Visual Media Studios

Recent News (hehe our video broke...) January has had a few changes over the past few weeks. Allow us to summarize what has happened. Creative Cafe As of January 30th, we had our first creative cafe of 2016. With many signing up to sing, joke, and do skits on teamspeak, we have hit it off. Creative Cafe is a place to have fun and show off your talent. There will be more during the year, but this one marks the first for 2016. See the Song Druid’s thread for more details. Time of Peace Starting from January 25th to February 2nd, there will be no wars, rebellions, or warclaims so that the GM team may work on the war system. This may inconvenience several players but hopefully the short break will just be that, short. For more information on the break, check out Pandan’s thread. Siege of Kal’Ordholm A lovely post written by ymbninjakiller about the Siege involving dwarves, orenians, and the elves went up earlier this month. It is worth giving it a read as writing a summary would not do the post justice. You can find his thread here. Four for the Federation Earlier this month we accepted four new GMs from trial. James, Benbo, Freema, and Gigarun have all been accepted as full GMs. Make sure to give them their congratulations. More info can be found in Pandan’s thread. PK Rule Change Readicti posted a simple rule change for PKing your character. While it is still completely up to the player whether they wish to PK or not, they have now made it so you can not loophole around the rules. While there is still no forcing of PK, you may want to give the thread a read to make sure you are following the guidelines written out. Remember, only members of the staff can approve your PK being voided. Comic! (“Dwarven Secret Weapon” by Whimsy) Player Interview ~ Dakir This week’s player of the week is: Daki! Art by Numirya and Genevieve-Chan Hey Daki! how does it feel to be the player of the week? Feels pretty damn fly. What brought you to Lotc? A couple friends of mine. We were playing on a small rp server called Alagon but after some tension with the owner we jumped ship and looked for something new. So the darkie city looks beautiful, what are some of the challenges you’ve had with the race now and in the past? Well I’ll pass that word onto my builder! To be honest most buildings I make turn out looking like turnips. GreatSmirnovius has built pretty much everything. But as for challenges, well there’s always the stigma that comes with them. Most new players think that dark elf = drow, which isn’t true of course. As well as some current players making dark elves just to cause drama. The whole onyx culture I’ve been trying to build for almost two years now is about patience, honour, and a humble way of life. As well as to frown upon the “old ways” (i.e taking slaves, sacrificing people, etc) which gave the darkies such a bad name. But old habits die hard apparently. Aside from that just the small numbers of the race alone can cause problems with activity and such, but right now we seem to be doing mighty fine. Do you have anything big planned for them in the future? To be honest. Nothing too crazy. Perhaps when we get our new map I’ll push to become a nation again, but a much smaller one. Losing the dark elf home island made me realize that it’s a lot easier (and a lot more fun) to keep things at a smaller scale. The darkies have always been a low population race and that’s what I should focus on, working with what I have and making a great experience for a small group. Rather than a subpar experience for a large group. Culture, festivals, and clan/family rp are what I want to make the dark elves about. Feedback Do you have feedback, comments, questions, or ideas? Let us know in a PM! We are looking for constructive criticism, ideas, and members. We want to know what you like and want to see! 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:

After last Saturday's progressions regarding the loss of Oren's forces in the Valley of Flowers battle, they are halted briefly once more as the Dwarves get a (perhaps brief) breather as the reward from their victory. With their long ranged superiority, their explosive arrows and spike layered trench halted the Orenian war machine. With the 2 week peace enforced by the Moderator team, we shall have to wait a bit until the next battle. This is a short little video of some of the highlights recorded (and edited) by verify_venuz/Harrison_ ! We hope you enjoy the video, and that the entire battle is intended to be a friendly experience, so try and keep this thread the same please! Until next time, VMS

VMS Weekly Issue #2 1-15-16 A Brief Overview Recent news Four for the Federation Welcome to our 4 new Global Moderators, James, Giga, Benbo(Wretched), and Freema! These four wonderful plays have passed their trials periods and will go on to be (hopyfully) loyal GMs! Also note that this is your last chance to put in your applications for the first round of 2016. All applications are due by saturday. Link Community Meeting- Sunday Jan. 17th 4pm EST There will also be a community meeting this Sunday on the LoTC teamspeak server. (ts.lotc.co). All questions are guided to the original post, here: Link Lord of the Craft Superlatives Maruthir and Readicti have put together a wonderful idea of doing LoTC Superlatives. Superlatives are things that are common in U.S highschools, where seniors are nominated for titles such as “Class Clown”, “Cutest Couple”, etc. They can get very creative, and very specific. You can go to nominate your friends or foes for a Superlative, that you recommend, on the original thread. You can also apply to join the first “LoTC Superlative Commitee”. Also, Gilly says hi. Link LoTC Monthly Voting Competition Back in August of last year, (time flies!) LoTC hosted a contest to reach #1 on minestatus. At the time we held #57. Well, were at it again now, with monthly prizes for the players with the most votes! These prizes may include “minas, skill tomes, caskets, and the occasional RP item”. If there are multiple top winners, they will each be put into a lottery for a chance at a larger mina jackpot! To vote, just go in game and do /vote, and use the links provided! Good luck! Link Krugmas Writing and Artist’s Competition After what seems like ages, LoTC’s Innovative Artist and Writing competitions have run again! Keem finally got her Creative Wizard title, and Nummy follows her footsteps. With writing, Shimmeringbliss also takes a sparkly Creative Wizard title! Congrats to all the winners, and others. You can see all the submissions here: Link Link Other News to Catch up on: Link Link Link Link Link Secret Santa Wrap-Up Thank you to everyone who joined this year’s Secret Santa event! There were only a few people who did not receive gifts. If one of these people have not gotten a PM from VMS, please send us one to get it sorted out. For anyone still waiting on us, please wait a little longer. We had a few complications along the way, but they will be sorted out very soon! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and enjoyed the gifts they received! Screenshots New Savoy Town 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:

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

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.

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:

One of our representatives will contact you shortly, if they have not already

The VMS Newsletter This VMS will be a little shorter than normal. We do not have a lot of art to showcase and wish to spend this to inform at this time. A post by the GMs at the beginning of the month informed us that the Cloud Temple Docks were now complete. Thank you to all who put in the hard work. In addition, if a player wishes to claim a head during a beheading, the victim must be the one to call in the request. 501 posted a informative post about a minor bug problem we are experiencing. If you experience the bug problem, screenshot it. Trying to fix the issue yourself may cause you to lose your inventory. Relog first to see if it is a login issue. Mitto informed us that the Wiki is in need of people. Hop over to his thread for more details on how you can help out! The great cow god, Tsuyose, made an announcement that the previous MA rule of being able to teach only 2 magic types per character has been voided. You can now teach up to four magic types on each character. Remember, share the RP. Pandan made a new rule as well. Or at least, removed an old one. Horse theft can no longer happen. If you find a horse out wandering, keep looking. Fireheart announced a war zone for the orenian-dwarf war. The White Mountain Warzone is a 24-hour pvp zone. You may find more details on the rules in the post. Telanir dug up more bugs! If you have a custom head in your inventory, do not use /me. It will break your inventory. Tythus gave us a small video to watch on the Battle of Fort Rhewengrad. Rel gave us some information on buying some basic needs. You can find prices for basic resources and animals in the link provided. You may also buy a mine for your settlement through the same system. Details are in the post. If you missed the Community Meeting on Sunday, there is a nice transcript found in the link provided. Keep your eyes open for the next one! A new spawn has been created and is now at the docks. The staff have made it much easier for new players to get to their respective nations. Taufirewarrior posted some heartbreaking news. A member of our community has passed away. We chose to use this newsletter to show our respects. This week we have deemed it best to not choose a player of the week rather, but to dedicate this moment to remember a fellow roleplayer, our dear Watyll. Watyll was a dedicated member of this server, as well as a marvelous and creative writer. He will not be forgotten, but will live on through the stories we tell. I remember when he first joined the server, I watched him grow as a roleplayer and a member of our community. No words can properly heal this wound, only time can help lessen the pain, but we will never forget him. Thank you Watyll, for your stories, for your friendship, and for being a marvelous person. -------------------------------------- Watyll will be missed and loved. Every community member is important to us. No matter how big or small of an impact they had, losing one hurts us all. Remember to give his family your thoughts and prayers during this holiday season. The VMS would like to say Thank You to Watyll. You will be missed and treasured.

We are still looking, if you have not received a PM from us, do not fret, we will be in contact with you shortly.

When the deadline comes up, we will randomize our lists then send you the name of your secret santa as well as their wishlist. You will then have until the 15th to drop out if you can not afford to give a gift You will send us the gift code/item confirmation by the 20th on the 24th gifts will be given to the recipients. A GM is overseeing the PMs and making sure all gifts are exchanged properly.