Monday Updates, the new Enquirer, Time and Weather and more...
Wednesday, April 20 2011 @ 05:55 PM UTC
Okay folks, it's Wednesday the 20th of April, and time for our weekly Monday Update. Damn I'm punctual.
Mementos
Roleplayers get to use our Item system to make presents for each other, that show up in players' Inventories and act like real game items. They don't do anything in-game - they're just a tool to help you tell your story. Since the last Monday Update, I had the idea, wrote the engine, released it, made two addon extensions, and re-jiggered the price to a flat-rate rather than a pre-character cost. The first addon was Dwellings interaction - go into a particular Room with a particular Memento, and more text will be shown. The second addon was a feel-good thing - in her book, Jane McGonigal talks about how it'd be awesome if she got a "+1" in doing whatever she was doing at the time - instant feedback is one of the things that make games more fun than real life. So, you can now attach stats to Mementos - have a +1 Creativity, or such.
Time and Weather
After months and months of work, the new Time & Weather system is live, altering flavour text and graphics in line with the Island's weather and time. I haven't had this universally-positive of a response to any other module I've ever released. :)
Enquirer Upgrade
In preparation for launching our Merchandise Shop and merging Labs into the Enquirer, I upgraded the Enquirer to the latest Geeklog version and make it all pretty-like.
Stories and Missions
Stern and Punishment is a new plot point that has the player delivering messages and solving ciphers. What is Corporal Punishment's secret? You'll have to wait to find out, but not too long...
Jill Baker, Fellow Noob is a plot point for new players, in which you show a fellow Rookie how to fight. It's like a reverse tutorial. We'll be seeing more of Jill soon.
New Items
Cookies are a delicious gift for new players. They're available in the Hunter's Lodge at 25 Supporter Points each, or you can buy a pack of 20 or 50 and have a chance to get a hidden prize!
Global Banter
The new Global Banter chat is still very much experimental, and I've got some ideas to make it better. We shall see how this turns out.
