Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Happy]

From the official forums: http://forum.smallworlds.com/showthread.php?t=57030

Hey Everyone

I wanted to address some of the concerns and issues that have been surrounding our v2.1 release, as well as giving you all an inside view of how we work and what we are up to over the next few months.


Firstly, V2.1:

There have been a number of complaints that V2.1 was light on content (clothes, furniture etc) and that some expected features were not included. V2.1 is what we call a "point release" (similar to a "patch" in gamer terminology). In such releases we are normally focussing on minor changes, enhancements and bug fixes to the features we introduced during our major release (V2.0 in this case). If we have new features ready for release, or new content, we will also release these at the same time.

As many of you are aware, we are constantly releasing new items, spaces etc outside of our releases - our system is designed so that we can do this. We are in fact planning to release a number of different pieces of content over the coming weeks (the flying carpet has just been released for example).

There are also a number of quite new/important features we have been working on in parallel to V2.1, many of which will be in our next point release. We put a number of technical (behind the scenes) changes into V2.1 in preparation for these upcoming features.

So try not to be too disappointed in a point release if you don't see something you were expecting. There will continue to be more content coming soon, and a new point release (or major release) just around the corner.


Specific Complaints:

"There are no new clothes, as promised."

We have been working hard on re-engineering our avatar system to support NPCs and in-world clothing (read: Clothes Shops). This is one of the major changes we have been working on in parallel to V2.1. Expect these within the next couple of months (possibly in December, all things going well).

"Why can't I walk past the barriers outside Modern Living?"

We should have really put an "under construction" sign here. We wanted to hint at what we had planned for our shops - making them part of a bigger shopping complex/mall/town, so you can navigate physically between shops. Watch this space (pun intended).

"Why can people still poke my pet? I wanted this removed."

The Pet system is going through a major overhaul behind the scenes, as part of what we are doing for NPCs. We didn't want to remove the poke action - instead we want pets to be able to retaliate/ignore/run away if poked (and trained to do so). We are hoping the new system will be in place in Jan (or early Feb) as one of the final phases of our NPC feature set. Pets will be able to do so much more than this, but I don't want to give it all away just yet!

"I don't like the Mwommy, Dwaddy, Bwaby stuff. Why don't you guys ban this?"

SmallWorlds appeals to a broad range of people, from many different interests and ages, and sometimes activities that some enjoy are annoying to others. In 2.0 we introduced the concept of groups, to enable groups of similar people to set up their own "worlds" within SmallWorlds, where they could dictate what is acceptable behaviour, and what is not. The current problem is in public spaces, as players cannot control what goes on there - it has to be something the moderators do as part of policy. We have a plan to "thwart" these sort of divisive activities in public spaces, but in a humorous and self-regulating way. All I can say at this point is that it will involve NPCs and perhaps a few special spells.


So what else is coming soon?

In our next point release, you will notice quite a few changes beyond those mentioned above. We will be introducing a new type of in-world game where you can earn XP/Tokens, trade with other players, and a lot more. We plan to start simple at first, but will expand on the concept quite quickly.

Within the next 2-3 months, we will be adding a number of totally new types of in-world games you can play. For some people, these may be the only types of game they play within SmallWorlds. We will also be adding new ways to keep in touch with the world and your community.

I can't give too much away sorry, but I promise that you will all be blown away with how much more fun you will be able to have in SmallWorlds!



Hold tight, the next few months are going to be some of the most exciting since we launched nearly one year ago. Until then, have fun!



Darren