Eldemore

Zayin wrote:Hello everyone! I’m back, and I’m obviously very bad at posting updates. I want to apologize to all of you who continue to check in, I’m sorry for keeping you waiting and in the dark. I have continued working on the site in my free time throughout the past year while weathering the storm of 2020. We’ve had a great deal of personal and health related issues to work through in the past year. Suffice it to say, we are doing well and are still here. I hope you are all staying safe and healthy, I know it’s been a trying time for everyone.

So how has Eldemore been progressing? A big focus has been the back end administrative tools. I’ve been developing systems that allow us to add new pets, manage users, change site currencies, update rarity, add eldsona items, and manage “shops” for giving stuff away. This involves lots of forms, handling and storing image uploads, having tables that allow for searching information, etc. This admin section is also where we would implement things like re-releases, a pound system, or story-driven events. I know it might be hard to visualize, but this stuff is equally important in maintaining the site to the front end stuff that you can see.

I have had to mirror a lot of the user functionality from phpBB such as logging in, banning, permissions, password resets, and avatars so we’ll have the flexibility we need to be separate from the forum system. It just wouldn’t be practical for us to continue being dependent on the forum system since we have no real control over its development. I’m also including better info and controls for handling cheaters, as well as audit logs for pets and currency transactions. All behind the scenes stuff, so there’s not much I can show in terms of screenshots.

Here’s more detail from the past year:

• Finished trading. Trades now behave sort of like emails, you can draft a trade which saves automatically, then come back to it later, and send it when you’re ready. Currency and Eldsona items can also be traded. Other than that, it’s what you are all familiar with.
• Added an authentication system to Eldemore instead of using the forum’s auth system. This included developing logins, registration, and password resets. This stays in sync with your forum account, keeping you logged in and logged out of both. This was a huge hurdle for this project. Also added and updated legal language, privacy policy and terms of use, set up email notifications, and added special account conversion for returning users. Basically, this means that you’ll have one Eldemore account instead of having one for Eldemore and one for the forums.
• The following is all internal stuff we will use to run the site:
  Created Eldemore admin dashboard, which is still a work in progress. Implemented a “smart table”, which allows for sorting and filtering virtually any remote data set. Very handy for getting through these areas faster.
• Users: Added visibility on currency usage, notes and warnings, active sessions, and other basic data. When I talk about “currencies”, I’m talking about event tokens and baubles, and any other site currency we might decide to introduce.
• Permissions: Ability to manage Eldemore related permissions.
• Currencies: Ability to edit site currencies.
• Adoptions: Ability to add new pets to release, including outcomes, rarity values, growths, and images.
• Other tools, including some aspects of the above, are still a work in progress.

So let’s recap where the site is at now. All of these items that say “done” still need testing and polish, meaning there may be small issues and missing pieces, but nothing major.

• The Homestead is done, you can manage and view pets and groups.
• Eldsona creation/management has not been started on, this may wait until after launch.
• Trading is done, you can view, start, receive, and modify trades for pets, eldsona items, and currency.
• Adoptions and Bazaar are done, you can adopt or buy pets/items/upgrades for free or for baubles or event tokens.
• Explore and Story Scenes, which you’ll remember as our holiday events, haven't been started on. I haven’t decided yet where this fits on the roadmap, but I feel it’s an important part of our site.
• Codex is done, you can review past releases for both pets and items, and manage your wishlist.
• Forums are upgraded, themed, and working, though I will have to make some tweaks so the forum system can’t mess up the Eldemore system.
• Registration is done, you will be able to sign up, log in, and reset your password.
• A user settings page and a news page are still needed.
• Some crucial back-end tools still need to be finished.

Again, I’m sorry that this overhaul has taken so long. We’ve come a long way, and it may be a slow launch even when the site finally does go up. I want to be candid, don’t expect any big day one releases or events, we will have to work our way up to that. When I do roll this out, I will likely need some help testing, which I’ll let everyone know about. I also want to mention that it is always encouraging to see people still posting on here wanting updates. I looked in the “Count until a mod posts” topic and saw they were only at 21

I’ve also been musing about some changes we could make to improve the game and cut down on cheating, but I’ll make a separate post about that later. It would be good to get some feedback.

Anyways, thanks for checking in and reading! I hope you are all staying well, and here’s to a better year!

Zayin

LenZ wrote:2022 and still here :)

Chione wrote:

LenZ wrote:2022 and still here

Wait when was Zayin's update posted? It was 2 years ago right? or is it a newer update?