Exhibited Press

I'm making some steady progress on EX version II and just thought I'd give you all an update.

The vast majority of the site is done, but some of the bigger features (battle revamp, breeding caps, trial revamp, etc) need some hefty work so those are going to be what slows me down. But rest assured they will be worth the wait. :)

Once I have more of those finished I'll be seeking testers.

For now, here's a preview of how user shops now look:



As a note the boards will be switching once again from BBCode back onto HTML. I personally detest BBCode and think HTML is much easier and has much more customization. We'll still have the buttons to slip BBCode (or rather HTML now!) into the textbox though, and I'll try to mass-convert most of the bbcode tags into HTML when we swap over to the new layout. :)

ALSO:

I'm going to be adding in a new achievement system, to replace trophies! All the old trophies will be converted into achievements (so nope, you won't lose any!) and we'll have bunches and bunches more. From the usual things (having x amount of money) to silly things (like compressing 100 sausages). I want to use this news post as an opportunity for you to post any achievement suggestions you have here, along with names for them. :)

For example, our 100k EXD trophy will be called "Saving for a Rainy Day" on the achievement system, and things like that. Really looking forward to hearing some suggestions!

And finally, on the 13+ boards I posted a suggestion topic about trials. I need you guys to reply and share ideas with me so I can finalize what to do about them and get them done.

PHEW.

PHEW! We had so many contest entries this time that it took me *forever* to pick the winners and runners up! There were bunches of great quality entries which made it very difficult, but thank you to everyone for entering! You all have the appropriate trophies.

The winner of the writing contest is:
Nemy! (#10830) with their entry:

"A click came in moments before,
A page in the game it asked for.
But the server said no
Through the Error Dino,
And as for the page, four-oh-four."

They win 30 scales and a Rhino Toy! :)

The three runners up are:

rowan-the velociraptor master (#6974) with their entry:
"It seems you've encountered an error,
An unfortunate dinosaur terror.
Since things don't look pretty,
You best contact Kitty,
'Cause these sort of things don't scare her!"

Paya (#2473) with their entry:
"You may think error pages weak,
But mass extinctions really stink.
Just because a thing is past
Doesn't mean it cannot last.

Dinosaurs and internet
On Exhibited have met,
Defying time and nature's law,
But neither comes without a flaw.

Like dinos in Jurassic mist,
Error pages must exist.
Otherwise we'd never guess
Truth from fiction; what a mess!"

and Daski (#1155) with their entry:
"You wander about,
without a care or a doubt.
You click a link,
but it's not what you think.
You spy a big Error!
Looking ever so clever.
Go back to where you were,
for wherever it was is better than here!"

They win 10 scales each!


And now for the art winners.....

This one was especially tough. @.@;; However, we have a winner, and it's:

Bob (#643) with their entry:


They win 30 scales and a Rhino Toy!

As a moderator won this time, I decided to give each art runner up a rhino toy too, and also every person who submitted an art entry a scale.

The following runners up each won 10 scales (and a Rhino toy):

Pideaux (#8001) with their entry:


Ihea (#10051) with their entry:


Jinx (#441) with their entry:


Thanks everyone! What a great contest this was! So much talent. :D

I took a while getting all the entries up, so to avoid confusion, I'm extending the closing dates for both contests to be the 20th August 2011. If you had any ideas or anything, get finishing them and send them across. :D

A new month, a new donation item.

This month is the Super Grain!:


This will raise all herbivores in your herd by one grade each, not including A+ herbies.

You'll notice it costs $40 to get this one free this month, but that's because I want it to be rarer. It won't be going into the scale shop either, so this is your one chance. :O~

At some point this evening I will release six new herbivores for you guys too! I figure that while I'm working on the new layout I can still release species and items to you!

Six new herbivores, no museum entries yet.


Euoplocephalus, Fabrosaurus & Enigmosaurus.

aaaand


Gravitholus, Edmontosaurus & Geranosaurus.

That's right, it's time for the summer contests! :D

These are particularly fun and interesting I think!

Go here to enter, and good luck!

There was a bug with herbivores that was brought to my attention. Calves, no matter what species, should only ever give 1 use. >.>;;; This should now be rectified.

Meanwhile, check out incubators. :D

Okay, I really can't keep secrets, can I? XD~

Well, here you go guys. This is an example of how clutches will look on the new layout.




(click to enlarge)

I may be looking for some testers when I get more on there, actually, to browse the site and report any errors or things that might become annoying/difficult in time. I'll keep you posted!

Just to prove to you guys I am working (and working hard!!!) on the new layout, I figured I'd give you some previews of what's to come:



We have new health, hunger and happiness vials! Aren't they the coolest?

(And as you can see, I'm planning to coincide the reintroduction of disease/injuries, alongside with vaccinations, with launching the new layout.)

Also:



We will be having little icons next to dinos to save some space, and also make stuff easier to identify. If they don't apply they will be greyed out as shown, but if they do, they will have color and when you hover over them it will explain what's active on the dino.

The icons in order are:
For Sale/Bid, For Stud, Unhealthy, Starving, Diseased. :)

We will also be having a special clutch image for clutch pages to tidy them up and make them sooo much more graphical and fun, and also incubators will be having a makeover too.

Let me know your thoughts!

We're going to have a week of Siminar news posts I think. I'm working very heavily on the new layout at the moment so I don't have any new EX updates to post (except enclosures, bank and dino pages are almost done! Yesssssssssss!), and I'd really like to help Siminar out!

So that contest we had earlier was for a Siminar feature, which you can see here:



Mark your calendars! Siminar is just around the corner!
Siminar is the only conference on the web dedicated to the browser-based simulation game industry. After an incredibly successful first year, we’re back for another packed weekend!

Siminar is a two-day conference where owners, programmers, artists, aspiring owners, players, and anyone else interested in sim games come together to share knowledge and talk about our industry. It is a fantastic opportunity to meet players from across different sims, speak to people who have experience in the field and get a feel for how sims are created and managed. Siminar's goal is to bring together the sim game community and better the quality of sim games as a whole by learning from and supporting each other.

We’re happy to announce our 2011 Presentations:
Maintaining a Pre-Coded Sim / Avalon
Database Design Considerations / Eve
Not Everything Sparkles / Tyrant
Which Programming Language Is Right for You? / Jennie
Art for Artists / Red Dog
Experiences of Moderating and Running Events / Delf
From Sketchy to Super / Kindred Blue
Harness Your Brainpower / Mallory
OOP Programming / Jade
Communication: It's In the Contract / Taniku and Shatara
Creating Community / Frivi

Featuring Question and Answer Sessions for:
Arctic Lights • Animal Acres • Dog Dayzz • Fezz-Kitt • Mestengo • Mystical Equine •
Tigris •Torva Cattus • Vis Servo • White Oak Stables • Game X

And New This Year! “Ask the Players”:
a special session where owners will ask the audience for their opinions about sim games

Siminar 2011 will take place on July 16th and 17th, from 9:45 AM to 7:00 PM CST.
To keep up with Siminar news and participate in pre-conference events and games, join www.prosimunion.org!


I will be attending this year guys but not presenting, so come hang out with me and we can listen to it all together! :D

Just to let you know, we're participating in Siminar's Scavengar hunt this year.

On one of our pages, the next clue is hidden. You have to jump across a lot of SIMs to find the answers.

The scavengar hunt begins on Monday the 11th, so the clue won't appear until then. You can find more information here.