Archive for the ‘Metroplexity’ Category
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
I’ve mostly been unpacking and working on the Survivors’ Quest, but I’ve also snuck out a few changes. Nothing too major, but wanted to make sure they didn’t get lost down the memory hole.
- If you have a Christmas Tree up, your ornaments are visible from your profile. Thanks to Al for finally prodding me into implementing it.
- Rankings (Fishing, Chess) should now be reset properly by the beta reset. Good catch, Xerf!
- Maxwell’s rewards should be working properly. Thanks for the bug reports, Al and Argeth!
- Exclusive buffs like music and fishing lures should display a little more cleanly. Good call, GoldS.
- I added some more interactions with the Slags Medical Files. Thanks for the suggestions, Llamaman.
- As mentioned on the podcast, added two new avatars.
- And a big “thank you!” to Mag, Borkman, Vholes Piper, Nyther, Cryptodynamic, and Glass for reporting typos.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Al, Argeth, Borkman, Cryptodynamic, Glass, GoldS, Mag, Nyther, Vholes Piper, Xerf
Posted in Updates
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Answering questions from the forum and rambling aimlessly about ghouls, Gen*Con, appendicitis, Survivors, holidays, fishes, and other dark magics. May’s second podcast is available here.
There are RSS and iTunes feeds for the podcasts.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Podcast
Posted in Podcasts
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Hey everybody! We’ve got a nice round of updates and bug fixes here that I figured I’d mention.
- Added some mushroom related goodies. Thanks for the inspiration RazielSonofKain!
- Gang messages now have a ‘Send to All’ feature from the gang screen. Good suggestion, Glass!
- Made fishing start working again after the update. Thanks to Sir Cheddar and Cryptodynamic!
- High Test line encounters should properly grant XP and give continue on options. Thanks Sir Cheddar!
- The Ghoul King should now correctly report the number of favors he owes you. Thanks, Neongrey!
- Corrected a bug where certain sushi wasn’t working properly. Thanks Al and GoldS for the bug report!
- Also corrected a load of typos thanks to GoldS, Glass, Ricket, RazielSonofKain, Sir Cheddar, and Mag. Especially Mag.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Al, Cryptodynamic, Fishing, Glass, GoldS, Mag, NeonGrey, razielsonofkain, Ricket, Sir Cheddar
Posted in Updates
Sunday, May 16th, 2010
So, a while back, a lot of folks were asking me about fishing updates. Lots of stuff like “Extreme Bass is too vicious” and “you can’t see your skill gains in any meaningful sense.” And I warned people that would require a complete rewrite of fishing and we just couldn’t justify putting it in.
Then I realized I could cheat it on to the schedule by combining it with this month’s donation item. Yeah, that’s right! Kinak (me), stickin’ it to The Man (also me) for your benefit!
So if your fishing (and chess by happenstance of using the same system) are working a bit differently from before… that’s because it’s totally different. I did carry over people’s ratings, although the labels have changed.
In completely related news, Zack has his unearthly-coin-loving hands on some equipment intended for the Extreme Bass XIII release party.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Donation Items, Fishing
Posted in Announcements, New Content!
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Recipes are now remembered over resets. The way this works is very specific, so I’m going to explain it so there isn’t any confusion.
Any recipe that can be learned through experimentation is saved when you reset. Those recipes are then restored when you gain the ability to perform that type of experimentation (so, when you get your electrical kit or learn experimental chemistry).
So recipes that are only learned through other sources (like items or NPCs) are not remembered. And you don’t get chemistry recipes back just because you got a chemistry kit. I included these exceptions to allow crafting to create game-defining items and play a role in the main quest line, so they’re not bugs or oversights.
Other Stuff
- On a related note, recipes you don’t meet the requirements for are now disabled. This mostly comes up with coding, but who can say where its tentacles extend?
- Resolved an issue where multiple recipes for the same end result weren’t displaying. Thanks for the bug report, Ricket!
- Revamped the Undying Heart skill from the new quest. In addition to it’s previous hidden stuff it has some neat new hidden stuff and slightly less obvious stuff. Thanks for the suggestion, Argeth!
- Went through and added some meat to Ghoultouched, including some very old suggestions about it interacting with drones. Also thanks to Cryptodynamic for helping me debug it in PvP.
- Gift messages can now extend to 240 characters. Happy Welcome Backing Vholes! And this should be the last time I extend those. It’s like two whole tweets :P
- We also have some typos from xKiv, Argeth, and Mag. Thanks!
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Argeth, Beta Reset, Cannibalism, Crafting, Cryptodynamic, Mag, Recipes, Ricket, Updates, Vholes Piper, Xkiv
Posted in New Features
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
So I got a little stuff done last night while waiting for folks to test out the quest and wanted to mention the updates here.
- Rewrote a lot of crafting, like a lot of crafting, which will make it a lot easier for me to add new recipes in the future. And paves the way for remembering experimental recipes between resets.
- As an upshot of that, most recipe results are now clickable for the item description. Thanks to GoldS for the suggestion and Glass for helping me get everything working.
- I also reworked how curatives (which is to say things that remove effects, like Slags Antidote or the Street Doc) work, which should have them working more consistently. There weren’t many visible changes, and most of them good, but I won’t promise anything.
- Fixed up a lot of little things and a few big things with the new quest thanks to Cryptodynamic, Argeth, Goferchan, Happy Yeti, and GoldS.
- Messages past their timeout won’t be deleted on the pageload you’re trying to save them. Sorry about that Shademaster00, but thanks for the bug report.
- The new capitalization change in the account preferences page should be working properly. Thanks Sir Cheddar!
- Having the id equipped wasn’t allowing folks into the Slags Lab for a while. That should be working properly now. Thanks for the report Cryptodynamic!
- Also, we’ve got a great round of new content typos from Cryptodynamic, RazielSonofKain, Argeth, Borkman, Mag, and Sir Cheddar! Thanks, everyone!
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Argeth, Borkman, Cryptodynamic, Glass, Goferchan, GoldS, Happy Yeti, Mag, razielsonofkain, Shademaster00, Sir Cheddar
Posted in Updates
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
In an update to our report this Friday, the missing student has still not been found. Sergeant Blader with Midgard Security Forces personnel reiterated his earlier statements that the disappearance is “a stupid kid’s publicity stunt.”
Maxwell Newman, a fellow art student, had more to offer when asked about his missing friend. “I know that when he disappeared to the Docks, a stranger helped him. I don’t know that stranger’s name, but if you can help, please meet me on Metroplex U’s Quad as soon as you can.”
Once again, Metroplex’s citizens turn to vigilantes when rebuffed by Midgard Security Forces. No word whether this mysterious vigilante may be connected to The Vigilante or what that might mean for the renewal of MSF’s contract with Metroplex University.
MSF central offices refused to comment on the rising tide of vigilantism, but commended Sergeant Blader as “a model member of the Midgard Security Forces family, with a proven record of getting results.”
This has been your University news report, brought to you by the Happy Hour. It’s always happy hour at the Happy Hour.
Next Up, Eclipse Maulings: Urban Legend or Serial Killer?
Tags: Happy Hour, News Report, Quest, Side Quest
Posted in New Content!
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
Sometimes you get new features. Sometimes you get new content. Other times you get changes from a past so distant… so remote, few can even remember its name.
It’s worth noting that these are old in the “boring, but might give you peppermints” sense and not in the “gateway to lovecraftian terror” sense. That’s probably tomorrow.
- Cleaned up the character sheet. It had been a while since it got a round of polish. Highlights include:
- Clicking on your character name will now take you down to your skills list.
- The name capitalization change is over in Account Preferences now.
- The use buttons aren’t all over the place anymore.
- Clicking on “Send Mail:” or “Inbox:” in your messages will take you down to “Sent Mail:” and visa versa. Thank Mag for saving you all that scrolling :)
- Argeth reported a bug in… oh, December or so, that required reworking how daily flags are handled. Just sorted that out.
- Driving Demand now appears in the gang log (under ‘Stash’) per an old request from Umbrage. Good suggestion, sorry it took a while!
- If you’re ever like “I wonder how long it takes Kinak to fix things that bug him” it had been bothering me that the username and password boxes didn’t quite line up on the login page since I designed it. I just fixed it.
Also our only typo for this time is from Cryptodynamic. Thanks for fighting the good fight, Crypto!
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Argeth, Cryptodynamic, Interface, Mag, Umbrage
Posted in Updates
Friday, May 7th, 2010
Late last night a well-known artist disappeared from his dorm room on Metroplex U’s main campus. After stirring up controversy with an art showing that resulted in structural damage to the University’s art museum, he’s continued to make waves by disappearing on several occasions.
His friends relate that this time is different, however. In the middle of the night, while working on his newest painting, they report he was snatched from his dorm room by men in dark suits.
Sergeant Blader with the campus detachment of Midgard Security Forces refused to comment. However, off the record, one of his guards told us not to expect any investigation on the “obvious publicity stunt.” Another suggested it’s only thanks to the guards’ work that “[he] hasn’t taken a bullet to the head yet.”
We asked Maxwell Newman, the undergrad who originally reported the disappearance, his opinion on the guards’ candid statements. He had the following to offer: “I can see why they’d think that. I mean, he’s wandered around a couple times, ending up on the Docks and so forth. But we’re going to give them until Sunday or Monday to realize this is the real deal before we look for outside help.”
Mr. Newman declined to clarify what outside help they might be after.
This has been your University news report, sponsored by the Metroplex University Bookstore, now a proud distributor of OmniCola.
Tags: News Report, OmniCola, Teaser, University
Posted in Announcements
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Have a nice list of updates here, mostly changes with a couple of bug fixes.
- Unified the handling of “Continue On”/”Back to the Streets”/etc. as buttons for consistency and help with scripting. Thanks for the suggestion, Xerf!
- Updated the donations page to reflect me having a job (yay!) and information about beta reset/Zack. Thanks for pointing that out, Glass!
- Per the podcast, the Fang Boss in the Docks quest stops using Explosive Shot when he runs out of clips. Good call, Al.
- Renamed options taking you back to the main Net screen “logout” to clarify the difference between them and “Unplug.” This is another good suggestion from Xerf. Thanks!
- Resolved an issue preventing folks from getting the ghoultouched skill. Thanks for the bug report Szodrin and welcome back :)
- Also fixed up some typos thanks to Cryptodynamic, Vholes Piper, Glass, and Mag.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Al, Bug Fixes, Cryptodynamic, Glass, Interface, Mag, Szodrin, Typos, Vholes Piper, Xerf
Posted in Updates
