MHWiki:Current events

Let's Put Dev Updates and Everything Else Here (up to one month, archive anything older). We'll include the newest update into the main page, and we can exclude the others using the NOINCLUDE Tag.

For older updates, visit the Archive.

Notes for Editors

• Please always put the newest news post first (if there are two from the same day, use the timestamp).
• Keep dates in DD Month YYYY format; this is an internationally recognized date format.
• The MHP Template, User Template, and Trade Template are god-like.

News

Recent issues

22 January 2009

Hey everyone!

Let's have us a little palaver. I'd like to update all of you on the goings on of MouseHunt.

Lately, we've been seeing some pretty crazy error pages. Some has been a result of Facebook Platform updates, and some of them started the day we released the toolbar. Basically, a lot of people wanted it, and that gave the servers a lot of work to do!

We eventually managed to tweak it to increase its performance and efficiency (so it wasn't hitting our servers as hard). Just yesterday, we changed the way it "grabbed" information, which greatly increased the stability of the servers.

Along with that issue, one of our new servers conked out, but it was replaced within the hour. Our new host is great! We've spent countless hours with them, over the phone and via support tickets, fixing issues and finding more efficient ways to run the servers.

You can trust me when I say we've been losing sleep so that we could ensure the game keeps running smooth to keep all of you hunters hunting!

Another issue arose with the Facebook Platform, which has been going through some changes in the last few days, affecting all apps.

It appears that most of the issues have dissipated, and I can assure you that if any more arise, we will rush to aid immediately.

It may be frustrating when it seems we aren't updating you MouseHunters as soon as issues arise. The truth is, our hands become full when server issues come up because the first thing we do is contact our host and start tracking down the issue. All hands are on deck, and for a small team, it can be a huge undertaking. We have to sometimes decide between addressing the MouseHunters or simply dealing with the problems and getting them fixed as soon as possible.

Please forgive us for the recent downtime, but know that it's been out of our control and we've been doing our everything to keep on top of things.

Keep on hunting, and thanks for playing! :D

-- Giorgio Sintichakis

FREE timer, FREE SB+, FREE Toolbar

13 January 2009

Get your stats!

Get free SuperBrie!

Get a free Hunter's Horn timer!

Global statistics! (No need to be on facebook!)

Yo folks! Check out the "Lore" menu item for access to the new MouseHunt toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer!

Or download it here:

http://apps.facebook.com/mousehunt/toolbar.php

The new toolbar allows you to sound the horn (with the bonus of a horn timer), keep track of your stats, and get some FREE Super|brie+ for every 3 searches you do (to a max of 3 pieces per day).

Enjoy!

-- Joel Auge

Toning Down King's Rewards

3 January 2009

Due to popular demand we have toned down the frequency of the King's Rewards appearing. Players will notice they will have to claim rewards less than a dozen times a day (assuming you never sleep that is).

We have also done away with the behaviour of the rewards usually appearing when you first return to sound your horn after a long period of inactivity.

As always any constructive feedback is welcome, we strive to achieve a balance that keeps the game fair and fun for everyone. The "crack down" allowed us to remove several cheaters from the game and keep things fair for those who hunt in the spirit of fun.

As a final note I shall mention that there are still quite a few left over bonus-mobster mice from the New Year's Giveaway. They seem to of gone into hiding, but the King is confident his hunters are up for the challenge!

Happy new year and good luck in the hunt!

-- Dave Vanderburg

New Year's Giveaway

31 December 2008

The time for celebration has come! MouseHunt is ringing in the New Year by having a massive giveaway party! There's over $3,000 in cash prizes and $4,500 in SUPER|brie+ to be won!

If you're wondering how to participate, it's easy! Make sure you have your most powerful trap armed with your best bait! Although prize mice are attracted to any bait it seems those rare mice have a sweet-spot for SUPER|brie+... The population of Leprechaun, Mobster and Black Widow mice have been boosted dramatically, with lots of extra prizes added into the system! Virtually every hunting location has prize mice so keep your eyes glued to your journal!

In other news it seems Ronza the merchant got word of the party and has docked next to Gnawnia castle to attend the celebration. Any hunter who was not lucky enough to get a polar base from their holiday gifts may be interested in purchasing it from Ronza.

Interested in a little more info about the giveaway? Check out the event page below...

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=49778737572

Here's wishing everyone a happy and hunt-filled new years!

-- Dave Vanderburg

Holiday Gifts

24 December 2008

Any hunters who were lucky enough to find a gift while hunting these past weeks will be able to open them at some point on December 25th. This is in the interests in being somewhat timezone-neutral and still having everyone be able to open them at the same time.

You'll also be able to open the gifts anytime after the 25th, so if you're taking a break from the hunt that day you'll be able to come back anytime after to open them.

From all of us at HitGrab, happy holidays and have a great new year!

We leave you with a festive video staring Joel!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=41091313290

-- Dave Vanderburg

Two New Mice

22 December 2008

Today brings the first two mice designed by Tyrel into the game! Those hunting in the Furoma region now have worker and monk mice as new adversaries!

-- Dave Vanderburg

Elf Mice on the loose!

11 December 2008

It seems the mice disguised as elves who stole a huge batch of gifts from Santa's workshop are currently making their way though the MouseHunt world in an effort to escape! Be on the look out for these wanted mice! Should you catch one we're sure Santa will let you keep one (or more) of the gifts.

In their mad dash to escape, it seems these fake elves also dropped a huge stash of gifts in the mountains of Gnawnia where some bashful Abominable Snow Mice were seen scooping them up. These mice are known to travel around, so keep your eyes peeled on your friends' journals to spot where they might currently be located!

Should you find an elusive gift, it will appear in the new 'Misc' tab of your inventory. You'll be able to open these gifts on December 25th. Greediness is certainly not a desirable trait for a MouseHunter, so you'll find that a limit of 30 red gifts and 3 green gifts is in place.

Good luck in the hunt and happy holidays from the entire MouseHunt team!

-- Dave Vanderburg

Norton vs. MouseHunt

10 December 2008

Hey MouseHunters!

Just a quick update to let you know that both Facebook and MouseHunt have NO viruses or other types of risks related with browsing them on your browser!

The warning certain versions of Norton are giving are false and it is unknown why these errors are occurring.

Norton labels a certain Facebook server (their image server, I believe) as a risk factor. This is an issue that Norton needs to sort out and you should have no worries regarding this matter!

Keep hunting the good hunt! :D

-- Giorgio Sintichakis

Thank you devs/illustrators VIDEO TRAIN!

10 December 2008

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fvideo%2Fvideo.php%3Fv%3D38828118290%26oid%3D10337532241%26saved&h=b9b378012647e53f873ade0accbdb662

Thanks Giorgio, Dave, Jacob, Jeremy & Ty!

Go show your support! Post a video in our video train (in the about page "fan videos" section - which is here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=10337532241)

-- Joel Augé

MouseHunt Awarded 225k - An Open Letter to MouseHunt Supporters...

10 December 2008

An open letter to all MouseHunt Supporters,
It’s my utmost pleasure to communicate to you our very sincere thanks for your support of MouseHunt: HitGrab’s first game on Facebook. Our little two man enterprise has grown to seven (and continues to grow) because of your tremendous support.

As an owner, I’m so proud of this tight-knit group of guys who work tirelessly for MouseHunters even as the community keeps growing by leaps and bounds. We only dreamed early on that this little mouse game would have such a tremendous following in such a short amount of time. We don’t take it for granted and we’re more excited than ever to provide you with an expansive and entertaining social gaming experience.

To that end, we wanted to let you know of our recent win in the Facebook fbFund competition. Facebook has awarded us a total of $250,000 in non-recourse grant money. We’re thrilled to have been included among their amazing selections and look forward to giving our MouseHunters an even richer MouseHunt experience... and perhaps... even more games in the future.

Sincerely yours,

Joel Augé
Co-Founder/Owner
HitGrab Inc.

MouseHunt

-- Joel Augé

Missing Crafted Cheese

10 December 2008

For the last couple weeks we have been tracking a bug some players have been reporting indicating they were receiving two instead of the intended three pieces of cheese when crafting susheese, glutter, combat and rumble.

We have traced this to be from a small loop hole that would sometimes leave players with negative one piece of cheese. This would result in them ending up with 2 pieces of cheese when crafting a recipe that yields three.

We're working on patching this issue in the next update. Until then take comfort in that if you experience this glitch it means that you received a free piece of cheese at an earlier time in the form of an extra hunt while you were out of cheese.

-- Dave Vanderburg

Festive Cheer

5 December 2008

It seems some cold weather has blown its way over Gnawnia, dusting the hunting grounds with a light blanket of snow. Hunters across the Kindgom have been stoking their campfires with a little extra wood and passing around hot chocolate.

A little further north of Gnawnia a great mouse threat has emerged! It seems some troublesome mice disguised as elves infiltrated Santa's workshop making off with all the gifts! Reports have indicated that these mice should be crossing through the Gnawnia Kingdom sometime next week so be sure to have your trap baited with your best cheese!

As if thieving fake elf mice were not enough of a threat, hunter's lore speaks of powerful mice that tend to come around shortly after flakes of snow hit the peaks of the Mountains. The King is as paranoid as always and encourages his hunters to be ready for this threat!

Phew... It seems December will be a busy hunting season!

Happy holidays from HitGrab!

-- Dave Vanderburg

Cork Board Page Controls & New Base

4 December 2008

Due to popular demand via the suggestions forum we have added paging controls to hunters' cork boards. You'll now be able to view up to 100 cork board posts, with 10 per page. We also fixed a few other minor bugs such as backslashes showing up in posts.

The proprietor of the Harbour General Store has also just received a huge shipment of strange blueprints. Skilled crafters will be able to create a rather strange base using these plans. Journeyman crafters be warned: you may destroy your crafting materials should you attempt to create this base!

A few other minor tweaks you may notice is the "Accuracy Bonus" stat, which has been changed to "Attraction Bonus", as well as the Cheese Effect wording, which has been changed to use the terms 'stale' and 'fresh' to hopefully relieve some confusion amongst new players.

Finally we'll mention that we have been working on a statistics utility to compare original MouseHunt catch stats to MouseHunt 2.0, and repair missing catches. This is not a small job and our team has been working hard on this utility.

Overall, the entire HitGrab team has been (and still is) quite busy expanding the world of MouseHunt!

-- Jeremy Mandel

Cork Board and Travel Cost Update

2 December 2008

Many players have requested a way to send their friends MouseHunt related messages and so we have added the "Hunter's Cork Board" to profile pages. When viewing the Hunter's Profile of a friend you'll have a text box where you can post comments. We are also planning on adding a preference page where players can control exactly what groups of people are allowed to post on or view their cork board. This preference page is also where we plan to add other various options such as who can send you trade requests, view when you were last active, your quantity of SUPER|brie+ and various other preferences in the game.

Travel costs have also been completely overhauled to increase the emphasis on distance rather than a specific cost for each location. What this means is that many locations will be much cheaper to travel to (especially the Laboratory) depending on where you are traveling from. Players hunting in the Furoma region will also benefit from having very low travel costs when simply moving from floor to floor in the Pagoda. As always your comments and feedback are welcome via the suggestions forum. Based on feedback we may further tweak travel costs.

Also in this update are various minor tweaks and changes such as the appearance of the Hunter's Journal and layout of profile pages. We have also yet again tweaked some of the fonts used in the King's Rewards to help readability. We have also further increased the size of the rewards based on hunter's title. We are also working on one or two completely different styles of rewards such as 'What number is in the triangle?' which should be easier to decipher.

-- Dave Vanderburg