Wow! Another year of Amaryllis is behind us, so happy third birthday to the site! This community has grown in so many ways, and while 2023 certainly had its ups and downs, we are extremely proud of everyone’s ability to come together and focus on the thing that we’re all here to do: have fun and write. Shoutout to all of you reading this for making this place what it is!
Together, let’s all look towards some 2024 community resolutions – let this year be a year of growth, kindness, respect, and fun. We are hopeful that our members will be able to embody the following things this year:
- Reach out to new members and make new friends! You never know where a new friend or kindred spirit may be hiding;
- Let go of the past. We know there is a lot of history here and amongst the rpg community, but be open-minded and willing to embrace good, healthy change – for yourself and others. Do what you need to do to let go of grudges and forgive others where you can.
- Be open to trusting others – this goes for trusting the intentions of other members and staff alike. We are all human and just doing our best, and it’s something we should all be aware of. Reach out and fix issues, address concerns, and be willing to engage in open, productive communication habits.
- Encourage and uplift others. This is the year for self-care and positivity! Let’s make it one of the best yet by practicing supportive habits, kindness, and generosity where we can.
- Laugh. Write. Smile. Enjoy. Touch some grass! Find balance. Acknowledge the balance and boundaries of others.
- Proper Art Credits: We are asking that all members do their very best to put proper credits in tables and profiles at all times. We know that sometimes you may not remember who did what, but please always try and give credit, even if you did it yourself! If you’re not sure where you got the coding from, ask. The Staff team will be on the lookout for this and may reach out if we notice that credits are lacking.
- Suggestions: Suggestions are a helpful element for both members and Sr Staff. We offer the ability to give suggestions because the creative minds of the members will often bring some amazing ideas that help the site as a whole and improve our mechanics. However, it is also important to remember that they are a lot of work for Sr Staff and they require a large amount of bandwidth to review, discuss, decide on, and then sometimes implement. We are also aware (and are sure you are too) that we have a backlog at the moment – the Sr Staff team has really struggled with this, and feel as though we are constantly playing “catch-up”, so to speak. Due to this backlog, suggestions will be closed until April. Between now and then, the Sr. Staff team will be working to clear out ALL of the pending suggestions so that we can start fresh and revisit our suggestions system with an empty plate.
- Pride Laws: Pride laws are important ICly and all members should consult them via the pride page when joining a pride or entering a pride’s territory. While they are enforceable IC (within the rules of the site and PVP system), Sr.Staff does not enforce pride laws OOC. Unless a site rule has also been broken, pride laws are not related to the Staff team.
- Account Names: Like in real life, there are often names that are similar to one another. If an account name is taken, we encourage members to use alternative spellings, add accents, etc., so that they can still use the name(s) that they like or want for their character. Please keep this in mind and be understanding when others create characters with similar names - this is within the site rules and we do not want to see members being made to feel guilty over this.
- Removal of Trade Change Cooldown: From this point forward, you are able to change your characters trades as often as you’d like with no cooldown. If your character is currently on a cooldown for this, you can consider it wiped/gone. This also means that these changes will no longer be tracked by Staff – however, please remember that changing your trades will result in your exp being set back to 0, unless you have a gifted trade change pass.
- Cooldowns for death matches have been extended to 4 weeks.
- Absences (in maintenance) will now be submitted via the form. Posts will only be deleted from the thread once a member’s absence has ended.
Staff are aware that the lines between IC and OOC can oftentimes be blurry and hard to understand. However, given that we are all adults here, there is a stronger need to remember to try and keep OOC emotions separate from things that go on IC, and vice-versa. While you are valid in getting upset by things that may happen, also remember that this is a game, and that things out of your control are often a part of games. Getting overly upset or lashing out because of IC things is not okay and Sr Staff will begin intervening more if these issues persist.
Information that is learned OOC also needs to be kept OOC. The best rule is to stick to things that are learned IC by your characters. Do not assume anything about another person’s character unless you’ve asked them if you can do so and they’ve agreed. Speaking with other roleplayers is the best way to know what someone is comfortable with being known about their character versus what they’re not comfortable with.
Based on feedback from members and watching the fatigue system in use over time, we have the following modification to the fatigue system and fatigue dice:
- Fatigue dice only apply to a fight that reaches round 2.
- Forfeiting, defaulting, or escaping a fight in the first round negates fatigue dice for both parties.
- The winner will still be able to take part in another fight in the thread, the loser will not be able to.
Please note that the following changes only apply to threads started after this announcement. Previous threads are not grandfathered in.
Stopping a Pride Escape: Any marked pride member can attempt to stop another character from escaping their pride. They must have the proper user-group in order to do this, and a pending joining thread is not enough. This means that a rank is no longer needed in order to try and prevent pride escapes.
Hiding While Trying to Escape: Attempting to escape a fight will nullify your character’s ability to hide within a thread, including the use of any hiding trade perks. For example: if your character is hidden in a thread and there is a subsequent theft challenge for them, attempting to escape the fight will void their hidden status.
Challenging for a Pride: The minimum post count needed to challenge for a pride is now 150 posts. As per usual, they must have 5 posts within the last 7 days (these are down to the hour/minute) (not including the challenge post). Additionally, your character must be on site for at least 30 days before initiating a pride challenge.
- In order to challenge for a pride when coming back from being inactive, you must make at least 50 posts and be back on site for at least 15 days.
- These 50 posts are in excess of the base requirement of 150. So, if they have not reached 150 posts yet, they will need a total of 200 posts prior to challenging.
There are no changes to claiming an empty pride.
Posting Requirements for Leaders: As a reminder, posting requirements are down to the minute. The Admin team does their best to stay on top of leader post requirements and catch these things on time. However, there are times that we can’t notice things right away – in an effort to be transparent, we want to share our mentality and how we are choosing to approach this:
- If the leader gets their posts in before the Admin team notices, then there will not be a disband or penalty to the leader.
- We understand that this is a little loose, but we have found that it is the fairest way for us to manage leadership requirements.
- If and when the Admin team notices that posting requirements have been failed, the penalty/disband will be applied no matter what.
- Additionally, we are asking that members do not go out of their way to check the posting requirements of other players, and that they do not alert the Admin team of failed requirements via their own policing. We do not want to encourage members to police each other in this regard.
Pride History Checks: Pride history is based on the IC month and when the month rolls over (every second Friday). Even if the Sr. Staff team does not announce the IC month change in Discord or change it right-away on site, the month is still considered “changed” and the pride history needs to be properly updated.
In order to help diversify genetics and enhance our breeding system, we are changing the way that we handle and view the albino and melanistic mutations on-site.
From this point forward, the albino and melanistic mutations will be completely separate from pelt colors. What does this mean? This means that every character that has the albino or melanistic mutation will have a separate base-pelt color that they will need to select. Albinism and Melanism will no longer be pelt colors, but the swatches will remain to help with design-making.
Example: Bobby is a fully albino character. Their base pelt is brown. When they have cubs, their base pelt and mutation will be rolled for separately and do not impact each other.
If you want your albino/melanistic character to have a premium (not free) pelt color as their base, you will need to pay for that pelt, as per usual, during the character creation phase, on top of the cost of the mutation.
If you have a rolled cub, who was born on-site, that is albino or melanistic, you can choose to have either of their parents pelt colours for free as the cub’s base. The pelt colour chosen for a rolled-cub with albinism/melanism must be directly found within their genetics.
With this adjustment, we will also be allowing the albinism and melanism mutations to manifest as full or partial albinism/melanism. When you buy one of these mutations, you can choose whether you want them to be full albino/melanistic, or partial (taking up part of the body). Partial albinism/melanism means that their base pelt color, whatever it is for that character, will show. Full albinism/melanism means that the entirety of their base pelt color is completely visually hidden beneath the mutation.
If you currently have an active albino or melanistic character, you can request the adjustment of their pelt color on their profile in general maintenance. If you are choosing a premium pelt color, you need to purchase it/pay for it at the time of the change – if you are choosing a Tier 1 pelt color, it will be free.
- Any albino/melanistic characters that do not have their base pelt color updated when they submit a cub request will not be able to have their cubs rolled until this has been fixed.
If a pride is transferred from a High Sovereign to a Sovereign/Heir that has held their leadership rank for at least 3 OOC months, the following changes will apply:
- The pride tiers will not be lost/will not drop down to zero; and
- The new High Sovereign will be given a one month cooldown
The leadership change must happen ICly and can only happen after the High Sovereign has been in the same leadership position for at least one IC year. The new leader (the one it is being peacefully passed to) must hold the rank for at least another IC year before it can be peacefully passed on again to a different character.
This will not apply if the leadership change is believed to be done with the sole intention to avoid a disband and/or lengthen cooldowns.
After reviewing the breeding system and hearing the thoughts and concerns of members within the community following the previous update, the breeding system will be undergoing a final change. Please note that we would like to see how this plays out before considering any more changes.
- Each character may have a max of 10 cubs per OOC year. This is irrespective of their biological sex, the amount of litters they have, etc.
- The breeding cooldown for lionesses will be reverted back to 6 IC months.
We are hoping that this better balances the realism aspect of lionesses birthing/nursing, and wanting to mitigate mass breeding. This applies automatically to all characters on-site — any cubs that your character has had this IC year counts towards their 10 cub max. Things will roll over in IC Y12.
We will be moving to a member-led hunt system. This will remove the need for Staff to roll and post results, and will allow hunts to move quicker for members and prides.
To spare the duplication of information in this update, you can find the new hunt system in the Guidebook. Please take the time to read it fully as there are significant changes to this mechanic.
In relation to this, for pride hunt tiers, the prey needs to be successfully taken down by the end of the OOC month that the thread was created in order for the hunt to count towards that month’s tier tracking.