Exhibited Press

So we're two hours late but I've finally scrambled enough stuff together to open the game. :)

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We are officially open!!!!

Well, I've been working like absolute crazy on Exhibited the past couple of days and I think I've tired myself out. XD

I've gotten:

- Dinosaur images redone. They now save to the server to ease off on so much processing power usage. (However, due to this some might be missing some - just click the "No Image?" link and it will regenerate one for you.) This means that the old dino_image.php?id=IDHERE no longer works and I've also taken the decision to disable dynamic images for dead dinosaurs, so that we free up server space. You'll still be able to put your own custom image on there, but that's about it, unless you revive them.

- I have disabled jobs for the time being because guys, EX is caught in the recession! :O
Well, not really, but the idea I have for them will take up a LOT of time to program so I'm keeping that to myself for now.

- The mods now have their moderator panel back and functioning. :)

- I will also be updating the chatroom to be more conservative of space soon, too.

- You can now euthanize a dinosaur if you've owned it for more than 10 days and no longer want it. You won't get a fossil from this.

- You can once again vote every day for EX and earn $2500 (so if you vote once a day for 7 days, you end up getting more than $15000 anyway ;))

- I've cut down some of the payouts on the flash games so they don't pay out so much.

Today I'm hoping to add a newbie tutorial/welcome screen to help integrate new players into the game and ease off the pressure on the mods from when new players repeatedly ask, "how do I get a dinosaur?"

I'm also going to finish off the signup, make lottery run, do the cron for clubs and fix the donate thing, make entering your birthday mandatory (sorry!), start dinosaurs happiness fluctuating to do with foliage states, restart enclosure enrichment items giving off their effects and remove all illnesses from current dinosaurs. The background store will also go up permenantly today as well.

I'm *hoping* to try and get open today, guys, so I need your support. :) Should I manage to get enough done, I'm going to estimate about 2pm EX time everything will be open.

SO, I have some fun updates for everyone today!

I have listened to what everyone said about aging per day per login vs aging per day, and I've decided to come to a happy medium. You now have the option to choose which scenario you'd like. Aging per day will be aging, advancing etc etc as we know it right now. Aging per login, per day, will be exactly the same, except if you don't login that day, your dinos won't age/get hungry etc etc. Trials will still run as normal every day and upgrades will only decrease depending on what you've set everything to. Last offspring will decrease every day regardless if you login or not.

I feel this was the best choice as half of you were for it, and half of you were against it. This also helps loosen up some strain on the server when cron runs every night (less cron of it to run!) and I think it will suit everyone. People who can login every day and such can continue as normal, and people who are frightened they might not be able to login once a day can switch to this system. I believe this is part of what Exhibited is about - the flexibility of letting YOU decide how you want to play, and I hope I've kept everyone happy this way. :)

Everyone has by default been switched to on login and it's just a matter of going to your account settings and choosing which way you want your account to advance. This is all setup and working.

You'll also notice there's a VERY snazzy new layout for the main page and you won't automatically be logged out when you go to the index page anymore. There's also a "for parents" page which I'm going to write at a later date, to keep in compliance with US laws.

In lieu with the above, I'll also be adding a birthday feature which you will be required to set in order to keep playing. It'll be a two second click to set it and you should receive a cute present on your birthday (when I get it setup).

Bugswise, we've been doing okay. There's been a couple of major ones but I'm smashing them as we go along.

The chatroom is up and functioning still so make sure to drop by there when you get a chance. ;) It'll be a nice way to meet new members!

There's also a "test breeding" function at the bottom of your dinosaurs' pages, where you can enter in two IDs to see what sort of offspring they will produce. It will show you the colors and markings and the potential genes your dinos could make.

You can also now create a custom dinosaur for ten scales from the lab. This place will have all of the dinosaur species at once and is slightly pricey to keep it as more of a luxury item. It's not a necessity to create a custom dinosaur but it's there if you want to use it.

As of tomorrow everything will start aging, advancing etc etc. Fish will get hungry and die if not cared for. Fish will also begin to breed again.. Just to make sure you're all aware.

There is also a little facebook thing on the sidebar. If you have facebook and wouldn't mind just clicking "like", that would be great! The more people that hear about us the better. :D

Phew, that was another long post. I hope everyone's happy with these updates. :)

P.S. We have a new moderator. Everyone say hi to Griffel!

So we have a chatroom up and running now. :) It's AJAX, very pretty and runs smoothly with no annoying page refreshes. It's small enough to fit all browsers as well without being a pain.

As well as this, I've opened up the whole site to you guys. I'm expecting there to be a plethora of bugs so please go through and let me know what you find (on the bugs board).

I won't turn on aging again just yet until I decide what to do regarding logins. Right now, I think I'm going to switch to logins = aging etc instead of per day. We had a long talk about it in chat and the thing most people were worried about were if you missed a day and someone didn't, would they still get ahead of you?

The answer is no, they wouldn't. It would be the same difference as aging per day, but you'd be able to catch up because you wouldn't miss a day.

Edit: The Sinosauropteryx is available now, too. An example of one is here. :)

Some updates:

- The view quick dino statistics has two views possible now, one for stats and one for battles/trial information.

- Dinos now cost $5,000 from the lab and everyone's lablimit has been reduced to 5. Lab limits for Lab workers at Level 3 are boosted back to 10. This is to help stimulate buying and selling from players so current dinosaurs don't go to waste.

- At the same time, 4 species are available at a time from the lab and will go through a random cycle every 2 hours with the species being swapped out for another 4. The T-Rex isn't included in this, for obvious reasons. ;)

- You can equip backgrounds to your dinosaurs soon. I have two available right now with more coming.

- All the NPCs have been replaced.

- I have the bases through for human avatars, which will be restricted to an upgrade only feature.

- The stats page has been updated with more things, including a total money count. 547 mill guys, damn. XD

- In lieu with the above, I'm lowering interest rates again. I'm also going to stop weekly allowances if you have over 100,000 except for upgrades (whose weekly allowance will drop to the basic account rate). The same applies if you have a job. EX needs to have more of a challenge.

However, as there's quite a few mini-games floating around, it really shouldn't be that hard to get money. Let's not forget about battles as well. :)

- I'll be introducing a breeding license too, which you'll purchase for a one off fee of $25,000. You'll need at least 1000 player points too, just to prove that you've been playing the game at least a little before you start to populate with little baby dinos. (Hint: you also get player points for posting on the boards.)

- I'm going to reset everyone to immediately be unemployed. You'll be able to choose your new jobs and go with the new system as soon as the game's back up and running. The reason for this is because I'm implementing job "tasks" that you go for in order to get promoted. You receive the benefit once you reach Level 3 and have completed your two levels of tasks. New job payments will be once a day, instant payment. :)

- You can now search for colors, markings and marking colors on the search tool.

Eeesh, I feel like a really mean politician for announcing all of this. XD It has to be done though, and I'm sorry. I think this new system will help battle inflation.

And to *hopefully* sweeten things, once I'm done with the chat I'm going to open up all the site for you guys to test out and bug-hunt for me. ;)

And on the OTHER scale of things...:

What do you think about Exhibited becoming a game where everything ages/gets hungry etc every day you login? Let me know your thoughts on this topic.

Two new babies are here. ;)


Oviraptor

aaaand


Utahraptor

:)

I've given everyone their 30 day upgrade as I promised (though this will not come with a trophy or the plushie, just so you know.)

There is another new NPC at the plushie store, but you won't be able to see him yet. I'm hoping to release all the features again for testing to you guys Sunday (hopefully) but don't hold me to that incase things get busy. XD

I'm now working on jobs and hope to get them ready for you soon.

I've finished the hall of fame. My other "big" jobs left to do are gallery, search, chat and moderator tools. Everything else are smaller quick-fix jobs. :)

We also have a neuquenraptor baby:



Annnnnd I'm getting the shopkeepers revamped. Aphrodite is ready. Let me know what you think.

Edit: Also, check out the boards! :)

All the games should now be available again (flash and non-flash ones, including Dinosaur Dig) and you can access them either by going to the map or clicking the "games" button on the menu. (This is excluding lottery for the time being.)

All the trophy images have been revamped into a new style as well and I've cleared everyone's trophies. If you had any trophies before it should be relatively easy to get them back (money ones especially, just move some money around in your account and they'll slap back into life!).

You should also be able to unfreeze your account again. Sorry, I didn't realize it wasn't working.

I'm currently working on trials right now and once they're done I'll release them once again. I have a re-opening date in mind right now but I won't tell you what it is incase I don't make it - but let's just say it's soon. ;)

I've unlocked a few features for you guys because I got some work done today with crons. :)

Dinos will now start getting hungry and lose health etc. The stores are open for you to buy food and health items and the fish store is also open too - though fish won't get hungry or breed. You should be able to battle now.

Dinos will not age and your upgrade will not decrease as this is still my rebuilding period and I need you guys to work to find these bugs for me (if any).

Messages are also available again and the bank is available too. Breeding *should* work but I wouldn't recommend it as your dinos will not age, and babies will be stuck as eggs until aging is reset.

The shops are also restocking now and whereas you can take errands, I wouldn't bother as only 3 shops are open and you might get stuck needing to deliver an errand to one of the closed shops.

LEt me know if I missed anything and please report any bugs asap. :)

I'll start releasing more as I get more done!