Mibbler – 17

The story of another update on Mousehunt. We are up to version 3.1.1 now. And if you have logged into Mousehunt, you cant have missed it. It was even hard to miss the hours of the downtime last evening (to me it was evening). But ehm, i cant skip reporting on it, can i?

The devs, and especially Dave, were looking forward to this ‘cool’ one update. Many among us were wondering what ‘bumpy road’ would be to come… Somehow it is pretty difficult and different to have a feature tested in beta – with a limited pool of test-players – and then take it into the Real World of Facebook with it’s ten-thousands of mousehunters. I know i, as a developer in a past life, have never done such a thing and it would definitely be a huge challenge!

So, whats new? Here we go:
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* Daily Raffles.

The Raffles and the ballots are replacing the old SB+ giveaway. There are three ways to get tickets (ballots) for the raffle, you can buy them with in-game gold, get a friend to send you one, or send one to a friend as this also gives you a free ticket too.

However, soon after being released the sending to friends option was made unavailable by the devs as there were a few glitches which they are now in the process of sorting out. I must say, right after a few hunters got in on my late late night, it looked rather unreal how many hunters were sending truckloads of Raffle-ballots – as showing on my FB-newspage! I had the teeny tiny thought that this might take up some unaccounted for server-space and band-width.

During the downtime dev Andrew (he exists!) mentioned in the downtime lounge that after having let in some groups of hunters, Dave had spotted some weird Ripples going through the database… and they quickly took the game offline again. And again. And some more. Many hunters were going wild with the suspense on th equestion: is the gum up again? Or is it not? o.-

We will never know what really happened behind the scenes, but ‘Ripples’? It sure sounds interesting to me considering the Realm Ripper and the Tidal Fisher mice that have been set free! But more on the new mice later!

= This just in =

Dev Mark D’Souza says: “The draw and notification system should be fixed in a couple of days. :)”

Not that we go by the word of Mark, but i quote this here, more to get the general idea that it will still take some time. o.o
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* Long awaited ‘In-game Notifications’… and a toolbar on top

Next on the list is a feature which a lot of people have been waiting for, ever since Facebook removed notifications for someone posting on your corkboard. The notifications are displayed in the renewed-version of the Ticker, which now sortoff has a toolbar on top. The (number of) notifications you got, will show up next to the ‘message’-button in that toolbar, with an alarming red square – you will recognise it, as its very much alike facebook’s notifications.

Very professional detail: this toolbar also has a customer support function, and that support is so much more easy to be found now! The other buttons in there, well, you can try them for yourselves :)
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* FG and Cove’s Timers or wash-out – wash-in systems, now with * NEW * mice!

Anyone who has hunted in the Forbidden Grove or Balack’s Cove will no doubt be aware of the problems occurring with the timers. These problems arose due to such a large number of hunters playing the game and overloading the system. Now thanks to the new update, each area has a mouse that, when you catch it, will transport you out of the area (and into another area), combined with a countdown timer letting you know how long you have left.

Ofcourse many hunters have relaid their travelling paths to be amongst the first to get the new mice! For the Forbidden Grove and to get acces to AR, you need to catch the new mouse called: Realm Ripper. For the Cove, the Riptide will be the cause of your possible transport out of the Cove and into the Jungle.
To keep the number of mice inside the Cove balanced, the devs have added a new mouse to the Cove as well: the Tidal Fisher. Go check em on your mousepages if you are curious ;p)

The first hunters have already discovered that disarming your cheese in the Cove – from mid-tide, through high-tide, all the way back to low-tide – will get you through the tides without tedious Jungle-hunts. Just be patient enough to await the low tide again (as in mid-tide there are also Riptide’s that throw you out), and you wont be transported and dont have to change cheeses and traps and all.

* And more…

As well as these main new features, there are several smaller items which have been released as well. Here are two examples of those features:- A new addition of search filters for your collectable items in your inventory has been added.- Quantity has been added to the camp page trap selector, thus the quantity of your cheese is now showing.

For more information on all the features that have been added, here is the dev’s news post:http://cut.gd/bLgJ

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==== Forum Features: What’s keeping hunters busy? ====
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* When to start using checkmate cheese?

Yesterday i made the weirdest mistake in trying to advise a fellow huntress on hunting in the Tower (no, i will not repeat what i said!). Although i now have 1 Queen and 1 King, i have barely hunted there and will keep quiet and leave the advising to some more serious hunters.Lucky for me, Dave Vanderburg dropped in on the Tavern to give some advice on hunting in Zugzwang’s Tower:

“Unless your amplifier is exceptionally high after catching a queen, it may be best to save your checkmate cheese for a run with a better amplifier. Three pieces is a small stash to hope for a King and Chess Master.
(…)
Arming checkmate cheese will help attract the queen, so if you have a healthy stash it of checkmate and your amplifier is high, it may be worth arming it for the queen to attract one sooner with a higher amplifier. There are dozens of small decisions to make when hunting on the tower and garden, each small decision adding up to big strategic differences!
(…)
There are different strategies for farming loot from the King’s, catching a Chess Master, maximizing gold profit and maximizing point gains. One thing is for sure, there is no one right way to go about it!”

source: http://bit.ly/cejjY2
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* Hunters amicably helping out hunters

On the tedious question of ‘How do you know when to capture both sides’?!

I know it’s generally not seen as a good omen when you start getting all the pawns of the ‘other’ side, when you are hunting for Mystic Rooks or Knights and all. But it might give you an edge on going for both sides, is it not? Oh yes, i do refrain from any advice on this one again: i haven’t said anything! I leave it up to you to figure this out! Go check the thread (its not an endless one)! And bring back any interesting news here to MhHitm, please do! :)

source: http://bit.ly/97xMKt

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==== Rumours, Opinions … and Stories ====
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* Ships Blueprints catchings: Happy :D (i know its not a big deal for you pros but still) :D:D:D

Just so you don’t forget. You may have passed that stage long time ago, but the real Hero’s amongst us have been hunting for them ship blueprints for ages. And the newer Hero’s amongst us still are! Whenever you see some hunter completing such a feat: Never forget to cheer em on!

source: http://bit.ly/bwMxY4

ps: Please do cheer them hunters that are endlessly doing the Isles cycle and what not, to finally be able to buy the Clockaput of time! They need cheering as well! (Yay Yiskah! ;)
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* Proud to be a (non-) Donator?

And such a call immediately brought in proud-DO-donators as well as proud NON-donators to the thread that went by the same name. It got a little nasty at times, just skip page 2 if you will (this topic always ends up being divisive). But it was a feast and an exchange on thoughts on the use of sb+. As Shiaoqiang so wonderfully and very proudly, and even much more Heroically phrased:

“As I’ve always said, in my own opinion donating for SB+ is something like using a cheat code in games. Sure, I don’t have a problem with that, as everyone has a choice as to how they want to play the game, but for my own case, doing something like that takes the enjoyment out of the game for me.
I do have SB ( which i buy in the marketplace), but i dont use it unless it is necessary (like catching those SB-exclusive mouse)… speaking of which, im dying in ZT using only gouda/brie (only 50% success rate in tower runs), but it makes conquering the place much more satisfactory for me.”

I do admire you for it Shaoqiang! ;) And i still plan on dying in Zugzwang’s Tower myself next run, and to be proud of it too! At the same time we can learn form the thread: we are all proud in our own way, arn’t we?

source (Shaoqiang can be found on page 5.): http://bit.ly/9twtao
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* The Revolution is upon us, Comrades!

Causing quite a stir in the Tavern is Christopher E. He has started The Mousehunter’s Permanent Assurance (MPA) in order to revolt against the King, for issues such as the minimum hourly wage hunter’s get paid to the drop rates of coal, scrap metal and the Heat Bath blueprints!

His cry be: “For too long, we have suffered on the measly wage of 50 gold per hour.” – Join if you recognise it!

source: http://cut.gd/3Wbx
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* Last but not Least:…Where’s the weirdest place you have ever sounded the Horn? ;o)

At your wedding perhaps, to fight the nerves? In front of your tent when trekking a famous route, like going to Santiago da Compostella, or sumthing? During watching the premiere of ‘Inception’ perhaps? In hospital before surgery? From inside the arctic circle in the straights between greenland and canada whilst in 24 hour daylight watching icebergs go past?!

No i am not making this up, these are all confessions from mousehunters worldwide!

Please do come out and tell us where you were… ;)

source: http://bit.ly/btbfbN

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= = = = = Cookies & Credentials = = = = =
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Thanks to Jill I. for the dev spotting :*

Todays cookies … will be very good to go with the Tides & the Fishing ^^
http://www.cookiehq.com/v/vspfiles/photos/CG-G3-2T.jpg

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