Tag: CavCon

  • December 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    December 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 176th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Explorer memorial

    The meeting began with the sad news of the passing of explorer Bella, impromptu DJ during nightly gatherings in the hoods and Ae’gura, playing requests for anyone listening.

    A memorial will be held on January 10 at 15:00 KIT, in the Ae’gura plaza. Requests or memories can be sent to Isa via KImail (#11584648) or Discord (isa.2167).

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler thanked those who attended the opening of the Explorers’ Emporium on Friday 6. The pipeline for the next update is already opened, but nothing new has been added yet, aside from a list of minor bugs to fix.

    ☛ With the latest update, D’ni fairytales can now be found and read around Elonin, to enjoy a bit of what the D’ni might have read at bedtime or in their free time.

    ☛ Claidi interviewed Semjay about the Emporium and about her story in the Myst community. She confirmed that there is no Relto page available in the Emporium, and that no public instance is planned; most likely, Mir-o-Bot will provide one.

    We will soon post an extended dedicated post with the interview.

    ☛ A Rapid Age Development contest could be tentatively be held on January. As with previous editions, the intention is to encourage potential builders with a challenge with specific limits in size and time; entries will not need to be MOULa-ready. Tre’bivdil and the Vothol Gallery were originally built for similar contests. This time the proposed theme would be a Pod Age; participants will be assigned a basic pod shell file (for Blender or 3ds Max).

    Mysterium

    ☛ The 2025 edition of the convention will be held on August 1–3. The writing and artwork table is open for submissions, until July 15.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for November–December is “Hearth”, the deadline is December 31. Entries for the “Falling” prompt for September–October were from Calum Traveler, Bastiko, Talashar, Rahshahth.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Korov’ev made a quick announcement about the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. They are currently mid-way through the large, industrial Age of Elsewhere, by Denost.

    However, to celebrate the opening of the Explorers’ Emporium, on Sunday 8 they will take a detour to Zahlto (aka the Emporium) and to Terahgram. Semjay’s later Ages, Tovaht and Ahreesen Melin, will be the subject of future expeditions.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 20 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Christmas“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page. Moreover, she recently got accepted at a local university, studying Game Design!

    ☛ On Monday 2, Skyisblu capped off the year with a recipe for a Christmas-inspired Victoria sponge cake, to honor the grand opening of the Explorers’ Emporium. The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood; the next show will be on February 3. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 16 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Christmas Requests“.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Fahets Highgarden, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had 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.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will, for rest of the month, retell the stories of king Ji, Dimahth and Yahbleshahn. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni. As this year the holidays fall mid-week, there will be stories for the entire month of December.

    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 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (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 30 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.

    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 4, 2025 (Leevosahn 3) at 13:00 KIT.

    Happy New Year!

  • September 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    September 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 173rd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Event Host: IwonK
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Event Host: Ereshkigal
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The theme for Mysterium 2025 – which will be held in Atlanta (GA) – will be Myst V: End Of Ages, since next year will be its 20th anniversary. The Committee for 2025 will be Yuki (Drew Salad) and Curator (Fant Steele).

    ☛ T-shirt and pin design submissions are now open through February 26, 2025. The 2024 Puzzle and Coloring Packets are now available for download at the Mysterium website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for September–October is “Falling” (anything that involves falling), the deadline is October 31st. Entries for the “Revelation” prompt for August were from Calum Traveler, Kefrith, Tomatoes, Talashar, Redwoodrroad, Laughingpineapple, ZeTomato.

    Event Host: IwonK

    For this month, Claidi asked a few event hosts to talk a bit more about themselves.

    ☛ For IwonK, who is from Poland, her first Myst game were Myst III and IV. She got started in MOULa as a regular in late 2020, but has been lurking around for longer; she skipped the GapeTap era because it required a third-party software download she didn’t trust, and because she was a student at the time and couldn’t afford it.

    ☛ She hosts a monthly live stream called Wonky Talk, where she talks about various games and draws their main characters or vehicles. She picks a theme every month and ask the audience for game suggestions. She started hosting this event in 2022, after Nosila asked her if she would like to host an event for the International Women’s Day; the first livestream was of course “Female Protagonists in Video Games”.

    She recently started a second format: Wonky Draws, where she randomly pick topics, techniques and supplies, applying them for just one drawing.

    ☛ She draws inspiration from the community, getting a lot of suggestions for games to talk about and draw.

    ☛ She holds her event on a Friday in the middle of the month, in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood, where the participants sit around the Heek table listening to the stream.

    ☛ She plans her event by picking a topic, then asking for games suggestions; she then lists about five games to talk about and research them online and in magazines. If possible, she plays the games herself. She writes a script, makes drawings digitally, then prints them out using a very light blue ink, invisible to the camera but visible enough to trace them.

    ☛ She also plans what kind of cookies to bake for the stream! She tries to keep them at least somehow connected to the theme of the stream.

    ☛ In September there will be no stream; the next one will probably be in October.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student finished the 101 lessons: Jes’ka!

    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
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will next retell the story of the ninth king, Solath. 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 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • 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 30 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.

    Event Host: Ereshkigal

    ☛ For Ereshkigal, who is from the Netherlands, her first Cyan game was realMyst (2000). She got started in MOULa in 2022, after getting Uru: CC with a Steam bundle. She found Calum Traveler’s blog, and decided to get involved with the community.

    ☛ She hosts a weekly event called Ancient Stories, where she tries to give a sense of how alien yet familiar, the distant past can be, in the same way D’ni is alien yet familiar. She started hosting this event in 2024, after Nosila asked her if she would like to host an event for the International Women’s Day; the first livestream was of course “Female Protagonists in Video Games”.

    ☛ She drew inspiration from her love of archaeology and her experience with living and working near a lot of Roman remains, including an old burial hill and a remaining stretch of the garrison road that once ran alongside the Rhine.

    ☛ She holds her event every Tuesday at 11:30 KIT. The location changes with each new story: the magical garden of Kalamee for Gilgamesh, the lotus pond in Fahets Highgarden for the Ramayana, and currently at the fountain in Eder Bahvahnter for Mary Renault’s Persian Boy.

    ☛ She plans her event by marking out sections in the text she will read, and usually some messages that the chapters convey. For the Ramayana she read from multiple sources (including one she wrote herself), which she keeps open next to the MOULa window.

    ☛ In the next sessions she will continue the story of Bagoas and Alexander on their way to India. She will be travelling to India herself, so there will probably be a three-week hiatus. After that, she has a lot of other storis lined up, including a real ghost story from ancient Egypt.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 16 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Latin American Classical Music, pt. 1“.

    ☛ In September, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the vast Age of Iceworld by Denost – the ‘sequel’ to Somewhere – to solve its puzzles and learn about the fate of its first explorer, Gary. After that, they will begin the exploration of Elodea by Dulcamara, starting from the Upper World and descending into the deeper levels.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

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

    August ended with the CavFunding at 81% (CavCon 2.8) and the reserve at 611%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 52,038 (⇑238), with 1085 unique visits and 10,945 total visits.

    July ended with the CavFunding at 113% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 620%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 5 (Leevot 18) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • August 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 172nd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Summer Festival & D’ni Palooza
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The recordings of the panels that were streamed on the official Mysterium Twitch channel have now been uploaded to the YouTube channel.

    ☛ Some of the speakers for the MOULa panel shared their experience at the meeting: Skyisblu, Semjay, Calum Traveler, Doobes, Darryl Pogue, Murry,

    ☛ A large part of the MOULa presentation was taken using the experimental MacOS client. “Nightly” (i.e. untested) development builds of the H’uru client and 3DS Max plugin are available at the GoW’s GitHub page. You can also find a one-click Destiny shard setup tool for testing your newly-built Ages at Hoikas’ GitHub page.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for August is “Revelation”, the deadline is August 31st. Entries for the “Serenia” prompt for July were from Calum Traveler and Talashar.

    ☛ Calum Traveler announced a new Age called Gahlahno. He will be streaming the building process on his Twitch channel, and will upload recordings on his YouTube channel.

    Summer Festival & D’ni Palooza

    ☛ The Summer Festival is back, on August 5–11, organized by PodHopper. This year the festival will also be a comeback for the D’ni Palooza, showcasing music made by explorers, be it people playing, singing or DJ-ing. You can find a schedule in PDF format here, courtesy of PodHopper. All the events are also marked in our calendar.

    Schedule (all times are KI time) (click to expand):
    • Monday, August 5
      • 12:00-14:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu
      • 14:00-16:00: “Wall Game” by Dah’mpa
      • 18:00-20:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu (same recipe)
    • Tuesday, August 6
      • 13:00-15:00: “Relaxing Palooza” by PodHopper, featuring: Edison Rex, Jodok, Maurus, Mystler, Piboc & Semjay
    • Wednesday, August 7
      • 14:30-16:00: “Cone Race” by PodHopper
    • Thursday, August 8
      • 13:00-14:00: “D’Marnah/Lillo Minniti” by PodHopper, featuring: Turjan Aylahn & Lillo Minniti
      • 14:00-15:00: “Karaoke Mix” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Dah’mpa, Prad & Skyisblu
      • 15:00-16:00: “Money Show” by AlanDJ, featuring: Music with the theme “Money”
      • 16:00-17:00: “Rock Music” by PodHopper, featuring: Jet Blast, Jodok & Skyisblu
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 1)” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Piboc
    • Friday, August 9
      • 13:00-15:00: “Classical with Babbel” by Babbel, featuring: Classical music & music by Babbel
      • 15:00-17:00: “Wonky Draws” by Iwonk
    • Saturday, August 10
      • 14:00-15:00: “Story Night Special” by r’Tay
      • 15:00-16:00: “What’s That Tune?” by AlanDJ [Guess the name of a song by a few notes
      • 16:00-17:00: “Turjan Aylahn” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Music from Turjan Aylahn other than D’Marnah
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 2)” by PodHopper, featuring: Piboc
      • 21:00-23:00: “Ayoheek Tournament” by Bogusmeatfactory
    • Sunday, August 11
      • 13:00-16:00: “Radio Free D’ni 10th Anniversary Show / Review of the Decade by Edison Rex” by RFD

     

    ☛ There will be three gaming events: a Wall Game, organized by Dah’mpa, a Cone Race, organized by PodHopper, and an Ahyoheek Tournament, organized by BogusMeatFactory.

    ☛ The Wall Game will be hosted by Dah’mpa (#11225300) and Nosi La (#09902277). The game format was conceived with the aim to involve all players interested in taking part, including those who have never played or watched a Wall Game before.

    In each game both players will face the same maze, created and input by the organizers; players will therefore just climb the Wall, without setting the barriers. This simplified format allows new players to deal with only a few simple rules, without fiddling with the sometimes tricky to set up panel.

    Players can enroll at the beginning of the competition, but booking is encouraged, as it helps with organizing the rounds.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 16 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Myst games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 19 at 13:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Summer“.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn 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
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have begun a new season. 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 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • 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 30 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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ For most of August, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the vast Age of Somewhere by Denost, solve its puzzles and wonder about the ultimate fate of its first explorer, Gary. Then, they will explore the caves of Gavster by Calena, and the experimental features of Denkasen and Canyon by Sirius. Likely in September, they will then be back looking for Gary in Iceworld by Denost.

    A couple of Ages from the same time period – Turtle Isle by DenDwaler and R’Oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Dustin, Wamduskasapa and Tachzusamm – will unfortunately have to be skipped, as there are unsolved bugs affecting these Ages.

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

    At the time of this writing, no CavCon is known for July. June ended with the CavFunding at 115% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 607%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 7 (Leetahr 25) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • May 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    May 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 169th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    ☛ Since Mysterium 2024 will be held in Montréal, Canada, merch will be preorder only, as the Committee’s payment processor is not set up for international banking. Preorders and registration are not available yet.

    The shirt design has been announced: the front, designed by Kelly Coston, depicts a Serenian statue and the memory flower, while the back, designed by Drew, is a map that combines Montréal with Serenia.

    As for the pins, three designs were chosen: the first, by Redwoodrroad, is Yeesha’s memory amulet; the second, by Calum Traveler, depicts the Serenian dream stone; the third, by Ace, is a Mangree.

    As you may have guessed, this year (on September 10) is the 20th anniversary of Myst IV: Revelation, so all designs were encouraged to incorporate elements from that game.

    ☛ Event submissions are still open until May 12, while writing and artwork table submissions are open until June 30.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for May–June is “blooming”, the deadline is now June 30th. Entries for the “Memories” prompt for March–April were from Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Khreestrefah, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Skyisblu presented her recipe for a giant flower brioche, a twisted bread that can be filled with sweet or savory filling, a perfect centerpiece to any Mother’s Day brunch (celebrated on the second Sunday of May in Canada and the USA). She also gave examples and recipes for several variations, and how to twist the dough for spectacular results.

    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ 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 will be “child protagonists in video games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ On Tuesday 7, PodHopper will celebrate two years of Relaxing Sessions. For the occasion, the event will be held in Eder Delin of the Guild of Healers Hood, at the usual time at 12:00 KIT, with all celtic music.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 11:30 KIT in Fahets Highgarden, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ There will be no classical music program this month, as Babbel will be traveling. The next event will be on June 17 at 12:00 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura as usual.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    Ayoheek scoreboards

    The Ayoheek boards in the neighborhoods are not currently working. While investigating the bug, the fan developers have realized they are not coded as one would expects: it seems that they operate on a neighbor-only system, so your name will only show on your hood’s board; if you are not a member of the hood you played in, it will not put your name on that hood’s imager.

    Other little tweaks need to be made, but because there are good arguments for both choices, this is an occasion in which the community can decide which behavior is more desirable: keeping the status quo, in which only members of a hood will be listed, or changing it to allow anyone to be listed.

    You can cast your vote in a simple poll set up by Calum Traveler; be sure to vote if this is something important to you, as the poll will only be up for another week or two.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn 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# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There will be no daytime openings in May, as r’Tayrtahn is unpacking all his stuff from his move; availability will resume on June 3.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, 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 to 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Starting on May 4, Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will begin the special, five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story is about to be performed, and that she is welcome to attend.

    After that will be the story of the third, human explorer-driven restoration of the Cavern. Then, finally, the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour! And after that, the Stories will restart from the beginning.

    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 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    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 30 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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In May, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will first get lost in the mazes of J’kla’s Ages: Noidrocca, Cidoirep, Nilodnam. After that they will explore the connected Ages of Zefora, Shinelight Manor and Tsoidahl Prad, by Justintime. After a few more Ages like Ashream (by Wodan), Chamassa and Aquh (both by Brattin), they will wrap the month with the D’ni Location Contest entries.

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

    At the time of this writing, no CavCon is known for April. March ended with the CavFunding at 114% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 593%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 50,807 (⇑263), with 1167 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 1st (Leebro 5, 9680) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • March 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    March 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 167th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    ☛ T-shirt submissions are now closed. Event submissions are still open until May 12, while writing and artwork table submissions are open until June 30.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for March is “Memory”; the deadline is the 31st. Entries for the “Ice” prompt for February were from, Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ To celebrate International Women’s Day there will be a week of special events, including:

    • Sunday 3 at 13:00 KIT: Radio Free D’ni started off the week with a revised and expanded IWD show remastered from 2019;
    • Monday 4 at 12:00 KIT, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood: Cooking Session with Sky made homemade pizza and chatted a bit about women in the restaurant industry;
    • at 13:30 KIT, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura: Classic with Babbel hosted a special broadcast with female performers. The regular show will be on Monday 18 at 12:00 KIT, and will be about film soundtracks;
    • at 15:30 KIT, in Eder Naybree at the beach: Isa & Sky hosted a ’90s music show, hanging out around the bonfire;
    • Tuesday 5 at 12:00 KIT, at Kalamee (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot #32319 or MinBot #9292763): Ereshkigal will host a show about Rhadopis of Nubia, a great woman of ancient Egypt;
    • Friday 8 at 12:00 KIT, at Sutherland Point in Ae’gura: Nosila will host a music show about award winning female artists;
    • Friday 15 at 15:00 KIT, in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table: IwonK will host a Wonky Talk about female protagonists in video games (and is also making games on itch.io);
    • Saturday 9 at 12:00 KIT: Dah’mpa will host a music show about female Brazilian bands.

    ☛ On Sunday 3 at 9:00 KIT, Jodok & Philip Gray hosted a special show at The Open Cave shard, in the City of Dimensions (which you can reach using the /cod command), a tribute to the late Grandbad. The TOC Facebook page is no longer maintained, but there is a Discord server, where you can find help installing the shard, or just have a chat. You can also contact Jodok at his FB page.

    ☛ On Sunday 17 there will be two Saint Patrick’s Day parades, one at 13:00 KIT, starting in Elonin and led by Eternal Seeker, and one at 17:00 KIT, starting in Ae’gura plaza and led by Claidi Song.

    ☛ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    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# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There will be no daytime openings for the next two months, as r’Tayrtahn is moving and his daytime hours are spent packing;
    • evening openings are on Monday to 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are at the fifth story of the second human restoration of the Cavern, the third attempt overall. There will be no story on March 30 – the weekend of the major part of the move!

    Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni, and the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour.

    They will also cover the five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story is about to be performed, probably on April 6 this year, and that she is welcome to attend.

    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 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    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 30 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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ The Guild of Writers released a new version of the age exporting tool Korman. You can read more in our dedicated post.

    ☛ In March, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will complete the exploration of the educational series Geologica, by Ametist & Metabasalt. Then, they will explore the puzzle age of Oolbahnneea, by Wodan, the whimsical chain-letter age Rell-too, and a few age by Jamey including Tsoidahl Sheegahtee and Writers’ Niche.

    ☛ Cyan’s decision to replace the DVD for a GOG code in the physical rewards for Firmament has proven controversial; until March 22, Cyan is offering to organize returning your rewards for a refund.

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

    January ended with the CavFunding at 76% (CavCon 2.7) and the reserve at 600%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 6, 2024 (Leenovoo 18) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • January 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    January 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 165th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    ☛ The venue and the precise date for Mysterium 2024, which will be held in Montreal, Canada, have not been fixed yet. Various trade-offs for dates and costs are being weighted; you can help the Committee make a decision by taking a brief survey.

    ☛ Another policy update, related to AI generated art, has been announced:

    “Submissions generated by Artificial Intelligence tools are not permitted. AI may be used for brainstorming but the final product must be your own original work. This applies to all submission types including both visual and written works.”

    ☛ The creativity prompt for January is “Horizons”; the deadline is the 31st. Entries for the “Refuge” prompt for December were from Calum Traveler, Salvo Ludus, Talashar, Redwoodrroad, and Tomatoes.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Claidi commended the people staffing the Guild of Greeters Hood from Monday to Saturday, 13:45–14:15 KIT. Other community members are often there as well, providing information and assistance to those unfamiliar with the Cavern or who just want to learn more.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 12 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be Racing games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    OpenUru

    Semjay has submitted the Explorers’ Emporium for testing on the Minkata alpha shard, and should be uploaded very soon. That means testers will be needed!

    Anyone with an eye for details, and willing to take detailed notes of what works and what not, is welcome to sign up for an account on Minkata and on the OpenUru Discord server.

    (Editor’s note: the shards and the OpenUru website appear to not work at the time of this post. The situation is temporary, and should be fixed soon.)

    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.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. A student finished the 101 lessons and is working on the final exam.

    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# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, 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 to Thursday, 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have just started telling the story of Yeesha’s journey. 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 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    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 30 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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In January, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the works of Whilyam: Toroolbah, Bimevi, Fens, Maw. After that, they will visit the entries of the 3rd Rapid Age Development (RAD) and the Detailed Age WritiNg (DAWN) contests. To round up the first month of 2024, they will try to get their bearings in the cubic labyrinth of Enobmort, by J’Kla.

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

    December ended with the CavFunding at 72% (CavCon 2.7) and the reserve at 620%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 3, 2024 (Leevosahn 26) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • November 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    November 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 163rd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    ☛ In Addition to co-chairing this year, Annacat is once again managing the Writing & Artwork Table submissions. The Committee has decided to add a limit of five pages for any printouts to save trees and wallets. If your piece is longer you may wish to direct people to a website or other location where they can read the full text.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for November is “Found Family”; the deadline is November 30. Entries for the “Noir” prompt for October were from Angelmyst, Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Talashar, Diranda, Tomatoes.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ For November’s Cooking Sessions with Sky, on Monday 6 at 12:00 KIT in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood, Skyisblu will try her hand at homemade pierogi, Polish dumplings filled with a mix of mashed potatoes and cheese, boiled and fried, sometimes topped with sour cream.

    Every month is something new and different, a lot of times inspired by what is coming from Skyisblu’s garden, or what is in season in her corner of the world. She also tries to answer any questions regarding the recipe she is cooking, other dishes or cuisines, and takes suggestions for future sessions.

    You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ 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 will be horror games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK also made some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Babbel will host her classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura on Monday 20 at 12:00 KIT.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Rarified gave a brief comment about the update schedule for MOULa. The Q2/Q3 2023 update has passed testing! On Monday 6 an announcement should be posted in the Cyan Discord server (probably #moula-announcements), with more info about the date of the update. Many items are included in this update: most fan Ages have received some tweaks, and many technical glitches, including very old ones, have been fixed. One new area will eventually be open for exploration (more info below).

    Rarified has now started to tackle a task that has been put off for years: the merger of the existing MOULa client with the modern H’uru client that the Guild of Writers team has been working on for a decade. They will start with an entirely new Minkata shard, which probably will not go live before 3–4 weeks from now.

    The new shard will likely only have a duplicate of the H’uru client, where contributors can begin to explore how their materials interact with the new client. Behind the scenes, Rarified has a list of changes he thinks are needed for more casual users to access MOULa with the same ease.

    They will also start working on a single Uru installation that can be used to access most (MOUL-based) shards, without a separate installation for each. That will of course depend on shard operators agreeing that the client can and will be used, but the capability will be there to select a shard at the time you launch Uru. At start it will likely be MOULa and the Minkata shards. Deep Island is very unlikely to be included, being based on the offline game, and neither will be The Open Cave, which is currently unmaintained and requires a specific set of older game files to work.

    Editor’s note: there have been a few attempts at a “multishard” client in the past, most notably Untìl Uru had a unified launcher for the various independent shards. More recently but less successfully, the Atlantis shard made an attempt at unifying the MOUL-based shard login.

    ☛ Christopher Therburg announced that the Fall of D’ni Memorial Island (Bahn’tefoonet in D’ni) is finally ready. There will be an opening ceremony in Chiso Preniv, soon after the release of the update. He, and possibly Tweek, will give a tour of the island; after that, a minute of silence will be observed to commemorate the D’ni who died at the hand of A’gaeris.

    Christopher has further plans to make some small changes to the island and the memorial itself so that it will be preserved and being in a good shape for a long time. He will soon add telescopes near the docks at a later date, for closer views of certain D’ni islands and Ae’gura itself.

    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.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. The Guild of Instructors has lost one of their own: Guild Master shokhootahn shen, aka shenendoah or Kathleen, passed away late last month.

    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# 80428), 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 Monday to Friday, 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 to 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story from Myst III: Exile. After that, they will begin the story from Myst IV: Revelation. 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 30 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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In November, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will conclude the exploration of Takla Ma’kan by the German group H’Uru. Next, they will explore Paah’kweh and Sonavio by BobLishman, and visit the entries from the first Rapid Age Development contest. To round up the month, they will explore a few Ages made in 2008: Aerie, TINA Testing Area, Kahntinoy, Fena Barel.

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

    October ended with the CavFunding at 177% (CavCon 4.8) and the reserve at 652%, with 5% extra expenses. Population was at 49,489 (⇑259), with 1047 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 2 (Leevobro 5) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • September 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    September 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 161st All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    ☛ Next year’s Mysterium will be held in Canada, in Montreal, QC, so you may want to look up any immigration requirements. There are some pointers at the Location page on the convention’s website.

    If you do not have a passport it would be a good idea to look into it soon, since it can take a few months for the application to be processed.

    Most importantly, rely on official sources for immigration information. The convention offers those links for convenience, but do not rely on advice from Discord or any other unofficial source.

    ☛ The theme for 2024 will be Serenia, since it will be the 20th anniversary of Myst IV: Revelation.

    Submissions for T-shirt designs are open, and will be accepted until February 25. Details are available on the design page; in general, the committee will look favorably upon designs that incorporate both the year’s theme and the host city.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for September is “Back to School”; the deadline is September 30. Entries for the “Blazing” prompt for June were from Calum Traveler, KellyC, Triss, Talashar, IwonK, Salvo Ludus, Laughingpineapple, and Floydman.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ September is a month of many anniversaries:

    • Sunday 10 is the 19th anniversary of the release of Myst IV: Revelation, and the 16th of the Gametap episode “Deception”;
    • Monday 18 is the 9th of the Great Crash, when everyone had to reset their KI;
    • Tuesday 19 is the 18th anniversary of Myst V: End of Ages, and is also Talk Like a Pirate day;
    • Sunday 24 is the day the historical Guild of Writers was founded, and more importantly the 30th anniversary of (the original) Myst; and
    • Thursday 28 marks the historical Arrival of the Great King.

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

    OpenUru

    Rarified gave a brief comment about schedules and the pipeline into MOULa. They have started to choose what will go into the next update. That means that serious development will stop for a month, and a testing schedule will be announced for the Minkata shards, on the OpenUru Discord server (channel #test).

    If all goes well, they should be able to send Cyan the new material for the end of September, with a possible release date for mid-October. There are updates to several ages, and at least one new Age.

    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.

    Fall of D’ni Memorial Island

    Christopher Therburg said a few words about his Fall of D’ni Memorial Island project, or Bahn’tefoonet (lit. “island-memorial”) in D’ni. The restoration and conversion is finally complete, and the island should be ready to open with the next update.

    Christopher also gave a few bits about the history of the island, which is thought to have been a small D’ni park before the Fall. The memorial is connected to water pipes for filling up the basin; these pipes used to serve a fountain that was found so badly damaged that it was impossible to restore. The island itself was covered in debris when first surveyed. The restoration progress will be detailed in a journal available for reading.

    There will be an opening ceremony in Chiso Preniv, and a minute of silence once on the island.

    Christopher also briefly talked about the new Age he found a few months ago, somewhere in a house in the Cavern. The name of the Age is Ahnogahlpo (“water-cave”), and it seems to be a garden Age set in an ocean or huge lake, with some islands with holes and caves. The sands of the islands beaches glow strangely at night.

    The age is still in the earliest stages of restoration and not yet fully mapped, so it is still a llong way from being safe for public access.

    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# 80428), 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 Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Tuesday to 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Myst: The Book of D’ni, as told in the novel. After that they will begin the story from Myst III: Exile. 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 30 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 September, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will begin their third cycle! They will start again from the very beginning of fan age building, with creations from 2005.

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

    August ended with the CavFunding at 83% (CavCon 2.8) and the reserve at 587%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 7 (Leevot 19) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • July 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    July 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 159th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. MacOS MOULa client
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    Calum opened the meeting with a recap of the annual Myst convention, this year held on June 30–July 2 in Spokane (WA). Over 300 badges were issued this year. A more detailed coverage can be read in our dedicated post.

    ☛ The Cavern Today podcast recorded a live episode at Mysterium, plus a bonus episode detailing their visit to Cyan the day after.

    ☛ Doobes held an Age building demonstration using Korman. As a finale, he showed a trailer for the first area of Descent he has been working on.

    ☛ The creative prompt for July is “Sun”; the deadline is July 31. Entries for the “Scream” prompt for June were from Calum Traveler, Talashar, and Redwoodrroad.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ PodHopper announced the Moula Summer Festival 2023, planned for August 7–13. Preparations are still ongoing; so far the schedule includes a Wall game, a Jalak game named Mayak, and a few music or video events. PodHopper will host a Cone Race contest, a Relaxing Session in Kalamee and a new marker game, “A brief history of Kalamee”. A schedule should be finalized in the coming weeks.

    Information about the Mayak game can be found on the Discord server MOULa Events, #summer-festival channel.

    MacOS MOULa client

    Darryl Pogue shared that several members of the H’uru team were at Mysterium, meeting in person for the first time. A few people saw an informal demo of the macOS client for Uru being developed by maccodemonkey, including Chogon from Cyan.

    They hope to be able to share it with more people in the near future, but there is a bit more work to do before beta testing, hopefully before the end of the year. Work also continues on the Linux client, but it is definitely not ready for testing.

    The work on the macOS client is leading to improvements to the Windows H’uru client too: they recently merged support for high-DPI displays.

    If you are interested in getting involved, visit the OpenUru Discord server, #code-dev channel.

    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 Monday to Friday, 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 to 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 Riven as told in the game. After that they will begin the story from The Book of D’ni. 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 July, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will begin the Path of the Lost Ages, consisting of Palamary bay, Peridia, Myst Refuge, and concluding in Ruins of Azmar, by Melvin. This will take most of the month; after that, they will visit some Ages by Doobes.

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

    June ended with the CavFunding at 97% (CavCon 3.0) and the reserve at 592%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 48,397 (⇑225), with 1060 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 5 (Leesahn 27) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • 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!