There are a few small things to note that we will be enforcing and implementing moving forward:
- We now have a free coding & art resources directory, available here for ease of access.
- Pride Challenge Cooldown: The cooldown for successfully winning a pride challenge via dice has been upped to 2 OOC months. The cooldown for successfully winning a pride challenge via default has been upped to 1 OOC month.
- "+10 - Participate in a pride uprising as the defending or opposing party" has been added to all trades.
- Leadership PVP: Due to the influence that wounded rolls have in our fight system, any character who enters the leadership tier will automatically have their PVP upped to Yellow, if not already at Yellow or Green. This will count as your character's one PVP change every 3 months, and means that no pride leader is permitted to be on Red PVP.
- We now have a new 'Character of the Month' form for nominations that we will be using from this month onwards. You can find this form in the official COTM thread!
- Kill 4 Kill (K4K) Characters: Moving forwards, in order to receive petals, trade experience, or IC awards for killing another character, said character will need to have a minimum of 30 posts. You can kill characters under these requirements, but it will not count for any rewards.
- 100 Word Count Minimum: This is a reminder that the site's minimum word count for IC posts is 100 words, and that this is a rule that we expect to be followed and adhered to at all times. We enforce this word count so that it makes roleplaying easier between members, and so that your roleplaying partners always have something substantial to reply to. Repeated failures to meet this minimum will result in a warning from the Staff team, and further consequences if the pattern continues.
- Pride challenges are officially back open, now that the new pride uprising mechanism is in place. Keep reading for more information on the revamped uprising system.
In an effort to continue balancing the trade system, we have done a re-haul of our site's trade perks with the intention of creating a more level playing field and making the trade perks more comparable to one another. This has included:
- Evening out the "chance-based" perks so that the odds of them being successful are better aligned and fair across the board;
- Including a second tier of dice modifiers to all trades, so that members do not need to feel as though they are giving up dice in order to follow their character's alignment;
- Replacing some less 'valuable' perks with perks that have more substance or unique capabilities IC; and
- Adjusting perks that no longer align with our on-site mechanics so that they will feel more useful.
You will find the full, revamped trade perks on the Trades page of the Guidebook, and a comparison of the old perks and the new changes in this Google doc.
As we see these new trade perks unfold, we will not be making any more changes to the perks for, at least, the next couple of site updates. Suggestions for the trade system, in general, are still welcomed, but please allow some time for the perks to play out and be utilized IC before offering more edits.
Level 4 or above Ambassadors, Assassins, Bards, Clerics, Medics, Nursemaids, Outlaws, and Sleuths will have earned an additional dice towards their hits or dodges as a result of this update. Please make sure to review the new perks and get your character's dice updated, if applicable!
SUB-ANNOUNCEMENT: OUTLAW BANDS
As you probably noticed in the above trade perk revamp, Outlaw characters can now create official bands starting at Level 3. This is a large change, but one that we hope will allow us to start seeing bands at-play IC! Outlaw band leaders also now qualify for the "Right to Rule" IC award, and can claim petals for creating and maintaining a band (per the Petal System).
In addition to allowing the creation of bands at Level 3, please note that there will be a cap on the number of outlaw bands that can exist at one time. This cap is currently set at 3. As outlaw bands are created, we will log how many slots are open on the outlaw band Guidebook page, and which bands are currently in existence. We will edit this regularly with any changes and updates!
As part of this month's update, another big change that we are doing is revamping the character sizes. We have decided to overhaul our previous dimensions in favor of something that is more inclusive and easier to manage -- gender-neutral size charts. We understand that this may be a big adjustment for some of you, but hope that, in the long run, it will be easier and more cohesive for everyone!
Take a look at our new size charts in the Guidebook, here!
In order to process the new size charts and get everyone updated accordingly, all active lionesses (and female yearlings and female cubs) and intersex members who are able to be pregnant will need to edit the height and weight fields on their profiles. Lions (and male yearlings and male cubs) do not need to, and should not, make any changes to their dimensions.
The height and weight fields on your active profiles will be editable by you until November 19th. If you have active lionesses (and/or female yearlings/cubs), we ask that you adjust their dimensions by this date. If, for whatever reason, you are unable to do so, please post in General Maintenance after the deadline has passed, so that a Staff member can adjust your character's height and weight for you.
Anyone found to be improperly editing their profiles or purposefully making incorrect changes to their character's size dimensions will receive a formal warning from the Staff team.
We will also be introducing a "build field" soon to IC profiles to provide some additional customization for your characters, and so we hope that you all enjoy the changes. We hope to have this in the profiles for the next update.
Please let a Staff member know if you have any questions or concerns about this process!
After some consideration, we have come to realize that there is not enough incentive for custom litters with the way that things are currently set up. As a result, we are introducing some adjustments and key changes to help provide more flexibility for custom litters!
Your first step in requesting a custom litter is to submit the applicable form in Cub Requests, similar to how it works for dice-rolled litters. This form will give you the ability to roll any trade/pride perks, and a Staff member will reply giving your character a formal due date.
After receiving the results of your trade/pride perks and your due date, you have the option to make some modifications, which must be purchased in the Petal Shop.
- You can re-roll your trade/pride perks if they were unsuccessful. This costs 300 petals and can be done as many times as you'd like.
- You can ad a "+1 cub" to a custom litter for 300 petals. Only one "+1 cub" can be used per litter, and it can’t be used if the maximum number of cubs (4) had already been reached.
- While the default size of custom liters is 2 cubs, a maxed out litter is possible with a mixture of trade/pride perks and/or using a "+1".
You will need to pay in-full for any pelts, mutations, and global markings that your cub will have. If the parent has a breed-only item (such as a breed-only pelt or the colossal size), you will be able to buy them for your cub for a flat fee of 200 petals.
When auditioning your custom litter cubs, you will be asked to link to their post in Cub Requests for verification. At the time of auditioning and approval, Staff will confirm that all the necessary items and purchases have been made for the final design of your cub. You no longer need to submit a form with the specifications of the cub beforehand.
Pride uprising are a mechanism that we are excited to flesh out and implement again in a more fair, efficient way. After our first pride uprising on-site, we noticed that there were many flaws and holes that we wanted to see rectified, and have appreciated the community's input as we have tinkered and given thought to it over the last month. We are now ready to re-introduce pride uprisings, with some new guidelines and a more streamlined process in place. We will also continue to monitor this mechanism moving forward, and are open to making additional changes as needed.
You can find the full, new system for pride uprisings on the Pride Uprisings page of the Guidebook. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and input, and please let a Staff member know if you have any questions!
Following some community discourse on the topic, we are going to be introducing a new system for handling pride disbands and their subsequent claims. Different time-zones, lifestyles, and availabilities mean that the current system for claiming prides is based mainly on luck, and we would like to try and fix this by introducing a lottery-based system for claiming disbanded prides.
For the next handful of pride disbands, we will be rotating between this new lottery system and the previous way of "first-come-first-serve". Once we have a chance to see how everything plays out, if it is well-liked amongst members, and if it is properly functioning, we will make a final decision about which mechanism the site will use.
You can find all the necessary information on pride claim lotteries and how they work here! This is also where we will post announcements concerning the start of the lottery submission process, and where you will submit your characters for the draw!
Ecrosia Mire will be the first pride to use the disband lottery system, and will be live shortly. The next pride to disband will use the original "first-come-first-serve" method, and this will be made clear when the site announcement for the disband is made. May the odds be ever in your favor!
In order to give a bit more freedom to some of the pride ranks, we are introducing a buff for all occupational ranks and their abilities. For any threads made after this announcement, the new rank abilities are as follows:
- All Lead Ranks: Can invite and accept members into the pride and defend members of the pride against theft. They cannot recruit in Maua's Passage or challenge other prides for their members (i.e. cannot instigate theft challenges).
- Barony: Can hold pride events and defends members of the pride against theft. They cannot challenge other prides for their members (i.e. cannot instigate theft challenges).
As of this announcement, dead threads will now be claimable for trade experience, given that two requirements are met:
- You still must have performed a relevant trade task over 2+ posts, as per the normal rules for claiming trade experience.
- If you are the reason the thread died, you are unable to claim any trade experience from it.
- Example: Bob and Susan had a thread. After a few posts, Susan stopped replying. Bob was waiting for her reply, but Susan never did, so the thread died. Bob can claim exp (assuming he performed the 2 task posts), but Susan cannot.
There is a flat claim of 5 exp per dead thread, if the above requirements are met. You are unable to claim more than 5 exp per dead thread, irrespective of how many posts there were, or if you were doing several trade tasks at once.
We realize that some of the timelines for our various IC awards may seem daunting, and require a very large (and consecutive) time commitment from our members in order to achieve. While not every character in meant to obtain every award, we want them to feel realistic and achievable, should it be within the realm of your character, without being overly taxing on our community. Given this, we have opted to make a few adjustments to ease some of the requirements, and make some of our time-based awards more obtainable, while still requiring commitment.
- Amaryllis Explorer: Has been adjusted to only needing to live in each pride at one point (no time minimum).
- Lone Wolf: Has been adjusted to include living in outlaw bands.
- Live to Rule: Has been adjusted to ruling for 2 or more consecutive IC years.
- Right to Rule: Has been edited to include outlaw band leaders who remain in power for 1 IC year.
- Lifelong Love: Has been adjusted to being mates for 2 consecutive IC years. In addition, the clause requiring that both parties stay active has been removed; rather, if you are the one claiming the award, your character is the only one who is required to have stayed active for the 2 IC years, while still considering the other party to be their mate. This way, you will not be punished if the other character/your mate falls inactive.
- Pacifist: Has been adjusted to not being able to instigate or start any fights. They can defend any challenges or fights initiated against them and still claim the award, but cannot start any themselves.
— The Staff Team