Transmissions
Transmission: Site Update!
Hello, fellow Researchers and Colonists!
You may have noticed some downtime over the last couple of days. We have moved to a fresh server and updated our version of php in anticipation for future Lorekeeper updates!
As we have moved servers, you'll need to log back in.
In the meantime...
There appears to be a new item for sale in the Wandering Merchant's stock. If may have something to do with this.
Transmission: Stage Two
Report from DPIP
We have a fantastic opportunity for you!
The docks have opened finally and colonies are being invited in.
Follow the Clues?
This is the Rebel path.
Follow the clues found in the suspicious documents. Uncover the truth.
Trust DPIP?
This is the Respect path.
Follow the instructions provided by your overlords. Prove your loyalty.
Transmission: Diplomacy, Observations/Random Events, Background Images
Status report
DPIP is extremely nervous and sketchy.
Did you see that? No, no you didn't. You saw nothing.
Diplomacy
For as long as colonies have roamed the land of Xiunus, Natives have been pretty interested in joining any colony they encounter. They've started to become, hm, a bit picky as of late. Some Natives, especially those who know each other, claim that they may not be too eager to join a colony that has ex-Natives living within. After all, one said under complete anonymousity, someone snores like an entire herd of honjest. They were looking at a nearby native who was picking their nose.
To alleviate their discomfort, DPIP has set up a lottery of sorts.
Natives must still be encountered while Observing (see below) in their Region before they can be Woo'd. However, upon that point, a Raffle will automatically be made for that Native. From that point on, anyone with the Diplomacy research may attempt to entice the Native to join their colony, gathering tickets based on the success rolls of their included colonists, which is affected by the Social skill of the colonist in question.
When a colonist succeeds in their Social roll, they add one ticket to the pool of tickets for the submitter. The number of colonists allowed in a Diplomacy submission is the same. After one month, the raffle is automatically rolled and the Native automatically goes home with the winner of the Raffle. How exciting!
Collaborations split the raffle tickets, just like Research Points are split.
If you want to see what colonists are available in a Region, go to that Region's information page!
The number of submissions one can make per Native is as follows:
- Four for the original finder: This is to account for the past method. However, if this colony has Natives already, that is reduced to three.
- Three for anyone else who has no Natives in their colony.
- Two for any colony that has Natives already in their colony.
Research
Several researches have been adjusted for this system! You will need to mention them when you send in your Woo submission.
- Diplomatic Immunity: Allows one more colonist per submission to be rolled.
- Extradition: Allows one more entry. So, if you have a Native already, you can do three entries. If you are the original finder and have no Natives, you can do five!
- Well Met: Adds a bonus of two tickets per entry.
Items
Certain items also have effects when attached to a submission!
- Honey: While it no longer auto-successes, it adds 2 additional tickets to an entry, even if all colonists fail!
- There are three letters that share names with the Research. These may stack only with other types of letters and add one additional ticket per item.
Observations
Random Events have been renamed Observations. They can now be applied per colonist and the Region can be set for the submission itself. Remember, it's a max of two Observations per colony per submission. If you try to sneak it through... well. It'll auto-cap to two, so you won't be able to have more than two.
With this new system, the Compass item will need some tinkering to work with the new system. If you have one or buy/find one in the meantime - hold onto it!
Do not forget to set a Region if you are asking for Observations.
Background Items
I've created the function of having an item that automatically applies a background image to sit behind a transparent colonist's image. This will help a lot with sizes of colonist import images and server load as time progresses! Here's an example of a colonist with this treatment applied.
The freely available backgrounds, for instance, the mining examples, are available in a new shop: The Background Emporium!
If you want to replace your existing colonist image with a transparent version to be able to use this, please reply to this Transmission in a comment below with the following form:
**Colonist:** [Colonist Name](url here)
**Transparent Image:** [Image link](url here)
If you have a Native and you wish for this treatment, please indicate below! Some older ones may not have PSDs anymore so we may have to manually separate it from the background.
In the future, we may allow custom background items. This completely cosmetic effect will likely be "rewards" for donating to the site for upkeep costs.
Transmission: Claymores Edition Release!
Status Report
DPIP IS Constipat concerned
Did you hear that? Hm. It must have been the wind.FTTZT... Is this thing on?
Hello there! Winter is upon us, isn't it? Oh, wait, I'm getting something in my earpiece. Oh. Keh... Kerah? And it's been going on for a while now? Well! We hope you on the planet have been having a good Kerah!
We hope you've been enjoying the gifts from the advent calendar throughout the month!
Sometimes, it must feel like the months drag on and on, and other times they must go by like the flash of a laserbeam. Speaking of laserbeams, we've beamed in a bunch of new and shiny things for you to see and explore!
Stats, Levels, and Skills
All of these are now using the Claymores and Companions extension! Skills now have their own little information pages, as do Stats. The biggest change that you'll notice about this system is that Skills are no longer automatically generated for each colonist.
The way levels, stats, and skills are processed in the back end is leagues different from the way it was before. Stats are no longer simply columns in the database and experience, health, and skill bonuses are no longer going to be character currencies. This allows for greater freedom in expansion in the future though, as always, if you notice anything incorrect or broken please let us know immediately via the bug report function or on the discord!
When you view the page of a colonist who hasn't had their skills initiated yet, those skills will show up as question marks. If these are your own colonists, the question marks will be links to the Leveling Area of that colonist.
Leveling Area
Up top might not look very different from what you're used to in the level up page from before. As before, you'll need whelps to have adult designs in before moving to Level One, but overall it's fairly similar.
The differences come when you scroll a bit down. When you level up, you're given available stat points to add into different stats of your choosing. You can't go over the max stat base of your level, 20, but you don't have to lose those points or worry about stat overflow currency bogging down your colonist's bank! The text "Level" means how many times that stat has manually been increased. Stats can be temporarily modified currently by attaching gear or weapons to the colonist in question. These bonuses aren't inherited in breeding and they can be unattached from the colonists after a short cooldown.
Next up: Skills! As we said above, skills don't come automatically initialized. However, if you hit the "Initialize Skill" button of stats you believe this colonist will use, it will initialize the skill for that colonist without any admin input necessary. Once initialized, they'll look a little something like below, minus the cog wheel. The numbers in parentheses are first the bonuses applied and secondly the stat modifier from strength. This includes all gear or currency that may apply to the stats in question.
Classes?
Have you ever wanted to have your colonist specialize in anything in particular? Does your belemoid prefer foraging while your tsabhua can't get enough of the mines? Do you have one colonist who you use to heal every time? Have them enter a class!
Each class has two stages. Read about them here! The first is to train and learn from a Native or NPC Professional (coming soon!) and become an Assistant for that class. Then, Assistants can go for the second stage and become full fledged members of that class, earning them benefits such as extra rolls or bonuses to Native encounters.
Classes require certain stat levels in order to obtain them. The Assistant level usually has a smaller stat requirement than the full Class. This is just in case you want to get the last bit of XP for a level from your submission in the first stage ;)
back up - Gear and Weapons?!
Y..yes. Gear and, ahem, weapons. Some will be restricted to certain classes, others will be free for any colonist to have and hold til death do they part. There will be more as time goes on, but enjoy what there is in the meantime! You'll be able to craft these with recipes or you may even find full gear or weapons from Investigations.
Those Natives sure like to gift random things, don't they?
There's... an odor.
You might be smelling the influx of Animals spotted around Xiunus. Animals... that are domesticated! Some of these little guys can even grow attached to your colonists and start following them around as pets! These can be found while out and about doing activities, but they can be tricky to come across!
As always.
Please let us know if you notice any errors or oddities! The move from the old Leveling/Stats/Skill system to the new one was a massive undertaking and there's every possibility I've missed one or two places that were using the old system.
We love you and hope you have a much better 2022 than 2021 was!
Transmission: New Navigation and Coming Soon!
Status Report
DPIP IS Cautious
Ignore the blinking lights. Even if they cause major headaches.Ahoy there, land lubbers!
It's been quite a while, hasn't it!
We've all been a little bit... distracted, up here in the orbiting space station owned entirely by Department of Protected Inhabited Planets. No, wait, we shouldn't tell you that. Ahem. We've, uh, been hard at work doing things! Important things behind the scenes that are very important and completely legal in all major star systems.
Things like....
A Navigation Revamp? Boy howdy, that's shiny!
An Advent Calendar! Every day in December, pick up something nice - or not so nice! If you claim every single day, you get something extra special at the end :) The button will be on the homepage come December First.
(coming soon) A Diplomacy Revamp! The Natives are getting picky, so we're having to reflect that.
(coming soon) Examples of Mutations! Which are totally normal and definitely not the result of toxic leakages caused by crashed DPIP landers. We want to make sure everything has an example before we go on and make any more!
More items! Everyone likes new shiny things!
(coming soon) New Landmarks? They've always been here but we're documenting more about the world and its native inhabitants beyond just the tribes! Did you know there's a kingdom or two hidden out in the wastelands? I didn't either! Well, I did, being an all knowing DPIP agent, but I digress! If you want to help us document any of these places, please feel free to do so!
Navigational Tools are Changing?
The top navigation, that giant box of text and words and garble, will soon be replaced by the shiny new sidebar! We're leaving the top navigation up at least until the end of the year so people can get a handle on the side bar navigation.
There will also be a new page: Activity. This will have a brief overview of your colony including your max population, current population, and remaining slots. There will also be quick links to the hospital, breeding, your prompts and claims, your pending reports, your nursery, and your pending design updates. There's also some ease of access population spot purchase buttons in this page! Due to this, the old Colony Expansion items will be retired.
Diplomatic Agreements will still be a thing that you can find and redeem for population spots like normal, but Colony Expansion items will no longer be sold.
Please let us know in the Discord if you believe anything to be amiss, including confusing navigation order/set up or links that you can no longer easily find!
Diplomacy Revamp you say?
Well! That's still being worked on in the back end like everything else, but it will implement the existing Raffles system and will allow for more people to try for discovered Natives instead of hoping you come across the one you want. The original finder gets the most tickets, of course, but there will be ways for other people to try to woo the Natives!
Examples of Mutations!
This requires a lot of art, we all are very thankful that you colonies have been extremely patient with us about this! Most mutations are rather loose with their descriptions and they may show up on different colonists in different ways, but we know some visual guidelines are always useful.
I love shiny new things
Here's some of the items we've added in the recent months but never announced!
What about the new landmarks?
Mostly just rumble-tumbling around and lost in our paperwork, but we're discovering some pretty intereresting locations out there. Did you know there's a giant hollow Fungal Tree in L'Hatzif? Probably not, but there is totally one! At least one. Maybe more.