Tag: downtime

  • News Roundup #30

    MOULa got a new update on Tuesday 12 for the Q3 update. You can find more info about all the fixes and goodies in our dedicated post. The new location, the Explorers’ Emporium, will be unveiled on December 5 at 13:00 KIT, in Chiso Preniv.

    ☛ At the end of October, Cyan announced a big update to the VR remake of Myst. The main highlight is the upgrade from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, which solved a number of stability issues on various platforms.

    ☛ Then, on November 8, Cyan announced a big update to Firmament, with a number of quality-of-life changes for MacOS and Windows. Due to a few remaining PS-specific issues, the ports to PlayStation 4, 5, and PSVR2 have been delayed to the first quarter of 2025.

    ☛ The Mysterium committee announced the dates for Mysterium 2025: August 1st – 3rd. Masks and COVID vaccines will be strongly encouraged; masks will be available for attendees who did not bring their own. Submissions for this year’s Writing and Artwork table are open and will be accepted through July 15.

    ☛ In the last couple of months there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes activity on the Open Cave shard, to get it on par and compatible with the latest version of MOULa. The website has also been recently restyled and renovated.

    ☛ Episode 16 of The Lost Art, by MystiTech Productions, is coming on January 4, 2025 at 14:30 KIT. The premiere live chat will as usual start half an hour before.

    ☛ On October 11 Necrovarius released part five of the “Myst Explained” video series.

    ☛ Calum Traveler has been streaming Blender for Korman for Beginners, a series showcasing the Guild of Writers’ Age building tool.

  • News Roundup #29

    ☛ MOULa will be offline Wednesday 8 (today!) at 9:00 KIT for the Q2/Q3 update! The downtime should last about two hours. We will post a changelog with the fixes and goodies soon after that.

    ☛ To honor Riven’s 26th anniversary, RIUM+ spent roughly 350 hours upgrading his restored Riven Journals, a (spoiler-less) collection of books and puzzles that give more insight into the game’s world. It is recommended to start with the middle journal, then the right one and leave the left one to last. You can read more on RIUM+ blog post.

    Rand Miller was a guest at Lucca Comics & Games, an annual comic book and gaming convention in Italy, the second biggest in the world after Comiket. He was invited at four panels, two about Myst specifically, one about his career experience, and a round table discussion about contemporary gaming, where he was joined by Yū Suzuki (designer, producer, programmer, and engineer for Sega for 18 years) and Arnar Hrafn Gylfason (Director of Production for Valorant).

    ☛ In their Kickstarter update for October 25, Cyan confirmed that all remaining physical rewards for Firmament are expected to ship in early 2024.

  • September 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for September’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    A new moderator has not been found yet, so this time the meeting had a more anarchic format – and given the Net2 error situation (see below), it was the only way to get the announcements across 🙂

    Contents

      1. Cavern Tours
      2. Net2 errors, and Korman
      3. OpenUru
      4. D’ni Language Classes
      5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
      6. Fan Ages Touring Club
      7. Cyan news

    Cavern Tours

    The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 11 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood.The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube. Due to the Net2 crashes issue, Mir-o-Bot may not be online, and the tour itself may be held entirely on Twitch.

    The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

    Net2 errors, and Korman

    Doobes explained what is going on with the “Net2 error” crashes. They did not come up on the staging server because it does not have nearly the population that the main MOULa server does. The problem appears to be on the server side, which can only be fixed by Cyan, and is likely related to neighborhoods with too many members. In particular, DRC (67) Bevin has around 1000 members, and anyone in that hood is highly advised to move to a different one. In the meantime, this could be a good time to explore some of the fan maintained shards 😉

    He also announced the release of Korman 0.12a, the age building tool by the Guild of Writers. This iteration adds goodies like grass shaders and random sound mods to the mix, as well as a ton of lighting fixes. It also introduces a self-contained platform called Blender for Korman.

    Lastly, Doobes announced that Descent is nearing the Phase 1 final checks and will be uploaded in a Github repository soon. Descent is going through a phase system a bit different from the DRC scale, with 1 being “Near identical to Myst V” and 5 being “Final Release for MOULa”.

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

    OpenUru

    Rarified announced, after the Q3 update that focused on QoL fixes, the Q4 update for MOULa will focus on fan content, and a lot is planned for it.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata 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 forum or the 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

    Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Six students are taking the classes at various stages of completion.

    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); be sure to include your KI number in the message!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on MondayFriday starting at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, and on WednesdayFriday starting at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night has started the stories of the Restoration. After that, there will be a special, five-part story of fan fiction written by Janai; for that, r’Tayrtahn will be assisted by Axenna. After that will be the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour, visiting all the ages that contain bahro glyphs; some have explanations while others just generate more questions. After that, the Stories will restart from the very beginning, the D’ni story of creation.

    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 end of the AGM, 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.
    • Recording of the Stories are available on r’Tayrtahn’s YouTube channel; however some hardware issues are preventing r’Tayrtahn from uploading the latest episodes.

    Fan Ages Touring Club

    Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

    Recently, they explored two ages by by Jhon J. Jaguar, Tentsahveet and the recently released Edereden; then two ages by Semjay, Terahgrahm and Zahlto. Lastly they started Koh-dalan, by Corvus, Wodan, Itep Edor and other creators.

    For September, the plan is to finish Koh-dalan; then they will begin the Path of the Lost Ages by Melvin, starting in Palamary bay.

    More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
    • After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
    • After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
    • A gallery of fan ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

    Cyan news

    The release of the new Myst for PC/VR was mentioned, which recently got a patch that, among many fixes, officially gives the option to use the old FMV animations (except for the ending, where it was not possible).

    The original game’s 28th anniversary is also near, on Friday 24.


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

    August ended with the CavFunding at 102% (CavCon 4.0) and the reserve at 377%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 41,649 (⇑487), with 1382 unique visits. Another good month of donations with an increase in new accounts, all despite persistent server crashes that started after the last update. Top MOULa devs are hunting for this elusive bug!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 2 (Leevot 15) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • News roundup #4

    • The Mysterium Committee has announced that there will not be an in-person convention in August this year. However, some form of online gathering is still being planned. Refunds will be available, but also will roll-overs to next year’s in-person convention. More details will be announced soon.
    • realMyst: Masterpiece Edition has been released for the Nintendo Switch on Thursday 21, with a 20% discount for a limited time. To celebrate the launch, the Cyan Store is also having a 20% discount on all merch. GrayDragon is also giving away a few codes on the Cyan Discord server.
    • There will be a MOULa server downtime on Wednesday 27, starting at 11:00 KIT. The update has lots of under the hood changes, but also includes the long awaited fix for the Windows 10 mouse bug from the GoW.
    • Episode 10 of The Lost Art machinima by Mystitech Productions will premiere on Saturday 30 at 14:30 KIT.