TJ09,Jul 22 2008, 11:33 AM
Hm. The new forum skin would be a nice thing to finish...
I plan on doing the update sometime during the night when there's less people on. Probably tonight, and if not, tomorrow night.
I plan on doing the update sometime during the night when there's less people on. Probably tonight, and if not, tomorrow night.
TJ09, Jul 21 2008
Hopefully you don't think I haven't been working these past few months since the fog. Because that'd just be silly. I've been doing plenty of work, getting tons of new features ready to the site. Many of these features are the results of suggestions, and many were suggested after I had already worked on them. To keep you waiting in anticipation, here's a sneak peek at the kinds of things you can expect to see:
Scroll Sorting:
One of the most common suggestions. There's been so many topics asking for it, how could I not add it? You'll be able to sort your scrolls by age, name, and breed, both ascending and descending. Unfortunately there is no "custom" sorting, but don't rule it out, it may appear in the future.
(Any dragons that are of the same sort type, such as same breed when sorting by breed, will be sorted by the egg stolen date.)
Dragon Descriptions: Another very popular suggestion. Owners will soon be able to individualize their dragons with personal descriptions. You can change them as much as you want; unlike names, they won't be permanent. Their will be two kinds of protection against abuse. A censor will pick out the obviously explicit words (Such as f***) that can't possibly be accidentally used. Beyond that, all descriptions will require moderator approval before they are displayed. (Sorry, but there are some pretty young kids that use this site, so I have to make sure that I keep it "clean.")
Updated Look: Some of the missing elements of the layout, such as a header and actual navigation links, will make their debut soon. Links to the home page and your scroll will always be within quick reach, and you'll be able to easily tell if you're logged in or not just by looking at the top of the page.
Easier to Use: No more cryptic error messages, or ones that say "the problem could be this...or this or this or this or..." If the site thinks you're using a proxy, the error message reflects that rather than simply saying "FORBIDDEN." If you accidentally put in the wrong password, it tells you exactly that instead of listing 3 possibilities.
Accessing Scrolls by Name: You asked for memorable scroll URLs. You said, "Dragons have them, why can't we?" Well now you do (Or will soon). You'll be able to use both /user/name and /user/n/name to access your scroll. For those wondering, the extra /n/ is there so that the rare/random people with numeric usernames aren't left out.
Dragon Lineages: Now you can tell how your dragons are related. On the dragon's page, you should see mother, father, or child, based on how the dragon is related to others. Abandoned dragons do not create breaks in the tree, so you can see what dragons are the mother and father of an egg you picked up from the abandoned pile.
Alternates: No longer will it be guaranteed that the eggs will follow linear growth patterns. Soon it will be possible for eggs to develop into different dragons for any number of reasons. Random chance, time of day, even based on which other dragons you have, the possibilities for concept creators are about to open up. It also adds a new element for collectors, who will now be challenged to collect all of the new possibilities.
Frozen Eggs: Some of the suggested eggs are so beautiful, someone asked me if I could add the ability to freeze eggs as well. I'm sure this will simultaneously annoy and excite many a collector, as they realize that there are now a lot more collection options, and that it means that they must go and get all of the eggs that they've already gotten, again.
For those wondering, freezing is no longer an option once the egg begins to crack.
Multiple Eggs from Breeding: Those of you that breed to abandon will rejoice. Those of you that don't breed to abandon will probably rejoice as well. Breeding dragons will soon have the possibility in resulting in up to four eggs. Unfortunately, you can only keep one, and the rest are abandoned. However, not all of the eggs will necessarily be the same, so the chance of you getting the egg you want will increase.
Also note that if you don't pick one of the multiple eggs within one hour (You'll be presented with a choice once you breed), then the first of the eggs will automatically be chosen for you.
Automatically Generated Incubators. Yes, that's right. Automatically generated. No more having to update your incubator every time you get a new egg or whenever a hatchling matures. However, in order to conserve server resources, hot-linking will be disabled, so you'll have to upload them to your own image host.
More Dragons: As you can see, the progress list is overflowing with completed dragons. These brand new sprites are so beautiful I'd have to be crazy not to want to use them. I've been preparing a nice large batch of dragons, so they're all set for the front of the cave and your scrolls...As soon as I get them, of course. =P
Obviously, not all of these will be available immediately after the update, but they're all coming eventually. Also, the site will have to go down for a while (1-2 hours) sometime soon while I copy all of the changes over from the test site.
Scroll Sorting:
One of the most common suggestions. There's been so many topics asking for it, how could I not add it? You'll be able to sort your scrolls by age, name, and breed, both ascending and descending. Unfortunately there is no "custom" sorting, but don't rule it out, it may appear in the future.
(Any dragons that are of the same sort type, such as same breed when sorting by breed, will be sorted by the egg stolen date.)
Dragon Descriptions: Another very popular suggestion. Owners will soon be able to individualize their dragons with personal descriptions. You can change them as much as you want; unlike names, they won't be permanent. Their will be two kinds of protection against abuse. A censor will pick out the obviously explicit words (Such as f***) that can't possibly be accidentally used. Beyond that, all descriptions will require moderator approval before they are displayed. (Sorry, but there are some pretty young kids that use this site, so I have to make sure that I keep it "clean.")
Updated Look: Some of the missing elements of the layout, such as a header and actual navigation links, will make their debut soon. Links to the home page and your scroll will always be within quick reach, and you'll be able to easily tell if you're logged in or not just by looking at the top of the page.
Easier to Use: No more cryptic error messages, or ones that say "the problem could be this...or this or this or this or..." If the site thinks you're using a proxy, the error message reflects that rather than simply saying "FORBIDDEN." If you accidentally put in the wrong password, it tells you exactly that instead of listing 3 possibilities.
Accessing Scrolls by Name: You asked for memorable scroll URLs. You said, "Dragons have them, why can't we?" Well now you do (Or will soon). You'll be able to use both /user/name and /user/n/name to access your scroll. For those wondering, the extra /n/ is there so that the rare/random people with numeric usernames aren't left out.
Dragon Lineages: Now you can tell how your dragons are related. On the dragon's page, you should see mother, father, or child, based on how the dragon is related to others. Abandoned dragons do not create breaks in the tree, so you can see what dragons are the mother and father of an egg you picked up from the abandoned pile.
Alternates: No longer will it be guaranteed that the eggs will follow linear growth patterns. Soon it will be possible for eggs to develop into different dragons for any number of reasons. Random chance, time of day, even based on which other dragons you have, the possibilities for concept creators are about to open up. It also adds a new element for collectors, who will now be challenged to collect all of the new possibilities.
Frozen Eggs: Some of the suggested eggs are so beautiful, someone asked me if I could add the ability to freeze eggs as well. I'm sure this will simultaneously annoy and excite many a collector, as they realize that there are now a lot more collection options, and that it means that they must go and get all of the eggs that they've already gotten, again.
For those wondering, freezing is no longer an option once the egg begins to crack.
Multiple Eggs from Breeding: Those of you that breed to abandon will rejoice. Those of you that don't breed to abandon will probably rejoice as well. Breeding dragons will soon have the possibility in resulting in up to four eggs. Unfortunately, you can only keep one, and the rest are abandoned. However, not all of the eggs will necessarily be the same, so the chance of you getting the egg you want will increase.
Also note that if you don't pick one of the multiple eggs within one hour (You'll be presented with a choice once you breed), then the first of the eggs will automatically be chosen for you.
Automatically Generated Incubators. Yes, that's right. Automatically generated. No more having to update your incubator every time you get a new egg or whenever a hatchling matures. However, in order to conserve server resources, hot-linking will be disabled, so you'll have to upload them to your own image host.
More Dragons: As you can see, the progress list is overflowing with completed dragons. These brand new sprites are so beautiful I'd have to be crazy not to want to use them. I've been preparing a nice large batch of dragons, so they're all set for the front of the cave and your scrolls...As soon as I get them, of course. =P
Obviously, not all of these will be available immediately after the update, but they're all coming eventually. Also, the site will have to go down for a while (1-2 hours) sometime soon while I copy all of the changes over from the test site.
Rejoice! The updates are on the way!
