Vaudevillain

Thomas leaned back in his chair and laid a hand over his brow. When he saw the group chat light up, he assumed it was more of Riptide's normal banter. Thomas hadn't expected Dylan's message about patch notes. Once again, Vert seemed to be overlooking an important issue within their game.

Normally, Thomas didn't read patch notes until they were released in the game. He felt using meta knowledge to prepare for events Dextra couldn't possibly know was cheating somehow. Thomas knew it was a bit silly, but he liked the idea of keeping player and character knowledge separate. But Dylan's valid concern on players exploiting the game for free land was something he couldn't ignore.

Thomas pulled the patch notes up on his phone, promising to read the changes once he finished the next few audition takes. Voice acting was challenging work, and freelance often paid less than a regular job, but Thomas had been doing this line of work since high school. His friend's mom asked him to voice a couple of radio advertisements, and the connections he made there kicked off his business. The timer beeped on Thomas's computer, signaling the man to get back to work.

About an hour later, Thomas pulled up the patch notes on his phone and started reading. He found the base building changes immediately, since they were at the top of the list, and scrolled through.

…next great weapon! But be warned, the wilderness also holds dangerous beasts that appear from time to time to destroy your efforts. To counter this, players can hire henchmen or sidekicks to protect their land. These helpers are just as flexible as guards in the cities and will learn security measures if taught.

Land and helper purchasing is located where the base building menu was. Players will find a new tab in the menu that highlights purchasable land they can see. Buying the land is as simple as moving your hand over the price tag and affirming your purchase. Once bought, the land is rightfully the players and can be used as they wish. If a player wants to resell their land, they can relist it at a new price with their username for contact. The relisting will also appear on the new global trading site (more info found below). Helpers work on a base salary, and the player's reputation rank limits their number.

We're also making a few tweaks to the item delivery system. Before, players were able to purchase materials that arrived directly into their inventory. However, we've found that many players with crafting classes could use this function for almost infinite adaptability. That doesn't fit the image we have for crafting classes as a whole.

Now, the delivery system will always deposit items inside your secret base. This does mean the delivery system won't activate until a player has purchased land, but we feel the trade-off is appropriate to keep crafting classes from dominating. Deliveries also require the player to wait a set time for their materials, which increases according to the material's uniqueness and the difficulty in acquiring that material. This change is more preemptive, as we've noticed an increase in crafting class efficiency as time passed. This change should limit crafters from amassing too much power too quickly.

So it seemed Vert rolled the purchasing systems into one whole group. On the surface, Thomas saw the change as an overall positive. Barely anyone used the purchasing systems before, as standing in one area was easier than buying the building outright. It also looked like Vert streamlined the three systems. Now, all players could purchase any land and resell it, whereas before, Dextra had to go through a few realtors before finalizing the sale. It was too bad the whole system had the glaring money flaw.

In Thomas's eyes, the silver lining was the need to see the land. It limited the money exploit immensely. Players wouldn't be able to buy entire sections of land without some serious player cooperation. Thomas knew it would still happen. Guilds and other factions had formed on day one of the game releasing. But the need to see the land you purchased evened the playing field. At most, players would grab the land in entire cities, not gigantic swatches in the whole game world like Thomas feared.

Thinking about it some more, Thomas realized Menagerie had something of a head start against other guilds when it came to buying wilderness land. The most likely scenario involved guilds buying out all the buildings in a city and expanding to the wilderness afterward. Of course, there had to be some guilds that looked to grab the cheap wilderness land, but a square kilometer plenty large enough to build on. The main thing to watch out for were guilds trying to buy as much wilderness as possible to resell.

Once again, Thomas was glad he went with superintelligence for Dextra. The ability would let him find the best plot of land to purchase for materials. All he had to do was search for it and move Skyline nearby before the patch. But before that, Thomas decided to finish reading the mechanics changes in the patch notes, just in case.

In addition to the delivery system changes, we're changing how players can trade goods with each other. While we wanted to keep the amount of realism in World of Supers high, many of you expressed discontent with the difficulty of trading to players in other cities. To fix this, players can now list goods on a website inside the game. Players can set prices, request specific items in trade, and contact sellers to haggle prices. Players can then use the delivery system to send the items over. Keep in mind the same time penalties apply to player trades as well.

Well, that would certainly help players coordinate trades in the game. Thomas kept reading.

The main point of all these changes is to introduce our new faction system. While World of Supers has multiple factions around the game world, players looking to start their own groups have found it difficult. To streamline faction creation, we've implemented a number of tools to better the faction experience.

Initially, we intended for players to use the group messaging systems and base systems to create their own teams worldwide. However, these systems were scattered around the various interfaces within the game. Players would chat in one tab while needing to pull up a different tab for base building. There also wasn't a way to add secret bases to a shared group. We've remedied this by creating a new menu specifically for creating factions.

Once a faction is created, players can send or receive invites to players through the faction menu. Don't worry; players have the option to unlist their faction if they aren't looking for applicants. Once the faction is created, players will receive a tag that indicates them as part of the group. Factions can hold both heroes and villains, though NPCs of opposing morality will still attack on sight.

The leader of any faction has the ability to set and create specific roles, effectively forming their own unique government. Various roles inside the factions menu can be assigned to grant powers over such things as recruitment, finances, crafting, and many more. In addition, players in a faction can choose to purchase land for either themselves or the faction as a whole. Players can also donate land if they so choose. Faction owned land is considered safe for anyone in the faction and will not attack no matter the player's morality.

Thomas nodded. Now, these were the types of changes he liked to see. Vert streamlining the different faction options, like chats and bases, helped immensely in Menagerie's goal. The option to set roles for specific players would allow the guild to accept anyone willing to join while limiting the actual power newcomers held. He'd have to bring this up with the others.

Seeing there were no more mechanics changes, Thomas scrolled down through the list of powers to see if Vert nerfed his. Seeing no changes, Thomas closed the window on his phone and readied himself to become Dextra Black. He needed to talk with the others and get started on finding the perfect areas to buy.

Dextra appeared at the OOC lounge next to a waiting Hans. Idly, Thomas wondered if Hans would still work for him after the patch changes. Heck, he wondered if the buildings he owned back in Haven city would still be Dextra's after the patch. That was something he would have to check out later.

"Hans, have you seen Nikola?" Dextra asked.

"No, Miss Black. He hasn't appeared since leaving by scooter yesterday."

"I see. Is Shizuka around?"

"I believe I saw her over with the silver butler, Miss Black."

"That woman has got to stop playing around with Dr. Zlo's minions. One of these days it'll come back to bite her."

"Yes, Miss Black."

Thomas opened his chat and messaged Nikola.

D.Black:

Need you back on Skyline sometime soon.

We've got some things to discuss. Vert's changing a lot of mechanics and we need to be ready.

ZlikitySplit:

Doing a quick robbery. Can be back in thirty?

D.Black:

That's fine. I don't think the others will be one for a while anyway.

Closing the message, Thomas left the lounge to find Shizuka. He didn't have to go far. The woman was messing around with Cass in near the factories. Thomas rolled his eyes as Cass prepared drinks for some of Dr. Zlo's Jacques while Shizuka silently messed with him.

Whenever Cass started mixing a drink, Shizuka would appear behind and rearrange a few things out of sight. Cass would turn, startle at the changes, scratch his head, then get back to work preparing cocktails. Thomas wondered where all the alcohol came from and how the Jacques were able to drink. Dextra would chalk it up to the mad science of Dr. Zlo, so Thomas did the same. Once he reached earshot, Thomas called for his teammate.

"Shizuka, I need you."

The ninja appeared in a puff of smoke next to Dextra, "You got it, Dex."

"There's been a few updates to our situation. It's come to my attention that all land throughout this world will be for sale soon. I need your help to determine our plan of action."

"Oh yeah, the changes are coming soon, aren't they? You got it, Dex. Want me to get the others?"

"No need, I'll contact them myself."

"Sounds good."

Dextra opened a new message for Menagerie.

D.Black:

When's the soonest you can all get on? We need to make some plans for the upcoming patch.

Surfsup26:

Oh hey dude welcome back

Dream and I are still in a few classes but we'll be on after.

Candequeen:

About an hour

Superfan39526:

Finishing up work now.

Gimme an hour as well

OroJackson:

We're all online doing a mission in Mutatholis

We could meet in an hour too.

D.Black:

Excellent, we'll meet in an hour.