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TOPIC | Experimental Adv. Changes & Event Info

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Squid

The Not-Village

(they/them)

admin

May 7, 2023 12:15:51
cat wearing a squid hat surrounded by squid paintings

This update brings new lunches, a large number of experimental adventuring changes, and some information about upcoming events.


Coloring Contest
In preparation for the upcoming Snowmelt, we are holding a Coloring Contest. Read more on the Coloring Contest Thread.
-- Last edited on May 7, 2023 13:36:51
teahug
Cat's End Artist/Developer
Hope all of you are enjoying your cat time!
Not-cat with a black solid shorthair coatno white markings neutral eyes. aaaaaaaaaaObsidian SmokeWhite Wildflower CrownBlue Wildflower Necklace

Squid

The Not-Village

(they/them)

admin

May 7, 2023 12:17:25
boop You may need to clear your cache for the new luncheon images to show up.


This update is very long, so buckle up!

paintbrush Snowmelt Coloring Contest

Our first snowmelt is coming up soon, and with it, we'll be hosting a coloring contest for these cute springshrews:

a shrew with plants on its back, holding an acorn a shrew with plants on its back, standing

These little guys will be a collectable set that will then "soft retire" at the end of the event.

8 winners will be chosen for each lineart. Prizes will include $20 in premium currency (200 essence fragments), 1 prize basket (in the color of your choice), and three copies of your winning springshrew.

Coloring contests will be held for every Snowmelt and Leaf Day for collectable sets.

Visit the Contest Thread for more Information. The deadline is June 1st at 9:00 server time.

exclamation Wait, "Soft Retire"? What does that mean?

Soft retiring is what I have been calling the retirement system that will be used for special event items in this game. With "soft" retirement, items will be functionally retired after their corresponding event. However, in future years' events of the same kind, it will still be technically possible to obtain them, but they will be extraordinarily rare.

(Think, they're still there but it's something like a 1 in 1000 chance of getting one).

With odds this low, items are essentially retired and you'll pretty much have to buy them from other users if you want one. However, there's that tiny chance you "win the lottery" doing your event dailies and acquire something retired.

I plan to use this system for any retiring items. For now, the only retiring items you'll see in the immediate future are the Snowmelt & Leaf Day collectable sets. There will likely be more, though.

goldgift Prize Basket Items

The prize baskets referenced in the coloring contest information are little cloudy squid themed for the Cloudy Squid Games mascot. Prize baskets come in Blue, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Lavender, and Grey and each contain x1 painting, x1 plushie, and x1 silly hat.

specialBlue Prize Basket
specialPink Prize Basket
specialOrange Prize Basket
specialYellow Prize Basket
specialGreen Prize Basket
specialLavender Prize Basket
specialGrey Prize Basket

decorBlue Squid Plushie
decorPink Squid Plushie
decorOrange Squid Plushie
decorYellow Squid Plushie
decorGreen Squid Plushie
decorLavender Squid Plushie
decorGrey Squid Plushie

decorBlue Squid Painting
decorPink Squid Painting
decorOrange Squid Painting
decorYellow Squid Painting
decorGreen Squid Painting
decorLavender Squid Painting
decorGrey Squid Painting

clothingSilly Blue Squid Hat
clothingSilly Pink Squid Hat
clothingSilly Orange Squid Hat
clothingSilly Yellow Squid Hat
clothingSilly Green Squid Hat
clothingSilly Lavender Squid Hat
clothingSilly Grey Squid Hat


Are there other ways to get the prize baskets beyond winning a coloring contest?
These baskets are to thank people for contributions to the game and will be exclusive to people who win contests or otherwise contribute creatively. That said, the coloring contest wins are not the only way to get them!

In addition to the coloring contests, users will get them (along with premium currency) if submitted scenarios and traveler/spam letters are implemented into the game. You may have noticed a writing submissions thread in the dev corner for the last year, largely abandoned. I do plan to start making use of this.

Instead of holding one big contest for these two groups of writing submissions, I will be reviewing them on a rolling basis. When I know I'm going to sit down and add submitted scenarios, there will be a date at the top as to when the next review will be. The next date for this is July 1st. There's more information in the corresponding thread.

Any additional contests or creative activities will result in similar prizes.

thonk A Purpose for Collectables?

Since there will be collectables to gather during the events, it seems that we soon are going to need a reason to do so. I will be building an achievement system where you can unlock achievements for finishing collectable sets. This will be done in time for the first Midsummer event, because Midsummer is going to require some kind of achievement system.

Note: I plan to skip Midsummer this in-game year because I do not think I'm going to be able to get midsummer done by the date as it is the largest and most unique/different of the events.

Currently, I'm not sure what the rewards for finishing achievements (including finishing collectable sets) should be. They can't give items because it's possible to remove collectables from the set, meaning people could just pass them around or borrow them. However, they could be things like forum badges or forum post decorations.

If you have ideas, stop by the dev corner!

flower2 More about Snowmelt

Snowmelt is going to be one of two light events. It's going to feature a large number of flower recolors that will return each year, the retiring collectables above, and some returning candies. All items can be acquired in a large number of ways:
- purchased at a temporary event shop
- brought back by cats during daily gathering
- special snowmelt-unique scenarios with bonus relationship+ odds
- adventuring
- gifted to each other via a mini message-sending activity, where you can decorate notes and send them to provide flower items to friends or acquaintances

cake New Luncheon Options

I realized recently that there were no luncheons that influenced your cats' movement speed. This wasn't excluded intentionally and was an oversight!

As such, we have 4 tasty new lunch options, all of which will make your cats travel further in a single turn:
four new luncheons


heartbubble Music in Adventuring

Very excited to announce something that's been in the works for almost 6 months now. Adventuring now has a music player with an original soundtrack by @angelicarus! You can listen to some sweet tunes while you play!

We have three tracks for the Heart of the Woods: Heartgrove, Hearthgrove, and Umbragrove.

Because people go through adventuring so fast, the default behavior is slowly cycling between Heartgrove (standard) and Hearthgrove (a chilled out lowkey version of the song). Then, the music will change to Umbragrove when you get the end of the road.

If you're looking for those chill vibes, you can change the vibes to stick to one track or the other. The music player can also be minimized by clicking on the music note symbol.

You can check out angel's music on youtube here:
Youtube link - https://www.youtube.com/@honeycoatedparadox
The @ symbol is breaking the formatting now but this will be fixed

The three tracks will be up there shortly!

friends Experimental Adventuring Changes

The changes to adventuring below are experimental. By this, I mean we're going to try them out for a bit and if we don't like them, we can change them or pull them out.

The adventuring article is not updated with these changes, but I'll work on that later.

Standing on Defeated Creatures
You may now Stand upon the fallen. No more trying to coax monsters out from behind trees. You can just jump on top of your defeated foes. They don't mind, probably,

New Movement Type: Sneak
Monsters will no longer be soooo slippery that they just sneak right by you if you try to surround them with your cats. Moving past an opponent now requires a sneak skill check (aided by the sneaky boots item). I've referred to this internally as the monster-bullying update, because I parked my cats on all 4 sides of a spider and it kept failing to escape.

Cons: This can happen to you too.

Note: I've located a pretty major pathfinding bug while adding this system! (This is why the update was delayed). When the target space requires a serpentine-like movement to get to (for example, it's in a straight line but you have to go around a tree and back), it's not able to find the appropriate stopping square. This is true of all obstacle movement types. It's not actually new, but it is much exacerbated by the sneaking.

Click Twice to Confirm
You can now bypass the confirmation windows when moving to a new location or choosing a monster/ally to target by clicking the target tile a second time.

For example, if you click on a tile because you want to move there, you don't need to move your mouse all the way up to the top to hit yes, you can just click the tile a second time. This functionality is a tiny bit buggy, but it should improve quality of life for users who are not using the keyboard controls where you can just hit enter. Mouse click also speeds up the text.

Patterned Monster Icons
To add further visual distinction between cats and monsters (making it so we don't keep trying to attack our buddies), a striped pattern has been added to the monster icons.

Supply Crate Battle Event
In order to spice adventuring up some, we now have our first "battle event." A battle event is just like a normal battle, but with a special sidequest or bonus activity/event that takes place during it. These kind of mini events will spice adventuring up to give you a little something different from time to time.

Our first battle event is the Supply Crate Encounter. Every once in a while, there will be a supply crate located somewhere on the battle map. If you maneuver your cats to stand on it and pick it up before the battle ends, you'll get the item inside AND your cats will get bonus experience equal to 50% rounded up of the total battle's experience.

However, never fear, if you accidentally one-shot that monster or just can't be bothered to walk all the way over there to pick it up, you will still get the item if you win the battle without picking it up - you just won't get the bonus experience.
supply crate


Supply crates in the Heart of the Woods will drop one of two chest items: the Snack Box (which drops an assortment of snacks) and the Supply Crate (which has 24 crossbow bolts and 12 cloth bandages):
specialLunch Box
specialSupply Crate


The purpose of these crate events in hotw is to better resource newbie teams (and to give my scout who only spams Call to Action some enrichment activities.)

The New "Touch Point" Infrastructure

The supply crate event above was created using a new system I've been calling the "touch point system," where an event or action is triggered by your cats moving onto a specific tile. This sounds like such a small little system - just picking up an item - but it's actually a very powerful infrastructure that has now been implemented in preparation for plot events.

To illustrate what it can do, here are some other potential battle mechanics that adventuring locations and events could make use of:
- meteors are falling from the sky and you have to go through the fields to pick them up
- you are tasked with lighting lanterns on a path
- traps or levers you can activate to change the map (drawbridge, pit trap, raise/lower water level)
- encounters that are not monsters but puzzles where you activate buttons to cross the map

I'm very excited about this mechanic, as it really does have a lot of use for the future!

transcat June is Coming, Post Pride Flags

Exactly what it says on the title. Please visit the pride flag dev corner thread and post images of your flags.

Recolors won't be here by the start of June but if I have time I might be able to get them in by the end of June. If someone else posted your flag, please Do post it again. I will be doing "most often posted" ones first.

prideflag Three Week Development Hiatus

I will be taking yet another squidcation* from May 30 - June 15th in which no active development will occur and responses to emails/questions will be delayed. Yes, this overlaps with Snowmelt. I will try my best to be around to handle any issues that arise then.

*squidgaytion even, since my partner is visiting teehee

question Update Disclaimer

This update was Huge and today has been an ordeal, so it's very possible I've forgotten something in here. If so, my apologies and I will add it in when I remember.

glitter What's Next?

- Snowmelt! Coming soon to a Cat's End Near YOU

cozy Bug Fixes

- Fixed issue where some cats were unable to be purchased due to false expiration error

- Fixed issue where the rollover synchronizer was setting adolescent cats to adults with 0 stats

- Fixed issue where old threads couldn't be posted in after the date update as it is using original post instead of last post

- Block options are no longer mislabeled

- Fixed lingering broken links under "craftable item" link in item database

- Scene sandbox jquery is no longer being blocked preventing the placing of items

- After the date fix, log-ins were being treated expired when unexpired

- Fixed issue with weather no longer rolling over after the date fix

- Hawks no longer do nothing and can appropriately use call to action if nothing is in range.
-- Last edited on May 7, 2023 13:08:36
teahug
Cat's End Artist/Developer
Hope all of you are enjoying your cat time!
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mori

everhome

(she/they)

account age 7/9

May 7, 2023 13:10:48
yeah!! new meals!! neat :]
teacup3
> then blue lights all around!
pce+7 • ping when replying!
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ivy

Houseplant

(every/all)

account age 7/9

May 7, 2023 13:15:43
sparkles
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https://i.ibb.co/h9p0PVy/jade.pnghttps://i.ibb.co/x8v9ZCb/ivy.png
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please ping!
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saguaro

The Moss-stone Cairn

(they/them)

account age 8/9

May 7, 2023 13:15:51
the springshrews are adorable! super excited for snowmelt cheer
 the image is a drawing of a paint pallet with blobs of each color in the rainbow, over which a paintbrush with orange paint on it paints a streak of orange. under the paintbrush and behind the pallet are three saguaro cacti.



writingchaotic artist and bird enthusiast, pleased to meet ya!tea
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LapisZap

Sprucefort

(any pronouns)

account age 7/9

May 7, 2023 13:16:32
Woah! I am very excited for this! Adventuring is going to be even more fun.
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https://i.imgur.com/P9aWhak.png

gem2
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Untitled

Unknown

(he/him)

account age 8/9

May 7, 2023 13:16:48
Scout enrichment lmao. Lots of stuff in the works I'm excited for. Enjoy your break with your partner!! feels

edit: just have to say I am absolutely LOVING the HotW music wow
-- Last edited on May 7, 2023 17:20:16
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deltarune

Solamere

(they/he)

account age 7/9

May 7, 2023 13:16:49
yipppeee!!
alt text required
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Vulpix

Woodnote

(she/her)

account age 8/9

May 7, 2023 13:17:09
Gonna have to try my hand at being creative, those basket rewards are adorable!
On cat time~

Mostly a lurker who doesn't know how to format text
Plz ping me when replying!
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muwun

home

(she/her)

account age 8/9

May 7, 2023 13:18:10
hell yeah!!!
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