Cyan News – The Guild of Messengers

May 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 03 May 2020 00:19:11 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Music of Mr Jones

On Friday 8 at 13:00 KIT, Nosila will play some music; 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 fifth Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 9 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!

State of Minkata

Rarified gave a quick update about the Minkata testing shard. Throughout April he has been busy archiving all of OpenUru source code from the public repositories on BitBucket, as they are discontinuing support. He is done and has secure copies of all the data.

He was then able to go back to getting fan Ages to be able to be loaded into the Minkata Alpha shard for testing. With help from Hoikas, he picked out a number of fixes that had been waiting for a while – including the Windows 10 mouse fix – to be added to the MOULa client, and integrated them into the Minkata Prime client.

In short, three fan Ages from Doobes (Chiso Preniv, the Guild of Messengers’ New Pub, and Veelay Tsahvahn) are now available on Minkata Alpha!

A number of enthusiastic Age testers on Alpha have ensured that the Ages are ready for wider exposure. Chiso Preniv will be a public instance shared by all explorers, like Kirel, and will hold the books for all the other Ages. Once he gets the procedure for adding a new global Age designed, he will go ahead and add the new Ages to the Minkata Prime shard.

No deadline can yet be set, at this point in time, for porting the fan Ages to MOULa itself.

The updated client has been available on Minkata Alpha for most of April. There have been a few regressions noted from the testers, most significantly troubles walking up stairs, generally due to improper collision models in Cyan’s Ages. Rarified is holding off pushing the new client (needed for the fan Ages) to MOULa until he has either found a fix or discussed it with Chogon, since new explorers may find it uncomfortable.

Rarified and the Guild of Writers are also attempting to update the client to a more recent version of PhysX, which should make the new MOULa client run much more smoothly on Windows 10. An old plan was to switch to Bullet, but since Plasma was designed with PhysX, that would require a lot more work.

To keep up-to-date, check the OpenUru Discord channel. If you plan to join the testers on the Minkata shard (Prime and/or Alpha), be sure to know what to expect from a testing shard.

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 April 19 the Club adventurers visited (or tried to) Tunnel Demo, Box Age and Odema, by Nadnerb, plus TINA Testing Area (Valdez), Prad (D’Lanor), and Aerie (Kierra).
On April 26 they visited Toroolbah, Bimevi, Fens, and Maw, by Whilyam, Ages that could be easily mistaken for Cyan ones.
On May 3 (and possibly 10) they will visit entries from the Rapid Age Development and Detailed Age Writing contests, small but with plenty to see.
The following week, they will visit TikiBear’s Ages (Duck Knee Skydiving Club, Sprite Gallery, and Paper Pagodas); then, it will be time for the Geologica series (likely another two-part expedition).

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.

Shards door runs

Korov’ev mentioned a suggestion he made on the OpenUru forum, after the successful April 26 event, to hold door runs on shards on rotation, each Sunday at 14:00 KIT.

Cyan news

The Cyan Store now has a Free Stuff section, which currently has a Myst Desktop Background Pack.
Indie Megabooth has a long list of games that will be on sale from May 5 to 12, including Obduction, Zed, and over 150 other indie titles.

Mysterium news

Plans are being worked on to make the convention happen, if not in person, at least virtually.

The Triumvirate has opened location bids for editions of the convention outside the official one. The bids will be handled a bit differently, and accepted year-round. For 2022, that means bids will be due by April 1, 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 taking the classes, set to take lesson 6. Meanwhile, Axenna completed her final exam and passed the D’ni 101 class! Votahret ah’shem khe-bahrtahtahvteeom!

Details about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)

April 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 05 Apr 2020 09:08:42 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

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.

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”).

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.

Details about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)

March 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 08 Mar 2020 03:31:42 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

International Women’s Day

Nosila was first, to announce the music events for the International Women’s Day – just on the day most of the U.S. switches to daylight time, unfortunately!

14:00 KIT, Ae’gura Plaza – Root Beer, from Radio Free D’ni, will play tracks played, sung or composed by female musicians (stream1, stream2);
15:30 KIT, Ae’gura Plaza – Ghaelen will give a brief talk about two influential women in history;
15:35 KIT, Kings’ Lookout – Nosila will play a mix of music by female artists (stream1, stream2).

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the third Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 14 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. The upcoming tour will also feature special effects from Mir-o-Bot you may not have seen or heard before.

St. Patrick’s Day

Minasunda was back to announce the parades for St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday 17:

12:00 KIT – Ghaelen will set the mood with her Relaxing & Balancing Hour;
13:00 KIT – first parade, led by Eternal Seeker;
17:00 KIT – second parade, no leader has been picked yet; volunteers are welcome.

In between, it will be Irish music dance party time! Last year the public instance of Ae’gura was pushed to the limit of its capacity, some players could not take part in the parade. For this reason, this year the venue will be Mir-o-Bot’s Ae’gura (KI# 32319).

Minasunda regularly posts reminders about Uru events on her Facebook group.

Inauguration of Veelay Tsahvahn

Doobes took the stage to announce the release of version 27 of the Gehn Shard, which came with a year and a half worth of fixes and additions, including an upgraded voice chat that sounds much clearer. A remarkable amount of work behind the scenes goes into these fixes.

Most notably, this release unveiled Doobes’ own Chiso Preniv, the Library Age, available from the Nexus, and a revamped New Guild of Messengers’ Pub; both are the first to be natively exported using the Korman plugin for Blender. The Pub no longer replaces Cyan’s version, but is now reached from Chiso Preniv, which also has books for Tre’bivdil, Vothol Gallery, Fehnir’s House, and any future release from fans.

But yet another Age was unveiled right after the meeting: Veelay Tsahvahn, the Memorial Age, designed as an extension of the Memorial in the Kahlo Pub, by providing more background to the names displayed there. Veelay also features a poignant theme written by Mystler.

For more on Doobes’ Ages, visit his site and Facebook page.

Explorers memorial

In what has become a grim tradition, Korov’ev had to report the passing of yet another explorer: Gary Andrew “Andy” Legate, prolific and respected Age builder, author or contributor of Camp Bravo, Zephyr Cove, Andy’s Nexus, Ahra Pahts shell 315, Serene, Eder Bahvahnin, Neolbah, Eder Tomahn, Eocene. He also wrote many tutorials for 3ds Max and Blender, which taught the basics of modelling to many Age builders.

Fan Age Touring Club

Korov’ev then announced the Fan Age Tours he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT (except in March, when they will be at 12:00 KIT), to explore fan-made Ages, share impressions, try to find secrets, and get started with the puzzles if any.

The Ages will be explored in roughly chronological order of release, but occasionally will be based on a theme or an author. After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums.

To remember Andy Legate the next tour, Sunday 8 at 12:00 KIT, will visit some of his works: Camp Bravo (day and night), Eder Bahvahnin, Eder Tomahn, Serene.

Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

Somahoglahn

Originally, the destination for the Sunday 8 Fan Age Tour was the fourth episode in the Secret of the Rainbow series by Jhon J. Jaguar, Somahoglahn, which was released on March 1. The Age will be visited on the next tour, on Sunday 15.

Cyan news

The MOULa Launcher got a small update, finally fixing the login screen, with a funding indicator: not the CavCon, but a simple percentage of costs covered.

Early in February, Chogon released some worrying statistics about the Cavcon: donations had not been covering the server costs at least since June 2019. However, by the end of February, donations were again above costs!

Marker games are still disabled, until an issue that is causing the server to crash is fixed. All we can do is be patient until a solution is found.

The Facebook account API, that was used to verify a cell/mobile phone with a text message, was replaced with Amazon’s AWS equivalent.

Meanwhile, a new Cyan Venture has been announced: Area Man Lives, from Numinous Games. An Alternate Reality Game connected to it is ongoing, started with the address to KQV Radio that appears in the teaser. The mystery is being investigated on the #areamanlives channel of the Cyan Chat Discord server.

Mysterium

Registration and hotel reservations for Mysterium 2020 are now open. The hotel will be the Westin Alexandria Old Town in Alexandria, VA, with a rate of $100/night for both single and double rooms.

From now until May 31, weekend registrations cost $25, while premium registrations (weekend + shirt) cost $40. Starting June 1, the price will increase and the T-shirts will not be available for pre-order.

This year the T-shirts feature designs from Katherine “Squee” White and Claire “Shoom’lah” Hummel.

Submissions for events, enamel pins, activity book pages, as well as writing and artwork, are still open but will end soon. This year, submission are handled with a new rights policy.

D’ni Language Classes

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

Details about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)

Weekly news roundup #2

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 00:15:42 +0000

On Thursday, a small update for MOULa was released, 918.OpenUru#153:

the status message on the login screen now works, and also displays the donations coverage for the previous month;
marker games are now limited to 300 markers, as some of the larger decoration sets were causing issues to the server. However, the problem persists, so for a while all marker games will be disabled.

Cyan also retweeted the announcement from Limited Run of the pre-orders for the physical edition of realMyst for the Nintendo Switch, on February 28 at 10 am ET.

A new update for Firmament was also published, with a video giving some insights into the development process.

If you enjoyed Ars Technica’s recent interview with Rand about the making of Myst, a nearly 2-hour long extended version came out on Friday.

The Digital Antiquarian wrote a detailed essay on the history of (the original) Myst, in the context of what people were playing in 1993.

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Weekly news roundup

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 22:31:06 +0000

On Monday, Chogon has released some statistics about the CAVCON, and they do not look good. Donations have not been covering the server costs at least since June 2019. Various options are being discussed.

(Click to see the CAVCON data)

10th anniversary celebrations wrap-up

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 21:09:27 +0000

The anniversary celebrations have been a success, with spikes of over 70 attendants. If you could not attend, or if you wish to relive the experience, be sure to watch the videos from Minasunda’s Youtube channel.

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.

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February 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 01:08:09 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

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.

Details about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)

December All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 11:04:56 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Uru Advent Calendar

Minasunda was first, with two announcements: the first about her Uru Advent Calendar marker game, available from Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) by sending it “sendme 8833282” in PM.

Before collecting markers, it is advisable to use the “/startlog” command, that will save a chatlog in Documents/Uru Live/log. For each day there is a marker in Ae’gura, with two links to Youtube videos – one in German, the other in German with English subtitles. The videos will not be released in advance.

The Advent Calendar is also available on Minasunda’s website, again in German and English.

Christmas Party

The second announcement was about the Christmas Party, planned for December 15 at 13:00 KIT in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Delin; to get there, send “link” or “meet” in PM to Mir-o-Bot. Yoda will provide the magic, the Nulp Dance Group will perform one of their dance and Seeker will play music (stream).

Minasunda also gave a remind about MO:UL’s 10th anniversary, coming on February 2020. So far, only two events are planned.

Fan content and state of Minkata

Doobes and Rarified were next, to give an update on the fan content situation.

At the end of November, with the help of Hoikas and Emor D’ni Lap, they were able to get the New Guild of Messengers Pub working on Minkata-alpha. Doobes and Emor previously submitted a few very basic testing Ages, but the new Pub is the real stress test, so it is useful as a benchmark.

They were also able to locate, and in some cases squash, a few bugs both with the Age itself and with the fan-made server MOSS. It has been said many times, but this really is a concrete step in bringing fan-made content to the official Uru Live server.

This content will include upgraded Cyan Guild Pubs and an upgraded Watcher’s Pub – although the path to the Tree still requires more work to function correctly. Doobes is hoping to also send all four Ages (Tre’bivdil, Fehnir’s House, Vothol Gallery, New GoMe Pub) currently on the Gehn shard and The Open Cave, plus two brand new Ages of his to help tie things together.

Rarified commented that November has been unusually productive on the testing pipeline; things picked up with a code submission from cjkelly1, one of the original authors of the MOSS server used on Minkata, which provided the initial additions to the client necessary to be able to explore Ages built with Blender and Korman.

The regular Minkata (beta) shard will stay relatively clean, for testing bug fixes to be incorporated in the Uru Live client. Minkata-alpha will run in parallel, using the same client but through a special batch file. Announcements about new testing cycles will in the future come from the creators, rather than Rarified, who will take the role of adding the new content to Minkata-alpha, and leave it up to the author to describe the things they want tested, as well as any special ways to get access to their Age.

Rarified also mentioned a couple of Ages under construction (including Doobes’ library Age, Chiso Preniv) that will provide in-game access to the other new Ages. Once those have become available and tested, he will start moving fan content into Minkata along with them. That will be the enabling event to start considering when fan content can be considered for inclusion in Uru Live.

To summarize, a new Age will first be tested on Minkata-alpha; when all the major bugs will be fixed, it will be moved to Minkata (beta); next it will be given a final test on Cyan’s Staging server before being released on Uru Live. There is a lot going on behind the scenes to start making this happen, and it has been the result of excellent coordination between authors, testers, and shard admins, and the enthusiasm from both Cyan and fan creators.

Becoming a tester

If you want to drop into Minkata-alpha and get ready for what is involved in testing, all the details are in two threads (one, two) on the OpenUru.org forums. Note that, and this cannot be stressed enough, Minkata is a testing shard:

it is not meant for playing, Ae’gura especially will have barriers in place that will not be removed;
the server, or the new Ages, may not be available all the time;
the Vault may become corrupted, so complete wipes of the database can (and likely will) happen;
it requires using an Internal client and being familiar with console commands;
testing an Age involves doing some tedious activities, like walking against every wall and clicking every interactive element;
your progress will be volatile, avatars are there just for testing things (see point 3).

Cyan assets upgrades

Doobes had more to say about his work on porting Cyan’s Ages into ready-to-export-and-modify files. Chogon has drafted some legal notes to include with these files. Once that is finalized, Doobes should be able to post the ‘base’ versions of the blends on GitHub.

From there, anyone can download the Ages and modify them. Presumably, one could even customize many Ages for their own shard for a sort of “alternate dimension” shard. A Shard of Dreams, if you will.

Fan Ages and content coming to MOUL have been promised for many years, and it can be incredibly frustrating getting hopes up and continuing to wait. However, the recent developments, along with Cyan’s loosening of the rules with their assets, has opened things up as they never have been before. Exciting new things are coming, and soon.

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

OpenUru.org fan Ages repository

Rarified closed this section by mentioning the notion that building Ages is not for resource-challenged computers. With content comes the need to store it; free access to large quantities of storage is uncommon. But OpenUru happens to have a fair amount of free space.

So he offered to establish a repository on the OpenUru server to run in parallel with the Guild of Writers repositories on GitHub for authors to store their big Blend files and Ages as they evolve.

If you are an author, be ready for an announcement from Hoikas and Rarified when this is set up and tested.

The Lost Art

Korov’ev mentioned the release of the latest episode, “Schisms”, of MystiTech’s machinima series, The Lost Art, produced with the help of Mirphak and Yoda for advanced lighting and special effects, Dulcamara and Doobes for special sets, Larry LeDeay and Tweek for graphics, and Larry LeDeay for D’ni translations.

In the last episode, we had a mysterious egg, shared dreams, and Thomas’ new assistant turned up to be not exactly human. What is next?

Episode 9 is tentatively planned to be released on December 29 at 13:30 KIT, as a Youtube Premiere event, during which people will be able to chat live with the creators while watching.

If you have a question, or you want to help with the making, you can send an email to enquiries[at] mystitech[dot]de.

Uru Live client update

For the Cyan News section, Korov’ev started with a reminder about the official Cyan newsletter.

A new version of the client (Build 918.OpenUru=139) has been released, for the first time in years! The update includes:

Physics compatibility with Korman created Ages;
KI art changes by Hoikas:
- fixed miniKI text chat scaling to be resolution independent;
- fixed “text x-raying” in the Big KI;
- hid the blackbar handles visible on ultrawide resolutions;
- restored the Big KI background noise animation;
updated the Terms of Service/End User License Agreement;
updated the Zandi Radio music to replace copyrighted material;
updated Tomahna end credits music, removed copyrighted material.

Note that the client does not automatically update the uncompressed music when updated; you will need to delete the file sfx/streamingCache/clftZandiRadio_Loop.wav to hear the new music (“IV. Allegro Molto” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

Launcher problems

Some people had problems updating. Usually the issue is that the client is unable to replace itself (UruLauncher.exe); temporarily launching it with admin privileges (or even better, moving the game folder somewhere else other than the UAC-protected C:/Program Files (x86)) should fix the problem.

Other problems happens mostly because of missing libraries or DLL:

A stack dump error probably indicates a failure to initialize PhysX: it is advisable to install the Legacy component;
the error related to msvcr71.dll and msvcp71.dll can be fixed by downloading them from Chogon’s post, extracting them, and putting them in the Uru Live folder, along the launcher;
the error related to d3dx9_27.dll can be fixed by installing a few extra DirectX files. The install procedure is a bit unintuitive: you will have to download the installer, make a new folder on your desktop, run the installer and tell it to extract into the folder you created, then run DXSETUP.exe in the folder to install the DLL files. If it worked, you can delete the folder on the desktop and the installer;
a Windows 10 update from 2017 broke the way moving with the mouse works. The problem has been fixed on the Gehn shard, and is one of the bug fixes planned to end up on MOUL, but for now you can use Sirius’ fix.

Unwritten RPG acquired by Cyan

On November 26 it was announced that Cyan Ventures acquired the tabletop roleplaying game Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of Myst and Beyond, by Inkworks Productions, one of the first 3rd party works set in the D’ni universe since Myst IV: Revelation.

Small revisions will be made to the existing Unwritten manuscript to reflect the new ownership, and the revised version will be available in the future from the Cyan Store, as well as from DriveThruRPG.

Future versions of the Unwritten core rule book, future supplements, or other related products will be published by Cyan Ventures, in partnership with Inkworks, which will remain the primary developer for the Unwritten product line.

Lexember

To celebrate Lexember, Cyan will post a D’ni word every day throughout December on their Twitter account. Some of these words are already known, but some are of course new releases, for the happiness of all D’ni linguists.

At the time of this writing, the following have been released: advuh, n. arch; taygahn, v. to love deeply, with the whole mind; bol, n. brother; b’rish, adv. very, so (lit. “to twenty”); dahgo, n. hammer (derived from dahg, v. “to strike”); elioykhets, adj. gusty; eder, v. to rest / n. a moment of rest (used in naming garden Ages).

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.

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.

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 winter; nighttime classes are unaffected.

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 tries to be in the Hood most days at 10:00 KIT and 20:00 KIT to answer questions regarding the current lesson;
the Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights, starting at 20:00 or 21:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule;
the left-hand imager and Magic Bot are 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

r’Tayrtahn thanked Mirphak and NikiMay for their invaluable help with the Bahro Glyph Tour.

Story Nights – Europe started the story arc of the D’ni creation myth, the pre-history, the life of the first King Ri’neref, and will continue with the lives of the Kings.

Original Story Nights will conclude part 5 of the fan fiction “Jae’s Journey”.

November 9 will also be the start of the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour! The tour will last for two weeks, finishing on November 16.

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, so that he can add you to his buddies list;
Magic Bot is employed to announce last-minute changes to Story Night 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).

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, January 4, 2020 (Leevosahn 3) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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November All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:39:38 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Windows 10 mouse bug patcher

Korov’ev started the meeting by mentioning Sirius’ improved fix for the Windows 10 bug that breaks moving the avatar with the mouse.

The UruHook is no longer required: you drop a DLL in a folder inside MO:ULa’s one and just forget about it.

Keep in mind that when the client will be patched, you will need to remove it or you will get the problem back. It will also likely conflict with other hooks like ReShade.

Download and source links are in the MO:ULa forum thread.

Sunday Music Sessions

Max was back to announce three new Sunday Music Sessions, each one with a different theme. The planned dates are:

November 3: Chasing Ghosts – a Post-Halloween party
to chase out all the undead, evil spirits and ghosts out of the Cavern;
November 17: MO:UL (Prologue) Anniversary
a bit of a birthday party or just an excuse to have fun and play some good music;
December 1: Winter Is Coming – Christmas special
a time to play some seasonally suited tunes, some of which you might not have heard before.

For more info and comments, visit the MO:ULa forum thread.

Guild of Writers

Two announcements came from the GoW. The first one was a survey, with which the Guild hopes to get a better picture of the Community and the game. It takes little time to fill, is completely anonymous (so do not cheat and answer more than once!), and above all it will be of great help to better focus priorities. The results will of course be public.

The second announcement was the release of Korman 0.09, with 35 commits, about 1000 lines changed and a slew of fixes and updates, including:

added the ability to create and link new Logic Nodes from each node socket;
added the “GatherBuild” asset control file to exported MOUL age packages;
changed Logic Node trees to be safe to reuse in multiple Advanced Logic modifiers without specifying specific nodes;
and many more.

This release is not yet compatible with Blender 2.80, it requires 2.79b. For more info, check the GoW thread.

MO:ULa assets open for modification

Doobes was back to talk about the announcement from Cyan that MO:ULa assets are now open for updating and modification.

This is big news for those in the Age building community, as they have been wanting this for years. The only downside is that Cyan has chosen not to provide the original 3ds Max files, which is of course their prerogative.

That leaves it up to Age builders to reverse-engineer the assets. So in that spirit, Doobes have begun the process of converting some of the Ages to Korman-ready files for Blender! He has two so far: K’veer and the original Guild of Messengers’ Pub.

This was made possible by the work of Sirius, who developed the next generation of PRP importer: the ZLZ URU Importer. This handy little tool imports everything almost perfectly into Blender 2.79 for wiring with Korman. Doobes has also successfully tested this on Myst V Ages as well, even discovering an Urwin hiding in Direbo!

The goal is to get these Ages one to one with their 3ds Max counterparts using Korman, or as close as possible. Then – assuming Cyan needs to look at them first – Doobes will release them to the public so anyone can take a crack at improving upon them. The first Ages will be the original Guild Pubs, as they are the ‘easiest’, relatively speaking.

Anyone who would also like to pitch in, is very much encouraged to do so! If you find any Korman bugs in the process, you can pass them along to the GoW as well. There are still a few things needed to get the Ages exactly one to one with their originals, so it might take time for the more complicated Ages like Ae’gura.

The Writers will be working closely with Cyan to make sure they are on the same page.

Ages of Doobes

Doobes has been working hard on one of his many planned Ages, called Veelay Tsahvahn aka the Memorial Age. It will be an extension of the Memorial you can see in the Kahlo Pub in Ae’gura; a place where the explorers can gather to remember and mourn those explorers who have passed away.

Recently we have lost a few more good people, including Tai’lahr, who was active in a great many things, including creating a wiki page that greatly expanded upon the names on the aforementioned Kahlo Pub memorial. So it is only fitting that Veelay Tsahvahn will be one of the first Ages Doobes plans to submit to Cyan for MO:ULa.

Doobes has redoubled his efforts to finish the Age, and plans to submit it to a few choice people to go over and scrutinize, before sending it off to Cyan to test on the staging shard. From there, it will be just a matter of figuring out how to allow access to the Age, i.e. where the book will go.

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

Explorers memorial

Besides Tai’lahr, in October we also lost explorer June “JuneTMP” Shaputis.

Korov’ev have been semi-officially put in charge of the Explorers Memorial and In Memoriam wiki pages on OpenUru.org. Having joined the community rather late, he would like you to contact him if you have details to contribute, especially links.

State of Minkata

On Sunday 10 there will be a meeting at 12:00 KIT, in Kirel, for anyone interested in providing time, skill, and energy into getting the fan content pipeline in shape. The plan is to make this meeting a monthly event.

Mysterium

The Mysterium 2020 date has been finally decided: August 7 to 9! As for the venue, the Committee is in the final negotiations, and will announce it soon.

The theme will be, for the first time, about Revelation: ‘Haven and Spire’. Red and blue, Sirrus and Achenar, crystals and mangrees… a bit of everything brotherly.

As for this year’s edition, thanks to Taniith who sifted through hundreds of GBs of footage, all the panels are now available on Youtube, while the lyrics and poems from the Open Mic Night are available on Google Drive.

D’ni Language Classes

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 tries to be in the Hood most days at 10:00 KIT and 20:00 KIT to answer questions regarding the current lesson;
the Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on Thursday and Friday nights, starting at 20:00 or 21:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule;
the left-hand imager and Magic Bot are 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 Restoration. Original Story Nights will continue with part 4 of the fan fiction “Jae’s Journey”.

November 9 will also be the start of the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour! The tour will last for two weeks, finishing on November 16.

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, so that he can add you to his buddies list;
Magic Bot is employed to announce last-minute changes to Story Night 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).

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, December 7 (Leevobro 9) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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October All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 11:33:32 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Halloween Party

Minasunda started the meeting with the announcement of the Halloween event, October 31 at 13:00 KIT (an hour earlier, in most of Europe) in Mir-o-Bot’s Ae’gura; to join the event, PM “meet” to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319).

It will be a scary hike through the city; to ensure a smooth process, please do not use magic commands during the event. Eternal Seeker will lead this hike. At the end of the horror hike Mir-o-Bot will link us everyone to Descent, where there will be a dance party with Yoda’s wonderful effects. Eternal Seeker will provide the music.

Uru Live 10th Anniversary

Minasunda then reminded the crowd of a major anniversary, coming in February next year: MO:ULa will be in its tenth year online!

The festive weekend is planned to start on Friday, February 7 to Sunday 9; if that (hopefully) won’t be enough, the celebrations will start earlier. Let your ideas run wild and let her know so she can get an overview and set up a preliminary timetable. Do not wait too long, time flies fast!

You can contact her by KI mail, in the forum, on Facebook or by e-mail (lusabi[at]aol.com).

The Nulp Dance Group is preparing a show, this time in the Great Zero. The choreography and the stage techniques are finished, the dancers are arranged and rehearsals are already running.

State of Minkata

Rarified was next, to summarize the in-game gathering “What can you offer for Minkata?”. While no new volunteers showed up, many of the contributors were there, so the discussion moved to some of the current bottlenecks in getting things done. Rarified is ‘cautiously optimistic’ they opened some new thinking on the processes of moving things from contributors to Minkata, and eventually on MO:ULa.

An update is in the works from the Guild of Writers that will try some of the new tactics discussed. An annoucement will be made on the OpenUru.org forum, when that is ready for testing.

Fan Ages

Korov’ev announced that Writer Melvin just released four new Ages: Palamary bay, Peridia, MYST Refuge, and The Ruins of Azmar. Collectively, they are part of the Path of the Lost Ages. They can be downloaded from this link, and are probably only suitable for the offline version.

Cyan’s Lore Project

With the help of the people of Inkworks Productions (Blade, Eleri, Alahmnat and others), Cyan is working to centralize all of the lore about the Myst universe.

In order to do this though they need your help. Documents, forums, chatlogs, emails can provide knowledge into the people and events going on at any given time. If these logs are not saved, if forums go down and or community websites stop to exist we lose all of that information to the aether.

So: do you have an old RAWA email talking about lore? Do you have information on a lore related item from the LYST? Did you have a conversation with Rand or RAWA that include answers to lore questions? Cyan want all of these things. Chatlogs from Uru Live, images of DRC members, live events. All of it.

They are not looking for speculation, or suggestions; rather, the aim is to gather all of the canon that may have fallen through the cracks. If there is a resource online, just send Cyan the URL instead of the document. Double-check on some of the community resources to see if your information has already been recorded, and consider helping fill out the wikis.

If it is an email thread, try to include the full thread, but remove personal email addresses, etc. Metadata (where it comes from, the date it happened, how you acquired it, etc.) would be excellent.

At this time Cyan will not be answering questions about lore. However, in the future the Lore Project’s efforts will be available to the public, so save those questions!

You can submit lore items to lore[at]cyan.com. You may receive follow up emails with questions, but if you don’t get any, assume that the item was taken and is being curated.

The book props

In a recent Reddit post, Grey Dragon showed photos and titles of all the linking book props used in the Myst series. They are:

Myst book: Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Vol. LIV (Dec 1876 to May 1877), 1877.
Riven descriptive book: Webster’s Unified Dictionary and Encyclopedia, 1953–1954.
Trap book: Harold Lamb. Omar Khayyam: A Life. Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1936.
Linking book Atrus brings at the end of Riven: Mary Nourse. Ferment in the Far East. The Robbs-Merrill Company, Inc.
The book Nelah hands you in Tay: Douglas Clyde Macintosh. The Pilgrimage of Faith in the World of Modern Thought. University of Calcutta, 1931.
Burned books: Mike McAlary. Buddy Boys / Robert S. Eliot & Dennis L. Breo. Is It Worth Dying For?

Grey Dragon clarified that the books were chosen solely for their appearance, titles or content have no relation to the lore.

Mysterium

Korov’ev reminded the crowd about sending photos, videos, album links, and any lyrics you may have written for the Open Mic Night. The Committee have heard only from a handful of people, and would love to share all of those with the whole community.

Video editing is taking longer than expected – they have over 300 GB of footage – but is proceeding. The videos will be uploaded on the Mysterium YouTube channel.

The location for the next edition will be Washington, DC – for the first time ever. Next year’s edition will also be returning to the traditional schedule, ending midday on Sunday (around 1:00 PM).

The Committee will also rotate, with no less than three chairs: Capella and Drew will be joined by a relative newcomer, Dan. Nicknamed the Mysterium Triumvirate, they hope to combine their enthusiasm and Myst and community knowledge to make one of the best Mysterium conventions yet. Taniith will take a well deserved rest after his hard work this year.

There were several other VIPs who wanted to come to this year’s edition, but couldn’t make it for one reason or another. One of those people is Geneviève Lord, the Producer on Myst IV: Revelation. She got in touch with several of the concept artists who worked on Revelation and asked them if they had any concept art.

Sure enough, she was able to get artwork from Andrzej Tutaj, Meinert Hansen and Stéphane Turgeon, and with Ubisoft’s blessing, she was able to share that artwork with the Community!

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Korov’ev, on behalf of r’Tayrtahn, announced that Story Night – Europe was canceled for October 5 due to unexpected traveling. Original Story Night was unaffected.

This week, there will be a special Story Night presentation during Original Story Night.

The bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour will be held sometime during the month of November. There will be more details given during the November AGM.

Explorer memorial

Korov’ev had to close the speaker session by announcing that explorer Jason ‘Ja’run’ Bobyarchick passed away on August 29 at the age of 34, a victim of gun violence. He was one of the early explorers and beta testers of the Cavern.

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, November 2 at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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