7. August - EXP Rework

Hello again dear Sagi folk! We are back with regular updates, and bringing now to you our 1/2 August update! This update alone is reserved for EXP related updates, as there is a lot of them.
Mid-month August update (15th or 16th) will be more of a general update, including opening admin applications and some new content! Like the long awaited new Researches. Not one, not two, but possible THREE research topics if the stars align. Stay tuned! Let's dive right in to some general yet very important updates:

• First and foremost, Weather Phenomenon change! July's weather got some extra time for itself, but now skies are looking cloudless.
• It's been brought up in our Discord server for couple of times, but now also officially added to our ToS: No Discord DM's to our admins! Always first and foremost note the group. Founder contact  (Routa) in Discord dm's is still allowed in some cases, for example: some sort of emergency inside the group, concern towards staff member behavior, or otherwise sensitive or urgent issues.
• ToS Update: Your discord account needs to be at least 3 months old to be accepted to join our discord server.
  This rule comes into effect from these news onwards. 
• Art rule addition: Art submission by "third party" is now prohibited: Art submitted to the group must be able to be accepted at admin judging. This means that it cannot be submitted by a third party, meaning someone else than the person who has the submission art/literature in their gallery. We've had multiple pieces expire because artists never accepted the piece for a commission or a gift they've done. So to streamline the process, we're no longer allowing it moving forward. If you have commissioned an art piece or someone has done payment art to you, the artist must submit it to the group gallery.
  Sorry for any inconvenience!  
• The staff team has now an entry skipping system in place, and this info has been added to ToS under "Game Mechanics"
  To make staffmembers job a bit easier and to keep queues from clogging, a working staffmember can now skip an entry to move forward on the queue. Member will get a "On hold" comment if their entry is skipped to let them know. Most often these skips happen if the working staffmember wants for more opinions from other staff members. Staff has it's own discord channel for skipped works, so don't worry, your skipped entries won't be forgotten or ignored!

Then we get to the main topic of these updates: EXP REWORK

All new EXP rules and counting rules will come to effect from this day onward and all EXP rolls after these news will be counted with the new rules. All EXP submissions waiting in the queue will now be counted with these updated exp rules. We checked through the waiting submissions and came to the conclusion that there isn't works waiting that would majorly benefit from these changes and gain more points than they would have gained with the old system. 
EXP Recounts to already processed works won't be issued with these updated rules.  

• NPC's and Starters now count into other centaur EXP bonus as well as Extrovert -trait

• For artworks, all presented bonuses activate with entries featuring at least simple background. <- This line has been at the very bottom of EXP bonus list, and has now been moved up to be the first thing on that list. 
  Pagedolls (Image of the centaur with invisible or plain background) don't qualify for these bonuses.
  Only exception is PERSONAL bonus, which can be gained from backgroundless pagedolls as well. <- And this line got added!
  

• Nocturnal and Diurnal trait bonuses have been removed from Literature exp bonuses, and only affect art from now on! This is as these traits typically caused problems that it's presented unclearly in the literature. So the decision was made that it's not deemed suitable as literature exp bonus.
  

• General centaur amount cap on both art and literature has been set to 5! 
  Entries in submission queue posted before these news with more than 5 taurs will still get rolls to all taurs. But this rule will be in place to all new submissions after these updates.
  To avoid overcrowding in artworks and literatures, one entry can now have maximum of 5 centaurs in it that can get EXP.
  Loot rolling amount cap is still the same 4, with +1 with the Guide -trait. 

• Fullbody, Halfbody and Headshot range adjustements
  All ranges got new visual examples as well as adjustments! Fullbody range got leniency on its minimum range, as well as halfbody. Headshot got some refined rulings on what needs to be visible to get full points.

• Rendered exp bonus added
  This bonus is listed together with Lineart, and works as equivalent to Lineart bonus to artworks that have been painted or fully rendered on lineless style.

• Complex Character Element bonus added into game 
  Complex Character Element bonus can be granted to centaurs who have clothes or armor that hides the centaur's body. This bonus is activated for clothes or armor with details in them, and that requires work and effort from the artist.

  This bonus nullifies coverage penalties and gives +3 additional exp. Read full rules and guidelines from EXP page's EXP bonuses!

• EXP form got extra instructions -> One filled out form per centaur, so no shared forms. 
  

• Comics has gotten completely new counting way! The previous repeat-count way was thrown out the window, and it's now panel to panel separate counts. Check the EXP page to read more!

• Literature counting rework! With this update all words matter in the final exp count. There's now more leniency on how much your centaur can be inactive/ not present in a literature and still receive points. This counts for collabed stories as well, making them more relaxed with the counts! 

• Literature wordcount add-ons: In Healing and Professions each added character adds +400 words to the needed wordcount. This ruling was missing from these areas previously, but added now to match other areas.

• EXP Recounts and activity corrections got new threads! You can find link to EXP recounts from EXP page, and Activity correction thread is linked on general Game Activities page.

• Professions got ruling adjustment: leveling up entries must be completed by the taurs owner. This was previously unclear.

• Picturing customized centaurs got rule addition: Centaur presented in the artwork must be recognizable to the official import! Read more from EXP Page!