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.
Contents
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 is god-like.
- Use Template:Date so that if we ever change the date format, it'll auto-update.
Template
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-- {{MHP|ID_OF_POSTER|Name o'Poster}}
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News
Longtail Updates - Round One
12 June 2010
Hey Hunters!
As mentioned in the initial launch post for MouseHunt v3 "Longtail" there were sure to be a few problems that come up, or features that were not 100% as they were in v2.
We've been hard at work correcting problems and improving some of the new pages and features based on your feedback. Thanks for all your help and your patience as we work to make MouseHunt better than ever!
The following fixes/improvements have been made:
The mice page has had its first round of improvement. There are now two sections under the "Your Stats" tab. One displays stats by mouse group, the other by location. We're still working on implementing other player suggestions such as a list of all your catches, a link to the high-res mouse image and the ability to sort by stat columns.
The Master Burglars lurking around Gnawnia have been under siege from MouseHunters looking to reclaim the Crown Jewels! All this pressure has made them a bit weaker and easier to catch. A few have even been seen running off to the Bazaar in the Burroughs region where they are trying to sell the Crown Jewels! If hunting for a Master Burglar in the town is not quite your style, perhaps try tracking one down in the Bazaar.
Luck has been corrected to work as it did in version two. Luck both increases the chance of catching a mouse, and increases the odds of a mouse dropping loot when caught.
A couple bugs with timed environments have been fixed. Balack's Cove and the Forbidden Grove now open and close as expected. We also fixed a problem where players were being moved shortly after traveling out of the Cove or Grove.
The MouseHunt Wiki is back up and running! You can once again access the wiki by clicking the "Hunter's Wiki" link under the Lore section.
A bug where the detailed journal was not paginating two pages at a time is now fixed. Clicking the detailed journal link on the camp page will bring you to a page displaying pages one and two of your journal. Clicking next page now shows you pages three and four, then five and six, etc.
The order of cheese has been changed from alphabetical to generic "best to worst". At the top of your inventory (and camp page trap selector) will be cheese you use later on in the game, such as Vanilla Stilton, Havarti, Ancient, and at the bottom will be the early on cheese, such as swiss, marble, etc.
Based on player feedback, we have renamed Gauntlet Potions (+2) to Gauntlet Potions Tier 2. We hope this clears up any confusion regarding the number of potions dropped. Discuss what you think of the new on the boards!
We still have a long to-do list of improvements we're working on. As always, we welcome constructive feedback and suggestions via the discussion boards!
Welcome to MouseHunt v3.0!
8 June 2010
Hello MouseHunters!
As you have probably noticed, MouseHunt v3.0, aka: ‘Longtail’ has launched! The focus of this update was to gradate a lot of behind-the-scenes code that runs that game, in order to help us build new content more quickly and easily than ever before!
With an update of this size, some problems are sure to surface. The entire development team are working hard to take care of any problems that come up, but it's going to be a bit of a bumpy ride until the dust settles and the new game version is stable. We're excited to get through this together and end up with an even better MouseHunt!
Missing/Still to come
Journals and cork boards have been rebuilt from scratch. This unfortunately means that we had to clear journals and cork boards for the update to be applied.
A recent Dragon attack has left the marketplace slightly singed. Once the dust settles from this update, the King will promptly have it repaired. Check back in a few days.
We have temporarily disabled Facebook Credits, Cherry Credits, Rixty, and offers while we fix a couple of unexpected problems. We have also disabled the Wiki. We'll have them back up and running soon.
Your travel map may appear blank, although you can still travel to different locations. Map images are rendered on-the-fly. Once a few players load the travel page to generate the images it will correct the problem.
You currently cannot publish catches/journal entries to your wall (you can only post crafting/convertible/hammer smashes right now). We're working out a few kinks. The feature will make a return soon!
Tournaments and tournament teams have been shutdown. We're still working on when, if, and how they will make a return.
The iPhone App and Toolbar is ready to go, but will be released at a later date.
There are bound to be a few small features/quirks of the game that are not quite as they were before. Based on player feedback we'll be working on bringing these features back to their original state.
So what's new in Longtail?
King's Gauntlet!
The King has finished building his Gauntlet, which serves as a challenge to MouseHunters everywhere! Located in the new region of Valour, entry to the Gauntlet can be obtained by purchasing a floor plan from the new Cartographer in the Harbour. The Cartographer is under strict order to only sell the plans to those who prove their loyalty to the King by first capturing a Master Burglar that ran off with some of the Crown Jewels. Master Burglars are only attracted to Gilded Cheese or SUPER|brie+. Burglar mice from all regions have been rumoured to be dropping gilded cheese.
The Gauntlet works on a tier system, with Hunters advancing to the next floor by hunting with cheese that they collect on the current floor. By order of the King, the Gauntlet is being opened slowly. He'll be permanently opening a few floors every few days. Check the news section for announcements.
To enter the Gauntlet a hunter must first prove their loyalty to the King. To do so they must capture a Master Burglar mouse from the Town of Gnawnia and get a Crown Jewel as loot. Once you have a Crown Jewel in your possession the Cartographer in the Harbour will sell you floor plans to the Gauntlet, granting you access.
Good luck!
Instant-Updating Journals
Sounding the Hunter's Horn no longer reloads the page to update your journal. Your journal entry will automatically be added to the your journal when sounding the horn from the camp page. If you happen to sound the horn from a page other than camp, your journal entry will appear just below the heads up display.
Camp Page Trap Selector
The camp page now has a quick-change trap selector to make changing your trap setup (including bait) quicker and easier than ever before. Just click the icons below the image of your trap on the camp page to pull up your inventory. From there, you can change your base, weapon or bait.
New Travel Page
The travel page has been given an overhaul and a new interface. It's now easier than ever to navigate the MouseHunt map and see what types of shops a location has! Traveling also no longer reloads the page. Just click the ‘Hunt Here’ button to travel instantly!
There is also a Larry's Travel section on the travel page to take you to locations free of cost! Currently it takes you to the Town of Gnawnia for free!
Inventory Page Changes
We've reorganized a few things in the inventory, and removed the need for a page reload when using/arming items from the inventory. Bases and weapons now have sub-tabs under the traps section.
The crafting interface has also been vastly improved with a new ‘Recipe Book’ added to the page. With the Recipe Book, it's now much easier to craft previously crafted items in any quantity you wish. We've also moved all novelty items to their own section. There is NO chance of failure when you now craft (no red slots).
The convertibles and potions page have also been improved upon so it is easier to use.
Mice Page Changes
As the number of mice in the game grew, the ‘Mice’ page became cumbersome and began to load extremely slowly due to the number of mice being displayed. We've reorganized the layout with sub-tabs to make browsing mice easier.
Mice no longer have power types. As newer, more unique areas were added to the game the power type system became inconsistent. For example, although all the mice of Derr were listed as Physical, you could not use Tactical weapons to catch them like you could for most other physical mice. To correct this inconsistency, the mice are now all organized into groups that have similar weaknesses in similar areas.
Lastly, on a hunter's profile page you will now see a cumulative total of all mice the user caught. This includes the previous 165 plus the rare/bonus mice.
Extra ‘Give to Friends’ Items
We've expanded the functionality of the ‘Give to Friends’ page to allow players to send more than just SUPER|brie+ and gold. At this time, we've added Moon Cheese and Maki Cheese. We may add additional items in the future, based on user feedback.
Other Changes
Based on player feedback and plans for the future, we've also used this opportunity to adjust a few existing things in-game.
Please click here to read a detailed list.
Detailed Longtail Release Notes
Based on player feedback and plans for the future, we've also used this opportunity to adjust a few existing things in-game.
Hunting:
The same type of mouse is now always worth the same points and gold. Weight no longer effects the value of a catch. The slight difference in gold/points proved to be a source of confusion without adding anything unique to gameplay.
Sounding the horn always awards 50 bonus points as well as 25 additional points per additional friend on the hunt. The maximum bonus points for sounding the horn is 250.
Hunting summary logs are currently missing. They are being improved and will be re-added to the game in the future.
Journals no longer state "my trap was effective/less effective". This statement will be replaced by a new feature in the future, to make it easier to judge if mice in an area are weak or resistant to your weapon's power type.
King's Rewards currently only award gold. We're planning to revamp the system to allow hunters to pick from more substantial prizes.
Cheese effect has been reworked, as a result some trap combinations may have a different net cheese effect stat.
Travel Page:
The Acolyte Realm's location has been moved to the west side of the map.
We have implemented much greater control over exact travel costs between locations. Travel now follows linear paths between locations, and as a result, the cost of traveling between some areas has increased.
Cartographer:
The Cartographer no longer returns your original damaged map piece. Instead, the new repaired map pieces unlock the same locations as their damaged counterparts. If consider yourself a collector of maps, you'll be able to re-collect the same map piece.
Content changes:
A few mice have been given extra loot, or now drop the same loot in all locations instead of the drop being area-specific. A couple of examples are: The Treant mouse drops the Splintered Wood in any location and the Tattered Mousoleum Map Piece is now dropped by Zombie mice in Digby instead of the Laboratory.
By popular demand, Gnarled Cheese, Wicked Gnarly Cheese and Limelight Cheese have been added to Unstable Curd 'poke' results.
Some potion conversion rates have been slightly changed to be more consistent/linear.
Some mice that used to drop several different items at once may now only drop one item (of varying quantities) at a time. To keep the drop-rates the same, the chance of them dropping nothing has been removed or dramatically lowered.
The Ambrosial Portal and NVMRC Forcefield traps are slightly less expensive.
The price of cheese has been adjusted in shops outside of Gnawnia to be more consistent. Many cheese shoppes now offer more varieties of cheese.
The price of many crafting items have been adjusted and are more consistent across all locations.
Encounter roll functions now operate differently in order to increase efficiency. Due to these new limitations, a few mice have been added to existing areas in order to maintain similar balance. These new encounters have been added to replace chances of your cheese failing to attract and/or turning stale:
- Mutated White and Mutated Grey mice can be encountered in the Acolyte Realm when hunting with Radioactive Blue Cheese.
- Pinchy Mice can occasionally be encountered in Elub Shore when not using Gouda or SUPER|brie+.
- Chameleon Mice can occasionally be encountered in Nerg Plains when not using Gouda or SUPER|brie+.
- Sylvan Mice can occasionally be encountered in Derr Dunes when not using Gouda or SUPER|brie+.
The Lagoon General Store has been moved to the Great Gnarled Tree in preparation for future crafting updates.
When opening special items, the resulting items vary in quantities and are restricted between a certain range. For example, when you open a Mysterious Box, you will not get either 6, 12, or 24. You will instead get a random amount between the min/max range.
The Acolyte no longer drops a frozen scroll. Instead the Mysterious Box now always gives a Frozen Scroll plus one random item.
There were a few exisiting features that did not get quite polished enough to launch with Longtail.
These will be fixed at a later date.
- A larger view of the map and mice is currently unavailable.
- On the map, the Forbidden Grove is always depicted as open. We're still sorting this problem out.
- Some catch stats are not displayed, such as total catches by all hunters. These (and more) stats will be added in the future.
- The dragon mouse image is slightly squished. It will be restored to its former glory in the future.
- Many players have suggested the stats be sortable or the ability to filter the stats. We're brainstorming a good way to add this feature.
- The ability to see all mice caught in 1 tab is being considered for the future.
- Some popup windows appear too high on the screen. We'll be tweaking them to appear closer to where you click.
- Occasionally a hunter's title will be displayed as "101%". Reloading the page corrects this problem. This bug will be fixed in the future.
- Various pages have slightly less-than-polished interfaces. We'll be fixing these up in the future.
Tuesday Downtime - HUGE Update Coming!
8 June 2010
Hello MouseHunt Communi-tay!
The day is almost upon us. After months of hard work, we are finally ready to launch the MouseHunt v3.0 "Longtail" update!
Towards the end of last year MouseHunt began to grow a bit too big than the existing code could support. Adding new players to the game became a challenge and the amount of content (mice, cheese, locations, etc) was becoming bloated, making adding new content cumbersome and slow.
It was clear a rebuild was needed so we could continue to develop the game into what the community began to expect. Now, several months later this rebuild is ready to launch!
This Tuesday the game will be unavailable for the day as we apply this update. We know downtime can be frustrating, but this update will help us build more robust, creative content faster than ever before! We have the best players in the world and you deserve MouseHunt to be the best game it can be!
The game will become unavailable at approximately 8am EST and will then be down for the remainder of the day. If you're the type that likes to know what's going on behind the scenes we'll be keeping in touch via updates on the application about page and perhaps the occasional live-feed video.
With an update this massive there are sure to be a few hiccups and glitches. We'll be hard at work addressing anything that comes up. It will be a bumpy ride, but we know we can all get through it together and reach a major milestone in MouseHunt history!
When we first launched MouseHunt we never dreamed it would grow to where it has. The devotion of you players remains a constant compliment and source of inspiration to this day!
If you're interested in talking with your fellow hunters about the Longtail update we've made an event page! Check it out for more details.
What to expect in the v3.0 "Longtail" update:
Opening of the King's Gauntlet! This many-storied tower is the King's personal chalange to MouseHunters everywhere: anyone who can reach the top is among the kingdom's elite. The King's Gauntlet works on a tier syste, with Hunters advancing to the next floor by hunting with cheese that they collect on the current floor. The Gauntlet is meant as a chalange for hunters of all skill levels, but in order to ascend to the very top, a Hero's rank will come in handy.
Here's what to expect from this MAJOR update.
A NEW BACKBONE FOR A BETTER FUTURE
New User Interface
More creative/Robust features
Able to support more mousehunters (to help the king)
Better traveling
Faster more regular content
and much more...
Look forward to Wednesday, and a new, better than ever MouseHunt!
Change to Balack's Cove
24 May 2010
We always endeavor to include the feedback of players when deciding on adding to, or modifying existing features. Based on a Friday feedback session we decided to try this approach with the release of new content as well.
Since the release of Balack’s Cove, we have been listening carefully to constructive criticism from the MouseHunt community, trying to gauge if there are any elements that we might need to tweak in order to make the game more fun and challenging. In addition to reading feedback we have been carefully analyzing how players have been tackling the new content. Looking at things such as how quickly they can acquire resources, catch mice, earn points/gold, etc.
We've decided, with the help of the MouseHunt community, to raise the amount of Vanilla Bean needed to craft Vanilla Stilton when using magic essence from one to five. We think that this tweak will make crafting Vanilla Stilton more challenging, and thus make the end result more satisfying to the majority of MouseHunt players. Although this may not be a welcome change for some players, we made the decision with the help of the community, and we feel that it will be beneficial to the majority of players.
This change has now come into effect.
We are still gauging whether or not releasing content earlier than usual and using feedback from players to help put the final adjustments and finishing touches on areas is a useful exercise. We welcome players to discuss this matter in a constructive way via the discussion boards. The passion of hunters is what helps ensure everything about MouseHunt is as fun as possible!
Thanks for playing, and good luck on the hunt!
Balack the Banished
17 May 2010
Once, the three tribes, Nerg, Derr and Elub, were one, united under a ruler so cruel and merciless that the tribes-mice lived in constant fear of his whims. The Elders formulated a plan to banish Balack’s spirit to a remote cove near the Jungle of Dread, but he had other plans. He allowed the Elders to banish him, but he corrupted their enchantment along the way, pulling his attackers into the cove with him to be his servants for the rest of eternity.
Forever banished to the dark caverns under Dracano, Balack now takes his revenge out on any hunter who dares to enter his cove. Balack's Cove is a unique environment with unpredictable tides that keep the dark caverns constantly soaked, and that can easily wash unsuspecting Hunters out to sea. To navigate in the dark and damp, no ordinary torch or lantern will do.
The general store in Cape Clawed offers a clue on how to gain access to the cove -- an Antique Lantern rumoured to once be held by Balack himself. The lantern has long lost the power of Balack's Magic, which was capable to keeping it alight in almost any situation. If you plan on using the lantern to navigate the cove, you'll need the intense flame of three dragon embers, rumoured to be scattered around Dracano. Any other flame is instantly extinguished by the damp, humid air in the cove.
But finding the cove is only the beginning! The ghostly mice that dwell in the area have very unique taste in cheese. They crave the pungent flavour of Vanilla Stilton cheese made from Vanilla Beans harvested from the Jungle of Dread and another ingredient native to the island, Coconut Milk. Combine 15 Vanilla Beans, Coconut Milk, Salt, Curds and Whey to produce 15 ill-flavoured pieces of Vanilla Stilton. Crafters have found that the flavour of Vanilla Beans can be amplified with Magic Essence! You may use a single Vanilla Bean and 15 Magic Essence as a substitute for all 15 beans.
Vanilla Stilton has an awful taste, but an even more... sinister flavour can be made by collecting the anger of the Tribes’ Lich mice that are trapped in the cove. By combining each of the Tribal Lichs' unique ingredients with just a little Coconut Milk, Ionized Salt, Curds, a single Vanilla Bean and an optional dash of Magic Essence, Hunters can make a truly "vengeful" cheese. Be warned that such an angry cheese is sure to draw even more Tribal Lich mice to your trap, and perhaps even a rare sighting of Balack himself.
Knights entering Balack’s Cove should consider a variety of hunting strategies and trap options. What will your strategy be?
Display and FB Credits Errors Resolved
11 May 2010
The recent display errors (most apparent on hunter profile pages) have now been resolved. Pages that appeared to have wonky layouts should now appear normal.
We have also resolved a problem causing an error message to appear when donating with Facebook Credits. You can now use Facebook Credits to donate and obtain SUPER|brie+ on the donate page.
Thanks for you patience while these problems were being corrected.
Happy Hunting and good luck in your hunts!
Recent Page Display Errors
4 May 2010
Earlier today the layout of pages appeared broken as Facebook's CSS and JavaScript cache servers stopped serving content.
We have implemented a work-around until Facebook's servers are back up and running. This should fix the majority of display problems.
Sorry for any inconvenience and good luck in the hunt!
