Archive for May, 2009

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Item Requirements

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

You may notice Requirements listed on a lot of items (mostly from the Slags and later). These don’t actually do anything yet.

I’m mostly wondering if they’re going to be a pain for you on the rubric of “can you get this item through normal gameplay before you get to that stat level?” If you find anything like that or I missed something, definitely tell me before I make the requirements actually matter.

As you can imagine, this is part of the preparations for the Mall. Getting to the Mall before the University is a non-issue because of how the Mall will work, but moving forward will require some restrictions so people don’t have to Mall up to do anything.

There’s a thread here if you’re the forum-going sort.

Cheers!
Kinak

Posted in Discussion

Gang Interface Updates

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Two neat new features in the gang interface today.

Gang Log: There’s a gang log now, viewable by all members. It holds data for 24 hours and includes PvP, spending Profits, and ordering from smugglers. If there’s anything else you’d like included, I can add more, just didn’t want to clutter it up at first.

You should see the last 24 hours of data collected already, because I’m a ninja like that. Thanks to Jick and The Kitchen Sink for the suggestions that fused to form this.

Multi-Sell: You can now sell multiple shipments at once and it provides what I think is pretty good feedback about what’s going on. Thanks again to Jick for the suggestion here. Someone else suggested this too (maybe the Kitchen Sink again), but I’ve lost track because I’m a dork.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features

Technique Changes and Random Fixes

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

A big change in how Techniques work today, which I’ll explain before I get into the other changes.

There’s a new special Technique called ‘Do Nothing.’ This is a filler, used for two purposes.

  • First is when you’ve run out your deck and don’t have any Techniques to draw left. This change lets you use the entirety of your deck before having to run away, which is pretty cool. The suggestion for this half came from The Kitchen Sink.
  • The other half is that it’s automatically inserted into any deck below fifteen cards to get it up to fifteen cards. I chose fifteen because it’s large enough and half the starting deck size (so you can strip out all the Ranged, for example), but it might move up or down in the future.

And now for other changes!

  • The Technique page has been totally reformatted. Trying to find a good balance between space and information. Tell me what you think, particularly about it breaking between Chain numbers.
  • Brutality, although still trickier to get than before, can now be gained even if you get beaten up. Good suggestion, shademaster00.
  • Drive Demand encounters now give explicit feedback to the new Demand level. Thanks for the suggestion, The Kitchen Sink.
  • The smuggler, like the Medicine Cabinet, will now indicate if you’ve already used it. The option from the list will also now disappear, unless that causes problems. Good idea, Mag.
  • Both mail responses and deck names should handle single quotes (‘) better. Thanks The Kitchen Sink and Olaf, respectively.
  • Also, mail responses will no longer chain on Re:’s forever and ever. Nobody complained about it, but it bugged me so I fixed it. Thanks Kinak :D
  • Getting a Broken Bone at the end of a fight won’t result in getting negative hit points. Thanks for the bug report, Jick!
  • The quest log entry for the Ghost Ship quest should now clear properly for new people helping the shaman. Thanks for the bug report Man Mobile.
  • Also, thanks for some typo reports from Mag and Argeth.

I have an interview this afternoon, but will hopefully still be able to make a couple of gang interface updates I’ve been planning.

Cheers!
Kinak

Posted in Updates

Gang Warfare Change

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Edit: This change has been reversed and is under further consideration.

To help split things up a bit (and also because it kind of makes sense), each player can now only defend one area in Gang Warfare. If you try to start defending another area, it’ll give you a friendly message and not cost any Energy unless you got a benefit.

You can stop defending areas in the Gang Warfare screen. It’s right under the option to Leave PvP, if applicable.

If none of that made sense, here’s a rundown of the basic mechanic:
When there’s no one left to oppose you in gang warfare, you start patrolling the area and get special messages that say you’re consolidating control. This is setting up a defense for the area to prevent other people from taking it over and, once you achieve control, gives you a variety of other benefits.

Previously, if you could knock out enough competition, one person could take control of and defend all four Gang Warfare zones. Now each person can only defend one.

Note this doesn’t prevent four people from taking over the zones, each defending one, and moving around to get the benefits from all four. It just requires a bit more ‘Gang’ in the Gang Warfare.

Hopefully, this is a positive change. If not, it’ll be easy enough to roll back. Thanks to llaman for the original suggestion.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

Post Update Cleanup

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

As you’d imagine, we’ve got a good batch of fixes from the Gang Warfare update. There were actually fewer than I was expecting, which is nice.

Here’s the list:

  • Beancounters should now be labeled consistently across screens rather than being “Stash” in some places and “Beancounters” others. Thanks, Mag, for pointing this one out.
  • Your currently selected Avatar is now displayed first (with explanation). Special order for PaidPiedPiperPal.
  • Old NPC messages (from contacts) are now cleared when you Beta Reset. Thanks for the suggestion, LlamaMan.
  • Brutality was still irritatingly common. That should be fixed now. If it went to far in the opposite directly, we’ll tweak more. Thanks to The Kitchen Sink for the note.
  • The smuggling section in the ‘Gang Stash’ tab now displays the amount you have spent on smugglers, regardless of whether you have any profits to give them. Good suggestion, PaidPiedPiperPal.
  • Adding profits to your smuggler doesn’t wait for you to reload the page to correctly display profits. Good catch, The Kitchen Sink.
  • Fixed a bug right at release where installing a smuggler required you have a smuggler. <_< >_> Thanks, PaidPiedPiperPal.
  • Also had a heaping helping of typos reported by Argeth, Man Mobile, PaidPiedPiperPal, and The Kitchen Sink.

Thanks everybody!

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Bug Fixes

Recent Updates

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

I haven’t been keeping up as much with posting updates as I normally am, due to the Gang Warfare work. But here’s the list, as best I recorded:

  • Buffs in the character pane will be sorted by how much Energy they have remaining. Good suggestion PaidPiedPiperPal.
  • Multicrafting (and other activities taking multiple energy) will now tax buffs as they should. Thanks for the bug report, Wyrd!
  • You can no longer deal negative damage with Area of Effect attacks. Thanks Valliant, for the catch.
  • Lo should now be satiated with one Eclipse. What a lush. Thank you, Mr. Green for pointing this one out.
  • We also have a helping of typos from Harrakan, RikiTikiTavi, PaidPiedPiperPal, Argeth, and Metro.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Bug Fixes

Gang Warfare Revamp

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

The big Gang Warfare revamp went in today. Lots of neat stuff, let’s see what I can remember off the top of my head.

  • There’s a Hideout link in the top pane now, where appropriate. Among other things, several new gang enhancements are manually used from that screen.
  • There are new gang enhancements. Two will pop out right away, with others (five more) unlockable through various means.
  • There are a bunch of new Techniques. Not all of these will stay Gang-only, but there are a whole slew of them, including some popular demand ones and some that think are awesome.
  • Vigilante has grown into what I was originally picturing. There are some more options now that I’m pretty excited about.
  • There are new crafting components for every craft. I didn’t really plan it that way, but there are a lot of crafting components.
  • An entirely new type of consumable has hit the streets, courtesy of the Third Eye. These won’t stay gang-only forever, but I think they’re pretty interesting either way.
  • There’s a bit of a side quest, although the eventual reward isn’t a Skill.
  • There’s also a new Skill, giving a new option to an old side quest, but it’s so hidden it’s almost an Easter Egg.
  • There’s now another market for your old coins, if you’re so inclined.
  • The game now tracks lifetime gang warfare records. They’re displayed in parentheses behind the current number where appropriate. Thanks to Pyren for the suggestion.
  • Medicine Cabinets indicate when they’ve been raided in both the Gang and Hideout screens. Thanks for the suggestion Magnifico.
  • You should receive additional feedback when your Gang Warfare attempts move your gang to Total Control or Iron Grip. Good suggestion, The Kitchen Sink!
  • Thanks to Man Mobile and Justin for reporting issues I caused while getting the code ready for these upgrades.

I’m probably missing stuff, honestly. There’s a whole lot going on. There’s even a new paper mache ‘recipe’ for crying out loud. It’s like a madhouse in there.

With an upgrade like this, especially in the PvP system, I expect for some problems to slip through. So please keep your bug reporting ready to go.

Cheers!
KinakG

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Posted in New Content!

Multicrafting!

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

By popular demand, multicrafting of recipes is now in.

  • Enter a number in the handy field to perform the recipe that many times or bust.
  • Enter a * to perform the recipe as many times as possible.
  • Enter a ? to tell you how many times * would perform the recipe, if you’re curious. This won’t cost energy or items, but will tell you if you don’t have enough energy or items to perform the recipe.

Thanks to everyone who suggested this on the forum thread and elsewhere. Special thanks to Kingdom of Loathing for the ‘*’ and ‘?’ standard.

If you run into any problems with multicrafting feel free to drop me a bug report or in-game message.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in New Features

Change to Description Display

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Made a change to the item/skill/buff/technique descriptions so they display in the right hand ‘chat’ pane instead of as a pop-up. If you’re not seeing this behavior, clear your browsers cache.

The original suggestion for this was from Nytmare, but hopefully it’ll also resolve some IE8 issues Crovax1234 has been seeing. If you have any problems with this or it bugs you for some reason, feel free to drop me a line.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

Minor Updates and Fixes

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Just wanted to give a quick rundown of the updates over the last few days. Life was kind of busy over the weekend, but really got to crank some stuff out today.

The biggest change on my side that won’t affect people directly is another layer of potential customization with choices. Basically, it’ll be really streamlined for me to add options that only appear sometimes. Which, as you can imagine, allows for some cool stuff. Special thanks to Cryptodynamic and Man Mobile for helping work out some of the initial bugs with the change.

  • Players with a space in their user names should now be able to use the password reset form. Thanks for the bug report, Sir Cheddar.
  • The notification that you posted a gang message now won’t imply you put slashes everywhere. Thanks The Kitchen Sink.
  • Valera’s been poking around and helped me resolve some issues with trying to equip unequipple items and talk to contacts you don’t know. Thanks Valera!
  • Your credits listing on the left will now automatically update when you buy something from a store. Thanks for the note, RBK!
  • There is now a Rest More option at the bottom of the rest page. Thanks for the suggestion, Xkiv!
  • The chess book now only costs 1 Energy (down from 2).
  • Getting dunked in sewage now has a bit more effect than before.
  • And thanks for a bunch of typos fixes from The Kitchen Sink, PaidPiedPiperPal, Metro, and Lester.

That’s it for now. The Gang Warfare updates are coming along nicely. The main batch of content is done, but I still need to do some coding for the new hideout upgrades and new Techniques.

Cheers!
Kinak

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Posted in Updates

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