Imagine that, an update not about me....

So, we're slowly getting back to work and by that I mean the cogs in my brain are turning again... I know everyone is eager to participate and give to the site as far as user content goes... Which gave me the idea to run an art contest for a gene pack! We'll be picking a couple themes and you guys will get to color up our starting pets! I'm not sure what the prizes would be, but it would include getting your genes released on the site and probably a bit of site currency as well. If you have ideas or feedback for how to make this event more fun or inviting, then please leave them in the comments or you can PM me! n.n

In other news, I've swapped out the items in the Jade Emporium! St. Patrick's Day and Faerie items are available now, along with the Vernal Vineyard set! Oh and one last little surprise... the Mini Pets have made an appearance as well! I have no idea how long these will be available. For a couple months at least, probably longer as I'll likely forget about it. I'll try to give some warning before things shift out again!

Anyway, that's it for now, I'll let you know when the event launches!

I've got great news, I got a call back yesterday from one of the places I interviewed for and they offered me a position! Of the three I was rooting for it's the one I wanted the least, but I don't think the other two places have quite made decisions yet. Since I won't start until the 27th I'm going to keep my fingers crossed I get another offer before then. If I don't, well, I've got this job and that's wonderful. I still have the issue of housing to deal with, but that is made a thousand times easier by the fact that I have an income again. Three days without a job was very not okay!

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and support. It means a lot to me!

Hey all... I wanted to pop by and drop a little update about my situation. In general I want to try being more forthcoming with everything that's going on so nobody starts to worry! We're still here and we will get to fixing up Origins just as soon as my life is a bit more stable.

Okay so... I have been working as a live-in caregiver and as you all have probably seen around the forums and my previous update, it's very stressful. That's why I've been looking for another job. I've had three interviews so far and I'm about to go in for yet another one this afternoon. I have a lot of good prospects and excellent local references so I should be getting something soon. Here comes the downside. I, being a good employee, gave the family I work for a lot of notice about this change. I told them back in the first part of January that I wanted to look for other work, that way they would have plenty of time to find a replacement for me. I also told her that when I did find another job I would give them two weeks notice and would try to be as available to them as possible afterward so they could make other arrangements and not be too shorthanded. Well... They surprised me Monday and said they found another lady to live in full time and they want me out before next week so that she can start next week. They gave me a very meager severance check, basically two weeks pay, which amounts to a grand total of $400... It is Certainly not enough to pay first month's rent, a security deposit, a deposit with the electric company, etc... especially since I don't have a job secured. Nobody wants to rent to someone who doesn't have money and has no way of bringing in more money. So that is my present dilemma.

My fingers are crossed for this latest job interview and I should be hearing back from the other places this week or next. Please keep me in your thoughts, I have some back ups, but things are going to be tight and stressful for a little while yet!

Hey all, I just wanted to first off apologize for the silence from myself and the staff. It's wholly my fault as I've been struggling with work and trying to find another job that both pays better and drains me less. I was curious and so I did the math, I'm on the clock 140+ hours a week, even when I'm sleeping I'm on call. Because of all that I just haven't been able to put any energy into Origins the last few months, not for lack of wanting, but lack of having energy to do much of anything at all.

That being said, I am looking for other work and have alerted my current boss that I am hoping to not be here for much longer. I'm sorry for the derailment and silence and that I don't have much more to say right now. I can offer an update on the FA debate. We are putting them on the back burner as far as updates go, but when we do come back to them, we will try to preserve as much customization as possible while also making it so that it's easier on the staff. We really appreciated everyone's feedback and took much of it to heart.

I will try to be more forthcoming with updates and get around to the Kickstarter surveys which have taken forever to get out. I'm so sorry for that!

Thank you all for being so patient. Here's some eye candy for you to enjoy. Adult sketches for the wendigo and majouneko! n.n

I'm going to cut right to the chase on this one as it's something very serious that the staff and I really need your feedback on. We have all been discussing the current way that we do the FA and are finding some issues that are difficult to overlook. At present the process to create, prepare and release a new FA set is not only tedious, but expensive. Paul has been working on a way to make part of the load a bit easier - allowing the staff to upload an item and have all the colors automatically generated. We've hit a lot of snags getting it to work properly and that's what has held up the release for this month's new set. I do believe we're close to getting it all sorted and when we do that will help a lot. (Previously the staff were having to save each color individually and it was very tiresome!)

But the other issues don't really go away with just that one fix. The main problem we're having is the sheer amount of items necessary to achieve the level of customization that we want. You've all seen the "accents" tab, now imagine that Jess has to draw all of those tiny pieces separately and we have to color and upload them all separately, too. We have a coding fix in mind for this, too, but it would be better aided by what I'm about to say...

We want to completely scrap the current FA and start over from scratch. But before you panic, please hear me out! This could be a very, very good change for the site and we would absolutely do our best to bring back revamped versions of the sets we have. Part of the problem is that most of the FA art was done ages ago when the site had no direction and so a lot of it just seems very out of place at present. Since we have Jess redoing most of it anyway, it's also costing us money that could be better spent elsewhere. For instance... Adding races that aren't an overlay of the main base, but are completely their own thing. Avatars would be done very similarly to pets, allowing you to collect patterns like you would genes. Different races would be like different pet species, with classes to further aide in unique appearances. Do you like CYO pets? What about CYO outfits?

There's so many possibilities that we don't have with our current system. There are some downsides however.
• If we do remove the existing art and start over we will have fewer options available until we bulk up our inventory.
• Facial features and hair will be tied to your race, allowing you to swap them out. You will also be able to swap out held items, but Sets will no longer have multiple items that you can mix and match. You will, however, be able to decide colors for everything (from buttons to ribbons) and as I mentioned patterns would be available to make sets even more customizable!
• We will need the help of crowdfunding to accomplish this change. I know we just had a Kickstarter not too long ago, but this is a change that was not budgeted for. However, the staff and I can't handle this alone. I can't handle it alone. For this site to be successful we need help from our fans. The Kickstarter would focus on allowing us to have start up art (races, outfits, and patterns) as well as modify the coding to allow for these changes. We would have a smaller goal than our first Kickstarter - around $1500.

One very important thing I want to note: Yes, Members would be compensated for whatever clothing is in their inventory! We're well aware this is a big, scary idea, but we have talked about it pretty thoroughly and we feel it's going to be better in the long run. Even still, we want your feedback and input on this so that we can make it as smooth on everyone as possible. We'll do what we have to in order to make sure any transition is an easy one.

Please direct your questions and comments here!

Thanks everyone for hearing us out! I really hope we can get things worked out! Please don't hesitate to post in the thread above!