Magistream Monthly Newsletter - August 2024

[Rosehill]

The Magistream Newsletter contains information on what we're currently working on and planning, what technical issues have been fixed and are being worked on, as well as information of upcoming events or happenings in the near future. We'll also gladly hear if you have other topics you'd like to be included in upcoming newsletters! Feel free to discuss these ideas in this very same thread.

New features and happenings since the last Newsletter in June:

• A regular release (Arcus Feli, June 23rd)
• July Monthly Donation Pets (Pterois Abaia, July 1st)
• The Shimmering Shop stock changed to past July Donation Creatures (July 1st)
• A regular release (Pygmy Gemdragons and Crystalwings, July 9th)
• July Midmonth Donation Pet (Pordrake, July 15th)
• A regular release (Alliraxes, July 27rg)
• August Monthly Donation Pets (Crions, August 1st)
• The Shimmering Shop stock changed to past August Donation Creatures (August 1st)
• A new feature and map location the Riparian Forest was released. With it came the ability to get past retired event creatures. (August 1st)
• A regular release (Tenabre Kitsune, August 4th)
• Black Market returned (August 4th - August 12th)
• August Midmonth Donation Pet (Zebu, August 15th)

Upcoming events and happenings:

• A regular release (late August)
• Upcoming site maintenance August 23rd - August 25th!
• September Monthly Donation pets (September 1st)
• The Shimmering Shop stock changes to past September Donation Creatures (September 1st)
• A regular release (early September)
• September Midmonth Donation Pet (September 15th)
• Black Market returns (late September)
• September Newsletter (around September 21st)

Game things being actively worked on:

• An integrated item guide
• Some other item related shenaningans
• Updating FAQ and Rules

Team discussion/planning has been revolving around:

• How the Riparian Forest is received
• Gold issues
• Planning for the rest of the year

Technical things that have been fixed:

• Small issues here and there.
• The stream is moving again. The tributaries were also made to move.
• A bigger adjustment to how bot traffic is handled. This has made the site noticeably faster.

Technical fixes being worked on:
A reminder that known bigger issues are listed in the Report Site Errors thread's first post. They are now also put approximately in order of which fixes will be worked on first.

• Upcoming site maintenance August 23rd - August 25th!
• Investigating trade issues where sometimes the pets aren't transferred even though a trade gets completed
• Investigating an issue with gifting
• Investigating some issues with donation system
• Optimizing central parts of the site's code. Once this is done it should help make things load faster and also allow for using items, embedding multiple, and adding creatures to trades from other than the main tab.

[CinnaminDraconna]

Optimizing central parts of the site's code. Once this is done it should help make things load faster and also allow for using items, embedding multiple, and adding creatures to trades from other than the main tab.

This is the primary thing I'm interested in seeing fixed.

I'm loving the Riparian Forest; tributary and daily quest. Still hoping to see Wiccan Cats added to one or the other place.

Something I'd like to request in regards to the daily quest in the Riparian Forest AND the Grass Forest.. Any way we could get a timer showing either when we last did the quest OR when we can do it again?

[darksouls]

Something I'd like to request in regards to the daily quest in the Riparian Forest AND the Grass Forest.. Any way we could get a timer showing either when we last did the quest OR when we can do it again?

We'd love to see this implemented too.

This all sounds good, though we really do want the about me sections to return soon as well. Otherwise, thanks for the update, staff!

- Alex

[Rosehill]

Optimizing central parts of the site's code. Once this is done it should help make things load faster and also allow for using items, embedding multiple, and adding creatures to trades from other than the main tab.

This is the primary thing I'm interested in seeing fixed.

I'm loving the Riparian Forest; tributary and daily quest. Still hoping to see Wiccan Cats added to one or the other place.

Something I'd like to request in regards to the daily quest in the Riparian Forest AND the Grass Forest.. Any way we could get a timer showing either when we last did the quest OR when we can do it again?

This issue is unfortunately so deeply ingrained into the very foundations of how the site operates, that it will take considerable time to get it working. The upcoming maintenance next weekend is one more step in that direction, as I'll be doing some bigger background improvements. Trying to solve the persistent lag issues has also eaten up a lot of the time that was scheduled for other site improvements. Luckily the lag issues should now be mostly in control, and I can pour my full attention to other site improvements and fixes.

The timer on the Riparian Forest is a good idea, I'll see if I could make that happen.

Something I'd like to request in regards to the daily quest in the Riparian Forest AND the Grass Forest.. Any way we could get a timer showing either when we last did the quest OR when we can do it again?

We'd love to see this implemented too.

This all sounds good, though we really do want the about me sections to return soon as well. Otherwise, thanks for the update, staff!

- Alex

The About Me section's editing is also, I'm afraid, one of the biggest and most time consuming fixes remaining, so it'll take a lot of time to get this back working. It's still on the list though, and not forgotten!

[castlevania]

i appreciate the hard work you're putting into site fixes! i want to say i really am happy with the introduction of the riparian forest- its a bit hard for me to accept the end of summer, so it really cheered me up to see my favorite halloween creatures return, to help ease me into autumn and look forward to october.

i think its fantastic to have creatures be as accessible as they are in the riparian forest (along with the twice-daily mysterious forest quest creatures). it really motivates me to consistently log in daily, knowing i have many more options to collect my favorite creatures!

for future updates, is it possible to choose to use specific seasonal themes year-round? (i would love to have the halloween seasonal site layout whenever i like)

[Spottedwolf]

Glad to know maintenance went well, and excited for things to come! I didn't realize how much Magistream occupied my idle time until it was down for a bit.. :p

I'm a returning player, so I really love the Riparian Forest! It allows me to access things I never would've gotten otherwise, and it still feels pretty exciting to get 'rare' eggs even if they're pretty common at this point.

[froglady]

Kudos to Rosehill for even daring to take on what must by now be a labyrinth of legacy code plus all the additions that have been cobbled on along the way. You can bet that everything she touches has a cascade effect that could change several other features of the site. I don't envy the slog she must be going through to keep the site working as we expect it while optimizing and modernizing the code and properly integrating features that were just "pasted on".

[darksouls]

I cannot even imagine the undertaking that coding and re-coding this site must be, I agree with the above. It must be very painstaking work. Very glad to see the downtime seemed to go as planned.

- Art