May Updates 61 Zizuph Keeper 26 May
May has come and gone! It has been a whirlwind of activity upstairs, though it
may not always seem like it. For those that aren't constantly active, I want
to catch some of the things that have been going on.
Content updates
I have started taking on limited requests for guild improvements. Drow can now
summon spiders, and the dragonarmies have their intimidate ability restored.
Quality of life remains the focus, so if there are things that improve your
gameplay, please reach out.
All the game-wide messengers have all been updated, they now play well with the
chat window, and the there should be less difference in behavior between
various messengers now. If you hit one that acts up, let me know so I can take
a look.
The launch of the ogre event is a sign that I am starting to shift from fixing
issues and cleaning up, to adding new things. I'll make announcements as
content is added, and I do have some very fun plans for the launch of Season 1.
I've got an active project to fill in the gap the missing maps throughout the
game, with a specific focus on the ships. My goal is to get much closer to
100% coverage on the ascii maps. I am working on better tooling for the
graphical maps, so those are still delayed a bit.
I have much better tooling in place for the music, however. This coming
Armageddon should see about 80% coverage of all mapped areas. This is up from
about 20% this prior Armageddon. I added about a dozen new themes, and am also
exhancing places with room-specific sounds (like waterfalls). There will
continue to be some big improvements in this space.
Gondor should start announce its night/day cycles again next Armageddon too -
this was something long-broken. Its amazing just how much of the old code had
been broken for years/decades.
Web client updates
The web client has actually been much of my focus, even with all these other
updates. I have cleaned up the interface on aliases/triggers, make viewing
your custom damage more manageable, and upgraded the export package tools so
you can bundle even more up. The settings window now lets you control a whole
lot more. You can set up your client to auto-download your logs when you
disconnect, or when you close your window. Control-S also lets you save at any
time, like before. And scrollback is largely unlimited now, with a new search
bar. Oh, and aliases/triggers has a search bar now too. The APIs are
published onto the website, and I have been adding more features so your
scripts can be even more powerful.
I have also launched a separate export tool, for those that need to import
their scripts (including maps) from other places. You can see the instructions
here:
https://zizuph.github.io/genutils/
If you have friends that would like to visit, but dread starting from scratch,
I am doing everything I can to lower the entry barriers.
Finally, a word about Seasons.
Much of the game can be a grind, and the end-game experience is something very
front-of-mind for me. My long term goal is to have major episodes that cross
over all of the domains. Think of events on steroids. I have the basic
storylines worked out, and am putting the pieces in place that I need to make a
major storyline happen. There will be goals to achieve, special rewards, and a
bigger plot to try to solve. As I get closer to launch, I'll try to share
more.
Its quite a bit going on! Changes here have just begun.
Z