Patch Notes [2023]

Rebooting after drama

To address the elephant in the room, yes, Canis was closed temporarily due to staff mental capacity boundaries. Canis is reopening to provide a space to write, which was its original intention when we started in 2021. We hope you will join us!

Onto the real updates :)

Map Update

At long last, the map has been updated to the second generation. This would not have been possible without the combined talents and input from the entire staff team, plus member feedback.
See it here

Goodbye Biomes, hello Regions!

Originally, Canis was broken into five biomes: Temperate, Mountains, Desert, Plains, and Tundra. This was meant to offer variety while having some semblance of order to the world. While we had plans to expand and include more biomes, we noticed a few pain points with the map early on:

1. Creatures wandering between biomes was annoying to police and not fun for players, so we adjusted so that creatures could venture beyond their native biome
   
2. Packs tended to centralize in Temperate and Mountains, leaving the other three biomes less busy
   
3. The map was created in Photoshop, meaning staff members had to have both a Photoshop license and the skill level to use the program
   
4. Changes to the map shapes were entirely manual, and only @Zina could perform them.
   

Regions alleviate nearly all of these problems. The map was created largely by @Aso in Inkarnate using a shared account and can be edited by anyone on staff. Exporting the map is still a manual process, but is much faster due to an automated script.

This also unlocks all creatures from modern earth. Many people wished to play a character of a species that was not available for play due to the biome restriction.

Each region represents a coordinal direction of the map, rather than a theme or atmosphere. This means any type of land or water can exist in any region. This also enables locations to be moved around entirely if we feel like it, such as the Moving Garden.

Discovery?

We will unlock this soon; the new map needs a bit more updating before this is ready, but the new process will automate map changes when released. We expect this to be released within the next few weeks.

Rulebook Updates

Almost all pages of the rulebook have been refreshed or rewritten entirely. We will go over a summary of those changes here:

1. The New Player Guide has been condensed and many items were removed or simplified
   
2. We have removed the concept of the three week check-in period to allow for more flexibility
   
3. The section on In Character Actions = In Character Consequences (ICA=ICC) has been rewritten and can only be invoked in three very specific circumstances. This was to remove any confusion around this mechanic, which is already rarely used.
   
4. The setting 101 page was rewritten to explain what Regions are. It also describes the center of the map, which is effectively unreachable and unnavigable.
   
5. All creatures that exist on earth are now playable species
   
6. We have ditched most of the leader requirements for packs
   

I will discuss a few things in detail we have adjusted based on experience and member feedback.

Pack/Group Admin Requirements

We implemented levelled requirements for each new pack a member either admined for or had an IC leader character in because we noticed packs would be set up, and then left to languish while an admin started something new. These requirements did not serve our playerbase very well, so they have been ammended to this:

Pack admins need 30+ posts to start a pack.
Players can play characters that are IC leaders and/or be group admin for up to three groups.

Staff Guide and Management

Because staff are not capable of resolving nuanced conflict effectively given our time and energy commitments, we no longer have a Conflict Management team on staff. Instead, the Report or Alert staff feature will be brought back to the forum and we will decide on an immediate action whenever we receive these reports.

This means that temporary or permanent bans will probably be given out more frequently if we see problems. We will adjust our strategies as we go; the softer approach did not work for anyone, so we are changing course.

Discord-free

There is no live chat on site and we no longer support or monitor any Discord, Slack, or other side community. We are here to write, not to moderate fast chatting that is not required for the game. Removing Discord will force us to implement more communication tools and channels on site; they are not perfect right now, but we will improve them (I'm looking at you, MyBB Private Messenging...).

OOC Pack/Group Forums

Because we no longer have Discord, we needed a way to replace the old private pack discord channels. We've enabled this with automatically generated forums for each pack, which only pack members and staff can see. Pack Admins also have light moderator access to pin/unpin threads in the forum.

What does this update mean for my characters from January?

Canis was locked in a time freeze by Astra because Astra be rude like that. You can read more about the In Character event here.

All pregnancies have been pushed forward by the amount of time we have been closed. You are free to have your character interpret the events however they want to, but they cannot have been awake for the entire time. Here are some options:

1. Your character might have been supplanted somewhere else across the map during the freeze and cannot find their way home
   
2. Characters who are no longer on site might have "woken up" in the real world and are no longer present in Canis
   
3. Characters who are no longer on site might have died because Astra shifted the world around like a jar of marbles; you should get the player's permission to do that unless it's your character.
   
4. Your character might be exactly where you left them, but things around them have changed
   
5. Your character might remember things being exactly the way they are right now, and nothing has changed for them
   
6. Your character might have "reawoken" and you can simply start fresh as though it is their first wake up post
   

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Questions?

We assume some answers will be needed. Please ask them in the new Ask the staff forum.
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Updates

• Mordfjall was added back to the map. Also, Frostfang Vale and Fate's Respite have vanished.
  
• @"Gina" is back on the staff team! We welcome her back with love and appreciation for her MyBB expertise
  

Improvements

• Pressing the Join button now simply sets your character to Active if you have already been IC approved.
  
• Updates to locations now bump the Canis version and reload map images.
  
• The announcements no longer do that annoying slide down animation.
  
• Moderators can now terminate pregnancies from the Moderator CP
  
• Moderators can now immediately rediscover previously vanished locations
  

Bug Fixes

• A bug prevented some posts from displaying and would show as empty. This has been fixed. Thanks Middy for reporting!
  
• Characters that were hidden from the account switcher were not displaying a proper player name. They now show as "played by Anonymous"
  
• Ask the staff was displaying in threadlogs. Thanks Jennifer for reporting!
  
• Articles that have been disabled in the Compendium have been removed. They were previously displaying by mistake
  

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Updates

• Cloudrest was a bit small in comparison to the mountain range it sits on. The map has been adjusted to slightly expand its borders and remove a couple peaks
  
• Glacier Garden has been expanded and has pretty flowers on it now
  
• Northfall has disbanded
  
• Demonia Empire has disbanded
  

Bug Fixes

• New replies were not alerting users when they were posted from a draft - fixed! Thanks Jennifer for reporting!
  
• The site-born young adoptable form was adding an extra "}" - fixed! Thanks Gina for reporting
  

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No more age math!

You might have noticed that your character's age may look different than it did before. We have performed an audit of all characters in Canis and have set a "birthdate" for everyone according to what was in their profile. Age is now a calculated value and you do not need to pay attention to it anymore!

Couple things:

1. It is now impossible to change your character's age from your User Control Panel unless they are not an approved character yet
   
2. We've polished and added back the auto-date math on your profile edit page. This means if you're bad at date math, it's fine, because we have code that will re-calculate the age or birth date for you :)
   

If you notice an issue, report a bug!

We probably missed something. Please report if you notice anything weird!

What if my character's age is wrong?

Please post in Ask the Staff and we will fix it!
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Updates

• Anonymously played characters were previously clearly visible to staff members from their member profiles. While we sometimes need this information for moderation purposes, we rarely require it. We have added code to hide this information by default and require moderator action to reveal. This also makes it less likely for staff members to accidentally "out" anonymously played characters.
  
• Juh'hurah has disbanded
  
• The default avatar is now a blank wolf instead of the ugly MyBB user avatar
  
• The Create a Pack form now only shows discovered territories instead of all locations.
  
• Captcha was updated to ReCaptcha V3 in order to try to prevent some of the forum spam we've been receiving
  

Progress Update

We are still working on relaunching location discovery. There are a couple of data migrations and some adjustments to the discovery form required. Work is about 70% completed.

An "alert staff" button for posts is coming soon
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Reporting Posts

This is a feature supported by MyBB out of the box we never added — until now.

You'll notice a little Alert Staff button at the bottom of posts now. This button allows you to tell staff if you see something that shouldn't be there.


Clicking this button will bring up a dialog that will let you fill out some details. Staff will see this as soon as we log on and take a look.


More is coming including:

• The ability to alert staff to profiles
  
• A feedback loop that will tell you when staff have actioned on your report
  

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Bug Fixes

• Mobile browsers had an annoying problem where announcements did not stay dismissed. This has been fixed.
  
• Dismissing the first announcement was removing the announcement container even when there were other announcements.
  

Improvements

• It is no longer possible to edit your character's sex after approval (gender of course is still editable, as this can change throughout someone's life)
  
• The required fields Height, Weight, and Build have been moved up so that they are easier to see. We've also added a default "- Select -" field because it was very easy to accidentally leave the default as "Emaciated, Very Light, Very Short"
  
• Announcements will now dismiss the container if all are dismissed
  
• Announcements now simply hide rather than fading out
  

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Current Priority: Relaunch Location Discovery
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Rulebook Update

We have updated the Packs & Groups page

Summary

1. The disbandment phase has been removed — we have never used this feature. It was an in between phase where pack admins could choose it over disbandment. This feature is still essentially here. We've adjusted the wording so that it's clear that if your pack is falling inactive, staff will check in and see what pack admins would like to do
   
2. It used to be possible for a pack to be considered active with one active pack/group admin and three NPCs. This is no longer possible; packs and groups need four active members to be considered active
   
3. We have outlined reformation requirements for either relocating or reforming a previously disbanded pack
   

Let us know if you have any questions!
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Location Discovery 2.0

Hey all! As a big part of what we wanted to do with the map update, we have also simplified location discovery!

For those who don't remember, all players in Canis can discover new locations that aren't yet part of the map. There are no requirements to submit a new location except that players can't be discovering more than one location at a time.

The new shape creator

Previously, we asked players to create a mock up of where the location should be on the map. This had big problems, including unnecessary overhead for players, plus other players had a hard time figuring out what areas of the map were being discovered already.

We've simplified this process with the new shape creator:


The shape creator automagically "diffs" your new shape with existing shapes so that areas don't overlap. It also means that shapes are immediately added to the map after they are approved, making things much easier for others!

Vanishing

Because we had location discovery on pause, we also paused vanishing locations. This happens whenever a location has been unused for a significant period of time (usually 3-6 months with no posts). With this update, vanishing is now also activated. But don't worry, we'll wait a very significant period from this update to vanish anything since we ourselves were on pause for a while!

But what about sub-territories and points of interest?

We know, we know. This is still coming, we promise! We wanted to get this out to you in its earliest form so people could enjoy creating things, but more will come

I found a bug...

Please, please, for the love of Astra PLEASE report any bugs you find.

I have questions. so many questions..

Ask in the Ask the staff forum! Also, we re-published the location discovery page of the rulebook: https://canismajor-rpg.com/misc.php?action=help&hid=19
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Better Archiving

One piece of feedback we received was that it was strange that anyone could archive or dead thread any IC thread, regardless of whether it was theirs or not.

Introducing new buttons:


These buttons are only available for thread participants and staff, so no more archiving stuff that ain't yours!

Unarchiving too!

Similarly, you can also unarchive your own threads!


This option is only available for threads that are in a location that still exists on the forums. If you want to unarchive a thread and move it to a different location, you'll still need to request from staff.

Updates

• Labyrinthian has disbanded
  
• Congratulations to @Roslyn for being the very first person to test out Discovery 2.0!
  

Thread Search

We are working on bringing back thread searching. So far, we have added the ability to search while within a forum:


We've also removed the ability to subscribe to a forum for a number of reasons. We will be bringing back something similar so that you can subscribe to a specific location
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Searching is back

Actually, we never had full search available on Canis . This was a leftover from a skin we used when we first started.

You'll now find a quick text search available on the index page in the sidebar:


There is also a full search mode available:


You can get to this by using the breadcrumbs on the search results page, or you can find it in the footer of every page.

Thank you to @Noki for the suggestion
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Smol Things

Small things can make a big difference we think!

You'll notice we've added directional information to each region on the forums. Fun fact: the regions originally didn't actually have names; they were just called by their directions! This is because they were designed to be super flexible and capable of holding any type of location within them.

Bug Fix

Fixed a small bug that showed an alert from a staff member instead of from Canis Major when we approved things.

Next Up

Still gathering survey feedback on how to provide this information, but in the mean time, please know we are working on Rank Management. This is a huge feature and requires a fair amount of manlady-hours, so please be patient with us!

Also, just huge shout out to this amazing community. The staff team adores this life without Discord and we are so excited to be part of your stories! If you have ideas or feature requests, don't forget that you are always free to ask in Game Development or even Ask the Staff if you're not sure. Thanks for being awesome!
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Smol Improvements and Adjustments

Away status now displays on posts

It was harder to see the away status before. We've added it to posts to make things easier.

Bug fix: Stardust

Previously, there was a bug that prevented anyone from adding stardust if anyone else had added stardust to that post. This... probably was always a bug, but never reported. It's fixed now!

Rulebook Update

A question came up about liquid time and we realized it was missing from the rulebook! We've added this to the new player guide to make it clear that yes, we allow and encourage the use of liquid time. This means that one character can be in multiple threads at once, and players are responsible for managing their own timelines.

Quick Reminder

Reminder about discovery! Anyone can submit threads for discovery, and you can earn points for more than just your character. If you see that someone else's post should count for discovery, add it in the notes when you submit from your thread log!
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The Tiniest of Tiny Updates

A very minor update, but we have removed the Gossip Opt-Out and Tagging Frequency profile fields as they have been made defunct by the lack of a discord server/News Feature.
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Spread the Word!

The Pre-Made Advertisements have all been completely updated! Feel free to spread the word about Canis so that new friends come and join us!
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Two pages have been revised

Rulebook Update

To encourage the formation of new packs, the Packs & Groups page has been updated to reflect more lax requirements. Remember that any and every character can help found a group or discover a territory. For the most points possible, submit your threads after you've reached what you think may be worth 5 points with your character, or after the thread has been concluded.

Location Discovery

Likewise, to encourage players to create new places to explore, Location Discovery has also been updated.

Please give both of these pages a read as they may directly affect your plans in discovering a new location and/or forming a pack!
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Map Update

• Druid's Dream has been expanded, which has also altered the shape of Dancer's Foothills and Ullarcraig Run
  
• Bluewater Lake has had a slight shape adjustment
  
• Several territories have had either beautiful additions (e.g., Mojito Beach) or have had some sprucing up
  

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Upgrades and Random Bugs

Something appears to have changed on the server. We thought at first it was a PHP minor version upgrade; now we're not sure. Anyway, no changes were made, but things started acting a little funky on the forums. Some items have been fixed. Namely:

Users unable to change avatars

This was a server issue that has been fixed. You should be able to upload or link to avatars now.

Users unable to mark forums as read

Fixed.

MyBB

Version has been upgraded to the latest.

Renames/Rebrands

Several territories have been renamed and their descriptions rewritten:

1. The Elk's Crown -> Apostles Gate
   
2. Royal Wisteria Woodland -> Applecrest Grove
   
3. Behemoth's Brim -> same name, description rewritten
   

As always, please report any bugs in the Game Development forum
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Minor Map Update

• The map imagery has been updated. Thank you to @Aso who drew the new territories and @Zina for generating the map tiles
  
• Cymru Keep now includes the water around it
  
• The gap between Little Balm Lake and Foxfire Woods has been removed
  
• Sundance Grove now includes the mountains beside Frozen Ground
  
• Seeker's Bluff now includes the hills above it
  

MyBB

MyBB version has been updated
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New Feature: Recent Location

If anyone remembers that custom map @Zina made on wolf-rpg.com once upon a time, we've recreated something similar.

Now, on character profiles, you can view the last handful of threads (five, to be exact) that a character has posted in. You'll also be able to view a map centered on where they've been most recently:


If you're wondering where the stardust and threadlog links have gone, they are now up top to separate them from "in-profile" items:


We hope this is helpful to you all! It's been in the works for a while
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