09.11.08
Two months later..
It would be hard to could all of the number of genuine blog posts that say things like “I’m going to try to post more often now, alllright!”, followed by months of silence. Uh, sorry about that. 
Things have been really exciting here at Twelve Sands, and I’ll try to cover a brief summary of some changes that have occured.
The most exciting addition for me was probably the PVP addition, which leverages the existing combat engine. Thanks to some nice generalized code and some in-page AJAX, you get a real-time combat against someone else who happens to be logged in at the same time. It’ll help iron out some of the inconsistencies between the classes, and should help club-suited players smash as many faces as they see fit. Since all of the buffs and artifacts you can use in a normal fight are still valid, I’m hoping it will help kick the economy forward a little bit when the ranking system goes live.
Things have been really booming on the wiki, where a few players have really helped flesh out the content. It’s been really exciting for me to watch, and to be honest, quite humbling! I’d love to see a community develop, and the collaboration that’s been happening with the wiki has been awesome. If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look here:
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Twelve_Sands
Please note that it exists totally outside of Twelve Sands, and it completely player-driven. Very cool!
The game is definitely primarily a text-based one, but I’ve started adding in a few small images and icons in a few places. It’s really seemed to help people get a better feel for when artifacts are dropping, when reputation is awarded, and when other neat things are happening. Expect more changes, with custom buff icons, and a badges revamp for players who have earned special rewards.
Leaderboards have been expanded, and the new sets should help intrepid collectors find places to show off their collection. I’d like to expand more on this in-game as well, to help reward people who are interested in completing as many sets of things as possible.
Chat got revamped, UI got improved, and a slew of people came over from Kingdom of Loathing (which if you have not played, you owe it to yourself to do so). It’s a really exciting time for me, if it isn’t obvious, and I’m stoked about the upcoming months. More big changes are on the way, so keep an eye out.