Critters, Pu, Store, Arcade, Journal, Comments and more!!!

[Detomah]

Here at Total Format HQ, it gives me pleasure to say, i've been working my socks off the last few days, as you can probably tell just from the title of the thread, in that all these features have suddenly come to life at once.

I will run through each of these new features one at a time, giving some information about each one as I go.

Firstly though, I would like to thank you all for your continued patience regarding the speed of TF and the occasional moments of slowness and downtime that are happening at the moment. This is basically down to TF being attacked by a weakminded, petty fool, who obviously has nothing else to do with his time, other than to throw kiddy scripts at this website, instead of going out and getting a job, or playing games like normal people. I am working hard to correct this and keep on top of it and I currently feel that I am slowly winning the battle, although there are odd moments where things do grind quite badly. I also add, that TFs hosts are on the ball regarding this and several reports have been prepared by them and further action is almost certainly going to be taken by them, against these individuals.

I would also like to apologise, but I have to tell you, the shoutbox is not going to be returning to TF, as it is a serious drain on resources and is currently not worth having on the site. Instead I would refer you all to the ever present chatroom, which I really would like to see more people using.

A lot more work has been done on the back end of Total Format, to remove various minor bugs and a huge variety of redundant code and the likes, but I won't bore you with the details of that, i'd run out of character space long before I finished anyway.

Ok, lets get down to the juicy stuff... Yes, i've been busy, lots of nice new features are now available, so lets go through them...

Critters
This is a direct replacement for the old Petz system which TF had in place for many month, but lost due to the forum upgrades late last year. Essentially it is the same, but very much updated and hopefully much more fun.

You can access the new Critters system by clicking on the ARCADE button at the top of every single page of TF and clicking on the Critters link, or by clicking on any bodies critter in their profile.

There is a list of Frequently Asked Questions relating to the critters, which can be found HERE, which will be updated soon and I still have more basics to add to it as soon as possible anyway.

The basic idea is that you raise a virtual pet from an egg and your aim is to keep it alive, train it, feed it, mate it, battle it, learn magic spells and more.

To get an egg you will need to save up 100 Pu, as the vet doesn't work for free.

TF Pu
Total Format now has a new currency - Pu

Yup it sounds funny and lots of wise cracks can come out of it... that's partially why the name was chosen, lifes to short to not have fun. The other reason it was chosen, is that it was a currency used in The Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy and me being a bit of a sci-fi nerdy type, thought it sounded cool. All this currency does is replace the old TF Money currency really, it works in just the same way.

Currently TF Pu works with the Store, Critters feature and VBookie, our betting feature, although in time, it will function with many more features, including Sudoku, Mini Poker, the arcade and much more.

Pu is now TF's permanent currency and it will remain in place... WELL... permanently.

You can see how much Pu you have in your profile page, in each post you make and in various other places.

You can earn Pu in various different ways... You can play the lottery, gamble in the casino, bet on battles, make posts, make threads, vbookie events, and a few more ways too, you can even steal other users Pu if that's the path you want to take, but don't be surprised if it comes back and hits you in the face.

Store
This is pretty much the same as the previous store that TF had, which again, we lost when we upgraded our forum software last. The big difference this time is the amount of options you have available to you.

Not only can you save your Pu up in the Pu bank, you can buy gifts for people, buy awareness ribbons, buy various effects for your username and title, buy immunity from having your Pu stolen and stuff like that. On top of that though, if you save up, you can now purchase a name change for yourself. (that does mean however, no more name changes will be done for free).

Currently, bank interest is given out once every 3 days and the interest is set at 1.5% this may however go up or down depending on the status of the economy.

The best way for you to find out more about the store, is to go and explore it for yourself, by CLICKING HERE.

You will also find a direct link to the store along the forum navbar.

Arcade
As was announced a few days ago, Total Format has a new games arcade, which has replaced the old system. It is now in a state I would consider stable and currently has 700+ games which are working properly, although there is still a couple of rogue games hidden in there.

Further tweaks will be performed in the near future and hundreds more games will be added, as well as the various tournaments as promised.

There are now many new games in the arcade which will previously not have been played by most of you, so when you get bored for a few minutes, pop on in there and have a quick thrash.

Journal
This is pretty much self explanitary. Every member of Total Format with a membership status of "Full Member" can now have a journal. This is operated through your profile page, where you can write your daily/weekly ramblings and either keep them private or share them with the world.

To have a journal, simply go to the usercp option and make one. Then you can go to your journal and write away.

This has been in testing for the last few weeks, as it is a big addition and part of the overall rebuilding and tweaking that is still underway for the profile pages.

Comments
If you look HERE and look down the right hand side of my profile, you will see there is a comments system now in place for every full member of Total Format. This can be used to leave little messages for your friends, or to congratulate someone on their profile, or to simply say hi.

Please note however, that comments, in accordance of the rules of posting, are classed just the same as forum posts and flaming, personal attacks and inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated.

Profile Page
Again, if you look HERE, you will see that the profile page is much more detailed and advanced than it used to be and now gives you much more room to express yourself. This is still a work in progress and I still have things such as favourite links, video, gallery additions and the likes to add to it, but I would really appreciate it, if people would take the time to visit the usercp and spend a few minutes every now and then to update your profiles.

You will also notice on the profile page, that there is a world map, so you can show people what timezone you are in. As well as a friends section, so you can jump straight to your friends profile pages (of course you have to add people to your list and get them to add you back, for them to show up there, which is done through the buddy system)

Competitions
A new competitions section has been built for Total Format, where all new competitions will be run from. This is planned on being a big feature of Total Format, with lots of prizes available. It won't be unvailed just yet though, as I am in the process of acquiring a rather large batch of prizes to start us off.

Classifieds
As with the competition section, Total Format now has the full classifieds section that has been mentioned a few times before. Of course, it's not public yet, as I still have some tests to perform on it, but it will be with you very soon. So dig out all the stuff that you feel others could use, that you no longer want yourself. This section will only be useable by full status members of TF. More will be revealed about the classifieds section in the near future.

MMORPG Section
The MMORPG section that has also been mentioned a few times over the last few months, is complete. It is now basically in the process of being populated with the various mmorpgs that are available. This could take some time, with there being nigh on 400 mmorpgs out there, but I shall be working frantically on this section over the next couple of weeks in order to get them added, so I can make it public. It's is probably going to be one of the single biggest additions to TF and I am 110% sure it will be worth the wait.

Lyrics Section
The Total Format Lyrics section is also now complete and just like the mmorpg section, it is in the process of being populated, it is also still being bug tested, but there is only one minor bug still remaining that I am aware of. There are currently roughly 1400 songs listed within that section at the moment and we have stated, that as soon as it hits 5000, which will be in the next couple of weeks, the section wil be made fully public and put to live status. All full member users will be able to add the lyrics to their favourite songs, once it goes live. As well as searching through what will become one if the single largest lyrics databases on the internet.

Cheats Section
Using a very similar system to the lyrics section, Total Format has also completed the production of a Cheats Section, which is basically a gigantic database for every game out there, on every platform. Obviously these are proper built in cheats and not illegal type cheats, as i'm sure everyone knows how I feel about cheating. This system is likely to be made public in about 6-8 weeks time, which will give us the chance to stuff it full of all the latest cheats we can get our hands on.

Other Notable Stuff
Soon there will be multiplayer versions of Monopoly (if I ever finish translating it), chess, Ludo and a couple of others available. As well as another RPG/Adventure to go alongside the current RPG. Although the current RPG will be getting a major overhaul if the developer ever gets his butt in gear.

We will also unveil a full on Downloads system in the near future too. I've hummed and haaa'd over the system I wanted to use, as no second rate system was good enough in my opinion. Anyway, i've found one now which I am more than happy with and sometime soon it will appear. In that section, you will find demo's for various games, legal mp3s, ebooks, various patches and addons for stuff and a whole host of other things. It will be limited to start with, but... Plans are already set in place for upgrades of servers and the likes as and when they are needed (finances allowing).

I would also like to request that people start using the support section, bug section and suggestions section that have been put back inplace on the forum. It is vital that you let me know about bugs, so that I can fix them. It is also just as vital that I get constructive feedback from people about the site, forum and general way of things. The more info I have, the better the experience I can provide.

Anyway, I think if you've made it this far through this post, you've done pretty well, so with that, i'll leave it there.

Oh, one last thing...

Donations... Please don't forget to give TF your support. It's that support that is helping me to improve the site. I don't personally get a penny from any donations, every penny goes straight back into the site.