Archive for the ‘New Features’ Category
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
OmniMall has gone through some upgrades and will now remember any item that has been listed there for future searches, even if that item isn’t currently listed or in your inventory. The data began recording today, so items not currently in OmniMall should show permanently the next time they are listed.
There are some other updates as well:
- Resolves some issues with today’s new donation item. Many thanks to Al, Zelandoni, and PaidPiedPiperPal for helping me sort this out.
- Corrected some strange issues that occurred when trying to target destroyed hacking defenses. Thanks, Mag!
- Fixed the link back from the donations page. Good catch, Ricket!
- Vigilante encounters in the Sewers shouldn’t refer to Fangs’ setbacks that haven’t occurred. Thanks for keeping me honest, Thrillhouse :)
- Network Scan and Eavesdropping Tools now allow you to see alerts like the Network Interpreter does. Good suggestion, Llamaman and Argeth!
- Also fixed some typos thanks to Dfmchfhf, PaidPiedPiperPal, and particularly Mag.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Al, Argeth, dfmchfhf, Donation Items, Llamaman, Mag, OmniMall, Ricket, Vholes Piper, Zelandoni
Posted in New Features
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009
Outfits are in and they’re really, really simple.
In your equipment pane under Inventory, you can save outfits by entering the name and hitting “Save.” From then on, you can change to that outfit by selecting it from the dropdown and clicking “Change.”
Also a few other updates:
- Rapid Testing should be working properly now. Thanks to Juntao, Wyrd, and Mag.
- The link back from donating should be working again. Thanks Briguile!
- Gleaming Barrier should be displaying when it blocks your attacks. Good find, Valera!
- And thanks to Mag and Borkman for some typo hunting :)
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Borkman, Briguile, Inventory, Juntao, Mag, New Features, Outfits, Valera, Wyrd
Posted in New Features
Monday, August 10th, 2009
Well, we’ve got a heck of a content update today. This is the “groundwork for the Survivors’ Quest” I’ve been talking about.
I fully expect it to be buggy as all get out, so get those bug reporting fingers ready :)
Here are some high points:
- An entirely new type of combat, Hacking. It’s… pretty intense. I’ll let you figure it out, but there are some mouseovers for the basics.
- A new tab in the inventory screen for data and programs.
- A new craft and the final culmination of what another craft was really intended to do in the first place.
- A new adventuring area with some mini-quests and a contact and some links to other areas.
- And a bunch of other stuff I’m probably forgetting.
Check out the University Bookstore to start. If you’re an old timer, this update has so much content it needs two items in the Bookstore :)
Also, there’s a new food item and a new drink item that have basically nothing to do with the rollout, but I’d been meaning to add.
Cheers!
Kinak
Posted in New Content!, New Features
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Open chat is in, including both non-gangmembers and chat between gangs. I’ll get to how you use it in a second.
I hate to even go into it, because we do have a good crew here, but there’s basically one rule of chat: don’t make me sort out drama. Any drama I have to sort out comes straight out of development time, which isn’t something I’m going to get involved with lightly or punish lightly if I do have to. In other words, if you know you’re going to start drama or can’t judge, don’t go into open chat.
Sorry about that, but I wanted to get it out there up front.
Here are the shiny new commands:
- /join channel – Joins a given chat channel. Options right now include open, gang (if you’re in a gang), and gang warfare (the chat notifications you get, can’t be posted to).
- /leave channel – Leaves a chat channel. Same options as above. You can also use /leave chat to get out of chat entirely.
- /which or /where – Tells you which channels you’re listening to and posting to.
- /quit or /exit – Leaves chat.
When you’re in multiple chat channels, a dropdown will appear to select which channel you’re speaking to. Also, messages from other players will be say which channel they’re speaking in.
The Leave Chat link at the bottom has been removed to reclaim a bit of space. So remember the /quit, /exit, and /leave chat commands. You just might need them :)
Other updates:
- Avatars now appear in your profile when other players are looking at it and don’t need to be reset when you change gangs.
- Quantum Mechanics and Walk With The Blind now have alternate ways to unlock them. The old ways are still there and probably easier, but the new ways are what intuitively should work.
- Leaving a gang should now always force you out of gang chat, instead of just not letting you post. Thanks Olaf!
- Ghoultouched no longer turns off when you gain a new skill. Great catch, dudeathome!
- Sailors (well, ex-sailors) freed during the Ship of the Damned quest will now show up in your quest log. Good suggestion, RazielSonOfKain!
- Also, a big thank you to Caradal and Jetalynn for catching some typos.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Caradal, Chat, dudeathome, Jetalynn, Olaf, razielsonofkain
Posted in New Features
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
The basic chat commands are in and seem to be working properly.
The ones in so far:
- /tell, /whisper, /t, or /w – Sends a private chat message to the person named. This does require putting underscores (_s) to replace any spaces in their name. So, Dr. Thomas would be “/tell Dr._Thomas I need some Eclipse.”
- /reply or /r – Replies to your most recent tell. Like all such systems, I wouldn’t suggest using it when you’re getting a lot of tells.
- /em, /me, or /emote – Says things like “Kinak does wacky stuff” instead of “Kinak: does wacky stuff.”
- /who – Replaces the “Who’s On” at the bottom of the chat list.
- /time – Advises you on the current system time.
- /? – The command that tells you the commands so you don’t have to look at this list.
Also corrected some bugs today where Metros was sometimes charging people unfairly. Thanks Zeladoni!
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Chat, The Kitchen Sink, Wyrd, Zeladoni
Posted in New Features
Monday, June 15th, 2009
After a lot of deep-thinking and soul-searching, we have a temporary answer to the question “I just donated, can I use my presents after resetting?” If you’re asking that question, go ahead and talk to Zack, he may have something for you.
For now, you’ll just receive your coins and puzzle boxes. I’m still not entirely clear on the path going forward, but wanted to get some sort of solution in for people.
So we’re 100% clear: this is just the plan for Beta. The final system that replaces it will have a lot more options, but probably will not include this one.
Thanks to everyone for their input on this. Hopefully this’ll take care of things for the time being.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Beta Reset, Donation Items, Donations, Zack
Posted in New Features
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Whole bunch of updates today. Mostly expanding the Chat interface, but snuck in a few other updates as well.
Chat
- At the bottom of chat it’ll show who’s viewed that chat recently (last five minutes or so). Good suggestion, the Kitchen Sink.
- The Gang Warfare messages showing up in chat have been revamped. I think they’re clearer, but the secret is this: the first name listed is your gangmate.
- The autorefresh should no longer clear out what you’ve been typing. Good catch, Cryptodynamic.
- Your name will now also show up in bold in the chat as it does in the gang log. Thanks for the suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
- When you mouseover a comment in chat, it’ll display the time posted. Remember that is server time, which is set to GMT. Thanks for the suggestion, Cryptodynamic! Always up for a good excuse to use mouseover text.
Other Stuff
- You can now search in the OmniMall ignoring items in your inventory/equipped by checking the “Listings Only” checkbox right under the search. Thanks for the suggestion, Wyrd!
- The Gang Log now includes people entering the gang, leaving the gang, promotions, and demotions. These are under a new section called ‘Members.’ It’s pretty cool. Good suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
- Shard will now be encounterable after luring a guard away. Thanks for the bug report, Cryptodynamic!
- The Mall Previews on the front page now have images. It’s kind of shocking how much more interesting that makes them look. Good call, RazielSonOfKain!
- Third Eye Stashes you collect from now on (using Big M’s Maps) will now show up under your completed quests. Good suggestion, Harrakan.
- Also corrected a typo from PaidPiedPiperPal.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Chat, Cryptodynamic, Gang Warfare, Gangs, Harrakan, Mall, razielsonofkain, The Kitchen Sink, Vholes Piper, Wyrd
Posted in New Features, Updates
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Gang chat is in! It doesn’t really have bells or whistles at the moment, but we’ll burn those bridges when we come to them.
The gang warfare messages will get reworked to fit in a little better with today’s changes (both the Gang Warfare change and this). But for now, they’ll be their old selves.
As a side note, I don’t intend to interfere with gang internal politics, which includes moderating your chat.
Thanks to Mag and Lord Finisher for errors that occurred while chat was rolling out.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Chat, Gangs, Lord Finisher, Mag, New Features
Posted in New Features
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Account preferences are in!
They can be accessed at the bottom of your character sheet (click your name in the left pane).
Three things can be modified in there currently:
- Whether the combat hints (the question marks) are displayed.
- The default sizes of the frames can be changed permanently.
- You can set it to display your top level location (Southside Park, The Docks, etc.) in the left pane along with your current adventuring area.
And, possibly most importantly, this means there’s a convenient place to store some other stuff. Which crafting screen you were using will now be stored across sessions, as will which logs you were looking at in the gang logs.
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: New Features
Posted in New Features
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
The big update today is a revamp of how enemies are treated, both NPC enemies and other players in gang warfare. Basically, the game now keeps track of various special traits about each enemy, such as whether they’re a drone and whether they’re wearing a gas mask.
This nerfs some Techniques and buffs others, but is mostly there so things make more sense. No longer will Helicopter Drones have coughing fits!
This was a long standing request, so lots of folks have asked for it. Give yourselves a pat on the back :)
Other Changes:
- Internet Explorer users should be able to search in the Mall properly now across the board. Thanks to Happy Yeti for reporting this!
- You can now talk to your old friend Mikhail if you do to the Deli without reading his note, if you so desire. Good sugestion, Argeth.
- You can now talk to Dr. Amundsen about encryption even after you’ve freed Hel, although the text here will change with the Survivor’s quest. Good catch, Happy Yeti.
- Fixed a weird crafting error at zero Energy. Thanks, Mag.
- Also thanks to LlamaMan, Caradal, and Man Mobile for some typo catching :)
Cheers!
Kinak
Tags: Caradal, Combat, Durgen, Happy Yeti, Llamaman, Mag, Man Mobile, MoreUmlaut, New Features, Twitch, Vholes Piper
Posted in New Features
