The December 1st, 2006 release was announced in the patchnotes for the November 28th release (no separate patchnotes were provided for this release). This patch marked the formal end of the beta (gold coin purchases had opened November 6th), and saw the implementation of the Beta Tester Awards.

Howdy pardners! I've got a few bits to jaw at ya, and some details on a bug fix patch that we put up today. Firstly the patch notes:

• If your computer gets too far behind in animating the moves (which happens on computers with less powerful graphics accelerators), the game will stop doing animations for a bit and just jump pieces into place to help you catch up.
• We changed a few of the Badges, mostly name changes and image tweaks.
• We modified the Pardner Chat tabs so that they'll maintain the history of your chat with yer pardner seamlessly if you move between the Saloon and other places where the tabs are shown in a popup window.
• We added fancy new visual effects to Wendigo Attack and dropped the number of Wendigo that are shown during an attack to one to hopefully make things work better for computers with less powerful graphics accelerators.
• We now ignore players that have not played a scenario in the last two weeks when computing the Top Ranked lists. You got to keep playin' to hold onto yer title.
• We fixed a bunch of bugs: the coloring of the Battered Fox Skull Hat, a problem with changing your Handle, a problem with the Thunderbird AI, a problem with matchmaking with "Include previous towns" checked, a problem with the Lightning Card and various others that would require a heap o' technical jargon to explain.

The next thing I want to jabber about is the end of Beta. We're going to be declaring Beta to be ended this Friday, December 1st at High Noon (Pacific Standard Time).

What does this mean exactly? Well the main thing is that players are no longer going to get a free ride to the Indian Trading Post. They'll have to buy a ticket. But it also means that we're going to be givin' out our Beta Tester Rewards, which I reckon yer all going to enjoy. You'll be gettin':

• One free ticket to Indian Trading Post.
• One official Beta Tester Badge.

One thing to note is that everyone who registered and logged on during the Beta will receive the Beta Tester Badge, but only those players that played at least 20 Ranked Games will receive the free ticket to Indian Trading Post. We reckon that ya aught to have done yer job if yer gonna get paid fer it.

So if ya got friends that ya think might like Bang! Howdy, tell 'em to get their hide on over here and sign up fer the Beta because it's their last chance to get a free ticket to ITP.
-- Sheriff Mike

Howdy pardners,

Got another update for ya. Mostly bug fixes but with a few new bits here and there:

• Revamped the team selection interface; added a timeout to team selection
• Various AI fixes and improvements
• Made it possible to play "vs. player" cards (e.g. Discard) on a unit and the card will be played on the player that owns that unit
• Added a custom cursor and now the cursor turns into the card you're going to play when you select a card for play
• Added sound controls to the in-game options menu (activated by the "ESC" key)
• Revamped the game creation interface in the Back Parlor; no longer are Players and Ti n Cans specified separately; instead you configure whether you want a Human a Tin Can or nothing in each slot
• Added two new configuration options for Back Parlor games: total game duration (normal, shorter and longer) and tick speed: (normal, faster and slower)
• Redid the images for some Badges
• Added a Cowboy-ifying chat filter (this can be adjusted or turned off from the options menu)
• Added instructions for the Friendly Folks system for players that have never used it
• Made Peace Pipe work on Logging Robots' proximity attack
• Added support for using GLSL shaders for cards that have them
• Fixed /clear when using multiple chat tabs
• A few other small bug fixes and tweaks

We're tidying up a few things here and there and squashing any remaining bugs as we find them. We're going to spend some time on better social infrastructure and some higher level gameplay elements before we dive into Boom Town.

Right now we're getting started on Gangs which will be a way for players to group together and compete with other Gangs and host tournaments and have special Gang outfits and a bunch of other fancy stuff.

That's all for now pardners,

We got another small patch for ya today which hopefully will fix the problem of the client thinking that you're idle and logging you off.

We also modified Wendigo attack so that units don't spawn during the darkness. We reserve the right to change that further if we decide this way is even more annoying than the old way, but we're going to try it out.

We also changed the format of our 3D models and animations on disk so this patch is a bit bigger than it aught to be, but going forward they should hopefully be smaller thanks to this change.

That's about the size of it. We're doin' a lot of bug fixin' at the moment so hopefully we'll get the remaining kinks ironed out in short order.
-- Sheriff Mike

Howdy Pardners,

We deployed a small patch today that mainly just fixes bugs that have cropped up since we released Indian Trading Post.

However, there's one important thing that we've enabled: buying gold coins for real money.

We're getting close to being done with beta and actually launching the game, so we're turning on gold coin purchases. We've also removed the standing offer for gold coins at 1000 scrip because that was only so that we could test during beta.

From here on out, the game is operating as it will be for real, which means buying gold coins for real money or trading for them at the Bank with other players. I'll emphasize this because people are often confused by it: we no longer control the price of gold coins in the exchange, you do. It's now a real exchange where you guys set the buy and sell prices. If you have extra gold coins that you want to sell for scrip, pick whatever price you think the market will bear and put them up for sale.

P.S. I know it says m.cost_90 in the Bank, something didn't get fixed before the release. I'll fix that ASAP. There's no need to report it as a bug.

Happy trails pardners,

-- Sheriff Mike

Pardners, we're pleased as punch to announce that Indian Trading Post is now available on the public beta server. It's been a long road, but we're mighty happy with how it all came together. We've introduced a pile of new stuff to the game.

There are three new Big Shot units:

• The Storm Caller attacks his opponents with a bolt of lightning that chains to anyone unlucky enough to be standin' next to his target.
• The Trickster Raven transforms from human to raven form to fly from place to place around the board.
• The Revolutionary is an inspiration to his team. He gives a 10% attack bonus to all allied ground units, and when he is killed, all currently dead units on his team are immediately respawned to avenge him.

There are four new stock units:

• The Dream Catcher attacks by flinging nightmares at her target which cause them to run in terror, reset their initiative and drain some of their health into the Dream Catcher.
• The Buffalo Rider rams her target with a mighty buffalo. If she starts her attack from far enough away, she'll knock them back into the next board space.
• The Thunderbird is our first Spirit unit and has the ability to attack its target on the way to its destination instead of moving first and then attacking.
• The Dog Soldier is a tank of a unit that stakes himself into the ground to avoid being moved when attacked by the Buffalo Rider or the Dream Catcher. He also gets a small additional attack on every tick which damages all enemy units that are standing next to him.

There are three new gameplay scenarios:

• In Wendigo Attack the players battle it out while trying to survive the onslaught of the deadly Wendigo. Only by carrying a Sacred Talisman or standing on a Petroglyph of Protection can they avoid an icy doom.
• In Totem Building players work to build the most and the biggest Totem Poles using different kinds of Totems that they pick up around the board.
• In Forest Guardians players cooperate rather than compete and do battle against the dastardly Logging Robots who wish to decimate the forests to further the expansion of their Furniture Empire.

There are over a dozen new cards and bonuses and even more new badges to be discovered.

We'll be workin' away to fix all the bugs that will no doubt be uncovered now that all this new code is getting some serious use. In the meanwhile, enjoy and we'll see ya down at the Big Bear Saloon,

- Sheriff Mike

• We added a Character page to the Barber where you 'kin pick which avatar poses should be used in which situations (like yer Victory pose and yer Wanted Poster pose). You 'kin also use it to change yer Handle if ya done picked a dud when ya first signed up.
• We redesigned the Saloon user interface to make things a bit simpler and clearer.
• We finished up the Friendly Folks system so now at the end of a game, you 'kin give yer opponents a thumbs up if ya like 'em real good and want to be matched with 'em again, or a thumbs down if they bugged ya and ya don't ever want to be stuck in a game with 'em again.
• We fancied up the Badge display a bit so that now it shows ya a shadow of Badges that ya ain't yet earned. But let it be known that it don't show ya all the unearned Badges, just Badges from a series that ya have at least one of already. There's plenty of surprises lurkin' in there.
• We also wired up some of the Card Packs in the General Store to be unlocked by certain Badges. Most of y'all will probably already have 'em all unlocked already but for a new player it'll add some fun and excitement when they earn them Badges.
• We now display influence icons next to units in the game when they have an influence (like Ramblin' or Hustle). We already had 'em in the Unit Status display in the corner, but sometimes it's hard to tear yer eyes away from the action long enough to look up there.
• We also now display a question mark over the head of a Unit when their Advance Order is canceled because it is no longer valid. We'll also be adding a question mark that lingers on their Unit Status display until the next time you select the unit, but that didn't make it into this here release.
• We wired up the Ranking Levels, so now you can see in yer Wanted Poster how well ya stack up against the other cowpokes. The ranking order is: tenderfoot, cowpoke, Scofflaw, Rebel, Law Breaker, BANDIT, OUTLAW, RENEGADE. We'll stick that list somewhere that folks can easily find at some point.
• You 'kin click on the Cowpokes in the High Score lists now and check out their Wanted Posters.
• We also added a bunch of fancy new particle effects and more great sound effects.

Howdy Pardners,

We did just a small release today to fix various bugs. I don't know why the patch was so dang big, maybe the artists have been tweaking lots of model files or something.

We did get in sound effects for a number of the cards that were added a while back, so those are takin' up some space.

Anyhow, we're still polishin' away on things, so you'll have to hang on just a bit longer before ya get yer mits on Indian Trading Post.

• We added tips to the town menu and prettied up the buttons.
• We added a fancy new in-game unit status display which gives you details like movement and firing range as well as displays current influences, hindrances and anything being carried by your unit.
• We added a Friendly Folks system which we're still workin' on. This will allow you to keep track of folks you like playing with and will make it easier for you to chat with 'em and get into games with 'em. Think of it like bookmarks for people.
• We added support for bridges to the engine and added some new boards that make use of 'em.
• We added a whole heap of new avatar looks.
• We added a bunch of new boards and added Land Grab support to many of the old ones.
• When your potential moves are displayed, we now highlight any moves that accomplish some sort of goal (like picking up or dropping off a nugget, or picking up a bonus) and so forth.
• We added a recent chat display which you can open by pressing F3.
• The tutorials can now be played in any order.
• We added forward/back buttons to the tutorial text.
• Saloon settings are now saved between sessions.
• Cards brought into a game are shown in a different color than those picked up during play.
• We added a button for going right to The Barber after buyin' new duds at The General Store.
• We added textual descriptions to the modifiers in unit tooltips (it now says, for example, "Attack bonus versus range units" in addition to showing the icons).
• We fixed a problem with dropping in-progress chat when starting a game.
• We added a random name generator that you can use when namin' yer Big Shot Units.
• We squashed the "missing avatar in chat" bug along with numerous others.

• There's a new scenario, Land Grab, based on the capture and defense of towering homesteads. Play the Land Grab Tutorial to find out more.
• Speaking of tutorials, you can now Practice any of the scenarios from the tutorials menu.
• We've made a bunch of improvements to the user interface, especially with regard to targeting units in-game. You can see who you can shoot from each location, whether they'll die if you shoot'em, and more! We've also renovated the Ranch.
• There are a bunch of purty new effects for bonuses, cards, and nuggets.
• A few Cards have been recalled for use in later towns. If you had Trap, Stampede, Jack Rabbit, or Dust Devil cards, well, you don't have 'em no more. On the bright side, players who owned any of those cards will get 1000 scrip to buy some new ones. Cards are much cheaper now, too.

• Fixed Claim Jumping tutorial
• Fixed repeated tutorial payouts
• Fixed bug where units could not fire without moving
• We now position your Player Status View on the left always
• We tweaked some of the boards and added a few new ones

• We added a whole heap 'o new Cards and Bonuses. Barricade, Dud, Jack Rabbit, and a dozen more. Get on into the General Store and pick up a pack fer yerself and give 'em a whirl.
• We've made a whole lot of progress on our effects system, so a bunch more stuff sparks, sparkles, explodes, and blings. There'll be even more of that coming down the pike, now that we got all the right bits in place.
• We've added some new avatar expressions and hairstyles. There's a bunch more o' them (and fancy duds) coming in Indian Trading Post as well.
• There are now textual descriptions of card effects reported when you play cards or when cards are played against your units.
• Your Mute List can now be edited from the Options panel. Players can be muted by entering /mute "Player Name" in a chat window or by clicking the mute button during player to player chat.
• Of course we fixed a heap of bugs and no doubt added some new ones.

• We've added a damage display that tells ya how much damage a shot did and reports whether any special effects were involved like the Lucky Horseshoe or the Iron Plate.
• We've added a star near the crosshairs when yer targeting an opponent's Big Shot so that you kin easily factor that into yer plannin'.
• We changed the Claim into a Steam Tank for the Gold Rush scenario to make it clearer which scenario yer playin' and we've added a Rustling Post to the Cattle Rustling scenario to remind ya of where yer units are going to respawn. We also show ya how many cattle are in yer herd over the Rustling Post.
• We modified Cattle Rustling to grant one point per branded cattle per tick in addition to the 50 points ya get fer havin' a cattle at the end of the game. We're aimin' to reward players for holdin' onto cattle for a longer time without taking away the fun and excitement of last minute rebrandin'.
• We added hotkeys for selecting cards. You can press 1, 2 or 3 to activate a card instead of clickin' on it. We also now open the chat input window when ya press return as well as space.
• We rebalanced some of the units. The Gunslinger is now better against ground units, the Dirigible is no longer weak versus just about everything, and the Cavalry has been toned down a bit so that he doesn't outshine the other Big Shots. We appreciate yer patience as we tune these things up.
• We've also fixed a bunch of bugs, introduced some new ones, fixed those and no doubt introduced some more. Yee haw!

• Added a new practice mode in The Ranch. This allows ya to practice with a particular unit and learn the ins and outs of its capabilities.
• Added a fancy post-game stats display that shows how everybody earned their points (nuggets collected, cattle rustled, etc.) and a whole bunch of other fun stats that we keep track of during the game.
• Made further progress on improvin' performance and improvin' our support for lower end graphics cards. If things are runnin' slow for ya, press the Escape key and try lowering that detail slider to medium or low. Soon we'll make the game figger out when to do this automatically, but for now you can give it a whirl yerself.
• Fixed the broken support for MacOS X. Sorry about that one pardners. Unfortunately you're going to have to reinstall to get things working again.

• This is now a "Detail" slider on the options menu (press escape any time yer not in a game), which you can use to try turnin' off some of the fancy graphical bits if things are runnin' too slow.
• Other minor bugfixes

• Added indicators when attacking of whether the attacker has an attack bonus or penalty versus the target.
• Added fancy icons to display a unit's attack and defense bonuses and penalties in the Ranch and in their tooltips
• Redid the Top Scorers interface
• A few new boards
• Avatar images are now composited in the background to allow things to be more responsive
• Added occupant count to the Back Parlor list in the Saloon
• Added support for Mac OS X on Intel
• A zillion bug fixes