August 2024 Site Update

VENTURIS UPDATES

8/14/2024

Hey VV! As you have very clearly already seen, the site has been given a giant upgrade! This has been a very long time coming change; us staff have been working for quite a while behind the scenes planning, plotting, coding, the works, to give our site a much needed update. Of course, everyone can feel free to explore, but the full details of the whole update can be read here!

Brand New Skin!

The most obvious update is that we have a new site skin! It is called "Love Struck" and it was created by Alisha of Adoxography. We have changed the colors to have a blue and subtle gold theme to match the site template we have been using! While much of this is merely appearance change, the most notable change is the new sidebar! We have our five tabs, each with useful site info for all to see.
Info -- Our Info tab has a short welcoming message to the site, the current Arc the site is in, and our Of the Season features!
Stats -- The Stats tab has the current site season with a general summary for the season itself, our census which shows all the pack numbers, and an area where you can see all the current group Leaders!
Staff -- The Staff tab features all of the current staff team and a short description of their role on the site!
Updates -- A tab for updates of all kinds! There is a section for out of character updates, and one for in character updates, which can range anywhere from pack-specific plots, pack drama, pack changes, anything!
Links -- Finally our Links tab, which has links to all of our most important threads, a spot to join the Discord, and our Affiliates!

Also! Because we have a new skin, some profile changes have been added. If you go into Edit Profile under Personal, we recommend that everyone fills out the Pronouns and Timezone sections. You can also add an image link in the 200x350 section, as that is the hover image in your profile and mini profile. If you have a plotter thread you can also include the link to that.

"New" Staff Member

Even though he has been a part of the staff team for a good while now, we never gave him an official announcement, so we are officially introducing Burn as a member of VV's staff! Burn started out as a Discord staff member, as he has a lot more Discord knowledge and experience than us other three. But he was present for many important staff discussions and he gave us so many great ideas and was helping with so much, it only made sense to make him a full member of the staff team! He has been working with us for quite a while now to bring the site all of these big new updates! His official title is Head Artisan, as he already has and will continue to design many aspects of the site now and in the future! We have been super thankful and appreciative for him and all of his help and support, and we are very excited to have him as staff officially. We encourage everyone to send lots of love his way! He deserves it all!!!

Season Change

It has taken a very very long time, but VV has finally transitioned from Summer into Autumn! After the dam in the mountains was destroyed and brought water back to the valley, the weather began to cool down and life began to return. Prey that fled for greener pastures are coming back, plants are thriving again (though will begin to die soon), and the packs are returning to their normal selves. But, with life returning to the valley, there are also other things that could be eyeing up the land of the packs that the wolves should watch out for...
You can read a full in-depth summary of Summer and the drought at this link: LINK.

Information Thread Updates

A largely content-heavy announcement, we have done a pretty big overhaul on many important informational threads! Some of them were merely info transfers onto our new staff template, some of them were info transfers with a few additions, and others are brand new!

Pack/Guild Pages // All four of the pack/guild pages have been given an update! They each have their own fancy templates, the ranks and numbers are all updated, and they all have more organized sections!
Vertok: Link
Sanzin: Link
Au'Dar: Link
Mercurior: Link

Meet the Staff // While our Meet the Staff thread is not a new addition to the site, we want to bring attention to it, as not only has Burn been added to our list, but each of us also have brand new beautiful icons of ourselves personified as wolves, designed by Burn of course!
Link: LINK

Site Overview & Timeline // Whereas before this thread was known as the Site Plot thread, it has been given an update! You can now find 2 posts in this thread: one that describes the current overall plot of the site and the list of current Packs and Guilds, and a second that will serve as the Site Timeline to keep track of all major events that happen on the site!
Link: Link

Character Directory // Our Character Directory has been given a pretty big layout change! All characters are now listed by member rather than pack, and each character is now listed along with their gender, pronouns, rank, pack (if any), and a link to their bio!
Link: Link

High Rank Requirements // Previously this thread was called Pack Leader Requirements, but seeing as pack Leaders are not the only high ranks on the site, it seemed more fitting that it be renamed and revamped! You can now find the rules and requirements for playing high ranked characters, the differences between Pack Leaders and High Ranks, and a list of all High Ranks (open and taken) on the site!
Link: Link

Reference Guide // At one point we had used our Reference Guide as...well...a reference to use when making characters, as well as a place to find info on wolf development, language, ect. But after we revamped our Character Creation Guide, we decided to use this thread instead as a reference point for all general VV info. You can now find information about the current valley our site takes place in, a list of types of groups that can be found on VV and their differences, types of hierarchies currently used on site, and information on wolf life, development, and language all in this thread on different posts!
Link: Link

Character Maintenance // A new addition to the site, we now have a Character Maintenance thread, which is a thread you can post in when some main feature of your character is being changed in-character and needs to be updated across the site, such as joining a pack/guild, leaving a pack/guild, name changes, gender changes, ect.
Link: Link


Those threads are the biggest in terms of updates and additions.
While not as major, we also updated our Rules thread, Medicine Guide, and the NPC Guide/Masterlist. All three were given the update of switching to our new site template. The only one to have any changes is the rules thread, and it is mostly reorganization and a few small additions.

Site Curreny & Shop

A pretty big announcement, VV now has a form of site currency and a site shop! Our new currency is known as VM, which stands for either Valley Miles or Venturis Miles, or both at the same time, whichever you like better. VM will be something that all members now earn for participating on the site, primarily through creating threads and making posts, but also as a prize for contests and events!
When roleplaying on site, creating new threads will earn you 10 VM and making posts in threads will earn you 5 VM.

In turn, members can save up VM and go to our brand new site shop, where you can buy a large variety of items, customizations, and even a couple of heavily plot-based items revolving around brand new groups...

Every member can view how much VM they have in both their mini-profiles and their primary profiles.

NOTE: As all of this is brand new to the site and we have never had anything like this before, we have made the decision that, as our new site currency is put into place, all current members of the site will be starting at 0 VM so that nobody has any advantages as this change is put into place.

Our new site shop can be found here: Link

Advertising and Affiliating

For a good while now VV hasn't really done a whole lot of advertising or affiliating. We've been pretty content with the little community we have built up and we have made lots of fun characters and plots together. But, seeing as we have all of these new changes to the site and we still have lots of HRs that not all of us can fill, we are gonna be advertising the site again! We really hope that we can get some brand new members on the site and add some new friends to our little wolf family.
Note: We ask that no regular members go and start advertising without asking. We want to keep track of what places we advertise to for the sake of not double-ading.

Valley Map

Although we have already put this map in the Reference Guide, we thought it would be good to share this here to! Where before VV didn't have an official map of our valley and a layout of the territories and landmarks, now we do! The lovely map was designed by Ches and drawn by Burn!

New Locations

As you could probably tell by looking at our new map and exploring some of the boards, we have some new and some updated locations in the valley!
In terms of new locations, we now have Vertok Training Grounds, Au'Dar Training Grounds, the Sanzin Arena, the High Ledge, and the Haunted Wood, all of which you can read about in their board descriptions.
We've also updated most of the descriptions of the different locations we already had, and added a few sub-boards for smaller areas within other locations, mainly the densites.




Venturis Ventis has been around for quite a while now, as has our community. All of us love this place and all that we have built together, and we hope that with this new update we can continue to grow and build many stories and memories together.

To our VV community and family, your staff team loves and adores you all! <3