UPDATES: Movement, Alerts, Settings, Gender and Item Designs

[Mooncalf]

Movement
Movement has changed so that it no longer refreshes the page with each step. This should generally speed up loading of movement, unless of course the server is struggling as it sometimes does. But on average, most people who tested it found it to be much faster and better. This update will also allow us to make the game prettier and more dynamic in future.


Alerts
Alerts no longer bump the grid down when they show up, which makes it easier to move quickly. Instead, they now show up overlayed slightly at the top of the grid, but can be hidden by clicking the red "x" in the corner of the alerts panel.


Settings
The settings / preferences page has been changed quite a lot in terms of design. But most importantly, 4 new options have been added to the "performance" section of the page, which deal with what gets hidden on the grid when you're moving around. You can now turn off humans, PCs, NPCs, recognition alerts, or some/all of these options at once. Doing so will, in some cases, make movement load much faster, because there are less things for it to check each movement.


Gender Changing
You can now change your gender on the "character" tab of the settings page. You can switch between male, female, or undefined as you please. It's up to you how you wish to roleplay this transition, and you don't even need to roleplay any sex change at all, if that's what you wish, as the gender-identification here does not necessarily need to be biological. Please note, however, that the battle descriptions will default to the feminine (her, she, etc) if you pick "undefined," but I will get around to correcting this eventually so that descriptions are gender-impartial if you choose that option.


Weapon Redesigns
You can now customise the appearance, type and name of any weapon without needing to craft it. This costs 5 karma, and does not change any of the stats; it is purely a superficial feature. When customising the design of a weapon, you will have all weapon parts available to you. So for example, if you customise a knife's appearance, you'll be able to pick from all knife, sword and blunt parts, but not guns. The same goes the other way around if you customise any gun type; you'll be able to pick from handgun, rifle and rapid fire parts. The 5 karma will not be taken until you finish and click to confirm the changes.

[Mooncalf]

Just a side note to add something I forgot to mention: I will soon update skirmish, feeding, battling, stealing etc. to use the same code as the new movement system, so that it doesn't refresh the page each time. This will make live battles very quick, and the game should run more smoothly in general after that.