Young, Gifted & Black

On Monday 15 at 13:00 KIT, Nosila will host a music event; the location will be the Ae’gura plaza, and the stream will be at nosilaradio.caster.fm.

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the sixth Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 13 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. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour.

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!

Future physics update

A recent update to the MOULa client reportedly included a physics update, stirring the longstanding question of the future of ‘skydiving’ (a.k.a. glitching), the practice of jumping on invisible colliders to reach normally out-of-reach places, stemming from an older practice of jumping off high places. Innumerable marker games have been created to map skydiving paths along the Ages, and more recently a robot-assisted training course.

Skydiving, however, depends on broken physics engine (PhysX) implementation, causing an uneven game experience depending on computer and network characteristics, fixing which has been part of the open source roadmap since the beginning in 2011. Perhaps even more importantly, upgrading the physics engine (to at least version 4) will lift a major obstacle to a truly native macOS and Linux clients.

Hoikas and Doobes therefore agreed to illustrate the developer side of the issue, and clarify a few questions and misconceptions regarding the client update roadmap:

• the latest update did not break the bot functioning itself, but the physics that the marker games dispensed by the bots depend on;
• the ‘physics update’ mentioned in the release notes is a bump from PhysX version 2.6.0 to 2.6.4, the same version used in the Gehn shard in the last six years;
• the entire process of updating the MOULa client happens in the clear, on the Writers’ IRC, on GitHub and on the OpenUru Discord server;
• explorers who create content for the game based on bugs are invited to be active participants in the discussion on how development moves forward, as developers cannot be aware otherwise of them.

As for future options, a ‘skydiving client’ was released years ago by Lyrositor – who in the meantime retired from the community – but an update to the KI functioning made it unusable. The source code, and some guidelines on how it could be brought up to date, are publicly available to any coder willing to take up the challenge. However, the long-term solution to preserve skydiving would be a dedicated skydiving shard.

As an addendum, it was noted that another planned update is the transition from the exceedingly obsolete Python 2.3 to 3.8; for robot makers, this will require checking their code for no longer compatible syntax (e.g. from print "string" to print("string") ).

Ages of Doobes

Doobes’ latest releases – Chiso Preniv, Veelay Tsahvahn and the New GoMe Pub – have been ported to the Minkata shards, where the heavy testing will begin. From then, if all goes well, they will be ported to Cyan’ staging server for the last quick checks, and eventually on MOULa, hopefully very soon.

But the big news was the announcement of another, yet unnamed Age in the works! It will be a competitive puzzle Age, based on the Gahreesehn Wall idea, but as a circular maze with configurable (or randomizable) walls. The player or team that will manage to reach the center of the maze, will win.

There will also be a one-in-four chance to remove the walls to gain an advantage, using a control panel beside each wall; but it may also be a disadvantage, so you will need to make a strategic decision! To make things even more challenging, a timer will also be available. During the Q&A, Theo suggested implementing a command to save and load wall configurations.

As for his other Ages in the work, the next release will likely be Kotsahvosahn, a.k.a. the Waystation, the beginning of the journey of D’ni citizen and Messenger Lothias, so it will be more story-heavy than Doobes’ previous Ages.

After that, Doobes has started a new project with AgeExplorer, which promises to be both story and puzzle-heavy.

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

Fan Ages Touring Club

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

• On May 10 the Club adventurers visited TikiBear’s recently updated Ages (Duck Knee Skydiving Club, Sprite Gallery, and Paper Pagodas);
• On May 17 they visited Doobes’ Ages (the New GoMe Pub, Chiso Preniv, and Veelay Tsahvahn), finally released on the shard only a few days before;
• On May 24 they started the 3-part expedition to the Geologica series, by Ametist and Metabasalt, starting in Dragon’s Tooth, but also visiting Ametist’s latest release, Tiam.

In June, the Touring Club will visit Enobmort and Noidrocca by J’Kla, Paah’kweh and Sonavio by Boblishman, and Pre-Swaltu by Tolip Ydop. A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki.

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”). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.

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.

The Lost Art

Korov’ev mentioned that Mystitech Productions released Episode 10 of its The Lost Art machinima, on Saturday 30.

Cyan news

• realMyst: Masterpiece Edition has been released on Thursday 21 for the Nintendo Switch.
• After more than three months, a new update was posted in Thursday about Firmament. Among other news, it mentioned the need to improve on the gameplay and setting aspects of the game, and the official hiring of a member of the Starry Expanse team.
• May ended with a CavFunding of 90% (CavCon 1.9), a population of 35,052 explorers, and 1441 unique visits. The reserve covered 29% of the costs and is now empty. The server costs were the same as last month.

See also the News Roundup #4 and #5.

Mysterium news

The convention will be held virtually, with a combination of Twitch and Zoom for presentations, and Discord for live chatting. The convention dates will be the same as planned, August 7–9, with a possible extended weekend. Refunds will be available, but roll-overs to next year’s in-person convention will too.

The deadline for event submissions has been extended to June 30, with the option to submit pre-recorded presentations. The deadline for the Digital Activity Book is also extended to June 30.

The existing T-shirt design will be used for Mysterium 2021, with altered dates. A store page will be opened soon. The 2020 pin designs will also be rolled over into 2021.

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 autumn. Night time classes, however, are unaffected.

There are currently two students working on lesson 6. Meanwhile, Aqua completed her final exam and passed the D’ni 101 class! Votahret ah’shem khe-bahrtahtahvteeom!

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 four weeks.

Rehn hinted at a possible special Story Night on the Gehn shard, in a “certain memorial Age”.

And that was it for this month.

Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 4, 2020 (Leesahn 2, 9676 DE) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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!

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.

The Cavern Events Neighborhood

ChrisKB, on behalf of Attaboy, announced the rebirth of the Cavern Events neighborhood.

Having attended Mysterium, Attaboy would like to contribute more to the Community. With Magic Bot available only on request, he figured that the Cavern Events hood would be a nice way to get announcements to other explorers in the Cavern by using the imager.

Furthermore, he has a team this time which currently consists of Narotiza and ChrisKB myself, both of which met at Mysterium. They will try to host more parties as well, starting with the Reopening Party on 12th October starting at 14:00 KIT. If anybody wishes to stream music at that time, you are more than welcome to.

For any inquiries regarding the hood, or events you’d like added, send a KI mail to Attaboyrish, KI# 7903211, or ChrisKB, KI# 8921257.

As a long term plan, with permission from the former organizers, he would also like to get the Cavern Tours back up again.

State of Minkata

Rarified was back with an announcement from the OpenUru.org shard Minkata. Specifically, he addressed concerns, expressed on OpenUru forum postings, about things getting done on the shard, concerns he agrees with. Much of the problem with getting things through the testing process is time and ability to work on sometimes many things at once.

Rarified is planning to host an in-game gathering titled “What can you offer for Minkata?”, to find out who has and is willing to spend time on the operation, process, and even management of the shard. He will also echo the request in the MO:ULa forum, the OpenUru hood and on the Discord server.

He will try to cover as many time zones as possible, and will publish the chatlog on the OpenUru forum to continue the discussion, or perhaps another real time meeting.

Mysterium

Korov’ev relayed the Committee’s wrap up for the biggest Mysterium ever held, with (at least) 230 attendees.

They would like you to take a survey, so they can figure out how to make the convention even grander next time. You should take the survey even if you could not go, as there’s a whole section about future Mysteria, including in which parts of the U.S. it should be held.

Second, the coloring books were such a hit, they are now available through a print-on-demand service for $10! It is the same service used to print the originals, so you’ll get the same high quality.

Third, if you wrote lyrics for the Open Mic Night and would like to share with the community, you can send them to committee[at]mysterium.net. The plan is to host them in a public Google Drive folder.

Fourth, a central place for photos and videos is hard to find, because many of the older photo-sharing sites have shut down or require payment. Currently there are three options:

• a shared Google Photos album, which requires you to have a Google account, but if you do it’s the simplest option;
• a Dropbox folder, if you prefer to just send them directly; be aware that it may not be possible to credit you on your photos if you submit them this way (the folder is drop only, the photos will be added to the Google album); or,
• if you’ve already uploaded your photos elsewhere, you can send the Committee a link to the album (make sure it’s set as public), which will be included a list of external albums on the website.

As for the panel video footage from Twitch, it will be edited and uploaded to Youtube over the next weeks.

Fifth, the location for Mysterium 2020 is still undecided; there is a shortlist, and the Committee expects to have it nailed down by mid-to-late September. The dates for next year’s convention will be held sometime in late July/early August, but not necessarily the usual first weekend.

The reason is that for each of the past few years the locations were unexpectedly filled by some other event; this drastically reduces the options for hotels and makes it much harder to find a hotel in a convenient location for a reasonable price. “If you could do the weekend before/after, we would have space/could give you a better rate”, they say. So for next year, the Committee opted to be a little more flexible with the dates.

Celebrations

Korov’ev mentioned a couple of events that took place during the week preceding the Meeting.

On Tuesday, there was the Day of Dancing celebration hosted by Ghaelen d’Lareh, with special effects from Yoda and Mirphak (video).

Thursday was the inauguration of the latest adventure from Mister Magic, the Skydiving High School (video), which you can start by PMing “registration” to Magic Skydiver (KI# 8848659). For more info, you can visit the Facebook group.

And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 5 at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Mysterium

The Meeting opened with a recap of all the things that happened at the Myst/Uru community convention Mysterium. Many of the panels were streamed on Twitch and are currently available here. As soon as they can, the Committee will copy those videos to the YouTube channel.

Fissure parties

Back to the Cavern, two Fissure parties were held right after the Meeting, with reahrotahn and thoekenem. Fissure parties are events where people gather in someone’s Relto, to celebrate the conclusion of the First Journey (spoilers!).

Magic Skydiving

Next was Mister Magic’s latest project: a skydiving-oriented robot! With Magic Skydiver, aerobatics will have no more secrets for the explorers, who will be given flying certificates by participating in missions assisted by an instructor, starting from the first level of ‘Initiate’.

Lushun is translating the game into English. No special client will be required. The opening evening of the Magic High School of Skydiving will be around the end of the month. You can find more info and tips on the Uru Magic Worlds Facebook group.

State of Minkata

Rarified was back with some news from the OpenUru.org shard Minkata. Real Life has been hard since May, so little progress was possible. Some of the content on Minkata has been out of sync with the Cyan MO:ULa servers. This manifested during a new installation: people started the Minkata client, and it complained about being unable to load files.

Rarified will take the weekend to bring things on Minkata back into sync. Once the server will be updated, an existing working installation of Minkata will no longer work, you will need to copy the game files again from MO:ULa. Instructions will be posted on the shard section of the OpenUru.org forum.

Next, the fixes that have been under test in Minkata have languished for a while; Cyan developed an automated mechanism to process updates from the shard, but Minkata missed its part of the pipeline. Rarified hopes to submit all the patches (including the Windows 10 mouse fix) to Cyan to be released on the MO:ULa servers in a few days.

After that, he will be back to work on the Minkata-Alpha server, where the first fan content is scheduled to appear for testing.

Explorer memorial

Korov’ev had to close the speaker session announcing the passing of explorer Zander the Heretic, a.k.a. Zanda. He was one of the early explorers of the Cavern, back from at least 2006.

And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 7 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!