Devlog [08.06.23]

Sindonic - Aug 6th 2023 07:35

NEWS
Hello, Sprouts!

Dev Team Update
We hope everyone has been well during this hot summer. It has been quite some time since we have had an update, and we know we have been quiet. We have been working on the unglamorous portion of the ARPG, the administrative, logging, and record-keeping parts while continuing on the backlog. We told users that we would return when we had a roadmap, which is what this update is.

We are moving and renaming our visual assets, sketches, and files into cloud storage. This process is incredibly important not only for the longevity of Griffia as a reference index but also as an essential backup and security measure that will serve us and our members for years to come. Until we completed at least some file sorting, we could not return to world-building and set-in-stone goals because our notes, concepts, and references were disorganized, and we feared we would miss something. We have made thousands of notes and ideas since 2016; if we can access or see them quickly, then we waste less time discussing concepts and ideas we have already discussed. The projects we intend to embark upon require a lot of planning to prevent us from making careless mistakes, requiring us to edit or redo art assets down the line.

We returned to the development phases/world-building earlier this month before announcing it to ensure it was the correct and most logical course forward. We have updated the current dev projects to reflect this. It took us a while, but we recognize that the next logical course of action is to complete and organize all lore and link existing ideas in an easier-to-digest format. We have already started this in the backend. We will start with the Yotun and work our way into similar projects in the lore tab. We have not been able to touch world-building in quite some time as there were more pressing matters, and we would be lying if we said we weren't incredibly excited to get back to art and world-building. Users have likely seen spoilers of this on the Griffolk Pages. The Bavom, Foolee, and Novinaut have altered their Pages and corresponding assets to identify them as Union Griffians (Purple) rather than Fluffian Griffians(Pink).

As a minor note, we plan to stop using Twitter/X and replace it with something else.

 

Site Development Update
We are finally close enough to a release to begin preparing users for the new round of Automated Approvals. For context, we have been working on the internal framework allowing administrators to create approval pages with custom widgets. Users have already encountered this:

The next round of this update will be coming soon. We will make another news update as soon as this is live, but we want to discuss it now. This will allow us to automate all character creation processes. This means that Maze and Haze, Open Species Approval, and CYO creation will all be automated on the site. We have primarily run CYO during events because we could not handle the influx of free characters except during specific 30-day time windows. Now that these processes will be automated, this is no longer a factor, and CYO will be open indefinitely as soon as the approval page is live.

We are excited about this because it has always been our dream to ensure that Free-to-Play users can access three free characters, Maze, Haze, and 1 CYO. However, we recognized that waiting between events kept people from participating and having a fully customizable Griffolk. We are glad to end this restriction soon, but we could not have done this without the community and mods; thank you. This has been a long time coming for us, and we hope you guys will enjoy these features when they are live.

These new additions and automation will require us to revisit some of our rules. Please keep your eyes open for that update. 

Once this portion of the automation update is completed, we will move on to Trial Approval (Beta) and Token Approval (Beta). Once that is complete, all trials that have been temporarily removed will return indefinitely. Once this is complete, we will automate all Game Systems. 

DEV LOG
Apologies for the late dev log. We have summed up what has happened from May til August.

Additions

    • Reformatted the Magic Familiar Page.
    • Items Added - Bumble Beetle.
    • Items Added - Floop Floopfish.
    • Items Added - Cafluffle Speeder.
    • Items Added - Cafluffle Gulit.
    • Items Added - Eek Sultan.
    • Items Added - Pelsuar Delta.
    • Items Added - Kittecura Destroyer.
    • Items Added - Synch Tropical.
    • Art Added - Mascot full body reference art.
    • Updated rule 7.3 to match changes from porting. (May)
    • Added file limit to Trial Approval pages.
    • Added Taurus as a redeemable Love Item
    • Added exception to Mascots about natural coat forms.
    • Added monotremes to the list of available animals for the Berzerker Bavom Subtype.
    • Added a rule/reminder to Magic Familiar Class and Eather Beast Class that the Starter Trial is needed before participating.
    • Icons of Griffolk added x13.
    • Icons of remaining Sidekicks added x2.
    • Header added to Polebean page.
    • Icon of remaining Yotun added x1.
    • Icons added to the Ability and Stat Pages.
    • Updated safe trading tips on Transfer Pages. (July)
    • Updated and clarified the pings in discord channels to include new information and rules. 
    • Added an exception to Soulbond Bonus on Soublond Page: “Some activities might specify that this bonus can’t be used, similarly to how Magic Familiars are currently handled. 
    • Updated the Current Dev Project page with new tags and the current Lore roadmap.

      All Feedback has been read and considered!~