Please disregard my previous blog · 1:58am Dec 9th, 2014
Writer's block broken, chapter finished, and story updated. Yay!
I am now less desperate for a coauthor.
I figure I should write about the game, the community, and the reason I'm still writing this fic. It's been two and a half years since I started writing, and not yet have I really stopped to gush about this game. Everything past this point will be summed up in a tl;dr at the end, and is therefore completely unnecessary to read.
To start, there's the technical side of Mousehunt. It's a fully in-browser game found either on Facebook (search "Mousehunt") or on their own site, mousehuntgame.com. The data is stored server-side, so the only thing that your computer has to commit memory to is your login and password, making this a very lightweight game to play, perfect for those with slow computers. The game was first released in March 2008, and has since won the "fbFund" award. It is currently in version 3, codenamed "Longtail". For those without a computer, there's an Android and iOS app with the full game, completely free.
Now, there's the mechanics behind the game. You arm your weapon, base, and cheese, then click the horn, and hope that you catch a mouse. Simple, no? Not really. Every weapon and base have their own stats: power, luck, attraction bonus, and freshness rating. Each cheese attracts different mice at different rates. These three things combine to produce your trap. Every fifteen minutes, you can click a button, AKA sound the horn, and start a series of RNGs. First, the game checks your trap's attraction rate. For example, Brie cheese has an 80% rate, plus the bonus from the trap. A 20% bonus would give you a total rate of 84%. Then, the game checks the mouse population, and selects one at weighted random. This mouse's power value is then weighed against your trap's power, somehow providing a percentage catch rate. Then, another number is generated, and this is weighed against your trap's luck, adding to the catch rate. Finally, another random number is weighed against that rate, and you either catch or miss that mouse. There are other factors, such as trap power type and hunter's title, but that's how the basics work.
The developers put a lot of work into Mousehunt; not just maintaining, but improving the game. That cover art I have? It's taken straight from the game. It's a Derpicorn mouse. It's one of 675 different mice. Some are rare, like the Leprechaun, and some are annoyingly common, like the Steel. They vary from location to location, but one thing stays certain: the game is balanced. Except for Furoma. Every area is difficult enough for the correct level of hunter to ensure fair returns. Furoma, being the one commonly cited exception, gets very easy for higher-level hunters, and gives out great rewards, making it the most profitable area in the game. However, the developers saw this, and periodically release a gold-sink area that does not make Furoma any easier. This area is known as Ronza's Traveling Shoppe.
So, you may be thinking, this is all well and good for a player looking for a quick fix; what keeps you playing? In two words: the community. The forums are full of hunters, newbie and veteran alike. Yes, there are trolls, and there are those who "don't English well", but they are the minority. Forum goers are free to leave bug reports, ideas for improving the game, strategies, and yes, even family friendly fan fiction. The community has analyzed most of the game; Horntracker collects real data from hunts and stores it in a database, the various scoreboards rank hundreds of hunters' acheivements, and other things besides. There's even a wiki. The developers even join in from time to time, holding competitions and giving out free prizes. Regular hunters are free to do this too.
What else is there... Oh, how could I forget seasonal events?! The Great Winter Hunt is about to start! The Egg Hunt brings large amounts of loot for every level! There's the Birthday Party, and Ronza! They're the surest way to enjoy hemorrhaging gold, as far as I know.
Finally, that brings me to my story. It's been through its ups and downs, but I have a small group of followers on the MH forums that give support unconditionally. I was introduced to MLP through one of my fellow hunters. This story is kinda my way of giving back to him, and paying it forward to you guys.
Speaking of paying it forward, I'd like to do something a little more direct. From now until the end of 2014, I'd like to help any of you who read this blog post. As such, I'm going to give anyone who starts playing Mousehunt because of this post 100,000 gold as a starter fund. Just complete the tutorial, find me on the forums, and send me a friend request on Facebook, mentioning "MLMH blog" in the request. I'm the guy who started the "My Little Mousehunters" thread in the FA&F subforum. At this point in time, I have the resources to help 125 people start.
tl;dr: Mousehunt is fun, you should play!
Heh, man, I should probably check it out. Reminds me of the idea of someone doing a lightweight pony RTS in the style of Red Alert / Dune / Command and Conquer or something like that... basically strategy based game where you're trying to harvest, in this case, mice. Plus I have mice in the house I'm trying to get rid of and they were too cute to go after until they started taking over the kitchen...
2646780 Cool. It won't teach you anything about catching mice in the kitchen, unless you can get a regular spring trap to over 1,000 pounds of tension (whatever that means), adorn it with spikes, and place it on a base make of plastic explosives. That isn't guaranteed to catch the basic mice, though.
Yeah, the developers have admitted to aiming to break your suspension of disbelief. It hasn't worked on me, though. I am perfectly accepting of the fact that a thirty pound mouse-octopus combo lives deep under the ocean, and can only be properly combated by a school of high-tech, rocket-launching, laser-equipped sharks. It's a game, after all.
2646799 Hehe! Yeah they should certainly either have a pony version of this sort of strategy / capture game with a million different pony "types", or the reverse, have more species in equestria like that legendary Do or Deer episode that Lauren Faust didn't get to do. Only maybe with mice invade Equestria or something. That might be an interesting episode but it might be too close to the Parasprite epsiode, I guess? One of the things I hope to do with the Tolkien fic I've been working on is have it be a more ancient-times bestiary sort of thing like with D&D where you have all these species that "used" to exist in greater numbers, that way fold in all the apocryphal species like seaponies, fluffy ponies, deer, etc. And mouse-octopus combo (combi?) that live under the ocean sounds cool.