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Development Update 3/17 FRAQ (Frequent Recently Asked Questions) Wanted to just try and address a bunch of the common questions. Q. Where is the new arenas!?!? A. It's looking good! We hope to go out with the new arenas this month -- but, it'll go out when it is ready. Q. When is guilds going to get a facelift? A. Sooner rather than later. There's a couple things going on here: first, we need to bring the guilds backend up to date with UPE (the forum changes that we did last year). Second, guilds badly needs a facelift. Third, we want to add new functionality to guilds -- some is needed for battle, but we'd like to add cool functionality for guilds in general, as well. We're still trying to figure out how much and when we will do all this stuff. Q. When is journals going to get a facelift? A. Yah, this is on the list. We were originally going to redo it at the beginning of the year but other stuff popped up that was more important. Over the year we'll be going through all the older stuff and touching up the look and feel. Q. Housing editor !@#!@#!#!#!# A. Yah, yah, I know. The issue is this: we know it's broken, and we want to fix it. This has been talked about in another journal (but I don't know where -- if someone has a link, can you give it to me? I'm not able to find it). Basically, if most code is written in English, the housing stuff is written in an archaic form of rhyming Sanskrit. We have been luck enough to find some good flash devs recently, so we'll have more people to devote to the games and flash spaces soon. Q. Any update to the inventory system? A. Yah, big changes. First of all, right now we're working on a complete rewrite of the inventory backend -- it was written a long time ago, and it really wasn't designed for the load that we're currently putting on it. The new inventory system will be a lot faster and give us the ability to put arbitrary metadata on item instances, which we can use in a lot of cool ways, and is required for Battle. which leads to... Q. Something something something flash something something A. Basically: yes, we are putting a whole lot of effort into battle right now. It is tying up people that would otherwise be working on other portions of the site, including towns and housing. That said, however, we just hired a few really sharp flash developers, so this will hopefully get better. Also, some of the effort that we are putting into Battle (such as better back end systems) will eventually lead to better stability in other areas of the site, including Towns and Houses. Q. Any changes to towns coming? A. There have been lots of little changes (chessboards, new daylight sequence), but to be honest we're concentrating on Battle. But see the above question as well. Q. Any changes to the Game Item exchange system? A. Well, here's a hint: see the battle site Q. Any changes to the quest system? A. Yes, absolutely -- a lot of these are driven by Battle. Q. What the heck is that green goo? A. It's caused by a glitch in the sprites. You see, we use a shade of green to indicate transparency. Sometimes when the artists do a sprite it ends up that they use a slightly off shade of green, which then displays when we composite the final image together. Q. Any new games other than Battle coming out? A. Yup! One is in beta now. We do look at the feedback on the forums, including the gaming petitions. Any other big, pressing questions lately? Let me know in comments and I'll edit this journal entry.

Posted by: Panagrammic Wed Mar 19, 2008 @ 11:32pm

Read my journal!

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dBEf-GAEc-18E-BBAf
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Commented on: Wed Mar 19, 2008 @ 11:57pm


	Thanks for the update biggrin The housing editor issue - That has to do with it being written in ... What the hell is that thing called? I seriously haven't touched my house in forever. I'm never in it and I don't use it O.O;; (any chance of Towns itself becoming it's own game? that would make more people want to use Towns and Houses for sure!)

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:08am


	Thanks for the update heart I've got a few questions, actually. 1: When is Journals getting a facelift itself? 2: When are we getting news about the title of Gaia Battle? I've been waiting forever to know it x.x 3: I know Battle is one of them, but what other kinds of games do you have in the works, and do you really look at the Gaming petitions that have been around? 4: This one isn't exactly an FAQ-worthy question, lol. Is there a possibility of having some of the people who work behind the scenes give opinions on items they release publicly? I know there is the possibility of hurting the artist's feelings, but opinions are opinions and I'd like to hear yours sometimes. Thanks for giving me a chance to ask 3nodding

Masco
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Manchester I Darkfield
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:26am


	Thank you for letting us know, dude.

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:26am


	Edited (and original post deleted) It would have been nice if you answered my question about Housing and the lack of updates, but given what has happened over Easter I can see what the answer is and I was right. That pretty much everything is being ignored in favour of the Battle System ...

Erebea revius
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Cube B
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 12:58am


	When is the Battle Name going to be announced? (Just so you know, GaiaForever.com is available for $9.95!) When will that annoying IDM FlashPlugin be deleted and or fixed? Also, YAY GUILD UPDATES! I'm hoping for things like more non admin ranks, subscriptions, and cool features like this! Guild "NPCS": By checking off a small box, a Guild Mod or Captain can post as a special Guild NPC. Guild Items! This might require item Normalization to be finished, and wouldn't be out with the update unless it was highly simplified. But if you make a Shirt, or Pin with a small logo on it (premade by Gaia), in a certain color, for guild members only. (Like, an Angelic Mini Wing pin in Red and Black, or something.) Guild Link Think Gabbly for guilds. (Gabbly is like, page based IRC.) Guild "Quests Special slightly customizable quests that can be bought by guild captains for a pretty penny. Battle Guild chat, Guild Party bonuses, maybe even a customizable Guild Ring! (Choose an animation, a color, and choose an effect, and name it! For example You can pick a heart animation or something, name it PK Love, and have it deal X Damage. XD) Some are farfetched, but oh well. XD

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:16am


	One question from me: Will an official announcement be made site-wide when the accidental bot-bannings are resolved? I'm pretty sure that it will be wonderful for those who did get accidentally banned, as well as those who are worried about accidental bannings.

Kiyoske Dante
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Nobara
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 01:46am


	Are you a girl? I always make the mistake of assuming the gender of the avatar matches that of the person. Would Gaia ever consider hiring a professional to tape their convention panels? They kind of did that for that one collage film about Gaia, but I mean regularly. I'm worried that no one will take pictures at Anime Boston... Thanks for the update, I hope Arenas are done soon. ^^ P.S. Are the new good flash devs also going to be working on Gaia Arcade?

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 02:41am


	@Masco: Well, I think most of us are pretty honest about features, but you're way more likely to hear honestly when we like something than when we don't like it. @Cube B: IDM FlashPlugin? @Kiyoske Dante: Yah, an announcement will be made (and I think was made already, but I haven't checked on that yet). @Nobara: Nope, I'm a guy, as evidenced by my inability to ask for directions. We have so much stuff for the new flash devs to be working on that they'll be busy FOREVER. biggrin

Panagrammic
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Riddle-Me-This
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 03:14am


	What about the Item Inventory/Avatar System rewrite? Any plans for that? A lot of users have exceeded the item limit and can no longer fully see their inventory at once or are forced to move items on a separate account to have it load faster. A few devs have mentioned a "save outfits" feature too.

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 03:16am


	Woot. heart heart heart Thank you eleventybillion times for your updates.

PinkMeansEvil
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Smaddy
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 03:16am


	These Journals are always so informative and interesting. 3nodding The housing editor, in my experience, doesn't necessarily suck... it just seems to be quite moody. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For the longest time I thought it wasn't possible to edit Homes on a Mac, and then I changed some settings and it worked! ... and now it's broken again, for no apparent reason. (Stop tripping on cords plz? xd ) I have some questions: - Is there any chance that Towns/homes would ever get upgraded to look like Virtual Hollywood? Meaning, it would have even more realistic graphics and houses could be bigger/ multiple rooms? - Is there any consideration going into working on the Game Item exchange systems, so we can exchange items collected in Towns for more items than there are now? - Will the Quest System ever be updated with a feature to Quit a Quest, especially if that Quest has been disabled? Lots of people have had issues with Quests that they can no longer complete, but the Quest is stuck in their Active Quests. BTW, If you go to HR Wesley, you're still prompted to start the long-gone "Ingredients for Edmund" Quest. - What is going on with the Marketplace tags? When the upgraded MP came out, it was great! All the items had detailed descriptive tags, so you could search, say, "food" or "weapons" and all the food items would appear (even if 'food' wasn't in its name) or all the weapons would appear. Now, unless you know the item's exact name (and I mean EXACT -- you can't search Masterpiece and find Masterpieces, etc), you can't find it. If you search "weapon", half of them appear. Also, A lot of the newer items (I think all the ones released since the MP came out) are in the wrong category. Many of the new clothing items are labeled as "game"... so for example if you use the search filter for "tops," the item doesn't appear. I think the tags are an awesome and convenient idea, and it's a shame that they seem to have gone downhill. I realize staff is already probably working on a ton of stuff, but this (IMO) is something that should be looked into. [If this was something that would be looked into, it should be taken into consideration that non-store items should have general info as to where they come from: ex: "Halloween 2005" or "Pink Magical Giftbox" or "Nike Sparq Quest". I think that would come in handy for everybody.]

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 03:18am


	xd did you know that fraq sounds like a curse word used on Battlestar Galactica? and that thought completely pushed any questions out of my mind.

LokiLB
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Trampy McTramp
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 03:57am


	so you probably can't explicitly answer this, but i know we are getting some new games. namely pinball has had items leaked in the MP. i heard we are getting an arcade-style game system with pinball, tetris, etc. can you confirm any of this?

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 05:27am


	I wish that, at least until the flash issues with cinemas are fixed, the sponsor quests would have more of the quiz variety than the watch a trailer kind. But making people view trailers is probably more profitable. sweatdrop

Spriteless Girl
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Ruiko_Fumu
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 06:06am


	I give you green pixelated goo... Even though I know you're not the one to discuss about this problem. xd

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 06:09am


	Hello, i really would like to know if they are going to release new items exchange for the fishing exchange. Plushies of fishes would be a really good idea and would improve the economy for those who fish, like you may know, fishing exchange items barely worth something lately. Thanks for hear us. PS: A new lake and news about the angelic rod release would be appreciated

The_last_alchemist
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Saucy Brigand
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 06:26pm


	i dont know if you can answer this, but what happened to those user designed valenines day items?, the ones we voted on? casue its almost the end of march now sweatdrop

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 09:04pm


	Have the 2nd round of Beta Testers been chosen already? sad

Blaze-kun
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snufflypoo
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Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 09:26pm


	i keep getting this message when i go to my organize inventory page in this account but i don't get it when i'm logged into my mules (same browser for all of them - mozilla firefox). do you know why? any help appreciated, thanks!

Commented on: Thu Mar 20, 2008 @ 10:23pm


	The IDM FlashPlugin is a plugin that you need to install to watch Gaia Cinemas, but it just doesn't install on Llinux.

Cube B
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Kibrika
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Commented on: Fri Mar 21, 2008 @ 10:40am


	Thnx for the update! I like having a house and am looking forward to when the rhyming Sanskrit will be deciphered and fixed.

Commented on: Fri Mar 21, 2008 @ 04:34pm


	To put my loaded question in a simpler form.....: When will we finally see some other hues of the human rainbow on Gaia? Gaia isn't white-only, is it? sad* I ask because I've made a few threads and posts in the Ask The Admin and none were answered by a staff member. I did get a response from FBBQ though. *The new log-in page & http://gaiaonline.com/register/newuser have ONLY Caucasians shown

Erebus Haze
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123jimmy321
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Commented on: Fri Mar 21, 2008 @ 09:06pm


	do you think by the end of the year the site will have the same theme layout every or do you think not?

Commented on: Fri Mar 21, 2008 @ 10:44pm


	@Smaddy: We'll have to take a look at that, I hadn't heard about the marketplace tags being bad. @LokiLB: Yah, it does -- I'm a diehard BSG fan. @Trampy McTramp: Yah, can't confirm it, but suffice it to say that we want to vastly expand the games available. @Blaze-kun: If the thread is still up we're still going through it, even if the thread is closed. @snufflypoo: How many items do you have in your inventory on your main? @Cube B: Oh, I get you. Unfortunately the DRM system that we used was dictated by contract. @Erebus Haze: Yah, I agree with you. I pointed out the same thing when I saw the mocks of the new page. They're revising it to cycle through a number of different pictures, I think. @123Jimmy321: As much as possible we'd like one theme -- it just makes everything easier to code. The new white theme is the one that we're going with as we move forward.

Panagrammic
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Red Ruru
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Commented on: Sat Mar 22, 2008 @ 12:41am


	Very helpful... opened my eyes...

Commented on: Sat Mar 22, 2008 @ 03:04am


	25 equip items, 2420 paper bags, 48 B credits, 106 M credits, 17 inks, 65 tokens, 2 fishbait and 2 bugs. 2685 total. is this a too much stuff issue? edit i just moved all the paperbags over to my mule account and i still get the message on my main without them. thanks again for looking into this.

snufflypoo
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Nuke Kioh
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Commented on: Sat Mar 22, 2008 @ 09:37pm


	thanks for the update this is realy usefull btw is there going to be a update or change to the mail part of gaia? sweatdrop maybe not a good queston sweatdrop

Commented on: Sat Mar 22, 2008 @ 10:14pm


	I have a question: Why do I get "General Error: Your vote was recorded!" every time I vote a topic up or down? Is it really an error or is my vote recorded? Former zETA. "Ugh. Your interface is worse than DOS." <- Help this cat on his quest for World Domination!

France Hopper
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Smaddy
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Commented on: Sun Mar 23, 2008 @ 01:41am


	Thanks for your answers! 3nodding I had never really looked in the Battle site (bad, bad!), and wow that really looks cool. 3nodding

Commented on: Mon Mar 24, 2008 @ 06:19am


	[♦] [♥] [♦] ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ I told myself I wouldn't cry...-sniffs- ; 3; <333 I am soooooooooo glad to read about so much effort being put into the site getting fixed up and the Battle system being worked crying .I really do wish more people would take the time to read the staff journals,that would probably make many of them stop their complaining (or not).I'm very much looking forward to the inventory update,the game updates and fixes (I want to fish darnit >_<!!) and the announcement for the accidentally bot bannings.I have a number of friends who have gotten busted wrongfully for that,and nope,there has not been an announcement for it. ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ ▬ [♥] [♦] [♥]

Makoto_Gin
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Hanzo The darkness Ninja
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Commented on: Tue Mar 25, 2008 @ 09:41pm


	I think about the new games, like make a cards that u can play with an ither person, and that will be funner, and then u will know that they other people are not hacking

Commented on: Wed Mar 26, 2008 @ 03:09pm


	Umm, Could more tabs be put in the inventory section? The infterface itself is fine to me itself but I have so many items it's hard to sort them so they're not so scrambled. Perhaps if you put taps on them that sorts or isolates different items for sorting (example: The my avitar screen, a tab for shoes, hats, tops bottoms, accessories, items ect.) Oh! Also, iono who to go with this too, so I'll just put it here. The longcat scarf isn't a good idea. Subeta tried a stunt like this, and the site got a whole rash of hackings from /b/of 4 chan I think? It even carried over to Gaia because people from the chans were hacking Gaia accounts and selling their expensive items for 1 gold. sweatdrop I'm gonna be more careful for now on, but I suggest taking the Longcat scarf off the site. I DON'T WANT TO SEE GAIA FALL! (Excuse the red, it's my normal post color.)

Okami Ameras
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10Mil_Peace
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Commented on: Thu Mar 27, 2008 @ 10:08pm


	i have a few questions about guild updates. when you talk about a facelift to guilds, are you going to end up changing the look of the guild posting? like changing the location of the emoticons and removing the space before and after the emoticons? like making " domo " into "domo"? also, are you going to change how the pages work? the guild way made navigation easier (except the new forum way of being able to click the current page) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i hope that while updating guilds you do not remove the multi page navigation. with forums, you are stuck on one page at a time or 10 at a time. and is updating guilds going to make the URL have the number of posts instead of the page number? please call me gate when you respond. domokun stargate

Commented on: Fri Mar 28, 2008 @ 06:03pm


	=D I have a question well two... 1. Can you make me a pie? =P 2. I'n the battle system, where there be a overall ranking system. Like fishing the top "battlers" and stuff. I think that would be really cool. ;P look forward to battle.

EndHiro
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Pandoris
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Commented on: Sun Mar 30, 2008 @ 12:44am


	Any news on when we'll hear the final name to replace Gaia Battle? I'm dying to know what it is! (Even though my chances of winning are slim to none.)

Commented on: Fri Apr 04, 2008 @ 11:29am


	I can't wait for the inventory code to be fixed. D: I want to be able to change my avatar again! I have too many items for the code it seems. has died a little inside ✖

Genea
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