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We hope everyone has been having a good summer! I personally have been on a bit of a break, but the past week or two been back into the swing of things. We have some new things to introduce!
The newest feature is Pet Bonds. Your pets now build a bond with you the more time you spend together, and you can spend that bond on permanent perks for them. You can find the new page under My Pets, Bond Perks. We really hope to expand on this, but wanted to get some feedback first on how it is, is this something we want to continue, how "grindy" it feels, etc.
Bond points are earned by:
Feeding your pet = 1 point per 5 hunger restored
Playing with your pet = 1 point per 5 happiness gained
Winning a Coliseum battle = 3 points, 1 point for a loss
Fishing = 1 point per catch
Mining = 1 point per ore or debris found
Bond points belong to the individual pet that earned them, so the pet you take everywhere will be the one that unlocks things first. There are three perks to spend them on, each costing 2,500 points:
Coliseum Stat Point = Grants that pet 1 unspent stat point to allocate in the Coliseum, up to 10 times.
Miner's Instinct = While that pet is active, every ore strike in the Mines has a 10% chance to turn up a bonus ore, stacking up to 30%.
Angler's Luck = While that pet is active, the chance of a treasure chest while Fishing goes up by 5 points, stacking up to 15 points.
Fishing and Mining both have a new companion box at the top of the page so you can see which pet is tagging along and what they are doing for you.
We also have a new pet species, the Shorgi! You can find them while Exploring the Ocean.
"In ancient Vertua there was no equal to the prowess of the Shorgi on land or in water, they were once behemoths that roamed in packs. But in modern times these behemoths are now perfectly pet sized, and while they still roam the lands and waters in packs these hot headed creatures tumble and fight in the oceans and on the beaches of Vertua. If you can withstand their snappy mouths and rough and tumble attitude, then you have yourself a fiercely loyal friend for life."
The Shorgi Carving has been added to the Angler's Trove, and to the Verdoku reward pool alongside the other carvings.
Gardening has picked up a new plant too! Pink Flower Seeds can now be found while Exploring the Plains, and will grow into a Pink Flower in a soil garden. They take about a day to grow, with the usual chance of getting your seed back at harvest.
Reporting has been rebuilt and is now available everywhere, not just on board posts. You will see a small flag icon on shouts, user profiles, pet profiles, user shops, trades, board posts and VerMail messages. Clicking it opens a pop-up where you can tell us in your own words what is wrong before you send it, which helps our moderation tools.
Trading has had some QoL work:
Trades now have their own page and permalink, so you can link a trade directly to someone.
Every user has a public trades page, so you can see everything one player has up for offer in one place.
You can now edit a trade's buyout price and wanted description after posting it, instead of deleting and starting over.
VerMail conversations now read like a chat. Messages are no longer split across pages, the oldest sits at the top, the newest at the bottom, and the page opens scrolled to the latest message.
A few smaller changes:
The Soup Kitchen cost is now capped at 2,500VP, so our wealthiest players are not paying silly amounts for soup.
User shop items are now capped at 100,000VP each.
The header banner is now tinted in dark mode so it blends in properly instead of glowing at you.
As always, thanks for helping us create Verpets!