What's that, Furcadia?

Seen the new stuff in the Wylde yet?

There’s a lot of stuff that’s different in there. For starters, no more teleporting. (That’s right, you can actually map out paths now!) The map is about double it’s previous size. Additionally, there’re animations everywhere.

One of the more significant changes, however, might be in the Mountain Aerie. There’s a cliff overlooking the desert below. If you have wings, you can leap off of it and fly down into the desert beneath you.

Been scrounging around for news on the latest update? Here’s a rundown of the newest features.

While you’re reading them, you could load this image to look at; it’s coming in the update too.

New avatars are including a Unicorn with wings. It was done by Tiggerbaby; (you’ll remember her work from the bears and the kitterwing.) It might have sparkles using the particle engine that DEP was talking about implementing a while back for certain kinds of animations, which would be cool.

There’s a Fox Ferian coming, which is where the update will get part of it’s name, probably. It’s going to be called the ‘foxen’, and it was done by Kaelin’yFiae.

Got some furlings coming out, (done by Talzhemir) in the form of a male and female kit. These won’t be allowed in FurN, and there’s a possibility that they won’t be allowed in Hawthorn either.

The valentine’s day sale avatar will be a chinchilla. If you’ve hung out with Talzhemir, you’ve seen these avatars before. They’re pretty cute.

Portrait art was done mostly by Talzhemir.

Penguin for Life and Kiwi for Life desctags should be out with this update as well.

For those of you, (like me,) hoping to have a ‘test’ feature for dreams… it might be coming soon. (Might be.) DEP says it is a legitimate concern and they’d like to help out.

New DS is probably going to be relegated to the Group Packages only, (Which might be as low as $3 or $5 a month for the cheapest non-free package.) PhoenixSpeak probably won’t be getting an upgrade immediately either. Strings are being looked at for additions in the future, however, for both DS and PS.

Most developers shouldn’t have to worry about this update; aside from the new FOX format, (Furcadia Object Extended) and the new dreamweaving options, everything should work fine as is, according to DEP. Proxies like Furnarchy, (or other very complex proxies) might have issues with the new way objects and floors are being done, but it should be an easy fix.

The move looks like it’s slated for the end of January; hopefully within the next week or so.

Sneak peak at the chinchilla avatar; this won’t be how they look final-draft, I’m sure.

So, that completes the update info, except for those of you who are registered. If you log in, you’ll be able to see the one last bit of really cool information that might be going in on this update. (There’s no guarantee, though.)

[Are_PayPal_LoginPlease]Keep it on the Down low, but there might just be live dream editing coming in with the update. Might. There’s no real confirmation of it yet, and as last I heard it was only very, very roughly done, but it might manage to sneak into this update![/Are_PayPal_LoginPlease]

There is talk about Feral dreams getting the boot out of AI. Emerald Flame, and a lot of players, have expressed concern about the lack of traffic and use of the new map that DEP included, The Wylde.

There seems to be a lot of feelings going around on this topic. On the furrums, it is mostly support for the idea.

There is rumor going about that there will be increased incentives for Feral dreams to move themselves willingly to the Wylde. Included in these plans:

Increased advertising of The Wylde to entice more users to stop in.
The Wylde becoming a “random start” map, instead of defaulting to AI.

Some of the incentives have already went into place. The last dream contest required the Feral dreams involved to be uploaded into The Wylde, for example.

The proponents of the idea say that, to not use the new map that DEP poured time, money, and energy into making is very disrespectful to them.

The detractors state that DEP shouldn’t ‘force’ them to move because they’re established where they already are.

Time will tell which side of this ‘war’ will come out on top.

(My bet: Feral dreams? Say hello to your new home!)

Wolf Howl – Howling for… something.

The days of summer have slowly faded away into those of Autumn here in the northern hemisphere. September is upon us, leaves are slowly beginning to turn from the green color of Spring and Summer to the golden reds, browns, and yellows of Fall.

Kids are getting back to school, parents are slowly weening themselves off the alcohol bottles that got them through the summer. College students are finding out what it is like to be away from their parents for the first time. (Right now, they’re loving it. When they have nothing clean to wear, they’ll cry.)

DEP has rolled out the Fall welcome mat the same way they do every year, (complete with it looking almost identical to past examples, too boot,) by dropping a festival into Drakoria.

Seriously, though.

The website is a very similar creation to the websites of the past. The theme this year is “Howls”, which, as has been stated, can mean “Howls of Laughter, Terror, Fear, Triumph, or pretty much any other kind of howl you can think of.”

The contests are pretty simple and straight forward. You can write a story that depicts a character having strong emotions, or causes the audience to feel strong emotions about the character, or story. You can build one of two kinds of dreams: One for Ferians, or one for Furres. Either of which should illicit ‘strong emotions that make you want to howl’.

If you missed it, DEP wants their players to sit at their desks and howl when they see the creations.

Here are some tips for how to make a successful contest entry. We’re going to start with stories:

You should try and use descriptors that relate not only to your character, but also the readers. If you are going for scary, you should describe exactly why something is frightening. A rustling sound at the window, claw-like shadows on the wall, dull, echoing footsteps coming from an unseen source all add an air of fear to a given story. The same can be said for comedic pieces. Try keeping the tone throughout everything, including your descriptions.

For Furre-Dreams, remember that a Furre is just an extension of the player; it isn’t a role-play based ideal, to be specific. Pick a way you want your characters to howl, and then build the dream around that idea. Devil’s Sanctum from last year’s contest would be a perfect example of how to do this. They took the idea of fear, and played into what most people fear: The Unknown. They accentuated this with inhumane sounds, shades of gray and black, and by narrowing the view-screen. All of these helped put their dream over the top.

If you’re designing a dream for Ferians, you should try steering away from items that you’d see in human society. Ferians are feral creatures. They do not take a point to build great cities, so try to remember to keep with the idea of nature. That’s not to say you can’t have technology, but try to remember that you’re designing for a person that wants to play a non-walking, unevolved, (comparatively,) character. You might make use of the following lines of DS:

(0:100) When 1 seconds have passed, offset by 0,
(0:70) When a furre idles (doesn’t do ANYTHING) for 1 seconds,
(1:1201) and the triggering furre is not localspecies 1,
(5:1200) change the triggering furre to localspecies 1.

While it might be fun to patch in every species with a feral counterpart, this will (possibly) make the experience better for your dialup players that want to see your dream.

These suggestions are specifically that, suggestions. They’re what I would look for if I were a judge in the contests, (which I am not.) The judges all judge differently, so there is no clean-cut way to make certain that you’ve done what the judge might want. It is a good idea to make certain that you follow the Guidelines to make sure that you follow the rules for dream submission.

There is one setback as of right now, however, for those of you working on Ferian dreams, that will hopefully be addressed before the dream contest: There is a certain lack of Ferian Digo. While this DS isn’t a crucial idea or point that needs to be used in a Ferian dream, it could help players make a more engaging map and dream for those who help pay to keep DEP’s pool filled.

Good luck to those entering the contest; I will be writing up a story for submission myself. Hope you all do well!