An update of sorts

[Dinocanid]

This is more of a progress-report on how things are going under-the-hood. First off, the alpha release. It has been pushed back from the estimated "Q1 2018/late March" into "relatively soon". This vague ETA is due to the fact that the game isn't in a playable state that I feel comfortable releasing yet. Meanwhile, I can honestly say that it won't be another 3 months until the first playable phase is opened (Finishing up explore and player tasks won't take that long) -- it just won't be within 2 days.

So, do I have any updates of substance to give? Actually, I do! First off, I've been working on the adolescent-stage artwork:

In addition to that, I plan to reveal a pretty short video around next week, showcasing how player tasks are handled in the game. The basic run-down is that they are randomly generated each day, and your reputation with the pack as a whole can go up or down based on how well (or poorly) you were able to do said-task. There is also a new addition similar to vacation mode (nicknamed "hibernation" for now), where your wolf is basically "frozen" and nothing will affect them. However, enabling this proceeds to log you out, and logging back in again automatically disables it. So there's no way to play while in hibernation mode, since I wanted to avoid the many exploits that could come out of this.

Next, I've updated the index! Now it's much more appealing and contains basic info on the game:

 

-New enemy and boss info-

Larger, more dangerous predators can be found while exploring (called bosses). Depending on where it lives, either a region-wide or local notification will be sent when one is discovered. Defeating them makes the area safer overall, especially for pups, and less will be found for a while. I'm thinking about whether or not damage persists among common enemies, so if one player deals damage to a bear and another player comes across the same one, it's health would be lowered accordingly. It works great for boss creatures, but I'm unsure about lesser ones.
Once a boss is defeated, all participants get an SP reward (and possibly an achievment, I'm still debating that)

(Example artwork of a boss smilodon battle sprite. This one is labeled "Watcher" because of the eye-like markings)

-Timescales and seasons-

Finally decided how time works in the game. 1 real day = 1 in-game month. So it'll take a total of 24 days for a wolf to grow up. Seasons will not be on the same scale as aging, because they would be far too short to be interesting. Instead, each season has 3 phases: one phase for each real-life month. (IE: early fall could still be hot, while late fall is rather cold). Every IRL month will have a special event that affects the world. (the events cycle every IRL year)

-Lastly more art-

It's still incomplete and missing a bunch of locations on it, but eventually you'll be able to visit pages by clicking on different parts of the image. The only thing on it right now is the crow tree (where rank markings are given) and exploring (where the snow trails into the distance).
Each major territory will have a map that looks different, since they're completely different locations!

That's all for now. I hope you all enjoyed the news!

View full news