December Herald Wrap Up

[Visual Media Studios 121]

 

Recent News

 

December has shown us quite a few changes this year, some minor and some major. From a new spawn to a new racial buff for the high elves.

 

Horse theft

Our first topic is the rule change regarding horse theft, posted by Pandan on the 8th of December. It’s a small change to a rule prior to the topic. The rule before was that horses that weren’t near any settlements and/or buildings could be stolen by making a modreq. However, the rule had two glaring issues. First, it is impossible to actually steal a horse due to the pet plugin of the server not supporting ownership transfer for animals.

 

To ‘steal’ a horse, it would have to be killed and replaced with a new one, which would always have terrible stats. Second, is the issue with moderating, as the horse needs to be outside the boundaries of a settlement. Most people tend to just push them outside of the boundaries. Because of this, a new rule has been implemented: Horses may not be stolen under any circumstances. Sorry horse thieves, maybe next year.

 

The White Mountain Warzone

Next, Fireheart posted a topic regarding a 24 hour daily PVP zone known as 2The White Mountain Warzone”. The idea of this PVP zone is to allow fast paced skirmishes within the defined area. The factions taking part in the skirmish each receive a fort, separated by the battlefield. Each team needs to defend their fort while simultaneously attacking the opposing force’s one. Naturally, this new warzone comes with its own set of rules, and they are expected to be followed and obeyed. As this new feature is experimented, staff will be adding prizes awarded to the winning faction.

 

Prizes may range from discounts on siege equipment to possibly high level gear in future battles. We await eagerly for its implementation while testing is underway. Lastly. In order to access the Oren warcamp, Orenian soldiers and their allies should take fast travels to Erochland, and move west into their snowy palisaded encampment. The dwarven defense takes place at Rhewengrad, so the dwarves and their allies should rally around there. Hopefully this new idea will have a positive impact on the server.

 

Mines, Dirt, and Cows

On the 13th, Combustionary made a post about a new system that would help with the development of towns and settlements. Towns and settlements can now buy utilities, animals and basic materials to aid in the growth of these locations. In the topic of mines, up until now each nation would get only one mine, while a neutral mine is available to everyone in the resource island. Now however, additional mines are now allowed to be constructed on owned land - for a price of 5,000 minas. Any charted location is permitted to do this. You will need to dig out your own mining entrance and then the region owner, with the money in hand, needs to make a modred to have a new GM set up the mine portal.

 

Once done, your mine will be linked to the mine world and work the same way as any other mine. The way animal spawns work makes getting your first few cows or pigs an incredibly tedious process - from buying them, to hoping you can lead them home without something happening on the way. Now the purchase of basic breeding sets of animals is possible. The prices for the animals are: 1,000 minas for 4 cows, pigs, sheep, or horses. And 500 minas for four chickens or rabbits.

 

Lastly, very basic resources like dirt, leaves, and stone are now available for purchase. None of these resources are important crafting materials, but rather basic construction and terraforming ones. The prices vary on the type of block. You can get: A double chest of dirt/Podzol/Coarse dirt/Grass for - 250 Minas, a double chest of Leaves/Flowers for 250 Minas. A double chest of Stone for  500 Minas. A single chest of Clay for 500 Minas and a single chest of Gravel for  500 Minas.

 

A new spawn

Many users would have noticed that the docks have now become the new spawning ground for Vailor. The main reason behind this decision is the active flow of players through the area, plus it being easier for new players to reach the capitals instead of struggling to find their way around the cloud temple grounds. Additionally to this is the introduction of a new area where players can buy decorative player heads. These heads come in a variety of styles, from alphabet blocks to different brands of food, as well as holiday event blocks. These new decorations will hopefully bring more enjoyment to your roleplay. Acquiring these special heads is simple.

 

Instead of paying for the head directly, you will need to buy a voucher from the tent with the head you want. Once you have the voucher and you know what decoration you want, you must make a modreq and wait for a GM to claim your modreq. The GM will then ask for the code(s) to the head(s) you want. To get the code, just hover over your mouse over the head and the code should be in parenthesis next to the name. Once you have your item, the vouchers will be removed from your inventory. Players are also told to keep in mind that these decorations are not to be used for trolling or any kind of abuse. Many more stalls will be added to this area, so keep an eye out for more changes.

 

Lastly, if you wish to obtain a character’s head after killing them, either in RP or in PVP, you must have your victim modreq for their head themselves. The project behind this took a lot of effort and time, so a big thank you to Dandan1350, Tsuyose, _Urasept_, Telanir and Arzota. As well as to Elsweyr for designing some of the heads. You guys did great.

 

GMs, Trials, and Leads

On the 16th, Pandan posted a topic regarding new GMs, new leads for different staff teams, and new trials. Firstly, the new GMs are Fireheart, Cracker, and Zarsies. We at VMS wish the three good luck in their new positions.  For the new leads, we have Tsuyose for the Magic Application Team. Dohvi for the Forum Moderator Team, and Dizzy771 for the Event Team. We wish them good luck in their positions and hope that they lead the teams with success. Lastly we have three new trial GMs. Freema, Benbo, James and Gigarun will be taking the trial and seeing if they are ready to move a step further. We wish them all good luck.

 

Donation Sale

On the 23rd, Tythus announced a sale that is occurring until the 1st of January 2016. All donations will receive a one-off key bonus included with every donation. Additionally, there is now a code that will give a 10% one-off per user discount on everything. The code is ‘MerryKrugzmas’.

 

Fishing, Skill Updates, and High elven buffs.

On the same day, 501Warhead posted an announcement regarding changes to fishing, skills, and buffs for the high elves. Firstly, the Grappling hooks that fishers gain post legendary have now been limited. Where grappling hooks once allowed one to scale just about any wall, now they provide no more than a single extra block worth of height when used. This change has upsetted a majority of users who currently possess this level of fishing. Whereas, many were confused as this breaks the mentality that 501Warhead strives for: ‘Don’t remove something without giving an equivalent back. The reason behind this change is that when a small benefit is added to the end-game tiers of a skill, that becomes the sole reason that skill is used, to a point that people are dropping real world currency in order to switch their main skill to it.

 

Luckily, 501Warhead confirmed that this change was never meant to be so underwhelming, and has promised to release a fix to this issue by easing up on the grappling hook nerf and adding better treasures from fishing in general in the upcoming nexus patches. Additionally to this, 501Warhead has devised a new racial buff for High elves, tiered at PVP as they were the ones mostly lacking it. The new buff, going by the name ‘Arcane Affinity’, converts a portion of their melee damage into magic damage. This new damage type ignores armor, only mitigated by magic resistance granted by thanium and gold-studded armor. 20% of damage is converted to magic, so if you were to hit for 4 hearts, you would do 3 and a half hearts of normal damage and a half a heart of magic damage. While using a golden weapon, 50% of damage is converted to magic, so if you hit for 4 hearts, you would do two hearts of normal damage, and two hearts of magic damage.

 

Some races have a natural resistance to magic. Constructs have 80% magic resist and other high elves have 30% magic resistance. Lastly, there are skill changes coming up. 501Warhead will be reviewing (and likely implementing) Jistuma’s Herb-gathering plugin for all the Alchemy users. For tinkering, he is working hard on getting a functional ‘Ice-box’ which will allow the storing and preserving of cooking ingredients, such as raw meat, vegetables, and so on. This should help assist breeders too. A fishing-only treasure system will be implemented, where some of the rarest casket drops will be easier to gain from fishing, as well as a few unique items. Also, 501Warhead will be revisiting his custom enchantment idea for enchanting and fishing also. Lastly, mining will benefit from being a stonemason, and perhaps some blacksmith-stonemason interactions will be added. NPCs are currently getting fixed into a less atrocious state and there will be some exciting changes to auction houses. We wish good luck for the Dev team in adding these new changes and we hope they will go smoothly once added to the server.

 

Onwards.

The final topic for this month’s herald is the most recent topic Telanir posted regarding the  Development team. For the past year, the team has been buried in maintenance and has been unable to release new content.  Kowaman and then 501warhead have both worked hard on tweaking the currently existing plugins and adapting the server’s content to work better with the massive changes that ocurred under the hood of 1.8. While there is much to do still, the development team have been working hard.

 

Jistuma, EclecticBoogaloo, IrishPerson, and The_Epic_Potato have joined the Development team and they will work alongside Telanir, 501warhead, Tythus, and the rest of the team to ensure that things pick up and become better than before. On the first day of 2016, the development staff will reveal their new content managing powerhouse, as well as their plans for the new year. Tythus, 501warhead, and Telanir will host a livestream to answer any questions you may have. We wish them all the best of luck in this upcoming year.

Screenshots

 

 

Player Interview ~ Siri

 

 

Hey Siri! how does it feel to be the player of the week?

 

Hi! Uhm, it feels kinda nice and a little bit awkward, since I’ve never heard of previous players of the week!

 

What brought you to Lotc?

 

Ah, I was looking for some form of roleplay on minecraft since I started on forum roleplay, and wanted to try something new. Google brought me here, and I’ve played on LOTC on and off for a while now!

I sought you out immediately after the wood elven winter ball. Do you have any other events planned for the wood elves?

 

Yes! I had a gift giving planned for the Sirame, but nobody showed up (Q_Q). Other than that, we were thinking of hosting more character-friendly events, that cater to different kinds of characters than say just the combat related ones. Maybe a easter egg hunt across the island or something!

 

Do you have any advice for the people who would like to do something similar?

 

Always write everything down and communicate clearly to everyone involved on the program. There was actually a hiccup during the speech giving and the time schedule for the best dressed, so always account for possible errors!

 

VMS is Recruiting

 

Now, here at the VMS, we are looking for new members! We’re quite small still but we’re now looking to expand and add more members to us. With more members, we will be able to get more media related subjects up for LOTC. What we’re looking for are people who are artists, no matter the drawing style. People who can gain information or anything that the VMS may be interested in talking about. Also, we need people who can take incredible screenshots with Optifine and shaders, as well as people who can make renders or animations and recorders. Lastly, having script writers and voice actors for the videos we post will be very helpful. I’m sure there’s many other roles out there as well. Be sure you’re capable of getting your work in before the deadline and good with working as a team. Also, we want people who are friendly, creative, and willing to give their own ideas to the team. If you think this applies to you, then go ahead and apply! There will be a link under the video where you can apply for the team. Just be sure you can have some free time and don’t miss deadlines, it can be really stressful at times so don’t push yourself. And importantly, remember to have fun with this. The best thing to do is to do something you enjoy doing, don’t force yourself to do something you may not enjoy.

 

Requirements

- Have a positive attitude

- Are not a trouble player.

- Able to provide your own work

- Able to provide content to the team weekly

- Can work in a team setting and alone

 

Application

 

Please PM the following application to us

 

Forum Name:

MCName(s):

Skype (can be given in PM instead):

Timezone:

Position(s) you can fill:

How often can you provide content:

Example(s) of your work:

 

[mmat 7460]

Please add paragraphs to each section, It'd make it much easier to read. :)

[Bvie 1754]

Loving the Sutica screen shots :P

[Visual Media Studios 121]

34 minutes ago, The Great Uniter (Sythan) said:

Informative. However, yeah. Paragraphs would make it much neater and easier to read.

 

Regarding the 'Recruiting' you are doing, I do have a few criticisms over how this recruitment process goes about. The team is a 'Community Team', yet people of the community who wish to assist in their own ways are denied. Why does the Community Team not allow the community to help out if they genuinely want to?

 

Then some might say, 'But if we accept everyone, we will get trolls!'. Well, an honor system for a team such as this would be a good way of going about it. Or maybe just a trial, like a GM trial. They have a month or so and if they obviously don't do anything, then that's it. If they are working on things, then they can stay. 

 

As a community team, trying to act like a server supported staff team isn't what you should be doing. For the sake of people who want to actually help, let them.

This is not the place to be upset you have not been added yet. We ask for people to give samples of what they can do. If we added everyone who posted but did not give us samples, then that defeats the purpose of asking for them.

 

Also fixing the paragraphs.

[monkeypoacher 8055]

oh boy, the 'player of the week' thing again. 

[Visual Media Studios 121]

8 minutes ago, The Great Uniter (Sythan) said:

Regarding samples. Apart from mention of 'I should make a music sample' from a friend in PM's, I was not aware it was required as I had given my reasons for not adding music samples in the application. As I said in the application, to make new music I need to be heavily involved in a project to have the motivation. If you want a general piano cover of something, notify me via PM's.

This was asked by the group, not just the one friend. We are fine with a single cover. We just wanted a sample past "photoshop"

 

9 minutes ago, The Great Uniter (Sythan) said:

Give them a trial phase on the team.

We do, but we need to fill places we have vacant first. Music, Video, and writing are the main concerns.

[Gone 869]

2 hours ago, Visual Media Studios said:

This is not the place to be upset you have not been added yet. We ask for people to give samples of what they can do. If we added everyone who posted but did not give us samples, then that defeats the purpose of asking for them.

 

Woah, careful with the assumptions and sass. After all your own requirements say:

 

3 hours ago, Visual Media Studios said:

- Have a positive attitude

- Are not a trouble player.

 

 

[DISCOLIQUID 2731]

I always enjoy seeing these screenshots. Also, beautiful artwork of ShimmeringBliss' character!

[_Jandy_ 3519]

ew... Sutica

[Nathan_Barnett36 1564]

I'll +1 if you get a screeny of felsen!

[Ethan the epic 115]

Let's not forget our new map coming this year i wonder what it`s gonna be called. Avios maybe or something ancient sounding like zu'lok or something idk.

[marimbamonk 1501]

I applaud the VMS for doing their best in the absence of the Media Team. From what you guys have so far, you're doing a great job! Love to see stuff like this on the server, and looking forward to more.