Mod Announcement!

[sodder]

HAPPY ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY, DEERINGTON!

Deerington will be exactly one year old in May! Thank you to everyone who has been with us since the beginning, and thank you so much to the people who have joined us along the way! We have had an incredible playerbase who has continuously shown consideration, patience, respect, and cooperation with our entire mod team as we have collectively tried to figure out the best way to run this whole game. We applaud you for working with us on strategies to improve the mechanics of the game, and we applaud you all for being such an active and welcoming playerbase. You're a huge part of why this game has come as far as it has, and we appreciate your support at every turn!

So what's a birthday without a celebration and some gifts, right?

For All Players New and Old in May

↪ We will not be requiring AC for the month of May. You will still need to do a check-in during the AC period. You can choose to do regular AC/bonus points processing if you so choose, but it will not be mandatory to meet AC for May.

↪ All players will automatically be given 100 bonus points when they check in with their May AC. These points will be given to new players as well as old players. Even if you opt to do regular AC, you will be given the 100 bonus points.

To add the 100 bonus points into your overall bonus collection, just make a note of it on your next regular AC re: "+ the 100 bonus points from the May anniversary".

Thank You From the Team Directly

From Milk

Okay first of all can I just say ya'll have been so good to me considering what a total rookie mod I am. Thank you genuinely for being so understanding and offering advice/feedback/suggestions whenever you felt like there were areas in the game that could be improved upon. I'm still getting used to modding for sure, but this has been an easier process just because you're a good playerbase. It has been super rewarding putting a lot of effort into events and watching as you guys really swing full throttle into them and enjoy them and really make them your own. It's an awesome experience.

Additionally, I just want to thank my mod team in particular just because this game literally would not have been able to keep running if they didn't step up to the plate to offer their help and insight. They've made managing Deerington easier and more efficient, and I legit don't know what I'd do without any of them. Thank you so much guys for just being a good team and always open with communication.

Everyone's amazing and I'm excited for another year in the game. Let's get our freak horror on some more.

From Simcha

The kindness and welcoming atmosphere of this game was what made me apply to be a mod in the first place. I love this game deerly (eyyy) and it's been one of if not the best experiences I've had modding a game in a long time. I know we've had our hiccups, as every game does through its first year, but I have greatly appreciated the patience and understanding that you all have given us as we've tried to get Deerington running as smoothly as it possibly can. Your constant feedback, both positive and negative, has been invaluable and I know that this game is as wonderful as it is today because of the time taken by each of you to let us know what you wanted from the setting.

This has been my first experience writing up events for a Test Drive every month and I wanted to thank everyone for how supportive they've been in expressing their love for the prompts that we've been putting up regularly since September. Seeing potential players and current players alike get so excited for them really warms my heart. There's nothing like seeing players get excited to participate in the things we create for us all here. It's really been an absolute blessing.

I can't wait to see what the next year of Deerington will bring and I hope that things only continue to get better.

From Lauren

Modding here has honestly been incredibly rewarding. I have made so many friends here as a mod and a player who I really treasure. Our playerbase has been wonderfully friendly and communicative and that combination has made it a great environment for everyone to learn and improve so that we can all have fun together, so thank you to everyone for leaving us feedback, for talking to us when you need something, for continuing to have enthusiasm for the game and for each other and for being understanding when we have learning moments.

This game has brought together a truly wonderful group of people and I'm so glad we get to have fun together here. ♥

From Ami

I want to take a moment to thank everyone for the effort that goes into Deerington's Activity Check. It's probably the least exciting part of any game but I see so many people putting the effort in, trying their best and that effort is what matters the most.

Everyone has been open and patient with me as well as working with me to make sure that everything makes sense. Math is hard and the number of people who reach out to me or any other member of the mod team is amazing. We're here to help facilitate the game but it takes everyone in the game and communication to make it work. I feel super lucky to be a part of this game and it's because of everyone here.

IN REGARDS TO LOCATION UNLOCKS | GAME CLUES

Recently we ran a poll on whether or not the game was interested in keeping the unlocked locations option in the bonus rewards portion of the game. It was voted on that the majority of the game was more interested in game clues instead of location unlocks. We value your feedback and appreciate everyone who voted!

Considering the outcome of the votes, we have officially shut down location unlocks. This means we will no longer be accepting any new location unlocks from this point forward. The page will remain active so that both new and old players can reference the extended detail of the already unlocked locations.

If you are still waiting on an unlock that has already been processed, fear not! We will be getting to you as soon as we can. Please make sure you have filled out the appropriate form on the unlock page so that we can fulfill your request! If you are no longer interested in your unlocks, you may redeem your points where your request was originally submitted. Thank you!

In place of location unlocks, we will now be organizing a new reward that you can purchase with your points to learn more about Deerington! These will be granted in the form of clues that will be granted to characters ICly that they can rely on to investigate certain aspects of the town. Most clues will be tied into events, but not all of them! These clues may be simple and short, like a line or two from a book, or they may be a little more detailed. Regardless, they will be shorter than the unlock locations, but all of them will hold valuable information about the canon plot of the game. Our mod team is currently working on how to best price clues, but we will have them done sooner than later and let the entire game know when they will be ready to purchase! We look forward to supplying you all with some fresh game rewards.

A REGULARLY PROGRAMMED CR MEME

It was brought to our attention that a more regularly supplied CR meme would be appreciated among our playerbase, and we completely agree with seeing the value in that! From this point forward you can expect a CR meme to be posted on the 15th of every other month. If the momentum becomes high enough on the CR meme we are fully open to the idea of posting the meme every single month instead of every other month. If you as a playerbase already feels like it could use a monthly CR meme, please just let us know in a comment below and if there's enough support for it, we are fine with accommodating that!

You can expect a CR meme to be posted April 15th!

A PROPER PRELUDE TO EVENTS + TDM SHIFT

There have been a few mentions throughout our year as to having more information about events prior to the events being posted themselves. For a while we couldn't figure out an appropriate solution to this problem that fit with the theme of the game, but we have finally decided on one!

On the first of every month we will have the Dog Keeper post an IC entry to DeerFeed. This entry will serve as a "prelude" of sorts to that month's events. It will inform you of the weather/conditions of Deerington for that month, and it will give enough hints of any major occurrences that you can expect from the event itself. This is not going to detail the event explicitly, but you will be able to know, for example, if zombies can be expected or maybe if there's going to be a demonic flood of blood! The simple things in life, you know.

This entry will also serve as an IC discussion form that characters can interact with! The Dog Keeper may reply ICly to some questions, but for the most part, the entry will be for characters to talk on if they so choose. In any case, ICly all characters will receive this edition of the Deerington Post by the delivery dogs on the first of every month. We hope this helps with allowing more time for people to plan things! You can expect the first prelude entry to be posted on May 1st since we already well past the time this would be useful for April's event.

Due to the prelude being posted on the first of the month, we will be shifting the Test Drive Meme to the 25th of every month. This is merely to spread our events out a little better and allow for appropriate time between each of them.

Thank you to everyone who has helped guide us to a proper solution on this front!

RESERVE EXPIRATION + PULLS

It has come to our attention that we have somehow failed to bluntly state our reserve expiration anywhere accessible beyond a question asked on the FAQ that would have required some digging to get to.

We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this might have given to any interested players of the game.

As of the time this post is made we will be implementing that all reserves expire on the 9th of every month. This means that all applications on the 9th are free game to anyone interested. This gives everyone an equal amount of time to apply with their reserved characters in the days leading up to the 9th, and it will give other people a chance to apply to the game should anyone with a reserve fail to apply in time.

We also realized that we have no formal way to pull reserves or applications. While this has not technically come up yet as a situation to address, we discussed it during our overview of this post and decided it would be a good idea to have a formally declared way to pull reserves/applications players may have suddenly wanted to change.

From this point forward, anyone interested in pulling their application or reserve will do so by replying to their original comment that they wish to pull their app/reserve. This way we can update the appropriate lists, and once we have we will proceed to delete your comment(s).

All of this information will be uploaded to the application and reserve pages once this post has been made so that it is more clear and accessible to future or current players.

FEEDBACK WELCOMED

As always we encourage any feedback on the game, but for this particular post we would especially encourage feedback. Let us know what you feel we might have been lacking in throughout the year; let us know what maybe you have really liked seeing changed/what elements of the game have worked best for you or maybe haven't worked the best for you. The first year of a game is always half finding the game's footing, so we understand and appreciate all feedback in this regard.

Again, thank you everyone! We look forward to hearing from any of you who might have something to say.