Wed, 18 Oct 2006
Ridin' 'em In
We been out roundin' up them dogies for quite a while now and we reckon it's just about time to ride 'em on in. We been fixin' bugs and polishin' up both Frontier Town and the old Indian Trading Post and we got some changes to report:

• We added a Character page to the Barber where you 'kin pick which avatar poses should be used in which situations (like yer Victory pose and yer Wanted Poster pose). You 'kin also use it to change yer Handle if ya done picked a dud when ya first signed up.
• We redesigned the Saloon user interface to make things a bit simpler and clearer.
• We finished up the Friendly Folks system so now at the end of a game, you 'kin give yer opponents a thumbs up if ya like 'em real good and want to be matched with 'em again, or a thumbs down if they bugged ya and ya don't ever want to be stuck in a game with 'em again.
• We fancied up the Badge display a bit so that now it shows ya a shadow of Badges that ya ain't yet earned. But let it be known that it don't show ya all the unearned Badges, just Badges from a series that ya have at least one of already. There's plenty of surprises lurkin' in there.
• We also wired up some of the Card Packs in the General Store to be unlocked by certain Badges. Most of y'all will probably already have 'em all unlocked already but for a new player it'll add some fun and excitement when they earn them Badges.
• We now display influence icons next to units in the game when they have an influence (like Ramblin' or Hustle). We already had 'em in the Unit Status display in the corner, but sometimes it's hard to tear yer eyes away from the action long enough to look up there.
• We also now display a question mark over the head of a Unit when their Advance Order is canceled because it is no longer valid. We'll also be adding a question mark that lingers on their Unit Status display until the next time you select the unit, but that didn't make it into this here release.
• We wired up the Ranking Levels, so now you can see in yer Wanted Poster how well ya stack up against the other cowpokes. The ranking order is: tenderfoot, cowpoke, Scofflaw, Rebel, Law Breaker, BANDIT, OUTLAW, RENEGADE. We'll stick that list somewhere that folks can easily find at some point.
• You 'kin click on the Cowpokes in the High Score lists now and check out their Wanted Posters.
• We also added a bunch of fancy new particle effects and more great sound effects.

On top of that, we done fixed so dang many bugs that I can hardly keep count. A great big thanks to Sheriff Mark for his hard work on that front.

As I mentioned at the start of this here ramble, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and we're dang close to lettin' y'all head on over to the Indian Trading Post. Here's a screenshot of a new gameplay mode called Wendigo Attack:

Keep yer ears peeled and if all goes according to plan, the next thing ya hear from me will be "Welcome to the Indian Tradin' Post!"

- Sheriff Mike