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!

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

La Riunione è cominciata con un riassunto di tutto quello che è successo alla convention della comunità Myst/Uru Mysterium. Molti dei panel sono stati trasmessi su Twitch e sono al momento disponibili qui. Appena potrà, il Comitato copierà quei video nel canale YouTube.

Feste della Fenditura

Tornando alla Caverna, due feste dalla Fenditura si sono tenute subito dopo la Riunione, con reahrotahn e thoekenem. Le feste dalla Fenditura sono eventi in cui la gente si raduna nel Relto di qualcuno per festeggiare la conclusione del Primo Viaggio (spoiler!).

Magic Skydiving

A seguire, l’ultimo progetto di Mister Magic: un robot per lo skydiving! Con Magic Skydiver le aerobazie non avranno più segreti per gli esploratori, che otterranno certificati di volo partecipando a missioni assistite da un instruttore, partendo dal primo livello, ‘Iniziato’.

Lushun sta traducendo il gioco in inglese. Non saranno richiesti client speciali. L’evento inagurale della Magica Alta Scuola di Skydiving si terrà verso la fine del mese. Potete trovare maggiori info e consigli sul gruppo Facebook Uru Magic Worlds.

Stato di Minkata

Rarified è tornato con qualche notizia dallo shard di OpenUru.org Minkata. La Vita Reale è stata dura sin da maggio, perciò scarsi progressi sono stati possibili. Alcuni dei contenuti di Minkata sono fuori sincronia con i server MO:ULa di Cyan. Questo si manifesta durante una nuova installazione: la gente lanciava il client Minkata, ed esso si lamentava di non riuscire a trovare dei file.

Rarified si prenderà il weekend per portare le cose su Minkata di nuovo in sincronia. Quando il server sarà aggiornato, le installazioni funzionanti esistenti di Minkata smetteranno di funzionare, dovrete di nuovo copiare i file del gioco da MO:ULa. Istruzioni saranno postate nella sezione dello shard del forum OpenUru.org.

Poi, le correzioni che erano sottoposte a test su Minkata sono rimaste ad aspettare per un po’; Cyan ha sviluppato un meccanismo automatico per acquisire gli aggiornamenti dallo shard, ma a Minkata mancava la sua parte della pipeline. Rarified spera di inviare tutte le patch (inclusa la correzione per il mouse sotto Windows 10) a Cyan perché siano rilasciate sul server MO:ULa tra qualche giorno.

Dopodiché, tornerà a lavorare al server Minkata-Alpha, dove i primi contenuti dei fan dovrebbero apparire per il testing.

In memoria

Korov’ev ha dovuto concludere la sessione degli oratori annunciando la dipartita dell’esploratore Zander the Heretic, alias Zanda. Era uno dei primi esploratori della Caverna, a partire almeno dal 2006

E questo è tutto per questo mese. Non scordatevi di donare per tenere aperta la Caverna!

La prossima Riunione Generale delle Gilde è prevista per sabato 7 settembre alle 21:00 CEST.

Alla prossima!