Novul

[Kyttias]

new novu:

Ouros are low fliers, and from above they are camouflage to their environment.
These will be obtainable via a hidden promo code.

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!

[Kyttias]

new novu:

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):

[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.



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. And then here's a link to my 30 Day List of World Building Activities - feel free to make your own and do this, too! (Note: Only logged in users can view blogs on the Mysidia forums.)

[Kyttias]

screenshots:

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

I'm currently using this personality mod to display unique quirks about adoptables, generated from a random list at their creation. Thanks Wallie!

pet manage page (owner side):


changing adoptable trade status (rename similarly formatted):


clicking adoptable for the first time each day (everyone):


after you've visit an adoptable once (everyone):


shop - Crossed Roads (will display quest text if user has an adoptable above a set level)


shop - Spectrum (will display quest text if user owns a specific item)


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?).

PHP Code:

            #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?)

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 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. ^^