News: April 2016

Dear Friends,
Welcome to our latest Closed Beta game update, which you may download from here! We have been working hard to continue making improvements and adding features for this long overdue update. And while we still have much to do we’re excited about the changes we have already made.

The new village
We have a new village! It is a small placeholder for now, but this added technology gives us the ability to make more villages with different layouts and Stories. In the not too distant future you can expect stories that will take you to new locations and you will be able to pay a visit to friends in other towns. To help us test this new feature please use the placeholder “teleport sphere” in Mrs. Hatch’s parlor. The sphere on the right will take you to a new village. The sphere on the left will take you to the Estate Ballroom.
KNOWN ISSUE: When teleporting to the ballroom, we wanted you to see the splendor of the panoramic view before dropping into the ballroom itself. (Okay, that's a lie - it's a bug, but it's such a pretty bug!)

Updated Dancing mini-game, additional Estate Ballroom and front garden artwork
Speaking of the Estate Ballroom, please use our placeholder teleport sphere and try the updated Dancing mini-game in the Estate Ballroom. You must now press the “DANCE” button on the button action bar to start the dance. (The fonts and art have not yet been finalized for this new feature.) While the Estate is still undergoing renovations you may now wander much more safely and visit the gardens at the front of the Estate. You have to use the sphere to get back to the Parlour, as the Parlour teleport button only works within Tyrhampton itself.

Game database now hosted by Symas
Our partners at Symas Corporation will begin hosting our database starting with this update. They are Open LDAP experts who can more fully support us with improved stability, replication, and backups while also helping us optimize our database access. So hopefully there will be fewer crashes and annoyances where you thought you had changed your password and it didn't happen.....

Character Clothing Improvements
We have lots of new, improved options for female dresses including many new colour and pattern choices. Please consider creating a new character and tell us what you think! For our dashing gentlemen, we have added a range of hair colour selections, with the addition of a brighter red “Copper” for both men and women.
KNOWN ISSUE: Existing characters will have a flat grey texture for parts of their outfit that were replaced with new options. This will not otherwise affect your gameplay. Please consider creating a new character. Once the database move is complete, we will be having a character purge so all new characters will have the correct clothing, but we didn’t want to add that to the challenges of changing hosts and adding additional security. When you do create a new character, you might like to pretend you know nothing about the game in order to go through the whole tutorial – much of it is still “engineering art”, but we'd love to have some feedback about it.

New Character Skeletons and Animations
We have updated our character skeletons to give us more flexibility to make additions and changes moving forward. This change necessitated new animations. Expect more polish on these animations and new options, such as sitting, reading and even fainting coming soon.

Updated Art in Mrs. Hatch’s Cottage and the Terraced House
In preparation for expanding the player housing feature, we have updated the art in Mrs. Hatch’s cottage and the terraced house. You can recognize the terraced house from the fencing and small garden at the front. You should no longer get stuck on the staircases in these homes. The other housing types, such as the townhouse, will be getting revisions in future updates as well.

New Sky for Tyrhampton and Lighting Updated
While still pleasantly cloudy, Tyrhampton now has a new sky and updated lighting setup. We are still in the process of adjusting the world to accommodate this improvement.

Work continues on Player Housing or the “Dolls House” feature
The starting functionality for the Change Room (player housing) button has returned! We will be releasing an updated user interface (UI), including more housing types polished, and more wallpaper and flooring options in future updates. However we wanted to bring this feature back in its current state as soon as possible. You may try it out in any of the terraced houses. (Look for the fenced garden in the front.) Mrs. Hatch is very particular about her decorating and will not allow you to make changes to her home.

Try out our current Stories
We’re continuing to do many behind the scenes improvements to the game and Story system and encourage you to try out the current four Stories. Try out “The Lost Handkerchief” or “Bo Peep” on your own and request the assistance of a friend for “A Wretched Beginning”. You will require the assistance of two other friends… rather, other players for “Sabotage Chapter 1”. Friendship may not survive unrequited love! If at any point you become stuck, are unsure what to do next or would like someone to join you to play through a Story please let us know on the Forums and we’ll gladly assist.
KNOWN ISSUE: If another player is assisting Shepherd Brimley at the exact same time it is likely there will be a shortage of rope. If you find yourself unable to see the rope and pick it up, log out and back in to restart the “Bo Peep” Story and the Shepherd will have replaced the needed rope.
KNOWN ISSUE: We are trying to get more information about a bug that sometimes happens for the third player who joins “Sabotage Chapter 1”. If you join this Story as the third player and experience a problem before the Story chapter completes, please report it on our website Forums.

Our very small team still has much to do however we are proud of the progress we have made for this update. So many improvements and new artwork is in progress and we cannot wait to show you. In the coming months we will be posting a roadmap that shows not only that work left to get us from Open Beta to launch, but also the features we still hope to add once we have launched our Minimum Viable Product.

Finally, if you thought you had unsubscribed from our Newsletter, we do apologise for contacting you again. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding with our mailer, we have had to re-enter all our data, including some address that may well have been unsubscribed. Please feel free to unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of the page, and you will receive no further communications from us.

One of the great joys of an on-line world is how we can continue to grow the game.
As always, please either email Info@3turnproductions.com or post on the forums with any questions, requests, problems or feedback you may have.

With best wishes,
The Ever, Jane Development Team