Sometimes, I’m sitting there playing the game, when I start to realize that there’s something I can fix pretty easily that if I fix it, would greatly improve some aspect of the game.
This update’s target? Player Retention.
The Welcoming Committee update is a mini-update, because instead of working on the Seats of Power update like I had been, I set that aside to fix, or at least bandage, a part of the game that has needed it for YEARS. The zero-day portion of the game, where that new player has sent their first message, and is awaiting someone to respond, not knowing that there’s an entire realm out there they can talk to and ask things of.
I think as soon as Knight Offers were added, a player asked if it’d be possible to include other characters on that new knight’s intro message. And I realized this last week that it wouldn’t be that hard to do actually.
So yesterday, I sat down, and in a few hours I cranked out the code that made it possible, and came to understand the code a little bit better in the process–namely that the knight offer form is handled differently than practically every other form in the game. After figuring it out, I have toyed with the idea of deploying it to a few other forms, namely the Realm Position editing form, because its kind of lengthy as is.
It also includes some neat in-built Symfony Form functionality that, to my knowledge, is brand new to the game. If players like it, chances are I’ll adapt it in other places as well, as appropriate.
And yes, at some point, I’ll add in the ability to edit this new feature into existing offers. And display it’s existence on them. For now you just have to trust me that its saved and works.