Lotc Newsletter - August

[ski_king3 0]

Hail friends, and welcome to this month’s issue of the revitalized LotC Newsletter. Given that this is the first issue in a very long time (and a bit of an experiment), I may cover some things that happened a bit more than a month ago. The past month (or so) has been very interesting, so there’s a good deal of content to go through. Let’s discuss!

 

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, then you probably have no idea what that name means. For the rest of us, you've likely learnt that our fourth long-term map, known as Athera, has been released recently. It is intended to last as our home for the foreseeable future, and we really hope you’re enjoying it.

 

You've probably noticed that Athera is armed with various components of the Nexus plugin, many of which you may have seen on the temp map, Thales. Nexus includes an extensive professions system, a new means of regioning that puts the power of owning land in player hands, and various custom items designed to enhance the vanilla Minecraft experience.

 

One component of nexus that is not yet implemented, however, is the magic plugin. Telanir has provided significant information regarding the plugin in this thread. While nothing is set in stone yet, do not expect drastic changes to be made to the plugin before release. The Tech Team and Lore Team are working together to resolve issues on plugin-lore consistency, as this seems to be an issue which many players have brought forward.

 

Between the changing of our maps and the new plugins, we admittedly have a few kinks in the system that still need to get worked out. Rest assured, the staff is hard at work trying to find the best way to resolve these issues.

 

In the buildup to the new map, the Media Team has recently completed one of its largest and most impressive projects to date with its Lore Abridged 4.0 Athera Trailer. If you haven’t taken a look yet it’s recently been updated with some footage at the end from Athera and we'd really appreciate if you could take a gander. You might even learn something. This video is one that the staff is very proud of, so it would be dynamo if you could show some love by sharing it on a forum or network that you're in.

 

Last but not least, Rittsy announced a project from the Lore Team intended to engage you more immersively in the world of Athera. Books have been written and placed around the map, giving players insight into the background of the land, and perhaps hinting at a little more...
For more information, take a look at the post to be found right here.

 

 

This month has also been jam packed with noteworthy changes among several staff teams. The most noteworthy of them all is the ascendance of Firespirit44 as our newest Administrator. He will be leading the GM Team, and already has plans in mind to improve the team’s effectiveness.

 

The GM Team has recently seen six new members. Congratulations to MrGreene, BrandNewKitten, Tsuyose, Dizzy771, Ouity and myself (Yay me!). With these additions to the GM Team, four new Trial GM’s have also been added. 501warhead, SupremacyOps, freema5 and Ever now wear the beautiful blue tag. This brings the total count of GM’s up to 18, so you shouldn’t be waiting long on your modreqs. Speaking of modreqs, the three GMs who completed the most modreqs in the last count were Zarsies, MrGreene and myself respectively, completing over 30% of the modreqs between us.

 

The new additions to the GM Team are to accommodate the loss of a few moderators. Those who have recently stepped down include Sky, crayfishchris, gemmylou and Koto. To each of you, we appreciate the time you dedicated to the server. If you have a chance, pop these folks a message and show them some appreciation.

 

With Gemmy’s departure, a new leader for the Forum Moderators was required. Fortunately, we found a willing MrGreene, a fine man for the job. Since his rise to leadership over the FM’s, three new FM’s have been accepted: TheBareSheet, Folco (541) and The Womping Wizard. Congratulations!

 

The Media Team went through some turbulence with the stepping down of first Sky, then Crayfishcrish. As was demonstrated by the new trailer linked earlier, they weren't too shaken up and the team is now moving forward with Elindor and myself as the new Team Leaders.

 

The Application Team has also seen several members depart as of late. However, they have been replaced by four friendly folks, namely theroommate, Z3r05t4r, worldiswar28 and Firestar25. Please welcome them to their new positions.

 

Last but certainly not least, you may find a severe absence of Event Team members both on the forums and the server. This is because the entirety of the ET has been dismissed for a month so the ET can reorganize and its members can have a break from work to enjoy 4.0. During this time, due to firespirit44’s ascension to administration, Ouity is now serving as the Event Team Leader. The team will reconvene within the next month, with a combination of old and new members. If you’re looking to apply for the ET, now is your time.

 

 

Given our recent jump to 4.0, many of you have been voting daily to get minas at the start of the map, as you get 50 minas for voting for the server on Minestatus. As a result of the sudden boost in the Minestatus rankings we achieved from this, we decided it would be a good idea to further reward our players for voting for the server.

 

Every two weeks, different rewards will be given out to players who have voted. Some of these prizes will be assigned to random voters, while others will be given to those who have supported the server the most through their voting efforts. These rewards will change every two week period, and will hopefully maintain Minestatus as a good avenue for attracting new players. For more information, this thread is for you.

 

It will always be a priority for the staff to reward players for helping the server, and this is one way we intend to do it. If you have any other ideas for how we can do so, feel free to let us know.

 

 

As you may have noticed, mobs are now spawning regularly throughout the map. While there may still be some issues regarding the spawning of mobs, these will be corrected in the near future. Hopefully this change will quell the mounting leather shortages that plagued Atherans during the first couple weeks of the map's release. If you encounter any issues, please let the GM Team or Technicians know as soon as possible.

 

 

One thing which the staff sought to change at the start of Athera was rules regarding raids and warclaims. We haven't had a functional warclaim system since the Fringe, and there were major issues regarding raiding that needed to be addressed. Rhia posted a Your View thread about war rules, and more recently firespirit44 made a post removing raids for three days while we reworked these rules due to their lack of functionality and ease of abuse.

 

Three days later, we came forward with a system that removed raiding entirely and replaced it with warclaims that do not require OOC consent from the defenders. A cost of war has also been implemented, and a standardized system to moderate siege weaponry. It is our hope that wars can become more common once more, while also growing more significant, and less influenced by the potential bias of various GM's. The details of the system are subject to change, but expect this to stick around until it's been tested.

 

 

With the release of a new map, we will likely be undergoing a number of changes in the relatively near future. Some will be significant and some will not, but our hope is that each change will improve the server as a whole.

 

Tythus’ heatmap plugin may also make a return in the near future. He’s posted a Your View thread of his own, describing changes that he’s made to it. He’s hoping to get some good input, so head on over and look at what he’s got.

 

Aside from raid rules, the main server rules page should get an update in the near future as well. There are some rules that aren’t clearly explained on this page, and others that are just plain wrong. This will be less of a change in rules, and more of a clarification so everyone can understand what is and is not allowed. For the time being, if you’re unsure about any particular rule, just ask a GM.

 

And last but not least, Tythus would like to hear your feedback about potential looks for the forums when their update is ready. The most recent Your View thread is here, so please take a look.

 

 

 

HeeroZero

ski_king3: Heero, I'd like to congratulate you. You've been selected as August's "player of the month" for the newly revitalized monthly newsletters.

Heero: o-o

Heero: That's sweet

Heero: So how do these usually go? Are we doing the old Danny system of a Q&A again?

ski_king3: Yup! I have a few questions prepared. Do you have any idea why you've been selected for this month?

Heero shrugs

Heero: Not a clue.

ski_king3: You were selected for your work on the Thales Transition Events, specifically regarding the maritime build.

ski_king3: You managed to get four or five builders to help out a ton with the builds when we found out we had less time than we initially anticipated. If it weren't for you, the rest of the ET managers really aren't sure things would have been finished for everyone to sail away from Thales.

Heero: To be honest, it was really the builders. They were responcible for a majority of the work.

Heero: I just tried to organize it all in the way Kai would be able to work with things and provide what was needed for the transition events.

ski_king3: Well, you certainly did a good job, and we really appreciate it.

ski_king3: Now, you've recently been promoted to ET manager.

ski_king3: I was wondering if you could tell us what being on the ET has been like for you?

Heero: Uhh... Sporadic to say the least. Kai accepted me to the ET under a trial period towards the end of the Fringe. At the time I was pretty much burnt out of RP. The map seemed stale after the Black Scourge had ended and I didn't find that much enjoyment from getting on.

Heero: The ET essentially rekindled that enjoyment for me. It was a blast to tag along with Tentoa or Kai as they ran the dungeons for the 4.0 transition events. Just designing ruins, dungeons and writing these event lines has just been a lot of fun for the most part.

ski_king3: That's awesome. One of our goals on the ET (or at least I think so) is to make sure our members are really enjoying the work they do.

ski_king3: If people are no longer interested in doing events, we often encourage them to take a break. It's nice seeing we likely won't need to ask that of you in the near future.

ski_king3: Do you have any plans, now that you've been added as an Event Team Manager?

Heero: For the most part, I do. I’ve been keeping a small portfolio of potential event ideas that have come to mind in a Google Doc in preparation of the ET re-opening for 4.0. I really want to work with the LM’s in particular to tailor events around the regional lore of Athera. Though I recently got in contact with Viper and we discussed some possible Dragonkin lore and events that we both had in mind for a while now. Something I’ve really been wanting to do and expand on for quite some time now.

ski_king3: That sounds awesome. It seems like the LM's have a lot in store for 4.0, so I'd be shocked if you aren't able to figure some way to collaborate with them.

ski_king3: I only have two more questions for you, then we'll finish up.

ski_king3: The first is a pretty broad question. I know a lot of people seem to be complaining about the toxicity of the LotC community, and how everyone is immature and unkind to one another.

ski_king3: What do you think of the LotC community?

Heero: To be frank, people seem a bit tense with things as of late to say the least. I remember when I first found LoTC in my freshman year of high school. The community was absurdly huge and everyone seemed to be able to cooperate with one another. In my eyes at least. Not sure how accurate that really is. Without a doubt the community has shrunk since then. I’m about to start to start my senior year and the community has drastically shifted. Certain groups of people have come together more closely but in turn others have drifted away and become more aggressive with their peers. In the end people just need to take it easy and remember it’s just a game. An outlet for people to enjoy themselves with.

ski_king3: I've also seen a major shift in the community. I didn't join until mid-Asulon, but I remember people being a lot more relaxed, more focused on roleplay and fun.

ski_king3: I feel like a lot of the problems the server faces now weren't all that prevalent in the past.

ski_king3: However, I don't actually have a negative outlook on the future of LotC. Even though I see a lot of problems, I think there are a number of people seeking to resolve them.

ski_king3: So, for my final question, I'll ask you this:

ski_king3: Do you think as of late LotC has improved as an enjoyable experience for its players, or do you think it has gotten worse? Try to give us some insights as to why you feel how you feel, and what you think can be done to make things better.

Heero: I think LoTC has definately been improving as of late. Sporadic and the Tech team seems to take the feedback from the players into consideration. Not to mention Kai has turned into Viper 2.0. He’s been around since Aegis and I doubt he'll burn out anytime soon. I still see him on and actively RP'ing. He plays on the server like any other player and that surely helps him see what the players see and he comprehends it fully. Kai recieving admin surely has restored a lot of fate in LoTC and surely will have more in store in the future.

ski_king3: I would have to agree with your faith in Kai (although I'm absolutely biased)

ski_king3: He seems ready to take action and get a lot done.

ski_king3: Anyways, thanks for the interview Heero, and congratulations again on being player of the month. Your service and dedication to LotC is appreciated.

ski_king3: Have a good night!

Heero: Cheers and same to you Ski.

 

 

 

Media Morning Herald

If you want to keep up with some of the awesome media being put out by the Media Team, head on over to the most recent edition of the Media Morning Herald. It showcases a portion of the media we produce, and doesn't take too long to browse through.

 

 

Thanks for Reading

In future releases, I’ll likely spruce the newsletters up and perhaps add something a bit more interesting. However, this month had a lot to cover, and topics relevant to the new map needed to be shared, so I’ll save more fun stuff for next time. Thanks for taking the time to read through all this. I hope each and every one of you is having a blast in Athera, I sure am. Thanks for reading!

 

       

[aron. 427]

first

[Samson Option 9652]

HeeroZero fighting for Loremaster since forever.

[KoTo 610]

rip

[Heero 4092]

Am I famoos now?

[Kardel 1054]

Second!

 

Nice

[Porko 397]

Sixth

[Raomir 1855]

nice

[Travista 1361]

ICH BIN EINE KUH

[monkeypoacher 8055]

ayyy, 'grats heero

[Moot 1719]

Am I famoos now?

 

No I am famoose.

[Lark 2227]

Am I famoos now?

 

I can always post that "fanfic" to make you even more famoos 

 

;)

 

<3

[The Media Wizard 2958]

I'm Zilldude and I approve this message.

[Samson Option 9652]

Heerozero go hard in the paint.

[Helbolt 129]

Well written and informative.

 

Kudos.