I love it so much

This place has so much charm!

I'm getting dizzy.

Quick reminder for everyone:

If you have any suggestions for features, updates, or for today's release, please be sure to post them in the Suggestions Forum as posting your suggestions here is either off-topic or runs the risk of them being lost in the replies. Thank you!

The long-awaited update to our world map is complete! Explore familiar locations and discover entirely new ones, all illustrated with completely refreshed artwork, effects, and animations.

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As of this post, the revamped world map has launched! Sornieth comes alive like never before thanks to entirely new artwork, effects, and animations. Below, we'll go over some of the upgrades and changes you'll be seeing as you navigate the new map.



The Wide World of Sornieth

One of the biggest changes you'll notice is that rather than eleven small maps (one per region), everything has been combined into a singular large map. We're able to do this thanks to some new options.
Caption: A diagram depicting the old collection of maps above the new world map with downward arrows indicating that they have been combined.



Zooming/Panning

Because the map is so large, we've added a few options to help you explore the new artwork. You can, of course, view the whole realm at once in a smaller, more generalized zoomed-out view, but you'll also be able to zoom in and see the finer details. While zoomed in, you can hold down your finger or mouse button on the artwork and drag to pan the map around.
Caption: A short video showing usage of the zooming and panning functions.



Full Browser View

For those that want to dive headfirst into the map, we've also added the ability to expand the viewable area to your entire browser window. In this mode, the site UI will disappear, and the map artwork will take up the whole window. This is an incredible way to immerse yourself in the new map and see a lot more at once.
Caption: A screenshot showing the world map in full browser viewing mode, in which the rest of the site UI is hidden and the map artwork extends to all edges of the window.



Map Layers

Because the dragons of Sornieth live above and below the waves, we've added the ability to move between terrain and underwater layers. Right now, this mainly applies to the Sea of a Thousand Currents, but the system allows us to possibly do some interesting things in the future!
Caption: A short video showing what it looks like when a player moves from the terrain layer to the underwater layer. Because only the Sea of a Thousand Currents exists on both layers, it is the example used.



Places of Interest ("POIs")

In the legacy version of the map, special locations in each elemental territory were represented by icons and flavor text below the map, but you never got a true understanding of their exact placement. With the revamp, we've plotted these locations on the map with POI (Place of Interest) markers, and you can click or tap them to read the flavor text.
Caption: A screenshot showing what it looks like when the POI (place of interest) marker for the Oculus of the Eleven has been selected. The marker window includes an icon and description of the location.



Animations & Visual Effects

In addition to new artwork, we've tried to bring extra vibrance and life to the map by way of animations (like floating islands, grass waving in the breeze, and wiggling spikes) and visual effects (like embers, snow, and light beams). For our players who are sensitive to flashing or moving graphical elements, you can turn them off on the bottom right corner of the map. Also available is the ability to toggle off the POI map markers, if desired.
Caption: A screenshot displaying the toggles that will enable or disable POI map markers or animations and visual effects.

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Relocate Your Lair

With this update, we've doubled the number of locations for every elemental region and it is now possible to modify, officially, where your lair exists. Each lair tier (e.g. Lesser, Mighty, Venerable, Ancient) now unlocks two (2) locations, and you can choose to move your lair to either one, or to a location in any of the lower tiers you've already unlocked.



There is no limit to how often your clan can move within your current flight/element, so don't feel tied down to any one location! You can access the lair location options by clicking the small gear icon next to your current lair location on the clan profile.
Caption: A screenshot from the clan options page, displaying a list of all possible lair locations that would be available to a wind player with a "venerable" tier lair, as well as highlighting where their lair is currently located.

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Sharing POIs and Custom Locations

An additional feature we've included with the launch of the revamped world map is the ability to share POIs and custom locations within forum posts. Using new bbcode functions, these will be represented by a widget that others can click to be taken directly to the spot you wanted to share!



Sharing POIs

To share a POI, click or tap the small share icon in the top right corner of a POI's flavor text window. From there, you'll be able to copy the bbcode necessary to share the POI in a map widget on the forums.
Caption: A screenshot indicating where the share button is located on POI location windows. The button itself is in the top right corner.



Sharing Custom Locations

To share a custom location:

1. Click or tap the marker button in the top right corner of the world map window.
2. Click or tap the spot on the map you want to share to drop the marker there.
3. Click or tap the marker you just placed.
4. Highlight and copy the bbcode in the share window that appears.
5. Paste it in your forum post!

There are also a few parameters you can modify in the copied code to customize your shared custom location a bit more. You can change the following parts of the code to edit the height (minimum 200px, maximum 480px) and width (minimum 200px, maximum 480px) of the widget, as well as add your own custom text.
Caption: A diagram indicating the variables that can be changed in the new bbcode to customize how a shared custom location widget appears in the forums. The variables highlighted are height, width, and custom text.

Using the bbcode above, it will create a widget that looks like this:
Caption: A screenshot showing what a custom location widget created with the variables in the previous diagram would look like embedded into a forum post.

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We want to thank everyone for waiting patiently while we worked on this feature. When we first unveiled it, we certainly had intentions of releasing it far sooner than now. Game development can be an unpredictable process sometimes, and as many of you witnessed, there were urgent or much needed demands on our engineers' time (ex: server migrations and critical backend updates) as well as bringing other awesome or highly requested features to you. We also remain committed to being anti-crunch and maintaining healthy work/life balances. This included adjusting for our team's overall well-being through the events of the past year.

This update is our labor of love, we're overjoyed to share it with you all, because it's been a monumental team effort. This revamp is easily the most massively ambitious art and engineering-heavy thing we've created, and every single developer we have has touched it in some way.

Denizens of Sornieth, here's to you and its ever-expanding glory!

can we get a in chat for the legacy maps?

The big one? Ok, that's better. I was worried it was the world map for a minute. I am NOT even ready for that one. What a relief.

What's going on? Is something happening today?

Wait. That's TODAY?

Are you ready?

We prefer not to comment on the suggestions forum as policy. If we do comment one way or another on a suggestion, it will read as "yes, this will be implemented" or "no, this will not be implemented." and will shut down discussion. Often the initial ideas in the suggestions forum morph or are added to through the course of discussion.

We also don't want to endorse something and have it read as a promise; when it comes time to revamp the associated feature, another idea might work better or the suggestion may no longer work. We also don't want to shut something down that could have developed into an idea that would work better.

Note that our code of conduct still applies to the suggestions forum, so please treat each other with respect even if you do not agree with another person's ideas for the site!

New modern treasure terts (and terts acquired by non-marketplace means) are definitely something we're interested in too. 2021 is going to be a colorful year for Sornieth!

We'll also be looking into that little half pixel halo that's appearing around the edges of the koi gene. It may take a little while to patch up, but it's something we're invested in doing! Note: this will not change the shape/colors/placement of the gene. It's literally cleaning up where lighter koi colors are placed on top of darker colors - there's a little pixel halo of the koi's base color peeking through the darker outline! so it won't change the look or feel of the gene: It'll just clean it up a bit!

I'm most excited for the updated locations and more detailed view of the world!

Anytime we update a feature or look to add a new one, we visit the suggestions forum and collect feedback relating to that feature. It's helped immensely with the dragon page revamp, dressing room, game database, mistral mahjong, lair revamp, hoard revamp, bestiary revamp, and newer features like Fiona.

For example, if we were to do a marketplace revamp, we'd lay out what we want to accomplish with the revamp as developers, then visit the suggestions forums and look for what players want to see changed in the revamp, which can often include quality of life improvements or whole new subfeatures we never would have thought of on our own!

As we tend to work feature by feature, it can seem as though things are being overlooked. For example, if we were to do a marketplace revamp, we would be paying attention to marketplace suggestions - not dom suggestions. Though when it came time to do a dom revamp, we'd be back in there to get those suggestions for sure! So what we act on depends a lot on what we're working on next, plus some easier QOL we can add to already revamped features.

Of course, not every suggestion is going to make it; but it is an invaluable resource for us as developers, and a chance for players to make their thoughts on the site known in a productive way.

Since players can have many points of view on what they would like to see most changed about the site, debates do happen. We ask that players follow the code of conduct when posting and remember that there's a person on the other end. Personal attacks are never okay. The Suggestions forum often gets heated because players can be so passionate about the site and what they'd like to see changed, and what they want to have as an experience.

Anyway, you don't need to be scared of the suggestions forum. Post your ideas for the site! Not every player will agree, but the developers will still see the idea when it comes time to work on features, and it'll be something that we can talk about as we work on updates to the site!

You're right, thank you. I'll get that corrected!

The scales of dragons shine bright, and now there's room for even more of them in your dens!

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Koi
A mottled array of shining scales is the most recent sighting of new patterns for the dragons. The Koi gene is available for purchase in the gem marketplace.

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Hibernal Den and Lair Expansions

Many clans have begun excavating new passages for their clanmates to rest in. An additional 25 slots are now available via item trade in for the Hibernal Den. This brings the den's possible size up to 430 dragons!

In addition, dragon lairs can now accommodate up to 215 dragons with the availability of 5 new slots to purchase!

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Mistral Jamboree Skin & Accent Contest

The eighth annual Mistral Jamboree will begin March 28, 2021, and we're running a skin and accent contest in celebration! Click here for more information!

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Additional Updates

• Broken Flower Pots now drop correctly from the Training Fields Venue in the Coliseum. Previously they were dropping from Blooming Grove.
• We will be performing scheduled maintenance on Monday, March 1 to support the launch of the World Map Revamp. The site will be inaccessible starting at 08:00 server time while we deploy the feature.

Hello everyone! We need to take a moment to address a bit of housekeeping in advance of the revamped World Map launch:

The new world map default state is not a static image.

What this means is that alongside the map launch there will be an updated warning message regarding flashing and/or moving graphical elements. Currently the seizure alert covers only the Fairgrounds and Coliseum. The updated alert will cover Fairgrounds, Coliseum, and the new World Map.

While the landing page for the new map is static—which is where you'll be able to choose to have these map elements on or off—this alert will push to everyone, regardless of whether or not you've acknowledged it previously. When this happens, it's not a bug, it's working as intended. We ask that everyone please take a moment to read the warning before clearing it and/or selecting not to receive the warning again.

The new map and warning pop-up launch on Monday March 1st after the "curtains down" scheduled maintenance, which starts at 08:00 server time.

Happy Trickmurk Circus!

We can't wait to share this with everyone

Apologies for the misspelling! It should be corrected in the post. The skin's tooltip may take up to an hour for the site's internal cache to catch up. Congratulations on the win!

Without giving away anything, I just wanted to say that as the person who's been overseeing the map project throughout its long march, I am unbelievably proud. The artwork floors me every time I look at it, and the combined writing and engineering work that have also come together to round it out has truly turned it into something special.

Such a monumental team effort. Easily the most massively ambitious art and engineering-heavy thing we've done as a team to-date. Every single developer we have has touched it in some way.

We really hope you all love it as much as we loved making it.

sorry but you will absolutely never find it

And a bonus question

Okay, but seriously.

It's been exceptionally rough for everyone for over a year now with the pandemic and it's understandable to have these moments of future worry. But they also come at the risk of borrowing trouble and creating harmful stress for you and everyone around you.

So, on the subject of Flight Rising development, I want to reiterate that when we look forward as a team, we plan forward. This means that we take the time to map out our projects realistically. We remain committed to being anti-crunch, so while delivering a feature may sometimes take longer, it won't come at the cost of a team member's well-being and work/life balance. And even if we ourselves aren't always high visibility, we are here every day, reading and listening.

Let us focus on the logistics of the game's development. We want you to focus on your enjoyment of the game and your experience in the world of Sornieth.

Dragons, dragons
Gotta exalt more dragons
Everybody's pushin' for those Dom discounts, Dom discounts

Don't make me sing the Friday song.

@RoseOfInsanity, quick ping to let you know I made a small edit to your thread title to remove the word private and add the word 'hatchery' (to delineate) under our Forum Etiquette. Thank you!