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 is god-like.
• Use Template:Date so that if we ever change the date format, it'll auto-update.

Template

=== News Title ===
''{{date|DAY|MONTH|YEAR}}''
<blockquote>
<p>Paragraph 1</p>
<p>Paragraph 2</p>
<p>Paragraph 3</p>
-- {{MHP|ID_OF_POSTER|Name o'Poster}}
</blockquote>

News

Back To School Sale! - Sept 17, 2010

17 September 2010

Hi MouseHunters!

Now that many of you are settled into classes and the rest of the back-to-school specials are over in your local stores, we figured we'd buck the trend, and give it to you WHILE you're with your friends at school! (I mean, who likes using SB+ alone anyways?!?).

Until monday at 5pm EDT, we'll be offering SB+ at 15% off. We rarely ever do this (in fact, it's only happened once before...) so if you're in the market for SuperBrie+, I'd highly recommend you get some quick.

In case you're unaware of what SB+ does, it's a cheese that attracts mice to your trap nearly 100% of the time...(REPEAT: I said NEARLY ;) Go ahead, try it out by buying some, or get some given to you from a friend. You'll see the difference it makes nearly immediately.

Enjoy the lower prices!

-- Joel Auge

Zugzwang's Tower -- New Area Now Open!

26 August 2010

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

Zugzwang's Tower

24 August 2010

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

New Seasonal Garden Area

17 August 2010

Hello hunters!

The mysterious island that has slowly been floating towards the Rodentia region now holds a new hunting location for Lord and Lady MouseHunters: the Seasonal Garden!

To access the island, you'll first have to find a way past Zugzwang's pet octopus, Bubbles, who is very protective of the island and will grant safe passage only to his master. Finding an article of clothing that once belonged to Zugzwang may be the key to getting past him. One of Zugzwang's favourite pastimes was researching the rare and dangerous mice of the Tribal Isles, so try starting your search there.

The Seasonal Garden is enchanted by Zugzwang's Magic, making it a hunting area like no other. In this garden, the season, and types of mice you can catch, change every few days. Upon entering the garden you'll notice a new element on your heads-up display indicating the current season in the garden, along with a stat called your "Tower Amplifier". The amplifier is a power bonus that is applied to your trap when you hunt inside Zugzwang's Tower. Catching mice in the Seasonal Garden will increase your amplifier in different increments, depending on the type of mouse you catch. Failing to attract a mouse will cause some of your amplifier's charge to be lost.

Tower Amplifier Screenshot

The opening of the garden is only the beginning! Inside Zugzwang's Tower are two teams of mice, trapped in a never- ending game of chess. Before hunters can intervene in this game, they'll need to gain access to the tower by finding a key that's hidden somewhere in the garden.

Larry suspects it may take hunters some time to discover the key and gain access to the tower. Keep your eyes on the news section for more details about the tower once hunters get closer to discovering the key.

---

Something new on your camp page:

A trap effectiveness statistic has been added under your trap on the camp page. Your effectiveness rating is determined by your ability to both attract and catch a mouse in your current location, with your current trap setup. The effectiveness of your trap is gauged as mild, medium or strong.

Clicking the effectiveness rating will open a dialog box displaying all the mice inhabiting your current location. Each mouse will display its difficulty rating, as well as a visual bar representing its difficulty rating. The difficulty ratings of specific mice are determined by your current trap's ability to catch that mouse, should you attract it.

Try changing your trap setup and opening the effectiveness dialog to see what traps work best against the particular mouse, or mice, you're looking to catch!

Effectiveness popup box screenshot

---

Also in this update:

• We corrected an error making Champion mice incorrectly weak to tactical
• Nibbler mice have been added to a few more locations
• Cyclops mice can now be encountered in the Lagoon
• Mouse groups and location stats are now sorted roughly by title requirement
• Mice stats on profile tab are now sorted from strongest to weakest mouse
• We increased the length of items on the HUD to accommodate Gauntlet Cheese
• Event mice are no longer included in group/regional totals
• We renamed "Swarm of Pigmy Mice" to "Swarm of Pygmy Mice"

-- Dave Vanderburg

King's Crowns

10 August 2010

We have updated the mice page, and added a new type of achievement -- King's Crowns!

These trophy crowns are awarded to hunters upon capturing a breed of mouse 10, 100 and 500 times. You can view the crowns you have collected both on the Mice page and your profile. Your current number of catches appears beside the crown, so you can easily see how close you are to the next one!

We also added indicators to the Mice page to tell you how many mice from a specific group or region you have caught. A green check mark appears beside the group or region upon catching them all, a bronze check mark upon catching each mouse 10 times, and silver at 100 and gold at 500. This should allow hunters, at a glance, to see what breeds they have yet to catch, and what regions they have yet to master!

Power type effectiveness has been added to the mouse popups to let hunters see what power type is best against a particular mouse.

We're still working on a few more updates to mouse viewing including:

• High res mouse images
• Global catch numbers
• A Trap effectiveness bar on the camp page
• If you have caught an event mice in a region, your regional total may state that you caught more mice than are currently available in the region (example: 55 out of 33). We're working on removing event mice from these totals.

---

And now, some news about Zugzwang's Tower:

As many keen MouseHunters have no doubt already noticed, Zugzwang's Tower has been spotted in Rodentia! Unfortunately, Zugzwang's pet octopus, Bubbles, is quite protective of its master, and is preventing any ship from approaching the tower. In a future update, hunters will have to find a way to coerce the aquatic beast into letting them sail toward the tower.

Although no hunter has been able to land yet, some details have been collected from ship wreckage floating past the S.S. Huntington II. What little details are now known about the tower and island have been added to the mouse page. Check out the Seasonal Soldiers and Wizard's Pieces mouse groups to see what strange mice will await hunters who reach the tower!

---

Also in this update:

• We made some optimizations to the hunt timer for players on slower computers.
• "Rare Breeds" has been changed to "Event Breeds" on profile pages and the Black Widow now counts towards "Breeds Caught".
• Added a small chance to receive scrap metal when capturing a Steel Mouse using the Digby Drillbot or the Chrome Drillbot.
• The friends online tab on the camp page now only loads your friends when the tab is clicked. This should speed up the load time of the camp page for players with thousands of friends.

-- Dave Vanderburg

Zugzwang's Tower Sneak Peek and Feedback

30 July 2010

For the past several weeks, Jacob has been busy preparing the artwork for the launch of Zugzwang's Tower. By popular demand, we're releasing a teaser of what's to come.

We've also noticed the community's frustration in the lack of areas for players ranked above Knight. Zugzwang's Tower was initially designed for Heroes; not quite complex enough to challenge higher ranks. However, as the area became finalized and early play-testing began, it turned out to be more challenging than we thought!

Due to the abundant feedback asking for higher ranked areas, combined with how this new area turned out during play-testing, we have decided it is best suited with the title requirement of Lord/Lady.

We still want to add an additional Hero area to the game; an alternative to the Jungle of Dread approach. But unfortunately it won't be this one.

This change of plan brings about a couple questions for the community:

• How do you feel about releasing teasers like this more often?
• How much detail about new areas should we release ahead of time?
• Should details released ahead of time be set in stone, or should content still in development be open to the suggestions of the community?

We welcome your input, and any other feedback, via the forums or by contacting support.

And finally, here's a sneak peek at some of the artwork for Zugzwang's Tower!

[1]

-- Dave Vanderburg