaur route to get the Amdeneir...just go on with what you were doing."" - "xxx lets out a soft sigh then looks down to the parchment again and after taking  deep breath start again." - "aaa waves to both. "Good that I see you...Want to see the new weapon I got from a blacksmith in Amdeneir?" "Two days later xxx and yyy were sentenced to death by the Octarchy for attacking a valuable Pterosaur and slaying two innocent citizens and the owner of the Pterosaur"

Edit:Typos

Okay, since most older players are gone and can't pass on some tips to newer players I forced myself to make a serious post and offer a few, useful hacks for PlaneShift. I think most of these are even useful nowadays without any RP in PS. Use them, ignore them, do whatever you want with them...

First of all its kind of important to understand that PS uses a different directory for it's configuration than the install-directory. All configs, chat logs, saved books, saved sketches and screenshots can be found there.

On linux you can find that directory at "~/.PlaneShift" ("~" is your users home directory, ".PlaneShift" is a hidden directory so you might have to adjust you filemanager's settings to see it)

On windows the easiest way to get there is typing "%AppData%" in the address bar of the windows explorer (filemanager). Then just click on the "PlaneShift" directory there. (full directory: "%AppData%\PlaneShift")

On MacOS the directory is "~/Library/Application Support/PlaneShift". ("~" is the home directory of your user..the house icon on the left side of the finder)

So..why is that directory so important? First of all because in the "logs" sub-directory you find the chat logs. No idea how anyone can play PS without those.

But the other reason is because the files in "options" sub-folder allows you to do some nice stuff in PS.

Let's start with camera.xml:
Here we already have something important (since it's not possible anymore to change that in game)
In the <General> section of that file you can turn of camera collision checking.
<General>
    <camsetting name="StartingCameraMode" value="0" />
    <camsetting name="UseCollisionDetection" value="off" />
    <camsetting name="UseNPCCam" value="off" />
    <camsetting name="TransitionThreshold" value="1" />
</General>
The important line here is: "<camsetting name="UseCollisionDetection" value="off" />". With this the camera won't bounce off walls and the ground but go through them. While this for sure doesn't look as nice graphics wise (it leads to graphics bugs when you look at places without any 3d objects) it's pretty useful in narrow places...or in Kada El's to see what happens on the other floors.

Next interesting thing in the camera file is the <FreeRotation> section. There is a line "<camsetting name="MaxCameraDistance" value="200" />" in that section. By changing the value of "MaxCameraDistance" you set how far you can scroll back the camera. Might be useful if you want to make a map-like-screenshot of a larger area or for some other nice screenshots.

Next interesting file: chat.xml
customizing the chat filter:
The chat filter of PS is one of the greatest tools the game has. You can use it as a simple spell checker for words constantly typed wrong. (For everything I say here to work the outgoing chat filter has to be turned on. If you don't like the chat filter censoring some of your words just remove the listed words at the start and the <replace bad="brb" good="I will return shortly"/> for every substitution you don't like. I wouldn't turn on the incoming message filter if using these tips as they might change what another player types accidentally...but that's up to you)

To setup a simple spell-checker just do something like this in the file:
...
    <filters>
        <badwords incoming="0" outgoing="1">
            <replace bad="accpeted" good="accepted" />
            <replace bad="adn" good="and" />
            <replace bad="afetr" good="after" />
            <replace bad="afetrwards" good="afterwards" />
            <replace bad="ahve" good="have" />
            <replace bad="ahrd" good="hard" />
            <replace bad="amde" good="made" />
            <replace bad="amke" good="make" />
    <replace bad="ass he" good="as she" />
        </badwords>
    </filters>
...

It can be also used to abbreviate some frequently used phrases. Just add something like this to the <badwords> section:
            <replace bad="osp" good="Octarchal Society for Progress" />
            <replace bad="rco" good="Red Crystal Organization" />
            <replace bad="rcd" good="Red Crystal Den" />
            <replace bad="adv_thx" good="You are welcome. Have fun" />
            <replace bad="adv_unstick" good='Try typing &quot;/unstick&quot; in the chat window' />
            <replace bad="adv_npc" good="It seems the NPC-client (the program that controls the monsters) is down at the moment. You have to wait until it&apos;s restarted again before you can attack anything. But there are a lot of others things you can do in PlaneShift. Try some quests or learn some crafting...or just Roleplay with some other characters." />
            <replace bad="adv_gm" good="To contact a GM make a petition (Button in the main toolbar). Or you can go the the #planeshift IRC channel on freenode. There is a web interface for this at http://www.planeshift.it/chat/" />
            <replace bad="adv_run" good='Open your options (&lt;o&gt;-key) and go to Controls/Keys. Assign keys to &quot;run&quot; and &quot;toggleRun&quot; and after pressing &quot;save&quot; you should be able to run with these keys' />
            <replace bad="adv_right" good='Open your options (&lt;o&gt;-key) and go to Controls/Mouse. Hold the &lt;ctrl&gt;-key while pressing the &quot;set&quot; button next to &quot;ContextMenu&quot;. After pressing &quot;save&quot; you should be able to use &lt;ctrl&gt;-leftclick to bring up the context menu.' />
            <replace bad="adv_tutorial" good="There is a walkthrough for the tutorial at http://pswiki.xordan.com/index.php?title=Tutorial_Walk_Through" />
            <replace bad="adv_furnace" good='Step close to the furnace and right-click it. Then select the &quot;examine&quot; icon from the context menu. Move your ore from the inventory to one of the free slots of the furnace and wait.' />
            <replace bad="adv_r" good="I think Xargon already mentioned the word. And as a hint, this is a mmoRPg" />
            <replace bad="adv_map" good="There is nothing like a mini-map in PlaneShift. But you can buy empty maps and paint your own maps in game." />
            <replace bad="adv_spoiler" good="Sorry, we are not allowed to give spoilers like how to complete quests, locations of NPCs or which NPC trains what in the help channel. Please ask some other players in game." />
            <replace bad="adv_logs" good='For linux the logfiles are under &quot;~/.PlaneShift/logs&quot;. On a mac you can find them under &quot;~/Library/Application Support/PlaneShift/logs&quot; (&quot;~&quot; is the home folder of your user in both cases). For windows open a windows explorer and enter &quot;%AppData%&quot; in the address bar. Then navigate to the &quot;PlaneShift&quot; folder and then to &quot;logs&quot;.' />
In the example some special xml chars are used for some signs:

• &quot; becomes " in PlaneShift
• &apos; becomes '
• &lt; becomes <
• &gt; becomes >

Those are needed because they have a special meaning in xml files...so wherever you want to use them in text you have to use those special chars.

And of course it can be also used for some RP speeches that can be prepared in advance (like a theater-play in a vaudeville)
...
            <replace bad="line0001" good="[All actions on the stage are just acted. The blood used is only artificial, being produced by squeezing red fluid out of pouches. Wounds and deaths are just played, and it can be observed by the audience, that it is faked. Please stay IC and keep conversations low in order to not disrupt the flow.]" />
            <replace bad="line0002" good="Welcome, citizens of Yliakum! I am proud to present to you the first performance of a theater play at the Red Crystal Den." />
            <replace bad="line0003" good="Supported by the Octarchal Society for Progress, we hope to entertain you with a theater piece written by the Octarch's Champion and security chief in charge: Orgonwukh." />
            <replace bad="line0004" good="Some may wonder about the writer of the piece. Well, when we were looking for a good theater piece, we were surprised to discover, that most of them are not worth being played, so we were looking for alternatives." />
            <replace bad="line0005" good="Orgonwukh provided his theater play 'The Outlaw' to the Red Crystal Organization, and we immediately agreed that it is an excellent choice for our first performance of a theater play." />
            <replace bad="line0006" good="/me looks at Orgonwukh somewhat unsure" />
            <replace bad="line0007" good="/me stares at Haraun with narrow eyes" />
            <replace bad="line0008" good="/me quickly adds &quot;...unanimously.&quot;" />
            <replace bad="line0009" good="/me nods with a broad grin" />
            <replace bad="line0010" good="/me looks at the audience again and takes a deep breath" />
            <replace bad="line0011" good="So you now will see the premiere of this piece and also the first performance of the Red Crystal Organization " />
...
The nice thing about this is that "/shout line0008" works in game like a "/shout /me quickly adds "...unanimously."" As far as I now /me is the only command that works in chat filter replacements. You can't put the /shout command in there. (okay, you can..but it will be printed like text. Pretty funny to make a <replace bad="cmd_die" good="/die" /> and have people wonder how you type "/die" in chat without dying Even more fun to ask them to do it themselves....)

Last interesting file in that directory is "shortcutcommands.xml"...not much one can do there, but it's much nicer to edit some shortcuts in a text editor with spell checker than in-game. If you need quotes or apostrophes in the text don't forget to use the xml-replacements for them.
    <shortcut54 name="Aiwendil House">/group **The ground floor consists only of one large room. A small stair at the left side of the room, just wide enough to allow one person to get through, leads upwards to the first floor. The side of the stair is covered by some wooden shelves which mainly embody books but also some smaller items and toys of Terendul. To the right of the entrance a large wooden table stands on a frayed, dark red carpet. Behind the table there is a small kitchen in the corner consisting only of a stove, a small table with a large water bucket on it and some shelves, containing the dishes, a few pots and some other utilities. A cupboard next to the table obviously holds some food an ingredients needed for cooking. The carved parquet floor of the room enhances the impression of a worn but not uncomfortable house.**</shortcut54>

Now to something else that might be useful for people with more than one account. This time not in the configuration directory but the install-directory. In the "data" sub-folder there is a file called servers.xml. It includes the addresses of the official servers. By copying a <server> line there and changing the name one can make the login screen on PS display two entries for the same server:
<serverlist>
<server name="laanx (RP)-1" description="SkyLab Host is our roleplay server. All players are expected to engage in roleplay and avoid things like leetspeak.
Failure to follow these rules will result in kicks/bans.
Register at http://planeshift.skylabhost.it/register" ip="62.173.168.9" port="7777" />
<server name="laanx (RP)-2" description="SkyLab Host is our roleplay server. All players are expected to engage in roleplay and avoid things like leetspeak.
Failure to follow these rules will result in kicks/bans.
Register at http://planeshift.skylabhost.it/register" ip="62.173.168.9" port="7777" />
<server name="laanx (RP)-3" description="SkyLab Host is our roleplay server. All players are expected to engage in roleplay and avoid things like leetspeak.
Failure to follow these rules will result in kicks/bans.
Register at http://planeshift.skylabhost.it/register" ip="62.173.168.9" port="7777" />
..
</serverlist>
But how is that useful? Pretty simple...The login email and the password are saved for each servername in that file...this way you can have a different standard login for "laanx (RP)-1" and "laanx (RP)-2" in my example. So to login a different account all you have to do is selecting another server in the list...not changing the login data.

Hope that's helpful for a few people. Now have fun again with your PLing...