Please pardon this supplemental news release from Caravel Games this month. There are a couple time-sensitive news items that weren't ready in time for our original March Illumination, but better not to let them wait, so we'll share them here. And I'll throw in a couple of extras for good measure.
First -- our March official forum contest is on, run by DiMono.
The Eighth Needs a New Number!
As I look out over the world of the Eighth, it is a pretty expansive landscape. There are thousands of rooms in hundreds of dungeons built by dozens of skilled architects (and a few not-so-skilled ones), there are campfire stories, songs, businesses, industry, and insects of unusual size (IOUSes). More than that, there are a wide variety of monsters, characters, fauna, flora, foliage, fernage, familiage, festivage and fermentationage to be found just about everywhere.
The problem is, with so much going on at all times, the Kings and Queens of the Eighth have found that the number 8 simply doesn't do the land justice any more as the Official Number. With all that's going on, they feel that while the name of the land is fine (and remarkably descriptive), the Eighth needs a brand new Official Number. And they're currently taking nominations!
That means it's up to
you (yes, you) to decide what number should be the new Official Number of the Eighth, and to create a piece of marketing material to prove why your number is better than all other numbers at best representing The Eighth.
http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=31557
This is planned as the first contest in a series that will run throughout the year, so you might want to get in on the ground floor and start up a winning streak that lasts throughout the year.
Spring 2011 Smitemasters Selection
We've received feedback from some people who were confused by my mention of our finishing up of the Smitemaster's Selection coming out soon.
The Truthlock Method isn't out yet, but it should be done in a month or so. If you've pre-ordered the CD version, then we will be sending you out a CD when the game is released and printed. If you ordered a SmS download credit, then you can keep it in your Caravel user account until the SmS is published, and then you can order it from your user's "
Profile"
tab on the Caravel Forum. If you don't want to wait, you can go there now in order to buy one of the already released SmS expansions.
My apologies again for any confusion caused about the release date of the Spring 2011 SmS.
Modding for the Masses
When a forumite contributes awesomeness-in-a-post to the rest Caravel community, we want to show how much we love it by modding up the post with a bunch of plus points. Up until now, you probably know that modding a post requires more and more mod points as its popularity (total score) increases. So, when forum admins or members of the wealthy burgeois dump a bunch of mod points on a post, then it becomes harder for the masses to share in the praises to the goodness.
So, Schik and I have agreed to make a change to the number of rank points needed to mod a forum post. Now, each and every post mod costs
only two mod points, regardless of the post's current modded score. Let all share their appreciation for all things good on the forum with confidence that their points are not going to waste!
CaravelNet Improvements
Some CaravelNet users have noted for a while that certain online features don't always work reliably. Schik and TFMurphy have combined forces to upgrade the CaravelNet client-server technology. This is in testing now, and in an upcoming game patch, you should see performance and reliability upgrades to CaravelNet service in the 3.x game engine. Much rejoicing!
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There. That looks like an honest-to-goodness supplemental newsletter. Till next month (really, this time!), when we plan to share some more tidbits about developments in the Next Big Project.
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Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.
[Last edited by mrimer at 03-13-2011 06:00 AM]
