Novul

[Kyttias]

https://kyttias.tk/novul_logo_300.png

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚PROJECT OVERVIEW˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙
Novul is planned to be an online virtual pet game! It is less a creature-collecting game and more of a feature-collecting game, the features being augments such as various kinds of ears and tails. The emphasize will be on breeding Novu into the coolest, cutest critters with colors and augments to your liking.

The plot here is set in a realm of dreams, which is being plagued by outside nightmares! The end goal for this project is something closer to an actual RPG, where time is spent exploring, questing, and purifying nightmare-infected Novu to learn augments from them and customize your Novu.

Individual Novu can be played with, groomed and fed! If you run out of action points to continue exploring the world, take a break to browse through and interact with other people's Novu to restore your points. Visiting Novu, your own or otherwise, let's you collect dreamdust, which is used to gauge site activity.

Your own engagement levels are also measured against others and you will receive weekly rewards accordingly. The top percentage of active dreamdust collectors will be entered into raffles to potentially win a pre-release of the next month's donation gift augment for free!

https://kyttias.tk/novul_species_pv.png

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚DEVELOPMENT NEEDS˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

✧ Environment & Augment Artists ✧
✧ HTML5 Canvas/JS/Phaser Games ✧
✧ Music for Promo Videos & Games ✧

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚RECENT UPDATES˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙
December 2020 - After a long hiatus, work is being done again. I'm ambitiously desiring many custom systems. I'm happy to lurk again to answer any questions I can. I still can't offer tech support on any of my old Mysidia addons -- I've sincerely forgotten about them.

For Novul itself, I've implemented the means to use Discord as an oAuth login rather than having users register through Mysidia. It still has some problems for use in a live site, due to things other than the uid being referenced in certain core Mysidia files, but I'm working on it. I've also implemented Patreon integration successfully, but I'm still working on practical use cases. (I don't mind offering Patreon integration as a mod for Mysidia 1.3.4/5, but Discord login will have to wait for 1.4.x probably.)

[Kyttias]

https://kyttias.tk/novul_species_pv2.png


·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚SPRING 2021 TO•̩̩͙DO LIST˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙
Discord Login Integration - This is actually already done!! However, there are a few remaining issues if users have non-Latin/English characters in their Discord handles that I need to deep dive into.

Fix Tabs on User Profiles - Somehow this got borked real bad.

Add Pagination to Pets Tab on User Profile - I may end up having to do this with an iframe for the best effect.

[Hwona]

Oooh, this looks really interesting. I could help out if you want. :3

[tahbikat]

Ooohh, I'm liking your adoptables so far! I will join once your site is up and running! ^^

[Abronsyth]

The art looks very cool so far, and I like the story :D

You might try asking around the VirtualPetList for programmers for the game and currency, and there are probably sites that either offer open-source music or where you could purchase liscences, etc for the music?

[Kyttias]

@Wallie - Would love the help. ovo

@Abronsyth - I wonder if anyone over on VirtualPetList is familiar enough with Mysidia or would be willing to learn. I'm fairly good with coding myself, but Mysidia's just... not well documented/not documented at all. Both me and the stranger I enlist face the same task of staring through files until it makes sense. (And any decent coder might be tempted to make their own system from the ground up for the same price as learning a new one, just so they know what they're working with for future additions. . . . and I don't really want to pay for that.) If I can convince someone there's potential profit to be had by getting their hands into Mysidia and really learning it to help out the community here, then it'd still be a worthwhile visit to flag down some outside interest. But... I might want to wait until the release of 1.4, since I hear so much is changing.

I really, really enjoy visiting NewGrounds (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/) just to listen to the music section. As soon as I've got a game built I'm considering poking at a few people. (So much talent over there.) Most audio there seems to be licensed as 'must give attribution, not for commercial works' - and I'm not sure if that's just site-wide policy, the default, or what the majority of people choose to select. I'll just have to contact people.

[squiggler]

Those are really good! Hey, I have an idea for you- maybe if your users achieve something big (collect 500 adopts or something?), you can give them one full colored one! Just an idea.

[Kyttias]

Heh, these guys will be colored! In fact, I want to hire people to color them. I'm still in the process of getting all the files organized. Everything that's done has their own file for Paint Tool SAI, but I'll be saving to .psd soon so my helper artists can open these files in more programs.

During beta, Novu will be black and white at initial adopt/purchase. After beta, they will come in their own default colors, and the beta versions will be discontinued - but still owned by everyone who has them, essentially making them rare. Non-colored versions of new species after launch will be available through a quest (or perhaps as item), but ordinarily, these guys will come in a variety of colors.

[squiggler]

Oh, that'll be cool! I might join. :)

[Hall of Famer]

This looks nice and promising, more important you have a plan and I like the fact that you know very well what you are doing. Keep up the great work. ^^

[Kyttias]

new novu:
http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2014/303/a/4/base_ouros_by_kyttias-d84qgsj.png
Ouros are low fliers, and from above they are camouflage to their environment.
These will be obtainable via a hidden promo code.
http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2014/182/f/9/base_dezh_at2_by_kyttias-d7ou5dy.png
Dezh are part-hyena, part-dragon, and they have a snappy attitude.
They will be found in the first nightmare zone. Can you tame one?

[Kyttias]

daily stamp card:
I'm considering making a 'daily' feature for the site that involves stamping a card.

Imagine a bingo card with a handful of symbols on it. Each day you visit the game, you'll roll a die to get a random symbol from your card that's not already stamped, and then every instance of that symbol on the card will be stamped. You get a base reward for each instance of the symbol. The stamped symbols on the card carry over each day until you've completed at least three rows of the card. When you complete an entire row, you get an additional prize. And finally, on the day when the card has at least three stamped out rows once you've received your daily prize, it disappears. The next day, you are handed a new card to start the process over again.

sticker collecting:
In addition, every day that you play you can get a sticker. At 10 stickers you get a prize, at 20 stickers you get a slightly better prize, so on and so forth, to encourage logging in each day. At each significant mile marker, you get a special sticker that will be displayed on your profile (like an achievement). It may be just what you need to gain access to special shops, locations, or quests!

gachapon vendor:
Operated with special tokens, these machines will dispense capsules with items of varying rarity in them. The items will be cycled out every few weeks, making them limited edition. Some will only operate with Rues tokens purchased with real money, making their contents especially lucrative. A small number of the capsules may even contain promo codes for rare Novu!

http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2014/258/7/f/gacha_by_kyttias-d7zbsox.png

[Kyttias]

new novu:
http://th06.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2014/299/9/5/base_fresik_at2_by_kyttias-d84b3wn.png
Each Fresik has sensitive whiskers, used to detect something special.

[Kyttias]

shopkeepers:
I would like my shops to be tended by shopkeepers. So my plan is to add a column in the database where the shop information is kept that will store the file name for the image that holds the NPC. In the shop display script itself I'll have to point to where the image is, grab the image name from the database based on what shop it is, then place it beside the rendered table on the page that holds the items for sale in that shop. Wish me luck. >_o

Shopkeepers are humanoid Novu (backstory for this pending, ahaha):
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/262/a/2/base_npc_60_by_kyttias-d7zqrnf.pnghttp://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/313/a/c/base_npc_2_60_by_kyttias-d85ww5k.png

[Folli]

Whoaa this is looking so cool *^* Can't wait to see the website! nw n

[Kyttias]

item tooltips:I may release a tutorial for this in the future, but I might want to wait until the next version of Mysidia before doing so. It currently relies on Bootstrap, but doesn't actually have to.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/313/8/a/shop_tooltips_by_kyttias-d85ti8n.gif

Above is an example of how it will work in shops (the overall design isn't final). I don't have a working inventory version yet - but this is a work in progress! ^^I'll report back with an update on this soon. Everything should inevitably be fully functional.






world building exercise: I made up a 30 day list of things to do for myself. All of it focuses on world building, plot, and design. You know - details and flavor text. I intend for Novul to have an RPG sort of feel, where you can complete quests for a sense of progression. And the farther you go, the more items and new species of Novu you can obtain!

Currently, I'm detailing my plans in the blog the Mysidia forums provided. So here's a link to all blog posts (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/blog.php?u=15002). And then here's a link to my 30 Day List of World Building Activities (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/blog.php?b=92) - feel free to make your own and do this, too! (Note: Only logged in users can view blogs on the Mysidia forums.)

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/308/9/d/map_small_by_kyttias-d85blb1.png

[Kyttias]

screenshots: I've gotten quite a bit of work done the last few days~

I'm currently using this personality mod (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4579) to display unique quirks about adoptables, generated from a random list at their creation. Thanks Wallie!

pet manage page (owner side):
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/315/2/0/screenshot_beta_nov2014_01_by_kyttias-d8619j7.png

changing adoptable trade status (rename similarly formatted):
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/315/1/4/screenshot_beta_nov2014_04_by_kyttias-d8619ii.png

clicking adoptable for the first time each day (everyone):
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/315/f/3/screenshot_beta_nov2014_02_by_kyttias-d8619j0.png

after you've visit an adoptable once (everyone):
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/315/e/c/screenshot_beta_nov2014_03_by_kyttias-d8619iv.png

shop - Crossed Roads (will display quest text if user has an adoptable above a set level)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/315/4/3/screenshot_beta_nov2014_06_by_kyttias-d8619i6.png

shop - Spectrum (will display quest text if user owns a specific item)
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/315/8/1/screenshot_beta_nov2014_05_by_kyttias-d8619id.png

When the requirements are not met to start the above quests, a random phrase is said instead, based on a supplied list for each shop. Different art/character expressions can be displayed based on the case context, too (currently during quests, but normal phrases could change the npc image as well, if desired). Because I'm generous, and it could prove useful, you're welcome to study the source code a little bit (just for the NPC display, nothing to do with how I have items displaying... and I don't even provide css, but perhaps you get the jist?).

#This changes the npc based on the current shop
switch ($this->shopname) {
case "Crossed Roads":
#Check if user has an adoptable at least lvl 1
$mysidia = Registry::get("mysidia");
$req_lvl = 1;
$req_lvl_adopts = $mysidia->db->select("owned_adoptables", array("aid"), "owner='{$mysidia->user->username}' and currentlevel >= {$req_lvl}")->rowCount();
$strongest = $mysidia->db->select("owned_adoptables", array(), "owner='{$mysidia->user->username}' and currentlevel >= {$req_lvl} limit 1")->fetchObject();
if ($req_lvl_adopts) {
$catchphrase = "Woah, your {$strongest->name} looks amazing at level {$strongest->currentlevel}! Say, could you do me a favor, {$mysidia->user->username}?";
$npc_img = "http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/262/a/2/base_npc_60_by_kyttias-d7zqrnf.png";
}

else { #Normal visit
$npc_img = "http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/262/a/2/base_npc_60_by_kyttias-d7zqrnf.png";
#Based on the random number, sets a quote for $catchphrase
$num = Rand (1,6);
switch ($num) {
case 1: $catchphrase = "Time is money."; break;
case 2: $catchphrase = "Isn't icecream super?"; break;
case 3: $catchphrase = "Welcome to {$this->shopname}!"; break;
case 4: $catchphrase = "Off to see the wizard?"; break;
case 5: $catchphrase = "Tomorrow is another day..."; break;
case 6: $catchphrase = "PHP is cool!"; }
}
break;
case "Spectrum":
#Check if have quest item
$q_item_1 = new PrivateItem("Beta Icecream", $mysidia->user->username);
if ($item->iid == 0 or $q_item_1->quantity > 1) {
$catchphrase = "You have Beta Icecream? <br/>Can I have some?";
$npc_img = "http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/314/5/1/base_npc_2_60_2_by_kyttias-d85ygfs.png";
}

else { #Normal visit
$npc_img = "http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/313/a/c/base_npc_2_60_by_kyttias-d85ww5k.png";
#Based on the random number, sets a quote for $catchphrase
$num = Rand (1,6);
switch ($num) {
case 1: $catchphrase = "What are you waiting for?"; break;
case 2: $catchphrase = "I bet half of these don't work."; break;
case 3: $catchphrase = "Welcome to {$this->shopname}."; break;
case 4: $catchphrase = "Are you going to buy something?"; break;
case 5: $catchphrase = "(Window shopping?)"; break;
case 6: $catchphrase = "..."; }
}
break;
default: $npc_img = "http://placekitten.com/g/200/500"; $catchphrase = "Welcome to {$this->shopname}";
}

#This is the npc and their shop (typically random) catchphrase
$document->add(new Comment("
<div class='shop_npc'>
<div class='popover fade top in' id='npc_popover'>
<div class='arrow'></div><div class='popover-content' style='width: 220px; text-align: center;'>
{$catchphrase}
</div></div>
<img src='{$npc_img}'/>
</div>", $linebreak = FALSE));


I'm rather proud of myself in regards to my placement of the shopkeeper npcs. Screens all the way down to 1024 widths, such as 10" and 12" Netbooks, and many decent size tablets in horizontal mode (Kindle Fire HD, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and all Apple iPads) will still display shopkeepers, albeit at a reduced size. Below these widths, shopkeepers and their text will simply not display.

[squiggler]

This all looks so cool! One suggestion, though: many users on Flight Rising (petsite) complain about pop up and hover boxes. Mobile users because they can't hover, and the rest because the pop ups glitch and cover pertinent buttons or take time to load. You may want to consider this.

[Kyttias]

Modals, tooltips and popovers are three different, though similar, animals. *(What's the difference? (http://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-a-modal-a-popover-and-a-popup))

I'm familiar with Flight Rising's glitchy bugs with all three of these. They just don't like being dismissed - usually when you try to open a new one of one type while one of another type is already open. I run into this a lot trying to sell dragons on the Auction House, for whatever reason. However, this is an example of poorly implemented coding, not necessarily poor design overall. Flight Rising is still in closed beta, and one of their lead coders was hit by a vehicle and has spent the better part of the year hospitalized. It's understandable that even fixing basic typos has been a struggle for them - only so many of their team has access to, let alone understands, what's going on behind the scenes to fix the problems at hand.

While it's actually possible (http://osvaldas.info/elegant-css-and-jquery-tooltip-responsive-mobile-friendly) to implement mobile-friendly touch tooltips (the standard is to make sure the tooltips are hide-able by a double-click, while the first click opens the tooltip, the second will closes it), my plan is actually to have entirely different layout on both shop and inventory pages on devices with a width smaller than 1024px. This doesn't just have to do with the information on the tooltip being hard to pull up, but the fact my shopkeeper NPCs just won't have room to exist -- yet they will be both quest starters and objectives. I'll be sure to carefully playtest tooltip issues.

I try to make as much of my content as I can mobile-first so it's ready right away, but some of the more complicated features will take their sweet time. ^^;

[Hall of Famer]

Oh this looks really nice and promising now, great work Miss Kyttias. ^^ Its so good to know someone is utilizing the script to its potential, and there may be even more to exploit. Let me know if I can help you with anything. ^^

[parayna]

This seems cool! Will definitely join when it opens! (Following this post so I can get in there :P)

[Kyttias]

This seems cool! Will definitely join when it opens! (Following this post so I can get in there :P)

It'll be a while. ^^;

I found the Mysidia script in January 2014, and by the end of January, I created my first theme and shared it with the community. In February sketched out a few creatures. But life happened, I moved cross country, and it wasn't until June that I had a consistent set of line widths and shading practices for the art. Consistency is super important moving forward, y'know! In July I sat down and made a world map and thought up some deeper concepts (plot-wise, the goal is to have people 'curing' the world and putting an end to nightmares).

August happened, and I moved into a new house. I made up a temporary theme just for me and since scrapped it for another one. In September, I decided I wanted humanoid shopkeepers. In October I made a template for my item icons and now it's November and I've totally redone how I display items in shops. I've read a half dozen books on PHP, and I'm comfortable editing the files manually now.

I want to change how many pages are rendered by default, so December will be a month of modifying defaults and the start of programming some personal touches. Some of which will be released to the community, such as site-wide bonuses based on how active your site's community has been. Other features will be my personal secrets~

For example, the next thing on my mind is the chance for pets to get afflicted with a 'sickness' after they've been ignored for too many days. To fit the dream world theme of my site, these Novu will become 'nightmare' versions of themselves - frozen, unable to be levelled up by normal means, and unable to have that feature restored until they are 'cured' with an item. The item won't be at all expensive, however. In fact, I may even provide a means for users to do this to their pets intentionally. But it's more than cosmetic - frozen pets also won't be able to do story missions, or earn experience in any way.

Perhaps some interesting things might happen with certain NPCs if you have nightmare afflicted pets... forbidden from some shops altogether if you have more than five pets afflicted, but suddenly welcomed by dark strangers you didn't even know had shops... Having just one nightmare pet will open up new opportunities to you - and hey, some nightmare pets are nightmare by default, and won't suffer any 'frozen' penalty. In fact, if you have enough nightmare pets, and enough currency to part with, perhaps some NPC might just be able to help you unfreeze your pets but let them keep their nightmare status.

The overarching 'story' to my site has the user venturing into nightmare areas of each zone and, in each, confronting a basic fear. But it's never said you had to help the good guys cleanse these zones. While this may be a simple collectible adopts site on the surface, deep down, there's RPG functionality I'm dying to implement - where user choice matters and can influence everything from flavor text and additional dialogue to what shops and areas you have access to. I'm keeping these more intense features in mind, but they won't go into development until the core of the site is already complete.

This means more items, more Novu, more shopkeepers, mini-games, special skins/patterns, and, if luck has it, equippable items that show on the pets themselves. My girlfriend even expressed desire to outline a more complex breeding system.

Obviously I don't want to pay for hosting until I know what I've gotten myself into, but a semi-public alpha test version on free hosting could appear as early as late spring of 2015. (Right now my site is actually being built locally but my router doesn't have full NAT support sooo... public IP says no.)

[parayna]

Ooh, I love all those ideas! I am patient enough to wait though XD I will probably join as soon as you open :happyc:

[Kyttias]

introducing: the villain
Meet Nox.
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/354/3/6/concept_art_by_kyttias-d89awoh.png
Many miserable children's only escape is through the solace of dreams. But, what if they need not suffer anymore? What if they need not feel anything? What if they need not even... exist? In the deepest, darkest parts of the Novul lurks a being that desires no child to be sad, no pain to latch to their soul. While joy is desirable, it's so fleeting and temporary. It'd be far easier, far more effective for them to simply cease existence. In the emptiness, they will find peace. This being is quite efficient in his craft, fully convinced that to cease suffering he must release the souls of lost children. Nox just wants them to be happy, after all... why should they ever have to wake up?

(Nox will be introduced early on as a someone who seems very good. Always friendly and helpful on the exterior, his motives are out of sight until it's far too late.)

Nox and his creatures cause something of a domino effect; as they absorb the miserable, they make those around them more miserable. So the closer a visiting child gets to these creatures, they too begin to have nightmares. They become tainted by their fears. This negativity leads to them being captured or influenced by Nox and his nightmarish creatures; and their misery and fears pass on nightmares to more potential victims. This cycle repeats without end in sight, and Nox is growing in power with every victim... but to what inevitable end?




inventory preview
Well this has taken a lot of work! And it's not done quite done yet. Currently, items that have a use can be used from the modal pop up, but I'd like to be able to choose the adoptable it's going to be used on from the pop-up, to save another page to go through. Not sure how to go about this yet...
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/350/1/7/preview_inventory_by_kyttias-d8a36mh.gif




updated shop preview
I've redone my shops a little bit, as I was inspired by my efforts on my inventory page. ^^ Soon I'd like to implement a 'shop loyalty' system, where you slowly befriend the NPC based on how much you've spent at their shop, total. Higher friendship with the shopkeeper means more items will be available, discounts, and a few other interesting things!
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/350/a/6/preview_shops_by_kyttias-d8a358x.gif

[Kyttias]

shop loyaltyShopkeepers enjoy seeing you around! They remember just how much you've spent on their wares. Now, they want to repay the favor. You'll be able to check your loyalty level with participating stores in the upper left hand corner, each level represented as a star.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/364/3/3/sc1_by_kyttias-d8btokt.gif

A new player starts at level 0 - no benefits. Spend a little bit there and unlock level 1 loyalty with a shop to immediately unlock new items that weren't available before! At level 2 you'll gain a 5% discount off all items in their shop, plus gain access to even more items. At level 3 you'll get to enjoy a whole 10% discount. Even more benefits are to come - including opportunities to begin quests and fuse items. All you have to do is continue being such a great customer. The more you spend, the closer you'll get to the next level.

exchange pavillionAt the Exchange Pavillion, you'll meet Aubrey. She's part 'Fauxxit' and so long as you bring her supplies, she can fuse and enhance items for you. Eventually I want all shopkeepers to be able to do item fusion, and at that point, Aubrey will be operating a bit more like Crimm on Flight Rising, asking for a random item (below a certain rarity threshold) and offering to buy it from you for a tiny bit more than its ordinary worth. Until she teaches her ways to the other shopkeepers, she is in charge of all item fusion.

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/364/e/5/sc1_by_kyttias-d8btnpx.gif
concept art
Oh, and I created a thread where I'll post some unfinished and in progress art. So go check that out (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=4739), if you like!

[Kyttias]

profile revampI've been working on revamping my user's profile pages. The comment/messages tab isn't as finished as the others, and I want to rearrange the order of the tabs but I'm having some trouble doing so (if anyone knows, let me know?). It also goes without saying that the edit buttons only appear if the user visiting the page is the same as the owner of the page.
if ($mysidia->user->username == $mysidia->input->get("user"))

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/014/4/b/sc1_by_kyttias-d8dyrsk.gif
for saleOver on DeviantART I've got Novu up to 'adopt' for $5, but they get no rights to the species. However, for $10, you guys here on the forums can buy the species from me, full rights, and use them on your own site. The catch? You have to get to them before someone else buys them. Paypal preferred (but DA points would be accepted). Just these two for now (there is a third, but I have my heart set on keeping it).
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs70/150/f/2015/009/2/2/___for_sale____by_kyttias-d8dat46.png (http://kyttias.deviantart.com/art/For-Sale-506068710)http://th04.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2015/010/c/e/___for_sale____by_kyttias-d8ddrq4.png (http://kyttias.deviantart.com/art/For-Sale-506206876)

[MikiHeart]

Your site really is looking amazing. It inspires me to make mine better.

Your site is purple based, I really like that. Purple is a lucky colour :)
Ours (my sister and I) is blue, because it's the world is based on an ocean which is a theme park.

I will create a thread for it when she's worked on some art and stuff ^^

I'd love to join your site. When do you plan/hope to launch?

[IntoRain]

I simply love to watch all your development! It's becoming more and more awesome each update! Really good job *-*

[Kyttias]

@MikiHeart - Alpha testing for friends and devs on the Mysidia forums (such as yourself) should begin late this spring/just before summer. Official beta testing might open in the fall or next spring - it'll depend on how much art I have done and the cost of bumping from free to paid hosting. I also want to check in with my ISP to see if there's a chance I can host directly through them - I'd prefer to have control over my servers, afterall.

@IntoRain - <3 I'm definitely glad to hear that! So here's another update for you~

Nox now has a profile page!
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/016/6/9/gifgif_by_kyttias-d8e5cid.gif

The details aren't final (probably going to sans the 'Biography' header from his about tab) and add a quest to his friends page.

He's NOT an actual user, and that's the most interesting part. He replaces the default SYSTEM user in some ways, but not in others. SYSTEM 'owns' the adopts in the pound, and, they'll even show on the pet tab on SYSTEM's profile. Ordinarily, the SYSTEM profile is quite buggy (given that it's not a real user) and pulls data from the admin to fill out certain fields. I've prevented this default behavior and made his page quite flashy.

Because random pets appear in the stats, its possible to see a pet owned by the pound. Or in this case, Nox. Therefore, I wanted to be sure his page looked nice to visitors. Consider it an Easter egg. ^^;

That reminds me... For anyone who HASN'T read this IMPORTANT security glitch regarding the SYSTEM user, please do so now (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/project.php?issueid=46#note226), and patch your site immediately!

What was I saying again...? Oh, right.

Nox probably will not be the final owner of pound pets, though he is right now. This is because, eventually, pets will need to be removed from the system if they exist in excess. My eventual plan is to have pets exist in the pound only for two weeks while waiting to be adopted, and after that, they'll be transferred to Nox, and they'll gain a 'skin' or 'painted' effect like on other pet sites - and basically become nightmare pets. Nox will then let users adopt them from him, but... it might be in exchange for some interesting favors. Pets that exist with Nox for more than another two weeks are at risk of being permanently deleted.

[MikiHeart]

If you want control of the server, you'll want a VPS or a DPS. I have a VPS for all my websites. I was lucky to get it in 2013 in a Black Friday sale. It was 50% off for life. So instead of paying $50 dollars a month, I only pay $25. But new customers have to apy $50 dollars.

[Abronsyth]

Your site is certainly coming along beautifully! I love the loyalty and exchange features, very cool!

As always, I'll continue following the development :)

[Kyttias]

official color wheel I've finally come to a decision on the official color palette for the site. There will still be 'skins'/'brushes' like on other sites (and also 'accent' skins - transparent ones that do not cover your entire pet), but by default, there will be standard 'primary' and 'secondary' colors.
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/019/e/2/official_colors_by_kyttias-d8emgjc.png
While skins/accents won't be genetic, these standard colors will be. My girl Savvy is helping me make a unique breeding system, where offspring can be any color in a range between the two parents. There can be any combination of primary/secondary colors.

For breeding purposes, the lighter shade of a color is recessive, while the darker shade is dominant. If both colors are recessive, however, there is a 50-50 chance the offspring may become a dominant, darker, shade instead. There is also going to be a tiny chance of melanism, albinism, and, for lack of a better word, 'monoism' (one of two shades of gray). Not having these is a dominate, default occurrence. But, for example, if you were to breed two melanistic pets together, all the offspring would also be melanistic. However, these traits will only effect the primary or secondary gene. So you can have 'albino' primary and 'melanistic' secondary, or, normal primary and 'albino' secondary, etc.


site statistics Thanks to questions I posed on this thread (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4765), I was also able to recently make some additions to my /stats page. Check out the thread for hints on how to do so for yours, too!

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2015/019/b/9/gifgif_by_kyttias-d8eil23.gif

[Kyttias]

Update to my last post: check this out (http://jsbin.com/vawev/3/)!

[MikiHeart]

You palette is wonderful looking.
Love your back to top button. I'll be adding one of those for sure (Even though I have a browser addon instead XD, but users may not)

[Glow]

OMG THE BEAUTIFUL COLOURS
So much love!!!

[Kyttias]

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've given any progress updates. I've been caught up in some things. ^^;

Today I'm here to show off a prototype I constructed using Javascript for what I meant in my original list of wants by a 'daily stamp card'.

[ link (http://jsbin.com/pewulu/4/)]

I used stock images because this is just an example test and I need to create my own images (which should inevitably be symbols, such as runes, that make sense for my site).

Anyway, the concept is this: once a day, from the home page, you'll be prompted to stamp your card. You can emulate this by pressing the stamp button on the prototype I linked. Notice that here you can stamp as many times as you like, but it will be once per day - one stamp per day, and you'll return to the same card day after day until it is finished.

So what's happening? Well it's going to pick a random symbol from those you have remaining and stamp out every instance of it. Your goal is to make a row as if you were playing Bingo - five over, down, or diagonally. (Keep clicking in the prototype to count how many days this takes!) Right now, nothing happens. When you finish your card, it refills it in a random order (you can also see this randomosity by refreshing the page!).

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/057/2/c/stamp_by_kyttias-d8jl0lk.png

Example cards:

7 days to the first row reward, on 8th day two more rows were obtained at once! card expires
on 7th day all three rows are obtained at once! card expires.
8 days to the first row reward, on 10th day the second row is stamped, on the 11th day two more rows are stamped and the card is complete, with one bonus row!! card expires.


Or for an (incomplete) visual:
http://orig11.deviantart.net/0157/f/2015/089/e/2/stamp_by_kyttias-d8nqrck.gif

Each day a random symbol is chosen and every instance of that symbol is stamped. You will obtain 50 Aurum and 1 Gacha Token for each stamp made a day. There are three peaches on your card and peach was today's stamp? Then you collect 150 Aurum and 3 Gacha Tokens. These tokens will be used in the 'free' Gacha machine which needs 3 tokens to operate.

When a complete line (row across) the card is made, you get an additional prize (as of yet undetermined, possibly more Aurum). Once three lines are made the card is completed. A completed card will get you 1 Rues Gacha Token. The only other way to obtain Rues Gacha Tokens will be through paid currency. These tokens are used in the 'luxury' Gacha machine, which also requires 3 tokens to operate.

[Kyttias]

http://orig10.deviantart.net/45c6/f/2015/089/f/6/site_by_kyttias-d8nqx34.gif

I'm finally starting in on my final theme for my site. It's got a way to go still (the logo is quite plain up there, currently.) I guess I'm just posting to show that I'm not totally dead in the water. ^^;

[Kyttias]

Alright, similar to Lioden and Flight Rising I want to have breedable genetics (both marking patterns and features such as wings) and colors (primary and secondary).

On Flight Rising images are created in PHP with a library like GD or ImageMagick, merged down, and then saved with the pet's id number in deeply nested organized files. I can only imagine how much this weighs on the server. On the plus side, these are real images and can be saved to your computer.

On Lioden each layer is its own image and they're merely stacked on top of one another in a div. (I'm super surprised they're not even using HTML5 Canvas.) On the downside? These are all separate images and cannot be easily saved -- you'd have to take a screencap to show your friends. On the plus side? These individual layered images will be cached by the browser -- making revisits to the site quite speedy. And there isn't intensive load on the sever because there isn't an image saved for each and every lion.

I'm going to try and do something in between the two of these methods with HTML5 Canvas -- and the end result should be savable, even though it isn't stored server side. It won't be directly linkable, same as Lionden, however. On the upside, Canvas will allow for layer clipping with 'masks' if you're familiar with the term.

The jist of it is that wherever a pet image is called with the GUI, it'll display a canvas and render layers instead. Because these individual layers never need to be changed they'll be set to be cached by the browser - once a person has a seen a layer before it'll instantly load in the future, making it much faster after the initial visit. I can have pets look very beautiful, and, don't have to save an image for every single pet.

I can already access species, gender and age from the owned adoptables table, but I also need to store: primary color, secondary color, primary gene pattern, secondary gene pattern, if they have a face expression other than the default set, if the pet has a nightmare infliction, if they have a designer skin equipped, and then if they have any body shop mods such as wings, extra tails, additional fluff, etc.

Later I should be able to extend this into item equipping, but that's a whole additional process, and it probably would be best in its own table.

...

edit: I'm just going to go with the Lioden approach until I'm more comfortable with Canvas, aha.

[Kyttias]

Art preview today, before I get into explaining genetics in more detail (I'll wait until my breeding system is fully implemented first).

The following attributes of a pet are genetic and can be passed onto offspring:

body color
accent color
accent pattern
accent opacity
wings or not
various types of tails
species specific traits (extra fluff, horn size, fangs, etc)


Here's a Jenx with:

a violet body
a light pink accent
striped pattern
at 100% opacity
with wings
a luxurious tail
and extra fluff


http://orig08.deviantart.net/f407/f/2015/087/5/9/jenx_1_by_kyttias-d8nimwo.pnghttp://orig09.deviantart.net/4290/f/2015/089/7/7/stripes_by_kyttias-d8nrdht.png

While here's a Jenx with:

a violet body
a light pink accent
no pattern
- - -
no wings
an ordinary tail
- - -


http://orig05.deviantart.net/4512/f/2015/087/8/e/jenx_ordinary_by_kyttias-d8nimwc.pnghttp://orig01.deviantart.net/7476/f/2015/089/3/c/jenx_1_by_kyttias-d8nregd.png

Finalized art for my alpha testing phase:
Jenx: 100% DONE April 4, 2015
Dezh: 21% IN-PROGRESS April 4, 2015
Stage 1 - 75%
Patterns: Stripes(33%), Filigree(33%), Stardust(33%)
Body Modifications: Wings(100%), Species Specific(100%), Ordinary Tail(100%), Alternate Tail(100%), Luxury Tail(100%)
Stage 2 - 0%
Stage 3 - 0%
Lythine: 0%

[cailynmae]

This looks so cool. I can't wait for it to come out! Great art, great design, great idea, and probably great coding(I don't actually know yet, I haven't visited the site)!

[Kyttias]

Thanks, cailynmae! :happyc: I definitely feel I'm getting closer to launch.

I'm now officially considering myself a 'sole proprietorship' - smaller than a small business, my assets are my own and I have no employees. As a sole proprietorship, all income from my site (through ads and, inevitably paid currency) will be taxable as simply personal income. No extra forms needed. In my state, I don't even have to file since I have no employees and I'm not selling anything taxable under Indiana state law - digital goods are not tangible items.

Should I somehow earn more than $400 (after expenses) I'll file as something beyond a sole proprietorship. Luckily, my girlfriend's mom's job is to help people with their taxes so I'll have no trouble properly filing my expenses and shouldn't be at any risk of being audited (not that they'll care until my yearly end profits exceed a certain amount, anyway).

I've upgraded my PayPal account (it's free) to a business marked as a sole proprietorship and will look into how to securely receive and automate payments for digital goods (in-game currency). But to do that I need a live website.

Then there's Google AdSense. I also need a live website for that.

I'm currently self-hosting my site on my local network - not the internet at large - during my development period. But I'm considering hosting through BlueHost. It's just under $4/mo for the first year and $5/mo after that. The first year also comes with a free domain. The next largest plan is $10/mo, and I can upgrade at any time.

However, I don't want to be paying any earlier than necessary. Just because I've looked into it, it doesn't mean I'm near ready to set up any of the above.

I really love the Mysidia framework and I'm happy to continue to build off of it (and continue to offer free support to the community now and then). But I'm starting to reach the point where I need to advance the features in place. I'm not fond of, well, any of the existing features the framework offers as they are. Some of them just need a 'look and feel' upgrade while others need additional features and these take time. There are also entirely new features I need before launch.

Before I launch I want to try to rebuild both Breeding and Trading to my liking. I haven't looked at the Personal Message system but I despise the current WYSIWYG editor. Hopefully replacing just the text area will prove easy in comparison to rebuilding the former two items.

Features I've deemed unnecessary for my initial alpha (friend-only) testing phase include a player-driven Auction House, implemented Quests and a fleshed out Exploration system, Achievements, and the Rues (real-cash) currency. In between hard things I also need to make sure my user profiles tabs are working, make considerations about user avatars, get off my butt and make the forum match my site, implement chests with items inside, my gacha machine, spruce up the user registration, get user factions ready to go for competitive events, etc etc.

So, am I ready? No.

But...

In the past year, I've - learned a ton about the template system and built myself a theme I'm happy with, implemented genetics, made nice modals for the stores and inventory, changed how pets are displayed and made profiles for them, and created entirely new features such as shop loyalty, tabs for the inventory, and a stamp game.

I think, at the current rate, I can be ready. It's just a matter of time. :usedusedused:

[Kyttias]

breeding
There will be no cost to breed.

Novu are dream creatures and their young are born from dream dust. Even two Novu of the same apparent gender can create new life together! Courtship trinkets should be obtained and brought to the ceremony to be exchanged. The two Novu must then simply perform a ritual dance with one another. Together, they'll begin to shimmer and dream dust will fall from their fur. Once the dance is complete, all the need to do is bring their combined dust to a Pool of Ancestry to bring it to life.


genetics
Genetics in Novul will make use of what's known in real world genetics as "Punett Squares". In genetics, a "trait" is made up of "alleles". They are usually two of the same letters, either capital or lowercase or mixed. If one capital exists, the gene is expressed; same for two capitals--A is "dominant". However, if they're both lowercase, the gene is not expressed--a is "recessive". In other words, AA and Aa would both show the gene and aa would not. A child takes one allele from each parent, and which one it takes is random; so an AAxAA would only produce AA, but an Aa x Aa could produce an AA, Aa, or aa.

For Novul, there will be 4 tiers of genetics. Tier 1 will be one trait/two alleles (Aa), Tier 2 will be two "traits"/four alleles (AaBb), Tier 3 (AaBbCc), and Tier 4 (AaBbCcDd). First, the gene is chosen with simple probabilities. Tier 1 is the most common, with Tier 4 the most rare; breeding a lower tier with a higher tier will get you more low-tier babies. Simple patterns and patternless will (likely) be Tier 1, with more complicated patterns climbing up the tiers. Once the gene is selected, we move onto determining its opacity.

There are several levels of opacity--full, high, half, low, and "none" (extremely low). The levels of opacity are determined by whether or not you have a dominant allele in each trait. Having a dominant allele in every trait gets you full opacity, having no dominant allele in any trait gets you "none" opacity. Whether you have one capital or two capital in each trait is irrelevant; all that matters is the number of unique traits with dominant alleles. For example, Tier 1 has full (1) or none (0); and Tier 4 has full (4), high (3), half (2), low (1), and none (0).

Users won't get to see the exact 'DNA' of their Novu to know if it has recessive or dominant genes (at least not for free), and all they really need to know is that these things determine the chance and degree of their Novu's genetics passing on. There is a chance for all things, it simply gets more common in certain situations.


coding progress
Today is the day I actually begin rewriting the code to implement said proposed genetics and gender-free breeding. Courtship trinkets will follow. @_@;;

[CallumCharlton]

Wow that sounds ridiculously realistic with alleles haha... I wish you luck in creating this, it sound really difficult!

[Hwona]

Wow! You're doing so well! I'm definitely going to stalk development for this. XD I'm behind.

[Kyttias]

Alright, I'm not finished with my breeding changes, but I do have this to show:
http://orig03.deviantart.net/54a3/f/2015/096/f/7/breeding_by_kyttias-d8oqn4q.gif

I'm not 'finished' in that there are still many, as you can see, 'broken' image layers. Tail style, if they have wings, and if they have a specific specific trait (in this case, horns). ALSO, in the final version I obviously won't be letting users have THAT many babies, lol. I bumped up the number for testing purposes.

In this particular case I'd also like to mention that Stripes is the rarer of the two genes for testing purposes. Not sure on the final rarities for my patterns. Pattern genes will show at varying opacities, but what your children end up with is determined by the genetic code of the parents. I'll try to go into more detail in the next post. x'D In this case, not a lot of variety for opacities in the example, sorry. (There was a 1/4 chance of the Filigree babies getting 50% opacity, and it ended up none of them did. One of the Stripes did get 25%, however!)

Err, for 'exacts' you won't immediately understand:
[Shera]: AaBBCc (Stripes) + [BoopBoop]: Aabb (Filigree)
Filigree: 1/4th chance of 50% Opacity, 3/4th chance of 100% Opacity
Stripes: 3/8th chance of 100% Opacity, 1/2 chance of 50% Opacity, 1/8th chance of 25% Opacity

And that's not going into wings, tails, and for this species, horns... that aren't visible currently because I haven't uploaded their art yet.

[Abronsyth]

Wow, Kyttias, what you're doing with breeding is absolutely incredible! Looks amazing already!

Love the babies, by the way, very cute 8)

[Kyttias]

So what's next?
I still have a long way to go to do all the things I want to do! Inspired by Wallie, I've already redirected the error page after you've already fed a pet for a day to a profile for the pet - it contains all the same information about a pet the management page will, but with no links to manage a pet. If the pet is your own, there will be a link to go to the pet's management page so you can do things such as rename it, etc.

http://orig04.deviantart.net/aa12/f/2015/107/9/2/pet_profiles_by_kyttias-d8q28zv.gif
(I still haven't saved art for some layers of the pets yet, ahaha, so there are broken image layers...)

As just as example of some of the work I want to do moving forward, on just this one section of the site, here is my to-do list, rated by how difficult I think it'll be for myself to accomplish:

★☆☆☆ Easy:

Limit today's visitors to really just be today's, while also clearing any database entries older than a month. (I'm keeping this data for up to a month so I can run contests based on site participation.)
Check if the visitor is the owner and don't reward any Aurum (site currency) if they are the owner. (Experience will still be gained.)
Beside the birthday, also include an age in years, months, and days.
Change the layout during intially playing with a Novu. (I'd like the image to be to the right of the text, rather than below it.)

★★☆☆ Somewhat Easy:

Allow items to sometimes drop from pets. (There is a mod for this, so all I really need to do is look into installing it. However, it may not entirely suit my needs. For example, only Nightmare pets will drop a certain item, and any pet can become a Nightmare pet... and some items will only be obtainable from visiting your own pets, or only by visiting other's pets... so some customizing of the mod is to be done.)
Currently the profile pages I've created for Novu after they've been played with for the day cannot be seen if they are 'frozen'. I'd like to fix this - of course they'll still be prevented from gaining experience. I'm not, however, certain what all I'll have to do to achieve this yet.

★★★☆ Somewhat Difficult:

I want to create a text field so users are able to create a roleplay profile for their pets and include some custom information about them. I want to allow some basic HTML. (Later, I'll use what I learned here to spruce up the user's profile page text field as well!)
I want to allow users to 'like' pets, just like people can 'like' posts on social media. But then, I also need to create a page for users to view all the pets they've ever liked. And, also, give them the ability to recant a 'like' in case they change their mind or clicked by accident.

★★★★ Difficult:

Create a separate page that will hold a pet's heritage, that is, a family tree map. It will include their parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and of course their own children. Later this information will be cross-referenced to prevent some immediate inbreeding.
If a user owns items of a type (item types will be a new column in the database) that a pet likes (such as, maybe this pet likes candy), then when the user visits that pet's profile, offer to let the user choose an item of that type that they own, warning them that it will be removed from their inventory, and let them give the item to the pet they are visiting. It will grant additional experience to the pet, Aurum to the user, and possibly additional effects. I also need to consider making it so a user can only do this once per pet per day. The pet won't necessarily need to be their own - letting you directly help other user's pets. If another user's pet is 'frozen' then they don't want it gaining experience -- so I'll also prevent frozen pets from receiving items in this way, that way visitors aren't raising your pets for you if you want them to stay young forever.



Breeding Update
Thought I'd bring up that the breeding page looks like this, thanks to some jQuery:
http://orig06.deviantart.net/ce2d/f/2015/107/f/1/pet_breeding_by_kyttias-d8q2etl.gif
*It's intentional now that pets can breed with one another regardless of their gender, so it's possible to select two of the same pet. I go out of my way to show that if you try to have the parents both be the same pet, it won't let you. (It won't in the end, anyway, for now it just visually won't let you.)

Also!
Thank you for your continued support, everyone!!!!!!!

I love helping out the community, but I can't always help everyone with everything. There are many, many things I'm doing for my own site that I will probably never, ever release as mods for you guys, and I feel kind of bad about it. Still, I give back what I can while maintaining a competitive edge. I aim to teach by helping with small simple tasks (of no more than two stars of difficulty, going by the examples above), rather than just giving large handouts.

I've never directly been asked how I do some things, but I'm sure it'll come up in time. Don't be afraid to ask, but, also be prepared to get 'Ahh, I really don't want to tell you that...' as an answer. I do my best to point people in the right direction, with words, but no code, however. You're always welcome to imitate, but at some point, you'll have to do the hard parts yourself just like I have had to.

[Missy Master]

Your site is absolutely breathtaking what you have already planned out there!! Wow!!!

I totally understand not wanting to give out everything you do, you work very hard and you clearly are always helping so much here for all of us :)

I see you even have the pet images come up in the breeding list! Okay THAT I am coveting hahah .. that's pretty nifty!! ANy idea for release date planned?

[Kyttias]

I need to start setting myself some deadlines... in addition to code, I need to do art. :ti:

I can probably manage one level of one species per day, art-wise. So-- the lines, shading, patterns and genes for just the 'baby' of a species one day, just the 'juvenile' of that species the next day, just the 'adult' of that species on the next, etc...

I'm not sure how many species I want to launch with, either.

Four to choose from as starter pets. These pets will be considered 'Common'.
One promo code pet that will only be available once per person for the first year of the site, regardless of whether they donate or not. This pet will be considered 'Uncommon'.
One pet that is only available on the site's anniversary every year, one per person. This pet will be considered 'Rare'.
One pet that is only obtainable from visiting the site for 30 days (on your 30th day you access the site, you will obtain this pet automatically). This pet will be considered 'Uncommon'.
Pets that are available every year during certain holiday weeks only. All you have to do is participate in a relatively easy to do activity and you'll be nearly guaranteed to get this pet. These pets will be considered 'Uncommon'.


But my plans don't stop there:

I'd like to beta-test one or two Hybrid pets that can only be obtained through breeding. These pets will be considered 'Uncommon' but also notably 'Hybrid'. I'm not sure how I want to handle Hybrid pets breeding yet. Should they even be allowed to have babies at all...? I'm thinking either no, or the offspring will always be the species of the non-Hybrid parent 95% of the time. And if both are Hybrid, they cannot breed at all.
Speaking of only obtained through breeding, those who donate a significant amount of money will get a pet only they will ever have. It's babies won't look like it, but will also be considered somewhat rare. I may also do these 'Subspecies' for other limited event pets. These pets will be considered 'Epic', though on the same breeding tier as 'Ultra Rare' and their offspring will be considered 'Rare'.
And once a battle system is released, some pets will only be initially obtainable when they are defeated in battle. There's only a small chance they'll want to come stay with you, and you will only ever be able to get one of each kind this way, even if you give the one you got away. These pets will be considered, however, 'Uncommon', usually. Sometimes 'Rare'.
Some pets that will be obtainable through a pay shop will be given out in early releases for free to the top players in event contests. Inevitably they will breed enough of them that they will become common for everyone else. For those that didn't place in an event contest, they should be able to purchase them via PayPal after a month has passed (or simply buy one from someone who is breeding, depends on how poor a user is and if they feel that's worthwhile), and will only be for sale for one month. [I also intend on releasing genetics, patterns, and designers.] These monthly event pets will be considered 'Rare'.
Speaking of PayPal - luxury pets. Far more expensive than the ones that were given pre-release to contest winners, a luxury pet will be available for an entire year, then replaced with a new pet. Luxury pets will be considered 'Ultra Rare' for their first year of release, then reduced to 'Rare' starting the year after.
Kickstarter pets will be very similar to the luxury pets, but will have, as mentioned previously, offspring that only subspecies and not clones of their parents -- in addition, pets from a Kickstarter will not have their rarity ever reduced. This effectively means Kickstarter pets are on the same tier as the 'Ultra Rare' luxury pets for breeding purposes and you will always have a 50-50 chance of getting either the subspecies of the Kickstarter pet or a clone of the luxury pet. Very profitable for breeders who have money to spend and great for users who don't because it'll give them a chance to one day obtain these pets.


Basically:
Common -- Free pets, Wild pets
Uncommon -- Pets always available with Aurum, Easy to obtain holiday/event pets, Special wild pets, Hybrids, Rare Subspecies Offspring
Rare -- Hard holiday/event pets, Monthly PayPal-only pets, Old Luxury pets, Hard to obtain wild pets, UltraRare/Kickstarter Subspecies Offspring
UltraRare -- Current year's Luxury PayPal-only pets, Kickstarter pets

I don't know the exact percentages yet, but during breeding, the more common species will always show up more often. If two parents are on the same breeding tier, the babies will be 50-50 and take after either parent.

Anyway! I digress...

I still don't know when I'm going to launch. I've both coding and art to do, aha. I'll get back to you when I've made a scheduled blocked out for myself. If I can stick to it, then, maybe I'll have an estimated release date.

[Kyttias]

I've decided that this is the maximum amount of time I'm giving myself for these particular items (I procrastinate and goof off a lot while "working"):

Maybe I can get this done before the end of May:
General Fixes ★★ (4 hours)
★☆☆☆ Bug: Prevent 'favpet' from being traded or abandoned, and put in place an error message to display if this is attempted.
★☆☆☆ Allow user profiles to make use of limited HTML in the 'bio' field.


Pet Profiles ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ (32 hours)
★☆☆☆ Limit today's visitors to really just being today's visitors, while also clearing the database of any entries older than one month. (I'm keeping this data for up to a month so I can run contests based on site participation.)
★☆☆☆ Check if the visitor is the owner and don't reward any Aurum (site currency) if they are the owner. (Experience will still be gained.)
★☆☆☆ Beside the pet's birthday, include age in years, months, and days.
★☆☆☆ Change the layout during initially playing with a Novu. (I'd like the image to be to the right of the text, rather than below it.)
★★☆☆ Allow items to sometimes drop from pets. (There is a mod for this, so all I really need to do is look into installing it. However, it may not entirely suit my needs. For example, only Nightmare pets will drop a certain item, and any pet can become a Nightmare pet... and some items will only be obtainable from visiting your own pets, or only by visiting other's pets... so some customizing of the mod is to be done.)
★★☆☆ Currently the profile pages I've created for Novu after they've been played with for the day cannot be seen if they are 'frozen'. I'd like to fix this - of course they'll still be prevented from gaining experience. I'm not, however, certain what all I'll have to do to achieve this yet.
★★★☆ I want to create a text field so users are able to create a roleplay profile for their pets and include some custom information about them. I want to allow some basic HTML. (Later, I'll use what I learned here to spruce up the user's profile page text field as well!)
★★★☆ I want to allow users to 'like' pets, just like people can 'like' posts on social media. But then, I also need to create a page for users to view all the pets they've ever liked. And, also, give them the ability to recant a 'like' in case they change their mind or clicked by accident.
★★★★ Create a separate page that will hold a pet's heritage, that is, a family tree map. It will include their parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and of course their own children. Later this information will be cross-referenced to prevent some immediate inbreeding.
★★★★ If a user owns items of a type (item types will be a new column in the database) that a pet likes (such as, maybe this pet likes candy), then when the user visits that pet's profile, offer to let the user choose an item of that type that they own, warning them that it will be removed from their inventory, and let them give the item to the pet they are visiting. It will grant additional experience to the pet, Aurum to the user, and possibly additional effects. I also need to consider making it so a user can only do this once per pet per day. The pet won't necessarily need to be their own - letting you directly help other user's pets. If another user's pet is 'frozen' then they don't want it gaining experience -- so I'll also prevent frozen pets from receiving items in this way, that way visitors aren't raising your pets for you if you want them to stay young forever.


Forum ★★★★★★★ (10 hours)
★☆☆☆ Install MyBB forum and get dual-log in working.
★★☆☆ Disable access to and/or integrate new forum components.
★★★★ Design matching theme for forum.


COPPA ★★★★★★★★★★ (15 hours)
★☆☆☆ Database: Create an 'adopts_coppa' table and have it contain the 'uid', 'username', 'birthday', 'parentemail, 'securityQ', and 'securityA' for all users under the age of 13.
★☆☆☆ Write up COPPA Procedure and Privacy Policy.
★★☆☆ Create nice date picker for Registration form with jQuery.
★★☆☆ If users are under the age of 13, append the Registration form so that the parent can be notified of their rights, what I'm storing, what I'm doing to protect their children, and asking for their consent to create security information.
★★★★ Allow parents to send inquiries on a Contact Us page by entering their e-mail address and child's username and enter an answer to the security question they created while leaving a message that will be PM'd to me.


Additional Registration ★★★★★★★★★★★★ (7 hours)
★☆☆☆ Database: Create 'adopts_achievements' and use it to keep track of whether or not a user has obtained a starter pet and joined a faction.
★★★☆ Create starter pet generator form in jQuery. There will be several species to choose from. All colors will be available (except for melanism, albinism, and monoism). I should be informing the users that eye color will impact the pattern color - but there are also items that can alter a pet's eye color by allowing them to wear contacts.
★☆☆☆ After creation, the user's starter pet will be set as the active pet.
★☆☆☆ Prevent starter pets from being traded or abandoned.
★★☆☆ If a starter pet has not been obtained, do not let a user adopt pets, purchase pets, enter any promo codes, or accept any trades.
★★★☆ Create a personality test based on the MBTI test to sort the user into a faction. Inform the users that being on a different faction from their friends will not in any way hinder communication. Users may be able to change at a later time.
★☆☆☆ On the index page, alert the user to finish creating a starter pet and/or to choose a faction if they have not done so already.


I would be comfortable to open beta for my friends at that point.

This list isn't, however, complete and does not include the following major features. For the sake of not knowing how long they will take, these are very vague estimations (and probably overshooting, because, again, procrastination):
Ban Warning System ★★★(5 hours)
Item Chests System ★★★(5 hours)
Achievement System ★★★(5 hours)
Trade System Revamp ★★★★★★★★★★ (20 hours)
PM System Redesign ★★★★★★★★★★ (20 hours)
News Article System ★★★★★★★★ (15 hours)
Event Calendar ★★★★★★★★★★ (20 hours)
Bestiary ★★★★★★★★★★★★ (25 hours)
Quest System ★★★★ (8 hours)
Mission System ★★★★★★★★★★ (20 hours)
Player Auction House ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ (30 hours)
Explore System ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ (40 hours)
Finish Pound Revamp ★★★★★(10 hours)
Gachapon ★★★★★★★★★★ (20 hours)
Community Bonuses ★★★★ (8 hours)


About 320 hours estimated coding work left to do. And that list doesn't take into account bug fixes, minor adjustments, more goofing off and procrastinating, and most importantly, the art.

I'm looking at about 600 hours of art, too (25 species with three stages each -- and even if I don't make that many pets right off the bat, that time will be spent towards making equip items and designs). If I do 5 hours a night, I can get the art done in about 4 months.

Oh hey, did I mention that explore system? I need background art. I can't even begin to estimate a timeframe for that. I'd say about 200 hours, at least, for the first area only. I'd like to have three to five areas that large open within the first year and a half after launch.

NPCs won't be so bad. Maybe 120 hours, tops.

So, 1240 hours of work to go. At five hours a night, that's 248 days. Or... just over eight months. But l want weekends off, so... I'll be done by April 3rd of next year, if I actually do five hours every night for the next year. Am I going to do that? Ah... no, actually. Haha. I'm not crazy. Luckily I'm overshooting a lot of numbers and it's likely I'll pull 12 hour nights now and than and do nothing at all some days. That's life.

Imagine if I were paid minimum wage of $7.50 for that 1240 hours. That's just over nine thousand dollars of work.

[Kyttias]

Whew, I've had a lot of really lengthy, wordy posts lately. How about some art, while I catch my breath?

This is a Buirel ("byoo-rel"):
http://orig04.deviantart.net/4a9e/f/2015/113/b/0/buirel_no_mods_by_kyttias-d8qsgfi.png

Buirel are telepathic cave-dwellers who use the crystals on their body to amplify their "voice". They willing give crystals of theirs away to their closest friends so that they can communicate with them no matter the distance. However, if all of their crystals were stolen, they would be forever rendered mute to those around them!

The species-specific trait for Buirel are additional crystals, more pronounced toes, and fluffy antennae. This is a Buirel with it's species-specific traits, a luxury tail, and wings:
http://orig05.deviantart.net/696e/f/2015/113/2/8/buirel_with_mods_by_kyttias-d8qsgfd.png

And here's a preview of the full color range (for all pets), minus any additional features other than the body itself. (With one exception, of course - the white one is meant to be albino and it's body will not be so dark on this species!)
http://orig04.deviantart.net/933d/f/2015/113/2/1/buirel_colors_by_kyttias-d8qsk29.gif.

Below, w/Stardust genetics and a next stage concept.
http://orig11.deviantart.net/48cf/f/2015/187/a/e/buirel_by_kyttias-d909h8t.png

[Missy Master]

ajksjhdfhsdgdgssd CUUUUUUTE! Love them !!!!

[Abronsyth]

Buirel is so adorable! You have me so excited for your site XD

[AndromedaKerova]

Oh my! Its a gemstone rabbit/sheep thingy! I LOVE it! I'm really eager for your site to get released. Its going to be awesome.

[Kyttias]

:wiii: Thanks guys! It's quite a process designing things. I'm trying to make something more appealing to boys while still having the 'cute' vibe. Still working out some bugs, so this is far from final:
http://orig02.deviantart.net/27cb/f/2015/114/a/c/testing_by_kyttias-d8qwfuk.gif

I'm also working on sprucing up the PM System:
http://orig03.deviantart.net/6066/f/2015/116/1/3/messages_by_kyttias-d8r6mq0.gif

However, I wanted it so the link to read mail was the message's title, and I'd like it to be in bold if unread. I spoke with HoF earlier tonight and, unfortunately, with the current system this isn't possible. He's going to look it over and get back to me (which saves me the time of effort). Luckily, I'm confident I could figure it out another way to pull the data, if he gets too distracted or forgets. (But I'm happy for the free time to go play WoW instead.)

If HoF does get around to doing this quick fix for me, I'll return the favor to the community and share a spiffed up layout of the PM system and point out where you guys can spruce some of the default system messages that get sent. (For example, rather than telling someone to go view their friend requests or check their trade offers, to actually link to those things.)

[cailynmae]

Aww, it's an adorable elephant-dragon thing! It seems like one of the weird creatures that might pop up in my dreams. How interesting and cute!

[AndromedaKerova]

That creature does indeed look like some kind of elephant/dragon.
To me it looks like it could have been a real creature some time long in the past. Like a prehistoric elephant ancestor.

[Kyttias]

I've been terribly busy lately but I managed to get something awesome done tonight. In summary:

- Modified the htaccess file and created a directory that doesn't redirect to the index.

- Files in this directory -can- access the mysidia framework if I want them to. Or, they can also not, if I need them to.

- I needed them to NOT access the framework while generating images with GD, because for some reason, the class initializing process was screwing it up. All I really needed access to was the database so I wrote up a new connection. Not efficient, no, but works great in this case.

- So, generated some images with GD. I stacked fifteen or so layers of images while preserving the alpha/opacity/transparency. I can also resize them on the fly. The image files I'm layering correspond with information stored in the database about the pets color, species, gender, and other genetics, etc. I only send two queries to this file, the aid and a size. The header for this php file is made to ~think~ its an image, and that's part of the reason why the framework files were mucking with it, I think?

- I messed with the htaccess file some more to make the php file name go from being novu/render.php?aid=10&size=200 to ~looking~ like its an image file at /novu10_200px.png and if you rightclick to save the file, this is exactly what it saves as. If you view the image in a standalone tab it works just fine, which means you can link it to anyone freely. Changing the parameters for the aid and the size means easy display of any pet with complete freedom.

- Now all the pet images on my site act like fully functional real images. I'm friggin' excited about this!

I don't feel like writing up an exact tutorial because this'll give my site a bit of an edge on sites even as big as Lioden. So, naturally, if you want this sort of thing, hope you have a couple hundred dollars to convince me, aha...

But I will link this awesome Mod Rewrite generator (http://www.generateit.net/mod-rewrite/index.php) for the htaccess file - it definitely saved me time modifying that file!

edit: I can now generate colors by tinting a grayscale image by sliding RGB values around using PHP. This greatly reduces the number of image files I'm required to both manually save and then reference. I can also finally have tinted lines, something I didn't want to bog myself down with before. And, since I don't think I re-announced it, here's my official color palette as of recently - with color names:
http://orig07.deviantart.net/b54b/f/2015/153/6/d/colors_by_kyttias-d8vss4e.png
And these are just some of the possibilities I have done so far!
http://orig03.deviantart.net/d806/f/2015/152/3/a/colorz_by_kyttias-d8vog5a.gif

[Kyttias]

Today I've been working on prototyping how I want 'play' to be like!
http://orig14.deviantart.net/dd86/f/2015/154/4/2/play_pv_by_kyttias-d8vxg29.gif
Or here (http://jsbin.com/yoriki/3/edit?output) for a live preview.

I hope I can at least get some noises and heart/other reaction bubbles up by the end of the week. I'd also like to looking make more complex touch reactions such as 'petting' via a swipe-like gesture and 'scratching' via a fast back and forth motion. I'd like all of this to be as compatible as possible with touch devices, of course!

My vague plan of action is to have five actions the pet 'wants' to do. You'll get a bonus point for each one you do at the correct time. Do them all in the correct order and you'll get all five bonus points! This means more currency for you and more happiness and experience (to level up with) for your pet.

This set of five actions will be unique for each and every individual pet and it will never change. Get to know each of your pets well and you'll always know just how to make them the happiest! It may take several days worth of tries to figure out just what your pet likes, but they'll appreciate the effort.

[Kyttias]

Here to day with a 'minor' yet groundbreaking update for me. I officially figured out why AJAX calls from Javascript don't get along with the Mysidia framework. Because PHP and Javascript are two very different languages, communication between them must be precise. The PHP file an AJAX call is directed to must only render the exact data you're looking for - usually with echo - and it can be HTML or an object (or array) rendered as plain text, which will be converted into a format Javascript can use. It must not render anything else!

In the Mysidia framework, everything is routed through the index using mod_rewrite in the .htaccess file - for good reason, of course, we don't want people accessing files they aren't supposed to! But this meant that whenever I made an AJAX call to a PHP file, the HTML of the entire index page, that is, the entire page template, also rendered out, not just what I had echoed! My solution was this: Create a new folder inside the Mysidia directory, and remove the mod_rewrite rule from it with a new .htaccess file stored inside it. I named this folder "ajax" and I'll store all my AJAX-related PHP files inside of it. The .htaccess file I made inside it only has one line:

RewriteEngine Off

Problem solved.

Okay, so, why AJAX? Why go through all that trouble? Well... magic. Magic is why.

With AJAX, you can avoid the additional page load caused by regular form submission. This is more significant than it sounds. As a prototype example, below is what is known as a "live" search - you don't have to press Enter or click any search button - and results will automatically be recommended to you. (To spare the server database some load, the query is only sent off through AJAX after there's more than 3 characters in the search box AND 500ms have passed since the last key pressed came up.) This is using real data from my 'adopts_items' table:
http://orig15.deviantart.net/c212/f/2015/193/2/6/mysidia_searching_live_by_kyttias-d910zwo.gif

Alright, probably impractical to search for items this way, right? But what if you forgot a user's name and wanted to send off a PM? Just start typing, and AJAX will find you close matches. Why bother reloading the page with a form submission just to check if a username is typed correctly? Or worse, typing the whole message only to get an error that the user you're trying to send it to doesn't even exist because you typed it in wrong? And now your entire message is gone! Snap. AJAX to the rescue, see? That'd be a better example, but I just don't have users in my database to show that off effectively, lol~

But, speaking of searching for items, I decided to go ahead and rewrite the existing item search that came with Mysidia with an AJAX solution. In addition to removing the need for a page reload that a traditional form submission would require, I also made it so an empty search still returned results (sorted by 'category'). For an extra dose of improvement, I implemented a Javascript plugin called "Stupid Table" (http://joequery.github.io/Stupid-Table-Plugin/) that allows results to be sorted client-side, both alphabetically (item name) and numerically (price).

First, I'll show the default item search on a fresh install. Keep watching and I'll reveal mine:
http://orig01.deviantart.net/8048/f/2015/193/7/2/mysidia_searching_by_kyttias-d910zx9.gif

There are some differences between mine and the original item search. I don't include options to search by store or to limit the price, for example. (But this comes down to personal preference and how I want my site.) I also have a column in my database for an item's "rarity" - which is shown by the color of the text used for the item's name. Rarity will usually denote the strength of an item, how much it costs, or how difficult it is to obtain.

Anyway, that's all for now!

If anyone has AJAX-related questions I can probably answer them now, aha... I'm willing to share the files for the first example I gave if you want to have a look, too.

On a final note, since my Novu are so custom, I've had to create my own pet search for them, as well:
http://orig10.deviantart.net/0a06/f/2015/193/1/9/mysidia_searching_pets_by_kyttias-d912trn.gif

[Kyttias]

My forums are about 90% done now. There's more tweaking to be done here and there, but it's good enough for launch. Yes, it's using MyBB still - though it may not look like it! I've removed all traces of references or links to MyBB's profiles, userCP, and private message system as well as countless other MyBB features I just don't need. I'm really glad I managed to get the integrated simultaneous login working, and infinitely glad I managed to replace links to user's profiles with their Mysidia equivalents.
Here's the latest:
http://orig03.deviantart.net/32cd/f/2015/196/f/1/forums_by_kyttias-d91hp85.gif

I'll be using a separate plugin for managing user avatars between both sites, I just haven't decided how that's going down yet.

As for replacing profile links, for those curious, it's in forum/inc/functions.php around line 5747. Replace:
return "<a href=\"{$mybb->settings['bburl']}/".get_profile_link($uid)."\"{$target}{$onclick}>{$username}</a>"; With: return "<a href=\"{$mybb->settings['homeurl']}profile/view/{$username}\"{$target}{$onclick}>{$username}</a>";

You'll also need to go into the template files through the forum's adminCP (/forum/admin/). "Templates & Style" from the top navigation, then "Templates" from the left navigation. Inside "Default templates" expand "Post Bit Templates" and open "postbit_avatar" and replace what's there with:
<div class="author_avatar"><a href="{$mybb->settings['homeurl']}profile/view/{$post['username']}"><img src="{$useravatar['image']}" alt="" {$useravatar['width_height']} /></a></div>

There's a LOT of questions about modifying MyBB I won't know how to answer. Rather than coming to me with questions, I really advise getting on the MyBB forums (http://community.mybb.com/) and asking questions. Or just Googling. Most of my questions were solved that way.

[Kyttias]

Newest Plans: Mechanics

Upon signing up, you're sorted into one of four factions based on four simple questions. Think of it as an extremely watered down version of the Myer's-Brigg's Personality Test:

Do you seek to have many friends or just a few deep friendships?
Would you rather focus on what is real or what is possible?
Do you prefer to treat everyone the same or situationally?
Are you the sort to plan ahead or go with the flow?


I'll allow players to retake this quiz once every four months for a small fee. Being in a faction does not prevent you from interacting with anyone from other factions. Factions do have their own private section on the forums, but otherwise, these factions exist for competitive reasons.

All the factions are working hard to collect Dream Dust. At the end of each week totals will be tallied to determine which faction collected the most Dream Dust and the entire winning faction will be rewarded accordingly during the following week. Last place may also receive a small boost to give them a competitive edge in the next week as an incentive to try harder.

There will also be individual Dream Dust rankings. The top X amount of players with the most Dream Dust collected may receive special rewards during holidays! These could be rare new patterns, holiday-themed attire, or even first access to a new species (perhaps even ones that might otherwise be bought with Rues Tokens only).

Dream Dust collected will be turned in at the end of each week and your collected amount will return to zero.

Dream Dust will be obtained from interacting with any Novu on the site:

LVL 00 to 24 = May drop between 25 and 600 Dream Dust!
LVL 25 to 50 = May drop between 25 and 1250 Dream Dust!
LVL 51 to 75 = May drop between 25 and 1875 Dream Dust!
LVL 76 to 99 = May drop between 25 and 2475 Dream Dust!

While technically more effective to help only higher levelled Novu, it still really depends on your luck! Younger Novu may gift you other significant things and shouldn't be overlooked.

All Novu also have a 50% chance of giving you between 25 and 500 Aurum.

Rewards for the faction with the most Dream Dust may, in the future, include:
Shop Discounts
A Rues Token (Cash Currency)
A 10% Boost in Pet Happiness


Pet Happiness will be covered in detail in a future post. In short, pet happiness will be increased by feeding, playing with, and offering toys to a Novu. Their happiness levels will effect how well they do when sent out on missions - happier pets will be more successful and may bring home bonus rewards. However, missions also have a chance to fail, and that will decrease your Novu's happiness levels. Being absent from the site for too long will also decrease your Novu's happiness. However, even strangers and not logged in members will be able to play with your pet.

You can still "freeze" pets to prevent them from gaining experience, but this will also prevent them from gaining happiness from anyone but their owners, as well.

Unhappy pets will struggle with missions and won't desire to breed. Certain items may no longer effect them, either. Below 50% Happiness they will be more susceptible to accidentally get certain negative status effects that may fatigue them. Some negative status effects may be "fun" if you like the idea of owning a Nightmare pet, but you're far more likely to deal with more detrimental ailments - being unable to breed until cured, unable to gain any happiness until cured, will never succeed at any missions until cured, etc - and the cures may be pricy. Don't worry too much, however, as negative status effects will usually only be obtained, at a rate of about 20%, when sending your pet on a mission when it's already below a certain low happiness threshold. Stay active and play with your pets and they'll stay too happy to be effected by negative ailments!

Please note that one should not attempt to continue to send pets afflicted with negative status effects out on missions knowing that they will fail. Not including Nightmare pets themselves, any other status ailment may cause the pet to permanently run away. Abusing your pet by making it go out on missions for you while it is sick is a very good reason to cause them to potentially not return if they fail a mission. The chance they will leave if you continue to send them on missions that they fail will increase by 10% for each status ailment.

[Bexasaurus]

I look forward to seeing Novul completed and ready to launch.
Looking through all of the posts in this thread it's amazing!
I was wondering where did you obtain your coding knowledge? Just reading the updates have made me hungry to pick up where I left off from learning php (and javascript I believe) which wasn't that far at all really.

Also props to you since it seems that your doing this solo, or at least I'm assuming.

[Kyttias]

I'm working very solo, though I get help from my girlfriend/roommate (she's actually IN school for computer science, though she mostly knows Java, at least we're capable of helping one another). It's understandable no one wants to help too much when there's no immediate payoff. I wish I had more friends to bounce ideas off of, but, at the same time I don't want to suck any friends into getting too involved... for potential legal problems, who knows.

I'm completely self taught (though I took a basic 'game design' class once). The internet is my first resource, though I do have a growing bookshelf.

Javascript/jQuery (or will require it):
- Javascript: Step by Step (http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Step-3rd-Edition-Developer/dp/0735665931)
- JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118531647/)
- jQuery Pocket Reference (http://www.amazon.com/jQuery-Pocket-Reference-David-Flanagan/dp/1449397220)
- jQuery Game Development Essentials (http://www.amazon.com/jQuery-Development-Essentials-Selim-Arsever/dp/1849695067)
- The Web Game Developer’s Cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Web-Game-Developers-Cookbook-JavaScript/dp/0321898389/)
- HTML5 Game Development “For Dummies” (http://www.amazon.com/HTML5-Game-Development-Dummies-Harris/dp/1118074769/)

PHP:
- Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional (http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-PHP-MySQL-Professional-Development/dp/1430231149/)
- PHP Objects, Patterns and Practice (http://www.amazon.com/Objects-Patterns-Practice-Matt-Zandstra/dp/1590599098/) (there are newer editions)
- Object-Oriented PHP: Concepts, Techniques, and Code (http://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-PHP-Concepts-Techniques-Code/dp/1593270771/)

(Keep in mind that there are often great deals on Amazon for used books. Some of these I picked up for less than $5!)

I've also completed a few free courses for fun on Codecademy (https://www.codecademy.com/learn) to brush up on a few things. I often have fun making random little dummy projects (with javascript/jquery) in jsbin (http://jsbin.com/). And, of course, I prefer to develop locally with WAMP (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4774) rather than host a site yet and have to worry about free hosting rules or inactivity policies (because why pay for development space?).

At this point I'm in a bit of a creative rut with my site. I fear I'm nearing being done with my coding but I dread moving on to the art. I worry about it being good enough, etc. (I fear having to scrap everything and redo it in a year because I change mind or I've improved.) Regardless, I lurk the forums. :veeee:

[Bexasaurus]

That's really nice of her :happycbig:
Yeah, assuming you're talking about making profit from the site. I on the other hand would honestly not ask to be paid for my art and the main reason for that is because I don't need the extra pocket of cash (disregarding the fact that I'm still practicing and honing my skills). Kind of irrelevant to talk about me as an artist when really there's more to having the funds to hire people.

As for potential legal problems could you give examples as to what may occur for it be considered as such? I'm just wondering for future reference since it sounds quite important...anything with the word legal sounds important, haha.

Wow, you're absolutely fantastic because I can't read a book about coding without having multiple breaks or I'll end up asleep (even if I'm really inspired/excited to learn, I honestly do love coding though). Self-taught to...I'm impressed. Thanks for the links, I'll probably buy a few if not all of them whenever I have the time to since I'll be a junior in highschool. Apparently it's considered one of the difficult years in highschool, but I don't know...

Just wondering is codeacademy good for learning php and javascript or would you recommend looking at other guides/tutorials/books as before mentioned. Basically which one would be better, or learning from both is good?

That's great, at least you got that out of the way. As for the art I think it looks good, but I'm going to presume that you'll be competing with other pet sites as well because there's always competition around. :eye: When in doubt, wait it out. Basically wait until you're happy enough to move forward and decide on a concrete decision about this since it sounds like you've been stock piling a lot of awesome art along the way.

It's OK though to start over even if it seems like it's a waste because sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. :ti: I agree that the art is definitely an important piece of a pet site since it's one of the main factors that garner/appeal players.

Just to clarify though that I absolutely do love your art of the Novu, NPC, etc. to be frank I would join in less than a heartbeat. <3 They're so adorable!

[Hall of Famer]

I very like the books recommended by Kyttias, especially the three PHP books. When I got started several years ago, I was reading Matt Zandstra's PHP objects, patterns and practice. A much older edition, at the time when the code was PHP 5.2. The newer version should include many new features all the way up till PHP 5.5, it should be good to learn for aspiring programmers. Also note Mysidia has its own API that may confuse coders who are very used to vanilla PHP. In that case, feel free contacting me if you need help.

[Kyttias]

^ Emphasis on the second to last sentence from HoF. One of us still needs to step up and write a comprehensive guide (but a newer, much different version of Mysidia has been in development for a while). This post I made (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4812) covers some interesting stuff, coding-wise, in regards to this framework.

As for learning - yeah, codecademy is great start. Of the books I recommended, THIS ONE (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118531647/) is definitely one I'd recommend the most for Javascript, especially for someone who is a more visual learner. Also from the same list before, the pocket manual (http://www.amazon.com/jQuery-Pocket-Reference-David-Flanagan/dp/1449397220) for jQuery. It's like having the official website in your palm. It's very well formatted and kind of fun just to skim through to learn. These two books I recommend a ton. :happyc:

PHP is a little harder to pick up on. There are a lot of little differences between it and Javascript at the core, but it's usually nothing a google search or two won't fix. StackOverflow (http://stackoverflow.com/tags)is a godsend.

[parayna]

Are there any things any one recommends for when learning how to code with PHP and Javascript? (By recommendations, I mean things to do to learn best) I am going to attempt to track down some coding books very soon at the local library/the big one a bus ride away if they can't order them in for me and it's all very well reading the books and stuff but are there anythings that you guys did whilst learning that helped you retain the knowledge better? XD I understand that everyone learns differently but tips are always appreciated XD

And thanks for the book list! I will be using that as a starting point! XD

[Kyttias]

I actually bought myself a notebook (and it's a great time of year to do so, the overstock from the back to school supplies should be dirt cheap) and went at it like it was a high school textbook and took notes. I'll usually strip out any unimportant sentences, and write down things that might be. Eventually I figured out what was and what important and start writing down just example code. I retain things better when I write them down myself and find things faster on a cheat sheet I hand wrote.

Comment. Your. Code. When writing down examples from books don't assume you'll understand it later. Write down what it does in plain english - "pseudo-code".

I wrote down tons of psuedo-code (in the back of the notebook, going the opposite way from my actual notes) with just ideas of things I wanted to try to implement. Functions, mostly. It may seem silly to write down code on paper, especially when you don't have access to a computer to test things out or even know for sure what the formatting needs to be, but coding in any language is understanding the flow of things. No matter the language, basic concepts don't really change all that much.

And the #1 tip with mixing PHP and Javascript is that jQuery is the way to go and there is more than one way to do shorthand for ajax transactions, and to experiment a lot. The annoying thing is, ajax isn't just for PHP - it's also for pulling content from text, html, xml and json. It's actually very hard to find examples that properly cover both sides for PHP! Books on pure PHP or pure JS/jQuery... neither spend enough time covering ajax! I wish I could recommend a particular book, but I'm afraid nothing from collection springs to mind as immediately helpful - I've learned a lot from Google. (Maybe I should write my own book. =P)

[parayna]

Aha, maybe you should write your own book! XD I'd probably buy it!

Thanks for the help, it'll definitely help me a lot! ^_^

And Novul looks amazing so far D: I can't wait for it to come out o.o

[Kyttias]

I've finally finished my updates to the PM System. Unfortunately, these were massively deep edits, so I cannot possibly remember all my little tweaks to assist people in overhauling their own.

Finished: PM System

Sending New PMs
http://orig02.deviantart.net/b4b5/f/2015/354/7/c/pm_new_by_kyttias-d9kuj0c.gif
Notifications
http://orig09.deviantart.net/6835/f/2015/354/8/4/pm_notifications_by_kyttias-d9kuk52.gif
Inbox Preview
http://orig04.deviantart.net/f6d2/f/2015/354/d/a/pm_read_by_kyttias-d9kuk4j.gif
Delete Confirmation
http://orig08.deviantart.net/5170/f/2015/354/5/2/pm_delete_by_kyttias-d9kuk5b.gif


You'll notice I did away with drafts as a feature, because, well... Why do we really need that? And I was SUPER tired of CKEditor, so I decided to switch over to WYSIHTML5 for Bootstrap 3 (http://bootstrap-wysiwyg.github.io/bootstrap3-wysiwyg/). I can give you a hint for that change over, at least:

In view/messagesview.php, in the newpm() function, find:
$pmForm->add(new Comment($editor->editor("mtext", "Enter your message here.")));
Replace and/or comment it out with this instead:
$pmForm->add(new Comment("<textarea name='mtext' class='msgarea' placeholder='Enter your message here.'></textarea>"));

But, uh, again... I'm not here to help with that. All the documentation for WYSIHTML5 for Bootstrap 3 can be found at the link provided. There are dependencies you need (jQuery, Bootstrap, Bootstrap's jQuery plugin, it, it's css file, and optionally Font Awesome). And then you just need too add a line of code to the end of your template and, bam, textareas with a particular class name are awesome-tastic (I used the class 'msgarea' above). Despite the effort of changing over I feel a lot better about how lightweight it is.

I've thoroughly checked it for security holes like script injection and it seems just as secure! *thumbs up*

There was only one issue I had, where whitespace was being deleted around formatted areas. I fixed the problem inside classes/class_privatemessage.php, by modifying the format() function:

public function format($text){
$text = html_entity_decode($text);
$text = stripslashes($text);
$text = str_replace("&nbsp;"," ",$text);
$text = str_replace("'","'",$text); // added this so some forms wouldn't break
$text = str_replace("i>","em>",$text); //changed this over, too - em is standard now
return $text;
}

※ I also found the Report feature for PMs is broken. If you'd like yours fixed, I made this thread (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33241#post33241) about it.

※ The Reply button, as it exists by default, lacks some functionality. If you want your Reply page to not only remember the user's name but the topic and message, check out this thread (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33265) because I managed to get some help achieving that.

[Abronsyth]

Novul seems to be coming along beautifully! Looks like you were very successful in the PM system overhaul!

[tahbikat]

I concur with Abronsyth, looking very nice Kyttias!

[Hall of Famer]

Well it does look very nice, I see you were using JQuery-AJAX. Congratulations. ^^

[Kyttias]

No Ajax for that, actually. I just popped in an instant header change on the server side where the confirmation page would have been. The page reloads so fast you can't tell it happened.

[Kyttias]

So... I uploaded my site to a live server and everything's carried over just fine after a few tweaks... except... the GD image manipulation I'm using to merge pet image layers is SUPER SLOW. Like, I'm going to need to find an alternative way of generating pet images, that's how SLOW it is. D;

I think I'll be looking into HTML5 Canvas next...

[Abronsyth]

I'm glad the transfer went well! I wonder why the image manipulation is going so slowly? I wish you good luck figuring it out, regardless!

[Kyttias]

I've decided that I'll just save images for each individual pet once they've been generated at creation. Most saved pet images are weighing between 40kb~120kb. If each user has ~50 pets, I'm looking at 5 to 8 GB of diskspace needed once I reach 2000 users. This is not ideal, but I really don't have any other viable options at the moment.

However, during the beta period, I plan on having a hard cap of 200 users, which will at least bide me time to find a place to host my site. Once I hit a certain level of popularity, though, I'm going to be screwed unless I find some place with a hefty diskspace allowance and unlimited inodes.

In other news, I've got an artist I trust to help me out. For now, it's just with item art. In the future she'll also be helping with pet decorations, designer skins, and patterns.
http://orig14.deviantart.net/5e23/f/2015/361/4/7/preview_by_kyttias-d9loyk8.png

We'll launch with 18 colors, plus three more hidden alterations - albinism, melanism, and a mottled monochrome that will happen extremely rarely if genetics line up just right and the Novu gets both albinism and melanism.

I'm definitely on schedule to invite some of you to help test starting in the spring~! :usedusedused:

[Abronsyth]

Oooh those bottles are so shiny and nice! Lovely artwork, glad you found someone to help out!

[Bexasaurus]

I really am excited for Novul!

[Kyttias]

I'm trying to squeeze in a few more features before launch. I'm a bit behind on pet art because I wanted it all to be done at relatively the same time for consistency. I've spent the last few months improving my art! (Here's a link to my deviantART (http://kyttias.deviantart.com/).)

I'm working on more pet art now (finally).

http://orig03.deviantart.net/b7f0/f/2015/365/3/6/dezh_by_kyttias-d9m5eie.png

As I think I may have said, my Novu don't evolve so much as... just... get bigger? Some of them may grow features that weren't there before but they're relatively the same throughout their entire lives. Anyway, this is, in case you didn't know, a Dezh. My inspiration here is hyena/dragon.

Those in the image above all sport the Stardust pattern. The top set are Spice/Imperial, the bottom set are Amethyst/Mint. These guys will get one more final form after this at a higher level.

Novu can be bred to have three different types of tails, wings, and a species-specific attribute. I'm thinking of adding in a 'fourth' tail type that rarely occurs when two different species are bred together - a tail that could only be obtained from having mixed parents. All this is subject to change (the species-specific attribute could become a male-female dimorphism marker, rather than a random occurrence, for example). Not all Novu will necessarily have tails (so they'll get other things) or may already come with wings (so they'll probably get upgraded, cooler wings).

[Bexasaurus]

So exciting!
I'm curious, when breeding your pets will the outcome of the offsprings most likely derive primarily from the father's or mother's traits?

Are some traits more dominant than others or all possibilities/chances of a certain trait being acquired are equal to each other (excluding for rare physical features/upgrades)? For example, you have it set up so the color orange appearing in the offsprings is a 50% chance yet for purple it's at a 12.5% chance of occurring.

[Kyttias]

Both parents are taken into consideration equally. Novu don't technically have sexual genders, even though some may grow different features as adults based on their pre-determined gender. (Apparent gender can be changed with a potion that won't be any more expensive than changing a name.)

Baby Novu come from dust that falls off their parent's fur when they do a courtship dance. Both gender and species are irrelevant when it comes to breeding - so any two Novu can be compatible! (This was both easier to program and... well, I'm part of the LGBT community and don't at all mind catering to it.)

Colors are relatively equal. Like on Flight Rising, babies are given a random color chosen from the range between that of the two adults. Colors exist not just on the body but also on patterns. Patterns have varying degrees of rarity and, yes, some of them are more dominant than others. There are tiers in place meant to keep rare patterns rare. But, further, patterns also come at varying opacity levels.

There are also other interesting things such tail styles, wings, and gender variance.

Semi-Realistic Alleles
My gf did most of the breed coding, and rarity tiers pitted against the Novu's genetic code - constructed like real alleles! A lot is determined by what the Novu's alleles are, but this is actually a hidden attribute. Super dedicated breeders will be given the means to pay to scan a pet's alleles so they can make more informed breeding choices.

Alleles have capital letters and lowercase letters. Capital letters represent dominant traits, so, the more capital letters your Novu's genetic code has, the more dominant it's genes will be in determining the outcome of the offspring.

Pattern Opacity
A weaker opacity rare gene will still count as fully having that gene in terms of next generation breeding, but it may not have been the outcome the breeder was hoping for. Opacities come at full, high, half, low and none. None still counts as a dormant version of the gene and is 10%. The others are 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25%, respectively.

The final opacity of a pattern is determined by the baby's inherited alleles (which can be different than it's siblings - two from each parent) and by the tier rarity of the pattern. There are four tiers of rarity, and four possible letters that are examined in these cases. The number of capital letters in the baby's alleles are counted up and pitted against the tier level.

If a baby inherited all capital letters, it'll come out with a full opacity coat regardless of what rarity tier the pattern has, because the maximum of both is four. (Which pattern a baby is getting is determined before it's opacity is determined.)

If a baby inherits no capital letters in it's alleles, no matter what pattern it's getting, it's only going to come out as a dormant pattern at 10% opacity.

From there, it gets complicated.

If the pattern is at maximum rarity, tier 4:
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- Three? 75%. Two? 50%. One? 25%.

If the pattern is at rarity tier 3.
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- Three? 100%. Two? 50%. One? 25%.

If the pattern is at rarity tier 2.
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- At Least Two? 100%. One? 50%.

If the pattern is at rarity tier 1.
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- At Least One? 100%.

And, again, no capital letters, in all cases? 10%.

Species Rarity
That said, certain species will be rarer than others.

Above, you saw that opacity was determined by the Novu inheriting two alleles from each parent, for a total of four alleles being looked through for capital letters.

Actually, Novu have a set number of total alleles based on their species. The rarer the species, the more pairs of alleles the parents have to give. Which two letters chosen to be given to the baby are still random, there is just more to be given.

If you breed two species together and one is rarer, any babies that come out will have a longer genetic code even if they are the less rare species. However, the extension given to the more common species' genetic code will hold recessive alleles. This will make these children not great for breeding bold 100% opacity patterns. But that's the risk you took to try and get a rarer species of pet. And hey, maybe you want more recessive alleles because you like the look of lower opacity genes.

I haven't fully programmed in the species rarity tiers, but I plan to make safe guards against limited edition pets become eventually common. You know how in Pokemon, the god-tier stuff just doesn't breed, and if it does, it's baby doesn't quite look like it at all? Probably going to have to happen for a few extremely rare species.

I have notes on this somewhere, but apparently not where I can find them... It'll be similar to Flight Rising with a few exceptions. It's a less a concern about breedability but how easy they are to obtain by other means.

That said, I may tweak a few rarities once the site picks up. If a Novu is purchasable with real money (but is available all year long) you can breed it with relative ease for the first year. After a year of being released, it will not longer be purchasable for real money, AND, it's breeding rarity will be increased -- so as to sustain its rarity even after it's no longer able to be purchased. (I might also do this on a monthly scale.)

Wings
If both parents have wings, the offspring will also always have wings.
If only one parent has wings, there is only a 10% chance of wings passing on.

Tails
There are three kinds of tails. Ordinary, Alternate, and Luxury.

If the tails of the parents are both the same, that's what the kid gets.
Ordinary vs Alternate? 70% Ordinary vs 30% Alternate.
Ordinary vs Luxury? 90% Ordinary vs 10% Luxury.
Alternate vs Luxury? 85% Alternate vs 15% Luxury.

Gender
Remember how I said gender didn't matter? I lied a little. If the parents are of the same gender, you are actually 25% more likely to also have a child of that gender.

[Bexasaurus]

That's well thought out and interesting, especially the opacity idea. I recently was looking at cat genetics hence the main reason my interest in breeding outcomes for Novul was piqued.

Another question I'm going to throw at you! Will interbreeding cause infertility for Novu or lower the rate of success in offspring, or are Novu cool with interbreeding?

[Kyttias]

I plan on preventing breeding with siblings, parents (and parent's siblings), and grandparents. I haven't put it in yet, but I'm already keeping track of both parents so I can map in a page where you can view a family tree that goes back and down two generations. It'll be fun to look at and it'll give you a reference all on one page who your Novu can't breed with.

So, to clarify, aunts and uncles are also off the table but greataunts and greatuncles will be fine. Much less of a hassle than some breeding sites.

Of course, breeding isn't the only point to Novul! I want it to be enjoyable and I want people to want to collect things... which is why I'll be promoting user interactions.

I'm keeping track of all interactions made with Novu in my own way. At the end of each month all players will be entered into a raffle - each interaction they made counts as one entry to the raffle. The more interactions you make the more likely you are to win something - a rare item or an extremely rare baby Novu that can never be obtained for free again (it can be bred for or perhaps bought for real money after that). Depending on how many active users there are, there will be a set number of winners drawn from the pool of 'entries'.

In addition, there's a "currency" that you'll only get from visiting a Novu's page called Dreamdust. When you join the site, you'll be entered into one of four factions based on a simple personality test. Members of the faction collects the most Dreamdust at the end of every week will all get prizes. Other things will revolve around the collection of this dust as well - whenever certain thresholds are passed by the community as a whole, multipliers will go into effect that will allow everyone who logs in to collect even more dust than normal (at least for the rest of the day). At the end of each month, the top 10% of players who collected the most dust will be awarded the rarest of prizes. (The amount of dust collected is reset to zero at the end of each week, but the total will be remembered for players until the end of the month so winners can be calculated.)

If someone doesn't have the time to invest in the site for a chance at winning a prize, many of the prizes will be able to be purchased with a real money currency for at least a few months. Most of the rare Novu that can be obtained as prizes (or bought) will be able to breed at some tier or another, so everyone should be able to obtain everything eventually, as the community itself slowly breeds thing into commonplace - even if they can't spend time playing and don't have real money to spend, they can still reasonably collect everything. (However, one or two Novu species may exist in a permanent state of un-attainability for ultimate bragging rights as status markers of either really old or really excellent players -- these will probably either NOT ever be sold for real money OR will represent owners of large donations during, I dunno, a Kickstarter fund.)

[Kyttias]

I will be working on my Gachapon system at long last. <3

http://orig14.deviantart.net/4a02/f/2016/002/f/4/gachapon_by_kyttias-d9mj8r6.gif (http://jsbin.com/hoyoxe)

The front-end animation will be done with jQuery and CSS. For a live example, click here (http://jsbin.com/hoyoxe).

My plan is for it to cost 50 tokens to operate. You can earn 10 tokens every week if you're in the top ~20% of active, participating players. Otherwise, the tokens are planned to be a real money currency. On the other hand, you might win tokens via other means or right back from the gacha machine itself (not much more than it cost to play, though).

With this in mind, it's time start thinking about chests, since the premise is very similar. (The difference is that gachapon is a page that will grant a random item, while a chest is an item that will grant a random item. The code is similar, the location is all that varies.) I hope I can get back to everyone about this sort of thing soon. :3

[Kyttias]

More Phase 2 art done for Dezh (and these guys link to my beta site - the first you'll probably have seen of it - though because of the way these forums work you'll have to right click them to open them in new tabs.).
http://novul.99webs.org/share_26.png (http://novul.99webs.org/levelup/click/26)http://novul.99webs.org/share_5.png (http://novul.99webs.org/levelup/click/5)
※ Lotus is Berry, with Lagoon Spots. She has the species trait (horns and solitary sickle claws) with a Luxury tail.
※ Ulii has Melanism over what would otherwise have been Amethyst, and is sporting Mint Stardust. She's got a short Alternative tail.

Spots is my newest pattern. It's got quite a sheen to it, which differs from palette to palette.

I need to get Stripes and Filigree completed for Phase 2, as well as add Spots to the Phase 1 Dezh. If you go looking you'll find glitchy things (like these) because my art isn't finished yet:
http://novul.99webs.org/share_8.png (http://novul.99webs.org/levelup/click/8)http://novul.99webs.org/share_2.png (http://novul.99webs.org/levelup/click/2)

[Kyttias]

-o-... Leaving myself a to-do list since I need to quit early tonight:

I moved where the user id # appears on the profile, so I need to remove the user id # from stats section of the profile, and also move 'member since' up to below username. I've decided showing gender isn't important, so, really I just need to remove the stats section from the user profiles. edit: DONE!!
Since gender is no longer important, remove it from the registration form as it's no longer necessary. (Set everyone's default gender to unknown/hidden.) edit: DONE!!
I need to show the option to delete friends only on ../../account/friends but not user profiles by setting a parameter in friends() for $friendlist->display(); in view/accountview.php and then use that parameter to rearrange display() in classes/class_friendlist.php. edit: DONE!!
Look into adding bootbox confirmation warning for friend deletion. edit: DONE!!
Find out why profiles break for users with no pets. (This has been a problem from extremely early on.) edit: DONE!!


**edit**
Another to-do list because I need to help on these threads:
- Giftboxes: http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33471#post33471
- HiLo Game fix!! http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4964
- Non tradeable unique species: http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33441#post33441

[Abronsyth]

Your site's theme is absolutely stunning! The entire site is just beautiful! I'm very glad that the transfer went alright for you!

[Kyttias]

Here today with some spur of the moment creature concept art! :happyc:

http://orig05.deviantart.net/8572/f/2016/014/1/5/concept_by_kyttias-d9nxbx2.gif

[parayna]

The site looks even more amazing than it did when I last came on here! XD I'm excited for it :3

[pachoofoosh]

This looks fantastic. q_q The layout looks gorgeous and all the features you're adding sound really fun!

[Kyttias]

Alright, so I always wanted to have a Family Tree feature, since it's something many other prominent pet sites are lacking (and its always so tedious to have to do all that research yourself). Abronsyth actually asked on the forums for some help on how to achieve this - and it's a two part adventure that I'd already half started so I'm glad I was given the opportunity to finish.

When pets are bred, you have to keep track of the parents and the parents must be given a record of their babies. After a few generations, this'll flesh out nicely. You need to be able to pull that information and design a pleasing way of displaying that information. I don't want to go into too much detail and I'm not here to provide an official mod for this feature, but if you want to give it a shot, you might learn a thing or two from the thread where I helped Abron (http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5014).

Since the thread I took and moved my tree from the management side to the profile side and gave it it's own page so even if the pet's not yours and even if you're logged out, you'll still be able to track a pet's lineage. I wanted to be able to both link family trees together and still link to a pet's profile. To achieve both, I made it so that when a pet is hovered over, it's name and basic information are replaced with links - one to go to a profile, and one to go their family tree.

http://orig07.deviantart.net/7934/f/2016/055/9/3/familytree_by_kyttias-d9t0iw5.gif

I'm very happy with the end result! I hope this feature will give my site the edge it needs to compete with other sites. :meow:

(As a reminder, gender on my site is irrelevant to pet breeding and this is intentional because it's not "sexual" in the first place and gender and sex aren't really the same thing, anyway?)

These are the next three features on my mind:

Like System - Pressing a heart on a pet's profile will increase the number beside it, visually showing how many people have enjoyed this pet. The pet's id will be added to an array containing a list of all the pets you've ever liked. You'll be able to view a directory of all the pets you've ever liked in case you want to give them love later! (This does not correlate with Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr likes - just the same concept. Of course I'll want to help people share their pets on social media, later, but this is not related to social networking.)

Random Name Generator - Isn't it tough to think of pet names? Even though pet names can be shared and you'll never be barred from using a name that's already been used by someone else, sometimes you just aren't feeling creative. Names will be generated by slapping syllables together from arrays, and each species will have it's own set of arrays, producing pets that culturally authentic sounding names that varies by species.

Flip Pet Direction - This'll only be done with CSS on the front end of the site. Basically, if a user wants a particular pet image the other way, they can - and it'll be wrapped in a CSS class that'll flip the images inside.

and also

Quality of Life Implementations - Live registration regex checking, check if username is taken, username suggestions from friend list (while sending a new PM, a donation, or opening a trade), also check if user exists (before sending a new PM, a donation, or opening a trade).

[Kyttias]

Helping people is taking a lot out of me... :desudesudesu: I'm probably going to take April and May off to work on my site exclusively because I still want to my summer beta release.

Meanwhile, the artist I thought I had has given me zero of the items I asked for three months ago. It's just not going to work out. I need a certain quality level, and I'm willing to pay $2 to $4 per item. At this point I'm willing to find a sketch or lineart only artist and I'll take it from there, but I'd only pay between $1 and $3 per item in that case.

It's not like I can't make my own items, I just don't have time. I did work on items tonight, and ended the day with these (sorry for the atrocious watermarking, I just want them well protected):
http://orig09.deviantart.net/74a5/f/2016/071/9/c/novul_items_pv_by_kyttias-d9us7z8.png

[tahbikat]

Those look amazing Kyttias! *o* Ugh... especially the paper type items, and that backpack! ;o;

Might I suggest looking for artists on VPL (http://www.virtualpetlist.com/forums/art-marketplace.53/) Unless you already tried here, that is lol.

[Bexasaurus]

I'm so excited. *^*
I really like the texture and colors.

[Abronsyth]

As tahbikat mentioned you definitely should be able to find an artist on VPL who would be able and willing to do the work you need! Good luck finding someone!

I really admire how much you've built upon the script- your site looks incredible!

[Kyttias]

I'm glad I've got you guys supporting me. Helping you guys can take a lot of effort sometimes but it all pays off when it's a feature I was wanting anyway, or something similar. I've learned a lot and I'm so grateful for the community here. :meow: Aaaack that got sentimental, sorry~~

Anyway, I'm here to ramble a tiny bit about a new feature I'd like. I still haven't implemented my item drop system (I decided the existing mod just isn't going to fulfill my needs) but I did find an artist to help me keep up with making items. So my plan is this:

While visiting pets, there's a chance for you to find items. Most of it will be junk, but if you collect enough of it you might use these things for alchemy/similar recipes. But I had an even greater thought - rare materials! These will be so rare they're account-bound and will be given over to a special NPC. There will be several item 'sets' that need completed but the items can all be turned in separately whenever they're obtained. (Duplicates can safely be sold, but not to other players.) Once an item 'set' is completed you will obtain a rare pet!

I'd like to keep my rare pets rare, so some of them won't produce babies of themselves through breeding -- but they may produce some other unique kind of offspring (like in Pokémon, Manaphy > Phione).

When a rare item set is completed I'd like to display it on user profiles. They're proof of a user who has put forth a lot of effort participating in the site by visiting lots of user's pets.

Certain site-wide events and items may temporarily boost the chance to find rare items like these.

[Bexasaurus]

That's great you found an artist to help you! :happycbig:
Oh, the idea sounds really cool! So it's going to be based on luck?
Is it also possible to get the same rare pet if you got the same materials for it?
Is the rare pet tradeable or will it be bound to the account as well?

[Kyttias]

Yes, entirely based on luck. But, as I said, certain items and events will increase luck chance overall and should stack in some way. The idea of the needed being account-bound is so more active players don't flood the market with them.

The luck events are 'organic' in that they will occur automatically - triggered with a mathematical algorithm based on how active the community is. I haven't been able to flesh out the 'community bonus' events very well without a player base yet. ^^;; I'm really inspired by Pokéfarm's bonus counters (info on their wiki (http://pokefarm.wiki/Bonus_Counter))!

Anyway, no, the legendary-status pet I was dreaming of in my last post won't be tradeable, neither will it's materials. However, I can imagine the NPC that exchanges these materials into pets for you has several pets at a variety of rarity tiers! Some of these materials (and pets) will be tradeable, and some won't.

I'm thinking that you should be able to upgrade or fuse together some of the materials so if you don't happen to get the super rare one you need you might be able to eventually collect (or purchase) enough of the smaller (tradeable) versions. This would allow you to "pay to win" rather than rely on pure luck, but not in a game breaking fashion.

If you collect another set of the needed materials you should be able to make another copy of the pet, yes. And, if I ever put a limit (soft or hard) on how many pets a user can have, non-tradeable pets will never count towards the limit.

I think that answers everything. :happyc:

This is my rough draft of the new species (some things are subject to change):
http://orig01.deviantart.net/a389/f/2016/081/b/9/aizel_by_kyttias-d9w4pv7.gif
...

In other news: My gf's got some amazing talent and recorded a bunch of purrs, trills, chirps and squeaks for the creatures of my site. It'll really help flesh out the bestiary and games in the future~! As an example, I really like this sound clip (https://www.dropbox.com/s/138c6podmc38dwj/rec0316-171410.mp3?dl=0) in particular.

...

edit: Also, woot, post #100 on this thread!

[Hwona]

Wow, Kyttias! Your site looks amazing! O.o That new creature though... so pretty!

[Bexasaurus]

How goes the site? :pleased:

[draugluin]

really good ideas .. amazing. :pleased:

I like your site.

[RinLin]

I love it!
Will so join when you have the site up. ^^

[Kyttias]

Summer has been busier than expected. :hmmm:

I've got a couple of things I'd like to rethink before I continue. I wish I had someone who was particularly good at UI/UX design. I'm good at programming but I'm struggling to redevelop a new trade system that isn't tedious to click through.


edit: followup September 5th, 2016 -
I've narrowed down the base number of species I want to just eight for the first year. Three species will be available as common starters, two will be won from experimental player rank events, one will be an experimental seasonal pet, one will be available to kickstarter participants, and one will be available to anyone who donates within the first year.

[Kyttias]

Hiatus Over? I'm back!! The last three months were really stressful - I've never worked retail before at a shopping mall during the holiday rush. I often didn't get breaks when I should have, and it was, all in all, hellish. I came home too exhausted to really think about my own pet site, let alone be around to help out the community here. I'm really sorry if I was particularly harsh to anyone who attempted to contact me during my absence - for the sake of my mental health I needed to spend my free time very much elsewhere other than here.

Things I DID Do I bought myself some nice hosting for three years during a Black Friday deal so now I have a stable test environment to build my site. I can even implement cron jobs - this allows me to schedule code to run a specific time. (I hope to write up some features that will make use of this that I can share/tutorialize for the rest of you.)

I also bought myself an awesome piece of animation software that will allow me to have animated pets, rigged on 2D skeletons, rendered on canvas elements. I'll still be able to have all the dynamic customization I wanted, too. This does mean making new pet art, but it'll be well worth it. In the end, the site will be even more alive and interactive.
http://orig07.deviantart.net/d59b/f/2017/025/7/9/dezh_by_kyttias-dawoage.gif


New Visions There may be some major changes to the world map and minor changes to the context of the world as overarching 'plot' sorts itself out. I had an older site idea that I wanted to implement that was highly story driven, and the only real element this adds to the game right now is a human avatar. The focus is still very much on caring for your pets with emphasis on playing with anyone and everyone's pets as you come across.


Map and CombatThe world map will be something you can physically explore with human avatar. I've been working on coding this in my free time and it's finally getting close. You can choose to engage in battle using any one of your pets. Individual pet level does not matter for combat -- meaning you can use any old brand new pet without having to train them at all. The total level of all your pets combined determines your level, and as such, your combat stats. But it's largely activities outside of combat that actually level your pets, so you don't have to engage in combat to get better at combat? So, while the story plot may ask you to fight a few things, if you put it off for a while and just love your pets instead, it should be a breeze when you come back to it.

So why engage in combat? Since Novu are dream guardians, you'll be fighting nightmare-infected Novu. It's obvious, plot-wise, while you'll be asked to do this. That said, if you collect enough dream essence from these fallen Novu, you should be able to create your own purified version - so get out there to collect more species! Further, site events will push you to cleanse as many and as much as you can of specific or all species. Meet certain criteria, and instantly unlock limited time rewards. Be in the top percent of players at the end of an event? Get even more awesome limited rewards!


Pet MoodsThe site will keep track of a pet's level of care for the current day and the prior two days. This level of care will determine the pet's mood. A happy pet is more likely to give you presents while you're playing with them, an increased chance of items being found after combat, and may land critical hits in combat. A depressed pet will be less likely to give you presents, will look physically sad, possibly dirty, and you may get occasional notifications about it looking distressed.

You may be unable to abandon pets at zero mood points and there is some discussion about pets running away after six entire weeks of being at zero mood points. However, there are certain items that will guarantee at least one mood point a day in any specific category. So, in theory, for a little bit of effort to obtain these items, you will never ever have to worry about pets leaving if they are uncared for. Even other users can grant pets one mood point a day by playing with them. Users with a lot of pets will always get at least one mood point filled because pets can play with one another. There are also other ways to make sure your pets are looked after if you'll be AFK for a week, such as putting your pet on a meal plan or buying a vacation pass for them to stay at the spa, but these are not free.

There are four things that determine a pet's mood: whether they have been played with, have gotten exercise, have been fed, and are clean. More on these with the next update!

[Silver_Brick]

Nice idea :pleased: continues to follow

[Bexasaurus]

Ahhh, glad to see your back Kyttias! ;u;
I myself have been thinking about getting some kind of animation software, specifically spine but it's pretty expensive.

Looking forward to Novul as usual. :usedusedused:

[Kyttias]

Here's my latest snapshot:
http://orig14.deviantart.net/63d0/f/2017/114/3/0/novul_apr24_2017_by_kyttias-db71g62.gif

For unknown reasons, my user profiles aren't working since I reuploaded my site, so I guess I'll be reformatting them, probably from scratch. >w>;

The family tree and genetics is still working out great, though!

http://orig15.deviantart.net/12c0/f/2017/114/0/a/familytree_by_kyttias-db71hwy.png

I recently switched over from merging images in PHP with the GD Library to using HTML5 Canvas to merge and tint images from a single Atlas file while referencing a JSON file unique to each pet so everything gets layered correctly. I'm also going to convert these canvas-generated images to base64 and save them so users can link directly to them. Plus side to canvas - I will be able to animate these guys! Down side to canvas - I actually need WebGL canvases to use Atlas textures and tinting, and apparently, a browser can only open 16 WebGL canvases at a time before deleting the context from older ones. Which isn't a huge deal, it just limits the max number of pets I can display per page. If I want more than that, at least I'm also saving static images.

tl;dr - Less images, more programmatically generated pets. Atlas files look like this (just one per species):
http://orig12.deviantart.net/c28e/f/2017/114/2/5/dezh_by_kyttias-db71j5h.png

And that's the only image I need to make as many unique pets as I want:
http://orig01.deviantart.net/284d/f/2017/114/0/9/examplebabes_by_kyttias-db71jtz.png

The transition in how I'm displaying my pets has taken up a lot of my time, but in the meanwhile, my art has improved. :'3

Buuuuuuut my secrets are still largely my own.

[Abronsyth]

Looks absolutely fantastic, Kyttias! The UI looks very smooth and user-friendly. Using HTML5 canvas is a great idea, and it looks like you're having some great success with it!

It's wonderful, as always, to see your updates!

[LUC1G07CH1]

This site is going very incredible so far :BIGO:
Hope it will open soon

[goofyunicorn]

I am looking forward to this site opening. Do you have any updates?

[draugluin]

@ goofy

look at the first post :ti: no Novuls ...

[Kyttias]

The reason for this is the harassment I've been receiving from some members of this site. I can't go six months without someone contacting me feigning interest in Novul, before immediately asking for free help with their own site's tangle of code. I'm fairly certain some of them have been the same people under different usernames, so, beware.

Someone literally emailed me "so if you aren't using Mysidia to develop anymore, can I have your source code?" - look, I shouldn't need to explain how rude that is. First, anything I custom wrote I can still use on my custom framework. Second, it's not for sale. Third, and most obviously, it most definitely would not be free.

My source code for old Novul is the same as all of yours - Mysidia's core. I released plenty of addons that have been proven to work and those that have them working are more than capable of helping anyone figure out minor installation hiccups. I left you all with very good instructions.

My custom code, the stuff developed for Novul specifically, has not and will not ever be offered as an addon or put up for sale. It's been a joint effort between my girlfriend and I to develop not only a breeding system, but the means to swap out parts and customize colors while not making entirely separate breeds. It's far beyond the original scope of Mysidia which is why I choose to keep it to myself.

That isn't to say I haven't helped people who are already successful in their own endeavors and have had the means to pay. For example, an ARPG from DeviantArt commissioned me to create this template generator and it cost them $600 in total:
https://wyngro.xyz/MYOgen/ I also coded their breeding system, another $500, and a random chance game, yet another $150. I will not go any lower than $12/hour and I like to complete coding commissions within a month of starting, but before I can even start I need the person commissioning me to know what they even really want.

I'm mostly just upset that I have been contacted in unsolicited ways under false pretenses far too many times. If someone came to me directly about their own site and waved real money at me, that would be one thing, but no one from Mysidia ever has. It has always been "can't wait for Novul" and not even a minute later "hey so can you help me figure this out...?" that usually has nothing to even do with my addons. Just because I offered free addons does not mean I'll do free charity work for you. I am not interested in your site, and if you don't have the means to pay me to be, stop wasting my time.

It is besides the point that Mysidia, as a framework, is dead in the water and six years have passed without so much as a security update. I lost any fire I had to make addons for abandonware. As for the rest of you? If you are PHP savvy, beware of those that want your help without offering compensation. If you are not PHP savvy, please try learning to code, you will be doing yourself a favor. And to both: I do highly recommend anyone serious about developing a pet site to learn PHP and build their own custom framework. Even by just using up to date coding best practices, you will immediately make your site so much more secure.

For copyright reasons, I no longer post updates here. Novul is still in development but definitely not with Mysidia. I will gladly come back to investigate should the owner actually release a new version, but until then --

-- Best wishes! Good luck with your projects!

[Abronsyth]

I am sorry that you have been harassed, Kyttias.

It is wonderful that you and your GF are working on your project, and I wish you the best of luck with it!

[draugluin]

@ Kyttias

I'm sorry too ...
I was always glad that you helped all the others. including me :happyc:

I hope, you tell us sometimes, when Novul is available :happycbig:

[Bexasaurus]

Well dang, sorry to hear you've been harassed about this. :catfish:

[Missy Master]

Has it really been 6 years?

[tahbikat]

Good luck in your endeavors Kyttias! I support everything you've said here. (: Can't believe it's been so long! I appreciate all the help you gave users here throughout the years. And shame on the people harassing you. :/