The staff have been working on this for some time, and we're excited to announce some major changes to Warrior Cats Online we'll be rolling out within a month of WCOn concluding.
Over the course of the next few days, be prepared! We'll be sharing the incoming changes with you guys on the following days. No spoilers-- you'll just have to wait!
Monday, October 24th
Tired of the current Clan pages, accessible through those Clan buttons at the top of WCO? Say no more!
In an effort to make things more user friendly, we've overhauled those pages. Right now, this is what we have:
Within the month, we'll be changing all the Clan pages to look similar to this. Note for this preview, I'm only using the Classic theme!
It's a lot to take in, but with this change we're hoping on making the site easier to navigate for everyone. Without getting into too much details yet, you'll be able to view almost everything going on in the Clan with a simple page click - no more hunting down threads!
Going through Character Resources and the Open Roleplays to find Clan-specific content is now a thing of the past. Through the Open Roleplay and Finder quick access link, you get sent to a search for threads tagged specifically for that Clan. This will not cover the Multi-Faction or All tag for finders, so keep that in mind when submitting them!
Currently, joining a Clan, requesting ceremonies and reviewing the rank requirements, and getting healing can be kind of a hassle. You have to dig around for threads scattered throughout the site!
Introducing, the Character Panel!
All of the above had been linked in one location, to static threads that will never change. As high ranks come and go, they will be given permission to update these threads to reflect any changes.
Since there's so many different ways to join, clicking Add Character will open a small popup to help you navigate how to get your character in the Clan. Clicking an option will take you to where you need to go: whether it's to the Allegiances to submit, or to how to rejoin with a missing cat or get your outsider in!
Have you ever wondered what the Clans thought of each other?
Now you don't need to - we've added Clan Relations!
These will be editable by our high ranks (don't worry guys, it's SUPER easy!!) so they change as the roleplay progresses, and can help you keep track of some of the conflicts around the forest. Though your character doesn't have to share these views, it's helpful to know if your Clans are at odds when you're interacting with another character.
That's all for today, folks - hoped you enjoyed this preview into part of what we've been working on!
Tuesday, October 25th
This feature was discontinued back in 2020 due to Adobe shelving Flash, and we've been playing with tweaking it since to make it functional before we brought it back. I know many of you have been awaiting this day, and I'm happy to say we're ready to blast WCO away with some neat tunes!
First, find our Profile Mewsic category.
Right now the threads within it are locked, but once our WCOn festivities are over the Song Requests thread will reopen.
Please make sure you read over our How To Add Music to your Purrfile guide very carefully! If you do not follow the instructions, your song request may be denied. Once you request a song, a staff member will review it ASAP and if approved, it'll be added to your profile and the Approved Songs List.
We'll do our best to keep this feature up and running. With Flash gone, we've run into some kinks in the road and we do ask you guys send in a Support ticket if you notice music has abruptly stopped on profiles, as that is not intentional. The music should automatically start playing when you visit a profile that has it.
For those wondering what it'll look like on your profile, you can visit Apricute or my own page to hear some music.
If you don't want to hear the music, you can mute WCO in your browser settings! If you don't know how to do this, reach out to Support and staff will help guide you.
Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you guys tomorrow for the next upcoming feature!
Wednesday, October 26th
Now, it's time to talk about the Allegiances system we have.
It hasn't changed much from when we first implemented it: it's an embedded Google Docs sheet and you submit a form that gets manually approved, and added, by a high rank. You are unable to see what you submitted: if you didn't get down the character's information, you have to reach out to a high rank for help. High ranks go through each cat during the activity sweep, moving them to missing or deleting them entirely, and truthfully there's a lot of room for error in this. Links being wrong and rows being accidentally deleted are a couple of examples that've happened over the years.
We've always wanted to move away from that system into something a little more manageable for high ranks, especially. It can be pretty daunting to open up a thread and have to add dozens of cats to a list yourself, and downright impossible to do on a mobile device.
Our solution? Say goodbye to the embedded spreadsheet, and hello to...
Everything is being overhauled to be ON SITE. No more having to manually do the lists for every little detail, no more going off site to edit a spreadsheet, no more having Google deny access due to school administrative settings.
You'll notice there's a Lookup column by each cat. This allows anyone to lookup roleplay posts made with that character, so you can stalk characters whose stories you're invested in, or check on their activity during sweeps. No more typing up names and hoping they show up, as long as the roleplayer is using the name listed on the allegiances, you can easily pull them up.
This works similarly to our current allegiances: you fill out a form and submit it. However, you'll be required to toggle the Pending prefix before you apply your characters: this tells our high ranks to review it!
You'll see other prefix options in the gif: this is what's available to our high ranks. High ranks are also able to edit the submission, in the event of a promotion or general updates to the character.
High ranks will have to look over the submission, and change the prefix of the thread to Active or Rejected, depending on how it goes.
If Active, your character is automatically added to our new Allegiances-- no further editing required on the high rank's part. If Rejected, they will not be added and you'll be contacted with why so you can make the necessary adjustments and be approved.
High ranks will have the ability to change the prefix tag to Missing or Deceased as well, which will take the cat off the main list. When approved for rejoining, high ranks can reinstate them as Active.
Yes, with this update you will be required to resubmit your characters through this system. We are not transferring information from the spreadsheet: this gives you a chance to correct any outdated information, and a free shot at getting any inactive cats back in if you desire. Because this is done through the site, your account will be automatically linked to the character, eliminating any mistakes with ownership of that cat.
In addition to the allegiances themselves, we've implemented a My Character and a search feature to easily look up post history. Please note, this is a personalized search and high ranks will not be able to use this for the activity sweeps for characters that do not belong to them. Instead, use the Lookup button on the Allegiances page!
When you click My ThunderClan Characters, you'll be redirected to a page that lists them all. It's similar to the allegiances in formatting, but is dedicated to your cats - so you can see who you have!
On the side, you can click the other Clans to view your characters in them as well.
To use the search functions, simply input your cat's name and enter. This will pull up their post history for you, no link editing needed!
That's all for today's announcement! Hopefully, this helps out both our members and our hard working high ranks have a more enjoyable experience!
Thursday, October 27th
You may have noticed in my previous preview, the Clans have a new icon by their names!
Our current icons aren't incredibly user friendly. Currently, they look something like this:
Outside of color, there's nothing indicating which Clan it is. This can be hard for users that are color blind, as the colors may not correlate with the Clan as intended.
This is what the upcoming icons will look like!
With the new icons, each shape is unique to the Clan and should be more distinguishable for members and across themes.
I'm very pleased to announce we have revisited some themes to make them easier to look at!
Some of you might remember Summer, which was publicly available. The theme was incredibly bright and could be hard on eyes, so it was redone to make it more usable!
We have also redone Spring and Fall, and they will become available with the new Clan pages.
I have also made a minor update to the Classic theme, which will be available with the other updated themes. This was to fix the borders and include another alternating color, to make the theme more accurate to what original WCO looked like.
You can see it here, there's a medium gray in the mix:
For those who like having a more two toned theme, I have another one in the works but it's not currently ready for preview. I plan on having it land with the rest however!
Another theme update is to the Clan specific themes, where I have changed the pawprint icons found by categories to the new Clan icons, just recolored.
It's a pretty minor change to them, but I think it adds some character!
On a final feature note, we have some new themes coming up!
Introducing:
VINTAGE LOVE LETTER
50s DESSERT
We were severely lacking in pink toned themes, so hopefully that makes up for it!
That's all for today folks, I'll see you tomorrow for a major announcement!
Friday, October 28th
One thing we've always wanted to improve was how patrols worked.
With our current system, OOC there's not a great way to check if you were assigned to one. High ranks or cats stepping up to the plate usually mention roleplayers, but this isn't foolproof and is something easily missed, and while there is a Patrol area in the Allegiances, it's not particularly informative and more often than naught goes unedited.
Paired with Clans beginning to track their prey supply usage, we wanted to do something a little more intuitive. Introducing:
Patrols and Clan supplies now co-exist! For those using the current supply threads, this will save you from having to hunt them down, and compiles everything in one place neatly.
When you add patrols (and yes, anyone can do that!), it'll look like this:
You'll be redirected to a thread containing what you submitted: this is editable by high ranks, and any changes they make will appear on the Patrol Menu.
When you submit and your patrol is moved into the Active tag, it'll appear on the Patrol Menu automatically. Since all the information is together, if you're unsure if you were assigned to a patrol, you can just check this page to see if your cat is listed.
As patrols are marked completed or go inactive ("Discontinued"), they will be removed from the Ongoing Patrols List, but their supply contribution will remain under Clan supplies. You can view former patrols under Old Patrols.
When patrols report back, roleplayers can post what their patrol caught / gathered in the patrol thread (will require a link to where things started to be caught!) High ranks then can edit what they brought into the Stockpile: this is pulled to our Supply table, which will be publicly visible.
After around a month, entries will disappear from the supplies to reflect that prey / herbs would go bad. For herbs, you can have your cat check over supplies that should last longer (e.g. sticks for example) and then resubmit them to reset the timer. While this does add a layer of work to being a medicine cat, you shouldn't need to spend much time on it: your character should already be largely aware of any spoiling herbs and keeping their supply fresh.
Everyone will also be able to Take from the supplies to keep the counts accurate; keep in mind, this does require linking a roleplay post as well and if your cat is misbehaving they may be punished by a high rank.
An example of prey in the storage:
Where it says Edit is where Take will show on the member end!
As patrols bring in Supplies, herbs will always take Priority and be placed at the top of the table.
Ideally, this will make tracking patrols and having more accurate supply counts easier for everyone!
Before this is officially implemented, we will be beta testing and tweaking on feedback. We want this to simplify things and make keeping track easier -- not more work!
Saturday, October 29th
One thing our community has wanted for a while has been clearer rules on approved names and a name list.
Coming soon with the rest of our features, we'll be implementing these!
Naming Guidelines will cover how we determine what's allowed and what isn't. This will not encompass leader preferences: just because we allow a name, does not mean a leader will. Some Clan leaders have limited knowledge and won't allow cats with names they don't understand or like.
This list will be separated into Prefixes and Suffixes, and include as many site approved names as possible. It will also never be "complete." Members and high ranks are free to suggest names to be added as time goes on, and we'll look into them to make sure they'd be within the naming guidelines before they get added onto the list!
Right now, only donors will be asked to suggest names early. Once the feature is live, it'll open to everyone. Donors will also be given a sneak peek to our current ongoing list and progress, and be able to view the actual implementation in advance.
One thing we've always wanted to do was expand Warrior Cat's Online canon lore. Years ago, we had plans to make a super edition regarding the Clan origins, but this project proved to be exceptionally difficult for us. It hasn't been very feasible to write a full on novella in what little free time we have.
Instead, we're changing our approach a bit. We'll be releasing our Clan origins in a summarized form, with only some parts expanded on through writing. This is a slimmed down and more manageable way for us to get this content out to you guys!
While donors will be getting everything we have on this early and be able to provide feedback/help us make things spicy, here's a special sneak peek for everyone:
Quote:
Many moons ago, there were four friends. House cats with bright eyes and an idealistic dream of being more than just pets: they wanted to make a different with their life. To experience the thrill of the hunt, the dangers of the wild. They didn't know how they were going to do this, but they were determined to.
Burrow was the oldest. A grizzled elderly tom who once roamed the streets, now living a pampered life. He longed for his days in the wild and had heard of some distant "Clan" of cats in the mountains. This concept, he pitched to the others: a group of cats working together for survival, hunting, fighting, patrolling. It seemed like something out of some fantasy book, but the others came around to the idea quickly.
Rosie was the first to agree. A fire-ball with little fear, she was ready to face whatever the world had in store. Caramel and Bunny, the brothers, were more hesitant given their inexperience, but agreed. This opportunity and idea was too good to pass up. They could be a Clan-- warriors.
Burrow's connections as a stray proved to be useful: he reached out to old friends and his children to garner their interest, while Rosie and the brothers took to the other households. They wanted everyone willing to hear to join them: to help them grow this empire.
Soon enough, the city was ablaze with the news of a coming group. Strays were excited about this: they saw a better chance of survival. Pets were less enthused-- many of them preferred the comforts of their humans, and did not jump at this chance. It didn't matter to the four: the word was out, and cats were gathering in mass around the tracks.
And with the crowd behind them, the four set off from their homes: they headed outside the city toward the forests, but had no idea the dangers that lay ahead.
This project is going to be extensive, even with help, but we do plan on keeping this in line with everything else and releasing it alongside the rest of the updates. Hopefully this little excerpt has piqued some interest!
I will also be updating the Clan thread icons tonight to the emojis - this is pretty small but I just wanted to give people a small heads up so no one's taken by surprise.
Thank you everyone for your support and interest in these features!! Your input is greatly appreciated and we hope these help improve your WCO experience!!
Stay tune for more information! These announcements will land on their respective dates at 6 PM Eastern Time, and be edited into this post under spoilers.
I'll make small announcements bumping this thread so you guys can check it out!
Last edited by vellichor; November 3rd, 2022 at 11:05 PM.
Char Site updated (10/11/22), added Blazingpaw and Goldenkit!
During most or few roleplays, I will do a flashback that was conjured in my characters' thoughts. Please do not respond to the flashback unless you have the power to read minds or smth.
“and the human race is filled with passion. and medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. but poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
— john keating (robin williams), dead poets society
profile image credits:
background image credits found in albums | pfp - wallace and gromit
Upcoming WCO Features
No more typing up names and hoping they show up, as long as the roleplayer is using the name listed on the allegiances, you can easily pull them up.
I plan on having it land with the rest however!
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