Hello, World!

So I was a touch late with this release, and I didn't complete all of the tasks I set for myself. Namely, the ability to ban users, cleaning up of some of the forum links, and more work on horde-specific forums. All of that is ok, though, because i can just put them in future updates in their own separate box.

This next update is going to be an item system, complete with food, weapons, and junk. It's the first real gameplay update I've implemented in some time (a long time, actually) and should pave the way for lots of things in the future as the game sees fit.

In this update, however, I did a good number of things. Primarily to the forum and notification system. Notifications will now show up in your lair screen, and (right now) show up for being attacked by someone else (if you win or lose), when you level, when you add or remove items from the market, when someone buys something from you from the market, and when you watch or unwatch a thread. I didn't get to actually notifying you of new posts to watched threads, but the core is there so it won't be a big deal to implement the rest of it. We'll see if I have time this iteration for such an update, but it is coming.

Forums have been revamped a bit, too. Threads with over 15 posts will be split into multiple pages, with 15 posts per page. This may change as time goes on, and for some reason if the # of posts per page is 10, page 2 has a weird tab in it. This doesn't seem to show up for 15 posts per page, but we'll cross the fixing bridge when we come to it.

Also, and this is important to me, I implemented new forums. Instead of the four before, there are now more, and in a new arrangement. Announcements go up top, then General chat, off topic, and a few other new forums that cater to more specific thread types.

As with each update and each line of code I write, new ideas come to mind that have to get put on the back burner until their due time. I still welcome suggestions and still give out prizes for finding bugs. Right now I think I have one active player. If things go right, the game should be much more playable by Christmas. I have this iteration and two more until Christmas (when I'll probably take off for two weeks and rest). I still have minions and hordes to implement, as well as a slew of cosmetic changes and little fixes.

Updates are on Tuesday, and I'll post again then.