Music – The Guild of Messengers

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.

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.

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

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)

20th Mysterium, Day 2

Sun, 04 Aug 2019 18:11:15 +0000

The second day of Mysterium has come and gone, and what a day it was. If you could not be present, remember that you can follow the convention live on Twitch and Discord.

The day started with the guidelines for the trip and parking instructions (including the hard-to-follow recommendation of “try to keep to the path”) for the various groups headed to Cyan HQ: some shared cars, while others went by a rented bus.

At 11:00 am the crowd, gathered in the courtyard, greeted Rand Miller with a cheer. Rand, who gave up celebrating National Watermelon Day to be present, started the event (“me talking”) by claiming that the office was not set up as a giant puzzle. In an emotional moment, he invited Rawa on stage, to say hi and get a heartwarming applause from the crowd.

Then, Rand gave a few announcements: a big performance update for Obduction, and its future porting to the Xbox; the release of ZED for macOS on August 15, on Steam and the Mac App Store; their future venture plans including a collaboration with Numinous for their VR series Into The Mind; and a not-a-game mobile app (initially only for iOS) named Crowbox, related to the photo library.

Next, he noted how the Myst25 and Firmament kickstarters have given them the chance to make more and bigger plans. First, Cyan want to make a definitive, VR edition of Myst. Next, a VR edition of Riven (without “real-” attached), in collaboration with the Starry Expanse project. Then, they feel it is time for new stories in the Myst universe; not specifically a “Myst VI”, perhaps the start of a new series.

Rand then mentions their plans for the TV series (“this time for real!”). Cyan is much more involved than on previous attempts, with Rand and Ryan working on a treatment and a pilot script. It will be a different take, not based on the Myst novels or games, set in the “lost years” – between The Book of D’ni and Uru, perhaps?

Then, Rand answered some fan questions, with his proverbial obscurity: are the gahrohevtee a different script? It was never determined, they were always meant to be the vague, ‘magical’ part of the story. Will there be a Making of Firmament? Sure, they have a ton of video. The Book of Marrim? It is now off the back burner! Will Cyan work with external publishers? Difficult choice, they don’t want to be locked in exclusivity schemes, but more funds mean bigger and better games.

After being gifted by the Committee with a pair of ‘birken-socks’, because of his habit of doing presentations wearing sandals, Rand then invited the crowd to visit the studio building – with some of the props and costumes from the games on display! –, try VR demos of Obduction, Firmament and ZED, get signatures from him and Rawa (with scenes like this one), and of course have lunch (with cookies provided by a fan!). There was also a shop, where you could get posters, the Obduction artbook, sondtrack, Hex Isle and a free, vintage box of The Manhole. At some point, a raffle was held: the prizes were a life-sized journey cloth, an Obduction banner and a highly detailed 3D model of the Myst island, printed by Rand himself.

Back to the Ruby hotel, some time after 3:00 pm the Soundscapes Beyond Myst panel (hosted by Katie ‘Kha’tie’ Postma, Russell Brower, Tim Larkin, Marty O’Donnell, and Jack Wall) shared their experiences designing, conducting, and directing music and sound for games and media published by Cyan, but also Blizzard, Valve, Microsoft, Disney, etc. The question about the meaning of the Myst III: Exile lyrics remains unaswered once again, Jack Wall gave a sample of his a cappella singing, Tim Larkin expressed his preference for electronic instruments, contrary to the rest of the panel, and they mentioned their involvement with the Video Game Live concerts.

At around 5:00 pm, the Evolution of the Myst Community panel (hosted by Elliot ‘Taniith’ Borenstein, Katie ‘Kha’tie’ Postma, Ryan ‘Grey Dragon’ Warzecha, Blake Lewin, and Vicki ‘Tor’i’ Almond) looked back at the history of Mysterium, the changes the community has gone through, and its resiliency through the years. Memes from the original Cyanchat were mentioned; the reasons behind the Gametap cancellation of Uru Live were explored; and Kha’tie noted noted how she kept jumping between game cancellations.

At around 6:00 pm, the return of the Mysterium Showtunes was announced. After the dinner break, the crowd splitted: some of the attendees continued to work on the puzzles; some tried the Starry Expanse VR demo; some tried the Escape the Age card game; and some sung songs with Myst and Uru inspired lyrics.

Other attendees just chilled out with new and old friends, chatting about games, puzzles, and ideas.

And now, we are ready for the third and last day!

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March All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 03 Mar 2019 21:14:26 +0000

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

Saint Patrick’s Day

Minasunda began the speaker session with the parades planned for Paddy Day, on Sunday, March 17:

13:00 KIT – the first parade will starts from Ae’gura Plaza, led by Eternal Seeker (stream);
14:00 KIT – special Radio Free D’ni show, an hour later than usual (stream);
17:00 KIT – Dance Party in the Greeters’ Pub, you will need to get the green shirt from Kirel, as Mir-o-Bot will be on holiday (stream); and
19:00 KIT – the second parade will starts from Ae’gura Plaza, led by Fil (stream).

Keep in mind that Daylight Saving Time starts on March 10 in most of the U.S., but on March 31 in most of Europe, so the events will start an hour earlier than usual in Europe.

For further updates, check the MO:ULa forum post by Minasunda.

International Women’s Day

Max outlined the music events for the International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8; they will start at 12:00 KIT and will run until at least 17:00 KIT, and will be hosted, among others, by Minasunda, Ghaelen, Mystitech, AlanDJ and Fil. The definitive schedule will be finalized in the MO:ULa forum post by Max.

The call is for female D’niJs, or tracklists with female artists, or suggestions for tracks composed, played or sung by female artists.

State of Minkata

rarified announced that the Age state retention bug in the OpenUru.org testing shard Minkata has been finally fixed, and the shard is open again!

First, a couple of fixes will soon be sent to Cyan, to be added to MO:ULa. Second, rarified found the mechanism to sync Minkata-alpha (the second shard planned for testing fan content) with regular Minkata: the alpha shard will mirror your progress in the regular shard, but not viceversa. The login will be the same for both shards.

The first goal of Minkata-alpha will be to make the client and fan content compatible with the current MO:ULa client. As the fan Nexus is not yet ready for testing, the initial Minkata-alpha client will be an internal client, that uses a console command to link to fan Ages.

Minkata-alpha is planned to be released in a few weeks. To sign up to the regular shard, visit the OpenUru.org Foundry page.

Ages of Doobes

Doobes was back with a quick update on the Ages he is working on, specifically Veelay Tsahvahn, which is nearly complete and will feature original music composed by Mystler! The track, appropriately titled “House of Reminiscence”, captures the tone Doobes wanted for the Age.

On Mystler’s website you can find the albums he has released so far: The Great Traverse and Seraphim: The Ufumuk Invasion, the latter being the soundtrack to an original sci-fi universe of his creation.

On a sadder note, Doobes mentioned the passing of Jeff Zandi, friend of the Miller brothers and inspiration for the character that greets the explorers by the Airstream in the Cleft. You can read more about him here.

An entry for Zandi has been added to the MO:ULa memorial and in the Veelay Tsahvahn’s journals. Explorers will be able to submit short memories to agesofdoobes[at] gmail[dot]com about any of the explorers and have it added to the journals for all to read.

If a name happens to be missing, the best action is to update the memorial page at OpenUru.org, as updates will regularly be picked up from there.

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

Ages of Tweek

Tweek gave a quick reminder that the deadline (March 9) for the submissions for Eder Fahsee, his Age dedicated to Myst’s 25th anniversary, is nearing. He is asking explorers for chronicles about their first interactions with Myst and the impact it had on their lives.

Eder Fahsee is planned to be released for offline Uru and any shards willing to host it. To keep updated on Tweek’s work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

The Lost Art

Korov’ev was joined by Nora of the MystyTech team for an update on their machinima, The Lost Art. In the last year they managed to enlist the help of Mirphak and recently Yoda for advanced lighting and special effects, Dulcamara and Doobes for special sets (two of which will appear in future episodes), and Larry LeDeay and Tweek for graphics.

Episodes 7, 8 and 9 are completely filmed and edited, apart from a few pickups; the two things that are holding up their release are the music and the titles sequence. Filming and editing of episodes 10 and 11 are also well along.

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

Myst25 Kickstarter & Mysterium

Korov’ev then gave a quick update about the Myst25 Kickstarter. Quite a few backers cannot find the inkwell pen: it is in the hidden compartment close to the ‘spine’, on the bottom; there is a flap you can pull. You can see where all the compartments are in this video, and the controls of the linking panel in this diagram.

As for Mysterium, event submissions are now open! The deadline is May 20th. The events include ‘Microtalks’, short (max 10 minutes) presentations covering almost any interesting topics.

The special guest for this year will be Russell Brower, three-time Emmy Award winner, Composer, Musical Director and Conductor. Myst fans will know him best from the Myst 25th Anniversary Kickstarter, for which he composed several Myst-inspired musical pieces available to backers. He is also known for World of Warcraft’s soundtrack.

Mass Mysteria is also close, on Saturday, May 4th in various locations in the U.S. and around the world! Opt-in channels have been added on the Discord server for each location, so that you can communicate with other attendees and decide on plans.

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

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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February All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 03 Feb 2019 22:00:28 +0000

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

IX Anniversary Events

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

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

More details in the ☞ dedicated post.

Max Music Sessions

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

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

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

Korman 0.08

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

More details in the ☞ dedicated post.

Intangibles & Eder Fahsee

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

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

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

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

More Ages by matthornb

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

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

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

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

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

State of Minkata

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

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

Myst25 Kickstarter status

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

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

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

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

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

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

D’ni Language Classes

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

Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324); be sure to include your KI number in the message!
Shokhootahn Rehn is in the Hood most days at 10:00 KIT and 20:00 KIT to answer questions regarding the current lesson;
Magic Bot is employed to announce last-minute changes to class times: to get notified, add him as a buddy (KI# 27527), then send him a PM with the word “advert”. If Magic Bot is not online, you can send a PM to Mimi Bot (KI# 71459).

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

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

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

Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday night, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
For Story Nights Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT. On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the meeting.
The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KI mail with your KI number included in the text; he will add you to his buddies list.

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

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

Until then!

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MO:ULa 9th Anniversary Events

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 13:33:38 +0000

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!

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