STOPX | October 2023 News and Views

Introduction
For the last month, we've been very hard at work coming up with an update that is going to shatter the scope of STOP DeluXe! We constantly have so many people suggesting ways on how we can make the game better and we reciprocate and think of those ideas as well. Know that saying, "Great minds think alike!" that is said when multiple people think of the same thing in similar contexts?
Well, that applies to what great news we have documented and shared! Regardless of so many awesome suggestions, we have had many people say that this hybrid is pretty cool, the best, or merely pwnage. Hopefully, however, our next update will show how much farther we're continuing to go. With positive comments and recent constructive feedback, we have been able to uphold our commitment to improve. And it's all thanks to players like you. Thank you.
STOPX has been getting more reception, and I encourage more prominent members of this community to give this extremely fun project a try. Tell us what you like or don't like about it - in other words, feel free to rate the game and suggest any improvements, I'm open to all. We're always updating and improving, and we want to help you enjoy STOPX.

Summary
Compared to other months, September was fairly light in terms of content, but that's because we have been hard at work making Update 1.3 (also known as "Build 1.8uX") in the background while people have been sharing STOPX discoveries with us. We are very excited to share this update with you. The upcoming update includes things like a toggle to disable Jump Scares (which they will also be disabled by default, requested by popular demand!), a new system where you earn Experience Points and rank up Levels, a new Search Menu for stages, and so much more than we can list in this summary alone. Check out a preview of our new Settings Menu to see what we mean:
In August, we announced the Ultra Unlock Event. In this event, you were tasked for the entirety of September to follow and subscribe to Tekannabrand's outlets. Participation in various things outside of this program would also reduce the amount that was required to unlock certain things. The biggest prize available was a bonus Activity for October, which was unlocked!

We had our recent Activity in honor of hPerks/Perkidos, which was a Construction Zone formed out of the Pipe Switcharoo D.L.C. Stage. This stage was coined by hPerks in 2017 when the game was still under development and the stage was finally built in September 2022 for Tribute Galaxy (D.L.C. Pack #5). In this activity, you were tasked to complete the Stage as normal.

We are proud to say that five people completed the Activity. They get the Silver hPerks Marble for free, which will be available to purchase at a later date for 8,500 Pentagons. We are also pleased to announce that PPG Planet completed the stage in under two minutes. That earns you a bonus 20,000 Experience Points, which will be calculated when the Level/Experience Systems are released.

We are pleased to announce that the newest update will contain the first wave of the Stages from STOP I Redux (formerly known as "Marble Blast STOP"). While the geometry will be the same, we are enhancing textures and doing structural upgrades, requested by popular feedback in our recent STOP I Redux Poll and our Google Forum. We are really excited to release this Marble Blast modification back to the public under our hybrid, STOP DeluXe. Check out our newest renovation of Outdoor Ship from the Intermediate Universe in STOP I Redux:

Statistics
Back in August, we had an increase on the average numbers of players who were signing onto STOPX. We were averaging 22 users a day, 38 users a week, 43 users a month, with an average of 8 downloads a day. In terms of Marble Blast traffic, that is exceptional. Since we have monitored numbers for September, we are pleased to say that we have, once again, grown. Daily logins are now 28 users a day on average, 55 users a week, and 90 users a month. We weren't able to get an average daily download count, but we counted 202 total downloads for September. That is awesome. STOPX is getting recognized enough to even be considered one of the major modifications offered on this web site and within this community. Some members are even considering STOPX as the "big dog" project alongside Platinum Quest (PQ). This reception helps us know that we can accomplish anything, and the increase in data gives further evidence to that claim. We are even more hopeful that 1.8uX will be a huge turning point for more people to play and stick around on STOP DeluXe!

What's Happening in October?
Our first official Infographic contains all of the information you need to know for STOP DeluXe in October. We recommend you right click this photo in order to download and save the image somewhere on your computer. You can even print it out! Look at the information carefully here to stay in the know for STOP DeluXe.

Update 1.8uX is almost here!
We are pleased to announce the next update to STOP DeluXe, which is our most major update since we released STOP DeluXe in April 2023. It's eerie to think how that was just a few months ago - time has really flown by. This update contains a bunch of new content and a handful of quality of life improvements:

+++ Releasing the first wave of STOP I Redux (previously known as "Marble Blast STOP"), which includes ten Beginner Worlds (a.k.a. "Stages") as well as one World from the Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert Universes.
+ More worlds will come in waves.
+ We have replaced the Octagons from STOP I with "EXP. (Experience) Coins", which need to be collected and carried to the end in order to claim the reward from them.
+ The original and unreleased music from TSkater7000 is now here, after seven years of them being scrapped from the original MBStop Revamped project from 2016 before we scrapped it and started making MBstop II. We have also included two of jmtb02's songs, one previously released, and one that was going to be included in MBStop, but didn't make the final cut, unfortunately. (Don't worry, those awful six second loops will not be included.)
+ Track your progress for completing STOP I by clicking on Game Progress.
+ When all the Worlds from STOP I have been released, you will be able to earn an Award and an Elite Marble ("The Original Captain") by beating all of them.
+++ Adding an Experience Points & Level system, which allows you to track your current in-game Level. Currently, the maximum level is 40, which will award you an Elite Marble, 10,000 Pentagons, and something extra which can only be viewed when you hit Level 40. In addition to this, we also added five new Awards to track how you're Leveling Up.
++ This also is another good reason to start differentiating between Stage (a.k.a., "World") and Level for STOP DeluXe, since they are now two entirely different mechanics aside from their Oxford/Merriam Webster dictionary definitions, found in the STOPX Discord Server.
++ Completing a stage gives you 50 EXP. Points!
++ Universe Difficulties give you various amounts. In STOPX, you will get 10 to 1,000 EXP. Points depending on what Universe you are visiting. In STOPI, you will get 10 to 100 EXP. Points depending on what Universe you are visiting. You get a range of 50 to 500 EXP. Points for each D.L.C. World you complete in the D.L.C. Universe. These factors depend on whether you've completed a stage in that difficulty or not!
++ Your Global Rank earns you various amounts. Ranks 2-5 = 500 EXP., 6-10 = 250 EXP., 11-20 = 100 EXP., others = 50 EXP. Points.
++ No Jumps and No Fails to STOP earn you 80 EXP. for each.
++ First Clear earns you 100 extra EXP.
++ New Personal Best earns you 50 EXP.
++ New World Record earns you 1,000 EXP.
++ You get increased EXP for picking up Teapots.
++ Completing Construction Zones earn you various amounts (from 10 to 200 EXP. Points) depending on the Star Difficulty for that Construction Zone.
++ Special Time earns you various amounts. YIELD = 40 EXP, STOP = 80 EXP, GO = 120 EXP.
++ Collecting a red EXP. Coin for the first time in a STOPI Stage earns you 80 EXP. Points, but you can only get that bonus once per new coin found!
NOTE: To protect the integrity of our new system, we will manually update levels for every player based on how far they've currently come in STOP DeluXe, which may take a couple of weeks.

+ Added a toggle for Jump Scares after major popular demand. This setting is disabled by default, so if you want them back on, you will need to toggle that setting on from the Settings Menu. You may want them back on to go for the Hidden Awards, participate in our next major Event, and if you want to complete Expert 1's Construction Zone.
+ We revamped the World/Universe Selection Screen and we also revamped the screen for when you complete a Stage. Choose your game and difficulty, search for stages simply, keep track of your total time, the BEST Time (formerly known as a "World Record" Time) and your current EXP. Points and Level.
+ You can soon save local replays. Found something funny in the game or did something crazy worthy of saving it as a blooper? Soon you can save a replay anytime, anywhere!

There are so many changes that we are excited to share with our members in a separate post which is going to be announced tomorrow. So much more meets the eye, and we are excited to see many people enjoy STOPX for years to come.

Best Regards,
The STOPX Team
Tekannabrand