Aelis

Sometimes, but ability to schedule that would be nicer. This one is probably less important than the other two for me.

Another one that's been bothering me for awhile:

I often see announcements first through the Discord channel, but when I click on them to expand them I'm usually on mobile and the logged out layout for new announcements cuts off a good portion of the message making them really hard to read. A responsive layout would be a big plus there in particular!

Enabling email notifications for in-game PMs again - SMS is nice, but very few people tick the box.
Letting me mark crits as to not be saccable - although maybe the accidental sac is a feature.

Ledah had walked the lands for many years, straying into some of the darkest places and returning changed. One of the things he learnt was to channel the darker magics of the world, today he would put that to a use, however whether good or bad it would be up to the reader.
Unknown by Chewett the Gazebo of Chaos was the perfect place for Ledah to channel these darker powers. A punishment became a mistake.
Ledah stood in the centre, pinned by Chewett’s spell, and begun chanting. Here, stretching out to the five pillars of the Gazebo, he pulled together the ancient teleportation magic and perverted it. Instead of sending his body to another place it was used to resurrect his thoughts in another body.
A long dead figure stirred on the Gateway Island, filled with vitriolic hate towards CARD. All it knew is that it must deplete as much as it good. Fumbling around the land it grabbed the nearest tools and begun to deplete the land.
The punishment of Ledah became a greater threat, the depletion of the Gateway.

An 'itemlock' spell would be interesting indeed. But in my opinion, it should have a small duration, similar to its counterparts attacklock and movelock.

can't implement all now, but they are good ideas and i will do some of them.

i think we should dedicate a QoL week, where all i do is just this kind of stuff and not big features.. maybe the week after this one, you will soon see why :D

Good thread! (Reminds me of https://blog.sbensu.com/posts/friction-logs/, one of which I've been meaning to write up for MD for a while now)

A few quality of life requests of my own around the in-game inbox:
Threaded messages - would help me keep track of a conversation history better, and especially relevant to reducing clutter now that the auction house sends messages for every time I get outbid on an item.
Starred messages - let me star or bookmark the most important messages I get
Snoozed messages - let me snooze a message to a point in the future when it'll appear as a new unread message again. This would help me manage responses based on time I actually have available or more generally when the "stars align" and I can actually take action on a request.

Stepping back into combat, there are a few things I’ve noticed that I just wish were a little easier. I also think most of these could fit quite naturally into the world itself:
Rituals: Allow us to create and prepare rituals even when the target/player isn’t currently present. A ritual is something we prepare through our own will and knowledge; the person we intend to affect doesn't necessarily need to be standing in front of us while we prepare it. Premeditated murder, essentially.
Ritual presets: Let us save commonly used rituals. Think of these as personal ritual patterns (inner magic designs??) or knowledge we've already mastered, rather than having to reconstruct the same ritual from scratch every time.
Creature search: Add a search bar when selecting creatures for rituals.
Creature favourites: Please let us favourite creatures so they always appear at the top. These would essentially be the creatures we have formed the strongest familiarity with or rely upon most often.
Creature organization: Tags, filters, favourites, and sorting by things like level, rarity, age, stats, etc. Ideally this would be at the top of the creature page. A seasoned warrior, ritualist, or creature handler should be able to organize their knowledge and resources in a way that makes sense to them.
Creature grouping: Optionally group duplicates together, such as all Grasan types or all Aramors.
Recently used: Have recently used creatures/items appear near the top.

None of these would really change the mechanics or make combat easier, just more organized for new comers and fossils.
If anyone has other QoL ideas that could also make sense, I'd love to hear them.
edit: I realized a lot of the issues I have with creating rituals is if we put the drop down menu at the bottom of the creature page inside the creature ritual maker itself, it would work.

After much trudging through the land Chewett stumbled onto prime suspect number One, Ledah.
This depleter, who Death Ray and Chewett had decried across the land, stood before him. A polite conversation was never going to take place and what followed was an escalation of words.
Accusations were met with defiance, neither party wanted to stand down and every comment was followed by a more vicious reply.
Chewett demanded an end to the depletion Ledah perpetrated through the land, Ledah however was unphased and stated he would continue until his last.
Since there was no need for further words Chewett decided to show CARD was not toothless. Before Ledah could react Chewett activated an erolin device and shouted “May the punishment of the land hit Ledah”.
The first action of CARD was to banish Ledah to the Gazebo of Chaos, but in the darkness, he hatched a plan himself…

After much patient work, Chewett and Death Ray finally had what they needed: a list.
Names had been gathered, movements compared, and the marks left upon the Realm carefully recorded. The question now was what to do with it. A list hidden away in the Archives would change nothing.
Chewett had a better idea.
The Bell of Marind could call the lands together — and if the Realm was going to hear of the depleters, then it would hear their names clearly.
So Chewett and Death Ray set out. From the depths of the Archives, across the barren stretches of No Man Land, and onward towards the peaks of Golemus, they carried their accusations far and wide. Wherever they found ears willing to listen, the names of the depleters were proclaimed.
For CARD, this was its first truly public act.
And from the shadows, Ledah watched.
The coalition was no longer merely observing the depletion.
Now it was making sure everyone else was watching too.

At Champion's Challenge, when you click at the signpost to activate the challenge, the tiles (and the signpost itself) turn to this broken img thing.

Probably related:
https://forum.magicduel.com/topic/29128-gwi-arrow-puzzle/

Mods, feel free to delete the following topic as it reports the same problem:
https://forum.magicduel.com/topic/29108-champions-challenge-tile-effects-are-broken/

Player name: Marcorias
Player ID:  262873
Browser: Firefox
Operating System: Fedora 43
Importance: low importance
Description - What happens when the bug occurs:
In Champion's Challenge and Berserker's Way tiles are highlighted correctly on hover until you activate the puzzle, after that they dissapear (looks like some asset loading issue). Apparently, this might be globally, but I've only seen it on these two puzzles.
How to reproduce the bug:
You basically need to activate a puzzle and it happens. Based on the Discord discussion this is not browser specific and I am not alone.

What you expect to happen:

I have been thinking about a possible direction for the Caretakers, particularly in light of their historical association with death and preservation. Rather than treating these as separate responsibilities, I think they can be brought together through the idea of memory and what remains after loss.
Death in the realm is rarely permanent. People, alliances, even lands may wither only to return many years later. What is lost in the process may therefore be something subtler and more delicate: a role, a relationship, a place, a practice, a memory, or simply the way something once was.
I have proposed a new alliance statement to the Grand Duke and now I would like to make it public and hear from you. I believe this could be a good direction to move beyond the focus on death that has defined much of the Caretakers' identity for so many years.
I would welcome your thoughts, objections and suggestions. Let us see what it stirs.

As the last leader of the alliance I think that Aelis would indeed lead the Caretakers in an interesting direction, and therefore support his leadership bid.

After a long thoughtful discussion with Aelis I agree with this move and will, once a short period of public discussion occurs, put this forward to Mur to action.

I agree with this forum post.
The forum is the only place safe from people spamming for a single evo point.
That cannot stand.

The Craft: What trade or combination of trades does your creation represent?
The most noble trade - That of a Toy Maker - bringing joy to all around with such wonderful creations and games.
The Materials: What did you gather?
1x Dead Mouse, our subject to base the toy on
2x Imprinted Darks, for eyes to replace the empty sockets
1x Mechanical Heart, to replace the dead one
1x Bit of Stuffing, to pad out the hollow interior
1x Secret Ingredient, that brings it all together - a trade secret, you understand
The Creation: What are you attempting to create?
I am attempting to create a wonderful toy, a reanimated mouse - one some poor child perhaps lost, an old pet. After all, most know the pain of losing a childhood pet - not so with my marvelous creation. Spare your child the pain of losing a pet.
The Method: Why should these materials become this particular creation?
It is a coherent use for the materials, and I am a master of my craft. I usually create mirrors for people to ogle themselves in, this is much easier.
The Purpose: What is the finished item intended to do?
It is intended to be a lifelong companion - and wonderful conversation starter at dinner parties.
The Result: What did the Forge actually produce?
Stitched Mouseling with Mirror-Eyes
A palm-sized plush mouse sewn from patched cloth and pale teddy-stuffing, its small body faintly warm and softly ticking where a gear-wound heart nests beneath the seams. Two beads of swirling Imprinted Dark are set for eyes, their blurry image shifting to face whoever stands nearest. A whisper of white powder is worked into the stitchwork, and the whole toy hums with a charge it does not spend — the surge condensed into its very substance and marked upon it.

Just to add something to this.
Like Ledah mentioned combat stats don't really mean much because everything has a hard counter.
Not only that, but the differences between various characters are so great that maintaining armor would feel like a waste of time (no amount of boost a set of armor can realistically give me would overcome hundreds, thousands of percentages worth of difference in stats).
So in order to make them more useful, would it be possible to create pieces that have a non-combat focus (or at least not strictly attack/defense)? Like something that increases briskness, making it easier to gather heat, or maybe some scout garb that has an AP reduction for movement. Armor that reduces heat scars (or increases, for masochists)? A wizard cloak that boosts power and maybe grants some extra casts? Just throwing some ideas out there...

Mur asked for the community to come up with ideas for the new Primordial Pet feature, so let's see what everyone can come up with.
The main goal here is to experiment and help test the system. We have a new mechanic to play around with, so let's see what it can actually do and what kinds of combinations we can discover.
The idea is pretty open. You can use any creature, at any stage, and then decide what you want to feed the Primordial Pet to influence what comes out.
For your combination, list:
Creatures: Any four creatures you want to use
Creature stage: What stage each creature should be
What you feed it: Other creatures, ANY item, heat, or anything else you think could have an effect
Result: What do you think the Primordial Pet should become?
Don't worry too much about balance or whether an idea sounds strange. This is about experimenting. Try combinations that make sense, combinations that don't, and things that you think might produce interesting results.
The more people experiment, the more we can learn about how the system works and what is possible.
And don't forget to upvote/downvote the combinations you like. Mur might end up picking one of yours to actually use.
Let's break the system and see what happens.

Creatures: Any four creatures you want to use
Standard Angien - Max Stage
Tainted Angien - Max Stage
Sunless Apparition - Max Stage
Unnumbered Apparition - Max Stage
Creature stage: What stage each creature should be
All max
What you feed it: Other creatures, ANY item, heat, or anything else you think could have an effect
Equal measures Reality Shards and Heat. Fed as soon as possible, to keep it well fed.
It is initially created with the item - Ledah's Staring Frame, Condensed. Description below:
Description
Result: What do you think the Primordial Pet should become?
An Angien that is as rooted in reality, such that it could be a player, not merely an aspect of one. Balanced in a sense with heat it was fed and the Liquid Dust the Apparations produce - a nominally balanced being, a master of mirrors.

Due to a player asking to be removed from the AL I'm going to need to rewrite a number of days, alongside recreating images. Unfortunately I write these a few days ahead so it needs some rework. I hope I will be back on track by next week.
I have contacted everyone involved in this, so If you are involved in this, or want to be involved, and haven't gotten a PM, let me know.

I think Primordials point too much to something that exists in the beginning.
I think something along the lines of the following words make more sense to me: Integral, Inner, Intrinsic, Core, Essential.
None of those sound as enticing as Primordial, though.

Perhaps this concept would benefit from an original MD name, like fenths (fenthlings? :P The name would lack our wiiya though).

Death Ray sent a missive to Chewett, troubled by the continued emptying of the land. Having seen more and more of the Realm stripped of its natural resources, he could no longer simply stand by and watch. He asked that his name be added to CARD, and offered his aid to the growing coalition.
Chewett gladly accepted.
Death Ray wasted little time. Almost immediately he set about tracking those responsible for the depletion, following their movements and noting where the land had been left bare. Working together, he and Chewett were able to watch the depleters more closely than ever before, comparing observations and steadily building a clearer picture of what was happening across the Realm.
With another pair of eyes, another set of notes, and another voice willing to challenge those doing wrong to the land, CARD had become stronger.
CARD was growing.
Unfortunately, so was the depletion.
OOC:
Thanks to Death Ray for consenting his character into both the roleplay AND the artwork!

It's such a serious matter he decided to take his shirt off! PS: Do you find the little extra added to the image from DR's avatar?

yes and not only that, but the lack of color in md is to underline anything personal/special, thats why items have colors for example. Pets have all reason to have colors as they are not manifestations of a fixed set of rules like the rest of the things are. However the crits they will be spawning, will be in the classical drawing format, because they are echoes of something, not that something. Same way avatars are bw, but illusions have color (avatars obey the rules of the system, illusions are personal). Colored creatures have color because apart of their usual bw version (the echo) colored bring something else, they are the same crit, but with the memory of an anniverssary or event.

I am glad you noticed, and no i didnt lose my mind starting to color MD randomly :)) it is and will be a color code allover.

The truth is that back then, certain unique stuff could not be truly unique, like illusions, so i had to go with the idea of those things being unique. Now the pets allow uniqueness and color to be more obviously bound

Creatures are predefined patterns of will. You mix and apply them to create rituals that you use in encounters to either obtain a win or a loss for that fight.
You use creatures plus items, to create pets. The pet is unique, yours by design, evolving based on how you treat it, what you feed it, and so on.

When i say unique, i mean unique, not 1000 versions picked random like a Tamagotchi game, no, they are designed based on elements that are ultimately unique and depend on your character. In case you are mathematically obsessed , let me put it this way... In the end there is an insane number of combinations and possibilities, as nothing is "*truly* unique, but lets say that the uniqueness of the creature matches yours in the realm.

You grow the creature, it evolves differently based on what you feed it, how you feed it, how you treat it, and so on. As it grows, it will require more complex "food", including ..words.
Once it grows all its 12 levels, it becomes mature, and immortal. It is finally a shape you created, a unique pattern of will.

You see now, why its only natural that a pet should be usable to create similar patterns of will usable by others that get them..recruit it i mean.. so a pet will be able to spawn a new creature type, a unique one, yours.

This is an end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. Until now there where just a fixed set of creatures, from now on players will be able to create their own, and also send these to others to fight with, upgrade, raise, sacrifice, etc, just like any other creature so far, just that your pet will be the spawning point of that specific creature.

You can consider the creatures spawned by a pet as echoes of that pet.

This closes a circle, as you will be able to use those crits in raising a new pet and so on, and binds the gap between pets and creatures, making pets the missing piece of a puzzle instead of a redundant element. I always had a problem with pets being fixed. I hoped i could expand them enough so that the diversity will cover for their lack of uniqueness, but back then it was not even possible to imagine that each player could theoretically build his own creatures, now you can. (i mean you will shortly, all my resource are now directed to finish this new mission)

So to summarize

crits are echoes of a will pattern
pets are sources of such patterns
we played with echoes so far, now we will play with the uniqueness of their sources.

Btw, since this stage is announced as a stage of chaos, the new crits will come already tuned and functional , routed through the forge tools so they will know since birth what md can do for them and how they could fight for you.


-- Mur