Mother Earth Day & the D’ni new Year

Minasunda was first, to announce three events for late April:

• Saturday 18, 13:00 KIT, Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira – Nulp Dance Show “Mother Earth” (stream);
• Tuesday 21, 13:00 KIT, Magic Greet Tree Pub – D’ni New Year 9676 light show by Yoda (stream);
• Wednesday 22, 13:00 KIT, Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira – Mother Earth Day Dance Party (stream).

The stage for the Nulp Dance Show will be the water pool in front of the waterfall: please stay on land so as to not disrupt the show.

The Nulp Dance Show will also commemorate the victims of the COVID-19 crisis. Minasunda is collecting KI numbers of explorers who would like to participate: you can send the KI number of the avatar you want to participate with in a KImail (#5667000) or a PM on Facebook or Discord.

To get to the locations, you will need to PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319). To keep up to date with these events, check the Facebook group and the Discord server (or our calendar).

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the fourth Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 11 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The Nexus is currently malfunctioning, and the neighborhood is not showing up; if the problem persists, you should ask Susa’n for an invite.

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.

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!

Radio Free D’ni Remastered

Korov’ev next announced the launch of Radio Free D’ni’s second show, RFD Remastered: on alternate Sundays starting on April 5, they will broadcast reruns of older episodes with new commentary. The new series will run experimentally two hours later than the regular show, at 14:30 KIT.

Music To Make You Smile

On Monday 6 at 13:00 KIT, Nosila will play some happy music; the location will be the Ae’gura plaza, and the stream will be at nosilaradio.caster.fm.

State of Minkata

Rarified gave a quick update about the Minkata testing shard.

January and February had good progress on Minkata-alpha, until he bumped into an Age loading issue with the client. Then March happened, and most of it was diverted to non-Uru stuff.

It will take him a few days to get back up to speed with the deep debugging he needs to do to diagnose the age issue, but that is now at the top of the todo list. So there should soon be some more testing to do in Minkata-alpha.

Rarified also mentioned that he pulled a fix for the Windows 10 mouse bug from the GoW/H’uru source code, to be included in the Minkata pipeline; but he wants to concentrate on the fan Age issue first.

To keep up-to-date, check the OpenUru Discord channel.

Fan Age Touring Club

Korov’ev then gave a quick update on the Fan Age Tours he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

• On March 29 the club visited Takla Ma’kan: it was a mighty run through the puzzles and they still did not manage to see all of it.
• On April 5 they will be visiting Jo’nae, by Jonnee, and possibly go back to see that last part of Takla they missed.
• April 12 will continue with Jo’nae Hood; the week after that, it will be the turn of a few Ages by Nadnerb.

After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (look for threads that start with “Fan Age expedition”).

One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works.

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

• March ended with an excellent CavFunding of 175%. There was a very large donation, but also a 30% increase in the server costs because of the greater data transfer cost (from lots of new explorers!) and SMS text message costs (also from lots of new explorers!).
• Greydragon recently traveled to Boston with Numinous Games to show AREA MAN LIVES at PAX East. A post-show interview with the team about the game and their experience at PAX East was posted on the Cyan website.
• In these times of COVID-19, the Cyantists decided to show off some of their home workspaces.
• Obduction is coming to the Xbox: it will be available on April 10, but you can get a 20% discount if you pre-order it prior to launch.
• They also added a bunch of new Obduction items to the Cyan store: everything is currently 20% off.
• Firmament is still making progress! Cyan wished to give more behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the game, which has been kind of difficult this last month. They have some ideas, and they will share them in the coming weeks.

Explorers memorial

In what has become a grim tradition, Korov’ev had to report the passing of yet another explorer: Daniel Dea “Watashi” Grindle, founder of the URU Skydivers group – in its original meaning of jumping from high spots – and host of the Watashi’s Gira webradio.

Addendum: D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

He is still putting things away after his recent move. As a result there will not be any daytime classes until further notice. They should be able to return sometime in the spring. Night time classes, however, are unaffected.

There are currently three students taking the classes: one is set to take lesson 4, one for lesson 6, and one working on their final exam.

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at roughly the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next weeks.

And that was it for this month.

March ended with a CavFunding of 175%, a population of 33,640 explorers, and 1754 unique visits.

Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 2, 2020 (Leefo 10, 9676) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

In the opening ceremony, Ghaelen D’Lareh retold the last minutes of the closure of Prologue, back on February 9, 2004, and the first days of MOULa’s reopening on February 8, 2010.

In the Door Run competition, team A was the winner (2′45″), followed by team B (3′06″) and team C (3′38″). Team A included ghoul (caller), Ro”Jethhe, Malim Praedari, Boywhith, Jet Blast, allie page, Rhys, maree. Team B included Kneb (caller), etelka, Sleeper Jan, Mak Raves, Adrian Green, ondine, Boris, aqua. Team C included Susa’n (caller), thoekenem, Maleficent, EthanEver, PodHopper, Mevvah, angelmyst, Umo.

Each team suffered from setbacks: team A suffered from a lag spike at the very last symbol; team B suffered interference from a mean person/people; team C had little practice, the most substitutes, and a position swap.

On Saturday, for the Cavern Tour, for the first time Larry LeDeay streamed the event through his Twitch channel. Despite technical difficulties for a few attendees, the new format was on the whole a success. The stream is not meant to replace actually being there, but will allow showing extra materials that would otherwise not be possible.

The NULP Dance Show (featuring Aeonihya, Calisia, Claidi Song, Lu*, Mabe, Roland, Eternal Seeker, Willy, tsuno) was, as always, excellent and perfectly color-coordinated. The music was provided by Piboc, who was present at the show.

For the Story Night Special, in the Baron’s office, r’Tayrtahn recounted Douglas Sharper’s experience with the restoration, and the rising tension that led to the bahro incident.

On Sunday, in the Fashion Show competition, five contestants won the votes of the public: Ondine was 1st, with 32 %; Kamikatze, Claidi Song and Mabe were 2nd ex aequo, with 16 %; Aristocat was 3rd, with 8 %.

For the Explorer Memorial, Ghaelen read the names of the explorers we lost along the way; 2019 was a particularly hard year, with the loss of Tai’lahr. Korov’ev took the occasion to remind everyone that he took charge of keeping the OpenUru page updated, so if you know of names that are missing, please contact him.

Closing the weekend, of course, Yoda performed a Magic Show on the cliff in Kadish Tolesa, followed by a dance party in the Pyramid.

A big thank you to the organisers: Minasunda, Eternal Seeker, PodHopper, Larry, Fil, Donahoo, the participants at the contests, and to all the explorers, in the Cavern or on the Surface, who keep making Uru the unique place it is.

In other news

• On the aftermath of the announcement of the official forums closure, Yali announced the revival of RivenGuild. The initiative was greeted with mixed reactions, some rejoicing at seeing the return of one of the most beloved fan hubs, others worrying it will never be the same. Cautious optimism!
• A couple days later than expected, the MOULa and Cyan forums are now read-only. Chogon announced that the previously hidden MOUL beta sections of the forum, including the GameTap Live Rehearsals, have been made visible to everyone.
• On the first day of the anniversary celebrations, Korov’ev suggested the idea of an Ahyoheek tournament, to be held sometime Soon. Not much has yet been planned, but stay tuned if you are interested!
• A new Cyan Venture has been announced: Area Man Lives, from Numinous Games!
• Rel.to is back! At the time of this post, most of the links point to websites that do not exist anymore. In the following days and weeks, each link will be checked, and new ones will be added.

MOULa 10th Anniversary Celebrations

Minasunda was first, with a reminder to register to the three events of the celebrations that require it: the Door Run Quest, the Fashion Show Quest and the Magic Dance.

She also had another important note about the Door Run Quest: occasionally the gate seems broken, some players cannot see the symbols, while others can. After extensive experimenting, the conclusion was that this happens when using an internal client. It is therefore recommended to play with the standard client.

Also, some events are likely to be disrupted by using the bot. Please avoid using an internal client and avoid using magic commands, in order to prevent malfunctions, lag or crashes.

An outline of the celebration events is available on the MOULa forum thread, or in our dedicated post.

Cavern Tour

Among the celebration events there is the second Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 8, 11:00–12:45 KIT, starting in the Cavern Tour’s Hood for a brief orientation. CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the date and answer some questions.

The first tour gathered 43 participants. The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places (but not places like e.g. Kerath’s Arch). 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).

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn is still putting things away and finding homes for everything after his recent move. So there will be no daytime classes until sometime in Spring. Nighttime classes are unaffected.

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next 26 weeks.

Next week’s Story Night – Europe is part of the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of MOULa, with a special story of the Restoration. The event will be held in Mir-o-Bot’s Baron’s Office and will start at (or after) 14:30 KIT.

Cyan social media pages

On late January, Cyan announced their decision to retire a bunch of social media pages: Myst, Obduction and Firmament on Facebook; Myst, Obduction and Firmament on Twitter; Myst and Firmament on Instagram.

All the news will from now on come only from their main social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The given rationale is that Cyan has a small team, and an even smaller subset of the team is responsible for PR. Time spent managing social media is time spent not working on game development. So, to avoid stretching their resources, they decided to limit the number of channels they use and monitor.

Fan-managed websites, pages, groups and forums are of course not affected, as Cyan is not directly involved in their management. In this regard, we are aware that Rel.to is not accessible, we are working on it

No news has yet came out about the state of the cavcon, and whether other channels will be set up if and when it will be restored.

Retirement of the MOULa and Cyan forums

More controversially, Cyan also announced the retirement of the MOULa and Cyan forums. On Tuesday, February 4 the forums will become read only. Registering an account for the forums will also be turned off, which is effective immediately. On Tuesday, June 16, publicly-accessible threads will be archived, and the forum sites will no longer be hosted.

The last point has been poorly worded in the announcement: the content of the forums will still be available in some form, so the history of the community will be preserved, except for hidden threads, or personal messages. Also, the MOULa website itself will still be accessible.

Because of this, users are encouraged to archive any PMs or specific threads they wish to keep personally before the change takes effect. PMs can be exported en masse as table files (by clicking on “Export this view” at the bottom of the PM list), and for single posts it would be a good idea to save the BB code, to keep the formatting for an eventual export to another forum.

Even more controversially, Cyan announced that the replacement of the forums will be the Official Cyan Chat Discord server. Many fans have expressed their objections that Discord is not a suitable replacement for a forum.

OpenUru.org, the Guild of Writers, the Guild of Archivists, the Guild of Messengers, and other fan groups with their own forums will welcome anyone who prefer this time-tested format of discussion.

Events will still be regularly announced on the usual channels, like Facebook groups, Discord, and through the GoMe calendar (which, if you have a Google account, you can add by clicking on “+Google Calendar” at the bottom right of this page).

Bug reports should be reported on the recently-reopened Support page, or by sending an email to support[at]cyan[dot]com. MOULa downtime reports will be most quickly received via Discord.

Mysterium

Submissions for art designs are now open. There will be four categories: T-shirt, pins, activity books, writing and artwork table. Deadlines will be staggered through early-to-mid 2020.

• For the T-shirts, the Triumvirate encourages the artists to incorporate contrasts in their designs: Sirrus vs Achenar, Red vs Blue, Haven and Spire, etc. Tying in the host city of Washington, DC is also encouraged. The winning design will be rewarded with a free Mysterium shirt. The deadline is February 16, 2020 (hurry!).
• For the pins, they are once again planning a set of enamel ones. Pin design is an easier and faster process than shirts. The deadline for these is March 15, 2020.
• For the activity books, which are the new thing for 2020, artists can create a coloring book page, a word search, a crossword puzzle, etc. The deadline is April 19, 2020.
• For the writing and artwork table, artists will be able to showcase their Cyan-related artwork or writing. All content must be in by July 31, 2020.

Also, barring any unforeseen issues, registrations should open on March 1. Stay tuned for more info about this year’s hotel and how to book your room, as well as transportation and parking details!

Assorted news

As you probably know by now, the Starry Expanse team is now working with Cyan to complete the Riven remake. In a recent post, the team has outlined how they are dealing with objects that are small and blurry in the original game, but that you will we able to look at up close in VR – specifically, the blue light pole globes in the Mag-Lev dock.

Ars Technica posted an interview with Rand Miller, about the development of Myst and Riven, and how they pushed the limits of the then-new CD technology.

Some time ago, the MYSTAges wiki was put offline. The data has been salvaged, however, and posted on Archive.org by Deledrius. The Guild of Archivists is looking into merging some of the lore info from there into their own wiki.

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

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 7, 2020 (Leevotahr 24) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, a host of events have been planned. Here is the program, more details for each event will be posted in their calendar entries:

Thursday 6

13:00–14:00 KIT: Opening Ceremony, hosted by Ghaelen, in the Watcher’s Pub (accessible via the Nexus, under City Locations).

14:00–15:00 KIT: Country Evening, hosted by Eternal Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft (send “to cleft” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot, KI# 32319). The songs of this event will be sung by: Eternal Seeker, Zen-den-Lupe, Katran, Donahoo, and Maggie.

15:00–16:00 KIT: Gahreesen Dance Party, hosted by Podhopper, in Mir-o-Bot’s Gahreesen (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot, and send him “sp 34” to get to the dance floor).

Friday 7

13:00–15:00 KIT: Door Run Quest, hosted by Eternal Seeker (who will start the stream with Kneb’s “Door Run Song”), starting in the NDG Loung Hood (accessible via the Nexus). The competition will then move to a randomly chosen Tsogal. The rules are outlined in the calendar event.

15:00–16:00 KIT: Girastock, hosted by Fil, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (send “to Gira” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot).

Saturday 8

11:00–12:30 KIT: Cavern Tour, hosted by Larry LeDeay, starting in Cavern Tour Hood (accessible via the Nexus). The event will use voice chat. Details in the MO:ULa forum thread.

13:00–14:30 KIT: Nulp Dance Show, hosted by Minasunda, stream by Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Great Zero (send “to GZ” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). More info in the calendar event.

14:30–15:30 KIT: Story Night Special, hosted by r’Tayrtahn, in Mir-o-Bot’s Sharper’s office (send “to office” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). R’Tayrtahn will tell us about Sharper’s experience with the Restoration. The event will use voice chat.

16:00–18:30 KIT: Karaoke, hosted by DonahooDJ, in Karaoke Hood (accessible via the Nexus). The songs are prerecorded by explorers.

Sunday 9

9:00–11:00 KIT: Fashion Show Quest, hosted by Minasunda, stream by Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Delin (send “to Delin” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot, and “sendme 6438103” for the accompanying marker game). The rules are outlined in the calendar event.

11:00–12:00 KIT: Memorial, hosted by Ghaelen, in Mir-o-Bot’s Ae’gura, in the Kahlo Pub (send “to aegura” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). We will commemorate our explorers and friends who passed away. You can use the commands “kion” or “auraon” for an atmospheric light.

13:00 KIT: Magic Closing Event, hosted by Magic Yoda, stream by Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Kadish Tolesa, inside and around the pyramid (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). More info in the calendar event.

D’ni New Year & Mother Earth Day

Minasunda began the speaker session with the parties planned for this month’s festivities.

On April 21, D’ni new year 9675 (heeborah naygahbreesee, in D’ni), there will be a party and a Yoda Light Show in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Tsogal at 13:00 KIT. To get there, PM “link” or “meet” to the bot (KI# 32319). Seeker will provide the music.

The next day, April 22, is the International Mother Earth Day, and it has become a tradition for the Nulp Dance Group to host a show, also with a Yoda Light Show. To get to the location, PM Mir-o-Bot at 13:00 KIT. Seeker will provide the music.

For both events, attendees are asked to:

• not use magic commands, to avoid interfering with the show and avoid crashes and lags;
• keep the stage free for the dancers, and consequently
• arrive on time before the show starts.

The dancers will be very busy during the show, so they will not be able to answer questions; volunteers are welcome (please contact Minasunda). Of course there will be rehearsals. If you do not want the surprise spoiled, avoid linking to Mir-o-Bot if he is with five or more people until the show. If you do, please keep quiet and do not use magic commands. And keep the secret!

For further updates (and videos, after the shows), check the MO:ULa forum posts (New Year, Mother Earth Day) by Minasunda.

State of Minkata

rarified announced that he managed to restore the proper behavior of the OpenUru.org testing shard Minkata. This month he has been working hard to deploy Minkata-alpha, the second shard planned for testing fan content.

Bringing up the new shard has required some changes (fixes) to the game client, as well as bringing up a second server. There is no fan content there yet, but rarified is This Close to ask Doobes for a current copy of the New GoMe Pub, to start working with that.

There are also a couple of changes that have to be brought over from the H’Uru client code base in order to use content generated with the current Korman plugin for Blender.

A wide-open test for Minkata-alpha might happen soon. Once fan content works there, they will be working on a process for submitting it to Cyan for their approval and hopefully integration into MO:ULa.

The New GoMe Pub probably will not be the first fan Age to appear there, though; Cyan prefers to have a bridge (such as the fan Nexus) in place first. There are a few projects nearing completion for that purpose, so stay tuned!

Firmament

Korov’ev then mentioned the Kickstarter everyone is talking about: Firmament!

It got 40% funded in the first week or so (you can follow a live projection if you enjoy anxiety), but the more funds it gets the better, so if you have not backed it yet, it is time!

The game is being developed for VR first, but it will work fine as a classic PC game too. Unfortunately, support for macOS is not planned for the Kickstarter. Cyan is working on it, but for now it will be for Windows only. The release is currently planned to be on Steam, GOG, Viveport, and Oculus Store.

Regarding the Myst25 Kickstarter, the eBook novels and the Riven digital map rewards for the Writer tier have not yet been released, and there is no estimate of when yet. Also, the Fangamer coupon has been extended: you now have until April 30 to use it. Fangamer also confirms new items will be available soon.

If you were at PAX East or Indie MegaBooth, Cyan showcased Firmament and ZED there, respectively.

Mysterium

Mass Mysteria is coming on May 4 in various locations around the world (which also means that the next All Guilds Meeting is postponed to May 11).

Registration and hotel reservations for regular Mysterium are now open! The location will be the Ruby River Hotel in downtown Spokane, in walking distance of the downtown core and Riverfront Park, and overlooks the Spokane River. The Committee has secured a rate of $119/night for one-bed rooms and $129/night for two-bed rooms (plus tax).

After Russell Brower, the second special guest will be: Jack Wall! ASCAP award-winning, BAFTA nominated, best known for his video game scores (as in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mass Effect, and more to the point, Myst III and IV).

This year’s shirt will sport Xemylixa’s design on the front and calumTraveler’s design on the back.

Besides the hotel, the registration to the convention itself is also open: from now until June 1, you can purchase a weekend registration for $35 or a premium registration (weekend + shirt + coloring book) for $60. After June 1, the price will increase and shirts/books will not be available.

The Committee is also collecting memories from past editions, to be displayed in some fashion.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn is in the process of moving, so there will be no daytime classes until further notice. They should return sometime in June. The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public; Rehn will announce the availability of classes on the Hood imager.
Two more students who have completed the 101 class; due to the afore-mentioned issues, Rehn has not been able to grade them yet, but will do as soon as possible.

• 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!
• Shokhootahn Rehn is in the Hood most days (when he is not on the move) at 10:00 KIT and 20:00 KIT to answer questions regarding the current lesson;
• Magic Bot is employed to announce last-minute changes to class times: to get notified, add him as a buddy (KI# 27527), then send him a PM with the word “advert”. If Magic Bot is not online, you can send a PM to Mimi Bot (KI# 71459).

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights – Europe will continue with the events from The Book of Atrus. Original Story Nights will continue with the events from The Book of D’ni.

Due to Easter weekend, there will be no Story Night – Europe on Saturday 20. Rehn’s actual move will be towards the end of the month, so there may or may not be a story on Saturday 27. The 23:30 events are unaffected, but thunderstorms can cause power outages; in that case, r’Tayrtahn will try to contact someone from the regular audience, so they can relay his situation.

• Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday night, 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 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the meeting.
• 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 KI mail with your KI number included in the text; he will add you to his buddies list.

Explorer memorial

Korov’ev had to close the speaker session announcing the passing of explorer Dichromus. He and explorer Zeddy celebrated 5 years of marriage last year.

He was instrumental in preserving karaoke songs by founder Sil-Oh-Wet and regularly played some of her songs at his karaoke shows after she passed away. He was also a musician and singer.

And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open! The CavCon status has not been updated yet; internal sources assure that the situation is good, but that can only continue with your help.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

IX Anniversary Events

Minasunda began the speaker session outlining the events planned for the weekend of the IX anniversary of MO:ULa (from Friday 8 to Sunday 10).

There will be music, light shows, dance parties, but also a memorial for the friends we lost along the way.

More details in the ☞ dedicated post.

Max Music Sessions

Max announced the reprise of his Sunday Music Sessions on Sunday 24, the theme being “From Cover to Cover”. As always, suggestions are welcome!

Next, he announced the now traditional celebrations for the International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8: the call is for female D’niJs, or tracklists with female artists, or suggestions for tracks composed, played or sung by female artists.

Max concluded mentioning the International Mother Earth Day, which is also fairly close, on April 22.

Korman 0.08

Korov’ev announced the latest overhaul of the Age creation plugin for Blender, released by the Guild of Writers. The new version focuses on improving the existing functions and fixing the occasional bugs.

More details in the ☞ dedicated post.

Intangibles & Eder Fahsee

Tweek bore news of the Intangibles project. Specifically, he completed the modeling work on the Gateway Nexus; after some final checks, he will send it to Hoikas and Deledrius for the programming. RAWA (who is still recovering) was kind enough to assist with some of the lore.

Second, he announced that the deadline for the submissions for Eder Fahsee has been pushed to March 9, to give people a bit more time. He is asking explorers for chronicles about their first interactions with Myst and the impact it had on their lives.

Third, he is going to release an interim build of Fahets, based on the first version but with updated textures and geometry, to bring it more in line with the newer build. Version 2 will make the Age a lot larger.

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

More Ages by matthornb

Korov’ev announced five more Ages in the works by Writer matthornb: Sevkor, D’ni Temple, Eder Vikae, Nay’elas, and Alepahnay.

Part of D’ni Temple (area 1) is already available for offline and online visitors, but will be vastly expanded with areas 2 and 3. You might have heard about Sevkor in discussions about porting fan Ages into MOULa, as one of the proposed ways to access them. Eder Vikae, Nay’elas, and Alepahnay are all new Ages, loosely inspired by old concepts.

On top of that, he’ll release a Unity remake of Sehv T’devokan, his standalone game, including a version that can be played in a web browser.

He is planning to release them very soon for offline Uru and any shards willing to host them (as Korman allows to easily export for both types).

You can read more about matthornb’s creations on his website.

State of Minkata

rarified gave an update on the status of the OpenUru.org testing shard Minkata. Specifically, he is still trying to find a solution to the Age state retention issue; to this end, he locked down the Vault, so at the moment the shard is unavailable.

In the meantime, he has been updating the server to test the latest updates to the OpenUru.org server MOSS.

Myst25 Kickstarter status

Korov’ev then gave a recap of the last updates from Cyan about the updated Myst games and the physical rewards.

The DVDs have all been shipped; those who haven’t got them yet should try contacting support[at]cyan[dot]com. Cyan will reach out to any backers whose DVDs are being returned due to various delivery issues.

Inkwells and linking books are being shipped separately; if you receive damaged rewards, or with missing pieces, please contact support and include pictures of the damages. U.S. backers are getting their books and inkwells a few weeks later than other countries; Canadian backers are getting the DVDs later. If you haven’t received them yet, don’t lose hope, and try contacting your local post office.

Some backers have reported getting a virus alert when they tried to plug their linking books into their computers. It’s not clear how serious the alerts are yet, and it appears that only specific batches have them. The investigation is still ongoing.

Some backers never finished the Blackbox survey, or completed it long after the due date; their rewards will shipped from Cyan directly, but only after all those who did complete their surveys got them.

RIUM+ posted a thorough review of the Linking Book and the inkwell.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn closed the speaker session announcing two more students who have completed the 101 class. More groups are still making their way through at various stages.

• 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!
• Shokhootahn Rehn is in the Hood most days at 10:00 KIT and 20:00 KIT to answer questions regarding the current lesson;
• Magic Bot is employed to announce last-minute changes to class times: to get notified, add him as a buddy (KI# 27527), then send him a PM with the word “advert”. If Magic Bot is not online, you can send a PM to Mimi Bot (KI# 71459).

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights Europe will conclude the events from The Fall. Original Story Nights will continue the events from the Myst game.

Due to the IX anniversary weekend, Story Night Europe will be postponed to Saturday 16 at the usual time, barring any last-minute travel plans. The 23:30 events are unaffected, but thunderstorms can cause power outages; in that case, r’Tayrtahn will try to contact someone from the regular audience, so they can relay his situation.

• Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday night, 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 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the meeting.
• 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 KI mail with your KI number included in the text; he will add you to his buddies list.

And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open! The CavCon status has not been updated yet; internal sources assured that the situation is good, but that can only continue with your help.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

On February 9 Myst Online: Uru Live (again) will have been live for 9 years, more than the Ubisoft (2003–04) and Gametap (2007–08) eras combined! Explorers have come and gone, drama has unfolded, and despite losing the Cavern again and again we are still around!

To celebrate the occasion, the weekend will be busy with events (in some cases, bots will be used to ferry explorers to the locations: Mir-o-Bot’s KI# is 32319, Magic Bot’s KI# is 27527):

• Friday 8, 12:00 KIT, in the Watcher’s Pub, Ghaelen D’Lareh will hold the Opening Ceremony [stream];
• Friday 8, 13:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, Davide will play music from Myst [stream];
• Friday 8, 15:00 KIT, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft (PM “to Cleft”), Fil will hold a live broadcast by the campfire, singing and playing the guitar himself [stream];
• Saturday 9, 13:00 KIT, in Mir-o-Bot’s Relto (PM “meet”), the Nulp Dance Group will host a special Dance Show & Party (please mind the stage area), and Yoda will fascinate the public with one of his great light shows [stream];
• Saturday 9, 16:00 KIT, in Karaoke’s Hood, DonahooDJ will host the Karaoke Show as she has done for so many years, with quite a few good singers in the Community [stream];
• Sunday 10, 10:00 KIT, at the Memorial in Mir-o-Bot’s Kahlo Pub (PM “meet”), Ghaelen D’Lareh will hold the traditional commemoration of our explorer friends who passed away (PM the bot “auraon” for an atmospheric light) [stream];
• Sunday 10, 11:00 KIT, in the Magic Great Tree Pub (PM “meet”), Radio Free D’ni will host a Special Anniversary Show [stream]; and
• Sunday 10, 12:45 KIT, in the Magic Great Tree Pub, Mister Magic will close the celebrations with a Magic Event and Yoda will perform one of his amazing light shows; please be there before 12:45 KIT, or you won’t be able to see all the special effects [stream].

For further info, updates, pictures of the events and comments, check the calendar and visit the MO:ULa forum thread or the Facebook group.

See you there!