Indie game devblog for TKLB, Dragon Audit, 8BitMMO and more
I was planning to skip Bitmas this year, but setk’s bitmas poem inspired me to do Last Minute Bitmas 2016!
All previously registered, non-muted accounts now have full Platscription benefits for the next holiday week (now through 1/2/2017). This includes daily plat, double gold and 9BitMMO access. Just type /platscription in-game (note – you may need to use standalone build for this as I didn’t get around to adding steam/kongregate support for platscription).
Enjoy!
In what is probably the biggest change to the game economy since platinum was added in 2012, it’s now possible to get massive amounts of plat as part of a new $9.99 per month subscription.
Platscription is a monthly subscription offer intended to A) help cover server costs, and b) to experiment what it would be like to monetize the game as a more affordable subscription business model than as a microtransaction business model.
With the new system, active subscribers can get access to all the platinum features in the game, including all construction & dungeon objects. The only things that would require the old plat packs are high plat clothing items and larger town expansions.
The new system should allow for plat stores to be restocked more easily, allow more players to build dungeons, as well as encourage more daily activity.
Subscribers receive:
This system is currently only available to players of the standalone or web version of the game (through Stripe credit card payment), although if there is demand, I may expand to support Patreon and/or Steam.
Menu > Get Gold will show a new window for standalone/web players:
Choosing Learn More for Platscription will allow you to access the Platscription window, and if you’re a subscriber, claim daily plat:
Chat shortcuts:
Direct link to subscription web page
In the shop, the following additional pricing changes have been made:
Added a little Captcha system during registration to make it harder for bots to make accounts.
It works for in-game registration too:
Two updates for the 9BitMMO client today in build 2055:
You can now press F6 to enable free camera mode to fly around — great for taking screenshots/videos of your creations.
Use W,A,S,D to move normally. Q,E to go up/down. And hold shift to go fast.
You can press F5 to enable Glitch Mode, which will every once in a while render glitch artwork correctly. This comes at the cost of a) much lower framerate, and b) making everything else render incorrectly. The long term solution is probably smaller blocks to do glitch artwork ‘properly’, but in the meantime you can get some nice renders using this technique:
It tends to work most frequently in the normal camera mode (no rotation mode).
Two issues fixed on 9BitMMO. First, sometimes the game would crash in certain areas due to underground objects. Second, sometimes transparent objects had a box around them. Both are now fixed.
Following up on some of the planned security improvements I discussed earlier, the backend now uses a new, more secure password hashing system (Blowfish with random salt).
In order to upgrade your account password hash, simply login normally to the website or in-game (anywhere you normally type your username & password). If you normally use Steam auto-login, you’ll want to login via the website one time in order for your password hash to be upgraded to the new format.
Both 8BitMMO and 9BitMMO have been updated to support the new system.
As always, please let me know if you spot any new bugs as a result of this change.
The new =68 map is created and ready to go! Everyone can access it, regardless of level, via the telepad hidden away at the southwest of Root.
This map is more build-focused, and as such does not spawn mobs and has a totally flat terrain.
While everyone can view the map now, no one can build until their Landrush phase opens up. If you try to place before your Landrush slot opens, you’ll get a countdown of exact time remaining. Here is the schedule for landrush:
Our annual server fundraiser / mega-sale has just kicked-off… and it’s the most exciting one yet! It includes a new landrush, possible doubleplat, and a variety of new items. There’s even a 500,000 gold giveaway that’s free to enter, sponsored by Kjh787.
New this year: most rewards can be gotten right away, including the mysterious 3D Test Glasses. What do they do?
Users of standalone desktop edition and 8bitmmo.net browser edition can now buy plat packs with credit cards worldwide via Stripe. This payment method is directly integrated (no manually copying plat tokens required), and even has an option to remember your payment details for future purchases. Best of all, any plat purchase via Stripe will credit your account with the new stripe hat!