Tag: Fan Ages

  • 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!

  • A New Era in D’ni: The Explorers’ Emporium

    A New Era in D’ni: The Explorers’ Emporium

    On Thursday, December 5, 2024 (9680 Leevobro 8), in a ceremony held in Chiso Preniv that was also announced on Cyan’s X and Bluesky feeds, Ella Darrington (Semjay) and Patrick Dulebohn gave a speech (a transcript of which you can read below), then unveiled the linking book to the Explorers’ Emporium.

    The Emporium, established by archaeologist Ella Darrington, is the only retail establishment in the Cavern, with a wide range of goods for sale to the discerning explorer. It is located in some vacant cottages found in a neighborhood away from the publicly available ones, refurbished in the latest Art-Nouveau style. Rumors of smuggled artifacts are, at this time, wholly unsubstantiated.

    The Emporium is a personal instance; visiting it will save a link in your Nexus. To visit with friends, you will need to go through Chiso Preniv and use the share panel, or send an invite with your KI.

    Calum Traveler posted a chatlog on the Beneath forums. Minasunda made a video of the event.
    [Links to more videos and posts will be added at a later time.]

    Speech transcript

    Patrick Dulebohn:

    Welcome back here to Chiso Preniv, everyone! I know it’s been awhile since we’ve had one of these get togethers, but I’m glad to see the turnout as strong as ever!

    2024 has been a rough year for many of us, and as such, much of the work we’ve been doing has gone a bit slower. Thanks largely to you all and your unwavering support, we press on and continue our goal of restoring D’ni Ages and new areas of the cavern. It is the latter that brings us here today.

    Our guest of honor is a relatively new face to the restoration, but has been a denizen of the cavern for quite awhile. She is responsible for restoring what you will be seeing today. I’ve only had the pleasure of meeting her last month, introduced by Semjay, but I’m excited to see what she will present to us … since I wasn’t allowed a sneak peek! Ha!

    Without further delay, I would like to introduce to you all … Ella Darrington!

    Ella Darrington:

    Thank you Patrick. Semjay and I are absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of people here! Thank you, everyone!

    It means a lot to us, knowing that we have your support. We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in bringing this new area to MOULa.

    Also, thank you in advance, to those of you who are filming this event – it is really interesting to see people play through our creations and to hear their comments as they play.

    The Explorers’ Emporium is the only retail establishment in the Cavern. I have a wide range of goods for sale to the discerning explorer. I do not stock cheap rubbish. There are many artisan crafted items – some have been made and supplied by some lovely people here today! (I’ll take off my 10 percent commission, of course). All types of currency are accepted – if you can pay by chip and pin.

    The Emporium is located in some vacant cottages I found in a distant neighbourhood and I have refurbished them in the latest Art-Nouveau style. But it isn’t quite finished. There are still some deliveries waiting to be unpacked.

    Please stay out of my private apartment – unless you are the contractor come to refurbish my bathroom (the recent plumbing disaster has ruined the floor). Oh, and if you go into the cellar, it is at your own risk. All breakages must be paid for.

    So now … it gives me great pleasure to declare the Explorers’ Emporium well and truly open!

    Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I’ll link through first and unlock the front door ready for your arrival!

  • MOULa update OpenUru#217

    MOULa update OpenUru#217

    On November 12 MOULa got another update, with various fixes, improvements, and a new Age, soon to be unveiled! A full changelog is available at the bottom of this post. As usual, an audio summary of the updates was added to the Kirel auditorium podium.

    Books with D’ni fairytales have been added to Elonin; new shirts (Mysterium 2024, Riven, Radio Free D’ni, and one for the new Age) have been made available. The Ayoheek scoreboards in the neighborhoods, and the female hands options colors, have been fixed.

    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 or OpenUru’s Discord.

    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 #217 – Q3, 2024
    • [new] D’ni Fairytale books added to Elonin. {2}
    • [new] Explorers’ Emporium Age added. {12}
    • [new] Kirel message for 2024 Quarter 3 added. {6}
    • [new] Linking Book cover for Serene Age added. {7}
    • [new] New Riven, Radio Free D’ni, and ExpEmp shirts added. {8}
    • [new] New Wardrobe Item added. {4}
    • [update] Chiso Preniv Age additions & improvements. {5}
    • [update] Cleft visuals, Linking Panel consistency, Music Update (With new attribution in Credits). {11}
    • [update] Eder Naybree Beach additions. {9}
    • [update] Elonin improvements (steaming hot). {1}
    • [update] Fixed Ayoheek Scoreboards in Hoods. {10}
    • [update] Highgarden Content and Lighting updates. {14}
    • [update] Kirel refresh, door activations, & Eddie! {5}
    • [update] New Messenger’s Pub visual improvements. {5}
    • [update] New Mysterium 2024 Shirts. {5}
    • [update] Relto Page Combo: Storm + Veelay Visual Update. {11}
    • [update] Veelay Tsahvahn additions. {5}
    • [update] Wardrobe: Fix for the Female Hands Options colors. {13}
    • [client] (internal) Fix internal debugging commands {3}
    • [known issue] Someone has spray-painted one of the New Messenger’s Pub Cones black. We’re looking for some paint remover.

    Attributions:

    1: ametist, Ehren
    2: ametist, Ereshkigal, Semjay
    3: dgelessus
    4: dgelessus, Ehren, Riccardo Salerano, Salvo Ludus, Sirius, TheScar(.fr)
    5: Doobes
    6: Doobes, DapperAndy, skyisblu, Tyion, Zaroth
    7: Doobes, Tweek
    8: dpogue, AlanD & Malaclypse, Semjay
    9: Harley, Maurus, Hazado
    10: Hazado, dgelessus
    11: Maurus
    12: Semjay, Doobes
    13: TheScar(.fr)
    14: Tweek

  • November 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    November 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 175th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

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

    OpenUru

    Calum Traveler mentioned that the latest update for MOULa is on the Staging server, and may be released in one or two weeks!

    The Cavern Today

    Maurus, on behalf of The Cavern Today, announced their latest episode: “Return to Riven“. They had of course a lot to talk about the Riven remake, but also about Mysterium, Cyan’s future, and some original music. It is also episode 3 of their D’ni restoration history series, “Deep Dive With Esto Centura”.

    The Cavern Today is available to stream on Apple Podcast, Spotify and other streaming services, and of course on TCT’s website.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 4, Skyisblu prepared baked chicken meatballs in tomato sauce, smothered in ooey-gooey melted cheese, since fall has come in with a bang this year in Quebec. 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 15 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 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!

    ☛ 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.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 18 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “The Unfinished Works“.

    ☛ 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.

    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 cover the stories of all of the Myst 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

    ☛ 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.

    ☛ 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.

    ☛ In November, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore Elsewhere by Denost, the third chapter in his series about Gary Bradwell after Somewhere and Iceworld. This is a large Age with a complex series of puzzles, so it will take the whole month to complete it.

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

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, December 7 (Leevobro 10) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • 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!

  • Mysterium 2024

    Mysterium 2024

    The XXV Mysterium was held in Montréal, Canada on July 12–14, with the panels and presentations streamed to both Twitch and YouTube.

    Belford wrote a summary in his blog, giving his perspective on the various updates.

    Friday started with the Opening Announcements with a few words and reminders from the convention chairs.

    ☛ In the Cyan ‘State of the Union’ prerecorded panel Rand Miller, Hannah Gamiel and Eric A. Anderson gave a few updates on their games. While Riven‘s critical reception has been phenomenal, sales have not been correspondly positive. Riven costed “less than 2%” of a AAA game of comparable quality to make; it was a “monumental effort” and they really want to scale down their workload.

    Touching on the design process, they started with drastic redesign ideas, narrowing them them down to only those that directly supported the game experience. They also had to iron bugs and glitches quite close to launch.

    For the immediate future, they will be working on porting Firmament and Riven to more platforms, and improving Myst on the Quest 3. After that, Rand confirmed they have started on a new game in the D’niverse; it will be a new storyline and you will not have to be familiar with the Myst series to play it. They expect to have more to say next year.

    Also, Rand is retiring: with Riven released, he feels it’s the right time to cut back considerably; he will still be involved with advising on game design and such, but not as often and as much.

    ☛ In the Myst Reverse Engineer panel, Jeff Barbi showed how to hack the original Myst (thanks to Uli Kusterer’s HyperCard work), and a few interesting results of editing the HyperTalk source code. The original fireplace puzzle accepted two codes, from page 158 but also page 148. The HyperCard stack was password-locked against editing, but this feature can easily be bypassed with modern tools, and Jeff was able to recover the original password.

    ☛ In the Myst Online Update, a group of fan developers (AgeExplorer, Doobes, DPogue, Harley, Semjay and Yali) gave a few updates on what’s been going on in the Cavern. The writing team is trying a long-term story arc (“Diplomacy”) involving first contact with an unexpectedly inhabited Age. On the open source client front, DPogue has continued to improve the Korman Blender plugin, as well as the MacOS client, which however is not yet ready for testing on the live servers.

    As for upcoming Ages, Doobes and AgeExplorer are still working on the Descent: you can now take the elevator down the Shaft and mostly solve the puzzles there, and walk down the spiral staircase that runs the entire length of the Shaft. Doobes is also working on a major Chiso expansion. Tweek is working on a library Age, a garden homage to Myst, a rework of of Fahets, and a new Neighborhood. Semjay is working on completing one of Cyan’s cancelled Ages for Uru, Venalem, and also on the Explorer’s Emporium. Harley is working on expanding Naybree and on an Age called Rei’schu. Yali is working on a private city area and on UI updates for the client.

    ☛ The rest of the day was dedicated to events that were not streamed. In Uru Live, a devious marker mission ws released (video). For Puzzle Time, Rayne and m13 challenged the participants with a set of devious puzzles. For the Dance Event, Annacat explored the music of the Myst series through dance and creative movement, teaching a simple short choreography.

    Saturday started with a few events that were not streamed: the Mysterium Unconference, an unstreamed set of participant-driven discussion sessions; What Would Catherine Build? (Atrus was too busy this year!), where teams were asked to build something that met certain requirements, and delivered clever presentations for why they built like that.

    The subsequent three panels were all about Myst IV: Revelation:

    ☛ In the Designing Worlds panel, Patrick Fortier (Creative Director & Lead Game Designer), Mary DeMarle (Designer & Writer), Sebastien Yelle (Level Designer) and moderator Katie “Khatie” Postma (Community Manager) discussed bringing Myst IV’s world to life, the creative process, technical challenges and innovative design choices.

    ☛ In the Living Worlds panel, Meinert Hansen (Senior Art Director) and Guy Sprung (Actor for Achenar) shared their experience bringing the worlds and characters of Myst IV to life through visuals, sound, and motion.

    ☛ In the Retrospection panel, Mary DeMarle, Patrick Fortier, Meinert Hansen, Katie “Kha’tie” Postma, Guy Sprung and Sebastien Yellel shared behind-the-scenes insights, stories and the creative processes that brought the game to launch.

    ☛ The rest of the day was dedicated to events that were not streamed. In the Guildmaster event, Taerun assigned the participants a variety of unique tasks to complete.

    ☛ Sunday started with the Myst Documentary panel, where Philip Shane (filmmaker), Katie “Kha’tie” Postma and Joshua Reinstein gave the latest updates and showed some footage of the Riven launch event at Cyan HQ. The documentary is having trouble funding the full production. David Van Taylor was brought in to help with pitching, and Julie McElmurry is helping with production. The working title now is “A World I’d Want To Live In: Myst and the Video-Game Revolution“.

    ☛ The Closing Ceremonies wrapped up this year’s convention, running the prize drawing, and announced next year’s location: Atlanta, GA!

    ☛ After the Closing Ceremonies, attendees joined unofficial excursions to see some of Montréal’s many attractions, including the Biodôme and the Jardin Botanique.

    Thanks and kudos to the Mysterium Committee, who did a great job at organising and managing the event.

    Looking forward to next year!

  • Guild of Writers Releases Korman 0.16

    Guild of Writers Releases Korman 0.16

    The Guild of Writers released a new version of the age exporting tool Korman. This update represents 22 commits with approximately 750 lines of code changed since Korman 0.15.

    If you never used Korman, or need a refresher, there are tutorials available on the Guild of Writers wiki. If you need more help, or have comments, the discussion thread is here.

    Changelog:

    • [1] Added the ability to specify an “entry camera” on the Spawn Point Modifier.
    • Added Korman’s version number to the addon user preferences in Blender.
    • Changed the mesh exporter to allow modulating lightmaps with vertex colors.
    • Fixed a crash in the Add > Linking Book operator.
    • Fixed a crash in the exporter when directories are missing from the game directory.
    • Fixed a crash in the exporter when packaging an Age.
    • Fixed a potential crash in the game when certain manually tessellated flat convex hulls are exported.
    • Fixed a potential crash in the game when multiple Note Popup modifiers are used to target a single GUI page.
    • Fixed an issue in which GUI Dialogs did not appear in game.
    • Fixed an issue in which the Volume Sensor node might behave incorrectly with certain obtuse angles.

    Entry Cameras:

    [1] Entry cameras are special cameras that are activated when a player first links into the Age. These will often be fixed cameras that offer a unique vantage point at the spawn point they are associated with. An entry camera will remain active until the player moves outside of a very small region surrounding the spawn point. Once the camera has been deactivated, the only way the entry camera can be seen again is to link out and back into the Age.

    Note that entry cameras require the xEntryCam.py script. The current status for this script is:

    • H-uru/Plasma (MOUL): Available in clients built on or after January 18, 2024.
    • Legacy MOUL: unknown
    • OfflineKI (TPotS): Available in OfflineKI built on or after January 15, 2024.
  • February 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    February 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 166th 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

    ☛ The date for Mysterium 2024, which will be held in Montreal, Canada, has been finalized: July 12–14. The latest COVID policy mandates the use of masks, but vaccines are not required.

    ☛ Since the date is a little earlier than usual, the deadline for the Writing and Artwork table submissions is now June 30. T-shirt submissions are open only for a few more weeks, until February 25.

    Also, as a reminder, submissions generated by AI 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 “Ice”; the deadline is the 29th. Entries for the “Horizons” prompt for January were from Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Kh’reestrefah, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda outlined the schedule for the 14th MOULa Anniversary, on February 5–11. For most events a bot can provide quick travel to the location, by sending them “link” via PM. For the full schedule, see our dedicated post.

    Some KI numbers you may want add to your buddy list are: Magic Bot #27527, Mir-o-Bot #32319, MinBot #9292763. If a bot is present for an event, please use it only for travelling and avoid using other commands.

    On the other hand, Magic Bot can now provide seven different dances for couples; if you would like to try one, you can do so by sending Magic Bot “minadance<1–7> ” in a PM.

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

    ☛ As part of the celebrations, Skyisblu will attempt a recipe based on Teledahn mushrooms! For this special edition of the Cooking Sessions, the gathering will be in the kitchen of Elonin, not at the regular time but at 13:00 KIT. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ Ereshkigal will host the D’ni Fairytales event at 12:00 KIT, reading (via stream) some of the kinds of stories the D’ni might have told to each other around campfires and firemarble lamps. The location will be the Conservatory in Elonin, with the beautiful stained glass flowers.

    ☛ PodHopper will host two events: the first will be a selection of music track for The Best of Relaxing. The venue for this event will be Kalamee (a bot can link you there). There will be a pre-show at 12:30 KIT.

    The second event is the Eddie Competition, on Thursday at 14:00 KIT in PodHopper’s Hood. It is not necessary to enlist in advance, but it is highly recommended to read PodHopper’s guide and take some time to get acquainted with pushing Eddie around.

    ☛ R’Tayrtahn will host a special Story Night about Myst on Wednesday at 14:00 KIT, in Eder Bahvahnter (a bot can link you there).

    ☛ Dahmpa and Nosila will host two Wall Games, at 13:00 KIT and 17:00 KIT; the double slot is a way to involve people from different time zones, but players can take part in both events.

    There will be two different formats: the first one is called Climbers Competition and involve as many players as possible. Both players will face the same maze, created and input by the organizers. This format is meant mainly for new players, who will only need to learn a few simple rules without worring about setting up the panel. A few assistants will also help finding the location of the suit and conference rooms.

    This competition will run in elimination rounds, but depending on the number of competitors it might be necessary to use different round formats or even have 2-players team for the first rounds. Players can enroll at the beginning of the competition, but letting the organizers know in advance is recommended.

    The second format is Maze Creators. This is a competition for the hardest maze to beat: in each game, two climbers will face the same maze created by a third player. At the end, mazes will be ranked by the time players have taken to beat them. The winner will be the maze that took the longest time to be beaten.

    Participants will play as climbers as well as maze creators, even if they will not input their mazes into the control panel. Anyone can participate in this format, but some experience with the Wall game is recommended.

    Participants will need to send to the organizers a 12-blockers maze before the event date. Because of the time constrains, the organizers might need to use the date they received a maze as an elimination criteria.

    The organizers can be contacted in MOULa as Dah’mpa #11225300 and Nosi La #09902277; on Discord as Dah’mpa and Nosila; on Facebook as Nosi La. You can also join the Wall Game Discord server in order to find more information and talk to other players; send a message to either organizers for an invite.

    ☛ 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 Romance. 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.

    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 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 have just started telling the story of the first human restoration. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    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 in April 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

    ☛ In February, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will start with the works of Tikibear: Duck Knee Skydiving Club, Paper Pagodas, Sprite Gallery, Flying Cauldron. After that, they will begin the exploration of the many Ages in the educational series Geologica, by Ametist & Metabasalt.

    However, the February 11 expedition will be less guided and open to suggestions in tune with the Anniversary Week 😉

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

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 2, 2024 (Leevotar 20) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • MOULa 14th Anniversary Celebrations

    MOULa 14th 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 fourteenth anniversary, a host of events have been planned. Here is the schedule, more details for each event will be posted in their calendar entries.

    For most events, you can get teleported to the location by sending “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot (#32319) or MinBot (#9292763). 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 after the anniversary week, in her YouTube channel.

    Monday 5

    • 12:00 KIT: Opening Ceremony, hosted by Minasunda, on the Fall of D’ni Memorial Island.
    • 13:00 KIT: Cooking Session, hosted by Skyisblu, in Elonin’s kitchen.

    Tuesday 6

    • 11:00 KIT: Magic Slide and Laser Show, hosted by Mister Magic & Yoda, in Jalak (PM “link” to Magic Bot, #27527).
    • 12:00 KIT: D’ni Fairytales, hosted by Ereshkigal, in Elonin’s Conservatory.
    • 13:00 KIT: Best of Relaxing Sessions, hosted by PodHopper, in Kalamee.

    Wednesday 7

    • 12:00 KIT: Explorer Memorial, hosted by Minasunda, in Veelay Tsahvahn.
    • 13:00 KIT: Fil Special, hosted and sung by Fil, in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Tsogal.
    • 14:00 KIT: Story Special, hosted by r’Tayrtahn (using the in-game voice chat), in Eder Bahvahnter.

    Thursday 8

    • 13:00 KIT: Country Special, hosted and sung by Eternal Seeker, on Eder Naybree’s beach.
    • 14:00 KIT: Eddie Competition, hosted by PodHopper, in Podhopper’s Hood.

    Friday 9

    • 13:00 KIT: Wall Game 1, hosted by Nosila & Dahmpa in Gahreesen (PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot or MinBot).
    • 17:00 KIT: Wall Game 2, hosted by Nosila & Dahmpa in Gahreesen.

    Saturday 10

    • 12:00 KIT: Nulp Dance Show, stream by Seeker, on Eder Naybree’s beach.

    Sunday 11

    • 13:00 KIT: Ivory, Opal and Dahlias, hosted by Radio Free D’ni, on the Ae’gura plaza.

    Websites

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

  • A New Era in D’ni: The Fall of D’ni Memorial Island

    A New Era in D’ni: The Fall of D’ni Memorial Island

    On Saturday, November 18, 2023 (9679 Leevofo 23), in a ceremony held in Chiso Preniv that gathered over 120 explorers and was announced on Cyan’s Twitter X feed, Christopher Therburg and Patrick Dulebohn gave a speech (a transcript of which you can read below), then unveiled the linking book to the Fall of D’ni Memorial Island.

    A few years ago, Christopher decided to build a memorial to the Fall of D’ni, one of the worst events in D’ni history. He had considered placing the memorial in Ae’gura, but there were some complications with the avilable locations. Christopher then remembered a little island with a broken stalagmite near Ae’gura that he saw while exploring the Cavern, and thought it would be a better location, with a nice view of Ae’gura.

    The Memorial Island is a public instance. However, at the time of this writing it is not possible to save a link in your Nexus.

    Calum Traveler posted a chatlog on the Beneath forums. Minasunda made a video of the event.

    Speech transcript (click to expand )

    Patrick Dulebohn:

    Thank you all for coming once again! It’s been a little while, but we’re finally back to celebrate a new Linking Book added to the Chiso Preniv pedestals and to our ever-growing restoration of D’ni.

    The D’ni have a very rich history and culture, and while there are many defining moments in that history, few can compare to the tragic and devastating loss they experienced at the end of their vast empire. Thankfully, they, as a people, live on in the Age of Releeshahn, but they are merely a fraction of the D’ni citizens that passed away during what is commonly referred to as ‘The Fall’.

    It is with that in mind that this new island in the D’ni cavern will be presented to you today. What you’ll see today is the tireless work of not only Keith Lord, who earlier brought us Fahets: Highgarden, but also quite noteworthy, it is the idea of one of our colleagues here, Christopher Therburg.

    He is the primary reason we are here today, and what you will see is the result of his brilliant work, along with Keith. So without further ado, I give you Christopher Therburg!

    Christopher Therburg:

    Thanks Patrick. Shorah everyone. Wow, that’s very exciting for me. I apologize for being a little nervous, it’s the first time I’m doing something like this. Anyway.

    After three years of work and restoration, it’s finally time to reveal the Fall of D’ni Memorial Island, or Bahn’tefoonet in D’ni. Bahn’tefoonet means Memorial Island in D’ni. I’m really grateful to Keith, also known as Tweek, and everyone else who worked on this island that everything worked out so well in restoring and turning this island into a memorial site.

    It was a life’s work for me and without Tweek, who volunteered to continue and finish the island with me, this work would have been much slower and would be released at a later. He is at the moment not there sadly, but I heard that he will come later eventually.

    A summary of the project itself and why I have planned all of this. Five to three years earlier, I took a closer view at the cavern and noticed that the DRC or someone else didn’t erected a memorial to the ‘Fall of D’ni’, one of the worst events, if not the worst, in D’ni history.

    I wanted to change that and it would be nice to build a memorial that fits the style of D’ni architecture. This memorial is meant to commemorate the D’ni who perished in this cataclysm. The Fall of D’ni, was attack on the D’ni civilization by Veovis and A’gaeris, who used an unknown biochemical agent to kill most of the empire’s population in Leesahn 8, 9400 DE.

    I had considered placing the memorial in Ae’gura, but there were some complications with two locations where the memorial should have been. Calum suggested then that I should place the memorial in a special location outside of Ae’gura.

    Then I remembered this little island with the broken stalagmite near Ae’gura that I saw while exploring the cavern about eight years ago. We thought this would be a better location for it and it also have a nice view of Ae’gura and the whole D’ni cavern. This island, which was formerly a small D’ni park, worked very well as a memorial place and after two years of restoration it’s finally ready.

    We hope that the memorial will respects the deceased D’ni and that mostly new explorers will have a better understanding of the context of why it happened and why the D’ni City is empty now. We also hope that this island will also become a place of peace in the upcoming years.

    But I’ve talked long enough, it’s now time to officially open the island.