v1.5 let’s users search the entire community marker database. Over 70,000 of them! This is a huge resource and very entertaining too. Also, I made the social add on free. The goal from the start was to have a free resource for the Skyrim community but I needed a way to cover the server costs. Thank you every one that purchased the social add on for making this possible!
Also, if you are a Skyrim modder or know of one, please contact me if you are interested in using the public, community markers in your mods: https://rblalock.wufoo.com/forms/r7x1r5/
I have a rudimentary RESTful API setup, so anyone wanting to use it can contact me to get a token.
Well this is annoying. v1.1 was approved today and works great. One exception is the actual social sharing is not. So marker sharing and chat do not work. The reason why is for some odd reason Apple accidentally disabled the in-app purchase for social sharing. I tried to re-enable but couldn’t so ended up trying to re-create it….which in turn rendered that part of the app inoperable.
Apple’s app review division is closed until the 29th of Dec. so we’ll all have to wait for an update. Sorry about this! In the meantime, everything else in the app still works!
Great news! v1.1 is awaiting Apple’s approval to be placed in the App Store.
NEW FEATURES - Parties! Add friends to your ‘party’ to see their markers and journal entries. Invite them via facebook, twitter, and email. - In-app chat! Now you can chat with your friends and global community inside the app. Anytime someone drops a public marker you’ll see it in the chat window. Tap on it to see it’s location. - NEW MAP! Thanks to GameBanshee.com for this awesome, fully annotated map. The map can be toggled in the settings. - A new ‘folder’ marker. Now you can nest markers inside a folder to keep them organized. Great for cities, guilds, and just plain ole long journal entries in one spot. - Full text search on all existing markers in the user and his party’s database. - Clicking on a journal entry will now jump to that marker on the map if it exists. - Double tapping the map will now zoom in / out. - Data queries are speedy now. App performs much better.
BUG FIXES - Connectivity issues should be much better for users with poor signal - Fixed spelling errors on map (doh!) - Filter works much better now - Markers with no text will not try to be shown in the journal page - Zoom out of map on iPad doesn’t zoom out too much now - Removed portrait upside down mode - Much more under the hood fixes and many community reported issues
A random assortment of FAQs people sent me different channels:
This is not an official companion app. That’s why the map is not identical. It’s why the markers aren’t the same as the game. Using the actual map or markers will never be implemented. I am trying to stay away from anything Bethesda actually owns.
To delete a marker: tap on a markers, scroll to the bottom, tap ‘delete’.
There will be a ‘pre-populated’ map in v1.1 as an option (Thanks to GameBanshee.com). See here for a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5AR-3hgA3xQ
There have been a lot of account creation issues. The common denominator is: happens a lot to people outside the US or people with slow wifi or 3G connections. If this happens to you, I recommend toggling airplane mode off and on, switching towers, etc. This seems to fix it for most people. Still trying to get to the bottom of this.
I’ve received a lot of requests for offline mode so I’ll be implementing it in a future version.
Wanted to keep everyone up to date on what’s going on. Here’s a quick bullet point to keep it short:
Status:
10,000 users and 5,000 markers in 24 hours! Not too bad for zero advertising. Thanks everyone for the epic viral takeover!!! You’ll really see all this useful in the social update, I promise! For the most part servers seem to be doing well too beside some intermittent connection issues with some users.
I’ve gotten a lot of feedback. Thank you so much. Keep it coming. I’ve already logged 50+ features and bugs. 5 bugs were fixed tonight and will be shipped with the next version
Some older generation devices are having crashing issues. Trying to get my hand on an older device to see what’s up.
There’s an odd issue with some users where it keeps asking them to log in. I cannot duplicate this yet but looking in to it. It’s possible you never really were logged in because of connection issues. Try restarting the app (close it from the background), then log out and re-login. Most people are finding ways to get around it by toggling their phone to airplane mode and back. Sounds like a server availability issue maybe.
The journal will break if you have markers with no text in it….so don’t create empty markers just yet if you want to avoid that.
What’s coming:
The next version will have a new, optional map (from GameBanshee!) with all locations on it.
Nested markers (e.g. folders) will be available in the next version (That way you can create a folder per guild or city and log all your markers in that if you’d like)
Lots of bug fixes
Journal layout tweaked a little.
A question for you: I’m thinking about revamping the journal to a personal notebook instead of just showing all the marker entries. What say you?
Here’s the skinny on Android for all those that keep asking about it:
It’s coming soon
Soon, as in a few months
It’s going to take some time because Android is, well, Android. So please be patient. Or if you don’t want to wait, get an iOS device (You probably should anyway). :-) Support will likely be for Android 2.3 and up.
I’d love to do one for Windows Phone 7 - just not the time for it. Maybe Windows Phone 8….
The iOS app is universal - so it will work on all iOS devices. I prefer the iPad - it looks awesome!
I received an email over the weekend that the app went in review. For those not familiar with the Apple review process: It can take up to 2 weeks to get approved. Once an app gets the “In Review” status it usually takes 2 days after that to get it approved. From there it should start appearing in the app stores around the world.
