News

Furcadia's news blog -- Get all the latest on Festivals, events, Second Dreaming, contests, and more!

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Name generator!

Have you been having fun with the web-based FurEd? Good! In today's news blog we want to show you another of the new features that makes creating new characters easier and more fun!

Have you ever wanted to make a new character and couldn't find an available name? Or bumped into a creative block where naming a new roleplaying alt became a big obstacle between you and slipping into the new persona?

The new and upcoming web-based FurEd will help you out! We've added a nifty random name generator! That's right, not only will FurEd put together an outfit for you on demand, but it will also suggest a name for your new character that is not taken. The suggestions are not only specific for the selected gender, but also take the species into account. So, if you're a Feline, you'll probably get different names than you would if you had chosen a Canine character. Each species has their own set of last names, plus some generic ones.

It'll also consider your account's email address! It can determine if your account email has a first and last name and offer that name to you first before generating one. So if your email is super-furre @ furcadia.com you'll get Super Furre as a name suggestion if it isn't already taken.

Try it here!

Whether you take the name as it is or let it inspire you, making characters just got easier! It's quite entertaining to just play with it and see what it suggests. We hope that this new feature will also help new players get smoothly and quickly into the game.

FurEd Random Name Generator

Please note that the web-based FurEd is still in development! So not everything works flawlessly yet, but we think it's already a lot of fun to play around with. Oh, and if you click Play, it will add the character to your account right away!

Let us know what you like about it on Twitter or Facebook!

FurEd Update!

The preview version of the new web-based FurEd (Character Create) has been updated!

FurEd updated

Take a sneak peak now!

http://cms.furcadia.com/fured/

Remember to log in with your CMS Account, not with your character's password. Make sure to select a digo or avatar that has a butler, as otherwise nothing happens when you click on "Hair", "Fur", etc. :)

The upcoming 32-bit update of Furcadia comes with numerous new features. Among them is the greatly increased color depth for everything, including the dyes for characters. Right now, Furcadia is limited to a 256 color palette, but once the update is released (not much longer now!), we'll have a 32-bit range of colors for everything! You'll notice in the preview of the FurEd/Character Create that you have the same number of basic colors available for your character. This is by design and we'll add many more dyes over time!

This week, Majas and Emerald Flame have been going over many of the basic colors and touched up these older dyes for a better flow. This is especially noticeable with Hair dyes that only had 2-4 colors/shades. Many dyes, such as Gray brown and Cream brown have more contrast and look less flat. Others, like Aquacyan, no longer consist of just two shades, which made them look flat, but are fully colored now. Pinewood and Light chocolate are less shiny and pink! On numerous fur dyes (Fox orange, Yellow, and Violet are the most noticeable), the pastey white side of the spectrum was tweaked to be more saturated for more robust and full colors.

Go ahead and play some with this preview version and let us know what you think! Note that not all avatars have "butlers" yet, so if you get an error saying that a file doesn't exist, that's normal! It's a preview, so there are some small wrinkles still needing to be ironed out, but we wanted to show you!

Over the coming days, we'll talk about other new FurEd/Character Create features, as well as share more update news with you. Stay tuned!

New Test version available, RC7!

Thanks largely due to your awesome feedback, we're back with even more fixes and improvements for this test version release!

What's new? We have lots of bug fixes and tweaks.. but the biggest update is that Treeki entirely rewrote how the interface for DreamEd works in this test version! Since this is new code, please let us know any of anything odd if you come across it (as long as it's not already listed in Known Issues!) ;) Here's a full list of the fixes / changes in this test version.

DreamEd new UI flexibility animation

You can download the latest version here! Please keep reporting any bugs you find on this forum thread!

32bit Remaps video tutorials!

We're going to try to be faster making these tutorials, but it should be easier now that there's a good format for them. Let us know in the video comments if you thought the video was helpful and if you have any suggestions for other tutorials! This is our YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/Furcadians

New test version, RC6!

Thank you for all your feedback and reports about the preview version of the upcoming update! We have fixed quite a few bugs and made changes based on your feedback, and packed them all in a new, shiny preview version that is ready for you to test it!

Some people mentioned having password and login issues - we think those were addressed! If not, let us know so we can continue looking into it.

Grab the latest test version here! For an overview of the major changes and fixes, and to give feedback, please use this forum thread. Keep the bug reports coming! :)

In other news the Ponikin Kindling on Saturday was a huge success with lots of giveaways and new games! Now you can grab your own Ponikin on Digo Market!

Season's Greetings

Everyone at Dragon's Eye Productions and Catnip Studios wishes you very Happy Holidays and a fantastic New Year! We appreciate you tremendously, and we hope your wishes come true in 2016!

There's exciting stuff to do in Furcadia over the Holidays!







Overview of the new features

The big highlight is that we have the preview version ready for the coming update! Second Dreaming World is currently open for you to try out and help test the new features and 32bit editors! Of course you can also just enjoy the updated maps (have you seen the new Allegria Island yet?) and chill with your friends while the family goes crazy!

We've also recently announced the Winter Festival Contests! Join the friendly competition and share your creativity with the whole community, and win many Golden DragonScales. Use the new 32bit editors to make a cool Dream and Patches, write a cute Furcadia Carol, and color the adorable picture with "New Toys' on it!

Our Holiday "New Toys" Sale is in full force! If you're a lover of all things collectible, you'll love this event! It's also a great opportunity to complete your Digo collection as every single avatar will be 70% off during the holidays!

On December 16th this year, Furcadia had its 19th birthday bash! There were tons of awesome giveaways and everyone had a blast!

There's lots of roleplaying and socializing going on in Furcadia -- Check out the dreams and main maps, greet new players, and perhaps bring back some of your old friends to spend creative time with!

Thanks for being part of our community -- we <3 you & see you in 2016!

New Video Series

We've shown you screenshots, but now we're really showing you! Join Emerald Flame and Majas in the first video of our new series on Update 31a, The Second Dreaming - Part 1. In this series, you'll learn about what's new and how to use it! In today's 30-minute video we're giving you a general overview and talk about the major features of the coming update!

Watch the Video

Editing Dreams

Today, we wanted to show you another in-progress glimpse of the new Dream Editor! Designed by Gar, with art by Majas and Muunokhoi, and programmed by Felorin, Farrier, Treeki, and Jeff, it is a great tool to create and maintain your dreams in their full 32-bit glory! One of the new features is that it switches smoothly between small and large size maps (see the switch at the top by the tabs).

New Furcadia Dream Editor

(Full size picture)

We'll ship this new Dream Editor with the update so you can dive right into it. We also have plans for enhancements and features to make dream weaving even easier and more efficient. And this just in: Felorin finished work on 38 new DreamSpeak commands, which now enter the testing stage! Woohoo!

Great Balls of Fire

For the past two months, Rat The Unloved has been working on making the Direhound fly! The sitting and flying frames have new animations, and the laying poses feature small flames flickering around the pawsy feet! Animated 32-bit effects, no dithering!

32bit DireHound!

It's included in our upcoming update! We waited so that we could use the 32-bit animations with translucent effects. It was so worth the wait!

Anyone who got a yearly Direhound avatar will soon receive an extra yearly Direhound on their rewards page, even if the old one expired already! That way you can enjoy the avatar with 32bit flames. Want a Direhound FOR LIFE? They're still available!

Fall 2015 Newsletter!

Halloween is just around the corner, and that means it's Wolf Howl time in Furcadia! The updated Festival Dream opened just a few days ago! Not satisfied with just exploring and socializing? How about the Wolf Howl contests? That's right, as every year there are fantastic creativity contests that you can participate in! Whether you're a skilled Dreamweaver, an established (or infamous) cook (really writer!), love pumpkin carving, are great with sounds, there's a category for you to enter. Attractive prizes and fame await!

In the Summer Newsletter we mentioned Update 31a, which is just around the corner now! It's the first of the two major Second Dreaming updates that lay the ground for great things to come. If you haven't checked out our very, very long development video in late spring, or the Summer Newsletter, have a look at those! We'll also need help with the beta testing of the update. If you're interested, keep an eye on our news blog, Facebook, and Twitter!

The main objective of this update, besides laying down the foundation and updating the internal engine of Furcadia, is to get the 32-bit editors into everybody's paws. These editors will give everyone the ability to prepare their Dreams for 32-bit. Yes, the new Lighting included! Backers will also be able to load their new 32-bit Dreams! This update will also feature new Account logins and a new, modern web Character Editor with the ability to save out costumes. Additionally, most of the 6,000+ free default patches (plus some new art!) will be remodeled into 32-bit and included in the install to help you get your Dream ready for 32-bit in time for Update 31b!

As Felorin pointed out the other day, "They say the first 90% of a project takes 90% of the effort, the last 10% takes the other 90%. That's kinda true, only that second 90% is squeezed into even less time!" We're rather excited about the progress made, and we look forward to a possibly turbulent year full of great Furcadia milestones!

To keep you better updated, we've started to post more frequent news in our News Blog. The ones that are related to The Second Dreaming are for Backers and Sponsors only (you still have a little time to become a supporter!), but there will also be general news for everybody! Visit the blog frequently for updates and pictures!

Fireclaw!Last but not least, we have started a new sales event where you can win huge prizes! Last month it was a Custom Avatar Space, and this month it is a Gold Sponsorship for Life. What the grand prize for November will be? We'll reveal it soon! Speaking of revealing: The Fireclaw avatar, a very magical tiger, is about to be kindled! The party for its introduction is scheduled for Monday, October 26th, at 7:00 PM Furcadia Time (that's the same as Central Time). Hope to see you there! Oh, and if you have missed it's arrival, the Buggie is here now, too!


BuggieThat's it for this month! We wish you the very best and that life smiles on you, always.

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