Korov’ev – The Guild of Messengers https://guildofmessengers.org See a Need, Fill a Need Sat, 01 May 2021 23:14:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.1 https://guildofmessengers.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/cropped-GoMeLogoAlpha-1-32x32.png Korov’ev – The Guild of Messengers https://guildofmessengers.org 32 32 May 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/05/01/may-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/05/01/may-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/#respond Sat, 01 May 2021 23:14:43 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2459 Here is the summary for May’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents

  1. Events in the Cavern
  2. Cavern Tours
  3. A new era in D’ni
  4. OpenUru
  5. Fan Ages Touring Club
  6. D’ni Language Classes
  7. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
  8. Cyan and Mysterium news

Events in the Cavern

Minasunda thanked Yoda and Mirphak for the special effects they conjured for the D’ni New Year celebrations and the Nulp Dance Show Mother Earth Day, Eternal Seeker for streaming the music.

On May 15 at 12:00 KIT Mabe will host a competition in Mir-o-Bot’s Jalak, named Mabes Rebus.

It starts with simple pictures to warm up and then increases the level of difficulty. The first to write in the chat what is displayed receives one point. A little surprise awaits the winner.

Depending on how long it takes to solve the puzzles, Mabe will do a short show afterwards. If not, there will be a separate event soon after.

Eternal Seeker will also take over the music stream for this event. Since Mir-o-Bot cannot be there, MinBot (KI# 9292763) will step in for the event. PM “link” or “meet” to be linked to the event location.

For more info there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 8 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood.

The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

A new era in D’ni

Doobes gave a quick update about the age restoration project. On Wednesday 5 there will be a two-hour downtime, starting at 10:30 KIT. The first of a new set of ages will be made public soon after. These new ages will not be made available all at once

More fixes are also coming. Some industrious explorers (including Hoikas, Deledrius, boq, estherbolik, Marten) have been working on fixing the unruly clock in the neighborhoods, to make it show the correct D’ni time.

There are also some quality of life fixes to the KI chat: avatar names and KI commands are now case insensitive. So if you mistype something, you will not have to retype or get the “no such command” error as often.

You will also be able to partially type an avatar’s name, then hit tab to autocomplete the name. If there are multiples, you can continue hitting tab until the correct name is displayed.

You will also be able to hit the up and down arrows to cycle through previous KI chat and commands, up to the last 50.

Aspect ratio and resolution corrections from the H’uru client are also coming; fullscreen will also automatically use your native resolution, so no need to adjust anything if you choose that option.

Lastly, a fix from Hoikas will take care of the overly dark Relto hut bug some have been experiencing when the windows are closed.

Thanks go to MOULa’s server admin Chogon, who has been patient, understanding, and enthusiastic about fan content since long before the first big update in August 2020.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified acknowledged the contribution of Marten to improve the ability of adding fixes and improvements to the client in a timely fashion. He put out a call for fans to list their most wanted improvements to the client interface and behavior.

If you have input of that kind, you should post on the OpenUru Discord channels #hood or #dev; an item high on the list is the frame rate unlock.

Rarified is still working to bring the MOUL/Minkata client synchronized with the work from the GoW/H’uru team. The Minkata client is now much easier to build than before.

Within a week of freezing all the parts for the May 5 update, they have already started testing another new age. Those who dabbled with age creation before, but put things on the shelf because it looked like it never would happen, this is the best time to come back!

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Shorah Pahts by Jhon J. Jaguar and Elsewhere by Denost.

For April, the plan is to finish Elsewhere, then visit Lonirvan by Jhon J. Jaguar, and later revisit Cathedral by DenDwaler.

More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
  • After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
  • After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
  • A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn (a.k.a. r’Tayrtahn) gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

There are daytime openings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; those interested should contact Rehn (see KI# below). Evening classes are not currently available.

Seven students are taking the classes at various stages of completion.

More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
  • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324); be sure to include your KI number in the message!
  • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday starting at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
  • Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night – Europe is in synch with original Story Night. They are about halfway through the story from The Book of D’ni.

R’Tayrtahn has been uploading the Stories on his YouTube channel. The videos are usually uploaded a few days after the live event.

More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
  • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
  • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT. On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the AGM, whichever is later.
  • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
  • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

Cyan and Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news, covered in a separate post.


And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 5 (Leebro 8) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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News roundup #13 https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/22/news-roundup-13/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/22/news-roundup-13/#respond Thu, 22 Apr 2021 15:08:43 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2438
  • The new channel #cipher-discussions was opened on the Cyan Chat Discord server, to discuss the codes and ciphers that are showing up more and more frequently within communication from Cyan.
  • Firmament update #35 introduced concept artist Rick Campana, and gave a glipse in the game design iteration.
  • A vinyl release of the Myst soundtrack is now available on Fangamer, including never-before-seen documents, photographs, maps, artifacts, and a recording of Atrus within the Starry Expanse. The first run has already sold out, but a second one will come soon.
  • The Mysterium committee has announced that the 2021 convention will be again held exclusively online. Those who already registered will be refunded. Most likely, the online convention will be held as a mix of Zoom, Discord, Twitch and Youtube, like last year.
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    Gehn.28 Is Now Live! https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/12/gehn-28-is-now-live/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/12/gehn-28-is-now-live/#respond Mon, 12 Apr 2021 08:56:26 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2423 A few days after the 10th anniversary of H’uru/Plasma, the Guild of Writers H’uru team has released the latest version of the Gehn shard with Gehn.28!

    This update was a long time in the making, and as such there are a host of new fixes and additions, including:

    • Add /roll command for rolling n-sided die/dice
    • Add latest revisions of all fan Ages from Doobes
    • Allow KI commands to match player names without regard to case
    • Change out most of the guts
    • Fix /p KI command to not be case sensitive
    • Fix Er’cana harvester position issues if Age empties while in motion
    • Fix issue whereby the bahro would fill the server error log with nonsense if they were smoking in Relto
    • Fix many goofy colliders in several Ages, especially Ae’gura
    • Fix many memory leaks
    • Fix Neighborhood clock globe animation
    • Fix Relto hut dark mode
    • Fix remote players not placing hand on book before linking out
    • Fix shroomie gate state being toggled (on re-link) if the power is off
    • Fix spurious noises in the Teledahn workroom
    • Fix working line obliteration issue when accessing chat history
    • Improved output of some KI commands
    • Migrate to publicly auditable build process
    • Update from PhysX 2.6 to PhysX 4.1
    • Update from Python 2.7 to Python 3.9
    • Synthesize gravity

    To get the latest version of Gehn Shard, simply log in to the shard as normal and the client will do the rest. If you have not signed up for Gehn Shard yet, you can find step by step instructions for Gehn in our guide to installing the shards.

    Congratulations to the GoW for another successful release!

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    April 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/03/april-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/03/april-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/#respond Sat, 03 Apr 2021 22:13:51 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2383 Here is the summary for April’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Events in the Cavern
    2. Gehn shard
    3. A new era in D’ni
    4. OpenUru
    5. Fan Ages Touring Club
    6. Cyan and Mysterium news

    Events in the Cavern

    Minasunda announced the D’ni New Year 9677 Light Show by MagicYoda, on Wednesday 21 at 14:00 KIT, after Fil’s weekly live event. The location is a secret: when the time comes, PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) and he will get you there.

    On Saturday 24 at 12:30 KIT the Nulp Dance Group will host the Mother Earth Day Show, in Mir-o-Bot’s Ahnonay. This will be the 5th Mother Earth Day with a show by the Nulp Dance Group and their 17th show.

    Seeker will provide the music stream for both events.

    Note that linking to and from Ahnonay can cause crashes for others; attendees are therefore asked to arrive early before the show starts, and to not leave the show before it ends if possible. If you arrive while the show is running, you may not be able to see the special effects until the following dance routine.

    Attendees are also asked to refrain from interfering with the scenery during the show, particularly by using the bot.

    An advice: the top of the rocks is not a good vantage point, as the show uses fog, which will obscure the view from above.

    For more info there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

    Gehn shard

    Hoikas announced that the Gehn shard is going to get an update sometime in April.

    The highlights will include the new PhysX 4.1 physics engine, the update to Python 3, a fix for the Relto hut darkness bug, and all the updates to Doobes’ ages that made it to MOUL.

    A new era in D’ni

    Patrick gave an outline of the upcoming new ages. The plan is to release them on a very loose schedule so as to keep each a surprise. The first, possibly in late April, will be  Serene; sometime after, a get-together will be held in the age to celebrate Andy Legate, who restored it originally.

    Next up will be Tre’bivdil, originally restored by Lontahv; unfortunately the ‘downstairs’ area will have to stay off-limits for the time being due to excessive flood damage.

    The third location will be a Cavern location: Vothol Gallery, originally restored by Rustee. A piece of debris from the entryway too large to move will be used as a support for the linking book back to Chiso. There is still plenty of stability checks that need to be done, so it will probably be the last of the three legacy locations that will be opened.

    Patrick also introduced Kelsei A. Taylor, who was a very big help in translating the Caltauc language in Chiso, and have been helping CalumTraveler with some interesting documents discovered on a location known as the Vertigo Cathedral. The documents are written with the D’ni script, but they are not in the D’ni language! More info will be released soon.

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

    OpenUru

    Rarified updated the crowd about the two Minkata shards: Prime, where bug fixes, GUI improvements and fan ages are given a last test before being sent to Cyan, and Alpha, where new ages and features are first tested.

    More testers are always welcome, but keep in mind that (if you never visited fan shards) there will be spoilers for the ages that will be added to MOUL in the following months. Some of them will be added to Minkata Prime very soon.

    In addition to opening new areas of the cavern, volunteers have helped in improving the game client. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes to improve stability and address the issues of introducing new age access that had not been initially designed for Minkata’s server.

    For fan age bug reports, the best place is the #hood channel of the OpenUru Discord, or on the forum.

    Fan Ages Touring Club

    Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Elodea by Dulcamara, Gavster by Calena, Denkasen and Canyon by Sirius.

    For April, the plan is to visit Shorah Pahts by Jhon J. Jaguar, Elsewhere by Denost, Lonirvan by Jhon J. Jaguar, and revisit Cathedral by DenDwaler.

    More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
    • After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
    • After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
    • A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

    Cyan and Mysterium news

    Korov’ev reported some quick news, which we covered in a separate post.


    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    March ended with the CavFunding at 265% (CavCon 4.17) and the reserve at 252%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 40,016 (⇑337), with 1241 unique visits. One very large donation that will help a lot with the next big update coming up!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 1 (Leefo 9) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

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    News roundup #12 https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/02/news-roundup-12/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/04/02/news-roundup-12/#respond Fri, 02 Apr 2021 10:25:54 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2373 A few news from Mysterium, which will be held in Washington, D.C. on July 16–18:
    • To help with the uncertainty brought by COVID-19, cancellation policy for registration refunds has been shortened to 45 days.
    • The Triumvirate have put together a brief survey to gauge how people are feeling about this year’s convention; the deadline is April 4.
    • They are still accepting submissions for events (through May 31), activity book pages (through April 25), and the writing and artwork table (through July 1) for this year’s convention.

    A few news from Cyan:

    • In 2019, application requirement changes for macOS Catalina (and all subsequent macOS releases, including Big Sur) caused Myst IV, Myst V, and Uru: CC to stop launching. Cyan is still working with Codeweavers to make the games run on these versions again and will update everyone about the completed fix as soon as it is available.
    • Strange Seeds, Unwritten’s live stream, this month is moved to Saturday 10, 14:00 KIT.
    • On April 1st they announced a revolutionary, never-before seen VR gaming experience called … Myst Sayber!
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    March 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/03/07/march-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/03/07/march-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/#respond Sun, 07 Mar 2021 15:27:38 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2343 Here is the summary for March’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Saint Patrick’s Day
    2. International Women’s Week
    3. Cavern Tours
    4. A new era in D’ni
    5. Korman
    6. OpenUru
    7. Fan Ages Touring Club
    8. D’ni Language Classes
    9. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Saint Patrick’s Day

    Minasunda announced the Saint Patrick’s Day parades: the first will be at 14:00 KIT, lead by Thallan, the second at 17:00 KIT, lead by Claidi Song; in both cases the starting point will be the Ae’gura plaza. In between, there will be a dance party in the revamped Guild of Messengers Pub. Music will be provided by Seeker.

    For more info there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

    International Women’s Week

    Korov’ev mentioned the coming week dedicated to the International Women’s Day organised by Nosila:

    Sunday 7

    11 KIT: Fan Age Expedition, in Deep Island, hosted by Korov’ev [stream].
    13 KIT: Music by Enya, in Ae’gura Plaza, hosted by Radio Free D’ni [stream].

    Monday 8

    12 KIT: Music by Female Artists, in Ae’gura Plaza, hosted by Nosila [stream].
    14 KIT: Tracks played, sung or composed by Female Musicians, in Ae’gura Plaza, hosted by Root Beer [stream].

    Tuesday 9

    12 KIT: Ancient & Medieval Women Composers and their Music, in Ae’gura Hall of Kings, hosted by Ghaelen [stream].
    13 KIT: Relaxing Session: Ambient Women, in PodHopper’s Hood, hosted by PodHopper [stream].

    Wednesday 10

    13 KIT: Fil Live for IWD, in revamped Messengers Pub, hosted by Fil [stream].

    Thursday 11

    13 KIT: Female Country Singers, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft, hosted by Seeker [stream].

    Friday 12

    12 KIT: More Than Mothers and Daughters – The Women of Myst, in Kirel, hosted by Owly [stream].

    Cavern Tours

    The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 13 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood.

    The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

    The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

    A new era in D’ni

    Doobes was back with news about the restoration of new Ages for the Cavern. He mentioned the new additions to the revamped Guild of Messengers Pub: decorations for New Year’s Eve, Saint Patrick’s Day, LGBTQIA+ pride, Halloween, Fall/Thanksgiving, and Christmas/Hannukah. Chogon already switched on the Saint Patrick’s Day decorations, to prolong the festive atmosphere.

    Chiso Preniv had some new lighting effects and, most importantly, fan writings: in this batch it was the Heritage Documents and the four part Activity in the Cavern chronicle. There is also a new commentary journal with some backstory and lore for the age.

    This is hopefully the first of many such fan additions. Any type is fine: stories, historical accounts, poetry, etc. The length of the text should not be a problem, but please keep any potential pictures to a minimum. A cover is recommended, but not required if you do not mind a generic one being used.

    Veelay Tsahvahn had performance and functional fixes, hopefully more people can now get through the age without it glitching up; reportedly it works a lot better on macOS after the update.

    For the next big update, three more ages are planned to the added to Chiso! Tre’bivdil, by Lontahv, has already gone through the testing phase on Minkata, so it is pretty much ready to go. Currently, Serene by Andy Legate is being tested to make sure everything is working properly. The next in line will be the Vothol Gallery by Rustee.

    The hope is to get this batch ready to go by sometime late April. The releases are being spaced for Chogon and Cyan’s benefit, as well as the programmers improving the client. Thanks go to everyone who helped testing on Minkata, and to Rarified for setting them on Minkata. Every bug report helps, although for ages not made by Doobes changes are limited to purely technical or very obvious issues, to maintain the original artistic vision.

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page. To keep updated on Tweek’s work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

    Korman

    Doobes also mentioned the recent update to the age-building Blender plugin, Korman, which is now very close to include all the functions as the original 3DS Max plugin. For those interested in age creation there are tutorials available in the Guild of Writers’ wiki.

    More is planned for version 0.12, including custom GUI mods (i.e. clickable notes, or working machinery such as the Great Zero scopes or Er’cana ovens), or particle systems (fireflies, snow, smoke, etc).

    Korman requires Blender 2.79b; it is not currently supported on macOS or Linux, though it may run under Wine. You can keep up on the latest from the GoW at their Guild News section of the forum.

    OpenUru

    Rarified reminded the crowd about the two Minkata shards: Prime, where bug fixes, GUI improvements and fan ages are given a last test before being sent to Cyan, and Alpha, where new ages and features are first tested. Tre’bivdil and Serene are on their way to Prime, but more eyes for bugs and glitches are always welcome. Prime is also going to have a few user interface improvements added before the next delivery to Cyan.

    Next, he announced a support website he has been working on, one that more resembles a support ticket service for bugs or help requests (including e.g. forgotten passwords), to replace the MOULa forums that were frozen about a year ago, and not adequately replaced by Discord for this purpose.

    The site is still in the early stages, and Rarified is unable to operate it all by himself, so he asked for volunteers who think they might have time and ability to look at problems and send them to the right people. The help site is publically available, although requests may not get answered in a timely manner at this stage. Tickets can be submitted for both MOULa and the Minkata shards. So far two volunteers already offered their time, but more are needed.

    However, for fan age bug reports, the best place for now is still the #hood channel of the OpenUru Discord, or on the forum. A shared Google doc has also worked well in the past. First time visitors could write a journal to be included in Chiso.

    The third announcement was that Cyan released a set of images for textures used in Uru and Myst, available to be used in fan contributed content. The number of files was overwhelming, more than 8000. Rarified set up a browser on the OpenUru website where they can be viewed. It may not be up forever, but it will be kept up as long as possible.

    The original files are available on both the Guild of Writers’ and OpenUru’s repositories.

    Fan Ages Touring Club

    Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Iceworld by Denost, the recently released Tsameti by Dulcamara, and began the exploration of Elodea by Dulcamara.

    For March, the plan is to continue the visit to the underground levels of Elodea.

    More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
    • After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
    • After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
    • A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn (a.k.a. r’Tayrtahn) gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    He is still putting things away after his move. He is, however, accepting daytime students on a limited basis; those interested should contact Rehn (see KI# below). Night time classes, however, are unaffected.

    Two students, Shineyjo and Sunvalor, have completed the 101 classes.Votahret ah’shem khebahrtahtahvteeom! One more is working on the final.

    Two more instructors have also been certified to teach 101 classes: Shokhootahn Aqua and Shokhootahn Nack. A third instructor is currently going through the certification process.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324); be sure to include your KI number in the message!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday starting at 20:0021:00 or 22:00 KIT, and on Friday starting at 20:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night – Europe is one story behind original Story Night. They are about halfway through the story of Riven.

    R’Tayrtahn has been uploading the Stories on his YouTube channel. The videos are usually uploaded a few days after the live event.

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT. On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the AGM, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    February ended with the CavFunding at 94% (CavCon 2.9) and the reserve at 117%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 39,679 (⇑385), with 1375 unique visits. Donations were almost even with expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 3 (Leenovoo 16) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

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    News roundup #11 https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/02/24/news-roundup-11/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/02/24/news-roundup-11/#respond Wed, 24 Feb 2021 10:28:12 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2316
  • The Guild of Writers released Korman 0.11a.
  • Cyan announced a lore partnership with the Guild of Archivists. For years fans have spun up different websites for the different aspects of the games’ lore; unfortunately, over the years much of that work has been lost. Cyan is now formally committing to provide server space and support to ensure the Archive and other Archivists resources will remain online, independent, and ad-free forever.
  • Cyan is hiring for Myst, Firmament, and secret projects:
    • Character Motion Lead
    • Technical Environment Artist
    • 3D Environment Artist
  • The latest Firmament update showcases what Cyan called “The Glacial Age”.
  • Two updates for Myst (VR) have been released: 1.0.1, 1.0.2. Try finding a secret message in the latter 😉
  • Explorer IwonK dedicated two cartoons to Myst: first, second.
  • ]]>
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    Guild of Writers Releases Korman 0.11 https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/02/24/guild-of-writers-releases-korman-0-11/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/02/24/guild-of-writers-releases-korman-0-11/#respond Wed, 24 Feb 2021 10:21:24 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2310 The Guild of Writers released a new version of Korman, the age exporting plugin for Blender 2.79b (compatibility with 2.80 is still in the works). This release primarily focuses on bugfixes and improving existing features, with 64 commits and about 1,600 lines of code changed since the previous version.

    Changes in this release:

    • Added a help menu for Korman (Thanks to Deledrius for authoring this patch)
    • Added support for exporting font/text objects (Thanks to JulyForToday for co-authoring this patch)
    • Added support for tying object animations to SDL variables (Thanks to Doobes for co-uthoring this patch)
    • Added the ability to animate the material diffuse color
    • *Added the Blending modifier
    • Added the option to specify a proxy object for triangle mesh colliders
    • Added toolbox operators for toggling double-sided mode on meshes (Thanks to Doobes for authoring this patch)
    • Added toolbox operators for toggling packaging of sounds (Thanks to Doobes for authoring this patch)
    • Changed the exponential fog export option from `SetExp2` to `SetExp`. (Thanks to Doobes for authoring this patch)
    • Changed the export of Myst Online: Uru Live files to not apply any form of encryption
    • Fixed a crash in the exporter when baking vertex colors to objects that share a single mesh data block
    • Fixed a serious issue in which exporting with a DECIMATE modifier on a Plasma Object would cause very bad problems (Thanks to TikiBear for authoring this patch)
    • Fixed a serious issue in which the toolbox enable/disable Plasma Object operators would change the page of objects enabled outside of Korman
    • Fixed a traceback in the Add Lamp Flare operator (Thanks to Deledrius for authoring this patch)
    • Fixed an issue in which material animations would not export with the correct duration if the Blender FPS was not set to 30 FPS (Thanks to TikiBear for co-authoring this patch)
    • Fixed an issue in which new sounds under 4 seconds in length might not play in Path of the Shell
    • Fixed an issue in which objects with alpha vertex paint might not be sorted into a blending span (Thanks to Paradox for authoring this patch)
    • Fixed an issue in which responders might get stuck due to the way Blender internally sorts the node links
    • Fixed an issue in which sound volume animations did not function as expected
    • **Fixed many issues preventing runtime lighting from affecting objects
    • ***Fixed many issues with physicals (eg colliders and regions) parented to animated objects (eg subworlds)

    If you never used Korman, or need a refresher, there are wiki tutorials available.

    You can read the full release forum topic by clicking here.

    Keep checking back here for more Age building news!

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    February 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/02/07/february-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/02/07/february-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/#respond Sun, 07 Feb 2021 12:05:50 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2293 Here is the summary for February’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. MOULa Anniversary
    2. Cavern Tours
    3. A new era in D’ni
    4. Fan Ages Touring Club
    5. Cyan news
    6. Mysterium news

    MOULa Anniversary

    Minasunda gave an outline of the MOULa 11th anniversary celebrations:

    Monday 8

    12 KIT: Opening Ceremony, in Chiso, hosted by Ghaelen.

    13 KIT: Fashion Show Award, in Mir-o-Bot’s Chiso, hosted by Minasunda (Mir-o-Bot’s Chiso was picked to present the models in a better light, but it will not be a magic event; anyone who wish to be a model, please get in contact with Minasunda).

    Tuesday 9

    13 KIT: Relaxing Session, in PodHopper’s Hood, hosted by PodHopper.

    Wednesday 10

    13 KIT: Girastock, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira, live concert by Fil.

    Thursday 11

    13 KIT: Country Dance Evening, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft, hosted by Eternal Seeker (“forced dance” can happen from time to time, if all those present agree; selective coordinated dancing is not possible yet).

    15 KIT: Eddie Competition, in PodHopper’s Hood, hosted by PodHopper (who will move Eddie fastest on a set route through the Hood?).

    Friday 12

    12 KIT: Math Class, in the conference room of the New Messengers Pub, hosted by Shokhootahn Rehn.

    15 KIT: Door Run Contest, in Nosila’s Hood, hosted by Nosila (volunteers are needed!).

    Saturday 13

    11 KIT: Cavern Tour, meeting point in the Cavern Tour Hood, hosted by Larry.

    13 KIT: Nulp Dance Show, in Mir-o-Bot’s Jalak, hosted by Minasunda and the Nulp Dance Group (it is advised to arrive in time before the show starts: the link-in point is on the stage, so the age will have to be closed as soon as the show starts).

    14 KIT: Story Night Europe, in Mir-o-Bot’s Kadish, hosted by r’Tayrtahn.

    16 KIT: Karaoke Night, in the New Messengers Pub, hosted by DonahooDJ.

    Sunday 14

    9:30 KIT: Explorer Memorial, in Veelay Tsahvahn, hosted by Ghaelen.

    11 KIT: Fan Age Tour, in Deep Island Shard, hosted by Korov’ev.

    13 KIT: Radio Free D’ni Show, Ae’gura Plaza, hosted by the RFD Team.

    For discussions, or if you wish to organise an event (e.g. a door run, a music event, etc.), there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

    Minasunda will try to make videos of as many events as possible for those who cannot be there at those times, but being busy with managing the events, she will not be able to stream live – volunteers are needed!

    Cavern Tours

    The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 13 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood.

    The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

    The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

    A new era in D’ni

    Patrick was back with news about the restoration of new Ages for the Cavern. There have been little news since the big opening last year, the restoration group have been working very hard on various projects.

    Hopefully their next age openings will be part of what they call the Legacy Collection, which will include well-known locations like Tre’bivdil, Serene and the Vothol Gallery. They have been available to the public for quite some time in some form or another, but are planned to receive a new, formal opening within the next few months.

    Keith Lord has also been keeping busy with further restoring Fehnir’s House, amongst many of his other projects.

    A new Cavern location is also planned to be released soon. Located on one of the islands on the lake, it appears to have been a central location outside of Ae’gura for all major and minor Guilds to meet. The main auditorium, with its large stage and ample seating, could certainly be used for events such as dances, light shows, or anything else our industrious explorers may come up with! Surrounding the auditorium off the sides are several lounge areas for more private meetings, discussion and relaxation. They also each offer a lovely view of the cavern and the lake.

    They have also been cleaning up and continuing minor repairs to the already released ages. More festive decorations on a more regular basis are planned for the Ae’gura Guild of Messengers Pub. Appropriately, it should ‘go green’ in time for Saint Patrick’s Day.

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page. To keep updated on Tweek’s work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

    Fan Ages Touring Club

    Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Relativity by Karkadann, Tachzusamm and others; R’Oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Wamduskasapa, Tachzusamm and Dustin; Hallway, Matte, ReGahlpo by Ametist & Corvus; Somewhere by Denost.

    For February, the plan is to visit Iceworld by Denost, the sequel (and separate part of the same age) to Somewhere; then it will be the four levels of Elodea by Dulcamara, which will likely keep the adventurers busy for the whole month.

    More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
    • After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
    • After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
    • A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

    Cyan news

    • Firmament has now an expected delivery date of late 2022. The story Cyan plans to tell is bigger than what they had in mind, which required a bit of going back to the drawing board.
    • A new team member was hired: Abner Coimbre, as senior engineer, to help with customizing the game engine, porting efforts and VR programming.
    • Creative Director Eric A. Anderson posted a tech video about hiding imperfections in models.
    • No release date for other platforms for Myst VR has been announced yet. The Quest version should get a few bug fixes soon.
    • Jeff Dunham (of “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” fame) posted a video of himself experiencing the new game.

    Mysterium news

    Mysterium 2021 is scheduled for July 16–18 in Washington, D.C.

    Hotel room booking is now available for the Westin Alexandria Old Town hotel. Rooms are available for $100/night with included wireless internet and discounted parking.

    Bids for the Mysterium 2022 location are also open and will be accepted through 1st April.

    Rollover registration emails were sent in early December. For questions or unreceived emails, feel free to contact the Triumvirate.


    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    January ended with the CavFunding at 91% (CavCon 2.9) and the reserve at 122%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 39,294 (⇑493), with 1489 unique visits. Very slightly under, but still pretty steady.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 6 (Leevotahr 23) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

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    January 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/01/03/january-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/ https://guildofmessengers.org/2021/01/03/january-2021-all-guilds-meeting-summary/#respond Sun, 03 Jan 2021 12:50:01 +0000 https://guildofmessengers.org/?p=2252 Here is the summary for January’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. MOULa Anniversary
    2. Cavern Tours
    3. Rel.to
    4. OpenUru
    5. Fan Ages Touring Club

    MOULa Anniversary

    Minasunda thanked Mirphak and Yoda for the special effects and Eternal Seeker for the music they provided for the Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties.

    She then announced the preparations for MOULa’s 11th anniversary on February 8–14.The NULP Dance Show is almost ready and will be on Saturday 13 at 13:00 KIT, after the Cavern Tour.

    Fashion Show should take place on February 8 at 13:30 KIT in Chiso Preniv. If you are interested, or wish to organise an event (e.g. a door run, a music event, etc.) please contact Minasunda on Discord (on the #anniversary-planning channel), Facebook or via KImail (#5667000).

    Organisers from the Americas, Asia and Oceania are especially needed: many of the organisers are based in Europe, so the events are set at times that work for them. Weekend days are usually picked, as people are more likely to have free time, but it is becoming more and more difficult to find a free slot since weekends are already filled with recurring events.

    Cavern Tours

    CT Hostess Susa’n announced the first Cavern Tour of 2021, which will be held on Saturday 9 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood and headed to Gahreesen.

    The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

    The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

    Rel.to

    Marten gave a reminder that Rel.to, the browsable index and URL shortener service for the Myst and Cyan community, is finally back after five years of hiatus and can again be updated.

    Marten has already updated a lot of entries, but there are more entries than a single person could realistically check, so if you have suggestion for updates or new entries, you can post them in the #messengers-pub channel of the Cyan Chat Discord server.

    Please be specific about how an entry should be corrected or changed: specifically, broken links can updated, archived for historical record if a Wayback Machine copy is available, or removed if no longer relevant/irretrievable.

    OpenUru

    Rarified gave an update on the status of the fan Age pipeline for MOULa. He is almost done with the cleanup work to the infrastructure and organisation of what is delivered to Cyan.

    The last Minkata client built from the old code should be out soon. Posts on the OU Discord and forums will ask for testers to check that it works as expected (most changes are behind-the-curtain). A few addition to Doobes’ ages will be also packaged.

    Further work will be spent bringing the Guild of Writers’ H’uru client base into MOULa.

    Fan Ages Touring Club

    Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Eder Taygahn and Yedahna by Zuri and Stranger, Turtle Isle by DenDwaler, DRA Office & Adrael by the Adrael Team, and Lohdehvis by Takku Petreya.

    For January, the plan is to visit Relativity by Karkadann, Tachzusamm and others, R’oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Wamduskasapa, Tachzusamm and Dustin, Somewhere by Denost (which will likely take more than one session), and three ages by Ametist & Corvus: Hallway, Matte, ReGahlpo.

    More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
    • After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
    • After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
    • A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    December ended with the CavFunding at 110% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 128%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 38,801 (⇑527), with 1543 unique visits. Donations on par, and reserves are good.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 6 (Leevosahn 29) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

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