Forum updates and Tatsumaki

[Sykoi]

Forum Updates
I have been placing counter measures to prevent spammers from hitting our forums again. Here are some of the changes to that effect:

• You must now confirm your e-mail address on registration
• You must now answer a question related to Tatsumaki, Eyes Out Entertainment, or a non-bot friendly equation when registering, along with CAPTCHA
• You must have at least two posts and be registered for 24 hours before starting threads in key forums.

I have also installed a few new fun tools:

• iSpy, located here
• Autosave - from now on, any post/quick-reply/PM that is over 20 characters long and you have been writing for over two minutes, will autosave (Like gMail) every minute, as well as store said saved message on the server for up to 7 days.

Some things I want to get everyone's opinion on before I (re)install:

• Flashchat... They have fixed a good majority of the things I didn't like... How many of you would use Flashchat if I reinstalled it?
• iSketch - I know I love it, but how many of you would actually play it.
• Arcade - taken down over a year ago, I've been thinking about putting it back up... Anyone interested?

I am also taking suggestions for new hacks/mods to install to the forum to drum up activity, while Tatsumaki goes through a hopefully short dry spell (We will be posting models on a regular basis again, however... Well, just continue reading below)


Tatsumaki
First off I'd like to apologize for both the lack of updates, and my absence. We have had a small amount of progress which we will be posting in a few days, however be prepared for a (Hopefully) short dry spell in terms of ingame updates.
Jay is currently working hard on adding a Scene Graph to the server, which will make us quite a bit closer to gameplay, and a complete ingame city, which we can technically do now, however not in an optimized way.


We need your help
For the past three years I have supported Tatsumaki with my own money, and have spent well over $2,500 to keep it afloat. However, I can no longer dedicate much of my money to keeping it alive. Which is why we need your help.
If you are able to donate, or have been thinking about pre-ordering - now is the time to do so. We are falling on hard times, and need to dust ourselves off.

If you are unable to support us financially - spread the word! We have yet to fill any programming or modeling positions, and we need to do so before we move into the next stage of development - so its very important people know that we exist, and we're still working hard.


So, once again:
Tell your friends/other forums about Tatsumaki
Help us with our bills
Help us, entertain YOU - while we work towards the next level of development



Extra note
I would also like to note that I have opened a new forum located here. This forum will be an area where you can request PHP scripts, tutorials, and articles for a new store front we are working on.

[Masamune]

I'm interested in the arcade coming back along with flashchat.

[Zorbon]

i vote for our own irc server/something accessable to people that's ports are blocked. flashchat has way to limitations, and stratics is a pain because they dont' allow cgi-irc or port 80! maybe we can write a little in forum phpscript for irc?

arcade ftw (then again i might start playing it more than working =D )


also we need to add an auto-updater that will post news on the main site here on the forums (was requested by some people in a debate)

[Raku]

First of all, welcome back Sykoi

I like the forum changes you have put in place, they sound really great, but now the mods may have nothing to do (That being said, the community is too great to even think anything bad will happen ).

So now... iSketch, i know i would play it, its been a while but i remember it was great fun haha. Arcade i KNOW should come back because it means people will be staying on the forums a little bit longer each day, and may influence the creation of things like competitions, threads for bragging, glitches etc., and as for Flashchat, i never used it much, mainly because it was too much of a hassle for me, but mabe i would use it if it came back.

Everything else is either a 'two thumbs up' or a 'sounds great, Sykoi!'.

=]

[Akitora]

Hear hear!

[hessan]

Ya, what he said!

[Svage]

I'm game for it all.

I have had some indirect contact with programmers who are looking for a project to work on, and have directed them toward you. My go between has been on the site and is very impressed, so that bodes well for him talking his friends into at least looking into it.
as for funding, As soon as I can sneak some spare cash into my account I will donate some more. If I took it out of the family account my wife would string me up yet again.

...It is getting so that I almost enjoy it. Repetition can teach you such odd things...

[HeniuriSaito]

Welcome home sykoi!

I had MANY(really many, you wouldn't imagine how many) money problems, I am looking for some work to help a bit around here and be able to pay the pre-order and donate, but even that is hard... D:<

The changes are the better against spam, and the other ones, I don't know much about them, as long as they don't crap up the forum is okay for me ^_^ (I mean... technical problems and this hell).

[Tenshin]

I want arcade with tetris! And these new measures to keep the spammers out is great!

[Senshi]

Having the flashchat and arcade back would be great. No one ever visits the IRC channel anyways... I especially liked that Pager Message thing that came with it. And the arcade was really fun.

How do you turn off the Autosave though? It keeps on wanting me to repost the first sentence of a post I made 3 days ago. And it won't let me delete it.

Another thing... when is the VBplaza coming back?