Track the continuous evolution of The Mels Live. Here you'll find comprehensive patch notes, new gameplay systems, architectural improvements, balance adjustments, and bug fixes deployed to Melwood Valley.
v70Major Portal & RebrandingCurrent Live
Official Player Manual (`/guide/`) & Universal "The Mels Live" Rebranding
Launched the comprehensive standalone Player Manual & System Guide portal at /guide/, featuring documentation for all 21 gameplay systems. Standardized the game's title to The Mels Live across all client interfaces, and completed database hygiene by clearing test player accounts.
NEW Systems & Features
Official Player Manual Portal: Deployed a dedicated web portal at https://mels.johnathonwheeler.com/guide/ detailing all 21 game systems, from core Sim motives to endgame boss raids.
Live Search & Scroll Spy: Integrated real-time keyword filtering across all systems, automatic section tracking, and mobile drawer navigation.
Master Keybindings Cheatsheet: Interactive reference table for all 19 keyboard shortcuts (B, F, R, I, U, G, K, J, X, T, Y, C, P, O, Z, M, H, V, Esc) with click-to-copy functionality.
In-Game Guide Shortcuts: Added a direct 📖 Guide button to the top toolbar modes row and a 📖 Player Guide action on the title screen menu.
POLISH Branding & Database
Universal Title Standardization: Enforced The Mels Live title across main game headers, metadata tags, guide documentation, and HUD displays.
Server Database Cleanup: Evicted automated test player records (tso_prod_* and john1) and expired test session tokens, preserving registered player characters.
Starter Lot Resets: Reset 105 Meadowbrook Acre (Lot 5) and 102 Factory Lane (Lot 2) back to clean, vacant starter parcels available for claim.
v69Lighting & Atmosphere
Interactive 3D Furniture Lighting, Dimmer Switches & Ambient Colors
Transformed lamps and lighting fixtures from static meshes into real 3D light sources. Introduced 3 new lighting fixtures in the Buy Catalog, multi-level dimmer intensity controls, an RGB ambient color picker modal, self-healing legacy lamps, and multiplayer lighting synchronization.
NEW 3D Lighting Engine
Real 3D PointLights: Purchased fixtures now inject real THREE.PointLight emitters accompanied by emissive glass bulbs and translucent fabric shades.
New Catalog Lighting Fixtures:
Ceramic Bedside Lamp (§ 85): Compact tabletop lamp for desks and nightstands.
Royal Gold Chandelier (§ 450): Ornate brass ceiling chandelier casting a wide room glow.
Wrought Iron Streetlamp (§ 220): Exterior pathway lantern with frosted glass.
3-Stage Dimmer Switch: Contextual pie menu dimmer toggles between 🌙 Cozy Mood (0.6x), 🔆 Standard Bright (1.2x), and ✨ Radiant Ambient (2.2x).
Ambient Light Color Modal: Choose from 8 preset palettes (Warm Amber, Daylight White, Cozy Sunset, Romantic Rose, Cyber Neon Cyan, Emerald Glow, Enchanted Violet, Ruby Magenta) or select any custom tone via the HTML5 color slider with live 3D preview.
NETWORK Persistence & Compatibility
Self-Healing Older Lamps: Preexisting lamps loaded from older save files automatically detect missing PointLights and retrofit them on the fly upon lot load.
Multiplayer Synchronization: Added TOGGLE_FURNITURE_LIGHT server packet and lot database persistence, syncing light toggles, colors, and dimmer levels across all online players in real time.
Day/Night Engine Integration: Updated toggleNightIlluminations in threeEngine.js to preserve player lighting preferences across day/night cycles without stomping active states.
v68Architectural Reach
Full Plot Boundary Placement & 22x17m Footprint Unlocked
Removed legacy placement restrictions that prevented players from placing objects or building near the outer edges of their lots. Unlocked the full 22m x 17m (374 m²) property footprint for wall construction, floor tiling, and exterior furnishing.
NEW Boundary Freedom
Unclamped Furniture Placement: Removed outdated hardcoded [-7.5, 7.5] clamp limits in BuyCatalog, allowing smooth placement all the way to x = ±11.0 and z = -9.0 to 8.0.
Full 374 m² Floor Tiling: Floor tiles now snap flush to the outer surveyor ribbon from (-10.5, -8.5) to (10.5, 7.5) across all 374 grid tiles.
Property Perimeter Walls: Allowed construction of exterior walls and fences directly along the property boundary line.
Dynamic Plot Grid Overlay: Replaced the old 20x20 square grid with an exact 22x17m boundary-fitted grid featuring a glowing cyan perimeter border.
FIX Lot Cleanup
Removed Obstructing Desert Boulders: Relocated decorative rocks at coordinates like (8, -5) and (-9, -6) outside the plot ribbon so 100% of the interior yard is buildable.
Boundary Click Raycasting: Added ground-plane raycasting fallbacks ensuring clicks directly on the boundary ribbon register reliably in Build Mode.
v67Input & Inventory Fix
Planter Inventory Pickup & Placement Reticle Fix
Resolved a critical game freeze where picking up default garden dirt plots or raised cedar planter boxes into the backpack caused the 3D placement reticle to disappear, locking mouse input and preventing further interactions.
FIX Resolved Issues
Planter Def Resolution: Fixed pickupFurnitureToInventory to cleanly resolve gardening plots and planter boxes into catalog definitions without throwing missing-id exceptions.
3D Ghost Reticle Restoration: Ensured the 3D green placement cursor and ghost mesh remain 100% visible and interactive when placing planters from the inventory [I].
Input Raycasting Safeguard: Fixed raycasting ray termination so placing or cancelling items from the backpack never locks the scene or disables click listeners.
Legacy Item Stash Safety: Added fallbacks for legacy IDs like furn_cedar_planter_box_(empty) to map safely to wooden_planter_box.
Implemented authoritative server-side session eviction to prevent duplicate avatar logins across multiple PCs or tabs, and fixed a JavaScript ReferenceError crash when jacked into the MelsScape VR Castle Dungeon.
NETWORK MMO Integrity
Single-Session Mutex: Logging into an account on a second device or tab immediately evicts the older active session with a clean notification ("You have logged in from another location"), ensuring no player can clone themselves in the MMO world.
Auto-Reconnect Suppression: Added eviction flags to client connection state to suppress automated WebSocket reconnect loops after forced multi-login logouts.
FIX VR Holodeck Dungeon
Castle Dungeon Chest Crash: Fixed ReferenceError: sandStoneMat is not defined in melsScapeEngine.js by properly initializing procedural chunk material references.
Smooth Holodeck Transition: Restored seamless 3D teleportation into the retro voxel sandstone dungeon and dungeon loot chest opening.