Cereal Soup
Downtime
The game is down while I'm updating the security and integrity of the game. It could be two weeks? Hard to put a time on these kinds of things because it's just sort of the nature of coding. So Raptors will be hopefully available in December once the servers are back up and safe.
1.9.9.4 Nov 19th
Changes
- Kangadillo is back to her old sassy self
- Baby suricates can finally leave the tree as normal and interact with all things normally
- Caverns of Order felis side should work like a charm, hitboxes for doing the riddle are also now more responsive
- Some protection from hacking, still needs a few more things but we'll see how this goes
Stream Summary
I’m writing this summary of the things I talked about on Twitch for everyone who didn’t/couldn’t make it.
September - October
Currently, I don’t have my main computer up and running. I had an issue with the motherboard where the USB ports would stop working at random. This is an issue I’ve had over two years now, and originally a year ago I bought another motherboard of the same type to replace it and the issue went away. The issue came back in October full force. I used to have atleast 15 minutes or so before the USB ports went out, but now its as soon as the computer boots up that I lose connection. My internet dongle is USB, my mouse and keyboard are USB also. So this means I lose function with everything connected to my computer when it boots up.
I bought a new motherboard of a different brand (MSI instead of ASUS this time around!) and put it in, but as I was trying to get my CPU in I noticed a lot of bent pins. One pin completely broke off and the computer will not completely turn on now, so I’m waiting for my new CPU to show up in the mail. I’m hoping and praying its the CPU that is the issue now and not the motherboard. I’m confident its the CPU but lord knows.
Because of all this, including some real life stuff like my boyfriend moving back in after 6 months, I haven’t been able to get anything done. I missed the chance to release the new Halloween event I’d been working on since September. I had an issue with items duplicating and the whole item system as a whole is a bit messy, so it wasn’t ready. ( I was so close!!! )
I wanted Raptors to be out Nov. 1st, but also couldn’t meet that goal either. The plan now is that before December everyone should be able to use Raptors. They’ll be unlockable solely by code as the way I wanted them to be unlocked in game is a bit too much to scope right now.
I have a lot of prey models finished and animated and ready to go in game, but I can’t put them in until prey works the way that I want to. They currently have an issue with spawning.
I want to put in a new dialogue system (The one we have now is a bit kooky) and this involves updating my Unity version from 5.6 to 2019.
I reminded that if anyone has been disappointed with the game lately and wants a refund for things like Premium or multi tails that that is an option available anytime to anyone for any reason. I haven’t been able to perform my duties as a good game dev for a few months and would understand if people feel sour and cheated right now and want a refund. You don’t have to ask now, this is just a reminder that you can invoke that anytime you want!
I wanted to thank Lisa570 for personally providing so much of her time to help me crush bugs lately. She’s been absolutely on fire and deserves all recognition for her time and efforts!
January
The last thing I wanted to mention is a crowdfund idea I’ve been thinking on and planning for for a while now. This whole process where I will start accepting donations will begin in January! I need time to finish all the gifts I want to offer for people who donate, as I’d like them to be ready to go as soon as I start taking donations.
For those who dont know, Cereal soup is my first ever game project. I learned to code while making it and have learned so much over the years. The most important code for things like the online connection and character editing and saving were some of the first scripts I ever wrote. Because of this however they're practically held together with rubber bands and duct tape. I've touched them up over the years. They're such important scripts that I work with them pretty much every time I'm coding, but they're so delicate that anytime something goes wrong with them I'm trying to fix it for weeks. Think back to issues like the endless loading screen.
I've always handled the CS codebase on my own and I figured one day I would get to a point where I could fix it so I generally left the scripts alone. Then something happened! A good programmer friend of mine that I originally met as a client for 3D models mentioned that he would do some optimization work for me if I ever had the money to hire him to do it. This friend, Tony, has more than 10 years of programming under his belt and has already taught me so much for free. Hes shown me how to use certain programs, let me take a look at his personal projects, and is just in general a really great friend. Giving him this amount of money for some of his help is such a good deal and such a generous offer for someone of his skill. I completely trust him to help make sense of my chicken scratch and show me how he does it along the way. Some of the things I intend on getting fixed are:
- Main script that spawns in players
- Friends list and tribes: They call changes to the database but dont always update locally on time for everyone
- Character customization sync (it works but the scripts are sloppy and not easy to work with.)
- A script for changing usernames in game. (It would have to change all instances of the name in the db and my friend is the only one whose managed to figure out how to do something similar)
- Overall optimization like less lag and server load!
I do however need your help to raise the funds necessary for his time. All $1,400 is going straight to Tony for his time and efforts away from his irl job and work with clients to assist me in fixing these scripts up to perfection. If I make any more than $1,400 somehow, I'll probably throw it his way in exchange for looking at some less important scripts. In exchange for your help I want to provide some goodies along the way to everyone who generously donates my way to hire this man!
These goodies include wallpapers, discord roles, in-game items and more! I’m still thinking of things I want to add so if you have any suggestions, let me know
This is my first time ever doing anything like this for CS and I want it all to go well. I'm using Kofi as opposed to Kickstarter for a few reasons:
- the money goes directly to my PayPal which means if you need a refund right away for any reason I can quickly do that!
- Kofi doesn't take a cut so any donations you give are to-the-cent going towards the goal
If this money isn’t raised then I’ll obviously continue as I am. Whatever I do make I figure could still go a little bit of the way to Tony to touch up a few scripts and not all of the ones I planned for him to look at. He has already begun the process of going through my codebase and touching things up early, he’s pretty eager and excited to help out and I can’t wait to be able to give him some good money for it! He really deserves it.
If you have any questions at all about anything please feel free to send me a message anywhere I'm located.
Nov. 2nd Stream- End of Year Update
1.9.9.3 Patch
Changes
- Non-tribe affiliated characters (Characters who aren't associated with a tribe) can no longer attack and destroy tribestones.
- Tribes can set hostility for their territory, the color of the status on the status sidebar will determine at a glance whether a tribe is Friendly, Neutral or Hostile.
- Felis eyes should no longer be wonky
- Felis should have teeth in editor
- Last Veal pumpkin should be visible and not underground
Doesn't seem like much because I'm trying to get the new Halloween event to work still along with items and inventory!
1.9.9.2 Patch
Additions
Added canis buttfluff
Added feather crabs to Bergen
Added Deer behind waterfall in Forest
Felis claws can be toggled on and off
Felis eye size toggle added to Editor
Felis back curve added to Editor
If you turn on Sleep position, after 5 seconds you will 'fall asleep'. Added 'well rested' buff after 10 additional seconds
(Beta Testers) Raptor webbed feet slider added to talon editors
Added search bars to preset and marking market
Fixes
Tribe members wearing a preset can now play the game
Prey should no longer roll when targeting or moving- Feet should stay on the ground!
Canis blink should work again
Canis bull terrier snout should properly show in game now
Monday, Tuesday and Friday can potentially show a rainbow in the sky
Tribe ally requests now work
Friends list should no longer lag when opened
1.9.9.2 Hotfix
Additions
Added canis buttfluff
Added feather crabs to Bergen
Added Deer behind waterfall in Forest
Felis claws can be toggled on and off
Felis eye size toggle added to Editor
Felis back curve added to Editor
If you turn on Sleep position, after 5 seconds you will 'fall asleep'. Added 'well rested' buff after 10 additional seconds
(Beta Testers) Raptor webbed feet slider added to talon editors
Added search bars to preset and marking market
Fixes
Tribe members wearing a preset can now play the game
Prey should no longer roll when targeting or moving- Feet should stay on the ground!
Canis blink should work again
Canis bull terrier snout should properly show in game now
Monday, Tuesday and Friday can potentially show a rainbow in the sky
Tribe ally requests now work
Friends list should no longer lag when opened
8/28/2019 Hotfix
Changes
- Can now complete Canis Champion task in Caverns
- Ambience for each character selection background now changes
- Suri's thighs no longer pulse with blinking
- Suri colors should be fixed to be the same as the editor
- No more weird lighting in Caverns of Order or any maps apart from Primordial
- Tunnel Omega is a little less dark
- Canis horns names should be accurate now
- Suri rogue marks have been temporarily blanked, they were supposed to be on Felis
- Canis croc tail shouldnt stick out of butt
- Long canis dread tail knot is now visible
- All new ears for Canis that had holes in the back are now fixed
- Players can no longer join their own tribe
- Wandering scrollbar in canis editor should be back where it's supposed to be
8/21/19 Patch 1.9.9.1
Additions
(SURICATE WEEK)
Please note any current Suricates you have will have their color slots mixed around
- Suricates now have a tongue, some animations have changed to reflect this
- Suricates now have a tertiary marking
- Suricate has a 'howl' type jump yip animation with sound
- Pointy and big ear toggles are now sliders
- New nose and teeth option: Starnose and Sabreteeth
- Tail fluff slider gets even fluffier
- 8 new manes, 4 new horns
- Small ear slider
(RAPTOR WEEK)
(Beta-testers only)- Eagle shorts fluff
- Leg tufts have been graphically updated
- 5 new crests, 3 new tails
- Primary and secondary wing shape changes- broad wings and thin wings
- 5 more beak options, 4 crests and a flat pointed Raven beak
- Owl head and calls added
- All adult sounds in
- "Howl" animation for Raptor
(CANIS WEEK)
- 7 new ears, 3 ripped variants, Tasmanian, 2 Labrador flops, Fennec
- Two new muzzle options: Bull Terrier and Narrow
- Expressions are far more extreme
- 9 new horns
- 14 new tails
- 6 new tufts
---------------------------------------
- Added Notepad under menu settings
- BRAND NEW Cavern's of Order
- Tunnel Omega returns!
- Purchases for Premium, Multi-tails, etc are back in game under Market->Purchases
- New music for character creation- Let me know if you like it
- Added in more marking packs!
- YOUR name in chat appears yellow only to you
- Friends names should appear green in chat
Fixes
- Shoreline collection has been moved out of Forest Cliffs territory
- Moved Chestnut territory south onto Stony Island
- Full Minimap should show again
- Tribestone health should show normal and fix tribestones in general
- Lowered amount of Olfs north of Bonfire
- Can exit Halcyon's Heart
- Felis mammoth tusks no longer stick out of bottom of chin
- Tribe health is now (1000 x member)
- Only 3 quality options now with descriptions to simplify things
Additions
(SURICATE WEEK)
Please note any current Suricates you have will have their color slots mixed around
- Suricates now have a tongue, some animations have changed to reflect this
- Suricates now have a tertiary marking
- Suricate has a 'howl' type jump yip animation with sound
- Pointy and big ear toggles are now sliders
- New nose and teeth option: Starnose and Sabreteeth
- Tail fluff slider gets even fluffier
- 8 new manes, 4 new horns
- Small ear slider
(RAPTOR WEEK)
(Beta-testers only)- Eagle shorts fluff
- Leg tufts have been graphically updated
- 5 new crests, 3 new tails
- Primary and secondary wing shape changes- broad wings and thin wings
- 5 more beak options, 4 crests and a flat pointed Raven beak
- Owl head and calls added
- All adult sounds in
- "Howl" animation for Raptor
(CANIS WEEK)
- 7 new ears, 3 ripped variants, Tasmanian, 2 Labrador flops, Fennec
- Two new muzzle options: Bull Terrier and Narrow
- Expressions are far more extreme
- 9 new horns
- 14 new tails
- 6 new tufts
---------------------------------------
- Added Notepad under menu settings
- BRAND NEW Cavern's of Order
- Tunnel Omega returns!
- Purchases for Premium, Multi-tails, etc are back in game under Market->Purchases
- New music for character creation- Let me know if you like it
- Added in more marking packs!
- YOUR name in chat appears yellow only to you
- Friends names should appear green in chat
Fixes
- Shoreline collection has been moved out of Forest Cliffs territory
- Can exit Halcyon's Heart
- Felis mammoth tusks no longer stick out of bottom of chin
- Tribe health is now (1000 x member)
- Only 3 quality options now with descriptions to simplify things
7/20/19 Hotfix
Changes
- Users who have been having issues getting into the game (after picking a character to play as) should not have any issues with the loading screen freezing anymore
- Felis adult eyes should now close properly
- Day and night time dial should be accurate again
- Dig minigame should be working again
- AFK toggle fixed, you can now toggle it off by typing $afk again
- Tort turn speed has been lessened from 2 -> 0.5
Raptor Fixes
- Plains crest is no longer the default
- Tail transparency fixed for some of the feather tails
- Eye color fixed in game for right eye
- Sunbathing perk now applies when you do the I pose
- Raptor trot is added
- Sad and happy tail and head animations added
- Halloween dance made
- Death pose added
- You can now roll onto your back in the last laying pose
- Head and tail animations working for the most part
- Raptor tribestomp animation added
- Eyes, combs and wattles no longer turn off when camera is too close