Daisy

The new player guidance plugin is the top of the backlog, though requires some other pieces to be in place first. The tutorial island plugin will be the launch point for this, completion of the CTs project will enable the connections with nations, and the Wayfinding plugin will be used to guide the players. With all this, it is high priority, so it will be worked on shortly after, or for 10.0 launch.

That is the intent long-term, if you look at the initiative on Github you will see a bunch of plugins under it. Star signs was kind of a standalone passion project, though others such as fishing, farming, and animal husbandry will build a foundation for things like brewing and cooking. Although I know there are people in the community who would like to see the return of proper professions, the majority sentiment is that these things should only be additive to the roleplay experience, not inhibitive of it.

The Tech Team Roadmap Hey all! Recently, we've revived our Tech Team public roadmap and updated it with all the projects in progress and planned. This roadmap was created as a concept back in 2022, and hadn't really been updated since. Now, it comprehensively outlines everything the Tech Team has in mind. Viewing the Roadmap You can view the Roadmap on our Github. There are two views you can look at for the roadmap. The default view is what we call a "Kanban board", where items are sorted by status (backlog, in progress, done, etc): The second view, which you can switch to using the tab at the top, is organized by initiative, which I will expand on below: Understanding the Roadmap Items on our roadmap have a few different pieces of info attached to them: Status Indicates the stage of development for the item. Items that are in the backlog have no immediate plans to work on, but are part of our longer-term plans. Selected for development indicates the item will be worked on next, whenever capacity is available. In progress items are currently being developed, and items in beta are currently being tested to confirm it meets the requirements, either on our public beta server, or for those related to 10.0, on the 10.0 build server. Completed items are now live, and cancelled items have been removed from the roadmap. Priority Indicates how urgently we want to get the item complete. Critical items are blocking something major on the server, and are being worked on immediately, the rest are self-explanatory. Size An estimate of the development effort needed to complete an item. S for changes that require some light modifications or minor additions to existing code. M for feature additions to existing code, or smaller refactors of existing plugins. L for a new plugin or larger refactors. XL for major refactors, larger new plugins, or changes that may require changes to several plugins, and XXL, for projects that require large changes or rewrites to multiple plugins. Assignees Indicates which team members are working on a project, in case you would like to reach out to them with questions or ideas. Milestone What initiative a project is part of. More info below. Initiatives Every project on our roadmap is organized into an initiative (or Milestones in Github), which represents an overarching goal for the Tech Team. 1.21.5 Status: In-progress Items under this initiative are planned for our 1.21.5 update, which is currently in progress and our highest priority, as it needs to be done prior to 10.0 release. 10.0 Status: In-progress This initiative contains technical work being done for 10.0 development / release. Immerse Pastimes Status: In-progress This initiative focuses on additions to the server which give players something to do. As opposed to professions systems of the past, these plugins will be purely additive to the vanilla experience, giving immersive functionality to enhance roleplay. This initiative has some larger projects within it, and is expected to be completed sometime following 10.0 release. Website Improvements Status: In-progress This initiative covers work being done by the Web Team to enhance the experience of our website, with some projects currently complete, such as the 2024 theme rework, and others under development, such as a new homepage, store page, and an interactive map. New Player Experience Status: In-progress In collaboration with the Community Team, this initiative focuses on enhancing the new player experience. Staff Utility Status: In-progress This initiative focuses on adding functionality which make it easier for staff to do their job, including simplifying some of the ways players interact with staff. Core Platform Evolution Status: Backlog This initiative is one of our largest planned initiatives, and will be started after Immersive Pastimes is completed. It aims at rewriting and refactoring some of our older plugins, such as currency, shops, and personas, to bring them into the modern era and fix a large amount of player-facing issues and tech debt. VIP Enhancements Status: Backlog This initiative will focus on adding / improving features that add value to our VIP ranks. I hope this revival of the roadmap brings some excitement towards the future of LOTC, both for 10.0 release and beyond, and helps increase transparency on what the Tech Team is working on. Feedback is always welcome, feel free to comment here, join the Tech Team Discord, message me directly on Discord (llir), or reach out to one of our developers working on projects on the Java Team or Web Team. One last thing: The Implementation Team is recruiting. Do you want to help with Realms, Tiles, or the Economy? Apply today, or reach out to @Kaiser if you have questions. Cheers, Llir | Technical Administrator

"Ti, I need a long break." she smiles to Vivien.

By the hand of Avern'dionne Fi'talareh, S.A. 234 The Maheral simply is, It is this mantra that prescribes our truth, that since our first guide Larihei herself, the Maheral simply is. They are the most blessed one, the embodiment of tradition, progress, and purity — maher'sae hiylun'ehya. In times of strife when our future is uncertain, it is the Maheral who shall guide us with wisdom and grace. This has been the way for a millennium, and the Mali'thill have persevered. I have done my duty, ensured the safety and future of the Mali'thill, though the Light of Larihei fades from me, and must instead illuminate another. For the Maheral simply is, and no longer shall it be Avern'dionne. Through this action of tradition I have chosen my successor, the one who will lead our people through these trying times. Kolvar Uradir, the once Sohaer and Asulir of our people, is now Maheral to the Mali'thill, for the Maheral simply is. May he uphold this blessed duty with silver grace. iewyn'Larihei eltaeleh walehe ohn vallein eltaliyna walehe Malaurir Avern’dionne Fi’talareh, Maheral, the Voice of Larihei, Guardian of Purity, Bastion of Tradition, Guide to the Mali’thill, and Matriach of the Fi’talareh Talonnii MAEHR’SAE HIYLUN’EHYA

Hey all, based on feedback we've revised the wording of the Staff Conduct updates. See the original post, it has been edited.

Fair point, and I don't intent to deny it or beat around the bush. Although the intent was to seek clarification, I absolutely came off, especially with the power dynamic you mention, as I was attempting to coerce and guilt-trip a certain answer, and I am sorry for that. I wanted us to keep nation status, and keep prebuild for next map, there is no denying this, any nation leader would want this. And that is the problem I acknowledge in the post, that a situation with this dynamic, tech-admin to player, should not happen. I mentioned this in another reply already, yeah the wording we tossed together last night is a bit too far, and we'll be re-evaluating it in the next few days to find something that more appropriately reflects our intent. Thanks for your reply.

I think when you have an entire community on the line for your RP actions, it's unavoidable to not consider OOC consequences when making an IC decision, and I don't think I'm alone. I would argue nearly everyone in nation leadership considers these kind of things, from how many weeks it'd take for a war to be won, to if there will be enough mina to may the monks their upkeep. I will note that at no point did what I was pitching even happen, and we decided to just handle things in RP and forget the OOC system. Here were the messages I sent to Unwillingly a few hours of later, after which we had a productive conversation about how we both hate paragraph posting, among other things.

This exactly. I hold nothing against Unwillingly or the Caurost community and I did not intend to call her out or anything in this post. She acted maturely and we had a good discussion after the initial crashout of mine, which I did not share in the screenshots as it was somewhat personal. But, they're cool. I do not appreciate some members of the Haelun'or community attacking people on this thread. That's a bad look for us guys. I made a mistake and put myself in a conflict of interest, I need to own that. Sure I did it with the best interests of our community, but I lost sight of the red tag above my head and thought I could just act as NL again in a time of crisis without it being an obvious conflict, and I was wrong. For some of the comments I see about metaplay, I want to be clear that I do not believe what I did was, by any sense of the definition, metaplay, that is: At every point was I was planning to have the decision made in RP, and no point was I acting maliciously. I was in open communication with the other side, and although I certainly didn't act graciously, I did not intent to suggest that the RP must go one way or another. The big thing was that next map land selection hinged on if we get mechanical nation status, so yes, I was stressed about it and wanted clarity prior to the RP. On a server with OOC systems and rules, our RP actions are going to be influenced by their out of character consequences. Acknowledging that and seeking clarity is not metaplay, as we are the ultimate decision makers for our characters, the influence of the rules and systems that govern this server is unavoidable. Where the line gets crossed, and why we have rules for metaplay, is to prevent folks from cutting out the RP entirely, from deciding the fate of RP via out of character, and degrading our shared narrative. It's about intent, not about if OOC consequences are considered when making RP decisions, because that is just a reality of roleplay on any medium. As for some of the comments around the policy change being too strict, we did not intent for it to punish moderators for my actions, and we will be reviewing the wording in the next couple days to clarify, as yes, what we have at the moment is a little too much.

I think I covered this in the context I gave, give it a full read if you haven't already as well as the spoiler with Kaiser's message. I was not trying to push a specific RP proposal OOCly, I was attempting to gain clarity on what the mechanical outcome would be under a certain RP scenario. The core issue here is the conflict of interest that I was in having both the RP position where I was acting on behalf of the realm, and control over the team that makes the decisions over realms.

Hey, So, this is not a post I foresaw myself making, but one necessitated by some poor decisions I have made over the past week, ones I need to own. Haelun’or is a nation I have been part of for ten years, and it was in a difficult position in roleplay due to a conflict with Caurost. As part of this, they were likely going to lose nation status, though I identified a gray area in the Realms system that would permit them to keep it. Essentially, there was no requirement in the system for when a vassal needed to be under another realm, and when it could have its own realm. I presented this to the admins and KaiserThoren (the lead of the Implementation Team), with the idea that Haelun’or could keep nation status while becoming a protectorate of Numendil, who had agreed to do this in roleplay. I left all the decision-making to them, and agreed to respect the outcome. Beyond other pros and cons that were discussed, we knew that the OOC agreement of the nation leaders involved would be necessary at a minimum, so on behalf of Haelun’or I went to Unwillingly to pitch the idea, the full logs of which can be found below (you may have seen cropped versions of this floating around, and I want to give clarity to that): Unsurprisingly, Unwillingly stopped replying to me after this, as I was being rather abrasive. A couple hours later I apologized to them and we agreed to wait until after the RP to decide the matter of nation status. Ultimately, we vassalized under Numendil and as it stands will be losing nation status. Now it may come as a surprise to all of you due to my long history of admin announcements, but I am a terrible text communicator, and in retrospect, reading these messages, I was coming off the wrong way. I want to clarify, at no point was I attempting to dictate what will happen in roleplay, and the initial ‘outcomes’ I presented to them were just what I had thought was going to happen based on an RP meeting that had occurred a few days earlier, not what must happen in any way. Based off some of the possible outcomes of the RP, my goal was to clarify what the OOC repercussions of this would be to quell the overwhelming anxiety I had over the future of the nation, so I could go into the upcoming roleplay at least understanding what would happen mechanically should the roleplay have went one way or another. Kaiser explained what him and the other admins were looking for in a much better way, and in retrospect, he should have been the one to message Unwillingly, not me: The crux of the issue, in my mind, is that it was not a nation leader messaging Unwillingly, but an admin, and we have power. Power that can be abused, power can lead to bans. I shouldn’t have been acting on behalf of a nation like this, as this was a clear conflict of interest. So, how did we get in this position? Admins aren’t allowed to be nation leaders, right? So, my character holds the position of Maheral in Haelun’or. The Maheral is a largely cultural leadership position, though does occasionally get involved in the day-to-day politics of the nation. Sort of like a weird high elf pope. For the large part, I have been staying out of any controversial political situations in Haelun’or, and intended to stay away from the Caurost debacle with a ten foot pole. However, due to some very unfortunate timing, the nation leader had to take an immediate hiatus due to real life circumstances beyond their control, leaving my character as the senior most member of the government to deal with the diplomacy. I did not plan to be in this position, but I should have taken further steps to avoid it. In all, I would like to apologize to the community, especially those in Caurost, for putting myself in a conflict of interest, and acting in a way that was unbecoming of an administrator. To remedy this, two things are being done: I will be immediately taking steps to step down from my position in Haelun’or’s leadership to remove the conflict of interest. We are amending the Staff Conduct policy to prevent situations like this in the future (see the spoiler below): Cheers, — Llir

(( its so larihover ))

DISMISSED, S.A. 234 By the hand of the Maheral Blessed Citizens, It is with a heavy hear I write this, and with shame I do admit, I have faltered as your guide. I have watched idly as Elheial'thilln engaged in conduct unbecoming of the Mali'aheral. It is through the actions of Valindra Nullivari and Theveus Sythaerin that my hand was forced to sign away our sovereignty. My guidance to them fell on deaf ears, and no matter how I conveyed our tradition, they did not adhere, instead choosing the ata virture of pride. As a result of their actions, we will fall under the protection of the Numendain. Is our best, ne, our only option, and I thank both the Crown Prince and the Tar for securing such. Now let me be clear, blessed citizens, our other option was vassalization under Cauróst. Galahad was unwavering, with the support of Burgundy and Norland, that he would not see us persist in unified cooperation, that he will not see friendship between our kin. Thus we are forced to forge a new path, one we have lived before — isolation from the rest of Malin's folk. Instead, an entity within a realm of the Valah will be our fate, and Larihei's path we will follow. The future of our people, I did secure, and I will ensure the details of our arrangement are fair and just. Though my guidance is at an end, and a successor I shall seek. Do not doubt though, in this politicking of this affair I did present other options, I sought other paths that would be more favorable to our people, yet this is the course. On this we must move forward, as the united followers of Larihei, towards a new dawn. This is not the end, but a new beginning, in which we will renew that which makes us Mali'thill, and follow in renewal the path of Larihei. In this, the Suli'ceru shall be revealed as Merith'irrin, and through their watchful judgement the council shall be dismissed for straying from the path of our forbringer. This is the way. Thus, I proclaim the following: - Valindra Nullivari and her council are dismissed from their positions, through the revelation of the Suli'ceru. - Merith'irrin has revealed himself as Suli'ceru. In this act, they resign their post, as is tradition. - Elections will be suspended until Elmaheral sees fit, with them alone acting as sole leader of our people. heiuhii narne narneyem'ehya, maehr'sae hiylun'ehya Malaurir Avern’dionne Fi’talareh, Maheral, the Voice of Larihei, Guardian of Purity, Bastion of Tradition, Guide to the Mali’thill, and Matriach of the Fi’talareh Talonnii MAEHR’SAE HIYLUN’EHYA

The Maheral wonders where the elf who speaks so strongly against her and her council has been "Is this the one who showed up for one event six months ago? What ground does he have to speak on action?" she remarks to her Sohaer over tea.

"Hmm, seems we hurt their feelings." the Maheral remarks to the Sohaer, reading over the missive, chuckling as she glosses over the terms, then tossing the missive aside.

haha good catch, i'll fix this on my end :)

the map's pronouns are they/them

Project A-Name (we STILL don't have a name) Map Render Reveal & Land Selection Kickoff Hey all! We’ve been working on getting tiles drawn for 10.0, and finished an important milestone today, all biomes are now divided into polygon regions, ready to be cut into tiles. To ensure we aren’t cutting a potential capital location in half, we’ll be moving forward with Phase 1 of land selection prior to drawing tiles. Realm leaders and their builders have already been on the preview server for about 2 weeks scouting out locations, and starting today they will be contacted by the Implementation Team in the order described in Kaiser's post to select capital locations. After Phase 1 of land selection, we will take a few days to cut the biomes into tiles, then move on to Phase 2 (vassal / exterior tile selection), then Phase 3 (lair placement). If you have any questions about land selection, please contact @Kaiser. On another note, we have finished some of the last major changes we were working on for map layout, and are now happy to share the first official map render for 10.0: The biomes shared in Saviour’s post are indicated below: And the aforementioned biome borders and sizes in square blocks (note, it also counts water) from our region drawing software: I look forward to sharing the full tile map and realm placement soon. Cheers, Llir

You are not PRO of this vassal. Warclaim denied.

From admin chat when I sent the first render we did of the draft:

This method was decided months ago as well before the war started, though we did consider this and compared the to data to that from the the previous 3 months as well, and it had little impact if any on the brackets. We do prioritize the recent data as it is the most accurate reflection we have of the current activity of the realms, which has been our basis for land selection for a few maps now. For the nations destroyed, they are out of the picture and won't get land anyway, and if we waited for the dust to settle and see where the numbers shift, that would put us well past the selection timeframe.

they were brazilian

Oh boy time to draw 100 tiles

DENIED. For more details and reasoning, contact me.