I've only lurked the forums up to this point, so hi (even though I've technically posted on the forums before, but that was my old account). I thought I'd try and speculate about what's to come in this update using the hints they've given us! I put some hints in multiple different contexts, because what can I say, anything could mean anything.
MAP-RELATED HINTS:Ancestors, hidden pathway: Could mean we're getting remakes of older maps... even from Impressive Title, which had a map called “Secret Tunnel” leading to “Hidden Valley”.
HOT: Could mean a variety of things, the two most likely guesses being a desert map or a volcano map. It really depends on what hint you combine it with...
HOT, rattle rattle rattle, colored rocks, dust: Desert, there may be rattlesnakes there. Rattlesnakes are found in flatter, scrub-like deserts, so don't expect any big dunes like the Sahara. The “colored rocks” may mean mesas (
which can in fact be pretty colorful).
HOT, stepping onto uneven land, smoke: Volcano, which is in essence, a firey mountain. Mountains are uneven land. Smoke comes out of volcanoes. Pretty obvious, plus we've never had an official volcano map for FH.
“Ofishul SIMBA M has returned”, baboons: A map based off of (but may not be exactly) the Pridelands. The “baboons” may be in reference to Rafiki.
Glub..., water, ruins: Another water map. Likely an Atlantis remake. (Do note that “water” was added shortly after someone joked about it earlier in this thread.)
Paw, bumpy snow, a cozy place: Ah, yes, the one map we already know about for sure. The
preview image has pawprints in it. I could see a snow map being a fine spot for a log cabin or some other cozy gathering spot, maybe with a campfire?
Purple, cave, grass?, white log: These hints are all too vague to allocate to a specific hint. “Purple” sounds rather extravagant, however. Maybe “white log” could mean a birch forest.
“Ground pimples...”: It's probably unlikely, but a horror map where THE GROUND IS FLESH would be neat. Or this could just mean hills.
Find me as you go, stone circle, a giant twist: A labyrinth map. It would be difficult to achieve this right because:
-the minimap shows the heightmap
-if you were to use objects for the walls, it might be easy for people to glitch through
Still a possibility, though.
Stone circle, a giant twist: Sounds like Ascension Island. Maybe it'll lead up to...
we interrupt this program for a message from the future. so there's this big thread going on and... yeah. have fun cleaning up after this
yolo, one last hurrah for me before i ditch this hellhole. ain't going out without fighting the good fight. i've been archiving [the let's talk thread] in the case that the staff ever nuke it. stash it away and spread the word while you can, lovelies~
page 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20200718015717/https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=68702.0
page 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20200718021459/https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=68702.10
page 3: https://web.archive.org/web/20200720055420/https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=68702.20
page 4: https://web.archive.org/web/20200720055452/https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=68702.30
page 5: https://web.archive.org/web/20200720060105/https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=68702.40
page 6: https://web.archive.org/web/20200720051740/https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=68702.50
page 7: https://web.archive.org/web/20200720062640/https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=68702.60
(after that, it got locked)
if anyone wants to help contribute, just paste the page url into this:
https://web.archive.org/save
if this post gets deleted, you have my full permission to repost it. no need to credit. i lend my voice.
there shan't be any more silence
ahem now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
A new sky, spread your wings: Sky's Rim remake? (Come on, Todd.
Not again.) Or...
Zero gravity, “Ground pimples...”, dust: Some others are speculating that these may be a moon map. Maybe it's just a space map in general. Either way, a zero-gravity trick can be achieved by submerging the entire map in water, perhaps with an invisible surface material. “But Silv,” you may be asking, “what about that annoying blue tint? Wouldn't that get in the way?” Well...
Reduced visibility has been removed, clearer: These two certainly go together. Perhaps they removed the blue tint the screen gets while underwater. It's possible to do, actually! I tested this myself by:
-going into media\overlays\overlays2
-editing gui.overlay
-replacing the material under “UnderwaterFader” with an invisible material (I used acaciaLeafDeadMat)
End result looks like this:
UnderwaterFader
{
zorder 300
container Panel(UnderwaterFader)
{
left 0
top 0
width 1
height 1
material acaciaLeafDeadMat
}
}
OTHER HINTS:Find me as you go: could be a hint to put all of the hints together?
A new sky: New cloud textures and a new sky mask, perhaps new sun, moon, and radiance textures as well. And stars.
Make Me Pretty: New character-related stuff. It could be a retexture of the fur, or perhaps we're getting some new markings? (which would admittedly mess with mass-marking packs, but the community update DID add some new items itself)
Make Me Pretty, Spread your wings: New wing textures? New models would mess with existing presets (unless they miraculously have the same UV maps), so that's a bit unlikely...
A giant twist: Maybe we're getting some lore behind the maps? That'd be interesting to see. Then again, FH maps are generally supposed to be a blank slate for all sorts of roleplays.
PROBABLY INSIDE JOKES (and other red herrings):Gary, Julie, Gluteus maximus, Applesauce, “Kylovuu...”, “Eclipse Johnson is dead.”, Hope
COULDN'T CLASSIFY (but could still mean something):Migration of a lifetime: I'm still going to guess about this one. Maybe the servers will be migrated to better servers, enough to last the game its lifetime (hopefully long).
TL;DR:Snake? SNAKE! SNAAAAAAAAAAAKE