Novul

[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:


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:

PHP Code:

return "<a href=\"{$mybb->settings['bburl']}/".get_profile_link($uid)."\"{$target}{$onclick}>{$username}</a>"; 


With:

PHP Code:

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:

PHP Code:

<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 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:

1. Do you seek to have many friends or just a few deep friendships?
2. Would you rather focus on what is real or what is possible?
3. Do you prefer to treat everyone the same or situationally?
4. 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
- JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
- jQuery Pocket Reference
- jQuery Game Development Essentials
- The Web Game Developer’s Cookbook
- HTML5 Game Development “For Dummies”

PHP:
- Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
- PHP Objects, Patterns and Practice (there are newer editions)
- Object-Oriented PHP: Concepts, Techniques, and Code

(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 to brush up on a few things. I often have fun making random little dummy projects (with javascript/jquery) in jsbin. And, of course, I prefer to develop locally with WAMP 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.

[Bexasaurus]

That's really nice of her
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. 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. 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 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 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 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.

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 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