Transmissions
Transmission: So Long, 2020!
Yay, 2020 is almost over!
While this year has been packed-loaded with awful stuff, we also want to remember the good stuff, like moving to our new site (Xiun.us if you've been away!) and having fun with not one but two big events in recent months. While this year has been packed-loaded with awful stuff, we also want to remember the good stuff, like moving to our new site and having fun with not one but two big events in recent months.
If you head over to Deviantart, we shared some art from this year, picked at random by searching "xiunus".
The Leveling System has been Changed and Integrated!
Levels have been renamed to Experience Points (XP) and we've introduced a fresh new Levels system. This new system includes manual leveling up by the user, instead of having to remember Stat Increases and everything when sending in submissions.
To thank everyone, for TODAY ONLY, we have a gift for you all!
We will allow you to level up your adults from Zero [whelps] to One [young adults] - this level up, when done by a user, lets you add 2 free stats! Tomorrow, I'll be running a script that levels up all Adults to Level One. If you want to get this gift of +2 stats, log into the site and head on over to your characters, where you'll see a little up arrow next to their Level count.
Remember, even belemoid need to be counted Adults (have a design update where it's set to adult) to get to Level One.
Level Two will take the place of the old Lvl 100 and while Benefit of Age will need some adjusting (as there's no longer a 100 XP cap), the other benefits of old Lvl100s should all still apply to Level Two, with this addendum: Level Two requires the Writing research to be purchased in order to level up.
Comments got a Face-Lift!
If they look weird, you may need to hard refresh your browser to clear the cache, as there were some big CSS changes!
To make a new comment, just hit the orange "Add New Comment" button!
Watch For: In Development
The Six Crucibles
Crucibles will be having a face lift in the coming weeks!
They may involve more art pieces per Crucible, so if you want to get those cheap stats in quickly, hop to it :')
Healing
Remember the Healing action? We're revamping it separate from the Prompts system!
The new Healing action(s) will be baked into the Research and Levels system, just like in the old days.
Hunting
Likely to be an art prompt like Foraging, this one will need a lot of art. ;o;
Crafting
This is still coming! As its developer isn't on our team, it's taking longer than expected, but it's still planned!
Transmission: Friendsgiving 2020
Happy November!
Attention Colonies
Due to recent damage on the Department of Protected Inhabited Planet's satellites due to tendrils, we have been unable to remain in contact with several colonies. There is also coincidentally a thickened asteroid cloud separating our agents from the planet of Xiunus currently - It is the Department's decision to request that for the time that we are unable to send in agents, colonies on the ground must go in search of other colonies to determine their statuses after the Tendril infestation.
Be aware that there are still Tendrils present, but they appear to be going into some sort of hibernation, perhaps due to Kerah, which has now begun to spread over the planet.
We estimate it will be one month (until December 3rd) until we will be able to penetrate the asteroid cloud and send agents to the surface.
Other Site Stuff
We will now start enforcing the background/colouring/shading etc rules mentioned in the previous News post.
Kerah is now here! That means a new set of seasonal prompts and you may now do Story Mode submissions based in Kerah.
Galleries are here! While we have yet to write the guide on them, imagine Galleries to be the equivalent of Deviantart as far as art and lit goes - use it to upload images that you want displayed on the site! We have removed "On Homepage" from submissions.
Transmission: Updates + Reminders!
Updates!
We have a bunch of great ideas that we've been working on this month, thank you for your patience!
Tendrils Follow-up
We are still working on a follow-up event for Tendrils - we have a bunch of great ideas but they need to be fleshed out with logistics done to get to a point we'd feel comfortable releasing!
Incoming Systems - Crafting, Immigration Centre, Gallery
I am currently working on collaborating with another coder for a Crafting system, as well as working on a system with Newt that will automate the Immigration Center in order to get that moving better!
I am also working on setting up a Gallery extension, made by one of the other coders working on Lorekeeper stuff :) This will be used in conjunction with Submissions, not instead of! RP rewards and the like will still be processed via Submissions - we are setting up a little guide on how to work with galleries, actions, and submissions.
World Expanded
If you go to World, you will see a fancy button called World Expanded - go there to check out some of the aspects of the planet you might not know about! With that in mind, we are up for any and all suggestions for flora, fauna, and landmarks - feel free to drop any in the Suggestions box or in the comments of this news post!
Also with this expansion, you may now only change your Region once every Quarter. For example, we are in the fourth quarter, which begins October 1st and ends on the 31st of December.
Some Reminders
Reminder of Story Mode Rules
We want to remind everyone (staff and user alike) that all story mode submissions require backgrounds, colour, shading, and fullbody depictions of colonists (or a researcher in the case of Arrival A2. We have been lax for this rule as of late but determined that as it has been written in the rules, we will start enforcing it from November 3rd on.
We're giving you guys some time in case you have WIP story mode entries, so you can get them in before we start enforcing this rule.
Reminder of Design Rules
Litter designs are placeholders that may not always fit into the design standards - they are mostly to ensure that litters are actually wanted before the geno process, which is somewhat time consuming, is done.
- Artifice does not change whether a marking is darker or lighter than the base coat. It is a hue shift modifier.
- ie. Artifice on Inkblot still has to be significantly darker/close to the black range though it can be tinted red, etc.
- Unless a marking specifies that it can have holes in it, it has to be solid.
- Some genes such as Sabino, Underbelly, etc grow outwards from the extremities.
- ie. You cannot have a "hole" in Underbelly to show the base coat on the foot or tail.
- We understand this isn't made clear in the guides and will work to make this more clear.
If there are any markings/parts of the guide that are confusing, please let us know in the comments below!
Transmission: Mascot Contest Winners!
Mascot Design Contest Winners!
Winners: Tagovoa and Avillous!
We had a lot of wonderful entries, but two stood out from the rest in the voting stage: Avillous's researcher and Tagovoa's colonist! Each of them has been sent one Lost Belemoid Whelp.
If you didn't win, please let us know in the comments if you would be open for us to use your colonist submissions as Native designs (or as inspiration for Native designs) in the future! There were so many great designs and we would love to see some of them kicking around the game.
In the comments: Name Suggestions please!
We would love to see your name suggestions for these two new mascots as well as the two existing mascots that you can see on your dashboard.
Transmission: Research, Voting, Awards!
A Message from DPIP
We have been monitoring the situation with these mysterious tendrils. For now, the danger seems to be limited - we will continue our research and we will inform the colonies of any advancements or points of interest that come from our studies. We have operatives on the ground, feel free to flag any down if you feel that the tendrils are posing a threat to your colonies or the land.
Be cautious and be vigilant, but there is no reason to be afraid. Yet.
Tendrils of the Spore Event End
We want to hear from you!
From what we could tell, people liked the Tendrils of the Spore event! We're still cleaning up mushrooms from around the site, so don't worry if you notice some still hanging around.
If you have any feedback, please feel free to share it with us!
Mascot Competition Voting
We got a lot of great entries and decided to put it to the public for a vote to see how you guys feel! Voting will continue for a week before we close and convene to decide on winners :)
Raffle Winner
We rolled the raffle and Onali was our winner! They received a Tincture of Mycelium, which can be used to add the Mycelium mutation to any colonist or geno. (You'll be able to craft these at some point!)
Promotional Event Extension
The claiming period for the promotional event will continue until the midnight between Oct 7 and Oct 8, ET. If you haven't submitted for your free geno, please do so soon! Remember that this only is for EXISTING promo posts. If you post your promo in October, I'm sorry but it won't apply!
Site Updates
A lot of new stuff!
Since last month, we've made a lot of progress on the back end, coding side!
Apologies for Bugs
We installed a new prompt time limit extension recently (at the start of the month) which unfortunately had some bugs in the code that have stopped people from being able to submit things like Crucibles or Wheel of Mercy spins. That has been fixed - sorry for the inconvenience.
New Moderator
You probably noticed, especially if you're in the Discord, but we brought Claritywind (Or'sol) onto the team! She's been around since 2018 and has always been a wonderful source of inspiration (and alerts to bugs and typos!)
Comments
As I'm sure you've noticed, we have comments now! Gone are the days of hunting through Deviantart Comments to find your breeding permissions or research purchases - both of which have their own systems now too :)
Awards
Awards were introduced during the event! We only have a few for now, but if they apply to you and you haven't received them, please send in a Claim with proof so we can get that squared away :)
Research Tree
A huge project, finally (mostly) complete! It's now fully automated, but please feel free to comment on the old temporary research thread if we missed any that you have, or if you join and need the research granted! Note that the two trees where nothing is yet available (Homesteader and Ranger) aren't yet in the system - we'll grant those to you once we get around to adding them.
To see how to earn research: go here.
To see research trees: go here.
To see your own research: go here.
To see all available research: go here.
Comment Suggestions Box
Linked on the sidebar of the Encyclopedia, we now have an comment Suggestions Box! Your comments will be visible to other users, but please feel free to offer any suggestions so that we can build the Xiunus world. If you have suggestions for Suggestion categories, those would go in Miscellaneous.