Changes.

I am working on some changes to N8.. I want to bring it back to some of my original goals for the game, but to understand why I am about to do what I am going to do, I will have to give you guys a history lesson.

I opened alpha testing to a small group of programmers who also worked in the Truevision3D engine. The cell size was 1/4th what it is now. There were no powerups. Jump did not charge up (it was only the shortest jump). There were no Bombs. No Monsters. No gravestones on death. And every time you changed a cell you got a loading screen.

Obviously we have come a long way, but we lost something on our way as well. People used to build mazes to their shrine, so someone would have to run the maze before taking the cell. It worked somehow, no one was greedy over cells, and everyone kept their shrine takeable... until people started realizing they could completely block it off. Bombs came out and that all changed... the entire game dynamic changed... suddenly floor stacks and token farms appeared... And some of the magic of N8 got lost with it. And I think I lost my way a little to.

Change is coming, and it might be in small pieces...

Shrines will no longer Produce Tokens. I will be adding in a set of Ludus Tronics. These Tronics will be capable of creating games and giving prizes like bombs, tokens, points etc. These will come along with a major Tronics update that will let Tronics replace the magic inside all items.. so Tronics will be able to control the 'code' inside things like epics and allow for improvements in every realm of gameplay. You will be able to play a game of tag or soccer and get tokens as prizes.

Obviously Shrines no longer making Tokens will cause some other gameplay changes, but I'll get to that in a second. The main point here is that currently the only way to get Tokens is via grind... something I thought N8 would never have, but that's exactly what it is, and I am going to get rid of it, and replace it with fun.



More Public\Construct Cells and new Build Totems. I haven't worked out all the details of Totems yet but players will be able to use their own Build Totems inside Public cells to 'own' cubes of the cell for periods of time. This is to increase the amount of places players can build and at the same time cut down on grief-ing.

Also, within normal cells I will be adding Tronic Totems that can be programed with a player names to give them build access to portions of your cell.

Week long Build Mode. This is probably the biggest change, and it will take place slowly, a few cells at a time. Back in the beginning of N8 I had to use short build times because there were few players online and no public cells. New players couldn't have a place to build if they couldn't find a static cell. Now we range from 15-30 players online at once, public cells will be abundant, and there will be plenty to do without owning a cell.

Static will last one hour and will happen for half of the cells at the same time, twice a week. Cell capturing will no longer be attacking the shrine.  Instead attacking players will need to stand inside the shrine and take a capture stance, in which they can not move or attack. A capture timer will appear over the shrine and they will need to hold that position for 3 minutes. If players wish to capture a cell, they will likely need to work as a group. Once a cell is captured the new owner will need to defend it for the duration of the global static time, giving the previous owners a chance to reclaim it.

Players will only be fighting over the ability to build in a cell, it will no longer produce tokens.

I realize this is going to upset everything, cell leveling will need to be revised. Team levels will work as they do now but protected cells will no longer be in effect. I will try to make the changes gradual so we can test things out each step of the way and smooth out any bumps we find. Understand I am going to be adding and removing things from this plan as we go, and trust that I am going work my hardest to make N8 as fun as possible.