A new area is now open for Lord and Lady hunters!
Zugzwang's Tower is located in the Rodentia Region, and hunters can gain access to it once they have collected four key shards from the Seasonal Garden and assembled them into Zugzwang's Tower Key. The tower is like no other hunting location in the game, featuring a brand new way to hunt mice!
If you have been hunting in the new Seasonal Garden area, you have no doubt noticed your increasing 'Tower Amplifier' stat on the heads-up display. With the tower now open, it's time to put that amplifier to use! When hunting in Zugzwang's Tower, your trap's power will be multiplied by your Tower Amplifier, providing a power bonus of up to 75%. When your amplifier drops below 100%, your trap's power and luck will begin to reduce, until they become zero and you are incapable of capturing mice. When your amplifier runs low, make sure to return to the Seasonal Garden to recharge it.
Your amplifier won't be the only new stat displayed on your heads-up display while in Zugzwang's Tower. Additionally, two new progress bars will appear showing how many Technic and Mystic mice you have caught since you entered. Upon capturing the correct mice, new types will then be available along with previous varieties. The correct order of capture is: Eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and finally the king. In order to win, you will have to battle your way through all the chess pieces in the Tower.
There's lots of new items and loot to be found in the tower! Hunting kings may reveal how to attract a more fearsome adversary who holds a key item to crafting a very powerful base. The Seasonal Garden's trapsmith and general store have new items for sale specifically for hunting within Zugzwang's Tower. Winning this game of chess will require some thought and strategy, so study these new traps and items carefully and plan your moves in advance!
Put on your thinking caps, and good luck conquering the Tower, MouseHunters!
There's a lot more than a new area in this release! We've overhauled a few existing pages and even added a brand new section!
Here's a breakdown of what else is new with this update:
Loot items are now clickable in journal entries and link to a new page called "Larry's Loot Lexicon". This new page shows some basic item information to help reduce confusion when finding a new item for the first time.
We added black and white thumbnails and search filters to the stats section of the mice page and hunter profiles. This change will easily allow hunters to see what mice in a group they have yet to catch to help to see how to complete their collection!
The items tab on hunter profiles has been given collection stats. If you're a collector of trap parts or map pieces, having all of these items earns you a check-mark on your profile. Limited edition items do not count towards collection totals and are instead displayed in brackets as a bonus.
We overhauled the look and functionality of crafting and the recipe book. We also corrected a problem where page popups would appear at the top of the page while scrolled down. The recipe book is now sorted into categories to make it easier to find what you're looking for.
We improved mouse popups on the adversary page. Clicking the image of the mouse now displays a higher-resolution image. Global stats have also been added in the popups, which update once a day.
We reduced the frequency of a problem where players went on two simultaneous hunts, registering an extra caught mouse in their stats without record of a journal or loot.
We corrected a problem where Student of the Cheese Belt mice would not steal gold or points.
We corrected a problem where King's Crown journal entries would be improperly time-stamped for trap checks.
We corrected a problem where brown and grey mice were being shown on Furoma's regional mice page.
Phew! We hope everyone enjoys this massive update, packed with cheesy deliciousness!
Happy hunting!
-- Dave Vanderburg
Hello to all you Lords and Ladies in the Seasonal Garden!
We have now hunted through Winter, Spring and Summer! Fall is just around the corner, and with it comes the final key shard. Once you find all four key shards, they can be combined to gain access to Zugzwang's Tower.
With all the commotion out in the garden, it seems the mice in the tower have been busy barricading the door! It may be another day or two before the barricade can be broken down, so until then, Zugzwang's Tower will remain locked, regardless of whether or not players have the key.
Once we've finished putting some of the finishing touches on Zugzwang's Tower, we'll remove the barricade and let hunters in. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so, sometimes, things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren’t afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready.
Keep your eyes on the news section for an announcement about when the tower is officially open.
Happy hunting!
-- Dave Vanderburg
