The Nethernet Community News

Thank you, players, one and all. The Nethernet has been retired! The community is gathering here, and GameLayers is making new games.

Everyone: have fun online!

The Nethernet is launching version 1.0! This release includes two new tools and Bacon: a way to buy and spend real money in the game for tool upgrades. Learn more:

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The Nethernet toolbar version 0.8.6 was just released, with a number of bugfixes:

- We’ve repaired overlays so that they should no longer disappear and re-appear.
- DP will now be awarded based on your own activity rather than at the top of the hour. For every hour that you’re active, you should earn hourly datapoints.
- The “stash” button on crates should now gray-out after you’ve clicked on it once.
- The “ally” and “rival” buttons should work again on overlays.
- We’ve also done more work on making the game run a bit faster.

Download the new version of The Nethernet on addons.mozilla.org. We’ve posted about this release in the Forums – you can read up and comment there!

Pick up the new toolbar for an exciting holiday weekend! In fact, if you don’t upgrade to this version of The Nethernet, you won’t be able to earn datapoints.

Players who have earned the Inviting Badge (get this by having 5 invites from your sign-up link accepted) now have access to the first beneficial/detrimental Abilities on The Nethernet. Overclock is available to members of Order; it grants the player the ability to “buff” another player with a bonus to his Classpoints earned for the next 5 tool uses. Impede is available to members of Chaos; it grants the player the ability to “debuff” another player with a reduction of her Classpoints earned for the next 5 tool uses.

You've been Overclocked!

The most radical change in this release is that everyone will earn datapoints (DP) in a new way. Instead of earning DP for each new website that you go to, you’ll now be earning DP if your toolbar is on, at the top of the hour each hour. We’ll take whatever your primary level is and multiply that by 25, then give you that amount of datapoints.

So that you can still maximize the amount of DP that you earn each day, you’ll now earn 10 DP for each lightpost you pass in a mission you take. You won’t earn DP from taking your own mission, however. If you take a mission that has 4 lightposts in it, you’ll earn 40 DP.

We’ve removed the redundant “Create” option in the toolbar, instead you’ll have Skeleton Keys within easy reach. This version of the toolbar will automatically log you into the toolbar. We’ve fixed various bugs and whatnot, to see a full list, read the Patch Notes in the Forums.

The Nethernet 0.8.2 is now available for your playing pleasure. This version is essentially the same as TNN 0.8.1, but contains a number of bug fixes and improvements to the Events Carousel.

Patch notes are available to read here on the forums and contain information regarding the bugs this version addresses.

Mark all as Read Functionality Added!

Event Carousel Improvements
You asked, we listened!
Based on your feedback after the initial release of TNN 0.8.1, we heard that a number of you more active players are blessed (and cursed) with a huge amount of Events to scroll through when you first log in each day in the Events Carousel. To help you overcome your popularity, we have added a “Mark All as Read” function to both the overlay itself, and the Notices PMail Inbox.

The Nethernet 0.8.1 is now available for your playing pleasure. Continue reading for some of the highlights of this release including all new restyled overlays, a new events carousel and the return of Ballistic St. Nicks.

Patch notes are available to read here on the forums (coming soon!).

The Newly Restyled Overlays

Restyled Overlays
Lighter on the eyes

The overlays have been given a new fresh breath of light and life for this release, as well as some new functionality.  First, many of the overlays have shrunk in size making more of your browser your own again.  Secondly, you can now click on the title bars of the overlays in order to “minimize” them, clicking again “maximizes them.  Lastly, each of the overlays now has a new color scheme and buttons that include icons for quick and easy recognition and use.

Events Carousel
Better real-time notifications

We carefully listened to your feedback for the initial release of TNN 0.8.0 regarding the removal of notification PMails.  Since then, we brought back notifications in your PMailbox under the “notices” tab.  This release, we have improved the responsiveness of the Events Window, and have also brought you the Events Carousel.

Each page refresh, if someone has interacted with you, you’ll see the Events Carousel, an overlay that lets you interact back, or at the very least lets you know in real time what has been happening in your neck of TNN!

The new Event Carousel complete with reactive actions!

BNick got me!

Return of Ballistic St. Nicks
Vigilantes get back their new toy

Ballistic St. Nicks (BNicks) have once again returned.  Amid the drama surrounding their initial release, and the battles of between the NPCs to combat and restore them, BNicks now act much as Grenades do.

Quick facts:

• BNicks queue onto a player and trigger on page refresh
• There is a queue of 3 total
• BNicks either destroy the set of Armor your target is wearing, or cause them -5 DP of damage

[Please enjoy the following fiction while our servers update to version 0.8.1 of TNN: Sasha Watkins, and Victoria Ash discuss recent events; Victoria announces the return of Ballistic St. Nicks in TNN 0.8.1]

Sasha lay on a davenport in one of Victoria’s hideouts. She took the charm bracelet from one of her many pockets and held the Skeleton Key charm between two fingers, tapping the small teeth with her fingernails. She let it go and watched it dangle off the brass chain.

“You should put that on again before you lose it,” said Victoria. Her black heels clicked on the hardwood floor. She held a tea tray in her hands. The two friends had not met in person for some time, but they fell back into their habits easily.

Sasha craned her neck backwards and watched Victoria approach. Today her mask had a smug smile.

“Why so jolly, V?”

Victoria’s smugly painted smile was unchanged. “I wouldn’t say jolly. I would say… pleased.” Victoria poured a cup of tea. “Milk?”

“No, thank you.”

Victoria handed Sasha her cup and began pouring another. Sasha tapped her foot.

“You’re such a Seer, so impatient,” Victoria chided.

The steam curled off of Sasha’s tea. She held her hand over it and watch the steam find its path through her fingers, unstoppable in its lift. Victoria could see that her friend’s mind was beginning to wander.

“Jerdu won’t be blocking the Ballistic St. Nicks any longer,” she announced.

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Today Pathmakers will retro-actively get 100 more classpoints per mission they’ve published. And in the future when a Pathmaker publishes a mission, they’ll be earning 150 classpoints.

In the future, each player who takes one of your missions will earn you 10 Pathmaker classpoints.

The Nethernet 0.8.0 is available for download now!  Read on to learn about all new features for this release, including: 7 new Tools, an all new Events Window, the option to customize your toolbar, and the return of the homepage!

Patch notes are available to read here.

New Powers for Each Class!
Moar fun for everyone

• Level 15 Bedouins now have access to Vengeance, an ability which allows them to deflect portion of the damage from a Mine/Grenade with their Armor and issue it back at their attacker.
• Level 8 Benefactors now have access to Stealth Crates, an upgrade which allows them to hide their Crate laying from the Events stream.
• Level 8 Destroyers now have access to Stealth Mines, an upgrade which allows them to hide their Mine laying from the Events steam.
• Level 7 Destroyers now have access to Abundant Mines, an upgrade which gives them DP when someone triggers their trap.
• Level 10 Seers now have access to Skeleton Keys, an ability which allows them to create an item to open a difficult Puzzle Crate or Puzzle Post at a high cost. (Access from Create > Skeleton via the toolbar)
• Level 5 Vigilantes now have access to Ballistic St. Nicks, an upgrade which allows them to target another player and deal a small amount of damage and also remove their armor.
• Level 7 Pathmakers now have access to Puzzle Posts, an upgrade to lightposts left across the web. Puzzle Posts can be mixed into Missions: players will have to answer a question to proceed.

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Now you can track the most active players for each of the classes on The Nethernet. Who has been making a whole slew of Portals? Who is chiefly responsible for the pile of Crates that showed up yesterday? Check The Nethernet Leaderboards to find out.
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