SEPTEMBER INFOPOST

[vestigemods]

SEPTEMBER INFOPOST

► HELLO, VESTIGE!

Sup, horrorfiends. 🔪 As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm a little late this month. Those in our Discord know that it's because I've been working on an awesome new map for y'all - for a whole host of reasons, it became a bit more of a project than I anticipated, but it's ready now!

THE OVERVIEW.

As I've mentioned in past infoposts, I planned to work toward crafting a bigger Containment Zone for everyone to play in as our little game grew in size, complete with a map so that everyone can visualize the setting as a whole. The Housing page also made reference to this, saying that I'd place your character's cabin on the eventual map wherever it is that you've described.

Now that the time has come, here's everything coming to mind that you need to know about the update!


THE NEW CONTAINMANT ZONE.
• The new Containment Zone is approximately 5 miles tall and 7.5 miles wide, compared to the 4 miles by 2.5 miles of the old Containment Zone (highlighted in blue). It contains six distinct zones of some form of interest, as labeled here (ignore the letters): the lake, the forest, the swamp, the farmland, the cliffs, and of course, the town itself.
LOCATIONS PAGE.
• My next step from here is to create a Locations page, using the above lettered map and the numbered town map. It will include a summary of each zone, as well as a lettered + numbered list for each of the marked locations.
  
  A couple of things worth noting: Firstly, the vast majority of the buildings in town are seemingly beyond salvage, including a few of the numbered ones. This isn't permanent! During the upcoming months, various horror-y happenings will occur in those buildings and essentially 'unlock' a new location. Characters are still able to explore them, loot them, etc. as they are - this is, in essence, a 'oh look, suddenly this building is somewhat functioning as intended', like if the broken-down leaking movie theater is suddenly vaguely clean with functioning lights and a flickering but passable movie-watching experience.
  
  Secondly, some of the areas off the beaten path (or main road, as the case may be) will likely just include ??? names/descriptions until someone ICly makes the effort to go investigate. This is honestly to spare me of a bit of the immediate workload, letting me fill them in as characters explore.
  
  This will be 50% of my project for tomorrow (9/7), with the other half being the...
SEPTEMBER MINGLE LOG.
• I'll be tossing up a mingle log which amounts to a tour of the new containment zone. I'll still be letting the Locations page do most of the heavy lifting on area descriptions, but this will offer some flavor about the various obvious facets of the new CZ in much the same way July's intro log did for the original CZ.
  
  Like I said, this will also go up tomorrow (9/7). It will include mild eerie horror elements in anticipation of this month's event, but will mostly just be a benign catch-all for any starters you might have.
  
HOSPITAL MINI-EVENT?
• So I've mentioned a couple of times that I intended to introduce the new Containment Zone with short one-day Incident in the new hospital, reminiscent of TDM #2 but as the hospital appears in reality instead.
  
  Because all of these other pages are going up a little later than I hoped, and also taking into consideration that this month's event is overall bigger than next month's smaller events, I think I'm going to postpone the spooky hospital log until early October. At this point, it just feels like it'd be too much to smush in with everything else going on.
HOUSING PAGE UPDATE.
• I'll also be redoing the Housing page this month to reflect that we now have specifically-located numbered cabins and a new housing source in town (apartments, 1-2BR at largest). From now on, all cabins will be selected from the available options, which will be listed on the Housing page itself (in terms of size/location - you can still choose the exterior aesthetic).
  
  In the meantime, I'll be replying to your housing comments with this map + the number of your character's cabin. If you didn't post on Housing but you want a cabin for your character, there are like ~6 extras you can hop into once I've got the post up. I'll announce on Plurk/Discord when that's ready to go.
IC TIMELINE.
• This will be detailed more properly in the mingle log, but on September 10th, the Containment Zone expands to the newly-mapped one with no particular warning or fanfare. It's up to characters to discover that the barrier marked by spray-painted trees no longer seems to be in place to the north or the east, though someone is free to make a network post about it if they please.
  
  The mingle log will go up ASAP even if it's not yet the 10th, and folks are of course welcome to forward-date any posts/threads they do!

I hope you like the map, and the neat new environmental stuff it brings with it. New buildings/features will be added to the map as time goes on, appearing where none were before (or perhaps only ruins once stood). Now it's time for the rest of the regularly-scheduled infopost!

ANNOUNCEMENTS OF VARYING IMPORTANCE

• We have a brand new Buy Shit page, where you can redeem tag-ins you've done for IC rewards/horrors! It's a super simple system, with the only real thing of note is that tag-ins to the Test Drive Meme count for 2 points instead of 1! It's also worth mentioning that this is retroactive, and you can use any tag-ins you've done since the game opened. (Note that I'll be getting back to these after the Locations page crunch, so eta: 9/9 or 9/10.)


• Based on the results of last month's poll + Discord responses, I'll be providing monthly catch-all logs for miscellaneous non-event top-levels throughout the month. Most of the time, it will be 1-2 short paragraphs and a flourishing gesture to the monthly infopost for more flavor, but once in a while it will be a bit meatier (like this month, with the introduction to the new Containment Zone). Expect these in the first couple of days of each month, as a general rule.


• Once the Locations page + catch-all log is up, I'll be putting up our first CR Meme! This will also include a handwaved CR element, so that those who have busy schedules/had a fucky July/August don't miss out on all the neato CR we've all been building so far.


• At the end of September, I'll be putting out an informal How's My Modding? request looking for feedback on Vestige so far, what could be done to improve it, things you've liked that I've done and want me to keep doing, etc. It's definitely not mandatory to participate at all - I just want to make sure anyone who does have small or large thoughts on the game/my modding is equipped with both a venue to put those thoughts and the assurance that I'm super interested to hear them.

SEPTEMBER IN VESTIGE

OVERVIEW.

This month brings us a relief from summer's heat and a much larger invisible cage to get yourselves lost in. With the introduction of what remains of a town, you can almost begin to simulate something more closely resembling normalcy... If your 'normal' is 'a run-down desolate shithole', anyway.

WEATHER.

Lo and behold, it's finally cooling the fuck down.

While a number of days still enter the low-80°s and the average remains in the 70°s, the hot period of each day is shorter and bookended by cool nights, cloudy skies, and a brisk and refreshing breeze you might have killed a man for this time last month. The rain has returned, as well, sprinkling lightly for a couple of hours about twice per week, while once per week we'll see a decent off-and-on drizzle which lasts most of the day. Nothing too heavy just yet, but wait until Autumn sets in.

WILDLIFE.

The animals are more scarce than usual. While the Containment Zone expanded, the Technicians have yet to appropriately populate it with wildlife, and so the wildlife we all know and love have scattered throughout the new CZ to revel in what must clearly be sweet, sweet freedom.

Plant life is struggling from all this heat, but it begins to perk up almost immediately once the rain sets in. In fact, it seems to bring new life springing up from the earth - an impressively fast-growing batch of what's either wild carrot, parsley, or poison hemlock crops up along the edges of the forest surrounding the gas station. Do you dare try to cook with it? (I wouldn't - it's absolutely the hemlock.) The blackberries(?) are finally falling out of season, their nettled vines lingering empty of berries to try to revive come spring. It seems that for now, that particular menace has gone dormant.

RESOURCES.


This month, the gas station is.... alarmingly bare. There doesn't seem to have been a restock like usual this month, with only a few oddities appearing on the shelves. This might be cause to panic, if not for the Foodland grocery store just waiting to be discovered on the edge of our brand new (dirty old run-down) town. Items of mild... concerning interest in the gas station include:

• Many, many dolls, of the creepy babydoll variety. Many of them aren't terribly eerie on their own, but the collection fills the entire length of a shelf.
  
• A jar full of what seems to be dried shriveled eyeballs, just barely few enough to rattle like a maraca.
  
• A framed picture of this art, as well as these two pieces.
  
• The assless chaps are still here. Sorry, guys.
  
  

ANOMOLIES.

Another update about the increasingly concerning tree from the last couple of months: It is now only 100 yards from the barrier. The figures inhabiting it still haven't visibly moved at all, continually observing from their perch, but their outlines seem to vibrate ever-so-slightly when you look directly at them - but don't look for too long, as the vibration begins to buzz inside your mind with increasing intensity, causing characters to black out in anywhere from five to ten seconds. Additionally, last month's disassociation and deja-vu now try to beset anyone venturing into the gas station parking lot and/or the gas station itself, and characters must fight against some degree of one or both of those sensations until they're no longer in the area. It isn't debilitating by any means, but it's certainly a bit of a trip.

EVENT BUILD-UP

Characters who venture into the new chunk of Containment Zone, particularly the town itself or any of the more homey abandoned buildings throughout the landscape, may begin to get the sensation that they aren't alone. At times, it feels familiar - like an acquaintance lingers just out of sight. Other times, it feels mildly ominous, as though they're intruding on someone's private home even if they're merely window-shopping along the run-down storefronts.

This month will fall under the monster horror umbrella with a number of psych horror elements. All further info will be released in the event infopost, going up ideally by the the 15th, with the log on approximately the 19th and the event ICly spanning from the 22nd - 28th.

Thanks for tuning in to our belated infopost. If you have any questions, toss them into the top-level below!

Comments

[vestigemods]

Now that my life isn't [ sound of pots and pans clattering to the floor ], time to explore Mysterious Location N!





A narrow wooden bridge leads up onto what might be the driest part of the whole swamp. The gators conspicuously seem to avoid this bit of land, though it's not raised nearly enough to prevent them from climbing up onto dry earth if they had the desire. Something else seems to deter them. I wonder what?

On this raised swamp-island sits the ruins of a number of structures, but one still mostly stands... A swamp shack, single-roomed and furnished entirely with what looks like handmade items... Made by the hand of someone who isn't so hot at making furniture.

The shack is largely useless, but for one thing: A hefty shotgun, with the words OL GATERKILLER carved crudely but diligently into one side of the barrel. Beside it sits a leather satchel full of shotgun shells.

A little bit of experimentation will confirm that it is, indeed, OL GATERKILLER that our reptile population steers clear of. In fact, wielding it openly as you walk through the swamp will 100% of the time prevent any form of gator attack, so long as they can see it in your hand or on your back. (It doesn't do shit against water moccasins, though.)