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Wow, Kyttias! Your site looks amazing! o_O That new creature though... so pretty!
 
I love it!
Will so join when you have the site up. ^^
 
Summer has been busier than expected. :hmmm:

I've got a couple of things I'd like to rethink before I continue. I wish I had someone who was particularly good at UI/UX design. I'm good at programming but I'm struggling to redevelop a new trade system that isn't tedious to click through.


edit: followup September 5th, 2016 -
I've narrowed down the base number of species I want to just eight for the first year. Three species will be available as common starters, two will be won from experimental player rank events, one will be an experimental seasonal pet, one will be available to kickstarter participants, and one will be available to anyone who donates within the first year.
 
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Hiatus Over?
I'm back!! The last three months were really stressful - I've never worked retail before at a shopping mall during the holiday rush. I often didn't get breaks when I should have, and it was, all in all, hellish. I came home too exhausted to really think about my own pet site, let alone be around to help out the community here. I'm really sorry if I was particularly harsh to anyone who attempted to contact me during my absence - for the sake of my mental health I needed to spend my free time very much elsewhere other than here.​

Things I DID Do
I bought myself some nice hosting for three years during a Black Friday deal so now I have a stable test environment to build my site. I can even implement cron jobs - this allows me to schedule code to run a specific time. (I hope to write up some features that will make use of this that I can share/tutorialize for the rest of you.)

I also bought myself an awesome piece of animation software that will allow me to have animated pets, rigged on 2D skeletons, rendered on canvas elements. I'll still be able to have all the dynamic customization I wanted, too. This does mean making new pet art, but it'll be well worth it. In the end, the site will be even more alive and interactive.
dezh_by_kyttias-dawoage.gif


New Visions
There may be some major changes to the world map and minor changes to the context of the world as overarching 'plot' sorts itself out. I had an older site idea that I wanted to implement that was highly story driven, and the only real element this adds to the game right now is a human avatar. The focus is still very much on caring for your pets with emphasis on playing with anyone and everyone's pets as you come across.

Map and Combat
The world map will be something you can physically explore with human avatar. I've been working on coding this in my free time and it's finally getting close. You can choose to engage in battle using any one of your pets. Individual pet level does not matter for combat -- meaning you can use any old brand new pet without having to train them at all. The total level of all your pets combined determines your level, and as such, your combat stats. But it's largely activities outside of combat that actually level your pets, so you don't have to engage in combat to get better at combat? So, while the story plot may ask you to fight a few things, if you put it off for a while and just love your pets instead, it should be a breeze when you come back to it.

So why engage in combat? Since Novu are dream guardians, you'll be fighting nightmare-infected Novu. It's obvious, plot-wise, while you'll be asked to do this. That said, if you collect enough dream essence from these fallen Novu, you should be able to create your own purified version - so get out there to collect more species! Further, site events will push you to cleanse as many and as much as you can of specific or all species. Meet certain criteria, and instantly unlock limited time rewards. Be in the top percent of players at the end of an event? Get even more awesome limited rewards!

Pet Moods
The site will keep track of a pet's level of care for the current day and the prior two days. This level of care will determine the pet's mood. A happy pet is more likely to give you presents while you're playing with them, an increased chance of items being found after combat, and may land critical hits in combat. A depressed pet will be less likely to give you presents, will look physically sad, possibly dirty, and you may get occasional notifications about it looking distressed.

You may be unable to abandon pets at zero mood points and there is some discussion about pets running away after six entire weeks of being at zero mood points. However, there are certain items that will guarantee at least one mood point a day in any specific category. So, in theory, for a little bit of effort to obtain these items, you will never ever have to worry about pets leaving if they are uncared for. Even other users can grant pets one mood point a day by playing with them. Users with a lot of pets will always get at least one mood point filled because pets can play with one another. There are also other ways to make sure your pets are looked after if you'll be AFK for a week, such as putting your pet on a meal plan or buying a vacation pass for them to stay at the spa, but these are not free.

There are four things that determine a pet's mood: whether they have been played with, have gotten exercise, have been fed, and are clean. More on these with the next update!
 
Ahhh, glad to see your back Kyttias! ;u;
I myself have been thinking about getting some kind of animation software, specifically spine but it's pretty expensive.

Looking forward to Novul as usual. :usedusedused:
 
Here's my latest snapshot:
novul_apr24_2017_by_kyttias-db71g62.gif


For unknown reasons, my user profiles aren't working since I reuploaded my site, so I guess I'll be reformatting them, probably from scratch. >w>;

The family tree and genetics is still working out great, though!

familytree_by_kyttias-db71hwy.png


I recently switched over from merging images in PHP with the GD Library to using HTML5 Canvas to merge and tint images from a single Atlas file while referencing a JSON file unique to each pet so everything gets layered correctly. I'm also going to convert these canvas-generated images to base64 and save them so users can link directly to them. Plus side to canvas - I will be able to animate these guys! Down side to canvas - I actually need WebGL canvases to use Atlas textures and tinting, and apparently, a browser can only open 16 WebGL canvases at a time before deleting the context from older ones. Which isn't a huge deal, it just limits the max number of pets I can display per page. If I want more than that, at least I'm also saving static images.

tl;dr - Less images, more programmatically generated pets. Atlas files look like this (just one per species):
dezh_by_kyttias-db71j5h.png


And that's the only image I need to make as many unique pets as I want:
examplebabes_by_kyttias-db71jtz.png


The transition in how I'm displaying my pets has taken up a lot of my time, but in the meanwhile, my art has improved. :'3

Buuuuuuut my secrets are still largely my own.
 
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Looks absolutely fantastic, Kyttias! The UI looks very smooth and user-friendly. Using HTML5 canvas is a great idea, and it looks like you're having some great success with it!

It's wonderful, as always, to see your updates!
 
The reason for this is the harassment I've been receiving from some members of this site. I can't go six months without someone contacting me feigning interest in Novul, before immediately asking for free help with their own site's tangle of code. I'm fairly certain some of them have been the same people under different usernames, so, beware.

Someone literally emailed me "so if you aren't using Mysidia to develop anymore, can I have your source code?" - look, I shouldn't need to explain how rude that is. First, anything I custom wrote I can still use on my custom framework. Second, it's not for sale. Third, and most obviously, it most definitely would not be free.

My source code for old Novul is the same as all of yours - Mysidia's core. I released plenty of addons that have been proven to work and those that have them working are more than capable of helping anyone figure out minor installation hiccups. I left you all with very good instructions.

My custom code, the stuff developed for Novul specifically, has not and will not ever be offered as an addon or put up for sale. It's been a joint effort between my girlfriend and I to develop not only a breeding system, but the means to swap out parts and customize colors while not making entirely separate breeds. It's far beyond the original scope of Mysidia which is why I choose to keep it to myself.

That isn't to say I haven't helped people who are already successful in their own endeavors and have had the means to pay. For example, an ARPG from DeviantArt commissioned me to create this template generator and it cost them $600 in total:
https://wyngro.xyz/MYOgen/ I also coded their breeding system, another $500, and a random chance game, yet another $150. I will not go any lower than $12/hour and I like to complete coding commissions within a month of starting, but before I can even start I need the person commissioning me to know what they even really want.

I'm mostly just upset that I have been contacted in unsolicited ways under false pretenses far too many times. If someone came to me directly about their own site and waved real money at me, that would be one thing, but no one from Mysidia ever has. It has always been "can't wait for Novul" and not even a minute later "hey so can you help me figure this out...?" that usually has nothing to even do with my addons. Just because I offered free addons does not mean I'll do free charity work for you. I am not interested in your site, and if you don't have the means to pay me to be, stop wasting my time.

It is besides the point that Mysidia, as a framework, is dead in the water and six years have passed without so much as a security update. I lost any fire I had to make addons for abandonware. As for the rest of you? If you are PHP savvy, beware of those that want your help without offering compensation. If you are not PHP savvy, please try learning to code, you will be doing yourself a favor. And to both: I do highly recommend anyone serious about developing a pet site to learn PHP and build their own custom framework. Even by just using up to date coding best practices, you will immediately make your site so much more secure.

For copyright reasons, I no longer post updates here. Novul is still in development but definitely not with Mysidia. I will gladly come back to investigate should the owner actually release a new version, but until then --

-- Best wishes! Good luck with your projects!
 
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I am sorry that you have been harassed, Kyttias.

It is wonderful that you and your GF are working on your project, and I wish you the best of luck with it!
 
@ Kyttias

I'm sorry too ...
I was always glad that you helped all the others. including me :happyc:

I hope, you tell us sometimes, when Novul is available :happycbig:
 
Well dang, sorry to hear you've been harassed about this. :catfish:
 
Good luck in your endeavors Kyttias! I support everything you've said here. :) Can't believe it's been so long! I appreciate all the help you gave users here throughout the years. And shame on the people harassing you. :/
 
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