Category: Cavern Events

  • International Women’s Week

    Various events have been planned in the Cavern to celebrate the International Women’s Week. A thank goes to Nosila for organizing and sorting it all out, and to everyone who planned the events. Here is the schedule, more details for each event will be posted in their calendar entries.

    Monday 6

    12:00–13:30 KIT: Cooking Session, hosted by Sky, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. Sky will be preparing a cozy pumpkin curry and homemade naan breads, while answering cooking question and perhaps recounting her experience as a female chef in a male dominated industry.

    13:30–15:30 KIT: Women in Classical Music, Past and Present, hosted by Babbel, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura.

    Tuesday 7

    11:00–12:00 KIT: Music of Usha Uthup, hosted by Ereshkigal, in the New Messengers Pub.

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Relaxing Sessions, hosted by PodHopper, in Podhopper’s Hood.

    Wednesday 8 (I.W.D.)

    12:00–13:00 KIT: Through the Decades, hosted by Nosila, at the Kings Lookout in Ae’gura.

    13:00–14:00 KIT: Fil Live, hosted by Fil, in the New Messengers Pub.

    14:00–15:00 KIT: Music by, about and for Women, hosted by AlanDJ, in the Ae’gura plaza.

    Thursday 9

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Seeker’s Country Evening Special, hosted by Eternal Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot).

    Friday 10

    13:00–14:00 KIT: De Todos os cantos do mundo, hosted by Dah’mpa, at Sutherland’s Point in Ae’gura.

    15:00–17:00 KIT: Wonky Talk, hosted by IwonK, in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood. The theme will of course be female protagonists.

    Sunday 12

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Ladies of Jazz, hosted by Radio Free D’ni, in the Ae’gura plaza.

    Websites

    Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

  • February 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    February 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 154th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. OpenUru
    4. Doobes
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    The Committee, always striving to make the convention as welcoming and accessible to as many people as possible, has released an accessibility survey to solicit feedback and ideas. The survey is short and all questions are optional.

    The big news was of course that registrations are now open! The Committee is using a new registration software for this year, and possibly into the future: you will need to open an account, and through that you will be able to access the shop section to purchase tickets and swag.

    Speaking of swag, there will be plenty this year, such as lanyard charms (Riven dagger, Gehn crest, quab, watermelon), Myst series timeline coffee mugs, and a poster print with awesome artwork! More will be added at future dates as things like pins get settled and finalised.

    As for the Covid-19 policy, it will be mostly the same as last year: full vaccination is required (including a bivalent booster) by June 23, and masks (N95 or equivalent) will be required and enforced.
    At Cyan’s headquarters the policy will be different and a bit more lax: special guests and Cyan staff will be allowed to remove their masks while presenting or taking part in a panel, and may not be guaranteed to be fully vaccinated.

    Hotel registration is also open; pricing is a bit higher than usual, because many unrelated events will be hosted at Spokane at around the same time, and the convention is just before US Independence Day.

    A few submission deadlines are still open:

    • pin designs are open until February 12;
    • events are open until April 29 (if you require special seating arrangements or equipment, you will need to inform the Committee in the submission).

    The prompt for February is “Heart”; the deadline is February 28. Entries for the “Beginnings” prompt for January were Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Kefrith, and Talashar.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda presented the schedule for the XIII MOULa Anniversary Celebration Week (see our dedicated post). This year is also the 30th anniversary of the original Myst game, and the 20th anniversary of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst!

    If Mir-o-Bot is present for an event, please use it solely for traveling, respect the events and do not use bot commands. Minasunda will release videos of the events some time (13 events will take a while to process!) after the anniversary week, in her YouTube channel.

    ☛ Dah’mpa presented the Wall competitions. Both will take place at Wally’mpa’s Gahreesen; the meeting point will be the Watcher’s Pub. If Wally’mpa (Dah’mpa’s doppelgänger) is unresponsive, please wait until he gets back to you: entry will be put on hold during matches to minimize chances of bugs.

    Player can participate in either or both sessions. The goal is to give players (and spectators) more opportunities to participate. There will be only individual competitions (1 vs 1). This is because in team competitions bugs show up pretty quickly. Devs and testers are working hard to get rid of these issues, but for now it is safer to stick with the simpler mode.

    Participants can register until February 4 at midnight, 24:00 KIT, in order to better plan the format of each competition. Only players that really know how to play the game can sign up. That is because explaining how the Wall works during the competition would take too long and is very hard to do without drawings.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is cooking games. Feel free to suggest more interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    OpenUru

    The first quarter update testing is underway on Minkata Alpha. Testers are asked to to be discrete about a certain project they can find there until it will be ready to be released, and only report issues on the OpenUru Discord. This quarter has a wide gamut of contributions, from fixing old cold bugs in existing Ages, to (maybe) a couple of new Ages.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.
    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    Doobes

    Doobes gave a few updates. First, he will be attending Mysterium to do a presentation: he will demonstrate Blender for Korman, to show in real time how to build a basic Age, and the ZLZ Age Importer, to show the process of converting Cyan Ages into usable Blender files. If you will not be able to attend, the event will be streamed live and archived to Mysterium’s YouTube channel sometime after.

    Next, he is back to work on Descent. The main focus has been relighting the section already available, just beyond the bottom of the Shaft. The current lighting is a bit unrealistic and too bright. The plan is to give this area a more natural and atmospheric lighting. After that, he will tackle the mechanics of the Great Shaft and all the wiring they will require.

    If all goes well, a new version of Descent should be uploaded to Minkata before the end of Q1, with a tentative release after the Q2 update, possibly in time for Mysterium. All this hinges on who difficult the wiring will turn out to be, so as always temper expectations!

    A change that should be coming this quarter will be the ability to delete fan Age books via Chiso Preniv. This will be possible due to coding from Hazado and graphical assets provided by Tweek.

    Doobes also mentioned Hazado has also been working on squashing more bugs with the Gahreesen Wall, so as many testers as possible are needed at the Minkata shard to give things a proper stress test.

    Finally he mentioned the release of Blender for Korman 0.14 (see our dedicated post).

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

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings on weekdays at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    On February 11 there will be no Story Night, as it would clash with the anniversary celebrations.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, 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 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • 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 KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    In February, the Fan Ages Expeditions will visit Lonirvan, the second chapter in the ‘Secret of the Rainbow’ journey by John J. Jaguar.
    They will then complete the exploration of the Maintainers Gateway by Melvin.
    Next will be the Cathedral by DenDwaler; the month will conclude with the first few steps (and swims) in Elsewhere by Denost.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    January ended with the CavFunding at 240% (CavCon 4.14) and the reserve at 715%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 47,027 (⇑324), with 1220 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 4 (Leevotahr 21) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • MOULa 13th Anniversary Celebrations

    MOULa 13th Anniversary Celebrations

    On February 8, 2010, Myst Online: Uru Live officially reopened for the third time, in what became its longest-lived, ongoing incarnation.

    To celebrate its thirteenth anniversary, a host of events have been planned. Here is the schedule, more details for each event will be posted in their calendar entries.

    If Mir-o-Bot is present for an event, please use it solely for traveling, respect the events and do not use bot commands.

    Minasunda will release videos of the events some time (13 events will take a while to process!) after the anniversary week, in her YouTube channel.

    Monday 6

    12:00–13:00 KIT: Opening Ceremony, hosted by Minasunda, in the Entrance Hall of the New Messengers Pub.

    13:00–14:00 KIT: Mystical Classics, hosted by Babbel and moderated by Karel, in the New Messengers Pub.

    14:00–16:00 KIT: Wall Game 1, hosted by Dah’mpa, meeting point in the Watcher’s Pub. Participants can register until February 4 at midnight, 24:00 KIT (contact Dah’mpa at KI# 11223500). Spectators are welcome, no registration is needed in this case.

    17:00–19:00 KIT: Wall Game 2, hosted by Dah’mpa, meeting point in the Watcher’s Pub.

    Tuesday 7

    12:00–13:00 KIT: Explorer Memorial, hosted by Ghaelen, in Veelay Tsahvahn. We will commemorate our explorers and friends who passed away.

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Best of Relaxing Sessions, hosted by PodHopper, starting in Veelay Tsahvahn.

    Wednesday 8

    12:00–13:00 KIT: Girastock, hosted by Fil, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Gira (send “to gira” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot, KI# 32319).

    14:00–16:00 KIT: Eddie Competition, hosted by PodHopper, in Podhopper’s Hood.

    Thursday 9

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Country Special, hosted by Eternal Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Er’cana (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot). There will be a guided dance; if you do not want to be included, please let Minasunda know at the event.

    Friday 10

    12:00–14:00 KIT: “Fraud, Trickster, Genius: Guild Master Kadish – a Speculative Look”, lecture by Owly, in Kirel.

    14:00–16:00 KIT: Among Friends, hosted by Nosila and Dah’mpa, in the Library Courtyard in Ae’gura.

    Saturday 11

    12:00–13:00 KIT: Show of the Nulp Dance Group, hosted by Minasunda and the NDG, stream by Seeker, in Fahets Highgarden, around the fish pond. The music is specially made for this show. Lag may delay the stream for some listeners; it is recommend to watch the video that will be released some time after the show at Minasunda’s YouTube channel.

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Magic Closing Event, hosted by Magic Yoda, stream by Seeker, in Fahets Highgarden (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot).

    Sunday 12

    11:00–12:30 KIT: Fan Age Expedition, hosted by Korov’ev, in the Deep Island shard. Spoilers beware!

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Lace and Furs, hosted by Radio Free D’ni, in the Ae’gura plaza.

    Websites

    Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

  • January 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    January 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 153rd All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. OpenUru
    3. Storytellers
    4. Events in the Cavern
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    Submission deadlines for the 2023 convention are getting closer:

    • shirt designs closed on January 7;
    • pin designs are open until February 12;
    • events are open until April 29 (note that if you require special seating arrangements or equipment, you will need to inform the Committee in the submission).

    A few policy changes were also announced, regarding privacy and a few other points.

    The prompt for January is “Beginnings”; the deadline is January 31. Entries for the “Endings” prompt for December were Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Talashar and Laughingpineapple.

    OpenUru

    Issues have been reported with some shirts going invisible at odd distances or reappearing at further ones; the fan devs plan to fix these in the coming quarter.

    The Q1-23 update testing is underway on Minkata Alpha. Testers are asked to to be discrete about a certain project they can find there until it will be ready to be released, and only report issues on the OpenUru Discord. Eder Naybree may have its beach expansion locked down in this quarter too.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.
    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    Storytellers

    Calum thanked the participants to the event in Eder Naybree for making it successful. The storytellers will try to telegraph some events a bit more obviously going forwards, but they still want to keep the free-form on-the-moment events. Transcripts are available on the IC discussion forum.

    Events in the Cavern

    IwonK’s first stream for the year will be about racing games. To attend, tune in to her Twitch channel on January 13 at 15:00 KIT. There will be cookies, as always!

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings on weekdays at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, 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 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • 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 KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    In January, the Fan Ages Expeditions will conclude the exploration of Elodea Schatzkammern by Dulcamara. Then they will examine two new TikiBear restorations, along with Greenwood Cottage, originally by Kierra and salvaged by Melvin. Next they will explore the mysteries of The Maintainers Gateway by Melvin, and conclude the month in Shorah Pahts, the beginning of the ‘Secret of the Rainbow’ journey by Jhon J. Jaguar.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    December ended with the CavFunding at 143% (CavCon 4.4) and the reserve at 579%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 46,703 (⇑290), with 1250 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 4 (Leevosahn 27) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • MOULa update OpenUru#209

    On December 8 MOULa got another update, with various fixes and improvements for the newly opened Ages! A full changelog is available at the bottom of this post.

    The behavior of the Ahnonay Cathedral doors was changed: now they will stay open until everyone links out. A future update may extend a similar behavior to other doors, possibly re-enabling the doors in the Museum and the Library in Ae’gura.

    The resolution of Atrus’ note in the Cleft has been increased, improving its readability.

    Seasonal decorations were added to the fountain in Eder Naybree.

    A note on bugs (click to expand)

    When an update hits MOULa it is almost inevitable that unexpected bugs will show up. For all the testing that can be done, Minkata never sees as many concurrent players as the official server, and not all issues can be catched.

    When the servers have just been restarted, most of the early linking slowness and problems are from the database buffers refilling – and by an overload of concurrent logins 😉

    No additions from Cyan are to be expected for the foreseeable future, apart from server updates, so all improvements and additions will come from fan developers, who dedicate their limited free time to at least try to let MOULa be the best it could potentially be.

    So the best way to deal with bugs is to have patience and report them, mentioning where you were and what you were doing, be it on Cyan’s Discord, OpenUru’s Discord or OpenUru forums.

    If you fancy contributing your work and/or helping with bug fixing, those places are also excellent starting points to be part of the Fourth Restoration 🙂

    OpenUru Build #209 Build Update

    Content changes:

    • [new] Puzzle state tracking (“sliding”) capability {7}
    • [new] Kirel message for 2022 Quarter 4 added. {4}
    • [update] Chiso Preniv Age remodelling. Caution! Secret door may operate erratically due to its own whims. Repairs are underway. {3}
    • [update] Eder Naybree improvements. Seasonal decorations, lighting, journals. {5}
    • [update] Elonin Age improvements. {2}
    • [update] Tiam Age improvements. Button puzzle usability improvements. {2}
    • [update] Cleft Atrus note readability improvements. {6}
    • [update] Ahnonay Cathedral Door fixes. {3}

    Client changes:

    • [client] (internal) Improved age state (SDL) capabilities {1}

    Attributions:

    1: Adam, Zaroth
    2: ametist
    3: Doobes
    4: Doobes, DapperAndy, skyisblu, Tyion, Zaroth
    5: Harley
    6: Zaroth
    7: Zaroth, Adam

    (source)

  • December 2022 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    December 2022 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 152nd All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Lexember
    2. OpenUru
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Storytellers
    7. Mysterium
    8. Miscellanea

    Lexember

    For the third time, after 2019 and 2021, Cyan is taking part in Lexember, posting a word definition every day on their official Twitter account. This time, along with D’ni, they will be posting definitions for Rivenese words!

    As with past years, a list with all the relevant links is being compiled on the Guild of Archivist’s wiki.

    OpenUru

    The team of artists, programmers, and janitors were quite weary after the summer update, so they took things easy this time and combined the time of the third and fourth quarters. There are new Ages, improvements to existing ones, and fixes.

    There have been talks about porting over the Open Cave pet Relto page, but there are a few issues to be cleared before that can be done, if at all.

    Doobes has fixed an issue with the Ahnonay Cathedral doors, which will stay open until the last person links out. He is also trying to fix a similar issue with the doors in Chiso Preniv, which depend on a couple of scripts that affect many other doors, so there may be a potential benefit to these cases (possibly even re-enabling the doors in the Museum and the Library).

    The update is presently on the Staging Server, undergoing final testing, and is expected to be released sometime in the next two weeks.

    Other items on Doobes’ to-do list are getting Relto and Kirel almost fully converted to Korman, so that adding books and pages and updating things would be much easier. The full Descent is still being worked on. He is also playing around with the five Guild Pubs, trying to make them a bit more unique, by e.g. opening up the side rooms and showing various work going on with each. Direbo is on hold, pending Cyan’s decision on Myst V content.

    Doobes is also planning to hold a live demonstration at Mysterium 2023 of how to build and export an Age with Korman, and how to import Ages using Sirius’ ZLZ Age Importer. Along with that, he is working on an asset library of various D’ni objects to use and essentially ‘paste in’ an Age; this to encourage others to take a crack at Age building by easing some of the modeling and texturing burden a bit.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.
    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda announced the upcoming release of the machinima movie Okohahzah (“black-white” in D’ni, in the sense of light and shadow) on YouTube, Saturday 10 at 12:00 KIT. You will be able to chat with the creators (including Mina) on the YouTube Premiere chat or in the Cavern, in Mir-O-Bot’s Elonin (o get there PM “link” or “meet” to the bot – note that the command is not “to Elonin”).

    On 30 December Minasunda will also release a video with a review of 2022 and all that happened in the Cavern this year. She will post the link on Facebook and Discord.

    ☛ The 13th anniversary of MOULa is coming soon. Minasunda is planning the festival week on 6–11 February: if you’d like want to contribute with an event, let her know so that she can plan the dates.

    Podhopper already announced the Eddie Competition, while Nosila and Dahmpa will host a music event together; Eternal Seeker and Mina are planning another music event with a ‘guided dance’, and the Nulp Dance Group is working on a dance show in Fahets Highgarden.

    ☛ Minasunda closed with a plea to be considerate when helping new players. There have been reports of ‘veteran’ explorers who have solved puzzles in newcomers’ instances despite their protest. This is inappropriate behavior that takes the fun out of playing; the respectful act is to back off when new players decline the help.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings on weekdays at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on weekdays at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions, that he eventually uploads to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, 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 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • 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 KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Storytellers

    The Storytellers have been running sporadic story events, and a few scheduled events, such as the Town Halls on the last Wednesday of the month. Due to holidays, the December one may be skipped.

    In place of that, in Eder Naybree on Sunday 4 at 11:00 KIT, they closed the ‘troublemakers’ story arc, to move on to others such as the Rei’schu negotiations or Benahvud’s amnesia. Transcripts were posted on the story forums, along with the discussion threads.

    Mysterium

    The Mysterium prompt for December is “Endings”; the deadline is December 31. Winners of the “Fall” prompt for November were Delcolux, Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Talashar and Laughingpineapple.

    Miscellanea

    In December, the Fan Ages Expeditions will continue the exploration of the underworld of Elodea (Unterwelt, Tunnelgang, Schatzkammern) by Dulcamara.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, January 7, 2023 (Leevosahn 5) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • November 2022 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    November 2022 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 151st All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Riven
    3. Town Hall
    4. OpenUru
    5. Events in the Cavern
    6. D’ni Language Classes
    7. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    8. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    Mysterium 2023 will be held in Spokane, WA from June 30 to July 2. Earlier than usual, because Spokane will be busy with events in late July–early August, and hotels are booked solid for July and August. No details on the specific hotel are available yet, but prices will likely be higher than usual too.

    2023 marks the Myst franchise’s 30th anniversary, so the theme of next year’s Mysterium will be: “The Evolution of Myst”. The world and the franchise have evolved over the years, and the convention will showcase this evolution.

    Submissions also started opening. First is the T-shirt artwork: every year the community is invited to create the artwork, and a lot of cool directions could be taken with 2023’s theme. The deadline is January 7, 2023. As always, the creators of the winning designs will each receive a free T-shirt. And, similarly to the past couple of years, the shirt design will be added to the wardrobe in MOULa.

    Next are event submissions: projects you want to show off, deep dives into D’ni culture, awesome group activities, and more are all welcome. The deadline is April 29, 2023.

    The community Discord server has recently gone through some minor housekeeping. Most importantly, they have revised and clarified the rules: most of it was codifying what was already enforced, but please check out the #rules and #announcements channels when you have a chance. The server is also now verified, which means it got a custom (and easier to remember) invite link.

    The Mysterium prompt for November is “Fall” (not necessarily Autumn); the deadline is November 30. Winners of the “Spooky” prompt for October were Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, IwonK, Talashar and Delcolux.

    Riven

    On October 31 Cyan released a teaser video showcasing the Riven logo, confirming they are indeed working on a modern remake of Myst’s sequel. No release date has yet been revealed. For more details, check our dedicated post.

    Town Hall

    The Rei’schu expedition was held over the Discord. There are transcripts available on the story forums. In the next MOULa update, the first draft of these transcripts will be added to Eder Naybree, until their permanent resting place is ready.

    OpenUru

    The team of artists, programmers, and janitors were quite weary after last summer’s update, so they took things easy this time and combined the time of the third and fourth quarters. There are new Ages, new places to poke at, and fixes (including a possible fix to cull the lag in Eder Naybree on older machines).

    Contributions for the next release have been frozen, and testing has started on the Minkata shard. The more people testing the better, so please join if you can (details at the bottom of this section). Testing will continue until late November; if all is well, they will deliver the update to Cyan, to be tested on Staging for about two weeks, then deployed early–mid December.

    For the Descent shaft, a very preliminary set of areas are already being tested on the Minkata alpha test shard, but development has mostly been put on the back burner until more effort can be dedicated to it, probably some time in 2023.

    Rarified is committed to bringing the backlog of improvements to the game client from the Guild of Writers’ H’uru codebase (including the transition from PhysX 2 to PhysX 4) to MOULa. An early ‘draft’ of the new client on yet another Minkata shard may be released the first quarter of next year, to start the migration process.

    Backward compatibility came up. While the GoW codebase only supports current versions of Windows, Rarified is going to try to continue building MOULa clients to be as backward compatibile as possible; but there will be a time when Win 7 and older will not be able to run it.

    Editor’s note: it should be noted that Windows backward compatibility and a native client on macOS and Linux are conflicting objectives, and developing for the latter involves changes that may overall improve the client’s performance and security. Also, while users of older versions of Windows have been penalized only in recent years, macOS and especially Linux users always had to go through hoops to be in the Cavern.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.
    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Tehlrov K’hris announced an Unwritten campaign, “Read Between the Lights”, hosted by Zekh, with three players/characters:

    • Pritika Chatterjee, a well read teacher with an eye for solving mysteries, played by Ereshkigal;
    • Mikito “Mike” Takahashi, a curious nomadic encyclopedia with a heart, played by Tehlrov Kh’ris; and
    • Carmen Durand, an eclectic art school dropout, played by Belle.

    The first session will be held on November 19 at 12:00 KIT and will last about three hours. The campaign is expected to last 4–5 sessions, and will be streamed live on Tehlrov Kh’ris’ Twitch channel.

    The in-Cavern location will be a secret, but if you find them, please refrain from text or voice chat as they will need both to play the game.

    ☛ IwonK announced her Wonky Talk on Friday, November 18 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood, by the ahyoheek table. This month’s topic is spooky and horror games. If you have ideas for interesting games she could talk about (and draw), feel free to contact her.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Daytime openings are currently on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT;
    • evening openings are on weekdays at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. This is a multi-part story that will last for about three more months.

    R’Tayrtahn is in the process of uploading the backlog of videos from previous sessions to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, 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 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • 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 KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    In November, the Fan Ages Expeditions will look for Gary’s whereabouts in Iceworld by Denost, part of a larger Age that also includes Somewhere and Elsewhere, inhabited by the Jhibis and the Guardian. Then, they will begin the exploration of Elodea by Dulcamara.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    October ended with the CavFunding at 99% (CavCon 3) and the reserve at 519%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 46,130 (⇑374), with 1344 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 3 (Leevobro 6) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • Halloween Drop-In Party

    Monday, October 31, The Guild of Authors and Artists are hosting a “Halloween Drop-In Party and Nanowrimo Kickoff” event in the New Guild of Messengers Pub in the Cavern!

    Starting at 1300KI and running until Midnight KI, the Guild of Authors and Artists would love everyone to stop by and say hello!  We will be holding a variety of events, with live streaming music provided by Ereshkigal and near Midnight, the Nanowrimo folks will be counting down to November 1, when Nanowrimo begins!

    We invite everyone to come in ‘Closet Cosplay’ or the Silliest Outfit you can figure out from your Closet!

    We will be having some impromptu events and if you have an idea for an activity you’d like to provide or suggest, please let Diranda or Ereshkigal know.

    Some events we’re planning include:

    • Sharing Traditions about Halloween or Other Holidays From Around the World: A group chat where you can share your tradition or holiday from your culture or country with everyone.
    • Group Masquerade: Show off your ‘costume’ or silly outfit in a procession through the Pub!
    • Celebration of Riven: Share memories of playing Riven with everyone!

    There may be surprise visits from Storytellers and more, so please feel free to drop in any time and say hello!

     

  • Nanowrimo Pre-Event Workshop #3

    On Friday, October 21, 2022 at 1300 KI, the Guild of Authors and Artists will be hosting our third Nanowrimo prep workshop at the New Guild of Messengers Pub in the Conference room.

    This time we will be talking about Writing Sprints and Writing Prompts!

    Please feel free to join us on Friday!

  • NaNoWriMo Brainstorming Workshop

    On Friday, October 14, 2022 at 1300 KI, The Authors and Artists’ Guild will be hosting another pre-Nanowrimo Workshop.

    The group has decided to do a Brainstorming session for this workshop and we’re looking forward everyone attending!

    It will be at the New GoMePub in the Conference Room upstairs, 1300 KI time.

    There just might be a surprise event as well!